My 33 Gallon tank

Discussion in 'Tank Pictures' started by fattytwobyfour, Jul 21, 2013.

  1. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    I started this tank in December 2012. This is my first tank. It is a 33 gallon. I had been wanting to get into the hobby, and had a friend who had a tank for sell. I plan on eventually investing in a much larger tank, and running one with a refugium. But this is my project now. I plan on mainly filling this tank with soft corals, mushrooms, ricordea, and zoanthids. Living in rural Arkansas, it's kind of a slow process filling up the tank. If I lived in a larger town with a LFS, I'd probably be picking up a frag or two a week. But here's my tank so far. The next part of my plan is to fill the right side up with zoanthids. I have a cleanup crew, pair of cleaner shrimp, and pair of clowns in the tank. I did have a coral beauty angelfish that I really loved, but it jumped out of the tank last month. I have not decided if I am going to get another angelfish, or something else.
    IMG_6439.jpg
    IMG_6462.jpg
     
  2. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

  3. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Nice! I love the Ricordias. Got to get a couple for my tank!

    Think about a 1/4" screen top for your tank, I'm convinced that just about any fish can be a jumper and it's easy to prevent with that.
     
  4. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    Thanks! I'm trying to figure out a solution for the top of the tank. My problem is that I use a HOB skimmer, and it takes up a lot of room. I am sure I can find a way to build a screen around them, but I'm not very DIY. My dad is, and we have been talking about it. When I do get all the materials to do it, I'm sure he will be the one to do it. I've found some videos on YT showing how to make them out of a screen frame, and some kind of netting. I thought that might be better than using egg crate.
     
  5. fisher12

    fisher12 Past BOD Director

    The clear mesh tank cover supplies are at Bulk Reef Supply. Just search tank cover and the kits and supplies are available. Calvin and I did a demo at a meeting a few months ago. If you have any questions please let one of us know.
     
  6. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    Thank you! I will check them out. I am sure I will have some questions, so I do appreciate that!
     
  7. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    So today I got my order in from our Sponsor site, "Reefs2Go." I'm pretty happy with the order. I ordered:

    Green Star polyp
    Arctic Ice paly
    Purple Fizz paly
    Blue orgasm zoa
    Icy Hot zoa
    Yellow Face zoa


    Most everything is still adjusting. All have had a few polyps open. The colors are very nice! All of them were 5 polpys, but several had 10 polyps on them. I appreciate Reefs2Go doing that.

    I am keeping my eye on the green star polyp. I know they take a while to open, and a couple polyps started opening tonight. But the mat isn't really purple. It seems more white. I dunno if that is something I need to be concerned about. All the mats of GSP I've seen have been very purple.

    Here is a photo of the Blue Orgasm. It is still adjusting and opening. Even after I took this photo, the colors got even more awesome. I was pretty happy with it.
    IMG_6509.jpg


    The colors on the Yellow Face zoa look like they are going to be awesome. It reminds me of the light on a lighting bug, but really bright yellow. The icey hot seems like it will also be nice. Not sure about the purple fizz yet. It'll probably color up though. I'm just worried about these zoas because I hear about how people put some of the morphs in their tank and they melt away. Hopefully these will do good because they are so nice looking! If they spread, they will really make the right side of my tank pop.

    I also snapped a photo of some of the ricordea I got last week. I'll post more photos of the zoas as they open.
    IMG_6510.jpg
     
  8. Kim

    Kim Secretary Staff Member

    HIya,

    Nice. If you want more rics...Greg has a bunch for sale for $25 each. At least he did the last time I checked. I'm going to need to replace all my zoa's. My file fish ate them. Needless to say, he's back at the store I got him from.

    Kim/Benton, AR
     
  9. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    Hey Kim,
    Thanks for the info. I am sure I'll need lots more rics for sure. But it'll probably be later in the year. I just had knee surgery, and have to be off of work for 2 months. So I am trying to budget somewhat until I start back work in September. Although, I just ordered 18 corals in the last two weeks lol. But that was before the DR told me I needed to wait that long to go back to work. But hopefully this Fall I will be able to make a trip down there and check them out.

