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ESABOE
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He’s say’s “thank you Will!” And shares a shiny scale with you,
My Grateful Journeys Tank
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Fish Update:
And now to introduce the second new neighbor who moved in this week - the Diamond Goby! I’ve decided to call him, “Lawrence of Arabia” from the 1960’s movie with Peter O’Toole. His blue diamonds sparkle against the snowy white backdrop of the sand just like Lawrence’s eyes in the movie. And more importantly, he is within himself a sandstorm- racing through the desert, searching, disrupting, recreating as he goes!
This guy arrived with confidence! Started sifting and making a neat pile of the GHA/sand clumps right away - so I could just turkey baste it out in one fell swoop - thank you! He has already touched the entire sand bed in this 75 gal, 48’ long display. I’ve got mountains, dunes, secret caves, bare bottom sections - and it changes daily.
I know some get frustrated with goby’s causing havoc with the sand, but for me that’s the whole enjoyment other than the CUC aspect of him. While I love that Instagram look of pristine, smooth sand beds with nothing on them other then the main rock scape; this is a habitat for animals and it should looked lived in, well-worn with love!
I will note though, I did move a couple things onto higher ground and am working on raising my zoa garden with another layer of flat Marco rock as he will eventually kill then with sand.
As far as getting him to eat?!? Please! I experimented the first two days worried he might not eat enough and what if my sandbed didn’t provide enough supplement. Hikari Extreme small wafers, yep; PE Mysis, yep; Rod’s Original, yep; TDO Chroma, yep. Swims mid-column during feeding and grabs what’s flying by; visited second tier of rock scape and found some leftovers! All this plus eating an entire tanks worth of Schmutz!
Since he conditioned in the LFS for a month, he doesn’t spook when your near the tank and could care less about the clowns. His buddy the Mel is always trying to visit and cuddle and Lawerence just goes with it.
I can’t imagine not having this fish in any tank I would ever have. Utilitarian to the max and entertainment by the hour.
Pic of him and his remodeling efforts.
And now to introduce the second new neighbor who moved in this week - the Diamond Goby! I’ve decided to call him, “Lawrence of Arabia” from the 1960’s movie with Peter O’Toole. His blue diamonds sparkle against the snowy white backdrop of the sand just like Lawrence’s eyes in the movie. And more importantly, he is within himself a sandstorm- racing through the desert, searching, disrupting, recreating as he goes!
This guy arrived with confidence! Started sifting and making a neat pile of the GHA/sand clumps right away - so I could just turkey baste it out in one fell swoop - thank you! He has already touched the entire sand bed in this 75 gal, 48’ long display. I’ve got mountains, dunes, secret caves, bare bottom sections - and it changes daily.
I know some get frustrated with goby’s causing havoc with the sand, but for me that’s the whole enjoyment other than the CUC aspect of him. While I love that Instagram look of pristine, smooth sand beds with nothing on them other then the main rock scape; this is a habitat for animals and it should looked lived in, well-worn with love!
I will note though, I did move a couple things onto higher ground and am working on raising my zoa garden with another layer of flat Marco rock as he will eventually kill then with sand.
As far as getting him to eat?!? Please! I experimented the first two days worried he might not eat enough and what if my sandbed didn’t provide enough supplement. Hikari Extreme small wafers, yep; PE Mysis, yep; Rod’s Original, yep; TDO Chroma, yep. Swims mid-column during feeding and grabs what’s flying by; visited second tier of rock scape and found some leftovers! All this plus eating an entire tanks worth of Schmutz!
Since he conditioned in the LFS for a month, he doesn’t spook when your near the tank and could care less about the clowns. His buddy the Mel is always trying to visit and cuddle and Lawerence just goes with it.
I can’t imagine not having this fish in any tank I would ever have. Utilitarian to the max and entertainment by the hour.
Pic of him and his remodeling efforts.
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kevgib67
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The crazy sand movement slowly dissipates once a permanent cave is chosen and it settles in. Mine is the biggest pig in the tank and I’m pretty sure if I threw a chicken nugget in he would eat it! Very entertaining fish.Fish Update:
And now to introduce the second new neighbor who moved in this week - the Diamond Goby! I’ve decided to call him, “Lawrence of Arabia” from the 1960’s movie with Peter O’Toole. His blue diamonds sparkle against the snowy white backdrop of the sand just like Lawrence’s eyes in the movie. And more importantly, he is within himself a sandstorm- racing through the desert, searching, disrupting, recreating as he goes!
This guy arrived with confidence! Started sifting and making a neat pile of the GHA/sand clumps right away - so I could just turkey baste it out in one fell swoop - thank you! He has already touched the entire sand bed in this 75 gal, 48’ wide display. I’ve got mountains, dunes, secret caves, bare bottom sections - and it changes daily.
