MadHatters First Saltwater (50g Cube)

[madhattertcm]

So, we "adopted" a 50 gallon tank that was left in the house. When we got it, it was filthy but had been running for years, the only residents when we got it were live rock, aiptasia and some random life in the LR.

Here's how it was when we first got it:

after some "cleanup", we brought it to this state, which had good water levels.

We only had a heater, canister filter, and some stock lighting. We didn't know it, but we basically were cooking the tank as we didn't have a thermometer. We put a baby (2") tang in there (yes, i know it'll grow to be too large - we know) and I think it died after two weeks because of that heat. It was sitting around at 91 degrees. The inverts and damsel were fine, but after that we bought:

a new heater with temp control that is staying right at 80.
2 new koralia 750 PHs.

We let that be for a couple weeks and all seemed well.

This week we got new lights, dry rock, and replaced the old sand with pink fiji.

Overall I'm quite happy. I also got an order of snails in from reefcleaners that I'm currently adding. I'll see how this does for a couple of weeks and then move on from there.

In the next few weeks I have this on my list:
build sump
get new fishies
look for first corals.

 

[cvcdrk]

What kind of lights did you get?

Are you just running carbon in that filter? Have you considered a protein skimmer? You can replace the filter with a HOB one or put one in the sump when you have it made.

I like your aquascape. Just make sure they are secured like that. Those are big rocks and if a turbo snail leans on one the wrong way it could smash the tank and you'd have a huge mess. The rocks should really be sitting on the glass, not the sand, as well.

Nice recovery/start and good luck!

 

[madhattertcm]

the rocks are secure at the moment. The reason i didn't want it on the grass was simply because I wanted to be able to scrape off algae if necessary.

Yeah, right now it's just a boring filter with carbon. I've been making sure to clean/replace it to keep it from blowing up the nitrate levels. I do want to get a PS soon, but that'll come along with the sump.

 

[Kelz88]

He means the bottom glass, if you dont and a fish decides to burrow under it, it can cause the whole structure to shift and crash through the glass.

 

[Waddi]

Did a very nice job of pulling the back!
And like everyone said, you dont want a rock avalanche, they are quite nasty, and expensive.

 

[madhattertcm]

The bottom rocks are huge, heavy and flat. I did push them into the sand a bit, they're not moving anywhere. The stacked rocks are sturdy as well. Thanks for looking out though :)

I got a few frags today from the LFS to try out.

Can anyone identify this one? I think it's just this: Saltwater Aquarium Corals for Marine Reef Aquariums: Colony Polyp - is there any fancy name for it?

 

[cvcdrk]

Could be a dragon's eye.
Tough to tell.

 

[madhattertcm]

a month in with the dry rock and it's gotten some great color. A few more weeks and hopefully it'll be covered.

 

[madhattertcm]

Our tank has been quite happy.

A couple months ago I built a sump, moved the heater there, and replaced the garbage canister filter with a Reef Octopus Protein Skimmer. We've slowly added corals and a couple fishies.

Currently stocked with:
Yellow tailed damsel
Small Yellow Tang
Flame Angel
Red Brittle star (plus two blue baby brittle stars that I've seen hiding every now and then)
Peppermint Shrimp
tons of dwarf ceriths (there is no "small" order from reefcleaners.org - order 20, get 200)
handful of ceriths, and nerites, nassaurius snails

Corals:
a couple of medium zoa frags
frogspawn
GSP
montipora branch
glove polyp

Bad cellphone shots:

 

[Ted]

Your tank is looking really nice. :Cheers:

 

[Jimbo662]

Wow...you've done a great job on resurrecting the tank! Do you know the name of the blue polyps in the last picture?

 

[madhattertcm]

I believe they're these: Glove Polyp just a slightly different color.

 

[Waddi]

Blue Clove Polyps.

 

[madhattertcm]

This week I've realized our frogspawn has nearly doubled in size!

This is how it was in Aug/Sep:

and this is it now:

We got a new cute little guy:

As well as some xenia. We got two, and on the first day one fell over over night and most of it tore up. I saved about 8 heads or whatever on it though. It's the little guy on the bottom left

And the zoas are looking lovely.

 

[Amba]

Everything is looking good! Careful those chocolate chip starfish will eat snails and such.

 

[Ted]

I didnt think Chocolate chip star fish where reef safe. I found thi s on Liveaquraia." The Chocolate Chip Sea Star is not considered reef compatible since adults will eat soft corals, sponges, tubeworms, clams, and other starfish. Keep in mind that the Chocolate Chip Sea Star is only appropriate for very large aquariums since it can grow up to 15 inches in diameter."

 

[madhattertcm]

I didnt think Chocolate chip star fish where reef safe. I found thi s on Liveaquraia." The Chocolate Chip Sea Star is not considered reef compatible since adults will eat soft corals, sponges, tubeworms, clams, and other starfish. Keep in mind that the Chocolate Chip Sea Star is only appropriate for very large aquariums since it can grow up to 15 inches in diameter."

Yeah - stupidly we learned that after the fact. :( I think he's too small to do any damage right now as he's only about 2". But we'll keep an eye on him. First sign of trouble and we'll give him a good home. A local guy is keeping a large FOWLR tank, so he may have a nice home there.

Black Friday sale today. We stopped by the LFS and picked up these new corals (sorry for the phone pics)

Got this awesome purple-ish/orange chalice

Green/orange Ricordea.. sooo pretty

Hawkins - looove the color on this guy!

 

[Ted]

nice additions....