Alright, I think it's about time I got myself and this thread fully up to speed. It's been a fun and sorta hectic few days of adding life to the tank, and I'm ready to sit back, process what I've done, and plan for the future!
For the skimmers, a table of contents:
1. Water Chemistry: Salt, Cycling, Chemistry, and Water Changes
2. Stocking and Current CUC: Current Corals, Future Plans, and a Stocking Mistake
3. Macroalgae: I want macroalgae. That's it.
4. Acclimation: Acclimating the CUC and the Utter Chaos Zoas
5:
Live Rock: The QT Plan
Water Chemistry
Salt:
I'm happy with my initial plan to go with a premium brand of salt. Given that it's the source of all nutrients and the basis for life in the tank, it's not somewhere I feel bad about splurging. Additionally, the fact that I don't want to dose and will rely on water changes only means that a good salt is necessary to make that sustainable in the long term. Tropic Marin Pro is a good salt, but I have learned that if I'm not dosing or using a
calcium reactor, it's not going to be right for me. Tropic Marin Classic mixes to a higher alk/ca and will be much better for me. I'm going to use up the Pro with my water changes when I cure my live rock so it doesn't go entirely to waste, then switch to Classic.
Cycling:
The fishless cycle sucked, but I got the job done eventually. Overall, it feels like the aquavitro seed accomplished nothing. I don't think I'd recommend it, as my cycle took as long as many do without any bottled bacteria at all. But now that it is cycled, I'm very happy!
Chemistry:
I need to learn a lot more about the chemical relationships in seawater. So far, the nano reef handbook has been really illuminating, and I'm pretty sure that if I keep up with many water changes I won't have a problem. But I want to know more so I can really understand what's happening in the tank.
Water changes:
Mixing up salt is still a bit of a pain. I'm not great at measuring out salt yet, but I've only done it twice now. It seems like my
refractometer drifts off course, too, so I have to recalibrate every time I use it.
Stocking Thoughts + A Minor CUC Disaster
Corals:
So I had grand plans to start off as easy as possible with ricordea, but then those utter chaos were available, and then the WWC gift card I got for christmas was way better served covering the full cost of the Blue Eyed Girls + shipping, than putting toward one of the $70+ ricordea on WWC + another $25 to ship. I still want to get the ricordea from Manhattan reefs, though I am worried about spending $40 on a frag and killing it. I want to get the utter chaos zoas off the frag plug before I get another coral.
I am still really into sun corals, in addition to the zoa/paly/ricordea/rfa plan. I really think I can manage them, but I will wait until I've got a good handle on feeding and keeping the water clean. Pacific Aquarium had a tiiiiny sun coral frag that I had to drag myself away from...
I'm pretty confident in keeping zoas and ricordea. RFAs too, but I've been told they need a more established tank. That was actually a huge driving force behind my going for live rock in the end. So, my coral plan is still pretty much on target. Start with Zoas and Ricordea, then RFAs, thennn maybe a sun coral. Photosynthetic gorgonians are on the list too!
I have a small concern - my biotope. I realize that some zoas are pacific, and that doesn't really fit into my plans. Utter chaos are apparently of two sibling species, separated when the oceans were split by Panama's isthmus:
Zoanthus pulchellus and
Zoanthus vietnamensis. Right now, they can't be distinguished from one another genetically - only from the collection location. So I feel like it's appropriate enough to use zoas from the Caribbean, or from any of the sibling species, (there are four pairs) but does anyone have thoughts on that? I might make this question its own thread. [source website site cited below] I haven't looked into what species my blue eyed girls are, but my fingers are crossed! I think that given there are only like ten identified species of zoa and eight of them are among the sibling species, I'll be good. Maybe the other two are only found in the Caribbean... that'd be great.
Animals (motile invertebrates and vertebrates):
I'm still in it to win it for the sexy shrimp. Mahattan Aquarium has them for $14 each, which is really not bad. Not going to add them any time soon - I want to let my zoas establish themselves before I risk nibbling, though I'll make every effort to keep the shrimp well fed and docile.
The pico people have won me over to fish. I'm looking at the roughhead blenny, but again. Not for a long time. Now that I've seen more of the way these fish behave, and also just how small they are, I feel fine keeping them in a small space. I think the reefing community largely plays it really fast and loose with letting bigger species "grow out" in small tanks, but for species like this, a tiny tank really will do the job nicely. In my opinion, at least.
Most importantly though, what about the animals I have now!? I'm loving my little cleanup crew so far, with one unfortunately large caveat that I'll get to in a bit. I found the ceriths on Manhattan Aquariums' website, and ordered them online to pick up. While I was out, I stopped at Pacific Aquarium and then Petco to look for a scarlet hermit too. Found it at Petco in Union Square. Their aquatic section is stellar. I drip acclimated them all with my Innovative Marine AccuDrip acclimator, which is a total game changer. It makes it so easy.
