. thats a totally AWESOME tank. i like the open rockwork with lost of shelves for the coral.
you also got a real nice SPS collection.

oh yeah and the "velvet wrasse" you have is actually a Lubbocks Fairy Wrasse. i really hope you didnt pay more than $30 dollars for that fish.

linky to a profile on the Velvet wrasse
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/wra...elvetWrasse.php

Keep up the good work

Cheers nanoreefnate and thank you. SPS not so nice now. Hopefully if all goes well in about 3 years it will be.

Interesting on the wrasse. It was quite a bit less than $30 actually. I think I have had the two confused in my mind as I had a supermale Velvet that I had to move out because he and the Rhomboid would go after each other with each alternating about once a week being the dominant male wrasse in the tank.

I paid about $30 for it btw.

oh ok cool. that the same price a payed for my lubbock. just wanted to let you know in case you got gyped. gotta look out for fella reefers ya know.

Cheers mate.

Oh what a wonderful day today! <sarcasm> Yep! Managed to kill 4 fish today! Aren't I the "Conscientious Aquarist!?!

McCoskers, Mystery, Chromis, and Potters!

McCosker's was hiding in the rocks I took out and I didn't find him until I was putting the rocks back in and I lost him in the haze that was this mid-morning!

Mystery was laying on the bottom of the capture bucket all nice and fine doing the possum thing with the rhomboid and the lubbocks so I cover the bucket with a towel and go to shower off the salt water and gunk from completely redoing my aquascape... Come back and he's turning into jerky on the floor where he somehow managed to jump out of the bucket and pass the towel!

Potter's was at the bottom of the bucket and gasping like he was having a heart attack! Not sure if he's going to make it.

Rhomboid when to an 800 gallon tank with allot of Anthias, Tangs, and other Wrasse where he looked happy as a clam. The only good part of today.

All that is in the tank are two clowns a yellow tang (small and its a 60 gallon tank with plenty of swimming room so PISS OFF Tang Police!) and a blue spotted jawfish that has taken up permanent residence in my overflow! Little Gob! I finally had to stick a piece of PVC in there for him to use as a cave so he didn't get sucked down the intakes! *EVERY* time I chase him out he muddles about a bit then jumps right back in! Seems he's learned that food is abundant in the overflow since all the pellets eventually make it over the lip and in. Fortunately its a clear glass floating overflow so at least I can see him...

Oh and in other news my bloody anemone didn't split once! She split *TWICE*!!! I come up this morning to do my weekly water change and lo and behold there is a small anemone attached to one of my Joker Paly colonies!!! But for the grace of God she didn't get sucked up into the Vortechs and die!

Anyone know what this is other than its an Acropora? Anyway its pink and green.


Same deal here... What is it? Other than being a paly.


My Tubs blue colony just keeps on getting bigger...


Obligatory FTS with the new yellow tang.


Mama Anemone


First split of the anemone attached itself to my mag float. Now its in a breeder net with some rocks. Hopefully it will move so I can reclaim my mag float!


This one just appeared all of a sudden! It was originally on one of my joker paly colonies and as Sunday progressed I watched it migrate slowly over the colony down past the blastos, and into here... I have to catch it soon and get it up into the breeder net as I don't want to have two anemones in the tank.


Random closeup of one of my clams.


Here is my PVC dwelling jawfish. Little snot won't stay in the main tank and *ALWAYS* jumps right back here within 24 hours. So he gets a PVC pipe for home. Doesn't seem to bother him and he likes it because of the food source.


Round 5 on the Helfitch. Hopefully this one will be a winner.


And my idiot clowns are now hosting a fish eating coral!

Awesome tank Urchin! Those paly's that are unIDed look like Magicians to me.

I was thinking they looked like Magicians as well.
Beautiful Helfrich's.
I'll have to get an RBTA baby off you one of these days.
Wish my tank was ready now, but it's not.
Nice Tubbs.

Thats a great looking tank. Everything looks extremely healthy in there. Those red speckled palys are called Magician Palys, they are one of the more sought after palys right now.

I'm saying excellent job here too cause I'm trying to participate on NR more ...

let's give you a different compliment ....

hmmmm .... nice clams. stupid jawfish ... is that a Tyree Red Watermelon I see in the foreground?!?? nice.

PaleoReef-

Thank you. Thought so but wasn't sure. Anyway they were dirt cheap and are growing so why not? I want to cover that rock in zoa's and palys. Ones that I find pretty to look at not necessarily expensive ones.

Weetabix-

Thank you. It was a good find for me. I have a real weakness for the Helfitch but have rotten luck with them. Be careful what you ask for! That 'baby' is going to get fed heavy so I can get her out of the tank sooner rather than later so I am putting you down as having first dibbs... Just as easy to ship two things as it is one!

Gerber-

Thank you. So far so good. The one piece that is giving me concern is that tabling acro that you see on the new frag plug. Its a hard to keep coral and I have been having heat and nitrate issues. Each day I check for polyp extension (which is my gauge of coral happiness) and so far so good. Good to know that about the paly's... I didn't realize they were so popular. They just looked cool to me with a good color to them so I picked them up.

Corlione-

Cheers mate. You are the Gold Standard in my book when it comes to Helfitch care! Not so much stupid as he is frustrating. Now the clowns on the other hand... That's stupid! I know I am going to wake up one day to seeing one of them half in the mouth of that open brain. Sigh.

Yep. Thats a Tyree Red Watermelon in the foreground. I got tired of waiting on Phixion to frag his so I tracked down a decent price on one. No bloody way was I going to spend $$$ on a bloody one eyed ###! What a joke!

Just like with acans people don't realize that if you feed the darn things they grow quite quickly. See my Alien Eye in the clam photo for reference. Thats about 4ish months growth. 50 nm food particulate blown on them for the smaller eyed ones and pellets/PE Mysid for the larger mouthed ones.

Some growth stuff...





Was this:


Now this:


Was this:


Now this:


What the hell is this thing? Anyone? Its gorgeous though.


Was this:


Now he does this. And he pulls everything on himself. Including the clam. Who is growing but not happy about it. Hopefully this shelf will fix the problem.



My little buddy...

Fantastic pics, UH. Love the comparison shots, but the pic of the jaw's head peeking from behind the green zoa colony is priceless.

Thank you AP.

And now for the news...

So I (acting the complete reeftard) put a fish in my tank that I *KNEW* I should not have but my 4 year old *REALLY* *REALLY* *REALLY* wanted (his words). After two weeks of not seeing it and realizing that if it had gone into the rocks and died my CUC would be like birds picking at an elephant in terms of making it go away before it fouled my tank and even though my NH3 and NO3 were zero but my NO4 was 20 I started to worry about it....

... And proceeded tonight to completely rip apart all of my rock work and take every bloody stinking piece out of the tank looking for it only to find that it had magically disappeared completely from the tank! Of course I now have a dogs breakfast on my hands in terms of my rockscape...

... Which means its off to the races! Gone is my lovely (in my eyes) half moon lagoon, blasto island, and the like and in its place is allot of rocks piled on each other, a mass of very very pissed of corals and a jawfish who is neither speaking to me or anywhere to be found...

... I did a 40% water change (that dropped the bloody tank temp from 78 to 74.5 because stupid me forgot to plug in the heaters), slipped a new polyfilter in, and dropped the mega sized turn raw sewage dumped out of the local chemical processing plant and pissed on by cows with e coli a bad case of the runs and syphilis into crystal clear bright sparkling filtered spring water bag of chemipure elite in the sump...

... So all thats left to do now is pray and hope I don't have too much die on me.

Oh yeah and all that spiffy growth... Yeah... About that... Snapped the bloody pieces right off the bloody things I did!

Quick update: Found the jawfish. He just flipped me the bird and told me I should be sleeping with one eye open from now on because he's gonna get all kinds of medieval on my arse for this stunt I just put him through...

That joker colony is impressive. I really like your magicians too. They're my favorite palys.

WOW! I hope that everything comes out well for you and your tank. While the story is most upsetting, you tell it in a way that makes me laugh!!!

1337TANKHAX-

Thank you. But... Er... Which colony...? I have two and they are both about that size. Grow like bloody weeds if you feed them...

Spanko,

Thank you brother. I am glad I could make you laugh. I try to keep my sense of humor even in the middle of a really big cockup. Anything in there you would like a frag of? As soon as things stabilize I am going to be parting allot of stuff out because I ether have too much of it or its gotten too big. Weetie is on the hook for some Tubs if she ever gets off the bloody dime and lets me know she's ready (looks at Weetabix )

Thanx for the offer kind sir, but my tank is at the point where I have to control myself and let it grow for a while. I may have it overstocked as it is, but who looks into the crystal ball to see what will become when it involves buying coral????????

Not for sale Spanko. All you do is cover the shipping.

Awesome,awesome,awesome tank! Love the pic!

nice tank

Cheers guys. Now for a bit of confession... I am a reeftard <AGAIN> because...

That big fish was a shark. Specifically it was a recently hatched Indo Bamboo aka cat shark Chiloscyllium Hasselti. It was 5" +/- and it was eating from my hand for the fist few days. Eating PE Mysid. Other fish left it alone.

