30G Bow Tank.....Leaping into the darkside

Ooops, whilst getting more live rock, (thanks Jeff) I succumbed, the tank now has 3 Blue legged Hermits and 3 Turbo Snails.

I went to Home Depot to get some sealer to build my sump baffles and couldn't find any that seemed suitable though. Anyone have the brand etc of the one that is Reef safe?

You're ok.
As far as sealant goes, get one from the aquarium section of Wal Mart just to be safe. It'll say "safe for aquaria" on the label.

I've got some at the shop if you can't find any-

Was given to me, so it's free if you need it.

OK tank is now 3 weeks old so I did some tests.

I have about 50-60 lbs of live rock in there, some will be moving into the sump.

Ammonia and Nitrite are zero
Nitrate is under 5ppm, and looking to be closer to 2-3 by the colour of the test.
Calcium is 400ppm
Between 9-10 on dKH
Phosphate 0.25
SG is running 1.024, but I realise I haven't topped the tank up in about 3 days.

At this rate I think I may be ready to add a little something extra in the way of clean up crew.

Yeti
Looks like the cycle is pretty much complete. You should be ready to slowly adding criters, CUC first, then you can start with the hardier animals you want to keep, go slowly though, add a little at a time and give the system time to acclimate between each addition, good luck and may the force be with you

Yes Donnie

Looking good

Todays plan.
Load car with sump making material, go and see Jason, spend afternoon cutting plexiglass and sealing into place, pick up a skimmer, a coral or maybe 2, come home put feet up and relax.
Oh and pick up the 6G JBJ, as a birthday present for Mrs Y as she really liked the look of it. Her B'days in a few days time, so no rush to have it set up.

Actual day.
Got there, unloaded car, discussed plan for sump design for a few minutes, when Jason says "Oh, I'm going to look at a tank, want to come with me?"
Well what do you think? A chance to look at another tank, of course.

Well, Jason ended up being so tempted, and the afternoon was spent learning the art of taking down an established tank, with great care taken over the life there in.
Naturally I was shocked when Jason didn't just throw the tank, plus sand and some water, onto his shoulder, but looked at me...drats.

Long and short of it, Had a great day, and now have 3 corals in my tank, plus was so tempted by a pair of clowns, I now have fish in the tank!

Tank would look great, but.... in addition to the tank Jason also threw in a few pieces of LR, and yes, he even put one in with a coral on (Kenya Tree?), so now I'm hosting Mrs Y's LR and her coral .... which is bigger than mine!
Darn it Jason, you know how to impress the ladies.

Of course the evening when I got home then consisted of setting up the JBJ.
HA! "Here you are my love, happy birthday. Now you need to... and she now has her tank cycling. Will leave the tank cycling for 24 hours before putting the LR in there ... and her, bigger than mine, coral.
Guess who's on Liveaquaria.com even as I type this!

So, sump still a project, but had a great day, thanks Jason, and I'll help you again willingly.

PS. Tony, was good to meet you, even more so your timing on arriving BEFORE truck was unloaded,

LOL.. anyone else for building a sump? I've got another tank to move... I mean I'll be free all day!
Thanks so much for the help Yeti.. there's never enough time in the day! I hope Mrs. Y enjoys her new 6g of ocean

Yeti
You are so deep into the dark side now, I can see the freshwater tanks getting saltier as I type this.You have a good heads up on the hobby, I wish you and Mrs. Y a good journey through the dark side!

Donnie...Shhhhhhhhh, don't say that, that's a really scary thought!

Yeti wrote:Donnie...Shhhhhhhhh, don't say that, that's a really scary thought!

Hey Yeti, I tried leaving marine at one time, I had a beautiful African Cichlid setup in my 110 but after being on the dark side, the light side just does not compare. I'll be watching to see how long the transformation takes. I'm bettin' not long, especially since the Mrs Y is in on it too. You'll be changing that signature before long!

