Christy's 180 build

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

uh ... hi?

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

[Parker]

Originally Posted by christyf5

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

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

[Delphinus]

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.

[christyf5]

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.

[christyf5]

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

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

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 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.





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??).





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:


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).




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





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





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! 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....)






my hawkins echinata, so pretty

[Chaloupa]

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

[christyf5]

Thanks!!

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

[Greenmaster]

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.)

[Sunee]

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

[Lance]

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!