Maxwell's 55 Gallon

[mcritter86]

After having some bad advise from one LFS. I have recovered and I think my tank is thriving now! Right now I am at the end of my cycle. My ammonia shot up past 8ppm and is now at 0.25. My nitrite went to 2 (doesn't seem much to me but was high on the API test) and is now at 0. Right now my nitrate was a 40ppm. Then I did a 10 gal water change and it brought it down to 30ppm. I am hoping it goes down to 0 by mid week and then add a cleaning crew next weekend. I do not have a sump on this one. I live with a picky lady and she wanted an open stand so she can put baskets in it, haha. So I have the frown apon HOB filter. I do change the filters in it every other week. No protein skimmer yet. One is ordered and on back order so I am hoping soon. Here are some pics
Daylight

Moonlight

I feel in love with a diamond goby at the LFS and I read that most gobies are jumpers. So I put some screen up with some velcro so I can take it off for cleaning. Hope it works

Have some brown algae growing on my sand and rock. Seen on numerous threads here that it is normal and just part of the new tank. Will go away.

Any suggestions on the tank or what fish I should get are welcome!

 

[little_fish]

Looks good!

A pair of clowns would a great choice of first fish!

 

[marcah]

Looking good and yes the algae will pass.. :D

 

[mcritter86]

Cycle has finished! Put in a mild clean up crew now. Hope to get some clowns in a week or two.
Emerald Crab

Serpent Starfish

 

[joey.skeen]

And you can't go wrong adding a few scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp! They not only help clean you tank...they help clean fish also! But try to get two or more because they are less shy that way. But so far....lookin good! Love the Emerald Crab!

 

[mcritter86]

New lights installed

Blues

Starfish hugging the heater

Melanurus Wrasse

Corals

Blenny in the background

 

[daugherty]

looks good

 

[kevdogg]

Wow what a difference the new lighting makes! Looking good.

 

[little_fish]

looks good!

 

[chichimom79]

Nice tank!

 

[Samhain]

Love that wrasse! Tank is lookin' good.

 

[mcritter86]

Thanks guys. The Wrasse is my fav so far. Amazing how the new lights make the tank 1000 times better. Still battling green algae. My lawnmower is VERY fat so I don't think he can keep up or something. I cut off an hour of the HO T5's. Still showing .25 reading for my phosphate, I know it needs to be 0 and I read that any phosphate accelerates algae. My protien skimmer is only about 3 weeks old so it maybe down soon. It helped get my nitrate down to absolute 0 from 40 and so far has helped get the phosphate down to .25 from 2.

 

[Samhain]

Try upping the frequency and amount of your water changes. You can also try building a refugium or algae scrubber to grow algae where you want it (in the sump) instead of where you don't (display tank). Those both work by encouraging the growth of beneficial algae in a specific location that then consumes the nitrates and phosphates that bad algae would otherwise utilize to flourish in your display. They seem to be equally effective at scrubbing the water, but a refugium also gives you a place to raise pods if you have pod-eaters in your tank (like dragonettes, wrasses, or angels).

 

[mcritter86]

Right now I am doing 10 gallon changes every Sunday. I do not have a place for a sump right now. The stand is not closed, has shelves. Have been thinking of how to plumb a sump on the side of the stand or something. HAS to look nice though or the other half wont have it!