Chris's 10 Gallon Jank-Tank

Blennies are typically only territorial with conspecifics (or fish that look extremely similar), so something small like a Tail Spot blenny wouldn't hurt. I'd also look into Green Banded Gobies and Shark Nosed Gobies - having had both, they've got tons of personality.

I also just noticed that you're running a skimmer. Does it work well? If so, that may be why your tank is running so low on nutrients.

Ahh okay I'll have to look into those. The skimmer I have is just a surface skimmer and I mostly just use it for flow in the tank.

 

I picked up a tiny tiger pistol shrimp the other day - I didn't post about it because I wasn't sure if it was going to survive the trip home! It's less than 1" long, and the store gave it me as a freebie cause they said they probably would have lost it in the tank, lol.

My 10 gallon wouldn't have been a good home for him, due to it being barebottom and having some larger fish, so he went into a 5.5 gallon with a sandbed to grow up a little bit. Once he's molted and grown a bit, I'll introduce the YWG to this tank and hope for a pair!

 

Hows the tank going?

 

Hows the tank going?

It's going okay! We had a COVID outbreak at work, and it took down 4 of our 7 managers. So the other 3 of us had our work cut out for us for a couple weeks, and the tanks suffered.

The harlequin shrimp disappeared, I'm pretty sure to a bad molt. The YWG was sent to a friend, since the tank I planned to put it in has been postponed. The two perculas and the clown goby are doing well, though!

I'll post a pic and a more in-detail update on my next day off.

 

Alright - 4 months later, here we are.

The tank underwent a large cyano bloom, then a large hair algae bloom, and has finally settled out to just plain nastiness lately. I let it happen - I had already lost most of the corals and inverts, and it wouldn't hurt the fish. The tank tested fine - so I just lowered the water level so that the powerhead would catch some air (to combat the O2 the cyano was using) and let the tank run for a few months. Things have gone well, I'd say.

The clowns have grown quite a bit - it's hard to get a feeling of just how much, but I'd say the female has nearly doubled in size. They've officially sexed out and paired, and I rarely see any aggression between them so I assume they're a compatible pair.




Unfortunately, I lost the cleaner shrimp, the pistol shrimp, and the clown goby when the tank began to crash. I believe they all died due to oxygen deprivation - the clowns were gasping at the surface too. Hence the lowered water level.

I also saw these feather dusters creep up everywhere after the cyano and hair algae receded - I assume it's a sign that the tank has matured. There used to be more on the rock, but I added a turbo snail who knocked a bunch off onto the tank floor below.




In the past 2 weeks, I've added a few corals to see if things were going as well as I thought. I added these "Assorted Fire and Ice Zoas" first - they're just red with blue speckles. I truly, truly dislike the designer coral fad. I got these because they were cheap, looked nice, and were a large-ish frag. I've got two new polyps!




Next, I added this Red and Green Blasto and a Green Hairy Mushroom on the same day. Kind of a 2-for-1 deal - both corals had been in the store forever, for whatever reason. They looked great in the store everytime I went in, so I paid around $40 for the pair.







If you look at the rock behind the Blasto, you can see some extremely bleached zoas - those are what used to be the Target-Eye Zoas. They're the only coral that really survived, and are regaining color and size. I had to baste the cyano off them daily for a week or so, but it seems they've recovered enough to fend it off on their own, now.

You can also see a tiny little baby mushroom underneath the Green Hairy Mushroom. That wasn't there when I bought it, so I assume it split due to the stress of being in the new tank. Cool. You can also see (in the back left) a dark stick - that used to be the green birdnest. As you can see, it definitely did not survive.

I realize that the pics kinda suck due to the bubbles, but I'm not quite ready to raise the water level back up yet. Still have some cyano - so until that's gone, I'll be leaving it down to promote O2 exchange, just in case.

I'll be moving the tank across the room to a rack soon, just to get my counter space back. I'll probably also move the clowns to a FOWLR, and am considering another clown goby and maybe a Possum Wrasse for the tank.

Betta'sAnonymous said that saltwater looked fun... and it is! But it can be so discouraging. I haven't wanted to even look at this tank for months. I'm glad to see that it's matured and settled out on it's own, for the most part.

 

Alright - 4 months later, here we are.

The tank underwent a large cyano bloom, then a large hair algae bloom, and has finally settled out to just plain nastiness lately. I let it happen - I had already lost most of the corals and inverts, and it wouldn't hurt the fish. The tank tested fine - so I just lowered the water level so that the powerhead would catch some air (to combat the O2 the cyano was using) and let the tank run for a few months. Things have gone well, I'd say.

The clowns have grown quite a bit - it's hard to get a feeling of just how much, but I'd say the female has nearly doubled in size. They've officially sexed out and paired, and I rarely see any aggression between them so I assume they're a compatible pair.

