Llj's 36G Corner Bowfront... Out Of The Ashes...

[lljdma06]

As per this incident in my previous tank.

Pearls of the Antilles disaster!

I've decided to not go Caribbean, but with a nice, fun mixed reef that's easy to maintain. Some Caribbean favorites will also be featured.

What I have...

36g corner bowfront, 21" tall, 21" radius
40lbs of still very much alive Liverock
60lbs of oolite sand, still will go for a deep sand bend

Rock is getting diatom coverage now. I'll be by today to test the water parameters and to make water for a large water change. I think much of the decay is gone and we'll be ready for a CUC soon. Will go with a nice mixed bunch of organisms. I'd love the following...

Electric blue hermits - they'll showcase nicely in a bigger tank like this
Emerald crabs - I want this tank algae free and I have some pest algae now.
Porcelain crabs - I enjoy them
Nassarius snails - fabulous diggers
Trochus snails - fabulous grazers
ceriths - fabulous everythings

I'll see what reefcleaners can do for me, as I can see a chiton or two in this tank as well.

The eventual plan?

More coral. I've got an amazing 150w metal halide and I'm not really utilizing it. I can put acros in this tank for goodness sake, and I'm not!
Different fish, except jawfish, I must have a jawfish. I love jawfish. If I'm good financially, I may opt for a blue spot again. That fish was the bomb!

Hardware...

An aquaclear 110 - modified as a refugium in this tank. I won't be growing macros anymore on a large scale, maybe a spattering here and there, but to have another fuge with chaeto to pull is always useful. All my fuges get good pulls of chaeto now and those pulls can be sold. This'll also create some serious surface agitation, which is what I want.

Power heads - I'll also reconfigure the power heads. Remove the 425s in favor of two 750s, which I already have. I tested one recently, and it's got a lot of flow. I may also buy a small Aqueon 500, which has some serious flow.

2x14 T5 lights, but only for actinic support. This tank only has a 14k bulb on it now, but this is good for growth. Eventually, when coral growth is where I want it, I'll switch to a 20k.

I'll post some pictures tonight, but mostly on Monday once the water change is done. I'll post parameter test results tonight, though.

I look forward to getting this old/new system started. I see a cute little mixed reef being developed.

Lissette

 

[hensonc4098]

Good for you cracking on with another setup! I would have totally thrown in the towel after all that happened. Looking forward to how this progresses - will be nice to see lots of happy corals!

 

[Box]

Reading with intrest

 

[lljdma06]

Thanks. I'll try to be interesting.

I tested the water today & was pleasantly surprised...

ph - 8.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - a healthy & expected 20ppm

Will prepare water for a large water change & replacement of water.

No room for an Aquaclear 110 or 70, so I'll go with a spare 50 for surface movement. I'll utilize that hard to reach back corner by putting chaeto in the display. In that corner. I'll come up with some sort of rig using porous tank dividers to hold it in place.

L

 

[GAB99]

Do you already know what you want fish wise?

 

[lljdma06]

Do you already know what you want fish wise?

I know I want a mated pair of pearly jawfish. I loved my old pair. My mom always wants clownfish and my sister wants a sixline wrasse. LOLOL I'll figure it out. I like weird things, so I'm not sure what I want really. Flame angels are lovely, but only if I can get a reef safe one. I like corals.

36g is definitely more to play with than 8g. That's for sure.

I did some work with the tank today. Please excuse the power cords and many power heads. I'm trying to find a configuration that works best. It's a corner bowfront, so IMO, it's a challenge to circulate sometimes. Aesthetics, right now, are taking a back seat to overall tank health.

Added...

- 1 aqueon 500, and boy does it have a lot of power!
- 1 Aquaclear 50, nothing in it, just for surface flow.

So the total is 3 Koralia 425s, 1 Koralia 750, 1 Aqueon 500, 1 Aquaclear 50, and a Partridge in a Pear tree. If I can find the attachment that goes with my spare 750, I'll nix the three 425s, and just use 2 750s and the Aqueon. Still well over 30x turnover, even at 1/2 strength. And trust me, the aqueon doesn't do half strength, that is some serious power head for the cost. If it proves reliable, it'll overthrow Koralia as my power head of choice for tanks past 20g.

fts

closer view of the rock. Anybody who likes pest algae is going to have a field day. If the CUC I ordered doesn't take care of business, it may be blenny time.

Aquaclear at work and the Koralia 750 at the surface. I really wish a 110 fit, dumb corner bow...

View from the back. I still have Caulerpa growing in bits and pieces. Actually most of my macros are making a come back.

Ball of chaetomorpha. I have four such balls to absorb nitrates. They've already grown. I'll be constructing a holding area for chaeto in that back, unused corner of the tank. No corals for that spot anyway.