I know some get frustrated with goby’s causing havoc with the sand, but for me that’s the whole enjoyment other than the CUC aspect of him. While I love that Instagram look of pristine, smooth sand beds with nothing on them other then the main rock scape; this is a habitat for animals and it should looked lived in, well-worn with love!
I will note though, I did move a couple things onto higher ground and am working on raising my zoa garden with another layer of flat Marco rock as he will eventually kill then with sand.
As far as getting him to eat?!? Please! I experimented the first two days worried he might not eat enough and what if my sandbed didn’t provide enough supplement. Hikari Extreme small wafers, yep; PE Mysis, yep; Rod’s Original, yep; TDO Chroma, yep. Swims mid-column during feeding and grabs what’s flying by; visited second tier of rock scape and found some leftovers! All this plus eating an entire tanks worth of Schmutz!
Since he conditioned in the LFS for a month, he doesn’t spook when your near the tank and could care less about the clowns. His buddy the Mel is always trying to visit and cuddle and Lawerence just goes with it.
I can’t imagine not having this fish in any tank I would ever have. Utilitarian to the max and entertainment by the hour.
Pic of him and his remodeling efforts.
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Good to know as he’s made 4 big caves already- I just want the main one to be in front of tank so I can watch him! Well, as my grandson gets older, I wouldn’t put it past him to someday share a nugget or fry with the “Ishys”!!!
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Thank you Katrina!
kevgib67
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Mine dug out a few initially but has lived in one and hasn’t dug out any others in almost two years. He is out of his cave and swimming around except when he goes to sleep at night so it kinda doesn’t matter where the cave is. So, this is about my previous tank, I came home from work and checked on my tank as usual. At the bottom of the tank was about a dozen grapes. My 3 year old thought it was a good idea to feed the fish. My head almost exploded, shortly after he was put up for adoption. I hope he is doing well and has a nice family that doesn’t keep reef tanks. I guess it could have been worse like spaghettiOs.
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Omg - spagettios can you imagine! That orange dye in the sauce is permanent
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ESABOE
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That jogged my memory - my daughter put a pop tart in VCR!!! When you think about it, it was toaster-like
My little one that is now all grown up threw my brand new camera into the bath tub full of water...
More like 200... it wasn't malicious just too little to know better.
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
I can’t even go there in my mind….
I am being super careful anytime I touch lid to make sure it didn’t move a smidge and create a gap. I don’t even walk away for a few seconds with the feed door open. cause my luck….
Appreciate the reminder though - I’m not exactly running on all cylinders atm.
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Tank Update:
My tank has come to the 5-month anniversary and I thought it would be a good time to do a deeper
maintenance clean of the system this Friday.
Take apart pumps/gyres remove internal buildup; do the same for ReefMatt Roller; check and clean all sensors probes for buildup/film, etc.
Nothing to drastic as there isn’t much buildup on such a new tank. But more than my standard 20% bi-weekly water change which is moving to every three weeks and 30%.
I am also sitting down with the owner of my LFS, Dylan from Bermuda Aquatics, to discuss overall progress and most importantly Flow! Now that I have a variety of LPS/Softies throughout the tank, the initial flow settings need to be adjusted; just a tweak but that can go a long way. Also, the type of fish that are now starting to come home have different flow needs/desires. I’m adding two tangs and they will want a much better workout then my lazy, silly clowns.
Red Sea has a great app; easy to use and many features, most I haven’t used or used effectively. We will also walk through it and adjust. This is really for me to learn so I can be more independent on basic tank care and monitoring. Plus, I love and crave learning new things and this hobby is a never-ending education!
My personal task this week is to create a little weekly chart for feeding and dosing. I can’t depend on my memory. It will be basic, like what types of food on which day (I have a variety and want to mix it up).
I only “dose” a few things, but all manual so the chart keeps me on track:
1) Phyto - daily (has been Ocean Magik but switched to Reef Nutrition this week since LFS carries their line of products. More cost effective w/no shipping as well.
2) Brightwell Coral Amino - Daily
3) Tropic Marin All for Reef - Weekly
I have been extremely pleased with my Red Sea tank and hardware. High quality, plug and play! It didn’t hurt that I got all of it during their yearly big sale!
The only thing I wasn’t happy with was the very limited spectrum on the lights. Even though I researched lights extensively in the beginning, I just couldn’t justify buying Radions and similar at that price point. And since I wanted as much as possible in same brand I went with RS which was very mid-line in ‘pricing.
