200g Reef (picture heavy) Updated 7/19/06

[Bojangles]

I placed an order on 12/10 to Petsolutions and heres what I got

2" Gigas Clam
4" Carnation coral
5-Blue Reef Chromis
4" Copperband Butterfly
3" Diamond goby

They've been in q/t for 8 days and I've decided to put them into the main tank now!

Everything has been eatting both flakes, brine and mysis. All in good health and alert. Unfortunately the diamond goby jumped out last night. Figures he would find the 1/2 inch slot between the hood and the emperor 400 power filter the day I was gonna move him

 

[Bojangles]

I'm having considerable trouble with the carnation coral. I cannot find a placement for him that he likes and he's losing color. The poor thing didn't ship well at all and I think I may lose it in the end.

Finally got a decent shot of the sunrise dottyback this morning with the rest of the photos.

The last surviving sailfin molly came out of q/t today too. He's going into the 200g as a reward for having survived the power outage that killed my mantis and the other 3 mollys.

 

[the7ferret]

Looks like your luck with fish is not too good but the coral is doing great.. Nice tank keep them comming

 

[garagebrian]

Hey man,

Sorry to hear about the carnation coral. I just got Ron Shimek's book and he says the following about carnation corals:

"Essentially impossible to maintain, should not be purchased"

But since you have one already, here is what he says to help try to maintain them:

"They seem to need strong alternating currents" and "Need to be fed heavily as they lack zooxanthelle. Benefit from phytoplankton additions, do best in tanks with well developed sand bed infauna that produces small invertebrate larvae"

For the last part, if you have hermits in your tank, you don't have good sand bed infauna. His book also says that bright light may be harmful and they should be in a shaded area.

Good luck, such a pretty coral!

Have you noticed if your sunrise dottyback eats feather dusters or christmas tree worms at all?

Brian

 

[Bojangles]

Thanks for the reply brian. I havent noticed that he eats anything like that because my copperband took care of everything, worms, aiptasia and all.

I actually traded the carnation for a large devil's hand. I had mine for 4 weeks and he was losing a bit of color but otherwise healthy. They're a deepwater coral and supposed to be kept with VERY VERY little light and strong current. So basically actinics and a powerhead facing him.

I'm trading some leather and candycane coral frags for other stuff this week and I'll post up what I got =-)

Heres a picture of what he looked like the last day I had him.

 

[Bojangles]

Man I really havent had much time to post or do any pictures but I tried my best.

I did some frag trading and heres what I got. I traded a toadstool leather and a Fiji candycane coral for a nice frogspawn with 5 heads.

I traded the carnation to the pet store and got a devil's hand that I've been looking for. Its about 4 inches high and 5 or so across. The rock it came on also had 2 kenya trees and the devil's hand has about 3 "sprouts" comming out of the base.

 

[Bojangles]

I went to Indoor Reef today and picked up 2 small maroon clowns and a few loose mushrooms. The clowns nipped at eachother at first but the next day began swimming around together just fine.

I'll also include a coral that I'm rather proud of. Its an Indonesian candycane coral and its come quite a long way from what it once was.

 

[just_in_time]

Could you post a pic of your whole tank again?
It really looks great.

 

[Bojangles]

Could you post a pic of your whole tank again?
It really looks great.

Thank you! I just got new lights but I dont quite like the daylights + actinics so I'm going with all 50/50's and they should be arrriving within a few days.

Unfortunately my power was out for almost 2 days! My sump flooded and busted the crossmember of the tank and 3 baffles, and god knows what else to my livestock so I'm going to have to take care of the tank and I'll post here with the news...

 

[Bojangles]

Hello all!

Sorry I havent posted in quite awhile. When I had the flood everything just went crazy! After everything was somewhat fixed I went on vacaation for 5 weeks to come back and have my tank covered in this red film of some sort. The guy at Indoor Reef said it was a kind of bacteria but I forget what he said. I did about 30g of water changes vacuuming the sand over the coarse of about 4 weeks and now its almost back to normal, but I did lose alot of my cleanup crew =-(

I'll be posting updated pics in the next couple of days after I add my new ViaAqua 4900 circulation pump and aquascape the left side. Apparently my QuietOnes 4000 went out so I sent it back to get a replacement.

