Ryagon's 125g mixed softie/lps tank - Page 2

Ryagon · 06/08/2017, 12:15 PM

Not much new to show. The display tank is running well with the hermits and peppermint shrimp. No issues with anything there.

I have several corals in quarantine right now and they have been in for a few weeks with 1 dip and I will be doing another this weekend. They have done well and most have grown quite a bit just in a few weeks time. I will add pictures when they are in the display tank in another week or two.

I am having to find a new fish source and probably will just start ordering online. I have attempted to purchase blue/green chromis from a local shop twice. The first time they all died within a few days one was dead very quickly. My nitrite was slightly high but should not have been fatal and I was doing daily water changes. I tried several more, which took 4 weeks just to get them in since they never placed my order... One was dead before I even got home from a 10 minute drive, lost another while drip acclimating. The rest died in a day or two. This time the tank has been set up longer and has twice the bio filter, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. I have never in 10 years of aquarium keeping had anything like this. The store staff even started asking me for tips while I was there getting a refund. Needless to say I will not be going back. After my corals have finished their time in quarantine I will be placing an online order for some chromis for one quarantine and possibly a pincushion urchin a some trocus snails in the invert quarantine.

Ryagon · 06/13/2017, 12:56 PM

Here is a quick pic of the Frogspawn and Hammer that will soon be put into the display tank. Both have grown since the 4 weeks ago I purchased them but the frogspawn has grown significantly.

LPS_Blasto · 07/24/2018, 03:00 PM

Any updates on this tank?

Ryagon · 07/24/2018, 03:08 PM

I will put some updated pics soon. Been slow but progressing added some corals and fish but budget has been a little tight so the addition of livestock has not been as quick as I would like. Equipment updated I removed the Hydor pumps and replaced them with 2x Maxspect gyre XF250's.

Ryagon · 09/21/2018, 09:11 AM

Ok it has been WAY to long for an update. The last year has been pretty crazy outside of reefing so the progress has been a little slower than I had hoped.

Tank hardware additions/fixes.
Pretty much all the equipment has stayed as is except with the addition of 2x Maxspect gyre XF250's. I removed the old hydors, there just was not enough flow midway through the tank or anywhere that was behind rocks. This made a huge improvement in flow. I run them on the OGC cycle at 40%.

I decided to get the new pumps when I was having issues with Cyano mainly in the lower flow areas and this did help. Along with changing filter socks more frequently and fixing the protein skimmer settings.

When I first set up the tank I had pretty much no idea how to run some of the equipment being my first reef tank. I had the protein skimmer tuned completly wrong. I had read the instructions basically backwards so it would never fill up. After like a month there would be 1-2 inches of liquid. This did not help the situation with some semi-high nitrates and high phosphates. After a while I kinda realized that was probably not how it was supposed to work and tweaked it with some help from videos and forums to get it working better. It is still a little picky, some weeks it will work where it fills in about a week to week and a half. Others it will overflow in one night with the same settings.

The chaeto has been pretty stagnant. It neither grows nor shrinks. I think the issue is the light I am using the Reefbreeders Fuge-Lite. I plan on getting a better refugium light soon.

Livestock
6x pajama cardinals
4x blue green chromis
1x yellow tang
1x coral beauty angel
1x flame angel

1x tuxedo urchin
1x pincushion urchin
5x hermit crabs
3x turbo snails
20+ small snails that came in on something even with dips and quarantines.

I have only had 2 casualties in the display tank and almost a 3rd. There was a copperband butterfly fish which did ok in quarantine it took him a while before I could visibly see him eat but he survived in QT for about 2 months. He did ok for a while in the display tank but would only eat frozen food. After about a month and a half he started to look thin and was not eating well. I believe he starved like other copperbands do. Woke up to one of the urchins eating him

.

I THINK the watchman goby I had in there is dead. I have not seen him in a very long time unless he is hiding somewhere in the back but I don't believe so. He did just fine and had him in the tank for about 6 months before he went missing.

The other fish that I thought was a casualty was one of the chromis. One day it went from 4 to 3 and I never found him anywhere. A few weeks later I found him swimming in the overflow box and managed to undo the plumbing and get him to suck down the emergency overflow into a net. He is just fine now. Little buddy was a runt and managed to fit between the weirs.

The school of chromis would be bigger but I had an issue ordering last winter and shipping was delayed with weather and half my order was dead on delivery. My next stocking, which should be, in the next few weeks will be more chromis to have a nice flowing school.

Corals
Toadstool
Finger leather
2x Cabbage leather varieties
Ricordia
Frogspawn
Peppermint coral
2x acan varieties
Torch
Duncan
Lobo
2x encrusting corals I am not sure what they are

Most of the corals seem to be growing. Some of them are still on frag plugs until I get more and decide where I want them permanently. The frogspawn went from 2 polyps to about 16 in a little over a year. The finger leather has gotten a little taller but way fatter and more fingers especially at the base, I ended up cutting off a finger to grow a separate one and it is growing as well.
The duncan is one of the newest additions and had 1 polyp when I got it and already has 5 additional polyps growing off the base. Everything is pretty steady.

One of the Acans got half eatin by something I am not sure if it was an urchin but one of the urchins was right next to it when 2 of the 3 polyps dissapeared, could be a coincidence? The other Acan has gone from 2 polyps to 4-5 smaller ones starting on the sides.

Coral Casualties
Fan coral
Elegance
Hammer

The fan coral was one of my first corals and I believe I was just to inexperienced to care for it properly. The elegance I think was actually an Indonesian based on only being $50 and it did fine for a few weeks and just shriveled. It was alive for a few months barely so I tried to put it back in quarantine to see if that might change things and it finished it off unfortunately. I had some peppermint shrimp in the tank to preemptively stop any aiptasia but one of them went rogue and ate the entire hammer coral. I caught them using a water bottle filled with food to get them to come out of the rocks and banished them to the sump where they eventually died getting stuck in the last weir.

Ryagon · 09/21/2018, 09:12 AM

Here are some updated pictures. My phone does not take very good picutes of the tank and often has lines from the lights. I will try to get some better ones one night, just turning the lights to preset sun mode with the room black. The color also make it look like tons of diatoms or something, there is just little bit of brown algae or diatoms on the sand but the picture greatly exaggerates this.

Ryagon · 09/21/2018, 09:12 AM

06/08/2017, 12:15 PM	#26
Ryagon Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Tyler, Tx Posts: 54	Not much new to show. The display tank is running well with the hermits and peppermint shrimp. No issues with anything there. I have several corals in quarantine right now and they have been in for a few weeks with 1 dip and I will be doing another this weekend. They have done well and most have grown quite a bit just in a few weeks time. I will add pictures when they are in the display tank in another week or two. I am having to find a new fish source and probably will just start ordering online. I have attempted to purchase blue/green chromis from a local shop twice. The first time they all died within a few days one was dead very quickly. My nitrite was slightly high but should not have been fatal and I was doing daily water changes. I tried several more, which took 4 weeks just to get them in since they never placed my order... One was dead before I even got home from a 10 minute drive, lost another while drip acclimating. The rest died in a day or two. This time the tank has been set up longer and has twice the bio filter, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. I have never in 10 years of aquarium keeping had anything like this. The store staff even started asking me for tips while I was there getting a refund. Needless to say I will not be going back. After my corals have finished their time in quarantine I will be placing an online order for some chromis for one quarantine and possibly a pincushion urchin a some trocus snails in the invert quarantine.

06/13/2017, 12:56 PM	#27
Ryagon Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Tyler, Tx Posts: 54	Here is a quick pic of the Frogspawn and Hammer that will soon be put into the display tank. Both have grown since the 4 weeks ago I purchased them but the frogspawn has grown significantly.

07/24/2018, 03:00 PM	#28
LPS_Blasto Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 581	Any updates on this tank?

07/24/2018, 03:08 PM	#29
Ryagon Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Tyler, Tx Posts: 54	I will put some updated pics soon. Been slow but progressing added some corals and fish but budget has been a little tight so the addition of livestock has not been as quick as I would like. Equipment updated I removed the Hydor pumps and replaced them with 2x Maxspect gyre XF250's.

09/21/2018, 09:11 AM	#30
Ryagon Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Tyler, Tx Posts: 54	Ok it has been WAY to long for an update. The last year has been pretty crazy outside of reefing so the progress has been a little slower than I had hoped. Tank hardware additions/fixes. Pretty much all the equipment has stayed as is except with the addition of 2x Maxspect gyre XF250's. I removed the old hydors, there just was not enough flow midway through the tank or anywhere that was behind rocks. This made a huge improvement in flow. I run them on the OGC cycle at 40%. I decided to get the new pumps when I was having issues with Cyano mainly in the lower flow areas and this did help. Along with changing filter socks more frequently and fixing the protein skimmer settings. When I first set up the tank I had pretty much no idea how to run some of the equipment being my first reef tank. I had the protein skimmer tuned completly wrong. I had read the instructions basically backwards so it would never fill up. After like a month there would be 1-2 inches of liquid. This did not help the situation with some semi-high nitrates and high phosphates. After a while I kinda realized that was probably not how it was supposed to work and tweaked it with some help from videos and forums to get it working better. It is still a little picky, some weeks it will work where it fills in about a week to week and a half. Others it will overflow in one night with the same settings. The chaeto has been pretty stagnant. It neither grows nor shrinks. I think the issue is the light I am using the Reefbreeders Fuge-Lite. I plan on getting a better refugium light soon. Livestock 6x pajama cardinals 4x blue green chromis 1x yellow tang 1x coral beauty angel 1x flame angel 1x tuxedo urchin 1x pincushion urchin 5x hermit crabs 3x turbo snails 20+ small snails that came in on something even with dips and quarantines. I have only had 2 casualties in the display tank and almost a 3rd. There was a copperband butterfly fish which did ok in quarantine it took him a while before I could visibly see him eat but he survived in QT for about 2 months. He did ok for a while in the display tank but would only eat frozen food. After about a month and a half he started to look thin and was not eating well. I believe he starved like other copperbands do. Woke up to one of the urchins eating him . I THINK the watchman goby I had in there is dead. I have not seen him in a very long time unless he is hiding somewhere in the back but I don't believe so. He did just fine and had him in the tank for about 6 months before he went missing. The other fish that I thought was a casualty was one of the chromis. One day it went from 4 to 3 and I never found him anywhere. A few weeks later I found him swimming in the overflow box and managed to undo the plumbing and get him to suck down the emergency overflow into a net. He is just fine now. Little buddy was a runt and managed to fit between the weirs. The school of chromis would be bigger but I had an issue ordering last winter and shipping was delayed with weather and half my order was dead on delivery. My next stocking, which should be, in the next few weeks will be more chromis to have a nice flowing school. Corals Toadstool Finger leather 2x Cabbage leather varieties Ricordia Frogspawn Peppermint coral 2x acan varieties Torch Duncan Lobo 2x encrusting corals I am not sure what they are Most of the corals seem to be growing. Some of them are still on frag plugs until I get more and decide where I want them permanently. The frogspawn went from 2 polyps to about 16 in a little over a year. The finger leather has gotten a little taller but way fatter and more fingers especially at the base, I ended up cutting off a finger to grow a separate one and it is growing as well. The duncan is one of the newest additions and had 1 polyp when I got it and already has 5 additional polyps growing off the base. Everything is pretty steady. One of the Acans got half eatin by something I am not sure if it was an urchin but one of the urchins was right next to it when 2 of the 3 polyps dissapeared, could be a coincidence? The other Acan has gone from 2 polyps to 4-5 smaller ones starting on the sides. Coral Casualties Fan coral Elegance Hammer The fan coral was one of my first corals and I believe I was just to inexperienced to care for it properly. The elegance I think was actually an Indonesian based on only being $50 and it did fine for a few weeks and just shriveled. It was alive for a few months barely so I tried to put it back in quarantine to see if that might change things and it finished it off unfortunately. I had some peppermint shrimp in the tank to preemptively stop any aiptasia but one of them went rogue and ate the entire hammer coral. I caught them using a water bottle filled with food to get them to come out of the rocks and banished them to the sump where they eventually died getting stuck in the last weir.

09/21/2018, 09:12 AM	#31
Ryagon Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Tyler, Tx Posts: 54	Here are some updated pictures. My phone does not take very good picutes of the tank and often has lines from the lights. I will try to get some better ones one night, just turning the lights to preset sun mode with the room black. The color also make it look like tons of diatoms or something, there is just little bit of brown algae or diatoms on the sand but the picture greatly exaggerates this.