Albertan22's 120g Reef

[Albertan22]

This project has been underway for about 7-8 months now. It's been a slow process of accumulating equipment and a failed stand build so I didn't want to start a build thread and tease everyone. My wife has convinced me that it's finally time to get one going though, so here we go :biggrin:

Here's my equipment list so far:

Marineland 120g reef ready tank with 1 corner overflow
40g breeder as a sump
Aqueon Cherry Mission stand and cannopy
Sunlight Supply Tek 8 bulb T5 light fixture
SWC Xtreme 200 protein skimmer
Quiet One 3000 return pump
2 Koralia 4s for added circulation
TLF reactor w phosban
autotopoff.com rig attached to a maxijet 400 for ATO
29g QT tank
1 Koralia 1 for the QT
Sponge filter for the QT

The project started with me attempting to build my own stand.

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/Spring2009029.jpg

I had planned on skinning this stand in maple then applying a red stain. The build seemed successful at first, but then I left it for a month and found that a lot of the wood had shrunk, leaving gaps and warping the top box frame that the tank would sit on. Rather than trying to fix it, I decided that I'd feel safer with a store bought stand.

My wife is a math teacher so I got her to help me out with the plumbing design :smile:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/016.jpg

The final product:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/020.jpg

Thanks Vana:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/021.jpg

Let there be light :mrgreen:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/050.jpg

Sump is up and running!

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1883.jpg

And some rock:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1882.jpg

I still need to pick up more rock, maybe later this weekend.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Looking good sofar.

Ken

[Albertan22]

One issue the I've had since I've had the circulation going is some flushing of my Durso (came stock with the tank). I checked the Durso site and it says that there is a common misconception that the air hole on the standpipe is improperly sized, when really it's a backpressure issue from people putting their plumbing to deep underwater.

Sure enough, my outlet pipes are submerged about 3.5 inches below the operating level of the sump. So now I'm going to have to figure out a way of cutting them off without tearing everything appart, since naturally there wasn't enough room in my plumbing design to install the union I had bought to put in there. Fun fun fun...

Another issue that we're having right now is the smell comming off the tank while the rock curres. It's permeatted the main floor of our house with an ocean smell. I don't notice it until I've left the house for awhile then come back, but it's starting to bug my wife (who's been very supportive so far). Yesterday I put some carbon in a bag and dropped it in the sump, but it didn't seem to work. Should I be running it in my reactor instead?

[Skimmerking]

if your rock is uncured then its going to smell for a while. until mostly everything dies and then comes back to life in basic terms.

the noise that you are hearing is the air getting sucked in from the pump . that is a easy fix.
you can take you stand pipe out and enlarge the hole. that will work what type of return pump are you running on your tank?

the average they say is
3/4" 500 gph
1" hole 750 gph
1.5 1500
2" 2000 gph
but on my tank i have 1.5 " hole and I'm running a mag 12 on there you dont really need a huge pump to circulate your water. the key is contact time for your skimmer to clean your water and the heaters to heat it. IMO/IME
you avoid bubbles that way going to your return, you get more time for skimming ,and heating of the water, and alot of times people will add devices to move the water around like vortechs, tunze's closed loop.

hth.

[Albertan22]

Well, I fixed the flushing noise by drilling the air hole in my Durso one size larger. It seems that I'm running lower flow through it than it was designed for, but that's ok, I wanted a slow flowing sump.

On to more exciting things... I picked up some more rock and finished the aquascaping :mrgreen:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/004.jpg

And the tank with the canopy in place:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/002.jpg

We had the lights on last night so we could enjoy our handiwork, but they'll stay off for the majority of the cycle in an effort to keep the algae down (probably a futile gesture).

[Albertan22]

We've noticed a few hitchhikers in our tank, I'm sure there's more to come.

So far we've observed a featherduster worm, and a few snails.

While I was doing the rockwork I noticed a large crab (about the size of a toonie) way up in a deep crevice of one of my rocks. He was brown with red eyes, didn't look hairy at all. He was to deep in the rock to get out, so I let him be, I hope this doesn't turn out to be a mistake. I seem to recall reading on the forums somewhere that hairy crab=bad crab, and non-hairy crab=good crab. I'm hoping this is the case with this guy, who knows if he'll survive the cycle though.

We also found this guy:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/007.jpg

MANTIS!!! My wife thought it was cool that she could see "yellow eyes" watching her from inside a rock, I didn't think it was so cool. The rock was at the bottom of the rockwork, but luckily was not load bearing and easily removed.

