Is that what you call a weed?... haha. Some nice looking frags there, though. Hope they do well for you.

Pocci? Yes, very weed-like. Beautiful coral, but they spread like mushrooms. I wish they didn't do that.

I use it as a filler. All the little buds fill in areas that don't grow anything else :)

Lol and more food for the MIs!

Nah, they don't touch it. Not expensive enough.

Of course. :neutral:

I added a Panamic Barnacle Blenny today and might get a few more. I added a sock to catch him in the sump. ;)

I also picked up a few assorted snails to beef up the CUC a bit.

I ordered some Flame Anthias too (Pseudanthias ignitus). I will get some brine shrimp on the boiler and order up some blackworms. I have a QT set up for them and will worm them after I get them eating before putting them in the display.

More goodies from a friend's tank. He decided to remove most of his SPS in favor of LPS (crazy talk!). I took advantage of his weakness!

My pics suck - I'll turn down the blue T5s next time.

Garf Bonsai
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%205.jpg


Hawkins Echinata
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%204.jpg


Unidentified mariculture piece
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%203.jpg


Setosa
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%202.jpg


Maricultured "red dragon"
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...017%202015.jpg

So I figured the frags could handle being epoxied onto the rock now, so I went ahead and did that (until I ran out of epoxy) on Friday. I was away for the weekend, and I came back to the frags being mad. The skimmer was fine on Friday, but was going crazy when I got home Sunday. It still isn't back to normal. I only used 6 epoxy balls about the size of a small marble. Some of the frags didn't mind the manhandling, but a few of them were very stressed including the Green Dragon. The GD finally RTN'd last night, and the bottom half of the Christmas Hyacinthus also RTN'd. Hopefully it is done with that, and will recover, but I won't be surprised if it's all gone tomorrow. What's left of it has nice PE. :lol: What's a SPS tank with out a little RTN here and there? :mad:

I hear ya

Oddly enough I get great PE after using my epoxy (vertex). Good luck taming your RTN.

I don't think I've used the Vertex stuff. It was old D-D epoxy I was using. The P-off is that it didn't even harden, and I ended up re-doing some pieces with some fresh TLF epoxy. I find neither the D-D nor the TLF are easy to work with - they don't stick well. I used to love the Boston Aqua Farms epoxy, but the LFS doesn't carry it anymore.

Did you do it in the microwave first?

Glue-epoxy-glue ftw.

Yes I did.

I did that on a few that were particularly troublesome, but it didn't help. The glue wouldn't stick to the epoxy. :lol:

Well, very sorry to hear your troubles. You had some nice frags there. Hope the rest survive OK.

Thank you. It's frustrating for sure, but crying over a couple frags would be silly. I'll just keep things as stable as possible and hope for the best.

I have a glowstick sarmentosa frag for you if you're interested :)

I'm interested in anything with the words "glow" and "stick" in the same sentence (but not the same word, I'm too old for that lol). PM sending!

So the SWC skimmer has been a royal pain in the butt. It keeps losing the foam head, then overflowing. The venturi seems clean, but I think the whole thing just needs a good clean. So I pulled the SWC and stuffed the ATB in there instead. I say "stuffed" because it barely fits since the Eheim pump takes up as much footprint as the skimmer body. :lol: I chose the ATB because it's used, and I don't have enough vinegar to clean up the new BK good enough. The ATB was an easy fix. :D The tank has run mostly skimmerless for the last 5 or 6 days because of the inconsistent foam head on the SWC. The ATB is picking some gunk up, but not much. It doesn't help that the tank is so new and way too clean. I've been feeding the heck out of the fish, and they are happy for this.

Ca 410 ppm (Elos)
Alk 143 ppm 8.0 dKH (Hanna)
NO3 undetectable (Salifert)
PO4 0.00 ppm (Hanna)

Still no nutrients. *sigh* I'm going to go feed the fish...brb

So I've pretty much decided I'm going to add sand to the tank. I'm itching to put a couple/few Jawfish in there. Plus the black bottom and black back make the tank look sooo dark. The LFS is waiting for Quality Marine to have stock of some Maldives Flame Anthias (P. ignitus) which I think will be a good fit for my tank size, but it's summer and QM doesn't have them in stock. I'll probably add a Yellow Coris Wrasse too, and one or two more Panamic Barnacle Blennies. I want to add a Perchlet, but I'm worried it might eat the Blennies.

