2 Month old 16G Bowfront Aquarium

[MBliss81]

Yeah, that's what I meant about the goby, he moves sand all over the tank. In 2 days he piled sand up all around his cave so only he can get in, and there's sand dust all over the tank from his excavations. It's really interesting to watch, so it's both my favorite, and least favorite, thing about him. It would be a problem in a reef tank, though.

I will definitely be returning the puffers to my LFS. They just don't fit in to any of the plans I can think of. I will keep the rest in the 16g for now, as is, with no live rock. Then I think I'll plan a proper reef tank in a new 40g or 55g this summer. I'm planning on moving my home office into a different room, and that will be a good opportunity to set the new tank up. I will take things much more slowly with this new tank, and plan and prepare thoroughly before any action. The clowns will go into the new reef tank once it's fully cycled, and probably the damsel (he should be ok in a 55g without getting overly aggressive, right?). And I'll research a couple more tankmates for the reef and an anemone for the clowns to host, and that will be all in there. Leaving just the goby (too fun to watch to just get rid of him) and the CUC in the 16g, and I may find one more resident when the time comes. No more crowded tanks.

 

[MBliss81]

Out of curiosity, which 4 are you saying are messy eaters? I know the puffers are very dirty eaters, bit which other 2? The clowns? They certainly aren't dirty at their size. Do you mean that full grown clowns will be dirty eaters?

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

That sounds like a good plan. The bubble tip anemones are great for clowns, they tend to host them more readily. The sandsifter will also calm down with the sandsifting once he finds himself a good home...usually under some liverock though (do you have any? i forget)

 

[MBliss81]

I don't have any LR, but I do have a cave I got from the local petsmart. That's where he has been piling the sand. He's pretty much got it where he wants it now, and he hasn't been moving as much sand around the last couple days. Just the usual sand-sifting he does looking for food.

I like the look of bubble-tip anemones. I was thinking of either a bubble-tip or a carpet anemone for the clowns.

 

[MBliss81]

Said goodbye to the puffers this morning. Took them back to my LFS. Also, something happened to one of my little clowns in the night, and I found him laying in the corner this morning barely breathing. When I checked on him later on, I found that he had become lunch for one of my electric blue hermit crabs. My wife and I were both sad about that.

So there's just the 3 fish now: 1 ocellaris clown (5/8"), 1 azure damsel (1 1/2"), and 1 diamond watchman goby (2"), and 3 electric blue hermits and 5 dwarf red tip hermits. And ere may be a nassirus snail under the sand somewhere in there. 15 lbs of LR is on the way. It's dry, so I'll pick up a small piece of LR from the LFS to seed the dry stuff while it all cures for a couple weeks. Then I'm slowly going to get started on my reef, with plans for a bubble tip anemone and some zoa frags to begin with.

 

[Karlos69]

Anenemes should be for established tanks only 1+ years as they are sensitive to variations in water parameters plus good lighting is a must i would deff wait on the aneneme also make sure to cycle the live rock separately and was the clown covered in mucus? Hermit crabs usually would eat dead fish not catch live ones something else got your clwn wats your parameters in the tank now?

 

[MBliss81]

No, the hermit didn't catch and kill the clown. He just finished him off when he was unable to get away. He was the smallest fish in the tank, and I think my green spotted puffers (which are gone now) had been picking on him (that was the last straw, and why they are gone now). He was stressed from being picked on and then I had a nitrite spike this weekend that he just couldn't deal with.

I did a 10% water change on Saturday, and then a 30% water change yesterday, and the params are better now. If not perfect tomorrow I'll do another 10% change. I also took my puffers to my LFS, to greatly reduce the bioload. I will be curing the LR separately, of course, in an empty 10 gallon tank I have in storage.

 

[Karlos69]

Right on sounds like u got it figured out good to hear.

