KC's 55gal

[Kworker]

Man thats the best part of having aquariums. My fiance and her boy seem to enjoy them just about more than i do ( plus it helps that she owns a LFS lol ). My mom and dad like them but dad seems to enjoy them a little more ( he mostly enjoys feeding my arowana tank lol )

Arowana's are pretty awesome but theyre on that WAY too long list of species that SHOULD NOT be commercially sold in this hobby. I dont get why so many fish are sold that so many people would never be able to properly care for or if they have no clue at all fall way too short to care for it. Like earlier when I saw a dozen 2" hippo tangs at the LFS, how many 2" hippo tangs end up in a 5 gal tank that was set up an hour ago because people are ignorant with this hobby.
Anyway in bringing up the freshwater fish, i love freshwater. My planted tank is my baby so relaxing. Plus the fact the ease of maintenance you can setup a planted tank to be. really no WC's just topoffs.

EDIT: Hope you didnt take it as me claiming you arent taking care of the Arowana. Just made me rant about people who dont lol

 

[Davesgt]

i love my planted aquarium. i have a 75 tall pleco aquarium that is planted and im obsessed with it. As for arowanas they are my absolute favorite in the aquarium hobby and thought id never have on for your exact same reason, but one day i went into a Lfs and seen a baby red tail silver that was 2 1/2" long which shocked me and plus it had been beaten almost to death by 4 oscars that where atleast 4 inches long. SO i decided its fate would be better off with me then at the bottom of an aquarium dead. Freshwater is by far my real love, i have 4 setup and love them. the oldest is my 30 gallon which has been setup since my dad started it when i was 5 so its just part of me lol.

 

[Kworker]

Haha a planted pleco tank, must be a blast for you to have to replant every now and than unless theyre bushynoses, even than.. Oh yeah i hear you about that arowana. sometimes i feel like the LFS is the dumbest fishhkeepers around with some of the fish they put together in the holding tanks. I limited myself to really just my 40B in my room and this 55gal reef in my living room. But i do have a rack in the basement that was full of tanks but now just one 50gal guppy tank with plant clipping-growout. Actually speaking of your oldest tank. The tank that this 55gal reef replaced was a 29gal. It was set up for I would say close to 12 years, it was actually kind of sad to take it down. Especially since now its in the basement empty. But all my fav's from the tank are in the 40B like the 13 pepper cories half of which i bred. and my oto's. The 29gal with stand will prob make its way to my nephew sometime down the road.

i love my planted aquarium. i have a 75 tall pleco aquarium that is planted and im obsessed with it. As for arowanas they are my absolute favorite in the aquarium hobby and thought id never have on for your exact same reason, but one day i went into a Lfs and seen a baby red tail silver that was 2 1/2" long which shocked me and plus it had been beaten almost to death by 4 oscars that where atleast 4 inches long. SO i decided its fate would be better off with me then at the bottom of an aquarium dead. Freshwater is by far my real love, i have 4 setup and love them. the oldest is my 30 gallon which has been setup since my dad started it when i was 5 so its just part of me lol.

 

[Davesgt]

you would think that everything would be destroyed by the plecos but truthfully everything grows so fast you really dont see the loss. the only pleco that i really have that does some bulldozing om my plants is my chocolate columbian zebra, he will go on a rampage on my monster sword about once ever 3 months then hes ok lol. ive just had to adapt to what i can keep and what does well. Like lace plants dont last a minute cause of my queen arabesque. my planted tank is by no meens the top of the line but its looks great to me and has been up for a long time so im happy. Oh yea octos are awesome, dont have any but ive been thing about it.

 

[Kworker]

Yeah my planted is not top of the line either, i went basic low light plants with it. I have 5 amazon swords and a ton of different crypt species, few ferns, water sprite, riccia and duckweed. Im actually in the process of figuring out how im going to set up a new light system because of my setup i have some emersed growth from driftwood in the middle, the plants are actually growing around the bulb in the fixture. I will probably go with some track lighting, pendants and CFL. Simple and cheap. I havent even taken any updated pics on it in quite awhile. The 55reef is really taking away from it a bit lol

 

[Davesgt]

This is the last picture that i actually took of the tank and its from 2 years ago so growth has changed alot.

 

[Kworker]

Nice, I love discus. Hopefully sometime in the future I can have a 200+ gal discus tank

 

[Kworker]

Been a bit since i posted.

All four of my Chromis are swimming around happily. At this point 3 of them are together majority of the time than one stays within the current of my powerhead behind my rock structure swimming in the current as if hes playing. I dont see it as the group excluded him because they let him eat when I feed, and he joins in swimming with them 1/4 of the time. Mainly in the morning.

Tuesday I did go to the store to pick up a blood red fire shrimp. Got it, a big guy at 2 1/2-3" hes really cool to watch. But hangs out under a cliff in the live rock most of the time. But goes out periodically to snack. In the morning hes been active i think because theyre nocturnal I'm witnessing the end of 'hi day'

I did spur of the moment buy a purple dartfish. It was actually one of the two i was going to get But got the Chromis instead. Im not sure what happened to the other. But I couldnt resist, not like i didnt know the ID of the fish so i think its okay. He's been hanging around his little cave. Eating well. puts down nice big peices of mysis. Nice color to him as well.

