Reef nutrition

Felicia's 40B Predator Reef

Ok, now its time for some photos of the fish!

First off, the clownfish.
IMG_2325 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2552 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2537 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

And finally a halfway decent photo of the tomini tang! She's always moving too much
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IMG_2429 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

Falkor was being a ham as usual.
IMG_2359 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2477 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

Mushu was out front demanding food. He was all like, look lady, you've been near the tank for like the last hour taking photos. Get us some food, NOW!
IMG_2912 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2890 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2868 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2486 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

Of course Draco was striking a pose as always!
IMG_2387 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2497 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

The antennata even decided to come out and have her photo taken
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IMG_2733 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2784 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2753 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2798 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr




Drumroll please! And for the grand finale....

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Draco and the Antennata were posing together for some awesome shots!

IMG_2677 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2688 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2844 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

IMG_2854 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr
 
Enderturtle said:
Epic pictures and amazing quality! Really surprised your lionfish havent gobbled up your clowns :p
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Thank you! All of these were taken with my iPhone 6s :)

The clownfish are definitely small enough that the lionfish could eat them, so I knew it was a risk when I decided to keep them when I added the lions. However, I was hoping that their anemones would protect them, and it seems that I was right. The lionfish and clowns have been together for over 10 months now without any issues. I honestly wouldn't recommend putting small clowns with lionfish, except in the very specific case that the clownfish have a large cluster of anemones that they're hosting in already. It won't work with just one or two small anemones since the clowns can't disappear down inside the anemones, but with my cluster of 8-9 large anemones, my clowns can vanish from sight and never stray far from their anemones. Its cool because that's the whole reason clownfish live in anemones in the wild is for protection, so its fun to see that at work in my tank. The lionfish don't go close to the anemones, so they don't even seem to notice the clownfish.
 
Beautiful clean tank. How many hours a day do you put in to keep it so pristine?
How much 3 parts are you dosing to keep those happy clams?
Great job!
 
euod said:
Beautiful clean tank. How many hours a day do you put in to keep it so pristine?
How much 3 parts are you dosing to keep those happy clams?
Great job!
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Thank you! Honestly, most days I do nothing with the tank. I just do a nice big cleaning once a week, which includes the water change, glass scrubbing, general clean up in the tank, replacing the filter sock, cleaning the skimmer cup, wiping up salt creep, etc. It takes me about 2 hours to do my full cleaning once a week. If I'm slacking, which I'm totally doing right now, I can let the maintenance for for 2-3 weeks without any major issues. These photos were back from mid March, so the tank isn't nearly as pristine now. Everything is happy and healthy, but the glass needs a good scraping.

I'm trying to remember how much I'm dosing off the top of my head because I'm not near my dosing pump to look. I tweak it once in a while based on testing, and I forget the exact number of mL its dosing right now. However, I can give you a rough idea. Ca and Alk is 20-25 mL per day split up over 6 times throughout the day. Mg is only like 3-4 mL per day split up over 2 doses per day. That's for ESV B-Ionic 2-part and Mg.
 
Sweet do u think ull need get rid of ur snowflake eel when he gets bigger?? I'm asking cuz I thought they get like 3 feet and thought they needed a big tank like 100+ but I'm not sure never did to much research on then just curious


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travis furia said:
Sweet do u think ull need get rid of ur snowflake eel when he gets bigger?? I'm asking cuz I thought they get like 3 feet and thought they needed a big tank like 100+ but I'm not sure never did to much research on then just curious


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You're definitely right. The snowflake will eventually outgrow this tank, but I've always just been planning to upgrade for him when needed. I'm way too attached to him to get rid of him just because he gets too big. I'm planning to probably start an upgrade towards the end of this year. Right now though, he's still small and does great in this size tank. They do get pretty large, but oddly Live Aquaria lists the minimum tank size for them as 50 gallons. Personally, I still think that's too small for a full sized one. I'd say a 75 gallon would be what I would recommend as the minimum size for a full grown snowflake eel. The good thing though is that they're not like tangs where its a swimming space thing. A 2" tang needs a big tank just like a foot long tang does. However, a small snowflake eel can do just fine in a smaller tank until it becomes cramped due to physical size.
 
