Susan's RSM 250

Susan Edwards · Dec 19, 2017

Celebrated my tank b'day by buying 4 new fish. They are in qt right now. 3 banggai cardinals and one fire fish. All eating. Firefish hanging out in one of the decorations except for food time. The other 3 might be a bit overpowering. They sure snap up the food. Won't have to worry about overfeeding once th ey are in my dt!

Susan Edwards · Dec 22, 2017

New fish are doing well. Hearty eaters. The firefish tends to avoid the others who are very active eaters. All I have to do is go near the qt tank and they are right there practically begging! Debating whether to go ahead and do prazipro just in case. If there are no signs of problems, I might not do CP. I hate medicating when there is no reason--goes for me as well.

Things moving forward for the 125 build. Stand and sump arrive next week!

Susan Edwards · Dec 28, 2017

Had to turn one of my rocks around a bit. The torch, which hasn't shown any stinging tentacles in months was starting to reach up toward the leather-blue toadstool. Now there is a good 5-6 inches of space. If need be, I can try adding another rock in the corner by the torch.

Susan Edwards · Jan 1, 2018

Starting the new year out right: Nitrates down to 5. Did a wc with vacuum and stir of 2/3's of sandbed. Will do the rest next wc. Will test again tomorrow to see if it was a fluke. Normally around 20

Lost 2 bangaii cardinals and 1 firefish in qt. 1 surviving. treating with cp. Not sure why. No more fish from that lfs. they gave me velvet last time.

Another coral update. I'm pleased that some of the corals I thought I'd lose seem to be recovering. Trying to QT them was a mistake. I thought it was a new QT system but the frags my dau gave me at Thanksgiving were put into the qt tank and it was completely cycled. All of them started fading and receding. So that tank, a 10 gal, is just not a good environment overall.
Newest corals:
Reverse Sunsets--5 pcs given by dau for me to trade to LFS who was impressed with mine (got from dau). All recovered from attempt at qt. My original encrusting on rock. Looks great
Sedosa Monti--3 pcs given by dau for me trade to LFS all seem to be doing well. All nice dark orange--had turned lighter pinky color. My original doing super
Goniastrea--Still has color. Don't see it doing much but I figure it's hanging in
Leptastrea--Was doing good, glued to a space 2 inches higher, different angle, and it started bleaching out. Put it back, still fading. Put it on bottom and more than complete recovery. Moved it to rock near sand bed other side of tank and glued. Very happy
Chalice--Figure it was a goner. Moved it to sandbed and it looks to be recovering. Will have to figure out where to move it too. Maybe all the way to the left on the side of the rock where it gets a bit lower flow
Blue Toadstool Leather--Beautiful. Love it. Nice and flowy in flow.
2 micromussas--both doing great. NIce and fat and fleshy. Love these. Will get more for new tank and maybe couple more here.
Hammer Head--Seeing extension and some growth
Blue acro or Tenius or ???--not extending as much as I'd like yet. Nitrates just went down so we'll see. Other acro good PE

Current corals
White tipped Leathers-2--Both doing nicely. Just noticed the big one is maybe too close to the cloves. Have to see if there will be an issue there
Palm cloves--spreading Maybe have to shift rock so they can't jump rock. Removed to long feelers reaching out. Not decided if I will let them spread or not. They share a rock with a sun coral colony
Paly colony--a year old in my tank. Doing well
Sunset Zoa's--looking nice
Large head Palys--Doing super. Spreading, new heads. Maybe should have put in a different spot. Will debate whether to move
Radioactive Dragon Eye zoas--Were tiny heads. Doubled in size. Looking nice
Watermelon Zoas-Nice looking
Ricordia-2 Getting larger. Maybe should pull large frag off rock and put on sandbed. Might be too close to zoas
Orange and blue mushrooms--producing and blue moved off frag
Rhodactis--Now 5 pcs and onto rocks
GSP--spreading
Duncan----what can I say but wow
Turbinaria--seems happy
Torch--now at least 3 heads. Seeing stinging tentacles. Think it's trying to reach the leather. Shifted rock to give more room between 2 and changed carbon and purigen
Acro --brown with good PE
Birds Nest-okay I think. Keeps getting stuff growing on tips--cyano or something. Not seeing new growth in a while but looks like good PE
Favia or Favite--can't remember--Moved it from side to up and was doing better. Moved it down, more center with better flow and now extends feeding tentacles and looks like it is finally growing. Did nothing where it was originally
Lots of colt "weeds". Some can stay, some get pulled...

Fish
2 chromis
2 Darwin clowns. Like to nibble my fingers....
1 peppermint shrimp--latches onto fingers in hopes of food. Will "drink" from turkey baster for food
1 cleaner shrimp now moving all over tank
1 mandarin physc. doing good. Finding food.
1 scooter blenny also doing good.

Display refugium--will become new qt tank. 20 gal hex too small for tangs to qt
1 gold head sand sifting goby. Getting huge. Will put him in new tank and hope he doesn't make too big a mess. Have too many bottom corals for this tank now. Don't want to return him as he might not survive to another home.
1 damsel--will maybe add to this tank when I take down this tank.

Pics of corals and tank shot

White tipped leather, orange sedosa frag, 2 reverse sunset frags, palm clove, sun coral

Small palys, large palys, 2 more sedosa-3rd not make shot, scrambled eggs & dragon eye zoas, chromis and darwin and cleaner shrimp

Dragon eyes, watermelon zoas, ricordias, orange and blue mushrooms

Duncan, gsp, green mushrooms

Turbinaria, reverse sunset frag, blue toadstool leather

Torch and hammer head

chalice, reverse sunset frag, goniastrea and war coral not making it.

Leptastrea and favia

Susan Edwards · Jan 18, 2018

--My goal for 2018 is to repopulate fish from losing most to MV.
--Have 1 in qt almost ready to add in. Grow out corals and add more to fill in.
--Continue to enjoy tank
--maybe feature one or 2 corals in my build once or twice a month
--see if there is a better cel phone out there with a better camera or camera attachments
Also
--take down display refugium
--Rock with colt and xenia coral to sump of new build or new coral qt/grow out tank
--most sand to sump
--rock with macro to sump
--rock free of stuff to new display to seed
Also
--get new 125 gal build up and going by June (with fish and corals) and stable by Dec
Jan Tank shot

Susan Edwards · Jan 23, 2018

The remaining bangaii is now in the MD and seems to be doing well. Still waiting to get the 125 up and going. Got stalled last weekend when I needed another coat of paint on the very bottom--didn't want raw wood if water leaked under stand.

This tank seems very stable, still high nitrates in the 20-40 range. Started nopox again. PO 4 ranges from .04-under 2 as a rule. Corals all seem to like the dirty water. Only the birds nest might be unhappy with some receeding--pink on tips with bubbles. No other issues in tank.

Going to remove the sponges totally to see what that does. I had cut them in thirds so I could change them out weekly or less. Last water change I removed water from left return pump chamber and noticed lots of debris under the sponge after I removed it. So I doesn't seem to do much good. Might start to rotate chambers for majority of water changes--don't want to suck out all the pods though. Maybe half from each side every other week. Also need to turkey baste blast the sand each wc. A section at a time. could also shove the sponges down much lower in the chambers. Will play around.

Susan Edwards · Jan 25, 2018

Checked closer at my micromussa's and was shocked to see tons of new growth--new heads. I love these guys so this is awesome. I'm amazed that my tank seems to thrive on high nitrates...
Each of them only had 3 heads on top. Now there is a nice ring of them.

Tank is now just over 13 months old!

Susan Edwards · Feb 3, 2018

Went to Sacramento for grandaughter's 3rd b'day party. Had no intention of hitting a fish store--none near me so Sac is one place I go--but dau asks if I want to follow her and her SO to one of the stores as we are leaving. What could I say but heck yeah. Still didn't plan to buy. So what did I do?

I bought....

Hubby really like a coco worm with a red head. Bought.
I saw some anthias, better prices than the other store I often hit (and don't have a lot of success with fish, and got MV from). So I got 2 dispar and 2 purple queens. Love anthias. Think I will plan on a bunch of them in the 125 build. So colorful.

Dispars are out. And eating. At least one of them was. I'll feed again before I go to bed when I do the sun corals.

Queens aren't out yet.

I did not qt them. Last batch I did, I lost 3 of 4 and I think it was my qt tank, though I did bring the fish from that other place. Happened right after a water change so might have been that. Don't know. I test the QT tank yesterday in case we went fish shopping and it had low ammonia. Yet it has not had any fish in it for weeks. So because I don't have a lot of money in fish, the 2 darwins are the most expensive, and some of the other fish had survived MV, I put them in the display. In a couple weeks or less, I'll be taking that qt tank down and switching to my display refugium which is a 39 gal tall tank for my qt tank for both tanks, although this one is probably pretty much done for fish unless I add another bangaii or blenny.

coco worm is out. I moved it to a lower flow--was being blown like a tree in the wind. Will add some phyto to tank tonight

Oh, see one queen out! In back, not front. Purple queens being shy and the coco worm just went back in. Will add more pics

Susan Edwards · Feb 4, 2018

I wanted anthias thinking they'd use more of the tank water column. Other fish all hang in front left leaving reast of tank fishless So where are the two dispars? Front left....

Tank Fish
2 chromis
2 darwin clowns
1 scooter blenny
1 mandarin
1 bangaii
2 purple queen anthias
2 dispair anthias
1 coco worm

SuperHaze57 · Feb 4, 2018

Nice build, love the updates!

najer · Feb 4, 2018

Looking good.

