+1 for the blue throat. Had one for a couple years, just sold him after he ate the foot off my anemone. In his defence it parked it self right in his favorite spot. Cam't blame him but he had to go after that.

I've had him for just over 2 weeks with no cover on the tank. I didn't want to take him before we went away, but it was either now or never due to the other person shutting their system down and previous arrangements made. I got him a few days before we left and I didn't have a chance to make a cover before we left - its the plan for this weekend. So far, I have not seen any attempt whatsoever of an escape. He's in the tank by himself with the CUC, so no harrassment.

I just tested tank parameters as I get ready for a water change

Ca 460
Kh 6
Mag1250
Ph 8.1
Salinity 1.025
Temp between 79-80.5 - noticing with warmer weather, temp increasing so need to adjust.

Kh and mag are low, will dose to bring them up. Overall, happy with tank...have some new corals and a fish coming Monday. Everything is doing great...

Well the tank is doing alright. I have added a few fish, including a male blue throat trigger (I LOVE this guy), diamond watchman goby, red velvet wrasse, tomini tang and a two spot hogfish I know its a lot at once, but this weekend added a yellow tang, red coris wrasse and a leopard wrasse. Both wrasses dug into the sand as soon as they hit the water, so I expect it might take a few days before they venture out. I love all the movement of the fish and its interesting how they interact with each other. The hippo tang swims with the radiant wrasse and is very territorial with him. The tomini gave the yellow a few slaps yesterday, but seemed ok by lights out. The hippo does not like the trigger at all, so this makes me a bit nervous...I had been good at adding only 1 per week, but the last 3 were a good deal...no more fish for a while.

I also added a rose tip anenome accidentally to this tank...I bought it for my 55, but wasn't ready to put it in there as I had just made changes to the 55. Well, my clown found the nem within 2 days of it going in and I don't think I'm going to move it to the other tank, they both seem happy. I'm concerned with the coloring of the nem, its tips are pinkish, but the bottoms of its tentacles are whitish. I'm assuming good water quality and feedings will help this guy color back up?

As for corals, haven't added too much recently. Still trying to help the ones that have been struggling for a while. No worse, but no better....

One thing that is troubling me is my salinity has dropped. I checked late yesterday and it was down to 1.022. I mixed up water last night and will change today. I can change about 25-30gls, what should I have the salinity at in the mixed water to make a difference in the tank? It normally sits at 1.025-1.026.

Will add pics later.

I have a female blue throat in my 180 and miss Piggy is one of my favorite fish. Wanted a male but the only one at blue world wasn't eating :(

Your nem's colors are the same as mine. Rose pink tips, white base with a tint of green. Mine has been growing well for the two months I've had it and it even split once already. I don't think you have anything to be concerned about. If it wasn't happy it would move somewhere else.

You could add a male as well when you find one, it was an idea thrown at me when I got mine as I guess as pair they have interesting behaviours. Mine is a pig as well, I love triggers and one of the reasons I wanted a bigger tank!! :lol: He's a very nervous fish though but getting braver, he hides when our dog barks close to the tank!!!

Won't worry about the nem, the clown feeds it so it gets enough food. I hope it doesn't move......:twised:

You should update your build, haven't seen pics in a while either...:mrgreen:

Red. Coris. Wrasse. Beautiful fish but what a pita!! Come home and 2 mushroom rocks are upside down, flip back over, walk away, 10 mins later, upside down again...watch tank and sure enough, the wrasse is flipping them in front of me. First fish I've added that I think I'm regretting.....read up a bit and although reef safe with caution, I was not expecting this......ugh.

Sorry to hear that but thanks for the info!:mrgreen:

Just gone thru your journal... Love your lights:wink: and def jealous as I wish I could have a bigger tank! I like the diff variety of corals you have and wish I could keep clams...:redface: for some reason they dont like me much and I've never had much success with clams...

