lastlight's 97 (lights out)

[lastlight]

Dave at Concept hooked me up with 2 nice frags. Forgot to take a pic of the other and this shot doesn't quite show the darkness of some of the purple starting to set in. The colony was really nice and dark which is what I'm hoping for this piece now that I finally got around to saving it from the sandbed.

[lastlight]

Just some random pics of my other stuff.

This guy from Dez finally decided it's time to get growing. I had some bad hair algae I just recently beat and on the right side of the base you can see a spot where the tissue was growing around the algae. It's closing up now.



These 2 caps were some of my first corals and were also from Dez. Both melted away to almost nothing when I mounted them. I'd asked him to frag them right there on the spot so they were likely pretty ****ed. They're mounted quite low in the tank so they're growing slow but starting to look really nice.







Kien's frag that would never branch (was one of my very first pieces of sps) got the chop while I was re-structuring that end of my tank. It was attached to some rock that this guy from Dez was on. It's coloring up nice but also has never really grown. Both are on the sand until I decide where they're going.



This digi got owned by the cap which is doing great and finally a nice green. I let the cap touch a millepora which is above it and the mille beat it down. You can see the white rim up top. To some extent I am allowing things to touch and watching what happens. In every case so far the corals are sorta co-existing and I like how things look when they mingle.



Hollywood stunner which I had to remove from the scape as it was pretty aggressive and growing insanely fast. It's home is an old mag float and I can move the colony around now. It's growing up the glass now but I just rotate it every few days to keep it seperate.



And a new cutey who lives on and under the stunner. He's never more than a few inches from the thing and my Kole always stops by for a cleaning.



My secret weapon. This guy transformed my sandbed in mere days. My bryopsis, hair algae and cyano disappeared shortly after. I also swapped some free t5s I'd been running and they could have been 2+ years old I'm not sure. So perhaps the combination lead to the triple victory but I just love this girl. Her name is Sandy.



Before my re-scape:



After. I love how open it is now on that end and I've already begun putting some of my new frags into that area.



And just another shot from the left side:

[fishoholic]

Looks good but I kinda miss seeing the funny long green sps coral, sticking out on the side.

[spawn]

Your tank is looking great, are you on full zeo? I'm starting to approach when things will grow into one another as well & will likely take the same approach. What kind of goby is that one & do you find that it stays low & not dropping gravel onto corals?

[christyf5]

Looking great Brett! Youve got some nice pieces there

[xblade]

That is looking sweet. I'll be happy when mine looks half as nice

[lastlight]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by spawn

Your tank is looking great, are you on full zeo? I'm starting to approach when things will grow into one another as well & will likely take the same approach. What kind of goby is that one & do you find that it stays low & not dropping gravel onto corals?

Not on zeo at all. Just gfo and carbon for me.

I was concerned about him/her dumping sand everywhere as well. It's a diamond watchman goby. It mostly just sifts and dumps right where it's laying on the sand. I have noticed that slowly all my sand is ending up against the back wall of the tank but I think that's more to do with the currents in there. My corals are never under sand. One of the best purchases I've made so far. The first week I had her visibility was poor as all the fines in the sand got disturbed. I put my filter sock back on as I noticed my skimmer not performing with the grains in the water.

[abcha0s]

Originally Posted by lastlight

The first week I had her visibility was poor as all the fines in the sand got disturbed. I put my filter sock back on as I noticed my skimmer not performing with the grains in the water.

Hi Brett

That's pretty much what's happening in my tank right now. Did the filter socks eventually clear up the water? How long before your skimmer started working again?

I do like my pair. They tend to stay within inches of each other at all times. They have built several homes by piling up the sand around "their" rocks. My sand bed is looking much better since introducing them.

- Brad

[lastlight]

It was less than a day after I added the sock that the skimmer started working again so not too bad. It might take you a little longer perhaps as you have more sand/gallon and less return flow/gallon than me...

Pretty entertaining fish to watch. I'll grab at least one more when I transfer tanks.