Zoomonsters 200g Build Continued

[Daniel@R2R]

Speaking of purple tang here is mine a while back

Great pic!

 

[zoomonster]

Finally got a half way decent pic of the male resplendent anthias (tierra). No full fin view but pretty cool. Him and his harem of 3 live in and underneath that rock in background. They have a cave underneath and use passages through the rock.

 

[zoomonster]

Well I went to RAP today. What a zoo it was. The vendors were really packed in tightly and there was way more people than I would have expected. There was some good acro's but way more junk than not. It's like a friend mentioned they are all still riding the chalice, blasto and acan wave and that was a good portion of what people had. Sure there were quite a few Z&P's and a lot of misc stuff. The only acro I bought was something that looks like the pics I have seen of the purple monster but they were calling it a blueberry muffin and it was $20 for a chunky frag from fraghouse corals. I did see a few acro's I liked but either overpriced or sold already. If nothing else I found a good source of reasonably priced Bali maricultures from a place on the outskirts of Orlando I have not hit before. They had some of the best maricultures I have seen anywhere (especially the milli's and a rainbow digitata I have never seen before). I did of course have to visit Jason Fox. Nice stuff but not his best. He did have some homewreckers that I think were a measly $1000. Unique was a little light too because apparently Fedex misplaced a shipment and when it did get there it was mostly DOA. I also took a few minutes to stop by and visit the R2R folks. Sorry but raffle tomorrow or not I'm not going back. Kind of a drive for me with the usual god awful Orlando attraction traffic. No matter pretty much anything I want is no more than a few mouse clicks away.

Anyway aside from that I bought a couple bottles of tisbe and tigger pods which will be hitting the sump tonight. One of the largest vendors there was saltwater connections from Ohio. They had a lot of nice stuff at probably best prices at the show. I grabbed a really nice rainbow medium wellso brain (one I would expect to pay $250+ for) for $75 and two large zoanthid rocks at $35 each. The zoa's were a bit of a crap shoot though. They had two large tanks full of them but they were barely open. I picked what looked like the best two I could find as people were snatching them up. Time will tell on that one but as of now one appears to be mostly orange rim with blue centers and the other hard to tell yet other than very bright orange rims. What probably ticked off a lot of vendors is that they were selling primo red blastos for $45. The same some others were charging $200 for. They also had a pretty nice collection of BTA's, LPS and rock anemones.

As usual even though the wife was rushing me when I got home to take her out to eat everything got handled and in tank. Everything dipped and the zoa's got washed twice and then dipped and treated with furan-2 and a pass of iodine. Being wild colonies they will get closer scrutiny tomorrow for goodies like sundial snails or nudi's.

 

[zoomonster]

I wasn't really in picture taking mode at RAP but I whipped out the cell phone for this one... Genetic manipulation run amok or someones got clowns doing goldfish. If I remember right they were calling them long finned clowns and the pair was something like $900. I think dragon clowns would be a better name. I'll probably have nightmares tonight of freaky flying clownfish

 

[zoomonster]

Just an observation on PH... I run a fuge 24x7 with a bunch of chaeto and some sand and rock. Since I added a 2nd chamber to my Geo 618 CaRx and went to the constant effluent flow method running a higher PH in the reactor I'm liking my PH range a lot more. Keep in mind I also run my ATO through a Aquamedic Kalk stirrer which is the real factor in higher PH.

Now my low at night is about 8.11 with a daily high of 8.29 and an average of 8.19. The fuge light never gets turned off but I left it off overnight after I added the two bottles of pods last night (mostly to fuge but some to main tank behind rock work). My experience in the past has been that the pods are attracted to the light (especially tiggers) so they come to the surface of the fuge and mostly get whisked away into the return. Having the light off allows them to mostly settle. While the fuge has a fairly minimal effect on PH I guess every little bit helps if you tank is dropping into 7's. So with the lights off my low dropped from 8.11 to 8.06. Not a huge amount of difference but something. Without the Kalc and more CO2 coming from CaRx it used to drop into the 7.8-7.9's.

