What the hell, right ?
At the very least, it'll give you something to look back on many months from now

And we want pikchoors :razz:

As a result of some freindly encouragement I took a few tank shots - however - there isn't much color yet - far from spectacular - in fact a long way from average. LOL! One is a partial tank shot of the left side, the other is a full shot.

I guess it is time to get some coral in the tank to brighten it up!

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1354310019

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1354310019

Tank is looking great! Nice work. I'm a huge fan of the blue background. Seems to lighten everything up a little.

Also seems like your foxface loves to raise his dorsal spines! haha. Almost every pic he has them raised.

Thanks for the compliments! But the tank has a long way to go. Regarding the blue background - we have been wondering what to do with that - let it get covered or keep it clean. Deborah wants me to keep it clean (notice that I'm the one with the work to do? LOL). Keeping it clean - and therefoe blue does seem to add a depth to the look of the tank.

And yes the Foxface loves to keep his spine up. There are a lot of times that he will simply stay in one place, poping his fins - interesting to watch.

It has again been a long time since I have updated here. Christmas has been busy busy and I have not been doing so good - off work for six weeks - but ready to get back to it!

A few weeks ago we were having some algae problems so I changed the GFO and added a few more snales and hermit crabs - red abd blue legged. The algae is under control now, though today I noticed a bit more growth - maybe I'm feeding a bit too heavy? I did test the phosphate and nitrate and both are at 0.

We have been able to add a few more coral to the tank - we now have what we were told was a "tree coral" - but I see that there are a number of differernt corals with the same common name. In addition we have bought a Torch Coral and a Fox Coral.

We are planning to add another fish or two in the new year - maybe a sailfin tang.
http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1356914710

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1356914565

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1356914556

Looking good. Looks to me that "tree coral" is a Kenya tree. I regret putting one in mine. It'll drop those branches all over and before ya know it, it'll be everywhere. When you see it drop a branch try and get it out. IMHO :D

Looking very nice! I really like your fox face fish!

How many lbs of rock do you have in your tank?

Tank looks great! Maybe look at a Kole Tang as a Sailfin will get big and then you have to re-home it or go bigger. :biggrin:

Thanks for help with identifying the Kenya tree. So . . . what causes the branches to fall off - is there some way I might be able to prevent / limit that from happening?

We have a total of 103 lbs of rock. It is a 90G DT and approx 20g sump. We purchsed 70lbs of dry rock and seeded it with 33 lbs of live rock. Not all the rock is in the DT as we wanted a more open look. I am not sure how much is in the sump, but at a guess I'd say approx 30 lbs.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1356979323

Thanks for the compliment - and the caution re: the sailfin - though I like the logic of getting the fish first and using that as the justification to go bigger and better! :lol:

Great looking tank, your patience has certainly paid off.

Just wondering, why soooooo many royal grammas? Love your fox face, what a poser, wish I could get pics of mine with his fins up.

Thank you! The reason for the number of Royal Grammas is simple - Deborah really likes them - "happy wife, happy life"! :biggrin:

Regarding the Foxface - yes he does seem to like to show off. Though the last pict of him was the result of having the camera on a tripod, using a remote and kind of watching TV for two hours waiting for the right moment!

I love all the grammas...the last couple I have tried QTing have not made it. :twised: Not sure what is up with that.

I am guilty of buying fish and then upgrading. :biggrin:

What amazes me about the Grammas is their ability to hide - they find an incredibly small pocket deep within the rock and are almost impossible to find - amazing how that bright of a fish can disappear.

Happy New Year everyone! Now that we have few corals I decided to take another FTS - wow, sure looks empty - I guess I'll have to go buy some more! :lol:

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...pse905bc7d.jpg

I also decided to post two other pictures -

I took this picture several evenings ago after the lights weere turned off. I am amazed at how the Foxface changes color and blends into the rock at night - incredible defence mechanism!

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...psff14fc82.jpg

The last picture shows the new home that my shrimp has taken up. He spends a lot of time hanging out around the recently added torch coral.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...psc437dc88.jpg

Have a happy new year!

Project Time!
 

Its time for a project. Ever since setting up our tank I have not been fully comfortable with the "sponginess" of the floor. To the right of the tank is a step from the kitchen area into the family room and with multiple teenagers and their running up the steps and jumping down, the tank sloshes a bit more than I am comfortable with.


http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1357617580

So, I've decided to brace the floor from below. Under the family room is a storage room with an unfinished ceiling so it will be easy to brace the floor. The plan is to build a simple beam using two 2X4s which will be supported by two posts aconstructed of two 2x4s and a bottom plate to spread out the pressure on the concrete floor.

