Novahobbies official 110g rebuild thread

pegasus

Well-Known Member
Thanks! Not much has been going on in this tank. I've been slowly raising my dKh to somewhere closer to 9, since my SPS weren't growing much. The increased alk is already affecting the growth. I still need to place those frags I got a few weeks ago.
I've been slowly raising alk in my tank also, since I've started adding SPS to the mix. If you're having trouble finding spots for those frags, I still have plenty of space in my tank. Just offering to help... lol!
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Lost my Pylei wrasse last week. :-( I have net tops over the tank, and a very small hole cut for feeding with a baster. Less than 1/2 x 1/2". And yet, the Pylei found that one spot and managed to get through. Bugger. So now I have a mini net top covering that one spot. SMH
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Yeah, it made me really sad. He was FINALLY getting his supermale colors, too. Drat.

I have some feelers out for that fish, plus my final "grail" fish -- a C. lineatus wrasse. Trying very, VERY had to get a nice one that won't break the bank, but it's a hard thing to do with this fish. I even removed a couple animals to make some room for the final fish. Since I added a Tiger Wardi (awesome fish BTW, if you can get it thru QT without carpet surfing!!) I decided to remove my Blue-head wrasse and my DIspar anthias. This way I'm adding the new wrasse without increasing the bioload or stress level...I hope.
Here's a shot of the tank this morning before a 20g water change and a little aquascaping. I'll try to post an "after" shot later tonight.
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Omg omg omg. My Grail fish is in qt. For an unbeatable price. No pictures (sorry, superstitious about that....qt fish tend to die AFTER I photograph them!) but a Linneatus is HERE!!!!
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
Congratulations!!! That is a beautiful fish, my friend! I look forward to the pics as soon as it comes out of QT.
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Looked it up, wow that's really pretty fish. Thought I might want one till I saw the price, decided I could live with out one.
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
In the picture above, it looks like you have a Carpenters Flasher wrasse already. I'm not sure what the fish in the left/center is. Purpleish on top and whitish on the bottom makes me think it's a Labouts? As long as there's another flasher or fairy in the tank, the Lineatus should display remarkable coloration. Just hoping there's no aggression from either party...
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
Looked it up, wow that's really pretty fish. Thought I might want one till I saw the price, decided I could live with out one.
If you think the price of that fish is bad, check out the Peppermint Angelfish.

PS: get me one for Christmas, and throw in a pair of Masked Angels, too... lol!
 
Last edited:

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Once in a while I look at DD just to dream about the fish I can't afford.
My tanks almost full. Should be moving my tangs out of QT in the next week then I'm almost at capacity only plan to add a couple blue reef chromis
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
Once in a while I look at DD just to dream about the fish I can't afford.
My tanks almost full. Should be moving my tangs out of QT in the next week then I'm almost at capacity only plan to add a couple blue reef chromis
Yeah, it kind of sucks when you reach capacity... doesn't it? At that point, there's only one thing left to do... UPGRADE!!! :D
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
I don't think that would go over too well I just upgraded in March and prior to that in November, although I am on schedule for a 220 upgrade. If I only had the space. I do have my 40b that I have been using for QT for my tangs. I want to set that up too. Not sure how I'm going to do it other than I want to be able to keep anemones and clowns.
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
I won't lie, it's a pricey fish....but I got it for a VERY good price, so I didn't break the bank too much. Plus I've been squirreling money away specifically for this purchase, so...win-win. I even had some dough left over.

Pegasus, the tank is pretty much wrasse-dominant. I recently removed a C. cyanopleura from the system (ostensibly to make room for the lineatus), and as I mentioned my C. pylei managed to thread the only needle-hole in the net and crispified under the lights. :-/ The other wrasses that I have right now are very laid back....a P mccoskeri, a P. ocellatus, C. rubrisquamis, M. bipartitus, and a C. naokoae. I try to stick to laid back fish, and all of these usually do well with other wrasses. Even the ocellatus is pretty calm, which was a surprise since he's the "big boy" of the tank and I would have expected him to be the boss. Ironically (or maybe not, I don't know) it was the Pylei who was the butthead of the tank. He would occasionally nip the Red Velvet rubrisuamis.
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
Cool... you know your fish better than anyone else, and it sounds like your new addition stands a very good chance of a happy life. It's nice to get a good deal on livestock, especially one you've drooled over for a long time! :D
 

