BTLDReef's 155G Update

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3217645
How many anthias do you have? and what kind are they?
3 Anthias for now. They're Maldives Lyretail Anthias Females ... I want more, but the LFS hasn't been getting anymore in and I'll only buy my anthias from one place.

 

[btldreef]

They love the camera. Well, they just love when I'm near the tank because they associate me with food. They always school unless they're looking for food.

 

[meowzer]

I would love to have some anthias....Just want to get at least 3 though, and they are not your typical "cheapo" fish LOL

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3217651
I would love to have some anthias....Just want to get at least 3 though, and they are not your typical "cheapo" fish LOL
No, they definitely are not! We spent a lot of money on Anthias! We tried a group of Dispars, a group of Ignitus and a Purple Queen. All died in under two weeks!

These guys were at one LFS for weeks and were doing really well. The owner knows us and won't sell us fish that he's unsure of. We got them when they were really small and since our fish eat a lot and we feed a lot, they're growing really fast. Might possibly be my favorites in the tank.

 

[btldreef]

THE TANK OVER Filled??? not yet. A little update this week ... since we had a lot that has been going on due to the crazy temperature swings and newer equipment we have been using, there has been some issues. First I will start with the temperature... yes its winter and the temp keeps fluctuating from lows of 20-30 degrees out to almost high 40-50 degrees. I will confirm we are in need of a chiller to keep things stable.
Our swing arm hydrometer is now out of calibration, yes I have cleaned it but I confirmed with a refractometer to be off by .004- .005, higher then our hydrometer was showing us. YIKES ..

. Did a 10-15% water change SLOWLY with RO water. Gradually I got it to drop down to 1.025 sg. To add to the insanity, a huge acro colony that we purchased in Manhattan on Sunday started to RTN .....

Now that colony was maricultured so you never know what to expect but, I had a bad feeling about it and now paid the price. SOOOOOO... I had to Frag that HUGE colony and coral dip it for 5 minutes. Some frags are doing okay... some kaput. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

Back to the OVERFILLED TANK... well we thought we lost two fish. The red mandarin which we tried replacing w/ a dragon goby. Which the dragon goby was missing for a day and found him our new CPR overflow. Found him after a day a little stressed but he is doing excellent now. As for the mandarin... after finding the goby in the overflow i thought that was it, boy I was wrong. Yesterday, after a week and a half of not seeing the mandarin assuming the worst. I went to clean the overflow sponges and there was the mandarin

didn't look very well but yet he was alive???? He is now back in the main tank a little on the skinny side but eating. So, it has been a really Traumatic week.
ps Yes this is the husband. I know I am never on but I just had to vent. Now I feel better, tank is stable, all is well.

 

[meowzer]

WELL....sounds like a busy few days
If my mandarin ever got in my overflow it would probably get really fat..LOL....if I look in there...it looks like an amphipod invasion

 

[firefightremtp]

Sorry to hear about your week. Your tank is def one of my favorites on here so I hate to hear something is wrong..
how far do you live from the city?
~grace

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by FirefightrEMTP
http:///forum/post/3219507
Sorry to hear about your week. Your tank is def one of my favorites on here so I hate to hear something is wrong..
how far do you live from the city?
~grace
Thanks. All is better now. My husband also over reacted just a little,

We out east on Long Island, if we hit no traffic (which never happens in NY), it takes us about 1-1 1/2 hours to get into the city. By train it's about the same.
Picked up new corals tonight

 

[btldreef]

So my Astrea snail was acting odd tonight. It came out of it's shell really far and released white stuff (sperm?) into the water:

 

[btldreef]

Wow, this thread has not been updated in forever.
A lot has changed, rock work has been moved, corals died/changed, fish changed, equipment changed so I guess I'll start with the new stock list and then equipment.
Fish:
1 sailfin tang
1 blonde naso tang juvenile (only about 4-5")
1 Yellow Watchmen Goby - we had a mated pair, they mated and then the one killed the other, lovely, right? And the one that is left is mean, he's went after just about every fish in my tank, so when we upgrade in the next few months, he's going BYE BYE!
1 Sleeper Banded Bullet Goby (aka Dragon Goby) - he now only has one eye thanks to the YWG
2 Ocellaris Clowns - finally a mated pair!

They officially laid their first eggs in August
1 Coral Beauty Angelfish
1 Flame Angelfish
3 Pajama Cardinals
3 Maldives Lyretail Anthias
1 Green Spotted (Target) Mandarin
1 Tailspot Blenny
1 Black Combtooth Blenny
 
In the refugium for this tank there is a Yasha Goby/Pistol Shrimp Combo that used to be in my 14G.
 
Inverts:
Few hermit crabs left, we're slowing trying to get all of these guys OUT of the tank. I'm tired of them knocking over frags that I'm not ready to glue down yet and killing all my snails. No matter how many snail shells I add for them, they find it more enjoyable to kill all my snails. We've been dumping them all in the sump and refugium as well as the other tanks.
2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
5 Peppermint Shrimp
Nassarius snails, Trochus Snails, Astrea Snails, Cerith Snails, Bumblebee snails - don't have a definitive number on any of these guys anymore.
2 Sand Sifting Starfish
1 Ultra Colored Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
1 Porcelain Anemone Crab
2 Green Bubble Tip Anemones
Blue Maxima Clam
 
In the refugium: 20G refugium added in July to this system
1 Pistol shrimp
1 Yasha Goby
1 Fire Shrimp (will be going back in the 14G soon - but he just molted so I can't move him right now)
1 Purple Urchin (came as a hitchhiker, I really wanted that particular rock, they couldn't get the urchin off, so I took him)
2 Turbo Snails
loads of tiny reef hermits (most will go in the 14G after we move)
7 Nassarius snails
 
Corals: (I'm sure I'll forget some)
LPS:
Blue Branching Lobo
Candy Cane
Orange Lobo
Red Lobo
Pagoda Cup
Purple Goniopora
Pink Trumpet Coral
2 unidentified Chalice Frags - so far people say they're Miami Hurricane and Mummy's Eye, whatever, I don't go crazy with the "designer" names
Branching Frogspawn
Branching Hammer
Wall hammer
Aussie neon Frogspawn - someone told me this was Octopus Frogspawn, something I've never heard of ?? either way, it's really cool looking
Aussie Duncans
Blastomussa Merletti
Blastomussa Wellsi
Trachyphyllia
Various Acans - husband knows all the names, I don't care that much, they're pretty, LOL
Favias
Torch
 
 
Softies:
Mint Neon Clove Polyps
Regular Clove Polyps
Various small zoanthid frags
Green Fuzzy Mushrooms
Purple pimple mushrooms
green/orange spotted mushrooms
blue mushrooms
various paly's/button polyps
Tyree green toadstool
Green star polyps
 
Non-Photosynthetics:
Sun Coral
Chili Coral
 
SPS:
ORA Red Planet
ORA Purple Tip Nana
ORA Green Birdsnest
Peach Digitata
and a few unidentified aquacultured sps
Purple Rimmed Monti Cap
Green Tipped Birdsnest
 
To go in soon (still in 14G frag tank):
ORA Aussie Delicate
ORA Frogskin
ORA Hawkins Blue Enchinata
Green Stylophoa
Red Tabling Monti
Purple Rimmed Monti Cap
 
Equipment:
CPR Dual Overflow
EcoTech Vortech MP40w powerhead
30G sump
ASM G3 Protein Skimmer
Deep Blue Triton 5 return pump
Fluval FX5 for extra flow and chemical filtration
Phosban Reactor
Carbon Reactor
 
Lighting:
3 Reef Optix Pendents w/ IceCap 250watt ballasts running 3 250watt Mogul Metal Halides. 2 bulbs are 10K XM, and 1 bulb is a 10K Reeflux
2 GLO T5 ballasts running, each runs 1 460nm Wavepoint actnic 39watt, and 1 Wavepoint Coralwave 39watt
Blue LED bar for accent/moonlighting
The hood the from the 14G biocube is now over our refugium
 
Soon to be added:
MRC CR-1 Calcium Reactor (own it, but haven't installed it yet)
Reefkeeper 2 Controller (ordering this week)
 
We will be doing a DIY LED lighting for the 180 since we're moving soon. The halides run too hot and I don't like them anymore. They're temporary until the LED's are done.

 

[btldreef]

So all of the issues we've had lately:
 
First off, after everything I've been through, I must tell anyone that uses an API Nitrate kit to THROW IT OUT! I went through hell the past few months trying to figure out what was up with our nitrate level, purchased more than one kit because I thought my other ones were bad. Each time the nitrate would read differently, each kit would read differently. I could do a nitrate test 5 minutes apart and get two completely different readings. I was making me bananas. Finally got my hands on a SeaChem Nitrate kit. It comes with a testing agent to make sure that the kit is reading properly. With this kit, I found my nitrates were never going above 15 and that would only occur after I added rotifiers and tested the water while filtration was off. We added a refugium and the Fluval FX5, as well as more carbon in the form of a carbon reactor. Well, luckily nitrates are under control now.
 
We had issues with alkalinity, it was constantly dropping and calcium was never consistent.
We were using Coralife salt, because we had good results with it for well over a year, but then it just faded. We switched to Brightwell's. All I can say for Brightwell's is that it is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. We lost a few corals because of Brightwell's, nothing stayed right. Batches were inconsistent. We knew we'd be moving soon, so we experimented with it and it costs us dearly to keep using it for as long as we did. We lost all of our old SPS due to this salt.
Got fed up, couldn't wait for the move since everything is getting held up on this house and started using AquaVitro Salinity. All I can say for this salt is WOW. After 2 water changes or alkalinity, calcium and magnesium is all where it's supposed to be. We have the best polyp extension on all corals and the best color that I've ever seen in our tank. Other people in our area that recently switched to this salt are seeing the same results. I will say that the salt is a higher concentrate and it will take longer to mix, but I'm willing to wait an extra 12hrs to do my water change if the tank continues to look as good as it does now. The claim is that since this salt has a higher potassium reading that it helps colors pop more. I believe this. If you do decide to switch to this salt, DO NOT GET IT ON YOUR HANDS! It does burn, way more so than any other salt I've tried over the years.
 