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/009.jpg

I wish I had a place to put him, or some fish to feed him to, but alas his fate was simply to end up in the garbage :cry: Couldn't have him in my tank though. I hope there aren't any more in there.

I also found a small crab (about the size of a dime) climbing around on the rock that the mantis came out of. I decided to be safe and threw him in the refugium.

[mark]

nice layout and rockwork.

Mantis can go into the sump.

[Leah]

I think you will want to get rid of the crab...not good. Tank looks great! :biggrin:

[Albertan22]

Well, there's definately another mantis haunting my tank :neutral: I can hear him excavating away in the rock and managed to catch a glimpse of him a couple days ago. He was in a rock that isn't easily moved, but I haven't seen him since. I think I'm going to try a DIY bottle trap this weekend and see if I can't get him out.

Another bit of good news, adding the second batch of rock (which was fully curred) did wonders to reducing the smell in the house. We don't even notice it anymore unless the cabinet doors to the sump are open. I've also noticed a lot of condensation in my canopy. The back is open, but the condensation problem seems to be up near the front. I'm hoping that the canopy is designed for the humidity and well sealed. Maybe it will be better once the lights are on and there's more heat in there?

[fishytime]

Looks like your off to a good start....if your handy you could mount/cut a couple fans into the canopy....this will also help keep the tank cool..

[Albertan22]

Well I've had no luck so far catching that mantis with my bottle trap. I think I may need to redesign or just plain move it to another location in the tank. It's hard to get it to sit still without turning off my powerheads.

I also solved the humidity problem in the canopy. I just pulled it ahead about an inch so there is a small air space at the front, it stays pretty dry now. It may not be a long term solution if I ever get any jumping fish though. Which brings me to a more fun topic... Fish!

It occured to me that I need to start thinking about a stocking list. The tank is much to young right now for fish, but I've had a QT tank cycling in the basement for a few weeks that I'm hoping may be ready by next weekend.

I'm not exactly sure what I want, so I was hoping to get a few sugestions.

So far I'm thinking of an ocellaris clown pair, some kind of fairy or flasher wrasse, a mandarin (will not be adding until next summer) and a tang or two. I was thinking of going with a powder blue or powder brown for my tang, but I've since learned that they're very aggressive, especially in smaller tanks. I also really like purple tangs, but they can be pretty aggressive too... Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Dez]

The build looks good so far. I feel your pain with the mantis and having to hunt him down. I remember spending an entire superbowl Sunday 6 years ago hunting down a mantis in my fully stocked 120 gallon tank. Better get it now before you have any livestock.

For humidity in the canopy, I would suggest DC muffin fans (DC because you can then control the speed with a voltage adapter so you can keep the tank super quiet. I don't like AC fans cause I find most to be loud).

As for stocking list - if you are patient, then look for people shutting their tanks down. I have gotten quite a few nice specimens from shutdowns (the fish seem healthier and are more acclimated to aquarium life than a typical store bought fish. You never know if a store bought is cyanide caught or not). I like yellow tangs, a flasher, solerensis, or myster wrasse is nice, royal gramma maybe, and it depends what kind of corals/inverts you'll have in your tank I always like pygmy angels - either a flame, potter's or coral beauty (I am still on the hunt for one that won't nip at sps/clams).

Hope this helps, enjoying your tank journal so far.

Desmond

[Albertan22]

Well it's Day 14 of the cycle and time for an update. We've noticed an erruption of life in the tank as of late, lots of feather dusters and/or tube worms all over the rock. The sand seems filled with little worm trails and whatnot. We also noticed some type of pods racing around the glass of the DT for the first time last night. I can't seem to get a decent picture of any of these things, so no photo updates for now.

I'm also experiencing a diatom bloom right now. It's on all the rock that I bought partially cured, but not on any of the cured stuff and not much on the sand. There's also a bunch in the sump, and surprisingly even in the bottom part of my skimmer! I'm not too concerned about it right now as I understand it's just part of the cycle. I've been running phosban in a reactor and carbon passively in the sump, hopefully it goes away soon.

Speaking of the cycle, I seem to have experienced my ammonia spike. It was about 1.0 ppm on Sunday, and is now down to 0.25 ppm. Funny thing is, I also had a nitrite spike, but now it's not measureable anymore even though I'm still reading ammonia. I'm wondering if it's because some of the rock may still be curring? At this rate though, my DT will be cycled before my QT, which has been up and running a week longer. This is annoying because I would really like to get some fish into QT so I can have some fish in the DT by November! Alas patience is what this hobby is all about...

[Albertan22]

Thanks for checking out my build and the advice Dez:smile:

I'm still trying to get that mantis out. Though I haven't been pursuing him that agressivly. I think it's time to step up my efforts though as I'll probably be ready to add some snails and cleanup crew to the tank in the comming weeks. I've been using mysis as bait and I swear that some have been eaten every morning after I set the trap. I think I need a bigger bottle as the neck of the small bottle I used isn't that far off the bottom when I cut it and flipped it around to build the trap.

[NuraNori]

I like your set up as well. Like the rock too.

I have an almost identical sump/fuge. Do you find you get bursts of micro bubbles? I'm trying to figure out if it's because I don't have the bubble wall on the fuge side or b/c air builds up in the elbows in the return line...or who knows...

[ponokareefer]

It occured to me that I need to start thinking about a stocking list. The tank is much to young right now for fish, but I've had a QT tank cycling in the basement for a few weeks that I'm hoping may be ready by next weekend.

I'm not exactly sure what I want, so I was hoping to get a few sugestions.

So far I'm thinking of an ocellaris clown pair, some kind of fairy or flasher wrasse, a mandarin (will not be adding until next summer) and a tang or two. I was thinking of going with a powder blue or powder brown for my tang, but I've since learned that they're very aggressive, especially in smaller tanks. I also really like purple tangs, but they can be pretty aggressive too... Any thoughts or suggestions?

The clownfish would be a good fish to get, as would the fairy or flasher wrasse's. If you are thinking about getting more than one type of fairy wrasse, it is typically better to add them at the same time to avoid fighting. Also, make sure you have a completely covered tank if you are looking at getting wrasse's.
As for tangs, with only a 4 foot tank(same as mine), you are more limited in what you can get. You're limited to mainly the following 3 groups: Zebrasoma(but not sailfin), Ctenochaetus, and Acanthurus(only the smaller ones). There are some really nice ones of the 3 groups, like the yellow tang, lemonpeel mimic tang, kole tang, and chocolate tang. You would probably only want to get 2, maximum 3 tangs total, and I wouldn't recommend getting 2 from the same group, such as a purple tang and a yellow tang. I have read that a lot of people have issues with aggressive purple tangs as well, just so you are aware.

[Albertan22]

I like your set up as well. Like the rock too.

I have an almost identical sump/fuge. Do you find you get bursts of micro bubbles? I'm trying to figure out if it's because I don't have the bubble wall on the fuge side or b/c air builds up in the elbows in the return line...or who knows...

I was having a problem where I would get a burst of violent bubbles on the fuge side while at the same time the level would drop in the overflow and the durso would make a sucking sound. I read on the durso website that this was likely due to the outlet being too far underwater, so I cut the pipe so that it was right at the water level. This didn't solve my problem so I decided to try drilling the air hole in my durso one size bigger. This solved my problem, but then my outlet kept making a lot of noise, so I put a 45 degree elbow on it so the outlet was just below the surface. This solved my noise problem.

I still get a lot of bubbles, but not large bursts that make noise. The bubbles don't make it to my pump either, which is nice. I think it's because I don't have a ton of flow moving my sump (about 550 gph).

[Albertan22]

The clownfish would be a good fish to get, as would the fairy or flasher wrasse's. If you are thinking about getting more than one type of fairy wrasse, it is typically better to add them at the same time to avoid fighting. Also, make sure you have a completely covered tank if you are looking at getting wrasse's.
As for tangs, with only a 4 foot tank(same as mine), you are more limited in what you can get. You're limited to mainly the following 3 groups: Zebrasoma(but not sailfin), Ctenochaetus, and Acanthurus(only the smaller ones). There are some really nice ones of the 3 groups, like the yellow tang, lemonpeel mimic tang, kole tang, and chocolate tang. You would probably only want to get 2, maximum 3 tangs total, and I wouldn't recommend getting 2 from the same group, such as a purple tang and a yellow tang. I have read that a lot of people have issues with aggressive purple tangs as well, just so you are aware.

I'm thinking that the clowns will be the first in, after that I'm not sure what I'll get. Tangwise I've been thinking that I may go with a kole tang, and possibly a yellow tang if I decide that I have room after that.

Thanks for looking guys!

[Leah]

New pictures yet??? :biggrin:

[Albertan22]

New pictures yet??? :biggrin:

Not much has changed, but this thread is due for some more eye candy :wink:

Another hitchhiker. He's a filter feeder, some kind of muscle or barnacle I suspect, but I haven't gotten around to IDing him, any ideas?
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/001.jpg

My non-mantis catching bottle trap :neutral:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/001-1.jpg

A couple of pics of some of the nooks and cranies in my rockwork :smile:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/004-1.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/005.jpg

Sump running with the reactor on it:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/006.jpg

And the skimmer at work... It was pulling out a lot earlier in the cycle, but has slowed down now. I'm not surprised as there isn't much bioload in the tank.

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/007-1.jpg

I really like the way this tank looks even with the lights off!

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/009-1.jpg

And my basement QT:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/010.jpg

The ammonia patch in my QT seems to be yellow this morning so maybe I can get some fish this weekend. I'm gonna do some water testing later this morning (after some house cleaning, blah!) and maybe I can get some clowns into QT today or tomorrow. I'm also planning on picking up some cheato for the refugium and a cup of sand from one of Blue Worlds tanks this weekend to seed a bit more life into my tank :mrgreen:

[Albertan22]

For whatever reason, this morning I had a hunch that my rogue mantis had taken over the home that the first mantis had built. So I pulled the rock out and started poking around and what fell out was definately not a mantis!

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/023.jpg

I think this is the loonie sized crab I saw when I first put my rock into the tank. He's living in my refugium now along with a little ball of cheato I obtained today and the last little crab I pulled out of the DT :biggrin:

[Albertan22]

Woohoo! First fish :biggrin:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1961.jpg

These guys will be in QT for 4-6 weeks, the main tank should be more than ready for them by then. Next step will be adding a cleanup crew to the main tank. Hopefully that will happen in the next week or two, we'll see how the cycle progresses I guess...

[Albertan22]

Found the smaller of the two clowns (the darker coloured one) dead this morning :cry: I'm not exactly sure what happened. Neither of them have been eating since I picked them up (I did see them eat at the LFS), but I figured I wouldn't worry as it's only been a couple of days. The larger one was always shaking and dancing around the smaller one, but the little guy always seemed to ignore the big one. I'm wondering if the larger of the two decided to kill the little guy? Or maybe it was just stress... Hopefully the one I have left starts eating. A big water change is also in order tonight as the death has caused an ammonia spike :neutral:

[Albertan22]

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated this thread. Not a whole lot has been happening with the tank. I'm still reading somewhere around 0.25ppm ammonia, this level hasn't changed in 2 or 3 weeks, I'm thinking about taking some water to an LFS for confirmation.

My other clown fish also died, he had something weird growing out of his head one evening, I was going to go into the City to get some medication the next day but he was dead by morning. Hopefully this isn't an omen of things to come.

I also tore down my rockwork today looking for that elusive mantis, but he was nowhere to be found. Lots of little crabs though :smile: I'm starting to wonder if maybe whatever I saw all those weeks ago was either something else, or didn't make it through the cycle/starved? I do hear clicking and snapping from the tank every now an then, but I've come to realize that lots of things make clicking and snapping noises (ATO, heaters, light timers, splashes, etc.). I guess I'll find out when I add a CUC.

[MMAX]

I had a clown with the same thing as yours, he had something growing out of his bottom lip. Freshwater dipped him twice and then quarentined him with doses of Instant Ocean Lifeguard. He was fine within a week and was quite a little trooper until he decided to find out what life was like outside the tank. I miss that little guy.

[Albertan22]

I've been having re-start problems with my Quiet One 3000 return pump so I decided to bite the bullet and replace it. I changed it out with an Eheim 1262. I knew the Eheim would have more flow than the Quiet One pump, but wow was I not prepared for how much more it had. The Quiet One pump must not have had nearly the flow it advertised, because they aren't even remotely close, I had to dial the Eheim way back to get my sump to run quietly. Enough with the writting though, on with the pictures!

The new pump (right) next to the old (left):

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1970.jpg

Because of the size difference, I had to make some modifications to the plumbing. I cut out a big piece of solid pvc and replaced it with some flexible tubing to make it all fit.

