Nart's Im25 Lagoon Build

I think you misunderstood my comment. Many people have pico tanks and are successful. I was saying your tank looked nice. I didn't say anything about your fish. My small tank is to grow pods (and see if I can raise the baby cleaner shrimp born today) to feed my 85 gallon tank ... it will not be housing corals or fish.

HI
LCJ6780

First of all thanks for your comment about my tank looking nice that you state in your first post.

My answer to you was to alert you ( and all the ones that could read my post) that if you want a pico Tank with fish, you should not take my example as it was a tank made by mistake and started wrong.

That was my concern towards you, so I made my comment to let you know that it wasn't a planned tank

And let know our hobby colleague NART that I agree with him about having clownfish in this small tank, but things sometimes are not by planned option

Please forgive me if my answer seemed something else

And your pico tank looks great

 

How is the BTA doing NART ?

 

Micro Reef Tank I figured that much. Everyone has a lessons learned. I hope you will be able to give them an upgrade when you are able to. It just doesn't sit well with me the longer I am in this hobby. Like, even walking into Petco now and seeing the condition some of those fishes are really makes me sad. Thus, I do my best to promote the best fish keeping husbandry. It will always be a touchy subject about what fish or animal in this matter can fit into what. My rule of thumb is just go by your best judgment. Since you brought up dogs, my wife and I live in a 2 bed 2 bath house. She's been wanting a large dog, and I said "No. we can't properly keep one and it's not fair to the dog" instead we opt'd to adopt a small size puppy @ 9lbs. I strongly do not believe in caging a dog all day, while we are at work. So when we are both at work, we send our puppy to doggy day care. Yeah, it's a thing... doggy day care lol. I never heard of it myself. Caging dogs with no interaction with other humans or animals turns them to be reclusive animals, mean and grumpy. The days we are at home or after he gets back from doggy day care, we make sure he gets the proper exercise, discipline, and affection just like what we would do if we had kids. I grew up with animals all my life and I treat them no different than how I want to be treated.
Long write-up. But I am glad you feel that way about clowns shouldn't go into a pico tank. Just a heads up... $1 a gallon sale at petco! So 10 gallon for $10

grantm91 It's so hard to recognize you sometimes because you change your profile picture so much lol.
I think the RBTA is doing well.... It's weird, like, it opened up pretty big when I got home from work yesterday. It was to a point where my colony of blastomussa was threatened so I had to relocate nearby corals away. And then... shortly after moving the corals this started happening @ 6PM, this was during my light ramp down of my Ultra violet, Royal Blue, G, R, and W channels... the only one that remained at 80% was my Blues. So maybe it detected lights were dimming so it started to close?




But then by 8PM it opened back up a little. lol.
Another theory is that it might have touched my maxI minI anemone (you can see just part of it on the left, the purple/green) and maybe it had a stinging war?
The maxI minI nem has quite a sticky punch to it.

This is our puppy by the way.
After his jogs with me he gets a wet towel cool down on the couch

 

Haha he looks tired out, and yeah it will do all sorts of mad stuff for the first few weeks mine was twisting up and all sorts, probably aclimating, mine came from a real dirty tank full of cyano I wish id have tested nitrates in the water that came with it. Yours also looks to be happy with a tucked away foot.

 

Did you guys notice the porcelain crab being hosted by the RBTA? it's pretty comical. My clowns ignore the RBTA, but you have the porcelain going to it right away.

 

It may just like the cover is it there a lot? I thought it was just walking past lol. I love that crab.

 

Can we get a full tank shot? Haven't seen one in a while adn I want to see some growth!

 

Lol I now live in Chicago but all my family lives in paragould, AR. Small world.

I always forget that. Hit me up if you ever need an extra pair of hands or anything!

I could have used you for the 37g fw tank I adopted and moved! lol Wasn't too hard for one person but they lived on the 3rd floor so I definitely got a workout.

