The Enchanted Tikitank! 40 gallon long AIO Project!

[najer]

Love the conch, I have 3, hilarious things at times.
Your choice with the shrimp was a great move, I need to re research them, it was a parasite, they basically castrate / neuter the shrimps so 2 together will not fertilize each other so no live food at moult time!

 

[bambootikigirl]

Love the conch, I have 3, hilarious things at times.
Your choice with the shrimp was a great move, I need to re research them, it was a parasite, they basically castrate / neuter the shrimps so 2 together will not fertilize each other so no live food at moult time!

How big is your tank? I was told I couldn't have more than one since I have a 40 gallon long. If I had a choice, I would have a bunch of little conchs scooting around!

So the one I returned was neutered? Well that's kinda funny cuz the other one that I kept, has eggs right now. She's been swimming around the tank, very active and eats from the thawing cup I have set up.

 

[najer]

You will know when it is nearly moult time, it will curl up and stretch at the same time, those eggs might not be fertilised, they will be when you add a new one!

 

[bambootikigirl]

You will know when it is nearly moult time, it will curl up and stretch at the same time, those eggs might not be fertilised, they will be when you add a new one!

Well hopefully she hangs onto them for a bit longer. I can't get another shrimp until Saturday. If not, it was still awesome seeing her preggers. She tries to clean Garry's shell but he freaks out when she gets near.

 

[bambootikigirl]

So I went to my LFS to get a new shrimp and my mom and I were looking around the store. They just got in a new shipment of snails so I picked out a few cerith and a trochus to add to my invert collection. They have a really pretty gold torch coral there but they wanted $110 for one head. I wasn't ready to spend that much on my first coral so I saw a cute little duncan coral that was missing its frag plug. It looked like it had 3 heads but when the guy picked it up he said it had 4. He charges $10 a head but he said he would give the coral to me for $30, so I thought why not, I'm ready for one coral right? He bagged up the shrimp, snails and coral and his employee (who I might add is super cute) helped explain to me what to do with the coral dipping. He said to acclimate, then add the coral dip, then have a separate container of tank water and dip it in the tank water once done dipping.

So we got home and I started acclimating the coral and shrimp together while I temp acclimated the snails in the tank. I followed the LFS employees instructions on dipping the coral (I removed the shrimp first of course!) but I poured a bit too much solution in the container. I only left the coral in the container for about 5 minutes because I made the mistake of putting too much solution into the container, so I didn't want to kill it. Since the coral was missing it's frag plug (which honestly I like) I glued it to my own piece of dry rock rubble. I placed it into my tank and watched it open up but maybe about half way, close up a bit, open up again, so on so forth. I moved the coral around to a few different spots in the tank to test to see if it liked any but it was still doing the half open close thing. I'm giving it time though because I know the LFS had a lower salinity than I do and I'm sure my lighting and flow is a lot different than the coral is used to.

August 10 2018

Bonus Images of my shrimp molt and eating!

 

[najer]

Lovely additions, I love skunk cleaners, I can't have any now because I impulse bought a cute baby fish that is an assassin with shrimps, hermits and small snails, d'oh!

 

[bambootikigirl]

Lovely additions, I love skunk cleaners, I can't have any now because I impulse bought a cute baby fish that is an assassin with shrimps, hermits and small snails, d'oh!

Yeah I love the skunks, the bigger (Momma I call her) is still unsure of the newer smaller shrimp. When I put it in, it instantly jumped onto Momma and she spazzed. So I think she's kinda like you stay over there and we won't have problems, okay? Lol.

 

[bambootikigirl]

You will know when it is nearly moult time, it will curl up and stretch at the same time, those eggs might not be fertilised, they will be when you add a new one!

Oh I forgot to mention, Momma had her eggs and they were fertile! There was hundreds of babies floating and squirming around in my tank!

 

[Skiptumylu]

It’s to bad baby shrimps can’t survive in a aquarium. I guess we don’t have the right foods they need to mature.

 

[najer]

It’s to bad baby shrimps can’t survive in a aquarium. I guess we don’t have the right foods they need to mature.