 

[zoomonster]

Some might say the proliferation of my RBTA's is a blessing but it has become more of a pain. Almost two years ago I started with one really nice one from DD that tried to die night one by wandering into a power head. Shortly thereafter the splits started. Yeah in the beginning I was feeding like I usually do but soon after stopped. At one point they had just really gotten out on hand and had started stinging corals. So I finally broke down and completely removed them from one end of the tank and thinned the other. I think I sold 12 over about a month and was down to 7. I was really ready to get rid of all but just couldn't do it. Removal in a tank like this was no easy task but I only damaged the foot of one which later died. Let me tell you... I've been hit by a few anemones in my time but never an RBTA. That one I damaged hit me on my hand like I have never been hit (well maybe once a huge Atlantic was close). I would equate it to multiple yellow jacket stings on my finger. Anyway I am already back to 11 but they are all still in one end of the tank. The largest one actually split into 3, which I have never seen before, but the tiny 3rd didn't make it. I have removed most sps from that end and keep a close eye. Regardless its about time for another cleanup. Can't really tell from the picture but there's none smaller than about 7". I really need to do some rearranging and start placing some new SPS here in the near future.

 

[zoomonster]

Right now all three of my frag racks are pretty much full, not including a few things on the sand, and I have about 55 to deal with. There's a couple dupes of mine, some zoa's, an acan and a chalice but mostly acro's in need of rock real estate. 25 were part of 10 + $100 10 pack assortment + freebies from aquasd. I like the assortment/freebies but we'll see how many are truly keepers. The rest is some stuff from battle corals, reef pets and few from local. Can't complain too much I guess I only lost 3 out of all that and I have had the BC stuff back to the point of my alk crash about 8 months ago. One from BC just disappeared and I tore rock apart looking for it but gone. Guess something picked it up and dropped it in the rock work somewhere. One BC went STN and one from AquaSD that was already encrusting like a weed went RTN in just a matter of a few hours. But on a sour note the three just had to be a spainbow, PC rainbow and one not sure if it was a prostrata or a spathulata. The stuff from reef pets is all alive but took a real beating in shipping. 3/9 still pretty bad and the rest almost there. Out of the two most expensive pieces the american patriot was never phased but the gender predictor is pretty weak.

Just a side note/suggestion... while you can pretty much see how good color and health is there is a method I use to inspect corals for damage. When the lights go out I just use the white led light on my cell phone (flashlight app) to examine acro's. If everything is healthy everything will look brown. If stuff is dead, dying or otherwise damaged by things like AEFW those areas will show up white or much lighter brown. You might be surprised by what you see.

 

[zoomonster]

Oh yeah was going to post this picture of a cali tort I picked up yesterday (now that's what a chunky frag should be). Actually not so sure its not a becker's tort but there are those that will say cali, beckers and miyagi are all the same. This thing has defied having its picture taken and trust me I tried many times. That blue is electric, especially the growth tips and you can see them across the room. Grabbed this, some sort of solid red tabling acro and a 3p rainbow acan. LFS rocks when they have something I want. $40 each at 3 for $100 less club discount so $80. I only ever tried a couple other cheap acan frags but they never have liked this tank. Maybe this time will be the charm.

 

[revhtree]

Looking really good!

 

[zoomonster]

What a weekend it was... Saturday was ok did some tank cleanup and I hit the F.R.A.G. meeting. Today was just the day from hell. First I drove 45 minutes to Winter Park to break the wife out of the hospital. Long wait and eventually I hit a couple of reef shops. Got back and they decided last minute, since they screwed up arrangements, to hold her until tomorrow. Ok no biggie I just left for home. Half way I had a full shred blowout on I-4. No matter 30s later road ranger showed up and no problem he's going to change my tire for me. Well the crank down spare decided to jam half way down and we eventually gave up. So its road side assistance time and I waited over an hour for a dang wrecker who eventually got me home. Worst part was I was getting off next exit to get gas so I was low. It was 90+ degrees and just did make it on gas running the AC until the tow got there.