<ducks> The *PLAN* was to keep it for a bit, feed it up, then give it to a buddy who both wanted it and had a tank big enough for it. Makes the boy happy and makes sure that the fish doesn't end up suffering. That was the plan at least...

What caused me to spaz about it was that their skin isn't like that of other fish so its breaks down allot slower than other fish which means longer and greater spikes in the various nasties. Ergo my frantic search for it. Plus my CUC trying to handle something that big is darn near impossible without really screwing things up. My guess is it managed to leap from the tank. I just haven't found it yet.

I am pretty pissed with myself for doing it in the first place. And I had a long (for him) talk with my son about it. I told him I had made a mistake and that I was sorry to the fish for doing it. He did another one of those things that just blew me away...

Out of the blue he asked "Did you mean to hurt the shark, daddy?"

I said "No son. But I did know better and shouldn't have done it."

He said "Its ok Dad. God forgives you."

Out of the mouths of babes!!!!

I want your tank. How much did just the tank and stand run you with the starphire?

Well dangitall, I don't have a stable place I can put it yet!!!
I just have my Pico, which it wouldn't fit in, I don't think.
The other stuff I have is still trying to recover from the mess with the 30g tank and it's gonna be a lotta work and a long road before it's stable again.
I suppose I could try to fit in in the 10" cube, mebbe, if I gotta....
Sry, things have been a little rough for me aquatically speaking too.
Sry to hear of your troubles Sir, here's hoping the recovery is much quicker and simpler than you expect.
:fingers crossed:

LOL Carson your I love your storys!

As sad as it is for the chark, it's moments like that with your on that make it all worth it! He's definitely a clever and smart boy!!

Tank and stand together were $850. Tank was $700. Feel free to PM me and I will send you a to scale PDF of the design so you can take it to your local tank maker.

Weetabix-

Its ok love. When you're ready. I feel your pain though. Fast is slow in this hobby and thats hard for me to deal with! I am constantly saying "Thank you Jesus for teaching me patience and humility" with this bloody hobby!

As to the Pico... It's about a 2" x 2" frag thats ready to go...

Or if BibleSue has room perhaps she can hold it for you and or split it with you since as I recall you guys are close to each other, good friends, and have a side business together. Also if Fossi is close I owe him some replacement stuff for stuff that didn't do too well in his tank...

Cheers K.Tran. Gotta keep the sense of humor else you go round the twist as I see it. I just need to keep a better reign on my hubris.

Thank you Phixion. Doesn't change the fact that I am responsible for the health and happiness of the animals under my care and I have a duty not to do stupid things. Your comment does help though.

And lastly an update...

Parameters are 0 on the really bad stuff and 20 ppm for nitrates which is lower than I expected but will mean 20% water changes for about 3 days which is ok by me.

Most important though is everything seems to have survived the sudden shock. Everything is extending polyps and/or is puffed up so its a net win in my book.

And in the news... Hooking up the Tunze Nano Wavemaker right now and of course my clowns decided that it was the *PERFECT* time to start laying eggs and bumping uglies!!! Of course they are also finished and acting like :whistle: right after I got back up stairs with a camera! Little pikers! I am turning off one of the vortechs and giving the Tunze a try. Thank you SoCal Tropical for your black friday pricing!

Oh and I discovered a near fatal flaw in my plumbing engineering. Seems I forgot to add in a ball valve to the skimmer feed. So when I use my water change system it floods the skimmer and floods the floor. So instead of 4 things to do to finally finish the tank I now have 5. Sigh.

And I think I found my nitrates problem. I just drained my sump and came up with a 1/4" of gunk all over the bottom of the bucket.

Its been about a month since my reaquascaping adventure and I finally got around to taking some photos...

New 'Scape:


That unknown SPS I got (anyone for an id?)


Pink Lemonade from Eric the Reefer


The Blue Staghorn that lost 2" off its tips. You can see the regrowth on it.


And finally some new zoa's I picked up at the local frag swap. I know the back one is AOG but not sure of the one in the foreground... Anyone?


And some old and new friends. Specifically the solar fairy wrasse. The <dirty words> jawfish continues to move around the tank. Its no longer fun playing the "Oh $HIT! Did he jump!?! Oh! There he is!" game with him.






I really need to get a life! My cleaner shrimp (Jacques) loves to hop out of no where and start picking at any cuts or dead skin. Startling at first but kind of fun after a while. He also eats from my hand.



In other news I pulled out both the MP40's and switched to an MP10 with a Tunze Nano Wavemaker. I am pretty happy with the flow I have now and the Tunze is really there for battery backup water movement incase of power outage. Its on Reef Crest full mode. Seems to do the trick. And the wave is nice. Sat for about 3 hours the other night just staring at the aquarium. Something I haven't done in a very very long time.

nice sps

Very nice UH. I like the new scape. Did the pink lemonade come that encrusted over the plug, or has it grown like that since being in your tank?

