Buffy's 1st Ever SW Build - Reef Tank

[Mike-words]

I wouldn't worry to much about the Peppermint shrimp I don't see the one in the 175g for a month or more unless I get really lucky with the flash light. When I do see him I only see his antennas. Things take time with this hobby and don't always go the way you want them too. You can't really expect everything to survive and flourish. I've lost creatures for no apparent reasons at all even with a clean bill of health all through qt and for a month or 3 then poof dead in the morning. Stick with it Buffy!!!!!

 

[Buffy]

Coral Delivery

My corals came in today. The packaging was excellent. Uhmm they are soooo tiny. When I first got the box, I thought how the heck can 8 corals fit in that LOL now I know.

They put them in water in a bag and used rubberbands. Separate bags except one bag has 2. They also sent me a thank you Ric. No clue what kind. So I have 9 instead of 8. Then they used paper around all of them. Then they were inside this solid white blow up thingie and inside it was a heat bag.

I took them all out and looked at them. Uhm they pretty much all look alike to me right now. They did label the bags for me too. I asked them to and I asked them to send me pictures (which they did) of what I bought so I knew what was what, til I can look at them and remember it's name LOL.

So after I looked at them, I put them all back in they way I took them out cause I'm too chicken to take them out of their bags right now. Besides that I don't have a home for them right now. I wanted to have everything ready but life didn't allow me any time to prepare.

Fire Shrimp I believe is gone, He's still on sand in back along with the emerald. When I move the rocks and stuff over maybe I'll see new ones and those are just empty shells but I am not getting my hopes up.

I know we lose in this hobby, I just didn't expect to lose so many already. It's very depressing and as some of you know, there are other things going on that just add to it. Gets hard to deal, but still when I look in my tank and see what still is in there, it does calm me and I feel good about it and I feel like I can survive all these "issues". Sounds corny and stupid, but hey it's true. As much as this has cost me, and is going to cost me, it's still worth it. I just gotta remember everyday that I can come home to my best buddy (my dog) and my tank.

Now I got that off my chest lol. Where the heck do I begin? I don't know how much time those corals can stay in their bags. I have another 10 gallon tank I think I will use for QT, gotta mix the salt yet though (as I said, I couldn't get to any preps).

What does everyone use to clean their hands and arms with so you don't contaminate your tank? I've been cleaning and stuff. So I'm pretty sure I have residuals of cleaners on my skin.

 

[Buffy]

Pics

Packaging Pics shortly.

 

[TLTGF]

Can't wait for PICS!!! As for washing, that's a tough one. I've never had anything harmful, so I basically just wash my hands / arms with really hot water.

 

[Buffy]

Just a few pics.

 

[Buffy]

A few more........ This is only one of them, I don't know how to take pictures of them yet.

 

[Buffy]

Dang it, I gotta put my big girl panties on and get going, I'm procrastinating cause I'm chicken. Grrrrrrrrrr lol

 

[TLTGF]

Just went back and checked out the site, and if you got anything like what they are showing on the site, you should have some great looking corals!

 

[Ibrahim]

Put the corals in your main tank until you find somewhere else to put them. Leave the lights off for a day or several hours then only turn on 2 bulbs for a week or so.... Afterwards turn on another 2 bulbs and go for 2 weeks with 4 bulbs then you can turn on your last two bulbs.

 

[kurtyboh]

Corals can mess you up pretty badly, many of them release nuerotoxins. I have a link to a good story but its from another forum so pm me and ill send a link if youre interested.

Buffy ill sendit to you in a min

 

[Buffy]

Just went back and checked out the site, and if you got anything like what they are showing on the site, you should have some great looking corals!

Yes, I did get some of them. I'll get pictures of what I bought up soon. Of course they don't look like that now LOL.

Put the corals in your main tank until you find somewhere else to put them. Leave the lights off for a day or several hours then only turn on 2 bulbs for a week or so.... Afterwards turn on another 2 bulbs and go for 2 weeks with 4 bulbs then you can turn on your last two bulbs.

I'm going to quaranteen them in a 10 gallon. My lights have 2 switches only. 1 works for 2 bulbs and the other works for the other 4 bulbs.

Corals can mess you up pretty badly, many of them release nuerotoxins. I have a link to a good story but its from another forum so pm me and ill send a link if youre interested.

Buffy ill sendit to you in a min

I got the link, Thank you.



I'm still mixing water right now, trying to get the salinity up. Corals are still in the heated box. I put them back in til I get the water done. I'm pretty sure they will be okay for a few more hours.

Before I start taking everything out of the 75 to put in the 55 gallon, I want to have a new batch of water made in case I need it. Need to do a PWC anyway.

Question: I took some of my sand out about 2 months ago and put it in a bucket and it's in the garage. I'm thinking I want a deeper sand bed, anything wrong with using that sand if I rinse it?

 

[kurtyboh]

nothing wrong as long as you rinse it pretty well. any organics left in it could cause a spike otherwise.

 

[Buffy]

nothing wrong as long as you rinse it pretty well. any organics left in it could cause a spike otherwise.

Thanks. I finally got the water mixed, dipped the new corals and they are in quarantine now.

I'm exhausted so I will get some pics put up tomorrow. Also tomorrow I will start moving everything from my 75 to my 55. Everything is going to stay in my 55 for about a week (next day off) because looks like I am going to be crawling in the attic after all.

What does everyone use to attach coral to something, these guys are soooo tiny, I can barely put my small fingers on them without touching flesh and I did do that a couple of times. One came on a square plug type thing and one had 2 teeny tiny pieces of rubble under it. Otherwise nothing.

@Carey....I kept the small pieces of base rock that you said were rubble, in case I needed them.....wasn't this one of the reasons?

If so do I attach them and put them back in qt so they can adjust in that tank to the attachment then when they are ready to go to dt I attach them somewhere else???

Or if anyone has a good link that would be fantastic. Thanks all. Time to close eyes. Nite

 

[kurtyboh]

I used super glue to attatch my newest frag, which was a cutting from my zoa colony.

 

[carey]

Yep Buffy, this is the time to use those rock fragments if youre able. I find it much easier to move them around once they are on a small rock. The bonus is that the corals will overtake the rock fragment but by that time you should have found a place in the tank for them to further grow out.

Waiting on pictures to see what you got!

 

[Buffy]

Pics

The pictures I took, don't look like the pictures on the web. Their pictures are so big and colorful but when I first took mind, everything looks the same. Guess I'm gonna have to wait for them to grow. Anyway, here are some.

 

[redsea]

The pictures I took, don't look like the pictures on the web. Their pictures are so big and colorful but when I first took mind, everything looks the same. Guess I'm gonna have to wait for them to grow. Anyway, here are some.

Cool corals!

 

[TLTGF]

The pics they take are typically under some serious blue actinic lighting. I think that once in the tank - they'll look a lot better under some good lighting! I can already see the potential!

 

[Buffy]

Pics

Anyway, here are some more.

 

[kurtyboh]

They look nice, cant wait to see em in your dt