JB 20 gallon build

reef-rc · Mar 13, 2017

jcburdette2 said:
Acclimated a few snails, crabs and peppermint shrimp. Wish I had this when I was running my first tank

@jcburdette2 - looks interesting. what is that called and who makes them?

jcburdette2 · Mar 13, 2017

reef-rc said:
@jcburdette2 - looks interesting. what is that called and who makes them?

Got it off Amazon after seeing it on someone's YouTube channel. Link is below

https://www.amazon.com/FA18X-Aquarium-Acclimation-System-Doradon/dp/B005YIVJSU

reef-rc · Mar 13, 2017

thx. will keep this in mind for sure.

Earlier I had innovative marine accudrip acclimation kit in my basket for similar reason but did not pull the trigger. Now looks like I have two choices.

jcburdette2 · Mar 20, 2017

Update - added to the CuC. Now have a peppermint and cleaner shrimp, 2 Scarlet reef crabs, 2 blue legged crabs, 2 astrea snails and a turbo snail. Wondering everyone's opinion on if any more should be added down the road.
Also it appears that the green hair algae isnt going anywhere at the moment. Should this be something to try and take care? Or since the system is still relatively new things will balance out. Thanks!

reef-rc · Mar 20, 2017

@jcburdette2 - For the hair algae, it may be best to manually remove it as best you can by hand. Remove by hand outside the tank and potentially scrubbing it from the rock then putting back into the tank. This way you know for sure the excess nutrition are gone instead of relying on your cleaner crew to take care of it. Considering it looks containted within 1-2 pieces of rock, it's a lot easier to deal with now rather than later. Even if you let it die off itself, there is still the excess nutrition that goes back into the water that you will have to deal with.

reef-rc · Mar 20, 2017

btw - i like your clean up crew. I recently got 2 Trochus Snail and a Cerith, 2 peppermint shrimps and emerald crabs myself for the clean up crew. My concern here is there may not be enough for them to eat so I did not get hermit crabs for that reason. I had 2 margarita snails earlier and they keep turning over and was not able to turn around by themselves...eventually one got eaten I think by the shrimp and other disaapearred somewhere into between the rocks. Your shrimp will like eat whatever your clowns eat ;)

jcburdette2 · Mar 20, 2017

reef-rc said:
@jcburdette2 - For the hair algae, it may be best to manually remove it as best you can by hand. Remove by hand outside the tank and potentially scrubbing it from the rock then putting back into the tank. This way you know for sure the excess nutrition are gone instead of relying on your cleaner crew to take care of it. Considering it looks containted within 1-2 pieces of rock, it's a lot easier to deal with now rather than later. Even if you let it die off itself, there is still the excess nutrition that goes back into the water that you will have to deal with.

I will give this a try. I was able to blow some of it off with my feeder accidentally. So it's definitely going to just come right off. Would you recommend rinsing the rock at all while cleaning? Seems like a dumb question but I rather be safe than make a rookie mistake.

reef-rc · Mar 20, 2017

Personally the easiest is to just to remove the algae with the next water change. Do the water change/clean like you normally would. Then I would just use the old water in a bucket and remove the algae and scrub that algae off as best you can with a clean brush. By doing this with the same water as what was in the tank, you won't disrupt the tank so much and putting the rock back into the tank is easy and any bacteria you have in it will remain most likely. Those other brown algae should disappear in time.

jcburdette2 · Apr 16, 2017

Just an update pic. All is going well. Going to start testing calcium this week and possibly put a frag or two in.

reef-rc · Apr 17, 2017

Where did all that hair go?[emoji33]

Looking good...

jcburdette2 · Apr 17, 2017

reef-rc said:
Where did all that hair go?[emoji33]

Looking good...

Cleaned it up during a water change as you suggested before. Turned out great! Thanks for the tip. And we are definitely pleased with the tank so far. Thinking about adding a goby soon and that will be all for fish.

Rufus’ goofs · Apr 17, 2017

Your tank looks great! Keep up the good work!

I'm jealous I never got a saltwater tank as science experiment when I was a homeschooler.

reef-rc · Apr 17, 2017

jcburdette2 said:
Cleaned it up during a water change as you suggested before. Turned out great! Thanks for the tip. And we are definitely pleased with the tank so far. Thinking about adding a goby soon and that will be all for fish.

Awesome! Instead of a goby, have you considered a lawnmower blenny? Given the number fish, it'll not only be fun to watch (as lawnmower is a character) but will also help maintain your tank with algae build up. IMO in a small tank, everyone in it should have a job besides looking pretty ;).

jcburdette2 · Apr 23, 2017

reef-rc said:
Awesome! Instead of a goby, have you considered a lawnmower blenny? Given the number fish, it'll not only be fun to watch (as lawnmower is a character) but will also help maintain your tank with algae build up. IMO in a small tank, everyone in it should have a job besides looking pretty ;).

I will definitely look into getting one! I had a bicolor blenny in my last tank and you are right. Blennies are just awesome to watch

jcburdette2 · Apr 23, 2017

Made a trip to tiki corals in Richmond yesterday and picked up a green star polyp. Also did some rock rearranging

reef-rc · Apr 23, 2017

If your tank is condition is good...that star polyp will fill that rock it's on in no time.

jcburdette2 · Jul 31, 2017

Been awhile since I posted. Here's some updated photos. Tank has been doing great. Picked up a lawnmower blenny about 2 weeks ago. This past Sunday on our trip to tiki corals in Richmond VA, we got this skimmer. I had still been battling diatoms and algae. The store gave me a bag of chemipure blue. That helped alot. Cleared up the water too.

Still regularly doing 5 gallon changes weekly and also taking my power filter off 2 times a week to clean the media filter. Things are good. Looking forward to putting in some more coral in the coming months.

Rufus’ goofs · Jul 31, 2017

Looking good!

Joshua Huff · Jul 31, 2017

Very nice! What kind of protein skimmer did you use? is that not over kill? i am wondering because i have a 32 biocube and a 10 gal coral tank, would a protein skimmer like this be beneficial? I have the cheapo biocube skimmer in my 32gal right now. My cheapo skimmer seems to be doing well now that i finally got it setup correctly.

jcburdette2 · Jul 31, 2017

Joshua Huff said:
Very nice! What kind of protein skimmer did you use? is that not over kill? i am wondering because i have a 32 biocube and a 10 gal coral tank, would a protein skimmer like this be beneficial? I have the cheapo biocube skimmer in my 32gal right now. My cheapo skimmer seems to be doing well now that i finally got it setup correctly.

Yeah I kind of thought it would be Overkill but the owner of the LFS said it would be fine and she's used it on smaller tanks. Also this way if/when I decide to go bigger on the tank, I'll already have a skimmer