Diver's Paradise: The Sequel (Vacation Pics pg. 48!)

[FlowerMama]

I loved the pics of the rock flowers. They certainly look like VIP Reef's. I think he shipped a whole bunch that way and that's why the site was down during that time.

[RollaJase]

Looks like you had an awesome time at MACNA and came home with some nice goodies .

[Felicia]

Gena was disappointed by the lack of a FTS, so here's a quick one. Not amazing quality and my glass is a bit dirty, but you get the idea

 

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The derasa is so pretty. So is Lily. That's an impressive cat tower!

I love that derasa. Its growing like crazy! Its getting huge.

 

I ordered Lily the medium-sized Petco cat tower to replace her small one, but they messed up and sent the large one! So Lily got a nice upgrade haha. Luckily it fit in the space I had for it.

I loved the pics of the rock flowers. They certainly look like VIP Reef's. I think he shipped a whole bunch that way and that's why the site was down during that time.

Looks like you had an awesome time at MACNA and came home with some nice goodies .

Thanks, guys!!!

[Zia]

Dayum gurl! Look at all that kandy! Some serious eyegasmic pics! That bta in the center is bananas!

[Felicia]

Dayum gurl! Look at all that kandy! Some serious eyegasmic pics! That bta in the center is bananas!

Thanks, Eddie That's the purple with pink tips BTA, I think...they all color morphed so much its hard to tell haha! That one is a BEAST. The other 3 are smaller. Two of them are around the back of the rock right now and the other one walked down to the base just recently and hasn't puffed up entirely again since moving.

[Felicia]

Omnomnom

 

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[Sk8n Reefer]

I like the look of your tank, nice natural feel!

[gena]

Gena was disappointed by the lack of a FTS, so here's a quick one. Not amazing quality and my glass is a bit dirty, but you get the idea

 

 

I love that derasa. Its growing like crazy! Its getting huge.

 

I ordered Lily the medium-sized Petco cat tower to replace her small one, but they messed up and sent the large one! So Lily got a nice upgrade haha. Luckily it fit in the space I had for it.

 

Thanks, guys!!!

Looks awesome! Your BTAs lost their bubbles .

 

Hey...remember that brain you bought? The one I really like, it's green. Do you have another closeup of it?

[Felicia]

I like the look of your tank, nice natural feel!

Thank you!

 

Looks awesome! Your BTAs lost their bubbles .

 

Hey...remember that brain you bought? The one I really like, it's green. Do you have another closeup of it?

Thanks, Gena. Yeah, the BTA's did that when I switched my light. Weirdly, they seem to not like the Razor compared to my DIY fixture. Not sure what it is. Oh well, they're still fun.

 

You're talking about the symphyllia right? The one that's purple and green with a baby blue center? Its doing well. Its on the sand near the rock with the acans and rock flower nems on the left side of the tank. I didn't get a close up of it this time, but I'll put that on my list for next time

[markalot]

Hmmm,

 

mine (BTA) has some bubbles left but is a little deeper. Well, a lot deeper since I have a deep tank. I wonder if it's light related or not? These razors do have hot spots. I was measuring par tonight and moving 5 inches was showing a difference of almost 100 PAR in some places. I bet your old DIY fixture had a more even spread to it.

 

Your tank is looking great, hope to see more pictures.

[owenj]

That scoly is . Lily is totes adorbs. We have a similar cat tree but it has one house on the bottom (what cat wants to use a floor level house on a 70" tree?) and one in the middle. Nice "little" mistake by Petco

[Felicia]

Hmmm,

 

mine (BTA) has some bubbles left but is a little deeper. Well, a lot deeper since I have a deep tank. I wonder if it's light related or not? These razors do have hot spots. I was measuring par tonight and moving 5 inches was showing a difference of almost 100 PAR in some places. I bet your old DIY fixture had a more even spread to it.

 

Your tank is looking great, hope to see more pictures.

I think it is light related since they changed shape a lot as soon as I changed the fixture. Also, they all started walking around like they were unhappy after the light change. They've all settled again except one, but they don't bubble anymore. So do you think its too high of lighting? Or too low? My DIY fixture definitely had a much more even spread of the lights. As much as I love the Razor, I wish these premade high-end fixtures had more even distribution of the LEDs instead of these pucks they all have. I get so many more shadows this way than when I had all my LEDs evenly spaced over the length of my tank.

 

Thanks! I'll try to keep up with photos more often if I have time.

 

That scoly is . Lily is totes adorbs. We have a similar cat tree but it has one house on the bottom (what cat wants to use a floor level house on a 70" tree?) and one in the middle. Nice "little" mistake by Petco

I do love that scoly. I like that its unique Glad you like it too! Yeah, Lily ignores the lower house on her cat tower too. Really she only likes the top half of the tower. Yeah, I can't complain about Petco's little screw-up. Free upgrade for Princess Lily.

