Sugar's 30g reef tank

[SBlisters]

I came into salt water suddenly with the win of this loveliness. I didn't know diddly about jack, but have been keeping a planted fresh water tank for years. After an initial bad decision of replacing too much missing water with just distilled water, I thought I blew it. Thanks to the good advice of R2R and others, everybody made it through that first bit.

 

[SBlisters]

I bought the light and some additional equipment. I lost a Peppermint shrimp to a molt. 2 crabs, some new snails, Bristle worms and vermitids seemed to materialize out of thin air. It seems like the tank is different every single day. I lost the turbon snail when he fell over in a spot in didn't see until too late. I added in a young, blue legged hermit crab and a yellow, banded coral shrimp.

View attachment 20161108_170241.jpg

 

[SBlisters]

I did some rearranging after great R2R advice about the candy cane coral. My params have been very stable, and the candy cane coral has been growing in very nicely. The Xenia is taking off like crazy, and the mushrooms have grown quite a bit too. This is a more recent picture of how things look.

 

[SBlisters]

Today I was thinking about quickly things change in the tank & saw people tracking progress. Yet another great idea courtesy of R2R

 

[revhtree]

Looking good bro!

 

[Tahoe61]

Coming along very nicely. I have the same tank brand and size.

 

[SBlisters]

I got a little too excited, and added the following livestock to my tank: Lettuce Nudibranch, Leather Toadstool frag, blue legged hermit crab (that brings me up to 2) and... a crown conch nassarius. So the nassarius is the one I shouldn't have purchased. He/she is very pretty, and I was thinking about the nassarius not the conch bit, and failed to properly research.
Hopefully just having the one won't cause problems. Any advice to help keep him be happy, and not attack my other livestock would be appreciated. Currently, the nassarius is buried in the sand just under the rock my green sea star is encrusted on. On the plus side, the Lettuce Nudibranch is SO GREAT!

 

[SBlisters]

I ended up tweaking my layout a little bit again so it was a tad easier to clean the glass. Note about the beveled corner tanks- beautiful, but NOT easy to clean the edges.

 

[SBlisters]

My CBS has stopped being so shy, and now comes out to see me more. I found 2 more hitchhiker crabs living in the tank. No clue what species, but definitely 2 different ones. I had glued up vermatid holes in my favia, and it is now making a noticeable recovery.

 

[SBlisters]

The tiny leather Toadstool frag I got for $10 from a LFS is now growing at a noticeable rate. My clown fish seems to like it quite a bit.

 

[SBlisters]

Notes about my tank:
Low flow, high light, 29°C, 1.025 salinity, 8.2pH, 400 calcium.
Tank: JPL 30gal glass with stand
Light: AquaRay (this is a blue & white LED that can be used independently and gives a mottled wave of light that makes the tank look like you are seeing it while diving).
I have a heater, but that's it. No controller, ATO, food dispenser or anything like that. Extremely basic set up.

 

[SBlisters]

New addition to my tank: halloween hermit crab

 

[SBlisters]

Typo in previous list. Tank is JBJ. I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking good! Following!

 

[SBlisters]

Looking good! Following!

Thanks for the positive support [emoji1] !

 

[SBlisters]

One of the trochus snails knocked over my branching frogspawn, making it 9 heads now instead of 10. I tried using reef glue to secure the base of it to the rock, but no luck. I didn't try the same with the piece that broke off. I just tucked that (hopefully securely enough) just below the big one on a rock. This poor frogspawn! This is the second time it's been accidentally fragged. Not cool.

 

[SBlisters]

In other sad news, my lettuce sea slug is definitely dead. There is no way I wouldn't have seen it for THIS long. I won't be adding any more sea slugs. They are super cool, but obviously not a good fit.

 

[domination2580]

My CBS has stopped being so shy, and now comes out to see me more. I found 2 more hitchhiker crabs living in the tank. No clue what species, but definitely 2 different ones. I had glued up vermatid holes in my favia, and it is now making a noticeable recovery.
View attachment 458827

If those green bubbles are bubble algae you might want to get it in check sir. Nice tank though!

 

[SBlisters]

If those green bubbles are bubble algae you might want to get it in check sir. Nice tank though!

Yes, it is definitely bubble algae. They are hard and therefore very difficult to remove. Any suggestions? They won't just knock off...

 

[SBlisters]

What the tank looks like now that I broke my frogspawn.

I moved the candy cane a bit too.