cghoosier21 4 gallon tank

[cghoosier21]

hey everyone new to talking reef but i thought i would start a thread for my tank

right now i have a green clown goby, a ocellaris clownfish, and a skunk cleaner shrimp and some hermit crabs.
im planing on upgrading to a 20L gallon tank and am goin to build an aio for it.

here are some pics of the 4 gallon right now.

[techguy]

Great pictures! You have some nice fish and shrimp! How long has your 4 gallon been up?

[SaltyDawg]

There isnt a spec of algae or coraline anywhere so I would guess very new. How soon did you add your critters after you set up the tank? The tank needs to cycle before adding livestock or you risk killing everything.

[cghoosier21]

its been up for over a month and i had a cheap damsel in there to cycle it and he ended up dying but the pic of my live rock above is when i first started it ill take some pics of the rock right now and will add soon

[techguy]

i had a cheap damsel in there to cycle it and he ended up dying

I hope you use a different method to cycle your next tank. You can find good information on here as to how this can be done without subjecting a fish to those conditions. If the live rock method doesn't cut it consider a piece of raw shrimp.

[SaltyDawg]

Sounds like you started off with some bad advise. You shouldn't needlessly kill a fish to kick start the cycle. Luckily you found this site. There are a lot of wonderful,experienced reefers here that will lead you in the right direction. What are water params? What is the filtration? Lighting?

[cghoosier21]

the filtration is just a hangon filter that came with the tank its a finnex 4 gallon and it has a sponge and a carbon cartridge and this is wat finnex calls it bulb that came with mine "The Finnex energy saving bulb emits a blue tint of light which produces a clear water view and promotes the growth of plants and corals. in nano aquariums Our energy saving bulbs at 26W are equivalent to a bulb outputting 100W. Blue-White: 30,000-10,000K."
params:
nitrite:0ppm
nitrate:0ppm
kh: 200ppm
ph:8.3
temp:78 to 80
salinity: 1.023

[CarmieJo]

Very nice! You could add some corals but you are probably stocked out as far as fish and inverts with the critters you have. The parameters look good. I like what I have seen of Finnex tanks. You will want to keep the sponge and filter cartridge clean to help keep nitrates low. That light is probably fine for most soft corals and some LPS.

[cghoosier21]

Very nice! You could add some corals but you are probably stocked out as far as fish and inverts with the critters you have. The parameters look good. I like what I have seen of Finnex tanks. You will want to keep the sponge and filter cartridge clean to help keep nitrates low. That light is probably fine for most soft corals and some LPS.

so ur saying i could add corals though right

[cghoosier21]

here is some more photos i took earlier today

[rayme07]

Great looking tank and critters!! Thanks for sharing.

[CarmieJo]

Nice shots. I love the portrait of the clown. You could add some corals like zoanthids, mushrooms or leathers. Go slow and don't overstock.

[cghoosier21]

question wat about hard branching corals cause i read that clown goby's love to hang out in them? and if i get some zoo's wat should the water flow be and also wat would i have to do to take care of them

[CarmieJo]

Branching corals would be like acropora or digitada. I don't believe that your lights would support acros and but they might be OK for a digitada. Zoanthids are generally hardy and easy to care for. They need less light and moderate flow. You really won't need to do much to care for them besides provide good water quality.

[cghoosier21]

so no food or anything besides wat u said

[Mits]

Looking good. I'm right across County Line Rd. from Greenwood so hit me up if you need help with anything. Are you a member of INDMAS?

[cghoosier21]

Looking good. I'm right across County Line Rd. from Greenwood so hit me up if you need help with anything. Are you a member of INDMAS?

oh cool i just started my tank about a month ago and am still new but most of the stuff i learned is from my uncle who owns a 210 gallon tank in milwaukee but wat is INDMAS? also were do u normally get ur fish and aquarium supplies from?

[Mits]

INDMAS is the Indiana Marine Aquarium Society. Local clubs are one of the greatest resources in the hobby. I get many frags by trading through the club. I even got my frag tank by trading a few frags to a club member. Check out the site at www.indmas.org. I go to Premium Aquatics for most of my stuff, but they are mostly internet based. They are a great place, and they have local walk-in hours every friday and saturday. They are www.premiumaquatics.com. If I am in instant gratification mode I go to Uncle Bill's in Greenwood.

[cghoosier21]

ya im the same way i didnt know if there was anywhere else down here besides premium aquatics but wats cool with premium aquatics is u can order online and choose to pick it up from there store

[cghoosier21]

so whenever i can find a 20 gallon long tank im gona start up a new tank and was gona start using my 4 gallon tank as a quarantine tank now wat should i keep in the quarantine tank should i have live rock and should i keep it running or can i take it down and then just set it back up when i need it

[techguy]

Just a heads up that Petco is having a sale on tanks. $1 per gallon so a 20 gallon would be $20. Not sure how long the sale last.

Here is a great article on the QT tank and process:
fish-quarantine-process-step-step

My will be broken down between uses and its generally advised not to keep porous materials, such as live rock, in the QT tank. Things like ich tend to adhere to porous objects so a bare bottom tank with some PVC tube for the fish to seek shelter would be good.

[cghoosier21]

ya one of my buddys just told me that tonight while we were at work and i just looked on the petco website and it includes 20 gallon long schwing lol now all i need to do is get the canister filter that my uncle has but he lives in wisconsin sooooo lol

[CarmieJo]

The 20 long will be nice. You would be better off with a couple of powerheads instead of a canister filter. If you go with it I would just run it for flow and to occasionally run media or do water polishing. Otherwise you need to clean it out at least weekly.

[cghoosier21]

so really i dont need any kind of filtration??? cause the live rock is kinda like the filtration right?? now when u mean clean the tank u mean like water changes and the sides

[Mits]

Right. You don't need mechanical filtration, it just builds up detritus and becomes a nitrate factory if you don't keep up on it. Let the system do the work. Do frequent small water changes and use a mag float to keep the glass clean. Don't mess with the sand bed too much either. Water changes are super important too. I let mine go way too long and everything started losing color and I got an algae bloom. I started up my regular water changes and everything starts looking healthy again.