 

[Bojangles]

I had some time so I decided to post some updates.

I've been having a battle with the cyanobacteria so I havent done much with the tank. Everything is growing very nicely despite the cyano though.

Last month I added 6 green chromis and a scooter blenny. Unfortunately the female maroon clown killed the male so I never got to have a pair :x One good thing I did do was about 3 days ago I traded one of my larger toadstool leather frags for some pom xenia. I'm so happy I've been trying to get some for awhile!!

 

[Bojangles]

Heres an update on some of the corals.

before and after photos Yay

 

[Bojangles]

More before and afters

 

[Bojangles]

before and afters

 

[Bojangles]

Great to see an update!

How are your water parameters? What have you tried for the cyano

As far as the cyano I havent tried much but its been effective.
April 4th is when I started to get it
April 6-May 1st it took over my tank while I was on vacaation
May 2nd I took a turkey baster to the live rock trying to get it all off
May 3rd I did a 10g water change using natural sw from the seattle aquarium
May 9th I did another 10g wc using natural saltwater
May 15th I did 5g wc using natural saltwater
May 25th I got a new circullation pump to replace the one that broke
May 30th I moved the circullation pump and reaquascaped the left side of the tank so I could get the most out of the 1380gph of the new Via Aqua 4900. I put all the rock in the middle so to speak,not touching the glass on any side so that water could move around the tank without restriction.
June 1st I did a 10g wc using natural saltwater

Current water parameters:

Ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Salinity: 1.024-1.025
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: appx 10
Temp: 82.1 @ 9am

One nitrate test says 180 and one says about 10. I never get a good test when it comes to nitrates and everytime I take it to Indoor Reef they tell me its 0. I'll take a sample of water in today when I get my new glasses.

 

[WRASSER]

WOW Bo, i just skimmed over the whole thread, YOU have been through a lot. I apoligize for not keeping up with you. The two hurricanes really put me donw. With Katrina I lost 17 fish. I was not prepared for the storm, the hurricane center was saying it will br no wind just rain. It ended up no rain and all wind. We lost power for 5 days, the first night I lost 12 fish, like four triggers, haliquin tusk, purpl tang sail fin and hippo tang. which I had these three fish for 5 years. any way just gettin back into it. Restocking and all.
I am happy to see that your tank is doing graet, Again keep up the good work.As soon as i get a camera i will post pics.
THANKS FOR SHARING :wink:

 

[Bojangles]

OMG I'm so sorry to hear that! I know what it feels like to lose something dear to you and we all have a special place in our hearts for our tanks and the denizens we care for. I'm happy to see that you are getting back into the swing of things and I hope everything goes twice as well as it had before the situation.

 

[WRASSER]

Thanks, You keep sharing for too :wink:

 

[Bojangles]

WOW I dont even know where to start. This last week has been crazy. First the ballast went out in BOTH of my Sattelite PC lamps so I had to send those back under warranty with the new bulbs I ordered for them. I also sent back the ViaAqua pumps and exchanged them for SEIO Super Flow Pump M1100 http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12074&inm=1&N=2004+22788+2032

As everyone knows I still havent fixed my sump from when the power went out so.... I started a project :evil:

I started with the sump, removing all the baffles and adding new ones and took it a step further to suit my needs. I added a shelf for a pre-filter to silence the waterfall in my room and also a coral frag shelf. The baffles I made out of this mesh material used to protect plants in your garden and pvp pipe framing. Before I knew it I had taken my whole tank down and removed 98% of the sand bed and set it back up!

 

[Bojangles]

Doing the sump took about 2 days because I had to let the stuff dry. The tank however took about 5 hours to settle enough so I could see into the tank to put the rocks back in.

I really dont like my aquascape!!! I spent like 3 hours doing it and I still done like it...but I hardly ever do at first and I'll end up putting my hands in there over the next month rearranging parts of it I'm sure.