Coolaid's Tale of the Tank

[Coolaid]

Current Full tank shot 12/30/12

OK, so here's a little back story..

I've been in the money pit hobby for about 20 years now. I started at age 16 tending to my parents Oranda tanks, and koi ponds and learned the tricks of the fresh water trade from there.. After getting my first apartment at 18. I moved into Dwarf Chichlids, and then on to breeding Discus and Angel's.

In 2010 we had an apartment fire due to a neighbor dumping an ash tray into a garbage can, and I lost everything except my turtle's and cats which I ran back into the apartment multiple times ala pee wee herman until all my pets minus fish where safe.

This was my first real break from fish keeping in general. We had to move in with my father and my siblings while we recovered, and waited for the insurance to come through.. Can you believe they tried to fight us?? shock huh??

So, fast forward to December 2011.. Finally have the money to buy a new place! I purchased a 210 gallon tank from Jungle Bob's on long island (used and cheap) and I set it up for my turtles. I know this is a reef forum, but here's a picture anyway..

Done with expanding foam a peat mix, net pots, rocks, driftwood, and lots of complaining by my wife, and cursing by me..

First shot of the water test
[attachment=114242:207782_1...718438_n.jpg]

Here is a picture taken just now. Tank footprint is 72 x 24
[attachment=114244:IMG_7348.JPG]

After getting that all up and running I had shopped around for a nice nano cube.. Again.. Used, and Cheap... Notice a trend here?

I came across an ebay ad for a Nano 12 with a rapid LED retrofit, and made the plunge. Drove about 2.5 hours to NY and picked it up.

It came with sand, rock, and the damsel from hell.. This was taken with the addition of my first few frags purchased from a local reef club member.

I learned my first valuable lesson in August 2012.. Cat's hate fish.. Woke up to this at the *** crack of dawn..

I very quickly got a 20 long set up and managed to save 95% of everything in the tank, and went to my reef club forums and managed to purchase a 28 g nano cube LED pro. It's been over a month now, and minus a mini cycle that only lasted a couple of days the tank is up running and everything is healthy.

Here is a current Tank shot as of 10/25/2012

FTS 12/8/12

I'm sure I will have lots of updates in the future.. I guess this is a good start.

 

[revsgirl]

Wow!! You have been on a reef rollercoaster!! Reef's lookin' great!! Thanks for sharing your story!!

 

[skinz78]

Man what a ride! Looks like you have it back on track though and best of all you have a great looking Crocea in there:tongue:

 

[wysiwyg]

looking good gotta love cats

 

[Coolaid]

Been a while since I posted here.. So, figured I would share an update. I see the pictures in the first post died I moved some things in photobucket around.. I wish I chould edit it to fix the links.. I'll just repost it after this entry..

Here are a couple of new shots.. Few changes.. I got that giant octospawn the other day from a friend.. moved some zoo's around and added the pink birdsnest. My acro all took a crap sadly.. We had a power outage while I wasnt home and the temp in the tank dropped a little too much. Sucks.. but at least that's all I lost.

YAY MP10!

I'm still trying to find a few things, but I think this tank is pretty much out of room.. lol I'm sure I'll find some though.

 

[Coolaid]

If a mod can edit the first post and just paste this post there that'd be great.. so let me know if I am just noobing it up and there is an edit feature.

Current Full tank shot 12/30/12

OK, so here's a little back story..

I've been in the money pit hobby for about 20 years now. I started at age 16 tending to my parents Oranda tanks, and koi ponds and learned the tricks of the fresh water trade from there.. After getting my first apartment at 18. I moved into Dwarf Chichlids, and then on to breeding Discus and Angel's.

In 2010 we had an apartment fire due to a neighbor dumping an ash tray into a garbage can, and I lost everything except my turtle's and cats which I ran back into the apartment multiple times ala pee wee herman until all my pets minus fish where safe.

