# 50seven's 35G n00b reef



## 50seven

Yay! My 35 G reef is finally gotten out of the planning stage!

Last week I found time to scrounge around some leftover materials in the shop to put together a custom stand for my first new saltwater tank.

Here's the stand laying on it's side. The outside is MDF, but I'm not afraid of the water, as I will be painting it with a professional cabinet sealer and finish. There will be room for my 20G sump in the bottom, and a drawer at the top for fod, test kits and other supplies. I went for a standard cabinet height of 36" so that we dont have to bend down so far to look in the tank.










Sorry for the mess in the background... yes, we do recycle. 

Here's one of the doors, ready to be painted:










Finally got it all painted, let it dry good for a few days, and then put the tank on top. Levelled the cabinet (very important!) and filled it up, I was getting excited! Now I've got a bit of sand and live rock in there, hopefully soon the dust from the sand settled and I can do my aquascaping.... 
(please excuse my camera photos)










And with the light on...










As you can see, I have my priorities straight- fish tank first, then finish painting the walls. 

Yeah, it's pretty cloudy. I should have rinsed the bag of sand before putting it in...

Anyway, Hopefully tonight I can do some aquascaping; and maybe I'll find time to hook up the sump tomorrow (which currently is full of cured live sand and chaeto).

Anyway, this is all very exciting for me; thanks so far to all the help I've gotten on the forum- I'll keep you updated with more photos as things develop.


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## Kweli

Hey... You made some of the same mis-steps that i made (not THAt bad)

Adding all the water in first made it extemly hard for me to do aquascaping... i had to siphon out half of the water first. 

I also forgot to rinse the sand first and all my equipment got coated with sand (which required cleaning aftewards)

Try to have your live rock sitting on the bottom of the tank instead of sand. You dont want a digging creature/fish to remove the base of your structure

Goodluck!


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## 50seven

Kweli said:


> Hey... You made some of the same mis-steps that i made (not THAt bad)
> 
> Adding all the water in first made it extemly hard for me to do aquascaping... i had to siphon out half of the water first.
> 
> I also forgot to rinse the sand first and all my equipment got coated with sand (which required cleaning aftewards)
> 
> Try to have your live rock sitting on the bottom of the tank instead of sand. You dont want a digging creature/fish to remove the base of your structure
> 
> Goodluck!


Good point on the water level- Yeah, I never thought of that... I was thinking now I'll take out some of the water when I siphon off the miserable layer of dust that I see has settled on the bottom...

Yeah, somebody warned me about making sure the rock was resting on the bottom and not on top of the sand...


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## Kweli

Get a hammer and chisel ready for when you do the aquascaping. I was having a very hard time getting all my rocks to stay sturdy until I started to chip off pieces that made an unbalanced base. Any of the small leftover chips (from the chisel) can be added to your sandbed or used as frag plugs

Make sure all your lowest pieces are not wobbly… I know, it’s a stupid thing to say, but it’s a mistake I made the first time


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## PACMAN

I must say the craftsmanship on the cabinet is impeccable! I wish I could build one as beautiful as yours!


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## pat3612

Very nice work.


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## explor3r

Looking nice keep posting pics


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## Holidays

You made that cabinet? that's amazing! nice...looks better than factory made


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## 50seven

PACMAN said:


> I must say the craftsmanship on the cabinet is impeccable! I wish I could build one as beautiful as yours!


Thanks! I guess it's one of the perks of being a carpenter/ contractor- there's always extra wood and stuff laying around to do personal projects between jobs


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## conix67

Your tank doesn't need anything else with those custom stand and canopy!! Very nice!!!

If you it was dry sand you added, you should have rinced it 10+ times. It still gets cloudy though..


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## 50seven

Ok, the water cleared up pretty good after the first 2 days, so I vaccuumed off the bottom and the rocks, and did my aquascaping. Not 100% sure I'll keep it this way, I guess I'll see how it goes.

Hooked up the sump last week too, which had been sitting in my shop circulating for the last 3 weeks with cured live sand and live rock and chaeto in it.










