andrews 20 g reef transition build

[aquandrew]

cant wait for further updates.

thank you i just rehomed a couple bettas and other fish and tore down a few tanks so i could set up my 75 reef that i am getting on Nov. 3rd, but then my mom told me that the lawyer came with his will and he wanted his house to be sold and the money to be split between my mom, my two sisters and myself. which means i am going to have enough money to move into my own place with my girlfriend and will have to move all of my tanks. i really do want to set it up though and might just go fowlr until after the move, because I'm not sure how long it is going to take to sell the house. decisions......decisions............

 

[aquandrew]

does this mean it needs more light?

i have my dimmables on 30% for each side and all three of my other corals are doing great in the bottom 1/4th of the tank. i have a nephthea which is medium-high light and its doing much better than the mushroom lol. I'm not sure why the two smaller mushroom sunk either. this is my first go with leds I've only used a 6 bulb t5ho before any help appreciated ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5 alkalinity is a little low at 7 calcium a little high at 420 mag is 1350 this is the first time I've tested the last three because i just got my redsea master kit. i tested three times to be sure. i also just switched from instant ocean to reef crystals. using rodi so i imagine there aren't any phosphates but i don't have a test for that. temp is 78 SG 1.025 on the dot. are my lights too hight? too low?
edit: the ph was also 8 before i switched to reef crystals and over the past week or so it slowly rose to 8.2

 

[Niccobacci11]

i dont understand the picture are those mushrooms supposed to be bigger or are they stretching for the light.
If they are getting smaller and they have been in the tank long enough to fully acclimate my guess that there could be too much light.
maybe someone else can help you more than I could.

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[aquandrew]

i dont understand the picture are those mushrooms supposed to be bigger or are they stretching for the light. If they are getting smaller and they have been in the tank long enough to fully acclimate my guess that there could be too much light. maybe someone else can help you more than I could. }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('>

well the little ones shrunk, not the big ones. but the big one is stretching up, i haven't seen its stem before, only in the pat few days

 

[Niccobacci11]

hmmmmmm........
increase the light about 5% every 3 days and monitor everything including corals.
or probably a safer way would be to just move up the mushroom and put it closer to the lights,
that way you dont screw with the other corals in the tank since they are doing fine.

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[aquandrew]

hmmmmmm........ increase the light about 5% every 3 days and monitor everything including corals. or probably a safer way would be to just move up the mushroom and put it closer to the lights, that way you dont screw with the other corals in the tank since they are doing fine. }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('> }<(((('>

yeah i thought i was suppose to turn it up much slower since my tank is a 29 and the 120 dimmables are very strong on an 18 inch tank with 1 3/4-2" sand bed. i have also seen my red legged hermit on the mushroom but it was eating a few pieces of hair algae that were on the rock when i bought it. do red legged hermits ever nip at coral? i only saw that once and it was on the 18 or 19th a few days after i bought two of them. I'm new to leds and so badly wish i had a par meter it would make things soooo much easier >:|

 

[aquandrew]

its also in an area where the flow is mostly blocked by the rock. i started the lights out low because the leds on the frag tank where i got them was covered in salt and resin and i figured it was reducing the light significantly. they had the medium light frags about 7-8 inches or so under and the med-higher light frags about 3-4 inches under the water level. the frag tank that the GSP and mushroom were in had really low flow and when i got them in my tank the opened up like crazy compared to at the store and the GSP is still doing great. the tank with the zoanthid had much higher flow and i put that one in a place where it only gets blown a little bit. the nephthea and GSP are in higher flow spots because thats what they need. i started all of the frags at the bottom except the GSP which is about 3" up on a rock. i haven't moved any of them, but just turned up the light level

 

[aquandrew]

i just didn't want to move any of them up very far, because the mushroom and nephthea are suppose to be on the bottom and the gsp and zoa towards the middle. i know gsps grow fast but my lfs sells softball size colonies for 160 and they said they would pay half what they sell it for so eventually ill just bring it back for 8x what i bought it for or if its bigger get more. unless i get a fragging kit but that won't happen until i learn much more about fragging because i haven't read much on the subject.

