18 Gallon Reef Diary., And so it begins!

[dgoulston]

ok so i picked up me 18 Gallon tank today, my 3rd tank and have been out shopping for me stuff for it.

So far i have purchased:
Tank + Stand (with crap light) £45
RO Water (only used half of it so far) £12
Aqua One 150W Heater £20
Natures Ocean - BIO-Active Live Aragonite £??
Reef Cystals - Sea Salt - MASSIVE 25KG tub, £60
2x Hydor Koralia Nano 240gph £30 each
V2 Skim 120 Nano Skimmer £50
and they threw in a Hydrometer

Total so far (excluding sand cause dont know how much i paid for it):
£246.95 (aprox $500)

Ive set up the tank, got the salt added, and the hydrometer says its all good.
Added the sand.. now going to let it settle and run for a few days, then buy the LR.

Cant wait to get my LR! but the shop did not have very much exciting LR.. so will wait a little.

My tank is looking very cloudy, but i think thats becuase of the Sand.

I brought my tank off EBAY, and all the other stuff from "The Aquatic Design Center" near oxford st, Central London,UK

Darren.

[spudbuds]

Congrats! I'll be following along to watch your progress.

- Bill

[Sasquatch]

I've never done a SW tank, but it should be cool to see how one goes about it. Can't wait for the next installment.

[squirt_12]

Congrats on the tank!! Can't wait to see it up and running.

[Tigerbarb]

Be sure to post some pix once you get your tank together and set up! Sounds like you got a good deal on equipment.

[coachfraley]

Sound like you have a good start, good luck Darren!

[Fenix]

Like everyone has said it sounds like you have everything you need. Keep us posted!

[dgoulston]

I have a half decient camera, and have taken 1 or 2 ok fish photos with it, so there will be lots of pics while im learning to use it!!

I ran into my first problem last night, the tank i brought has a crap lid, and the back of it has a massive dip which the light is supported from. and that pushes my Skimmer down, so at the moment, my skimmer may have the go in the front left corner, until i get a custom made lid with maybe 4 T5's or what ever lights i need for Coral.. havent got that far yet,

[dgoulston]

LIVE ROCK!!!

Well ive just been to [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] in sevenoaks and purchased 10KG of PREMIUM FIJI LIVE ROCK

have put it in my tank, and it looks of great quality! loads of stuff on it!
The Tank
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The Left Hand side (the cave)
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The Right Hand Side(the Den)
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[dgoulston]

Strange looking thing growing on the rock! (came with it)

anyone any idea what it is???


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pic from the top (large size)
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[coachfraley]

I agree, very nice looking rock! You also did a great job stacking it.

I have no idea what that hitch-hiker is. You might want to keep a close eye on it, if it appears to be dying, you might be better off taking it out of your tank.

Great work so far!

[Tooch]

Did you place the LR on top of the sand? What fish are you planning on getting, if any? Some types like to burrow in the sand, or dig caves. Be careful stacking your LR on top of the sand, because some of these guys will dig a cave under the rock. They remove the sand and stick it somewhere else, causing an unstable base under the LR. It's been known for the LR to collapse and possible kill these fish, as well as others if it lands on them.

Looks like you up to a great start tho!

[dgoulston]

I did squish the LR down into the sand, so there is prob only mm's of sand under it. im more worried about the fish knocking down the higher rocks. but they are quite stable (at the mo)

Also my rock in the left corner of the tank looks the shape of a SKULL, and im really serious about that, has eye sockets, and is the right size,, really spooky, gonna upload a pic of it tonight! (its the rock with the strange thing growing in the top of it) i guess a skull would help growth due to high calcium?? but dont think i really want a skull in my tank, if it really is.

how on earth would i find out if it is??? its really spooky,, but looks good, so hopefully it is just a rock!

Darren

[Tooch]

LOL a skull? That sounds like an interesting piece of rock! I'm pretty sure it's not, as it would have been discovered before now. It's probbly just a neat shaped rock, but stranger things have happened!

[Halelorf]

That sounds like it would be a interesting CSI TV show plot. You should write it into the networks :hmm3grin2orange:.

[dgoulston]

well here is the pic of he skull, the thing that makes it look so, is the left eye socket is perfectly curved, and the dimentions are really perfect!!!!

the right side looks smashed, but it is just sooo scary

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massive version:
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[dgoulston]

Well on Friday 21/03/08, I did the usual tests and the Nitrite & Ammonia came up 0 and the nitrate was < 10. woohoo.