This was my first real break from fish keeping in general. We had to move in with my father and my siblings while we recovered, and waited for the insurance to come through.. Can you believe they tried to fight us?? shock huh??

So, fast forward to December 2011.. Finally have the money to buy a new place! I purchased a 210 gallon tank from Jungle Bob's on long island (used and cheap) and I set it up for my turtles. I know this is a reef forum, but here's a picture anyway..

Done with expanding foam a peat mix, net pots, rocks, driftwood, and lots of complaining by my wife, and cursing by me..

First shot of the water test
[attachment=114242:207782_1...718438_n.jpg]

Here is a picture taken just now. Tank footprint is 72 x 24
[attachment=114244:IMG_7348.JPG]

After getting that all up and running I had shopped around for a nice nano cube.. Again.. Used, and Cheap... Notice a trend here?

I came across an ebay ad for a Nano 12 with a rapid LED retrofit, and made the plunge. Drove about 2.5 hours to NY and picked it up.

It came with sand, rock, and the damsel from hell.. This was taken with the addition of my first few frags purchased from a local reef club member.

I learned my first valuable lesson in August 2012.. Cat's hate fish.. Woke up to this at the *** crack of dawn..

I very quickly got a 20 long set up and managed to save 95% of everything in the tank, and went to my reef club forums and managed to purchase a 28 g nano cube LED pro. It's been over a month now, and minus a mini cycle that only lasted a couple of days the tank is up running and everything is healthy.

Here is a current Tank shot as of 10/25/2012

FTS 12/8/12

I'm sure I will have lots of updates in the future.. I guess this is a good start.

 

[Coolaid]

A few more shots.. I have this on another site I frequent just figured I would share with you guys as well

Picture time!

FTS

This octospawn was a rescue from a club members tank along with the brain, birds nest, and acro.. Unfortunately the only thing doing well is the birds nest.. The brain started getting a hole in it of exposed skeleton, then another appeared, and then a 3rd. I've dipped it, used revive on it, and done everything I can to slow it down, but it looks like it's just going to have to let nature take it's course. The acro bleached out.. My green slimer,
Blue Cali Tort, and Pink lemonade acro's are fine, so I guess it was just too far gone to be saved.. He added sand to his tank and it cashed. We pulled what he thought might be savable but I guess it was too late. REally bummed. It got brown jelly tried to frag the other head off to save it but it receded and is sitting in my macro tank in hopes it might come back, but I doubt it.

Here's the acro on day 2.. started to color up again, but it now completly white.. still sitting in there just in case of divine intervention... lol

 

[skinz78]

Looking great!

 

[Coolaid]

Finally, here is my other tank.. it's dedicated to macro algae and houses some of my fish that where banned from the display due to being jerks, and some other fish that where rescued from various sources.

I love display macro algae and having an all in one tank I didn't want to go through the process of adding a fuge to the tank and drilling it out.. So, I made a stand alone tank for all of my macro's.

Lifve stock

2 sailfin mollies that i converted to salt
various hermits and snails
Cleaner shrimp
peppermint shrimp
Sand Sifting Starfish
Tuxedo erchin who was banished from the display

Macro Algae
Violet Flames
Red Dragons (looks like just LA reefs name for red titan)
Martian Rose
Blue Scroll
Red Gracilaria
Lucky Metalic Color Shifting
Brown Gracilaria
Red Palm
Red Titan
blue ochtodes
Codium
Enteromorpha
Coin Halimeda
Mermaids Fan
Shaving Brush
Sargassum
Red Grape
Spicifera
Turtle Grass
Green Grape
Cheato
Caulerpa Prolifera
Violet Dreams (pretty sure this was misnamed got it from a member here I think it might be the same things are violet flames from LA Reef)
CYMOPOLIA BARBATA (mostly dead on arrival have an order in with GCE for 2 portions should be in next week... this batch was off ebay)
Laurencia
Botryocladia

I'm waiting on stuff to come in to GCE he said next week he should have some new reds in, as well as some other rare stuff.