After continuing to research, see reviews/feedback from the industry leaders, I decided to switch to AI Blades. I worked with my LFS and he was able to give me a significant discount and they’ll be installed next week. I will do a separate post all about once they are on the tank.
My tank has come to the 5-month anniversary and I thought it would be a good time to do a deeper
maintenance clean of the system this Friday.
Take apart pumps/gyres remove internal buildup; do the same for ReefMatt Roller; check and clean all sensors probes for buildup/film, etc.
Nothing to drastic as there isn’t much buildup on such a new tank. But more than my standard 20% bi-weekly water change which is moving to every three weeks and 30%.
I am also sitting down with the owner of my LFS, Dylan from Bermuda Aquatics, to discuss overall progress and most importantly Flow! Now that I have a variety of LPS/Softies throughout the tank, the initial flow settings need to be adjusted; just a tweak but that can go a long way. Also, the type of fish that are now starting to come home have different flow needs/desires. I’m adding two tangs and they will want a much better workout then my lazy, silly clowns.
Red Sea has a great app; easy to use and many features, most I haven’t used or used effectively. We will also walk through it and adjust. This is really for me to learn so I can be more independent on basic tank care and monitoring. Plus, I love and crave learning new things and this hobby is a never-ending education!
My personal task this week is to create a little weekly chart for feeding and dosing. I can’t depend on my memory. It will be basic, like what types of food on which day (I have a variety and want to mix it up).
I only “dose” a few things, but all manual so the chart keeps me on track:
1) Phyto - daily (has been Ocean Magik but switched to Reef Nutrition this week since LFS carries their line of products. More cost effective w/no shipping as well.
2) Brightwell Coral Amino - Daily
3) Tropic Marin All for Reef - Weekly
I have been extremely pleased with my Red Sea tank and hardware. High quality, plug and play! It didn’t hurt that I got all of it during their yearly big sale!
The only thing I wasn’t happy with was the very limited spectrum on the lights. Even though I researched lights extensively in the beginning, I just couldn’t justify buying Radions and similar at that price point. And since I wanted as much as possible in same brand I went with RS which was very mid-line in ‘pricing.
After continuing to research, see reviews/feedback from the industry leaders, I decided to switch to AI Blades. I worked with my LFS and he was able to give me a significant discount and they’ll be installed next week. I will do a separate post all about once they are on the tank.
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Question for the veteran reefers on sump maintenance:
I have seen two kinds of sump maintenance; both extremely long/term successful from respected reefers in this forum and out in the world. Curious if it just comes down to preference.
Also, I’m speaking of main sump compartment where pumps, skimmers, heaters, sit. Not the refug/chaeto growing sections. I don’t have a refuge/chaeto section though, but I do keep live TBS rubble in a pond basket in main sump area.
I prefer the meticulous for two reasons - it’s just clean, less tank smell in room, AND you can see all equipment and cords for monitoring. And if kept up, minimal maintenance.
I ask this mainly as I was going to vacuum the detritus on sump floor this week (not much there but it’s the time to do it if I am).
Tank 1: meticulously clean. Nothing growing on glass baffles, no animals, and clearly vacuumed regularly. You could eat out of it.
Tank 2: a literal science experiment, coraline buildup, stars on glass, etc.
I’ve read both sides - another area for beneficials or maintained regularly and biodiversity is in other areas of tank.
I have seen two kinds of sump maintenance; both extremely long/term successful from respected reefers in this forum and out in the world. Curious if it just comes down to preference.
Also, I’m speaking of main sump compartment where pumps, skimmers, heaters, sit. Not the refug/chaeto growing sections. I don’t have a refuge/chaeto section though, but I do keep live TBS rubble in a pond basket in main sump area.
I prefer the meticulous for two reasons - it’s just clean, less tank smell in room, AND you can see all equipment and cords for monitoring. And if kept up, minimal maintenance.
I ask this mainly as I was going to vacuum the detritus on sump floor this week (not much there but it’s the time to do it if I am).
Tank 1: meticulously clean. Nothing growing on glass baffles, no animals, and clearly vacuumed regularly. You could eat out of it.
Tank 2: a literal science experiment, coraline buildup, stars on glass, etc.
I’ve read both sides - another area for beneficials or maintained regularly and biodiversity is in other areas of tank.
fishguy242
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I have always ran a "dirty" sump, wide open ,remove baffles if not a tank, JME...
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
I have always ran a "dirty" sump, wide open ,remove baffles if not a tank, JME...
So the area where the pump/heaters sit is built up? Just confirming for understanding. And I don’t think it’s “dirty” as clearly that’s ocean life. I’m just thinking in this social media Instagram world people feel like ultra clean is only way to go.
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