 

Lol
the 120 of mine was a night mare ! One man job had to take the passengers seat out my mazda and dismantal the stand at the guys house, good god it was nerve racking I see horror stories of tanks cracking in transit all the time on my gf's fb.

 

grantm91 The porcelain crab? Yeah - he's in the RBTA 24/7 now lol. Only walks out during feeding time. What a beast fitting a 120G in your car haha.

I will get a FTS soon. Trying to go for a video update instead before I go to MACNA.

 

No way he is a cool crab man, I'm going to put a question on the fb page asking where the cheapest place is to get one of those and a new pep is, all the places I been going are soo expensive £20 for a pep, I think my last one was old too as he was big when I got him, always go for the small ones as they are short lived any way.

 

Maybe it's expensive in your country due to the lengthy importation?
I think I got mine for $7
I like it a lot though. It doesn't mess with any of my corals and not an aggressive feeder to steal food from my other corals.

 

Cool little guy. Can they share an anenome with clownfish? I might get me one.

Hey nart... I thought you were team crabless! LOL

Full tank shot?

 

No - if they clowns decide to live in the anemone the porcelain crab will be kicked out.

I was team crabless after that emerald crab. lol. Porcelain crabs appear to be different if it so dares to rip the flesh of my corals... out it goes.
Front tank shot.

Look at these crazy prices from my local reef club. A member breaking down their tank for a move...

 

The rocks are awesome prices, fish are standard really, well the clownfish are great priced too as ones a picasso. Id be all over rock #1 that is right up my street.

 

I would've bought something.... but all sales are pending and his post just went up lol.

Picasso clowns go for $150 per over here.
As for the pistol pair, $30 is really good. Pairs for those species usually fetch $50 here.

But yeah - those coral rock prices... so nice to see people not trying to price gouge the heck out of someone.

 

Them rocks are great for Someone starting out, as long as the tanks well established, its good for the mix.

 

I called my LFS and got prices. They had wathcman goby/pistol shrimp pair for $30. I was happy about that.

 

Front tank shot
Expect a video upload on my YouTube channel tomorrow morning around 7am!

 

WOW

 

Beautiful Nart!!! I'll be watching your new video with my coffee tomorrow.

 

The video is up! Enjoy.

By the way. Anyone want to play spot the blenny at 11:07?

 

No - if they clowns decide to live in the anemone the porcelain crab will be kicked out.

I was team crabless after that emerald crab. lol. Porcelain crabs appear to be different if it so dares to rip the flesh of my corals... out it goes.
Front tank shot.

I had to explain this to one my LFS, that's why I didn't want one of their CUC packages that included an Emerald Crab. Jerks made me pay more to pick my own package of CUC out just because I didn't want the one crab... I said can't I just get the package minus the Emerald Crab? Nope... I mean seriously, what if I said okay and just killed off and flushed the stuff I didn't want... I would have saved $10.

Emerald crabs are notorious for eating coral so I'm not sure why they don't have a more "reef friendly" CUC package.

Beautiful Nart!!! I'll be watching your new video with my coffee tomorrow.

Omg, great idea! Going to make some before I turn on the PC and watch this the right way!

The video is up! Enjoy.

Ty! Waiting on my coffee and then I'll view. Can't wait to try to spot the blenny.

 

Stella likes your stella Nart Thanks for the update bud...

 

glad you gave it a watch. I also saw your comment Melissa.

Did y'all happen to find the blenny yet??

 

I'm trying.... have it paused at 11:07 but I'm still not sure. Is he off to the left below the long piece on your frag rack?

 

Haha. I think you found it.

Here's the pic with a zoom.



He's actually in the beginning of the video too @ 40 seconds in, just staring back at me.

 

NART that BTA is biiig you scored with that man. Love the whole tank your first frog spawn, the bright bright green one is immense I love the fuzzy look it has going on that's another fave of mine in there, top video and neriting haha. Id Go for a IM I would they are sleek and sexy.

