My 75 gallon adventure

[JCM]

Looks great! Reefcleaners is definitely the best

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Great looking tank, things are progressing well. And yes the photos get better every time.

 

[revhtree]

Happy 2.5 month birthday to my tank! Here’s what’s new:

1. my Algae paranoia resulted in an awesome @reefcleaners purchase of astrea, trochus and cerith snails. Also got 3 peppermint shrimp that immediately chowed down on the two tiny aiptasia I had noticed. All arrived healthy and ready to eat! Can’t say enough good things about @reefcleaners

2. also got a glob of chaeto from them which is growing like crazy in my fuge. I think it came w pods because as soon as my lights come on all of the fish go crazy picking things off of the overflow. Bonus!

3. Lenny (the blenny) was released from QT and was immediately
hassled by my 2 yellow tails in the DT. I was so worried he would starve. literally lost sleep over it! Tried the mirror trick, over fed, rescaped a bit and created a side of the tank filled w options for Lenny to eat and hide in. After a week he is finally chowing down on the tall, orange sponge or tunicate (not sure what it is) and today he started eating the Nori i attached to a rock. Hoping he starts eating the long wavy green algae (is that GHA?). Will take the Nori out tonight and not replace it to see if I can entice him.

4. have an acclimation box coming Thursday. this Weekend the clowns will finish their QT (signs of flukes so they are staying in for their Prazi spa treatment). It’s been so hard waiting. Husband keeps asking me when they are coming up from the basement.

5. put 5 of my 8 blue legs in the sump after I caught them eating a nassarius snail. I think the hoodlums are going back to the lfs.

The information in the forums has been priceless! Thanks to all for your help. Every question or problem I have I can find the info there. Hoping to introduce my first corals in a month

Lenny and what’s left of the sponge/tunicate
Lenny paradise

FTS

Looking good! Keep it up!

 

[Oldsman]

Keep up w the cool photos , love watching tanks come to life !

 

[taulgrl]

Tank Update:
1. Chaeto was a bit of a fail. It was growing gangbusters until the GHA also started up in the fuge. GHA grew all over the Chaeto and fuge and had big negative effect. Wound up tossing Chaeto and spending hours cleaning up the sump. Not sure I'll try that again.
2. Blue legged hermits have been freed from the sump and are happily munching on diatoms and detritus (and not Nassarius snails) in DT
3. Ugly phase has been going on but CUC and manual removal seem to be doing the trick (so far). Bryopsis, GHA came and went. Diatoms are latest thing. No coralline other than what I "bought" on the gulf live rock
4. Decided I was ready for CORAL! Frags from 2 LFS and WWC: Pulsing Xenia, GSP, Zoanthid, Dunkin, Flame Tipped Clove Polyp, Mushroom, Neon Green Sinularia and one struggling Green Polyp Toadstool. My $10 Dunkin from a CT LFS is my favorite so far. Seems to be thriving

Going to let these settle for a few weeks and then considering pulling the trigger on a Biota Yellow Tang. I really want one but they are so expensive!

Lenny the Blenny (at 8:00), Struggling Toadstool, Sinularia, Mushroom, GSP

Dunkin, Xenia, Zoa

FTS

 

[taulgrl]

Great looking tank, things are progressing well. And yes the photos get better every tim

Thank you! I'm a huge fan of your nem. Can't wait to get one!

 

[taulgrl]

Keep up w the cool photos , love watching tanks come to life !

Thank you! I spend so much time just staring at the tank. There is so much going on even this early into things.

 

[taulgrl]

Overall things are coming together nicely - more successes than failures and learning a lot every day! Had a few deaths (the "struggling toadstool" from last update and a tuxedo urchin I didn't acclimate well. Successes:

1. Got a beautiful Fox Face from NYAquatic. They were great to work with! Fish acclimated well in QT and is now munching on all of my favorite macroalgae . I think he also ate my clove polyps (didn't really like them anyway) so trying to keep him well fed with Nori and feedings twice a day.
2. Got some free frags from a fellow reefer: green hairy mushrooms, Candy Cane and some green Zoas.
3. Neon Green Sinularia finally attached itself to rubble and is growing really well.
4. Got the big toadstool this Friday along with some lyretail anthias that are QTing.
5. The trochus snails had babies! Have lots of tiny trochus (or is it trochi?) in the tank.
6. Coralline algae slowly coming in on rocks and plastic stuff (overflow, flow pumps) but not glass.

After the anthias go in I think I'm going to focus on stuff that lives on the bottom: fighting conch to clean up my sand, pistol shrimp and goby pal, maybe another goby or blenny...

fox face eyeing a delicious looking xenia

Probably the last picture I'll post with my lovely green macroalgae... foxy thinks it is delish

FTS: the whole gang!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Looks great

 

[Jivatma]

How do you do your pics with no blue?

 

[taulgrl]

How do you do your pics with no blue?

The blues stayed at 60% but, for the picture, I cranked the whites up from 20% to 100%. Then put them back down after pics

 

[taulgrl]

Looks great

Thank you. Having fun!

 

[taulgrl]

Ugh, I found Lenny the Blenny floating dead this morning. I noticed his belly was very big lately but thought he was just eating a lot. Now I wonder if he had a kidney, liver or fluke/parasite problem. His eyes were bulged out and cloudy when I found him. REALLY hoping this doesn’t affect the other fish

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Ugh, I found Lenny the Blenny floating dead this morning. I noticed his belly was very big lately but thought he was just eating a lot. Now I wonder if he had a kidney, liver or fluke/parasite problem. His eyes were bulged out and cloudy when I found him. REALLY hoping this doesn’t affect the other fish

Sorry to hear, hope the rest of the fish are ok

 

[Sleeping Giant]

How are the other fish doing?

 

[taulgrl]

How are the other fish doing?

So far so good - I'm crossing my fingers it isn't something infectious! I have some anthias in QT ready to move but I'm going to give it a few more days to make sure the DT is ok. Miss my blenny. I swear the algae knows he's gone and has picked up noticeably in one day!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

******, hopefully it's ok

 

[taulgrl]

Luckily whatever killed my Blenny didn’t affect the others!

Big news this month is that one of my newly introduced lyretails turned male a couple of weeks after going into the DT.

Also working on sand cleanup: got a conch and very big tuxedo urchin that immediately decimated my last macro algae . He’s doing a good job of cleaning the rocks, though, so all is forgiven. Glued down the toadstool and candy cane today and did a 20% water change. Have another algae blenny in QT and hoping to get a diamond goby soon.

Despite consistently low Nitrates (~5) and a phos of 0 I’m getting all of the algaes (slime, hair, bubble and cyano) on my rock and sand!

 

[taulgrl]

Urchin covered in macro algae

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Luckily whatever killed my Blenny didn’t affect the others!

Big news this month is that one of my newly introduced lyretails turned male a couple of weeks after going into the DT.

Also working on sand cleanup: got a conch and very big tuxedo urchin that immediately decimated my last macro algae . He’s doing a good job of cleaning the rocks, though, so all is forgiven. Glued down the toadstool and candy cane today and did a 20% water change. Have another algae blenny in QT and hoping to get a diamond goby soon.

Despite consistently low Nitrates (~5) and a phos of 0 I’m getting all of the algaes (slime, hair, bubble and cyano) on my rock and sand!

Looking great