40g of no possibilities :(

[vlangel]

I removed all the wierd short caulerpa I had. Too hard to remove once it sets in and would rather not have it take over.

I will post the first 'official' later tonight..

Ok, we will hold you to it! Can't wait to see the first 'official' pic.

[Squared]

2-16-16

 

 

I could not find my algae scrubber, so I just took off what I could with my hand. Water looks a little cloudy because there is nothing to filter it atm, waiting for a check valve from BRS so I can reconnect the sump. The overflow is quite loud as well, probably need to set up a gate valve to turn down the return as well.

 

So yeah over all still a mess, but it's getting there.

 

Also, I love the puffer. I know its only been a few days, but so far I have yet to seem him nip at any coral. No aggression toward any of the other fish, unlike the angel. Good appetite and quite pretty. Hope he stays that way!

[Squared]

Still have the hamlet, posted a FS on socalireefs but nothing yet. LFS won't take him, but I will ask again.

 

Getting a lot of diatoms, as I have been feeding quite a bit. The puffer and angel are pigs. Tomorrow for sure I will have time to set up the sump with the skimmer, that should help a lot.

 

As for the hamlet, I'm still not sure what I want to do-keep offering him FS or take my blenny and chromis the store. He is just that cool a fish. Maybe I could do a sort of predator tank, with the small fish gone I think a fu manchu lion would be really cool.

 

I don't know how long this tank will be up for, but I wonder how long it would take the hamlet to grow big enough to eat the angel and puffer. The puffer will get bigger, but I've had the angel for 2 1/2 years and he has barely grown.

 

Thoughts??

[yoshii]

Sucks about the hamlet

 

They are pretty cool, especially the beautiful sheen

 

Can you get store credit or exchange at your LFS?

[Squared]

Not sure. I paid $25 for it, but I highly doubt I will get that in credit. I've gotta talk to the owner of the store, hopefully he's there tomorrow.

 

Would be nice if I could trade it in for something else.

 

Also, on another note-I think there is something wrong my chromis. Whenever I feed the tank, it constantly darts toward and misses almost all the food it tries to eat. I have to shove the feeding dropper right over its mouth for it to get anything. This has been the case for months now, just never mentioned it.

 

I feed a lot, but because of this reason the fish still looks quite skinny. Not sure what's up.

[vlangel]

Ah, I am sorry to hear the chromis is acting like that. In the past I had some fish do that, a tassle filefish is the main one I remember. I was never able to remedy the problem and he just slowly wasted away.

[Squared]

Looking at it more closely I think the chromis just has poor eyesight, although his eyes look fine. He won't swim away when I clean the glass and he is also very easy to catch with my hands. Still eating, just got to make sure I give him food directly.

 

I was able to trade in my hamlet for a nice looking favia. However, the new coral and most of my other one's don't look too well. I did a water change yesterday and pulled out tons of GHA, had to throw away some macros since they were taken over I'm going to do an iodine dip today for the corals.

 

The only thing I test for is salinity, but I have a kh test kit. I may pick up a calcium and magnesium test kit before things get any worse.

 

Sump is connected, and I reinstated the skimmer, which is working well. Maybe that will help.

 

3-5-16 FTS:

 

[Squared]

tank is a mess with gha and diatoms. i need gfo, and more caulerpa. was never able to get it to settle this time.

[Squared]

Been a while. Chromis died, not really much I could do. From my observations it looks like he went blind. Always at the edge of tank and sometimes at the bottom. Could still tell night from day and would go to the surface for food but had a lot of trouble actually getting anything in his mouth.

 

Algae problem is almost completely gone. The solution was removing all the sand. It stank and had a lot of detritus build up. Just could not find the time to clean it.

 

Looking forward to summer! I now have no excuse to properly monitor this tank, since I'm only taking one class. Hopefully in a few months everything will look better than ever

Also, at this point my tank is not really a 'macrodom' but that is still the direction I want to go in, even without sand. Cladophora is growing really well though.

[Squared]

Took a couple of quick pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

I need to clean my glass, then I'll really try for some decent shots. I'm not really a photography person, and I haven't figure out how to do pics of moving fish. That angel never stops moving. I think my camera can handle it, it's not a DSLR but it is has some options.

 

A few of my coral could benefit from a dip in iodine, also need start keeping track of water parameters again. Bought Ca/Mg test refills so I'll get on that asap. Eventually I'd like a nice acro or two since my lights are pretty strong.

[Cencalfishguy56]

Took a couple of quick pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

I need to clean my glass, then I'll really try for some decent shots. I'm not really a photography person, and I haven't figure out how to do pics of moving fish. That angel never stops moving. I think my camera can handle it, it's not a DSLR but it is has some options.

 

A few of my coral could benefit from a dip in iodine, also need start keeping track of water parameters again. Bought Ca/Mg test refills so I'll get on that asap. Eventually I'd like a nice acro or two since my lights are pretty strong.

thats crazy how all your macros are all gone, I remember when you sold me some dragons breath around this time last year

[Squared]

thats crazy how all your macros are all gone, I remember when you sold me some dragons breath around this time last year

Yep, it really sucks. the only thing that grew well in my 29 was the blue scroll.

