Tank Journal Archive

[vpreef]

time for an update.

I finally got my achillies tang, picked him up on thursday. His been in the tank for 4 days now and is eating NLS Thera A pellets, Julian S Seaweed and loves Krill...

His still young and just starting to develop the orange circle around his back. Absolute beautiful fish with so much energy and no fear.

i also added a Dallas SPS and an Echinata which i hope will color up well.

My system is starting to really suck down, ALk, Calc & Magnesium, so have upped the dosage significantly on all of these.

Here's a couple of quick snaps,

 

['vspec']

In tip top health. Nice

 

[vpreef]

Time for an update.

I have had some real fun in the last few weeks with my tank.:confused:
First of all i added a Regal Angelfish i bought off Dee about 3 weeks ago. He started off fine not bothering any corals and eating pellets etc; After a few days though he got an appetite for my Zoo's and slowly started to munch on the different colonies i have. I thought i will give it some time and hopefully he will leave them alone.
Anyway this was not the case, as i found this morning when i woke up at 8am, I caught him munching on my orange tip cat and my torch corals. So i cracked the shits, got some buckets, turned on the ducted heating to 25c and tore my tank apart!:mad:

After an hour and a half of removing corals and rock, i finally was able to catch him and take him out. Then came the hard part, I had to rescape 90kg of live rock and glue in all the sps again, what a pain in the ass this was. I just finished about 30min ago so took me 4 hours all up to do.

I will post some pics up of the new scape once it settles down a little, i dont like it as much as my last scape but i did not really have many options with rock/corals everywhere and limited time. It will have do until my next build.;)

I have also had an outbreak of Ich, well my Achilies got it hard anyway, so much for quarantine tanks....I managed to remove him quite easily with a bottle trap a week ago and is now in quarantine doing really well. I have planned not to put him back into the main display as i dont want to risk him getting itch again so will be putting him up for sale once his quarantine cycle has finished. Such a shame and im really sad about it as he is an awesome fish.

I am also in the process of setting up a new small Starfire tank. I will do a new tank journal for it. Im really excited about having a new project. It will be housing mainly sps frags from my colonies and some of my rare corals in ready for the transfer to my next large project...

So it has been a fun few weeks and I have learned alot so far along this journey and the main one being, Regal/Zoos/LPS dont mix!

 

[Agent M]

Gotta love an impromptu re-aquascape - I'm sure you will fine tune it till your happy and it will be better than ever!

Which corals are from Oceanarium?

And have you noticed any specific preferences for those red and black speckled zoas? High or low light, fast or slow growing?

 

[vpreef]

Gotta love an impromptu re-aquascape - I'm sure you will fine tune it till your happy and it will be better than ever!

Which corals are from Oceanarium?

And have you noticed any specific preferences for those red and black speckled zoas? High or low light, fast or slow growing?

I got the purple, fire and ice zoo's and the green Acropora from Oceanarium. Awesome quality imo. Under the Radion's the zoo's do best i have anywhere in the bottom third of the tank. As for growth i cant really say as my Regal Angel disturbed and destroyed alot of them.

I just woke up today and found my Torch coral dead, it didn't survive the beatings of the regal, such a shame i really liked that one.

I also am battling a serious brown algae problem, looks like lobophora which is a pia. Anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of it?

Dont understand why i got it, nitrates and phosphate are undetectable and all parameters are perfect!

 

[vpreef]

Hi All,

Heres a quick video from my phone of the tank today. Some of the frags are starting to turn into nice colonies :)

 

[MagicJ]

Great video, thanks.

Not sure the tank is 6x6x2 though ;)

 

[vpreef]

haha, sure it is ;)

 

[Nick]

Tank envy! Laughed when you said on page 1 you wouldn't pack in the corals, but glad you keep finding homes for them. Love the gold hammer & fire zoas.
Sorry to hear about your suicidal fish, it's a shame they don't appreciate everything you do for them.
You could try some Nassarius snails for sandsifting?

 

[vpreef]

Hey Nick,

Coral cramming is an addiction now, i cant help myself:)

 

[vpreef]

Just started to dose some Zeovit products, will be interesting to see if there are any changes.

I will post some updated pics of the tanks progress soon, its been a while.

 

[vpreef]

I have some very sad news.

'Peacock' my Mystery Wrasse committed suicide last night.

He was my favorite and the tank is not the same without him.

Very sad........:(

 

[Synodontis]

That's a bugger mate. Hate hearing news like that. :(

 

[MagicJ]

Sad to lose a fish at any time, but more so when it is a somewhat expensive one

Did it jump ?

 

[vpreef]

Yeah it jumped, found it behind the tank on the floor.

Thats the 3rd suicide i have had since the tank has been running. First was my Orange spot goby, then an ocelaris clown and now the Mystery Wrasse. He seemed so happy, was fat and had grown really well.

I know they can jump, i may have to block the back of the tank as 2 of the fish that jumped have landed out the back.

 

[vpreef]

Heres a few updated pics of a few of my corals. They are growing nicely and i have noticed no change in using zeovit products in the past 2 weeks.

I'm Running the NP Biopellets only now and they a managing to keep my Nitrates and Phosphates at 0. Im very suprised with this and there is not that much media in the reactor, approx 300ml for a 6 foot tank. pretty awesome imo.

 

[MagicJ]

Great pictures mate.

Is that a dallas in pic 4 ?

 

[vpreef]

Yeah its a dallas, its growing pretty insane atm. Lovely formation.

Im going to let it grow out for a couple more months and start fragging it if all goes well.

I would like it to reach up to the surface of the water:D , i love the look of tank when colonies grow out so hope i can achieve something similar.

 

[MagicJ]

Yeah its a dallas, its growing pretty insane atm. Lovely formation.

Im going to let it grow out for a couple more months and start fragging it if all goes well.

I would like it to reach up to the surface of the water:D , i love the look of tank when colonies grow out so hope i can achieve something similar.

Looks impressive John, mine just turn a very light colour - I think I need to look at my lights.

 

[vpreef]

What are you feeding the tank? Mine goes crazy for Reef roids and cyclops.