Current tank shot.

Older shots...

More updates to come.. I also need to organize the macro's a little to make things look nicer.

I'll also get some closeups of individual algae as well.

 

[Coolaid]

Just a couple of pictures.... As you can see in the pics I am dealing with an outbreak of Dino.. Right now I am trying to combat with manual removal and daily water changes.. I am afraid to go dark for a long period of time due to all the plants in there. I may resort to just pulling all the plants and doing an heavy rinse and doing the same with the live rock, and doing a heavy vacume of the sand. but that is a last resort.. if anyone has some suggestions I would love to hear them.



I have a few things coming in from GCE after the 7th. Can't wait. I also moved a bunch of things around.



FTS

Some nice growth on some of the reds and the Blue O.

My little Cherub (thinking about going with a trio of these down the road in a larger tank. they seem to be easy to breed)

The pink line ****** and a scarlet

My orange spotted goby guarding his pistol shrimp's hole

I have about 10-12 new shoots coming up from the mermaids fans... Awesome! The originals aren't looking so hot, but they looked like that when they came in too..

I need to get a shot of that hermit.. I have 2 that I recently picked up.. They are like traffic cone orange.. really cool little guys.
IMG_8408.jpg photo by robjersey | Photobucket


I forget the name of these things.. They don't look too good in this shot, but in person they are awesome.. stingy reish brown with hairy stems. ALmost like thinner red codium.. It seems to be growing fairly well also.

I think this might be an older shot.. But Cleaner shrimp are always fun to look at anway.

I am heavily stocked in this tank, and that is probably a good reason why I have the dino.. I may look into heavier filtration.. right now I run 2 AQ50's and a biocube skimmer. The media is perguine, chemipure elite, and GFO in both filters.. I do have a heat issue in this tank which is due to the lighting having to sit directly on the tank lid.. I'm running 2 t5ho 24w actinic and 12000k for color and 4 CFL 6500k bulbs for the plants. I'm adding 2 fans to the nova extreme light and 2 large fans to the diy CFL fixture that I made.. This should get me down a few degrees and down towards mid / high 70's like I want.

 

[Coolaid]

Quick story about that mandarin.. I have always had an affection towards dragonetts.. I wanted one sooooo bad, but knew that it would be hard set to happen in my 28g tank.. I do not recommend anyone trying this, but I spend a ridiculous amount of time with him. First, I have a marine fish shop around the corner from my home. I researched about keeping mandarins, and even moreso keeping them in a nano. I knew going into it it wasn't going to be easy.

So, I am in this shop once a week to buy water, and the occasional coral. I had been prepping for an ORA green.. I had a roti culture going as well as a 2000pc. order of pods from reefs2go. that went into the tank in prep for this ORA captive bread.. The store I ordered it from called and said it was in.. I went there, and this thing was the size of a fingernail.. I also noticed that it didn't look very healthy.. I asked to feed it, and it didn't take any.. I asked if I could let it stay there until it was in better shape to be transported, and they where ok with that.. I get a call an hour later.. it was dead.

I happened to be going to get my water, and while there I spotted this nice medium sized male.. I asked to try and feed him and he didn't seem interested, but he was healthy, fat and lively.. I decided to go against my rule and buy him on an impulse..

I got him home, and acclimated him to the tank. He then went into a shower caddy.. you can see this in one of the pictures above holding my chaeto. I love these things.. they have many holes in them so it gets nice flow in and out, and it is very clear so it's easy to see inside. I started with live brine and mysis as well as a dropper full of rotties. I also put down a bunch of pellets which he didn't look at.. The next day I added a little bit of frozen bloodworm in there as well as some live blackworms he ate the blackworms up like they where candy and took a bloodworm I think by accident.. Slowly over the next few days / weeks I had him switched over to 100% frozen. He readily accepts brine, mysis, bloodworms, chopped clam and chopped squid. As a treat I toss in a couple of molly babies from my macro tank and he gobbles them up. I feed him once a day.. a full cube of whatever his meal will be. in the case of clams or squid it's half a cube mixed with 1/2 cube of bloodworms.