The Panamic Blenny took a ride to the sump a couple days ago. He was happy to go back in the tank, and he reminded me that I have to silicone that rod onto the overflow lip. I'll get that done tonight.

Lookin forward to seeing it in action :smile:

Well, I finally got some nitrate in the tank! I took a 5-gallon pail from a client's tank and put it into my tank. :lol: The client's tank is 0.04 ppm PO4 and ~25 ppm NO3. Perfect dose of nitrate for my tank. Here's today's readings:

Cal 435 ppm (Salifert)
Alk 160 ppm 8.9 dKH (Hanna)
Mg 1320 ppm (Salifert)
NO3 0.5 ppm (Salifert)
PO4 0.00 ppm (Hanna 713)

I ordered a group of Maldives Flame Anthias (P. ignitus) from my LFS. This species is very similar to Dispar Anthias and similarly are difficult to get eating. I waited until Quality Marine had them in stock so that I could get the healthiest fish possible rather than getting my LFS to order the (cheaper) Anthias from an overseas supplier. They arrived on Wednesday evening, and picked them up straight out of the shipping box. There are 6 small females and 2 big males. I put them into a 40-gallon quarantine tank and got some brine shrimp eggs in the hatcher. I also ordered some live blackworms from Petland, but they won't be here until next week. Thursday morning I fed a mix of PE Mysis, R.O.E., and frozen Cyclopeeze. 5 of the females came out to eat, and pecked around, ate a few bits. Very good. :) The two males and one female stayed hiding behind the pot. Thursday afternoon they were fed again and they all came out and ate a few bits. I fed them twice more and most of them ate a few bits, but not as well as earlier in the day. They were all most interested in the Cyclopeeze, but ate a few Mysis. This morning the 5 females were out pecking and eating a bit, and the males and one female were interested, but no action. The Brine Shrimp eggs failed to hatch. So I mixed up a cube of Hikari Mysis, Hikari Spirulina Brine Shrimp, and R.O.E. All the fish except the one shy female were very excited about the Brine Shrimp, and quickly grabbed a piece, but promptly spat it out. They repeatedly did this. Grrr! I did see one female eat one Brine Shrimp. No interest in the R.O.E. nor the Mysis. The two males and one female remain very shy.

The smallest female has a mark on her back - I haven't been able to look close enough to tell what it is. She is one of the more active ones. It may be bruising or it may be aberrant markings which would be cool. There's a possibility that it's a sore, but at this point I don't think it is. That's where we're at now. :)

Here's most of the herd:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...S/IMG_0189.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...S/IMG_0180.jpg

Nice looking fishies Mindy
Hope you have better luck with your herd than I did with mine - RIP all 7 Lyretails

I'm hoping so! Jeez, you must have had a bad batch - Lyretails are usually pretty easy as far as Anthias go. I would have loved to put Lyretails in my tank, but they get too big. The Flame Anthias only get abut 3 1/2" which is one of the main factors in my choice.

New clam
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2010.jpg


Sarmentosa frag I got a couple weeks back. Browned out for now.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%204.jpg


Dorky Blenny
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...015%202015.jpg

that clam is nice , really wish lfs around me would get some barnacle blenny's. Got a nice barnacle just need the fish , how many do you have ?

I'm a big fan of those barnacle blennies after seeing them in seabreeze's tank. They are a lot of fun to watch

I have two of the Blennies. I'd like to have a whole herd of them, but there's a lot more fish I want too, so I have to save some space!

Ya, they are entertaining at feeding time! They are SO fast! They zip out, grab food, and zip back. They bounce off the rock, bonce off other fish. They are totally out of control. It's hilarious. I should video them. Their names are Flash and Streaker.

It's been 4 weeks now, and I'm finally I'm starting to see some color coming back to the SPS after the epoxy spaz my tank had. It certainly took long enough. I'm sure it's helping now that there is a bit of nitrate in there too. It's been 8 1/2 weeks since the tank transfer.

The Flame Anthias are doing well so far. The one male remains very, very skittish. He doesn't eat much, but he is eating. The second male is also skittish, but he eats pretty well. The females are all pigs. Once I have them fattened up I will dose them with PraziPro. Since Praziquantel can cause temporary anorexia in fish, I want to make sure they are fat enough to make it through the treatment should they choose to be anorexic.

So I was traveling yesterday and stopped by an LFS. I picked up a few frags; Lokani, Echinata, Desawlii, and unknown (possibly a second Desalwii, possibly a Tenuis). There was AEFW in the system, but didn't seem to be affecting any of the pieces I bought. So they came home with me. I clipped them off the plugs, dipped them in Bayer (5 mL per 250 mL tank water, rinse in tank water well). No AEFW came off, and I didn't see any eggs on the plugs. I chucked them in the QT with the Anthias.

So this is where things get complicated...

I dosed PraziPro to the QT with the Anthias last Tuesday (a week ago), and the treatment should be complete now. I check on the Anthias this morning, and they look rough. They have the "rough scales" appearance. One has some whitish edges on a couple spots on fins. Half of them look a bit Ich-y. So this isn't really the complicated part - except I just put SPS frags into the QT!!! http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/im...ilies/mad2.gif

So I think I'm going to move the SPS frags into the display tank, and hope for the best. The tank is just frags right now, so if worst comes to worst, I can remove them for AEFW dips. Le sigh...

Well the tank is settling in nicely. After the tank's absolute over-reaction to the epoxy, I'm starting to see colors coming back. Finally. Really though, the tank had a lot going against it. First, I did tank transfer. 9 days later I added a whack of SPS frags. A week or so later I epoxied everything and the system became extremely stressed because of this. At that point most of the frags in the system were 100% brown - like not a hint of color. So now that I'm beginning to see color again, I'm quite happy!

Also, FWIW, I took a video of the Blennies during feeding, bt it's not uploading properly. Once I figure that out I'll post it. The Anthias in the QT got their first dose of Cupramine today. Dang, I was hoping they could go in the tank soon! I did put the quarantined SPS frags into the display tank today (freaking out a bit) so I could medicate the Anthias.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%203.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%204.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%205.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2011.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2014.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2017.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...026%202015.jpg


This tabling piece I bought just before the tank transfer (late June). It was entirely cream/beige when I bought it. Now I'm seeing what may be purple tips - eee!
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2016.jpg

Glad the A. sarmentosa is doing good for you! Looks to be glowing already :) Is the green base with pink tips a pink lemonade?

Glad the A. sarmentosa is doing good for you! Looks to be glowing already :) Is the frag with the green base with pink tips a pink lemonade? Sure looks like it could be!

Oooo, pretty corals Mindy :mrgreen:

Looks like you have some nice stuff go'in on there !

Can I get some of the epoxy to nuke my tank with so my stuff colors up so nice after :-)

Thanks guys! Yes, free epoxy for everyone!!! Although I did lose I think 4 frags in the disaster.

Yeah, it's starting to glow! The green/pink one definitely could be a Pink Lemonade or something similar. It grows painfully slow. That's 2 years of growth you're seeing, but it started from a 1/2" brown little nub and was in my frag tank with many leathers for most of that time. An out of town lady brought it and a bunch of other pieces into Bayside when they shut their tank down. She had forgotten the names of all of them, so I bought it on a whim, and was quite happy when it started to color up and grow. :) I bought some something else from her too, but can't think of what it might have been.

Mine has been a slow grower as well. It's been investing a lot of energy into spreading out it's base and has only recently started showing signs of upward growth. I think I am going to have to mess with my flow, it's to direct. The MP40's a causing some weird growth :)

Mine has never been too concerned about spreading the base. You have a lot of corals that are doing that. I think I have significantly higher flow than you do because I don't have (m)any LPS that I have to worry about blowing the flesh off of.



A couple new pics of the clam. I can't quite catch the blue in it - it's bluer than the photo, also the pattern is sharper. I just can't really get it right.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...S/IMGP0120.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%206.jpg


Here are the two LPS that are allowed to stay in my tank. The Rainbow Trachy I've had for several years now - it bleaches at the drop of a hat. This time it has a good reason as it's had a hard time getting used to the new lights. The Space Invader Pectina is also a bit bleached, but not as bad.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%205.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%202.jpg

Space invader looks great! Looks like it's been doing some wild drugs though haahaa. That's a great growth pattern! Mine is flatter, with folded lobes. You see less of the raised skeletal features. I wish mine did more of that. Easier to frag like that as well.