Thank you Mew and Spanko. Spanko, it came from this:

Very nice!!!! Do you know about how long it took to overgrow the plug like that? Inquiring minds need to know.

It took a bit longer than it should have due to various "issues" I had. About 6 months or so IIRC.

Very nice new pics, UH! Hey, do you happen to have any FWE by any chance?

those zoo's are cats eyes in front of the aog and i love that asua scape really nice

Your tank is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i LOVE that Cleaner Shrimp! That is very cool how he eats from ur hand.

Really nice SPS and zoos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry mate... I don't. Never had cause (knock on wood) to need it...

fiddly_foo-

Thank you. Good to know. I think of them as pink with green centers. But seriously it is good to know.

animalmaster6-

Thank you.

As the title says... Off to the races again!

Today is the BIG MOVE day where the Pro's From Dover come in, tear down my main tank, move it to the new house, set it up again, and re-aquascape it for me. Why am I not doing it myself you ask? Because *EVERY* time I do a rescape or move I go through hours of wailing and gnashing of teeth so its worth it to me just to pay someone to do it!

50% of my SPS went over to two holding tanks last night and the rest as well as all the other corals and fish will go this morning.

Holding tanks are 1 24" x 24" x 12" AIO frag farm tank with a Vortec MP10, Mag 3 return pump with Hydor Flo, Tunze 9002 skimmer, Chemipure Elite bag, and two sets of TEK 24" 4 bulb T5's and the other is the new JBJ Nano Cube 28 LED with two bags of Chemipure Elite and a filter sponge. Preliminary PAR readings on the LED's put them at 375 4" below the water line which is right in line with a 150w MH which is nice and the color is akin to a 14k Phoenix.

I just couldn't figure out how to get the Rio 600 for the CPR Fuge with built in skimmer into one of the return chambers without removing one of the return pumps so if anyone has any suggestions on how to do that it would be a big help!

I also discovered I have some kind of ghost shrimp/lobster living on one of my SPS colonies. It was totally clear and the reason I say lobster is that it had pincer's like a lobster.

Hopefully nothing dies!

Ah may luck be on your side my friend. I hope all goes well!

Good luck!!!

Cheers guys! So far so good! SPS are extending polyps and LPS/Softies are all inflated.

Lost my Hawkins E. colony in the move and Edison <dirty word> up! But so far that's the only fatality <knock wood>.

Bloody Gob's came over without word one, shut off my power, updated my bloody meter to a "Smart Meter" and giggled off into the sunset while holding hands. Tripped the GFI plug so the SPS tank was without heat or water movement for 24 hours in 40 degree weather.

*SO FAR* everything else has made it and is back in the old tank. Some stuff browned up a bit though.

And I am now without sand. I think it actually looks cleaner.

One from the mildly disturbing yet funny to watch...

My male clown, who is a full 2" smaller than my red strip Anthias, is dominating the Anthias. The Anthias who, until about 3 days ago, was king of the tank. To the point where my larger female black clown was afraid of him.

I am guessing, since both of them are attacking me as well and actually drew blood today (the male did it and its usually the female), it seems they have settled in and laid another clutch of eggs because the female is guarding an area constantly and the male chases all other fish away from that area. A behavior I only saw when they were spawning and had a clutch of eggs on a rock.

And the one from the troubling and bizarre is that 95% of my SPS have shown amazing growth and re-coloration as have my Ricordia Yuma paly's/zoa's since the tank move but my a couple of my Blastomussa and some Acans have bit the dust. This is why its bizarre and troubling. I would expect SPS to brown up due to excess nutrients in the water which would be why the zoa's are growing like mad but that isn't the case.

I just cleaned the tank and did a 33% water change but will try to shoot some photos tonight if I can and things re sprout.

Oh and of note I have had *MASSIVE* green algae on the glass so I know my water is craptastic but I haven't been testing (BAD ME) but instead doing weekly 33% water changes and adding CaCO3/Ca in old dosing pattern (again BAD ME!). No supplements like Zeo or anything else.

*AND* I have been using Sparklett's Distilled Water (TDS is present regardless of what you think) as top off water since my garage has been drywall hell for the last few weeks while I have brought it back up to fire code. So I am sure drywall dust has gotten in the tank as well.

Fortunately I am half way through trying to stuff 10 lbs of crap into a 5 lbs bag (we moved from an 1800 sq ft house to a 1250 sq ft one because of the schools) so this week my goal is to have my controller operational again and my RODI unit up and running.