120gal mixed predatory reef tank

[busypencil]

thanks for replying.
My situation has changed and I am off work for medical reasons, NO INCOME
till U.I. cuts in. Bad time of year will have to put off buying for a few months
Linda

[whatcaneyedo]

The redbugs are gone once more and everything seems to be as it should. I've upgraded the overflow plumbing from 1-1/2" to 2" in order to quite it down a bit. I still run the small risk of an overflow because I only have the single drain so I've mounted a water level sensor to the top rim of the tank and connected it to my controller. If the water rises too high because something is blocking the overflow the alarm will sound, I'll get a text message and the return pump will shut off. This saved me from a potential disaster over the christmas holiday. Learn from my mistake folks... drill your tank for TWO overflows.



My skimmer is running a little bit better now with this Iwaki 70 pump which replaced the Iwaki 55 that I was using. It ran well before switching but now its able to process even more water.



The coral keeps growing and thankfully the bryosis is receding. Unfortunately most of my fish are the hiding sort (unless its feeding time). In there somewhere is a tomato clown, purple tang, mandarin dragonet, fu manchu lionfish, snowflake moray eel, and copperbanded butterfly.



The frag tank is where I spend most of my time. Sawing and snipping, tethering and gluing... I bought that big elegance a month ago. What I ordered was a frag of an Australian elegance and what I received was a large colony instead. I'm hoping that my purchase and placement was educated enough and that I will be successful. This is the second (and the last) elegance that I will buy. The first one was an Indonesian a few years ago that died within a week. If I'm successful with this Australian I plan to try fragging it in a years time.

[whatcaneyedo]

Look who came out to pose for the camera!

[whatcaneyedo]

Not a lot to report on. I lost my big golden tear drop maxima clam last week. On the Monday its mantle looked pinched in one spot so I moved it to my frag tank because I though it may have been nipped by one of the fish. By Wednesday it looked pretty bad so I gave it a fresh water dip. By Friday it was dead. I guess I waited too long to dip but I'm not sure. I had the clam for 5 years and it died in 5 days... sucks.

Here is a picture of how the maxima looked on the Wednesday before the dip. Normally the mantle would be very well extended. Theres probably a regular picture of it in this thread.


Most of the other 6 clams are doing fine and havent had any problems. However I did freshwater dip my squamosa about 3 weeks ago when it started exhibiting signs of pinch mantle. The squamosa recovered without incident. Ironically I've never had any problems with the 'difficult' to keep crocea clams. Just the 'easier' maxima, squamosa and derasa...

March 19 FTS

[DOMINATOR]

beautiful tank!!!!

[whatcaneyedo]

Thanks

Clamless 2011 full tank shot. My last clam, a derasa, now lives in the frag system. I'm beginning to think that it could have been pyramid snails all along. The reason I've been doubting it is because I was lead to believe that if I did have them they would be swarming the fleshy undersides of my clams. All I ever saw would be one or two underneath the mantle and many others all over the sand, glass, rocks etc.

The only up side is that this gave me a little bit of extra space so now I can fit one of my elegance frags up top. 14 months alive and counting.

[ProReef]

Wow Russel, that looks just awesome. I absolutley love your zoa "life-ring" around your clam. That is rockin'. How has that "green death star" brittle star been behaving? I've seen them take down fish-especially small ones. But i guess your lion also helps with that to! Looks just beautiful. Keep the pictures coming.
Cheers Ronnie