Gone

Instigate · Jun 9, 2018

Got the CBB in on Thursday, along with the YWG+Pistol Shrimp. Then on Friday I added the Sapphire Damsel, he was already in the sump. The CBB is right at home and is the boss of the tank. He likes to chase all of the other fish at times but never for more than an instant and he never touches them. It all seems like harmless posturing to figure out the pecking order. Pictures coming!

Instigate · Jun 10, 2018

Also added a Chinese black box I got on craigslist for cheap. It's nice having light over the whole tank now and I was able to match to color surprisingly close. I thought it would be more obvious.

YWG and pistol shrimp paired right up. I introduced them in the bucket before pouring them down a stack of gravel vacuum tubes to direct them into a specific spot and it worked great. They've now got 3 holes in their network and all are right up front and visible. I'll get some better photos and video eventually.

Instigate · Jun 10, 2018

Video of the Banggais, you can see one of the babies seems to have some kind of an issue. Swim bladder deformity possibly? He is constantly struggling to stay hovering like the others. He has always been like that from day 1, I didn't expect for him to make it this far. I don't know if he will be able to handle normal flow of a reef tank. He's a bit smaller than the others but seems healthy other than his constant bobbing.

And some videos of the CBB, he did nip at my trachy once but hopefully he didn't like the taste. I'd hate to get rid of it. He also has been nipping at my larger nassarius snails at times. And pretty sure he ate my feather duster but that was just a hitchhiker and I was expecting him to eat it once I got him in anyways.

Instigate · Jun 19, 2018

CBB started nipping at my trachy of course. So unfortunately I'm going to have to get rid of it. Pretty sure he's nipping at the acans too..

grassy_noel · Jun 19, 2018

Curious how your fluconazole treatment worked (or is working). When I look at the FTS on your original post, it looks like a huge improvement over April.

Just curious, did you have Green Hair Algae and Bryopsis, or just the Bryopsis?

My tank currently looks a lot like yours did in April, but only Green Hair Algae. I'm wondering if you had that too and if the Fluconazole had any effect?

Instigate · Jun 19, 2018

grassy_noel said:
Curious how your fluconazole treatment worked (or is working). When I look at the FTS on your original post, it looks like a huge improvement over April.

Just curious, did you have Green Hair Algae and Bryopsis, or just the Bryopsis?

My tank currently looks a lot like yours did in April, but only Green Hair Algae. I'm wondering if you had that too and if the Fluconazole had any effect?

The FTS are not ideal for tacking my bryopsis because I would generally take the photos the day after cleaning the whole tank. So I thought that the bryopsis was GHA for several months but then finally I noticed it had a fern like structure when I was taking macro shots of some baby plate corals I have. Are you 100% that what you have is actually GHA? I dosed the flucon I think over 6 weeks ago and have replaced the meds when doing water changes but I think there was one time when I forgot to re-dose. So maybe that's why I'm still dealing with it. But the tips are finally starting to look pale and it definitely comes off easier than before when I scrub the rocks so hopefully the end is in sight. I know GHA is also susceptible to fluconizole but it takes longer, like 6 weeks. But also it will just come back if the conditions that led to it's appearance are not corrected but bryopsis will be gone unless reintroduced.

grassy_noel · Jun 20, 2018

Instigate said:
The FTS are not ideal for tacking my bryopsis because I would generally take the photos the day after cleaning the whole tank. So I thought that the bryopsis was GHA for several months but then finally I noticed it had a fern like structure when I was taking macro shots of some baby plate corals I have. Are you 100% that what you have is actually GHA? I dosed the flucon I think over 6 weeks ago and have replaced the meds when doing water changes but I think there was one time when I forgot to re-dose. So maybe that's why I'm still dealing with it. But the tips are finally starting to look pale and it definitely comes off easier than before when I scrub the rocks so hopefully the end is in sight. I know GHA is also susceptible to fluconizole but it takes longer, like 6 weeks. But also it will just come back if the conditions that led to it's appearance are not corrected but bryopsis will be gone unless reintroduced.

Thanks @Instigate !

I hear ya about the FTS, makes sense to take them when the tank is looking its best.

I'm pretty sure my algae is GHA, but then again you never know. I've gotten as close a look as I can and only see long straight hairs, no ferning, but I may just not be getting close enough.

Appreciate the advice about fluco...I'm trying to piece together a lot of peoples' experiences to decide if it's worth a try for me. Mostly I think I have new tank 'uglies' and it should go away eventually if I keep manually removing it. I guess I'm just looking for a little shortcut to knock it back so that my now larger cleanup crew can keep it at bay a little longer between manual harvesting.

Your tank looks great, by the way!