The tang that you have right now what's its maximum size? And yes I agree, from what heard moray eel's can spend there whole life in one cave and never venture from their cave in nature and in an aquarium


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travis furia said:
The tang that you have right now what's its maximum size? And yes I agree, from what heard moray eel's can spend there whole life in one cave and never venture from their cave in nature and in an aquarium


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The tang I have now can get up to about 6-7" I believe. I will definitely need to upgrade the tank for her as well, and since I was already planning to eventually upgrade, that's why I was comfortable getting her. She's a bristletooth tang, which as a group need less swimming space than the rest of the tangs. The minimum tank size for her is listed as 70 gallons on Live Aquaria. I only got her because I always have some excess nutrients in this system, so I always have some nuisance algae growth. I really don't think any inverts do that amazing of a job at controlling it, so I wanted an algae eating fish that was too big to get eaten by the lionfish, but wouldn't be too cramped in my tank. That's how I decided to try the tomini tang. She's the only open water swimming fish in the tank, so the entire tank is her territory, which I think helps. She eats algae like a beast and I never see her pacing or acting stressed about space. She's pretty much queen of the tank. She's still small, and I'll definitely be upgrading to something plenty big for her around the end of this year.

My eel apparently missed that memo! He definitely comes out a LOT. He's very social, especially when he sees me because he knows I bring the food. He just doesn't swim, so he doesn't need huge amounts of space to move around. He slithers around more like a snake and he still has plenty of space to do that in the 40B. He's actually out right now and is wrapped up around the base of the big squamosa clam. He likes to explore is domain, haha.
 
:) hahaha sounds like u know what ur doing. Give me some time and I'll have my tank beautiful like urs. Just waiting for these pesky frags to grow big and beautiful already. I guess staring at my tank every 5 mins while studying for tests isn't helping. I'm thinking ill ungraded at the end of the year too or when I get a new home. I have a 90 gal siting in storage but I think I may want bigger;) right now I'm at 55


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travis furia said:
:) hahaha sounds like u know what ur doing. Give me some time and I'll have my tank beautiful like urs. Just waiting for these pesky frags to grow big and beautiful already. I guess staring at my tank every 5 mins while studying for tests isn't helping. I'm thinking ill ungraded at the end of the year too or when I get a new home. I have a 90 gal siting in storage but I think I may want bigger;) right now I'm at 55


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Well I definitely don't know everything, but I've learned my lessons and made my mistakes over my last 4.5 years in the reef hobby. I've really tried to plan a ton and think through everything with this system. I'm sure your tank will look wonderful. Just takes lots of patience, research, and learning in this hobby. We always want bigger don't we? Its the curse of this hobby. I've made it through 4.5 years with nothing but "nano" size tanks, but I'm finally itching to step up to a large tank.
 
Felecia those gorgs and seafan looking things. Are they photosynthetic? Do you have to spot feed them to keep them alive? Saw those at neptunes and aquatic collection but never bought them because they look like you have to constantly spotfeed.
 
Enderturtle said:
Felecia those gorgs and seafan looking things. Are they photosynthetic? Do you have to spot feed them to keep them alive? Saw those at neptunes and aquatic collection but never bought them because they look like you have to constantly spotfeed.
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All of the gorgonians I have are photosynthetic. I don't have to feed them at all and they do just fine. They just need moderate light and moderate/high flow and they're happy. If you do feed them once in a while they're grow a bit faster, but its not necessary.

There are plenty of non photosynthetic species and those are way harder to keep. I've never had success with them. I think the ones I've seen in Aquatic Collection recently have all been non photosynthetic, but they sometimes get in the photosynthetic ones. However, to get a good variety of the photosynthetic ones, I ordered mine online from KPAquatics. I really love that store for gorgs! The photosynthetic ones are super hardy and easy, basically like soft corals other than they need decent flow.
 
FeliciaLynn said:
If you're going to be going to one of the local fish stores, you should keep your eye out for the new issue of Reef Hobbyist magazine. They're free to take! One of my photos of my tank/lionfish made the cover and I have a feature article in the issue about my predator reef. Check it out if you get a chance!

IMG_2854 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr
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No way, that's awesome. I'll have to keep a look out for it.
 
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