Tank Journal Archive

[Priscacara]

Had a look at the dull gray zoas in the nano under blue light last night and they are a pale orange so yep it was a surprise. I'm thinking with the right light and some tlc they might end up being nice additions.

 

[Ian G]

Found my first hitchhikers that I could i.d today, the fun's started :D . I have 3 hydroids on the glass (look cool), a handful of 1 to 2cm bristleworms and what looks to be a pest anemonia (not aiptasia). Don't worry ppls I won't keep daily updates going, just all new and exciting to me :p

anemone ? It moved overnight from side of the rock to near the top.

Hydroid

Have your hydroids stayed under control or spreading like a plague? I hear mixed opinions on hese.

 

[Ian G]

Yeah it is lovely, also glows under actinic. One of those things that just pops up when conditions are perfect but if you try to grow it or add it to a system. slim to non.

I've been mucking around with cultivating this for a while and think I've got it right now. I currently have 10 frags of it growing quite well in my wife's seed tank. I want to give it another 3 months though.

 

[Ian G]

I would like a blue tang but silly me sold off my qt so not sure if its worth the risk, might be wise to just wait till the next project happens. Lol a 50cent size tang in a 24x12x12 nano, that might actually work.

Blue tangs are the untimate marine ich magnet. If you're going to get one you will need a QT as it will be in there more than once. Make sure you've got a good refractometer and understand hyposalinity treatment too. BTW tangs need lots of room.

 

[Priscacara]

G'day, the hydroids all disappeared after a couple of months once the tank settled in and I added a couple of fish, not sure if it ws the conditions or the fish that caused it but maybe a bit of both.

One of my worries about blue tangs is the ich problem, even with a qt tank I wouldn't be pulling a tank down every so often to catch a fish so much as I would like one its probably not going to happen. My tank is big enough for one of them as the plan was for a 50cent piece size fish and there would have to be extreme growth rate to cause any problems. The next tank is going to be a 6x2x2 that it would be going into, thats about 6 months away so a small one would be fine size wise but I decided (mostly) just to wait till the big tank is going well before anything tang goes in :)

 

[Priscacara]

Blennies seem to be putting on a show nation wide judging from the happy snaps on the forums, mines just a lazy bastard.

 

[chrispc66]

Absolutely fantastic tank journal, wonderful to see the development of your tank, its a credit to you.

Thanks for sharing your journey, your tank is awesome and I can see much more development and specialisation in future.

I just love this hobby...Cheers and Merry Xmas.

 

[Priscacara]

Tx Chris! It has been fun so far and showed me I have more patience than I knew I had (at most times!). I have been given great advice on the forums (both of them) which has helped greatly, wish my lfs would read them but maybe they do and just say they don't :). I read almost all the forums on the fuge and rtaw, the tech still makes the eyes glaze over though.

I got lucky and a rtaw member ws closing their tank down so got some nice sized corals and later the leds so some larger corals got to go in early. I made a few mistakes but minor ones that didn't led to disasters, mostly with stocking too early.

I like color and movement so lps will always be a must have but a few colored sticks would look nice as long as they can handle my routine ok, I do a 25% wc weekly so my readings don't vary so think thats a head start with the sticks. I am already planning a 6x2x2 tank in my head just as well I know it will turn out a different look in reality some times :p.

Cheers!

 

[chrispc66]

It's tempting to go bigger....better....

But I have found over time that it's best to develop what you have....

Find what's best in your set up....enjoy it....

My ol' 6 + year term 1200 x 450 x 450 is perfect, I'm satisfied.....it's awesome.....

And so is your tank...it's on it's way...cheers :)

 

[Priscacara]

My collector urchin was out and about today when I turned on the blue lights so had to take a few shots of it. It has managed to remove all but 1 small group of fire and ice zoa polyps on a rock over time. I love the coral to the right of the pic but can never remember the name, the pic hasn't had the saturation played with that's actually how it looks under blue lights.

 

[firebird]

beautiful colours

 

[chimaera]

Wow great colours, that coral to the right is a Favia I think.

 

[Priscacara]

While I ws relocating my troubled acans I figured I would take a few shots.

The good. Not sure why my clown now has black spots but its healthy enough.

The just as good.

And the ugly, nice coral but not a good job of putting it on the rock.

 

[firebird]

Those black spots look like coral stings-mine had a lot when they first went into the nem. They are also now both darker because they develop increased pigmentation from the stinging called melanosis/melanism. It doesn't harm them

 

[Priscacara]

Cool, had been thinking maybe it was something to do with that as they didn't have them when I got them. They seem to like hanging near the fungia and one of the elegance corals so looks like they are getting used to them :)

 

[Priscacara]

Not a real lot to report, tanks chugging along nicely. I got some of the frags glued in and so far not lost any, ended up drilling holes and glueing most of them in. The pink birds nest is thriving. the positioning isn't great but I couldn't get the rock back into it's original position. Can't seem to get the cam to focus very well on the sps frags but this is the best I took. It started off as 2 twigs so some decent growth.

Unfortunately the red acan is still receding so I'm thinking there may be something eating it after all. There is a hole in the base of itthat could easily have something in it that could be eating it but I can't see anything coming out of it as yet.

 

[chimaera]

Birdsnest does indeed look great, thinking about adding some to my tank.

As for the acan, can you take some pics? Weird that it is receding so much,

 

[Priscacara]

In the pic the red area is what happened in the nano the blue what has happened since.

 

[chimaera]

Strange but it still looks healthy overall. It lives on your egg crate, not the substrate?

 

[Priscacara]

I moved it onto the egg crate a few days back but it was on a rock in the nano and substrate in the main. I got good growth on it in the main tank and then in the nano till I lost the other acan and moved this back to the main.