(I know the phone pics suck, but it's clear that I still need to get some higher K bulbs for the display tank... )

*Anyhow, I need some guidance:*

After hooking up the sump to the tank, on Friday and Saturday I had .25 reading of ammonia, but today I'm down to zero. Also aero nitrites. Could it have cycled aleady? I'd appreciate the input.

Also my pH is at about 8.4, maybe a bit higher if I'm reading the card right. Suggestions on how to get it down a bit or should I be worrying about this?

Thanks.


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## conix67

If you used all cured live rocks, I'd say it's cycled as far as biological filteration is concerned. The tank will go through series of diatom/algae blooms until it matures. 

In my opinion, there's a little too much rock in the display tank. Also, where do you plan on having skimmer?


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## 50seven

conix67 said:


> If you used all cured live rocks, I'd say it's cycled as far as biological filteration is concerned. The tank will go through series of diatom/algae blooms until it matures.
> 
> In my opinion, there's a little too much rock in the display tank. Also, where do you plan on having skimmer?


The rock in the display tank is all DIY "aragocrete" style rock. It was made up back in June and has spent at least half that time curing underwater. The back wall is also made from the same material, which is why it may look a bit full. I suppose I was too busy trying to make an interesting rock formation...

The skimmer will sit where the bag of salt is in the photo. I will be making my own in classic DIY style that will fit there. Unless I see some amazing deal somewhere, I'll just "borrow" some plumbing parts from work and do up my own.


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## Fish_Man

awesome setup can`t wait for the next update!


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## 50seven

Here's a better pic of the display tank. Too crowded, you think?


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## 50seven

Been a while since I posted last...

I had some brown slimy algae for a while; that's all cleared up, now I have some greenish brown hairy stuff growing, and I can see some coraline starting a bit all over. The CUC seem to be doing their job, especially the hermits are quite entertainingI always doing some stupid things like taking shells way to big for themselves, or going at it fighting in a threesome. I got them when they were tiny little guys and I can't believe how they've grown so fast!

Did some re-aqua scaping -removed some rock and added a sloped sand bed - purely for looks as I think it looks more wild, and I'm really pleased with it.

My 18 month old son already knows the words "fish", "crab", and "shrimp", and LOVES to play with the mag-float glass cleaner














































And I've got some weird fuzzy green leaves growing on my nano power head. Is this something that a tang will eat?


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## ameekplec.

I wouldn't put a tang in there  Maybe a blenny - it will eat the algae too.

That DIY rock looks pretty good. Do you have any LR in there that has coraline on it? If you can start coraline developing on those rocks it will turn real nice


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## marblerye

that's really nice!! i like the look of a really 'full' looking tank. will look amazing with some purple coralline, and colorful corals as well. 

btw; how do you do waterchanges without exposing the rock to air? seems like the rock in the tank and the sump both reach pretty high up to the top.


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## explor3r

Looking good i like the aquascaping


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## Kweli

very impressive... like the rockwork, cant believe that is DIY rockwork... had i known i would have made the structure bases myself


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## Big Ray

Nice, do you have enough flow within the rock work though ? that's a huge Issue with my current set up ...


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## Fish_Man

Another awesome update!

Can't wait to start my tank now


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## 50seven

Big Ray said:


> Nice, do you have enough flow within the rock work though ? that's a huge Issue with my current set up ...


How would I know if I don't have enough flow through the rock work?



marblerye said:


> btw; how do you do waterchanges without exposing the rock to air? seems like the rock in the tank and the sump both reach pretty high up to the top.


The rock in the sump has been rearranged, and there is a hang-on skimmer in there as well. When I do a 10% water change, I get a difference of about 3 inches in the sump, as with my overflow, the water level in the DT always stays the same. 



ameekplec. said:


> I wouldn't put a tang in there  Maybe a blenny - it will eat the algae too.


Please explain? I've seen tangs in tanks much smaller, so I didn't realize it was a problem.


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## Kweli

Where is the DIY guide to make rock like that?


