29g Marine Log

[wcolwell88]

I wasn't gonna bother with a log but figured i would put one on here. I have a 29 gal. tank with a fluval 405 cannister filter and Remora skimmer. Currently using a Koralia 2 and some Maxi-Jet powerheads and a Coralife PC fixture. I'm not sure yet if I'm gonna go for a reef for my first tank. If so, I'm gonna swap the light for a 30" Sunpod with a 250w MH. Right now I have about 1/3 of my live rock and 10 lb. of oolite sand. I'm pretty sure what I have so far has cycled. The params. are:
Nitrites-0
Nitrates-10
pH-8.4
Alk- 1.7-2.8
Ammonia-0.25
sg.-1.022
temp-74.3F

I'm gonna try to get the sg up to 1.023. I also have 0.5 phosphates(my source water from the Culligan machine is 0.5, but thats much better than my tap water), and 0.2 copper left from my tap water I was using. I got most of the copper out, I'm going to get another pack of Cuprisorb to get rid of the rest. So far I have found a lot of mini-stars and some small brittle worms on my live rock. I also have 2 tiny blue-leg hermits, 2 turbo snails, 1 3" serpent star, and some xenia I added to the tank. I also found 2 whitish slug type things on the newest piece of live rock I added to the tank. I'm planning on running Chemi-Pure Elite in my filter and I'm replacing the rest of the media with live rock rubble. Over the next 2 months, I plan to add:

1 Sm. Aquafuge 2.
29 lb. Live Rock from Premium Aquatics
10lb. oolite sand
30lb. live sand
Live Pods
Mineral mud
Chaeto
Ulva
Possibly a sm. red mangrove

and with a Mix N Match deal from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms:
6 Baby Bristle Worms
6 Sandbed Clams
Liquid N-Reducer
6 Nerite Grazers
6 Strombus maculatus
1 Amphipod Breeding Kit (amphipods, ulva, and food)
Live Sand Activator
Live Reef Plankton
6 Mini Stars
6 Comet Stars
6 Spaghetti Worms
1 Hawaiian Macro Algae 6-Pack
and possibly 1 Pinky Cuke(Don't know if they are safe for the system)

This comes with free shipping, and I get 6 mini stars and 2 corals free. After I het my MH lighting, I might add some easier corals and a BTA. The fish I'm thinking about adding eventually are a False Percula, a Lawnmower Blenny, and 1 other(Not sure what kind yet.) I also definitely want a skunk cleaner shrimp and maybe a pom-pom crab.

[BMorgan]

Sounds like you have a pretty good setup running there so far. I would reccommend the SunPod 250W MH as that is what I am planning to get too. I know that I do not want to be limited in my livestock by what type of lights I have. I also have a 28gal bowfront.

Do you have a link to that Mix n Match deal you are talking about? That sounds interesting.

[wcolwell88]

That Mix and Match deal is from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms:
http://www.ipsf.com/

It is 99.95 for the 9 things, The second part are 19.95 each for the super mix and match, and then the Macro 6 pack was about $50. The 9 things has free shipping. Any order over $200 has free shipping and comes with two free corals, buying 3 of the super mix n match items comes with six free mini stars, buying 5 comes with two free corals.

[wcolwell88]

I found a snail type thing in my tank today letting off some kind of white stuff in the water. He was sitting up under my xenias, and the white stuff was coming from a small trunk looking thing. I have taken him out of the tank and have him in a small bowl of tank water. There is a second one somewhere in the tank, I saw them on my last piece of live rock. The back 2/3 is purple with some small white spots and the front is greenish. Sticking out under the front of the shell is a small green head, From the head to the back of the shell is about 1/2" and it has 2 tentacles sticking out the front about another 1/2". There appears to be a set of small beady eyes on the outsides of the tentacles. The shell doesn't curl like most snails. The shape of it resembles a beetle. The bottom of it looks like a snail, with a flat bottom that moves acros the glass w/ a small round mouth in front of it like a snail. I'm currently trying to get a good pic but none so far. Any ideas?

[wcolwell88]

Here are some pics. Very blurry but best I've got.

[archer772]

Sounds like a stomatella here is a ID link for you to check out, and it sounds like it was spawning.
http://melevsreef.com/id/

[wcolwell88]

Thanks, that matched him perfectly. I put him back in the tank. After doing a search, it said that those eggs or whatever he was releasing makes good food for filter feeders.

[wcolwell88]

I've seen a lot of worms on one of my rocks, they are a bluish-purple with pink on the front and back, are they good?

[archer772]

Most likely a common bristle worm and I think they make a good addition to your CUC

[wcolwell88]

What does CUC mean?