 

As the semester went on, I lost interest in my reefs, and eventually GHA took all my pretty macros.

 

Right now, all I have is the scroll, fluffy green stuff, and a little bit of red dictoya that I'm trying to grow out. Puffer thankfully is not interested in the dictoya.

 

Added in another cave to the left side of the tank. I think this will be my final scape for a while. Any thoughts/ideas? It doesn't really look open from the front but there is a lot of space in the back and under the rocks for the fish to swim.

 

 

 

 

 

Water is still cloudy from moving everything around. I need to find a way to use filter floss effectively in the sump, as I do not like cleaning filter socks.

[dpoltsdsu]

How is the Puffer doing? I think they are such an underrated species

[Squared]

How is the Puffer doing? I think they are such an underrated species

He's a great fish, always out and has never shown an signs of aggressive or territorial behavior to my blenny and angel. As far as coral goes, I have not seen him pick at anything, and I even have a few snails in there with him. Pretty sure he ate at least one though. He will also swim around the front of the tank flaring out these ridges on his belly and dorsal side, kinda like a fairy or flasher wrasse. Looks really pretty.

 

Tested my water:

Salinity: 35 ppt

Magnesium: 1300 ppm

Calcium: 410 ppm

Alkalinity: 6-7 KH

 

Dosed some part B, alk has been a bit low. I would like it to be closer to 8, to have some buffer room

 

FTS as of today:

 

[Red_Blenny]

 

As the semester went on, I lost interest in my reefs, and eventually GHA took all my pretty macros...

 

Yea, school can take a toll on your tanks. It almost made me quit a few times but the one biggest thing that kept me around was my fishes.

 

Glad you're still around.

[Cencalfishguy56]

 

Yea, school can take a toll on your tanks. It almost made me quit a few times but the one biggest thing that kept me around was my fishes.

 

Glad you're still around.

yup! This is my reasoning during school haha

[Squared]

I considered downgrading or completely giving giving up, but I did not want to have to sell off my venustus. Such a cool fish, had to keep the little guy. That said it was the coral that caused the most problems. Been a while since I had what I would consider a healthy reef...

 

 

On another note, dosed some more part B as alk was still very low, like 6. I'm using the API test kit, turned yellowish on the sixth or seventh drop.

 

Also had my LFS check phosphate with their hanna checker, and it was 0. Wonder how it fell so fast, even though I removed the sand I didn't change feeding habits and I had the skimmer off. Might explain why my sinularia looks so bad right now.

[Red_Blenny]

I considered downgrading or completely giving giving up, but I did not want to have to sell off my venustus. Such a cool fish, had to keep the little guy. That said it was the coral that caused the most problems. Been a while since I had what I would consider a healthy reef...

 

 

That was my thought; if I quit the hobby, what will happen to the fishes? Will the new owner take care of them well? Will the other fishes in their tank go aggro on them? etc, etc.

[Squared]

New fish! Blackfoot clownfish. The store I went to had another I wanted to get, but wasn't doing as well. This guy ate.

 

 

 

Would it be crazy of me to add a flame angel? LFS (different one) had some really nice small ones, maybe half the length of the venustus. Any thoughts? Maybe a small potters?

[Squared]

No flame angel. Instead, I bought a multicolor! Eating very well and just the perfect size. To people who think I'm crazy for sticking two dwarf angels in a 40, here is why I think it will work:

 

Venustus are one of the least aggressive dwarfs

The multicolor is a different shape, size and color than the venustus

Multicolors are also one of the smaller and less aggressive ones.

 

I don't know how fast flame angels grow, but they are one of the meaner ones. Of course, this is just from research on the internet. But now I'm going to try this multiple angel thing out for myself..

[teenyreef]

Good luck with the new fish! I'll be following along to see how it goes. I'm starting a new 40g tank and I'm always looking for stocking ideas.

[Squared]

I have been trying to be a little different with my stocking choices with this tank.

 

Angel and clown are both eating pellets in QT, hopefully it goes well.

[Squared]

I went back to the store I got the clown from, and bought the other one. He has incredible appetite, although I spotted some ich on his tail and maybe something weird near his head region. Might be nothing, but I'll wait a few days. Plan to treat everybody with cupramine and prazipro, if the clown doesn't develop anything else.

 

Also, my favorite fish store (age of aquariums) had some really nice rainbowish BTA's. 100$. NOPE. I'm out of money now but I was hoping to spend no more than $30 on a nice nem. Now thinking that might not be possible

[Squared]

Took some pics of the QT fish:

 

 

 

 

Everybody has ich, getting cupramine tomorrow, and the test kit will be here via amazon on Monday.

 

I had to separate the clowns as they do not get along. For a while I had fears that the smaller one would not make it as he stopped eating, but he looks better and has eaten a little. We will see what ends up happening. Hopefully I didn't buy two females.

[Squared]

Couple of pics from the QT:

 

 

 

Now at the full therapeutic concentration of copper, everybody looks great and are eating well. The angel stopped eating for a couple of days but that was about it. I decided to go with coppersafe. Also not sure if it was ich or velvet, I am leaning more towards velvet since there were so many white spots but for now they are all spot free.

 

Can't wait to get these guys in the 40, but it's going to be at least 2 more months