[gena]

 

You're talking about the symphyllia right? The one that's purple and green with a baby blue center? Its doing well. Its on the sand near the rock with the acans and rock flower nems on the left side of the tank. I didn't get a close up of it this time, but I'll put that on my list for next time

Maybe? Name doesn't sound familiar but the color does. I see it all the way to the left in the photo . Oh and I forgot to mention that I can totally see your derasa has grown!!!! It's awesome!!!!!

 

 

you know as far as light and BTAs. Lawnman has T5 which is evenly distributed light and his lost their bubbles too so I don't think it's that.

[markalot]

I think it is light related since they changed shape a lot as soon as I changed the fixture. Also, they all started walking around like they were unhappy after the light change. They've all settled again except one, but they don't bubble anymore. So do you think its too high of lighting? Or too low? My DIY fixture definitely had a much more even spread of the lights. As much as I love the Razor, I wish these premade high-end fixtures had more even distribution of the LEDs instead of these pucks they all have. I get so many more shadows this way than when I had all my LEDs evenly spaced over the length of my tank.

 

I think it's too much light. Mine only moved when the lights in my 46 gallon turned off for 3 days and it moved up. just a bit, then back down once the lights returned. It was never that bright in there. In my 150 by BTA is at the front right which gets about 150 - 180 PAR tops.

[Felicia]

Maybe? Name doesn't sound familiar but the color does. I see it all the way to the left in the photo . Oh and I forgot to mention that I can totally see your derasa has grown!!!! It's awesome!!!!!

 

 

you know as far as light and BTAs. Lawnman has T5 which is evenly distributed light and his lost their bubbles too so I don't think it's that.

Yep, that's the symphyllia brain coral. Its puffy as ever and I love watching that thing eat. Yeah the little squamosa has grown too, but it insists on sitting right behind the derasa, so its always hidden in my photos.

 

Yeah, I'm thinking its an issue of more lighting. I think they bubble in lower lighting and the Razor is more powerful than my old DIY LED. I think the fact that my old LED was more distributed meant the PAR was lower, but more constant over the whole area. With the new LED, the lighting is in three pucks, so there are higher PAR areas in some places than others. The BTA's are right under the middle puck, so I think the lighting much higher for them now.

 

I think it's too much light. Mine only moved when the lights in my 46 gallon turned off for 3 days and it moved up. just a bit, then back down once the lights returned. It was never that bright in there. In my 150 by BTA is at the front right which gets about 150 - 180 PAR tops.

I agree. This light is more powerful that my old light. I could turn it down, but something with the color temp makes the tank look really dark if I turn the intensity down. Its more intense than my old light but looks dimmer for some reason. I know that's just a visual trick that happens with some LEDs, but I don't like my tank looking so dark.

[jedimasterben]

Do you have the wide reflectors or the narrow ones?

[Felicia]

Do you have the wide reflectors or the narrow ones?

I have the narrow ones that are included on the fixture. I wanted to get the wide ones but they were sold out everywhere. I should probably get those at some point and see if they help.

[Felicia]

Ok, so I have some other exciting news (well and bad news too, but let's focus on the good!) but I wanted to wait until I knew the new fish had settled in. Anyways, I picked up an Exquisite Fairy Wrasse yesterday. I know, I know, you're all thinking..."Wait, doesn't Felicia have like 5 big wrasses in that tiny tank now?" Unfortunately...no...I had a few fiascos recently that I didn't want to post about because I was bummed.

 

First, a couple weeks before MACNA, the flasher wrasse that I had had for months and was super healthy and always out and active got a bit too close to the MP10 during feeding time and got sucked in. I've had that MP10 set up as long as I've had the wrasse, so I didn't expect that to happen, but he just got too daring and got a little too close. Anyways, he didn't appear to be very injured, but he wouldn't come out of the rocks for days and then passed away. Ok, so I was bummed, but not much I could do about it. It was just one of those freak fish accidents.

 

Well then the night I got home from MACNA, I needed to get my new corals in the tank, but my lights had just shut off. Well I flipped them back on to see what I was doing and the leopard wrasse spooked and dove down into the sand pretty hard. She wasn't in her usual sleep spot when she did it and she was near some rocks, so I think she hit her mouth on the rocks. Well next thing I know, she would only come out for a few minutes each day (she used to be out all the time during lights on) and wouldn't eat. I think she injured her mouth, which leopard wrasses are prone to doing. Again, nothing I could do and I assume she passed away because she disappeared and I haven't seen for days. I do not even want to get into how upset I am about this. She was by far my favorite fish and had so much personality and was so much fun to watch. But not to dwell...