All in a days misery but I at least kept my goods from Top Shelf from cooking. That place has really improved and upped the game, coral wise, since I was last there probably a year ago. Lot of nice stuff but I squeeked out with just a 2" branching PC Rainbow frag and a little clump of fireworks clove polyps. Although I expect I will be back for frags of at least a couple other things they have. I had a PCR a while back but it was the one of all the stuff I ordered from BC to RTN. Those clove polyps I saw in a tank last night and they are a must have. They will get a nice isolated rock on the sand bed to keep them under control.

 

[zoomonster]

I picked up some Astrea's today to refresh my CUC population a bit and dropped off another trade in RBTA. I have had some periods of aggression but I've been pretty fortunate with fish additions and long term behavior. The usual squabbling but generally everyone gets along. Today though I decided to introduce a fairly small powder blue tang. Good god it was world war III. Funny thing is my regal and purple didn't notice him for a while and it was the angels that went after him first. Even my anthias and some wrasses got in on the action. Up until that point he was good then my purple tang figured out what was going on. Then it got crazy until the powder blue finally went into hiding.

Funny thing is I came back an hour or so later and the powder blue is out and about, eating and not taking any grief off anyone purple tang included. He stood his ground and now everyone is pretty much leaving him alone. Hopefully he won't grow up to be a terrorist like my purple was when I got him.

 

[kschweer]

Great looking tank!! Love the detailed thread too!

 

[revhtree]

Looks great!

 

[zoomonster]

Man these fish, especially tangs, just eat too much. Just got in $120 of food yesterday. I like to feed a variety and got a couple big cans of flake along with a bunch of nori. I'm mentioning this because of the nori. I just got tired of the ridiculous prices LFS charge that runs .80-1.00 a sheet plus tax. That's usually Rod's or Sprungs at $8-10 for 10 sheets that I just figured out are really 1/2 sheets. I had thought about buying some unroasted raw online or maybe from an Asian store but there is generally only one type available i.e. no reds, purples, browns. I think the food stuff is just green. Anyway I bought two 100 packs (purple/green) of Sprungs from marine depot still grumbling that's still .45 a sheet. What I hadn't realized is that those 100 packs are full sheets so equivalent to 200 sheets of whats generally in LFS. So actually I might be sharing some nori being I now have enough for over a year. Now that my purple and regal have gotten pretty large and I added a powder blue (plus the angels eat it) I just needed something more economical. Really trying to feed them more to keep them healthy. I've been having HLLE problems with my yellow belly regal and my once flawless purple (had him 1.5yr +) just started showing signs. Diet has improved and I have eliminated potential causes now its just wait and see. Aside from what I mentioned everyone also eats several other varieties of pellets and some plankton flakes along with frozen mysis and other misc frozen. Frozen is another pain. I buy Hikari 1lb packs of mysis that is supposed to have a MAP price of about $12.88 but everywhere local is much more than that. You really can't save online because of frozen overnight shipping. Something wrong with that when mysis is more than most table shrimp a pound but that's the pet industry for you. Eventually I may just start feeding chopped regular shrimp instead of mysis.

 

[zoomonster]

It's going to be a nice quiet holiday weekend with the wife still racked up and I may actually get some stuff done. Would have been nice to go out on the boat but I was out that way today and the river/lake Monroe looked mobbed as is pretty much anything east or west of me. I stopped by Stormborn and the sale had started yesterday so the fish sale was pretty picked over. I did grab a really nice fat frag of Jason Fox sour twist before I left though for $40.

