Thank you. This is a different layout for me. I'm used to more height to work with so using the depth is interesting. I'm hoping to start taking more top-down shots as things grow and change.

Thanks for the title comment as well. Pretty much just the first thing I thought of LoL. Basically the same idea as the first two titles.

Bill

So the thing that sucks about Berghias is that as they root out Aip's they do it from inside the rockwork. They eat Aip's from the base up and ferret the smaller ones out first generally. So as they do this the larger Aip's leave their little rock clusters and attempt to flee. They'll get eaten eventually but in the meantime I've got Aip's travelling around my tank and it looks terrible. I definitely liked that about the filefish. He just slurped them up like spaghetti. Then again, he couldn't get to all of the little runts in the cracks of the LR and they came back after he was moved out. He also picked a bit when his supply of Aip's got lower. It wasn't terrible but I could tell it was happening at the end. It's a trade I guess. Have to get rid of the pests so have to deal with the quirks of the cure.

Bill

Decided to see if I could get some fish shots in the new tank. I only run the T5's two bulbs a night. I rotate which two bulbs are on each night and then when I'm off I'll run all four bulbs for a bit for the full effect.
New pistol shrimp.




Azure damsel that came with the tank.


Firefish were out and about mugging for the camera a bit.






I like taking pictures of the fish but it is definitely hard. Some of my crew will just chill out in front of the camera but stuff like the damsel just never stops moving.

Bill

So once again I am hosting a summer meeting for JARC (Joliet Area Reef Club). It's tomorrow at 1PM at the Coal City Area Club. I know many of you are scattered across the county and even around the globe but if you're anywhere near the south side of Chicago and want to come grill out you are more than welcome. I think I've mentioned it here before but I was fortunate enough to be elected President of the club in our last elections so it's pretty important to me. Just wanted to share the info about the BBQ with all of the N-R folks out there. Might be some of you that are local that I don't know yet.

Bill

New corals are in the works! A few new pieces are on the way to this tank. I'll get pictures up when they arrive and I find a place for all of them. Nothing really major to report at the moment. Berghias continue to munch down the Aip population and most all of the corals look to be doing well in the new system. Should be fun to place the new pieces when they get here.

Bill

Looking forward to seeing the new additions Bill!

Me too! Looks like things will get shipped out Monday.


On a side note, I'm running for President of my local reef club again this year so wish me luck!

Bill

I have been re-elected President of my local reef club for the coming year! Just checked the site and was happy to see the results. Should be a good time and I'm looking forward to it.

Bill

Congrats!
I liked the recent Fish and Shrimp pics.
Can't wait to see pics of the new additions!

Thank you. Yeah, I like taking the critter pics now that I listened to Gary Parr talk at a swap. He had some really kewl things to say about the different types of pics and settings for reef tanks. I would really love to get some photo software and try out the image stacking that he shows in his presentations. I think it looks really neat when it's finished.

USPS says the package has processed a sort facility two towns over and is out for delivery now. Should be any time now.

Bill

Everything is here and looks great! My lights are on a reverse schedule because I work nights so pics will have to wait until later.

Bill

So I managed a few pics tonight. Only one is of the new frags of course. This angled tank thing is making pic taking quite difficult once I place pieces. I never think about taking pictures of the coral when I'm putting it in the tank. I also moved the koralia over to the left side of the tank near the overflow. I think it makes the tank look cleaner. Had to move a rock and the brain coral in order to account for the changed flow so I need to get a new FTS up and show the changes. Someday I'll break down and buy an MP20 for the sleek footprint. I don't think I'd need anything more powerful than that in this tank. I've got too much of a mix of corals for too harsh a flow rate. That's the downside to liking all sorts of stuff, you've got to account for it in your layout.

So on to pics. Can you tell the rics are near the front pane and easy to shoot?








Pardon the fuzziness but wanted to show this guy. He's growing really well and it's easy to see why.


Looking good here. Sorry Weetie, your guys were blocked by an urchin when I was shooting.


Fuzz balled out. The blur is the kenya tree growing like mad.


Spreading and doing well. I love to watch encrusters grow.


I hope you can see the wicked colors in this piece.


A new piece, which my picture does no justice to at all. Neat colors on this one and already feeding.


Again, sorry for the fuzz but I love that my dendro is doing so well.


Also encrusting nicely. I love the colors of this coral and am excited to see it as a larger piece.


So that's what I got tonight. Had a firefish jump ship the other night while I was at work. Teresa found him so not sure what happened there. Everyone else seems to be doing well. I'm debating adding my 2nd T5 fixture for more coverage but I worry that the full blast of the lights will be too much for this size of tank. We'll see as we go what I decide. I was excited to see that ATI now has a purple bulb to compete with the KZ Fiji.

Bill

So at least one of the berghia nudis is alive and well and quite huge. Of course I got no picture as the lights were off but he was scooting across one of the side panes and I watched him disappear back into the LR. He had nice brown tips which lets me know he's eating well. Should expect as much since I'm apparently farming aip's now. All of the new corals look good and have settled into their spots nicely. I put the tubbs blues right next to the red zoas from Teresa's tank. Should be really neat to see those two pieces grow out around each other with the contrast in colors. There's a neon green nephthea behind those two pieces and an orange cap near there so lots of color potential as things grow.

Bill

Anyone know anything about Brightwell salt? Person in my club was picking some up and I haven't ever really heard anything about it.

Bill

35000+ views! Thanks for sticking around through the moves and changes.

Bill

Really enjoyed the pics! Things are lookin' good!

Thank you and I agree. I think I like tanks like this. Mid-size and a bit on the full side. The 75 didn't look full enough to me because of all the open water. I thought it needed more fish but couldn't sensibly get any larger fish because it was only 48" long. With the size tank I have now, it looks full with my current inhabitants. Now I just need to quit tinkering and let things grow, like that'll ever happen.

Bill

Closed door sale for JARC is coming up later this month and should be a good time. I'm not sure I'll be adding much to the tank at this time. I'm pretty full on coral and I'd like to let things grow in. I'm hoping to add some smaller critters. I'm looking at sexy shrimp, bumblebee shrimp, pedersen's nem shrimp or a pom pom crab. Not sure if I'll get any of those, we'll see what the store brings in. Should be interesting. They also carry a really nice selection of reptiles so should be fun.

Bill

No pics this time but wanted to check in. Things are going well in the tank, steady growth pretty much all around. The miami orchid piece continues to do well and that is big for me as this has been my best acro experience to date. Pretty well all of my pieces are steadily adding heads or height so that's always a plus. My duncan took off a bit after the tank move and popped some heads. It has really filled out. Even my hammer decided to bloom a bit. It got winged in the move and then got annoyed but has bounced back nicely. No new additions to speak of.

JARC did firm up our plans for next year's frag swap though. Right now we're looking at April 30th as the date. We're thinking 12-5 with just one keynote speaker. Should be a good time, plenty of work and planning to do in the coming months.

Bill

Might be trading out one of my fungias for a whopper of a brittle star. He'll be my sump/fuge resident eater. I'm a huge fan of brittles and this guy is coming from a club member so good score.

BNARC is having their frag swap this Saturday in Bloomington, IL. Hours are 11-5 and I'll be heading down there to check things out in the morning. I've got to head out kinda early since I have to work that night but if anyone is going to be down there let me know.

Bill

BNARC swap was really nice. They're a small club but they put on a nice show. Grabbed myself a shirt and am thinking of becoming a member.

The trade didn't work out so I've still got all of my critters. Hit the LFS to stock supplements yesterday and saw some good stuff. I'm still thinking the only additions I want in the near future are inverts. My corals are growing well so I'd like to let them continue to do so and I'm pretty good on fish stock for this size tank I think.

Also, checked the tank last night and saw a berghia nudi doing his thing. Glad to see that they're still around and doing their job. The Aip's are disappearing from certain sections of the tank but holding strong in others. I'm thinking of adding more nudis but we'll see how it goes.

Bill

Tank looks good man!

Thank you. I really need to get some more pics up. Things are growing and doing quite well. Read a really interesting article today in the latest Coral mag. It was about carbon sources in reef tanks and how sponges play a much bigger role than people think. It was really interesting and put some science into something that I've observed throughout my time in this hobby. I had massive sponge growth in the 55 in GA and the tank did wonderfully during that time. I've also experienced good sponge growth and tank progress in the 75 and now am seeing a surge in sponge growth and other positive elements in this tank. Neat to see some of my observations validated a bit.

Bill

36000+ views!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We hosted at our house for the first time and it went great.

The tank continues to do well. The Aip population continues to slowly dwindle so that's a big plus. I'm having a bit of an issue with a fungia that keeps wandering toward my cloves and rics. I may need to find a new place to put him soon. I'm working on a way to rig up my skimmer in this system. I've been running without it since moving into this tank and haven't experienced negative results yet but I don't want to keep pushing my luck.

I'm off work tonight so when the lights come on I'll try and get some new pics up.

Bill

Merry Christmas N-R!

I'm wanting to crank up the pod population in the tank. What do you all think of/know about those "pods in a jug" products? I've seen them on a few sites but never in an LFS so hard to judge. I don't see how something like that is really feasible. I think I'm better off tossing some filter sponges in a friends sump for a week or so and then transplanting them.

Bill

These microbubbles are killing me but I did get a few pics tonight.

Clowns.




Randall's.






Goby courtesy of Puffer Phish. Flash and non-flash.




His buddy.


Duncans.


Mushroom pile.


Hope you can see the mix of colors on this one. Really nice.


Neat and slowly spreading onto the LR.


Took these two without looking because of the angled glass. Not bad.




Bill

Great stuff William!!

Thank you. Things continue to do well in the tank. Still fighting the Aip battle but the nudis are doing their thing.

Bill

I know it's a pest that caused me to bring these nudis into my tank but I think the nudis themselves are really neat. This guy has been in here for quite awhile and attained an impressive size so far as berghias go. They're extremely effective at getting rid of Aip's. Just an awesome inhabitant to watch.


Same pic zoomed.


On the move.






Bill

Had our monthly meeting last night and it went really well. Our raffle was a chiller, pretty good prize I think. Next month's raffle is a biocube and we're doing an MP40 after that. I won a door prize. The meeting host donated frags and I picked out some nice purple mushrooms on a good chunk of LR. I like shrooms and don't have purple yet so it worked out nicely.

Also had a member breaking down a tank due to moving out of state so scored some other free pieces. Mostly palys and anthelia covering two smaller rocks. Nothing crazy but free is good and this anthelia is a different type than I currently have so that's a plus. There were a few candy cane heads mixed on the one paly rock so that should be neat to see the interaction there.

I'll try and get pics of them soon.

Bill

37000+ views! Thank you for continuing to tag along. The tank is doing well. I'm thinking of adding a secondary light fixture but am undecided. The Aip population continues to dwindle and corals are spreading nicely to make up the difference. I'm off for a few days so I'll try to get some pics up. No major changes but the growth is evident I think. I may actually try fragging my duncan.

Bill

NRF, I must say that I find it quite impressive that your signature quote gives a nod to both goat humping and caning.

Bill