Mithracula's Red Sea Reefer Nano

[mithracula]

I'm gonna start at the beginning here. I set up this tank last summer after failing predictably with a 5g - no fish and the few coral I had all survived except my GSP frag. I've had aquariums on and off since I was a kid. They've all been freshwater, and in the last 10years all planted. I don't remember what I saw, but about a year ago I got enamored with corals. Might have been zoas, I don't know. So here I am poorer, but loving it. There is so much I feel I need to learn. I've defiantly made some mistakes, though this forum has been very helpful when I was just lurking.

Current Equipment:
Return Pump: Reef Octopus Varios-2
Heater: Fine Titanium 300W run by an Inkbird - this is a little overkill but my room runs very cold.
Lighting: AI prime
ATO: Hydor with a toms aqualifter. I hate this thing - very finicky and needs a slower pump then the Toms.
Wavemaker: Jebao OW-10
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 1500SSS - too much but it was on sale so... it works.

Current Fish:
2 ocellaris Clownfish.

Inverts:
1 emerald crab. He's surprisingly one of my favorite animals.
Various Snails

Corals:
Duncan
various Zoas
blue mushrooms
Green ricordea mushroom
I don't remember Acan
Minty Acan
Acan Bowerbanki
Orange Leptastrea
Orange plate



Now pics!

What it looks like currently:

Back to the beginning - putting together everything!
July 11, 2018

By July 13 I had saltwater!

If you read this much, thank you!

 

[tupes]

Very nice what you have going.

So it has been setup for about 7-8 months?

And, you are welcome I read to the bottom.

 

[tupes]

Also, please keep us updated as your tank progresses. You are off to a great start.

 

[mithracula]

Very nice what you have going.

So it has been setup for about 7-8 months?

And, you are welcome I read to the bottom.

Thanks! I guess it's moving kind of slow. I had some ugly algae issues for a hot minute, and I'm in no hurry.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks great! No hurry is a very good thing.

 

[mithracula]

To set up the Red Sea reefer, I transferred all my rock from the 5g, which was over 5lbs and bought some more curing dead rock (it wasn't live rock). The 5g took forever to cycle, but then I never had to much of a cycle in the new tank. By July 24, it was cycled. I kept feeding ammonia until the 29th, where I did a water change and got my first saltwater fish. Also, if anyone who reads this finds me doing something wrong or have a better way, please let me know.

This is were I know I messed up. I got two clownfish from the LFS, and drip acclimated them. I got a black ocellaris and a normal orange one. Here they were:

And within 5 days I saw what I first thought was velvet on the black. I looked closer at the orange one with a flashlight and saw he was covered so much worse. I wasn't too worried as in freshwater, ich and velvet aren't as awful. Then I found R2R, and freaked out. But then found out it was brook. So I ordered meds, and gave them a freshwater dip. I keep a better supply of meds now, and have found a LFS that carried most things.

Petco was luckily running a $1/gallon sale and picked up a 20g, aqua clear filter, and everything mentioned in the R2R thread on how to set up a quarantine tank. I had been keeping an extra bag of biomedia in the DT sump, so that went into the filter. Clowns got another freshwater dip, the a Ruby reef rally bath, and dosed the QT with metro. Unfortunately, I'm guessing a secondary infection had set in, and I came home from work to find the orange clown dead, and the poor black one bobbing around by his body. I then added (based on info found here) Furan-2 and kanaplex to the QT. The black one then cleared up really quick. This was around Aug 5.

As I wanted a pair of clowns, I decided to pair up the black one before moving him/her back to the DT. I didn't want to go through a separate QT just to have it not work out, and it's easier to separate in the QT then display. I also decided to do another round of metro with the new fish, just in case. I tried out a different LFS to find my current clownfish. They are probably my favorite in the area now. I think he's a lower "quality" snowflake. He was just slightly smaller then my current one, and was in a large frag tank with other larger clowns at the store.

While in QT, the black one only liked the pvc pipes. I had added a fake anemone which she ignored. The new orange one, was initially forbidden to go into the pipes, but loved snuggling in the fake anemone. I'm guessing he learned from being around other clowns and in a tank with coral, where the black one came from an empty stock tank. By the end of the QT they were both getting along, with the orange one being submissive. And every morning I'd find them snuggled in the awful fake anemone.

So, now I QT fish and corals/inverts. I'm more attached to these clownfish then I'd ever thought I would be. They don't bother the coral too much, but I've caught the orange one trying to snuggle the Duncan a few times. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm up to trying an actual anemone anytime soon.

 

[tupes]

This is great to hear. Yes clownfish like to snuggle in just about everything that resembles an anemone even euphillia.

I was at a function and was told a story by one of the speakers that they had a clown fish that would host inside a live clam. At night they would go inside and in the morning the clam would open and they would come out.

 

[reef-rc]

nice progress. I had not had much success in pairing clown unfortunately; always end up in abuse . glad to hear yours doing getting along.

 

[mithracula]

I was at a function and was told a story by one of the speakers that they had a clown fish that would host inside a live clam. At night they would go inside and in the morning the clam would open and they would come out.

That’s wild! Clowns are definitely weird, which I enjoy. I wonder if they meant to get trapped in there every night.

nice progress. I had not had much success in pairing clown unfortunately; always end up in abuse . glad to hear yours doing getting along.

I’m sorry were they occellaris? The black one was pretty chill, it was the first orange one that I saw the most aggression out of. And I got lucky to find the second orange clown who was already at a bottom of a pecking order.

 

[tupes]

This is not the video I was referring to but itll show you exactly what I mean about hosting anything. It's crazy how the clam allows this behavior

This video probably could lead to MANY jokes but everyone please remember this is a family forum.

Watch "False Percula clownfish hosting T. Gigas clam" on YouTube

 

[mithracula]

Why is the clam ok with that, super weird. Thanks for sharing! Wonder if that hurts the clam at all long term. That is definitely the strangest thing I’ve heard of clowns being hosted by. Mine just sleep upside down in a corner. And they’ve started digging, moved the blasto and the minty scan around. Pretty sure it was them that knocked the Duncan off once too. It’s really their tank not mine.

 

[BlueMalibu]

Were you able to fit in the vario s 2 in the return chamber without any problems ? I just got nyos viper 2 but thinking about swapping it for the varioS2 . In measuring it I think the the ATO float may be in the way and the chamber is tight in the nano reefer.