My 50 gallon build thread

[mochaclownlover]

I’m absolutely terrible at updating this thread but I had some time before my classes this morning so I figured it would be a good time to do a quick update. So far, the tank has been doing amazing! Corals and nems are growing and coloration is spot on. I did end up removing two of my three zebra barred dartfish, the two were getting bullied by the one, weren’t getting any food, and were slowly starving. I ended up putting them back into QT to try and get them healthy again. Since removing those two, I can’t find the third dartfish anywhere and he isn’t coming out to eat so I don’t know what happened to him. As far as replacement goes, I will probably reintroduced tho large female dartfish, but not really planning to add anymore fish. The same honestly goes for corals. There’s some space I’m saving for some choice pieces, but aside from those, I’m happy with how the tank is now.

 

[Arcticfirefighter]

I’m absolutely terrible at updating this thread but I had some time before my classes this morning so I figured it would be a good time to do a quick update. So far, the tank has been doing amazing! Corals and nems are growing and coloration is spot on. I did end up removing two of my three zebra barred dartfish, the two were getting bullied by the one, weren’t getting any food, and were slowly starving. I ended up putting them back into QT to try and get them healthy again. Since removing those two, I can’t find the third dartfish anywhere and he isn’t coming out to eat so I don’t know what happened to him. As far as replacement goes, I will probably reintroduced tho large female dartfish, but not really planning to add anymore fish. The same honestly goes for corals. There’s some space I’m saving for some choice pieces, but aside from those, I’m happy with how the tank is now.

Those BTA look great! I just introduced a Rainbow BTA to my tank a few days ago, it's only the size of a quarter. Hopefully, it will grow up and look as good as yours do. Tank looks great!

 

[mochaclownlover]

Thank you! As long as you give your new guy good light and small feeding every now and then, he should start growing in no time!

 

[mochaclownlover]

Just some quick shots from this morning. Nems and clowns are happy as usual

 

[mochaclownlover]

Merry late Christmas! Got a nice new frag rack from BRS so I can get more corals I won’t have a place for! Lol! But primarily so that I can start taking some frags of my frogspawn /hammer hybrid and a couple other things that are growing fast.

 

[mochaclownlover]

I’m a bit late to the party with this, but Happy New year! I’d say good riddance to 2020, but surprisingly this has been one of the best years I’ve had for my tank. So I’ll start off 2021 with some evening TD shots!

As well as my urchin doing his daily frag rearranging....even with them glued down. But can’t say he isn’t a useful CC member so he stays for now lol

 

[mochaclownlover]

Small update: adding this GBTA that I got about 4months ago. He began showing some issues while in quarantine, but I honestly haven’t had Btas do well in that tank, so I mostly attribute those issues to the tank. I did end up treating him with cipro and for the past 2 weeks has shown 0 signs of whatever was bugging him before. However just to make sure he’s fine, he will be staying in an acclimation box for the rest of today( with hourly WCs) and then will be moved to a temporary basket. Hoping he does well, but also slightly nervous, even though he has been fine for weeks, I don’t want anything to happen to my other nems were he to still be carrying something. Again, I think it’s just nerves, and most likely everything will be fine, but I’ll be ready to pull him out first sign of an issue. Hopefully my nerves don’t get the better of me and I just pull him out...

 

[mochaclownlover]

Well.....I broke down. I couldn’t bring myself to put my current nems at any level of risk. The GBTAs still doing fine in the other tank, but I wasn’t willing to risk my nems (this strand is over 7yrs old). Aside from that, there’s not really anything major to update, everything’s growing well. Since I don’t have many sps corals, rather than messing with dosing, I’ve just decided to go with 2-3 gallon weekly WC. Still have some space for a few corals up top, but it’s higher par, so I need some higher light loving corals.

 

[mochaclownlover]

So today was my Lfs day and I made a trip over to living reef Orlando to look for a leopard wrasse for the 40 and a small goby for the 14. Once I got there, I quickly found a goby, a yasha goby for $50! I then looked around for a leopard wrasse, but none were in stock. Before leaving the store, one fish caught my attention. A small flasher wrasse with a great personality! He/she was very friendly and had a great appetite, so he came home with me!

 

[mochaclownlover]

Well....brittle stars decided to have a party.... Guess it’s time for a WC and some more carbon

 

[mochaclownlover]

Time for another update! Pretty much everything is running smoothly. I am still contemplating that GBTA as it’s doing very well in the other tank, like last time we’ll see if my nerves last XD! Had another rbta split so now we’re up to 10 in the DT. Also the clown are also currently laying another batch of eggs.

 

[mochaclownlover]

Well lesson learned... I need to keep on top of testing my nitrite and Phosphate levels. Thought I was keeping both high with weekly dosing to keep them up. However I just was about to clean the glass when I noticed some dinos on the glass and one PH. Uggg!!!! Checked nitrite and yep, it bottomed out at 0. I’m upping my dosing and testing regularly again. I beat a small wave of them back a couple months ago so I’ll just up that routine and hopefully beat them for good. If all else fails, I can bring out the UV again. Hopefully this doesn’t last long!

