Thesilence87's 30g Hexagonal Tank Build

[smallblock]

PFCDeitz;684069 wrote: If you do two gobies do two pistols

I don't know if this would work, from my experiance with watchmen goibies they are going to pair up if you get 2. I bet but I'm not sure they would prob ignore the shrimp. Seems like the instinct to procreate would over power a symbiotic relationship.

I think you would enjoy 2 yellow watchmen gobies. They are some of my favorite fish. If you get lucky enough one will change from yellow into a grayish color with beautifull blue accents. They look awesome when they change.

They are also pretty cheap too maybe more in your budget. I've seen them at warehouse a while back ago already mated/paired up.

Edit:

thesilence87;685898 wrote: So after talking to some people, and having my water tested, it seems like my tank might not cycle at all? I have just a TINY bit of ammonia, and my nitrites and nitrates aren't elevated at all. I've also noticed significant algae growth both on my liverock and on my sand.

As a result, I've added just a *few* things in:
Five TINY dwarf blue-legged hermits
one medium dwarf blue-legged hermit
one scarlet hermit
one dwarf red-legged hermit
one frag of green paly with two heads

I've been watching the tank throughout the day and night, and everything seems to be doing fine so far. I'm happy that there's finally life in my tank.

A tiny bit of amoninia is still 2 much. I would wait a little bit longer before I added anything.

Also is there any reason you went with such a deep sandbed. I've heard horor storys of deep sandbeds. They can hold bad stuff and when stirred up it can damage the tank. I don't have any experiance with that happening but I've heard about it. Might be worth asking someone who know for sure.

The tank looks great by the way really unique!!

 

[thesilence87]

Smallblock;685906 wrote: A tiny bit of amoninia is still 2 much. I would wait a little bit longer before I added anything.

Also is there any reason you went with such a deep sandbed. I've heard horror storys of deep sandbeds. They can hold bad stuff and when stirred up it can damage the tank. I don't have any experiance with that happening but I've heard about it. Might be worth asking someone who know for sure.

The tank looks great by the way really unique!!

I'm wondering if I should run the skimmer and do a water change or if I should just leave it alone for now since half the water I put in there was aged tank water from a live rock holding tank at the LFS. It's supposed to speed up the cycling process and possibly even keep a cycle from occuring at all. I'm wondering if because that half was used water, I might have a little bit of ammonia from the die-off on the live rock in those tanks, or if it came from my rock and water.

I went with a 4 1/2"-5" sandbed because I heard that anaerobic bacteria then take up residence in the very bottom and help break down wastes. I contemplated adding a plenum and making the sandbed slightly less deep, but cutting eggcrate into a hex shape wasn't something I felt like doing.

I've heard the horror stories about the toxins getting stirred up too, but then I've also heard people saying that it should be fine. In addition, if having a deep sand bed stirred up toxins when disturbed, how would people with deep sand beds have functioning systems when they cleaned their sand or switched their current sand out for sand that they liked more? If I could actually get someone who has had a deep sandbed's opinion on the matter, that would be great.

I don't think I'll be adding anything else into the tank for at least a couple of weeks unless people say that turning on the skimmer and doing a water change is a good idea, and if that results in my ammonia dropping to next to nothing.

 

[thesilence87]

So, update. I got another 10 lbs of live rock thanks to nyk's generosity. I'll post pictures of the new setup later. I'm picking up a power strip and grounded timer later tonight.

 

[nyk]

your welcome. let me see the pics and let me know when its done so i can come by and see it in person

 

[thesilence87]

So, I'm a little late on pictures, but here's pictures of the new aquascape. I'm getting massive algae growth, especially on the glass, so I've started trying to scrape off what I can of it, and set up the skimmer. Still no nitrites or nitrates, but I'll be waiting at least two weeks before adding a fish, especially since I've still got a TINY bit of ammonia. I don't want to kill anything I don't need to.

I did add a piece of xenia that a friend didn't really want in his tank, I'm hoping it makes it, it looks to be doing okay. Oddly enough, that green paly frag I put in the tank seems to be growing, and pretty well. The diameter of the two heads have increased, there's a third baby head that is basically a nub with some color, but it can open and close to an extent, and there's another nub forming.

I have a question though. There are amphipods and bristleworms in the tank, I can see them from time to time, but there are also these little things about the size of a small amphipod that don't have the larger hind legs. There are TONS of them in the tank, I can count at least 50. They seem to be visible only at night, but they're all over the place. <span style="color: Red">Can someone help ID these little guys?</span>
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[thesilence87]

Those little things that were in the tank seem to be munnid isopods.

My parameters have stabilized, I've had a diatom bloom, and there's TONS of algae in the tank, which I'm slowly adding a CuC to combat.

I've added 3 astrea snails, two cerinth snails, two turbo snails, and five more tiny dwarf blue-legged hermits. I will probably be putting a crab and a shrimp in sometime soon.

The bad news...I think my Metal Halide Ballast has gone bad, I woke up this morning and went to look at the tank after getting ready. I noticed the light wasn't on, and so I checked the ballast, no heat or noise at all. I tried plugging the ballast into a different outlet, same result, so it looks like my plans are currently on hold.

