:lol: Thanks Tony. How did I know you would comment about the blue zoas? Lets all hope they do well enough that I can frag them .....soon.

The decision is made about my lighting and Im running the new set up on the tank now. I went with 2x Tek 36" 6x39w HOT5 units. Man these things are freakin bright!!!:cool: I am using my 24" hagen HOT5s behind the Teks but Im not sure I will need to. I Have started the teks up high to see how things react. The bulb configuration is, from front to back.
TEK
KZ fiji purple
AM(aquamedic) reef blue
Aqua Science 15000k
AM 10000k
Am 10000K
AM 10000k
Hagen
AM reef blue
KZ fiji purple

It looks really white to me, or that just may be bright. Im not sure I like it or not. I may have to play with the bulbs a bit. I will post some B&A pics once I re-arrange the sps cluster I had going there.

Maybe you should try MH.... :wink: You'll miss the skimmer affect.

I will probably miss the shimmer effect, but Ive been reading that there is a retro-fit LED that produces the shimmer effect. I will have to look into it. On another note we got some incredible white cheek powder browns in at the store and Im humming and hahing over one.There was one in particular that I was gonna take...absolutely stunning.... but Carmen was there and she decided to take it. Congrats on the fish btw Carmen. So many beautiful fish...so little room in the tank.:lol:

We need some pictures Doug, I was also looking at all those pretty new fish and I will be back today to pick some out.

Yup, Doug we need photos. I need a pretty tank fix.

Yes, thank you Doug! I am so very pleased with this new Powder Brown. He is STRIKING!! I will be sure to post a couple pics once he feels a little more comfortable but am I ever GLAD I got him before you claimed him Doug!:p
Really want to see those pics of the new lights though Doug!

Yea, they are gorgeous! Too bad you missed out on it! Congrats Carmen! haha

Ok. I was gonna wait til I had the tank re-arranged and do a befor/one tek on/after sequence of pics, here is a sneek peek of the the one side with the canopy I made(150w 10000k mh/ 2x24W HOT5s), one side with the Tek.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2327.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2328.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2329.jpg

The tank is looking pretty good Doug and the T5HOs sure do put out the light.
I have a TEK 4X39 on my 46 gal and they are bright, but the 6 is just just wow.

BTW, what is the hairy stuff on your T5 lights?

Its not that I missed out. I told Carmen if she liked it and wanted it, she had better take it, because if she didnt I was going to. So I guess I forced her hand a little.

Thanks "A". I am pleasantly surprised by how much light they put out. Mind you , its only a 20" deep tank.

The hairy stuff was just for you mista "Hairy":mrgreen: I threw a towel over the tek to cut back the amount of glare so I could take the pics.

Sweet tank :) Really like the rockwork there.

Thank you very much. I dont know how many hours Ive spent either going through piles of lr looking for that perfectly shaped piece, or trying to make that now not so perfectly shaped piece once you get it home fit.

Reef tanks never cease to amaze me. A couple weeks back I was pumped when I managed to get a big black hairy mf crab that I had been "hunting" for a while. Well last night after the daylights went out and actinic was left on I notice another one of these hitchhiker crabs.:surprise: I am wondering if an emerald crab that I bought months back was possibly carrying fertilized eggs when I brought it home??? It didnt look like an emerald to me, but the lfs dude assured me it was(???) saying emeralds come in a few different color variations. So the hunt is on again. I cant leave this crab in the tank. Everything thing Ive read suggests black and hairy is baaaaaaaaad. It does have the algae eater pads on his claws tho. So anyway, as Im now combing over every square inch of the tank last night with a flashlight, looking for more of these crabs, I see movement. I look with the flashlight and of course dont see anything. I wait a minute or two and go back to the same spot in the rock and find my hectors goby!:surprise::surprise: Second time in three months I have seem him(that was a good buy:lol: ). I had wrote him off for dead, long ago. My tank is not that big, you would think I would at least spot him at feeding times? I like to think that I am an observant person but...?

