Ben's salty puddle
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- Thread starter Ben Treitl
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Ben Treitl
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Picked up some new additions yesterday, a new clam and acro colony.
The Acropora Abrotanoides is intensely colourful. i doubt whether the colour will stay that way with out the use of Zeovit but we'll see over the coming weeks.
The Clam is my 2nd Crocea and 7th to be added. I cant wait to get some shots from above of these guys the colour is amazing.
I also have a White cheek Tang in quarantine. With him are 2 more Kuiters Wrasse, im hoping my trio will allow a female to become a male.
The Acropora Abrotanoides is intensely colourful. i doubt whether the colour will stay that way with out the use of Zeovit but we'll see over the coming weeks.
The Clam is my 2nd Crocea and 7th to be added. I cant wait to get some shots from above of these guys the colour is amazing.
I also have a White cheek Tang in quarantine. With him are 2 more Kuiters Wrasse, im hoping my trio will allow a female to become a male.
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Ben Treitl
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Ben Treitl
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Wow not been updated in 4 month!
So here goes, ill get the problems out the way first.
Bubble algae spread like wild fire, decided action was needed and after 5 emerald crabs did nothing i opted to smite the stuff with a Kalk mix and manual removal. After 3 weeks of intense work im 99% clear and now iv seen the emeralds attcking the hard to reach patchs all is well.
Aiptasia - Sprung up after i had to move my Copperband on due to the Idol being aggressive and suppressing the Copperband at feeding times. I used the same Kalk solution against these as i have the Bubble algae. I have a fish in QT now that may well be more suited to the job and hold its own against the Idol.
My Purple Tang and Powder Blue had to go. Both turned on my Achilles, the Purple was the instigater and being bigger than my Achilles meant the attack as pretty ruthless. My Powder Blue joined in after seeing the Achilles's position compremised. The attack last 10 minutes and if i hadnt been sat watching the tank when it happened i would have been pulled out a dead fish. Luckily although heavily beat i was able to swiftly net and remove the Achilles and he recovered after 24 hrs.
Needless to say i was annoyed and promptly removed and moved on the bullys.
All my fish were extracted at this point as White Spot had reared its head once again. This was the 4th outbreak in 18 months. To date my tank had been fallow 306 days of approx 540 days.
After 80 days in QT and 2 periods of treatment my fish were returned to the display.
New additions included were a Chinese Blue Line Angel which sailed through QT without issue. But my Goldflake Angel wasnt so fortunate and passed away after 4 weeks. Very weak and slim refusing to eat heartily. Very frustrating to watch on in despair.
I also lost my small blue gold combtooth blenny which was upsetting as he was a great character fish and i will look to replace the lil fellow.
My stock now consists of:
Moorish Idol
Majestic Angel
Blue Line Angel
Pair of Kuiters Wrasse (M&F)
In seperation holding tanks:
Regal Angel - Building his strength up as i felt he was too small to go in with the others just yet.
Achilles Tang - Too aggressive to be added at this early stage after a change in stock.
In Quarantine:
a third Kuiters Wrasse, a female to complete my trio after i lost a female previously
Burgess Butterfly
Plans are to try a goldflake again. Iv 3 of one species and 2 pairs of others Wrasse on order. As well as another Butterfly and i think that will see me complete.
Tanks undergone some shufflles of corals to be more accommodating after good growth of several Acros.
Iv added several more Clams. I now have 8 in total:
1 Crocea
1 Squamosa
4 Derasa
2 Maxima
Iv yet to find a Hippo i like and plan to add a few more Crocea amongst my twigs.
Managed to sneak a few softies in to some crevices filling in the gaps around the base of my rock work. Hope i dont regret this. Took a chance on some LPS, a Tongue coral, Fungia or 2, Favia, Duncans, Chalice and even threw some Zoas in there.
Think that brings us upto date. Now for some pictures i guess!
So here goes, ill get the problems out the way first.
Bubble algae spread like wild fire, decided action was needed and after 5 emerald crabs did nothing i opted to smite the stuff with a Kalk mix and manual removal. After 3 weeks of intense work im 99% clear and now iv seen the emeralds attcking the hard to reach patchs all is well.
Aiptasia - Sprung up after i had to move my Copperband on due to the Idol being aggressive and suppressing the Copperband at feeding times. I used the same Kalk solution against these as i have the Bubble algae. I have a fish in QT now that may well be more suited to the job and hold its own against the Idol.
My Purple Tang and Powder Blue had to go. Both turned on my Achilles, the Purple was the instigater and being bigger than my Achilles meant the attack as pretty ruthless. My Powder Blue joined in after seeing the Achilles's position compremised. The attack last 10 minutes and if i hadnt been sat watching the tank when it happened i would have been pulled out a dead fish. Luckily although heavily beat i was able to swiftly net and remove the Achilles and he recovered after 24 hrs.
Needless to say i was annoyed and promptly removed and moved on the bullys.
All my fish were extracted at this point as White Spot had reared its head once again. This was the 4th outbreak in 18 months. To date my tank had been fallow 306 days of approx 540 days.
After 80 days in QT and 2 periods of treatment my fish were returned to the display.
New additions included were a Chinese Blue Line Angel which sailed through QT without issue. But my Goldflake Angel wasnt so fortunate and passed away after 4 weeks. Very weak and slim refusing to eat heartily. Very frustrating to watch on in despair.
I also lost my small blue gold combtooth blenny which was upsetting as he was a great character fish and i will look to replace the lil fellow.
My stock now consists of:
Moorish Idol
Majestic Angel
Blue Line Angel
Pair of Kuiters Wrasse (M&F)
In seperation holding tanks:
Regal Angel - Building his strength up as i felt he was too small to go in with the others just yet.
Achilles Tang - Too aggressive to be added at this early stage after a change in stock.
In Quarantine:
a third Kuiters Wrasse, a female to complete my trio after i lost a female previously
Burgess Butterfly
Plans are to try a goldflake again. Iv 3 of one species and 2 pairs of others Wrasse on order. As well as another Butterfly and i think that will see me complete.
Tanks undergone some shufflles of corals to be more accommodating after good growth of several Acros.
Iv added several more Clams. I now have 8 in total:
1 Crocea
1 Squamosa
4 Derasa
2 Maxima
Iv yet to find a Hippo i like and plan to add a few more Crocea amongst my twigs.
Managed to sneak a few softies in to some crevices filling in the gaps around the base of my rock work. Hope i dont regret this. Took a chance on some LPS, a Tongue coral, Fungia or 2, Favia, Duncans, Chalice and even threw some Zoas in there.
Think that brings us upto date. Now for some pictures i guess!
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Ben Treitl
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Ben Treitl
Community Member
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Ben Treitl
Community Member
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Ben Treitl
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Ben Treitl
Community Member
nervousmonkey
LPS Lover, SPS Enabler
Super nice tank Ben!!! Question: does your wife ever read the forums? Does she know you called her a nagging wife? 
That wouldn't be allowed in my house, or at least I would pay dearly if I accidentally said that out loud.
Love the pictures of the corals looking up with the surface of the water as background. Makes it look like an ocean environment. Very cool look. Congrats on the tank! I'd be interested why after so many tries that the derKroon DFD didn't work. It looks awesome
That wouldn't be allowed in my house, or at least I would pay dearly if I accidentally said that out loud. Love the pictures of the corals looking up with the surface of the water as background. Makes it look like an ocean environment. Very cool look. Congrats on the tank! I'd be interested why after so many tries that the derKroon DFD didn't work. It looks awesome
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Ben Treitl
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f.lloyd.taylor - No chance! If she knew id be in so much ****
Thank you for the kind words. To answer your question i had multiple issues. Plumbing was a nightmare. Id been told by the team at Derkroon to hard line all my fittings which i didnt want to do. Once fitted it was so cumbersome and i had no flexibility, multiple leaks. I ripped it out and installed it my way how id originally planned and this was fine. I could uncouple the links, access the components far easier and had far more flexibility.
BUT.... once installed i just wasnt happy with the output. Running 2x 10'000L pumps upto a max output of 14'000L and the water remained calm. I was expecting far more. I pushed up the limit to 16'000lph, 2'000lph more than Derkroons recommended maximum and still nothing. I was deeply annoyed and frustrated after all the work and effort gone into installing it. In my anger i ripped the lot out.
RobinK - Thank you also. There all from frags apart from 3 colonies i bought along the way.
Thank you for the kind words. To answer your question i had multiple issues. Plumbing was a nightmare. Id been told by the team at Derkroon to hard line all my fittings which i didnt want to do. Once fitted it was so cumbersome and i had no flexibility, multiple leaks. I ripped it out and installed it my way how id originally planned and this was fine. I could uncouple the links, access the components far easier and had far more flexibility.
BUT.... once installed i just wasnt happy with the output. Running 2x 10'000L pumps upto a max output of 14'000L and the water remained calm. I was expecting far more. I pushed up the limit to 16'000lph, 2'000lph more than Derkroons recommended maximum and still nothing. I was deeply annoyed and frustrated after all the work and effort gone into installing it. In my anger i ripped the lot out.
RobinK - Thank you also. There all from frags apart from 3 colonies i bought along the way.
Spectacular, love the colors and super healthy coral. Great rockscape. Beautiful
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Ben Treitl
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