 

So my tank was lacking half its wrasses and I missed the movement and color, so I decided to try a fairy wrasse since they're colorful, peaceful, and supposed to be pretty outgoing and open water swimmers. I decided to run to a couple local stores yesterday and look at the different fairy wrasses, and I settled on the exquisite wrasse. He's very pretty and he's settled in so well! He was a bit stressed last night, but since lights on today, he's been out and about. I haven't seen any aggression between him and the other wrasses or the other fish, so he seems to be a great fit. He's very pretty so I'm happy with the addition! I'll be keeping my eye out for another small, healthy, leopard wrasse that's eating frozen food, but those seem few and far between.

 

I'll get up a video of the new addition in a bit, but here's a stock photo of one.

 

[Felicia]

Video Time!

[Chris!]

Looking good!

 

Sorry to hear about the other wrasses, don't give up on the leopard tho, if she got spooked that could just be the issue, typically once they are established they are pretty hardy and they don't usually injure their mouths diving into sand, although I suppose it'd be possible with just a think layer of sand but just doesn't seem right.....

 

Did you add any fish recently (around the time/ before the flashers death)?

[Felicia]

Looking good!

 

Sorry to hear about the other wrasses, don't give up on the leopard tho, if she got spooked that could just be the issue, typically once they are established they are pretty hardy and they don't usually injure their mouths diving into sand, although I suppose it'd be possible with just a think layer of sand but just doesn't seem right.....

 

Did you add any fish recently (around the time/ before the flashers death)?

I saw her briefly here and there for the couple days after I spooked her and she wouldn't eat. She started looking skinny and then I haven't seen her since. I think by now she must have passed away. My sandbed is pretty shallow, so I wonder if that was the issue. Its probably only around an inch deep. But I don't know. She was doing great, eating like a champ, and fat. The suddenly she got very shy and skinny and then vanished.

 

No, there hadn't been any fish additions in a long time. Nothing at all had changed. The flasher was chasing food and just got too close to the powerhead.

[Chris!]

I saw her briefly here and there for the couple days after I spooked her and she wouldn't eat. She started looking skinny and then I haven't seen her since. I think by now she must have passed away. My sandbed is pretty shallow, so I wonder if that was the issue. Its probably only around an inch deep. But I don't know. She was doing great, eating like a champ, and fat. The suddenly she got very shy and skinny and then vanished.

 

No, there hadn't been any fish additions in a long time. Nothing at all had changed. The flasher was chasing food and just got too close to the powerhead.

 

Leopards can hide in the sand for weeks without coming out. Its definitely possible she hurt her mouth I just wouldn't rule her completely out yet.

 

Thats weird you musta just had a little run with bad luck, healthy fish don't generally get stuck to powerheads... I run a mp40 on 100% and feed directly over it and no one has any issues even.... stupid fish lol Either way hopefully the new wrasse will work out good and stay healthy for a very long time

[Mirya]

I'm so sorry to hear about your wrasses. I know how much you adored your leopard wrasse. (You've even got me checking them out when I go to LFS now!) I hope your new wrasse settles in well. He is a handsome fish.

 

I have the narrow ones that are included on the fixture. I wanted to get the wide ones but they were sold out everywhere. I should probably get those at some point and see if they help.

 

I have 1 of the wide reflectors for sale in the classifieds.

[jedimasterben]

I have the narrow ones that are included on the fixture. I wanted to get the wide ones but they were sold out everywhere. I should probably get those at some point and see if they help.

They will definitely help out, and in addition will 'brighten' it up as it will have more distributed light.

 

My sandbed is pretty shallow, so I wonder if that was the issue. Its probably only around an inch deep.

People say they need a 'deep sand bed' but they really don't, I've had about an inch, maybe inch and a half in some spots, for a long time and my leopard wrasse is still around.

 

Leopards can hide in the sand for weeks without coming out. Its definitely possible she hurt her mouth I just wouldn't rule her completely out yet.

This. Don't worry too much about it. I didn't see mine for two months in a tank that had about 6" of water and almost no rock.

[Chris!]

People say they need a 'deep sand bed' but they really don't, I've had about an inch, maybe inch and a half in some spots, for a long time and my leopard wrasse is still around.

 

Same here, I have had 5, 4 of which lasted much longer then most and still have one (potters male found a weak point in my screen lid around the return pipe, regular female and ornate male disappeared shortly after my 70 split the seams)..... I add sand to the top of the "black trim" on bottom and they have been perfectly fine with that. My potters female has been with me for over 2.5 yrs now. My male potters was with me for 1.5 yrs, ornate for a year, and regular female was in captivity for over 4 yrs.

 

This. Don't worry too much about it. I didn't see mine for two months in a tank that had about 6" of water and almost no rock.

 

Shipping/ travel is generally their biggest downfall.