75 Gallon Build - Part 2

[Rutrag]

I hadn't updated my original build thread in quite a while, and the forum won't let me add to it becasue it's so old. You can find the beginnings here if you care to read it:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/75-gallon-build-174883.html

Lots of bad news between my last post and now. Either the royal gramma or the exquisite wrasse brought in a case of ich and I lost everything except for the blue sided wrasse, the ochre-striped cardinal and the foxface. That was somewhere around July 17. I had pulled everyone back to a 10 gallon quarantine, but the clown succumbed. While I let the display go fallow, I had to travel on business and I think the foxface just starved while I was gone. The wrasse and the cardinal went back into the display around August 24.

At some point I lost my umbrella polyp for reasons unknown. It seems like it puked its guts out and then disappeared.

My yellow polyps also vanished. I have two polyps left that moved off of the original rock still with me.

I went on vacation from August 25 through September 2. I think I knocked the lights of the timer the night before leaving, and I only realized my error the afternoon of September 3. My birdsnest bleached out completely. Some polyps were still alive, but they were snow white. The colony died within another week. The forest fire montipora also bleached, but not quite as bad. It's still hanging on - barely. My pink zoas, Green Bay Packer zoas, and eagle eyes lost a lot of color, but I think they are going to be okay. The LPS and mushrooms pulled through just fine. On a more positive note, this solved my cyano / dino problem.

So I (who should have known better) have learned my lesson the hard way about quarantining fish. Each new fish spends at least 14 days in quarantine from now on.

I've begun to restock. Here are shots of some of my newer arrivals:
Melanarus wrasse:

A pair of Ocellaris clowns

A new acan frag

Green cap monti

Green elkhorn

Green birdsnest (this variety looks a little different from the other I had):

Blue birdsnest (what remains of the forest fire montipora are in the foreground):

Some pink xenia (you can see some of my first acan coloy on the right):

I moved this deresa clam from my 37 becasue I bought a carpet anemone I was afraid would sting it:

I think this is blue tip staghorn. I forgot to ask what exactly it was when I bought it:

 

[Rutrag]

Here's some new zoas / palys sold to me as "blue magician Palythoas" from Pacific East Aquaculture.

The pic is really zoomed in. These things are tiny!

 

[Rutrag]

I didn't get the chance to take any photos, but I added a tomini tang yesterday that had been in quarantine yesterday. I was worried about him being in a small QT, but he did get pretty used to me and was eating like a horse when introduced.

On the down side, my ATO went on the fritz. It's not the pump, so I'm guessing it's the relay or relay block. I haven't decided if I'm going to try and repair or just replace.

 

[Rutrag]

Here is the Tomini Tang:

A couple of other new additions from Friday -

A Midas blenny my daughter named Noodle:

A foxface my daughter named Sunny:

My blue sided fairy wrasse managed to jump out and I found him on top of the glass too late.

Something happened to my blue birdsnest coral and almost all the polyps died out to a skeleton. There is still some tissue left at the tips.

I forgot to get a pic, but I also traded a rather large and unwieldy piece of live rock for a frag of orange bam bam zoas.

I have ordered, but not yet received a new overflow box. I've decided I don't like the Marineland SOS overflow boxes as the one regularly loses siphon and I can't adjust them for water level. I've got the Eshopps PF-1000 on the way, and hopefully it will come before my vacation this week is over and I'll install it with PVC as opposed to flex hose.

The local reef club is doing a group buy from Live Aquaria and I have 3 blue reef chromis coming as well. They'll have to go through quarantine for a couple of weeks once they arrive though.

I've been eyeing a couple of wrasses at the local PetCo as well. They have a femal flame wrasse the color of a creamsicle and another wrasse they've had for a few weeks labelled as an exquisite wrasse. It's definitely a fairy wrasse, but the coloration doesn't look like the exquisite. I'm wondering if it might be a female or in juvenile coloration or something. It's mostly a reddish pick with a geenish cast to it and a white patch on the upper lip.