For all the money in equipment and automation I have dished out to get my tank where I wanted it the one thing always lacking and a PIA has been water change. I've always been one of the infrequent-never water changers but that habit is changing now that I'm mostly Acro and have a mixed tank with a big fish population. Eventually I'll get around to a full auto changer but for today I was looking to make my life simpler. The tank is on an outside wall, with windows behind, and a 44g ATO storage and RODI is outside. I have a second 44g I use for mixing inside and then I pump into the tank. To make life a little simpler I bought another 44g Brute commercial today (Lowes even dropped price on them). I went digging through boxes and dredged up an old Mag 7 for something better than the powerhead I had been using. When I was out I got a smaller 1/2 barbed fitting for it and 25ft of 1/2 hose. Still a little work but I pump in 44g RODI to one can and mix the salt for a while. While the salt is mixing (powerhead) I pump 44g out of the tank to a can outside for equal measure (later drained to underground gutter drain that takes water away from house). Then 44g of salt water gets pumped into the tank via the sump. Somehow or another I must have let my bio load outpace my skimmer and refugium so the plan is to do 44g a week for at least the next 4 weeks and get things back in check. For at least the first 1.75 yrs the tank never read higher than 10 and then spiked upwards of 50 (non colormeter red sea kit sucks with the 20-50 jump). If that does not work out I may consider adding a bio pellet reactor. Interestingly enough I have near zero algae issues and zero hair or bryopsis and my CUC has dwindled down to on the light side. Depending on how well my GFO reactor is running (and how well Hanna reads) my phosphate generally stays in the .03-.07 range. I'm still using reef crystals but I have been using Aquaforest Pro Bio S and NP Pro (along with coral v and coral amino). I've been using it for a while now and starting to smell snake oil. Its impact on Nitrates (or phosphates) has been zero-negligible and I believe I was better off with Vodka dosing or switching to a bio pellet reactor. I used about 1/2 a bottle of each and will finish them out but I don't think I will be replacing them let alone using Aquaforest salt.

 

[zoomonster]

Did a little cleanup yesterday including changing GFO and removing last of carbon. I've been using BRS bulk small particle lignite carbon but no matter how well rinsed and the fact there is a filter sock (usually just a week or so after media change) on the return dust gets in the system. That's evidenced by the black smudges that show up in the skimmer cup. I had also been using a big bag that the skimmer return flowed onto for residual ozone and to quiet the water noise. I'll have to test for residual ozone soon to see if it was even required. I used to use the Thiel drops but not made anymore. I think it was a mistake on my part using the small particle to start with which is also prone to clogging. I'll see how that goes and eventually I may start using pelletized carbon. This was the last possible known link to some HLLE issues I have been having. Well other than the recently elevated nitrates but that happened after the HLLE started and it is being dealt with. The regal may be permanently scared but the Purple that just started showing signs should recover and of course I want to prevent new powder blue from the same fate.

 

[zoomonster]

This lobo has been doing good all along (had more than a year) with the exception of a little receding on one lobe when some rogue mushrooms grew to close to it and must have attacked it. Those were actually some hitchhiker rhodactis that grow like weeds. At first I liked them as a filler being baby blue discs with a touch of green on brown pimples but they are not long for this world. Anyway about the lobo... not sure I ever had a lobo before (other brains though) but I never directly fed and had been told by a LFS they did not need to be fed. It was likely getting some food all along when I occasionally feed plankton at night or scraps from feeding the fish. That was just all wrong. Its done ok w/o direct feeding but after I sprayed it with a little mysis, roe and calanus the thing popped out tentacles in the middle of the day and was an insatiable eater. Tentacles would come out, I would give it food which it promptly swallowed, and in a matter of minutes it would have tentacles out again wanting more. It will be interesting to see how much more growth I can get out of this thing and maybe even more of the vibrant pastel colors.

