My Rebounding Reef

[revaltion131]

An update on the return pump: I knew I had a couple big bristleworms (4"-6" in length) hanging out in the converted second chamber and one slipped through the bottom drip plate and ended up clogging up the pump. As you can imagine, it was a...fun time cleaning out the pump...

[PodRod]

Geez - that must have been a big bristle worm! I bet that was fun to clean up. Your tank is looking good and I really like those rics...

[archx]

I like those rics too. I ordered some through sealife, but I entered the wrong city for my address and the package got returned to sender.

 

sealife has some good prices so I'll probably try again.

 

nice looking tank!

[revaltion131]

Thanks guys! PodRod, I had some 6" worms hanging out in the main tank that were starting to get after my mushrooms, so I used them as bait for a trap (they are still attached to the piece of LRR they came on) and it made it easy to get them and relocate them. The worm got sucked into that ring that goes around the piece that adjusts the direction of flow on the pump. I had to get in there with a flathead screwdriver and get it out that way, like picking pebbles out of the treads on a running shoe. It was disgusting.

 

I got the ric from the same place I've gotten the mushrooms, zoas, and my bird's nest. If I weren't doing some technical upgrades, I'd go back and snatch a good looking blue ric he has.

 

On those upgrades, I'm waiting and am going to do the powerheads first, then save and just buy a new Outer Orbit. After reading reviews and hearing the opinion of an LFS owner I trust, I'm going to save and go with the Tunze 6025 and get two of those. The light will be the 24" 250w HQI/T5 VHO version of the Outer Orbit.

 

I like those rics too. I ordered some through sealife, but I entered the wrong city for my address and the package got returned to sender.

 

sealife has some good prices so I'll probably try again.

 

nice looking tank!

 

I haven't checked out Sealife before, so I will have to do that. Marine Garden has some good looking blues with neon green mouths I like.

[PodRod]

ha ha - I can just see you picking out that bristle worm! As for the two tunze 6025's - you'll be happy with them. That's what I use and the flow in the Solana is perfect! They seem a little strong at first, but they do weaken a little once they get acclimated (or gunk-ed up).

 

As for Sea Life, I buy from Ken as well. He is great to deal with and his rics are nice-sized, colorful and reasonably priced. I've been happy with everything I've got from him.

 

That bird's nest is starting to look really good...

 

Did you make your signature banner? I like it!

[revaltion131]

PodRod -- Thanks, I did make my signature.

 

First, on the technical goodies, I'm keeping the Koralia Nano I already ordered and I'll use it for mixing water. I'm getting my Tunze from an LFS, but he has to order them so it'll be a couple weeks, but that's fine, I don't have anything that's hurting for flow now that my pump is unclogged.

 

Anyway, I've had some fun with pictures. First, I finally got a picture of the hitch-hiker that's been in my favia plug for awhile now. I may ask for an ID in the right place, but it'd just be for the sake of knowing the name. It seems pretty harmless, and it's a very cool little bugger to watch. The pic is a few days old, and I did get rid of the air bubbles that were forming on the underside of the coral and on the plug.

 

 

Here is a pic of the tiny little zoa that came along on the LRR my ric is on. It's the best pic I've gotten so far for color. The polyp really is no bigger than a pinhead. I'm hoping it stays purpley-blue as it grows, if it grows.

 

 

I got a shot of the bird's nest I'm pretty happy with.

 

 

I've been trying to get a good pic of the harlequin in his lair with a star, but it's pretty hard to get him in focus, for whatever reasons. Also, he had his first molt (in my tank) a couple days ago. Here's the best I could do for a picture. The lights are off, so all of the corals are closed up. Unfortunately, the shot's with a flash.

 

 

And to close out, more fishy pics!

 

[iglowce]

nice tank....

 

 

quick question, doesnt harlequin eat starfish?

[revaltion131]

nice tank....

 

 

quick question, doesnt harlequin eat starfish?

 

Thanks. And yep, as you can see in the above, poorly-focused picture, he's working on a star. They drag the stars off to their little "lair" and flip them upside down, then do away with the critter. The star doesn't actually die until the shrimp does fatal damage to the area of the star's mouth. They don't have nervous systems, so they can't feel anything, but since they're upside down, they can't go anywhere either.

[revaltion131]

Alrighty. Got my light yesterday and it is hooked up. Everything's doing well so far. I guess I expected the change to be a bit rougher on the tank's inhabitants. I'm betting the powerhead change will be a big deal for them, though. My gph will be going up by over 1000, so that'll be a big deal.

 

Anyway, here's some pics (none of the fixture though, need to turn it around so the cords are coming out of the back...). By the way, when I said some pics, I meant a ton. There's a new addition I couldn't pass up, and he cost as much as the powerheads will, which is why I don't have them yet. He's been here about ten days so far, male Pylei Fairy Wrasse.

 

We'll start with some pics with the actinics on only, and unfortunately one pic with flash. The color on the picture of the ric does the color it lights up to with the actinics no justice. It's an orange bright enough to be used to direct taxiing aircraft in the middle of the night.

 

 

For comparison:

 

 

BN macros:

 

 

I haven't been able to get a good picture of my toadstool for a long time because it's kind of in a spot where it's hiding and for whatever reasons, I just can't get decent focus. Here's the best I've been able to get in awhile. The new lights seem to really bring out the green on the polyps.

 

 

I'll close out with some pics of the harley and the fish. The actinics really seem to bring out the pygmy's bright blues without having to have the flash on to really get them. It's nice: her blue edging is brilliant without reflecting off of the scales on the main part of her body, like the flash does. I haven't been able to get an in-focus shot of the pylei displaying without the flash on yet, so there is a blurred one for color comparison.

 

[revaltion131]

Have not updated in quite some time, so here we are.

 

First, I finally got my powerheads taken care of. I'm slowly phasing them in, so as not to shock anything. My clown acts like he's dying everytime I just clean out my return pump, so he's the one I'm primarily concerned with. In the lighting, I really didn't like the stock 10K; it burned the BN in a hurry and had everything else looking pretty peeved as well. I took some time looking, and decided on a 20K Coralvue. I love it.

 

Here's some pics.

 

From the left and right before I hooked up the first powerhead:

 

 

Corals:

 

 

And fishies:

 

[JDigital]

have you considered keeping 4-5 starfish in a refuge? and just cut a leg off to feed to your harlequin, instead of tossing the full thing in? That way you can cycle thru the stars for feeding, and when you get back to the first the leg should grow back by then... might be cheaper in the long run..

[revaltion131]

have you considered keeping 4-5 starfish in a refuge? and just cut a leg off to feed to your harlequin, instead of tossing the full thing in? That way you can cycle thru the stars for feeding, and when you get back to the first the leg should grow back by then... might be cheaper in the long run..

 

In my case, it wouldn't be, and might cost more, anyway. Most people just do that with CC stars, for more reasons than one. My shrimp won't touch them. Having four to five sand-sifters in a fuge would just end up with them dead in a matter of time, anyway. Also, my little guy goes through full stars in less than two weeks, so there's a good chance I'd run out of legs before they grew back, especially with sand-sifters in a 'fuge that would be too small to support them in the first place. But yes, I have considered it, and thank you, hope that didn't come off as defensive. It's just not pratical to have a 70+ gallon fuge for a 34 gallon tank.

[JDigital]

In my case, it wouldn't be, and might cost more, anyway. Most people just do that with CC stars, for more reasons than one. My shrimp won't touch them. Having four to five sand-sifters in a fuge would just end up with them dead in a matter of time, anyway. Also, my little guy goes through full stars in less than two weeks, so there's a good chance I'd run out of legs before they grew back, especially with sand-sifters in a 'fuge that would be too small to support them in the first place. But yes, I have considered it, and thank you, hope that didn't come off as defensive. It's just not pratical to have a 70+ gallon fuge for a 34 gallon tank.

 

I completely forgot the size of your tank when I was typing up my question! lol ... your right, that wouldn't work..

[revaltion131]

I completely forgot the size of your tank when I was typing up my question! lol ... your right, that wouldn't work..

 

It would work, I just don't have room. =/ If I did I'd go all out and attach that 70 gallon 'fuge to a 240g reef.

[revaltion131]

For once, my shrimp didn't get his star right near his lair, so I had time to snap some pics. While there's no gore, if you like starfish, you may not want to look at these.

 

[revaltion131]

I took some pics of the corals eating tonight, first time I've used silversides. I gave the hammer a whole one, the frogspawn got half, and the acan, favia, and hermits ( ) got a 3rd of the other half that was given to the frogspawn.

 

 

Now I got a great "head shot" of the wrasse, but what you don't see is that he's up after his bedtime and eyeing the favia's food, which is a whole two inches in front of his face. I caught him red-finned stealing it from the favia a few minutes later. Needless to say, the favia did get a new piece of food. I needed to make sure it ate, as it looks like it has a little bit of damage on one side that I might have done while cleaning things.

 

 

I also got a green palau sinularia/nepthea, ie green kenya tree, locally this week. Here it is after being acclimated and having the lights on for the first time.

 

 

Starting to open.

 

 

It looks great now, so I will have to get a good pic when it is open tomorrow.

 

Here's a neat hitch-hiker sponge that started to show up about a month ago. Unfortunately, the increase in flow when I added the powerheads seems to have torn it up, so it is no longer there. Happily, it did not cause any water quality issues.

 

[Sexy Shrimp]

I didn't realise hammers mouths opened enough to fit silversides in! My have just been having mysis... How do you get them to take it?

 

Nice looking tank by the way. Can't believe I have missed it until now...

[revaltion131]

Thanks! I love your set up as well, though I have not posted in the thread. My hammer just has a huge mouth and I took a small silverside. We'll see if it can actually eat the whole thing. It looks like it's a couple of heads of coral, but it's just one mouth that's at least an inch and a half across. I just turned off the pumps and fed the corals like you would a piece of mysis; just dropped the fish onto their tentacles and let them take it. I use tweezers because I don't like the idea of touching dead fish.

[Sexy Shrimp]

You wuss! I'm going to try it. Might try a prawn first though...

 

Your harlequin is soooo cool - I want one! You're worried about touching dead fish but fill feed a harie live starfish lol

[revaltion131]

You wuss! I'm going to try it. Might try a prawn first though...

 

Your harlequin is soooo cool - I want one! You're worried about touching dead fish but fill feed a harie live starfish lol

 

Hehe. I just don't do dead things. It's why I won't kill spiders if I can save the trouble. >.< I would have a hard time breaking off star legs. There's also no blood or guts when you feed the stars, of course there's not with the fish either...but their little eyes...*shudder*. I love the harley as well, and he appreciates the compliments, but he needs a lady. That's in a long line of things I need to get around to buying and neither my LFS nor his supplier has any idea of how to sex them, unfortunately.

 

Edit: Here ya go, open mouth, insert fish!

 

[revaltion131]

Ready to kill the skimmer. It's making strange noises and when I have it turned on, I have all kinds of bubbles flying around in the main tank. If I can't get the issue fixed, I will be ordering a Tunze 9002 this week.

 

Also probably tied in with the skimmer issues, I am having a tougher time than usual with green algae, and also having trouble with cyano. However, it looks like that is receding already, just after a couple of days. Unfortunately, I can't cut back on feeding, because of the wrasse's dietary needs, but my nitrates and phosphates are zero, so I'm not overly concerned.

 

Once my LFS' supplier gets back to him on the wrasse, I will have a female pylei ordered.

 

Edit: Forgot a better pic of the sinularia.

 

[revaltion131]

Pics! Some are bad, camera was not complient. T.T

 

My algae predicament on display! From left:

 

 

From right:

 

 

Bird's nest, that is unfortunately losing some of the brilliant green iridescence.

