Arkayology Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Heheh. The tank is 2 years old now woohoo. I took some pics, I just have to post them. I will! Glad to hear it! I knew you still trolled around the site. You need to post more! Link to comment
violinist Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 Another extended absence on my part... I've been a busy guy and the tank doesn't hold quite the fascination after two years as it once did. Still think it's great, still excited to watch things grow, but it definitely doesn't get the level of energy poured into it that it once did. Just been focused on other things... Forgive an off-topic line or two. The fat boy on the left is me. The guy on the right is also me minus a hundred pounds, minus a 20 year smoking habit, minus a steady drip of caffeine day in and day out, minus cholesterol meds. Got tired of looking and feeling like ####, taking pills and generally wondering when my heart would detonate in my chest. Hundreds of miles of biking and running and a lot of weightlifting put an end to all that, and things are great. The tank and other hobbies have sort of been on autopilot, but I'm where I want to be and just maintaining it now so maybe the hobbies will go back to getting some more attention. At any rate, the tank is two years old! Wow, older than my youngest dog and it hasn't nuked on me yet. So what's new... I've been down to two fish for a while. The 6-line who I've had for a year or so (astonishing in itself given my run of luck with wrasses) and a bicolor blenny who has also been around for a fair amount of time. Maybe since last spring or summer. The tang I had ended up doing next to nothing for the algae problem I had last year so I gave him away. Sort of sucked because the tang and the 6-line made a really cool pair - bff fish of a sort. Two fish is a no-brainer in a tank this size, and the fact that they are doing well says more about their hardiness than my husbandry. I also ended up removing the remora skimmer last fall. The maxijet pump started to konk out on me and I was fairly certain that the skimmer itself was the source of my algae issues. I replaced the pump with one of the new maxijet pumps and the skimmer became so unbearably loud that I ended up just ditching it completely (this tank sits in my home office). From talking with some folks, the noise was because the new maxijet was signaling its flow was obstructed. That's a problem I'm sure I can overcome with either a new pump or a different brand, but to be honest I've noticed no detriment at all from running skimmer-less. Would I go back to keeping 4-5 fish without a skimmer? No. But with just these two little ones it's been just fine and is one less thing to clean. In other livestock news, my fireshrimp died. I had him for a very long time so it was a bummer when a couple days of 'the shrimp is hiding' turned into a long time of wondering who ended up eating his corpse. When I went through the algae problem I started mag dosing to get over it and I think he was a casualty of the process. There are actually a couple things I'd like to do with this tank in the near-term. First, I still have the nice marco rocks from the hex-o-death sitting downstairs (yes, the hex is still running with no inhabitants just to keep the rocks seasoned...). I'd like to get those into this tank and also add quite a bit of additional sand in. The sandbed has gotten pretty anemic these days after years of a little bit here and there being scraped out for one reason or another. I don't even see many worms in it anymore which is probably not the best. Alright, wall of text over. Here's what you came for (not the best, but snapped some one morning before work): Little chip of the leng sy cap I mounted in this tank back in February 2010 after inadvertently fragging a piece off in the hex. That was a chunk about a quarter the size of a dollar bill at the time. This guy's a grower: It spans the width of the tank now and has formed these large cups everywhere. I had to break off a large chunk from the top of it in order to move a rock it had cemented in place, and soon I'll have no choice but to frag off the cup that is almost touching the front of the tank (This might be the catalyst for starting new with the marco rocks...). The blenny generally hangs out in the monti. You may remember the little FS on the right below. This pic is from August 2010 The FS on the left is the one in the back of the top-down shot below. The little guy on the right is now on the front of those rocks and has grown like a weed. This is a good shot for checking it out, when it's just begun to inflate as the sun hits the tank And it's not done yet. When the heads are fully deflated, you can see new heads sprouting up all over the stalks: The yuma ricordia have also done very well. For the longest time they just slowly grew larger, then one day I noticed a baby underneath one of the larger guys. Within a couple of weeks there were 5 baby yumas and they've all grown nicely. Each is about the size of a quarter now, and I managed to move two to a small piece of rock and put them on the other side of the tank. Here are three of the new ones below one of the originals A closer shot from when they were newer (and I still had some algae growing in there) The proud papa (mama?) And the other two baby ones after I moved them Still got this ric as well. Always looks like it's about to split, never actually splits. Lazy bastard. Shrooms everywhere in this tank. And I mean everywhere. Look behind a rock or in between rocks, even in the darkest little cave and without fail there's another shroom hanging out in there. The blue ones I've had since I started the bc8 before this tank. The blastos have also been around since the bc8. There are a lot of new heads on the thing but for some reason it never grows off the plug. I'm not sure how the thing continues to grow at all since most of its heads are hidden beneath the large ones when it is all puffed up. This digi is still around too and has grown a lot, though if anything defined slow-growth it would have to be a digitata. Still have the gonipora and aveopora also, both are doing quite well. Thought I had a pic of both, but apparently not: For the heck of it, here are top down shots of both sides of the tank taken in the morning: In addition to the fireshrimp. the algae took out all my other sps. In the spirit of cruise-control, I just haven't spent a dime on anything in such a long time that replacing them never happened. When I look back through all the pictures of the tank, I think I really miss those zoa colonies. Any new adds might start taking things back in that direction. Thanks for checking things out! Link to comment