 

[MBliss81]

Admittedly, I was overly eager and impatient when I started this tank, and now I'm having to correct the mistakes I made. Lesson learned...the hard way.

 

[Zer0]

Don't worry about it Bliss. You live and learn. You took things a little too fast, and now know the consequences. But don't let it get you down, because there's always time to correct your mistakes.

Hope everything works out for ya, and be sure to keep us posted on your tanks progress!

 

[MBliss81]

I also decided that in addition to my Penguin 150, which also has bags of de-nitrite and sea gel in it, I put the small filter that came with the tank back on without a filter cartridge and put a Seachem purigen pack in instead. I figured the extra media (which I had already packed into the Penguin 150) and the extra flow were both good things.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Any pictures of your tank?? I also wanted to mention that in a 16 gallon an anemone would likely kill all other corals, i would consider a hammer or something for the clowns, they are likely to host those as well i have heard. I had my bubble tip anemone in my 28 gallon nano with an older light so it was constantly moving/killing everything it touched. I had to move my corals away from it daily while i waited for the new bulb to come in, most polyps didn't make it since i couldn't move them. Also i bought the smallest one at the store and it tripled in size very very quickly (the clown fish also liked to feed his anemone which probably didn't help). I eventually moved both anemone and clown fish to our larger tank.

 

[MBliss81]

I didn't know clowns would host a hammer coral. That would be really great. I love hammer corals, and I'd be happy to avoid any of the problems an anemone in a small tank might cause. I'm really glad to know that. I will for sure research that some more. Thanks.

I'll also get some pics to post on here, too.

 

[duoc9119]

They will also host frogspawn and torches as well. Seems like the will host anything that resembles an anemone

 

[MBliss81]

That is really good to know. I have actually felt like the anemones were not as attractive as I really wanted. Plus they seem to be pretty difficult to keep healthy. And I really like the way frogspawn and hammer corals look, and I was planning on having them in my tank anyway.

 

[MBliss81]

The impeller on my Penguin 150 has been quite noisy the last several days, and it quit turning at all 2 days ago. So yesterday, when I found out the replacement I ordered online was not going to be here for about a week (despite being told it would be here yesterday), I went out and bought a new Emperor 280. I was a little surprised because it is quite a bit bigger than I thought it would be. But I have been very happy with it so far. I love the media cartridge it comes with. I filled it with Seachem De-Nitrate and Seagel, and this morning I checked my levels (I was fighting a mini cycle with detectable levels of ammonia, nitrites and higher than usual nitrates) and there was zero ammonia, and lower nitrites and nitrates. I had been doing 10%-25% water changes every 1-2 days for the last week. I wish I had bought the Emperor to begin with.

With my water parameters stabilizing, and base rock and LR on the way, hopefully I will be able to do some real improvements on my tank in the next several weeks. I will post some pics of the tank as is, and keep them coming as I make progress.

 

[MBliss81]

 

[MBliss81]

Those pics were all taken last week. Since then the cave is moved a little, and the watchman (a.k.a. the architect) has covered the entrances almost entirely with sand, and I switched the old filter out for the new Emperor 280.

The one with the moonlights on is more recent than the others. You can just barely see how the goby has arranged sand around his cave.

 

[MBliss81]

My base rock came faster than I thought it would and is here today! I have it in a 10 gallon tank to cure.

Does anyone know how long I should expect it to take? It is live rock that has been allowed to dry. Although it was still slightly moist when it arrived.

Also, how important is the salinity of the water while it cures? Temperature?

I'm assuming it should be the same as the tank it is going into, so that's what I have done. I'm just wondering how important it is that that be the case.

 

[MBliss81]

Man, everything I've ordered in the last 5 weeks came today! My glass top, live rock, empty hermit shells and Penguin 150 impeller all showed up this afternoon. Tank looks much better with the glass top. So much brighter now that my LED's can actually get all of their light into the tank. Those crappy plastic hoods that come with the tank are pieces of junk!