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## 50seven

Google Aragocrete or "DIY live rock".

There are different variations and a bunch of You Tube videos and such. Basically a 3-1 ratio of non-silica based substrate to Portland cement; mixed with approx 2 parts large grained salt to give porosity.

And if anybody can find the website of this guy who did it and he has 1 page that is a full chronology of the start-up of his tank up to it being mature complete with FTS pics for each date, I would be in your debt. I can't find it anymore


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## Big Ray

how would you know ? hmm good question  lol I do not know a exact way but you should be able to tell by looking inside the rock work. if lower flow, all detritus will flow there and settle and you will end up with alot of junk behind rock work, its better to put a smaller power head in between to avoid that  you can do that in future if you feel like flow is low 

Tangs need open swimming toom and alot of Live rock to graze on to lower their aggression, they also have small stomach and need alot of food all day long,. and are not meant for smaller tanks. a lawnmover blenny as ameek said will amaze u at algea consuming, I lost mine last night after 2.5 years  no more algea for him to eat


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## explor3r

Hi 50seven, i think u are going to end up taking out rock and this is the reason.....
When u start adding corals a lot of them come with its own rock, so space will run out quick and corals need room to grow.
I tell u this cos my own experience, no telling u what to do but sharing what i faced.


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## 50seven

explor3r said:


> Hi 50seven, i think u are going to end up taking out rock and this is the reason.....
> When u start adding corals a lot of them come with its own rock, so space will run out quick and corals need room to grow.
> I tell u this cos my own experience, no telling u what to do but sharing what i faced.


Yeah, I figure that will happen for me...


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## 50seven

Weird thing I've noticed - it seems that the chaeto in my sump fuge has slowly become smaller and a lot of it is getting bleached in color. I swished it around this morning and there is only a small clump left.  The fuge has 2x 60 watt equivalent daylight florescent light bulbs that are on for about 12 hours per night. Any recommendations?


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## 50seven

Fed the fish frozen mysis shrimp for the first time last night. Wow! Never saw them all go bonkers like that before! Super feeding frenzy like I never had before- at least I know they like it!

Also I've Been messing around with my phone's camera and learning how to put up videos on YouTube- quite simple, actually. Easier than listing an item on eBay!






video quality is crap, but I put up some helpful into for other salty noobs perusing YouTube...


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## 50seven

Another photo update... I'm slowly getting a few frags to get me started with caring for corals. I always had a brown thumb and never was very good in the garden, so hopefully that won't affect me here seeing as these are animals and not plants...

Moved around some stuff last night and uncovered a whole bunch of feather dusters, cool! And we're starting to see purple and pink coralline algae growing on the rock.










And my new starfish from SUM! Quite the mobile guy, always hanging around.


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## Sunstar

Hopefully my two bits will help coraline development. They'll be pissed at you for a while. Hopefully they'll perkup soon.


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## AquaNekoMobile

50seven said:


> Another photo update... I'm slowly getting a few frags to get me started with caring for corals. I always had a brown thumb and never was very good in the garden, so hopefully that won't affect me here seeing as these are animals and not plants...
> 
> Moved around some stuff last night and uncovered a whole bunch of feather dusters, cool! And we're starting to see purple and pink coralline algae growing on the rock.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And my new starfish from SUM! Quite the mobile guy, always hanging around.


The starfish in that pose/pic looks like some demons hand.  Nice tank setup. BTW what is the blue/green fish there? Loving the color on those and would like to read up on them.


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## explor3r

They are green chromis and they come in blue too, they are active and hardy fish from the same family of damsels.
Is better to keep in groups and they grow up to 4 inches


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## 50seven

AquaNekoMobile said:


> The starfish in that pose/pic looks like some demons hand.  Nice tank setup. BTW what is the blue/green fish there? Loving the color on those and would like to read up on them.


Bwahahahaha.... 

Yup, they are blue-green Chromis and they school very nicely. Their colour depends on where the light shines on them from, sometimes they look blue, sometimes green.


