45 gallon tank thread

[TheShrimpNibbler]

My tank is a 45 gallon, 36” tank. I have about 40 pound of live sand and 30 pounds of dry rock. I plan to add more rock. I have an aqueon pro heater and penguin hang on back bio-wheel filter. After going through ich out breaks losing several fish, I set up two quarantine tanks. One 5 gallon and one 10 gallon. I currently have one clownfish, a Randall’s goby and tiger pistol shrimp, and a royal gramma. I have the orbit marine ic pro for my light.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I have one coral in the tank, green star polyps. When amphipods started eating it, I freshwater dipped it, and had to put it in a glass bowl. Since I have introduced my three fish into the tank after qt, I will soon remove the coral. The amphipod populations have dropped. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Dempsey941]

Sounds like a good start, but you know what we need? Pictures! we eat them up like candy.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

These are all I’ve got. I’ll take some fts later.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Thought I’d give you all an update. Not really sure why. Nothing at all has changed. I have some more pics tho-
(Yes, my urchin is carrying my thermometer again! He does it usually at least once a day. And please ignore the gha. I cleaned it up yesterday.

 

[ThePurple12]

Any new additions?

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Any new additions?

Yep! I’ve been meaning to do an update actually. I got my clownfish a mate. They are in quarantine now. I also got a pair of firefish which are in a different quarantine tank together. My urchin unfortunately died I think. I’m not sure what happened to him. I also got quite a bit more rock! I’ll post an updated rock scape shot tonight.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Here’s my updated full tank shot. Sorry about the glass, I’ve been meaning to clean it. Anyone have suggestions on how I can’t raise my alk and calcium? They are both low.

 

[ThePurple12]

Rockscape looks nice. What kind of salt are you using? I use Reef Crystals, which is pretty high in calcium.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Rockscape looks nice. What kind of salt are you using? I use Reef Crystals, which is pretty high in calcium.

I’m currently using plain IO, but I’m definitely switching after this bag. This specific bag was so hard that I literally had to beat it with a hammer just to get it broken up enough to fill a cup. And then on top of that, when I finally got it mixed in, it mixed to 1.016. Do you have any other suggestions on salts.

 

[ThePurple12]

Do you have any other suggestions on salts.

No, I've never used anything but plain IO and Reef Crystals

 

[Katrina71]

I use fritz, but strongly considering probiotic salt.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I’m thinking that I may try tropic Marin, but I’m not sure. It seems to get good reviews. I’m gonna give it some more thought though, and I’m still considering fritz and a couple other brands too.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

It’s been a while since I posted her and I have a lot of updates!
First, I moved my clown into qt with the new mate I got it. They have since finished qt and are in my dt (Pics at the end).
Second, my firefish pair also finished quarantine. They are in my dt and doing good now. They don’t come out much in the morning, so I can’t get a pic of them right now, but I’ll try to post on tonight. When I first added them, I had problems with my royal gramma bullying them. She tore up both of their tails and relentlessly chased them for a few day. I couldn’t catch her though. After a few days, she calmed down though, and she now gets along with them just fine. Their tails have healed.
I’ve also had a bad outbreak of what seems to be dino’s. It’s really been annoying my green star polyps, and they haven’t opened up fully in a while now. I have been feeding more recently, and with the addition of the fish mentioned above, things seems to be getting better.
I also got some new fish for quarantine. The first is a flame hawk that is doing very good. It loves to eat and has so much personality. If it’s hiding and I call his name, he swims out to see me. He already eats food straight off of the knife I feed with and I love him. The second was diamond tail flasher wrasse. This is one of my dream fish and when I got the in stock email from LiveAquaria, I was overjoyed. I had a gift card for there meaning that I could finally afford one of these fish. It arrived in the mail, and I was so happy. But then it died two days after I got it. I was devastated. I contacted LA and they said they were out of stock and gave me a partial refund . I don’t know if I will ever be able to find another one.
Here are pics-

 

[ThePurple12]

Bummer about the wrasse. Liveaquaria‘s quality seems to have dropped a lot, and their prices have gone up...

The tank‘s looking nice!

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Thanks! Now that the outbreak is getting better, I’m happy with where my tank is going.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I haven’t updated in while, so I figured now would be a good time. All of my fish are doing good. The Dino’s that I had have also improved greatly, but I’m unfortunately having Cyano problems now. I believe that this is mostly due to my lack of a clean up crew.
My parents told me that when I got rid of one of my two fish quarantine tanks, I could get an invert quarantine tank. Well, one of my qt tanks got a leak in it, and I had to get rid of it, so I’m now allowed to start an invert qt! Once I get it set up, I’ll be able to add more corals and a CUC to my dt.
I also switched salts to tropic Marin classic. I love it. It’s actually a powdery consistency instead of a large, hard block, it didn’t leave residue in the bucket, and it mixed up perfectly to 1.025.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I have some good and bad news. First, my flame hawk died a couple weeks ago. I cleaned the glass in the tank he was in, and he became obsessed with his reflection after that to the point that he wouldn’t even pay attention to food. By the time he snapped out of it, it had been 5 days and he was too week to swim, and he died. I checked all of the parameters, and everything was on point, so I know it wasn’t that.
I am still having a little trouble with algae in my dt, but I’m hoping that once I get a cuc in there, this will get better. On that note, I am about to start up an invert quarantine tank. I have the tank, which is a ten gallon from Walmart, and I’ve been building a stand for it with my grandad this week. I also have sand and rock for it, so the stand is the only thing left to do before I can set it up. Hopefully things will start going uphill soon.

 

[...]

I have some good and bad news. First, my flame hawk died a couple weeks ago. I cleaned the glass in the tank he was in, and he became obsessed with his reflection after that to the point that he wouldn’t even pay attention to food. By the time he snapped out of it, it had been 5 days and he was too week to swim, and he died. I checked all of the parameters, and everything was on point, so I know it wasn’t that.
I am still having a little trouble with algae in my dt, but I’m hoping that once I get a cuc in there, this will get better. On that note, I am about to start up an invert quarantine tank. I have the tank, which is a ten gallon from Walmart, and I’ve been building a stand for it with my grandad this week. I also have sand and rock for it, so the stand is the only thing left to do before I can set it up. Hopefully things will start going uphill soon.

Sorry for the flame hawk but good luck on the invert QT system

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I finished building the stand for my invert qt tank, and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Once it was finished, I filled the tank and set it up (this was a couple months ago). I let the tank cycle, and then I added two snails to make sure that there was nitrogen being added to the tank. At around the same time, my firefish started fighting. I was luckily able to catch one of them and I moved it into the invert quarantine tank. This set my plans of quarantining a clean up crew in there back until I could find a new home for it. To my surprise, my sister offered to set up a little nano for it, and the fire fish has since moved across the hall to her bedroom. With it finally out of my invert tank, I have ordered a clean up crew of snails from reef cleaners, and they are supposed to be here on Thursday or Friday. I have not gotten any new fish since my flame hawk died. None of the fish left on my stock list have come in stock since corona started. Now some pics of the new stand: