Petes 40 barebottom... Letting it all hang out!

[Pete polyp]

Today I was moving some new acro off the frag rack and decided to break off a frag of birdsnest to put into the 40. I guess I will give it a few weeks and see how it goes. I would still like to have more fish in the tank before I move all the sps over. The skimmer is still overflowing like mad. I guess it needs to break back in from sitting without power for 2 days while the silicone on the baffle dried

 

[Pete polyp]

I had to go into town today and while I was there I hit the petco. I walked over to the tanks and noticed bags floating in all their tanks. With the seagrest box on the floor I figured they had some pretty good fish. Still badged were 3 firefish, which I snagged before they were released. All were swimming around in the bags looking very healthy. I have never had luck with firefish, and figured I would give them one last try. Keeping my fingers crossed....

 

[Pete polyp]

They acclimated and I put them into the tank. I dropped some food in about 1 minute after I put them in and they're eating. They're also being very social for just being put in the tank

 

[Pete polyp]

Well, one firefish disappeared the first night. At first I figured he was in the rock somewhere, and he could be. The other two have been swimming and playing right up front in the tank. They have been eating very well the last couple days. When the lights came on today one was laying on the bottom of the tank lifeless. I don't really know what caused this fish to suddenly die, I guess these things happen. So the one that's surviving is just doing what it always has, swimming up front and playing in the current. Maybe the one that disappeared the first night will come out, maybe he was a midnight snack for the hermits....

 

[Pete polyp]

Something that's always kinda made me frown is the water clarity in this tank. With the bare bottom it seems to collect bits of rock etc. then all this mess gets kicked around by all the flow. I have siphoned it out several times into a filter sock, but it always comes back. I guess this is just something I will have to deal with.

 

[Pete polyp]

I got a little bored today so I grabbed an acro out of the 29, dipped it in Bayer, gave it a little bit of acclimation and dropped it in. I have had this one since it was a 1/2" toothpick. I have access to more frags if I kill this one. That helped me with the decision to go ahead and throw it in.

 

[Pete polyp]

Well I decided to turn up the return pump, so I had to add plenty of water. It was after I filled the return section is dawned on me.... If I have a power failure that 5 gallons will be in the floor. Not a big deal to fix though. I will just have to remove some water and turn the pump back down. I think I'm going to drain the sump again and redo the baffles. The person who built them put them in backwards, so I'm thinking I should go ahead and get it fixed.

 

[Pete polyp]

Ok, I turned down the return and got everything settled. This skimmer is still overflowing like mad and it was driving me nuts! I haven't been able to skim in almost 2 weeks! I noticed the rubber feet had stuck through the eggcrate stand I made so I added another layer of eggcrate and it had seemed to worked. I was sitting here doing my daily testing this morning and became a little bored. Then it hit me.... Lfs day! I ran to wake my daughter up so she could go with me. My son doesn't really like to leave the playstation, so I didn't dare disturb him. I grabbed out 10 frags of z/p and my daughter and I took off for our 320 mile journey.

You would be surprised at how many lfs owners don't work on saturdays. I guess that hard week of working 11-6 on Mon, Tue and Thur really had them tired out! Their minions couldn't do the swap, so I just moved on to the third. I got to the third and they liked what I had, so swap time. Ended up with 3 firefish and a cleaner shrimp for 6 frags.... Not too shabby. Feeling pretty good about the swap I headed to the fourth store with the 4 frags I had left. No.sooner than I walk through the door with a bag of frags in my hand the minion behind the counter starts in... "the owner isn't here today and I can't trade out anything"... Well ok then, guess these 4 are going home with me (the best out of the 10 I might add). I have a little look around, not being too impressed. Headed home and figured I would hit petco, why not? I got to looking through their tanks and noticed one of their big tanks filled with snowflake clowns. That's pretty cool, seeing 12 snowflakes together is pretty cool. I look up at the top tanks and see 2 more, but they're different. They're more of a deep orange, almost red, and thicker black lines. I look at the labels under the tank and I see "black ice snowflake clownfish". Well alrighty then, that's why they're different. Searched the labels on the big tank and there is one that says "snowflake clownfish". Of course the nicer looking of the clowns was almost 3x the price. The gentleman who works there came over with a "may I help you with anything?". I ask what the two clowns in the top tank are. This is where the magic happens.... "snowflake clowns" he says. Before I could even think the words "bag them" came out of my mouth". So yeah, great.... Now I have freaking clownfish on an impulse buy haha! Oh well they're cool.