A simple job that should take an hour or so. With my energy level we'll see how many days it takes! :biggrin:

Day One - a trip to the local lumbar yard to buy the material.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1357617583

Project Day 2
 

Yesterday was day two of the simple project of supporting the floor under the DT. I created gluelam beams out of 2X4s - very simple.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1357756180

The next task is to get the storage room ready - but with the mess in there, that will be for another day -maybe later this afternoon I might take a shot at it.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1357756180

Deborah and I also went to Concept yesterday and bought a couple corals and a new percula - I'll see if I can get reasonable pictures in a day or two.

Well, I still don't have the support wall completed :redface: But I do have the storage room clean!

On to more urgent matters. A little over a week ago someone pointed out a red algae on one of my rocks and suggested that it might be cyano. Over the next days I watched as it spread to another rock and the sand. By Thursday morning it had spread significantly. I tried several times to siphon it as best I could - with little result. I did some reading on line and came up with a possible solution.

Since cyano needs light to survive, the absense of light will kill it. The theory was to turn off the lights and either close all blinds in the room or wrap the tank in a blanket for three days. During this time the fish will mostly sleep and coral will survive.

So I gave it a try. . .
http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1358122491

I continued with regular, but lighter feeding for the three days, made sure the skimmer was working well and hoped I was doing the right thing. At the end of day one there was no noticable difference. By the end of day two almost all the cyano was gone - there were still multiple red strands on the sand. By this afternoon the tank appeared complelty clean - an incredible difference! I wish I had before and after pictures, but never thought of that.

All the fish, snails, crabs, shrimp appear perfectly fine. The soft coral and LPS appear a bit "ticked off" but are already coming around and opening up. :biggrin:

Time will tell whether this is just a very temprary fix, whether significnat progress was made or the elimination of cyano was achieved.

So, maybe I'll finish the floor support project this week . . . LOL

Project Finished!
 

Wow, I actually completed the floor support - not a large project at all - it just takes me time. Now there will be far less floor movement as the kids run in and out of the room and less "sloshing" in the tank. :biggrin:

Now onto another project . . . hmmm, maybe I could drill some holes in the floor, run the plumbing downstairs, get a larger sump, set up a tank room . . . that can't be that big of a project . . . can it? :lol:

I figured that I would do a quick update from the three day tank blanket wrap experiment. As of today (only 2 days later) there is no visable cyano - for which I am very glad. In addition the coral all seem to be happy critters. Here are pictures from yesterday afternoon.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1358286580

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1358286579

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1358286574

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1358286569

I do not mean to rain on your parade, and hopefully someone else will chime in here.

I think you have the right idea sort of with the black out, but you need to cover the tank for three days. Do not feed the tank or even peek at it then on the third day you need to do a water change...just can't remember how much!
Then slowly turn your lights, say half a day for 2 days and full on the 3rd.

Leah

Thanks for the input Leah - and if anyone else can chime in, that would be helpful as well.

I have to admit that I did peek under the blanket - I couldn't help myself - couriosity took over, I was out of control! LOL :lol:

What you say here regarding the water changes amd turning lights on slowly makes sense. (I had done a WC earlier this evening) By all appearances I may have gotten off lucky. As I've been thinking about this there may be several reasons for the luck . . .
1. My lights (RADION) are only at 50% because I am still stocking the tank with coral.
2. All my corals are still quite low in the tank - the most are within 3 inches of the bottom
3. As the tank is still newer there are not that many fish so that the bio load isn;t that high.
4. Though the cyano was spreading it wasn't heavy yet.

If anyone has thoughts I would apprecaite it as I am sure this will not be the last time I need to deal with this.

The first round goes to the cyano! :twised:

I thought that I had an early victory over the cyno with the blanket wrap approach. A week ago Sunday when I took the blanket off, the tank looked great! However, on Saturday there was some suspicious looking algae growing and I now have three areas of cyano growing on the sand. :cry:

So . . . onto round two! Any suggestions? . . .

Have you tried chemiclean? That stuff is MAGIC!!

Thanks Kien - I'll be proceeding with this today.