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## gucci17

Looks good 50seven. Any FTS?


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## teemee

gucci17 said:


> Looks good 50seven. Any FTS?


I'm going to second that


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## aquanutt

Nice setup,
awesome job on making your rock, looks very good.

cheers


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## 50seven

Yeah, I was thinking of making a DIY thread for anyone who wants to make it, etc.

Got a few more frags this week, waiting for them to come out again...

BTW, I'm still using up a bag of IO regular salt mix. What trace minerals should I be dosing to help my corals grow faster/ better? My KH is around 9, and Calcium is around 400, as I manually dose calcium.

Anyway, here's the latest FTS:


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## marblerye

ooohhhhh! that starfish is up and at 'em! beautiful! i counted 8 chromis?
tanks looking great!


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## 50seven

marblerye said:


> ooohhhhh! that starfish is up and at 'em! beautiful! i counted 8 chromis?
> tanks looking great!


There's only 7. Apparently fish do better in odd numbers as it messes up their ability to form a well- organized group. Makes them less likely to be aggresive toward one another. Once they settled into the tank, I have seen no aggression in the group. A couple or them had torn fins when I first got them, but they have all healed up nicely now.

The other one is actually a yellowtail damsel, former partner of Sunstar's new Great Destroyer.


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## Sunstar

I had NO idea you did DIY rock. Kudos to you. I might have to try this myself. The damsel's name is The Great Devourer


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## 50seven

Sunstar said:


> I had NO idea you did DIY rock. Kudos to you. I might have to try this myself. The damsel's name is The Great Devourer


Sorry, my bad; I always try to be very accurate with names. 

Anyway, here's the link to that DIY Live Rock thread I did up. I'll try to keep it updated with pics documenting how the rock matures.

DIY Live Rock How-to Guide


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## Sunstar

Just to let you know, he's still a happy fish :3


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## 50seven

Sunstar said:


> Just to let you know, he's still a happy fish :3


That's great to know! 

Feels like a while since I posted up my progress...

Here's the latest FTS:

Getting a bit of green hair algae; still debating whether or not to get a Starry Blenny or instead go for a Sea Hare, or just to wait it out. Coralline is growing OK, and I got some more green star frags for the back wall.










Messing around with the camera, I took this kinda neat shot. Not very good focus, but makes the tank look a lot bigger that it really is...










And... I finally got a Mandarin Dragonet, YAY! (This is something I've wanted since I was a boy  ) He's happily going around devouring copepods, and after a couple days getting used to things, he is now afraid of nobody in the tank, so everybody leaves him alone. I LOVE his colourings, and his unique swimming style. Hopefully I can train him onto prepared foods, just in case the pods in my refugium aren't enough.


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## Sunstar

OH lovely!!!!!

I see the anthelia is happy. 

If you get a sea hare, I might beg to borrow it when it's done with your tank. 

The coralline is really taking hold. soon that tank will look very natural. Your feesh look happy and OMG that manderin is simply gorgeous. 

I am so excited for when I get the larger tnak set up. it's in a dark corner out of sight for now. because it will drive me bananas. 

I am of two minds about pest algae. One being that, in your case, nature hates bare ground. she wants to cover it up. which is why weeds grow until things like trees can take root and progression to a forest happens. I think in a way this is what is happening. We are educated in a manner that algae is bad. Perhaps it does look unsightly, perhaps it indicates problems in areas of nutrients, but it does serve a purpose. from some of my reading, there is a fair amount of algaes growing in natural reefs and that they work well together. 

Then again, it can be frustrating. it can take over areas fast, such as the blasted bubble algae. 

But it is likely just one more sign that your successful at creating live rock. 

I am SO jazzed about your tank :3


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## explor3r

Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! k, everything looks so good, nice mandarin..


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## shiver905

Its a very good idea to keep your back wall free, Or place a power head blowing across the LR and the back tank wall.

Id pull out that huge rock laying against the back.

Rotten food and stale water gets in these places without flow and foil your water.



--
It looks like a rock wall. In that case make shure there isnt any holes or large opening where anything trapped in.

