Tangboy's Blog

I decided to swing on by and check out some of the live rock stock at the fish store. They had a few nice pieces so I went ahead and picked up some. Also asked one of the regulars about some of the creepy crawlers that would help do some maintenance inside the tank. Here is what I ended up picking up.

3 pounds of live rock.
3 blue legged hermit crabs.
1 8 oz. PurpleUp

The live rocks help keep the tank filtered, create room for bacteria to grow, and provide some places for the fish to hide. The hermit crabs are a fun little asset to the tank because they are pretty humorous to watch, clean up left over food the fish don’t eat, and also eat the pesky algae. The PurpleUp helps promote algae growth (the good kind) and help replenish some of the calcium levels and other stuff. I’ll let ya know what else is going on and keep you posted.

Today, March 16th, we experienced our first lost to our marine habitat. During the first week of the ammonia and nitrite cycle, we lost one of our three “cycling” fish. Our Green Chromis Damsel passed through the giant porcelin gate to the deep abyss. She shall be missed, especially since that’s the one that Amy picked out! The other two Blue Devil Damsels are fighting along pretty good, no signs of Ammonia stress or Nitrite stress even though the levels are high. I tested the levels today and each of them are at the toxic level which is a good thing.

Ammonia should be on the down hill slide, Nitrite on the up hill as well as Nitrate. The Nitrite will soon level off and head down hill too as the Nitrate will rise and level off for good. The bacteria that take care of the Ammonia will be established, then bacteria will take care of the Nitrite creating Nitrate.

To keep Nitrate from getting to toxic levels water changes need to be made every 2-weeks or 4-weeks depending on the health of the tank. Good rule of thumb is 10% water change every 2-weeks for optimal health.

Once the Ammonia and Nitrate levels are zero, then we can go ahead with some more sensitive fish and invertebrates. We will add a new item about 1 per week. Probably start with a Firefish or Jawfish, then a Banded Coral Shrimp, Clownfish, Hermit Crab, Arrow Crab. Then after about 4-6 months depending on how well the pH and other levels are, we’ll start with the bigger dollar items the corals! First on the plate would be an anemone for the Clownfish for the clownfish to start the symbiotic relationship and because they are cheap!

The tank is fun so far now that we’re past the “set-up” stage and are starting to understand some of the quirks to being a marine tanker. We’ll keep you posted!

Well the tank warmed up well, salinity levels were perfect, and when else is a good time to blow some cash on fish? Went to the store this evening and made some new purchases…

2 Dead rocks (just plain old run of the mill rocks)
1 Live rock (rock that has all kinds of wonderful good bacteria and micro creatures on it to help with the “cycle” process)
2 Blue Devil Damsels (these are hardy fish used in “cycling” the tank
1 Green Chromis Damsel (another hardy fish used in “cycling” to add some diversity in the tank)
1 Fake Plant (gotta have something else to look at)
1 Large Fish net
1 Background (to cover up the wires and stuff)

The tank looks good… hard to get pics of the fish because they are moving and flashes with glass don’t work well. So here are pics of what I have…

Picture of the Rock Pile that will be the start to my reef bed:

Picture of the 3 Damsels:

Picture of the plant:

Picture of the tank with background:

Since my fish pics are hard to do with them swimming around so fast here are links to the two types of fish…

Blue Devil Damsel

Green Chromis Damsel

Well Amy and I have a new “thing” in our lives. We have just made the purchase of a 40 gallon breeder tank to start a marine aquarium. I will update everytime we do something new with the tank or everytime something dies in the tank!

Our place of choice for aquarium supplies and knowledge is the aquarium store here in Knoxville next to P.F. Changs restaraunt. They do water testing, sell pond, fresh and salt water fish, sell tanks, supplies, and everything else it seems. You can check out their website for most anything.

So we decided the best place for the tank is near the window, in the corner between our sofa and love seat. This will give us other things to look at besides the TV and provide interesting conversations with guests are over. I will try to keep pictures and facts updated as often as possible.

Ok here is what was done March 9, 2007
Purchased:
40 Gallon Breeder Tank (36X18X16)
TechnoFlo Bio 260 Filter
Theo UL Heater (150 Watt)
Standing Thermometer
Versa Glass Top (Light housing to rest on)
36” Black Strip light
Aqua Life (water treatment)
Hydrometer (test water salinity)
Crystal Sea Marine (salt for water)
Aras-Alive Special Grade (20 lb)
Reef Sand (15 lbs)

Alrighty as you can see from the list there are no fish purchased… this is for a reason. The tank needs to have been set up for about 24-48 hours prior to habitation because the salt needs to be mixed, water heated up etc. So first step was to figure out where to put this massive tank, which we decided to place in the corner of the living room for people to look at etc.

Then we had to clean the tank, fill it, put sand in, get filter running, thermometer running, add water treatment, and then add salt slowly.

Here is a shot of the Filtration system and Heater…

Here is a shot from underwater of Filter intake and Heater.

A marine tank is different from a freshwater tank for several reasons, much harder to take care of, needs to be “cycled” and can’t fill a marine tank up with tons of fish. The fish and items in the tank are usually very picky toward anything. They have a low tolerance for disease and cannot be stressed too much. Also the tanks must be cycled in order to balance out the Ammonia and Nitrate levels with natural bacteria. When you first set up a tank there are barely any natural bacteria present which offsets the ammonia and nitrates produced by fish. So you must place several hardy fish to produce the ammonia and nitrates to help get your bacteria going. As bacteria levels increase the amounts of ammonia and nitrate levels go to zero and you can now start to place other fish and creatures in your tank. Coral can usually be added after about 6 months if water chemicals are good. Also the amount of fish you can have in a tank depend on how big they get and how big of an aquarium you have. The rule of thumb is roughly 1 inch of fish to every 5 gallons of water. So 40 gallons = about 8 inches of fish. We will start with a few damsels to help get through the “cycle” then grab a clown fish and whatever else and add them slowly.