Bekka's hand-me-down 350g

[fu man chu]

So some of you might or might not know, I inherited this tank of mine. 350g left by my gf's step father and I took over. There is also a 220 tank with a bumble bee grouper but that tank and the grouper are going soon sadly.

So I flipped back and forth for months deciding on what to do, first I was going to sell both tanks, and just start with my 75g tank, but I was reminded that something like this would never happen again, I would never have this opportunity be given a tank of this size, already established and ran for over a year by a very seasoned hobbyist. So after about a month or so I decided to keep it, then another month later I was going to sell it... Now my final decision is to keep it. I now live in the basement apartment the tanks are in so I get to see them everyday and I just fell in love with it and can't imagine not having this tank where it is.

This is what the tank looked like when I first took over it...

I don't currently have any pictures of what the tank looks like now, but it doesn't look the same at all. Sadly during hurricane Irene, I lost power for 8 days along with 17 fish. My two favorite being the achilles and orange shoulder tang. And the whole tank had be dismantled to get the dead fish out.

The great news is right about now things are finally looking up with these tanks. The grouper is ready to go along with the tank freeing up space in my apartment, and the unicorn tangs are going too. After the achilles and orange shoulder died the dynamics of the entire tank changed and the 3 unicorns (2 males 1 female) became very aggressive towards each other and other fish, so we found a place to take them and in exchange I'm going to get my very first volitan lion fish and after that my snow flake eel.

So this is my tank, and the start of my design to it, it may not be brand new and just starting but this would be my first tank and I can finally soon enough walk into a LFS and walk out with something I really want. I'm just starting out so I know mistakes are along the way, but I'll learn as I go.

 

[Old_Moe]

Best of everything to you!!!

Please keep us posted along the way. I am just starting out and I am learning alot from people sharing the their own stumbles and success stories.

 

[Northstar24]

Sorry to hear about your lost fish, its always hard when that happens. Keep us posted, there is definitely a LOT you can do with a tank that size!

 

[fu man chu]

Thanks guys!

Sorry to hear about your lost fish, its always hard when that happens. Keep us posted, there is definitely a LOT you can do with a tank that size!

You have an Achilles?? I'm dying for another one, my gf and I get sad every time we walk into a store and see one, but they're so expensive I'd have to really save. But I do know they're expert fish so I wanna really know what I'm doing before I decide to get my own.

I'm nervous though when I get the fish I want, cause I'm not sure how to acclimate them. I know a quarantine tank SHOULD be done, and I'm planning on using the 55g sump under the groupers tank to start a quarantine tank, but what is your opinion?

 

[Northstar24]

You have to acclimate them VERY slowly, they have a softer skin than most tangs. Mine has been in the tank for a week and a half, and I'm still not getting a very good feeding response out of him. He's definitely got some ick spots on him, but that is pretty much a given when you introduce one of these into a tank. It looks like the ich may have spread to my Hippo as well

There were two fish that I really wanted to keep when I got into this hobby, the first was a Potter's Angel, which I've had for almost a year now, and an Achilles Tang. If I were to do it over again, I would probably try to find someone that had an established one that was taking down a tank and needed to find a new home for it. They are incredibly expensive to buy, and quite frankly, most of them just do not adapt to tank life very well. If you can get one past the acclimation / settling down phase they are supposedly very hardy tangs.

I'm happy that I've gotten some feeding response, but he isnt eating nearly enough for a tang of his size....

 

[fu man chu]

How do I handle ick? Cause what I want to do is get these Unicorns gone and I'll only have a small convict and scopus tang in there, so I want to get either a powder blue tang or naso, and I read that tangs are number one fish prone to ick. How do I manage it if I get it?

The question I had on acclimation was to all fish on acclimating them not just the Achilles. The drip method is most effective I read.

 

[Kully3xf]

For a tank that size with expensive livestock and coral like that you should really really invest in a generator. 300-400$ is worth it when you have fish that cost 100-300 bucks. a generator that can supply some current and lights for a few hours a day or every other day would def save the life of some of those corals and those fish... from that image looks to me like there is several thousand dollars of livestock

on the otherhand, inheriting a 350 gallon tank is WILD. Congradulations on having the coolest girlfriends step father! he must really like you

 

[Northstar24]

The drip acclimation is best for acclimating fish. I dripped my Achilles for 3 hours before he went in the tank.

If you're like me and you don't run a QT (not a best practice) and a fish develops ich in your display tank, you feed well and keep water params in check - most healthy fish will fight it off on thier own

I read a lot about the Achilles before bringing one home (it was my birthday present) it was split 50/50 on whether it was best to QT an achilles or drop it right into the display. Since I don't normally run a QT, I dripped it for several hours and then dropped it directly into my display tank

 

[Amba]

That is a fantastic tank!