Sump shot:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1972.jpg

The tank is cycled, will probably be adding CUC and maybe some zoas or something tomorrow :mrgreen:

[Albertan22]

Finally some life in the tank! :mrgreen: Today I added some snails, some hermit crabs, and a peppermint shrimp (disapeared rapidly into the rock). I also added a really cool zoa frag and a hammer coral frag. The frags opened back up within an hour, hopefully everything stays healthy and happy. Time for some pics :smile:

Zoa (camera doesn't give the colours justice):

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1974.jpg

Hammer:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1978.jpg

FTS

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1986.jpg

I had to tear down the rockwork to get to a mantis shrimp, and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't get the rock back quite right. Not sure I'm happy with it, but I spent the better part of a day rearranging so this is how it will stay, for now....

Bought a couple more fish for QT as well, not going to jinx them this time by posting pics and details until they've lasted a couple weeks though :wink: Thanks for looking.

[Lance]

Coming along nicely.

[Albertan22]

Well it's been awhile since I last updated this thread. Not a whole lot has been going on with the tank in the last month. My clownfish made it out of QT, but I didn't have a lot of extra cash to spend on corals or other fish, so things have just been growing out. I've had an algae explosion on my overflow and powerheads, but luckily it hasn't spread to the rocks at all. Guess the clean up crew is doing their job. The sand is also getting a bit brown, with a little bit of green algae in it as well. Not sure that there's anything to be done about that though seeing as how it's a new tank and I'm already running GFO in a reactor. Coraline algae is really taking off and colouring up all my rock as well :biggrin:

Anyway, without further ado...

FTS
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2015.jpg

The hammer is doing really well
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2026.jpg

Hairy the snail (always packs a lunch :wink:)
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2027.jpg

Thanks for looking.

[lastlight]

With that crop growing on him you're in for some snail-on-snail action soon. Nice rockwork...I'm jealous of all that purple you have no idea!

[Albertan22]

With that crop growing on him you're in for some snail-on-snail action soon. Nice rockwork...I'm jealous of all that purple you have no idea!

Yeah I've been really lucky with the coraline. I managed to find a few rocks with a good crop of it when I was putting my tank together, and it's just taken off and spread to the rest of the rockwork, the snails, powerheads, but not the glass... yet.

[Albertan22]

Well after a mini flood last night I figure it's time for an update. I was trying to disconnect the union above my pump last night and accidentally twisted the entire pipe, which spun the bulkhead of my return line, loosening the nut and creating a massive leak. Fortunately I was able to pump out the overflow quickly with a maxijet and some vinyl tubbing and prevent a major flood, most of the water followed the pipe and went into the sump anyway.

The tank is progressing nicely, but slowly. I'm leaving for a four week vacation next month so I didn't want to go crazy stocking the tank yet. I figure the more simple it is, the better the chance that my tank sitter will be able to handle things.

Current inhabitants include 2 ocellaris clowns, 4 green chromis, a skunk cleaner shrimp, an elusive peppermint shrimp, unknown # of hermit crabs, snails, and hitchhiker crabs. I'd like to add another fish soon, but want to make sure the tank is good and stable before I leave, so not sure if I'll follow through with that. I've been adding corals over the holidays and everything is looking is pretty good except an acropora frag I put in last week.... Enough talk, onto the pictures:

New brain coral in today:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2081.jpg

Hammer coral. It's in the process of developing some new heads :smile:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2082.jpg

Green star polyps:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2083.jpg

Zoanthids:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2084.jpg

Duncan coral:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2087.jpg

This acropora frag has been in the tank for about a week, but the green patch on the coral just appeared today. I'm a bit worried about this guy, is this RTN?
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2101.jpg

And an FTS to finish it all off:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2078.jpg

Thanks for looking.

[Leah]

Tank is looking great :biggrin: And that new brain is so pretty :wink:
How are the fish doing?

Leah

[Albertan22]

The fish are doing great :smile: The big clown thinks she owns the tank right now and isn't hosting to any particular area. She chases the chromis around a bit every once in awhile. I suspect she'll have a bit of a shock when I eventually start introducing some more territorial tankmates :wink:

[Albertan22]

I finally figured out how to set the white balance on my camera properly so I thought I'd post some more pics. Since I updated not to long ago, I'll just post some of the more colourful additions this round :wink:

FTS
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2102.jpg

Brain
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2104.jpg

Zoas
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2105.jpg

[Albertan22]

Managed to get some pics of the fish.

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2127.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2128.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2133.jpg

Thanks for looking.

