Gozer_1

Here is my 55. It needs some more snails. I'm almost ready for some coral, but I have a problem fish so I am trying to work around that. He's a vicious killer. It actually looks really good for having a lacking cleanup crew. I only have 15-20 nassarius snails and 3 astrea snails. They all do the best they can but they just don't have the numbers. They stick mostly to the glass, so it stays nice and clean. lol Should be ordering a new batch of Astreas or Trochuses, Friday. Maybe with a larger force they can clean up those rocks!

Tom

Very nice.
Tom

agsansoo

Gozer_1,
So all the red slime algae is gone now ? As for the regular green algae, I would get a couple large turbo snails. They work great ! Also have you tested your phosphates lately ?

COBettaCouple

yea, love how it's laid out and since i'm not a SW tank owner yet, i'm not sure but are there some good SW shrimp for algae cleaning and do SW snails put out as much waste as FW snails?

Gozer_1

Well, theres a little bit of red slime, but it's pretty well under control. The astrea snails do a great job of cleaning it up, and it syphons off rather well. The only problem with the astrea snails is the turtle on its back effect. They aren't real good at flipping back over.
Since I've been using bottled water the phosphate, silicate, and nitrate levels have gone down considerably, which really slowed down the algae and slime. My biggest problem now is stirring the substrate. I just have to gently rake it around a little bit every couple days because there are not enough critters to stir it for me. I get a little algea growing in it if I don't. It's definitely coming around. The effects of using treated tap water for a few months still show a little. The phosphates, and silicates that still remain, I believe, are mostly remnants of that.
As for, shrimp, I am unable to keep shrimp. The "problem fish" I described earlier is a shrimp/crab/snail eater. You can check out my post in the saltwater species specific forum. It's a topic called "A kick in the Wrasse". As far as snails go, I'm not sure. I know they are an integral part of the system. With out the few I have I'd be in a real algae world of hurt. You just have to get a good mix of detritus eaters and algae eaters.

COBettaCouple

hmm.. so treated tap water causes problem with a saltwater tank? i've got a lot of research to do.. i didn't know there were issues with treated tap water.

Gozer_1

You should read my Topic "I'm losing the battle with red slime" in the Misc Salt thread. You can hear all about my misadventures with tap water. I was adding Nitrates Phosphates and Silicates to my water without knowing it.

atmmachine816

Looking very good

COBettaCouple

I'll have to check that. Not having a SW tank yet, i don't frequent the SW forums a lot. although i'm getting more votes to make the new 30g tall a SW tank.

Gozer_1

Count me for a vote for SW

I just ordered a bunch of new snails from Foster and Smith so, I hope to have some algae cleaned up real soon. They have a nice Build your own janitor package deal. $60 or more gets free overnight shipping.
10 more nassarius
30 cerith
2 turbos

They are gonna get a nice slow acclimation. I can't introduce them until night time when the wrasse is sleeping.

COBettaCouple

yea, i took at look at that and definitely need to plan for more than i realized. I also understand from Dino that Denver has soft water. can that complicate matters with a SW tank?

Gozer_1

Hmm soft water eh....In Denver? I always thought they had hard water. Hmm well I don't know about hard and soft water. It would only matter if you use tap water. If you use "drinking water" from a store, you won't have any problems. I have a 4 stage filter, but I need a storage tank. To do water changes with a filter only takes way too long. Mine puts out 75 Gals. a day and that is one of the better ones. I need 15 gals right away lol. $0.66 a gal for green label water from Evilmart.

COBettaCouple

i thought it would be hard too, but i'd trust Dino's advice with how long he's been at this fishkeeping deal. the water here in FL is HARD! i'm hoping the pH is similiar though - we use tap water, double-treated.

agsansoo

Put me down for one vote for SW too !

atmmachine816

Aragonite is a buffer to raise the pH too, it's a type of substrate and like gozer 1 said, if you buy water you don't have to worry about it.

COBettaCouple

i'd just hate to have to keep going to the store for jugs of water and if we could use buckets of treated tap water, that would be preferable. do most SW tank owners buy water? do any treat tap water?

Gozer_1

You test your tap water for various contaminants, so you know what you are putting in your tank. The stuff in tap water that is not so good for a Salt water are not so bad for freshwater. FW fish can tolerate much higher Nitrates (not that they should have too lol), and such. You just need to know what is in the water. My problem with tap water was primarily Silicate, and Phosphate. These 2 things contribute heavily to algae and diatoms. I had a nasty brown coating on everything in my tank for awhile. (Diatoms) Then the Red Slime. Now that I have switched to buying water I have gotten these under control. My new snails will make sure of that.

I got part of my order today. Sadly the Ceriths are on backorder. Everyone is acclimating as we speak. I'm so excited. The Turbos look really neat, and I love Nassarius snails. They are fun to watch, especially at feeding time.

Oh and I use Caribsea aragonite for my substrate. Seems to be perfect.

COBettaCouple

sounds like the first thing i'd do if we go with a SW tank after moving to Denver is get a full testing kit to test Denver's tap water and see what we'd be dealing with there as far as those things go. But i'm really thinking of waiting for a bigger tank to do our first SW.. something a little more forgiving than 30g.