 

Lol View attachment 345056 the 120 of mine was a night mare ! One man job had to take the passengers seat out my mazda and dismantal the stand at the guys house, good god it was nerve racking I see horror stories of tanks cracking in transit all the time on my gf's fb.

Oh my! At first I did a double take when I saw the "driver's seat" removed! Lol then I remembered y'all drive on the wrong side over there!

I have a Honda Accord and can't imagine trying to get a huge tank like that in it! Thankfully we have a truck and borrowed my dad's (tiny) trailer when we picked up my 85 gallon set up and all extras. It was packed!

No way he is a cool crab man, I'm going to put a question on the fb page asking where the cheapest place is to get one of those and a new pep is, all the places I been going are soo expensive £20 for a pep, I think my last one was old too as he was big when I got him, always go for the small ones as they are short lived any way.

You talking peppermint shrimp? I just got a skunk cleaner ... it was pregnant so I thought I'd go for the experiment. It had babies. Molted last night and I found it dead about 30 minutes ago. It was a big one. I'm sad. It was about $26 I think. Wondering if my LFS might give me a discount on a replacement.

Look at these crazy prices from my local reef club. A member breaking down their tank for a move...

View attachment 345108

Holy cow! Those are some awesome deals!!!! Crazy deals! Too bad you don't have that 250 waiting in the wings, huh?! Lol

I would've bought something.... but all sales are pending and his post just went up lol.

Picasso clowns go for $150 per over here.
As for the pistol pair, $30 is really good. Pairs for those species usually fetch $50 here.

But yeah - those coral rock prices... so nice to see people not trying to price gouge the heck out of someone.

I have some frags for sale. I like to stay competitive but still a good deal. I've dropped so much cash on fish in the last year+ I'm just trying to recoup some of the money. I also donate frags to our club meetings ... so I feel I am giving back as well. Maybe some day if I start getting massive growth on everything I can really lower prices to cheap cheap ... but for now I'm still trying to get everything dialed in for consistent growth and all. Some things I've noticed grow pretty quickly for me and since I've been dosing to hold things steadier I've noticed more growth on my blasto and acans. Hoping eventually my frags will fund upkeep! That would be nice, huh?!

Front tank shot
Expect a video upload on my YouTube channel tomorrow morning around 7am!
View attachment 345289

That's looking really good! I like it and the frag rack is not a distraction for me ... man, I've been looking at reef tank after reef tank trying to get ideas on how to mix up the corals when I rescape. Part of me wants to put like things together (like my acan and zoa gardens) and another part of me wants to mix it all up so it's more random and everything getting along and all filled in eventually. And another part of me wants to keep things not glued down or on an attached plug so it can be moved if necessary.

 

lol, I'm so proud to have spotted the blenny.

The big kiddo enjoyed the video too... think you've earned yourself another YT subscriber Nart.

 

I'm really glad y'all enjoyed the video. I really do it just for fun and not for the allure of subscribers or even trying to make money. Notice almost all my videos are ad free! That means I get zero money from it no matter how many views it gets. It's really fun just to share my tank with everyone.

grantm91 yeah my first frogspawn has always been my favorite out of all the euphyllias. It's also really moody too. When it's happy it'll open up even bigger. I'm still scared of how big the RBTA will get but... I'm going to keep feeding it anyways. I want it to color up!

LJC6780 I know... the variation and choices are endless lol. We are all going to fight through this battle together. I think that's reef keeping in general yeah? We are always moving corals around.


So I finally decided to make my own concoction with fresh shrimps and scallops now that my corals are bigger they can fit meatier pieces in their mouth.



I wish y'all were near me so I can give you my frozen mysis shrimp. Its a little too small for my corals now. FYI, I found that the San Francisco Frozen Mysis shrimp brand that they sell at my LFS are the perfect sizes for small'ish corals to eat.

It keeps getting bigger... what in the world lol. Maybe feeding with scallops isn't a great idea after all.

 

Honestly when they get comfy and you see the full sprawl its great you think ahh money well spent.