 

[sen5241b]

Eight days?! I'm surprised anything survived.

 

[Sir Alex]

Can we see some pictures of the grouper?

 

[fu man chu]

For a tank that size with expensive livestock and coral like that you should really really invest in a generator. 300-400$ is worth it when you have fish that cost 100-300 bucks. a generator that can supply some current and lights for a few hours a day or every other day would def save the life of some of those corals and those fish... from that image looks to me like there is several thousand dollars of livestock

on the otherhand, inheriting a 350 gallon tank is WILD. Congradulations on having the coolest girlfriends step father! he must really like you

We do have one, what had happened when we lost power we lost it about 1am, because a tree came down and pulled the ALL the lines right out of our house, noone else on the block lost power, so we ran down to check the tanks (this was before we lived in the basement) and the back up battery generator had already started, so we kept checking it every few hours... by 12pm the next day the generator died out and all the fish that died, were dead, within a matter of 2 hours of not checking it... so luckily we had our neighbor run an extension chord for the basics like fridge and mainly the tanks, so we just had the vortex going to keep water movement good... took the unicorns to come back but they were fine..

He didn't give me the tank intentionally, he just left after the bad split between her mom and her step father, so he left the tanks, and this is the second time he's done this, first time was with a 450g tank... we tried everything to contact him, but he just didn't care enough.

If you're like me and you don't run a QT (not a best practice) and a fish develops ich in your display tank, you feed well and keep water params in check - most healthy fish will fight it off on thier own

Really?? I had a friend tell me that's the way to go, but the guy who had these tanks use to sit and talk to me for hours about the hobby and I actually learned a lot from him, he was the one who told me about drip. I figure if he didn't QT then I won't need to.

That is a fantastic tank!

Thank you, once I take out what I want and change the rock work around I'm hoping it'll be just as great but I doubt it.

Can we see some pictures of the grouper?

Sure, he's about 2 feet long at this point, very hardy fish. So much personality. He greets me better than my ferrets do when I get home. And is constantly splashing around when he gets excited or it's time to eat. He loves my ferrets too, when he notices them running around or they jump on the couch, but doesn't like my snake at all.

He's hard to take pictures of but I'll try to get good ones tonight. We're giving him to my LFS they have a 800g show tank they are gonna keep him in. So he'll be happy.

 

[chuck78]

That bites...sry to hear that.

 

[Smitty]

That was an awesome tank...sorry about your losses.

 

[little_fish]

Im glad you are keeping the tank, and good job sticking with it through with all the ups and downs!

 

[fu man chu]

Im glad you are keeping the tank, and good job sticking with it through with all the ups and downs!

It's been rough so far but so worth it now that I can come home to the tank, I actually was going to sell most of the fish in the tank but i've grown kinda attached to them even the chromis, everyone except the unicorns lol. Water changes have been going smoothly and even working inside the tank. It's hard though because of how deep and wide the tank is, so I'm not sure how I'm gonna work around moving the rocks the way I want and all that. But we shall see.

 

[fu man chu]

I know I posted this in the 'Reef Fishes' board but I figure should have posted it here instead so I'll just copy it.

The fish in the tank already are:

3 Unicorn tangs (going today!!!!!)
1 scopas tang
1 convict tang
1 royal gramma
2-3 engineer gobies
1 copperband butterfly
1 file fish
1 fire fish
1 melanarus wrasse
1 black & white clown
2 cardinals
10 chromis
whole bunch of snails

What I want is:

1 clown fish
1 volitan lion
1 snowflake eel
1 powder blue tang
1 naso blonde tang
1 powder brown


and I might get a lot of big NO's on this... but I want an angel... so I was looking at either a Queen or Emperor angel... any thoughts? And if not those, (I'd die for a trigger but scared of the aggression towards other fish and read their not reef safe) what about a harlequin tusk or just something else to add that will have color and be out in the open??

Any ideas??

 

[little_fish]

Your tank is big enough for angel, but they might mow down your corals, so its up to you about what you want more. Also, i wouldnt mix the powder blue and brown. That almost always ends in death for one of those fish.

I can also bet that the lion fish is going to eat almost all of your small fish, so once again you will need to decide which you want more.

 

[fu man chu]

Damn that makes me sad about the powder brown & blue, then i'm sure I'll just go with a powder blue... think I could replace the powder brown with maybe another convict tang?

I'll see how it goes with the lion, it's really the number one thing I want above the rest.

So the guy is at the house now, dismantled the whole tank, but he got the unicorns out took all the nems I wanted out, and if they can find the urchin that's going too, so I'm a happy camper :bounce::bounce::bounce:

 

[ErinCahir]

I kept a Niger Trigger successfully in a reef tank. The only trouble he ever caused was moving frags around if I didn't glue them down well enough.

Pink Tails are reef safe as well.