90g RR build

[kdpuffer]

I'm hoping, the white skeleton part was toast. Turned to ooze so I discarded it.

 

[Sniperhank]

Wow, that's brutal that the skeleton liquified.

 

[kdpuffer]

Ya but it seems to be ok now but only time will tell.

 

[kdpuffer]

On another note I found my engineer goby. He wasn't evicted after all, both gobies hang out together. It's odd because if my diamond goby is in the front of the rock my engineer sticks his head out the front door and watches. Diamond goby goes around back and the engineer watches out the back door.

I also took a video update of the tank but YouTube is a pain to upload to via iPhone. I get a call and the upload cancels grrrrrrr.

 

[kdpuffer]

Ok so some new additions today currently acclimating. Went to the store to grab an abalone and got a tang also. Powder brown tang to be precise. I'm sure tang police are likely to jump in and scold me, I know the issues and concerns with tangs so hold your tongues. It's small and I have a happy home for it to move to when it gets to big. This tang is beautiful, was going to get a powder blue but they were 2x the price and from all reports much more sensitive and once I saw this powder brown I liked it more. Pics later after they get acclimated.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well new guys are in, the abalone just looks like the rock and is in a bad spot so no pic but here's the tang. This guy is awesome and not shy either, put him in and he is munching algae and swimming laps with me right there watching him. My fox face was such a chicken he would hide as soon as anyone came near.

 

[erichm20]

Nice pick up man that's a sweet fish!

 

[kdpuffer]

Thanks dude I like it, very colorful the pics don't do justice. The fact that he went right in and was swimming around casually makes me feel better with the whole tang sensitivity issue. Doesn't even dart for cover when I approach, swims right up front showing off.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well it's been a couple days now and so far all is well. My algae issues after the crash have been getting better and better and my new additions are all looking great. The corals are doing well and what was left have continued to recover, exempt my zoas that is. Not sure what their issue is but they are still closed for the most part. The new sps have done well, 1 frag died randomly but the others are looking good. The abalone has been MIA since he was added but I'm not concerned. The tang is doing awesome, so glad I got it. He is happy and healthy so far, adjusted immediately and he is not nearly as skittish as my fox face was. Always out leisurely swimming and grazing.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well it's been a while since I've been on here let alone updated anything so here goes.

I suffered another major crash, this was not my fault this time. The plug on my skimmer collection cup fell out and drained the whole nearly full cup of thick skimmate back into the tank. This crash killed nearly everything, only survivors where my GSP, mushrooms, toadstool and Kenya tree for corals. Only fish to survive was my engineer goby and all my snails and shrimp survived. Since this I've had a huge jump in the pod population and had some algae issues. Now after about a month and a half everything looks good largely due to the abalone I got before the crash. He survived and has been busy. I am gonna be a while before doing any restocking as I want an Xbox one and have a wedding to plan and pay for. When I get the chance though I think I'm going to get a rose bubble tip nem and a pair of clowns, thinking of gold stripe maroons. Then once the nem picks a spot and stays for a while I will start adding coral back into the tank.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well it's the tail end of summer and I haven't added anything let alone done any maintenance. The survivors continue to grow and look good however the red slime was annoying me so I sucked it all out during a roughly 40% water change, It looks so clean again. Hopefully with a good cleaning including the skimmer and new media in the reactors things will improve more. It's been about 4 months since I've touched the tank hoping for things to stabilize some on their own which it appears to have. I also plan on adding some new powerheads, gonna go for broke and get some vortechs. Once the new powerheads are in I will probably start slowly restocking. Still leaning towards a nem and clowns just haven't nailed down which type of clown I want. After some thought I'm leaning away from maroons due them being more aggressive. Probably go with a black and an orange or maybe get some snowflake or Picasso.

 

[erichm20]

Man this tank has been a pain for you! Did you glue on the plug or attach a tube so it doesn't happen again? I've considered just super gluing the plug on lol. Bummer to lose all the sps and LPS... Hopefully you got all the bad luck out of the way now
Show a pic if you get any of those clowns.

 

[kdpuffer]

It's been a lesson in patience that's for sure. I don't plan on using the drain on the skimmer so I superglued a piece of plastic over it so it won't open, if I do decide to use it down the road I can easily drill it back out (very thin plastic). Once I get to restocking I sure will add pics.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well I have the wife on board with me buying new powerheads. Vortech MP40's baby I'm stoked to get this suckers, I want two just for the purpose that I can have wicked flow with two working together. Plus if I do upgrade down the road I don't have to upgrade powerheads again. Only heard good things about them. On other news, things are turning back my way with the tank. After the two crashes and going hands off for a few months its looking good. I did a huge water change last weekend and then threw my old hammer skeleton back in (it had some baby heads on it still when I moved it to my father in laws tank) less than an hour and it was fully opened and looked nice. A week later everything is open and looking healthy and a bonus is that my red slime has vanished completely. I think it's getting to be time to start restocking, fish anyways. I want to hold off on corals as I want things to stabilize further and add a RBTA first and let it settle before adding coral.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well here are some pics I just snapped of things now. You can see what remains of my coral, GSP, toadstool, Kenya tree on the blue stripes mushroom rock, acan and ricordia. The other pic with my clove polyps also features the frogspawn skeleton with the baby heads, they have grown from the size of pinheads to being about 1/2" in the few months they have been in my father inlaws tank. I also threw a FTS in and you can see how clean things are looking now.

 

[kdpuffer]

So I'm not sure if anyone is following this roller coaster ride or not but I have some news. I have a couple vortech mp40 on old for me to pick up Friday which will be awesome. I also have a pair of designer clowns and a rose bubble tip set aside also. Ill try my luck with the nem and hopefully it survives, the tank is doing really well now. I even found some blue clove polyps growing which I haven't seen on the rock in like a year. I'm supposed to get pics of the clowns tonight but from what I've been told they look awesome.

 

[Sniperhank]

Yeah more updates and pics!

 

[kdpuffer]

Ill post pics of the clowns as soon as I get the email tonight. I am stoked to finally get some life in the tank again. My engineer goby doesn't offer much for entertainment other than if I was to play aquatic whack a mole.

 

[erichm20]

Wow I would love to have even one mp40 shoot I'd even take an mp10 lol. Sps are gonna love it in there! That frogspawn will come back in no time. Good to hear about the snowflakes and rbta they'll def add a lot of character. Tank will be looking good again before you know it.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well here are the pics I received of my new livestock. I quite like the markings on the clowns. Not your typical designer breed, very balanced and symmetrical. I especially like the females markings. They also have a pair of snowflakes but I like these markings better plus these clowns are larger and have already figured out to host an anemone. The RBTA is nice also, they have "fancier" ones that I didn't really think were much nicer.