RebeccaL
Member
Hi! I'm Rebecca and new to reefing, the happy minder of a 29 gallon mostly softie biocube. Would love to meet folks nearby(Kalispell) and see their tanks! Let's have a club meeting!
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- Thread starter RebeccaL
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CarlaW
Scarlet Begonias
welcome to our very humble abode
DevonM
Mantis Shrimp
Hello from Missoula! How about a few pictures of your 29? 
NanaReefer
Well-known member
Hi Rebecca! Welcome to RF & the wonderful world of reefing!
LostCreekReefer
Speaker To Animals
Hi From Ronan....is this your first SW tank?
CarlaW
Scarlet Begonias
I think we need pics and a total description! It would help if you start to have problems in the future
RebeccaL
Member
Sorry, didn't get these replies, thank you for the welcome. Yes it's my first saltwater tank, I also have a 3 year old tropical fresh tank. August will be my 6 month mark, can't wait to be a toddler! Fighting diatoms, and like all new tanks, wondering how long this normal new tank phenomenon will last. I seem to love cloves and xeniids. Not tremendously message board literate, did this FTS work? 
RebeccaL
Member
Sorry, didn't get these replies, thank you for the welcome. Yes it's my first saltwater tank, I also have a 3 year old tropical fresh tank. August will be my 6 month mark, can't wait to be a toddler! Fighting diatoms, and like all new tanks, wondering how long this normal new tank phenomenon will last. I seem to love cloves and xeniids. Not tremendously message board literate, did this FTS work? View attachment 45403
RebeccaL
Member
I've had it suggested to me to join our local MASNA approved group, do we have one? Should we start one?
DevonM
Mantis Shrimp
Thanks for posting up a few pictures! You have quite a bit more in your tank thank I thought. It looks like you have some mature liverock. What kind of lights do you have on your cube? Hopefully after another few months your diatoms will disappear with normal water changes and maintenance. Do you have a vision for what you want your tank to eventually look like and consist of? I have the same hammer coral as you and it grew to the size of your tank in 2.5 years. I'm assuming it won't take long for the xenia and mushrooms to start growing in places you won't be able to pull them from, lol. It took me a 2 years to pull a Kenya tree coral out! of my display.
As far as a MASNA club goes, I think their goals are very good. It's most important that hobbyist are education. A lot of tank crashes and loss of corals/creatures could be tremendously decrease if people would educate themselves first before making impulse additions. I really like their goal of ethical growth and captive breeding too! Unfortunately, I'm not sure how many people are going to join and be active in the club. Our club has had its ups and downs but we still seem to have a few people that stick with it (past the 2.5 year expected lifetime in the hobby). But if you have the time and energy to devote to it, go for it! :becky:
RebeccaL
Member
I have managed to avoid mushrooms! And leathers for the most part (well one small one I was given as a gift from my LFS, my first coral so I can't quite give it away, though I'm not sure I love it.).
Completely unaltered cube, new coralife bulbs.
Boy would I love those darn diatoms to disappear! One thing I've had suggested is the moonlights , which I was told to leave on all the time, not enough to affect growth - perhaps this was bad advice and might be contributing.
It was not in the plan to have a plate, or hammer, or candy cane yet, but I went to see an add on craigslist with 5$ frags, and he just started cracking stuff off and handing stuff to me. I could not say no, and love my plate.
I wish I had thought more about rockscaping before I started, but I have the one LFS to get stuff from. I would have spent more time considering good layout for visibility, light and good use of three-d space. Like this - I think this is a dream of what a cube can be. But the plan at the moment is to fil the big back fan rock with spread things like sympodium and cloves, and xenias off the top for height.
Completely unaltered cube, new coralife bulbs.
Boy would I love those darn diatoms to disappear! One thing I've had suggested is the moonlights , which I was told to leave on all the time, not enough to affect growth - perhaps this was bad advice and might be contributing.
It was not in the plan to have a plate, or hammer, or candy cane yet, but I went to see an add on craigslist with 5$ frags, and he just started cracking stuff off and handing stuff to me. I could not say no, and love my plate.
I wish I had thought more about rockscaping before I started, but I have the one LFS to get stuff from. I would have spent more time considering good layout for visibility, light and good use of three-d space. Like this - I think this is a dream of what a cube can be. But the plan at the moment is to fil the big back fan rock with spread things like sympodium and cloves, and xenias off the top for height.
DevonM
Mantis Shrimp
How is your tank progressing? Update pics!
RebeccaL
Member
My diatoms are gone! Thanks for checking in. I still haven't gotten my first fish, a combination of fear it won't make it, and indecision as to what fish I should get. My coral is growing a little lush, I really need to aquascape, but having learned how bad the rock is from my LFS, I don't want to get more and spend months getting rid of their nasties.
RebeccaL
Member
well, drag and drop didn't work, maybe this will post a pic
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DevonM
Mantis Shrimp
I think the xenia will fill up whatever empty spaces you have, lol. The hammer is a great coral to gauge how the tank is feeling. If it's big and beautiful then life is good! If it's retracted then somethings up. Mine has always been a great addition to the tank. What kind of lighting do you have? Plate corals seem to be very difficult for many reefers to keep. I didn't notice yours in the photo. Is it still in your tank?
RebeccaL
Member
actually for me the duncan is the most sensitive, if he's sulking I take all my levels! But the hammer mostly stays open, just grows more heads! I'd love a different color hammer as well some day.
I trim my xenia pretty aggressively. works so far, I now have 6 varieties of xenia/anthellia's I really love them.
Oh, the plate coral, I loved it, a friend gave me a rock flower anemone (saying they don't move much), well of course mine did, and it attached to the plate coral! the plate hung on for a few months, but never really came back from that incident. I've heard sometimes plate coral skeletons make tons of babies, so the skeleton is still stuck in a back corner of the tank. we'll see.
Then the stupid rock flower attached to a bird's nest, I've just learned the trick of putting them in a shell may make them move less, so I'll try that if I ever see it moving again.
I trim my xenia pretty aggressively. works so far, I now have 6 varieties of xenia/anthellia's I really love them.
Oh, the plate coral, I loved it, a friend gave me a rock flower anemone (saying they don't move much), well of course mine did, and it attached to the plate coral! the plate hung on for a few months, but never really came back from that incident. I've heard sometimes plate coral skeletons make tons of babies, so the skeleton is still stuck in a back corner of the tank. we'll see.
Then the stupid rock flower attached to a bird's nest, I've just learned the trick of putting them in a shell may make them move less, so I'll try that if I ever see it moving again.