 

[Rutrag]

Well, Sunny the foxface died early on the morning of New Year's Eve. He didn't really show himself on the 30th much, and didn't come out to eat, although I did see him. I went to bed late, and he was alive, but just being pushed around the tank by the current. I caught him and placed him in a dip and pour, with the hope that I could move him to QT in thre morning. I'd have done it that night, but the QT is in the bedroom, and my wife was already asleep.

On a better note, I did receive the new overflow and installed it on New Year's Day. It looks a lot nicer and I'm sure will maintain siphon a lot better than the old ones. I also hard plumbed them (with unions) to the sump. It looks a WHOLE lot cleaner down there now and will actually be easier to empty and clean the skimmer. On the down side, there was a small piece of styrofoam between the bulkhead gasket and overflow body that created a small leak. Once I realized the problem, it was easily solved. Also, the new overflow is LOUD. I've made a pair of Durso standpipes, but only one will fit at a time. I found plans to make a compact Durso, so I tried to modify the already cut and glued one, which didn't go too well as my cuts weren't straight and left a gap. I installed anyway, and they do help qute a bit. I'm going to get some new tees and elbows and try again.

I also received the 3 blue reef chromis. One died in the bag, and another died two days after going into QT. After the 14 days are up, the group may try to do another group buy with the redits under warranty.

 

[Rutrag]

The green and blue birdsnest corals receded and died. I thought somehting might have been eating them, but I never saw any pests.

I got two replacement blue reef chromis about two weeks after my last post. I put them in the DT two weeks after that. The original remaining blue reef chromis didn't like them much and chased them, but did no real damage.

I had a plumbing leak at a bulkhead while I was out of town. I lost I think about 5 gallons of water. The leak was at a bulkhead, which I ended up over tightening and snapping the bulkhead. I've replaced the bulkhead and union, and the leak is solved.

The original blue reef chromis died on February 22. He went into hiding and wouldn't come out to eat.

My ochre-striped cardinal died on the 23rd. He seemed to go through a slow wasting away. I had him 14 months to the day. I'm a little concerend my Midas blenny isn't getting enough to eat either. He eats well at feeding time, but seems to not be as full. I'm trying to almost deliberately overfeed to plump him up.

I went through a bout with cyano, despite a GFO reactor and no detectable phosphates (Hanna checker) or nitrates. I used some UltraLife Red Slime Remover and that wiped it out.

I've added a Carpenter's wrasse on March 1. He's gone through QT and has been pretty shy since gong in the DT. I added a fire shrimp on March 2. My first one disappeared. I figure he molted and someone ate him or he just had a rough molt. the new one is much larger. I also added a couple SPS - some kind of acro and a montipora.

Corals seem to be doing well, but my last calcium test showed it had dipped pretty low (300 ppm) despite kalkwasser adde through the ATO.

I'm going to hard plumb my return lines in the near future. I have some new PVC and have ordered Loc Line replace my DIY spraybar.

 

[Rutrag]

The Carpenter's wrasse is still hiding out. I see him darting around the rockwork at feeding time.

Over the weekend I did some upgrading. I hard plumbed my return lines and added Loc Line to the returns and removed my spraybar. I also ditched my glass covers in favor of some DIY screen tops. It's a lot cleaner looking now.

I also picked up what I believe is a Labout's fairy wrasse from Petco. He came in as an assorted fairy wrasse, so I scored him for $20 and had a $5 coupon. The manager knew what he was and commented that I got the deal of the day since that was usually about a $50 fish. Even better than that - Live Aquaria lists them at $150.

On the down side, when I go tback home from a week of travelling Thursday night, one of my two remaining blue chromis was in his death throes.

I'm also concerned about my skunk cleaner shrimp. I haven't seen him all day today. I saw a couple parts of what looked like a molt, so hopefully he's just hiding in the rock somewhere. He was out an about around 10pm last night.

 

[Rutrag]

I forgot to add, I also switched out two bulbs. I removed an Aquatic Life purple and a blue, and added an ATI Purple Plus and a Blue Plus. The purple is really great and bringing out hte colors in some of the corals. (I promise I'll add some pictures soon.)

