Novahobbies official 110g rebuild thread

snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear about your troubles, Richard. I'm sure things will get better. We all have set backs, not only in our tanks, but in life. Just have to push through it and realize that there will be better days.

I wish you well, my friend.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Thanks bud. Life is ups and downs, and wouldn't be worth one without the other. Sometimes those downs.....well, they suck. I know in the greater scheme of things, a tank crash isn't the end of the world, but it can be hard when you consider most of the animals in that glass box to be as much a "pet" as the dog at your feet.


I've been thinking of how to proceed with the restocking. I'm debating on whether to replace the animals I had completely, or use this as an opportunity to try something different. I'm amazed and grateful that my Blue Spot Jaw and my Leopard wrasse survived. The Desjardini donation was extremely kind of the dude, and the new McCosker's is now in the tank. There's also a Midas blenny in QT now, and I KNOW I want another Tiger Wardi for the sand bed. But after that.....who knows? I am sure I'd like to keep a Lineatus wrasse as my main show wrasse. Less sure if I want a Mystery wrasse again, however.

In terms of corals, I'm a little more sure of my re-stock list. I'm thinking along the lines of an ORA themed tank. I don't want to go hog-wild on corals, but some of the easier SPS are a must. So far the wish list for corals includes the following:

"New" stuff:
ORA Neon Green birdsnest
Bird-of-Paradise Seriatopora
ORA Yellow Porites
Blue polyp (green background) Monti cap
Stuber Stag
ORA Plum Crazy acro

Old stuff....these are corals I managed to save that are growing in the bedroom tank. I'm going to frag these out and keep them in both tanks:
Pink birdsnest Seriatopora
Purple Pocillopora
ORA Orange Monti Setosa (love the colors on this)
Orange Monti cap
Green Poci

And of course, whatever Zoas strike my eye. Most of my zoa collection made it through, though, so I'm not planning on collecting more.

All this is nice to plan, but....first thing's first. Aggressive water changes and make sure the Caulerpa explosion disappears. :)
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
Glad to see your back on track!! I still haven't gotten back on track from my crash over the summer where I lost pretty much all my corals. I just don't know what to do.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
gemmy said:
Glad to see your back on track!! I still haven't gotten back on track from my crash over the summer where I lost pretty much all my corals. I just don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
Krista, I'll tell you what -- it was hard. I mean, really hard. I felt like a failure on many levels. And part of moving forward was (for me) admitting I HAD failed. Regardless of if I could have done anything differently, I still failed. I had to forgive myself of that, and make sure it didn't happen again (it won't; I have some backup in that department if G*d forbid it ever happens again).
I'm sorry you had a bad crash as well -- you're a good fish & seahorse momma; I know you can do it again!! You can PM me on FB if there's anything you want to talk about, you know that! :)
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
My algae problem is almost gone! Between the tang, the urchin, and the water changes, it's practically a new tank. I tested my water parameters (first time I've done that in a LONG time) tonight and, surprisingly, they're in pretty good shape. Nitrates and Phosphates are at 0 even with the bulk of the caulerpa gone, Calcium, Alk, and Mag are all a little on the low side (420 for Ca, 1200 for Mag and 6.5dKH for Alk) so I added more than usual for my 3-part tonight and I'll retest again in the AM. I think I added enough to bring the Ca up to 440, the Alk to 7.5, and the Mag to 1280 tonight. I'll do another heavy dose tomorrow and aim for 460, 9, and 1380 respectively.
After that, it's time to start thinking of corals.
I spent some time tonight taking a full inventory of what I lost, what I had, and (naturally) what I want to replace. This is a list of the dead, folks, and it's ugly. Brace yourselves.

Corals that were lost in the August crash:
1) ORA Neon Green Birdsnest
2) Bird Of Paradise Seriatopora
3) Ponape Seriatopora
4) Supernatural Monti Cap (Orange w Green polyps)
5) Green Monit Cap
6) Pink Stylophora (Catspaw)
7) Sprung’s Stunner Chalice
8) Purple Acro w/ Green Polyps
9) Red Planet Acro
10) Golden Torch
11) Green Frogspawn
12) Neon Green Trumpet
13) Unnamed Purple Acro

Corals I saved:
1) Purple Poci
2) Green Poci
3) Purple Monti
4) Red Monti
5) Orange Setosa
6) Monti Spongodes
7) Neon Cloves
8) Almost all my Zoas
9) About half my Ricordea collection
10) Dragon Soul Favia
11) Yellow Scroll Coral