View attachment 798426

Unfortunately, I lost the cleaner shrimp, the pistol shrimp, and the clown goby when the tank began to crash. I believe they all died due to oxygen deprivation - the clowns were gasping at the surface too. Hence the lowered water level.

I also saw these feather dusters creep up everywhere after the cyano and hair algae receded - I assume it's a sign that the tank has matured. There used to be more on the rock, but I added a turbo snail who knocked a bunch off onto the tank floor below.

View attachment 798427

In the past 2 weeks, I've added a few corals to see if things were going as well as I thought. I added these "Assorted Fire and Ice Zoas" first - they're just red with blue speckles. I truly, truly dislike the designer coral fad. I got these because they were cheap, looked nice, and were a large-ish frag. I've got two new polyps!

View attachment 798429

Next, I added this Red and Green Blasto and a Green Hairy Mushroom on the same day. Kind of a 2-for-1 deal - both corals had been in the store forever, for whatever reason. They looked great in the store everytime I went in, so I paid around $40 for the pair.

View attachment 798425

View attachment 798428

If you look at the rock behind the Blasto, you can see some extremely bleached zoas - those are what used to be the Target-Eye Zoas. They're the only coral that really survived, and are regaining color and size. I had to baste the cyano off them daily for a week or so, but it seems they've recovered enough to fend it off on their own, now.

You can also see a tiny little baby mushroom underneath the Green Hairy Mushroom. That wasn't there when I bought it, so I assume it split due to the stress of being in the new tank. Cool. You can also see (in the back left) a dark stick - that used to be the green birdnest. As you can see, it definitely did not survive.

I realize that the pics kinda suck due to the bubbles, but I'm not quite ready to raise the water level back up yet. Still have some cyano - so until that's gone, I'll be leaving it down to promote O2 exchange, just in case.

I'll be moving the tank across the room to a rack soon, just to get my counter space back. I'll probably also move the clowns to a FOWLR, and am considering another clown goby and maybe a Possum Wrasse for the tank.

Betta'sAnonymous said that saltwater looked fun... and it is! But it can be so discouraging. I haven't wanted to even look at this tank for months. I'm glad to see that it's matured and settled out on it's own, for the most part.

Yeah it does look fun, i do admit a fondness for the look of saltwater tanks and some of the pddness of the creatures, like your mantis! However, i also know there is no way that i am willing to take on the added stress of a saltwater tank at this point in my life as well. So i just keep adding more freshwater stuff....still got plenty of fish there and possible/probable breeding projects there to take on to keep it interesting.

 

Yeah it does look fun, i do admit a fondness for the look of saltwater tanks and some of the pddness of the creatures, like your mantis! However, i also know there is no way that i am willing to take on the added stress of a saltwater tank at this point in my life as well. So i just keep adding more freshwater stuff....still got plenty of fish there and possible/probable breeding projects there to take on to keep it interesting.

I totally get it!

The hobby ends up being both a huge source of both stress and relaxation, depending on the day. I love watching fish, plants, and coral grow and do their thing - but, also, whenever I see those dreaded white spots or torn fins, it's all I think about for the next couple days.

I got some molly fry in my brackish tank today, and I've been watching them for like 4 hours to make sure they're not getting hunted down too hard (they're not) - not exactly relaxing.

 

Following! I'm with Betta'sAnonymous. I think salt water is so cool, but I'm super imatated, and I don't have money.

 

Following! I'm with Betta'sAnonymous. I think salt water is so cool, but I'm super imatated, and I don't have money.

Yeah, that is one unfortunate part about saltwater - it's not cheap! It's also not as expensive as people make it out to be, either.

 

I added in a little Kenya Tree yesterday. Ended up turning my powerhead a little bit, since it wasn't liking the flow - seems alright now. I'll post a pick once it opens up fully, since right now it resembles a chewing gum sculpture.
Here are a few pics! I'm gonna tag Mhamilton0911 try and get her to give into the coral temptation.

The Kenya Tree:



Admittedly a small frag for $20, but it'll grow.

The green Hairy Mushroom (and a little baby)!



And the Fire/Ice Zoas.




And a top-down view. You can see all the corals in the tank right now - the Blasto (in the bottom right corner) seems pretty happy, and if you look at the zoas, I think you can tell they're much more open than they were in the last pic I posted last week.



The clowns are doing well! They'll be moving into a divided 29 soon with another pair of clowns, and I think I've settled on three small fish for this tank. A clown goby, a neon goby, and hopefully, a pygmy wrasse. We'll see!

 

Fed the corals and feather dusters some reef-roids today. Haven't done that in months! I think the tank is mature enough to handle the extra bioload, though.

 

The baby mushroom that split off the Green Hairy Mushroom has let go and drifted somewhere in the tank. I haven't been able to find it yet, though, so I assume it's ended up lodged under a rock. Hopefully it'll find it's way out into the open!

Also saw the blasto catch some mysis shrimp, which was very cool. I thought that it might have been too big for it, but it didn't seem to have problems.