New Tank Inhabitant:


I acquired a new fish yesterday, a Purple Firefish. When I first put him in the tank, he went straight to hide in the rocks and didn't come out for about 24 hours. But a short time ago, he came out in the open and has been swimming around front and center ever since. Kinda weird that he went from total obscurity to demanding the attention of the front and center glass. He doesn't mind me coming to the tank and looking at him, and will swim right in front of my face. But any fast movements will send him darting back into the rocks. He is a cool little guy. Next fish on my list is some kind of wrasse I believe, like a bright orange/red flasher wrasse. I will have to look more into their care and behavior before making a decision.


Purple Firefish:

Wow! H20 It's looking good!

Not sure exactly. If I had to guess I would say about 85 lbs.

Lookin' good bro.

Man your tank is amazing! I really like that scape

McCoskers Flasher Wrasse:


Today I added a new fish, a McCoskers Flasher Wrasse. It is a male, and he is really beautiful. When I first added him to the tank, he went straight to the sand and let off a protective layer of slime, (for those of you not familiar with wrasses, many of them emit a slime coat 'cocoon' to sleep in at night, to be harder to be detected by predators while they sleep). After a few minutes though, he was wondering around and finding all the nooks and crannies. He has been shy most of the day, but by tonight, he was swimming out in the open and feeling a little bolder. I have not been able to get a good picture of him flashing (opening all his fins to attract females, or to ward off other fish). I snapped a couple of him though that turned out decent. He has nice coloration, and a nice long filament on his dorsal fin that you can't see really well in the pictures yet. He seems to be getting along great with my Clownfish and Firefish, and he ate well the first time that I fed the tank.

Wow that is a spectacular wrasse! very nice find

Nice looking wrasse. I have been looking at some of them lately, there are some amazing looking ones and the Flasher is definitely in that group.

I like the purple firefish too, I always laugh because they are very similar imo to the helfrichi(sp) yet they are over $100 less, lol. It's a beautiful looking fish and I like the purple ones over the 'standard'.

Thanks for the informative descriptions. I started my 24G because of your original thread and now after a while of reading this one I'm sure you're going to make me want to start a larger one. Ahh well, I love it regardless of tank size right now, it's a great hobby.

Damn that is one sweet wrasse!

I really enjoy your threads H20, the ap24 thread was very informative and inspiring to me. Now this thread as well. 75G looks gangsta

H2O, you're giving me some great ideas! I too, got a good deal on a used 75. I have also sold most of the equipment it came with! I was thinking on building a hood, but not sure. I may just go with a MH/T5 combo fixture. I have a 48" 4x65 pc, but I want to keep some SPS. They'll need the light. Great looking tank!

What return pump are you using?

I am using an Ocean Runner 2500. I like it so far. It is quiet, and it comes with rubber suction cup feet. I think that helps keep it quiet too.

NEW CORALS!!


I had not added much to my tank lately, as I wanted to make sure my water parameters were stable and everything looks good.

I decided that since I was wanting to dabble more in SPS, that I would sell or trade my ricordeas. I found a guy that is starting an online coral store that lives an hour or so from me, and he was nice enough to invite me to come down to his shop and check it out, and to trade some SPS for my ricordea.


Here are my new additions that I have acquired:


Purple Monti Cap with blue polyps:




A second Blue tort:




Green Slimer:




Acropora (bluetipped, can't remember the name)




Whammin Watermelon Zoas:





Green Birdsnest (got earlier this week):





Newest Front Tank Shot:

Looking good as always

Looks good H20!

Wow, great pics! This tank is really coming together.

Nice!

Looks awesome...so nice and clean. Love all of the SPS frags as well. Have you been getting them locally or online? They just all look nice and big and healthy.

What brand/type of sand are you using? And how many pounds?

Thanks. I have gotten most of them locally. Got alot of them through trading to other local reefers.




I am using Arag-Alive Fiji Pink sand. It has 80 lbs in it.