The hermit crab is adorable, and has some coralline on the tip of its shell and what looks like a sponge/algae/something red and encrusting on the bottom. It has decided it lives under one specific ledge, and though I've seen it in other parts of the tank, it always goes back there. Super charming. The beat up white shell is such good camouflage too. It looks just like a piece of the rock.
View attachment 757214
The ceriths have been a big surprise! I got six, and thought to myself when I got them that they're a bit large to have six of them all over the tank. But then they buried themselves in the
sand and I realized I was only ever going to see three at once, max. When I got them I also thought they were larger than I thought they were gonna be, too. Unfortunately, I was right. Though the image on Manhattan Reefs' website was of the ceriths I was looking for, these are not the ceriths pictured. Instead, they appear to be a Mexican species and not a Caribbean one. I'm bummed about it. They're not even an Atlantic species as far as I can tell. They're from the wrong side of Mexico entirely!
I'm guessing that Manhattan Reefs gave me the switcheroo because most reefers genuinely do not care about what specific cerith species they get, but for me it's actually a pretty big deal. The snails are about twice as large as I'd anticipated, and don't suit the biotope at all. But - my girlfriend loves them already. So this means my tentative plan for a tiny reef bowl for the live rock I'm using to seed the tank is now a very real plan. They can move in there, and then I'll get the right species. Such a bummer, but now I know better. I should have just ordered them direct from Florida with Virgin Nerites, too, but I was impatient and didn't know enough to realize immediately on pickup they weren't the snails I'd ordered. Bummer.
Snails I ordered:
View attachment 757160
Snails I got:
View attachment 757161
Aside from that, I'm considering a second scarlet hermit, and looking for good shells for them. If anyone from Florida wants to mail me some empty shells from the beach that scarlet hermits would love, I'd be indebted lol. Otherwise I'm going to email ReefCleaners and see if he'll send me some despite the $25 order minimum. The ones scarlets like are not easy to find!
Ceriths as soon as they got added to the tank:
View attachment 757215
And in the process of burrowing in:
View attachment 757216
Macroalgae
Not a lot to say here. I want macroalgae! I'm considering an order with live-plants .com soon. I'm thinking of getting two types of macroalgae, a red and a green to start. Maybe I'll get the nerites and the RIGHT ceriths from them, and order a couple wild ricordea while I'm at it to spread around the shipping fee a little.
Adding My Critters and Coral Acclimation
Adding the snails and the hermit crab was pretty easy! The big issue for me was mixing the salt to the right SG for the water change immediately prior, but I worked it out. I'm sure it'll get easier! I drip acclimated them and then dumped them and the water into the tank, because I realized scooping them in without the water would have left me with too little water in the tank. And I didn't have extra saltwater. Rookie mistake! Hope I didn't dump anything bad in there!
The coral was tougher, mostly because they're zoas, and I was unprepared to handle them safely. I used my planted tank tweezers to move them form container to container and eventually place them on the rockwork. I wore one of my reusable covid masks and my glasses, and was just really careful not to touch them or the water. I drip acclimated, then used some of that water to mix up a cup dosed with Coral RX (1.25mg to a cup of water). Rinsed it in some non -coral RX dosed acclimation water, and then placed it in the tank. Looked like the only thing to fall off it was copepods.
The coral was very angry and closed up tight, but as soon as I put it in the Coral RX, it started to open a little. That was pretty cool. All the polyps opened up really happily today but one, that stayed half closed. I think it'll get over itself soon. My only issue now, I think, is that I don't know how to get it off the frag plug! Advice there would be appreciated. The plug is comically large compared to my rockwork and just doesn't fit. I don't know how to get it off though? Can I really pop it off with a sharp knife? Then how do I attach to the rockwork? Superglue?
I was lucky that my utter chaos frag came from a tank with similar lighting to mine, but I am worried about overexposing corals to too much light in the future. I need to really look into what the best practice is there. Here again, advice appreciated.
Live Rock
My live rock is a little delayed, but should be shipping tomorrow or the next! I'm going to Target to pick up a food safe sterilite bin to cure/qt it in. Already got the heater, pump, and light! It'll look a little janky, but oh well!
My plan is to do frequent tests and water changes as needed for the first couple days, and then as the die off stops, monitor closely for aiptasia. I'm gonna put a couple bottle traps in, too, to see if I can catch any creepy crawlies. Doubtful I'll get anything good outta 2lbs of rock, but we'll see! I'm using an old 100 watt adjustable heater I have for this, with the Luxbird LAP-301B 18W PAR38 and a little water pump I have from an old filter. It'll look janky, but should get the job done. Then, I'll add it to the tank for a month at least to let the good stuff start spreading into the tank. When I think it's been in long enough, I'll move it out to the bowl and give myself my space back in the pico!
Source:
Ferry, M. (2018, September 26). Zoanthus conundrum: Myriads of colour patterns but few species! Retrieved January 11, 2021, from
Hundreds of Zoanthid color morphs but only a few species! - Coral Biome
just wait until you get that live rock in, you'll really start to see things blossoming and things appearing here and there. So glad you finally bought it hahaha
