me new 90 gallon!

[Sergie]

I picked up my 90 gallon yesterday. The rock that came with it was stocked with corals. Due to some unexpected turn of events that led to more than one delay, I could not get the tank up and running as soon as I got home. So I put most of the corals in my 46:

And the rest in a styrofoam container with a small filter, heater and the fish that came with.

As soon as my tank clears up I'm planning on putting all the live rock back in and maybe the chromis. I believe a spike should be avoidable...

 

[Sergie]

Never had a sumo before but i got the overflow and sump up and running after a water squirting incident. I can't find a brand on the skimmer but after researching, it looks like an ASM skimmer. It's really, REALLY big. Does anybody know anything about these skimmers?

Both halides and all four led moonlights work, I just need to order more PCs cause they're burnt out. I'm thinking purple purple in the back, blue purple in the front. Does this sound ok?

The people I bought it from had the tank for over a year. Every rock had some form of coral. Mushrooms, zoas, frogspawns, polyps. So I guess I'm going to stick with this light fixture and see where I can go with it.

It appears that I am also now the proud owner of a serpent starfish. What's the care level like for these critters?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SteveFishman]

Looks good I transported a tank earlier this year with minimal problems...

 

[Sergie]

I transferred all the live rock into the tank after 24 hours of letting the tank run. The rock was hardly ever out of tank water during transportation, so I'm hoping for little to no cycle. All the corals are open and enjoying the light. Rock pounds comes out to about 110 and I'll be adding more from my 46 tomorrow morning. I have a 20 gallon long fuge with skimmer and live rock rubble.

I decided to move the clowns in so there's little ammonia introduced to keep the bacteria fed. I'm going to wait a week before introducing my coral beauty and bicolor blenny.

Lighting is metal halide only until I get my new PC bulbs in soon. And I'll be putting a black background in on Monday..hopefully.

I forgot to take a pic of the tank with just the lunar LEDs on, then you'll get a clear view of all the coral in this tank. I'll do that tomorrow morning.

 

[Sergie]

So my fiancée tested the water tonight, 14 hours after transfer and the readings are 0-ammonia, 20-nitrite, 30-40-nitrates. Looks like I'm skipping the big cycle. I'll probably add 10-20 more pounds of Live Rock from my 46, and I'll add some more rubble into my fuge tomorrow morning, 24 hours after transfer.

 

[carey]

Looks good, no ammonia is a good sign. Hopefully the nitrites drop pretty quick as well.

 

[Sergie]

Yeah I've been sweating bullets at work all day. I've been here for 13 hours and I haven't been able to check up on my tank. Makes me nervous since my last transfer was a failure... So my nice fiancée tested for me. If my trites drop to 0 tomorrow, do you think It can handle a small coral beauty and a bicolor blenny being added by Monday?

 

[carey]

I would really take it slow for a week or two at least. You could still get a spike. Your system kinda has to jive with it's new self for a bit before i think you should attempt to put anything new in. Or are these the fish you have already?

 

[Sergie]

These are fish I have in my 46. I'm selling the 46 soon and was just curious. It wouldn't hurt to wait a bit.

 

[carey]

Oh, ok, was just making sure you weren't going a fish buying spree so soon. lol

If your parameters remain stable for a couple days I see no reason why you can't introduce them.

 

[Greenturtle]

Even as tempting as it may be, a fish spree is a really bad idea. LOL a species of fish, maybe 2 a week was my limit haha.

 

[Sergie]

Day 3 and it's 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and it looks like a little nitrate. Which is a great sign. All corals were open and bright all day. My 46 will be gone on monday so I put my coral beauty and my bicolor blenny in.

 

[Sergie]

 

[Sergie]

 

[Sergie]

So my fiancée tested the tank today after finding our coral beauty dead. She was sluggish in my 46 and hadn't been eating. I'm guessing it's because my nitrates in that tank had sky rocketed since I moved all the rock around and everything got stirred up. After testing the 90 we found a little ammonia no nitrites and 5ppm nitrates. I'm guessing the spike in ammonia was because of the dead fish. The two clowns and blenny are all swimming and active. All my corals are still out...but it seems like the nitrogen cycle is in effect since I have nitrates. Should I be concerned? The last transfer crashed after 24 hours and my corals never opened during the transfer...so I'm hoping these results with the 90 are a good sign...

 

[carey]

As long as the ammonia doesn't rise any more and the tank settles down I think you'll be ok. The nitrates arent that high so no concern there. I'd just keep a check and test for the next few days

very sorry about your coral beauty. :-(

 

[Sergie]

Thank you Carey. Luckily this tank also came with a coral beauty which is being housed at my LFS since I couldn't have two of them in the same tank. Once everything stabilizes I'll pick the other one up. It also came with a plump red scooter which is also at the LFS. I've been watching the pod population at night with the moonlights and it's pretty huge. Should I bring him home or should I let my pop grow even more and get a mandarin later on down the road. I've got about 120lbs of rock and am planning on getting 30-50 more pounds. Also planning on putting some macroalgae in my fuge...

 

[carey]

I would wait just a tad longer to bring the scooter home. After you get some macro in your refugium. Not sure how two pod eating creatures will do in your tank even with so much rock, hard to say. I;d say judge it from when you pick up the scooter and go from there.

 

[Sergie]

Oh I wasn't saying is get both. I was just seeing if it'd be safer with the scooter since I know he's thrived in this set up. I know some people say mandarins are harder to keep than scooters. I've kept a mandarin before for 4 months before the transfer killed him. How much more does a mandarin eat compared to a scooter?

 

[carey]

I find the mandarin is harder than the scooter. The scooter took about 2 months to come around to totally eating prepared foods. I do see him still hunt though.

Mandy is harder to switch over but I think I may have done it. She was eating everything the other day I put in, three or four different things too. But I had the ORA advantage and some luck I think. She spends her entire day hunting and pecking at rock. She never stops. LOL

The scooter at least will sit around and 'scoot" sometimes, do his sailfin thing and just hang out and fit some hunting in on occasion.