First Reef Tank - 150g

[Brisk]

It doesn't look happy. Not dead yet, but not happy. Is it holding on to the bag?

Barely. I just checked again and only a small portion of the foot is holding onto the bag.

 

[Brisk]

 

[tbrown]

Float it and see? How's the mouth look?

@Goaway thoughts on outlook here?

 

[Brisk]

Float it and see? How's the mouth look?

@Goaway thoughts on outlook here?

Can't really tell how it looks. It's shriveled up. I acclimated it and put it in a small 5 gallon tank. The foot is still holding onto the glass.

 

[tbrown]

Can't really tell how it looks. It's shriveled up. I acclimated it and put it in a small 5 gallon tank. The foot is still holding onto the glass.

Foot holding on is a good sign. It's still got some right left in it!

Did you contact the seller?

 

[Brisk]

Foot holding on is a good sign. It's still got some right left in it!

Did you contact the seller?

Yep! Great seller! He's sending out another one in a few weeks after the holidays. Lessoned learned from this - do not do shipments on Thursdays.

 

[tbrown]

Yep! Great seller! He's sending out another one in a few weeks after the holidays. Lessoned learned from this - do not do shipments on Thursdays.

Yeah, best bet is receiving Tuesday through Thursday..

 

[Brisk]

I took some advantages during the Black Friday sales. I bought the following equipment upgrades:

• 2x Orphek OR4
• Reefmat 1200
• Another Avast Marine Plank Auto Feeder
• Custom Lid from Top Lids

I got a bunch of corals from SBB Corals. 14 to be exact. I'm still slow on getting fishes but I did place an order for a Splendid Pintail Fairy Wrasse for $50 from NY Aquatics. I'm also considering a Yellow Wrasse from them too when I go pick up the Pintail. I was going to place an order from Dr. Reef but couldn't decide if I should go with these.

 

[Brisk]

Last night when I did the water testing, my NO3 bottomed out. PO4 was still at .04 ppm. Only thing different that I can think of was dosing Phytoplankton, double the amount for the past 3 days. I turned off the skimmer, dosed ammonia several times throughout the day, and fed a bit more to bring NO3 back up.

This morning, I managed to catch another unwanted hitchhiker (after 2 weeks). I like the colors and patterns on this pistol shrimp, but from what I've read, it won't pair with gobies. I'm also wondering if it was the reason for the Yasha disappearance? Into the sump it goes.

 

[Brisk]

I took advantage of the Black Friday sales for some equipment upgrades. I picked up a Reefmat 1200, another Avast Plank, 2x Oprhek OR4 lights, and a custom lid from Top Lids.

As for live stock, ordered about 15 corals from SBB Corals and 4 fishes from NY Aquatics (which I just got back from picking it up).

 

[Brisk]

Hilfrechi in tank.

McCosker in observation tank. Not looking so good.

 

[Gman83]

Hilfrechi in tank.

McCosker in observation tank. Not looking so good.

How is the McCorsker doing? I gave up hope of having one after losing two to shipping.

 

[Brisk]

How is the McCorsker doing? I gave up hope of having one after losing two to shipping.

It didn't make it. I got home yesterday evening and it was dead. :crying-face:

 

[Brisk]

Whitetail and Pintail Fairy Wrasse are both added to the tank and looks happy. They are both very shy. Especially the Pintail. I only see him underneath the rocks when its feeding time.

 

[Brisk]

I got my McCosker Wrasse replaced from NY Aquatics today. I also picked up 3x Lyretail Anthias Females, another Helfrechi, Yellow Coris Wrasse, and a cleaner shrimp. My family loves the Helfrechi, so I took a chance on trying to get another to pair. So far they are both swimming together and not fighting. The McCosker was swimming about, but the Pintail Wrasse bullied it a bit and now I don't see it around. It looks like everyone made it alive after acclimating except the Yellow Coris Wrasse. I'm not sure if it is something I'm doing wrong, but it's the 2nd Wrasse I lost to acclimation. Both Wrasse were floating sideways when I took them out of the bag into a small bucket. I'm wondering if it was the transport. I'll get some photos later this weekend.

Besides the fishes, I got my OR4s installed. I did a quick PAR test and it gave me about 400 PAR about 3 inches below the water surface running at about 80% intensity.

 

[Brisk]

The McCosker decided to come out and play this morning :) . I haven't seen the 3rd Lyretail come out. I'm hoping it is still alive and will come out soon. Here are pics of the Helfrechis and Lyretails playing nicely together and the McCosker.

 

[twentyleagues]

The McCosker decided to come out and play this morning :) . I haven't seen the 3rd Lyretail come out. I'm hoping it is still alive and will come out soon. Here are pics of the Helfrechis and Lyretails playing nicely together and the McCosker.

Do your Helfrichi share a cave? Years ago I got mine as a pair and they were great together. I have added the standard firefish at different times and had them pair up but I have also added a third or a different one and had issues. Seems the only ones that do well in a group (more than 2) are the scissor tails. I had gotten 3 scissortails and one ended up jumping into the overflow somehow so I got 3 more and only 1 survived but has been accepted by the other 2 fine. I would like to add a few more when I upgrade to the 180.

 

[Brisk]

Do your Helfrichi share a cave? Years ago I got mine as a pair and they were great together. I have added the standard firefish at different times and had them pair up but I have also added a third or a different one and had issues. Seems the only ones that do well in a group (more than 2) are the scissor tails. I had gotten 3 scissortails and one ended up jumping into the overflow somehow so I got 3 more and only 1 survived but has been accepted by the other 2 fine. I would like to add a few more when I upgrade to the 180.

The smaller one goes in a small hole in the sand under a rock. I haven't seen where the newly added one (larger) goes to. I tried waiting to see where it hides at night, but got tired of waiting.

 

[Brisk]

Tank is now 4 months old. Water parameters are:

• Alk - 8.6
• Cal - 430
• Mag - 1260
• NO3 - 5.2
• pH - 8.18
• PO4 - .101

I have been dosing 30ml of AFR daily to keep Alk steady. Mag I feel might be a bit low and I'm thinking of bringing that up. I've also been dosing 30ml of ammonium bicarbonate and 20ml of sodium phosphate daily (which I will need to cut down).

Corals from SBB will be coming on Thursday. It was also decided to have the CSB shipped for 1st week of January because of risk of delays.

I still have to get the ReefMat and Plank autofeeders installed. Also add some shelf rocks to the tank for corals and finish setting up the frag tank. Doesn't seem like much to do, but I've been having a hard time trying to get everything done with the busy schedules. Otherwise, I think I'm happy how the tank is turning out. :cool:

 

[Brisk]

Update on the tank - it looks like I might have dinos on my sand along with cyanos. I started to turn off the white lights and only use blue lights. I'm also siphoning out the dinos and pulling the cyanos out. I'm hoping this will do it.

I order more fishes today from NY Aquatics. I couldn't pass up on the deal for the Gem Tang. I hope I don't run into issues with aggression from it adding this early.

I also received my corals from SBB. Today is the 3rd day and they are all looking happy. The Gonis seems to be opening up.