 

[Pete polyp]

When it comes to this tank I just want to pull my hair out at times. I got to thinking this morning about all the fish I have in there and being sick and tired if losing them. I know I should have qt all the fish before putting them in there. That's something I have never done before, and haven't had any problems until this tank. From now on I'm going to qt any new additions.

So to protect all the new fish I started dosing paraguard. I removed all the corals I had in there (like 7 frags) and started the dose. So for about the next month and a half I will have a fowlr. Hopefully the 28 days of dosing will eradicate any parasites and infections these fish may have already. I have inspected the fish and they seem to be healthy, but I would rather be safe than sorry. I have noticed the wrasse has really colored up a bunch in the last couple days.

Its not the best picture, but you can at least tell its a wrasse... Its do hard to tale pictures of fish with them constantly moving and using a shaky cell phone.

 

[ChouDawg]

Pete, sorry to hear about all your issues, glad to hear you're still hanging on though! I know I've had my fair share of moments when i wanted to pull the plug but stuck with it...that wrasse is beautiful!

 

[Pete polyp]

Pete, sorry to hear about all your issues, glad to hear you're still hanging on though! I know I've had my fair share of moments when i wanted to pull the plug but stuck with it...that wrasse is beautiful!

Well thanks.... I'm not going to pull the plug until someone pulls the plug on me. This is a little more than just a hobby for me, its a passion. Over the years I'm bound to hit bumps in the road. This is just part of the constant learning that gives hobbyists experience. It is sad when there's a loss of livestock, because every living thing is precious.

 

[Pete polyp]

Well its been 3 hours since the lights have come on and one of the firefish has yet to come out of the rocks. I would be shocked if I ever see it again....

 

[Pete polyp]

Well I'll be a monkeys uncle.

 

[Pete polyp]

I changed the scape today... I kinda think the arch is a bit much. Thinking I could knock one of the rocks off to help shorten it some.

 

[Pete polyp]

I like this way better...

 

[revhtree]

Looks good!

 

[Pete polyp]

Looks good!

Thanks Rev! Its been a long bumpy road, but I'm sure it will all pay off eventually

 

[Pete polyp]

So this morning I'm sitting here looking at the most recent threads on reef 2 reef and I notice a flickering inside the tank out of the corner of my eye. I instantly glanced over to see what it was and I noticed the firefish playing in the sunlight. In the early morning the sunlight comes in through the blinds from behind the tank and makes a bit of shimmer. When the shimmer hit the fish I knew instantly why they're called firefish. They literally look like a fire! This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. They would swim in and out of the shimmer and look like they burst into flames.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

So this morning I'm sitting here looking at the most recent threads on reef 2 reef and I notice a flickering inside the tank out of the corner of my eye. I instantly glanced over to see what it was and I noticed the firefish playing in the sunlight. In the early morning the sunlight comes in through the blinds from behind the tank and makes a bit of shimmer. When the shimmer hit the fish I knew instantly why they're called firefish. They literally look like a fire! This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. They would swim in and out of the shimmer and look like they burst into flames.

See...and I had talked myself out of getting anymore firefish...ya had to go giving me ideas...

 

[Pete polyp]

Lol... At least I'm not telling you about my beautiful nuclear rainbow blasto.

I dunno if you can have the same effect with shimmer from led or metal halide. The sunlight sure does the trick though.