 

[aquandrew]

is fragging a gsp as easy as it sounds online?? i was looking up a way to control the gsp from overtaking other corals by building a structure specifically for it. but what I've read, is that my gsp frag is a broken off piece off rock and its not glued so i can just peel it off and cut away. so what I'm going to do is build a structure, cut the gsp into a few pieces and glue it to the structure then let it do its thing. when you do this and have the structure sitting in the sand bed, you can just cut whatever starts to carpet on the sand and make frags with it. does this sound like a good plan? will a scalpel with a new blade suffice for a one time use, or do i need a fragging scalpel? here is a barbaric drawing i just sketched up at work. i am just hearing too many stories of gsp taking over and people not being able to get them out of their tank.

my plan is to bend some metal wire to the shape i want then spray it with some krylon clear. after that i will make a crushed coral/cement mix and make the structure out of that.

 

[Mebbid]

yeah i thought i was suppose to turn it up much slower since my tank is a 29 and the 120 dimmables are very strong on an 18 inch tank with 1 3/4-2" sand bed. i have also seen my red legged hermit on the mushroom but it was eating a few pieces of hair algae that were on the rock when i bought it. do red legged hermits ever nip at coral? i only saw that once and it was on the 18 or 19th a few days after i bought two of them. I'm new to leds and so badly wish i had a par meter it would make things soooo much easier >:|

The gallons of a tank don't really matter when it comes to the intensity of light, it's all about the height. As such there's not really much difference in par between running that light on your 29g vs a 75g. From my experience regular mushroom corals are pretty resilient when it comes to light levels, I wouldn't worry about increasing the light level for them more. Ricordea are a different matter however.

 

[aquandrew]

got a new xenia frag!

mushroom is looking better. i am really digging how the xenia pulses and moves itselft. i will be getting the 75 gallon in a few days, once i have my basement cleaned up lol.

 

[aquandrew]

and the flash brings out the diatoms lol but brings out the starfish colors

 

[carey]

I love those little guys, so small and cute! They multiply so fast too and are absolutely no trouble at all so its all good to have a zillion of em. lol

 

[aquandrew]

I love those little guys, so small and cute! They multiply so fast too and are absolutely no trouble at all so its all good to have a zillion of em. lol

I'm considering ordering some bioluminescent brittle stars, i found a site that has them for 24.99 for 3-4 inch ones. don't you think it would be nuts to just touch the starfish, and it starts glowing??? i will likely have the 75 g running in a week or so then it will be fish ready about 6 weeks after that. i am seriously considering what to put in the 75. i have a list of candidates but what would you do?

 

[carey]

Hmm do you have any fish so far for the 75g? So many posts i have lost sight of what you have already. lol
And this will be a reef in the 75g as well?

 

[aquandrew]

Hmm do you have any fish so far for the 75g? So many posts i have lost sight of what you have already. lol And this will be a reef in the 75g as well?

this will be a reef. i don't have any fish in the 75, that will be started in a few days. it is going to be a very complicated plan. my plans are to basically run them all together, with a 55 gallon sump and 20 long ato. its going to take me a night or two to draw out my plans but i have them all in my head all together it will be a 75 next to a 29 with a 55 sump under the 75 and the ato will go behind everything, so i might have to make one out if acrylic. there will also be a 3 gallon pico cylinder fueled to the whole system. in storage there is 2 ten gallon qt tanks and one 2 for the bigger. I'm going to draw up some plans and start deciding on equipment in the next couple days. it will be my first large project

 

[carey]

wow that sounds like a very ambitious plan! I barely kept it straight in my head reading it. lol

Are you thinking any large showpiece fish yet, like a tang, angel or something like that?
i would sytart thinking of stocking the tank from the biggest fish down. This way you wont end up overstocking, I should have done that with my 90g aggressive tank, now I am stuck pretty much with what I have already as I want a large fish now. Shoulda gotten it in the beginning and then added the others after that, makes more sense.

 

[aquandrew]

yes i am thinking of one big fish and the biggest will be a yellow eye kole tang and coral beauty angel. for the 29 i plan to keep the clown, add a banggai and pajama cardinal and a watchman goby with tiger pistol shrimp. for the 75 I'm thinking the yellow eye, coral beauty or flame angel, snowflake/starry blenny, a black and a regular snowflake ocellaris. as you can see i like a mixture of color and personalities in the tank if you have any comments or recommendations feel free..... i also realllllly want a mandarin, and with all the space for pods to breed, i think i could pull it off.......eventually

 

[carey]

Youve got the blenny covered, how about a goby of some sort? I also love flamehawks, but some people have issues with them and inverts. I have a tank ful of snails, hermits and even a shrimp and my falco hawk is fine with them.

 

[aquandrew]

what goby would you suggest for the 75? I'm already planning on a blue or pink spotted watchman in the 29. i want to make sure my stocking list will all work out together. and i want to be sure to eventually get a regular or green spotted mandarin