Fish I lost:
1) Mystery Wrasse
2) Potter’s Angel
3) Desjardini Tang
4) Sailfin Blenny
5) Green Mandarin
6) Naoko Wrasse
7) Pylei Wrasse
8) Bartlett’s Anthias
9) Red Velvet Wrasse
10) McCosker’s Flasher Wrasse
11) Midas Blenny
12) Tiger Wardi Goby

Fish & Sea Star I saved:
1) Blue Spot Jawfish
2) African Leopard Wrasse
3) Blue Linkia Seastar

Restocked since Crash:
1) Desjardini Tang
2) McCosker’s Flasher Wrasse
3) Midas Blenny

Fish Stock Wish List:
1) Golden Rhomboid Wrasse
2) Lineatus Wrasse
3) Green Mandarin
4) Potter’s Angel OR Flame Angel
5) Red Velvet Fairy Wrasse OR Flame Fairy Wrasse
6) Dragonface Pipefish
7) Tiger Wardi Goby

Extra Coral I'm considering:

1) Canary Yellow Porites
2) Red Goniopora
3) Pink Tube Anemone
4) Strawberry Shortcake Acro


....Yup. It's been a rough few months all right!
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
What a week. It's been an amazing few days, I tell you. I got a new RW-15 powerhead to replace the WP-40 that crapped out right before Christmas...that just showed up in the mail last Saturday. Also picked up a new bottle of reagent for my Hanna Alk tester, and I've got my Red Sea carbon source on the way right now. More importantly, I put a call out to my local fish club (who all knew of the tank crash) with a request for cheap frags and/or donations, and boy did they come through. I spent the better part of today driving hither and yon, picking up donated coral frags and REALLY deep discounts from a couple people. I'm completely humbled and grateful for their help. Most of the corals are placed, but I literally ran out of glue, so some pieces are still on the frag rack! The pieces I got today are:
Green Ponape Seriatopora
Jedi Mind Trick Monti
Sprung's Stunner chalice
2 pieces of green monti cap (one looks like it may have an orange background, but I can't tell yet)
Strawberry Shortcake acro
Valida tricolor acro
generic "Purple Acro," looks like some kind of A. walindi but purple, not red
Bird of Paradise Seriatopora
ORA Neon Green Seriatopora
Green Staghorn acro
Pink Milleopora
Yellow (it ain't yet, but it should color up) Porites

The last two are pieces I got from an online store (gift card baby!) but everything else was essentially donations. Small frags, of course, but the beauty for me has always been to watch these things grow out anyway, so.....perfect. It's incumbent upon me now to make sure they grow out well, and frag them to pass them on myself. Fingers crossed!
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Time for some photos!
FTS:



Sprung Stunner chalice:



Green Ponape seriatopora:



Pink Milli!



ORA Neon Green birdsnest:



Strawberry Shortcake:



Green Monti cap (I put this next to a red cap...here's hoping....



Red Monti digi:



These are some of the Rastas that survived the whole thing (including almost being smothered by caulerpa. In fact if you look close, you can still see some of the nasty stuff in there.) I need to tack some frag plugs down around these, try to get them to grow out so I can sell them. They seem to grow fast in my tank.



That's it for now. There's more, but...I need more glue!
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
snakeblitz33 said:
Kinda neat that you have a strawberry shortcake. I'm glad your tank is bouncing back.
Click to expand...
Funny story about that coral. A group of friends of mine down here own & operate a fish & coral business. One of them told me to swing by to pick up a few donations - the chalice, a green cap, and a Strawberry Shortcake. When I showed up, the other folks there didn't know what SS to give me, so they pulled the one they saw from HER vat thinking she was saving it for me. Turns out....that was HER coral that she was holding there, and not the one she was going to give away! :eek: When I found out what happened, I felt terrible and offered to bring it back -- but she said no, just grow it out and frag her a piece since her tank isn't SPS-ready yet.

So now I have coral stress. I'd better do a good job!! Yikes.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
The fish stock list is growing. Got a Naoko wrasse donated form a friend who was breaking a tank down and had this beautiful fish in a teeny 29g tank with some pugnacious clowns (pro tip: bad idea for long term), and a Golden Rhomboid just successfully went through a month of QT after getting her as a gift for the holidays. The Rhomboid just entered the display tank today....hope she enjoys her new digs! In a month or so I'll start shopping for a Potter's and a Tiger Wardi. Slow but steady!
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
A few months later, and everything is going "swimmingly" (har, har). Corals are growing well, the fish are all healthy, and the tank has been behaving itself. SOme of the darker brownish acros have colored in nicely, and the Monti digi has been really stretching out there. There's a Potter's angel in QT, but for some reason he's stopped eating (Prazipro dosing maybe??) so I'm a little concerned. Fingers crossed for the little dude.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Some pics, with a few growth shots mixed in.

