I need to hi-jack for a second. In the last photo there is some round pink'ish/purpleish growth on the rocks with round holes in the middle...What is this stuff?? I have some of the same but also grows in long stringy lengths...Seems to be some type of sponge

yeah he really hates the black cloth I put on the back of the tank for FTS. He wigs out in that corner practically the whole time I have it on, which is why sometimes the pics look like arse, cuz i'm trying to get the shot too quickly.

yep its a lower light sponge, the whitish type seems to get those long strings on them and after a few years if you try to separate your rocks you'll find they're glued together by the sponge. Kind of neat that it secures your rockwork for you but also annoying that there can be so much of it in there. I also have a couple of other sponges in the tank that come in pink and red, no strings but they look sort of the same as well as yellow ball sponges which are really neat :biggrin:

Perhaps the color is a bit diminished but your tank really great mature look to it. I've never had that wafer algae...call me nuts but it kinda looks cool?

it does kinda look cool but eventually covers every rock and gets to plague proportions. It also gives the tank a dull brown overcast which is less than attractive. I don't mind it in small patches but that never lasts long.

do we see a small naso in your near future?:wink:......or are you just gonna manually pluck it out?

naw I don't think I can do a naso unless they've made a dwarf version. Once the wafer algae starts to "plate" its easy to siphon out but I'm hoping the ultralith does the trick :biggrin:

Naso's stay small for a couple...............months:mrgreen:......I battled waffer algae too and the way I got rid of it, was a blonde......its a tough one to git rid of......hopefully your UNLS will knock it back....

LOL, yeah if I could remove one fairly easily I would definitely go for it but the thought of tearing the tank half apart to get it out after the job was done, frankly it makes me tired :razz:

Oh the other hand I'm currently looking for ideas for "natural" majano and aiptasia control, anyone had any experience with utiliensis butterflies?

uh ... hi?

I know your experience :razz: I was just wondering if anyone had any bad ones

Tagging along. I'm tool lazy to stick my head in the tank to get to the one's down low.

Typed in a response at work but then all day never got a chance to finish it and press submit. Argh! Hate days like that.

Anyhow, the short version to what I want to say is that I have two C. ulietensis, aka Pacific double-saddle back, or false falcula butterflies. Both C. ulietensis and the similar C. falcula (aka "true falcula" - the black patches are smaller on falcula) have a reasonable reputation for being majano munchers, reasonable adaptability, and a somewhat reef safe reputation. The problem is that the flipside to "somewhat reef safe" means "somewhat not reef safe" and you'll not really know what else could be at risk in your tank until you've tried them and find out. They could be model citizens but they might end up not being able to resist certain temptations and you can't really compensate for a learned behaviour with extra feeding.

I was warned beforehand that "they eat everything" and I thought. .. well, surely not EVERYTHING. But 8 month in with them I can say it's actually darn close to everything. Softeys, stoneys (LPS and SPS), gorgonians, clams, anemones .. no category is immune. For the most part they leave most things alone but once they've decided one individual is food, that's it, it's food, and they won't leave it alone until it's gone (perished or removed). The latest thing is I've had a couple clams let go of their rock (like clams do) and the butterflies discovered that the byssal gland is pretty tasty. :( So the upright clams are fine but a couple in the past month did topple over and I found them too late to save.

So it's a VERY carefully measured choice. They can be pretty destructive. Which is too bad, because they are VERY nifty fish.

LOL, I didn't realize yours had gotten quite so bad Tony, its been awhile since I've gotten an update from you. Guess I'm mixing up more kalk paste.:razz:

I'm hiding out from the heat today and have a bit of cabin fever so this might be a long one :razz:

So the Ultralith has been running a couple weeks now, not really anything to report. Sometimes I see clearer water, sometimes I think its all in my head (today is a "clear" day). Its a pretty slow acting system so I really don't expect to see any changes until at least 6 weeks in. The system is relatively simple but whoever wrote their instruction manual needs a good talking to, it constantly contradicts itself and is poorly organized. I never really know if I'm doing it properly, for all I know it could be a truly fabulous system but I'm not doing it right (I wasn't last time and didn't figure it out until 4 weeks in, but there was no instruction manual back then).

Some things are coloring up after the vacation brownout, others are really resistant including my purple cross and tropical paradise. Both remain unsightly shades of brown and shadows of their former selves. Some of the yellows are still a bit on the dark side but are returning to vibrancy. Its funny how some corals are so affected while others are just as lovely as they were before I left. Oh well, gives me something to do I guess. It would be boring if it were all perfection all the time like it usually is........... bwahahahahahahhaha :pound:

I got another nori feeder from Poontang and my powder blue finally has the chance to get in with the big boys and eat nori. Even the bellus angel is in there getting his share. After all, Lardbutt can't guard both of them :razz: PBT has also started eating mysis (YAY!!) so I may finally have the opportunity to clear the ick that has plagued him since about a week after introducing him to the tank. His ick isnt' really all that bad, but he and the lavender keep passing it back and forth between them. Both of them were kind of skittish (the lavender overly which is odd as he is the one to go ape over new fish). Hopefully they'll all calm down a bit and get things in order.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9230.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9215.jpg

The pyjama cardinals are settling in, they're much more out in the open and eating all the time now. Sometimes they hang out at opposite ends of each other, sometimes they "find" each other and hang out for awhile. I hope they don't end up being two males or something (do male pyjamas kill each other like the bangaiis do??).

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9181.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/Img_9174.jpg

Lardbutt seems to be concentrating all of his clam-mantle-eating efforts on just one crocea so this one is taking the brunt of it:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/Img_9206.jpg

The other ones are doing fabulously well, fully extended with no nips that I can see. Hopefully he gives up on them soon (although they seem no worse for wear other than looking ragged). The teardrop maxima didn't want to be in the photo, he's been crabby lately and giving me the cold shoulder (faces the side glass to the left, irritable bastard).

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/Img_9164.jpg


This is supposed to be a "bird of paradise". I'm not seeing the "paradise" part but its "birding" quite well.


http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9163.jpg


I never thought much of lobowhatevers before but I'm really liking this one, its actually prettier when its less poufed but I love it when my LPS are happy and trying to off my zoos at the same time :razz:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/Img_9162.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/Img_9157.jpg

I'm kind of stupid proud of this one, my pink lemonade, it was a tiny tiny frag when I got it and look at it now! :mrgreen: Yes I know you're probably sick of hearing about it. Now it just needs to color up some cuz right now its more regular lemonadey than pink lemonadey (mmm, lemonade....http://www.reef-geeks.com/forums/ima...ies/drool5.gif)

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9192.jpg


http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/Img_9160.jpg

my hawkins echinata, so pretty :love:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9188.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9236.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9222.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9161.jpg

HOLY Christy...your tank looks fantastic! OMG, polyps out, color....fish look good. WOW! I'd be feelin pretty good about that!

Thanks!! :redface:

Yeah even though the tank has an overall browny yellow cast to it, I'm pretty impressed with growth and how healthy everyone is. I know the brown isn't forever and I'll be back to perfection in no time :wink:

wow I love your tank... I hope I can grow corals to look as good as yours some day. (they look great even though you went on vacation.)

Wonderful tank. I love the variety of shapes and forms you have going.

Christy, the two PJ's should not be a problem. According to the experts they will establish a hierarchy without aggression. The only situation that they may become aggressive is a breeding pair chasing off other PJ's.

PS: The tank looks great! :biggrin:

Tank looks great Christy. On the PJ's what Lance said. I have 6 in my tank right now. They all seem to school or all be spread throughout the tank . I have had them for 3 years now . Two sets of 3 in two different tanks. I have had all of together in one tank since febuary. I have not seen much aggression between them. Every so often there will be a little jockying in positoin in the pack . I have never been able to tell the females from males. I did find out two weeks ago that I have atleast one male. I noticed one had a mouth full of eggs and was hanging out alone on the opposite side of the tank. Two days later I wa sworking on the tank and he released them. Was really cool to see.


Chris

Oh, good to know! Thanks Lance and Chris :biggrin:

Even browned out the tank is looking amazingly healthy Christy! What sort of coral is right above your lemonade? What ever it is that's some fantastic growth and color on it!

I have always wanted a PB but I have been to scared to try and my tank is a little full, grats on getting him to eat I hope he grows nice and big in your tank.

Thats a pink pocilipora above the pink lemonade. I almost lost that one in 2008 but managed to resurrect it from a few tiny bits that survived. It grows like crazy and is in need of fragging as its crowding out a few other corals.

So today I thought I'd check out my RODI TDS to see if everything was ok, its been awhile and I'm always amazed that its still only like 2 even though I think I haven't replaced the RO filter since about 2006/2007. Sure enough its still 2. Thought for fun I'd check my waterchange bucket that is currently filling with fresh water. Interesting, TDS is 35. Hmm, check my auto-topoff reservoir, TDS is 40. Nice. I wonder if thats why my tank looks like ass lately? Guess I'll have to clean both out thoroughly.

Christy, you should be getting about 2 after your membrane and 0 after your DI. Do you have a online dual tester? Let me know and I can bring mine up next time and we'll check it out.

Its never been zero but that doesn't matter to me. 2 is close enough. I've never tested it after my membrane, just where it comes out after the DI.

Also watch your temperature as it makes a huge difference to the TDS if you get it over about 76 deg. I know you use a fawcett to supply the filter like I do and i have seen it if you have it too high. I guess the heat must expand the pores in the membrane.

Interesting. I'll try to keep it a bit cooler. I did notice it was quite warm today but I think that was because I was running the washing machine at the same time (hogging all the cold water).

[quote=christyf5;541764]iPBT has also started eating mysis (YAY!!) so I may finally have the opportunity to clear the ick that has plagued him since about a week after introducing him to the tank. His ick isnt' really all that bad,

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9230.jpg

Just wondering how the Powder Blue is doing. Ive had mine for about 6-8 months now and hes had ick pretty much since day one. Hes healthy...eats anything...just has those darn white spots...lol. Enjoyed reading your thread btw as I am now addicted to build threads...lol. You have a great lookin tank!!

Thanks hawkaholic! The powder blue is doing fantastic. He's really coming into his own and is right in there at feeding time with all the other piglets. He's pretty much had ick since after the first week but now theres just a few spots that I can keep to a minimum by feeding garlic. If the darned lavender tang would just grow a pair and stop being so timid I'd be rid of ick all together but he and the powder blue just keep passing it back and forth between them.

Careful what you wish for... I can see it now...(future quote) "My darned lavender tang needs to be neutered hes stressing out all my fish almost killed one I had to put him in the QT, someone help, what am I to do?" :twised:

Lol Those damn Tangs. They do seem to be either babies or bullies don't they.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I had the pleasure of seeing Christy's new tank in person recently. Definitely top notch! Beautiful corals and nice fat, healthy fishies. Keep up the good work Christy.

Jeez I totally missed that Lance but thanks for the compliments! :biggrin:

So whats new? Well, I chemi-cleaned the tank. Took a few days to get the skimmer back online but all is good now and the tank looks pretty damned good actually. All the cyano is gone and some of the fugly brown crap that was hanging out on the rocks is gone as well. Of course now I can see the wafer algae more clearly and well, there is considerably more than I had previously thought. I shouldn't be surprised though, really.

My ultralith regime has totally fallen by the wayside. I'm not even sure when the last time I changed the rocks out (end of August I think), guess I should do that and get back on the wagon. Some corals are coloring up but a lot of them still have a ways to go to get to their former glory.

