Fish photos
 

I got bored, so I took some updated pictures of the fish. They grow and you don't really notice unless you take some pictures from time to time.

Someone crashed into the large green digitata again last night and broke off a good 8" piece. The purple digitata has also lost a few inches. Digis are so fragile and the fish are getting pretty large...

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0167.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0165.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0155.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0161.jpg

Tank temperature control
 

Last summer, I ran into some concerning high temperature problems. Normally, the tank warms during the day from the MH lights, then cools overnight in a daily cycle. While I was away, no one was home to open a window at night and the house got very warm. The tank wasn't cooling down at night and each day it increased in temperature..at one point hitting over 86 degrees.

So this year, I had a heat pump installed on the house. As we have had a very hot week, it was the first test of whether this would keep the house (and therefore, the tank) under control. It works perfectly.

The tank has a daily temperature cycle of between 78 and 82 degrees. While that isn't perfect, it seems good enough.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/101_0203.jpg

Hair algae...nitrates and phosphates
 

When I had my hair algae problems, I built a refugium into the system.

For details on this, refer to pg. 34 of this thread.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...=28436&page=34

Anyway, this is what the "refugium" has turned into. It has become a lot more like an "algae filter" than a refugium. As near as I can see, there is nothing living in the refugium at all except for hair algae and cyano. It is truly disgusting. If I didn't scoop frothy cyano off the surface every week or two, the entire surface would be covered.

There is still a lump of chaeto in there, but it is completely engulfed by cyano and hair algae.

There is no cyano or hair algae in the display tank, so it would seem that this system is working perfectly. Using the best testing methods I am aware of, I cannot measure any nitrate or phosphates in my system.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/101_0204.jpg

"Jeckyl" (the bicolour angel) had a run-in with somebody last night. He probably deserved it...he tends to behave like he is larger than he really is.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0134.jpg

Meanwhile, these two just get bigger and fatter. I think that "Freckles" (vlamingi) is beginning to get his hump-nose!
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0123.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0132.jpg

W O W.

What and how much do you feed the vlamingi?

Wow is right. What beautiful fish

J

A typical daily tank feeding is:
5 tsp of small pellets (Formula 1 or 2 or mix)
1 x 8x8" Nori sheet
2 x 3/4" clams or mussels
2 x 1" rings of squid
2 x 1" tentacles of squid or octopus.

Sometimes 2 x 1" shrimp are substituted for the octopus.

The Lookdown only eats squid/octopus or pellets. It does not eat clam/mussels or Nori.
The N. vlamingi eats everything except fingers.
The N. elegans eats only pellets and Nori.
The wrasse eats everything except Nori.
The rest of the Tangs eat everything, but I think they prefer the clam and the Nori.

Here's tonight's dinner. There are only two pieces of Nori since they had the other half for lunch. Pellets are for lunch also.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0140.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0142.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0143.jpg

wow
 

wow, i just looked through this whole thing and it took me an hour and a half. i think this is amazing

bravo!

I finally discovered that I could get a decent photo of the Achilles Tang when he slows for a moment to eat. He only spends enough time at the clip for about 3 pecks before doing another lap or two of the tank and returning for another 3 pecks. Just a really, really active fish. I'm sure this is the reason that they do so poorly in aquariums.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0146.jpg

This evening, all the turbo snails spawned at the same time. Right as the lights went out, I noticed that they were generally clustered around the right overflow. About 20 of them managed to cloud up the tank pretty well. I tried to get some photos, but they just came out looking like snails.

Growth photos
 

These two photos are about 4 months apart (Feb/08 - June/08)
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0309.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0114.jpg


Here's another view. These two images are 9 months apart (Nov/07 - Aug/08)
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0175.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0152.jpg