It will save you the pain later on. When its all Filled with coral!


--

BTW make me a stand.. I'll give you something for your services. LOL


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## teemee

Glad to finally see the pictures 
I think the rock wall is ingenious and the Mandarin is gorgeous!


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## 50seven

Thanks for the compliments, folks. 

I really do like the rock wall, and I do realize that I probably need too break it up if ever need to move out to another tank, but I'm not concerned about that at this point. I finally am seeing my corals start to actually grow, so in glad that I seem to be doing something right.

I put a few more white light bulbs in, but even though I like the colour better, it shows up the hair algae more. I suppose I'll be a bit patient to see what happens before I do anything drasticI especially now that I have a Phosban/ carbon reactor now.


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## rrobbiiee

Very nice looking tank!

Is that a little mushroom I see growing in the last pic?


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## 50seven

Today I found out that my Chromis LOVE bananas! (Mind you they love everything I feed them...) Cleaner shrimp was more concerned with picking my hand for dead skin, though...

It's funny the kids (x4) love to take turns sticking their hand in the tank and let the cleaner shrimp climb up their hands- they get a real kick out of it! even my 20 month old insists on his turn!



rrobbiiee said:


> Very nice looking tank!
> 
> Is that a little mushroom I see growing in the last pic?


Yes it is!

And Sunstar's Anthelia is really starting to grow and spread, right over the epoxy too, which is nice. Once my softies really start taking off, I'll consider adding some SPS, etc...


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## Kweli

You should start training your fish to eat out of your hands... although it will be another line up of 4 kids waiting their turn.

My sister-in-law always gets a finger cleaned when she comes over from one of my cleaner shrimp


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## 50seven

Kweli said:


> You should start training your fish to eat out of your hands... although it will be another line up of 4 kids waiting their turn.
> 
> My sister-in-law always gets a finger cleaned when she comes over from one of my cleaner shrimp


Trust me, that already happens, LOL! Dinnertime is often an argument of "Whose turn is it to feed Daddy's fish?!" They stick their whole hand in and don't let go of the food so that the fish have to nibble it out of their fingers!


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## 50seven

Berried hermit crab????

Hah! I just saw one of my BlueLegs fall upside down onto the substrate. She (?) went to turn herself upright, and half-crawled out of the shell, like hermits are used to doing. I see she has a big blob of tiny brownish balls attached to her backside. Is she berried? Will these become food for the food chain or is there a way to try to save any of the young???

Just wondered if anyone has any experience with this before.


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## Sunstar

come on FTS shots. surely you don't have wonky batteries....


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## Fish_Man

That tank has really come along!! It looks awesome.  

I'm finally putting those rocks you gave me to use now!!


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## 50seven

Fish_Man said:


> That tank has really come along!! It looks awesome.
> 
> I'm finally putting those rocks you gave me to use now!!


Wicked! I can't wait to see!

I'll try to post up some FTS soon- I definately have some growth on some of my corals...


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## Sunstar

FTS NAO!!! :3 Please!


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## acer

50seven said:


> Berried hermit crab????
> 
> Hah! I just saw one of my BlueLegs fall upside down onto the substrate. She (?) went to turn herself upright, and half-crawled out of the shell, like hermits are used to doing. I see she has a big blob of tiny brownish balls attached to her backside. Is she berried? Will these become food for the food chain or is there a way to try to save any of the young???
> 
> Just wondered if anyone has any experience with this before.


not likely... probably will just become food. you can try... but it would be a lot of effort on your part. not entirely sure if they are born as crabs or born as larvae :/ if born as crabs... not as hard.


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## 50seven

acer said:


> not likely... probably will just become food. you can try... but it would be a lot of effort on your part. not entirely sure if they are born as crabs or born as larvae :/ if born as crabs... not as hard.


Yeah, I did some reading, and it's virtually impossible without multiple tanks and special foods. I'd actually rather have a tasty snack for my mandarin dragonet...