From Feb 27th....


Same coral, Apr 2nd:


Red Planet, February 27th....


Red Planet, April 2nd. Doesn't look like a lot of growth, but the base is now fully encrusted. So good things are coming I hope.


Monti Setosa, Apr 2:


Close-branch Seriatopora, February:


Same coral, Today. Again, not a huge growth spurt but just general encrusting and iner skeleton building. I want this one to blow up tho.


LA Laker cup coral.


Dragon Soul:


Monti digi. I couldn't get a good color correct on this. It's pink. No really, it is. ;-)



Possibly my favorite acro in the tank right now. When I got it, it was BROWN and small. It decided it was happy here though:




And a few terrible fish pictures:

Rhomboid wrasse


African Leopard and Naoko's wrasses


Bluespot Jawfish
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Kristen, that is indeed an African Leopard Wrasse, Macropharyngodon bipartitus. I don't know if SWF.com carries them often, but you can find a lot of info about them on other online sources. They are difficult shippers and can be hard to acclimate. I went through a couple who didn't make it before this girl came along.....and even this one was a pest. Kept leaping into the overflow. Here's what I can tell you from a little personal experience:

First, they should be QT'd in a tank that has enough sand for them to bury in. These fish hide under the sand at night.
Second, don't be scared if they don't come out right away. These guys are caught almost literally on the other side of the planet, so their circadian rhythm is going to be all out of whack when they get to you. Just make sure your lights are on a timer, and if after a couple days you want to start "waking them up" when the lights go on, just rake your hand thru the sand and get them moving.
Third, I've found that the BEST starter food to get these guys eating is live blackworms. Ask your local fish store, most of them can get them in if they don't carry them regularly. It's a very nutritious food and it promotes a great feeding response.
4th, don't use copper or other harsh treatments. QT for a full 30 days, and try quinine IF AND ONLY IF you see ich. These guys don't respond well to most ich medications though. :-( On the other hand, I very strongly recommend using Prazi-pro for all fish including these guys for internal worms and flukes.
Finally, make sure your QT and your display tank have a good net top. These guys DO jump. And as I mentioned before....that overflow. If you have a tank w/ an overflow, make sure to put some gutter guard in there to extend up to the top of your net top, so there's no space for the fish to wiggle through.

I'd say those are good general rules for all Leopard wrasses, but the only ones I've kept are the African here and the Potter's leopard wrasse in my bedroom tank. Same QT protocol was in place for her, and she did fine.
 
Kristin1234

Kristin1234

Active Member
novahobbies said:
Kristen, that is indeed an African Leopard Wrasse, Macropharyngodon bipartitus. I don't know if SWF.com carries them often, but you can find a lot of info about them on other online sources. They are difficult shippers and can be hard to acclimate. I went through a couple who didn't make it before this girl came along.....and even this one was a pest. Kept leaping into the overflow. Here's what I can tell you from a little personal experience:

First, they should be QT'd in a tank that has enough sand for them to bury in. These fish hide under the sand at night.
Second, don't be scared if they don't come out right away. These guys are caught almost literally on the other side of the planet, so their circadian rhythm is going to be all out of whack when they get to you. Just make sure your lights are on a timer, and if after a couple days you want to start "waking them up" when the lights go on, just rake your hand thru the sand and get them moving.
Third, I've found that the BEST starter food to get these guys eating is live blackworms. Ask your local fish store, most of them can get them in if they don't carry them regularly. It's a very nutritious food and it promotes a great feeding response.
4th, don't use copper or other harsh treatments. QT for a full 30 days, and try quinine IF AND ONLY IF you see ich. These guys don't respond well to most ich medications though. :-( On the other hand, I very strongly recommend using Prazi-pro for all fish including these guys for internal worms and flukes.
Finally, make sure your QT and your display tank have a good net top. These guys DO jump. And as I mentioned before....that overflow. If you have a tank w/ an overflow, make sure to put some gutter guard in there to extend up to the top of your net top, so there's no space for the fish to wiggle through.

I'd say those are good general rules for all Leopard wrasses, but the only ones I've kept are the African here and the Potter's leopard wrasse in my bedroom tank. Same QT protocol was in place for her, and she did fine.
Click to expand...
Great info! Thank you! Your tank is beautifull.
 
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