4’x2’x2’ build… The Dragons’ Forest

[i cant think]

Are you moving the naokoae and bipartitus over?

I may try that and see but I don’t know if they’re the correct size - When fishing the lubbocki out he looked Atleast 2.5 inches and the leopard is what appears to be less than 2 inches. The naoko is a hard one to estimate as it’s almost impossible to get him still.
Definitely something to do with territories and the rocks though!

 

[i cant think]

Here’s a few photos that I messed around with trying to find the right way to get decent colours on each fish in (Or even try and get colours close to what I can see). Some of them came out really nicely like the Jade and iridis did. Dumbo the Black Margin also came out quite nicely.

 

[i cant think]

You know when you think about how messy the garden is… This is all from one water change that’s not even half way. I think this is going into a 3 hour long water change at the minute. I’ve not even started the main reason for this water change as one of the pipes decided to leak yesterday.

 

[danieyella]

Here’s a few photos that I messed around with trying to find the right way to get decent colours on each fish in (Or even try and get colours close to what I can see). Some of them came out really nicely like the Jade and iridis did. Dumbo the Black Margin also came out quite nicely.

i'm not as well versed in species as ya'll, whats the 3rd??

 

[i cant think]

i'm not as well versed in species as ya'll, whats the 3rd??

That is my Halichoeres chloropterus, the Jade wrasse.
One of my favourites in the tank and the photo really is close to what I see when I see him out.

 

[i cant think]

Water change update… still not finished. Guess what’s in some of the buckets once it’s finished I’ll show the tank update! I’ll give you a hint, if you zoom in closely you’ll see one

unfortunately, a few issues came whilst doing this and once I get a photo of the final product I’ll explain it all

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Sounds like my debacle I'm dealing with.

 

[i cant think]

Sounds like my debacle I'm dealing with.

it really was, one pipe leaking wasn’t fun to deal with. But it’s fixed now and the sump is back in (I had to rip everything out of the sump to get all the way to the back of the cabinet). I dread to even think of how bad it is with you.

 

[i cant think]

Well, I’m still doing a water change but the main part is done! I now have my reef tank back together yay

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

it really was, one pipe leaking wasn’t fun to deal with. But it’s fixed now and the sump is back in (I had to rip everything out of the sump to get all the way to the back of the cabinet). I dread to even think of how bad it is with you.

Upside in my case, its not the tank, lol. Had that scare yesterday (sat morning), last resident of my tank restart from 2017 leaped into the overflow. Had to move a ton of stuff to get him out, was scared of the bulkheads being moved....

Hawkfish made it, my heart stopped.

 

[i cant think]

I know the issue… The lubbocki that went into the sump yesterday was hell along with 2 issues today.

So, first issue was getting the fish into the tank which lead to two problems. The first problem was the foxface, I couldn’t get him in a jug as he’s too big and powerful, so it was the net and I tried to go with the fine one hoping his fins were too big to get stuck. He managed to jam his jaw into it along with his anal fin’s spines and his pectoral fins. Tried to see if he would relax and swim back and get unstuck but that failed.

Whilst waiting to see if the foxface could get himself out I accidentally got the Angel stuck in the other net, as they aren’t venomous I could try and get him out. After some gentle movements with the Angel he got out and I figured out how to get the foxface out of the net.

So, after getting the Angel out I tried to find some thick gloves to get the foxface out of the other net. After a quick search I found a pair of gloves and could work with the fox. First I began to cut the net to try get him out that way. Then I some how dislodged his anal spines and got them out so all that was left was his mouth and with a simple careful backwards motion with the foxface and forward motion with the net I got him out. I now have an absolutely destroyed net that may as well be binned and a happy foxface. Which I’m not too upset about as the fish’s saftey will always be first.

The final issue is still in there and concerning me. As I was against time already (I mean, this was a good 10 hour long water change at least) with 8 fish in a small tub (around 3’x2’ floor space) and Atleast 2 of them are heavy bioload fish. I was replacing the sand, 2 Halichoeres wrasses in the tank made this much harder to do and the Jade did go under the sand, I found him whilst removing most of the sand. The problem was I couldn’t find the handle of the net in the water due to it being so cloudy. Whilst I was trying to hind the net’s handle he burried into the sand I left in the tank for some bacteria to recolonise the new sand. I was also having to rebuild the rock scape once the new sand was in, so I tried to leave caves and areas for the wrasse to come out of the sand if he was under it. He has yet to emerge so I do wonder if he could be stuck under it but even then I’d assume he could try “wiggle” his way into an area of sand where the rock isnt in the way.

The final issue from yesterday was the lubbocki… I was setting up a Reefmat the indo lubbocki made his way down the down pipe and into the sump. I had finally got the reefmat in place and setup before realising the lubbocki was in there. After a good 40-60 minute chase he did go back into the tank but it was a nightmare fishing him out of the sump with everything in it, Atleast when my naoko in my nano went into the sump there wasn’t much in the way.

Now, after all that chaos, I finally have a perfect sand bed depth, a perfect grain size and my favourite scape for NPS and PS corals!
I also added the barnacle cluster finally. I was waiting to get the sand to redo the tank then put it in but the sand was delayed by Atleast 2 weeks.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Sounds like a heck of a ordeal! Glad it turned out in the end.

Btw, netting those rabbitfish is a pain in the ***. Had a hard time when I took el gigantor back to the LFS!

 

[i cant think]

Btw, netting those rabbitfish is a pain in the ***. Had a hard time when I took el gigantor back to the LFS!

They are! I have now sworn to myself to never use a net to get this guy out of the tank.

 

[i cant think]

Even more good news, the chilli has come out now, I haven’t seen him extended in atleast a week. Absolutely loving the over hangs I have to make use of, I think another thing I’ll try bumping up is my NPS collection.

 

[danieyella]

Even more good news, the chilli has come out now, I haven’t seen him extended in atleast a week. Absolutely loving the over hangs I have to make use of, I think another thing I’ll try bumping up is my NPS collection.

On my list of things to add after the move!

 

[i cant think]

On my list of things to add after the move!

They’re worth everything! This thing has survived anything even an ammonia spike that killed half my coral and all my 3’ tank’s fish.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

They’re worth everything! This thing has survived anything even an ammonia spike that killed half my coral and all my 3’ tank’s fish.

I totally want a chili coral. Cant find them locally

 

[i cant think]

I totally want a chili coral. Cant find them locally

NPS have almost completely vanished over here too, this chili is atleast 4 years old. I can never find a non-photosynthetic coral anymore, it’s like sun corals, chili corals, black sun corals (My dream NPS), ect… never existed.

 

[danieyella]

NPS have almost completely vanished over here too, this chili is atleast 4 years old. I can never find a non-photosynthetic coral anymore, it’s like sun corals, chili corals, black sun corals (My dream NPS), ect… never existed.

My market has been flooded with primarily SPS for the last couple years. Everything else then becomes "rare" and gets premium pricing as well It's more cost effective to buy online and actually get what I want anyway.

 

[i cant think]

My market has been flooded with primarily SPS for the last couple years. Everything else then becomes "rare" and gets premium pricing as well It's more cost effective to buy online and actually get what I want anyway.

That’s true… over here it’s more so LPS though which is possibly better.
I have seen a few gorgonians pass through but they’re all brown and don’t have the hitchhiker I’d love to get on them (Whip Coral Gobies from the genus Bryaninops).