[wcolwell88]

Never mind, I know.

[daayda3]

clean up crew :D

[daayda3]

oops... posted at the same time :p:

[wcolwell88]

With my 29 gal., I'm wondering how much flow I should have in there. I was going to go with a FOWLR, but I decided i will put some corals in there. Probably all soft corals. Maybe eventually a BTA. For the fish, I'm thinking about 1 or 2 False Percula's, 1 Lawnmower Blenny, and 1 other small peaceful fish. How much flow should I have?

-My fluval 405 has 225gph.
-My Remora Skimmer is run by a MJ1200 with 295gph
-I'm bought 2 Koralia 2's to replace about 5 MJ's. They claim 600gph each.
All together this is what I have to work with for flow:

Fluval 405 1X 225gph
Remora 1X 295
Koralia2 2X 600
MJ 400 2X 106
MJ 600 2X 160
MJ 900 2X 230gph

So which should I use, and how should they be placed in the aquarium(facing what)?

PS: Will put up a pic soon.

[Grins]

Personally I don't count the pumps being used to power equipment. Just the ones that are used exclusively for chaotic water flow. I use a minimum of 25 x gallons of display to come up with the the lowest amount of flow I want. Anything over that from the filters and such will just be gravy.

[clown-lover]

There are other people that I have met who don't count PH flow towards total tank gph.. They only count water going into a sump, closed loop etc. I think its stupid personally but I thought I would add that in case someone runs across it.

[wcolwell88]

If I go with the 2 Koralia 2's, should they face the live rock, or should they be above it where the 2 flows would intersect.

[wcolwell88]

Here is what the tank looks like so far.

[wcolwell88]

Today I added 10 more pounds of fine oolite sand for a total of 20lb. so far, 2 blue leg hermits(4 total), 1 Turbo snail (2 total), 1 Astrea Snail(2 total), 1 small skunk cleaner shrimp, 1 more piece of Fiji live rock, and I also added a small false percula clownfish someone gave me(I think it came from Petco). I wasn't expecting to get any fish for at least another month so I haven't bought any fish food. The Petco in Morgantown is my closest saltwater fish store, and its about an hour away. Is there anything I can get from the grocery store that a small clown will eat until I can get some food. I have some frozen brine shrimp in the freezer, and in my freshwater cabinet I have tropical flakes, freeze dried baby shrimp, freeze dried krill, freeze dried bloodworms, wardley shrimp pellets, crab and lobster bites, and tubiflex worm cubes. I might be able to get some seafood at the grocery store. Any ideas?

[jagr200]

Try the bloodworms. Mine eat thawed bloodworms like crazy.

[Mgamer20o0]

nice start

[wcolwell88]

Ok, the tank is coming along nicely. I overnighted some formula one reef flakes after I got the clown, and that is what I've been feeding along with some frozen foods a couple times a week. I got the front and sides of the tank cleaned up and took some pics. A couple questions:

-Do cleaner shrimp shed their shell like crabs do? I found something white with long white things stuck to the side of my filter intake. After removing ot with some long pincher things, it appeared to be a hollow shrimp with long antennas like my cleaner shrimp. Its about the same size, and I've never seen any shrimp in my tank other than my 1 cleaner and the frozen brine and mysis shrimp. So what is it?

-I have skinny white stringy things hanging off of a lot of my live rock. On a closer look, they look like a white fuzzy piece of hair. The first time I saw one, I thought it was a piece of fuzz in the tank, but then I noticed that they are everywhere. Anybody have any ideas what these are?

-I added some live copepods a few weeks ago. I can see the little dots in the tank but today I just noticed something else. All over the glass there are tiny white dots with small tentacles on them. They look kinda like a starfish or something with more than 5 legs. I think I've heard them described before as hydroids or something like that. Anyone?

Thats about all I'm not sure about. Today I found a stomatella(or however you spell that) snail on the rock, bigger than the others I've seen. I had 2 Aiptaisia in my tank, 1 tiny one about 1/16" and 1 thats tentacles stuck out an inch or more. I bought some Joe's Juice and killed them. The clownfish seemed a little scared for the first couple days, but now seems to feel at home in the tank and eat better although he still doesn't like being in front of a camera and will not eat food from my hand. He will swim within an inch of my hand when I'm cleaning algae, but if I have food in my hand, he seems scared of it. I lost one of my turbo snails the other day. He found his way into the tip of one of my Koralias. My serpent star is very active and will hunt for food and even take it from my hand in daylight.(I thought these mostly were nocturnal). My cleaner shrimp was afraid of me when I first got him, but now will climb on my hand and clean it or eat food from it. The Xenia seems to be growing very well. I think thats about all for updates.

[jagr200]

Lookin good. Now you need a black or blue background and some more LR. But its coming along. Good work.

[ooja3k]

Great start!

[gatotsu77]

Lookin good. Now you need a black or blue background and some more LR. But its coming along. Good work.

Curiosity from a marine newbie... is there any real benefit to black/blue background beyond aesthetics? I know that a black background makes the colors of corals/fish seem more stunning, but doesn't it also make the tank look shallower (from front to back) than it actually is?

[H3D]

Nice start.

[Reefscape]

Curiosity from a marine newbie... is there any real benefit to black/blue background beyond aesthetics? I know that a black background makes the colors of corals/fish seem more stunning, but doesn't it also make the tank look shallower (from front to back) than it actually is?


From having both, i think a black background gives the tank (visually) greater depth..besides the metioned colours standing out better..

Niko

[gatotsu77]

From having both, i think a black background gives the tank (visually) greater depth..besides the metioned colours standing out better..

Niko

Good stuff... I may have to look into making a black background for my 10g when I set it up. :-)

[wcolwell88]

-Do cleaner shrimp shed their shell like crabs do? I found something white with long white things stuck to the side of my filter intake. After removing ot with some long pincher things, it appeared to be a hollow shrimp with long antennas like my cleaner shrimp. Its about the same size, and I've never seen any shrimp in my tank other than my 1 cleaner and the frozen brine and mysis shrimp. So what is it?

-I have skinny white stringy things hanging off of a lot of my live rock. On a closer look, they look like a white fuzzy piece of hair. The first time I saw one, I thought it was a piece of fuzz in the tank, but then I noticed that they are everywhere. Anybody have any ideas what these are?

-I added some live copepods a few weeks ago. I can see the little dots in the tank but today I just noticed something else. All over the glass there are tiny white dots with small tentacles on them. They look kinda like a starfish or something with more than 5 legs. I think I've heard them described before as hydroids or something like that. Anyone?

[wcolwell88]

Ok, I think cleaner shrimp do shed shells, am I right? Searching makes me think that the things on the glass and the stringy things in the tank are both hydroids. Any recommendations on getting rid of them? I wanna get rid of them before I add more live rock. I'm thinking about adding a few pepperment shrimp to see if that works. And does anyone have opinions on a green ricordia?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=658

Also how many blue leg hermits would be good for a 29gal.?

[Grins]

Yes, shrimp molt. Even amiphods molt.

Sounds like a scypha sponge, harmless if so.

Sounds like hydroids to me.

[wcolwell88]

I'm still tring to get rid of these digitate hydroids, the stringy ones. I bought some pepperment shrimp to try to kill them but they don't seem to be helping. Would an ozinizer or uv sterilizer help? I wasn't planning on an ozonizer cause they sound a little tricky to use and are expensive, but I am planning on eventually getting an 8 watt uv sterilizer. I'm thinking about this:

http://www.fishtothenth.com/Hydroxs.htm

Any suggestions?

[clown-lover]

I don't think a UV or anything else like that would work.. These are part of the jellyfish family. What I have read is that the best thing to do would make a contraption that you can suck them out of the tank as you scrape them off the glass.. Also have read that you should take out whatever rock they are on and scrub it really well and replace the rock.. I guess I'd just brew up some saltwater with the same parameters as the tank and do it that way and then have a second bucket and rince it really well.

[wcolwell88]

After I added 6 or 7 peppermint shrimp to the tank, all of the hydroids disappeared. I don't know if they got rid of them or if its just coincidence. Right now the only problem I seem to have thats bugging me is some red slime algae thats spreading pretty rapidly. I've been using PhosGuard, Kent marine Nitrate Sponge, and Chemi-Pure Elite in my filter to help get rid of the phosphates and Nitrates. The water I get from the Culligan machine at Wal-Mart has 0.5 ppm Phosphates and 2.5 ppm Nitrates. The machine claims to use Reverse Osmosis Filtration along with other filters, but according to the inspection paper on it, it only gets checked once a year. That water is a lot better than my tap water though which has much higher levels of Phos. and Nitrates, along with some copper. I normally don't over feed with the fish flakes, but once every other week I put in one of those frozen cubes which in the tank looks like its probably way too much. Other than that, I don't really see any source for nutrient build up. Any ideas on how to get rid of the slime algae? I also have very little hair algae, 2 small pieces of bubble algae, and some algae on the glass now and then.