As for the tank itself. I am going through a bit of a diatom stage. Will siphon as much as i can later during the WC.
The parameters are all good. I bought a Reefmaster test kit earlier to test phosphates, Ca, and KH. All good.
Water is a big dirty but after the WC later should clear up plus I'm going to be adding a Carbon pad between my baffles for a few days.

Everything is going good for most part. Zoas and starburst polyps nice colour. The pipe organ coral isnt where it could be at but is chugging along. But to my understanding theyre a bit harder than the others.

 

[bknapp]

Sounds like things are going great, how about some new pics?

 

[Kworker]

Unfortunately things are going to be tough for a bit. Some family issues. The tank may actually be a relaxation tool but defiantly fell in priority.

 

[bknapp]

Unfortunately things are going to be tough for a bit. Some family issues. The tank may actually be a relaxation tool but defiantly fell in priority.

Sorry to hear that. But it is relaxing just sitting there staring into the tank, hope things turn around for you and your family.

 

[Kworker]

Yeah.. the blood shrimp already set up a cleaning station. Saw a chromis tanking advantage already it was pretty neat to watch

 

[Kworker]

Honestly last night i thought things were going to be chaning a lot so I thought Things for me would change drastically but now that the dust somewhat settled things will work out. Here are pictures.

 

[Kworker]

Things going good, picked up 2 oc. Clowns
Than got some coral frags that I let the parents pick out and they had fun doing so.
Picked up
2 zoas (unsure of ID)
1 cabbage coral
2 torch corals one green other one brown/purple

 

[Kworker]

Some New additions from today and from tuesday.

Cabbage coral my father picked out

God of War Zoa's ( I suck at taking pictures at the moment)

Tree leather coral (suck again at taking pictures)

Trumpet coral with a few little feather dusters hitchhiked onto the sides

Anyone have the ID of this? I once knew and seen it numerous times, greatly appreciated.
The polyps were originally extended upwards and flowing, Im still waiting on it to come out.

Picked up two mushrooms, one green mushroom and the other is Ricordia greenblue/orange.
Heres a pic of the Green not fully opened but placed on a rock that it would hopefully adhere itself too.

I also picked up 2 skunk cleaner shrimps. Still need to get some pictures up of my clowns especially them schooling with the chromis which is funny to watch.

Full tank shot:

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

The corals look great. I think the one you are trying to id might be gonipora.

 

[Kworker]

Ahh yes thanks

I have some aipista but I don't really mind as I planned on getting more shrimp so I'll just pick up like 5 peppermint shrimp. And will make sure they aren't camelbacks.

So besides my two fixtures that seem to be adequate I would like to add some more actinic into the lighting. I like the deep blue t5ho two HO fixture with moonlight, I am going to splice in a pc to run t5s on timer and have the moonlights in it stay on constant. The fixture comes with one actinic which I will keep as for the white bulb I will probably replace with a Fiji purple. Question would be do you guys feel I would be good with 36" fixture for my tank which is 48". I am most likely hanging it in the canopy 6-7 inches from surface.

 

[Kworker]

Its been awhile. Updating because its been a crazy 24 hours. So I broke the silicone seal on the back of the bulkhead of my overflow so I was getting a drip 1,2,3,4,5, drip coming from the back of my tank. This happened because I had to change the plumbing of my tank due to the fact I once had the drain from the tank T'd off a the bottom than a 90 elbow to down. I just capped one end and diverted all to the other, silly me. I did not consider that stuff would accumulate there and rot. I had a bit of ammonia in the water, a very little and red slime outbreak that im combating. Currently the tank is filled only 13 out of the 21" with my powerheads going just no sump and skimmer for the past couple days and today, will be back tomorrow.

Anyway. To make things worse. It was my fault yet again. One of my skunk cleaner shrimp had an Isopod on him. I brought him back to the LFS i got him as the Isopod was inside and if I were to operate it would not make it. So I returned himf or Credit.

With that credit plus some cash I have currently acclimating into a 20long quarantine tank in my room.

1 Carpenter Fairy Wrasse
1 Lubbock Fairy Wrasse
1 Ruby Wrasse

I watched them for a good half hour at the store and chose these 3 because they were all in a holding tank together acting very peaceful with one another and a few dartfish, which I have one so It made sense. IDK I'm a little weird.

Hopefully all 3 make it through quarantine alive and not medicated

 

[Kworker]

Lost the Ruby Wrasse in QT

Not sure why, the parameters are all good no signs of anything bad.
They do all seem stressed. Since the beginning he stayed out in the open corner breathing heavy. While the other two were breathing somewhat heavy they also were swimming around a bit.

I know the Ruby ate. I spot fed them before I went to work yesterday morning. Checked in on them at about 9:30 last night to turn lights to moonlight.

Now I'm not the type to go back to the LFS demanding my 40 bucks back. I put it up as its my fault some error in my part. Don't think I will be looking to pick up another.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Dang sorry about the loss. Tank is looking great!