My Very First Journal - Gina's 150 gallon upgrade

[Coasting]

Well tank seems to be doing good.
Corals are growing
Fish are growing (and getting a bit fat....)
I still don't have a proper sump
Got a shiny new skimmer which is massive, and has made the idea of putting a 50gal sump under the tank impossible. Went with the Coral Box Cloud 9. It does an awesome job. Hell, better then the vertex did. And its quiet! It's just huge LOL.

I still haven't gotten around to testing my water, or setting up my doser.... yup lazy.

The butterfly has stopped going at any corals. But I am still not risking putting the open brain back in the tank, I might be brave and try one in the winter. He is a great algae grazer along with the tangs, loves squid and clam.

Hogfish kinda look funny.... like they wear lipstick

Ive got 2 rocks that I've tied fishing line too, with a rubber band wrapped around a few times. We've been attaching pieces of garlic soaked clam, squid, muscle, octopus, etc.... so they can "graze". Everyone's pretty good about sharing, no fights. I'm not used to having fish that crowd the glass when they think their going to get fed! This is new! It's nice actually being able to enjoy watching everyone.

The Melanurus is still behaving himself. It's nice finally being able to get photos of him. Previously if you walked anywhere near the tank he would hide at the back and not come out until you were far away. Now he doesn't shy away at all.

The Kole is a bit of a turd to the blenny, but only when the blenny crosses over to the right side of the tank. Heard there can sometimes be tiffs between those film algae grazers. My blenny is my only fish that was in my original 26g bowfront. He has been through all 3 tanks.

Within the last month my Formosa has started loosing her white stripes! Their slowly fading. They stayed the same all the while in the old tank. Now in the new one everyone is growing and maturing. Facial markings are almost completely gone. And the middle body one is as well. We'll see how long until shes a solid burgundy. Maybe the black stripe will loose her belly stripes soon as well.

My Lyretail is doing well with the red fairys. I did loose one about 2 weeks ago but that's to be expected I guess. Everyone else is happy and healthy. The Lyretail is getting slightly darker, waiting for that nice redish colour!

I still cant get proper photos of the coral. Colours suck. But I can finally get a photo of the damsel that isn't purple!

[kien]

looking good Gina! However, I didn't see a single beta fish in any of those photos? I call shenanigans !

[Bblinks]

Tanks looking pretty good!

[Coasting]

Originally Posted by kien

looking good Gina! However, I didn't see a single beta fish in any of those photos? I call shenanigans !

Red doesn't sit still for photos.... And Shark Bait is too fast as well.... Here's a photo of Red just for you! And as a bonus one of Shax... I mean he is a CORAL albino..... That totally makes him salt water related right? Maybe Ill find a way to get him into one of the POTM topics

[mrhasan]

That tank is too darn pretty!

[kien]

That snake's gaze is messssssssmerizzzzzzzing... Can't... Look.. Away...

[Coasting]

Finally have my lights mounted.... sorta properly.
As some people who have been by saw, my lights sitting on an old hockey stick on a single 4x2 sheet of 1/8th inch plexi. Pretty awkward.

Got the lexan cut.
My dad did little steel brackets so we did 2x2 painted and attached to the brackets holding it to the side of the tank so the lights brackets can sit on those.
Still need to tidy up the cables on the side of the tank from the lights.

[Coasting]

Well this is a pretty boring update.
I keep forgetting to add to this journal, whoops!

Since I never dosed or added chemicals to my last tank I thought I could still get away with that in this one. WRONG. My alk dropped pretty low while I was away and bye bye corals! However I still attribute some of the loss to buying corals from a certain vendor. Grrr. Especially since after getting everything back in balance and holding steady I'm still loosing pieces. Not that I cared about any of the SPS but those are all gone. Got 1 or 2 frogspawns are left, thankfully I still have the Majority of my torches but the nicest ones are gone, of course. I pulled every coral out and re-dipped it. I already dip before anything touches my tank, and usually with a stronger solution. Nothing funky showed up in my dip bucket or rinse bucket so no clue there. Going to start using that bayers dip I bought for all new corals. May even set up my 20g when I do a large order and use it as a 24hour hold to rinse corals off after the dip. Still have my T5HO light and it seems a whole box of t5 lightbulbs in the garage.
Finally got some green hairy fluffy whatever mushrooms opposite to the ones I have already!