+1.. don't feel bad Yeti.. it happens to everyone. Starts off with just lookin'... LOL

J.Davis wrote:+1.. don't feel bad Yeti.. it happens to everyone. Starts off with just lookin'... LOL

Yep, just lookin', then staring at liverock till 2 or 3 in the morning.

Miffed.

We were over in Longview yesterday, and called into Petco. Peppermint Shrimp on sale for $7.99, cleaning crew I thought, and got 2.
One was a fine red, the other looked much paler, the girl looked at them in the bag and I commented on the paler one "Ah! That's a male I think"
Wrong! That's the one that's going to be dead in the morning.

I'm tempted to leave it in there for the Hermits to munch upon, but as they haven't found it yet I guess I'll pull it, and put this one down to experience.

It was good meeting you yesterday Yeti. They had some good looking stuff. I was tempted on several thing.

Hi DavE, it makes you realise just how small a community, the Reefer community is when we bump into each other like that.
I agree there was plenty to tempt oneself, I loved the look of the Saddleback Clowns, then again at $40 per fish, they should have looked good.
Hope you have more luck than I did, now I have the Queen tune burrowing through my mind.
"Duh, duh,duh,duh, Another one bites the dust"

Yeah. That is not good news. How does that bubble tip look? I almost snaged that one. But I had to much already. The second one didn't look so well.

Sorry 'bout your Peppermint. Everything else doing good? Frags? Snails? Clowns? That tank has to be teaming with life by now.. I can tell by the lack of late nite post! To busy looking... no typing! LOL

Jason, Frags are looking great, Clowns still eating very little, and the snails, well 2 zoomed under the sand, one tried to drag a Hermit under with it!
I ended up giving in and grabbed a Feather Duster, but keep my name on that one of yours if you like, once the clowns have gone home of course.

Oh how do you spot a newbie.... he is the one that mutters and grumbles about his shrimp dying.....when it has only moulted. It appeared again today whilst I was sat on the viewing stool, yeah the one in front of the tank. So my evening was made.

My feather Duster seems to have split into two heads within it's tube, the Texas Trash is trying to spread across the gravel/sand mix, infact every thing seems ... I say seems to be content as far as corals. My Clowns are active, but still shy, they hang out at one end of the tank nearly all day. I've seen the male eat a little, but rarely have I seen the female eating, and I've noticed she is starting to go from bright orange to a dark brown colour.
I've tried flake that floats for a while before sinking, and pellets (small) which sink more quickly. I've also tried Gel Marine food blocks (man that made one hermit's day when he found that, he stayed there for the night) but the lady didn't seem keen. Even a small piece of raw shrimp wasn't tempting to her, needles to say the clean up crew enjoyed it during the night.
Any suggestions?

Raw clean garlic. Or Kents Garlic Extreme.. Take a piece of garlic clove, hit it gently with a hammer and put it along with some pellets in a small container. Cover with SW and allow to soak... take the clove out and pour in. A little goes a long way.

J.Davis wrote:Raw clean garlic. Or Kents Garlic Extreme.. Take a piece of garlic clove, hit it gently with a hammer and put it along with some pellets in a small container. Cover with SW and allow to soak... take the clove out and pour in. A little goes a long way.

+1 They go crazy!

Yeti
All I feed my clowns is frozen mysis shrimp, Petco has it, its in frozen cubes, you can cut the cube in half with a knife and thaw in some ro water, after it melts I pour off the excess water to get rid of the soup and just pour it in the tank, everything loves this stuff, feeds crabs, shrimp, fish everything. My tank has been getting nothing but this since I set it up.

You have a stool dedicated to tank watching ? I don't know what to say . I'm so proud of you.

+1 on the garlic. I've used fresh and a product called "Garlic Guard" in FW and Marine for years. Works pretty well on catfish bait as well.

+1 on the frozen cubes. "Marine Cuisine" is a good choice for tanks containing carnivores and herbivores but use it sparingly. A lot of frozen foods (as well as flake) contain high levels of phosphate.