Grymmy's Tanks

[Grymtooth]

Okay, so most of my pictures and documentation are already posted on Google+ https://plus.google.com/111439509499709878540/posts/36fQRPTo1aV most of the pictures have comments on what changed between them, but I haven't posted recent changes. But here's the quick down and dirty.

We started with a 4 gallon Innovative Marine Nuvo that was a Christmas gift. We stocked with a frogspawn, an Eagle Eye zoa, a small Xenia frag (which we lost, and later replaced), a cleaner shrimp, a pair of turbos and a clown on day 1 (I can already imagine the shudders here from not breaking in a tank before stocking). This tank flourished for some reason as the pictures show. The only thing we change in the tank itself was the pump since it couldn't push the Spin Stream we ordered.

My sister-in-law also entered the hobby, and decided after a short time that she wasn't too interested in the upkeep, so she gave us her Innovative Marine 20 gallon Nuvo, and we also kept her frogspawn and duncan. We upgraded the pump to a Cobalt MJ1200 in order to push the two Spin Streams that are on it. We tried a Solar Flare 120 HO LED, and that apparently was too much light when sitting directly on the tank, so we swapped that for a pair of IM's 18w Skkye Lights, and also got two IM Media Baskets.

So the current tank specs:
IM 20 gallon Nuvo
Return Pump: Cobalt MJ1200 (at max power, flowing shipped single pipe to a y-split)
2x Spin Streams
1x Hydor Nano
2x media baskets, both configured as two chambers: Polyfilter on top, ClearFX on one side and ceramic rings on the other)
2x 18w Skkye Lights
~20lb pink bimini
No clue how much rock, just grabbed what we liked and reused from the 4 gallon

Livestock:
2x Blue Chromis
1 standard Clown
1 Semi-Picasso Clown
2x Emerald crabs
2x horseshoe crabs
2x turbo snails (from 4 gallon)
5x margarita snails

Corals:
1 Candy stripe trumpet
1 Green Flowerpot
"A small forest" of Xenia (original from 4 gallon)
Green Star Polyp (original from 4 gallon)
1 Scroll Coral (unknown condition)
4 Zoa frags: Eagle Eye (original from 4 gallon), Rasta, and two unknowns (if anyone can identify, please do! I am REALLY curious what I got at Cora Swap)
1 Green Button Polyp frag
2 Frog Spawns (one from original 4 gallon)
1 Duncan
1x Orange Rhodactis (from Cora Swap)
1 unknown SPS (Cora Swap, again, identification would be great!)

Here are some of the pictures from today (apparently Google Photos won't link here, or they are too big, and unfortunately I am too tired to play with this before bed, so links instead...):
https://goo.gl/photos/Q49DxPvzfNLwP8zx9 - full front
https://goo.gl/photos/YhniAUk6rVnR5wLV9
https://goo.gl/photos/tyQgh4meDzyrPuDJA
https://goo.gl/photos/LbjhuKbwkngbMJdB7
https://goo.gl/photos/dLnzfrq9AnCjFdABA  - Recovering Frogspawn (from 4 gallon)
https://goo.gl/photos/vX866y7VipUgXeC56
https://goo.gl/photos/bDMwZsKCr4fKyR4c9 - Unknown Zoa on a lost LT plate skeleton

I'll figure out the photo thing later...

[Wall_Tank]

Google doesn't give you direct link to the actual image.   You can attach images to posts, but you have to limit the file size.   Photobucket works fine too

[Grymtooth]

Just got a heck of a deal on a wall hammer. Apparently it was struggling with other corals and then some phosphate issues at the LFS, so they offered it out for $5. Picked it up and it was really shriveled, even for being a small frag. Two days later (along with the "monthly maintenance") it has extended really well and is starting to perk up quite a bit. Will post pics later, but needless to say I am a very happy reefer at the moment!

Jordan

[Grymtooth]

Okay, let's try this image thing again...

Starting with the 4g, day 1:


Day 4, new rock and frags:


Month 3, new addition of Ruby Red Dragonet and some snails:


Month 4, re-homed clown and cleaner shrimp as they were eating all the pods; few new adoptions, which did not last, attempted to temporarily house a pipe with dragonet, neither lasted:


Month 6/day 1 of 20g, Moved to the 20g, aquired Duncan, new rock, another frogspawn, Sunburst coral, 2x horseshoes, lost 90% of my coraline:


Month 8, month 2 in 20g, new acquires = Scroll, LT Plate, Rasta Zoa, and the first fishies in the tank: Flasher Wrasse and a Semi Picasso Clown, new light bar as original was not powerful enough, fought either bacteria bloom, or just bad nitrate/phos issue still unknown...


Month 9, month 3 in 20g, New acquires: Osc clown, 2 blue chromis, green flowerpot, candy stripe trumpet, green button polyp, and two emerald crabs, New Lights! (old light bar was too strong, as you can see from the original frogspawn on the right side), lost the plate. Small improvement in the corals recovering from light and chemical issues. Coraline coming back!


Month 9, CORA FRAG SWAP! New acquires: Unknown polyp/zoa, Unknown SPS, Orange Rhodactis, Pink Hippo Zoa; Flasher Wrasse committed suicide by jumping out of the tank during the night


Month 10, month 4 of 20g, New acquire: Wall Hammer Frogspawn; large improvement in coral health throughout the tank

[Grymtooth]

So we went on a vacation to WA, and had some casualties while we were gone. It seems the smaller of our two horseshoes died somehow, and one of the emeralds took care of that for us. And we also lost the bargain wall hammer. While I am not as bummed about losing the horseshoe, losing the wall hammer did make me sad. Was doing so well...

