Tank Progress Phase 3

[jemwhitman]

Day 21 - All water parameters look good. I add my First Coral and two fish.

But first a moment of silence for one of my Red Leg crabs - I discovered it this morning dismembered on the rocks.

I was planning on my first coral being a Starburst Polyp green. I had numerous discussions and the final resolve was to glue it to the back wall of the tank. BUT when I got to my LFS all the ones they had were much too large for me to undertake the task of stripping it from it's home on the rock. So I settled for my second choice which was a Green-Polyp colony. Again it was larger than I wanted but so were ALL of the corals in the store. Here's a pic of it:
http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs34&d=05256&f=Green-Polyps.gif

I probably shouldn't have, but I added two of my three fish:
http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs34&d=05256&f=Perc-Clown.gif
http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs34&d=05256&f=Sc ... l_Goby.gif
I hadn't planned on the addition but the LFS had the Scissortail Goby so . .

My tank has been so clean I thought it could handle the additional bioload - time will tell.

I really lucked out with the personality of the Scissortail Goby - It isn't a shy one. It cruises around the middle of the tank all the time. Although it doesn't seem to like the Mysis shrimp I feed it. Tried it over and over but spat it out each time. The clown on the other hand pigged out on it.

Also a special thanks to Sugar Magnolia for the suggestion of the pellets for the Sally Lightfoot. I wish I had my video camera going when it discovered the pellet. It was so happy with the pellet that it did a little dance for a few seconds. Then gathered it up and whisp it away to the back of it's cave.

Here's a pic of my tank as of today:
http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs34&d=05256&f=Tank_6-25-05.gif

Again thanks to all for taking the time to answer my questions



:blob

 

[dragon79]

very cool, looks real sweeet. Just keep tabs on your parameters and hopefully your fish should be fine, if they croak, you'll know what killed um. I wasn't one for knowing any better when I first started, and I've lost two fish because of it. Learned my lesson though, although my original clownfish is still alive and healthy as ever. He was thrown in my tank after day 1, (but that's a whole diff story, lol)

 

[jemwhitman]

Day four and both fish are alive and well and VERY hungry. The coral is doing great also. I have noticed that the algae level has picked up since I started to feed the fish. The Lime Green colored one seems to be in greater quantity than before and a new Rust colored one is in several places. The coraline which was "bleeding through" is now showing up on all of the live rock.

I picked up some Kent Marine Liquid Calcium which I am dosing at 15 drops per day. The light cycle continues at 12 hours a day. I've noticed that the clean up crew doesn't work as hard at keeping the sand clean now that they can grab some of the fish food that comes their way. Also the Red Leg Crabs and snails seem more interested in the Lime Green colored algae.

I'm considering keeping my fish count at two. They seem to get along so well and the Scissortail Goby is always cruising the water. I was afraid that it would be a recluse but alas I got one with a personality!!

The white specks in my water have not diminished at all. They appear to be coming from the rock and Live Sand. Not sure that I can do anything other than be aggrivated about it. My Cassette skimmer doesn't seem to work very well at skimming. Looks like the water level may need to be reduced for it to work properly.

Guess it's time to start shopping for my next coral

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Looks really nice Jem! Keep close tabs on your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels over the next couple of weeks as the denitrifying bacteria adjust to the new bioload. You may need to do an extra water change or two if the levels rise.

Since you started dosing calcium, you'll absolutely need to pick up test kits for calcium and alkilinity. Dosing just calcium can get your cal/alk balance out of whack, so testing those params is a must. Make the test kits your next purchase rather than a coral. :cool1:

Read up on these calc/alk articles to help you better understand the balance between the two.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm