40 Gallon Breeder Tank - Saltwater

He's probably 3/4 an inch total right now but he's still a youngin' haha And thanks! That's one of the rocks I've had since the dawn of time.

Soo... I havent updated this in a while. Largely because of my inability to take decent pictures whenever I see something I like, but here's a small update.

I had to move towns (an 8 hour drive ) and decided to re-do the sand substrate in the process. Everything made it to the new place alive and well. I like the new sand so much better!!! A few of my rocks lost some coraline algae because I was messing with them out of water attempting to find a decent way to stack them, but Im hoping it will make a comeback.

The current count is 2 damsels, one coral, one rock of zoas, 2 snails and a hermit crab

Full shot


I've been trying to do the POTMs, but again, unskilled photographer. I can barely take a picture of a flower, much less quick damsels!

An attempt for last month I just didn't upload in time:


Ones I've attempted for the Top Down



So the picture turned out great, but a snail with hair algae isn't particularly cool. Nor something that should really be on the portal front page hahaha I still have a while to attempt more though.

Speaking of algae, does anyone know what type this is? It seems to have made a spontaneous appearance (not the bubble algae, I know that one haha)

Sorry for the poor quality, I took it on my hood. But it's green and shaped like that. It's still in my tank so once it grows up again I can get a better picture if needed.

Looks great, Ashley! That's awesome that everything survived the move! The tank looks so clean and healthy!

As for the mysterious algae, looks like its the shape of halimeda to me.

Sam_G wrote:

Looks great, Ashley! That's awesome that everything survived the move! The tank looks so clean and healthy!

Thanks! It feel big and empty to me. Im thinking of adding another fish soon. Not sure which one yet (The shops up here are far and few between, and much more pricey! I miss that easy Tampa access:( )

Quote :

As for the mysterious algae, looks like its the shape of halimeda to me.

Googles images looks similar. Good job! It's not really being a bother, so I'll let it do what it wants I guess...

Halimeda can grow really quick, so be careful. I found a little sprout of it in my tank about 6 months ago, and now it covers a 5" x 5" patch of the aquarium!

Ive never had halimeda before but yeah i'd pull it out, if it grows too fast it can affect calcium depletion and it gets really good roots in the rocks

The tank is looking great Ashley!! Good pictures as well, did you get a new camera???

I haven't attempted top down shots yet so you're ahead of the game!

Hmm, it's been sitting in the same spot since about June? And ever since the move it has been getting baby sprouts around the base. I plucked the big one and some babies (seen in the pic) but I didnt clear them all because I didnt think it did anything. Maybe I will next time I clean the tank.

Thanks Nick! No new camera. All of the shots I post on here come from my phone, my iTouch or my actual camera. The camera takes better pics than the other two, but it still takes 3-15 shots to get ONE that I like. And even then... lol

Well you picked 5 good shots out of a possible 15-75 .

Sooo... Im thinking of selling the blue-fin damsel (the whitish-yellow one). Aside from the fact that I have yet to settle on a name for him, Im pretty sure he's the reason my tree coral hasnt made a full recovery since the sulfide release. I thought it was staying bundled up because it didnt like the water quality, but it has just been TOO LONG since it's been opened and my zoas are even doing fine. I've seen him nip at the tree coral every now and then, but not like "Im trying to eat this" nips, just "Hey, what's this?" nips and I thought it would go away. He leaves the zoas alone (perhaps because they're less showy i.e. low to the surface instead of tall and wavy?). But I still catch him nipping at the tree coral whenever it tries to open up. This coral may very well die if it NEVER gets the chance to be open, so Im thinking of trading him in.

But for what???

There are so few fish stores here, and the few that I've found are pricey and kind of had sad/sick fish in non-so-clean tanks :/ I could order a fish online but then I wouldnt know if it's healthy or active. I'd rather "rescue" one from a store that I can see in person.

trade him for a clean up crew?

epic reef was pretty nice though. or i always like corals and fins..

I'd trade him in.

Check out our LFS List: https://aquarists-at-usf.forumotion.com/t7-local-fish-stores-lfs-list

(I'd recommend the LFS listed in blue. )

mangoman wrote:

trade him for a clean up crew?

The cleanup crew isn't a bad idea. I doubt I would get much $ for the little guy, so it might be just enough to get a decent crew. I've got 2 snails and a hermit, but they could use some friends.

But I still want at least 2 fish in my tank.

Sam_G wrote:

Check out our LFS List: https://aquarists-at-usf.forumotion.com/t7-local-fish-stores-lfs-list

(I'd recommend the LFS listed in blue. )

I would totally do that, except I moved 8 hours away! None of those stores have particularly strong websites to order from, so unless I get the chance to stop by when Im passing through on the 19th (which would be awesome but HIGHLY dependent on time) and then have the fish survive the drive back in a plastic baggie... :/


Even looking online, I have no idea what to get. All the things I want, I cant afford or cant support (spotted mandarin, clownfish/anemone pair, a puffer or long-horned boxfish, that's really all I want... ) I just dont know!!!

Oh yeah...forgot that you moved

Hmm, I can't be of much help them.

you could get a nice boxfish or something(: or a toby puffer.. i think creative aquariums might ship and Samantha works there now so she could inpsect the merch and take pics for you? Idk not to speak for Samantha here but its a thought..

where you move to?

Im really worried about the potential of it becoming distressed and poisoning everything. I also don't know if I can afford to feed a puffer. The puffers I took care of at the Aquarium were ravenous and ate non-stop and they wouldnt be content with my current mostly-flake-food diet (although they would do this ADORABLE spitting water thing if they thought you were ignoring them, and they just have GORGEOUS eyes). Plus, I was always told Tobies werent really reef safe. I've never known anyone who owned one though, so maybe it's like the Choc. chip starfish.

I moved to Pensacola to go to grad school at UWF. I thought because it was 15 minutes from the beach, and they have both a decent Marine Bio program and an excellent Underwater Archaeology program, it would be full of fish stores. But nope. There's like 4 that do saltwater and most of them are bad. The one decent (though still small) store is expensive. I could get to more if I wanted to drive an hour or two but they don't get great reviews online so Im hesitant to waste my time

UF has a good underwater arch program , I wanna go to school for Archaeology but at 34 I dont know If I wanna start a 8 year degree mainly for the fact that I cant afford it and dont wanna go into massive debt to get it , if only id caught the bug in high school /sigh

That stinks that nothing good os near you, Ashley.

Also, as far as I know, Creative Aquariums doesn't ship. I don't think any of the LFS here do (I could be wrong, though). And, like you, I feel you are always taking a gamble when you have something shipped to you. I like to see what I buy before I buy it...

And, btw, puffers aren't reef safe, so make sure you know what you are getting into if you go that route.

Corals and fins ships

but yes i'm never big on shipping.. especially fish. unlses its wysiwyg

I feel REALLY guilty about sending my fish back to the store. Im borderline not gonna do it. To be cramped up in a too-small tank after having a 40gal to swim around in and grow. And the tanks here arn't always kept well, and no one is going to want him because he's so much older and bigger and he'll probably be priced higher and he'll just get sick and die in those tiny holding tanks I wish I could send him to a good home, but how am I gonna sell THAT? "Hey, I've got a semi-aggressive damsel that might be picking on my coral. Does anybody else want their coral to be upset?"

So I was looking around on Corals and fins' new site (great update!) and I spotted the cleaner wrasse for $10 (though usually $12) or a Springer damsel for $12. Does anybody know anything about either of these? I might be passing through town (Tampa) around the 19th so I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but if I get a fish then, it'd have to make the 8hour drive. But if Corals and fins ships...

I need a fish that's hardy enough to withstand being kept by me (OH! by the way! I've made some pretty great strides in getting coraline to grow in my tank again! And by "I made great strides" I mean that I didnt actually do anything, but it's growing again. Had a lag there when it just wasnt growing... anyway), one that will get along with Scott (and possibly my other damsel if I dont have the heart to trade him in), one that is reef safe, and preferably one that doesnt jump.

Im not a huge fan of wrasses since I've had bad luck with them in the past. I did have a six-line wrasse once that did alright except for the fact that I bought him to eat bristle worms and he did not. But he was a good fish in general, so I would be willing to try another if it's like my six-line.

Man, do I ramble. And Im too lazy to go back and proof read all that, so my apologies if there are errors.

Don't know anything about springer damsels. Cleaner wrasses can be hard to take care of. Sometimes they are hard to get eating, because in the wild they just eat parasites off of fish. Because of this, a lot of people buy them and they die...

I bought a new fish! I went to the store and they had a Springer damsel, but not for sale (it was in the display tank). He was cute though, and may still be on my list of things to buy...

Anywho, I got an orange spotted goby. Been calling him Spot, may call him Tang. Not sure yet.

Ignore the coraline on the glass please, lol


And then I went to the place called Gulf Specimens and got a Sea Pansy for like $11. It was a "huh, why not?..." moment
It seemed to be doing great the first night (last night), eats my omnivorous fish flake (although I might buy some marine snow), and seems generally happy
How it looked top-down at the facility (not the same one I bought)

How it looks in my tank

Yay all the polyps were out!


And then today I caught the greyish damsel rubbing up on and pestering the sea pansy! Not wanting the same fate as my tree coral, I decided to give the damsel to my friend. She has a few tanks and thought he'd fit in with one of them, lol. So he went to his new home a few hours ago. I'll finally get to see if he was the reason my tree wasnt opening up

Love the new additions!

UPDATE!!

The greyish damsel is doing great in it's new home So glad I didnt have to send him back to a store

Tang is doing great also. He's a pro a sifting sand.

My tree coral is REALLY opening up! Im sooo glad it was the damsel. Here I was thinking my water quality was so awful for so long.

I also added a new fish! A damsel! I know, I have a problem with damsels, but they're just so darn cute! haha

Her name is cya, pronounced psy-uh (named after the color cyan blue, that's why it's spelled that way). She has beautiful colorations which this picture slightly exaggerates. In real life you can see the black but it's not like the OMG differentiation in this pic.


I've had her for a couple weeks now. She seems to have settled in fine. Slight territory issues with Scott, but nothing physically injuring or stressing (at least she hasn't gotten ich yet. Could it have finally gotten out of my tank??? lol)

Oh and the pansy died. A few other people who went to that place bought some also, and they all said theirs died too. They're not particularly aquarium animals, though I had an invertebrate lab class that had one for at least 2 months. Maybe a barebottom tank is the key...