My filefish ate aptasia left sps and zoas alone but loves LPS. Unfortunately I've been overfeeding the tank he's in (to make sure the other fish, not just the cowfish, get food) and it seems he's stopped eating the aptasia :twised:

Is it kinda blue with yellow dots?

Here was fence 1:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/trap1.jpg

I then proceeded to split that compartment with another fence (he was hiding in the rear rock pile) and as I was zip tying the inner fence (no pic due to rage meltdown) he slipped between a gap at the front of fence 1! I tried scaring him away when he was nearing it and the bugger calmly swam past. He was nipping my smooth skinned acro before I had fence 1 removed. Broke a few corals along the way :twised:

Fence 2 on other side:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/trap2.jpg

Fence 2b:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/trap3.jpg

Got him on the back half of this partition but he slipped into the front half after all was zip-tied. Took ages to dismantle the inner fence and lift it and scare him back to the much simpler (coral and rock) side.

I spent 5 hours removing colonies/towers and breaking stuff for a 1" fish. I had heard he was a risk to my LPS perhaps and I decided it was worth the risk. In the end he nipped my gorgs and SPS (when he really got into it we're talking a nip every 2 seconds!)

I re-learned I don't have a lot of patience. LESSON LEARNED!

Ouch! Sorry to hear that Brett. I too have learned that if they say "risky" I should be saying "no thank you" as Murphy's Law always uses me as it's poster child.

Did you get him out or just trapped?

love the hair algae.

Ugh that sucks. Makes me glad my filefish worked out (or at least I think he has, he's done his job eating all the majanos and aiptasia anyways).

Yes I was able to get him out.

Yeah still growing well but only on my new rock. Thanks for the rock again =)

I feel for you, we went through the same issue with our filefish but at least he was easy to catch.

http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/y...3/IMG_2039.jpg

:lol:

Wow that sounds like it was a PITA to try to catch him. I got lucky with my filefish and was able to catch him fairly easily in my 230g

I'm happy for you two lol. That ordeal shaved years off my life! So Wes, yours was trying to eat the clam and the clam caught it? Gentler passing than mine experienced...

What a pain, Brett. I don't know if my neck could handle what you went through, unless you went swimming :mrgreen:

Sooooo
What's up with the tank these days ?

Guess I've been letting the thread slide huh? I was busy letting the tank slide too lol. I just cracked open the last bucket of salt of the original 10 I bought. I've been doing 50g water changes every 2 weeks instead of weekly for about 2 months now to keep costs down some. I haven't tested my levels in over a month but plan to tomorrow :redface: My TDS has been 1 from the DI for a while now and I'm even cool with that. I'm letting'er coast =)

I did however beat my hair algae problem. The valonia has taken off since and even though I'm slowly making process on the anularis algae it's still rampant (and sucking my calcium to boot :twised:).

You'll notice I'm rockin the black background again... lovin' it too I might add. The blue looked more natural and endless and the black did make the tank look 3 feet deep (like it is I guess) but that was the best $20 I ever spent on bedding. I hung 2 king-sized black sheets on the fishroom wall. Very low VOCs =)

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update1.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update2.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update3.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update4.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update5.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update6.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update7.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update8.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update9.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update10.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update11.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update12.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update13.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update14.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update15.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update16.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update17.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update18.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update19.jpg

And one portrait shot from inside the fishroom (my favorite view).

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/404/update20.jpg

You sure have a beautiful tank Brett. And take even more beautiful pictures :) looks great.

Looking killer dude!! Colors are sure popin!!

HOLY SMOKES!!! I can't believe how freaking unreal your tank is looking Brett, you've really mastered those little sticks eh?

Thanks guys. Growth has really been slow lately and I'm sure cutting water changes in half is to blame but I'm not really in a rush lol.

Here's a little sloppy video work for you. YouTube did not detect the copyrighted song... I can't imagine why :biggrin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoI3lj74JKQ

Looking good man as always. Sweet choice of tunes in the video!

Hey buddy your tank is stellar man the colors are so friggin cool and that pink milli WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Well done brett

Too funny. My filefish did the same thing :)

Looking good but you need some bigger fishy friends to fill up some space :wink:

I was thinking the same thing :)

That's actually my red planet lol. Looks a lot like a hot pink prostrata for some reason which is fine with me!

Tank is looking fantastic Brett!

Tank sure is looking good these days Brett... keep farming out those fuzzy sticks. :mrgreen:

:thumb::thumb::thumb: Filling in very nicely Brett. I forget what you're running for lighting; but it's a good choice: The colours really pop.

Thanks guys. I do plan to add a few more fish but mostly small ones. I lost my neon goby without a trace and would like a pair someday. He may have succumbed to the ich that's in my tank I'm not sure. Only in the last month has my Kole been purple again (was a ghostly white) and my maculiceps looking this good. He also recently started eating nori (sheet a day) which probably helps. I'm going a full year without adding any new livestock to lt the ich run their course and then I'll qt all new livestock.

Still rockin' 4 250W radiums Lance along with a row of 20k and 14k bulbs front and back. I think they're ATIs but I can't even remember now LOL.

You may think the growth is slow but it still looks great in there. What a difference a few months makes. I'm glad to see the HA under control - big improvement on the whole experience from here !
Great pics :wink:

So I finally did some tests last night:

Ca - 350
Alk - 10.5
Mg - 1500!

I haven't dosed Mg in ages so Reef Crystals must be high or I need a new kit. Since RC is for sure high in Ca the reduced water changes seems to have lead to a lowered Ca level which I think (I'm not a chemistry guy) means that the corals can't use Alk so the previously acceptable dose was more than needed.

I'm actually sorta stoked with these findings... maybe once I get them back in line growth will return to where it was before.

Nothing more unsightly than HA. I've gone through it before and I've finally learned to calm down, be patient and do what you can.

Weird. I don't get that kind of Mg reading my Reef Crystals, I get more like 1150. (I have to add a fair bit to get my w/c water to 1500, which nicely keeps up with Mg consumption to leave the tank at around 1400). I wonder if your kit is off.

IMO, nothing hugely wrong with Mg at 1500. Higher than ocean readings but some things seem to really appreciate Mg around there (I can tell by looking at my anemones if my Mg drops down to 1100 or lower).

Alk is a *little* high and Ca maybe a *little* low but quite within tolerances. I'd adjust my Alk dosing downwards and my Ca upwards by a tiny bit and see how things go from there.

Great advice, this is something need to learn.

Tanks looking great, I really like how everything pops against the new background

I agree with Tony. I'd rather my Mg was on the high side rather than low. My tank likes to be kept at about 1350.

yup, higher Mg levels will also discourage most macro algae growth....

BTW....tank is looking killer brochacho!.....are you running zeo or the like?

Thanks guys yeah I would def prefer high mg vs low. My kit is likely wonky or something. I adjusted my doser and I'm firing 400ml into the tank every night to raise it 10ppm per day. Child's play... I just got lazy with my testing.

No zeo Doug. Gfo and carbon. I did try a few doses of pohls xtra a while ago but it lightened some of my corals way too much and I barely added any.

FYI I hear there is a nice naso FS that would help fill in your tank :razz:

Yeah I know friiiig. I'm mulling it over ;)

:boink: :boink: Ya know ya want it :razz:

The tank is looking killer Brett! Love how fast your little sticks are taking off (even if you think it's slow) just take another look at your original frag picture.

mull faster, you don't see a fish like that every day.