Rene's 75g Journey

drstratton · Oct 5, 2015

Hi everyone! I have just recently decided to restart my tank after four years of it sitting empty. My DT is still cycling. Here are some pictures of my tank & setup!

DT

New DT Screens (I will share a DIY that we did for the QT later)

Left side

Right side

Sump picture from 4 yrs ago!

29g QT

I hope I didn't overdue with the pictures! I like lot's of pictures, it's nice to be able to go back to where you started and view the progress!

Ahruk · Oct 6, 2015

Can't wait to see it start filling up

What are you planning ot keep in it?

drstratton · Oct 6, 2015

Hi! I'm pretty excited to also see it fill up! Right now I'm going FOWLR! I didn't title my thread as such, because, well, you know, that is subject to change

. The lure to have beautiful coral in my tank again is very tempting, but FO for maybe a year! Right now I have 2 Purple Firefish in my QT. To make a long story short, if I had known that they could not be sexed I would only have one sitting in my QT. Hopefully, I have a male & female! The tank should be cycled when their quarantine time is up!

Male%20amp%20Female%20Purple%20Firefish%2010-2-15.jpg

drstratton · Oct 6, 2015

Stocking list! Disclaimer: This is subject to change!!!

2 Purple Firefish (already acquired)
Goby W/Pistol Shrimp (I had a bonded pair and loved watching them)
McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
Scissortail Dartfish (compatibility issues with firefish?)
One Spot Foxface Rabbitfish
Whitespotted Pygmy Filefish, Captive-Bred ORA (I think this is a very unique looking fish) or Banggai Cardinal fish trio (my husband likes these)
Pair of Clowns
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Yellow tail Damsel (I want something bright blue in my tank, this is one of the less aggressive Damsel's, but I can live without it if it will cause to much discord in my tank)

I'm completely open to any suggestions & advice! Thanks!!!

Ahruk · Oct 6, 2015

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of experience with fish to share with you but Ohh those flasher wrasses are gorgeous! The current top of my wishlist for when I have a bigger tank/convince boyfriend to put it in his is a midas blenny. They have gorgeous blue eyes and a pink/yellow body.

EnLight · Oct 6, 2015

I want your aquascape! That's awesome, so far so good

drstratton · Oct 6, 2015

Ahruk said:
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of experience with fish to share with you but Ohh those flasher wrasses are gorgeous! The current top of my wishlist for when I have a bigger tank/convince boyfriend to put it in his is a midas blenny. They have gorgeous blue eyes and a pink/yellow body.

They really are beautiful fish! If I had a larger tank I would have more than one! I thought about a Blenny, might go that route instead of the Scissortail Dartfish if the dartfish will have compatibility issues with my Firefish!

EnLight said:
I want your aquascape! That's awesome, so far so good

Thank you! I think your tank looks pretty sweet!

klp · Oct 8, 2015

Love the open design as one long piece of the reef! Beautiful layout for the fish to be swimming through and caves to hide in. Also did you buy or make your own screens?

steelheader.262 · Oct 8, 2015

Looking good!!!

Rookie J · Oct 8, 2015

This looks great. Like how you did your sump.

drstratton · Oct 8, 2015

klp said:
Love the open design as one long piece of the reef! Beautiful layout for the fish to be swimming through and caves to hide in. Also did you buy or make your own screens?

Thank you, that is exactly what I was going for!

I made my own screens. The DT screens were pretty straight forward, the QT was a bit more challenging. You can get the screen frames at Lowes or Home Depot. The mesh is 3/8" pond and pool netting. Here's a link to my QT screen build. If you look through it you will see that someone posted a reversible corner that would have made my project much easier!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-qt-screen-cover.216533/

drstratton · Oct 8, 2015

steelheader.262 said:
Looking good!!!

Rookie J said:
This looks great. Like how you did your sump.

Thank you! It's hard to wait for it to finish cycling, getting a bit anxious to get it stocked!

I'm really happy with the sump, it's very easy to get in and I have room for other equipment. My husband did a great job installing the glass dividers for me. I want to build a custom tank, but I probably need to have this one going for awhile, before I try to talk him into it!

drstratton · Oct 11, 2015

So, I've had 3 shrimp rotting away in my tank for 10 days. Here are my test results!
API - Ammonia: 1.0
API - Nitrate: 10
Hannah Checker - Phosphate: .44

I need a new Nitrite test, so I wasn't able to test for that.

I am seeing some nice spots of green algae growing in my tank. I think the reason that I am seeing Nitrate and Phosphate so soon is because, I probably didn't get the sand in my sump completely rinsed. So it must still have some good bacteria growing in there!

Since I am showing Nitrates and have such a high Phosphate reading do you think that I should go ahead and put some Chaeto into my sump?

drstratton · Oct 12, 2015

I've been feeding Mysis to my Firefish. I decided it was time to introduce the New Life Spectrum pellets that I bought for them. They were pretty funny to watch. They would take a pellet into their mouth and I could see crumbs come out of their gills and then they would spit what was left out. They kept coming over to the glass as if to ask where the good stuff was, it was pretty comical. I didn't give in, they finally started to eat the pellets. I need to know that they will take those if I have to be gone.

Pete polyp · Oct 12, 2015

You don't want to add any cheato to the sump before the cycle is complete because it can stall the cycle. That's a ton of phosphate! I bet it came from your rock and if so you're in for a long battle with the nasties. Best of luck.

drstratton · Oct 13, 2015

Yeah, I figured out that I need to wait! Had a long discussion on the chemical forum today about some coralline that seems to be growing in my tank! I'm hoping that when my tank cycles and I can do a huge water change and finally get some chaeto that my phosphate problem will settle down. I just have to be prepared for some work in case it doesn't! Thanks!

Pete polyp · Oct 13, 2015

drstratton said:
Yeah, I figured out that I need to wait! Had a long discussion on the chemical forum today about some coralline that seems to be growing in my tank! I'm hoping that when my tank cycles and I can do a huge water change and finally get some chaeto that my phosphate problem will settle down. I just have to be prepared for some work in case it doesn't! Thanks!

Well since there's no fish in there yet I suggest using lanthanum to remove the phosphate.