Nebthet's 56g Reef

[Nebthet]

Well, there will be two unsexed ones in there..

So I went up to Jim's today (fortyfathoms) and got some stuff, I have even had a homicide in the tank already.. shown below. Here are the pics.

Bengaii Cardinal: This guy is smaller than Omen, at 1.5 inches



I bought two peppermint shrimp to help take care of my aiptasia issue. They quickly became an expensive snack for my cleaner shrimp.


Ultra Crocea Clam. Approx 3".



Elegance Coral: Several shots as it expanded.





Mandarin Goby. Looks like Red with green strips. He has already been going around the tank and pouncing on pods, so here is hoping he gets fat.





Mid-tank shot

[Nebthet]

Also got a rock with a couple Xenia frags and a small colony of Zoas on it. There is also something on it that is bright flourescent yellow. It looks like it could be sponge. Whatever it is, it isn't moving.



Then the Zoas from the left side of the rock.



New Front Tank Shot

[rkelman]

My mistake.. You have 4 clowns? I lost track sorry I've never heard of cleaners killing peps before.. Interesting. I'm going to Jims Saturday do you want me to pick you up another one?

[Nebthet]

No thanks, but I appreciate the offer. Now that I know the peppermint is killing the peppermints, I am gonna have to get AiptasiaX to use.
The stupid shrimp actually killed both of the peppermints I got today.. I had never heard of cleaner shrimp killing peppermints either and they had both been doing fine in my system and had started picking at the aiptasia, but didn't make it 3 hours before the cleaner had them. Grr.

But at least I love the elegance and mardarin I got.. At least the like of those is overriding my distain for the cleaner shrimp right now.

[shrimpchips]

Nice pickups! The clam looks great. I've been waiting on a Crocea shipment here, but I keep missing out on them

My peps have always been killed by my cleaners - I have one and I*think* it's still alive. Previous to that I've tried twice and the Cleaner was always really agressive towards it.

The yellow thingies look like sponges

[Nebthet]

Thanks.. if you can't get clams there, you should make the drive to gananoque.

Jim has different sizes in right now. The size mine is he is selling for $48, he has slightly smaller ones for $38, Large for $60 and Extra Large for $100. They are all really nice super blues and greens I was drooling.

The elegance corals he has up there too are really awsome in coloration.
He also had lots of picasso clownfish, some naked clowns, b&w clowns in too.
My mom was trying to convince me to buy a b&w clown and I had to keep telling her "No".

[rkelman]

I think you should buy a bunch of B&W Clowns

[Nebthet]

LOLZ.. If I can ever afford to upgrade to a much larger tank... say a 125g... then I will buy a pair of black clowns from you.. :P

[Nebthet]

Well it has been over a month without any updates. I have continued to have some highs and lows but things are all working themselves out now.

Lost a few heads of candy canes... but not all of them.

I managed to clean off some of the algae from the back of the tank.... what a pain in the arse.. I don't know how some people keep it so clean.. within a few days though the algae was growing back.
So I made an order, and got myself some Phoseguard by Seachem, the 500ml bottle. Used about 3/4 of it and put it in the AC70.
Within a week I have noticed a reduction in the bryopsis, but the hair aglae (which I have less of) is still going strong.), but I don't mind the looks of where it is in patches right now.

I have started dosing for Calcium and Alkalinity. I am using Kent Tech A & B, in addition to Kent Coral-Accel. The later two I am dosing 6ml each, and 10ml of the Accel.
Within the first day of using this, I noticed all my SPS seemed sooo much happier. Polyp extension noticeably imbroved and so has color.

The baby clowns are still doing good. They are getting a little more harassed now that I put my Koralia3 back in this tank to get more flow. I am now up to 48x.

Elegance is still doing nicely. My large female clown still is testing it out for hosting. Took me a month to even get some decent shots of her buried in it.

So to the pictures: (Note: All these shots are taken with flash so you don't get the nice flourescent colors of the corals like you otherwise would see... )


Omen is still growing and is almost the size of Jigsaw the picasso now. I would say less than half an inch difference.
As you can see though, he still hasn't developed the Onyx coloration.


Big Momma checking out an Asternia Star. I have 2 of these in my tank.


Stripes, the Bengaii Cardinal (sorry for the crappy pic.. camera focused on the green algae spots and not the fish) has gotten larger now and no longer hides from the other fish.


Hermit Pile


Green Bottlebrush, taken with flash... has been encrusting very nicely.


Unknown Acro front side, the polyps end out more now than they used to since starting to dose.


The back side of the same Acro, showing there is new growth of branches starting. woo hoo.


This Acro really extended it's polyps after.


GSP is liking it's new spot at the front right of the tank. Close up shot.

[Nebthet]

Coco Worm


Dendros and my Clam, who loves moving himself around in a semi cirlce all the time.


I finally got some more epoxy to put the purple digi in place.


I lost one stalk of Xenia, but it left some material on the live rock where it was, so I am hoping it will grow back there. The other stalks seem ok for now.


The MontiCap has really grown out and is shooting off to the right a little more.



The Elegance coral, Big, expanded and happy, even with an intruder.






I had been trying for a long time to get pics of her when she was testing out the elegance, but every time I even tried to move from the couch before she would stop what she was doing and come to the front of the tank looking for food.
Tonight, she didn't do that, so I took the opportunity to also get a video while I could.




Enjoy.