400 gallon project

[argan]

It looks like the gorgonians on that rock contracted the gobies to build them a wall around their property. :P

[untamed]

Originally Posted by argan

It looks like the gorgonians on that rock contracted the gobies to build them a wall around their property. :P

I have a couple of non-fishy friends that drop by regularly to see the tank and they thought I built the mound myself. They couldn't believe that the fish did it in only a few days.

They build so fast that they buried a large snail. When the snail decided to move out, it caused a collapse near their entrance. It was really amazing to watch them set about to repair it because they carefully selected large objects to fill the hole. The larger one grabbed a very large rock from some ways away and dropped it directly over the hole. The smaller one then manipulated that rock to test fit it a few different ways before they moved on to bury that rock with additional small rubble.

Another entertaining few minutes at the tank!

[untamed]

For some time now, I've been challenged to keep the tank's alkalinity up. Each time I noticed the alk falling, I would increase the flow to the reactor a bit. Eventually, I hit the max output of my pump (117ml/min)...and began to think..."this isn't right!".

My Ca/Alk usage shouldn't be extremely high...yet. My corals aren't large enough and there are lots of other tanks with much more coral that haven't max'd their Ca reactor.

One popular theory was that I was flowing so much water through the reactor that I was not allowing time for the media to dissolve. I began to measure the alk output of the reactor. My first reading was 13! (I was hearing other people had readings over 20).

So I began to turn the reactor flow down, and measure the output every day. I got right down to 65ml/minute and the alk had only increased to 14. No...this wasn't a flow problem.

So I started working on the pH. I dropped the pH of the reactor from 6.6 to 6.55...no change. I dropped the pH to 6.50, no change....

Then, I recalibrated my pH probe and dropped the reactor to 6.45. Alkalinity jumped to 24! As always, because I had done two things I don't know which solved the problem. I strongly suspect that the probe had become inaccurate.

Anyway...the lesson learned is.."Calibrate your reactor pH probe frequently".

[untamed]

The gobies continue to make a remarkable difference to the overall look of the tank. My entire sand bed is now perfectly clean and tossed, all the time. The down side is that the water column is not as clear as before. There is always some very fine sediment being kicked up by the gobies somewhere. I'm hoping it clears out eventually, but I can live with it if it doesn't.

Twice now, the gobies (Bonnie and Clyde) have piled up the gravel so high that it starts to cover some corals on the lower rocks. They have smothered a couple of corals and some have had some die back.

Bonnie (the smaller one) gave us a bit of a scare recently when she disappeared for nearly 3 days. From what I've read, this might be consistent with breeding behaviour. It is possible that she would have disappeared for longer if her health had been enough to sustain her in her burrow. As is, it may have been a practice run.

Enough words...here's some pictures!

The Atlantic Blue Tang is really striking colour. It is really hard to describe, but I've come close to capturing it with this picture.


The dynamic digging duo....


Pitstop at the cleaning station...

[Pan]

Beautiful Atlantic Tang.
Mine has blue edges and just a hint of blue anywhere else, still very young.

[untamed]

It would seem that I've got a thing for Naso Tangs. (I think it is those big doe eyes)....Here is my latest addition - Naso unicornis. I do hope he is a male, because I would love to see him develop a horn. I suppose I won't know for a year or so.

He doesn't nearly have the appetite of the elegans or the vlamingi. In fact, so far he has not shown any interest in nori at all. As a result, he's not packing on as much weight as I would like...but he seems to be doing OK on a diet of mostly formula 1, 2 and mysis.



Since I'm talking about Nasos...here's a shot of the three amigos. The really significant thing about this picture is the fact that the vlamingi (Freckles) is almost as large as the elegans (Moe). It was only almost three months ago that the vlamingi tang would have been 1/5 the size of the elegans (Moe). Between the two of them, they eat 1/4 sheet of Nori less than a minute....

[Chaloupa]

Gorgeous tang collection..and the picture is beautiful!