 

Hey nart, wasn't it you that got some bad refractometer solution? I've never had an issue and have always tested spot on when I checked until recently. I ordered a new bottle recently but when I got it it was right on. I've made sure to put the cap back on immediately after doing the drops. I have 2 refractometers ... mine that I've had and one that came with my setup.

At first I realized that the heat of leaving it in the garage, or the heat of the water from the garage was throwing off the reading ... but now I make sure to bring it in and even let it sit a while with water on it to see if the reading changes.

What brand was your solution? I need something ASAP! I mean, I can just match the tanks for now, but I'm getting 1.023 on the QT and 1.022 on my reef! I usually keep it at 1.025. Not sure if it's reading off or if my ATO has been overactive.

When I test the solution I got about a line off of the 35ppt side. When I then test plain water I get well below zero. I know to calibrate near test zone but should it be that far off?!

I also just read that it said refractive index of 1.3394. What does that mean?

 

Yeah it was me. I wrote a whole write up about it if you search my posts in the advanced topics I believe.

My solution that gave me issues is Aquacraft. Currently I don't use any calibration fluid as I don't trust it and have no way in double checking the calibration fluid. I just use RODI and let it sit on the Refractometer for 2 mins before I take the reading.

RODI is giving me pretty good results. I am confirming the salinity by checking the KH, Calcium, and Magnesium after my salt mix. So when I mix the salt to 35ppt my calcium and etc... should get me close to the manufacturers specifications. If for any reason my KH mixed in at 10ppm then I know the salinity reading is off. Hope this makes sense

 

It works a treat RODI, I get the theory of the fluid but its just something else you have to put blind trust in to I thought, the refractometer is just a physical tool, plastic and glass etc as manual as a simple sight. I was so paranoid when I started out it was my worst thing I felt like getting a lfs to check it all the time but now I'm so confident in that thing and the rodI water I just have 100% trust for it.

 

Yeah it was me. I wrote a whole write up about it if you search my posts in the advanced topics I believe.

My solution that gave me issues is Aquacraft. Currently I don't use any calibration fluid as I don't trust it and have no way in double checking the calibration fluid. I just use RODI and let it sit on the Refractometer for 2 mins before I take the reading.

RODI is giving me pretty good results. I am confirming the salinity by checking the KH, Calcium, and Magnesium after my salt mix. So when I mix the salt to 35ppt my calcium and etc... should get me close to the manufacturers specifications. If for any reason my KH mixed in at 10ppm then I know the salinity reading is off. Hope this makes sense

Yes it does. Thanks! I'm taking my refractometer to the meeting this morning too, to check it against the host's. just to see if it's close. What I've done so far is just to match what's already in the tank so at least I'm not shocking them with a jump.

I'll go read your write up.

It works a treat RODI, I get the theory of the fluid but its just something else you have to put blind trust in to I thought, the refractometer is just a physical tool, plastic and glass etc as manual as a simple sight. I was so paranoid when I started out it was my worst thing I felt like getting a lfs to check it all the time but now I'm so confident in that thing and the rodI water I just have 100% trust for it.

I personally don't trust the LFS to test ... box stores usually don't have a clue and just say "it's good" with no explanation ... and my LFS I usually go to I trust for lots of things but they test with API and I've witnessed missed drops and I just know I'm much more diligent on following directions and measuring accurately. Like I use a syringe to measure all water samples so if nothing else, they are consistent with each other. The lines on the vials are not usually accurate from vial to vial.

 

I have two I trust, I only ment for the salinity as I was sheepish about trusting my self and the tool as a complete noob lol. I know how ignorant some lfs are, its not their hobby or money so they aint as clued up as me who is spending the money on the fish and wanting success and no losses.

 

Picture of the tank today.
Everything is happy in the tank for once

 

Good shot, can't see a single closed head or polyp.

 

Wow everything is gorgeous! You're gonna have a full grown reef soon the way this is going! When are you gonna get some sps?

Your RBTA is MASSIVE