New BioCube 24g, follow along...
- Thread starter Big Jay
- Start date
Day 24
Well my new clown vanished after 2 days. Poof! No where to be found. So I scratched my head for a while. I went to my LFS to tell them what happened and they said to set a trap. So thats what I did. At first I caught some zombies and my peppermint but after some modifications to the trap I started to catch bristle worms. I caught one that was like 9-12 inches long. So I'm going to catch as many bristle worms as I can. I know some people say they are good but something snagged that clown.
I checked the parameters this afternoon.
Amm-0
trite-0
trate-5
pH- 8.4
sg- 1.025
cal- 420
phos-0
I've been starving the fish, (not really but really lite feeding) until I feel like the bristle worms are almost gone. Everything is doing well.
Not too bad for adding fish on day 4.
So I was in a book store a few days ago during lunch and I was reading a pretty cool book. I don't remember the name of it but I will be back to read more on another day. While flipping through the pages I learned that my crab "Miss Understood" is a blue eyed hermit crab. Well at least that question is answered. So now it's new name is Frank (Sinatra- Ol' Blue Eyes, get it?).
I added some loc-line to my tank. I "y"ed the line and sent water to the left side and the hydro-flo to the middle. I need to swap pumps though. The stock one is definitely not enough for this loc-line mod.
One of my scarlets got killed or died. I found a half eaten body this morning. Everything else is doing great. Since I caught that huge bristle worm I decided to replace the missing clown. I usually wouldn't be so quick to jump but there were only a few of the red ones left and I like the color.
Well my new clown vanished after 2 days. Poof! No where to be found. So I scratched my head for a while. I went to my LFS to tell them what happened and they said to set a trap. So thats what I did. At first I caught some zombies and my peppermint but after some modifications to the trap I started to catch bristle worms. I caught one that was like 9-12 inches long. So I'm going to catch as many bristle worms as I can. I know some people say they are good but something snagged that clown.
I checked the parameters this afternoon.
Amm-0
trite-0
trate-5
pH- 8.4
sg- 1.025
cal- 420
phos-0
I've been starving the fish, (not really but really lite feeding) until I feel like the bristle worms are almost gone. Everything is doing well.
Not too bad for adding fish on day 4.
So I was in a book store a few days ago during lunch and I was reading a pretty cool book. I don't remember the name of it but I will be back to read more on another day. While flipping through the pages I learned that my crab "Miss Understood" is a blue eyed hermit crab. Well at least that question is answered. So now it's new name is Frank (Sinatra- Ol' Blue Eyes, get it?).
I added some loc-line to my tank. I "y"ed the line and sent water to the left side and the hydro-flo to the middle. I need to swap pumps though. The stock one is definitely not enough for this loc-line mod.
One of my scarlets got killed or died. I found a half eaten body this morning. Everything else is doing great. Since I caught that huge bristle worm I decided to replace the missing clown. I usually wouldn't be so quick to jump but there were only a few of the red ones left and I like the color.
Last edited:
Day 29
So the crab death was just a molt. Whew one less death. My peppermint molted and looked like a snake skin but they are kinda clear. I got a fire shrimp too. Good thing it wasn't my fire shrimp or I would have really been pissed.
I did a lot of reading about these brittle stars. The one that came out of my rock is pretty big. So I guess the clown could have been done through by the star. I don't know. The star is cool but if he is a fish eater he is toast. I'm going to feed him and my fire shrimp tonight. Just for good measure.
So the crab death was just a molt. Whew one less death. My peppermint molted and looked like a snake skin but they are kinda clear. I got a fire shrimp too. Good thing it wasn't my fire shrimp or I would have really been pissed.
I did a lot of reading about these brittle stars. The one that came out of my rock is pretty big. So I guess the clown could have been done through by the star. I don't know. The star is cool but if he is a fish eater he is toast. I'm going to feed him and my fire shrimp tonight. Just for good measure.
Day 32
I named my red clown, Rupert. If he just so happens to turn into the female I will change his name to Ruby. I do still have Floyd and Lymon. But Lymon is on borrowed time. I want to get a YWG and a firefish. Frank is by far my most entertaining crab. He has a habit of jumping on a turbo snails back and going for a ride. The best part is when the snail does it's little bucking defense thing and he falls off. My fire shrimp, Sparks, always goes for my fingers when I'm going in for some cleaning. It is cool to feed him. He takes food by hand. So does the brittle star. I can't get Andre the peppermint to feed from my hand though. I think all of the BLHs have switched shells. One of my YTHs (yellow tip hermit) likes to hang out in the exact same place on one of the rocks.
I named my red clown, Rupert. If he just so happens to turn into the female I will change his name to Ruby. I do still have Floyd and Lymon. But Lymon is on borrowed time. I want to get a YWG and a firefish. Frank is by far my most entertaining crab. He has a habit of jumping on a turbo snails back and going for a ride. The best part is when the snail does it's little bucking defense thing and he falls off. My fire shrimp, Sparks, always goes for my fingers when I'm going in for some cleaning. It is cool to feed him. He takes food by hand. So does the brittle star. I can't get Andre the peppermint to feed from my hand though. I think all of the BLHs have switched shells. One of my YTHs (yellow tip hermit) likes to hang out in the exact same place on one of the rocks.
Day 36
So I got my Rio 6hf today in the mail. I wanted a higher flow pump with less watts and this was it. The place I ordered from must be near by to get here so fast. 1 day WOW. I also got some loc-line and a 1/2" y-fitting. I moved my hydor-flo towards the center of the tank and ran the remaining pieces with a flare fitting towards the left front floor corner. I installed the loc-line first and turned on the stock pump. I was surprised how much the hydor-flo slowed down with the addition of the other outlet. So I installed the Rio. I know the Rio flows more but it seems barely noticeable. I'm thinking about ditching the hydor-flo in favor of my other flare fitting and just getting a wave pulse controller for the Korelia2.
I checked all the parameters today. Everything is normal.
I'm also trying to decide on the final stocking of my tank. As you all may already know I have two Ocellaris Clowns now and a Green Chromis that coming out.
So here is what I like so far.
Green Clown Goby
Or
Yellow Clown Goby
Yellow Watchman Goby
Firefish
Yellowhead Jawfish
I plans on having softies and LPS in the future. I have read that the gobies like to eat SPS sometimes but I don't think I will be diving into that anytime soon.
So any of you have anything to add about the above fish? Opinions welcome!
So I got my Rio 6hf today in the mail. I wanted a higher flow pump with less watts and this was it. The place I ordered from must be near by to get here so fast. 1 day WOW. I also got some loc-line and a 1/2" y-fitting. I moved my hydor-flo towards the center of the tank and ran the remaining pieces with a flare fitting towards the left front floor corner. I installed the loc-line first and turned on the stock pump. I was surprised how much the hydor-flo slowed down with the addition of the other outlet. So I installed the Rio. I know the Rio flows more but it seems barely noticeable. I'm thinking about ditching the hydor-flo in favor of my other flare fitting and just getting a wave pulse controller for the Korelia2.
I checked all the parameters today. Everything is normal.
I'm also trying to decide on the final stocking of my tank. As you all may already know I have two Ocellaris Clowns now and a Green Chromis that coming out.
So here is what I like so far.
Green Clown Goby
Or
Yellow Clown Goby
Yellow Watchman Goby
Firefish
Yellowhead Jawfish
I plans on having softies and LPS in the future. I have read that the gobies like to eat SPS sometimes but I don't think I will be diving into that anytime soon.
So any of you have anything to add about the above fish? Opinions welcome!
Day 42
6 weeks. I checked all the parameters I could this morning. Everything was great. Nitrates were 5ppm and Cal was 460/480 a little high. I'm really considering getting a submersible 'fuge light so I can add some Cheato. Does the cheato have to be totally submersed? I was thinking of just adding filter floss to chamber1 and ditching the filter pad. I wanted to put the light under the drip tray. I do have my tank pretty full. Like 3/4 the way up in chamber 3. So chamber 2 would stack like this.
Bioballs (some removed for space)
Chemipure
eggcrate
cheato
light
drip tray
I'm also considering modifying chamber1 to accept my stock Oceanic pump. I want to set up the stock pump kind of like it was in chamber3. With the pump at the bottom and the return through a drilled hole with some more loc-line. This would get rid of the Koralia.
I also went picture crazy today. First time in a while. I took like 300 pics but only saved about 20. I have added to the tank too. God bless the internet. I bought a firefish and named it Ember. Pretty cool fish. Kinda boring to watch though.
So I have the awesome frogspawn with like 6 heads and I thought it would be really cool for the clowns to host it. Nope, instead Floyd decided to host my biggest ric instead. So now all he does is attempt to perch on it like a clown goby. Wouldn't be a problem if this particular ric wasn't attached to the side of a rock. This ric gets big too. Like 3 inches when it's all open up. Seems a little pissed with the clown hanging of it right now though.
Happy Holidays!
FTS, cloudy because I just turned the pumps back on and the Korelia sucks air at start up.
FTL
FTR
Ember the firefish
Floyd and Ember
Sparks
6 weeks. I checked all the parameters I could this morning. Everything was great. Nitrates were 5ppm and Cal was 460/480 a little high. I'm really considering getting a submersible 'fuge light so I can add some Cheato. Does the cheato have to be totally submersed? I was thinking of just adding filter floss to chamber1 and ditching the filter pad. I wanted to put the light under the drip tray. I do have my tank pretty full. Like 3/4 the way up in chamber 3. So chamber 2 would stack like this.
Bioballs (some removed for space)
Chemipure
eggcrate
cheato
light
drip tray
I'm also considering modifying chamber1 to accept my stock Oceanic pump. I want to set up the stock pump kind of like it was in chamber3. With the pump at the bottom and the return through a drilled hole with some more loc-line. This would get rid of the Koralia.
I also went picture crazy today. First time in a while. I took like 300 pics but only saved about 20. I have added to the tank too. God bless the internet. I bought a firefish and named it Ember. Pretty cool fish. Kinda boring to watch though.
So I have the awesome frogspawn with like 6 heads and I thought it would be really cool for the clowns to host it. Nope, instead Floyd decided to host my biggest ric instead. So now all he does is attempt to perch on it like a clown goby. Wouldn't be a problem if this particular ric wasn't attached to the side of a rock. This ric gets big too. Like 3 inches when it's all open up. Seems a little pissed with the clown hanging of it right now though.
Happy Holidays!
FTS, cloudy because I just turned the pumps back on and the Korelia sucks air at start up.
FTL
FTR
Ember the firefish
Floyd and Ember
Sparks
looking great, you got nice peaces of rock there. in the futher this will be a nice reef tank if you choose. the fish are looking good. looks like you got good water flow going on. you dont really need the skimmer for the first month. now that you have two fish in your tank have start getting yout vleaning crewst up the blue legs are great, get some turbo snails later on they help alot with algea. I saw you have a aiptasia on the center rock you should get a aiptasia killer since they multiply fast in the tank out of one you can get 10 and from 10 up to 25 they can be bad once you have corals in there they sting corals so take care of the aiptasia while you can. other then that its looking good
That isn't aiptasia it looks like a palythoa of some sort. I wouldn't juice it. Not until I was sure it was.
The reason your clown is hosting the ric is that it closely resembles their natural host which is a carpet anemone.......If you notice your ric not opening up because it is being stressed you will want to move it. The clown will find another host. You may want to move the candy cane into your rock work.....though they are okay on the sand. ......looks great!
The reason your clown is hosting the ric is that it closely resembles their natural host which is a carpet anemone.......If you notice your ric not opening up because it is being stressed you will want to move it. The clown will find another host. You may want to move the candy cane into your rock work.....though they are okay on the sand. ......looks great!
Thanks for the compliments!
I think the previous post was made without opening page 2.
The ric is opened up today. Maybe he just needed to get used to the clown.
I had the candy cane in the rock work but I'm going to get some more corals in a few weeks so I will reorganize then. I'm going to be getting a Sunpod 150W MH in the next few weeks too. On my list I have some palythoas, acans, green stars, and torch. I want to get the jawfish at the end of the month too.
I think the previous post was made without opening page 2.
The ric is opened up today. Maybe he just needed to get used to the clown.
I had the candy cane in the rock work but I'm going to get some more corals in a few weeks so I will reorganize then. I'm going to be getting a Sunpod 150W MH in the next few weeks too. On my list I have some palythoas, acans, green stars, and torch. I want to get the jawfish at the end of the month too.
Bummer.
I haven't quite figured it out yet. Something in my tank is is hungry. My first clown, Floyd, was not hanging on his ric this morning. I got out the flashlight and found his half eaten body near the lower intake grate at the back of the tank. He was covered in slime from the nassarius snails and I saw a bristle worm near by as well as the brittle stars legs. Floyd was doing fine yesterday. He ate and was acting normal so I don't think he was sick.
I have grown to hate the zombies. They make a slimy mess every where they go. I'm thinking about getting rid of them all together.
I'm going to donate the star to the LFS along with my chromis.
I'm pretty sure I don't have any other predatory hitchhikers. I haven't seen any evidence of any other critters. The first disappearance was a clown too. But it didn't happen until after I saw the brittle star.
Everything else in the tank is thriving. My shrimp are doing well. All my corals look great. All my hermit crabs are still working. My turbo snails are doing well too.
I'm going to set my worm trap back up and go back to my lite feeding schedule to draw out the worms and anything else that might be hiding in the tank.
Any other suggestions on what might be going on?
I haven't quite figured it out yet. Something in my tank is is hungry. My first clown, Floyd, was not hanging on his ric this morning. I got out the flashlight and found his half eaten body near the lower intake grate at the back of the tank. He was covered in slime from the nassarius snails and I saw a bristle worm near by as well as the brittle stars legs. Floyd was doing fine yesterday. He ate and was acting normal so I don't think he was sick.
I have grown to hate the zombies. They make a slimy mess every where they go. I'm thinking about getting rid of them all together.
I'm going to donate the star to the LFS along with my chromis.
I'm pretty sure I don't have any other predatory hitchhikers. I haven't seen any evidence of any other critters. The first disappearance was a clown too. But it didn't happen until after I saw the brittle star.
Everything else in the tank is thriving. My shrimp are doing well. All my corals look great. All my hermit crabs are still working. My turbo snails are doing well too.
I'm going to set my worm trap back up and go back to my lite feeding schedule to draw out the worms and anything else that might be hiding in the tank.
Any other suggestions on what might be going on?
Thanks all! It has been up and down. After Floyd died I got another clown. Then about 4 days after that I noticed a white spot on Ember. I set up my QT and tossed all the fish in with a rock. Not enough rock though. AMM. went up and I put the fish back in the display in a breeding net. Cleaned the QT and moved the fish back to the QT. Oh, forgot to mention I did a FW dip. Ember jumped back in the display. So I left him there and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and all the fish were dead. Except Ember. He was lucky and jumped for it at the last second. The culprit was the heater. POS. I woke up and the tank was like 64 degrees. My QT is next to a large window and I don't really run my heater in the winter. I live in the desert and the lows are only about 35-45. So I decided to let Ember live out his days in the display. I waited about 4 weeks and the white spot that started it all is still on Ember and I never saw any more evidence of Ich. So I bought the two clowns and the goby last week. The clowns are Black and White Ocellaris. Tank raised from two different lines.
Should look like this but with cool mis-bars.
I still plan on getting a jawfish or a 6-line wrasse.
Should look like this but with cool mis-bars.
I still plan on getting a jawfish or a 6-line wrasse.