Gozer_1

That's definitely not a bad idea. I know my 150 FW is WAY easier to maintain water quality than it was with my old 29. I have to constantly clean up my 20. The 150 just stays pristine. People never believe me that the bigger one is easier to maintain. The key to my success is my Python gravel washer. No More Buckets of water. You just have to add Dechlor as you fill the tank back up. The splashing actually gets rid of a lot of the chlorine, so you just have to get rid of any chloromine. I was skeptical at first, adding tap water straight to my tank, but after almost 2 years of use I have had no problems. Of course this doesn't work for my SW, with the bottled water thing. I think you will find bottled water to be easier and maybe cheaper than testing all the time and treating for the stuff in the water. Your best other option is an RO/DI Filtration system. These are EXSPENSIVE. I have one that I can only get 75 gallons out of in a 24 hour period, and it cost me around $230 just for the filter. I plan to get a storage system going. Set up my filter so it fills a storage tank when I use it up to change water.

COBettaCouple

sounds like an interesting challenge.. i wonder if some consultation with timg could yield a RO/DI system that would be less expensive.. well, plenty of time to research for us i think.. gotta have a place & the money for a 150g and all it needs. thanks for the info.

Trpimp147

i agree with the bigger tanks are pretty easy to take care of my 10 gal was so hard i donno why just things would change to easy. at least in the 75 gal or 150 you have a few days to relize whats going on!!!

Gozer_1

When you have a larger volume of water you get Pockets of water quality "micro climates". If one area gets a little dirty, your inhabitants have a clean place to go until the spot clears up. Plus, just for the sake of example, 1 gram of ammonia in a 10 gal tank is WAY more than 1 gram in 100 Gals. It takes more dirt to get the water dirty. lol You really see it in large ponds. POckets of algae. Fish favorite hang outs, and totaly "dead" spots.

Radcliffe

In terms of getting bigger tanks- have you checked yard sales? I got 3 (10,29,55) for $50 at a yard sale this spring and have been resisting going to check out all the other sales with tanks ever since!!!

--R

agsansoo

Gozer_1,
Are you continuing to use the "Lights Out" method to keep the algae at bay. You should be doing this once a month. I was going to do this this week, but do to the clown laying eggs, I might have to delay this until next week.

Gozer_1

I have some what. I haven't completely covered it. My recent move across town has brought up some problems. Kind of having trouble getting it squared away lol. The good news is I found a home for the problem fish. He's going to a 75 FO tank. No live rock, no snails, just good filtration and fake rocks to hide in. The bad news is the fish is to smart for fish traps and nets. I think I may have to pull the rocks to get him out. He is REALLY fast. I think I'm gonna take this opprotunity to "start over". I'll pull the rocks, clean em up. Essentially "re-cure", let the snails get comfortable again. Get the cycle stabilized, maybe add a coral or 2, then it's a pair of Percula clowns for me. Maybe I'll even get good enough at this to keep an anemone for them.
Hmm just trying to look on the bright side of this. I will definitely never buy something I don't know every detail of. It's so easy to impulse buy in this hobby.

agsansoo

You don't have to completely cover the tank for the green algae, just go without lights for two days once a month should do the trick. As for impulse buying, I do it all the time ... LOL . 9 out of 10 I regret it later. Everything looks so tempting in the fish store. I remember when I had to take back my pair of killer damsels to the LFS. I had to remove every last piece of live rock in my tank, just to net them ... . Did you ever get any Turbo snails ?

COBettaCouple

Damsels are aggressive? are they rough on clowns or anemones or corals?

Gozer_1

Yes I hear Damsels are devil fish, but that wrasse ate the one I got.

I have pulled out all the rocks and finally exercised the demon. I hope his new owner really believed me. He was excited to get the Wrasse. He wanted aggressive. Good Luck to him lol. The rock project went rather well. I think everything is Ok. Even the featherdusters are back in force already. Sadly I found one of my brand new Turbo snails half eaten behind a rock, but the others (1 Turbo, 3 Astrea and a bunch of Nassarius) are all live and accounted for. It's lights out for a couple days so everyone can get cozy. The tank looks really great now though lol. I can see the coraline algae now yay. I can have a clean up crew now yay. The second part of my snail order shipped out today yay. 30 Ceriths. Yay, I'm so glad I found a new home for my little friend. I miss him still though. He was beautiful and was pretty cool. I just had a reef started, and being in limbo between reef and NO reef was not working.

The Damsel put up a fight......sorta.......

Gozer_1

UPDATE: I now have
5 Chromis
1Tomato Clown
1 Purple Pseudochromis
1 Banded Coral Shrimp
Green Star Polyps, Button Polyps, and a patch of bluish green Zoos I don't specifically have the name of.

The tank is looking great. I have a little bit of algea still but is the battle ever truly won. The snails keep it mowed down but I'd like to get a scrapper to clean it completly off once in awhile. I have a Magfloat that does a good job but the back is hard to get to from behind. The back is all snail tracks. I have one patch of slime that I'm going to have to do some daily attacks and small water changes till it can't recover. But all in all my water quality is awesome and my fish seem totally happy, although, the clown has some strange behavior involving the slime patch. Here's a few updated pictures. I need to get some of the Zoos now that they open up fully.

Attached Images

	5ChromisFL.jpg (73.2 KB, 8 views)
	ButtonsFL.jpg (105.9 KB, 7 views)
	ChromisandStarFL.jpg (101.0 KB, 8 views)
	ChromisFL.jpg (55.8 KB, 3 views)
	ZoosFL.jpg (121.9 KB, 11 views)

COBettaCouple

those chromis are stunning!