Merediths 75g upgrade

melypr1985 · Jul 12, 2015

Thanks! I was reasonably certain the diatoms were just part of a mini cycle. I always like having these things confirmed though! Everything is moving along great... even after leaving the tank in the hands of my husband for 4 days while I was out of town. Amazing! lol The only thing that happened was my skimmer overflowed. Its in the sump so no worries, just a small adjustment and all is right again. I even FOUND $50 in my office today!! Of course that means a trip to the fish store. I'll post a really awful cell phone pic of the new arrivals soon!

melypr1985 · Jul 12, 2015

I have never had luck with bangai cardinals. I tried many times in my 40 gallon tank so heres hoping these 3 make it.

luxauterna · Jul 13, 2015

Things are looking good! no issues with the mini cycle?

ArcKatana · Jul 13, 2015

The second pic is great - looks like the banggai's are swimming to eat your fingers lol!

melypr1985 · Jul 13, 2015

luxauterna said:
Things are looking good! no issues with the mini cycle?

nothing overt. I'm going to do a water change today (depending on how long the kiddo naps for) and see if that helps. My only issue is a small bundle of bubble algae (emerald crab added yesterday for that) and a light dusting of diatoms. I'm still holding my breath to see if anything worse happens. I really hope not.

melypr1985 · Jul 13, 2015

When I bought these cardinals I was pretty disappointed because I was pretty sure they are all female. Would be odd right? To have all females in a group of 15 or so? That's why I bought 3, to better my chances of having at least 1 of each sex. I'm still looking at them thinking....."these are female I just know it". I'm kinda disappointed in that thought, but I know that just because I read an article about sexing bangaii cardinals by their dorsal fin doesn't make it 100% right or accurate. I'm going to keep all three anyway and just hope that article is not 100% right. My gut just keeps telling me that in this case... I got females. I'm only putting this on here so that later I can say "I called it! totally called it" lol

melypr1985 · Jul 22, 2015

Picture update. Im seeing some good growth out of almost everything. My sunset monti isnt looking so hot for some reason. Im hoping it is just a passing thing and will get better soon.

melypr1985 · Jul 22, 2015

Boy these didn't turn out so well on the big computer screen. They looked great on my cell phone lol. I'm curious if you can see the depth I tried to create with the scape. In person you can see it so well and I think it looks amazing! I think its harder to see in pictures, especially cell phone pictures.

melypr1985 · Jul 27, 2015

The coming weeks are going to be exciting on my reef. I have two new additions coming in this week alone. 1 Helfrichi Fire fish and 1 yellow eye kole tang. Woo Hoo! I even went and got a qt set up. I realize that if I really want to keep to the book, then I would catch all my current fish and qt them as well as leaving my tank fallow for 8 weeks or whatever it is. I'm not even remotely ready to do that. But I will make sure the new additions are healthy and eating well before adding them from now on. I'll also have a hospital tank (same as qt) for if any fish get sick in the future. A purple tang is in the future!

SPSREEFS · Jul 27, 2015

Looking great! The builds are always soooo exciting and fun! Nice job on the stand too. I am following along. Is a chiller in order???

melypr1985 · Jul 27, 2015

SPSREEFS said:
Looking great! The builds are always soooo exciting and fun! Nice job on the stand too. I am following along. Is a chiller in order???

Thanks! It is always very exciting. I'll never stop adding coral, even if it means trading other for the new ones. By the time I'm done with this I hope my clowns will be breeding, or maybe even the cardinals. So that will be a whole-nother adventure!
I have never needed a chiller. I keep my house pretty cool and there is an ac vent right above the tank blowing on the T5's keeping them plenty cool. It doesn't seem to effect the tank's temp at all. -I've been watching.

jsker · Jul 27, 2015

You will like the yellow eye Kole tang. They like nori. Get a clip and start it off with the garlic infused nori the you can but the nori at the orential market for cheep..

Great build

melypr1985 · Jul 27, 2015

Thanks. I got clips today and I have nori already. I was always confused about the garlic infusion. Can I do it myself at home? How? Or is that something that I need to buy already done?

melypr1985 · Jul 28, 2015

My new little guy. Yellow eye kole tang. Wish me luck!

melypr1985 · Aug 3, 2015

These aren't the best pictures. I'm just not very good with the camera and fish tanks. Give me a good landscape or flowers any day lol.
Everything is doing very well, which is amazing since I abandoned my QT set up just a week after putting my new Kole Tang in it. I really need a glass tank that I can see through the sides of. This Rubbermaid just wasn't letting me observe him at all. Every time I peeked over to see him he would hide. He wasn't eating that I could see either. Once I introduced him to the tank, he's active and eating frozen food, and grazing algae off the rocks and glass. The new Helfrichi Firefish is in the pictures too. This one I couldn't put in my QT because I wasn't prepared for a jumper like this one. She ate just minutes after introduction, so I'm hopeful for her. Coral growth seems good too. My red monti cap is growing so fast! I just traded two frags of it for 4 different types.... Idaho grape, green, and two weird ones- the first is green with blue polyps and the other is red/pink and

called something burn. Not sure, but it's little, we will see what it turns into.

melypr1985 · Aug 7, 2015

My birthday present to myself. Im hoping the hubs doesnt notice lol. Im also hoping it stays where i can see it this time. *crosses fingers*

melypr1985 · Aug 7, 2015

Aaaaand, sure enough.... stupid thing sucked itself right into the rocks. I'll probably never see it again

melypr1985 · Aug 10, 2015

The GBTA decided it likes the back of the tank for now. At least its coming out when the lights are on.... and I can see where it is! That's a plus!

I have more terrible pictures for you. My new monti frags and some random shots of the corals and fish.
There are two pictures of a favia I have. One is a HUGE polyp and the other is of the other side of the coral where the "normal" polyps are. It's so weird that it's so big. I'm not even sure it's healthy like that.