jason's 20gal NEW reef ** update @ 5 months **

[Jason]

here is my 20gal. in the pics It is less than a month old. it cycled in 6 days.

currently in it.....

45 lbs of live rock (figi and tonga)
1 maroon and gold clown
1 rose anemone
1 red starfish (that's going into another tank tomorrow)
20 small blue leg crabs (by small i mean maybe 1/4 inch)
a mushroom
some candy coral
some star ployps
some green polyps

I didn't include andthing that was already growing on my live rock in that, and almost everthing i have put in it is a small frag besides the clown and anemone. In due time though it will be stocked. more piscs to come.

Oh yeah, I suck at using a digital camera that isn't mine so here is the best pic.

 

[Jason]

here is a pic of my dynamic duo after a feeding.....

 

[jamesmooni3]

keep up the good work its looking great

 

[jamesmooni3]

how did u cycle is 6 days?

 

[enjoyfish]

I like that pic

 

[fishfreek]

Whats your lighting. The photos dont look very bright.

 

[Jason]

Whats your lighting. The photos dont look very bright.

65w 50/50 PC from coralife and a 15w actinic florescent. I was thinking the same thing. It's 4w per gallon so I didn't really think about it. Do you think I need more light?

 

[Jason]

how did u cycle is 6 days?

I dunno, but in that top picture there was probably 40lbs of live rock in the aquarium and 25lbs of Live sand(a lot of cured LR has been added since). Their were also 5 damsels in it to begin with two that all lived and have since been taken back to the store.

The guy at the LFS tested my water every other day for 3 weeks but after the 6th day the amonia and nitrate were both 0 while the nitrate was at 20. I still test the water twice a week and nothing is changing with it so hopefully with regular water changes everything will be okay.

 

[Jason]

see, this picture did the same thing with the light......

I guess I need to change the exposure time on the camera. Again it's not mine so i never screwed around with the settings....

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

I dunno, but in that top picture there was probably 40lbs of live rock in the aquarium and 25lbs of Live sand(a lot of cured LR has been added since). Their were also 5 damsels in it to begin with two that all lived and have since been taken back to the store.

The guy at the LFS tested my water every other day for 3 weeks but after the 6th day the amonia and nitrate were both 0 while the nitrate was at 20. I still test the water twice a week and nothing is changing with it so hopefully with regular water changes everything will be okay.

Bad mistake, it takes at least a month for a tank to cycle, even if the levels start appearing ok. Why do you have corals in it already? And an anemone. Your tank hasnt matured yet, and soon enough your going to have some diatoms algae in your tank, and it might over cover your corals since you have a new tank By candy coral Im assuming you mean candy cane coral? Have you got any alk or calcium in the tank? Candy cane is a hard coral, its skeleton is made out of calcium, if you dont have any calciun or alk, it will die.

 

[Jason]

Bad mistake, it takes at least a month for a tank to cycle, even if the levels start appearing ok. Why do you have corals in it already? And an anemone. Your tank hasnt matured yet, and soon enough your going to have some diatoms algae in your tank, and it might over cover your corals since you have a new tank By candy coral Im assuming you mean candy cane coral? Have you got any alk or calcium in the tank? Candy cane is a hard coral, its skeleton is made out of calcium, if you dont have any calciun or alk, it will die.

Yeah so it's been about 2 months now and nothing has died..... I THINK IT"S TIME FOR ME TO GET A SHARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously though, the tank is fine nothing has died and it has been stable now for 6 or 7 weeks. The diatoms came on the 3rd day I had the tank set up, I brushed it off with a tooth brush and it has yet to come back. Also, the candy has split and I don't dose with anything. The anemone is still doing super and everything is so far, so good.

So now I am close to 2 months and haven't hit any speed bumps or had to jump any hurdles...... maybe, just maybe, my tank won't "CRASH"

But seriously, all the people I know who have had tanks for 10+years told me basically the same thing, "Don't freak out, it's not really as bad as people make it out." Basically it's like a first time mother. When you see new mother you can always tell they are very protective over there child, very gentle and cautious about harming them. Tanke that same mother 3 children later and she'll look like she doesn't care weather the baby lives or dies. Why is that? Well, the best explanation is she knows what will kill the kid and what won't.

But seriously, THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll keep everyone posted about how my "tank that is breaking all the rules" is coming.... actually i'll post a picture of what it looks like now as opposed to that last picture..... you might piss your self I've broken so many "rules." Also, it will give you a chance to say "I told you so" if my tank "CRASHES"

Peace,

jason

 

[revhtree]

Can't wait for the new pics! Looks great already.

 

[Jason]

here is an updated full tank shot... remember, I am horrible at taking pics with this camera..

 

[Jason]

here is my sun coral... to bad it wasn't open for this pic

 

[Jason]

Star polyps.... they are growing on the glass and starting to spread!!

 

[Jason]

here's my RBTA and maroon and gold clown...

 

[Jason]

these are one of the teo zoa colonies I could get into focus... they aren't near as pretty as some of the others are... i gotta learn how to use this camera...

 

[Jason]

these are a little nicer than the last ones....

 

[Jason]

some frogspawn

 

[Jason]

this is a crappy pic of the left side of my tank... that's where all my zoas are right now... I had an issue with a power head burning out and an anemone moving, so my Zoas got rearanged to this side....