New Wrasse:


There are so many pretty and colorful wrasses out there, that it is hard to choose among them. I found a good looking Solar Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus solorensis) at my LFS. He is really nicely colored. Got a decent picture of him today while he was out.

A Cleaner tank:



I found a new product that I am going to try, on Reef Central there are alot of people that swear by this product line, so I thought I would give it a shot. They are the Prodibio products.

http://www.prodibio.fr/anglais/accueil.htm

I got the BioClean which has both BigDigest and Bioptim in it. It is basically a bacterial additive and bacterial growth accelerator, to help clean the tank of nitrates, phosphates, etc. I am going to see how it does on the green film on my glass that I keep getting on a daily basis, as well as the slight diatom on the sand.



If it goes well, I may look into their Reef Kit, which has all of the product line in it. I am going to add the BioClean after my water change this weekend, and will report back the results that I see with it.

Also, I am going to try to cut back on my flake food feedings and try some more fresh and frozen foods rinsed well, that may have lower phosphates.


A couple of nights ago, I added a PhosBan Reactor with PhosBan media in it to my sump, to see if that will help as well with phosphates. I don't like the green film or slight diatom, and am trying these two things, as I love to tinker with my tank and try new things.







I have also added a few new inverts: about 5 large tongan Nassarius snails, 5 turbo snails, and 3 Scarlett hermits. This is in addition to what I already had, but I have added inverts slowly as I needed them. I have a pretty good assortment now:

Blue Leg Hermits
Zebra Hermits
Scarlett Reef Hermits
Astrea Snails
Cerith Snails
Turbo snails
Large and small Nassarius snails
Emerald Crab
Cleaner Shrimp

Beautiful wrasse H20 and I hope the phosban reactor and the additives work out for ya. I have the same problem with the green film, if the Bioclean works I may have to try it.

Anthias:


This past weekend, I added a trio of Ventralis Anthias. I originally added one male and two females, but one of the females did not make it through the first night. So as of now, there is only one male and one female. I hope to add another second female soon. Here are a couple of pictures that I took the other day.



Ventralis Anthias:






And another shot of my Solar Wrasse:

Those are some really beautiful fish! Sorry to hear about the loss...

Those are some gourgeous anthias H20! I went to the lfs yesterday to pick up a geometric pygmy hawk and the had the cutest fathead anthias and I thing that some sort of anthias will be my fourth and final fish.

H2O, your tank is so awesome! I can't wait to get my 75 started!

I love the new tank. How much $$ do u think u have in the new setup. I would like to upgrade someday and i might start saving soon.

Hows the Bioclean addivite working? I'm interested to see if it actually makes a difference.

Tap tap tap... What's going on with the updates? I love this tank!!!

Man, this is looking so sweeet. I'm at a loss for words beyond that.

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!


Sorry for the LONG delay in updates and posts. I got really busy with work there for awhile, and with all I had going on, I actually came close to selling my tank and getting out of the hobby. A reef tank is alot to keep up with, but after a month or so of back and forth of selling or not, I have recommitted to the tank and have gotten it back in shape. Actually, I never let it get run down, I just needed to scrape some coralline off the glass and do more frequent water changes. I never let things get out of hand, I just went from weekly water changes to every 2 weeks, and need to change my filter sock more often.


Anyways, I have added several things over the last couple of months, and will thrown in a few pics that I have gotten behind on posting. Enjoy!



First of all, I added a ReefKeeper 2 to help automate the system. It now runs my actinics, my halides, my Koralia wave pumps, my canopy fans, and my sump fan. I can also hook my protein skimmer and heaters up to it if I wish. It is great, well worth the money. It has a temp probe on it, and I have it set to turn on the fans at a certain temp, and if it got too hot, I have it set to turn the lights off. It can do all kind of cool things.



ReefKeeper 2:





These 2 items I added awhile back, but both have perished since, but I will post pics, as they were beautiful. The SPS just RTN'ed one day, still not sure why. The clam fell off the top of the rocks while I was on vacation and I came home to an empty shell. arrrgg





Here are some Zoas that I have added that I really like.






