It's Coming Together

The tank did really well over our vacation. I was worried about something dying while we were gone, but everything made it through. The automatic top off system worked great and our friends and family came by to feed the fish and add the alkalinity and calcium supplements. There was a lot of algae and scum, but it cleaned up nicely. We got more hermit crabs to add to the clean up crew and will decrease the amount of light each day.

I held off on stocking up the tank too much before we left, so I was really excited to add stuff once I got back. A little too excited actually, I bought 3 corals and 2 fish today.

Here is a pic of the toad stool:
















Here is a pic of the hammer head coral (so named because of the shape of the ends):
















Here is a pic of the candy coral:
















Here is a pic of the clown fish (percula, or false clowns). They are juveniles so one should turn into a female to become a matched pair.
















The fish are difficult to get a picture of, since they swim fast and frantically around the tank, but I did manage to snap a shot of the six line wrasse (who is freaking out about all of the new additions to the tank):
















Here are some full shots of the tank:

We Now Have Coral!

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened since then. We added our first fish a few weeks ago; it's a 6 line wrasse. It hangs out in the live rock and eat pests like flat worms. It's a beautiful fish, but very hard to get a picture of.

About a week after that, we added a royal gramma.

However, it only lasted a couple of days before I witnessed its violent and spastic death. One day it darted out of a cave in the live rock, flopped all around the tank and gulped desperately. I immediately freaked out and woke up Ryan yelling about the terrible things happening to the royal gramma, but by the time we got back to the tank, he was already dead. I have never seen such a dramatic fish death before!

None of the other animals seem to be having problems, so we have no idea what happened. I tested the water, and all of the parameters are correct. Also, our snails are doing really well and they are usually the first indication of a problem with the water. I've been told that things like this happen sometimes, without anyone really knowing why.

About a week after that, we added a banded coral shrimp. It's really cool and cheered me up about losing the royal gramma. It runs around the tank foraging for food and will try to charge you if you put your face up to the glass.

Also, our coralline algae has been spreading. The snails are now purple and there are purple dots all over the back of the tank. I took this picture of one of the snails, and later realized that the 6 line wrasse swam into view at the last minute, he's at the very top.

Just yesterday we added our first corals. We got a frilly mushroom coral and a green sinularia leather coral. They are both soft corals, which are easier to start with. Mushroom and leather corals are also some of the hardiest soft corals, so hopefully we'll do well with them.

We've done well so far keeping the ammonia, nitrates and nitrites down by regular water changes. But now that we've added the corals, we really need to get the hang of keeping the calcium and alkalinity at the right levels, since they will consume calcium and alkalinity to grow.

Green Sinularia:
The rubber band is there to hold it into place until it grows into the rock, in a couple of weeks. It's also still a little shrunken, it will spread out and grow taller once it's used to the new environment.

Frilly Mushroom:

First Water Change

We did the first of our regular bi-weekly water changes today. We also cleaned the sponge filter and replaced the activated carbon.

It's recommended to replace 10% of your water every two weeks to keep it clean and to decrease the levels of any unwanted elements (such as nitrates) while replacing the wanted elements (such as calcium).

With our tank, that equates to replacing around 3 gallons of water. We used the aquarium vacuum to suck out the water and then replaced it with salt water that we mixed in a water container. The new reef salt we are using seems to be much better, our mixture had 480 ppm calcium and read 9 dKH. The old salt had around 300 ppm calcium and 11 dKH. The desired level of calcium is between 400 and 500 ppm and the desired level of alkalinity is between 8 and 12 dKH, however, many of the experts I've spoken to said they like the alkalinity to read around 8 or 9 dKH.

We also found our first casualty today. When we were vacuuming out the tank, we noticed a half-eaten hermit crab body. I hadn't been able to find all 5 of our hermit crabs in a couple of days, so that answers that mystery. I don't know how it died. I'm hoping it was the act of another hermit crab in the tank and not something wrong with our water parameters.

Lessons learned about making salt water for water changes:

The salt takes a while to dissolve in the water container, so the reading of 1.025 on the refractometer (which matches the salinity of the water in the aquarium), later reads higher once all the salt dissolves. We tried to mix the container well, but when it was added to the aquarium, the mixture raised the salinity too much. Next time we'll wait longer before we add the water to the tank.

We need a small water heater to heat the water in the container so the temperature matches the water in the aquarium when it's added to the tank.

We also took out too much water because we measured it in batches, and when you do that while the water is syphoned out of a tube, you waste a lot. We'll need to get a 3 gallon water container that we can fill in one shot.

It's good we did this before we added the first fish, so that next time we'll be spot on. Hopefully we'll be adding a royal gramma on Monday or Tuesday.

The Clean Up Crew Has Arrived

We added 5 blue leg hermit crabs and 2 turbo snails to the tank. They've been happily eating the algae on the live rock and sand.
















I took a water sample to the store and they said it looks like the tank is already cycled and ready for fish. So now we are trying to decide which one to add first. We are thinking about a pair of clown fish, a royal gramma, a wrasse or a goby.
We thought it would take longer to see the cycle, or that the snails and hermit crabs would start it, but they said that the fact we have healthy feather dusters all over the live rock means it's already cured and that the water parameters are safe for fish.

When I asked them about the possibility of the hermit crabs killing the snails for their shells when they out grow out of their own, they said it would probably happen, but to view the snails and hermit crabs as temporary. I'm going to get Ryan to get some pretty shells from one of the stores in Gulf Shores anyway, just in case we can entice them to use those instead.

We still have salinity issues and we had to get more salt. However, we got the reef tank salt with higher calcium this time. Our calcium is finally at the desired level of 420 ppm.

Live Rock is Curing

It looks like the live rock is curing; we now have a light dusting of diatom algae on the sand. When organisms on the rock die off they leave nutrients that feeds diatom algae. It also feeds off of the silica in the salt mixture.















We're going to get a "clean-up crew" of hermit crabs and snails. Adding them to the tank will also start the water cycling process, as their waste will start the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate cycle. So far we haven't started that cycle, and are reading a zero for all, because much of the live rock was already cured.

But first we need to get the low calcium problem fixed. Apparently the B-ionic 2 part solution we used is not very strong and is meant more for maintaining a tank that already has a high level of calcium by adding the bit that's taken up by the invertebrates and corals in the tank. We need a much more stronger shot, but that would be expensive with the pre-mixed 2 part solution, because it would take so much. Instead we got some powdered calcium supplement that will bring it up to the desired level (400 - 500 ppm) faster. After that we can use the B-ionic solution to maintain the calcium and alkalinity level, but I see that getting expensive once we have to buy more. Instead, once we use up what we've already bought, we'll use the powdered supplements and mix them with water to make our own solution. It will make a lot and last much longer than the pre-mixed solutions.

We also have a bit of a salinity issue. Our hydrometer is reading 1.024 or 1.025, which is where it should be, but when I brought a water sample into the store (where I bought the calcium supplement), they measured it at 1.020, which is too low. That's also why our calcium is a little low, because there is a bit in the salt mixture. However, we are working on getting that up too, along with the calcium level. Once they are at the right levels, we'll add the snails and hermit crabs, hopefully by tomorrow. The guy at the store also offered to calibrate our hydrometer, so I'm taking that in with me when I go to get the crabs and snails.

Got More Live Rock

We went back to the Gulfarium to get some more live rock yesterday. We're up to around 30 lbs now, so we should be good.

While we were there, I asked them about the suspect anemone, and they said it's a pest. They had the medicine to get rid of it, and it seems to have worked in one dose.

They sell the 2-part solution we need to bring up the calcium, so we picked that up too. We added 7.5 ml of each solution, but the calcium still wasn't up to the right level today, so we doubled the dose this time.

And after that shopping trip, we have officially spent more on stocking and setting up the tank, than the initial cost of the tank, hood and stand.

Water Parameters

Now that we've got the live rock and sand in the tank, I've been testing the water parameters. Once the water is stable, we'll slowly add fish and corals.

There are so many different things you can test for, and it's been very confusing trying to sort out what I should be testing for. Almost all references agree to test for pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium, and alkalinity (KH). However, some go a step further and suggest to test for magnesium, iodine, stontrium, and "other trace elements".

On the shelves at stores they sell all types of supplements for all the different elements. However, I'm afraid of adding supplements with out having test kits for each element, because from reading it seems that you can overdose the tank. The test kits for iodine and strontrium are expensive and don't include the supplements if you decide to add some. I asked around on reefcentral.com and everyone said that testing for and adding supplements like iodine and strontrium aren't needed for a healthy tank. They said calcium and alkalinity are the two most important for a healthy reef tank; they are the "building blocks" of a reef. They did say I might want to test for and add magnesium when I've got the tank stocked, but to stay away from other supplements, which are expensive and unnecessary.

There is a lot of debate about this issue, but I've decided not to worry about iodine, strontrium and other trace elements at this point. Perhaps when I have specialized corals or something, but not at this point.

They sent me some great links to learn more about marine chemistry:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

Here's what I'm keeping track of. I've been testing daily because I want to know when the cycling of the live rock begins, but once it's established I'll test for most things weekly.

Temperature: 77 degrees Fahrenheit. From reading, this is a good temp for a reef tank, as long as it stays consistent.

Salinity: My hydrometer reads 1.025, which is a good level, but hydrometers aren't the most accurate gauges. We will have to get a refractometer one of these days.

pH: This can fluctuate due to fish waste and uneaten food. The water in the tank has been holding steady at 8.4. A pH reading of 8.2 - 8.4 is ideal, just as long as it's consistent.

Ammonia: Fish poop and decaying organic matter can increase ammonia levels in the tank, which is bad for fish. So far, so good. The tank has not tested positive for ammonia yet, but that will change when things on the live rock start dying and the rocks start curing.

Nitrite: Bacteria in the tank turn the ammonia into nitrite, which is harmful for fish. No ammonia so far, so no nitrite.

Nitrate: Bacteria in the tank turn ammonia and nitrite into nitrate. Nitrate is bad for fish and can stimulate algal blooms. So far no ammonia or nitrite, so no nitrate.

Calcium: This is one of the essential elements of a healthy reef tank. Reef organisms, like corals and invertebrates, use calcium to build their calcium carbonate skeleton. They use up the calcium in the water over time, so it needs to be replenished. Calcium can be added with special reef salt, but I used just regular tank salt which didn't have a good level of calcium. My tests are reading around 300 ppm. It should be between 400 and 500 ppm.

Alkalinity (KH): In addition to calcium, the growth of coral also depends on alkalinity (also called KH or carbonate hardness). Carbonate hardness also helps control pH. My tests are reading around 10 dKH. A healthy range is 8 -12, but many reef experts have told me that 10 dKH is a little high.

Phosphate: Phosphates can drop calcium and magnesium levels and lead to algal blooms, since algae feeds off phosphates. So far, my tests haven't detected any.

So now that I know I need to bring up my calcium level, and bring down my alkalinity, I need to get some supplements. People have suggested two part systems (one for calcium and one for alkalinity) like B-ionic.

Once I do this, my purple coralline algae and little tube coral should do well.