Benjamin's 75g Garage Build (FOWLR to Reef)

[mrbee2828]

I also order a bunch of fish last night that will be in tomorrow. First up, I got 2 female/orange Pseudanthias squammipnnis and 1 male red Pseudanthias squammipnnis. I was inspired by Adrian's tank over at reef-central earlier this year on his build thread. Reefkeeping Magazine - March 2012 Tank of the Month (Amfynn)

I also ordered 2 Wheeleri Orange Spot Goby (Amblyeleotris wheeleri). My 2nd diamond watchmen died over the weekend. I found his skeleton covered in crabs Sunday. I'm not sure if he was pinned and killed or died for other reasons. I may try a 3rd down the road but I decided to go with something more colorful this time.

Last up I got 2 more green chromis (Chromis virdis) and a hawaiian feather duster.

In other news, the RBTA clones are doing great, fully healed and eating. All the other fish are doing great.. fire fish, mandarin goby, clowns etc. I also picked up an orange/red monti cap frag from a buddy as well a pink pulsing xenia frag which I don't remember if I posted. Pictures to come later this week. I'm beyond excited

 

[mrbee2828]

I just checked up on the chiller.... it's off @80°. Took about 30mins to bring it down from 82.5 when I hooked it up. It's about 83° in the garage right now.

 

[Mpfaff77]

About the diamond goby. Between me and a buddy we have lost 5 over last 6 years in the hobby together. It seems they don't sustain well at all. We have tried all different sizes and they all ate frozen. We have now sworn to stay away from them. Longest lasting was 6 months.

I now have a tiger watchman goby. He is fat and healthy although not as social as diamond and tiger goby is very skiddish. He doesn't sift whole tank since he doesn't venture out of burrow far at all. But I still would recommend the tiger watchman over the diamond goby.

Ps. I have had tiger goby about year.

 

[mrbee2828]

Some weekend updates. Aside from the chiller doing it's job, things aren't appearing to be going well. I lost a lot of the fish I picked up Thursday. First off, I got 3 Anthias, 1 male and 2 females. 1 of the 2 females was just about DOA even before I got to acclimating it. It never made it out of the bucket that night. The other female appeared to have a mark or scratch of some sort and it died on Sunday. The male went into hiding as soon as it was in the tank and I haven't seen it since. While I found the female's remains, the male is still MIA. I have also lost 2 of the 5 small green chromis I got. I never found remains, they are just MIA. I also lost 1 of the 2 feather dusters I picked up, the purple one. It was very extended on Saturday morning (from the tube) and was being picked apart Sunday by crabs.

I'm pretty bummed but will keep pressing on. All my corals and RBTAs are doing well so I guess that's something.

 

[spoonman]

About the diamond goby. Between me and a buddy we have lost 5 over last 6 years in the hobby together. It seems they don't sustain well at all. We have tried all different sizes and they all ate frozen. We have now sworn to stay away from them. Longest lasting was 6 months.

I now have a tiger watchman goby. He is fat and healthy although not as social as diamond and tiger goby is very skiddish. He doesn't sift whole tank since he doesn't venture out of burrow far at all. But I still would recommend the tiger watchman over the diamond goby.

Ps. I have had tiger goby about year.

I have the same goby in my 29 gallon reef and he is out front all the time and constantly sifting. Mine was sold as a Wardi Goby. Same fish though. Have had him about a month.

 

[mrbee2828]

A quick Monday morning update. For those of you who I didn't chat with at Sunday's meeting, I have been losing fish left and right. My water is perfect and most of the fish are eating well, lively and all the other inhabitants are as well. The death toll includes all 3 anthias, 4 small chromis, the hawaiian feather duster and the diamond watchman. I have also spotted 2 hermits that just seam to have been pulled from their shells and shredded. Well, while feeding Friday I saw my sally light foot pop out of nowhere like a ninja and snag the tail of a chromis. I couldn't believe how fast it was and how big he's gotten.

I'm pretty sure he has been the cause of all the deaths as all of those fish sleep within the rocks at night and are probably getting cornered and "murdered" lol. So, after some beer and chicken I set a trap for the little bastard and woke up to a pleasant surprise. See yah' in the sump sucka'!!!!!

 

[NyteGTI]

haha nice trap. sorry abotu the loss of the fish though

 

[mrbee2828]

I'm getting ready to go on vacation for a week so I wanted to drop some crazy updates. First off, I lost my dragonet already. I found him in my powerhead of all places. This is pretty strange as he has been eating well (fat little turd). Now... if I go look in the tank at night he is the craziest looking thing and I always think he's dead. He turns white and doesn't move at all while asleep. The next morning he colors up and is very active. My thought is that he fell asleep toward the top of the rock structure and got swept into the current of the powerhead. Should I turn off the power heads at night?

Next update, I bought a complete 125g setup from someone locally. My intention is to part most everything out. I kept a ton of frags and now have a hippo, yellow tang, coral beauty angel and a bangi cardinal in the 75g.

In addition, I have another hippo, a snowflake eel, a true perc and some damsels in QT. If anyone is interested in them, let me know. I doubt shipping is worth it. I also have a ton of live rock in buckets.

Last up, I bought another 40g tank which is going to be a frag tank. I decided I like my work bench and that the 75g sized footprint frag tank I have is going to be too big. I'm planning on plumbing that in parallel to my sump and drilling both to hook them together sometime this summer.

I think I have the 125g system sold already but it's not even close to 100%. The rest of the stuff is going to friends and what not. Pictures coming soon.. I have a super insane mess.

 

[mrbee2828]

Here are some updates since vacation. Everyone seems to be doing well. I lost one head of the torch coral. I'm blaming the angel vs the water I've got 1 of the hippos FS on a local reef forum and I have a ton of other stuff I need to unload as well. Rock, 125g, stand, light and some stock.

 

[Hondatek]

Glad to hear everything is doing well. Can you pm some info on the light your selling?

 

[mrbee2828]

To avoid additional inquiries, it's a 4 bulb 6' odyssea t5 for the 125g. I'd like sell it with the tank as it's not worth much. It's old and I think the moonlights are finished on it.

 

[mrbee2828]

125, stand and lights are sold thanks everyone.

 

[mrbee2828]

I got a small sleeper gold head goby but I haven't been able to get a photo of him. He hasn't come out much when I have been around.

 

[mrbee2828]

My newest addition to the tank a blue dot jawfish. He's digging like crazy right now and seems to be adjusting well. Hopefully I won't lose anymore lower level fish with the sally light foot out of tank. The second picture is a terrible zoom but he's very shy at the moment. If I get too close he ducks under the rock.

 

[kdpuffer]

Wow he looks sweet!!!!!!

 

[mrbee2828]

Thanks! He's pretty small and these pictures are doing his color zero credit. I hope to have some better ones when he's comfortable in the tank.

 

[kdpuffer]

Looks sweet, I used to have a black cap and he creeped me out but after seeing your blue spot I am considering one. I just don't want to build a cover for my tank and that's what happened to my jawfish, he jumped into the overflow on my old biocube

 

[mrbee2828]

I took some time the other week to get all the frags off their plugs and mount what I could. Things are cleaned up now and looking better. Not really any changes recently. THe jawfish is doing great.

 

[mrbee2828]

No real updates but I wanted to make sure this thread didn't get closed. Everyone is doing well.

 

[spoonman]

Tank looks great, man!!!