Let The Games Begin

Reef Rover · Feb 5, 2013

Well, sad news to report. The one Lyretail we couldn't get to eat passed this past weekend. Now the other new one stopped eating. We saw her go after food early on but she has stopped. My food mix for the Anthias consists of Freeze Dried Cyclops, H2O Reef Caviar, H2O Mini Mysis, SFBB Reef Plankton, RN Arctic Pods and ON Super Shrimp all mixed with some Garlic and Zoe. We even got some live Tiger pods but they just one go for it. We used to feed once in the morning and once at night. We lightened the feedings and opened it up to 4 times a day instead, still nothing. The other Anthias have loved it. Our larger female has settled down but she really gave the new ones a run for their money and I think that was the major factor. I guess I am going to have to fall back on my Cichlid experience when we add some more and l'll add 4 new ones for a total of six. Give her to many targets and spread out her attitude a little. We added a few new Chromis and she made a couple runs at them and then gave up. The other new one is hiding in the rocks and wont come out so I figure soon the Nesarius and hermits will get her.

The new ones were a slightly different color. I am thinking geographic difference and I wonder if that is what set her off. I guess we'll never know. We also got the 10 pounds of rubble added to the fuge so we are good now. Saving for my T5's and then we'll be really rolling.

Rover

Reef Rover · Mar 24, 2013

Last night we bought more or less the last fish for the tank with a Copperbanded Butterfly and a Mimic/Chocolate Tang. The fish population is as follows:

Blue/Green Chromis: 5
Lyretail Anthias: 2
False Percs: 2
Firefish: 1
Carpenters Wrasse: 1
Lawnmower Blenny: 1
Copperbanded Butterfly: 1
Mimic/Chocolate Tang: 1

Its kind of funny to go back and visit the old fish lists in this thread and see how much I did or did not venture from the original lists. The local LFS say I still have plenty of room in the tank but I think I'll pull the plug on the fish. It seems full enough for me.

tangboy · Jul 20, 2013

How are things now?

Reef Rover · Oct 19, 2013

Well the fish list has changed and so has the decor. I reworked the rock work and removed some fish and added som edifferent ones. AI Sol Blues have been added and I'm trying my hand with SPS with an ORA Verde and Red Planet added. I also saw an article that certain angels are SPS "Safe" so I added a Female Watanabi a few weeks ago and added a very juvenile Gold Flake today. We will see if I can keep them both. So Far the Watanabi is really upset but it sems to be getting better. The research I did said that the Genicanthis being plantovores and the Apolemichthys being Sponge and algae grazers that they should be fine. I'll give the Watanabi until tomorrow sometime and things dont settle she will get to hang out in time out (The Fuge). The Gold Flake stays. I'll post new pictures a little later.

Rover

powers2001 · Oct 19, 2013

Do you have a link to the DAS skimmers?

Reef Rover · Oct 20, 2013

As far as parts? DAS is about 30 minutes from my house so I just give them a call and then go pick up what ever I need. The link is DAS Aquariums & Store Fixtures and that has their phone number at the top.

Reef Rover · Nov 20, 2013

Update on the Watanabi/Goldflake experiment. They have settled and have become good friends now. They swim together and short of small sibling rivalries they seem to be behaving. Neither is bothering the corals and everything fish wise is doing well. Corals are a different story though. We had to move the rock work to get out the old fish which screwed the water. We finally have that in check doing water changes every couple days but the SPS got really stressed. Hopefully they rebound and I can get the settings situated on the AI Sols. Right now I have no polyp extension or growth and the Red Planet is turning green which from what I hear means not enough light. I still think its stress from the tear down to catch the fish so I will be patient and see how things go in a few weeks.

Reef Rover · Mar 13, 2014

Heres an update. The tank was beginning to rebound after the fush removal. We then had an ice storm in Dallas and the we lost power for somewhere neer 16 hours. The tank temp got down in the 60's. Found a generator and rebounded the tank temp. A few weeks later I had to pull the Verde, the red plannet hasnt had polyp extension since and the birdsnests look horrible. I have a couple deep water SPS doing OK and the Zoanthids and the Torch are doing fine. Cant get the Nitrates back down though. Hovering around 8 to 12. We added an Avast Marine bio-pellet reactor and a Jebao WP-40 and am planning a skimmer change in a few weeks to an Avast Marine CS-1. If this doesnt get the nitrates down we will probably be removing the Goldflake and giving up on the SPS idea. We will add a tang of some sort...... maybe a purple and then a wrasse of some sort since our Carpenters found an opening in the screen top and became a dried critter on the floor. We are thinking about a Mystery, Radiant or Melanarus. Our luck so far has been horible but we are sticking with it. If the SPS experiment fails we will go with Zoanthids, Acans and Ricordia in the hopes of actually getting some kind of coral to do well in the tank. I think that about covers the Reef Rover Soap Opera so far. We will update again a little later..

Reef Rover · Sep 30, 2014

Havent updated this in a long long time. We ended up pulling the angels and changed the skimmer out to a Vertex Omega 150. The tank is doing great. Lowered the fish population. We now have a CBB, Lawn Mower Blenny, Canary Wrasse, Purple Tang and a Tomini. The wife started her own tank. She now has a 29 gallon with a 20 long sump in the bedroom so we moved the clowns and the Firefish into there. She added a purple firefish as well. We are in the middle of staining the concrete floors in the living room and will be adding a two tank system there. I will add a build thread when we finally get it going.