Jump to content
Premium Aquatics Aquarium Supplies

Recommended Posts

ECLS Reefer
12 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

Everything is looking good. 😊 I love watching my goby and pistol...... they are so funny. 

I hope these two get up to quirky funny stuff. They only just now bonded, I think because they threw the bristle worms out. 

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix
20 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Oh yeah forgot this— happy tank even with the fish loss.

 

61E51464-A157-49B1-A760-C0CBBD413217.thumb.jpeg.ad551301ae7b1fe08a9f3f6073468201.jpeg

 

FTS, week shy of three months old. 

 

9A4A6E9F-116D-460D-BED5-55C0C04A0DFF.thumb.jpeg.8ae673096be2cdcd0c67318bed3b4b40.jpeg

 

Snappys been growing under his rock- and now he and J Edgar have truly bonded and were hard at work expanding their tunnels, walls and dominion. 

Tank looks really good! And I have a Candycane Pistol too - she was tiny when she first arrived, but now she's huge. I was thinking of pairing her up with a Yasha or another Hi-Fin in the far future, although I have seen quite a number of folks on here having their shrimp paired up to a Watchman. 🙂 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer
10 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Tank looks really good! And I have a Candycane Pistol too - she was tiny when she first arrived, but now she's huge. I was thinking of pairing her up with a Yasha or another Hi-Fin in the far future, although I have seen quite a number of folks on here having their shrimp paired up to a Watchman. 🙂 

Oh yeah the pistol was TINY when we got him. He’s packed on some weight! It’s good to see him and the corals growing- doing something right!

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Sorry to hear about your losses, and your horrible ordeal with the rude LFS staff! That sounds like an awful situation. But upgrading to a 50g is super great and exciting, so that must have buoyed your spirits a bit! 😄 Congratulations on the upgrade; I can't wait to see what it looks like when everything is moved over and put together. What tank did you end up getting?

  • Like 3
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer
40 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Sorry to hear about your losses, and your horrible ordeal with the rude LFS staff! That sounds like an awful situation. But upgrading to a 50g is super great and exciting, so that must have buoyed your spirits a bit! 😄 Congratulations on the upgrade; I can't wait to see what it looks like when everything is moved over and put together. What tank did you end up getting?

I got what I figured was a pretty good deal on Amazon. It comes with the sump and plumbing, an SCA skimmer, the return pump. Some filter/bio media. I plan to move over the equipment from the Evo though, since that was mostly upgraded. Will need a bigger heater, I was told, but otherwise I should have everything save a few more pounds of rock to start it up. I'm pretty excited about it!! More room and flexibility to do stuff.

 

 

SCA 50 Gallon Starfire Glass Aquariums Complete Package 24x24x20" 10mm

 

 

image.thumb.png.50f6147ed8e5293802f1fe1c66dced39.png

  • Like 4
  • Wow 1
Link to comment
StinkyBunny
3 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

 

Everything is looking good. 😊 I love watching my goby and pistol...... they are so funny. 

I couldn't imagine a tank without them.

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Tank looks really good! And I have a Candycane Pistol too - she was tiny when she first arrived, but now she's huge. I was thinking of pairing her up with a Yasha or another Hi-Fin in the far future, although I have seen quite a number of folks on here having their shrimp paired up to a Watchman. 🙂 

I've found that shrimp and gobies will pair with whatever is available. I've had Yasha gobies pair with Tiger pistol shrimp as well as Antenna gobies pairing with Tiger shrimp. I have a HUGE Blue spot goby that's paired with a Randall's shrimp pair. These guys are opportunistic and will pair with what's available as a survival mechanism.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

Got home and tested my tank and jar, and saw the same bump in ammonia in the Evo again!! Then I realized--I'm so stupid! I wasn't cleaning the syringe in between tests and tanks, so the jar was contaminating the Evo results. So, quite possible the Evo is now a bit too clean since I've been chasing a ghost. I fed it mysis and some pellets tonight, and Dangly Bells was given a piece of chocolate star this morning. Evidently she was found trying to climb in the breeder box with the star and scared her poor 9 year old owner to death. He's been through a lot this week losing two fish back to back, and he cares deeply about his fish tank, even if he's a bit young to do all the maintenance (he has asked but I'm not ready to teach him how to be a chemist in my kitchen). Otherwise everybody looks good, and I'll go back to not testing the ammonia and nitrates every day. *WHEW*

 

Still working out the logistics of moving them to a new tank in the next however long, but super excited about it!

  • Like 4
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer
3 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

I was testing my tanks at that age mom. I had 4 tanks and 50 jars full of Bettas to deal with, at 12 I had 20 tanks and 200 Bettas in jars.

You know how it is, orienting new nurses that are fresh? I can do it better, faster and it makes my soul bleed to find the patience to watch him hesitate and possibly mess up. Plus the other factor is little brother who can’t ever be left out of anything— next thing I’ll know they’ll be trying to stab each other with a broken test tube! There’s quite a few semi- Lord of the Flies days with my two.

