Been awhile since I posted. Not too much has changed. Everything has been left alone and is growing nicely. Tank is running mostly on auto-pilot and I am just responsible for cleaning the glass. My alkalinity has stablized thanks to ACESQ (Art) lending me his CO2 Regulator. I need to buy a new one and haven't been able to either pull the trigger on a Greenleaf, or build my own using a swagelok.
I haven't added any fish or corals for awhile. We had the local club meeting here, and we had a contest to count the fish in the tank. The correct count was 125 fish. I am lazily battling majanos and aptasia. I bought about 30 Peppermint shrimp a few months back. They all vanished into the tank. Then a couple of weeks later while playing with a flashlight at night I find about 15 huddled together in a cave. Right outside the cave are 4 gigantic aptasia which remain untouched.
I had a matted file fish outside in my rock bin, and I have a copper band and there arent any visible aptasia outside. So I caught the filefish and added him to the display tank. He's a neat fish and is cool to watch. He's nice and fat, but I have no idea what he is eating in the tank. I can't see him eating anything.
The majanos are taking over the back wall of the tank by the overflow. I have a majano wand, but am not convinced it's erradicating them. If anyone knows where I can find some large gauge syringes to start kalk injecting them please let me know.
The Xenia are thriving in the tank. I am pruning out about 150 heads of xenia a month. I have given them away to anyone who wants locally.
I finally added a few new corals, so I thought it was time to take some photos. First up is an Efflo that I picked up about 3 weeks ago. I got it and it was pretty brown, but i like the fact that it wasn't flat and had some nice growth nodules in the middle of it. It's starting to get some color to it.
I also got the opportunity to grow out what could be a really special coral. This is a piece of a monti, that is Gold, Orange and Green with blue polyps. This photo was taken when the coral had only been in the tank for about an hour. The deal was I get the coral, and as soon as it triples in size, I give back the new growth.
So those are the new pieces, here are some growth update photos of some of my favorites:
Fontana, Thank you. The monti mountain is turning out really neat. At the front side of the tank it's grown to the point where the algae scrubber is now grinding the front 7" off everytime I wipe. The red cap has outgrown a large piece of seasons greetings monti which is struggling to survive underneath it.
The red is a much faster grower than the other pieces. I have to trim it from over growing the purple and the grafted piece. I also now have to trim the right edge so it doesn't overgrow and shadow my Elegance coral in the front right corner of the tank.
Acrononomous, I think the efflo is just starting to come around. Years ago I had a beautiful colony that got to about 10" before a system crash. Since then I have tried the Bali Maricultured Efflos at least 10x and never had any success with keeping them. This wild one is off to a really good start. And with the nodules in the center I am hoping this develops into something great. If your ever in the neighborhood stop on by, you never know when my frag clippers will come out.
Jmmj, Glad the mop was from drool and you didn't have a tank leak
Well if I'm ever in town I will definitely stop by! I have a lot of frags to trade but I haven't shipped anything yet from what I see it's a piece of cake ! Take a look at my build thread .... Just getting things rolling but should be amazing as yours soon I hope!
Your thread was exhausting LOL
You and your system have been through a lot.
I really enjoyed the highs and lows that you took us on.
Now your tank is just kick butt.
Just read the whole thread.Simply breathtaking.
Love how healthy and colorful everything looks.
Amazing dedication and a will to come back stronger each time disaster hits, That is the definition of a hardcore reefer
I like my dwarf angels. I've been wanting one of these for awhile and they don't come around that often... This isn't the easiest fish to keep, it's deepwater and relatively shy. I was planning on putting it in an acclimation box for a few days, but got home with it late last night and realized being the selfless reefer I am I realized I had let a friend borrow it. So 11pm last night after drip acclimating for a few hours I'm trying to clean out a Costco Cashew Container, but the label wasn't coming off cleanly..... So off she went into the tank. No congratulations yet, let's wait and see if I have a good update in a month....
And then here is an updated shot of my Bellus with the mis-bar
Colini came from an LAX wholesaler who had the fish for several weeks and it was just overlooked by everyone. This Bellus is just a mystery as to what she will turn out to be. She came as my second Bellus, and is growing a little slower than my other female. And the other fish is a little more dominant. I have never had a female change to male in my tank (yet) but I think the normal one will probably change first.
If it does I can always rehome the male and pick up some smaller females so the misbar is the larger dominant fish and see if that triggers a change.