BlueSallymander's 16 gallon cube

[BlueSallymandr]

Hi all, I was going to start a tank journal earlier, when I noticed a leak in my tank! I had to move all of my creatures into a new tank, which I did last weekend (and ugh my back still hurts). I’m happy to say that all of the creatures survived the move, and I didn’t get any ammonia spike later.

The new tank is a CoralLife BioCube 16, and I haven’t done any customization yet beyond adding the bioballs from the old tank to the wet/dry chamber of the new tank’s filter. The original tank was about three months old. I’m running it with natural seawater. Originally I was more interested in the fish and shrimp, but I’m becoming more and more enamoured with corals. My goal for this tank is to grow softies/mushrooms, with a few beginner LPS corals.

Fish/inverts:
Yasha goby / Randall’s pistol shrimp
Firefish
Royal gramma
Rainford’s goby
Tuxedo urchin
3 trochus snails
Nassarius snail

Corals:
Blue discosoma mushrooms
Rhodactis mushrooms
Nepthea tree
Toadstool (it was sold to me as a weeping willow but I don’t think it’s a true one)
Finger leather
Firework clove polyps
Cabbage leather
Candy cane coral

 

[BlueSallymandr]

My current project is getting the Randall's pistol shrimp to bond with the Yasha goby and build a burrow together. I think it will just require patience. Right now I'm pretty sure that the shrimp is still hiding in the rock where he was when I got him - I put the rock up front directly where I am hoping that the shrimp will build a burrow. It would be nice to see them regularly as a pair - that was the idea that originally got me into starting a saltwater aquarium.