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Just now, Dirté Sanchez said:

You know how it is, orienting new nurses that are fresh? I can do it better, faster and it makes my soul bleed to find the patience to watch him hesitate and possibly mess up. Plus the other factor is little brother who can’t ever be left out of anything— next thing I’ll know they’ll be trying to stab each other with a broken test tube! There’s quite a few semi- Lord of the Flies days with my two.

 

Time to bust out the conch shell.  😄

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer
3 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

Time to bust out the conch shell.  😄

When they show up in loin cloths and paint I’ll take pictures to prove my case. Some days the little one skips the loin cloth 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️. BOYS. Competitive boys at that. 

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

Yesterday, we set up my new SCA 50g tank with sump. It was a rather harrowing task because my assistant doesn’t like honey-do projects nor putting stuff together, and he had to suffer through both. At the end of it all we got it together and fixed all the leaks, and let it run. 

 

Today I moved the Evo inhabitants over, and their water, and watched as a disaster slowly took place right before my eyes, that I couldn’t fix. Granted, I have to witness this frequently for a living, but as if been doing so well with my little tank, I didn’t expect such horror to occur. I lost all three remaining fish, over the course of about three hours. The Red Baron. Dangly Bells. My corals have been fine the whole time, and it seems the crabs and Snappy at this time will pull thru, as well as all the bumble bee snails and possibly a couple trochus. My son mourned like he’d lost one of our dogs. Truth be told, I was as upset as he, and powerless to fix it. Every parameter checked out okay but pH, which I’ve tried fixing all day. I’m not sure if it’s the new liverock that caused this, or just what exactly. I’m at a loss, with no obvious answers in the water test. 

 

Today is definitely a failure for the books. 😢

  • Sad 2
Link to comment
  • ECLS Reefer changed the title to Nursecop's Brute Squad 13.5g
  • ECLS Reefer changed the title to Le Dirté Brute Squad 13.5g
ECLS Reefer

I should have reactivated this thread a couple of weeks ago, when we broke this bad boy back out and started cycling it up. At any rate, it's been cycling with live rock and live sand, and has been looking good. Today the heater and temp controller for the Pico Cookie Jar died, and killed the ruby red mandarin in the jar. Thankfully we got up fairly early today, and frankly, it's been a day full of bad news. Found out the new kitten does in fact have FeLV, Scooter had died because of being hypothermic, and our older cat is FeLV negative, so the kitten has to find a new home, or worse-be put to sleep. I haven't been able to solve that horrible riddle yet, but I was able to salvage the inverts from the Pico Jar and put them in the Evo. 

 

So, the restart looks like this:

 

Equipment:

Evo XII 13.5g tank with stock light and pump

Evo XII stock hood

Cobalt Neotherm 150W heater

Intank chamber 1 and 2 media holder

 

Media: 

Seachem Matrix

Seachem De*Nitrate

Seachem Purigen

Seachem Matrix Carbon

Intank filter floss

 

Livestock/substrate and live rock:

Carib Sea Arag alive oolite sand, 15lbs

13 lbs pukani live rock

Whatever came on/in the live rock

5 dwarf blue legged hermits

3 nassarius snails

3 banded trochus snails

1 nerite snail

1 Randall's pistol shrimp

1 yellow tail blue damsel

1 true percula clown

1 strawberry crab

1 emerald crab (there's a TON of GHA)

 

Since the shrimp needs a goby I took the chance that Live Aquaria still had green banded gobies and ordered 2. And 5 more dwarf hermits, plus an electric blue and halloween hermit. I also got a small Duncan polyp, which will be the only coral in this tank for now. Just something the clown might like and interesting to watch wave. 

 

I also ordered a new Sicce Syncra 1.0 return pump and a new Finnex temperature controller. I know my bedroom gets cold at night, so I definitely want something that will keep up with the temperature and prevent swings. So that's the new phase of life for this tank. Hope it goes well.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
7 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

IMG_3035.jpeg

IMG_3111.jpeg

IMG_3112.jpeg

IMG_3113.jpeg

IMG_3115.jpeg

IMG_3131.jpeg

 

That emerald is all “da fuk you lookin at?” 😄

 

 

 

And, that strawberry crab is cute!

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer
1 minute ago, WV Reefer said:

 

That emerald is all “da fuk you lookin at?” 😄

 

 

 

And, that strawberry crab is cute!

The emerald and the damsel are already having some words about who's gonna live under which particular rock. The strawberry has made himself at home already. I like that this pile of rocks lended itself to one linear shape with lots of arches and pass throughs for the fish and crabs. And has tons of holes in it for them to hide in. Gonna be fun when the gobies get here and can watch them. I've spent a lot of money today out of sickness over my cat woes. 🤦🏽‍♀️

  • Like 1
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

So this week, since I haven't kept up with on the spot updates...... 

 

The clownfish died the first night in the tank. No idea at all what happened, though I suspect it was just poor transfer. All parameters are running perfect, so he had no real excuse. Quitter.