    If I can learn how to frag, maybe I can start sharing some with some of y'all. There are not many reefers around Batesville that I can find. I also do a lot of gardening, and some of the biggest joys I have is being able to give my friends some of my plants. So I am sure it will be the same with corals.

    The Zoas from Reefs2Go seem to be pretty good. This is really my first time owning zoas though, so time will tell. I did buy some palys from Reef Escapes in Jonesboro right when I started my tank. But I only had 19w lights at the time. They tried to hang on, but eventually melted away. I now have a Maxspect Razor 16k LED light. So hopefully that will make a difference this time around.

    But if my zoas do take off and I can figure out how to frag, maybe we can trade some.
     
  10. reefjunky2

    reefjunky2 Administrator

    hey kim greg has a lot of zoas in his frag tank u need to check them out
     
  11. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    Some things I noticed in my tank today:

    I was moving some of my ricordea around, trying to space them out better so they will hopefully have room to grow out. I already noticed a couple were splitting. On one of my ricordeas, it looks like there was some xenia growing. I moved the rock, and they retracted, so I'm not sure. It looks like the ricordea was actually growing on a colony of xenia.

    I also had purchased some a kenya coral tree when I first got my tank. The rock it was on had some xenia. I was trying to move the xenia off that rock and in another spot in my tank and lost the polyps of xenia. So the xenia I seen today could even be from that I suppose. I'm going to keep an eye out on that. Would be nice to have some xenia though, b/c I've been wanting to purchase some.

    I also glued down the zoa frags that I received. When I glued one of them down, I noticed that a single polyp looked like it was loose from the others. I took it and glued it to a frag plug I had. There was only one polyp on it. I noticed today that there are actually two heads now. Is that how these things reproduce?
     
  12. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    IMG_4389.jpg

    Decided to redo my aquascape so I can make better use of the space in my small tank. I'm not sure if space is just an issue for small tanks, but I figure I'd have this problem even with a tank 5 times this size. I think this layout fills the space better, and will allow me to add multiple levels of corals.

    I am supposed to be getting some new corals in the next day or two. They are:

    Yellow Polyps
    ORA Pumping Xenia
    Torch Coral
    Frogspawn
    Brain Coral- Green Closed
    Candy Cane Coral



    I am slowly trying to fill in all the open spaces in my tank.
     
  13. whippetguy

    whippetguy Super Moderator

    Looking good! Stocking up is the best stage if the tank build.
     
  14. reefjunky2

    reefjunky2 Administrator

    like ur rock work looks good
     
  15. Kim

    Kim Secretary Staff Member

    Hiya,

    I wish you lived closer, I'd be happy to take some fresh veggies off you. I really like this rock set up a lot more then the what you had before. There's lots of folks on line that can help you with learning how to frag zoa's. The easiest way is to put plugs near them and they'll grow onto them. However, I'm NO expert. The folks here can tell you I hate to frag my stuff. It's like cutting up my babies.

    Hope you get over the knee surgery quickly. I know how hard it is to wait to buy corals. I haven't bought any since I upgraded my tank from a 46 bowfront to the 75. I want to get my water quality issues cleared up first.

    Kim/Benton, AR
     
  16. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    Thanks everybody! My order should be in tomorrow, and I'm excited. I'm going to put the frogspawn and torch coral somewhere in the lower left hand corner. I already have a wall hammer there now. Everything I have read on them says they should be fine together since they are in the same family. I'm not planning on having them touch. I've seen some photos online of larger ones, and I'm trying to make sure I give them enough room. I am not very comfortable fragging, and would kind like them to grow natural.

    I'm going to put the closed brain on the substrate in the center. You can probably see the hole that I have made for it. I'm thinking the candy cane coral I'm going to put on the rock that is up and to the left of the red mushroom at the bottom of the tank. I'm going to have to see if it's too much flow for it first.