I would say he gets about 10-15 bites in and the rest if taken by snails, crabs bristles and stars. I feed him a few pieces at a time and watch him eat at least 2-3 before I add more. It really created a feeding frenzy when it's his feeding time.. I have just gotten a mandarin diner from the UK that I am working on training him with.. He is pretty smart.. he knows the squirter that I use to feed him and comes right to his feeding spot once he sees it. He is just a little worried about going into the box right now, but it will eventually work and it will ensure he gets private meals from now on.. lol

 

[Coolaid]

Sadly, after I finished writing that last night, I went to look at the tank and noticed the mandarin was stuck in a rock.. I tapped him and noticed that he was stiff He must have seen a pod or something in a small hole and wedged himself in there.. I am so upset as I really enjoyed him and spent a lot of time on his wellbeing. on an up note.. he was extremely fat. I think I will hold off on another until I we move to the new house and I can set up my large reef..

I plan on a large volume (between 100-200 gallon) tank at the new place so I can house tangs and such. I will also be incorporating the macro tank into it as a display fuge. I don't want to do one here because space is limited and I can't run an RODI system and mix my own salt. My wifes grandfather has given us his house which we are renovating and updating right now. The sump system is going in the basement where I will have my rodi, QT and prop tank.

 

[Coolaid]

Hey everyone,

I'm entered in a best tank contest for a local vendor to me. It would help me out greatly if you guys could click the link (must have facebook) and vote for my tank which is Tank # 10.

Here is the link to vote.
http://www.facebook.com/questions/606818466000688/

Here is the album of my tank. Pics are from a couple of weeks ago.
Facebook

Thanks everyone!

 

[Eienna]

I'm sorry you lost your mandarin!! :'(

 

[Coolaid]

Yea, me too.. But on an upnote.. I WON THE CONTEST! Ultra Scoly coming home to me whenever I can make it out there to get it. Winter storm may postpone it for a couple of days.

 

[revhtree]

Congrats! Can you post some updated photos here?

 

[Eienna]

I'm crazy about mandarins myself...DEFINITELY getting me a pair of those (ORA, most likely) for my tank.

 

[Mike&Terry]

Just read through your thread and, WOW! you sure have had some drama...

Your tank looks great and so sorry to hear about the Mandarin.

 

[ahvrivera]

Hey Rob, If you want let me know when you are going to pick up your scoly. Im not far from him and you can get your worms you wanted. Havent for gotten about you just have not had the time.

Austyn

 

[Coolaid]

I'll take some new pics when I get a chance. I just picked up a few new zoa frags and the scoly today so I want to let them settle in for a couple of days.

I love mandarins and their inquisitive nature. I think they are an amazing addition to any tank, but I wish some people would research them more before making inpulse purchases. When I got mine I went in full well knowing I was going to have to give it a lot of attention, and even moreso being in only a 28g tank with no fuge. I had cultures going already, and read a lot about keeping them. I will get a pair some day again, but only when I have my 120 with a fuge and everything.

I am not so sure I would recommend the ORA mandarins from the people I have talked to they are just as hit and miss as the run of the mill ones. I find that the larger ones tend to go for frozen much easier them smalls. ORA ones that I have seen are all VERY small, and the price is high. The only benefit which I do like is that they are tank raised which is always good in my eyes.

Austyn, Thanks I didn't really push the issue because I figured whenever you got around to it would be fine. I already got the scoly today.. lol I'm in no rush and I'm sure we will get around to it at some point. Thanks though. I have a surgery coming up on the 20th so I probably will have a few weeks of downtime before I can be completely mobile again.