 

[zoomonster]

Well its time for a freaky fish story. It dawned on me yesterday I have not seen my lawnmower blenny in a couple days and I figured I would do a dreaded overflow check today. Dreaded because I have to use a ladder and lay across the tank in a very awkward position (one foot on ladder, knee on edge of tank , one hand on back rim of tank and other hand with flashlight) while trying to see anything in a black box with five pipes and a myriad of stuff growing in there. That gets 100x worse if I have to try and catch something in there with a net. I had a problem with jumpers and overflow jumpers and thought I had dealt with that so I don't look to often. One of my original 3 Anthias actually did it 3 times in a week when I first added them. Him I was about ready to feed to the cat after those 3 painful net rescues.

Anyway I'm all contorted, face close to overflow trying to see something and I see something weird looking coming straight up towards me and as I start to pull my face back a fish leaps from the water, hits me in the face, bounces off and literally landed in my hand. I look at it all faded out and realize its one of my exquisite wrasses that disappeared and was presumed dead weeks ago and tossed him in the tank where he immediately went into hiding. Other than some loss of color, like a stressed fish, I guess he was getting some food in the overflow (obviously not bristle worms because I saw a couple of the fire variety in the overflow) because he wasn't thin. Anyway 5 minutes later and it was business as usual for him out and about eating like a pig and I expect color to be back shortly.

Now if I could just find the lawnmower blenny. He was all fat, healthy and happy and can't imagine what happened to him unless he got stupid and eaten by an anemone or hurt by a Vortech. Every time I go into feed mode I have to check the Vortech's before turning back on because he is attracted to them like a magnet and eats and hangs out in there. We have had a few tiny power outages and I suppose he could have gotten injured when a Vortech came back on and went off to die.

Although only a tiny gap between glass and top of overflow I guess I need to find some mats and make an overflow cover and finally put an end to overflow fishing. No fish has gotten in there in many months but leave it to a wrasse.

 

[zoomonster]

Ouch its been a scorcher the past couple days. Looks to have just hit 96 but the humidity was sweltering. When the house hit 81 I replaced the allergen filters with some higher flow air filters. As a result the tank hit a high of 82 which I'm not too concerned with but this summer is just starting. When I was out today I found a replacement for my deceased multicolor wrasse (lubbocks). They have had them at LFS but not the color I wanted. They have had a lot of the ones with the little black lines on sides which is not as colorful as the pink, yellow, red, blue version truly multicolor one I found lurking in a tank. Too lazy to take a pic at the moment but the "good" ones look like the picture on LA. If your looking for a peaceful wrasse you really can't beat these for the price which was $25.60 with discount. Even regular price of $32 a steal for these.

Also added another piece of the Aquaforest line with coral builder since I ran out of KZ coral snow. I'm giving it a try but if its little more than coral snow its hardly worth the money at $25 for 50ml considering KZ snow is $19.99 for twice as much (at least at BRS). They list iodides, carbonates, calcium which kz may contain but as usual kz fails to list other than calcium-magnesium carbonate and other specialized compounds. I kind of suspect the AF product is just snow with added iodides and seems to be lacking the magnesium of snow. Of course kz also does not claim it speeds the growth of corals which remains to be seen with AF. Hey if AF does not pan out it looks like it might be forcing kz to get with the program on pricing.

 

[zoomonster]

I have three resplendent females and a male. This is a couple of the females. Can't find a good picture of the male but the females are actually more interesting.

You know its always something. Two of the smallest females suddenly disappeared (Well as I noticed it. Could have been over course of days) and were perfectly healthy. Also suspect a lyretail female I had and one I recently bought also disappeared. I have another small lyretail female that is new also but it hangs out at top of tank. These Tierra's were all cave dwellers and at least the 3 females were always under a rock together when not out. The remaining large female and male are now very skittish. Not on the floor and not in overflow which really leaves two options 1) clowns drove then into anemones 2) giant brown serpent star ate them. I'm leaning towards the star. He always used to come flying out for food and now he doesn't and I suspect he's found a taste for small fish easily trapped in caves. If I can lure him out tomorrow he's gone to pet store. After eating two of my favorite fish he's lucky its not the toilet or the backyard.