Sharkbait’s 40 Breeder Upgrade

[Danroo]

Looks great, I really like the aquascape.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I should mention that after months of trying with no success, I think I’ve finally gotten my goby to pair with the shrimp! They share the same burrow now! Maybe it was the clownfish trauma or the new tank that made her realize she should finally do what a shrimpgoby is meant to!!

 

[Captain Redbeard]

That’s fantastic man!! Congratulations.

I’m quite a few steps behind you in my build. But yours is great inspiration to keep moving!

 

[Sharkbait19]

That’s fantastic man!! Congratulations.

I’m quite a few steps behind you in my build. But yours is great inspiration to keep moving!

Thanks! I did already have a lot of livestock, so I suppose I kind of cheated by skipping some steps lol! Yours is going to be great!!

 

[Sharkbait19]

Well, I can see that temporarily using an old heater was a bad idea… I noticed right before bed that the heater was filled with air and that the water was 86+ degrees! So I unplugged it and threw some ice cubes in the water. It’s a good thing I noticed otherwise I would’ve woken up to a disaster…

So needless to say, I think that 73-75 degrees will be much better than 86-90…

 

[i cant think]

Well, I can see that temporarily using an old heater was a bad idea… I noticed right before bed that the heater was filled with air and that the water was 86+ degrees! So I unplugged it and threw some ice cubes in the water. It’s a good thing I noticed otherwise I would’ve woken up to a disaster…

So needless to say, I think that 73-75 degrees will be much better than 86-90…

If I don’t have a heater in the tank for a while then what I do is turn the heating on. Or I will get some “Ice packs” and warm them up to a nice temperature then put them into the tank, the first avoid them and the water rises to a nice temperature then I’ll take them out and if the temperature drops too much I’ll put them back in (Obviously if they’re back to cold then I’ll heat them up again).

 

[Mary Carmen]

Looking great. I am following to see how the corals fill this tank! Nice set up.

 

[violetjones]

Hey Sharkbait, great thread! I would google Humblefish and check out his QT blog. He is amazing and helped me save my whole tank from velvet/ich. Just finished the treatment and all fish survived looking better than ever!

 

[Sharkbait19]

Update:
Well, I can officially say I’ve entered the ugly stage:

The new heater arrived today, and it works well so far! I’m sure this will make my corals much happier and more open.

Two of my frogspawns continued to look bad to the point that all I saw was skeleton. In a last ditch effort, I decided to dip them in iodine daily, and then put them into my quarantine tank, the former 13.5 gallon tank. Since then, they have speedily recovered, and hopefully they will soon be able to return to the main display.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Update:
As the ugly stage continues, something formed that I was really afraid was dinoflagellates. I took out my microscope, however, to get a proper ID. Turns out it’s just hair algae. The bubbles might be because of the diatoms that are also present, growing in and around the hair algae.

 

[EricR]

Dude -- I love your tank layout,,, but that's a LOT of algae going on.
I'm a newbie(ish) but never got anywhere near that much before.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Dude -- I love your tank layout,,, but that's a LOT of algae going on.
I'm a newbie(ish) but never got anywhere near that much before.

My guess is that it’s due to the new tank with all the old media and rocks thrown in - lots of nutrients to grow and too small a cuc + still not huge amounts of bacteria to fight it. So basically a lot of uglies. As long as it’s not dinos or cyano I’m happy though…

 

[DeniseAndy]

Looks great. Ugly stages happen. mine was when I was in 3rd grade. They called me elf. Big ears, thin hair.

I have a 40g and it was really easy to drill if you decide to do that and an external sump. This tank however cracked years in. I did not want to drill the new one yet, so I actually build a pvc overflow to the sump. So far works great. Just an idea if you get sick of the HOB. I hate heaters in the tank. Just me.

Looks good and congrats on the goby shrimp pairing. Love those guys.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Do you have a UV? It really helps with the uglies.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Looks great. Ugly stages happen. mine was when I was in 3rd grade. They called me elf. Big ears, thin hair.

I have a 40g and it was really easy to drill if you decide to do that and an external sump. This tank however cracked years in. I did not want to drill the new one yet, so I actually build a pvc overflow to the sump. So far works great. Just an idea if you get sick of the HOB. I hate heaters in the tank. Just me.

Looks good and congrats on the goby shrimp pairing. Love those guys.

Agreed! I made a few DIY overflows like Joey (the king of DIY) and they all worked great! Not an issue with any of them in 4 years of operation. Trick is to go full depth of the tank for it.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Do you have a UV? It really helps with the uglies.

Don’t have one but that’s definitely something I should consider.

 

[Sharkbait19]

So for eventual fish stocking, I’m definitely considering some type of blenny.
Ideally I’d get one that eats algae, but am open to suggestions. My main thoughts were tailspot or Midas.
Any ideas?

 

[Projects with Sam]

I have a longfin algae Benny and he is absolutely the best - eats a ton of algae and whatever he is lacking in color he makes up with in eye-brows and personality. He swims around with the biggest paunch and lounges on the rocks.

 

[EricR]

So for eventual fish stocking, I’m definitely considering some type of blenny.
Ideally I’d get one that eats algae, but am open to suggestions. My main thoughts were tailspot or Midas.
Any ideas?

I like my bicolor blenny but he doesn't touch the couple of little spots of hair algae on my dry rock,,, ever.
Just sits on his lazy butt on top of rocks, staring at me, waiting for me to OVER-feed him,,, so I'd say no on bicolor for algae (((just one experience)))

 

[Captain Redbeard]

Looking good SB! Keep up the good work brotha