So Monday 24/03/08, I went fish shopping!

Purchased my First residents, 2 Percula Clownfish and 1 cleaner shrimp.

The smaller one(called Nemo -named by my patner!)
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The larger one called "clownie"
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[Sasquatch]

They look great and in good health too. Gotta love the colors of "cleaner shrimp", such a nothing name for something so nice.

Any chance of a whole tank pic?

Keep us posted.

[dgoulston]

The Cleaner called "Mom"
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[dgoulston]

Will take a tank shot tonight, lots of algae has started to grow now..

[zackish]

500 bills sounds about right. Good luck, try to find good rock from the start and setup your tank or else you will be mad later when you find some nice pieces and you have no where good to put them.

[Tooch]

Great pix! It's comin right along! Well done! Any ideas on the "Skull Rock" yet?

[dgoulston]

havent got a clue yet. more concerned with my lighting, obviosuly would love to have "Brain coral" in the hole in the top of it, would be great,

the pic of the cleaner shrimp on the prev page, is on the side of the skull, cleaning out its ears i think :P hehe..

cant wait to get my lighting so i can start to think about the coral!

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Probably the best idea would be to figure out what kinds of coral you want to keep and then get lighting appropriate for them. You mentioned a Brain Coral earlier in the thread so it sounds like you want at least a few LPS.

[Rue]

Don't forget you need to leave spaces between all your live rock...the current has to get everywhere...you don't want 'dead' areas with no circulation...

[cocoa_pleco]

yep, you dont want dead areas, you want holes for circulation, if you have it too tightly packed the rock will get black and rot

[dgoulston]

not a great pic, as i took it in a hurry this morning, so will try find time tonight to take one when the lights are on! but here is the full tank. (the skull rock is the one in bottom left corner)

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there is loads of gaps between all the rocks, so should be ok there, and loads of things growing, i havent a clue what to take pics of yet, as dont know what are things, and what are thingies.. lol ..

Darren

[spudbuds]

Looks great! My only suggestions are to get a background for it to hide the wires and peel that thermometer off the front. The rock work looks great!

- Bill

[dgoulston]

Looks great! My only suggestions are to get a background for it to hide the wires and peel that thermometer off the front. The rock work looks great!

- Bill
exactly what i said on sat, im gonna get a background for it, but as for the thermometer, there is no other place to put it really, i guess it may be able to go on the left, (there is one on the right allready, and i gave up trying to take that one off, and cant see it to read it!)

[gem]

To be honest, those stick on the outside thermometers are very inaccurate. a floating therm. or one with a suction cup on the inside of the tank is much more accurate. Tank looks good. Have you decided on lights yet? If you only want to keep softies and LPS, then pc's would be fine. If you want SPS you'll want to go with MH lighting. I don't know anything about t5's. ILMGB is right....decide what you want kinds of corals you'll want then decide on lighting.

[dgoulston]

took the thermometer off last night, so am using the side one now till i get a floater,

as for lighting ive decided to go for:

Arcadia - Overtank Luminaire, Marine with T5 lamps (600mm (24") - 4 x 24W) £157.50

which is slightly over the 5W per G rule, (my tank would need 17G = 85W i guess and that would be 92W .... )

so with this lighting would there be any kind of stuff i cant keep?

[Tigerbarb]

Judging by your pix, your tank seems to be coming along well. The aquascape has a cool design, like a massive wall of rock in the ocean. It will almost look spooky if you put lunar lights on :P. It also looks like there will be plenty of hiding places for fish in the rocks, and a few nice crevices-(spelling, sorry) for shrimp/crabs to crawl through.

[gem]

I don't know enough about t5 lighting to say you would be able to keep SPS corals, but you can definately keep softies and LPS with that lighting! Besides which, as a beginnner, it's best to start out with the easier to keep corals anyway. Softies: zoanthids, leathers, mushrooms, xenia, clove polyps, green star polyps....all very easy to keep. LPS (large polyped stony): Candy cane (aka caulastrea trumpet coral), frogspawn, torch coral, hammer...
The only thing about some of the LPS is that some have sweeper tentacles that can sting other corals....so be sure to ask questions about what you're buying and it's recommended placement in your tank, before you buy it. Especially since you're dealing with limited space in an 18 gal tank. Probably the best to start with are softies.
You'll be very surprised at how nice your tank is going to look once your rock colors up wth coraline and you have some colorful corals in there. :c2:

[dgoulston]

got my first few Hermits and they seem to be doing a great job of claning the tank!!