Pic update?
Thanks for sharing!:biggrin:

I'd have to agree. I love my red coris but definitely a PITA. FYI they aren't reef safe, they are listed with the non-reef safe wrasses on most sites. Mine is 6-7" now and when he was 2-3" Doug and I tried to catch him out of my reef tank (took all the rock out and dug through the sand searched for 3 days before putting the rock back) and I sill wasn't able to catch him :twised: He often flips rocks around, ate my almost all my crabs and snails (a few big ones survived) but I will say on the plus side (knock on wood) he hasn't ate my shrimp yet. Beautiful for sure but a PITA.

That would be a cool idea. Maybe I will get another. BF and I are talking about moving in the next year so I'm not sure I want to stock my tank too heavily but hey, a year is a year away, right?

And yes... I do need to update my tank build. I'm just so swamped and busy and I've been neglecting the tank lately. It's looked better and I don't want to show it off much right now....

Thank you. I haven't added much lately as I've had a few issues, the coris wrasse is one (knocking over corals), my parameters dropped so
I have been dosing, finally back to where they should be. I've also lost a number of corals and have not really been sure why, so been a bit gun shy to add more. So I've been focusing on stability and slowing down. I've also had 3 fish jump in the last month, no the tank isn't covered.

I'll go through my pics and get something up later though. :razz:

I think I had read reef safe with caution, so I was more worried about eating corals, not flipping them...I have a lot of empty snail shells and my fire shrimp has been missing for a while, cleaner shrimp are still around...

Yours is the same size as mine, he's skittish and hides whenever I'm in the tank, so I think trying to catch him is out of the question unless he becomes more social.

sigh....

Awesome pics, gunna read the rest another time.

any fts updates?

Is your eel in with all your fish? Just so you know I have seen a snowflake take out some pretty big fish including a fairly large lion.

Regarding triggers, I used to have a niger in my reef several years ago and loved it however when I upgraded my tank and moved it to the back tank it actually ate my bicolor angel on day.

Fish are always hit & miss but if you get a bad one look out! Also they can change behavior even after being in a tank for several years.
One of the interesting aspects of this hobby is we put fish together in our tanks from all over the world and many that often don't live together in the wild and they can teach each other new tricks - some of which are not good.:wink:

Thanks!:lol:

mattjoly85 any fts updates?
Haven't done one in a while, tank is ugly ATM...cyano

The eel was in my 55 gl tank, I sold him a while ago and reset it to a reef tank again.

My trigger is awesome right now but he's still pretty small. My hippo tang picks at him all the time, actually made him jump out of the tank earlier this week, so she might be going.

I agree that we put fish together that would never live together in these boxes, then hope for the best....That sucks yours actually ate another fish....I guess there's always risks no matter what. You must have got rid of the Niger as I don't recall seeing him in your tanks??

Yes after it ate that angel it got traded in at Golds' for something else.

Finally have an aqua scape I like. My lights were starting to dim when I took these but I'm happy with the overall look of the tank. I was concerned about having less live rock so created an island today. My rock all looked purple before I started, once rearranged, pieces that were buried are now exposed and whitish again.

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...psee583c19.jpg

Now I need to fill it with corals. There's much better options for coral placement now, lots of caves for the fish and open swimming space. I thought redoing the rocks would stop my hippo tang from picking on my trigger, nope, she's still a jerk.

Finally, my candy hogfish must have been hiding in a rock, when I pulled the rock out on the tarp, I heard it flopping around. Picked him up and put in the tank, but he was pretty lifeless. I cupped him in my hand and moved him around to move water through his gills. He stayed in my hand for 10 mins, I finally moved it away and he zipped back to the rock. Didn't see him again till this morning and he was back to normal, so no casualties, yay!

It looks great! I like how you did it in seperate islands and arches. It is going to be stunning when you have it filled in with corals. Love it!

Wow, I love the work you have done. Really a great Aqua Scape going on there! Wt how many "I need aqua scape help," you should teach a class!

Great Job!


Sent Via Pirate Ship.......

