1 year in the hobby!

[ahlebik]

Installed the RODI FIRST! why have a tank if you cannot produce the water to fill it? Dont get me wrong if I was in ELP I am sure I would have hit up a LFS for water but I am glad I got my own means early on.




120gal 3 side starfire from glass cages with a 40g breeder.



200lbs of live rock. Mixed it up with Fiji, branching, and something else... I wanted to be sure I could mix and match rocks that I liked. At the time I didnt know the difference between them anyway... I just went expensive and with 200lbs I should have enough to do what I wanted. Before putting the rock in I laid down egg crate on the bottom of my tank. I was afraid I would drop a rock and crack the tank. It also helped in the way that the rock didnt slide around while I was setting stuff up.



First try at the sump. I was uneducated on skimmers and went with what was recommended by a LFS. It was nothing but trouble from the start. I blame my lack of knowledge and the skimmer being a piece of crap. I now use a extreme 200.



When the sump was running I used acrylic rod to form my rock structure. Depending on the piece of rock I drilled in about a inch on both rocks and put a piece of rod between. On some I used putty, on rocks that just stacked I let the rocks touch and the rod was just there to keep it from sliding.

I tried to use all the rock at first hiding the less desirable rocks around back or as base rocks. I dumped in a few bags of sand and let everything sit for a month. (this picture was taken after that but the rocks were in this state)



About a month in with the setup circulating I added the MP40. I had flow now and started to turn on the light some during the day (Nova Extreme 8x54). It was a exciting time with the light on. My rock had a bumblee snail and a lot of neat things growing that I later learned were feather dusters and aiptasia!




A month and twoish weeks in: I started testing and it looked like my tank was almost done swinging and started to stabilize. When tests started to read more to my liking for more than a day I added a cleanup crew. There was a nice post at the time in the newbie forum that recommended X of each type of snail depending on size of snail and where they hung out. I will say I learned alot browsing the newbie forum.

The 60ish snails I added started another cycle... when that was complete I added my first fish. This was two months in plus a few days. I still considered him cleanup crew but he would soon turn out to be the master of the tank...



I let it do its thing for about another month. Snails came and went. Rocks started to grow one type of algae, It would die off, another would take its place. I removed a few rocks that were aiptasia breeding grounds. I noticed this helped the flow alot and made the tank look more open. Of the 200lbs I am now using about 120lbs. (I still have that rock I removed cooking in the garage).

The added flow and opening up the rocks put a stop to the algae. On a snail restocking I added my first coral. A blue green duncan. I was on the phone with live aquaria discussing how long my tank was up and what would be a good permanent cleanup crew and they threw in the duncan for free. I wish I could remember the persons name I talked to but he was a really nice guy and was unable to comprehend why I didnt have more in my tank at this point. I was just slow and steady... with a free coral.



I took to heart all the talk about mature tanks and didnt want to add livestock to quick to my tank. I wanted to grasp what I learned at this point and keep the diamond goby and duncan alive. I let the coralline algae grow. I learned that im better off with pinpoint test kits that have a digital readout. I learned aiptasia X will remove the pests that pop up from time to time if you follow the directions. I learned that boiling water does NOT work on removing pests, just gives you blisters when you are not paying attention.

The fourth and fifth month were playing with the light cycle, refuge, dialing in the skimmer further. I spend time looking into what corals and fish I eventually wanted in my tank. I was investing money into this tank and didnt want to get discouraged because I made a silly mistake. The knowledge was in the forums and I was digging it out. (At this point I may have found the club forum)

At about the six month mark I was ready to start adding the corals and fish I had been researching. I still kept going slow, but after six months, and with success with everything that I added I will admit I broke my regiment and added a few things a month.

[ahlebik]

Frogspawn, my favorite coral, was added. It was 4 branches. 4 heads.



A picture of the frogspawn today before it opened up. I rarely see it in this state and didnt realize how much it has actually grown. When its open it just looks "full" like it always looked... to me at least.




I had my duncan and frogspawn. I added some fish. I had pretty good luck with everything but hippo tangs. I am currently 0 for 2. I have given them a break for the past few months and am still trying to figure out what I can do to help my success with them. I will try again only because its the last fish I want for my tank.

Added were two purple firefish. One jumped that night and I found it dried to the carpet the next day. I considered it my first tank failure.

Next was the leopard wrasse. I knew from the start I wanted one of these awesome looking fish. I never got a picture of him early on. A week after the leopard wrasse I added a green hairy mushroom. This picture as taken after a few more additions but was early wrasse/mushroom.