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Also noticed i had some aiptasia the other night, so built my self a make shift thin tubing, connected to a funnel, and boiled up some hotwater. put the end of the tube over the aiptasia, and burnt all of it off!! woohoo, no sightings since!

[jimpierce]

cool crab!!!

[dgoulston]

I have 3 of them, 1 small one thats very lazy. but must be very young, 1 medium one (in the pic) who stays to the right hand side of the LR keeping it clean, and the biggest one, which roams all round the bottom of the tank, (and in the skull), but mainly hides at the back of the tank.

[Tigerbarb]

Well, it sounds like your crabs are doing well. The biggest of your crabs who roams around the bottom of the tank might very well be the "king-of-the-tank".
I wouldn't reccomend a watchman goby in the same tank as those crabs, though.

[dgoulston]

Well, it sounds like your crabs are doing well. The biggest of your crabs who roams around the bottom of the tank might very well be the "king-of-the-tank".
I wouldn't reccomend a watchman goby in the same tank as those crabs, though.
ive been reading quite a bit about goby's and am really tempted by one.. will have to have a look round a few shops soon!

[gem]

Make sure you get some empty shells in there for your hermies. They will kill another one off just to steal it's shell.
Watchman gobies are great fun, but be prepared for it to excavate your tank. Mine has "dug outs" all over the place and moves sand whenever and wherever he chooses.

[dgoulston]

Make sure you get some empty shells in there for your hermies. They will kill another one off just to steal it's shell.
Watchman gobies are great fun, but be prepared for it to excavate your tank. Mine has "dug outs" all over the place and moves sand whenever and wherever he chooses.

have ordered a load of shells off EBAY, first thing i thought of!!! unfortuante though, cause the shells 2 of them have are lovely, hopefully the little one will decide to use them when he gets bigger!

[siymdapolio]

Awesome set up read the whole thread! Looks great man keep us upadeted

[dgoulston]

Spottied a very thin white wormy thing last night, in the cave of my LR, as soon as i put the torch light on it, it ran. so no pic yet to ID, but am going to keep my eye out for it, as its my first moving Hitchhiker.

[cocoa_pleco]

Spottied a very thin white wormy thing last night, in the cave of my LR, as soon as i put the torch light on it, it ran. so no pic yet to ID, but am going to keep my eye out for it, as its my first moving Hitchhiker.

was it a 2" clear thin work? ive found the odd one of those in my 55g reef too

[dgoulston]

was it a 2" clear thin work? ive found the odd one of those in my 55g reef too

yes sounds about right, was sliding in and out of little holes in the rock, so could not see how long it was, but seemed about 3"+ very thin. about 2-3mm

a clear off white colour.

will see if i can spot it tonight

[cocoa_pleco]

yep, thats it

when my tank was only a few months old i had tons of them, now that my tank is mature i only see the odd one

[dgoulston]

on saturday i put some new hermit crab shells in the tank for when my hermits grow, and almost instantly the big hermit (the leader of the tank) had a look round and popped in and out of a few to investigate!!

then last night i got home to find he had upgraded to the best looking one in the tank! will take some pics tonight!

Darren

[zackish]

As everyone else did, I must comment on your rock and your two nice clowns. The rock is looking really good on coraline!

[dgoulston]

My New Yellow Watchman Goby

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And him hiding in my cave.
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Aint he cute!

quite shy at the moment, peeps out that little whole in the cave, comes out, and then when i get close to take a pic, runs back in! hehe... with just his little head peeking out.

Darren.

[Sasquatch]

Nice looking goby.

You're tank is really starting to look good, keep it up, and keep us posted!

[Tigerbarb]

Awww nice lil' goby!!! I am sure you will enjoy him for a long time.

[dgoulston]

well purchased my MH lighting second hand and set it all up. had to get a new bulb though..

purchased me first coral (a branching hammer head) on saturday from [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] and a lovely quality piece it is... great staff in that store too!!! very helpful!!

put it in my tank, in the middle to start with, but it just wasnt right, so move it around a bit and now am very happy with it in the right hand corner, and it seems to be doing great!!

Was surprised to see it eating as well when i put misis in it grabs it, and im not even feeding it, just the general tank!!!

anyhows heres the pics:
when it first went in, in the middle of the tank:
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Darren

[dgoulston]

and once i moved it, and it settled in.
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[spudbuds]

Very nice! Keep up the good work.

- Bill

[coachfraley]

Sweet pickup! Hopefully your clowns will go after it!