 

 

Euphyllias:

 

 

Others:

 

[revaltion131]

 

 

*sigh* Alright. Back up after being ill-prepared for a multiple day power outage. First, let me say that I know people have it a lot worse in many areas and we are lucky to have our power back before the

quoted day (Saturday, would have been out for nearly a week). Still, I am depressed and was certainly stressed over the situation with my tank, not to mention work and school. Somehow, the food that spoiled in my fridge and freezer didn't bother me. I'm a lot more relaxed about not eating hot food, though. I could live on bread and peanut butter.

 

First, last week, my beautiful fairy jumped ship despite the heavy lid. I heard a splash but thought it was the annoying sounds the skimmer's been making, and just went back to bed. I should have checked because it probably was the big boy. Saturday, I picked up a beautiful little flasher that the LFS had had for over a month and was doing very well (I'd been scoping him out each time I went in for stars for the shrimp). Unfortunately, he was the first to croak when the power went out. My cherub followed shortly after. Everything else is alright.

 

I was worried about my anemone moving towards the front of the tank (since that's where the light from the window hits it) and starting a chemical war while there was no way to filter the water. Thankfully, he just climbed to the top and stayed in the top back corner. The other thing I was the most worried about was the shrimpy, because it's harder to guage how they're doing than it is the fish.

 

For replacement fish, I am thinking about doing a Midnight Angel, Potter's Angel, or another Cherub. Obviously the Cherub would be fine. I am almost certain the Midnight would be as well, but I need to get more input on the Potter's. I would really like to have one, but it sounds like there may not be enough horizontal swimming room, in addition to the well-documented struggles of getting one to live long-term in captivity. As far as the Pylei goes, I am thinking I will try to find another where I can again do a WYSIWYG purchase on a male and female. There are several different color morphs of the species and of all of the ones that I have seen, the morph that I had is by far my favorite. If I do not do the fairies, I will be looking into setting up the system for a leopard, preferably M.b. bipartitus, or Divided Leopard Wrasse. They are similar to the Mandarins in terms of pod needs, but they also have shipping problems. I am thinking that I would be able to keep it with similar care; training it on prepared foods and then feeding more than just every other day. Other considered options are flasher wrasses, trying to get a second clown (B&W ocellaris or Picasso perc), or maybe a possum wrasse.

[revaltion131]

I ended up replacing my dead fish (did not die of diseases or other causes that would call for waiting to make sure nothing else keeled over) with a Tail-spot Blenny and a Potter's Angel. The angel will be moving on to a bigger tank in a couple of months, either when the target tank matures enough or the angel outgrows this one, whichever comes first. Right now, he is ~1", fat, appears to be healthy, and is slowly starting to show interest in prepared. He tried the nori I had in the tank (blenny shredded the stuff) as well as the mysis I feed. He did eat the cyclops I mix in with the mysis, so that's a small victory. I am hoping that when I feed today, he will suck down some mysis! Here are the pictures.

 

 

I also decided to get a Rainbow Montipora with the two fish, all from the same online store, but so far I'm a bit dissappointed with the color. While the polyps show the proper color, the mat goes from faded to bleached, looking nothing like the vibrant purple in pictures. I'm certain the really white area is stil a result of the fragging, but the rest still looks too light. If it does not color up in the coming weeks, I will probably complain to the website. Here is a picture.

 

 

Here's some other pictures of pre-existing tankmates.

 

 

I moved the favia to some shading, hoping that it will color back up a little and start healing. It has not gotten worse, but its healing is very slow. Also, as you can see in the picture with the acan, the branching GSP is at the point where it needs to be trimmed and that is on my list of things to do tonight during the water change and other maintenance chores. The mat is starting to burn the mushrooms on the left of it, that have rooted to the rockwork and don't seem interested in moving away.

[pprwngs]

I hope your tank makes a full recovery. My brother lives in Kettering and his power was out for 72 hrs. And if yours was the same that's a long time... Well like I said hope it recovers well and your tank looks awesome BTW!