The Jawfish is still in his little house. He just flipped a snail off of his barnacle like, "oh no you don't!" Lol

I went to look for the tailspot blenny in his little hide out... he wasn't there! I immediately noticed him at the front of the tank timidly picking at rocks. He's still dark and showing stress spots... but I guess he's too hungry to worry about that at the moment.

I love the jawfish! I bet he is fun to watch!

I hope the blenny does better.

Thanks Ando, the blenny is still showing stress coloration, but he's front and center now and coming out of his new hole quite a bit.

latest update... I will hold at this stage for awhile. I will be looking for the perfect fixture (20" or possibly 24" 250w HQI w/ 2 T5 fixtures and moonlights). My next project will be creating a mixed zoa rock with 2-3 polyps each of various colored zoas.

So... here are the last shots before I go out of town for a couple of days tomorrow.









spot the blenny?

One last update. BSJ eating dinner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Xwori3tCE

I knew things were going to well. My vortech died tonight, and I leave at 5 am in the morning and return on sunday.... grrr

Is the vortech broken??

Yes... I overnighted an mp40. I won't be able to get to it until sunday

so... you're setting up a ric rock on the left and mixed zoas on the right?

given any though to introducing an encrusting coral?

Planning on any LPS or SPS?

Yes, Yes

no, but now I have, thanks for the thought

Yes, Yes

LOL.

I'm trying to plan everything out in my brain before implementing it.

Well I'm doomed. Decided to attend the two day marine conference being held 3 hours away. Staying overnight. I return home on sunday Which is the day our local club meets. I'm enacting operation "zoo-lander." I'm going to try to land a few colorful zoos between the two meetings.

I picked up 4 nice zoas today. I have to get the peppermints out asap. There will be a lot more stuff to browse today. You should see all of the beautiful SPS frags! a lot of ORA donations and rare frags.



... even more stuff will be available today... sorry for the crappy iphone pic. I forgot my camera. We did a raffle last night. I won some fishfood and a Koralia 4. The rest of the raffle will be continued today. I bought $50 worth of tickets. :greedy:


There was a really good talk on flow in the aquarium last night. A lot of new ideas for better health of corals in the aquarium. I just thought it was going to be about high flow is good, but the speaker went into great depth on why, where, and how to set up flow based on laboratory studies of coral under different amounts of light and flow. Really, really good stuff

This conference has been amazing. The speeches today on buying and breeding Captive Bred fish was very enlightening. There was a spectacular speech on the needs of clams in the tank that went after a lot of myths. There was also a piece on hitchhikers good & bad and dealing with them. My favorite piece was on laboratory findings of PC, HQI, LED, and T5 lighting PAR values at 10" and 18" depths, their graphical light spread, and the little things that dramatically affect light distribution (like using a background on the tank, one big reflector vs. individual reflectors, and more). Every speech was entertaining and interesting.


This evening we had dinner and then participated in a silent auction and finished up the raffle. In the raffles I won 2 deals of fish food, Chlorine remover, Strontium, Alkalinity Buffer, Salfert Alk/CA test kit, Salfert mg test kit, a Koralia 1, a Koralia 4, and a tabling monti. I also won an encrusting monti as a door prize.

The silent auction had some great stuff. I picked up a candy cane, a maxima clam, and a pair of shark nosed gobies. all in all a great event

I wish I had my camera during feeding today! The Jawfish fed from the baster today like he was nursing! totally awesome. The tailspot blenny is still afraid of me... but will be out and about as long as i'm not at the tank. When I'm at the tank, he just pokes his head out. His house is right above the jawfish's.

The zoo rock is also complete :-)... . I don't know the names of all of them. One is a tub's blue and another a dragon eye.

on another note... I came home to see the clown goby sitting up front... I caught him in the net pretty easily before he knew what was going on... but you know what? He got away as I was twisting the net out of the tank! You've got to be kidding me!

Here are the livestock I picked up from the conference I attended. The two montis are not part of the scape and will be removed as soon as I find them homes.




New Candy Cane: won in a silent auction


New Maxima: won in a silent auction


New Sharknosed gobies: won in a silent auction (on the glass in the left corner of the tank)


encrusting monti:won in a raffle, needs to find a home


monti cap: won as a door prize... needs to find a home



New zoas:

Armor of the Gods


Tub's blue


Don't remember their names


I have two others that didn't make the pictures.

Awesome new stuff!!!

Thanks David!

caught the clown goby! maxima is moved to its nook on the rocks.

my naked clowns arrived today... And I don't think I like them as much as I thought I was going to. They are too plain and not as vivid orange as I thought they'd be... Plus... i doubt they will end up hosting anything... which is why i wanted a sw tank in the first place... hosting clowns. I may be on the search for some hosting percs or occellaris soon. someone may be getting a steal on some naked clowns as well.

No, It can't be You don't like the clowns Oh well. Maybe they'll color up when they get settled in.

Update time

So yeah... the clowns... endearing... but underwhelming... I think I'm going to go for some regular or misbarred occellaris. I noticed a major difference in the jawfish in the blenny after adding the clowns. The jawfish is more comfortable leaving his home during dinner time, and the blenny is WAY more adventuresome. I guess the clowns are a dither that make the skittish fish feel more comfortable.


I added a photosynthetic gorgonian and another coral that I don't remember the name of. I think it began with an "L"...




mystery coral



1st Grade ORA Maxima:
He was perched higher in the nook of the rock. He's reoriented himself and has slowly moved down the rock.



Zoas not pictured before:



Gonoipora


Tailspot:

The first zoas are indeed whammin' watermelons- gotta love 'em. And I'm a noob, but I think that the mystery coral is a blasto. HTH, everything looks great. The clowns are cute too

Thanks CL. I'm very happy with how things have gone with the tank.