So.... where's your tank update?:wink:

Ok here are the update shots. All shots taken by Jdigital Photography. Thanks again Josh and anything you want I will frag up for ya. Some tank shots, I will post some close-ups later.


http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ytime/SPS8.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ytime/SPS9.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...time/SPS10.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o.../Righthalf.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/Lefthalf.jpg

Enjoy.
Doug.

And more


http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...me/FTS2Oct.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...Centershot.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/FTSUp2.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/FTSUp3.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/FTSUp1.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/FTSUp4.jpg


Doug.

The tank is looking great, and the pics by JDigital are well shot. Everytime I see pics of this tank its growth is tremendous.

Doug,
Your tank gets better every time I see it. The T5's are certainly doing a good job of keeping things thriving.

By the way, do you have any heating issues with the new lights?

Thanks guys. I agree the shots Josh took are great. They have much better depth than I can ever take with my crappy point and shoot. I can dunk my camera in the tank though:razz:

I have seen about a two degree difference in temperature. Which is good... I guess. Anytime you can increase wattage and decrease temp, cant be bad right? Much better over all coverage with the T5s for sure. The metal halides do tend to leave shaded areas. But no more shimmer:neutral:

I did something today that I have been telling people I wouldnt do. Will tell you all bout it when I can post pics.

WHAT? Well don't leave us in suspense!

Sorry guess that is a bit of a tease:p.... How bout I distract you with some of Josh's pics of my fish?

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/Softies4.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/Hippo1.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/Hippo2.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/Hippo3.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...time/Fish4.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...time/Fish3.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...time/Fish1.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...time/Fish2.jpg

Those are some BIG lips on that Kole.. LOL :lol:

Love the expression on the fish in the last pic! Great shot!
But I really want to know what you did.......??????:lol:

Awesome pictures.. well done!

Time for Josh to take a bow. Ok Carmen ...it may be a while before I will be able to take pics of it, so I might as well tell you the story. I have for the longest time been telling people that I didnt think I would ever add an anemone to my tank. I was nervous about equipment mishaps and their tendency to wander around until they find a place where they are happy, all the while wiping out every coral they touch. I thought they were evil:twised: See, we got these absolutely incredible rose BTAs in at the shop (just ask Tony) on Saturday and I admired them from afar all day. By the end of Sunday I had had enough admiring and decided to take one home. I place it on a rock in a spot Im hoping it will like enough to call home and put a length of of 3" diameter tubing around it to help it feel secure. About a half hour or so later I notice that the tubing has drifted off the nem and amazingly it has already taken hold of the rock. So I take the tubing out and go to bed later that night with the nem still where I put it. I get up the next morning and first thing(even before coffee) I go to find the flashlight to check on "Rosie" and shes gone:surprise: Oh no.....I start looking at the coral to see if I can tell where it may have walked off to. Dont see any signs of dead coral... dont see Rosie either:sad:... start checking the overflows....nothing...oh no....start checking the power heads.....ROSIE....@#$%!!! Sucked into a koralia2 I have stashed behind the rockwork. I turned the powerhead off expecting Rosie to just fall out of it dead, but that didnt happen so I reach in to physically remove her from the powerhead and she's hanging on to it.:biggrin: Ok, so I havnt killed it in the first night. I left the powerhead off all day while I was at work hoping Rosie would crawl out of the cage she was trapped in by herself, but she didnt and I had to rescue her when I got home tonight. I have tried the tubing again but I put a heavier rock on this time. Man I hope she pulls through.

HA HA That's hilariious! I was wondering what the $@#^ you were talking about! Well, I did see those incredible nems and I agree they are hard to not take a second look at!! Great beautiful bright color, I hope she pulls through and stays away from those KORALIAS! Have your clowns showed any interest?

FWIW, I've had a few BTA's and powerheads attempting to occupy the same coordinates in space/time and I've always been amazed at how little tissue can actually regrow an anemone on top. I suppose there are never guarantees (I'll never know what happened to my old Rose BTA - just vanished one day after 4 years ... how does that happen??), but you just never know. I had this one clone of my brown BTA a few months ago completely obliterate itself and all that was left was a little bit of the foot, but it literally regrew a new anemone. Took a few months mind you, but it did come back from the brink. Weird stuff.

Mine went for a wicked walkabout too. All the way to the back of the rock and just peeking out ever so slightly. :lol: But it stayed put there all day, so hopefully it's a spot to its liking.

Just helping you out buddy. :mrgreen:

I KNEW it was a nem... just needed your post to confirm my guess. I'll get your tools back to you this week sometime if your not super busy..

Well she has survived her close encounter of the koralia kind. The clowns couldn't care less at this point.

Wont it wither away back there with reduced lighting? I ask this because mine did the same thing. It moved from up front to behind a rock and I have to strain even to get a look. I am concerned because it is quite dark where she has rooted( did I mention I just plain cant see it). Is ther some way to encourage her to move? Small powerhead maybe?

No hurry man.

It can happen. Sometimes they are just adjusting to different light levels than they are accustomed to so they seek out a darker spot on their own, but whether they are smart enough to come out on their own...

A small powerhead works quite effectively in encouraging them to move. They don't like that at all.

I find that the best spot that they can find is one where they can completely wedge their foot ("pedal disk") into a cave or crevasse and then they can "peek out" (the top or "oral disk" only) into the light and current. Not too much current and not too little current. ("This porridge is too hot. This porridge is too cold. This porridge is just right." :lol: Good luck finding the happy medium.) If you make a spot like that in the front then it might stay put. Sometimes they just wander though. It's weird. My old brown BTA stays put like a rock unless it splits. My old rose would never split and would change spots all the time. Basically identical conditions (same tank). So I guess there is individual-to-individual preferences.. :neutral:

Anyhow short answer yes a small powerhead does work really well. I've had to do that trick in the past if I wanted to sell a clone and I couldn't get at it, I did the wee powerhead pointed at it trick and it encouraged movement within a couple of hours up to maybe the longest I think was about a day.

Thanks alot for the advice Tony. Nemanator of Canreef:biggrin: I think I will let her be for a bit. I dont want to force her from where she is comfy while she is healing up. The issue is going to be feeding her. I cant see the mouth? How long before I need to start worrying? Im assuming that if she starts loosing color, she is not getting either enough food or enough light?

I was going to maybe wait a week with mine before attempting feeding. Ideally, if it will take it, I'll try mysis shot out from a turkey baster and it will eat what it catches. My other BTA seems to do well with this. Failing that, maybe some chopped shrimp or prawn pieces in the 1/4"-1/2" size placed in the middle of the oral disk with say large tweezers or something like that. You don't really need to see the mouth, if hungry enough the 'nem will take care of the rest. :)

PS. Oh and once a week or thereabouts is usually fine with BTAs, at least in my experience. I've gone long periods of time without feeding them too but it's probably better to give them a little bit to work with for the first bit.

Thanks again Tony. This RBTA (and the rest in that shipment) is the first nem that has struck me as something I wanted to add to my tank. I just dont want to "kill" it.

How bout another round of JDigi pics?

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...FTSEndTank.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ytime/SPS9.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ytime/SPS8.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...time/SPS10.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/FTSUp3.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/FTSUp2.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ime/FTSUp1.jpg

Man, some people have a knack for taking tank shots. I've never been able to learn that knack. :lol: Outside photos, closeups of plants, etc. - no problem, but as soon as I take a tank photo I'm like .. do I need new glasses or is it out of focus??

Course in this case I'd say the subject matter isn't entirely blameless for the great photos too. :p Some nice colours in there!!

Wow, I'll take that as a compliment... I wish I could take better shots tho.. :lol:

Awesome pictures! That is one beautiful tank - you should be proud! And JDigital I don't think you could take prettier shots! You are a true artist!!

Thanks guys. There is still one or two tweaks Id like to do. We are never really finished with the tank are we?

Rosie moved again :bad-word: . Right to the back of the tank, any farther back and she will be outside the tank. I shudda listened to my original instincts about nems. They are evil :evil: . Problem now is, I dont think I can get a powerhead any where to blast her out from back there.:confused:

the pump i am currently using for mixing water is nice and small may fit where ever you want and you may borrow it at your will.