Cerith snails weren't the only survivors, a Babylon snail. You can see his proboscis sticking out, or whatever you call it in the middle of the picture. Good. Very strong sand sifter. I'll also be importing some of my stomatella snails and limpets from my other tanks.

Joining them will be...

15 more dwarf ceriths
4 Electric blue hermits
10 nassarius vibex
6 banded trochus
1 emerald crab
3 Caribbean porcelain crabs, filter feeders, I know, but that serves a purpose too and I've seen them go after scraps just as much as everybody else.

I'd love a good old chiton, but that's more difficult to come by. I'll see what this crew does.

One more fts

Haha, very sad, I know. But this tank will come back again. Probably better than before since I sort of know what I'm doing now, only sort of. I really am still such a newbie at this.

L

 

[GAB99]

Sorry for being a bit dumb but what do you porcelain crabs look like? I had one of each (a white anemone porcelain and a brown is one with stripes) the brown I recently found dead for no apparent reason that other one couldn't have done because it has one claw and is smaller.

Are they sensitive? Or maybe it just had molting issues?

And I still like the tank scape, I really want to try a bow front just so I can shove one in the corner haha

 

[lljdma06]

Sorry for being a bit dumb but what do you porcelain crabs look like? I had one of each (a white anemone porcelain and a brown is one with stripes) the brown I recently found dead for no apparent reason that other one couldn't have done because it has one claw and is smaller.

Are they sensitive? Or maybe it just had molting issues?

As far as I know, there are 3 commonly found in the trade.

The white one with brown spots. Neopetrolisthes species, also called the Porcelain anemone crab and the spotted porcelain crab.

The mottled one, also sometimes called the Caribbean or spotted Porcelain crab. A Petrolisthes species.

A greenish, brownish, solid-colored one, Petrolisthes amatus, sometimes called the green porcelain crab. Also from FL but recently has been expanding every Northwards. Cool article on this guy.

I've kept all three species. I prefer the Anemone porcelains and the Caribbean porcelains. Much more extroverted. I rarely saw my three green ones from the biotope.

http/www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/sertc/P%20armatus%20SOM.pdf

Could be a molt issue. I've had an anemone crab get caught in the intake of a filter, lost most of its legs and its large claw. They came back with the next molt Molting is a dangerous process. If they don't have a place to hide when they are still soft, they can easily be killed. What else do you have in there? That being said, I've not found any of the three species I've kept to be particularly sensitive.

L

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Ill be paying attention to this one!

 

[GAB99]

yeah the one that dies was a Caribbean, the only things in there are corals (it didnt go near them) the other crab, bristle worms and brittle stars and asternias. when i found the body the decomposers were already on top of it.

 

[lljdma06]

yeah the one that dies was a Caribbean, the only things in there are corals (it didnt go near them) the other crab, bristle worms and brittle stars and asternias. when i found the body the decomposers were already on top of it.

A large enough bristle worm can totally take down a soft, post molt crab, especially if the molt didn't go very well and he was already on the way out. When my anemone crab lost most of his legs, he was practically just a carapace, he didn't move for days and was an easy target. The only reason he survived was because his filters still worked, I put him in a quiet corner of the tank and would target feed him plankton. Remember, I named him T-100 and the other, bigger one T-1000? LOL

 

[GAB99]

It could be, but the crab just looks like, it fell over so I don't really know what happened, the worms haven't eaten the filter arms and those look to be in good shape. Maybe it was old? Water parando aren't off, considering there's nothing in there.

Also, are you going to regrow any of the macro algae that survived on the rocks? Or are you just sticking with chaeto?

 

[ainsy]

And thus it begins.........








Knew that rock would still be ok! Excited about this one already!

 

[lljdma06]

It could be, but the crab just looks like, it fell over so I don't really know what happened, the worms haven't eaten the filter arms and those look to be in good shape. Maybe it was old? Water parando aren't off, considering there's nothing in there.

Could well be he was old. How big was he? Maybe it was knocked over when still soft. Again, they are so vulnerable when molting...

Also, are you going to regrow any of the macro algae that survived on the rocks? Or are you just sticking with chaeto?

Not sure yet, right now, chaeto I have in abundance, so that's what I'm using. At this stage, the tank isn't really much about pretty, but about health.

And thus it begins.........








Knew that rock would still be ok! Excited about this one already!

It's ok, what I think may have saved the tank too was the deep sand bed. That also acts as a filter.

I'm excited. I don't have a lot of rock in this tank, so I can invest in some larger coral colonies. I'd love a montipora. A nice big red cap for the top of the tank.

L

 

[GAB99]

The main body was about the size of my thumb, so for a tiny crab, I'd say decent size.

I prefer to start with smaller frags and have them grow with the tank, but starting out with a big colony is good too haha.
My Lfs the other day had a spongebob yellow turbinara coral that grew vertically, I really wish I could have gotten it but its was 80$

Also if you want weird, try to find some snake capsule polyps