The key thing to remember is to keep your tank oxygenated during the treatment period of 2 days. Either use an air stone and pump or you can keep your skimmer on but take off your skimmer cup to allow it to overflow into the sump. If you keep your skimmer on and allow it to overflow you may get lots of microbubbles into the tank and it'll look bad for a couple of days but it'll all clear up once the treatment period ends and you do your recovery water changes at the end of the 48 hours. I did two consecutive 20% water changes then put my skimmer cup back on.

Round Two has begun! :twised: I purchased some Chemiclean this afternoon and treated the tank this evening. I turned off the carbon and pulled the cup off the skimmer as suggested by Kien. On Thursday evening I will do a 20% wc and then wait to see if I've won or if it goes to Round Three!

Cyano Battle -round two
 

As I continue the battle with the bit of cyano that I have had in my tank I tried the Chemiclean as recommended (thanks Kein!). So far I have been very happy with the results. I treated the tank with Chemiclean last Tuesday and 48 hours later did a water change. The tank now looks great. :biggrin: I plan to do another water change tonight or tomorrow. And I will be keeping a close watch to see if the cyano begins to return. The challenge now is that I have been having a problem with the skimmer. When I turned it back on after the treatment it was "boiling over" and I have been trying to redial it in ever since. :sad:

Below are pictures showing the progress with the treatment.

January 22

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359412835

January 23
http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359412836

January 24
http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359412836

Looking good and glad to hear that you are winning the cyano battle.

Glad to see you're winning! This is typical and for the reason I did 3 20% water changes. After the third water change my skimmer started to get back to normal. Still not quite where it was prior to the treatment but it at least stopped boiling over to a point where I could put the skimmer cup back on. A couple of days after the last water change my skimmer was back to normal. You just have to give the system time to settle back down.

Also, did you put in some carbon into your sump to help clear up the meds? You can get a media sock and throw in some extra carbon into it and place it in your sump. I did this as well for a few days.

Thanks for the advice. The skimmer is working a bit better today. Regarding adding carbon - we are running a GFO / Carbon reactor - how often should they be changed out? Would adding some carbon to a filter sock be effective?

Thanks :biggrin:

Picture Update
 

A while ago we purchased a second Percula to replace the one that dissapeared in the tank (still have no idea what happened). It is close to half the size of the first one and they have paired up well with no problems. :biggrin: Below are a few pics of the Percs. Also I added a few other pictures that I took last night.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359505423http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359505421http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359505425

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359505424

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359505427

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1359505428

I normally run carbon and gfo too and typically change then out once a month. However, when I did my chemi clean treatment I added an extra bag of carbon (in a media bag dropped into my sump) to help take out the meds. I replaced my carbon in my carbon reactor on day 7 after treatment and took out my extra carbon bag.

I don't have any experience running carbon in a filter sock. I personally wouldn't do that tho as my carbon would probably get lodged in my sock fibers and/or overflow into my sump if/when my sock overflowed.

Hence the "good" part of the statement

Congrats! lovely and healthy

Thanks Kien - this makes sense to me. I appreciate the advice.

Thank you very much. I still have a rather emty tank and this is just a beginning (a slow beginning). Nothing that more $$ wouldn't solve. LOL :lol:

It looks like it is way past time for an update . . . but not a lot has been happening. I have added a few mushrooms though.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8428d3bd.jpg

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...psb6515e68.jpg

And a few additional recent pictures . . .

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7586a080.jpg

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0b58c19a.jpg

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7d67e5c9.jpg

Your pictures are so nice.. what camera are you using?

Thank you very much for the compliment. One of my hobbies for years has been nature photography and marine shots are an extension of that - and I have a huge amount to learn yet about taking photos through glass!

About 15 months ago I bought myself a Sony a65. The reviews http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyslta65/ on this camera were very good and I have not been dissapointed :biggrin:. I upgraded the stock lens that came with the camera to an 18-250mm lens for a larger range of possible shots. What drew me to the camera was:
1) the very quick auto focus time - action pictures are much better
2) the ability to take 10 frames/sec - allowing me to get the "perfect" shot of a duck taking off or landing
3) the ability to takes pictures at high ISO - up to 16,000
4) the image size of up to 24MP

What I've found for the tank is that I can take a picture with an image size of 24MP and the lens at 18mm. I am able to take pictures from about 18" from the tank, letting more light in, a lower ISO and I don't have to go to a macro lens or macro settings. I can then crop the image significantly and still have a good sized photo without losing clarity.

Overall, I am very happy with the camera.

http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4926392841798112&pid=1.7

Looking good! And nice camera!