Requisite photos to hold your attentions:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9318.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9302.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9300.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9299.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9294.jpg


I did some reading on RC about majano eradication. Someone posted about using a 4N solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Man, it certainly does the job. I did a test on a couple baddies with the powerheads off and it works like a charm. However it does create a lot of precipitate which is kind of scary/nerve wracking. The precipitate is supposed to be harmless but it takes a couple of seconds to form and in that time if you are injecting too quickly the solution can land on various other corals and do them in. So far casualties have been 3 majanos (yay!), 1 orange mushroom (sort of yay!) and half a ricordea (oops!). It also burns the crap out of brown wafer algae as you can see in this photo, its the greenish spot to the upper left of the ricordea (which is slightly melty)

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9321.jpg

And here is what it did to the mushroom:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9320.jpg

I'm not overly sad about the potential loss of this mushroom. I've never been able to grow mushrooms so I was totally unfazed when I put these ones in the tank, "whatever, I'll have like two pretty mushrooms on a rock forever". Yeah, right, somewhere in the last few months I've lost the ability to not grow mushrooms and I have about 20 in various spots in the tank, and they're effing huge, like tennis ball size. Yes I will be keeping their populations in check from now on if this one croaks :biggrin:

Oh right, I have a before and after photo of "potential" majano eradication:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9313.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9323.jpg

Yes it also eradicates coralline as you can see. I just did a couple on that rock as the precipitate was starting to scare me. After seeing the amount of precipitate and how much my fish seemed to be interested in it (or what I was doing, either way, they were stirring it up and freaking me out) I took a good hard look at just how many majanos are in the tank. The majority of them seem to be clustered on rocks that were removable or were originally a "plug" which is basically a large rock (it the ones those colonies from the LFS come on) so I just took the coral out, removed it from the plug and epoxied it down back in the tank and turfed the plug. Some of the other smaller rocks will be easily removed from the tank where I can go to town on them with the NaOH but I'd say there are still about 20-30 majanos in the tank that will have to be carefully injected. I have my work cut out for me.

In other news, my pink "irridescent" pocillipora (left side of the tank in the back forty, not the damicornis, the one above/behind it) spawned a number of months ago (I think August as Marie pointed out some little patches of it on my wavebox) and I'm not sure if it has spawned since or if it just took that long for the single polyps to turn into something my eyes could see but I have pink pocilliporas everywhere! You can see the one to the right of my lokani in this photo:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9291.jpg


Thats about how big they are, I've counted over 25 of them so far. It going to be a serious pain in the arse if they all turn into small colonies, but luckily you can nuke them with NaOH too. Yes, I went on a bit of a killing spree today nuking this and that :razz:

And now, if you've made it through this entire post, you are rewarded with a few more crappy slightly-out-of-focus photos :wink:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9330.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/IMG_9331.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0/Img_9333.jpg

FTS Oct 11
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3.../Oct112010.jpg

Forgot to add that the bulb on the left decided it only wanted to work for about 10 minutes this morning and then promptly died. I replaced it with an old bulb that is well over a year old so it looks a little less white on that side. Its not really overly noticeable but I know its there and its frigging annoying. I totally need to win the lottery and get some new bulbs (or alternatively save some money). Good thing I never throw anything out or it would be pretty dim on that side :wink:

WOW looking some nice Christy

Sounds a little scary: injecting Draino into the tank; but if it works, What the Hey!
Nice to see the cyano gone. :biggrin:

LOL yeah I guess thats what it is essentially. Works like a hot damn tho. I just siphoned up the precipitate after and did my regular waterchange. The tank looks just fine. I wonder what the chemical reaction is though to produce the precipitate?

Wonder if it creates intense heat like Draino seems to. Tank looks really sweet to me but if some aren't as colorful as they once were at least you have polyp extension galore and they look otherwise healthy.

WOW Christy...your tank looks amazing!!!! Good to see that SOMETHING is working..however scary THAT is!!! Um...sorta miss the Purple Regal....I liked him in purple better :lol: But you have some seriously gorgeous corals