Bryopsis defeated
Aiptasia defeated
Jawfish is happy w/ his house and stays up front
Blenny's hang out ledge is front and center
Corals acclimated well
Clown goby out of the tank
Hermit out of the tank
No hair algae outbreak
No pests thus far

I may be jinxing myself, but I did not expect things to go this well. Now I just need some clownfish that will host something. These nakeds are cute and comical though.

I have an ORA electric Crocea on order. I have the rock for it picked out already!

My one issue is my skimmer still isn't making skimmate


I was about to post this on PT, but it went down just as I was posting it.

wait, who is this "CL" you speak of?
lol
Awesome stuff! I can't wait!

Hmm, you would think that your skimmer would have plenty of stuff to skim. Maybe it needs more air intake? IDK, I'm no pro on skimmers.

it has a breather tube... it's making bubbles, but they don't rise high enough to in the tube to enter the cup. hmmm...

how long has it been running?
You might need more bubbles, or more flow. Is it a venturi type skimmer?

Late June I think
http://www.shop.sapphireaquatics.com/produ...amp;productId=6

Yeah, adjust the gate valve so that more water flows into it. That might help. If it doesn't, then make less water go into it. Just mess with it until you find the sweet spot.

Your mystery coral is leptastrea

And that frag of magician paly's is awesome. My magicians are my favorite out of my z's and p's.

yeah I hadn't messed with the gate. i'd read to leave the gate all the way open. I'll play with it and see what I get.

That's it! thanks!

I had a tunze skimmer at one time but I had no luck with it. So I sold it. lol

are you running a skimmer currently?

nope. just do a water change a week.

Update:

Everything seems to be doing well. Tank params are looking great. You'll probably notice I'm no longer rimless :-(. It was a good trade off to make sure the fish stayed in and the evaporation stayed down. Some notes on feeding:

The jawfish is relentless with the baster. He owns the baster until he's full. He's really picky with pieces that float by him. If it's something that he doesn't want... he blows it away from him with a puff... comical to watch.

The Clownfish do not like frozen food. They show interest and then they don't even try eating it. They go nuts for hikari micro pellets though.

The Tailspot is the best eater. He's such a good house keeper. He will not poop in his roost. He will always swim away, poop, and then return.

I'd noticed the Jawfish was collecting rubble. I thought i'd help him out by moving all of it in front of his house last night. He hasn't touched any of it since I moved it.

I'm having a hard time finding new, interesting softies and LPS corals. I really want to find 3 more interesting zoas, 2 more multi colored ricordeas, a flourescent yellow torch (LFS was babysitting one for someone but it bit the dust :-( I was hoping for a frag), and maybe some really eyecatching acans, and maybe a plate. I really want this tank to be a mixture of nice colors and textures. The search continues!




Family Portrait! you can see two astreas around the jawfish that were evicted from crawling on his house.


Ric Rock


New Crocea


Zoo Zone. I need 3 more interesting zoas to add


New Blasto


First SPS...

mild rescape today to better incorporate the jawfish house into the scape. I also dropped my brand new acan frag behind my scape. I just didn't feel like tearing the whole thing apart. SUCKAGE!

New Update:

pardon my pictures this go around... my skimmer is spitting out mad bubbles at the moment. The tank looks a little cloudy, but it's all micro bubbles. Added 2 new acans and a sour apple bird's nest. As you can see, I've integrated the jawfish house into the scape. I built up LR around it and filled sand inbetween the barnacle and the LR. The jawfish has been moving rubble all day long.





Overhead:


Right hand side:


Left Hand side:


New Acans and old Leptastrea:


New Zoas (Thanks Big Mac!):


New Birdsnest:


Gonoipora:


Close Up Left side (my last remaining byropsis lives here)


Sweet Hatian Ric (thanks Mac Attack!)


Ric Rock


Mr. Man's new man made digs:


new project debuting tomorrow ;-)

what do you feed your gonni?

mysis, rod's food, cyclops, and some other frozen food i don't remember the name of... lol

looks great! i just got a gonni that isnt in the best of shape... only payed 5$ like 10 polyp things...but its getting better

nice! what color do you have?

heres a pic lol
http://s545.photobucket.com/albums/hh361/c...SC_0003-6-1.jpg
its a little more green in person

I've heard the green ones are the hardest to take care of.

yep.... heard that too.... but hell it was 5$ and the person i bought it from has been keeping them for 3+years. so if i do see it starting to decline ill give it back to him.

i love ur aquascape i just tried to do roughly the same idea but a little more upright for my bc 29. good luck to you

Thank you REEFERBOY. Just checked out your tank, looking really good!

thx i love my new aquascape .....i also love the fact that you burnt your apistasia with a lighter lol.

u have a jawfish too...do you have any pics, i couldnt see him and "his house" in the above pics?

ok i kinda see the house is this made of anything special like tubing ?

I made him a house using this thread. It's pvc. I just recently tarted it up to hide it a little better. It's funny... it's 1:34 am... and he's sitting there looking at me.

I'm considering a pair of Helfrichi Firefish to finish out my fish selection... anyone else have any ideas for something small, peaceful, beautiful, and open water?

You got some of those sweet haitian orange rics too! Are those firecracker zoas? What all did you get from him?

I did! they are angry at the moment. Need to wait for them to open up. I picked up these from Mac Daddy:

Purple and blue rainbow ric
Haitian ric
grateful deads
Lord of the Rings
Orang Bam Bams

Whoa, lucky. I didn't know he had blue rics, or bam bams! Those were both on my wanted list lol

Wow your tank is freakin awesome. i like the different zones! you have a really good livestock selection too.