Tom's 55G Saltwater

[Beengirl]

The tank looks great! sorry to hear about your foxface and clown. It seems like sometimes even with regular PWCs and monitoring of the parameters, bad things still happen. Don't let it discourage you.

[TommyP]

Yeah I know, thank you for that! After the holidays maybe beginning of FEB to make sure no more ich. I was going to get another clown so I can have two again. I want bigger ones though. The clown I have now is very small maybe 2 inches. which clowns get the largest?

[TommyP]

So today I did a water change and I pulled the 4 trays out of my emperor 400 hob filter to "swoosh" any lose junk out of there which may of contributed to my high trates. 2 trays are media that came with the filter and the other 2 trays i added activated carbon. When does this need to be changed? When I pulled out each tray and slid them back in much debris entered the tank. How do I prevent this from happening in the future? Moving forward am I supposed to turn the filter off while doing this and does anyone clean the intake tube?

Thanks!

[TommyP]

Any ideas?

[Dreamsound1]

Those tanks were built by that show fish tank kings

[Beengirl]

Originally Posted by TommyP

So today I did a water change and I pulled the 4 trays out of my emperor 400 hob filter to "swoosh" any lose junk out of there which may of contributed to my high trates. 2 trays are media that came with the filter and the other 2 trays i added activated carbon. When does this need to be changed? When I pulled out each tray and slid them back in much debris entered the tank. How do I prevent this from happening in the future? Moving forward am I supposed to turn the filter off while doing this and does anyone clean the intake tube?

Thanks!

I turn off my canister to clean the filter. I'm not familiar with the emperor filter, is it a sponge or one of those blue/white compressed type cartridge? With my sponges, I squeeze them and rinse them very well every week and each one gets changed on a rotating basis. I change 1 or 2 very week, but I have 8 sponges in there. I remove the whole tray and remove the sponges and chemipure and scrub the tray itself with a toothbrush to remove any small particles. (I'm kinda OCD about the filter.) Lol. Then squeeze/rinse the sponges and chemipure bags. Carbon should be changed at least once a month and I would alternate the other filter media. How much LR you have? If you have a good amount, then you shouldn't hurt much by replacing the filter stuff frequently, as the LR will harbor BB.

[TommyP]

I'm not sure on the exact weight of LR I have since I bought some from percolate and the rest used from another tank. I'd say for a guesstimate about 50-60 lbs. the filter consists of 4 slide out cartridges. 2 are blue/white sealed media that came with the filter and the other two are customizable so I put in activated carbon.

[TommyP]

Not percolate--- *Petco* fn autocorrect lol pics to follow of new coral and macro algae from reefs2go. 1st experience with them and any online order for coral/fish. Much smaller than I thought and the 4 gsp was really only 2. And that didn't open yet.

[TommyP]

So I got some chaeto algae and grape caulerpa (sp) I put in a makeshift fuge for right now about 500 pods it said. I also got 3 blue ricordia mushrooms, 2 blue mushrooms ( 1 was attached to rock 1 floating in bag and was lost when trying to situate it on a piece of lr in my tank. 1 Duncan w/ 2 heads. Some pieces of GsP didn't open yet. And the purple sea whip is by far my favorite until the rest open. All corals were drip acclimated for approximately 1.5 hours. Going to lfs to pick up some things tomorrow. Here Are some pics: not too much to see at this time not everything is open yet.



































Speaking about the purple sea whip I was thinking about getting yellow and red ones too in the future and I want to know how do you go about propagating them bc I'd like to line them up all along the back wall of my tank if this purple one does well. Kind of like a wall of whips behind my LR. Besides that, let me know what you think I put a FTS in as well. Goodnight!

