My First Clownfish Tank

[AshenEmberose]

Oh creepy looking molt ;Joyful

Things falling, is part of why I am hesitant with snails and stuff, I don't want something stuck behind LR because it fell down or something.

I was thinking about getting a pistol shrimp but now I'll consider a banded shrimp, they are great. But my fishes are really loud, I don't think I could tell the difference on a pistol shrimp and clown clicks anyway.

With my 3 Blue Leg hermits and 1 Banded shrimp, the molt from the shrimp is nearly non existent now from them eating away at it and Im not even worried about excess food going to the bottom anymore! My clowns eat all except 4 pieces usually and the CUC has that covered. My only issue now is that my thermometer battery died! The power button never let me turn it off so its just been running constantly but I got it April 29th. That lasted what, barely 10 days? I know the battery is small, but come on. I would bring it back to the store, but I’m actually gonna try to get a job there so I’m gonna leave it be for now.
Anyways, I got a really cool video of a hermit crab flipping itself over after being upside down, but the file is too big so I can’t upload it -.- but you can have a video of my clownfish eating. Everything is just so cool to watch. The CUC is very adventurous.

 

[AshenEmberose]

UPDATE! I went to my LFS yesterday since there was a 20% off coral sale and I told my mom she could help me pick out the corals as a Mother’s day thing lol.
CORALS
$35 Waving Hand Anthelia
$5 Pulsing Xenia Frag
$5 Blue&Green Mushroom
WATER PARAMETERS 5/10
Still the same! Topped off the water, but zero water changes yet.
TEMP
I told my LFS about the battery dying in 9 days and the thermometer refusing to turn off, and they gave me a new battery! Told me that I couldn’t get a refund, but I could always get a new thermometer and I might be able to bring it in and swap it, not sure though. Really need a smaller heater. It went up to 79.2F even after the top off and I decided to move the temp checker further away from the heater and deeper to see if I’ll get a different reading. 77F would be way more preferable. This heater worked great for my bettas but they like warmer temps so makes sense. Nothing in the tank seems to mind, so I’ll try to not worry too much.
LIGHTING (need help!)
I’m trying to find a cheap light for the corals that’s under $25 for my 10gal. The amazon reviewed lights have reviews that kinda stress me out, mainly the ones that aren’t waterproof which could fall in and kill everything. Don’t want that!
CORAL SETTLING IN
The xenia had a rough acclimating process bc the frag plug kept making it flip on its face so it took longer to open up and gets real unhappy whenever I’ve moved it in the tank. I moved it to the rock, but the angle isn’t seeming to work out. The waving hand coral had a few hands closed because it didn’t like the flow pushing it only one way, so I made the filter stream go towards the glass straight ahead and bounce off it to give more variety. The mushroom doesn’t move so I’m just assuming it’s having a grand old time. I think I want more mushrooms for my tank. Didn’t think I’d like them at first, but they add so much color to the tank, while the other corals are very similar colored. I wanted to get GSP but they only had a golfball sized piece for $35 I believe and there’s no way I’m getting a fast growing coral for that much. They had something that I thought was a GSP but it had thicker green parts and the girl told me it was different, but can’t remember the name of it currently. Also she said that GSP has stinger tentacles and is more aggressive than hammer coral?? I thought GSP was just bad bc it grew so fast it’ll grow over other corals. Would love to hear from other reefers about this.

 

[AshenEmberose]

I’ve been driving myself insane looking for blue lights, so I’ve resorted to coloring my white LEDs blue with my stratospheric blue copic marker. Immediately, my waving hand coral started perking up! Its not drooping anymore my pulsing xenia isn’t pulsing yet, but I moved it back to the spot it liked and its standing tall. I swapped out my bubble filter for a 10gal corner filter and angled the original 10gal filter towards the wall of the tank as much as I could since its more powerful and the waving hand coral closes up when it has that flow directly on it. I don’t understand how or why the blue green mushroom likes to move into the dark crevices of the rock where I can barely see it, but thats how it be right now. I want more mushrooms!!! Simplest thing in my tank. If my xenia doesn’t pulse in a week, Im gonna buy something to boost my pH. I heard that could help and its the only difference between my water and the LFS water. I also tried adding some freeze fried mysis shrimp and daphnia to the tank just to see if my fish would eat it and dirty water can make xenia pulse too. If anything, my CUC and nitrifying bacteria will take care of it though. I tried adding a little extra Reef Snow too. I never get algae in any of my tanks, I’ve tried in the past accidentally with freshwater (left the lights on wayyyy too long multiple times) but it never happens and I’m not afraid of algae anyways. My CUC is efficient so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever happens will just be more learning experience for me. That’s the whole point of this. Hoping everything works out

 

[AshenEmberose]

Got a new light from hygger and kent kalkwasser but my water parameters have taken a dive since adding? I really need to get better test kits, but these test strips are usually very accurate for me. All of my fish and inverts are doing just fine. My waving hand coral is kinda saggy today though and I’m almost positive the xenia is a goner. My pH isn't even seeming to go up but I now have noticeable nitrate AND nitrite which never happens! Not even in my old overstocked FW tanks. I might’ve added too much reef snow, but idk if that’d cause nitrites.
HOW IM FIXING IT
I added more nitrifying bacteria and added a new carbon filter to the tank. I also used 1ml of ammo-lock (recommended 5ml but I don’t wanna add too much to the water yet) and I topped off my tank last night. If conditions don’t improve by tonight, I’m gonna do a water change. I have 2 10gal filters with new carbon cartridges running along with 2 sponge filters.
QUESTIONS
Could the xenia dying off be causing the nitrites?

