300 gallon "Outside Corner" Reef

[Dary421]

Greg., in your diving experiences have you ever seen any queen triggers in the pacific ?

 

[Gregcoyote]

No, it's a Atlantic fish, but it's range is almost the whole Atlantic. This one was shot in the Caribbean.

 

[Dary421]

This may sound like a bigfoot or ufo sighting ., but years ago at " two step" i came over the top of a pinnacle and saw a rather large triggerfish which saw me about the same time and disappeared over the edge ..,i remember seeing the blue lighting surrounding its eyes and the streak by its mouth., i remember saying " thats a queen trigger".... Im very very familiar with all the local triggers having seen them a million times but had never saw one of these guys before ...i tried to catch up to it but once it went over the edge i lost it.., every time we go back I'm always looking but have never seen him again... Maybe a relocated "pet" ? I don't know., but to this day iill swear to what i saw..., I've always been kind of reluctant to bring it up because of the " sure" you saw one lol... When you showed that picture i just had to comment on it But .., thats my story and I'm sticking with it !!!

 

[Gregcoyote]

This is what I know;

In Hawai'i, there are at least ten different species of triggerfish, all called humuhumu, which means "pieces stitched together", possibly because of the bold color patterns on some of the species. Humuhumu nukunuku apua'a actually refers to two different species of fish, the reef triggerfish and the lagoon triggerfish, which is not as common. Nukunuku apua'a is generally translated as "snout like a pig", due to the shape of the mouth and the grunting sounds they make when harassed. The grunting noise is believed to be caused by certain muscles moving two bones together, and the sound resonates in the fish's swimbladder. This grunting noise may serve to alert other fish of danger.

Reef triggerfish are fairly common on shallow reef flats, but are difficult to approach or photograph. Reef triggerfish are also considered one of the most aggressive triggerfish; they often display aggression towards others of the same species, or other species of the same size. Reef triggerfish are not only found in Hawai'i, but throughout the Indo-Pacific region, off the coast of Africa, and in the Red Sea.


Could it be this one?

 

[mr_X]

Yo...just lost one mouth on that pectinia. BJD. I gave it an iodine dip. Hopefully it will recover. That whole order sucked. I had to frag up an SPS colony as well (RTN).

 

[Gregcoyote]

Yikes! Some frags just don't make it for some reason. It's difficult to find but I like SPS frags that have started a footing out on the plug. They seem to have a better survival rate.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Okay, just setup the Hydra Aquatics reactor that Carey recommended. I bought the biggest one (cause I roll that way) and set it up with a little pump. I am not going to use beads in it, but using high capacity GFO. A whole jar of it goes into the reactor about twice what the BRS system holds. I am at .12ppm, will see how long it takes to get 500 gallons down to .05ppm. The action is very good, the whole column is at a gentle boil. Construction wasn't fancy but very serviceable. So far so good. This is the cost of having fat fish in a tank full of corals.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Oh well. Checkout the lighting.

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/large-aquariums-180g/82879-320-gallon-sps-build-18.html

 

[manbeast]

I will now go weep quietly in a corner

 

[Gregcoyote]

It's never smart to get cocky, it's like the old west, there's always a faster gun than you are. I'm not sure how circulation works with that dense packing, but the guy has enough coral to stock a big LFS.

 

[manbeast]

Just got a glimpse of how far the road ahead really is, only been doing salt about a year and a half so something like that is still a far off dream

 

[Gregcoyote]

It's a far off dream for almost anyone that hasn't got a lot of resources and or time to devote. But really it's just applying the proven methods we all see posted all the time. I wonder if he grew all his corals or purchased some big ones and stocked for this picture. You still see tanks like this at the aquarium shows. Vendors would show up and stock tanks like this with $20k in coral inventory then sell it off at the end of the show. But I have also seen reefs that grew out to look like this and those really impress me because I know how long it took to get there.

 

[manbeast]

I guess it is like anything else, time resources and dedication make the difference

 

[Gregcoyote]

Surveillance camera view of the fish room. The Frankenfish 2014.

 

[manbeast]

If feel like a bull in a china shop in there

 

[Gregcoyote]

Here's the new reactor.

 

[mr_X]

Oh well. Checkout the lighting.

320 Gallon SPS Build - Page 18

Sharp tank!

 

[Gregcoyote]

There is hope...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/the-resilience-of-coral-reefs

 

[Gregcoyote]

After 24 hours Phosphate is now up to 0.16ppm. So far no effect from the GFO.

 

[Sniperhank]

You switched back to gfo and your phosphates are rising?