whew... that would have sucked. :razz:

My Harlequin Tuskfish and Lunare Wrasse have been together for nine months. From day 1 the Tuskfish has chased the Lunare Wrasse with murder in his eye. I always suspected it was more play than serious. (Surely he would have caught up to him by now.)
Well, this morning he did!
I threw a fresh clam in the tank and after it was eaten the Trigger was playing with the empty shell, swimming back and forth with it in his mouth. When he dropped the shell it landed in a corner, between the glass and some rock. The Lunare Wrasse went in to have a look and the Tuskfish cornered him between a rock-and-a-hard-place. The Wrasse had no escape. The Tusk moved in on him, and the Wrasse froze. Then they touched noses, the Tusk backed up, and let the Wrasse go! Then the chase was on again. It was just like they were playing tag!
I know...........this sounds like I've been dropping acid. I just wish I had had the video camera on them. But here's a couple of pics of the two children.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...a/IMG_0572.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...a/IMG_0661.jpg

Lunare's are pretty feisty, mine gives my grouper a run for his money :biggrin:

Aren't they amazingly fast? Quickest fish I've ever seen! Steals food right from another fish's mouth before it even know what happens.

Hey Lance... when do you leave for your make-up trip to MExico?

The end of January. Two whole weeks of sun & surf!...........and some major sucking-up :redface:

I purchased a Jalli JT 1000 Heater Controller & 500W titanium heater. Anybody familiar with these? (I hope they are better than the Aqua Medic controller I threw in the garbage last year).

We've been running one at the shop for over a year....no hassles...

Good to hear. Thanks Doug. :biggrin:

Take three deep breaths and count to ten!............. Calm down!............... Otherwise you might do something you'll later regret: Like catch the bloodthirsty little bitch of a Fire Clown and feed her to the Seagulls!
I was mounting a few frags near her nem and she bit me so hard I pulled my arm back and slammed my elbow into the edge of the euro-bracing. SOB that hurt! Her bite wasn't so bad but the elbow throbs.



Here's the little vampire: she's at the bottom of the nem laughing at me. See her evil, crooked grin.


http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/IMG_1065.jpg

had a Perc that would attack me as well. never drew blood on my hand, but for sure on my elbow LOL

hehehe, that's how Dave ended up with my 2 wonderful clowns.

When it got to the point where the tank looked like crap cause I no longer wanted to put my hands in, I knew it was time to get rid of them :lol:

Marie, your clowns are nothing compared to the baby Emporer Angel I just added! as big as the French Angel is he runs and cowers in the corner when the Emperor is in a bad mood, quite entertaining to watch, and I thought it would be the Clown Trigger taking over.

Funny isn't it. The rest of the world thinks Nemo is such a cute little guy, not knowing he would tear your arm off if he could.

If she does it again, feed her to the Beagle :evil:

Actually, I don't really like the beagle either. I wonder how clownfish prefer their beagle burgers: medium rare?

Ohh ya good idea and then just say "honey I dont really know what happened to your dog, I think the Clown ate it, mabey you should get some revenge on that nasty little fish. 2 problems solved. :twised:

That's some evil thinking!! :whistle:

I've been trying to lower the nutrient levels in this tank for months now. Ever since last summer the SPS have not been doing so well. (lost a couple of colonies, and while some are doing ok, most are just sort of existing without really growing much). Softies and LPS grow like weeds of course.
I have a nice large growth of chaeto which I prune monthly, change 10% of the water weekly, (expensive!), and have tried vodka dosing and nitrate sponges. With this regimen I still could not get the nitrates under 10, (usually at 15 to 20). I could cut back on the feeding a little but I like my fish to be fat & healthy. I'm now trying the N-P Reducing Pellets. After 5 days I'm definitely seeing an increase in skimmate and the water is slightly clearer. A small outbreak of Cyano I had is disappearing as well. Very promising so far.

Go
 

nice tank, I love the shelves
________
Marijuana dispensary

what flavor of sponge did you use Lance....I think the phos "sponges" are one of those products that contain aluminum and can actually irritate a lot of coral....might be the reason for your sps not being too happy....just food for thought..

Thanks :biggrin:

Kent Marine Nitrate Sponge. It doesn't say on the container if it contains aluminum. Melev recommended it so I figured it's probably safe.

I could probably just leave it as a softie, LPS tank as the fish are the main focus in this tank anyway. But the 90g corner tank on the other side of the room mocks me: "Look at me! See how well SPS grows here. LOSER!"

Funny how some emperor angels can be mean. For some reason the only angelfish my King angel will allow to live with her is an emperor, maybe it's because they can hold their own.

Interesting, keep us posted on how it goes. I tried the vodka dosing but after 68 days and little results I gave up on it.

Will do Laurie. Too early to tell yet, but it looks promising. Tony has a thread on the pellets. He's been running his a little longer than mine and he seems to be having some success.

Lance, mabey its a chemical warfare thing, are you using lots of carbon?

Yup. A full BRS reactor changed monthly.

N-P Reducing Pellets have been running for 7 days now. I measured nitrates with both Salifert and Elos kits before adding the pellets and before a water change. NO3 was 25 mg/l on the Elos kit and between 10 and 25 on the Salifert kit. So, let's say the average was 20.
Today's readings are Elos: between 10 & 25 Salifert: 10 (Avg: 15)
A reduction of 5 in 7 days. Very promising!
Some other changes I've noticed are: thicker, darker skimmate; clearer tank water; and a small outbreak of Cyano has nearly disappeared. Film algae on the glass seems worse though, I'm having to clean the glass every other day.
Although still too early to come to any real conclusions I am happy with what I've seen so far.:biggrin:

Wow, the info on this is really encouraging! I might have to get me some of this, I have nitrates (about 20ppm I do the test averaging stuff too) that just can NOT be gotten rid of no matter what I try (not that I've tried much other than larger waterchanges). Anyway, I'll stop now :razz:

The lentils really do seem the real deal shiznit. (Fo shizzle.) I saw all the same things (clearer water darker skimmate and a small cyano patch just packed up one night and left). I have to clean my glass less often though, that's different. So hopefully yours will go that way eventually as well. Mind you I'm doing a combo zeo/lentils approach and maybe that's the difference. Honestly though I don't see how the film algae will be able to keep up long term with the reductions like that. Glad to hear you're liking them so far too. :)

Yeah, I'm lovin' 'em so far! The film algae is no big deal. In fact, I may even be imagining it growing faster. It's the pessimist in me. :redface: I've been battling nitrates so long in this tank I'm having trouble daring to think I may have found the cure. :lol:

I forgot to mention I started dosing MicroBacter 7, five days before the pellets arrived to help jump start the bacteria culture.

After 11 days of running the pellets the skimmate is really starting to become darker and thicker. It used to be a greenish brown, now it is nearly as dark as Pepsi, and the crap in the neck of the skimmer is as thick as tar. Here's a pic of skimmate poured from the waste collector into a 2 liter pop bottle. (Aproximately 1 liter in 24 hours). I have the end of the outlet hose from the pellet reactor right up against the bulkhead to the skimmer pump, so most of the effluent from the reactor is going to the skimmer. Maybe I should be letting more of the effluent make it's way back into the system? I don't know. Any opinions on this?



http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/IMG_1255.jpg

It would be the dog house for you for sure if the Mrs had a nice glass of that!!!

Better make sure the beagle doesnt get ahold of that or you will be on the missus $hit list again.....

I took the picture and promptly dumped it out. Can't be having any more accidents. :wink:

Again? or Still?

Could get rather expensive :wink:

24hrs??!!! WOW. My DIY skimmer makes about that much, in 3 WEEKS!!!!