 

[coolsurf]

Make sure the bulb has a good connection/contact. If it slips a bit, it won't ignite. I am more than willing to bet that is the problem. Don't touch the bulb without using a tissue or a cloth. Push the bulb up to make sure all connections are good.

 

[smallblock]

also I wouldn't believe your test saying that there is no nitrites or nitrates, thats food for algae if you have algae you have some. you may be getting false readings because the algae is consuming the trates and fooling the test.

Edit: Its looking really good btw, I'm liking this tank alot. Hope you figure out the lighting problem. I don't want any postponement on new pics!!!!

 

[thesilence87]

coolsurf;688201 wrote: Make sure the bulb has a good connection/contact. If it slips a bit, it won't ignite. I am more than willing to bet that is the problem. Don't touch the bulb without using a tissue or a cloth. Push the bulb up to make sure all connections are good.

It turned out to be a loose wire in the reflector housing, it's still a bit loose because I can't get the screws loose to put it in the proper spot, but it's tight enough that I can just jiggle it, and as long as I don't knock it, it'll work properly. I discovered that last night at like 1:30am, because I was being stubborn and messing around with it to try and save money.

Smallblock;688209 wrote: also I wouldn't believe your test saying that there is no nitrites or nitrates, thats food for algae if you have algae you have some. you may be getting false readings because the algae is consuming the trates and fooling the test.

Edit: Its looking really good btw, I'm liking this tank alot. Hope you figure out the lighting problem. I don't want any postponement on new pics!!!!

I got a TON of algae at first, but it's suddenly not growing quite as fast. I'm not sure if it has to do with a drop in nitrates or that the lights weren't on in the tank for day. It's very possible that I might still have nitrates, but I'll test next week before adding a fish and see.

Thanks for the compliment, I didn't get responses for a few days so I wasn't sure if anyone was reading the thread, lol. I got a red reef crab and two peppermint shrimp today from Rit, the peppermint shrimp were super cheap.

So I'm trying to pick between a Royal Gramma and a clownfish for my first fish, any suggestions? I saw a tiny six-line I was considering too, but my friend across the street has one, and I'd like a little change of scenery for that.

I'll post a picture of the actual tank after the first fish is in .
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[thesilence87]

I got my first fish yesterday! I got a Royal Gramma who I have decided to give a name, since people told me I should, and it made sense, so his name is Franklin.

Unfortunately, Franklin seems to have a problem I didn't notice till today because of his shy nature, I think he has ich. He has little white specks all over his body. The good news is, that he is active, I think I saw him nibbling at a sinking pellet, and he's not scratching up against any rocks or hyperventilating. What's the best course of action for the ich situation? Taking out all the liverock to catch him isn't really an option.

Oh, I also now have a refractometer, so no more borrowing a friend's hydrometer .

I've got updated pictures of my tank, but they're from a camera-phone, so they're not the most amazing.
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[thesilence87]

So, I got the fish out for treatment...I had to literally remove EVERY piece of liverock in the tank to get to him, so I've sort of had to redo my rockwork. Pictures tomorrow.

 

[smallblock]

looks good!!!!

 

[coolsurf]

Looking real nice. Love the Royal Gramma. :thumbs:

 

[markusj18]

Looking good man

 

[thesilence87]

It's been a while since an update. The Royal Gramma is pretty much better, he's waiting till my tank is clean to be put back in. I've had to redo the rock because getting him out was a HUGE pain. I've got some new stuff:

Whammin' Watermelon Zoa's:

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A torch coral:

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A skunk cleaner:

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A Tooth/Galaxea frag (Notice the AWESOME Coral Cradle plug it's sitting in, they're pretty much awesome.):

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and a few pictures of the overall setup as it stands now. I switched out the maxijet 1200 for a koralia nano that came with my tank. The maxijet was heating up the water too much.

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[thesilence87]

The new kids on the block:

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[butch]

You have done a nice job on that tank. Hex tanks are difficult to scape because of the lack of floor space, but yours looks really good. Bravo!

 

[coolsurf]

I've enjoyed watching the build of the tank. You have done a great job and it looks very nice. :thumbs:

 

[thesilence87]

Butch;692116 wrote: You have done a nice job on that tank. Hex tanks are difficult to scape because of the lack of floor space, but yours looks really good. Bravo!

Yeah, the tank feels really cramped overall really, but I guess you make the best of what you have. My parents keep looking at the tank and telling me I have too much rock in there.

coolsurf;692143 wrote: I've enjoyed watching the build of the tank. You have done a great job and it looks very nice. :thumbs:

Thank you!

I think one of the heads of the torch coral somehow got injured, it looks like it's oozing off flesh, is there anything I can do about that?

 

[thesilence87]

Since my last post, the only thing I've really changed is that I've gotten a small female sally light-foot that seems to play nice with everything in the tank. Thankfully, my clowns have stopped fighting completely.

Unfortunately, I had to tear down the tank last night and move it to a friend's house for temporary holding because of emergency repairs/renovations being done.

I've enjoyed the uniqueness of the 30g hexagonal tank, but I've bought a 40b with a gift card and will be moving my livestock back in that.