First-timer's Fusion 20

[wannaheli]

Thank you Tahoe61!

Tank Update: 11/19/17
-Added 2 Tongan Nassarius snails.
-Added a Favia

Everything seems to be going well. The Hammer still doesn't look great but I think he's looking better. I also moved him to see if it changes anything. I've also been using Reef-Roids about twice a week. Still doing about 1.5 gallons water changes every week. Clean sock every week and replace floss in the media basket. The basket also has 4 nano Chemi-pure blue packets and the oldest packet is rotated out every week.

pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5

 

[Tahoe61]

Looks Great.

You have the Tunze Turnbelle nanostream, man those are strong little pumps, you can make waves over the side of the tank.. I have one and had it on the tank initially.

 

[wannaheli]

Little update on the tank sorry it has been awhile.

Bad news first. Right before Thanksgiving, 11/22/17, I added a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp and 2 Green Chromis. Right away, the clowns didn't really get along with the chromis and the chromis themselves didn't get along with each other. The once peaceful tank started looking stressed. One chromis died about 12 days later. The other chromis may have even had ick and died 2 weeks after that. Not sure if it was ick but then my neon blue goby died on 1/6/18. The clowns started looking stressed and their scales did not look great.

Now good news. The clowns have bounced back and now look healthy. The corals are growing. The red acan started with 1 head and now has about 10 heads. It has grown too big for the plug so I glued it to a rock. The green mushroom had a little bud. The shrimp molts monthly. Not sure if it's really good but I'm starting to see a lot of little critters on the rock and sand.

12/17/17
Added Marbel Starfish
Added Green Blue Acan

2/2/18
Added mushroom (red with some strips)
Glued both acans to a rock
Added the IM refugium light and chaeto in the back sump

2/10/18
Added Blastomusa Merletti
Added red Monti

 

[wannaheli]

The shrimp had a feast before I could remove the goby that died.

The new IM refugium light added to the back.

Acan now on a rock.

Hitchhiker

Starting to see these on rocks and sand. What are they and are they bad?

New Monti frag. Giving SPS a try.

 

[GSPClown94]

That's too bad you have lost a few fish but everything else looks great. As for those hitchhikers I believe the first is a stomatella snail but the ones I had looked slightly different. The second is an amphipod, both are good.

 

[wannaheli]

Is having lots of amphipods a good sign? I see quite a few running around.

 

[GSPClown94]

Is having lots of amphipods a good sign? I see quite a few running around.

Yes! Consider them part of your clean up crew. Take a look at your tank at night an you will probably see even more of them.

 

[Capitol Reef Corals]

Amphipods are definitely a good thing, especially in the refugium section and in your rocks, they help clean the tank and eat detritus. Can't really have enough of them, but I have read that epidemic amounts can start to irritate corals, and the larger ones will even nibble at Zoas and other softies.

 

[wannaheli]

Tank on 2/11/18

 

[wannaheli]

3/3/18 Update
Corals are growing and fish are healthy. A few aiptasia here and there and some red diatoms.

2/11/18

3/3/18

 

[wannaheli]

3/12/18 Update

I finally got rid of the red diatoms. I basically kept up with regular water changes and scooped out what I could when it was bad. I added 2 fighting conchs on 3/4/18 and they took care of the rest. The conchs are also interesting to watch with their snouts. I'm not positive but I believe the diatoms outbreak was because of some bad RODI water I got from a local fish store.

The chaeto seems to be growing well and have a nice color. It also acts as a nice filter and detritus trap that I just rinse it out with old tank water.

 

[ranchhand02]

How do you like the chaetomax light? I am thinking of adding one to my JBJ nano cube 28 gallon. How much growth out of the chaeto are you getting?

 

[wannaheli]

I like the chaetomax light well enough. It does feel warm to the touch but I'm not sure how much heat is transferred to the tank glass. I used the enclosed Velcro to hold it in place. The ball you see has been growing for about 30 days and I want to say that it started off about half that size. I also only have 2 clowns and a shrimp so I keep my nutrients low so I'm sure that affects the growth. Since the ball doesn't rotate I do notice that the color of the chaeto ball is uneven. I do occasionally rotate the ball by hand. I have my display light on for about 6 hours everyday and the chaetomax light is on the reverse cycle so it only about 18 hours a day.

 

[wannaheli]

3/24/18 Update

The tank is doing well and not much has changed. The sand is super clean looking ever since I add the two fighting conch. Some issues with bubble algae and aiptasia. Just like the red diatom issue, I take things slow and am in no rush to do anything drastic.

Replaced the Synca 1.0 with an Eheim CompactOn 1000.

 

[wannaheli]

My Marble Starfish is pretty to look at but is normally boring. I finally made a time-lapse video of the guy moving around.

 

[wannaheli]

Made another video of the tank. This one is to share how I set up the chambers in the back.

 

[wannaheli]

4/15/18 Update
I went on a 5 day vacation but luckily everything survived. I used a 3 day feeding cube and then a cousin dropped by the last couple of days feeding just once a day. I usually do 2 small feedings a day. Everything survived but for some reason the GSP closed for a few days. It has opened up since then.

Noticed the Monti Cap had some nice growth. A couple of pictures below documenting 2 months of growth.

Feb 10

April 13

 

[ramona]

Well done; following along!

 

[Sipec]

Nice tank, following

 

[wannaheli]

Thank you ramona and Joey.

I added an emerald crab 4 days ago and find this today. I blame the crab.