 

[Rutrag]

Pictures as promised. . .

Fire Shrimp

Group Shot

Deresa Clam

Acans

Fire shrimp mackin'

 

[Rutrag]

Green monti cap

Favia, snake polyps, and peppermint shrimp

Skunk cleaner shrimp

Chalice coral with Midas blenny. I think the blenny has an internal parasite. I can't seem to fatten him up. (He does eat.)

 

[Rutrag]

Some of the tank improvements. . .

 

[Rutrag]

Orange bam bams

Acropora

Blue reef chromis

Montipora

Long tentacle anemone

 

[redsea]

I will be following along! Nice pictures by the way!

If you wanted to continue to use your old thread, I believe all you have to do is check the little box underneath the quick reply box that says that you acknowledge that the thread is dated.

Sorry for that run-on sentence!

 

[Rutrag]

Full tank shot

The Labout's (?) wrasse in QT (sorry about the fuzziness, he's fast)

I can't get a pic of my Carpenter's wrasse. He pretty much just shows himself when he darts out of the rock to get food.

I also made a video of my blue porcelain crab:

 

[redsea]

Nice creatures you have there, your Wrasse looks great too!

 

[Ericwm]

Great choice on the live stock. That is pretty much what I want in my 90. Midas blennies are the best.

 

[Rutrag]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I did learn today that what I thought might be a Labout's wrasse is a Lubbock's wrasse. The species is apparently highly variable based on the pictures I found online. He'll be going into the display today.

My last blue reef chromis died yesterday. All of them went the same way. They slowed down and became lethargic and hid, but would still eat a little. Once they reached that point, they died the next day. I have to doubt parasites, as all of them went through a two week quarantine with copper. The only aggression I witnessed was between the three of them (then two, then one by himself). Not sure where I went wrong.

The Midas blenny is somehow still hanging on, but definitely isn't eating with gusto. I've started feeding a frozen food with metro added in an effort to worm him if it's internal parasites.

 

[Ericwm]

What are you feeding your blenny? Mine is a pig. He eats mysid, small pellets, flake and nori sheets.

 

[Rutrag]

I feed mega One flakes, New Life Spectrum pellets, Emerald Entree, Prime Reef, mysis shrimp, LRS Reef Frenzy and nori. The Reef Frenzy is what I added the Metro to. He p[icks at stuff, but deosn't seem to really swallow much.

I think I'm going to try and trap him today to move him to quarantine. Maybe if he's by himself he'll eat at his pace and I can get him fattened back up. No one really picks on him, but my melanarus wrasse might be intimidating him. (The melanarus eats like an absolute pig. He'll pick at the nori almost violently.)

I can't get my Carpenter's wrasse to come out almost at all. I see flashes of him around the rocks sometimes at feeding, but that's it.

 

[Beengirl]

I feed mega One flakes, New Life Spectrum pellets, Emerald Entree, Prime Reef, mysis shrimp, LRS Reef Frenzy and nori. The Reef Frenzy is what I added the Metro to. He p[icks at stuff, but deosn't seem to really swallow much.

I think I'm going to try and trap him today to move him to quarantine. Maybe if he's by himself he'll eat at his pace and I can get him fattened back up. No one really picks on him, but my melanarus wrasse might be intimidating him. (The melanarus eats like an absolute pig. He'll pick at the nori almost violently.)

I can't get my Carpenter's wrasse to come out almost at all. I see flashes of him around the rocks sometimes at feeding, but that's it.

Sorry to hear about your fish troubles. I vary my blenny's diet too, but one thing that my blenny loves-and I know most SW people don't feed this to their fish-is bloodworms. I give them to him periodically as a treat and he swims right up to the turkey Baster and sucks them right out of it. He loves those things! Sorry to hear about the carpenter hiding too. Mine was always out front with the clown, didn't really hide much, so I have to advice to offer. Just hope he comes out of hiding soon.