New pics. first coral hehe

[swervo513]

Hey,
its not impressive but its my first coral and it opened up! I found this hitch hiker when i went to go pick up some live rock at the LFS. Got some macro and rubble for my refugium too so i took out those bio balls. heres the tank with lights and everything:

http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq216/swervo513/IMG_2607.jpg

[swervo513]

http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq216/swervo513/IMG_2611.jpg
tanks with lights on

[swervo513]

http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq216/swervo513/IMG_2614.jpg
http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq216/swervo513/IMG_2618.jpg
http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq216/swervo513/IMG_2612.jpg
http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq216/swervo513/IMG_2613.jpg
fuge with rubble and macro algae

also added two snails and two hermit crabs

[swervo513]

http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq216/swervo513/IMG_2605.jpg

[WHiteout]

sweet man. looks like its pretty happy in there. congrats on your first little friend!

[swervo513]

yea. when i saw this guy on the LR for sale i thought it would be a good chance to see how my water is doing without wasting a load of money then having the corals die. you dont really know how a coral will react until you put it in. so this guy is kinda like my test subject. and being that the tank has only been circulating for 3 days, id say its doing well.

[WHiteout]

wow 3 days? thats awesome. my 10 gallon was 3 days in when i had to do a 100% water change because i used tap water. I had a neat little fan worm on a piece of LR but im about 90 percent sure its gone now... : (

[swervo513]

i used tap. . . NY tap water is pretty good tho. Ive been using a de-clorinizer and dosing small amounts of calcium.

[macman4]

Hey swerv513, is that the 12 gallon Cadlights tank? I'm very close to getting my new tank and really like the Cadlights 12 or 22 gallon. Could you tell me a little about your tank and what mods you have done.
Thanks, Bob

[WHiteout]

i guess our tap water is good here but i was still worried after i had a flood of people tell me to get RO water. it wasn't really a big deal because theres a water store 5 minutes from my house so i figured id do it anyways. so far there really isnt a difference but its only been one day lol.

[swervo513]

no mods. the tank came with a custom refugium from the place i got it. it was pretty much ready to go when i got it. and thats how i like it. the lighting is substantial and the shape is nice! its a beautiful tank all together. what else did you want to know? yea... you may see the difference after months of using tap water... i think sps are more sensitive to the heavy metals and such.

[macman4]

Thanks for the reply, Then those are the stock T5 lights that come with it. Did you get right from Cadlights?

Thanks, Bob

[weimers75]

Nice aquascaping! But...a concern.

Uh...3 days...hasn't even gone through its cycle yet. You have much worse days ahead for that coral, but zoos are pretty hardy and it may make it. If you test your water it may be pretty good now but give it a week or so and you'll notice a huge nitrate and possibly ammonia spike. That crab may not make it either, they tend to be pretty sensitive to water parameters.

Also, does your water source add phosphates to their water? Most do to reduce corrosion on pipes and that's the problem with tap water. Algae loves phosphates.

I don't want to seem harsh, sorry if that's how its coming off. Just trying to save you money and lots of aggravation in the long run. If you end up with algae, it can literally take months to go away with a lot of effort.

[swervo513]

ive used my tap water in the past with a reef tank and the tank was doing well until i took it apart. I did not intend to have corals or a coral in my tank until i fully cycled the system. but this guys came along with the rock.

However one thing that i should point out is that all that rock and most of my sand came from a previously cycled tank that was slightly decripid. I beleive that the spike in nitrates wont be too high taking this into consideration. Ive added some more critters that might help with the sand bed including a few nassarius snails. Also Im hoping that the macro algae will help.

I appreciate your concern and thanks for your warnings.
I will take the coral buying easy and im going to start off with some more zoos next week. Do you still think it will be to early? SHould i just continue observing my little zoo test subject for now?

[swervo513]

oh and i did not get it directly from cadlights. it was from a LFS. I think they said it had some custom work to it. But I have seen this tank on the forum with different lights. Goodluck with your tank buying!