Diary - 75 gal Freshwater to saltwater conversion - WARNING BIG PICS

[Bifferwine]

I concur -- add the clowns first. Then wait at least 2 to 3 weeks before adding another fish. During that time, make sure your parameters stay good. If you see an ammonia or nitrite spike be prepared to do a water change. Once you have animals in there, ammonia and nitrite will stress and/or kill them.

You can add a small cleaner crew at the same time you add the fish. If I were you, I'd only add a few snails, then wait and add some more if needed. A lot of people buy a whole tank's worth of cleaner crew at once, they eat all the food in the tank, then they all starve to death. If you add slowly, you can ensure that you have just enough for your tank and not too many.

 

[mudrummer012]

OK time for a small update.

The 2x koralia 3's came in and I got them into the tank over lunch. Man could I tell an instant difference!!! The rocks got blown clean, and nothing should be able to settle now, so hopefully that will help with the algae!
Tank parameters did REALLY well over the 5 day vacation! :bounce:
NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 5, pH 8.2...etc. Everything is right in line. So tonight Im heading to the store to pick up the the 2 clowns. Now my wife can stop complaining about not having her "Nemo" fish :mrgreen: I also plan to grab 5 nassarius snails, 5 astra snails, 1 emerald crab, and, depending on cost, 5 cerith snails. Is 15 snails and the crab too much to start with?

The hair algae got worse but not as bad as I was fearing. Its really only covered 1 rock and its actaully not the bad to look at. Ill keep doing water changes and hopefully the emerald can help get rid of what ever doesnt die off from the lack of nutrients. The other rocks have a light dusting of algae but nothing that looks to become problematic. The worst looking part of the tank right now is the brown algae that has covered most of the sand. It should be a good meal for the new snails though!

The aiptasia problem has taken a MUCH better turn. Ive found only 2 growths after the 5 days away, and will deal with them this week!

Anyways, Ill get some pics of the new inhabitants after I get them all aclimated and into the tank.

 

[yote]

Glad to know everything went good.Cant wait to see the pics of the new critters.

 

[dustin_P74]

if you want when you get that CUC you can get a cleaner shrimp to take care of an aptasia outbreak before it ever happens

 

[yote]

Dustin,Your thinking about pepperment shrimp.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah peppermint shrimp, not cleaner shrimp, will eat aiptasia. Getting at least 2 of those would be good for your tank.

And I think 15 snails to start off with sounds good. I'd even add more nassarius to that.

 

[dustin_P74]

whoops, glad yall caught that mistake

 

[mudrummer012]

OK first is a pic of the rock with the bad hairdo :D. Its actually quite pretty how it flows in the current:


Wow...Mexican turbo...he is a hause!!! Hes attacking the algae like he was starving to death! Any ways, I named him Bruce cause it sounded like it fit.


This is the area that he cleaned first...it only took about 5 minutes!


As for the rest of the snails, here is a before and after shot of the sand so you can see what the difference is.
Before:


After:


Next....here come the clowns!!!

 

[mudrummer012]

First are a couple pics with Bruce in the background:





Next is an OK pic of the 2 clowns:


Now a GREAT pic of the 2 clowns:


Then I got REALLY lucky and pulled this amazing shot of one of the clowns by himself!!! I swear he was posing for me!!!!


Whew....6 more shots to go.

 

[mudrummer012]

Alrighty, here are some full tank shots:

 

[reeffreak]

Great pics of the clowns.
There's proof that Mexican turbos are hair algae eating beast.,to all the naysayers.

 

[mudrummer012]

OK last is a new pic of the zoos. They are getting HUGE fast! The lights have really brought out their colors!!


Next I've finally figured out that this some sort of leather! Its starting to develop polyps and they are starting to get pretty big. Its growing at quite a good pace.


Ok there are lots more pics in my gallery, I dont want to fill up the server here with my giant pics! The link to the gallery is http://www.getdropbox.com/gallery/19629/1/TankPics?h=0590ff

 

[Piggy]

Nice additions. Your tank is looking good.

 

[yote]

Looking good.

 

[mudrummer012]

Well time for an update!

The hair algae problem is coming under control finally!!! I still have aptasias but they are few and small so I think the peppermints should be able to handle them! All in all my biggest complaint looks wise is that my sand is still dirty and the back and side walls still have algae (but the smails are doing WONDERS on the side and back of the tank!).

I ended up with a cleaning crew of:
2x Emerald Crabs (referred to as Scuttles 1 and 2)
2x Peppermint shrimp (referred to as Jacques 1 and 2)
5x Cerith Snails (referred to as "Stupid idiot snails that cant stop falling on their back and are to idiotic to flip over on there own")
5x Astrea Snails (same as Cerith snails :grumble:)
3x Large Nassarius Snails (say about 3/4+ inch) (the 3 stooges)
5x Small Nassarius Snails (say about 1/4- inch) (the rat pack)
1x Mexican Turbo (Bruce)

The clowns are RAVENOUS eaters. I feed them some frozen stuff for the first time last night and they went CRAZY for it so I know they are doing great.

I got the QT tank set up last weekend. Nothing fancy just a 10g tank I had that I through about 3-5 lbs or rubble LR in. It should be done cycling with in the week and once it is done I will look into the next fish.

My current project is the building of my sump. The only thing that I can fit under my tank is a 20 gal long so that is what Im going to build it out of. Im picking up the tank tonight.

Here are some design pics of what Im looking into doing.
Front:


Top:


Isometric (sort of):


I took some more pics of the tank last night but forgot the memory card at home :frustrat:, so Ill have to post them later!

Anyways, Let me know what you think of the sump design.

 

[daugherty]

i would make your sand bed deeper like 6-7 inches

 

[mudrummer012]

Only problem with that is the baffle is only like...9in tall :grumble:

But I could probably up it to 5-6 with out loosing all the space for the algae to grow...stupid stand only fitting a 20 long under neath it! :frustrat::frustrat::frustrat:

 

[yote]

I ran into the same problem with my sump/fuge.
I converted my 30 gallon and it wouldnt fit under the stand.So its sitting in the floor beside the tank.Which actually makes it easier to clean.

 

[mudrummer012]

Well...aparently I was wrong. A 20 long is too long to fit through the tank stand door! :frustrat:

Guess Im cutting out the side of the stand now. :grumble:

Oh well Ive got a while to figure out this problem :helm2: