Questions before I jump in... ;)

[Ziggy953]

Nice!!

 

[MSU Fan]

I don't know what happened there, Devilish...I thought that I had hit the edit button to change my previous reply. Weird!

EDIT -

I have no idea what I am on right now. Devilish, I did see your reply, so now I have no idea why I edited my previous reply. I think I've gone stupid! I am going to re-edit to remove the double post. What a debacle!!!

 

[Devilishturtles]

Haha, np. Just wanted to make sure I understood you correctly and that you saw the parts about trying to peel/pry it first, and cutting as a last resort, and to make sure you do it OUT of the water. Have a little tupperware contaner full of tank water to plop the coral in for a bit while it slimes off and the glue settles, before it goes back into your main.

HTH

 

[MSU Fan]

Thanks again...can't wait!

 

[MSU Fan]

This one is long, so bear with me!

Well, an update on the Xenia. I peeled the Xenia off that shell (with very little issue as well, so yay! and thanks Devilish!). I then glued all my current frags in (except the Elegance). I dried the area on each frag, then used the gel super glue (with cyanoacrylate): puts a couple of dots on each frag, then placed them in the tank and held them for a minute where I wanted the frags to be.

I am also in a diatom bloom, which snails are managing well. By the end of the day, the front glass has quite a bit of diatom on it, but the next morning it is relatively clean (except snail tracks!!).

So far, my freakin' clumsy turbo snails have managed to dislodge my GSP frag (once) and my button polyp (once daily ). I swear they have it in for the button - they have knocked that frag off my rock almost every night since I put them in there. I am worried about how much more that frag can take! I am going to re-glue it in to the LR again, but this time I am going to lodge it in between 2 large pieces of LR and use super glue! Has anyone else had this problem, and does this sound like a good solve??? I never thought a snail would give me this much anxiety! Is there a limit to how much glue I can use, or doesn't it matter?

Other than that, Pedro (our clown) is swimming happily around the tank. He hangs mostly in the top 1/3 of the tank right now (swimming endless amounts of laps ). We're hoping he will eventually use some of the rest of the tank.

We're probably going to look for another fish tonight or tomorrow to add to the tank (after qt of course). I am considering a court jester goby, but I am concerned about the relative "newness" of my tank, and whether he would survive - any comments/insights? I also wanted to get a 6-line wrasse eventually, but I don't want these two to look alike, maybe a flasher wrasse later on? I do have eggcrate on the tank, so jumpers are OK!

Since I now have a fish and some snails in there, should/could I add a shrimp as well (is it the right time)? We really like the fire shrimp (as if that was an unusual statement or something ), so we're thinking of putting 1 in there. I am also going to be ordering some actinic lighting for the tank (currently on 1x65 CF 10k bulb).

As far as corals go (I want to add some more ), how would a candy cane do in this tank? I have seen some beautiful neon yellow ones at a couple of our local LFS lately, and that would add some awesome color to the tank!

I also need to pick up some frozen foods for the tank - I have a large sheet of printouts ready to be price matched at our Petsmart - any advice on which ones I should pick up? I am thinking of getting either the brine shrimp or spirulina enhanced brine shrimp, and emerald entree. Should I get the marine cuisine as well? What about additives such as garlicextreme? How about cyclops (eeze?) that I keep hearing about? Any recommendations there?

There's probably more, but for now, Thanks Everyone!!!

 

[roka64]

I am considering a court jester goby

They need a well established tank.
What kind of flasher wrasse?
Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse -should be the first introduced into a tank.
Filamented Flasher Wrasse?
Peacock Flasher Wrasse?
You can add the shrimp, and I like the fire shrimp as well. Sometimes they will act as a cleaner shrimp.
I can't help you on the corals.
Food, go with variety. I think mysis is better than brine (I might be wrong, but for some reason I can't remember which...almost lunch time).
I soak all my frozen in garlic guard, zoe and selcon (but that's just me). I think there is also selcor and vita-chem (I don't use these, no particular reason as to why).

 

[MSU Fan]

I figured that about the court jester goby...darn. oh well, patience is a virtue, isn't it? I have been reading more about the wrasses, and I am not sure about them now - just don't seem to be the right temperament. Oh well. I think that I am just going to go to the LFS around here and see what they have that attracts my eye - then do some more research. Maybe a shrimp and some frags this weekend...


I still need to get some more foods too. I'll have to see what additives are available around here to soak the food in...I might have to order from Drs Foster/Smith to get some of it. I'll check into the availability of mysis at Petsmart.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Nice job on the frags!

My snails LOVE knocking over the frags! Underwater epoxy works great

As far as other fish, have you thought about another O. clown? A pair would be nice. Otherwise, a 6-line wrasse would be a good choice.

A fire shrimp would be great to add right now. Have you checked out the skunk cleaners too? It's a toss up between which ones I like best, hehe.

A candy cane should be fine (remind us what kind of lighting you have, please) Regardless, LPS corals are generally a medium light coral, so you should be fine. The actinic addition will really make the colors pop.

As for food, I like feeding Mysis and the fish really like it too. I have the San Francisco Bay SW Multipack as well that has squid, emerald entree, brine, and marine cuisine. Out of all of that, the fish like the Mysis the best. I also soak my frozen food in Selcon for some extra added nutrition. I would avoid buying frozen food online, beacuse it costs a LOT to ship it.

Good luck this weekend!

 

[MSU Fan]

for lighting, right now I have 1x65w 10k. I just ordered a 1x14w 10k T5 & 2x14w Act T5 - should be here in a week.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I think you'll definitley be fine with softies and zoos in that tank, maybe LPS too if you keep them higher up.

 

[MSU Fan]

So on Friday we picked up some stuff for the tank - we got some phytoplex to keep the corals happy, as well as GarlicGuard and Saltwater Frozen Multi Pack to feed. For flake food, we have formula 1 (which my o. clown loves ).

We also made two other purchases - one, a peppermint shrimp, which I have acclimated and appears to be doing well (as well as a shrimp can "appear" to be - he has his full color again, but of course he hides under LR all day, and I don't have moonlighting yet...). I am pretty sure we have named him Jacque . My other purchase I am a little upset about.

I am not upset because I made the purchase, I am upset because I didn't research it beforehand. On top of that, the "name" on the tank at the LFS isn't a real name either. That name was confirmed by the owner of that LFS too. He called it a Snyder Weaver Blenny. To be honest, we are not really sure what this guy is. He does appear to be a Blenny or Goby, but I can't even find Snyder, Weaver, and Blenny all in the same sentence on Google! We did a lot of research, and the closest that we could find is the Wheelers Watchman Goby (profile on liveaquaria). Otherwise, I would say he is a cross between a longnose hawkfish and red scooter blenny!

Here's a good pic of him, and I can take more if you need them.

If he is indeed a wheeler watchman, that makes me very happy since that seems to be a hardy goby, and he is eating already (in QT), and has a remarkable personality! We named him Plinko! Otherwise, we may need to return him if we cannot support him . We will do what is necessary. Thanks!

 

[MSU Fan]

Thought I would throw some more pics at y'all. I just took my Fluval 404 off the tank yesterday (we figured it would help cycle our 125g once we got our butts in gear, but now we're gonna sell that tank and get one of a more "manageable" size). We did get a 55g, which I think we are going to use as a sump for the next tank, which may be a 75 or 90g.

We just moved some of the LR around because with the Turbo Flotor pump (which is freakin' huge!), it made our whole tank look screwy. I also glued our frags into the tank (finally), and the stupid turbos haven't knocked the Zoos off since I did it!

We ordered some T5 lighting, which recently came in. Right now, we have a 1x65w 10k, and 2x14w T5 Actinic. There was supposed to be an additional 1x14w 10k, but the stupid ballast broke during shipment. Seriously, avoid Petblvd.com if you can - this is my 2nd broken item during shipment...ok, no more ranting. Let me tell you what, all the corals have gone nuts since I put the actinic on the tank - I swear the GSP, Zoos, and Xenia have gotten bigger since!

As another side benefit, I just negotiated the purchase of a Bak-Pak 2 HOB skimmer, so with the smaller pump I will have some more room in the tank. The current pump is just gigantic!

On to the pics!

Here's a full shot of the tank

Pulsing Xenia

Mushroom

Zoos (still alive - yay!!)

GSP

Elegance!

Feather Duster

Good shot of Plinko (our sandhopper blenny in QT)

Plinko in his house!

Pedro!

 

[Devilishturtles]

Lookin good!

 

[MSU Fan]

Haven't posted in a while since I was letting my tank do its thing and mature. We lost the blenny in QT - not really sure why. The Sg was pretty high (1.028) and he was having trouble breathing, but I am not sure that was the cause. Other than that, we added some new corals to the tank including a hairy mushroom, a candy cane (or trumpet - not sure which), and some acro frags that I won at a local reef club meeting. I don't have nearly the lighting to let the acro color up and flourish, but hopefully I can keep him alive until I am able to get my bigger tank going. I'll be sure to put some pics up tonight of the tank.

EDIT: As promised...

our new hairy mushroom

Some new zoas that are not green!

our new dying acro...

And a full tank shot

 

[Devilishturtles]

Lookin' very nice, MSU. I like that hairy mushroom. Did you decide what to do with the Acro yet? Gonna try gutting off the infected parts? Acros are very hardy when fragged, so cutting the infected areas off might be the only way to save it...

Regardless, tank looks nice, great job!

 

[MSU Fan]

nah - that frag wouldn't have survived very well in my tank anyway since the lighting regimen is so low. Basically, the whole bottom half is RTN'ed, so I am going to toss it.

I am saving my pennies for an upgraded tank. I have a 120, but it's too big for the only wall space it can have, so we are on the prowl for a 75 or 90. I need to post trying to sell that huge tank and get it out of my living room.

If I get a 75g or 90g, I would like to (if I can convince my wife) install a cali (or calfo) overflow in it and drill the back. I may need to have a professional glass place do the work to get my wife to allow it, or drill one of our smaller tanks first...

Thanks on the tank compliment. We're trying. We actually picked up a used bak-pak 2 skimmer for the tank, which is significantly less obtrusive than the turboflotor skimmer we had HOB. Seems to be working well after tweaking and allowing it to breakin in. I also took the fluval off the tank. so now we just have the flow from the skimmer, a penguin 1140, and a AC 801 PH. A more managable 2+ flow rate v. the 45X I had with the fluval and other protein skimmer!

All in all, it's going well. We need some more frags in there to give the tank more color. Of course, we need to put another fish or two in there, but I just had to kill my qt after the blenny died. so it will be another couple of weeks before that is up and running again.

 

[roka64]

I just have to say, NICE!!! I like the ceramic rings on your QT for the beneficial bacteria. Great job!

 

[MSU Fan]

Thanks Roka! Appreciate the comments. I just cleaned the AC20 HOB out after the blenny died, so I am actually going to put the rings/matrix into in again and let it gain the bacteria from the 29g again to start up another QT. I am figuring I will need to leave it on the tank for a couple of weeks, so that will give me time to shop around and research.

Thanks everyone!

 

[roka64]

You can keep your QT constantly up and running by adding a pinch of food twice a week, when you don't have an animal in it. The food will provide the beneficial bacteria a food source.

 

[MSU Fan]

Thanks for the info! Like I said, I am restarting the QT, so I will keep that in mind for when it is up again.