Slate's First Tank 55gallon

[Slate]

Both clownfish are looking MUCH better today as far as lesions go. So now I am doing the constant inspection of each wound where a lump is expelled for fungal growth.

As far as future plans go, depending on how long it takes my clowns to completely get over the Lymphocystis I will either add a Fire Cleaner Shrimp and a Starry Blenny. Or if it takes longer than expected for the clowns to heal I will put that money towards some better bulbs for my T5 fixture to prep for a RBTA.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

hope they heal up, where did you get a 20 gallon brute? how much do they run?

 

[Slate]

Home Depot here in CDA has them for $20 with lid included.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Oh wow i thought they were only 30+ gallon size and close to $40, good info, thanks!

 

[Saltyfish]

Looks great, I have to set up my mixing tank I just dont know what size I want yet.

 

[Slate]

Looks great, I have to set up my mixing tank I just dont know what size I want yet.

Yeah, hard to not take over your laundry and still have enough salt water on hand to make a dent in a tank like yours.

 

[Saltyfish]

yeah but I do not keep my garage heated in the winter. I can but I turned off the breaker for the heater . Besides when you park the hot car in there it stays warm all night anyways. During the day it is not so bad if you keep the doors closed but do I really want to risk freezing a line?

 

[Slate]

Here are a few updated pictures of my favorite LPS pieces. Please excuse the scratches in my old tank, and all the sand flying around is from the clowns digging their nest under the green torch.

 

[Slate]

Weekly Update

Well this week I am still diatom free, but I have been trying to squash a small cyanobacteria outbreak. I think I finished off the last of what was in the tank tonight by cleaning out the HOB refugium and siphoning out the last spot I saw in the sand.

I also added a Fire Cleaner Shrimp this week to help find any left over bits of food the clowns leave behind. My male clown is completely healed up from their illness and the female is just mending some tattered fins. I am guessing she will be pretty much completely healed by next weekend.

As far as the coming week is concerned I will probably order 2 new daylight bulbs to replace the cheap ones that came with my fixture. I am hoping that as we approach the BR 3rd annual sale coming up that someone from Spokane heading over will be able to pick me up a RBTA from DMB Reef .


Shane

 

[cross]

tank is looking good slate.

 

[MrSculpin]

Here are a few updated pictures of my favorite LPS pieces. Please excuse the scratches in my old tank, and all the sand flying around is from the clowns digging their nest under the green torch.

Looks great! I think you need a Kenya tree or some Anathelia. (can you tell I have that stuff coming out my ears!)

 

[Slate]

Ordered new daylight bulbs today which should arrive Friday . It also looks like a have a head on my green torch and branching hammer in the process of splitting.

 

[Slate]

Ok so after another trip to Barbie's over the weekend, and our love of our current LPS, my wife and I have updated our future stock list a bit. The plan for corals atm is to eventually add an elegance in the right front corner of the tank to keep the flowing motion in the lower range of the tank. After I we get an RBTA in and settled we are planning on slowly working on SPS for the top of the live rock. So far the main thing that has caught our eye are Millis, but as we get closer I will begin working harder on research to know what to look out for when deals pop up .

For Fish we are thinking the folowing:
Pair of Percula Clownfish (already have)
Starry Blenny
Yellow Watchman Goby
Sixline Wrasse


For mobile inverts:
Fire Shrimp (already have)
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Blue Tuxedo Urchin


Claire is also getting in zoos a bit so I will also probably pick up some decent size dry rubble for small colony in the left corner of the tank and I also have a decent size LR peice set aside for zoos. I also have a rock near where the elegance will go that may end up becoming a sweet spot for ricordia :badgrin:.

And that is the end of my bored rambling.

 

[Slate]

Well my daylight bulbs arrived already. I ordered them from Hellolights.com and am very happy with their rapid shipping and service. I went with 14k bulbs and I must say I really am pleased with the look. I also made a little frag rack today out of some eggcrate and one of those crappy whisper magnet scrubbers I have had lying around for years.

New 14k UV brand 54w bulbs.

FTS from today, the white spots are all the nerite snail eggs. Apparently my diatom bloom from a couple weeks back was enough food to send them into a crazy breeding cycle.

And this is my boxer Rocky....he is getting very jealous of the tank and feels the need to be right near me anytime I work on it...

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

very nice, what other bulbs you have in there? or is it a two bulb fixture?

 

[Slate]

I have the 2 actnics that it came with atm. I am realizing now that they are partial blues which I didn't see in the description so much....not sure what I want to do now or if it even matters.

 

[Slate]

Thanks to the help of Maylin2 picking us up a couple anemones from the BR sale this weekend I now have a small RBTA in my tank. It did a bit of roaming last night but seems to have it's foot firmly planted into a rock. Here is a picture of it using my wife's very simple point and shoot.

 

[cross]

nice, your reef is realy coming along.

 

[Slate]

Slowly but surely, school pretty much kills my aquarium funds by reducing how much I can work. But I figure in a month I will frag some stuff and work on trading here and there. Not to mention I will probably be throwing freebies at people to make up for everything the kind local refers have given me on top of what I purchased from them . Gotta love the pay it forward philosophy.

 

[Saltyfish]

Yeah I am having a problem too trying to find time for my tank.

Not spending too much time on the boards let alone my tank.