High Tide Aquatics

Kremis's 28 gallon nano and 180 gallon mixed reef

NOTE: I CHANGED THE THREAD AND AM GOING TO INCLUDE MY 180 GALLON JOUNRAL ON HERE TOO

Hey all! This is my first post, so I am going to do a little intro before I get into the actual tank specs lol. My name is Kyle, I am currently 15 years old, and have been keeping reef tanks since I was 11. I have been to two of the members only BAR frags swaps and 1 of the mini swaps, and really enjoy it. I haven't really been on the forums though. I want to get more involved with the online community here :)

------------------------------------------- 28 Gallon Nano Cube ------------------------------------------

A bit of info about my 28 gallon:

I have kept orange spot filefish in it before, and had one going on 8 months (eating frozen foods) until it got some mysterious internal bacterial infection, causing it to "bloat." I later found out it wasn't air, but puss, which was pretty gross. The poor guy didn't make it. At the time he was in a tank with 3 seahorses. The very same day he died, 1 of the seahorses died for reasons I still don't know. I had the tank with just a clown goby, a pygmy perchlet, and 2 seahorses for a few months. Till one day, at the 6th avenue aquarium (Yes I sometimes go there), I found a spotted garden eel. I decided to take the huge risk and bought it, along with a lot of sand. I then piled up sand on one side, and the garden eel proceeded to live there for a few days. I knew this was not going to be enough, so over the next weekend I completely redid the tank, and added a lot more sand (this was while the eel was hiding in his little sand hill). Thankfully, nothing died, and it all went extremely well compared to last tank remodels. The new tank had a 5-6 inch sand bed in the front for the garden eel. A week after this, he still hasn't eaten, and I was worried and digging up everything about these guys I could on the internet. The main problem I had feeding him was the fact that he was so shy, and would hide as soon as I approached the tank. I can't feed him if he's not out lol. 3 days later, he finally starts to pick at some cyclopeeze (with me standing on the other side of the room). A week later, he is readily eating this. Another week, he is accepting mashed up brine and mysis. I was amazed at how well everything turned out. I mean, I impulse bought a garden eel, completely redid the whole tank while he was in it (hiding in his sand mound though lol) and he lived and is now doing great. A few weeks after he started eating, I had been calling around all the stores, and still no one has another garden eel. I finally found some at Aquatic collection. I bought the 2 they had, which were both very small (half the size of my current one) both went in, and the very next day they were out an about, eating. They weren't even all that scared of me. They had both settled in. 3 days later, my mom calls me down and says one of them just swam through the overflow and into the back of the tank. I go back in there and get it to swim back out through the overflow and into the tank. It decided it wanted to into the middle of the tank, where the sand was only 1-2 inches deep. After it burrowed down there, I never saw it again. I think something wasn't right, because they aren't supposed to swim around all that much lol. The remaining one of the 2 new eels did great, and ate like a pig. So now, I had 2 garden eels living together, eating a ton, and doing great. 2 weeks later, I stopped by Aquatic Collection again, and what do you know, they had 3 splended garden eels (first ones were spotted/hass garden eels) I picked up 2, and brought them home. A week later, (and a 5 paragraph essay) and you get to where I am now. Both splendid garden eels have not eaten yet, and are very shy. This is the most recent events of my 28 gallon nano (within a few months)

If you took the time to read that giant block of text, cool! I appreciate it lol. I thought I would give a current list of all my tank's inhabitants.
Fish:
Yellow Clown Goby
Geometric Pygmy Perchlet
2 H. Erectus seahorses
2 spotted garden eels (just as a note, I kind of have a thing for odd fish, weird fish, and "difficult to care for" fish)
2 splendid garden eels ( picture of mine when they first went in https://gyazo.com/2aa827bd48c3dfff1b6f481ddbf1df32 )
May sound like a lot for a small little 28 gallon, but so far everything is ok, and all the fish get along.
Coral:
Green nepthea
green toadstool
green star polyps
green trumpet coral
green rhodactus mushrooms
green clove polyps
Bird of paradise coral
Red montipora cap
pink palythoa (not sure what their name is)
war coral
blue clove polyps
sun coral
Orange-ish acan
Pulsing xenia
photosynthetic gonioporas

Inverts:
Nassarius snails
Red tuxedo urchin

Also I have a red macroalgae for hitching posts for the seahorses in there.

For equipment, the tank is running an eshopps HOB protien skimmer as the main filtration (no sump)
The lights are the 28 gallon intermediate LED's, with some added blue LEDs in there.
Here is a quick 1 minute youtube video of my garden eels feeding, and a quick overview of the tank. I also have a bit of a diatoms problem, if anyone has any suggestions for that feel free. I believe it is from heavy feeding, because I have to feed the seahorses mysis (too big for little garden eel mouths) and mashed up brine/mysis and plankton for the eels. Tell me what you think! All feedback is appreciated!

[youtube]gqQiRaK343s[/youtube]
if that didnt work, click link below

---------------------------------------------- 180 Gallon ---------------------------------------------------
My 180 gallon has been running for almost 3 years now, 1 year less than my 28. Its a mixed reef. I don't have a giant long story about it like my 28 gallon, not as much goes on in it lol.

List of current fish:
2 Bangai cardinal fish
1 firefish
2 ocelarris clown fish
1 blue tang
1 sailfin tang
3 pyramid butterflyfish (100% reef safe, at least IME)
1 flame angelfish
1 mandarin
1 female starry leopard wrasse
1 pintail fairy wrasse
1 exquisite fairy wrasse
1 pink margin fairy wrasse female
1 lubbocks multicolor wrasse
1 wrasse that I forgot the name of, its big, def a fairy wrasse, and looks like a male.
1 yellow clown goby
2 diamondback gobies
1 yellowhead jawfish

list of current coral:
Jack o lantern leptoseris
miami hurricane chalice
golden eye chalice
green trumpet coral
blue trumpet coral
green acropora, not sure what type. The guy at the store didn't even know what this one was lol. I got it a few years ago. picture: https://gyazo.com/f76c1731bf389be1c09f389a08a9645a
green acropora, not sure exactly what, knew the name once not anymore https://gyazo.com/d75b7a509a0e709d6f9a49b36df93a59
green acropora, again not sure what it is. https://gyazo.com/2b2d613c6101ce0b3eae20909b95020d
Red dragon acropora, at least I think, lol. Im not so good with my acros
tricolor acropora
Bird of paradise birdsnest
ponape birdsnest
purple birdsnest
green birdsnest
Golden torch
green torch
Golden Hammer
Green frogspawn
Rasta zoanthids
blue tubbs zoanthids
Radioactive green zoanthids
some red/pink zoanthids, not sure on name
brown-ish zoanthids with red center
green/gray zoanthid rock
War coral
red blasto with green center
Rainbow montipora
sunset montipora
orange montipora digitata
Red montipora cap
green monti cap
german blue montipora digitata
orange setosa
pulsing xenia
blue cyhpastrea with red polyps
Green maze coral
green favia
A lot of different types of mushrooms all over the tank. lol.

inverts:
nassarius snails
2 red tuxedo urchins
1 blue tuxedo urchin
2 longspine urchins
5 RBTA's (started as one, kept on splitting)
trochus snails
sand sifting starfish

youtube video of the tank:
blotched anthias https://gyazo.com/61ede25d53af54883ca562af6ba9c0b5
birdsnests https://gyazo.com/52556f58539b5dfbb17e7d0f8f353932
 
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That's so cool. I wanted a few of those but didn't want to do a deep sand bed so decided against it. The other weird one I thought about was a flashlight fish.
 
Thanks. Yeah, I didn't particularly want the DSB but decided it was worth it to keep them. Flashlight fish are interesting, but I believe they need darker tanks. A cool set up could be like a non photosynthetic reef with some anthias and flashlight fish maybe, lol
 
Im surprised your seahorses are doing well? I always thought they were suppose to be kept only with other seahorses?
In general yes. I was very careful with my stock list. The only other 2 fish besides the eels and seahorses are a clown goby and perchlet, which are both very slow moving fish that are not aggressive at all. The main reason for seahorses to be kept alone is the food competition. The clown goby and perchlet arent competitive at all lol. But say you had a tang, it would eat up all the food before the seahorses could even get a bite. The eels arent a problem, because they dont eat the big pieces of mysis.
 
Quick picture of my seahorses

64e9e66027e8ec5984c323cfcb98b90c


if that didnt work https://gyazo.com/64e9e66027e8ec5984c323cfcb98b90c
 
I updated the original post to include my 180 gallon, feel free to check that out. I do however have a bit of a problem. This morning while I was cleaning the tank my clown goby somehow got skewered in 2 spots by my longspine sea urchin. Both spots the spines went all the way through. Here is a pic https://gyazo.com/3b2454fe6d06042c010ea071844d5707 (the 2 spots are where the spines went through) . This was a few hours ago, and he seems to be ok now despite just going through all that. Have any of you guys ever had something like this happen? I think the clown goby will live, he is doing fine right now. He was pale at first, but now he is back to a bright yellow. I did manage to get stabbed myself while trying to get him out though, lol
 
Added a snowflake eel to my 180 today. Wait what.. this guy just added an eel to a reef!??!! WHAT!!! yup. After a lot of research, it seems that snowflake eels don't actually attack fish and eat mostly crustaceans. My aunt has had one in her reef for a few months, and no fish have disappeared (Even her clown gobies) I know this is a risk, but I believe it will work out. I do not have any shrimp or crabs in my tank, only urchins. I also added a hectors' goby to my 28 gallon, to help keep the sand clean. Will post pics soon
 
Had a snowflake for over 7 years. Once they get big, they do get a bit aggressive. Not with fish, but when you feed, they can knock over corals and stuff. Also, keep a tight lid on the tank. They like to climb out. I always fed with some long tweasers. They don't always find food on there own.
 
Just hit 2 week mark with splendid garden eels. They still barely come out and when they do they don't eat anything :( my spotted garden eels are doing good though
 
No they ignore all food. About half the time they get scared of food going into the tank and they hide, and when they actually stay out they ignore food. It took my first spotted till around this time to actually start picking at cyclopeeze.
 
Added a hectors goby and another splendid garden eel today. The splendid was from the same group of 3 that my other 2 came in with. I already bypassed overstocking by far in my opinion, and will not add any more fish. The new splendid is not doing so good, and hasn't even burrowed into the sand yet despite being in the tank for 1 hour +. The hector's goby is doing good and sifting the sand (main purpose for adding) It isn't eating prepared foods, but there are plenty of pods / algae in the tank (glass is literally covered)
I just started up my live brine shrimp tank again, and hope to use those to get the splendids to eat
 
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