55 Gallon Build, Born Sept '09

I figured this is a better place to post this:

Since I also promised I would post pictures of my tank, before and after style, here I go from the very beginning:

This is 3 weeks after I first started it in sept '09 with under gravel filter system and gravel substrate (pretty bad for reef tank):
EDIT: I can't, for the life of me, find the very first tank picture when I had the gravel, two fake logs on each side of the tank with two fake plants behind them. If I find it, I will post it.

Later, I added some more rock, started playing with placing and also started to make a commitment to build a reef tank, now there was no turning back:


Soooo...a few weeks after that, I added tons of base rock to better my filtration, and the whole mess started:


Who would have thought that after the way that tank looked, I was going to read so much, browse so much and have so much interest in this as I did, to finally say: OK!! I NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS TANK AND SOON!!!!

Soooo... Here it is, as it stands now, my 55 gallon tank, with 30 gallon long sump:


I'm sure I'll keep messing with the rock work, but for now, I'm fairly happy with it when comparing with the way it was originally set up. I will eventually stock it more when I get a job (being laid off also put a lot of thins off for now, so I'll have to be patient).... time, I have. Patience... I guess I also have some


Thanks for watching.


- Magnus.

 

Rock work looks much better then before, nice tank.

 

Thank you! I will eventually pack about 10 to 15 more pounds of rock there, I'll need to find small pieces though, I realized later that big pieces are very hard to place! I'll put some on the left side since it looks a little empty

 

Looking good. Cant wait to see the old pics.

 

Personally I like the second pic, more places for coral. The 3rd pic is nice also. Funny how we (the tank) evolve. One thing, I would throw that (heater?) in the sump. Keep us up to date!

 

I have to agree. i like the second pic. Way more places for coral. If your doing mostly fish than that will work. Nice tank, hopefully you keep us updated when you add more to it.

Good luck,

 

I do want to put more rock later (when I get more money). I just thought it was very chaotic with so much rock before and how big they were. Looking from the side of the tank, there was, at the most, 3.5 inches of space on the front of the tank... not enough room for the fish to move around.
I'll be more selective with the rocks and sizes. For example, I didn't have any shelf rocks since I didn't even know I needed shelves for corals. Newbie mistake

When I get a full time job I'll be able to put more money in the tank, until then, unfortunately, this is all I have and somehow it doesn't bother me a whole lot right now since I don't have many corals. I also have a dwarf angel, which limits my corals to softies, we'll see how he comes through. He hasn't been eating in 3 days (when I got it from my LFS) and I'm concerned about him. I had two angels before, another lemon peel and a flame angel that died on me, so I'm really worried about him now. I tried feeding him all kinds of food: Brine shrimp, mysis, squid, spirulina, dried seaweed and even Pigmy Angel Formula from Ocean Nutrition with no luck

I don't know what to do. Any advice is appreciated.
My latest reading came up with high nitrate:

Temp: 77F
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8
Amonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20 (will do WC today)
Magnesium:1110
Calcium:400
dKH:10.2
Alk:3.66



- Mag.

PS: I agree with the heater, I'll move it to the sump soon.

 

Hey Magnus, angel fish require sponge in their diet. I don't know why yours died but since they were both angels this may have been the problem. Did you get both or all three fish from the same source? That too may be a problem and/or your acclimating procedure.

 

I got them from different places, there's only 2 trusted LFS here in Knoxville. The last 2 were from the same store.
I let the bag float for about 30 minutes, and then I start drip acclimation for 30 minutes, at about 3 to 4 drops per second if the water in the bag is close to 1/4 gallon or more. If less 2 drops per second for 30 minutes, then pour the water out in the sink and slide the little bit of water with the fish in my tank. Lights are always turned off during this process to reduce stress.

I was not aware of the sponge diet of dwarf angels. I have a rock with an orange sponge ( I think ) and I could put a rock I have in the fuge that I'm definitely sure it's a sponge. Will they pick from it?
See, the problem is that the first angel was picking at the rocks, the flame angel just went lethargic and refused to eat until he died, but this one, is not even picking at the rock. He swims around a little bit looking at the rocks, then goes back behind some rocks to hide and comes out very little. His color is fading a little I think and he's not very active.

LFS said he was eating like a pig over there and even gave me a sample of several different foods to try, including brine shrimp, squid, mysis and spirulina.

I'm really concerned... maybe angels are not right for my tank? I thought they were easy to keep.

I'll post a pic of the orange "sponge" to see if somebody can confirm that it is actually a sponge.

Thanks for your interest and help.

- Mag.

 

Here's what I thought was an orange sponge. It looks pretty, so I would rather him not eating it, butif that's the only way he'll survive, I wouldn't mind.



Here's one of my old images where I was fighting the aiptaisia next to it which is now dead.


And another angle:


Hope that helps.