Thanks. I had pics of tanks open on my ipad trying to get ideas. Good thing its got a cover as it got a bit wet...Not getting overly positive feedback on my help thread, so may change up the centre a bit. The thing I like about the column in the middle is there are so many coral placement options on it. I may just leave it alone and see how things look with corals, which are seriously lacking in this tank!! I do like the overall look better than my initial set up.

Thank you!!! :lol:

I would leave it alone, or at least let it sit for a few days while you think about it. it sounds like you like it the way it is. I think once it has corals on it, it will look even better than it does now. There is plenty of swimming room for your fish and available sand for Corals as well.

Pics don't show the full effect very well either so those that don't like it very much might change their mind if they were to see it in person. what matters is that you like it.

Ahh, thank you! Very kind. I took more pictures this morning before I left as the lights were full on. Tried to capture the depth a bit better, but my camera skills still suck. :razz: I love the look of islands in other peoples tanks but honestly, once corals grow in, you hardly know whats there supporting them. I was also concerned about removing any rock as the tank has only been running since February and had quite a bit of base rock. The island is 100% live rock which I felt was needed. I did ask for suggestions and criticisms, and do appreciate the honesty of the feedback. It does have me thinking of other options, but I'll work towards that as time goes. Took me this long just to change things up, not going to mess around too much at this point. :lol:

Havent updated in a while, haven't added much in the way of corals, lost quite a bit a while ago and been a lot nervous to add more, so have left things alone. I've just added 4 awesome wrasses and am amazed at how new fish can rejuvenate interest.

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps17de0ee1.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...pse0f8faab.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8468201c.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...psbdc0b716.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8c0fa18a.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9f513f6c.jpg

My male clown got tired of me taking pics and came at the glass..

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4cb13a04.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...psc0348864.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...psb03f55c5.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1eaa1739.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8635a517.jpg

I picked up a whipfin and Scott's wrasse today, they are still hiding, but did come out when I fed tonight, so hoping for pics soon!

Nice fish! Your bubble coral looks HUNGRY!!

Looking pretty lively in there! There's nothing like watching a busy reef. The interactions are so cool. You glue all your smaller rocks down or is your coris still making your life fun?

Thanks! The bubble has tripled in size in the last few months, and always looks like this when I feed. Haven't direct fed in ages...:mrgreen:

I sold the coris, he flipped everything and killed quite a few corals. :twised:

Funny, since adding the wrasses, my lone anthia is trying to hang out with them and my big fish are swimming around more.

I also just added 2 mini maxi nems, an orange, red green one and a black one with a green skirt. The black one moved under a rock in the shade and seems quite content there.

BLACK maxi mini? :O I would love to see a pic of that :D

it was good seeing ya getting fishies sheena.
and nice bubble coral.

Oh dear, were you there alone or with the little girl? I would have loved to grab a couple more but the Scott's wrasse wasn't cheap....:lol:

What did you end up grabbing?

I will try to get a pic but it's tucked itself under a rock further back in the tank.

Some more pics of the new kids.

Scotts fairy wrasse, still hiding but is coming out to eat, which is good.

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps73490355.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0452be04.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps70111b3c.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9bfff31d.jpg

Whipfin...looks like a mckoskers though. Can someone confirm?

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...pscf780773.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0f02651e.jpg

And one more...

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...ps021fd882.jpg

Sweet lubbocks!

Paracheilinus mccoskeri
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...HFq6oKtgx3ifSw
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...HaGrB85BU6XEig
the tail gives him away.
Paracheilinus filamentosus
http://s1.e-monsite.com/2008/11/08/0...ntosus-jpg.jpg
http://blog-imgs-32.fc2.com/t/a/k/ta...7132203f43.jpg
tail is red like the body with out that beautiful strip.
hard call though.
i would lean towards Mccoskers flasher
but that just my quick google search on both.

Thanks Matt, I came up with the same thing. Doesn't matter, he's awesome and is not shy at all! He's been flashing at my royal gramma quite a bit today...:lol:

The Lubbock was different from the others with the blue marking down his back which is why I wanted him. He flashes at his reflection in the glass....weirdo!