 

Added a Duncan polyp to the tank-it's first ever coral, in the bedroom. Also added a big Halloween hermit and small electric blue hermit. Love these two-they're two of my favorites to watch. They came with 5 new orange tipped dwarf hermits for CUC. Oh and I finally got two wee little Green Banded Gobies as advised by @StinkyBunny and @WV Reefer. They really are super cute to watch! I can't wait for them to put on some weight so they aren't so teeny weeny.

 

Today I added a small branching hammer coral, and a triple head blastomussa. I haven't worked with a blasto before, so I'm interested to see how it goes. I was supposed to have a new clown-a gladiator-but it was DOA. Sooooooo huge let down. And a pain, waiting for a refund so I can try again. 

 

At any rate, the tank is looking great and working well so far! Very nice to have it front and center on my dresser.

IMG_3158.jpeg

IMG_3159.jpeg

IMG_3160.jpeg

IMG_3161.jpeg

IMG_3162.jpeg

IMG_3164.jpeg

IMG_3165.jpeg

IMG_3170.jpeg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

Tank is doing well, all parameters remain in good to go zone. Still need to work on the flow direction coming from the return nozzles, but other than that everybody is behaving in there!

 

IMG_3191.thumb.jpeg.1d4b02458a82615949fe3920ebdf60e4.jpeg

 

Wee baby hammer

 

IMG_3192.thumb.jpeg.d8dc153b141c9aefc701b4f8314eab95.jpeg

 

Teeny blastomusa triple head frag. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

So, as I feared, Mr Blue did not at all appreciate the addition of some new clown cousins. So, he made me work for it - we had to take the rocks out but finally caught the little dude. He now resides over his own kingdom in the refugium/sump. He seems fairly happy- he pops out from under his rock to inspect who’s looking at him when you open the doors 🙃

 

49EBE7B5-0A3B-48C4-81B9-5B6101D13492.thumb.jpeg.3ec9daa30d3ae022a22e9ccf46f8a7e5.jpeg

 

Whut?? 😠

 

2473AA6B-933B-44F9-99DF-6214F4EE5967.thumb.jpeg.949da4a024c4afed631dcaafb99ad385.jpeg

 

Whatchoo lookin at?!

 

B5B5DDD7-07C2-4345-ACD2-BFD7319C0C0B.thumb.jpeg.6cb8610706c577b46b87da01814c027a.jpeg

 

Bonded pair, black ice clowns.

 

43B08D74-22C1-4202-8A9B-2CB98D276196.thumb.jpeg.776914c97fcae4f6e078fd52165ab073.jpeg

  • Like 1
  • Wow 1
Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

Oh, and, had to do the very first water change yet on this little tank- too much algae on the sand bed. The clown pair seemed a little stressed and the parameters showed a slight bump in ammonia, so changed out the filter floss and about 15% water after siphoning really well. They calmed down right quick after that. 

Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

I was so afraid I’d smashed the big one with the siphon- he was sitting canted in half and I couldn’t see that side while I siphoned well. But, he was fine! Whew!! 

Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

No pictures to offer today for the Evo, but it's been doing really well. The pair of clowns "Spot and Dot" have settled in well with the BGBs (Robin and Barry). Added a new 4 headed branching torch to the tank today. I hope it will expand well and attract Spot and Dot over to play with it. That makes the coral count up to 4-the very small blastomussa, the small hammer, the Duncan (which is already getting big in there) and now this torch. Pretty good collection for the fish to play around.

Link to comment
ECLS Reefer

Installed a new light last night for the EVO, because I had noticed the tank over heating some with the stock lid and light. Besides, the light was either blue or white, no in between, and so I felt it didn't show the tank off to its best. This is a MicMol Aqua CC light, small, supposedly full spectrum LED. It's small and low profile and I like it so far. I feel like it lights the tank pretty well and brightens everything up. This also allows me to run the tank top down with a screen over the top, and hopefully keep it cooler during the day.

 

IMG_3359.thumb.jpeg.76e69c37c26d6a591f23024c0f1c1d6e.jpeg

 

Green Banded Goby "Barry". His brother "Robin" has opted to live in and under the rocks. Barry and Robin G-BG 😉😉

 

IMG_3357.thumb.jpeg.84dd7be638622dcb199f6ec58ecfd22c.jpeg

 

Dot the Black Ice Clown

 

IMG_3358.thumb.jpeg.bd0dcbd4054caaf83ecd9c0b4273e649.jpeg

 

Dot and Spot, paired Black Ice Clowns.

 

IMG_3356.thumb.jpeg.264c7d37c1eeb5e6434b854c4f15edab.jpeg

 

Full tank shot

 

IMG_3355.thumb.jpeg.420ff116784a4d63ce39f309ae15588d.jpeg

 

New light over tank. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • ECLS Reefer changed the title to Sister Margarets School for Wayward Girls 13.5g Evo (June 2021 TOTM). Random Update with Foto

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...