I finally re-did my sump. Picked up a 40 breeder at Petco on their dollar per gallon sale. Great prices... Had some glass cut and silicone it in. A bit messy but pretty damn good for my first time installing baffles into a sump. Now I have proper sections and can hopefully keep it cleaner. Water flows in to the bottom in the rock section. Added a bunch of hermit crabs in there to eat any missed food that flows down there.

At least the fish are fat happy and healthy.
Well sort of, I thought my longest owned fish, my sailfin blenny had died. Poor guy was always being harassed by the Kole Tang I got. And he was going on 4.5 years, I know some smaller fish may not live too long. I kept trying to say hes probably just hiding because he hides so well and can change colours when he wants to go incognito. Plus everyone who ever saw him usually made a comment about him having a tumor or something, no hes just morbidly obese.... So I wrote him off as dead and figured I could get a new fish. Anyway, fed the tank some frozen one morning and I could see a reflection into my overflow, something was moving, something moving the same way my blenny moved. Holy crap its him.

Needless to say, after putting a bar stool on top of the side table by the couch and spending 2 hours balancing on that after removing my lights to partially drain my overflow, and use pokey sticks and small nets, I finally caught the little bastard. Small fish that change colours and blend in, that hide so well in the 1cm between the drain pipe and the overflow... GRRR. Anyway he was as fat and healthy as ever so back into the main tank he goes. I took the time to add light diffuser to my drain pipe to prevent any snails from clogging it.
And I went out and bought myself a proper 3 step, step ladder so I could stop putting unsteady objects on top of other unsteady objects just to reach my tank.

Well the Kole still hated the blenny, but I gave him a chance to smarted up. Nope? Okay got rid of the Kole. That blenny is my only fish that has been though all 3 tanks that i've had since the beginning so he stays.
Pet Superstore in Langley ended up having a lovely big 4"+ fat yellow tang for sale. They said it was from somebodies tank shutdown and had been there for 2 months. He looked good, healthy, ate pellets, and they knocked a few bucks off the price which made him cheaper then the tiny tiny ones sell for elsewhere. Yay new fish!

Brought him home. No issues with him and the sailfin. So that was almost a month ago. August 6th. Everyone is still good as it stands right now. No ick or aggression issues. I still call for fish updates all the time haha. Don't mind his colour in the photos, I woke them up just for photos before I hit the ferry.

I think J&L mislabeled my Formosa when he was there. Hes transitioning into his adult colours now. Kind of boring looking fish right now, hes like a brown turd. All his white is gone. He has a shiny blue stripe on his cheek starting to appear. But it goes horizontal not on an angle so I'm thinking he is just a regular Red Coris not a Formosa. Either way both make really pretty adult males. But I wont know for sure until he's done changing. No signs of blue dots on his back end yet, or black ones either. And his tail doesn't appear to belong to either one yet. Wait and see!!!!

The red fairy anthias are very odd fish. The big one is definitely a male, and hes got a beluga look to him, big hump head. No issues between them and my male Lyretail. Some of the female chill our in their rock holes. They do their dominance dances every once in awhile.

And once again my ability to take photos of anything is spinning slowly down the toilet. So here are some horrible pictures of my fish.



















And a white step ladder was way too boring. Princess auto had some "magenta" rustoleum really cheap. Its a lot more pink looking in person.

[Bblinks]

Pink step ladder....very nice!

[Coasting]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Pink step ladder....very nice!

There aren't enough females in this hobby. I have to try and girl stuff up wherever possible
Especially when I was selling corals or supplies, some people would come to the door and the first thing they would say to me would be "Is your dad home?"