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## 50seven

Monthly picture dump:

Jan 2011 FTS:










My new blood shrimp is getting more brave...



















And my healthy growing batch of chaeto in my crowded sump...


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## 50seven

And for s***s and giggles, here's my dream tank that I'm currently working on; a custom 140 Gallon long reef tank. (In Photoshop, LOL  (I have nowhere to put anything like this yet!)


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## Sunstar

How deep's your sump or rather how big is the tank it was/is.

Looking good. I still recognise the corals :3 I hope they fill out well, they look pretty happy.


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## 50seven

Sunstar said:


> How deep's your sump or rather how big is the tank it was/is.
> 
> Looking good. I still recognise the corals :3 I hope they fill out well, they look pretty happy.


I think it's a 15 G or a 20 Gal, not 100% sure.

The Anthelia you gave me is doing vey well, starting to cover the entire shell that you gave me as well as the epoxy holding it to my LR. I'm trying to find the balance between adding a pile of frags to fill up the tank and being patient to let them grow out on their own.


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## sig

you got a beauty. I am just hoping to have like this one day

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## Fish_Man

Awesome update!

Can't wait till my rocks turn that color too


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## explor3r

50seven said:


> And for s***s and giggles, here's my dream tank that I'm currently working on; a custom 140 Gallon long reef tank. (In Photoshop, LOL  (I have nowhere to put anything like this yet!)


Wow i was going to say u have tons of fish now, it does look very similar to the 35 gallon u have, the only diference is like 100 gallons....

Anyways K, your tank looks very nice and i can see the leather mushroom growing a lot......Keep up the good work....


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## 50seven

More pics, including my new green BTA, viscously guarded by my female tomato. We had family over for my son's 8th birthday party, and my brother-in-law brought his good camera and was goofing around with the aquarium...



















And a splash of bright sunshine (I desperately needed to find something bright yellow for the tank...  )










Random hermit crab:


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## Sunstar

Moar pics please!! Looks lovely!


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## Fish_Man

Looks great Kev


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## ///PY_M3

Nice pictures. Nice to see the TC and the anemone


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## explor3r

Great shots Kevin, i love the first one so perfect


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## Kweli

wow, dimensions play a big part..

your 35G tank looks twice as big as my cube 34G


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## 50seven

Sunstar said:


> Moar pics please!!


Answered:

First, some nice close-ups of my favourite baby!



















My first fish, still going strong (this is the Great Devourer's ex)










And the shrimpies...


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## explor3r

What a beauty that mandarin is, he looks very happy great shots again.
Maybe u should change your hammer for a camera


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## sig

Kweli said:


> wow, dimensions play a big part..
> 
> your 35G tank looks twice as big as my cube 34G


I think it is time to go bigger? 

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## lybrian1

what pump do you use in your sump?


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## 50seven

sig said:


> I think it is time to go bigger?


You have no idea how much I want to do just that! Our home renovations however are taking a higher priority right now, and I'm still in such a learning stage.



lybrian1 said:


> what pump do you use in your sump?


I'm actually just using a pond fountain pump from Home Depot that I got for 20 bucks in the clearance bin. Rated for about 900 Gal. per hour, but of course having to pump the water up about 4 1/2 feet makes it a lot less than that. Works for now, though.


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## sig

50seven said:


> , and I'm still in such a learning stage.
> .


If you are in learning stage , I was not conceived yet 

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## Chris S

How is your coral beauty doing? nom-noming yet?


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## ozi

I like your tank, it has a unique look to it, nothing like I've seen before. 
I have a question for you: do you ever use a turkey baster to blow the rocks clean?? I'm just asking because some of your liverock seemed "clogged".


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## 50seven

Chris S said:


> How is your coral beauty doing? nom-noming yet?


I've started overfeeding the mysis to get him used to it, for the first time this evening he showed some interest, but I can't be sure he took a bite yet. We'll see how it goes. I turned the main powerhead off also during feeding, so hopefully that makes it a bit more calm around feeding time.



ozi said:


> I like your tank, it has a unique look to it, nothing like I've seen before.
> I have a question for you: do you ever use a turkey baster to blow the rocks clean?? I'm just asking because some of your liverock seemed "clogged".


Yeah, I've been a bit lazy with the blasting lately. Started again last water change and took out a lot of crap. Just gotta be more faithful about it.


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## Zulfian

i usually leave an inch or so gap from the rocks to the back of the glass for water flow..
you will notice a huge difference with this method as the current will actually move through the rocks (caves and crevices, clearing out debris), instead of being forced to go around it..

however to do that now will be hard and plus i wouldnt like to ruin a great landscape!
tank looks awesome!!! keep it up!


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## 50seven

Picture dump time again...

Started dosing reef minerals with my water changes, plus got some fresh plankton from Hubert; now I'm noticing growth on all of my corals...










Under actinics:










Part of my funky featherduster farm (these things are multiplying like rabbits):










And some fun random shots, er, artwork...


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## shiver905

whos hubert?

Iv been looking for homegrown plankton for ages.


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## 50seven

shiver905 said:


> whos hubert?
> 
> Iv been looking for homegrown plankton for ages.


www.reefaquatica.com

I pick up stuff from his house- he's near the zoo. Sells the same stuff as SUM, but cheaper and he's closer to me.


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## explor3r

Wow thats alot of featherduster, thats the fun part when everything start growing and multiplying....Looking good...


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## 50seven

Time for a photo update... I'll have to take a few more photos when I get my other camera back, so for now it's just some crappy phone camera shots. Xenia are growing well and getting bigger every day.

WEDDING BELLS! My mandarin dragonet finally got a reply to his mail-order bride...unless he was click-happy on some of those internet ads for hot foreign ladies...


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## explor3r

Nice kevin they look so happy together, let me know when they have babies Ill be happy to get one from you.


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## sig

You are lucky to have mandarins in full view.  Looks like they feel good.
After two months my went in hiding and I am not sure if it even alive.
what do you feed them?

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## 50seven

Yeah, I'm real happy about them. I waited until the tank was 6 months old and had established a good pod population. My sump is just packed full of pods, so I guess enough gets into the DT to keep them fed, as I have had him over 6 months and has never eaten anything I feed the other fish and he is fat and healthy. 

That would be awesome if they had babies... I would do whatever I could to keep them alive and growing up. 

Sent from my HTC Magic using Tapatalk


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## 50seven

It's nothing like Sweetride's tank, but I'm happy with it so far, as things seem to be really growing well. I've fragged my xenias 3 times in the last month and it's still growing like a weed!










Playing with the camera; same shot with the flash (you can actually see the pistol shrimp in the cave in the middle):


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## teemee

Wow - looking great, Kevin!


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## explor3r

What a transformation, looks fantastic and I see nice growth..keep it up


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## sig

This is a beauty. Keep going. Just wood suggest to get someting red. I got red anemona and tank changed it's look

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## 50seven

Thanks for the compliments. I've learned so much in the past year. It was just this same week last year (week of my birthday  ) that I met up with Teemee and bought her live sand so start my refugium. A month later I had built my cabinet and set up my tank. It's hard to believe it's been a year already. I feel like I'm still just getting started! I'm still humbled by the fantastic stuff that some of these other guys on reefkeeping.com and RC put together... Just makes me dream... 

Thanks to all of my friends on the forums who I've met and visited, and who have just given advice. What an awesome community! Special thanks to Aquaneko, Teemee, Explor3r, and Chris S. Also a special thanks to the Mighty Aphrodite (who will probably never read this  ) for being the one who let me keep a big clear box of water in our dining room, and who the other day told me she thought it was really pretty!  BTW there may possibly be a new 90 gallon tank in the works for me!!!

Spent some more time with the camera = more random shots. Picked up a royal gramma at the SUM sale last week... I like him and he's starting to come out and explore around now that he's getting to know everybody.


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## 50seven

MORE PICS! 

Special thanks to my brother-in-law who visited today with his DSLR 













































































































...and lastly an FTS:


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## sig

very nice, but 90 will bring more enjoyment.

Do you know name for the yellow coral in the fifth image.
Thanks

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## 50seven

sig said:


> very nice, but 90 will bring more enjoyment.
> 
> Do you know name for the yellow coral in the fifth image.
> Thanks


You're right about the 90G!!! It's a slow process with so much else going on theses days, but progressing somewhat enough.

Those zoos are some kind of radioactive yellow/green zoos that I got from Alex way back when I got my first frags from him. There were only 4 heads at the time.


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## teemee

Looking awesome!
You're elegance coral is insane!
Can't wait to see the new tank...


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## PACMAN

It's hard to believe it is only a 35G tank. It feels like its 75+ to me. Sooo much life, it's spectacular!


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## 50seven

PACMAN said:


> It's hard to believe it is only a 35G tank. It feels like its 75+ to me. Sooo much life, it's spectacular!


That's what I like about what I've been able to do with it, but using custom made rocks I could make the rockwork fit much more stuff. I can't wait to see what I can do in the 90G!


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## 50seven

teemee said:


> Looking awesome!
> You're elegance coral is insane!
> Can't wait to see the new tank...


Thanks Margaret- it was the first LPS that I got, and it's done well since day 1.


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## explor3r

Love the yellow zoas, beautifull color and nice extension of the skirt.


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## azotemia

what's the name of this?










btw, nice setup! cant wait for mine to fully mature


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## 50seven

azotemia said:


> what's the name of this?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> btw, nice setup! cant wait for mine to fully mature


Not 100% sure, but I searched around quite extensively when I got it, and it seems to be some kind of sinularia leather.


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## Fish_Man

Awesome pictures and great setup!

The 90gal should be a lot of fun planning. I still remember when I first came by and saw just the making of that 35gal. 

Did the corals make it when you picked it up?


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## 50seven

Fish_Man said:


> Awesome pictures and great setup!
> 
> The 90gal should be a lot of fun planning. I still remember when I first came by and saw just the making of that 35gal.
> 
> Did the corals make it when you picked it up?


Thanks bro!

Yes they did. Both the xenia and the Kenya tree are about doubled in size! The hermit is doing well and still competes in WWF RAW every night with the other hermits...


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## ecoleshill

50seven said:


> Not 100% sure, but I searched around quite extensively when I got it, and it seems to be some kind of sinularia leather.


This looks just like my spekled leather coral from the Fiji area.


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## 50seven

Picture dump time... 'forgot' to clean the glass first this time  These pics were taken a few weeks ago when my brother-in-law came over again.










Got a bit of STN on one of my acro frags after it fell into the sand one night.  Other acros are getting some nice variation of greens










Cleaner shrimp stealing food from my yellow polyps










Pink birdsnest from Teemee is doing well; pink colour starting to get deeper










It's hard to find much LR that doesn't have any corals on it! These zoos from Explor3r are spreading out sooo well 










Fortunately my shrooms have been pretty localized and not taken over the tank like my xenia, while still spreading out to cover their rock.










and FTS for the end of the year 










I'm going to be cleaning the tank really good one last time and take some good shots before I completely tear the tank down, as my 90G is ready for things to start moving over now. Out with the old, and in with the new...


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## explor3r

Keving your tank looks amazing, I see a lot of growth in your corals and nice coraline algae in your rocks. This tank to me looks more mature than it is, great job and have fun with the other proyect.
Happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## 50seven

FAREWELL 35G!

Well folks, this marks the last photos of my 35G, as I will be moving all of my corals an fish over to my new 90G in the next few weeks.

Thanks to all who made this journey of learning possible; Explor3r, Teemee; Ken, Chris, and the other big Asian dude at SUM  see you around- I think this stuff will only partly fill up the 90G so I'll be needing more loot 

Now, to post up all the pics on my progress on my 90G...




























Compare that to what it looked like 1 year ago!


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## altcharacter

I wonder if you took everything out except the GSP and the Xenia...which one would win?

You should do that!!


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