[ooja3k]

.5ppm phosphate is quite a bit... Thats not good. But that sounds like your best option...

As far as the feeding. I get a pack of the frozen cubes and then spend like 5 minutes cutting them all in half, and then freezing them again. That way I never really over feed them, and there is no waste.

[FeatherDuster]

If you need a way to lower extra nutrients you can always find a competing source like chaeto or some other type of recommended macro algae. They won't get rid of your current slim algae (you will have to manually remove it) but it might be a nice way to prevent more or possible growth.

[wcolwell88]

I have a little bit of Chaeto in the tank now. I'm planning on getting a small AquaFuge 2 to put on the back so I will be getting more Macro to put in there. What is the best way to remove slime algae? Also, thanks for the advise on the frozen food, I will do that to the rest of them and refreeze them in a zip-lok bag. Furthermore, I think I have found another source of the problem. I was looking around in the tank and I found a good bit of blue leg hermit crab parts scattered here and there in the sand. The hermits were eating my Nassarious snails (4 left out of 12), which try not to go near the sand, but I'm not sure what could be killing the hermits. I've found hermit body parts in the tank before that my shrimp were carrying around, but I haven't noticed any since then until now. I've heard blue legs can be tough so I'm not sure what could be killing them. There are only a few things I can see as possibilities but even those I'm doubtful about. I have a 4" serpent star which I've seen eat some pretty big pieces of food(he's ate a whole one of those frozen cubes before by his self). I have 1 skunker cleaner shrimp, but I don't think he would do it. I also have 6 or 7 pepperment shrimp, I don't know if they could do it or not. Other than that, I have a cleaner clam(which stays buried under the sand), a 1" fighting conch, 4 nassarious snails, 2 turbo snails, 1 astrea snail, and 1 false percula clownfish. Maybe they just don't live very long. Any Ideas?

[wcolwell88]

So far today, I don't see any dead hermits or body parts, but my sand does have a whole lot of debris on it from fish poop, and whatever else might be on it. I think in my next order, I'm going to get one of those battery powered gravel vacs to use across the surface of the sand. Could this debris be a possible source of the nutrients. I haven't checked my parems this week but will post when I check them.

[wcolwell88]

I just ordered the rest of my live rock and sand from Premium Aquatics.com. I have 20lb. of fine araganite sand, 29lb. of Fiji live rock, and 2lb. of LR rubble along with some macro algae coming Friday. I'm very excited, the Live Rock I've got in the tank not was sitting in a tank at Petco for a good while and I haven't seen much different things on it other than lots of types of algae, mini stars, and pink and blue bristle worms. I've heard that the Premium Aquatics rock has a lot of life and usually has a lot of different surprises inside. I originally wanted Marshall Island, but that has become very hard to get so hopefully the Premium Aquatics Fiji will be good. To help stabilize the live rock, I ordered some 1/4" and 1/2" acrylic rods on amazon.com. I don't really wanna glue the rock together, in case I need to remove a piece or something in the future, so hopefully these acrylic rods will help out a lot. VERY EXCITED!! Can't wait til Friday, will post pics.

[Ace25]

The media you listed sounds good, the phosguard, chemi-pure elite, etc. One thing I learned recently is those dispensers really suck for aquarium water. Besides the phosphates being high, a bad RO unit lets silicates through which is terrible for things like cyano and diatoms. The phosguard should help remove silicates, but if you read the bottle, phosguard only lasts a few days before it is "full". It is good for a quick fix but not good for a long term solution. You have to find and eliminate the source of the problem, which is probably the RO dispenser itself, or else you will be spending a small fortune on media to remove the bad stuff.

[wcolwell88]

yes, it is a pain in the butt changing that phosgaurd all the time, but so far the culligan water is the best thing I've got available. The olny cleaner option I've got is, at the petco about 1 hour from my house, they sell 2 gal. pre packaged water. Its $6 though for the 2 gal., which is absolutely rediculous. Compared to the Culligan water, my tap water has over 10 times the amount of nutrients along with copper. Until I've got a house of my own, I can't run any type of RO filter at the house. I'm planning on starting on building my house next year. As part of the house plan, I'm intending on having a much larger tank in the wall, so that the tank has a room just for it, and I can just see through the glass from the other side, which will probably be the living room or game room. once thats done, I'll have all the plumbing set up specifically for the tank, but until then, the culligan water is the best I've got for the 29 gal.

[wcolwell88]

On the bright side, even though changing it once or twice a week sucks, a 29 gal. tank doesn't use near as much filter media as a 100+ gal. tank. So hopefully the filter media won't break the bank too much to maintain it. Right now I buy the phosgaurd in whatever the largest size available is, and I use it in a reusable bag instead of buying the disposable pre bagged stuff, so I'm getting the better price on it, but its still a bit expensive.