    I really am unsure about the Xenia and Yellow Polyps. I'm thinking the xenia I am going to put on that rock to the left of the face. I gotta see how the flow is. And totally unsure about the yellow polyps. I am trying to fill the right side of my tank up with zoanthids. I have a goniopora and a kenya coral tree in that area. Didn't know how the yellow polyps would react to them. Or if it might hurt the goniopora. I try to keep everything away from that coral, and try not to disturb it very much.
     
  17. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    I figure I will frag, because I like the idea of sharing. I started a Jasmine plant for a friend off of a single cutting. She sent me a photo yesterday of it in full bloom. It was a good feeling.
     
  18. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    I got my new corals in today. They have been in the tank for about 3 hours. These photos are straight off my camera.

    IMG_4404.jpg
    Full tank shot. I think everything is adjusting the tank. The torch coral isn't coming out yet. It looks like it is thinking about it. The xenia also looks like it is thinking about it. I'm going to leave them alone for a few days and just see.

    IMG_4418.jpg
    Here is my new brain coral. Is this opened or closed? It said closed, but it kinda looks like some of the open ones I've seen to me. When I got my shipment today, I noticed there was about half an inch of water in the bottom of my box and everything was soaked. The bag holding the brain coral leaked. I'm hoping that it is ok.

    IMG_4420.jpg
    The frogspawn is coming out. You can see the torch to the right. It's unsure still.

    IMG_4423.jpg
    The yellow polyps. They opened instantly in the tank. They are hard to photograph b/c they are swaying in the current pretty good. But they look nice. Kind of like a wheat field.
     
  19. Kim

    Kim Secretary Staff Member

    Hiya,

    I'm not good at telling open from closed brains. I can tell favia's though. ::grin::

    You shouldn't have any trouble with the torch, hammer and frogspawn at all. Except when they feel really happy and expand to their full growth. They can get very big in a tank if they're happy. Beautiful corals though...and one of my favorites. oh, they can throw off some long stinger tentacles, so watch where you put them.

    Kim/Benton, AR
     
  20. fattytwobyfour

    fattytwobyfour Grouper

    I'm sure it is closed. Saltwaterfish.com said it was. It looks like the picture they had. I'm happy with it. But when I got to look at closed ones on like youtube, they looked different to me. Smaller honey-combs on them. It really don't matter though. I'm really happy with the piece that I did get.

    The frogspawn has fully expanded. It surprised me too. I've had the wall hammer for 4 or 5 months. But the color on it is the tentacles are that peachy color with green tips. I was thinking that the frogspawn was going to be the same. But the tentacles are green with blue tips. And they were that color under the regular lighting I run during the day. So that was really awesome. I'm not sure about the torch. It looks like it's going to have green tentacles with white tips. I just hope that it starts expanding more. I was really excited about it the most. I had really wanted an anemone going into this hobby. I even bought the maxpsect razor led's for my tank to help support it. But the more I study it, I'm too worried about the risk of it moving around the tank. So I think I will wait for a tank specifically for one. But the torch coral seemed like a way to me to get the beauty of an anemone. I've reserved the entire left side of my tank for these types of corals though. I've read they can get as big as basketballs. I dunno if I'll let them get that big, but a little larger than a softball would be nice. :)

    I'm worried about the xenia as well. A few months ago I purchased something called "odd-ball xenia." It was a really pretty green and blue. It was doing pretty good. But I had to move it to the bottom for some reason. I think it was maybe when I got my LED, and I convinced myself after reading online that the light was going to bleach it. So I moved it to the bottom, and it didn't like it. I moved it back to the original spot, and it melted. So I dunno if it was just that I moved it, that it melted. Or if I have a tank that xenia hates. (Which could be a blessing I suppose). But I purchased the ORA pulsing xenia this time, hoping it'll be more hardy. I want it near the rock face I got in the center of my tank. I think it would give a certain "doom & gloom" look to have that face, and the xenia pulsing by it. Like it's daring you to enter. LOL
     

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