[Beengirl]

Originally Posted by TommyP

So I got some chaeto algae and grape caulerpa (sp) I put in a makeshift fuge for right now about 500 pods it said. I also got 3 blue ricordia mushrooms, 2 blue mushrooms ( 1 was attached to rock 1 floating in bag and was lost when trying to situate it on a piece of lr in my tank. 1 Duncan w/ 2 heads. Some pieces of GsP didn't open yet. And the purple sea whip is by far my favorite until the rest open. All corals were drip acclimated for approximately 1.5 hours. Going to lfs to pick up some things tomorrow. Here Are some pics: not too much to see at this time not everything is open yet.

Speaking about the purple sea whip I was thinking about getting yellow and red ones too in the future and I want to know how do you go about propagating them bc I'd like to line them up all along the back wall of my tank if this purple one does well. Kind of like a wall of whips behind my LR. Besides that, let me know what you think I put a FTS in as well. Goodnight!

The tank is looking great! Not sure about the whips, don't have any of them. I would wait a couple months and see how that one does before buying more. It's very pretty, though. You'll have a lot of GSP heads when they finally come out, it'll look great. The mushroom might show back up, they can move themselves a little. I have a blue one that stretched, left a tiny new mushroom there and is in the process of leaving the rock he's on. I guess he's had enough of this place. Lol.

[TommyP]

Thanks! I went to the lfs today to spend $40 on some small frags and just to look and left spending over 200$ fml. Pics to come. I got 2 green candy came coral frags. 1 has 3 heads one has two. I got a frogspawn which I've wanted for so long happy I got it. There was a bunch of talk that they're endangered now so I got one while I can bc the lfs said they wouldn't be getting anymore in. I picked up a 6 line wrasse and a green mandarin. I know they're difficult but he was eating brine shrimp at the lfs and I got amphioids and Copepods just incase.

[Beengirl]

Originally Posted by TommyP

Thanks! I went to the lfs today to spend $40 on some small frags and just to look and left spending over 200$ fml. Pics to come. I got 2 green candy came coral frags. 1 has 3 heads one has two. I got a frogspawn which I've wanted for so long happy I got it. There was a bunch of talk that they're endangered now so I got one while I can bc the lfs said they wouldn't be getting anymore in. I picked up a 6 line wrasse and a green mandarin. I know they're difficult but he was eating brine shrimp at the lfs and I got amphioids and Copepods just incase.

Yeah, I've done that many times. Lol. "I'm just gonna look." Lol.
Love frogspawn, mine took about a week to fully open up, so just be aware that it might not look the same as it did in the store for a little while.

[TommyP]

That's what I figured. I moved him around a couple times and flipped a rock to put the frag piece in a hole. It's kind of at the top with some flow this should be okay. I only have 250 gph circulation pump on the opposite side until I get my 2 hydor 750's in the mail

[TommyP]

Lights are off ill shoot pics tmw

[TommyP]

I have this brain coral (I believe) can I get a positive ID and it swells up looks like its going to pop this picture doesn't do justice. Is this normal?
It actually won't let me post a picture for some reason it says I've maxed out my space? Pics are on the precious page. No pic then if it swelling. Only at night when 8 led moonlights are on

[Beengirl]

It looks like a green open brain coral. Cool!

[TommyP]

In 1-2 months I am interested in getting more fish to my stock. Currently I have a yellow tang, 6 line, clown & green mandarin. What are some good schooling fish I can have in my 55g tank besides blue green chromis?

[Beengirl]

Originally Posted by TommyP

In 1-2 months I am interested in getting more fish to my stock. Currently I have a yellow tang, 6 line, clown & green mandarin. What are some good schooling fish I can have in my 55g tank besides blue green chromis?

Cardinals. There are several types.

[TommyP]

Thanks, I like the PJ ones that have the polka dots on the back but Everytime I see them at the LFS they just sit there in one spot like pirahnas lol

[Beengirl]

They're not big swimmers, although they are fast when they wanna be. They kinda hover, but are usually out front and visible. I have 2 bangaii. Other than chromis and cardinals, there aren't a lot of schooling fish appropriate for a 55 that I can think of.