Tank Parameters since we switched to AquaVitro a month ago (these numbers have basically stayed consistent, we do weekly water changes and wehther you test beginning, middle or end of week, the numbers barely change)
Ca: 430ppm (Salifer Kit)
Alkalinity: 9.3-10dKH or 3.31-3.66meq/L (Salifert)
don't remember what Mag is off the top of my head and my husband is napping - tought life, LOL
Phosphate - 0 (salifert and API)
Nitrate - .2ppm (SeaChem)
pH - 8.2 (probe and API)
Temp: 79F
Salinity: 1.025 - refractometer (RO/DI top offs done daily, about 2G)
 
We have a fan aimed directly on our sump so that add's to our evaporation, ATO is a PITA so for now we do manual top offs
 
----
So onto our fish issues, which were not as bad as our salt and false nitrate issues:
My Yellow Watchmen Goby is the meanest fish in the world. He killed his mate. He killed my Red Mandarin, he ripped a chunk off the head of my Sleeper Banded Bullet Goby, caused him to have popeye and now only has one eye, he ripped a chunk out of my sailfin tang's bottom fin, and he basically attacks any fish or invert that goes near his little cave. As many of you know, we're moving soon and upgrading to a 180G, when we move, this fish is being gifted to someone with aggressive fish. I also have reason to believe that he killed my other Tail Spot Blenny, but I'm not sure.
My Ocellaris clowns are now officially a mated pair, but with that has come the most aggression I've seen from them yet. There is no moving anything near their anemones anymore. They beat the hell out of the flame angel and made her swim through the other BTA to get away from them. She got all stung up and now has black marks on her where she was stung. This I can live with and it's just nature, but the YWG, I hate him.
When we move we're getting rid of:
The Sailfin tang, the YWG and the PJ Cardinals. My husband wants to get rid of the Blonde Naso as well and I know he realy won't get happy in a 180 forever, but I really don't want to get go of this fish. It's like my baby, lol.... What are your thoughts on keeping just the one Blonde Naso in the 180, and then maybe a Purple or Kole Tang and everything else will be small fish. If he really can't be in there forever, I'm going to have to give him up, because trying to catch him will be a nightmare, I'd rather not put him in if that's the case. The sailfin needs to go because she's greedy. Seriously, she's just an absolute pig at meal time and constantly steals food out of the Sun Corals and Acans.
 

 

[btldreef]

Time for pictures! please excuse the aiptasia, my peppermints are lazy and this tank is deep, it's hard to get to all of them all the time. We tried a bristletail (matted) filefish and it nipped at our corals. I'm waiting on our one LFS to confirm that his Copperbanded Butterfly isn't nipping at corals and is only eating frozen food and then I might buy him.
FTS as of today (pardon the light mess on top of the tank, since we are moving soon, we decided against a canopy for now. The 180 has a canopy and is ready to go.

 

 
ora red planet frag (red planet and unidentified sps in background):

 
purple milliopora:

 
digitata and another unidentified sps: the white mark is a spot of being recently fragged, it's starting to fill in though - not death

 
ora green birdsnest:

 
purple rimmed monti cap taken under actinics only:

 
 
chalice frag 1:

 
chalice frag 2:

 
full tank shot from last tuesday:

 

[btldreef]

more pics in the frag tank to be moved into the 155 soon:
ora frogskin in the 14g frag tank taken under actinics only:

 
ora aussie delicate:

 
ora hakins blue enchinata:

 
 
 

 

[btldreef]

orange ricordia:

 
rbta under just actinics - this thing has tripled in size:

 
freshly fragged gsp:

 
one of the acans:

 
unidentified sps:

 

[levinjac]

 

[levinjac]

Im no expert but naso tangs are my favorite tang if it were me i would keep it but this is all up to you on what you like and you want.

 

[btldreef]

can't find the other thread again, so here's the before and after of the lights.
 
150 halides dec 2009:

 
250 halides - august 2010:

 
 
a lot has changed in 9 or so months and to think, this tank only has a month or so left in it and then it all goes in the 180! for the record, as of this eek the tank is 1 year old.

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by levinjac http:///forum/thread/368588/btldreef-s-155g-update/120#post_3305855
Im no expert but naso tangs are my favorite tang if it were me i would keep it but this is all up to you on what you like and you want.
I love it. It is quite the character, eats from my hands, picks up empty snail shells and carries them around the tank for run (used to do this to the hermit crabs also). Not to pat myself on the back, but it honestly is one of the healthiest Blonde Naso Tangs that I have ever seen. probably going to keep it, but the sailfin MUST go. already have someone that is going to buy it as soon as I move.

 

[levinjac]

Keep the naso and i never thought a sailfin was agressive i guess every fish is different
You just make me want a naso so much more the highest ill get in gallons is 90 unless i get a job in a few years.

 

[meowzer]

WOW....everything looks great!!!!!