That last zoa pic is a nice mix of 'red/blue with green skirts', 'radioactive dragon eyes', and 'gorilla nipples'.


Neon SPS (glows super bright under the actinics):




Pink Birdsnest:




A friend of mine gave me these 2 'elkhorn montiporas', as they weren't doing well in his tank. They have started growing nicely in mine.





NEW FISH!!


This might turn out to be a big mistake, but I added a Diamond Watchman Goby to help clean the sand. He is cool, but he is making quite the sandstorm mess. My water has stayed kinda silty since adding him yesterday. He is making burrows and mounds, and sifting all through the sand. The sand looks nice and white, but my water is cloudy. We'll' see if it clears up in time, but he may have to come out if this keeps up.





And finally, a few new front tank shots:

Wow H2O! great update! You tank is looking fabulous and i am very jealous. I am glad that you ended up keeping it.

wow! H20 the tank is looking awesome! one of my faves I happy u decided to give reefing another shot

Man... I was getting worried. I thought you up and bailed on us!!!

WOW, tank is looking amazing bro! Glad to see you decided to stick with it!!!

Whew!!



Thats the only word I can think of for what I had to do last night. After having the Diamond Goby in my tank for almost a week, the OCD side of me was going crazy with the water always being a cloudy mess. The sand was looking better, but my water column was a mess. Not quite the trade off I was looking for. So, after several failed attempts of trying to catch him with a net and with a plastic container, I realized I was going to have to tear my tank down to get him out. I made a quick decision that I wanted him out, went to the garage and got a big Rubbermaid tub, and started taking rock by rock out of the tank. I set coral to one side of the tank and after I only had 3 rocks left in the tank, I caught him in a net. It was quite an ordeal, as he was very fast, and quite adept at getting under the few rocks I had left in there. After I caught him and put him in another container, I had the chore of rebuilding my rockwork and resetting my coral. the whole process wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, I think from start to finish it took about two hours. The tank was a cloudy mess from pulling the rocks out and putting them back in, but with everything running down into the sump and through a filter sock, it did not take long to clear up.

I also used epoxy again to attach my rocks together, so my protein skimmer is still turned off today, as the epoxy causes it to foam up too much and overflow. I will probably be able to get it turned on by tomorrow. I also did a 10g water change after all this to help settle things down.


At any rate, here is a pic today of the new aquascape redone. It is very similar as my old one, but one thing I did was move all the rock up a bit so I could get my Mag-float scraper behind the rocks on the back wall. Before, I had several rocks too close and I couldn't get back there, and had nasty junk accumulating on the back wall. Now it will be easy to clean.






Also, here is a picture of a Red Sea Star (Fromia milleporella) that I added awhile back.






Also, here is a NEW FISH that I added yesterday. It is a Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon meleagris). It is pretty small so I think that it is a juvenile, so I am not sure if it is a male or female yet. If it is male, it will take on some nice green and red colors. If it is a female, I think it stays mostly the black and white pattern. Either way, it is a beautiful fish, and it is very sociable, just swims around picking at the rocks, and isn't skiddish at all. And best of all, he immediately got along with all his tank mates the first day. No one is getting chased or harassed.







And lastly, a parting shot of my favorite zoa cluster in my tank.

HAMMER TIME!


Was in the LFS today picking up a few extra snails and crabs, and ended up getting this small Hammer coral. It is pretty small, about 2"x2", and has some really nice neon green to it.

Awesome tank, digging the aquascape.

Hey tanks looking great, so did that BioClean additive help at all with the algae on the glass or was there no noticeable difference?

