Finally, getting my 75 gallon started

[Pheeshes]

yeah, that's what i was thinking. once we having more than just cleaners i'm scared how much gunk is going to be coming out of there

 

[Pheeshes]

Well, here is the amount of skimmate we had in 4 days.

and i was hoping for a couple of IDs the first two are different pics of the same things and the last one we think is a flat worm, any other ideas?

 

[Bifferwine]

The first pics are hydroids, which are pests. They sting other animals. The next pic is a flatworm, you should get rid of those ASAP as they can become an epidemic really quickly.

 

[reeffreak]

The first is a free living hydroid,harmless and will go away in time.The second does look like a flatworm.Time for a sixline wrasse perhaps.

 

[ladypheesh]

We don't plan on having any fish until April... (we are taking a trip the last week of march and want to wait until we get back.)

Are there any fish-free tactics for getting rid of this stuff?

 

[Bifferwine]

There's a product called Flatworm Exit that you can use for the flatworms. Since you don't have any animals in your tank, this is probably a good route to go, just make sure you do some water changes before you add animals (although Flatworm Exit is supposed to be reef safe, I still think it's better to dilute it out when you're done, just to be on the safe side).

 

[reeffreak]

:mrgreen:Biff your new avatar makes you two look strung out!

 

[RyanG]

Yeah Biff get Rambo a brush will ya

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah Biff get Rambo a brush will ya

His hair always looks like that first thing in the morning! It's naturally fluffy. :D

 

[Altohombre]

at least it isn't a mullet.

 

[Pheeshes]

Well, we were bored the other day and mapped out our livestock plan the other day(for fish at least) and we were wondering if there is a particular order to add the fish.
We want

2-Ocellaris Clowns
3-Banggai Cardinals
1-Foxface(either Lo or One Spot)
1-Royal Gramma
1-Lawnmover Blenny
1-Sixline Wrasse

and probably 1 tuxedo urchin and possibly 1 copper banded butterfly way down the road if we feel up to the task.

we were thinking the clowns first and after that we didn't really know if there was a good way to do it or if just getting them when we found ones we liked was best. i heard that sixlines do better if they are added last or they are not the largest fish, and with the fox face that won't be a problem.

 

[reeffreak]

Keeping temperment in mine,I would go.....

Bangaii,Royal Gramma,Foxface,clowns,blenny,wrasse in that order.The most peaceful,shy fish first and the most aggressive last.Still,fish are weird and don't always play by the book.

 

[yote]

Reefs got you covered on the order of placment.
Make sure you keep seaweed sheets for the foxface.They love em.
If you decide you want a copperband,let the tank mature 8 months to a year.I believe that the secret to keepping copperbands alive.Their a lot like a mandrine and need quiet a bit of live pods to feed on.

 

[Pheeshes]

ok, yeah, our plan is to add all these fish over the course of a year or two, we really don't want to rush anything. there'll also be some soft corals, hopefully an anemone also, so by the time we get ready to add a butterfly the tank should ready.

 

[Pheeshes]

well, we decided against the bangai cardinals. they are cool looking fish, we just decided they weren't for us. we did however get our fisrt two fish and first 3 corals since the last time we posted. 2 clowns and 2 zoas and a silver xenia. so far they are all doing great, but they've only been in the tank a couple of days. we'll get some pics up as soon as we get a chance.

we are having a slight aiptasia problem, are peppermint shrimp good for eating that? i've heard they were but i wanted to make sure they would be fine with the zoas in there. thanks guys and gals

 

[Bifferwine]

Peppermint shrimp usually do very well at taking out aiptasia. There's about a 50% chance that the shrimp will eat them, so get more than one. In a 75 gallon tank, 4 or 5 would even be good.

There are stories of peppermints picking at zoanthids, but I have never seen it, and it doesn't seem to be very common.

 

[ladypheesh]

we ended up getting 2 peppermint shrimp and they took care of the aiptasia within the first night! (we only had a few spots but we wanted to nip it in the bud before it got to be too big of a problem.) We took some pictures last night of our zoa's. Hopefully pheeshes will have those up sometime this evening.

 

[Pheeshes]

Well, we finally got a couple of corals and a fish. the clown fish is still wainting in QT. he's got another couple of weeks there, then we're going to start looking for friends for him.

here are some pics of our current setup. there are two zoa frangs in the middle and a silver xenia in the lover right.

These first couple are with all the lights on and the first 3 are of our tuxedo urcin

this next one is with the flash on on the camera and the lights out.

and the rest are just the actinics

 

[ladypheesh]

and the urchin's name is Pip, in case you were wondering. :cheerful:

 

[LionFish]

Nice Zoas too !