Instigate · Jun 20, 2018

grassy_noel said:
Thanks @Instigate !

I hear ya about the FTS, makes sense to take them when the tank is looking its best.

I'm pretty sure my algae is GHA, but then again you never know. I've gotten as close a look as I can and only see long straight hairs, no ferning, but I may just not be getting close enough.

Appreciate the advice about fluco...I'm trying to piece together a lot of peoples' experiences to decide if it's worth a try for me. Mostly I think I have new tank 'uglies' and it should go away eventually if I keep manually removing it. I guess I'm just looking for a little shortcut to knock it back so that my now larger cleanup crew can keep it at bay a little longer between manual harvesting.

Your tank looks great, by the way!

Thanks! Here is my thread where I got the bryopsis ID:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-algae.364331/
What I have looks just like GHA to the naked eye. If it's bryopsis I would definitely do the flucon but if not as I'm sure you know, water changes, manual removal, chaeto, maybe some gfo and some patience will be what's needed.

Instigate · Jun 22, 2018

The male Banggai released his fry tonight. I was able to find about 13 this time and the CBB was still asleep when I started collecting so I don't think he got any. Dunno about the other fish though. I've read that 20+ is pretty common and I just read a thread in the fish breeding section where someone got like 40. Dunno why I'm getting so few.

Bronc · Jun 23, 2018

Very cool. I hope you can raise some of them

Instigate · Jun 25, 2018

Bronc said:
Very cool. I hope you can raise some of them

They're all still kicking! Didn't loose any out of the first batch either.

Recent photos of some of the fish:

Nate77 · Jul 2, 2018

Sweet tank

Instigate · Jul 11, 2018

I got a blackworm culture going. I love being able to feed the tank so much live food every day. The CBB and Banggais get the blackworms twice a day and when I feed the baby Banggais BBS 4+ times a day all the fish minus the CBB get a bunch of those.

Also upgraded the older batch of Banggais to a 10 gallon with a AquaClear 300/70 so they've got plenty of flow. I've just about got them weened onto frozen foods now too.

grassy_noel · Jul 11, 2018

Wow, jealous! Hoping to do this with my clowns someday...

Great job so far. What are your plans for the fry? Sell/trade them to LFS?

Instigate · Jul 11, 2018

grassy_noel said:
Wow, jealous! Hoping to do this with my clowns someday...

Great job so far. What are your plans for the fry? Sell/trade them to LFS?

Probably just give them away to people in the reef club or try to get some store credit at LFS. If I decide to really start breeding them and have a steady supply(several breeding pairs) then I would consider attempting to actually sell them to LFS and online. I'm very interested in breeding marine fish of many types.

vikinglord13 · Jul 27, 2018

Speaking of which, were there any takers on the ones you wanted to give away in that newsletter?

Instigate · Jul 27, 2018

vikinglord13 said:
Speaking of which, were there any takers on the ones you wanted to give away in that newsletter?

Nope! I was surprised no one wanted some free fish!

Instigate · Aug 7, 2018

So I made a third attempt with the Fluconizole, but this time I'm also dosing Vibrant. I'm a couple weeks in now and all the bryopsis in my tanks has been melting away. I scrubbed all the rocks in the DT and nothing has grown back. It's definitely working. Also, here is a random video of the CBB eating some reef frenzy out of the grazer I made.

Instigate · Sep 4, 2018

Installed a manifold over the weekend. Still waiting on fittings from BRS to hook up the reactor. I'm really happy I finally did it, very motivated to hook up a remote refugium or frag tank or anemone tank or who knows what.

Also cleaned up my rats nest of wires, the one I left out will be gone once I hook up the reactor to the manifold.

I love this crazy bright pink coralline algae but I only ever see it where the purple dies off temporarily, the pink you see here was there after the loc-line was sticking up out of the water overnight when I was doing the plumbing.

Instigate · Sep 4, 2018

Oh and as an update with the problems, the bryopsis is gone but dinos and some cyano persist. I got the $12 microscope from amazon to ID the dinos but I wasn't able to get a decent shot so I returned it. Going to see if anyone in my reef club has one I can borrow or bring them some samples for ID. I went ahead and ordered some nitrate and phosphate additives from BRS because I'm a bit low, not zero but low. Not too worried about the cyano, it's not a lot and if it's still there once I have the dinos beat I'll try chemiclean.

Also my two bleached out hammer corals are regaining their color finally so that's cool. The baby plate corals are all still growing and growing. My banggais have not successfully bred since I added the CBB. He seems to pester the cardinals when they're trying to mate and after too. So I wonder if he stresses the male out till he drops the eggs and the CBB gets a treat. It wouldn't surprise me, that CBB seems more intelligent than the rest of the fish.