It took awhile, but I have started to notice a difference. I still get some green film on the glass, but not near as much or often as before. I feel like it took about 4-6 weeks to start to notice a difference. Also, I just today started to make a few changes to help cut down on my excess nutrients. First, I realized I needed to clean out my sump. I had a layer of nasty detritus in the bottom of it, which I am sure was not helping in cutting down on algae growth. I emptied my sump this morning, cleaned it out, and cleaned my protein skimmer pump and return pump. Also, in the past, I have been just adding my frozen food cubes to the tank when feeding, and not draining off the liquid well. From what I am told, this 'juice' is 'rocket fuel' for algae. Now, I have started to thaw the cube in a little cup of tank water, then drain it through a coffee filter. This should help cut down on introducing excess nutrients into the tank. And lastly, I emptied out my phosban reactor of the phosban, cleaned it, and added it full of carbon instead. I never noticed any difference with the phosban, and I felt I would get more help from it being full of carbon and running the water faster through it. Hopefully, these few things will help keep my tank cleaner.

A Few New Pics:


I have added a few new coral and a new Fish, so here are a few pictures.




Candy Cane:




Blue/Purple Acro (looks more purple in person):




Blue Acro:




Not sure of the exact classification, but I am thinking some type of Montipora:




Green Monti Cap:, with purple rim




An updated pic of my Purple Monti Cap, doing very well:




My new FISH: (Yellow Tang)

HEAT!


I ran into a problem a couple of days ago. I came home from work, and was on my way upstairs to check on my tank, when halfway up the stairs, I felt heat hit me like a brick wall. When I got upstairs I looked at the thermostat, and it was reading about 90-95*. I looked in on my tank, and my lights were out. I went in and looked at the ReefKeeper 2 and it said my tank was at 84*, when normally it stays about 78-80. Something had gone out on our A/C compressor outside, as it was not running. I called someone, and they would come out and fix it the next morning, so at least they could get out here pretty quickly. It had been in the 100*s here the last few weeks so alot of peoples A/C are going out. Fortunately, I had my ReefKeeper 2 set to cut my Halides and lights off if the water temp hit 83*, and for all the canopy fans and sump fan to come on. So, as a safety feature, my lights went out and the fans on when the A/C went out, keeping my tank at a manageable level. I can only imagine what the water temp would have been with my 500w of Halides baking the tank with an ambient room temp of 95*. i put a couple of ziplock bags of Ice in the tank and got it down to 82, but the ice melted so fast that it did not keep it down long. It stayed around 84, which is not too bad for just a day. 84 itself is not too bad a temp, it is the quick jump from 78 to 84 that concerned me. The A/C guy came out the next day and got it fixed. Only cost $113 to replace the bad part and get it running again, so not too bad. Took all day to get the upstairs cooled back off, but today, the tank and A/C seems to all be back to normal.

I might have lost my Leopard Wrasse in the whole fiasco, as I have not seen him in 2 days, and he is normally out swimming all day picking at the rocks. I will give him another few days and see if he comes out. He may be a goner.

But all seems to be back to normal. I can see why a chiller would be nice in case of emergencies..... also, the ReefKeeper 2 may have saved my tank from disaster, by cutting the lights out. It may have just paid for itself....


Edited later: Yay! My Leopard Wrasse finally made an appearance, so it seems all is well through my heat spike.

H20 your tank is amazing. it is one of my favorite tanks here on nano reef i wish to someday have a tank just as nice. im glad to see your reefkeeper 2 saved your tank now i may just have to get one of my own once i get my tank going.

i can see TOTM in your future

keep up the good work on second thought its not so much work as fun haha

The tank is looking great H20! Glad to hear nothing was lost in the heat. I love that little cave/archway in the very center of your tank under the rock work.

Some New Coral..........



I decided to try some online coral, as LiveAquaria.com had a medium-sized green Brain on sale for $19, so I thought I would grab one and add a few more items into the order to make it worth the shipping cost.


Here are a few pics that I took before I mount them up onto the rocks.


The Brain:




New 3" Crocea Clam: (my old one died in a tragic fall off the rocks while I was on vacation this summer)




Pink Mille SPS:




Green/yellow Bottlebrush SPS:




Green Montipora confusa:

very nice

any new fts?

sweet tank... make me want to setup my 75...50.... oh yeah I dont have the room

Mount that phosban on the interior. I have had many leak after I opened them a few times (inner o-ring bent out of shape).

Good idea, will change that this week. Thanks