Before I left I did a ~3-4gal water change, Kent's Essentials Elements, and Phyto, that way the tank could be happy (and the babysitter would only have to do fresh water top offs). Not sure what had happened in the tank, as there were no other signs of trouble...

The Orange Rhodactis has been shuffling around trying to find a spot it likes (had NO idea these things moved). The Pink Hippo has budded two more heads, and the Rasta has budded two more as well. And Coraline is starting to really develop, only took about 5 months for it to come back on my live rocks, but it is finally happening.

Guess I need to find another inexpensive, small wall hammer again.

[Grymtooth]

Thought I would post a couple updates since it has been a while.

Picked up a couple Nerite snails to help clean the glass of the film-type algae that the turbos aren't getting. So far they are doing a good job.

Picked up a ruby red dragonet (love these things), unfortunately he decided the tank wasn't home and escaped. Found him later laying in the carpet as fish jerky. 

Also need to re-home one of my emerald crabs, he's just getting too big for my tank, thinking about taking him back to the lfs and trade for a smaller one. Can't believe he's gone from nickel size to half dollar size in just a few months.

Visited Lazy's place, and my jaw dropped! I now have a design goal! Also picked up a new orange hammer frog, and a Red Dragon Acro.

Rethinking how to attach the frags to my rock. I had originally used SuperGlue Gel; however, it doesn't appear to stick too well and I am finding glued frags falling off (also hated how one use, no matter how small, basically killed the tube). May look into Loctite, as some have recommended around. Also thinking some epoxy putty may not be bad. Need to figure out where to put everyone before I get glue/putty crazy though.

Now to read up on Acro care. Pictures to come later after I get the tank settled back in (need to do the weekly cleaning, a couple days behind on that due to other house chore issues) and if I decided to rearrange the corals.

[Grymtooth]

Also, many thanks to Lazy for helping identifying what was sold to me a a "brain coral" as actually Merulina/Lettuce coral.

I definitely have my work cut out for me on this one. Thankfully it's not completely dead, so I may have success in revitalizing it.

[Grymtooth]

So I was about to ask in here about an issue I am seeing in my tank. Namely, my xenia are wilting and the Red Dragon is shot (Lazy, I do want to purchase another after tank stablizes), and stylo is just barely hanging in there. I just bought a Red Sea kit and got the following:
pH 8
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 8
Ammonia .2
Alk 10

It wasn't until I check salinity that I found the culprit. Salinity is at 1.021. My source salt water jug was 1.015 rather than 1.026. So when I did my last water change, it threw everything off.

Mental note to check the water before leaving the store. So tomorrow morning I will be heading to the LFS for more water.

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[AJ]

Although the salinity has something to do with your coral issues, you should not have any Ammonia.... Ammonia is a sign that your tank is not cycled yet, or going through another cycle.

[Grymtooth]

I really had to guess on the ammonia, since using the new kit and getting used to it. I might even be at .1 buy cannot tell for certain. It bothered me though that nitrates were that high also.

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[AJ]

Is there any way for you to get some pictures of the filtration parts of the tank?  I am curious as to what it looks like.

[Grymtooth]

Sure, it's an innovative Marine tank, so all filtration etc is on the back. Left side is poly-filter on top, chemipure elite under. Right side is another poly-filter and ceramic rings under.





Skimmer is in the second from right chamber and heater is in second from left.

I just threw in some pure marine balls in today along with a water change.

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[AJ]

Do you think there would be a place for you to grow some Chaeto in there?  I know I have had extremely good results from growing the stuff.  I don't run any chemical filtration, and very minimal mechanical filtration, yet my parameters are spot on.  You could possibly create a small area to grow some and put the light for it on the outside of the tank.

[Grymtooth]

I have been considering using the bottom of the heater chamber, but it doesn't get much light, so need to save up for something like IM's refugium light (http://innovative-marine.com/auqa-gadget/magnafuge.html). Unfortunately it may need to wait for some time as I have recently put a lot of money in, and budget is getting very tight already.

I did have some hanging around inside the display area (left overs from when I switched tanks and was stuck in the rocks). The emerald crabs made short work of this though and I haven't seen any in my tank in over 3 months...

The only problem I have with attempting chaeto is lighting for it that also gets the spousal approval (aesthetics of course)

[Grymtooth]

So here's an updated full image. Duncan moved to back right. Lettuce moved to upper right, and things just generally shifted around. Clowns are enjoying the BTA though!



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[Grymtooth]

Been a month and thought it would be a good time for an update.
Tha mandrian committed suicide, jumped out of the tank, although more likely he was chased out like others we have put in. We lost the stylo and lettuce corals. I think I am done with SPS for the time being until we do the larger and more stable tank
Added a couple hermits, swapped the monster emerald out for a smaller one and rearranged the scape.

We are thinking about getting some more sexy shrimp if we can find any (my normal lfs doesn't carry many, hey Lazy: do you get these in from time to time?)

Anyways, here's the visual


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[Kenn]

looking good

[Grymtooth]

Figured I would post an updated pic

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[Grymtooth]

So got home from the meeting, and notice that my bta had started turning inside out. Very little resistance from being moved off the rock, so I believe it's toast... pulled him out before he melted and crashed it all.

Any suggestions on how to clean out the copious amount of slime that built up over the last few weeks?

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[Steve]

Water change and carbon. Skim very wet.

[Grymtooth]

So this tanks days are now numbered. Just put down some cash on a new tank. Decided on a 90g rather than the 75g. Pics to come in the near future as things happen.

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[thepipbull]

cant wait to see it

[Grymtooth]

There's a decent chance after I get it running I will try hosting a meeting

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[thepipbull]

sounds great

[guynamedfleck]

Nice, can't wait to see what you can do with all that fancy equipment on a 90!