Dawn's natural nutrient reef garden

[vlangel]

I hope everyone calms down for you. Fish aggression is the worst.

Thank you twentyleagues. I agree. My fish are generally long lived and my tank is not very big. That is a recipe for aggression. I hold off adding fish because I hate dealing with aggression but when I do add fish, I do it in multiples, (which is why I added 5 fish at once). Here's hoping for the best.

 

[vlangel]

I have some positive things to report! Most of the aggression is lessening. The ocellaris has quit harassing the firefish gobies completely and the tomini is not as focused on the wrasse. I did pack a back corner of the tank with a lot of macroalgae to favor the wrasse 's more stream line body to give it a refuge. This particular wrasse does not seem like a shrinking violet either which helps.

The second positive update is that my nitrates are now close to or at 10 ppm. I plan to stop dosing for a week and test again to see if it's the addition of fish that is helping or the addition of fish plus dosing nitrates. I will let you know.

So all in all I am very pleased with how things are going. I will post a pic that I took yesterday of 3 of the new fish. Its hard to capture all 5 at once!

 

[vlangel]

Well so much for positive news! On Friday Tommy the tomini chased the new fairy wrasse relentlessly. The one and only other time he acted like that he chased Marmalade an orange spot blenny to death. I was not going to let that happen again so I tore the tank a part but I caught Tommy. He is in a 10 gallon awaiting to be rehomed to a friend's system where I know that he will get good care. So, it's sad but not tragic.
The good news is that everyone in the display tank are co-existing nicely! And I was able to put the rockwork back together pretty much the way it was.

 

[twentyleagues]

Well so much for positive news! On Friday Tommy the tomini chased the new fairy wrasse relentlessly. The one and only other time he acted like that he chased Marmalade an orange spot blenny to death. I was not going to let that happen again so I tore the tank a part but I caught Tommy. He is in a 10 gallon awaiting to be rehomed to a friend's system where I know that he will get good care. So, it's sad but not tragic.
The good news is that everyone in the display tank are co-existing nicely! And I was able to put the rockwork back together pretty much the way it was.

That is unfortunate. But glad you were able to get it in hand. Tangs

 

[vlangel]

That is unfortunate. But glad you were able to get it in hand. Tangs

Yep, he is my last ever tang (at least in this tank). He really should have been in a bigger tank so he is moving to quite an upgrade! I will definitely miss him however.

 

[twentyleagues]

My Tang can be a jerk sometimes too. I dont know if its the tank size or hes just a jerk. I tried to add a midas blenny had to fish it out and take it back Tang wouldnt leave it alone. He gets a bug up his butt every once in a while and will chase the scissortails or the wrasse no damage just wants it to be known hes the boss, I think. Hoping when I get the 180 up he chills a bit. Plan to add a few other fish before I move him over so maybe that will help.

 

[vlangel]

My Tang can be a jerk sometimes too. I dont know if its the tank size or hes just a jerk. I tried to add a midas blenny had to fish it out and take it back Tang wouldnt leave it alone. He gets a bug up his butt every once in a while and will chase the scissortails or the wrasse no damage just wants it to be known hes the boss, I think. Hoping when I get the 180 up he chills a bit. Plan to add a few other fish before I move him over so maybe that will help.

Hopefully getting a bigger tank does help but putting in his current tank mates and some other fish in before him should definitely help. Unfortunately, there are never any guarentees.

 

[vlangel]

When I was trying to catch the tomini tang, I banged up a lot of the aquascape and especially the aqua trumpets on the seahorse statue. A positive effect was the nem in the trumpets was able to be removed but I did have to relocate the trumpets. They are still on the statue but not on its back anymorebut on its head. There are now some frags on the sandbed too. Amazingly, everything weathered the rough treatment pretty well.

 

[vlangel]

Well, Tommy the tomini is at his new home and he should be very happy there. Peace and tranquility has once again settled over my tank so I am happy too.

 

[twentyleagues]

Wishing Tommy and you well. Glad the peace has been restored.

 

[vlangel]

Since my last post craziness happened in our lives. My mom was found unresponsive Nov 14th and passed away the 19th. She lives an hour and a half from us and had 4 BIG barn dogs. We were able to get the young shepherd to a rescue and our vet graciously took the very old lab since it needed more care than we were able to provide. We still have a 170 lb Great Dane and a Rottweiler mix which we built a fence for and set up our tractor shed to accommodate. Of course there is still my mom's affairs to settle and the distance makes it challenging. I am very glad that my reef is so easy and does not require a lot of attention. I would appreciate any prayers as we walk through this sad, hectic time.

 

[twentyleagues]

Since my last post craziness happened in our lives. My mom was found unresponsive Nov 14th and passed away the 19th. She lives an hour and a half from us and had 4 BIG barn dogs. We were able to get the young shepherd to a rescue and our vet graciously took the very old lab since it needed more care than we were able to provide. We still have a 170 lb Great Dane and a Rottweiler mix which we built a fence for and set up our tractor shed to accommodate. Of course there is still my mom's affairs to settle and the distance makes it challenging. I am very glad that my reef is so easy and does not require a lot of attention. I would appreciate any prayers as we walk through this sad, hectic time.

Very sorry to hear. I wish you and yours luck and happiness going forward.

I moved my mom from Colorado to live with me about a year and a half ago. After about 8 months her health took a turn for the worse. Shes still with me but I often think what may have happened if she was still out there alone. She is pretty much unable to go any where at least without help but even with help its a nightmare. When I got divorced 5 years ago she was going to move here but kept putting it off as she didnt want to retire yet. Her company has had her working from home since covid and they finally relented and let her move and keep working. She still works everyday, which is good for her I think as we both would be off the rails crazy if she didnt.

 

[vlangel]

Very sorry to hear. I wish you and yours luck and happiness going forward.

I moved my mom from Colorado to live with me about a year and a half ago. After about 8 months her health took a turn for the worse. Shes still with me but I often think what may have happened if she was still out there alone. She is pretty much unable to go any where at least without help but even with help its a nightmare. When I got divorced 5 years ago she was going to move here but kept putting it off as she didnt want to retire yet. Her company has had her working from home since covid and they finally relented and let her move and keep working. She still works everyday, which is good for her I think as we both would be off the rails crazy if she didnt.

Aw, it sounds like you have your share of craziness too. My sister and I tried to get our mom to move closer but she wasn't ready yet, so she rented out the house that she was supposed to live in. We admired her spunk but she wasn't always realistic about her health. :-(

I am glad that you and your mom have found a workable solution, at least one that stops a tragedy like my mom from happening to your mom. God bless you for looking after your mom! Aging parents are not easy.

May you and yours have a Merry Christmas too.

 

[vlangel]

We are down to just our 2 dogs. When we took the Dane and the Rotti mix to the vet for check ups we found that the Dane had some significant health issues that were not remediable. The Rotti mix on the other hand had very treatable conditions and she will also be fostered/adopted out which is the best scenario for her. With our many needed trips to OH to deal with the estate (3hrs round trip) we are crunched on time to spend with any of the pets. The Dane now being the only outside dog was very lonely and with his health issues and pain, we made the very hard decision to have him put to sleep. It seemed better to do it now before he got in a lot more pain or the cancer caused major problems.

We then focussed on the estate itself and filling the 40yd dumpster we rented. That was rigorous to do in 2 weeks but we got it done and the dumpster was hauled away yesterday. We will probably focus on burnable items and scrap metal items now and then will begin deep cleaning so the saleable items can be ready for auction. All this to say that the reef has gotten very little attention in the past month! I had added some spectrum pellets to the auto flake feeder and the good news is that the nitrates are no longer bottomed out, they zoomed up to 50 ppm, ha ha! I am not panicking as things don't look bad, in fact the coral look great. I am getting more hair algae than I have ever had but I did a big clean and removed a lot for now. I also pruned the macroalgae which stirred up a ton of detritus. I blew that into the water colunm and this morning the tank is clear. It always looks a bit beat up when I prune macros but usually recovers quickly. I am hoping by New Years the display looks its usual.

I will say that all 5 fish I added are flourishing. Even the fairy wrasse is fat and sleek. Everyone gets a long and there are no aggressors. I love having so many fish and the activity it brings to the display. So all is great considering the neglect the tank has suffered.

 

[jabberwock]

Well so much for positive news! On Friday Tommy the tomini chased the new fairy wrasse relentlessly. The one and only other time he acted like that he chased Marmalade an orange spot blenny to death. I was not going to let that happen again so I tore the tank a part but I caught Tommy. He is in a 10 gallon awaiting to be rehomed to a friend's system where I know that he will get good care. So, it's sad but not tragic.
The good news is that everyone in the display tank are co-existing nicely! And I was able to put the rockwork back together pretty much the way it was.

Did you plan for your rockwork to be dismantlable?

 

[vlangel]

Did you plan for your rockwork to be dismantlable?

A lot of my rockwork is puttied together in bigger pieces that are sort of modularly put together. When I take it apart, I can generally get it back together in a similar manner. That being said, I try every other option at my disposal before dismantling the rock. Corals often adhere to the separate pieces of rock and I hate ripping them a part. I hate the detritus that is stirred up but in the end it clears up so one does what one has to, LOL.

 

[jabberwock]

A lot of my rockwork is puttied together in bigger pieces that are sort of modularly put together. When I take it apart, I can generally get it back together in a similar manner. That being said, I try every other option at my disposal before dismantling the rock. Corals often adhere to the separate pieces of rock and I hate ripping them a part. I hate the detritus that is stirred up but in the end it clears up so one does what one has to, LOL.

I think this is an often overlooked strategy. People want to make the "aquascape" one giant structure.