Newbie 14 gallon Bio cube

[liquidattitude]

Beautiful Zoa

 

[spongeycrab]

Beautiful Zoa

yeah you shold really get one later *nudge,nudge,wink,wink*

 

[liquidattitude]

We are obsessed! and spinning out of control.....went to get a net, and possibly a new frag spot. This place is luckily, a drive from our house, but they had frags galore! 3 for 40, We got all soft corals that i looked up and hopefully i did OK. 1 Taro tree coral, a hairy mushroom and a green zoa. From what i could look up on my Iphone, they were all easy/med, low/mod air flow and our lights are enough for them. Keeping in mind we want a pair of clown fish...I think we are ok.
We acclimated them pretty much the way we did the snails and they seem to be opening up ok.

Thanks,
Kat

 

[little_fish]

They look good!

 

[Mr.D]

Not a bad find!

 

[liquidattitude]

How long does it take for the Taro tree to open up again....i hope its ok...its getting looser but not as wispy as it was in the tank at the store.:glassesy:
Kat

 

[little_fish]

leathers often shed when moved to a new tank, so give him a few days and it should be fine. Also they are called Keyna trees and can be very weed-like in tanks, so be sure to pick up any branches it drops otherwise it can spread out of control.

 

[liquidattitude]

I am really thankful for all the guidance I have received here. A little over a 2 weeks later....here is where we are: 3 soft corals, some pretty turbo snails, 2 tiny scarlet reef crabs....water parameters all thumbs up. Fish come late July.
Thanks again!
Kat and Tony

 

[little_fish]

looks good!

 

[liquidattitude]

Help! My hairy mushroom is looking sickly!! It looked fine this morning. Temp 79/salinity 1.026. I have done a 10% water change. Salinity now 1.022.....any ideas ? gonna give it a half hour and test everything. All the parameters where great on Sunday night.

should i be testing more frequently??

Kat

 

[little_fish]

Looks like its splitting, you might have a baby soon! I would just keep an eye on it, but do raise your salinity to 1.025 slowly. Just top off with saltwater until you get there.

 

[liquidattitude]

weirdest creature ever! It mostly looks back to normal. There is this strange nodule in the middle of it. I cant get a picture of it. But back to being green and happy looking.
Phew, thought i was killing it somehow.
Kat

 

[little_fish]

Yep, its splitting!

 

[liquidattitude]

so this is the signs of splitting? for any other newbie that doesn't know anything :)
Pic 1 and 2 are when it suddenly scrunches up and looks brownish, thought it was dying.
few min later I come to check on it and it looks back to normal. Laying flat, swaying and green.
Fascinating if you know you are not killing it...Thanks Little fish.

Kat

 

[liquidattitude]

checked our water parameters....water pH is a little low (7.8) for the mushroom (liveaquaria indicated 8.1-8.4)....should i add a buffer to raise it(still no fish in tank)?

 

[Waddi]

I would say that pH was ok, no need for a panic attack anyways.
I always feel that instead of dosing, you should do a water change to bring your levels back to normal, then if that fails, dose accordingly. But dosing isnt really needed, because a WC should work.

 

[liquidattitude]

That was the PH after the ROI 10% water change....Should have mentioned that.

 

[little_fish]

that pH is fine, and the pH will naturally change over the course of the day because of interactions between CO2 and the water molecules. So you should always test at the same time of day and the pH will be highest at the end of the light cycle.

And those buffers dont really work (if you had an actual issue), the pH will drop over the course of a few hours which is pointless for fixing the issue and is dangerous for your creatures because any fast changes are dangerous for them. To fix a pH issue you also need to know what the alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels are at because they are all tied together, if one is off the others will be too.

 

[liquidattitude]

I am taking notes! Thank you for helping educate me. I think we are good to go. I went to Pet-co( I know, I know) They are getting ready to have a fish tank sale. While there I saw the dang cutest leopard puffer fish. I asked the "Manager" if he got along with other creatures, was it reef safe, what did it eat and what the tank needs where?
They totally told me that it safe with corals, snails, shrimp and would eat anything. I was not going to trust what they told me so I pulled out my Iphone,pulled up this site and a couple of others to do my research.
Ahhh NO! Needs a larger tank than I have, will pretty much eat everything I currently have in my tank except maybe the coral. He was cute, but not that cute! I want to wait till next month for fish anyway....
We may add a 50-80 Gallon tank downstairs. Hubby is getting into this with me big time. We will be using everything we learn from all of you when we do :)
Thanks!
Kat

 

[little_fish]

Good thing you checked!!!