Who's Into Saltwater?

[Tony]

Okay, here are the videos. The fish in the first video are Blue/Green Chromis. Very active and being they are surviving in water that is VERY High in nitrites, they are very hardy. I may be getting more of these just to add more movement to the tank. They are pretty fun to watch. Also, when I look down at the sand bed, I'm showing the shimmer effect from the LED's. Again, this tank is not the color it looks in this video, it looks much better.

New LED's on the 90g! - YouTube

True Percula Clown Fish Doing Much Better - YouTube

 

[Tony]

I have posted a couple pictures on my facebook that I thought I would post on here. The first pictures are of the tank with teh LED lights on it and looking great. So good, it's the background on my GS3. the last picture is what every new tank goes though. When you start seeing this brown algae showing up, you know you are having your first nitrate spike and that is exactly what you want. After this is done, it will be time to start adding the things that really look good.

Also, there are some pictures in here of a small anemone. Unfortunately this is what's called Aptasia and is a pest in the aquarium. But, that just means I get to buy a shrimp that will eat it hehe. The anemone's came on a rock that the wife got to seed the tank. Then there is the rubble in teh sand to seed the sand that had a little polyp in it. This is just a standard brown polyp but it's still there and it will multiply. I just hope it will gain a little color when it gets bigger lmao. We will find out.

 

[callsign4223]

Looking good Tony. Are the lights really that blue, or is it just the camera having difficulty with the LEDs?

 

[Tony]

That is pretty much what it looks like in real life. The first 4 pictures were taken with a flash so it washed it out. If you read up on corals, you will find that the color of the light is mostly blue when it reaches the depths of the coral. This is why you need Actinic lighting on a saltwater tank. There are 20 Royal Blue LED's, 18 Cool White, 6 UV, 2 Red and 2 Green LED's on this tank. And at full intensity, they are friggin bright lol.

 

[murankar]

Now I think i might want one. Dang tony we make you want stuff now you make us want stuff.

 

[Tony]

If you do start one up I would like to point out that what I have went through it no typical. Most of the time you will set it up, add salt, fill with ro/di water and let sit for a week to stir the salt up. Then you will add the sand and rock. After a couple weeks, you will see the brown algae that you see in the pictures above. Once you see that, do a 25% water change and add some Chromis to help cycle the tank even more. Once your parameters are all good, you can add anything you want as long as you have the light and supplements to support it.

And I have gotten in trouble for almost two years now making men want things their wives never wanted them to get lmao. I seem to be pretty good at it.

Once these are setup and running, they are worth every minute of time that went into them. I'm going elaborate with mine being fully automated and all. Most will just have a basic setup that is quite easy to maintain.

 

[Tony]

Just another quick update.

I'm glad to announce that the tank cycle is finally over. last week I had nitrites that were so high they should have killed everything in the tank. But the Chromis were just as happy as ever.

In the pictures above, you can see what happens with the cycle. Massive algae bloom. Makes the tank look like crap, but that just means you can get more stuff for the tank to take care of it.

To clean the rock, the wife wants to get some Mexican Turbo Snails. Now just cause they are called "Turbo" snails doesn't mean they are fast, but they are very aggressive cleaners. I had 1 in my 55, and the dude was a badass when it comes to algae cleaning. We are also going to get another Lawnmower Blenny to do the same thing. Then there are the Tangs such as the Yellow tang that is a must have in my tank, and we are trying to decide between a Blue Tang or a Powder Blue Tang. Not sure what one yet, but they are ferocious algae eaters.

For the sand and to clean that up, we will be getting a bunch of Nassarious snails that burrow in the sand and turn it over as well as a Diamond Goby. If you have never seen a Goby in action, more specifically the Diamond goby, they are great to watch.

We may also be introducing our first corals to the tank here soon as well. There is a guy just north of me that is selling all kinds of frags for really cheap. Adn once they start growing in my tank, i will be selling them as well.

It's time to make this tank what we want.

Here is a picture of what it looked like just before leaving for work tonight. As you can see, thanks to the cycle being over, both of the clowns are now in the tank. Look just below the powerhead on the left side of the tank. On the right side of the tank are the 4 Chromis. Everything is just as happy as it can be. I just hope the clowns do good now that they are out of quarantine

.

 

[Tony]

Got some great news. We finally got some new fish in the tank. Unfortunately they like to hide lmao.

The wife told me that she wanted to get something in there to clean the sand, meaning a Goby. She also wanted something to clean the rock, meaning another Blenny. We also needed some shrimp and some more snails. I will go into more detail below.

To start it all off, I shall introduce the Blenny. This is the same fish that we lost when we first setup the tank. I'm pretty sure there was something in the rock that killed him. This one started eating immediately as he was introduced into the take according to the wife.


Next is the Diamond Goby. This is a very interesting fish if you have never seen them before. They pick up mouth fulls of sand and sift it through it's gills. It's also great to watch it clear out a cave under a rock for it's home.


These next guys are monsters when it comes to eating algae. I had one of these in my old 55g and he kept the tank very clean. Now we have two of them in this tank, and we may get a few more. Once put into the tank, they never quit eating. Love these guys.


Here are what's called Peppermint Shrimp. A while back I posted a picture of an anemone that is called "Aptasia". This is a pest in the aquarium, and will spread very quickly. The peppermint shrimp will eat these things. And since they get along with each other, we got 3 of them. Love to watch these guys as they move around.


Last but not least is my favorite shrimp of all time. This is the badass of the tank and he shows it. The Blenny got too close to him, and he informed the Blenny of this fact. The Blenny ran like a little bitch lmao. This is called a Coral Banded Shrimp. Great for eating any worms in the tank that you don't want there.


Everything that was purchased has a job in the tank. from cleaning the sand, to cleaning the rock, to eating pest anemone's, to worms. And also to clean the detritus off the bottom of the tank.

Here is a video of the Goby in action. Interesting to watch to say the least.
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[callsign4223]

A facebook video, really??? Some of us think facebook is the debil

 

[Tony]

Yeah well, if you wanted a video, that was the only way it was getting on here lmao. And I have no idea what a "debil" is. Must be a "DEVIL" with a lisp....

 

[Tony]

Well we had a little mishap today. I was sitting at my desk looking at the tank and noticed the youngest clown was missing. I stood around the tank looking for him and he was no where to be found. I opened up the stand and looked in the sump, and he was not there. So the wife and I took the canopy off and I looked in the back of the over flow and there he was just swimming around. No wonder the female was only swimming around the overflow lol. She knew where he was. So I fished him out of there and all is well.

I would also like to add that all of the algae is gone. This may be a bad thing because the blenny will have a hard time finding something to eat. Just hope he has enough to survive. We are starting to get some good green algae on the rocks now so I think if he can make it another week, he will do just fine.

 

[Derek]

What! Are you serious??? Sounds to my like your young clown fish has been watching "Finding Nemo." Have you seen it? In that movie, Nemo is a clown fish. He gets caught, put into a fish tank at a pet store and he swims up the filter intake to place a stone into the impeller. Sounds like you have a very clever clown fish, lol.

 

[Tony]

lmao, yeah I have two daughters, we own that movie lmao. I'm just glad my fish screen on the standpipe was working like it should. Otherwise he would have had the living crap beat out of him in the filter sock. We are going to be putting some screen up at the top of the over flow shortly so he can't do this again.

 

[Derek]

That's just crazy that it happened, lol. I'll have to tell my wife about this

 

[Tony]

I should have taken some pictures if him back there lol. But I would have had to use a flash and that scares the crap out of them. Catching him back there was hard as hell.

 

[murankar]

Glad all went well.

 

[Tony]

Well, time to bring this thread back. A sad update I'm afraid. Last night I noticed that the Blenny was not doing so well. I told the wife about it this morning, but he was still alive then as well as when she got home. By the time I woke up, he was dead and stuffed way back in the rocks. I hate that things have to die, but why can't they do it out in the open where I don't have to tear my tank apart to get to them lmao.

So the Blenny is gone sadly. I will not be getting another one. I guess there just isn't enough phosphates in the tank to sustain the algae growth that these little guys depend on. I will just use the money from what we would have used to replace him, on something else. Maybe it's time to put my Tang's in the tank... Or some coral... Yeah...

 

[wolfman76]

sorry bout the loss in the family tony.....

 

[Tony]

eh, it's like the 4th one lmao. The first one was in my old 55g. Not enough algae so I purchased another one after a while of letting things "grow". He ended up dying as well. Now that I have this 90g, I purchased another one that as well, died. I thought the same thing as before, waited then got another one. Well, now he has died as well. I'm thinking I just can't keep a Blenny lmao.

 

[callsign4223]

You Blenny murderer.

Just got my 29g feeder tank setup with a dozen guppies. Gonna grow these suckers up and start breeding them, then they're food for the perch.