tlhood's first tank - 34g RSM 130D

[tlhood]

Hey all! I thought I would start a tank journal, as I get the impression that my friends and coworkers are getting annoyed by the constant bombardment of snail pictures. I just recently got into the hobby after a friend of mine set up her reef tank over the summer. She had wanted one for a long time, and introduced me to the joys of reef keeping (although I have no corals yet) and the sadness of empty wallets.

Since I'm still a student, living at home, and working a crappy barista job, I didn't want to start with something super expensive. Perusing the interwebs and forums, most of the tanks I saw were ginormous and had sumps, which I didn't feel comfortable starting with. I then saw the "Plug and Play" option, and started hunting for a gently used affordable piece. It took about a month, but a gentleman in town saw my add and I ended up getting a 6 month old RSM 130D and the matching stand for a total steal. The only parts I've had to replace so far are the lights.




First problem: How to get the tank home. I drive a little Mazda, and it was sketchy for a moment on whether or not I'd actually be able to get the tank home in one trip. It must have been hilarious for the neighbours to watch. We first tried putting the tank in the trunk, but although there was enough space, the actual opening was too narrow. So we tried the back seat. The bottom of the back door narrowed too, and we couldn't squeeze the darn thing in. Then I had a brilliant light bulb moment. We flattened my front passenger seat, and angled the tank in through the front and pushed it over the seat into the back behind the drivers side. We followed a similar technique with the stand, which ended up barely carving a hole into my dashboard and balanced precariously on the passenger seat. Good thing my friend bailed on me, or he would of had to sit on the roof

Got everything home safely, both tank, stand, and car intact.


I decided to buy an RO/DI unit for two reasons. The first being that I'm too lazy to go to the store and get water there, and because it's cheaper in the long run, apparently. I bought mine off aquasafecanada. Shipping was great, packaged nicely, and I was also able to buy an aerator adapter so I wouldn't have to hack into the cold water line of my moms house. Little did I know...



Problem 2: Faucet aerators are the devil.
Apparently certain faucets have aerators that need keys, and after severely scarring the one upstairs where the tank was, I decided I would have to go another route. I ended up ordering a T compression valve from Auqasafe. I tried to find one at Home Depot, but they didn't have the size I was looking for, and I swear I knew more about plumbing than the guy that was helping me. I got the part in just under a week. The entire time I was installing the RO/DI, I kept hearing "You better not flood my house!!!!". The result:








Problem 3: It was leaking under the counter.

After an hour of trying to figure out why the tube kept leaking, I remembered a small plastic insert that came out of the tube when I was trying to connect it to the aerator. I plopped that back in and took off the Teflon tape and tada! No more leaks.

I bought 20lbs of rock from a woman across town, and 8lbs from Wai's on 16th.


After rearranging the rocks a billion times, I settled on a structure and started to cycle the tank. I didn't want to add any livestock until after the holidays as I was going to be away for a week, and I didn't want anything to go wrong. I did, however, get some algae bloom before I left which I was probably way too excited about.

[tlhood]

In addition to replacing the lightbulbs, I replaced the heater with a 150W Eheim.

After the holidays, I stopped by Big Al's and Pisces. I was looking for replacement bulbs and thought I would participate in the Boxing Day sales. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have the stock bulbs for the RSM, and I had to order them online. Speaking of which, they are supposed to be delivered today, making it about 11 days since I ordered them from Big Al's online. Hopefully they aren't frozen and busted.

I purchased a couple Scarlet Hermits from Pisces, along with a few Astrea snails, and I bought two Nerite snails from Big Al's. I drip acclimate everything religiously, even though I've heard some people say you can just plop snails in. To my disappointment, and what seems to be a recurring theme, the snails I bought from Big Al's died. I later went back to Big Al's to get some Cerith snails since Pisces didn't have any, and of the three only one survived. I did get a super speedy Nassarius from Big Al's which survived, and is probably one of my favourites in the tank so far. I get attached to things really fast, and was bummed that I already lost so many snails. I fixed my sadness by naming my remaining dudes. Hermits are Herman and Hubert, the Nassarius is Scooter, and the Cerith is being referred to by myself and my mom as "the little black one".





They have been in the tank just over a week.

A few nights ago I was passing the tank and literally freaked out. THIS was sitting on a rock staring into my soul.



Some suggested it was a porcelain crab, which apparently hitched a ride from Wai's. It doesn't really matter what it was now, as I found its body and insides splayed across my sandbed yesterday. He either died from starvation, or Hubert killed him.

I bought a little 2g Fluval to serve as a QT tank, and set up shop for my newest additions, two black ocellaris.






And here are some pictures of my crew that assists in water changes and tank inspection.

[reeferfulton]

looking great .
good call on geting yourself an RODI ,

your story remind me of my first salt tank .. picked up a JBJ nano in the girlfriends CRX lol was a hoot ..

[tlhood]

Thanks!

I looked at your tank thread, looking good!


I just got my lights, one of them was cracked and didn't light =[ But at least I have one of the old bulbs and a new bulb that work. It would be nice to find someone in town who sells the bulbs I need so that I don't have to ship them from ON.

[tlhood]

The "Lepto" – Has darkened consciderably. Since I don’t know what it is, it’s tough to tell what colour it is actually supposed to be… Is it supposed to be this dark tan ish colour, or does it need more light? The flesh has started growing down the sides, and under the edge.
January 20ish

March 10

Monti 1 – When I got it is was a sad little brown decaying thing. Trimmed it up and band-aided the receded base. Growing well.
January 20ish

March 10

The “Fungia” – Has grown, now has a neon green hue to it, and eats like a pig.
Jan. 20ish

March 10

The favia
Jan 20

March 10

[tlhood]

Here is a current FTS of my RSM 130D. The GHA, diatom, and cyano blooms from February and March are over, and everything is nice and clean. I also trimmed my garden of banana algae on the back of my base rock. I have started running GFO (given to me by riceboy) to try to help resolve my phosphate problems.

Currently the only coral that I am having a lot of trouble with re: colour is the pink birdsnest, and the bird of paradise could be more vibrant too.

I received the two toadstools and the blue mushroom (center rock at the front) from tobysmurf on Tuesday. The toadstools are currently shedding a bit, but are getting used to the tank nicely.

I decided I wanted more versatility with colour ratios and brightness in the tank, so I pulled out the stock t5's and installed the Rapid LED DIY retrofit kit, and the Storm controller. All was well for about a month, but unfortunately, the controller I received was a dud, and I am currently waiting on Coralux to send me a new one.

Because of the controller issues, my LEDs are at max, and I can't control the ratios .



Current Stock:

2 Black and white clowns
1 purple firefish
1 yellow watchman goby
1 sapphire damsel

1 RBTA
5 narites
3 astrea
1 cerith
1 fighting conch
1 nassarius
5 red hermits
2 porcelain crabs

red maze
green and purple favia
green monti cap
red monti caps
blue mushroom
two toadstools
GSP
purple/tan and green torch
spacemonster zoas
purple and green zoas
green button polyps
bird of paradise sps
pink birdsnest sps
small plate-like coral thing
leptoseris type frag

and next week I am getting
aussie green and red blasto
aussie multi coloured maze
dragon soul favia
needle in a haystack sps
blue and green sympodium

The large red monti and the two frags on the sand behind it are pending pickup from Steve...

[Bugger]

How are you liking that 2 gal fluval tank. Im thinking of getting one for brine shrimp. Is there a pump that connects the back to the front

[tlhood]

The 2 gal is ok. I more or less just used it for short and cheap QT for my fish, but since I'm not getting any more its been sitting there empty.

There is a small pump that comes with the system that sits in a tiny separated compartment behind the black overflow which pushes the water from the back to the front through a slightly flexible direction outlet on the right side. There isn't much room for a thermometer though (unless you want to put it in the display part of the tank), and the two I have managed to find to fit in the back crapped out on me within a week.

The lights are nice and bright, but the lid has a huge hole in it for the light to shine through, so with fish in there/ having cats, in order to stop jumping or paws going where they shouldn't be, I had to cover it with mesh.

[tlhood]

For the first time ever, I managed to catch a decent photo of one of the two hitch hiker crabs I got on a piece of rock from Wai's back in January. They somehow managed to survive my ammonia cycle. I'm pretty sure they are porcelain crabs, and they have moved their home from one end of the tank to the other. I usually can see them hanging under small arches filtering the water.

While both have the same blueish spotted colour, this one has pink under his claws, while the other has white.







Also, here is a photo of Frank, my conch, because he is a rockstar.

[tlhood]

I think my fish is a bit anti-Semitic.... PS. Man do iPhone cameras love soaking up the blue LEDs. Yikes