| Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium | |
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+5mangoman lostintravise schudini Nicholas41 Sam_G 9 posters |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:25 am | |
| Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium First, some history: I got into the saltwater hobby about two years ago. I started with a 14 Gallon Biocube that I kept in my dorm on-campus. A year later (when I moved back home), I upgraded to a 46 Gallon Bowfront Aquarium. Last August, I upgraded to a 50 Gallon, which is my current main aquarium. Where I began - The BC14: My Old 46 Gallon: Here's a link to my old 46 Gallon's build thread on Living Reefs... http://www.livingreefs.com/samanthas-46-gallon-bowfront-t26188.html#post346353 My Current Set-Up - Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium: I plan to give a condensed summary of the set-up of my 50 Gallon in my next few posts, but if you want a more in depth version, below is a link to the build thread for my 50 Gallon Reef that I maintain on Living Reefs: http://www.livingreefs.com/samanthas-50-gallon-reef-aquarium-t28239.html
Last edited by Sam_G on Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:27 pm; edited 2 times in total | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:04 am | |
| My 50 Gallon Reef - How It's Changed Over Time...August 2010 - The New Aquarium: August 2010 - A Week Later: December 2010: January 2011 - After a Bad Coral Bleaching Accident in December: April 2011: May 2011 - After Changing My T5 Bulbs: | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:19 am | |
| Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium - Current Set-Up: June 2011: My Set-Up and Equipment: DT Set-Up: - CPR Refugium - Eshopps Single Overflow - Mesh Screen Tops - Current Nova Extreme Pro 36" T5 Fixture w/ ATI Bulbs - 80ish lbs. of LR - 80ish lbs. of LS - Tunze Nanostream 6045 - Hydor Koralia Nano 425 20L Sump Set-Up: - Odyssey PS-75 Protein Skimmer - Refugium - Aqueon Pro 200W Submersible Heater - Eheim 1260 Hobby Pump - Fan - PhosBan Reactor 150 - Titanium Grounding Probe - Gravity-Fed 5 Gallon ATO
Last edited by Sam_G on Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:29 pm; edited 5 times in total | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:20 am | |
| My Fish Currently, I have five fish in my 50 Gallon. Here are my peeps: Goby, My Yellow Watchman Goby: Yes, he's a goby, and I named him Goby. I know, original. Goby was my first fish. He started out in the BC14, survived being moved to and from my dorm, survived the move to the 46 Gallon, and now he makes his home in the 50 Gallon. I love Goby and his perpetual frown. I often refer to him as "Mr. Grumpy Gills". Harry, My Splendid Leopard Wrasse: Harry is definitely the star of the tank. He swims around all day looking for pods on the LR and showing off his colors. Harry is actually a girl currently. However, leopard wrasses can change their sex. While I bought Harry as a female, "she" should one day change into a "he", so, therefore, I gave the wrasse a "boy" name and refer to it as a he. Sean and Sydney, The Clownfish Couple: Last December, Sean and Sydney were added to the family. They are naked clownfish, because they have no stripes. Sydney is the bigger one (females are always the larger one in the pair). They like to host the large green montipora in my aquarium. Waldo, My Tailspot Blenny: Waldo is the latest addition to my aquarium. I bought him just a couple of weeks ago at Aqua Star Aquarium Center. He's a cute little guy with an interesting personality. | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:13 am | |
| Some other members of the reef...While I'm not going to go through every hermit crab, snail, and other critter in my aquarium, there are a few important ones that I'd like to introduce you to: Junior, My Skunk Cleaner Shrimp: Chip and Chad, My Sand-Sifting Starfish: (The pic is of Chip. Chad looks pretty much the same) Chuck, My Red Fromia Starfish: | |
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Nicholas41
Join date : 2011-06-02 Posts : 1062
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:37 pm | |
| The picture of Goby getting cleaned is priceless!!! And I wanted to say congrats on keeping a leopard wrasse, I hear it takes an expert reefer to keep on of those! I think I read about them in a book on expert reef keeping! | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:10 pm | |
| - Nicholas41 wrote:
- The picture of Goby getting cleaned is priceless!!!
Thanks! - Nicholas41 wrote:
- And I wanted to say congrats on keeping a leopard wrasse, I hear it takes an expert reefer to keep on of those! I think I read about them in a book on expert reef keeping!
Yeah, cuz you're such a BIG reader! | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:22 pm | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:31 pm | |
| Also, I placed an order with Mr. Coral! My first Mr. Coral order!! I'm pretty excited! It will ship out tomorrow, and should arrive Wednesday. Pics coming soon! | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:31 am | |
| Also, the Mr. Coral order came in yesterday! I posted some pics in the "Corals" forum, but I'll try to take some close-ups of the frags and post them here... | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:10 am | |
| Finally! Here are the Mr. Coral frags! First off, I got some acans. I've never kept acans before, so I'm pretty psyched about these lil' guys! Amazing Acan: Last Samurai Acan: Holy Cow Acan (suffered a lot from shipping, and you can see its skeleton poking through ): I also got a Superman Chalice: Some Fruit Loop Zoas (they look like morphs, though, not real Fruit Loops): Perfect 10 Zoas: Magician Palys (the ones that I got at the TBRC frag swap died so I bought these to replace them): When I ordered from Mr. Coral they had a deal going on that you got 2 free frags with every 4 frags purchased, so here are my freebies... Pink Zoas: Purple People Eater Favia: Superman Zoas: Blazin' Watermelon Chalice:
Last edited by Sam_G on Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:31 am; edited 5 times in total | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:15 am | |
| Unfortunately, it's been almost a week now since the Mr. Coral order came in, and it seems that a few of the frags are looking worse. The acan that wasn't looking so hot when it arrived looks like it has taken a turn for the worse. The two chalices aren't looking so good either. Both of them have bleached pretty badly. The chalices are only about the size of my thumb nail, and I think they were just really fragile to begin with. I've been moving the corals around my tank trying to make them happier. I guess we'll just see what happens... I think for now on, I'll stick to buying locally... | |
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schudini
Join date : 2011-06-30 Posts : 142
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:31 pm | |
| Nice acans.
I lol'd at the warning sticker on the sump. I need one of those. | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:38 pm | |
| Thanks! Unfortunately, one of the acans that I ordered (the one that suffered a lot from shipping) didn't make it. It bit it yesterday... Yeah, I found the sticker on Ebay and couldn't resist!! | |
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schudini
Join date : 2011-06-30 Posts : 142
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:48 pm | |
| Were you feeding the acans anything? | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:26 pm | |
| I tried feeding mysis and brine shrimp, but they aren't extending tentacles. One of the acans kind of extended some tentacles yesterday evening. I'm hoping maybe tonight the 2 remaining ones might... | |
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schudini
Join date : 2011-06-30 Posts : 142
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:54 am | |
| I usually feed at night so the other fish don't try to pull the food out of their mouths (stupid clowns ). I melt a cube of brine, etc. in a bottle cap with tank water, then squirt a little of the melted liquid into the tank for all the LPS to get excited, then wait about 5-10 minutes until everything shows tentacles and use a long pipette (eyedropper) to squirt food near/into the mouths. | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:36 pm | |
| Thanks for the advice, Josh. I'll give that a shot tonight. Last night I got distracted and forgot to try to feed the acans. | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:07 pm | |
| I've continued to try to feed the acans but to no avail. The acans did show a bit of polyp extension, but as soon as I try to feed them, my fish and shrimp steal all of the food. Even at night, my fish and shrimp come swimming over to steal the food. I don't think the acans got any of it. The good news is that the two acan frags that are left don't look bad. One looks pretty healthy, the other is still showing some skeleton, but at least it's not getting any worse. Unfortunately, the two chalice frags that I got from Mr. Coral were just getting worse by the day. I moved them to my brother's tank a couple of days ago to see if they'd be happier in there. I guess time will tell... | |
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schudini
Join date : 2011-06-30 Posts : 142
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Tue Jul 05, 2011 5:41 pm | |
| Yep, that's the reason I hate clown fish and cleaner shrimp, they just come in and steal the food right out of the corals mouth!
Depending on where it's located, you can cut the bottom off of a water bottle and use the "bell" shaped part as a shield during feeding, to prevent everything else from stealing the food.
Also, showing a little skeleton isn't bad, they can still come back.
I've found mine like medium light and medium to low flow for maximum extension. | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Tue Jul 05, 2011 7:27 pm | |
| The water bottle trick is a good idea! Unfortunately, I have the acan right under an acro and monti which makes it nearly impossible to squish anything in there. Where it is located now, it gets medium light and low flow, so it seems like I picked a pretty good spot... The good news is that the acan is looking better. I barely see any skeleton this evening, and it's starting to look pretty plump and healthy! Keeping my fingers crossed! | |
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lostintravise
Join date : 2011-07-07 Posts : 5
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:09 pm | |
| Just chiming it to tell you I think your aquarium is great! | |
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Sam_G Admin
Join date : 2011-01-15 Posts : 2530
| Subject: Re: Samantha's 50 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:25 pm | |
| - lostintravise wrote:
- Just chiming it to tell you I think your aquarium is great!
Thanks, Travis! And, welcome to the club and forum!! You should introduce yourself to the rest of the forum in the "Introduce Yourself" Forum. What type of aquarium do you have? | |
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