Kristin1234

Active Member
Omg omg omg. My Grail fish is in qt. For an unbeatable price. No pictures (sorry, superstitious about that....qt fish tend to die AFTER I photograph them!) but a Linneatus is HERE!!!!
I love how excited you are. Awesome looking fish as long as Google isn't lying to me.
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Well, it's been some time since I updated this, but I thought it was fair for people to know -- mainly because I used to hate seeing threads of old members' builds just drop off the radar.

I wish I had better news to say, but......this tank experienced a massive heat-related crash in August when my central AC was out for almost a full week. I tried keeping it cool w/ frozen RODI bags, but the cumulative heat + reduced light caused a systemwide crash that LITERALLY happened in the space of 24 hours. It was heartbreaking to watch. One evening, looked at the tank before bed, thinking, "OK, corals look stressed, but tank is still OK," and the next morning waking up to a cloudy tank of decaying coral tissue and dead fish. I presume that a few corals nuked themselves, causing a drop in O2, killing fish, causing more pollutants in the water, killing....basically everything else.

I WAS able to save a few corals that next morning by hauling them out of the main display and putting them in the bedroom tank (the bedroom was cooler than the rest of the house). Some of my easier SPS corals made it out, along with some of the zoas. Naturally, all my acros didn't make it. Much of the plating Montis were encrusted and couldn't be removed, but I was able to get a few frags of the plates off. LPS like my nuclear frogspawn and golden torch didn't live through it either. As for fish......only 2 fish survived the micro-ELE. Ironically they were fish you'd consider "delicate," but....hey, I'm not complaining. My blue-spot jawfish and my African Leopard wrasse both lived. As did, VERY surprisingly, my blue Linkia sea star. But all the other fish, some of which I've had for years (including my beautiful and GIANT Mystery wrasse and my fat'n'happy Potter's angel), all passed away that day.

You can imagine how I felt. I actually had the tank up for sale for a couple months, with just those fish in it, since I didn't have the heart to re-stock. I took care of my bedroom tank but left the big display alone. Didn't care how much caulerpa grew in there, didn't dose the system, nada. Just fed the fish and went on my way, not looking at that corner of the house. It's as though a family member died, and we didn't know what to do with their room. We didn't want to deal with it, but it stubbornly refused to just go away on its own.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I've finally made the decision that (1) nobody is going to pay me even half of what the system is worth, and (2) even if I don't bring it back to its full glory, at the very least I can clean it up and add a little color and movement in the tank so it's enjoyable to look at again. I spent a full day doing a marathon algae pruning session, did a couple large water changes, and got the skimmer cleaned up. Fortunately just as I was making this decision, a local reefer here was getting rid of a few fish, including a Desjardini sailfin that he'd had for 3 years. Excellent. Free fish to start in on the caulerpa control, and I don't even have to QT him. I also hit up a local shop for a few cheap frags (dragonsoul favia for $15?? Yes PLEASE!) and added 2 fish to the QT system -- a McCosker's for the big tank, and a small blue-eye Kole for the small tank. Both of these are actually due to come out of QT this weekend.

So, get set for some pictures in the coming weeks. It won't look like it did, but hopefully, it won't look bad either.
 
What a bummer. Sorry to hear about that. All of that hard work, time, and money and care put into that setup just for that to happen.

I live in the SW Houston area and about 7 or 8 years ago we had a hurricane hot and lost power for a few days....turned my tank water into pea soup. I didnt know what to do. The guy at my LFS told me to put a UV sterilozer on it. I thought, sure...right....whatever. Once the power was restored I put that UV sterilizer on it and withon 24 hrs my tank water was crystal clear and to my amazement I had not lost a single specimen.....except for a few snails. I had fish and soft corals at the time only. I was amazed that anything could live in that nasty water for 3 days.

I wish you good luck with your setup again and look forward to seeing some pics.
 
Top