Let me know if you ever frag that green acan! That thing is sick!!!!

Foofooree-

Thank you.

TJ_Burton-

Thank you. You are welcome to poach. The secret is acyrlic rods. Thats what's holding everything in place. That plus drilling homes for frag plugs in all the top facing rock.

Coach-

Deal. Will do.

I'm thinking of doing the Acrylic Rod thing for my 'scape too.
You have any tips or tricks to share?
Can you post a FTS so I can get a better idea of how you did your 'scape?

Hello love,

Sure. Take a look at the first page. The scape hasn't changed all that much from the last shots.

Really what you need is a good masonry bit, dremmel, and patience. You have to go slow with it or you will break the rocks. I used 1/2" acrylic rods that I cut to size with the handy dremmel then use the DeWalt to core a hole. Following that in goes the rods with some aquamend putty at the bottom of the holes to hold things in place and Bob's your uncle!

You could actually skip the putty if you like. Can't say this enough so... Go slow but firm and keep the rock slightly wet. If you have a drill press it works better. The rocks that are stuck together are the plateau on the left side where the smaller sps are, the rock holding the bridge in the center and some of the base rock on the right.

I would also strongly suggest you drill holes for your frag plugs into the rocks. And for corals that don't have plugs. I use a 1/2" (I think 3/8" would be better) and go about 3/4"-1" down. For frags that don't have plugs I snip the rod part off a plug then glue it to the bottom of the frag that doesn't have a plug and drop it in the hole. With the holes and plugs things stay in place even with rude and pushy snails and high flow from the Vortechs. Plus you can move them about if you like to better position them.

Oh and while I am at it... <Shakes fist at Kraylen> CURSE YOU KRAYLEN! YOU MADE ME BUY A MYSTERY WRASSE! NOW I AM ALL WRASSE ALL THE TIME! So far so good as he is small and the rhomboid male is huge but I am keeping an eye on him. He was such a pretty fish and him along with a BSJF was less than the price being offered in the Mr. Coral special without shipping so I broke down and picked them up... They are both munching pellets like they are going out of style which is a good sign I suppose...

Hey Weets... I have some left over acrylic rod.

Tank is looking amazing bro!!!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh snap..


You just added lucifer to your tank!!! I DEMAND PICTURESSSSSS


Hell yeah man Im excitied for ya!

Thank you David. Give it about 2 years then it should mature nicely. Right now its still in its infancy.

Kraylen,

*THAT* is what I am afraid of! But so far he is the most interesting fish in there! Photos to follow soon.

You know, the mystery wrasse is the reason there is only 1 wrasse in that tank now.

So we lost the last 13 days. That kinda sucks. But a quick repost of the last 13 days...

1. Diatome and Cyano outbreak courtesy of me overfeeding the tank and not being up on my water changes

2. Pump went out due to heat issues (it has a built in thermal shutoff) so I moved the chiller from under the stand to to beside the tank. So far problem solved.

3. Lost female Rhomboid due to my own stupid mistake of not checking the screen was fully over the tank. Offered the fish jerky to my mother in law. She declined. I pointed out it was far healthier than the stuff from China she stuffs in her gob! She still declined. She's Chinese by the way.

4. Fighting the good fight with my Vortech's and sand getting moved around.

5. Thought I had lost my McCosker's due to wrasse on wrasse aggression by the mystery. Turns out he jumped into the overflow and was stuck in there for about a week

6. The Anemone has gotten huge (part of my over feeding problem) thanks to the 1/2" of silverside she gets every other day.

7. Clowns laid eggs but they got sucked up when I did a water change yesterday and was cleaning the small patch of cyano I had.

Pictures:

The rose anemone with and without her crab. Amazing what some good feeding will do! This is how big she has gotten since getting a every other day 1/2" piece of silver side. Gotta stop that real soon or else I am going to have either one huge nem or two smaller ones... Well two smaller wouldn't be too bad as I can sell one...



As requested here is the Mystery. I am mezmerized by how he effortlessly shoots through the water like a torpedo. I am not so keen on his attitude towards the McCosker's and am worried that if I add a Solar Wrasse I am going to shortly loose a solar wrasse. Any opinions would be welcome.




My poor McCosker who I thought was a gonner but found in my overflow who is now "working things out" with Boo. I don't give good odds on this though.


My new male clown. I grabbed him because of the pattern on him.


And the blue chromis.


Lastly my Wes frags, suncorals, and part of what I am calling LPS&Softy row.





Notice the white spot on the red monti? Yeah. That was courtesy of me knocking the coral over by accident. I now have a nice frag of it.

Nice recovery update!
@ Tubbs Blue rock.

Cheers love. Let me know when you are ready for a frag. Thats the colony I was referring to by the way.

These photos were taken *RIGHT* after a 20% water change and major scraping of the glass so stuff is a bit messy and cloudy. Seems thats the only time I take pictures for some reason... Sigh.

Cyano problem is gone (touch wood) thank goodness but am still getting a bit of diatoms so I need to further cut down on the amount of food I am dropping in and maybe the number of times per day. But its hard. The little darlings all see me walk in the room and immediately line up by rows on the right side of the tank waiting for the food orgy to commence which makes it hard to say no you see...


This stinking Anemone is getting HUGE! I hope it splits soon so I can sell one half and go back to having a normal sized one!



Say hello to my two new friends. Both impulse buys but both fish I wanted. A Potter's Angel and a Lubbocks Wrasse. I am *WAY* to wrasse heavy!




Fortunately they are both eating like pigs and the mystery and the Lubbocks worked out their problems (touch wood). I think I will put in a Blue Spotted Jawfish because I am in love with the damn things and have managed to put a 1/4" screen on so no more jumping through the 1/2" holes I had before. But that is way down the road. And its going to mean allot more water changes and strict monitoring if I do it since this is only a 56 with 10 gallon sump...

And lastly the obligatory FTS.

Sorry to hear about the wrassassination.

I am 100% wrasseless in my tank now. I am running an open top finally.

Oh no mate! No wrassasinations here so far...! So far its been nothing but wrasse on wrasse love! Of course that could change now that the mystery has bulked up on *ALL* of the pod's in the rockwork and must be feeling kind of frisky...

Pity to hear about that on your end... As I am sure you know after all once you go Wrasse you can never go back... Just practice safe wrasseing with a screen over your rim.

Nice top shelf for optimal coral placement. Almost like a natural frag tank, but better looking of course.

Cheers mate. It was acrylic rod that did the trick.

Acrylic rod, huh? Can't even see it. I'll need to look back in your thread and see how it was done.

No worries. Save you the read... Its simple. Masonry bit, salt water safe epoxy, acrylic rods of appropriate size. Drill the holes insert the epoxy, insert the rods. Bob's your uncle.

I <3 SCE. NOT! Mylar balloon's get stuck in wires up from my street 1,000 homes without power for 8 hours. Me on generator.

I appreciate that SCE keeps my power running 360ish days out of the year, that they only took 8 hours instead of 48 this time to get the power back on, and that it was a case of drunk and stupid (the idiots actually floated the balloons into the wires on purpose it seems. This per the local PD I spoke to who was directing traffic around the fire that was started) but I am tired of having a quarterly power outage because I am on a stub line that has "been scheduled for upgrade" going on two years now.

It also serves as a warning to myself and all of you living in a natural disaster zone... Update your Disaster Recovery plans and supplies please.

Hey UH tank looks great, I love the scape and will be using acrylic rods for my 60 very soon.

Cheers love.

Some FTS for you. I want to pull that bridge rock between the two islands and go back to isolated islands again so thats why I am selling those corals.




And the 'nem has colored back up to where she should be. Word of warning to those of you who buy those nice light pink anemone's for $$$... They are bleached because they have been stressed and are not healthy. They do not stay that color and you need to be experienced with anemone's to nurse them back from the edge as well as realize there is a good chance they won't make it.



Lastly some growth shot's of Organism and Wes's DBTC frags:

Those a good sized DBTCs!

Cheers mate. They were MUCH smaller when they came in about 6 months ago. Organism's is going back into the program tomorrow to StanD. It grow's like a weed!

I need to come see the tank now. Works out, because your 20g is ready to be delivered back to you.

Sweet setup! When you get rid of that middle rock its going to look spectacular. Keep up the good work, and I would like to know what kind of food you used to help nurse your nem back? Mine is a little light and im thinking its not digesting the DeMysis and Mysis shrimp im feeding it. Thanks UH.

How did I not see your tank! It looks great, and that rhomboid is sick!

Phixion,

Feel free to hold on to it.

Kyle-

Silversides are the preferred food for anemones. Mysis will not give it what it needs long term. This is per Karen and her site. If she's below 4" in size use a 1/4" piece and go up from there. She recommends feeding a piece at a time until the nem spits it out. You will want to do this daily. I have been and you can see how well mine has colored up over the last couple of months.

Nick-

Thank you. There is a local dealer who gets them in for $150 a throw. All super males.

lol, alright... Just let me know when you need it back, or where to deliver it to, to whom else that might need it. I just realized that while the tank will fit in my car, the light stand will not.

Question for ya, how long has the tank been set up now and what's your Ca level?? I ask because damn, that's some serious coralline build-up thus far for not being setup that terribly long!

This thread makes me sad

Phixion-

Its been up about 4-5 months now I think. My Ca ranges between 360 and 420 (low end when I get lazy) and dKH is 7-11 (see above on lazy)

Kraylen-

Why sad?

Oh and updates...

This guy started out as that little nub on top.


The mili and digi family cluster. Very fast growers all things considered...



Just cause I was experimenting with shooting as close as I could get...




By far my favorite coral of them all. The ORA pearlberry...



Nom nom nom nom all gone...





As you can see yes blasto's do eat. That was a full sized PE Mysid by the way.

And the latest addition to my tank...



She is a tube anemone. Non-photosynthetic so she has to be fed regularly. She is absolutely fascinating to watch and she is bioluminescent so when she is startled she will light up green and bright orange.

This is her with a bundle of mysid in her tentacles. She *DOES NOT* eat fish! This per an article in advanced aquarist as well as from my own experimentation and observation. She won't take even a small bit of silverside only mysid, she also enjoys filter type food (reef chili), and several of the wrasse have run right into her tentacles and were no worse for wear as she just let go. I am cautiously optimistic about her as she came to me as a rescue but seems to be eating.

And lastly a two shots of my fish. Again experimenting with white balance and close up shots.

This tank is sick.

Thank you Zo0k.

Sadly the tube anemone didn't make it. She got sucked into a Voretch and lost 90% of her tentacles and expired *RIGHT* after I moved her from where she was comfortable... Boy do I feel like $hite and a N00B.

Oh and to compound my general feelings of N00Bishness I came home from a short work for me vacation for my wife to find a massive diatom outbreak. I thought my mom (who was watching the tank) was responsible... Nope! Not her! *ME*! As in n00bcake has his tank *RIGHT* next to a window that I left open while I was gone! *WITH* fan's running! Fans that sucked a whole bunch of dust into an open tank! Absolutely *BRILLIANT* move on my part! Window closed, GFO going in tomorrow, lesson learned.

i really enjoyed those pictures....

Damn Urchin, killin em!

Send me a frag pack

Guarding the shot glass!!!!!!

Thank you. The rock is gone and I will post a FTS when I get my <dirty words> diatom problem under control.

I used frozen silversides to bring her back. Very small pieces. I would switch to PE Mysis if you can. Higher in fat and other amino acids due to the way they are raised.



Oh ho my son! Wait till you see what I picked up today at Vivid! Think joker paly's coloration except on an SPS!

And the <dirty word> tube anemone had her revenge on me. Stung a blasto colony of mine to death. Sigh. Thats why I moved her in the first place.

Pretty stuff!
I used to want a tube anemone until I found out how big they get and the stinging.

Funny thing about that Lalani...

The sting is the least harmful of all the anemone's out there. I researched the little bugger before committing to taking her and found her to be the least dangerous of the lot and actually not a true anemone. They do get big though. Part of the plan was that both her and the rose are my wife's 'corals'. Meaning they are things she initially picked out.

When they both get too big I was going to explain that I needed a bigger tank for 'her' 'corals'! Clever of me, no? Sadly my plan was foiled by my own bumbling and a Voretch!

Hey, don't feel bad.
We were having an ant problem before I left for MamaSue's house for a 1 week vacay, and I got some stuff for hubby to spray outside.
I didn't realize he was supposed to spray it around the windows as well, and of course the new tank is right next to a window.
Windows stayed closed but I suspect a little seeped in, tank looked worse than ever when I got back home.

urchin, i want your fish, and your corals, hell ship me your whole tank!

Weet's -

Oh bugger! Thats not good!

Nick,

Come on down! For the right price its yours!

Meh, I'm in one of those "everything happens for a reason" mindframes right now, I just need to do some hard work to get things restarted methinks.
Are things looking any better in your tank?
Love that pic of the Angel, btw.

Thank you. I agree with you. Everything does happen for a reason. It can be frustrating as all get out but that's when I repeat one of the four following mantra's:

1. Thank you Lord for teaching me humility
2. I don't mind 'cause it doesn't matter
3. The only easy day was yesterday
4. Not dead! Can't quit!

I try to use them to calm myself as the Irish temper in me gets ramped up by whatever happens to be frustrating me to the point where I am seeing red and ready to do serious bodily harm to inanimate objects or my fellow humans.

As of late I have that bloody diatom bloom that is still going but has gone from a nasty carpet down to a moderate dusting. Seems closing the bloody window helped quite a bit! Still got a PO4 reading of .25ish so I swapped out the old carbon/GFO with some new Chemipure Elite and Rowaphos and did a 20% water change which tanked my pH but hopefully it will knock down the remaining PO4.

How about your tank? Still having problems?

Three words,
Vodka dosing, hiccup!

Oh aye. .5 ml for the tank and 200 ml for me. Just don't dose and drink at the same time.

Lol, yeah.
I'm kinda hovering around #1 right now.
And yeah, still having problems.
Like you, I'm working on it.

Fast is slow in this game. Sounds contradictory but it really does apply. As in go slow and take the time to do it right. Kind of fits with my slacker mentality of late. And I use #1 most of the time except when I am having a bad day at PT then its 3-4. Two is used when someone is up in my face and I need to really resist the urge to yell back.

Its been a hectic gaggle of weeks for me. Between a high amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth at work plus a boat load of high priority (at least in She Who Must Be Obeyed's mind) other things to do and a general feeling of apathy I have let things sit far longer than I should have with the poor tank. My very bad cyano outbreak was successfully treated with 3 days of lights out total darkness plus Blue Life Red Slime Control followed by a polyfilter and 30% water change. I know I should have had the new skimmer and carbon/GFO/UV Sterilizer modules operational and that was the plan but what can I say...?

Here is a Full Tank Shot taken yesterday after a water change:


And speaking of that new skimmer... It went on line on the 11th. Only 3+ weeks late but again... Sue me if you don't like it. Here is a photo of it plumbed into the system. Its a Small External ATB Cone Skimmer with Eheim pump and needle wheel. It is fed via the breakout line from my return pump, the Posideon P4. I do love that pump! 700+ GPH and 24' head height! Dialing it in to not wet skim too much was a bit tough and I wish I had gone with a gate/ball valve combination instead of just a ball valve but thats the breaks. Oh and finding a Metric to US Standard Inch conversion was a <dirty word>! Fortunately customer service from ATB was outstanding and he sent me the converter free of charge. The skimmer was skimming within the hour. Hopefully this will help me with my overfeeding/overcrowding (keeping wrasse on wrasse aggression down is via over feeding) problem...


And yes... Yes, I do need more knobs and wheels to turn...

Saw the move of my RBTA as an excuse to redo my rockwork a bit as you can see from the FTS above. She is coming along nicely from where she was as you can see...


As a part of that move I moved all my (and Omen's since I am holding several for him) Ricordia Yuma's and Florida's to the low light area of the tank under the overflow where I had planned on putting a Yellow Fiji...


After drooling over Phixion's Watermelon chalice and waiting (like a 34 year old woman feeling the ticking of her biological clock and desperate to get married and have kids) for him to frag it I finally broke down and tracked down a decent priced single eye. Hopefully I will have the same sucess he did in terms of growth/color on it. At the price I got it for though it was a steal...


I don't remember the name of this SPS but I was in a joker paly color mood and again got a spanking price on this so here it is in its final resting place. Hopefully it will keep its color so high up. Its been in the tank through the blackout so it seems to be doing ok...



Followed by another joker acquisition except this time its an Acan...


My latest pickup courtesy of Chigga... A pink jade Acropora. Again hopefully I will have the same growth he did on his.



For some reason I have been getting allot of chalice frags in from folks that are totally random and not solicited or purchased. So as a part of my rock rescape I made a little acan/chalice area. The alien eye chalice has exploded in growth as you can see...


An updated shot of that nice Cali Tort (?) from Omen. Happy as a clam in its new spot as you can see from the feeder tentacles...


Onto my fish...

Velvet Wrasse:


Rhomboid:


Orange Clown:


Fat Arse Mystery Wrasse:


McCosker's Flasher Wrasse:


Blue Chromis:


I am giving some serious thought to totally redoing my fish load so if anyone is interested in the Mystery, McCoskers, Blue Chromis, Velvet Wrasse, and possibly the Rhomboid for very very fair prices please PM me as I want them to go to a good home If I decide to pull the trigger and move them out.

He's back, YAY!!!
Missed ya, UH.
Tank is looking good.
Really likeing that Joker Acan and the Wrasses.
Hey, what place did you get the acrylic rods you used for your 'scape from?
Got a linky?

Cheers love. I got the rods from...

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/category....CFSn6agodRFvDag

Oh and you will probably see a Pink Stylo that has what looks like RTN... Its not. Acans can and will eat *ANYTHING*! Including an anemone! I had to pull an acan off of my nem! It was trying to eat one of her tentacles! The Stylo fell on the Acans and I didn't notice until too late. Hopefully it recovers.