My First Tank (60L)

So the tank is now about 4months young, Ive had all sorts of random types of algae come and go in that time and for the first time since the start - my rocks are clean. Not because of a clean up crew or anything just because all my parameters are in check and everything has died off.

My biggest issue I have found was over feeding. I have cut right back. The Corals seem to be flourishing with new heads appearing every few days on my Zoas and the ric has split once and looks like those two may split soon too!

The Clowns seem happy - the male still prefers the powerhead while the female hangs out in the flower pot - at night I think they sleep up next to the powerhead together...

I have seen them both in the flower pot and they seem to be getting on much better lately.

What is quite exciting is over the last two days the male has been meticulously cleaning the flower pot - he doesn't leave it for long before heading back to pick at some small blemish or piece of dead algae... We may have eggs in a week or two!! (according to the Clown Fish book)

Anyway thats just a small update - I will post some pictures at the end of the week hopefully - Just mixing water now so I can give the tank a good clean and syphon out a heap of the algae decay.

Tim
 
Your tank sounds so exciting! Did you purchase your clowns as a pair? It's probably in your thread but, I don't have time to look back right now....(at work) my bad.....
Would love to see updated pictures!
 
The clowns were the 2 smallest in the tank out of 4 at the lfs.

Clowns are born gender neutral with the most dominant in the group becoming the female and the next most dominante the male. Unless one of these 2 are removed the rest remain gender neutral. My thinking was by buying the two smallest my chances of them pairing up could be a lot greater.

I could be wrong and they aren't preparing to spawn (I've never witnessed clown spawning before) I am just going off what I've read in books and online :-) fingers crossed!

Also I am not 100% sure I will be able to raise the fry as the plankton and Rotifers needed are very rare and hard to get hold of here in nz.

Il wait and see if they lay before following up my leads on that :-)
 
Just found two more Aiptasia :-( its been almost a month since treating the last - i thought I may have nipped it in the butt before it had time to spread but these two were the other side of the tank so theres probably more I cant see :( sucky
 
The hard fact is they are always in there...You kill the ones you see but there will always be more...
 
So it turns out the cleaning by the clowns was Pod hunting haha - all good though.

Say hello to the newest addition to the family!

Also got a "Peppermint Shrimp" but when I got it home realised it was a Camel Shrimp so took it straight back.

tbrewerton-albums-coral-picture2056-feather-duster.jpg
 
So I am going to be shifting house at the end of the month, and with that comes the most dreaded task of shifting the tank.

I am thinking at the same time as the move I might restart the tank completely. The reason for this is because of the Aiptasia and (more importantly) the Bryopsis.

Here is what I plan to do, firstly get a piece of new rock which I can start cycling in a small tank now to prepare for the move. Get this into the new house and introduce the fish.

I was then thinking of trying to frag of the heads of my Zoas and placing in this new holding tank also. (the idea behind the fraging was to not reintroduce the Bryopsis as it is growing through everything now.

Someone said earlier I can scrape the mushrooms off with a blade and get them to re-attach to loose coral rock in a small container inside the tank.

I was then going to bleach all my live rock and possibly also acid bath it too to get rid of the PO4 build up that im certain it has - then neutralise the acid with baking soda and rinse, dry out and then cycle again.

Once this rock has cycled again I would then reintroduce the fish and frags back in. I also plan to keep this other smaller tank for future purchases - Instead of placing whole rocks in of Zoas i now plan to frag off heads and introduce those instead to cut down the risk.

Does anyone see any major problems with this plan?

PS keep in mind that I live on the other side of the world and simply getting new good rock isnt an option - every shop ive been to has some form of pest on their rocks and none of them stock dry rock. Hence the drastic measures.

Also will fragging of the corals prevent contamination or is there just as much a chance of it coming through?
 
Just got a new coral tonight at a VIP night.

tbrewerton-albums-coral-picture2084-latest-edition.jpg


It had 5 heads 2 on one side and 3 on the other, i cut it in half and have placed them in different parts of the tank.

Opening up slowly :-)
 
Very nice! I think your plan for cleaning your tank is a bit extreme, especially because. It is almost impossible to avoid reintroducing algae. I would just keep up on the water changes and remove as much as you can by hand
 
Thanks Hannah,

Do you have any advise for moving the tank - It is a small tank so im not expecting to many dramas, was thinking of bagging the fish up and putting the water and rock into a bin. then reverse at the other end.
 
As far as moving is concerned, remove your livestock and rock first. I bought a few sturdy plastic totes for doing so (lowes has heavy duty ones rated for up to 450lbs for like $25). Save about 60% of your water and dispose of the other 40. Remove the sand all together and trash it. Thoroughly rinse the tank once moved before adding stuff back to it. Add new dry sand (not live; "live" will have a lot of "dead" things in it which will cause your tank to cycle again). Trick is to keep your liverock wet; and is best to have it submerged in the water you have saved. If you let it sit for a while before going back into the tank, make sure to have a powerhead in the tote with it for circulation. stagnant water is baddddd. To help with algae, I would create a new batch of saltwater (enough to rinse your rocks) and use a plastic hard bristle brush that can be bought at your local store in the cleaning isle to just give the rock a good scrub removing excess algae.with new sand, cleaned rock, and 40% new water (or whatever it takes to replace the water you disposed of) you will drastically reduce whatever it is that the algae is feeding on. Afterwards, simple water changes will furthermore fight back the algae.

As for aiptasia, invest in some aiptasia x... it will be your best friend in controlling the nuisance.
 
Wow just went to the LFS to pick up some Flatworm Exit and also a MG test kit I ordered a few weeks ago, that was all good but then he went over to the coral tank and was like this is yours too - and pulled out another 5 heads of Frogspawn - apparently it was all suppose to be sold as one piece so I just doubled my frogspawn haha the whole bottom of my tank is now covered haha

Also When I went to the VIP night i got some seachem Pytoplankton, over the last week i have put in 2 very small amounts and omg the mushy's in particular have taken off! its like steroids for them haha
 

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