 

[Birdbrains?]

Great idea to try a job at the LFS! I hope you stick with that plan, it must be a fun thing to do
I avoid anything with batteries if I can, because of the cobalt trade, so instead I got a bunch of different cheap thermometers and after testing all of them, I use the one that showed the most average value of them.

I hear that gsp are rather aggressive, I want some but I don't think my set up can handle more bioload anyway. But be careful not to get the "asbestos" species, they are highly toxic. They grow more into stick formation and are somewhat more turquoise in colour.

Nice idea with mother's day
- I agree the pulsing xenia probably didn't deal with the nitrites. There is another coral that often triggers the pulsing in Xenias as well but I don't recall which. Idk with the mushrooms but perhaps it can be connected to water current as well.

I am totally overfeeding, it is just the female eats everything so I keep feeding until the tiny male gets something :/ I try to fix it by getting live foods, they can hunt it while having fun and it works kinda I guess.

Nice pictures, I have to watch the videos later because I have to convert them first and I don't have time tonight but I hope everything is doing good now! Also, I love that you painted your lights although you got another one later

 

[AshenEmberose]

Great idea to try a job at the LFS! I hope you stick with that plan, it must be a fun thing to do
I avoid anything with batteries if I can, because of the cobalt trade, so instead I got a bunch of different cheap thermometers and after testing all of them, I use the one that showed the most average value of them.

I hear that gsp are rather aggressive, I want some but I don't think my set up can handle more bioload anyway. But be careful not to get the "asbestos" species, they are highly toxic. They grow more into stick formation and are somewhat more turquoise in colour.

Nice idea with mother's day
- I agree the pulsing xenia probably didn't deal with the nitrites. There is another coral that often triggers the pulsing in Xenias as well but I don't recall which. Idk with the mushrooms but perhaps it can be connected to water current as well.

I am totally overfeeding, it is just the female eats everything so I keep feeding until the tiny male gets something :/ I try to fix it by getting live foods, they can hunt it while having fun and it works kinda I guess.

Nice pictures, I have to watch the videos later because I have to convert them first and I don't have time tonight but I hope everything is doing good now! Also, I love that you painted your lights although you got another one later

I took my water to get tested at the LFS and apparently my tank is in the middle of a cycle once again -.- I thought a hermit crab died but the store thinks it could be a shed. Its super colorful though and the last hermit shed I saw was mostly clear with a tint of blue legs. This one went the entire length of the body and I only ever see 2 crabs at a time so its just a waiting game. The store told me to dose my tank with Seachem Prime conditioner every day at the same time til the cycle is over. I really didn't want to do a fish cycle, let alone with inverts AND corals!!! but if everything survives, at least I've learned something. Also I'm feeling iffy about my LFS only bc I brought the either crab molt or body with me to the store and one person laughed at me and the other just told me there was nothing they could do if it was dead. They couldn't give me store credit on the xenia either I guess. Might order online somewhere next time once my tank is better. My tank didnt have any nitrites upon adding my corals so I think the xenia was just picky and it restarted my cycle. It didn't die too long ago, but apparently I'm right in the middle of a cycle so that's not too long of a process it seems. I'll keep updating when I notice changes. The LFS said I shouldn't get Chaeto yet since the nitrites would kill it but anytime I've mentioned wanting a refugium, they've seemed unenthusiastic about it.. I know that it's the one thing I really want because all of my FW tanks have live plants and I swear it's why I don't have to do water changes every month.

 

[AshenEmberose]

Sorry for not updating. Got side tracked. My waving hand coral nearly died but its bouncing back. Basically i added too much top off water all at once and the pH went from 7.5 to 7.0 and its slowly been shrinking since I was afraid to add kalkwasser til now since people told me DONT ADD IT YOULL KILL YOUR FISH but now im adding a couple drops in by hand per hour and the coral is better. But my Coral Banded Shrimp died today they only live 2-3 years but ugh. The tank parameters were fine too as far as I can tell. A better test kit might be in order but idk. I just wanted my tank to do well and go figure my female clownfish only wanted to hang out in my waving hand coral once it was dying -.- the mushroom coral is fine i guess but not growing really. My corals did better when my tank was crashing full of nitrites and ammonia what’s up with that???

 

[Krully]

I think you need more rocks (like actual reef rock like Marco Rocks or live rock, make sure to cure it if it's dry to avoid a mini cycle to occur), not sure you got enough bacterial population to handle your livestock. You also need some proper light and nothing around $20 will cut it, you might find some lights that will handle your corals around the $50/60 mark.