I am going to wait till later on in the day to continue this post. I want the then/now pictures I am going to take to really show.

[deehz]

Andy--great job with this thread! And one year, doesn't time just seem to pass by. Your system looks great. Can't wait to see more before and after pics.

[stvguerrero]

Nice description on how you got started andy, when I saw ur tank it looked awsome. Corals you provided for my tank are doing good that 7inch is growing more.

[pnavarro170]

post the rest andy, cool start.

[jmait769]

Originally Posted by pnavarro170

post the rest andy, cool start.

+1

Jay

[ahlebik]

Sorry got distracted by tank maint/cleaning the house. Going to Alegria after the meet today and I didnt have enough time in the day to get everything done.

[mistaflicksta]

still waiting man!

[stvguerrero]

Tic toc tic toc Tic toc you got us hooked on this thread and we are still waiting lol

[ahlebik]

Green hairy mushroom before:



Now:




Clam then:



Notice in the first pic how it was receeding. I was happy to see it growing larger and larger.

Clam now:

[ahlebik]

there is another earlier dunan pic above... but more!




Today I counted 8 heads. They are all growing right under the orig head. I am hoping they actually grow OUTWARDS... more tree less bush...

[ahlebik]

Please note the pizza anemone on the far left. Its pretty much colorless and small as a frag plug. Next to that is my toadstool frag. Notice it dosent even have a foot.... to the right of that is the armor of gods. I wish I would have counted the heads then.



Look at the toadstool now. I Dont know when this happened... If I didnt see the picture myself I would have guessed it came like this. I Believe I can place it now..



The armor of gods now. Stupid snail in the way messes up the focus... They just recently started getting more heads. I was afraid for the longest time because they just refused to... grow? is that the correct word?



The little head on the bottom pointing down I know for sure is new.

[ahlebik]

Another picture of the pizza anemone. It was so small. What I did not know at the time is the pizza and maxi mini are different. The maxi mini stays small where the pizza can get to be 12" in dia.



It is now a beast. I miss the bright yellow of it bleached out. The green spots just started to pop up in the last week or so. Not sure whats going on there.




Its huge and shows it when I take a full tank shot. I have a few of those I will post at the end for sure.

[ahlebik]

This fella is pretty new. I always seem to catch it in a bad mood when taking pictures. I got a good one this week tho.

[jmait769]

Looks great Andy! Very nice growth!!!

Jay

[ahlebik]

To be honest I dont know what nice growth is. I guess its different for every coral and even more depends on the tank. I had the worst luck with zoas. I was told blue tubbs grow like weeds... I think I still have the same 5 heads I started with 4 months ago.

That should hold you guys until I get off midnight shift...

[ahlebik]

More of the frogspawn then. Notice there is even the hair algae I had to battle.



And now minus the head I donated at the Dec Meet.




The flow must be hitting it just right because there is now a hole right in the middle... There are four more heads underneath growing in that direction so I am not worries.

[ahlebik]

took out the flashlight to try and find the emerald crabs I added. No crabs but found my cleaner shrimp below the armor of gods dead. The picture above was taken like 2 hours ago of him bothering them. He was the coolest guy... afraid of nothing even when I was taking shots of the tank with the camera.

[pnavarro170]

well andy if this is your first year in the hobby, its very impressive, you must have done some research and it goes to show your intelligence. haha, compared to my first year in the hobby, wow what a mess that was.

[ahlebik]

The golden torch I got off of Ebay.





Everyone in line...

[benjabba]

Very nice looking torch. Who did you get it from on eBay? I got one aswell. Purchased it from Reefpets/ Austin Aqua Farms along with a Pastel Purple Hammer. I have purchased many items from them on eBay and have always been pleased.

[ahlebik]

I got it from reefpets / austin aqua farms. I thought the packaging was top notch. I wanted the purple hammer myself but they are still going for about $100 shipped

[benjabba]

Yea the hammer was up there for sure. I got it on a second chance offer from them for about that price. I ended up getting the torch for $27 so it all worked out. Picked up a few other nice pieces aswell. They do have top knotch packaging and service for sure. Your tank looks great man. Let me know if you are going to bid on some stuff from them again and maybe we can combine shipping or something or at the very least make sure we are not bidding against each other.

[ahlebik]

well that didnt work out to well for me... here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr8L8I6baiQ

[ahlebik]

Well to be honest I am about done buying. I have everything I wanted. The purple hammer just caught my eye and would have just ended up on the frag shelf next to the torch.