Arkayology Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Wow, quite the update. I'm glad that you have gotten yourself in a healthy state. I do hope that you find a new interest in the tank soon and get it running where it once was. Link to comment
Squared Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 very nice update hopefully this tank will be around for many many many more years...now that i say that, i wonder what the longest running SW system is.. Link to comment
knoxvegas Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Thanks for the update. I've always followed this tank. Congrats on the health overhaul, that is some very major accomplishment! Link to comment
FlCandy Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Congrats to you on the big life change! And on the tank! You both look so healthy! Link to comment
violinist Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 i wonder what the longest running SW system is.. Not sure. I remember reading a thread on another board about a guy whose tank had been running over 20 years... Link to comment
Dendroguy Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Holy crap that mandarin is skinny! Link to comment
Asureef Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Those mushroom shots are fintastic, love the lighting in these photos as well. Link to comment
violinist Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 I finally tore down the hex o' death today, after keeping it topped off and heated (and empty) for far too long. All that is left is a hex shaped indention in my basement carpet. Besides just being irritated at watching it serve no purpose for so long, I also wanted to rob it of its heater and one of the marco rocks as well as most of its sand. The 20L's sandbed had become pretty anemic looking as bits and pieces had been scraped out over time. A couple of fair size chunks of rock were also covered with colonial hydroids, so it seemed easier just to pitch them and stick a replacement piece in than to mess around gluing over them. The heater from the hex is large, 150w if I remember correctly. If it ever goes on the fritz things will go from warm to nuked damn fast, but the little heater I've had in the 20L for a couple years has started blinking constantly lately and even though the temp has been fine I just didn't feel comfortable with it. Anyway - took the opportunity to also do some rescaping of the tank and then liked how it looked so much I went out and bought a couple of new zoa frags to toss in. Also bought another fire shrimp. Hope this one is as long lived as the last... Ran an ac70 for a few hours to clear it up after adding in all the sand. Pics are ok, but things are still settling down some. Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 VIO! Please. Update. More. Frequently! I love this tank! Glad to see the the tank is looking good. Also glad to see that legendary goni still doing well Link to comment
CarrillXXP Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Mother of pearl look at that Monti! Link to comment
Jacob042426 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Mother of pearl look at that Monti! Oh mother mercy look at that Monti! Holy moly look at that Monti! Link to comment
violinist Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yeah that monti started off as a little chip a couple inches wide. Another bonus of moving things around is it got some more growing room and I won't have to bust it up (as soon). Link to comment
violinist Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Hmmm... Tank temp a cool 72 degrees this morning. The big heater that had been running in the hex for so long apparently decided to crap out now that there are lives depending on it. Got some craptastic fluval (non-submersible) heater in there for now till I can hit a store while running around for work this morning. Thanks for the compliments. Funny how a little sand and shuffling some rocks around makes it feel like a new (and more interesting) tank. Link to comment
Markushka Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I'm glad to see this tank still up, its looking as awesome as ever. (first thread I checked on nr since when I left last may btw) Link to comment
violinist Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 I'm glad to see this tank still up, its looking as awesome as ever. (first thread I checked on nr since when I left last may btw) You join the military or end up in college? Link to comment
TheNordCelt Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 V your back! looking good man. Link to comment
Markushka Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 You join the military or end up in college? I'm at Rutgers majoring in Plant Science, and maybe a chem minor, or a Marine Bio major, depends on how long they make me stay. I liked smoking weed and thinking for myself too much to join the navy, so I kept going to school lol. Link to comment
Arkayology Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 I'm at Rutgers majoring in Plant Science, and maybe a chem minor, or a Marine Bio major, depends on how long they make me stay. I liked smoking weed and thinking for myself too much to join the navy, so I kept going to school lol. Good plan lol Link to comment
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