Free live food for the tank, they should be kept in pairs imo!

 

[bambootikigirl]

It’s to bad baby shrimps can’t survive in a aquarium. I guess we don’t have the right foods they need to mature.

I keep seeing the babies every so often so some are still hanging in there. Who knows maybe I might end up with maybe one from the spawning.

Free live food for the tank, they should be kept in pairs imo!

 

[bambootikigirl]

Wow I haven't written here in almost a whole month! I feel bad cuz I have you guys following me to know about updates. Well anyways, I have been battling two different wars but one I just recently won (hopefully).

The first battle was my AIO and ATO being obnoxious in just over doing their jobs. The AIO was filtering correctly and no flow issues but the pump was either not keeping up or over working making the AIO levels fluctuate. This made my ATO misjudge what the level of water was and was filling the tank when it thought it was too low but in reality it was at the right levels. Anyways, the problem wasn't with either of them, it was a hole my father and I placed in the side of the AIO for a handle. My AIO is removable by design and unfortunately this hole was under the tanks water level so it was leaking into the last chamber. This made the water level get all weird, so I decided to give my tank it's first water change in 3 months and took aquarium silicone and fill up the hole. I had to wait at least 24-48 hours so I kept everything running cept for my gyre (I have 2 powerheads that I kept running) and just waited for the silicone to dry. Low and behold the AIO hasn't been acting up for a week now and everything is pretty much back to normal!

My other war that I'm currently battling is algae. When I started the tank, I did a no lights cycle because I had to build my tanks canopy. I had the lights and everything but nothing to hold the lights up. So while the tank was cycling with no lights, my father and I were building the canopy for the lights. Now that I have lights, algae has struck. I had diatoms which I was pretty stoked about but now I have a new type of algae that no one seems to know what it is. I mean there's guesses but nothing confirmed. The algae is brown-greenish and very flow-y but also have bubbles, which my first guess was Dino's. When I did a water test, I tested 0 for Nitrates but I don't have a Phosphates test so I can't tell what that is. The bubbles seem to release themselves from the algae and float up to the surface where they disappear. People have told me that if it was Dino's my inverts would be dead, which they aren't dead so there's that.

So that's what I have been up to but on the bright side, I have decided to just relax and just let the tank have it's algae issues for now. I can't be stressing out over every tiny thing or I would get ulcers. With that said, I went a head and bought 4 new corals for my tank. A Stripped Green Mushroom, Rainbow Pocilliopora, Toxic Green Trumpet Caulastrea, and Blue Trumpet Caulastrea. I've been mulling the idea of getting a few Panda Gobies and I was reading they needed Poci corals so I thought I would try it out. I have been reading about they are one of the easier SPS corals so why not! I'll post pictures when I receive them later on this week.

Any of you guys have these corals? I would love to see them in other peoples tanks!

 

[Aaron-A2]

Pocillopora is a great starter SPS coral! I have 3~ poci's at home, but only a picture of 1 on me (below -- a pink birdsnest). Any idea on which you plan on getting?

 

[bambootikigirl]

Pocillopora is a great starter SPS coral! I have 3~ poci's at home, but only a picture of 1 on me (below -- a pink birdsnest). Any idea on which you plan on getting?

Oh wow, Poci's are really Bird Nests!?! I mean I have been trying to research but all the places I was reading didn't give any indication they were the same thing. I'm getting this exact frag: https://www.fishnreef.com/0117-rainbow-pocilliopora.html

Edit: I knew Poci's are in the Acro family but were considered easier to manage than Acro's.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Nah, sorry I didn't mean to confuse. Seriatapora are birds nests. I messaged you at work and goofed.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Wow I haven't written here in almost a whole month! I feel bad cuz I have you guys following me to know about updates. Well anyways, I have been battling two different wars but one I just recently won (hopefully).