You have some really nice color on your rocks.:thumb:

[dgoulston]

It just wasnt sitting right in my tank, becasue it has 3 branches and was to wide, so i fragged it!! woohoo it all went perfect, and is much happier as one of the branches was too much in the flow...

here is me first frag!
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[dgoulston]

My latest addition, a touch leather,

Saturday (30 mins after putting in the tank)
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that night
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Sunday (the next day)
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and then today (monday)
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sulk almost over!

[MandyL]

Wow... Just amazing how they can close right up when they're not happy!

[coachfraley]

Very nice addition!

[spudbuds]

Nice leather! About how big is it? There wasn't a lot of things for size reference in the pics.

- Bill

[squirt_12]

Very nice! I love the touch leather...it is very nice. Your tank is looking really good!

[dgoulston]

oh, and when i moved my piece of LR out of the water, to attach the Toadstall, a brittle star fish came out and said hello!! woohoo i love star fish, and i have 1!!!! hehe. havent seen it since though, but will get a pic when i do, it was about 1.5" across.

[spudbuds]

Congrats! Those starfish are cool. In a few months, they'll be everywhere.

- Bill

[slogoat]

Great thread! keep the pics comin!

[Kuli_Loach]

More Pics Wanted!!

[dgoulston]

I will see what i can do in the next few days, off to turkey on monday, so will be away for 2 weeks. but will try to take some pics of my 3 corals on sat!

My Clowns are now hosting in my Hammer!!!! woooo!!!!! :malelovies:

still a bit weary, but they are never the less! thumbs2:

[dgoulston]

ok ok, so i got busy taking my pics tonight, and some came out allright!

the full tank shot.
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My latest addition, attached to the ear of my "skull rock" and gladly one of my snails is cleaning its nose!! good snails!
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close up
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My Hammer, the first coral i ever got, and my clowns telling me its belongs to them!
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[dgoulston]

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and my pulseating xenia which i got as a freebiee!!
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My Racer Snail, he is at the front 1 minute, gone the next, never seen such a fast snail in my life... got ants in his pants!!!
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And my king Crab who has the "poshest" shell in the tank
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[dgoulston]

Thought i would give an update on me tank..

Went on holiday for 2 weeks to turkey coming back monday just gone, and left my dad in charge of maintaining my tanks. (topups/feeding)

Came back on monday, and wow what growth. my Pulsating Xena has doubled its size, my clowns are fully hosting in the hammer, and the Toadstall is looking great.

unfortunatly all the algee (bubble and that plant looking on i have) is getting out of control too.

BUT. down stairs in the living room is a package for me, whats in it i hear you ask, my extra long gloves! woohoo. take them out the packaging, and they are long, and a lovely pink colour! hehe. they go right to my arm pits, meaning i can get on with plucking all the crap out my tank without getting wet at all.

so now a few days on, and a lot more plucking and the tank is back to looking good. will take some pics tonight. but in the mean time here are a few things i found:

i was surprised that i actually got a good pic of these as they are minute, as you can see in the first pic. but got an upclose one. with macro zoom.

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found out they are copepods (free food) woohoo a goodie!! and also been told on here, my watchman will be very happy!!!

and then there are these green things growing in my tank.

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believe its a kinda algee, but it looks nice, and is not taking over, so am leaving it for the time being.


Regards
Darren

[dgoulston]

ive been really lucky, or maybe just good planning, and high quality equiptment. and not rushing is what has made my setup go soo well without any problem at all YET.


heres an piccy update

The Tank
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My Toadstall Leather
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My Branching Hammer
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My Clown hosting in the Hammer
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Darren.

[dgoulston]

MY Pulsating Xenia
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some closeups

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[coachfraley]

Nice pics! Your corals are doing great!!! Are you planning on adding any more? It appears you have plenty of room.

[Red]

great looking tank darren :)

[dgoulston]

any recomendations of what corals to add next?

[OscarFan]

FrogSpawn...

[coachfraley]

How about some colorful zoas?

[Kuli_Loach]

What type of lighting you running and then we can recommend some corals.

[spudbuds]

Looking great! Some more LPS would be cool. Maybe an acan or a brain of some sort. And of course you can't go wrong with zoas.

- Bill

[dgoulston]

I am going to get some Zoas, just a matter of seeing some i really like. and maybe some mushies.

purchased some Acropora on saturday is very whiteish colour, with blue tips, as well as a royal Gramma.

will get pics when i can.

Darren.

[smcurry83]

Good looking tank!