[Ace25]

Why couldn't you use an RO unit? I simply screw mine onto my faucet on my kitchen sink. You can get a decent RO/DI unit for around $125 and it is definately worth the cost. Here is a picture.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2402426888_506688f0cd.jpg

[wcolwell88]

I just reaquascaped my tank (again) yesterday and I think I've got all my rock to where I'm satisfied with it. I've said it before, but I will post new pics tomorrow after work and what not. I've got 2 new questions:

-Lighting: I currently have PCs, but eventually I plan to get an anemone, so I want to switch to MHs. I plan to go with a pre-made fixture for aesthetic reasons. I have a 29 gal. all-glass tank, its 30"L. They make a canopy that matches my stand, but I haven't seen it in person to see how it fits and how much space is inside it. If the canopy is big enough, I could build the MH and fans in the canopy. Since I don't know how big it is though, I think I'm going to go with a 30" sunpod. I was reading Aquarium Fish International magazine, and they mentioned using a 24" fixture on a 30" tank with 3 extra inches on each side. My fixture I have now sits on the 2 edges of the tank, so I was wondering how a 24" fixture would sit on the tank. Any Ideas??

-Live sand: I have 2"-3" of sand in my display. It was all white sand when I put it in, but now, all but the top inch is a grayish to brownish color. The sand hasn't been in there for very long. I assume this is caused by the sand not being aerated but I'm not sure if its a problem or what I should do about it. I was thinking about getting a yellow watchman goby to help aerate the sand, but I've read that its not good to have sand sifting things in small tanks because they consume all of the microfauna or something like that. What kind of things would be good in a 29 gal. to help stir the sand? I currently have a 1" fighting conch, and i think he is the only thing that really goes under the sand that I've seen.

Any answers to my 2 questions is deeply appreciated, and I will try to snap some pics of the tank tomorrow after work and get them on here.

[ChangDriX]

hmmm i figured with two koralia 2's that would blow the sand around quite a bit it i have 2 2's in my 55 and it blows sand around like crazy and it's not even pointed towards the sand..try getting some nass snails to move the sand around a bit..your sand looks fine like mine once was my goby never sifted through it because it was to fine.

[wcolwell88]

I have 3 Nassarius snails left out of 12. My hermits seem like their shells better than all the extra shells I've got in my tank. The 3 remaining N. Snails won't go down to the sand, I guess afraid of the hermits. Most of my hermits are wearing little black shells.

[ChangDriX]

try getting the big fancy nass(white shell) not the small black ones...my fancy nass are way bigger than most of the hermits...i have about 5 black ones i got with some cheato awhile back i've never seen them in the sand only on the glass

[wcolwell88]

That sounds good, I bought these on saltwaterfish.com intending on having them work in the sand. The local places only carry astrea and turbos, do you know any decent sites that sell the better nassarious snails?

[ChangDriX]

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+526+1763&pcatid=1763

[wcolwell88]

Thanks, I'm probably gonna order a fish or 2 from their in a couple weeks, will be sure to get a couple of these snails too.

[ChangDriX]

sorry to get OT: Ace where can i get that Ro unit?

[wcolwell88]

Yesterday, added an Emerald Crab, 2nd false percula, small lawnmower blenny, and hawaiian feather duster. I just took a pic, but I'm stuck with my old computer for now which don't take sd cards so can't post pic until I get my other computer working.

[wcolwell88]

Figured I'd come on here and post an update. Currently, the tank has almost all the live rock and sand (will be getting more liverock for refuge and filter), some xenia, pink tip anemone,and:
2 ocellaris clowns
1 six line wrasse
1 yellowtail blue damsel
1 lawnmower blenny
1 flame hawkfish (temporary resident to take care of pepperment shrimp)
2 serpant stars
1 turbo snail, 1 astrea, 2 super nassarius, 1 sm. black nassarius
1 emerald crab, 1 sally lightfoot, 1 sm. horseshoe crab, 2 blue leg hermits
1 fighting conch, 2(I think) pepperment shrimp, 1 mated pair of coral banded shrimp.

I'm getting ready to add an aquafuge. With a limited amount of space on the back, I only have room for the small aquafuge 2 which will sit next to me remora skimmer. I've looked at live sand, miracle mud, and carib sea mineral mud. Was wondering what all I should stock the aquafuge with? It will be a small aquafuge 2 with the light running at the same time as my lunar lights. Plan on having copepods and amphipods in there.

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