The first battle was my AIO and ATO being obnoxious in just over doing their jobs. The AIO was filtering correctly and no flow issues but the pump was either not keeping up or over working making the AIO levels fluctuate. This made my ATO misjudge what the level of water was and was filling the tank when it thought it was too low but in reality it was at the right levels. Anyways, the problem wasn't with either of them, it was a hole my father and I placed in the side of the AIO for a handle. My AIO is removable by design and unfortunately this hole was under the tanks water level so it was leaking into the last chamber. This made the water level get all weird, so I decided to give my tank it's first water change in 3 months and took aquarium silicone and fill up the hole. I had to wait at least 24-48 hours so I kept everything running cept for my gyre (I have 2 powerheads that I kept running) and just waited for the silicone to dry. Low and behold the AIO hasn't been acting up for a week now and everything is pretty much back to normal!

My other war that I'm currently battling is algae. When I started the tank, I did a no lights cycle because I had to build my tanks canopy. I had the lights and everything but nothing to hold the lights up. So while the tank was cycling with no lights, my father and I were building the canopy for the lights. Now that I have lights, algae has struck. I had diatoms which I was pretty stoked about but now I have a new type of algae that no one seems to know what it is. I mean there's guesses but nothing confirmed. The algae is brown-greenish and very flow-y but also have bubbles, which my first guess was Dino's. When I did a water test, I tested 0 for Nitrates but I don't have a Phosphates test so I can't tell what that is. The bubbles seem to release themselves from the algae and float up to the surface where they disappear. People have told me that if it was Dino's my inverts would be dead, which they aren't dead so there's that.

So that's what I have been up to but on the bright side, I have decided to just relax and just let the tank have it's algae issues for now. I can't be stressing out over every tiny thing or I would get ulcers. With that said, I went a head and bought 4 new corals for my tank. A Stripped Green Mushroom, Rainbow Pocilliopora, Toxic Green Trumpet Caulastrea, and Blue Trumpet Caulastrea. I've been mulling the idea of getting a few Panda Gobies and I was reading they needed Poci corals so I thought I would try it out. I have been reading about they are one of the easier SPS corals so why not! I'll post pictures when I receive them later on this week.

Any of you guys have these corals? I would love to see them in other peoples tanks!

My mixed Caulastrea furcata and echinulata garden.

EDIT: the big ones on the right are the echinulata.

Also, just an FYI, I have read that Pocilliopora are one coral that will readily spawn and spread throughout a tank. Never owned one though myself.

 

[bambootikigirl]

My mixed Caulastrea furcata and echinulata garden.

EDIT: the big ones on the right are the echinulata.

Also, just an FYI, I have read that Pocilliopora are one coral that will readily spawn and spread throughout a tank. Never owned one though myself.

Oh you have the toxic green and the regular caulastrea! Very pretty next to eachother. Have you noticed if one grows faster than the other?

I didn't read about Poci's spawn a lot, I'll have to look into that! I do want a few different colors if I can get this little one to grow well.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Oh you have the toxic green and the regular caulastrea! Very pretty next to eachother. Have you noticed if one grows faster than the other?

I didn't read about Poci's spawn a lot, I'll have to look into that! I do want a few different colors if I can get this little one to grow well.

The corals are too new to my system to comment on growth. Each was from a different source. The Toxic Green ones have definitely fluffed up the most. They all get along (as expected) and seem equally healthy. All of them really radiate under my moonlights (420nm). I find Caulastrea to be an underrated coral, although several reefers own them.

 

[bambootikigirl]

The corals are too new to my system to comment on growth. Each was from a different source. The Toxic Green ones have definitely fluffed up the most. They all get along (as expected) and seem equally healthy. All of them really radiate under my moonlights (420nm). I find Caulastrea to be an underrated coral, although several reefers own them.

At first I really didn't like them cuz of their name "candy cane" they didn't resemble peppermint candies/candy canes at all to me. When I found the Toxic green and blue ones though, I instantly fell in love. I find those colors fit the "candy cane" idea of spearmint and wintergreen. I'm glad to know they can be near eachother because I was thinking of making a small garden of them. I have a weird obsession with making the tank have garden areas than mixing them all around the tank.

 

[Fat Sacs]

wow great build! goodluck with the current algae issue