I bought some things from the winter live sale from Top Shelf Aquatics, it is supposed to be here on Wednesday. I will tell you two of like 5 things I ordered: Utter Chaos Paly, and Green Star Polyps. (I have an extra piece of rock to isolate it. )
Ok fine I'll tell you the rest. In total I got Utter Chaos, Green Star Polyps, Ultra Blue Discosoma Shroom, Forest Fire Shroom, and a Bird Of Paradise.
;Drowning Some of the coral looks almost DOA. The Monti looks dead or almost dead. The Bird Of Paradise is almost completely bleached and broken! The GSP and Utter Chaos aren't opening and the Blue Discosoma dissapeared! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:;Drowning
Ok so this thread kind of died but, tank is great, will be doing photos later. I have tons of corals on a small frag rack I made of egg crate. Soon I will be getting some glue and putting them on rocks. When I get the pics look at the tank before and now . Also about the TSA order, on the ninth they are doing a replacement shipment and said I will be getting an extra "suprise". I'm still wondering what it is. I'm also going to get a mini RFA garden but I just can't find any locally. Also sadly the coral banded shrimp has died but I have gotten a Yellow Watchman's Goby/ Tiger Pistol Shrimp pair. They are doing awesome and next month I am going to upgrade the lights to a Kessil a80. Possibly (very likely) upgrading filtration, still need a game plan for it.
Hi Wuzzofish. I came across your tank thread Saturday, and I’ve been meaning to give you a reason why not to get a BTA. You’re off to a Great start in this hobby by the way, and if you listen to some of the advice given to you from the helpful members of this community, I’m sure you’ll have the success to be in it for the long run.
So one reason to not place a BTA in your tank is, IMO, it might be a little to early, since you just started this little tank back in October. Your tank needs to go through it’s cycles and settle, let the water, rocks, and sand build up some beneficial bacteria. Usually people will recommend waiting till you’ve past the 6 month mark in keeping a healthy stable aquarium.
I also recommend investing in some quality test kits, instead of just buying random corals, and not knowing where your parameters stand, you want to test test test, and know how much Calcium, alkalinity, and Magnesium drop daily, and then dose manually, or eventually invest in and automatic dosing unit and dose until you have stable parameters. Now Calcium,
Magnesium, Alkalinty, and salinity are the basic parameters, other then testing NO3 and phosphates that you want to test, some people test many other things, but your just trying to keep a beginner reef and there’s no need for more then that imo. You also want to consider a nano auto top off system to keep your water level in check and salinity stable.
I recommend you reading through all the beginner tank info on the the forums in this community, read books, reef hobbiest magazines, and anything with information on keeping a successful reef,
You won’t get this info from most LFS, it’s just to much to explain.
Now my real reason for keeping Bubble Tip Anemone’s out of your reef tank.
I started my current tank 3 years ago, and after 15 years of experience, I wanted this tank to be the one, while at the same time, keeping it on a budget. I planned,
Cycled, kept my fish to a minimum
( 2 fish for 40 gallons ) ,
And waited patiently for things to take their course.
My tank took off, I tested tested and tested, installed a 3 head dosing pump, installed an auto top off, I basically put my tank on cruise control, I had the most success with this tank imo. I got so confident, that I decided to put a BTA in my tank, everything seemed well, so I added a second anemone, and then they started reproducing,
I was happy, didn’t see a problem.
Then I came home from work one day, and realized that one of the Anemone’s had been shredded by one of the power heads, quickly I decided to do a water change,
But I didn’t have carbon, and Maybe I just didn’t change enough water to make a difference to save my inhabitants. I’ve lost all of my Chalice corals, my few acans, some sps frags, and various other LPS coral. My poor tank really took a hit, and it’s really overwhelming, specially when you’ve had coral for longer then the tank.
Anemone’s have a mind of their own, they can stay in place for months, and one day decide to start moving, there’s really almost nothing you can do to keep them in place that’s guaranteed.
If you want to keep a BTA, I would say start a BTA only tank. Also you may want to consider upgrading to the kessil a80 you mentioned, your stock lights may not be enough for your livestock, speacially a BTA.
Study this hobby as much as you can, and take it slow, you won’t regret it! Keep updating your tank thread.
Thanks Don, I am not getting BTA and also, that one dissapeared. :/ I have been thinking about RFAs as they are easy to care for and I love their color. Problem is, can't find any locally and looking for a good place to buy online. Any recommendations for where to get them? I'm in North GA so if you know any places there I could get some it would be a great help. I've secretly wanted them since November. I am testing later today so stay tuned!
Yesterday I got an Anemone Shrimp, a Tiger Sand Conch, and and unidentified coral! All doing good so far, for me the shrimp did that dance thing. Anybody know what it means? Conch got to work to!