 

[mochaclownlover]

Update: so I finally added the GBTA and I’m glad I finally got up enough nerve to do it. He looks great, but I have no regrets for taking so long to add him due to his previous bacterial infection. As far as my Dino outbreak, they are still here, but they aren’t getting any worse. Adding uv has helped a ton. Hoping that this is about to be the point where they begin their decline. The nems are also loving the extra nutrients! XD

 

[mochaclownlover]

Finally got to see my clown’s eggs hatch last night! Thinking I may eventually try are raise some once I get a schedule that might give more time for it, but I was able to catch one to observe!

 

[mochaclownlover]

Alright, it’s been a minute since my last update. First and foremost, the frogspawn/hammer seemed to have gotten some sort of bacterial infection, which seems to have either been brought on by either high lighting or too much flow. After a couple anti-bacterial dips he’s a lot better, just needs to color up a bit more and then he’s all good. 2nd, my one of my original rainbow BTAs split again. The more the merrier!XD And finally the flasher wrasse is on his last 3weeks of QT then he goes in the DT! Probably the fist fish I’ve added in over a yr so I’m excited but at the same time nervous about possibly bringing in something. Thankfully Jay over on the QT forum has been calming my nerves! So thankful for experts like him on this site! But enough of my words, time for some photos!
(Should have put my poly plan lens on for these...and it was also hatch day for the clown's eggs so the nems weren't exactly in the best mood for a photo shoot)

 

[Arcticfirefighter]

It's always nerve racking when introducing something new to the tank. I just tell myself that I am.doimg everything I can to prevent something bad from happening and that's all I can do. Your tank still looks great! I am running the XR15 and love the color. What program did you end up settling on as far as your lighting goes?

 

[mochaclownlover]

Thank you! I'm using AB+ setting at about 37% intensity. There are also two kessil a160s on the sides running at 100% blue at 12-15% just to add a bit more blue to the radion's daytime schedule. I probably could go into the program and adjust the blue level, but I figured they put it at that level for a reason so I don't want to mess with it.

 

[mochaclownlover]

Update: Tanks been doing very well! All my monties that I thought I had lost came back! Super stoked that I didn’t lose any more corals aside from the green digi. Nems and euphylia are happy as always. Frog spawn still isn’t colored up 100% or as fluffy, but I’m thinking that I may have the lights too high for it as the lower branches look perfectly fine so I will have to mess with that soon. Also managed to pull out like 98% of all those zoas on my main rock so they didn’t take over. Left a small patch in the back as well as placed some on the overflow and made some frags(don’t want to be wasteful). Also took a small frag of my purple tipped hammer. Been needing to do this as there were many heads being shaded and it needed to be repositioned for more growth across the whole colony. The flasher wrasse also goes in in about 2weeks so I'm pretty excited about getting another fish in the tank!
After: (everything is also kind of ticked in this shot so I will post another tomorrow)

Before:

 

[mochaclownlover]

So I tried to move the purple hammer and I may have put too much glue...XD. The only way I’ll be able to move it is if I cut part of the base which won’t be happening any time soon. I can sacrifice one head. The heads I took from the part of the colony in the lower light are actually way brighter than the rest so definitely thinking I need to bring the lights down a bit to bring the lps’s colors out better. Also removed all the zoas from the main rock, made some frags but mostly chucked the rest as well as removed most of the Xenia. I still left some because it’s isolated behind the hammers and I really like it, but just have to make sure it doesn’t start dropping off the rock and going elsewhere. Aside from that, the nems and clowns are happy. Coral keeps swimming through the hammers when she goes up to eat so she has some more black spots from getting stung, but they aren’t hurting her really bad and what could I really do besides get rid of the lps. Then the flasher wrasse also goes in this week so I’m excited to see what the clowns will think of him. Hopefully all good but ever since I dropped a cup into the QT tank last week he’s been very skittish. Time will tell.

 

[mochaclownlover]

So finally added the flasher wrasse yesterday! Male clown wasn’t too fond of him at first but seems to have warmed up to him. Thank goodness cause otherwise I’d literally have to tear the scape apart to get him out....

Other note, one of my most recent nem split doesn’t seem to be doing too great. He’s got some sort of bubble on his stalk, probably some sort of issue from splitting. He opens up early in the day but deflates a couple hour after. Just trying to keep an eye on him, but have some cipro left over if I need it. He’s more deflated tonight than in this picture.

Aside from that, everyone else is doing great! Clowns laid another clutch yesterday & after seeing Bahamalama’s clown breeding video, I’m really thinking about giving it a shot with one of these clutches in the future! Lights are out now so I’ll probably post a full tank shot tomorrow