[Albertan22]

Well it's been a couple of months since I updated this thread. Nothing much happened between my last post and the 24th of March. I was away in New Zealand for 4 weeks between the end of February and the end of March so I wanted to make sure everything was stable while I was away. Now that I'm back though, I can start building this tank for real :biggrin:

Since I've been back, I've added two acros, a birdsnest and a torch frag. I also added a couple of purple queen anthias a few days ago. Anyhow, on to the pictures.

This guy is still doing well, though he's lost some colour, I think my lights are too bright for him. Hopefully the SPS will grow and provide some shade in the long run, in the meantime I keep moving him to try to make him happy.
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3392.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3393.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3395.jpg

This frag grew like crazy while I was away!
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3396.jpg

The growth in that first acro frag gave me the confidence to try some other SPS :smile:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3398.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3400.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3402.jpg

LPS
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3403.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3415.jpg

This yellow watchman seems to be doing well but has some weird rash on his scales. He likes to stick himself to the teeth of my overflow, I wonder if it's rubbing off the yellow?
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3404.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3410.jpg

FTS
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3408.jpg

That spot on the sand front and center is reserved for a clam, hopefully soon to come!

My next planned fish additions are:
Foxface
Kole Tang
Mandarin

On the maybe list:
some kind of wrasse
a smaller fish like a firefish or royal gramma

[Albertan22]

We got a new SLR cameral today and that means new pictures. I haven't really learned to use the thing yet, but I managed to get 3 decent pictures from the 100 I've taken today :razz:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0004.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0006.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0068.jpg

[Albertan22]

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this thread :razz: but I figure it's time for an update. No additions to report this time. The yellow watchman goby wore a hole in his side and has been in the hospital tank for 2.5 weeks now. I've been running a separate thread (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=63897) about him, but the short version is that he's doing much better. I expect he'll be at least another two weeks before he gets to rejoin the general population.

Before photo
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0435.jpg

Current status
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0639.jpg

I'm still in awe that he's survived this wound.

The purple anthias that I added four weeks ago are still pretty shy. Out of the three of them, one is out almost all the time, the second is out often, but disapears whenever you approach the tank, and the third only seems to come out for a couple hours when the lights turn on, and vanishes whenever anything in the room moves. They all seems to disapear around 6pm like clockwork (the lights go out at 10pm).

The downside to all of this (other than the obvious) is that only the one seems to eat regularly, though the second guy seems to get food at least every other day. I'm worried about the shyest one who never seems to get fed unless I sneak a spoon of cyclopeze into the back canopy opening from around the corner. This only works on weekends, when I'm home to do it when anthias #3 is out shortly after my lights turn on around 2pm. My wife calls this operation "stealth feeding".

I'm also battling a cyano outbreak :neutral:
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0640.jpg

This started shortly after removing a sponge from my sump to use as cycled filtration in my hospital tank. I'm not sure if it's a result of removing this little bit of filtration from the DT, or a result of adding the three antias at once and overfeeding a bit to try to coax them to eat. I'm putting my money on option 2 though. Today I'm going to start a 3 day blackout of the tank and see if that does anything. If that doesn't work, I guess I may resort to red slime remover, though I'm not excited at that idea...

I also got a visual on the remaining mantis in my tank last week! He's getting big and must be 4 inches long, and black/dark in colour. He wasn't green like the mantis in my sump. I was kind of hoping that the clicking in the tank was just one of the giant hitch hiker crabs that live in the tank, but what I saw last week was definatly a mantis. That brings my count of these guys to 3 (1 removed, 1 relocated to sump, 1 in DT). He doesn't seem to be hurting much though, so I think I'll just leave this one be.

Thanks for looking.

[Albertan22]

Well, the 3 day blackout worked great. Once the lights came back on, I siphoned out the dead cyano and I've been cyano free for 3 days now. Hopefully it stays that way...

I was playing with the camera today and thought I'd post some coral growth shots :smile:

January 2010
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN2101.jpg

May 2010
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0742.jpg

April 2010
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN3398.jpg

May 2010
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0741.jpg

October 2009
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSCN1978.jpg

May 2010
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0743.jpg

My tank needs more coral...

[Albertan22]

Todays new additions :mrgreen:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0746.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0747.jpg

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv120/Albertan22/DSC_0765.jpg

[fishytime]

nice squammy clammy!

[Leah]

That clam is amazing. :mrgreen: More corals... yay! :wink: