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FeliciaLynn
Active Member
Thank you so much! I'm sure yours will turn out great! I'm really loving the dimensions of the 40B. I think its a great medium-sized tank to work with! Do you have a thread for your tank?
Felicia's 40B Mixed-Reef Predator Tank
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Phenomenal reef, very well done!
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FeliciaLynn
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Thank you so much for checking it out! I'm glad you like it!
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FeliciaLynn
Active Member
Here's a few more photos!
My boyfriend recently got me a custom CNC-cut metal female scuba diver to hang above my tank. I love scuba diving, which is what inspired me to finally start a saltwater reef tank, so it was a perfect gift to go above my tank.
Also, here it is above my tank. I had to take a photo with the tank lights out because if the lights are on, everything on the walls comes out black in photos. You can also see how my light fixture is hung and some of the other decor around the tank, which is in my living room.
And a few more fun aquarium photos!
Lionfish totem pole
The antennata lionfish.
The snowflake eel.
The fu manchu lionfish.
The nepthea leather.
My boyfriend recently got me a custom CNC-cut metal female scuba diver to hang above my tank. I love scuba diving, which is what inspired me to finally start a saltwater reef tank, so it was a perfect gift to go above my tank.
Also, here it is above my tank. I had to take a photo with the tank lights out because if the lights are on, everything on the walls comes out black in photos. You can also see how my light fixture is hung and some of the other decor around the tank, which is in my living room.
And a few more fun aquarium photos!
Lionfish totem pole
The antennata lionfish.
The snowflake eel.
The fu manchu lionfish.
The nepthea leather.
steve&mari
Blessed Reefer
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/big-steves-getting-back-into-hobby-our-new-40b-rimless.198286/
Link to our build. The scuba girl is a awesome gift looks really cool.
Link to our build. The scuba girl is a awesome gift looks really cool.
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FeliciaLynn
Active Member
Thanks! I just checked out your build. I really love that rimless 40 breeder! What a find! I love the dimensions of the 40B's but mine is just a Petco $1/gallon one. Yours is much more sleek!
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FeliciaLynn
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vm70
Community Member
Thank you so much!
Thank you! I wanted to do something different! There's really no reason that the lionfish and eels can't be in a reef environment as long as there are no small fish or inverts for them to eat. They don't bother the corals and all and its nice to see them swimming about in a more natural habitat.
I 'm not going to add any more species because my tank is maxed out on bioload and space right now. I'm probably already a bit overstocked with 3 lionfish, a snowflake eel, 2 clownfish, and a leopard wrasse in a 40 breeder. Luckily my tank seems to handle this bioload really well, so I don't want to upset that balance by adding anything else!
I'm glad you like the gorgonians. I bought them all from KP Aquatics. Here's the list of common names and the scientific names if I know them for what I have. I also listed their location in my tank so you can figure out which is which from my full tank shots.
1) Angular sea whip (aka purple ribbon gorgonian) (Pterogorgia anceps) - right side in front of nepthea leather
2) Knobby sea rod (genus Eunicea) - just to the left of the large squamosa clam
3) Purple sea feather (Pseudopterogorgia sp.) - right side just behind the nepthea leather
4) Yellow sea feather (Pseudopterogorgia sp.) - far left side behind the frogspawn
5) Purple plume gorgonian (Muriceopsis flavida) - far right side in front of the big green toadstool
6) Purple sea rod (Plexaura flexuosa) - very far left in the front
My water parameters have been staying stable at:
Alk: 8.1
Ca: 430
Mg: 1410
PO4: 0 to 0.03
NO3: 5
SG: 1.025
Temp.: 79 F
I do a 10 gallon water change about once every 2 weeks. I was originally doing a 10 gallon water change once a week, but realized that every 2 weeks is sufficient to maintain my water parameters. I have a skimmer that is rated for a 100 gallons and a TLF 150 media reactor running the TLF NPX biopellets. I was having a lot of nitrate issues at the beginning with the predator fish, but when I added the biopellet reactor, I was able to get them down from 25-50 to being pretty stable between water changes at 5. I think this is a perfect level because its low enough to not bother my SPS corals, but there's still enough nutrients in the water to keep the clams and other filter feeders (sponges, gorgs, etc) happy. I really think the biopellet reactor was the perfect addition for a predator tank and keeps everything in a really nice balance! I don't run any GFO for phosphates, but the biopellet reactor does help remove a small amount of phosphates. According to the Redfield ratio, for each 16 parts of nitrate removed, 1 part of phosphate will be removed. Since I have a lot of nitrates to remove and my phosphates were never really high, this works out really well for my tank.
Thank you very much for the very detailed answer! It's great presentation for your beautiful tank!
One more question: what species is the red sponge on the left-hand side of tank? What about its smaller yellow (coral?) neighbor on its right-hand side?
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FeliciaLynn
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No problem! I like discussing my tank and answering questions. That's part of the fun of the hobby is discussing what we all know and what works for us
The red sponge is commonly called a red ball sponge (Pseudoaxinella lunchearta) and the sponge to the right of it is a yellow frilly sponge (family Halichondriidaeis). Both of them came from KP Aquatics.
vm70
Community Member
Thanks again!No problem! I like discussing my tank and answering questions. That's part of the fun of the hobby is discussing what we all know and what works for us
The red sponge is commonly called a red ball sponge (Pseudoaxinella lunchearta) and the sponge to the right of it is a yellow frilly sponge (family Halichondriidaeis). Both of them came from KP Aquatics.
Jizu Puentes
Well-Known Member
I just looked at your earlier pics on my computer instead of my phone and noticed the hair algae that you had. Did you do anything in particular to get rid of it?
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FeliciaLynn
Active Member
No problem at all!Thanks again!
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FeliciaLynn
Active Member
That hair algae took off because my original tank had a partial crash and as a result of the excess nutrients from the die-off, the hair algae took off on those rocks. Those rocks were transferred into my current tank along with some additional new rock. I think a lot of getting rid of it was just time. Letting the new tank stabilize and with no excess nutrients, the hair algae starved off over time. I also did some manual removal during cleanings and added some snails, a tuxedo urchin, and some red Mithrax crabs to help eat the algae. Over time it just went away and never came back.
HowUDoin
Community Member
That is an awesome tank!
Many years ago, I had a saltwater predator tank, but it was FOWLR and fairly sterile looking. This is so much better looking. Hats off for keeping 3 different dwarf lions.
Can I ask what you feed your fish? Is it mainly frozen foods, or dry foods? Have you got them to eat a pellet food, like Massivore? Or are they still on live food?
Many years ago, I had a saltwater predator tank, but it was FOWLR and fairly sterile looking. This is so much better looking. Hats off for keeping 3 different dwarf lions.
Can I ask what you feed your fish? Is it mainly frozen foods, or dry foods? Have you got them to eat a pellet food, like Massivore? Or are they still on live food?
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FeliciaLynn
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Thank you so much! FOWLR tanks can be very nice, but I really wanted to try to have the predators in a natural looking reef environment.
I feed entirely frozen now. The fu manchu lion was already eating frozen when I bought him, but the other two were originally eating ghost shrimp. I started with FW ghost shrimp that I was gut loading with pellets, and then I switched to saltwater ghost shrimp that I was ordering from a company in Florida. I finally just convinced the last of the 3 to start taking frozen a couple days ago. The fu manchu likes silverside pieces the best, but will also eat shrimp and krill. The antennata eats PE mysis. The dwarf zebra is the one that finally just got onto frozen and he's only taken to krill so far. I know that's not a good long-term diet for him, so I'm hoping now that he knows frozen is acceptable food, I can coax him to try other options. I also just started stuffing the silversides and krill with pellets to help increase the nutritional value and that worked well. I plan on going to the seafood market this week to get a variety of fresh seafood. I'm going to chop it up into the right sized pieces and then mix it all together and freeze it in small portions so that I can thaw one portion and have a good variety of seafood to offer them.
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FeliciaLynn
Active Member
I made some yummy food for my predators! I wanted them to get a more varied diet, so I went to the local fish market and picked up salmon, scallops, prawns, and squid. I then chopped it all up into appropriately sized chunks and then mixed it all together. Then I put portions into ice cube trays to keep them as separate clumps while they freeze. I just didn't want it to turn into one big block of food. Once the food freezes, I'll place all the clumps into ziploc bags and this way I can easily pull out a clump to thaw for feeding. Here are some photos! I have some spoiled fish. I was really tempted to eat the food the whole time I was cutting it up. That was some yummy looking sashimi grade salmon! Only $10 for all this, so not too bad.
Also, I had my first predator inflicted injury tonight. And no, I didn't get stung by a lionfish luckily! I was feeding the fish and I had the tongs in my right hand and had my left hand resting on the rim of the tank. I was paying attention to the lion that I was trying to feed and suddenly the eel lunged out of the water and latched onto my left hand that was resting on the rim of the tank. He the nailbed on one of my fingers good enough to cause it to bleed. Luckily once I got it cleaned up, its not worse than a hang nail. It really didn't hurt either, just surprised me. I yelled and pulled my hand back so fast that I dragged the eel most of the way out of the water before he let go of my finger. Guess I'll have to be more careful with him! Such a brat!
Also, I had my first predator inflicted injury tonight. And no, I didn't get stung by a lionfish luckily! I was feeding the fish and I had the tongs in my right hand and had my left hand resting on the rim of the tank. I was paying attention to the lion that I was trying to feed and suddenly the eel lunged out of the water and latched onto my left hand that was resting on the rim of the tank. He the nailbed on one of my fingers good enough to cause it to bleed. Luckily once I got it cleaned up, its not worse than a hang nail. It really didn't hurt either, just surprised me. I yelled and pulled my hand back so fast that I dragged the eel most of the way out of the water before he let go of my finger. Guess I'll have to be more careful with him! Such a brat!
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