Susan Edwards · Feb 4, 2018

thanks for visiting @Kirk Hoogstad and @najer

mmw64 · Feb 4, 2018

Susan Edwards said:
So, my normal lfs had a huge fire last week--electrical. Fire thru the roof per the news. So we went a bit further to another fish store. Wow. Just wow. huge. And the best selection I've seen yet. Lots of fish, and lots of nice looking corals and wide varieties. And prices among best I've seen. I think it was the owner who helped us--knowledgeable and efficient. I only saw him get 2 of my items and take them to the bagging table. He's talking to us and then suddenly says my box is ready... My jaw dropped. He had conveyed to the other what I needed and they'd gotten the rest all ready without me even aware, never even heard him tell anyone else what to get. I was impressed as it seems to always take forever to get your fish bagged.

So I explained my tank, my concerns. I went with the idea of only getting livestock that would help my tank, not decorate it. So here is what I got

3 emeralds-one is a huge sucker and is plucking entire tuffs of algae already. He said with my 1 and my rockwork, 4 was okay
3 trochus--the 4 I have do an awesome job
3 nasarius--have only seen 1 of the 4 I had recently
2 turbos--wow, there they go, mowing it down....
1 tiger sea cucumber (for my hubby who has been to china and eaten them....)
1 tiny pistol shrimp to go with my yw goby
1 sleeper, gold head goby yellow head, blue line). started sifting immediately
1 Kole Tang to help with algae. He said my tank should be good for a couple of years before I need to find him a new home with lots of open swimming space (I know I'll catch flak...).

So that should do me for a while. Next big trip is corals, once the tank is doing a bit better with the ones I have. I was worried my goby was too tiny for a pistol so made sure I got a small one. Goby was in his tiny cave, shrimp floated into the big caverns. Saw the goby watching, start across the clearing, back off several times. Then before bed, right front and center I see a big pit. Hole at bottom too small for anything. Look again a few minutes later and it's larger. A few minutes later, I see my goby. I think they've paired. Kole very wary of me. Sees me and hides. Everyone ate after I got them all in.

My livestock now:
2 clowns
2 chromis
1 bicolor blenny
1 scooter blenny
1 yellow watchman goby and 1 pistol shrimp
1 sleeper, gold head sand shifting goby
1 Kole Tang

2 peppermint shrimps
4 emeralds, 7 trochus, 8 hermits, 2 turbos, 4-6 nasarius, 2-3 cerith (maybe) 2 bumblebees
1 tiger sea cucumber

zoa/polyps frag, green star polyp frag, xenia (not sure for how long) frag, torch
gbta also not doing so good but surviving.
Have some pods arriving via amazon and other food and vitamins and coral foods I've seen recommended on Sunday. Will keep pods in tank until I get refugium set up. A bit nervous thinking about setting it up and doing the plumbing and getting pumps and such. Have a 10 gal and baffles I ordered from ebay and sock holders.

Going to bed one happy camper. Even hubby taking an interest.

sea cucumber

Where do you live in CA ?

SuperHaze57 · Feb 4, 2018

Susan Edwards said:
thanks for visiting @Kirk Hoogstad and @najer

You're Welcome

Susan Edwards · Feb 4, 2018

mmw64 said:
Where do you live in CA ?

Central Calif. Between Stockton and Modesto

Fin · Feb 4, 2018

Looking good!

mmw64 · Feb 4, 2018

Susan Edwards said:
Central Calif. Between Stockton and Modesto

I live in Modesto. Can you recommend some good fish stores? Welcome to the female reefers!

Susan Edwards · Feb 4, 2018

@mmw64 Here are the places I go

South:
Hayward: aquatic collection -- large selections. Questionable quality fish. I suspect I brought in MV from here
San Jose: Neptune Aquatics -- Huge store, tons of tanks, lots of display tank set ups--beautiful. Tons of corals. So-so fish. Lost one mandarin but 1 doing good, as well as 2 darwin clowns
Santa Clara: Infinite Aquarium -- new store. Nice corals. Just starting out with fish. going slow. Corals from there doing great

North:
Sacramento and area
Exotic Aquarium -- Huge. More freshwater. Lots of stuff. Just got my 4 anthias and coco worm there on Sunday
Aqua Workz --not been too. Dau and her SO go there. Say it's nice. Next on my north trip
Your Reef -- Roseville Lots of corals. I think this was the one with lots of coral specials. Lost about 50% but I was also setting them up in a new qt
Splash Aquarium -- Smaller store. Nice
Crystal Aquarium -- Freshwater only--just so you don't try it. AND DON'T GO IN. MOLD AND MILDEW EVERYWHERE, EVEN FRONT GLASS WINDOW. EWWWWWW AND YOU CAN'T BREATHE IN THERE!!
Aqua Life Aquarium -- Rocklin -- lost my 2 mandarins. My one leather toadstool is awesome. Some good, some not so good. They'd just moved so coral quality was iffy
Aquarium Depot -- also supposed to be good. Also on my next to visit list.

all of these are worth the visit. Except crystal aquarium <g>

Would love to meet up

mmw64 · Feb 4, 2018

Susan Edwards said:
@mmw64 Here are the places I go

South:
Hayward: aquatic collection -- large selections. Questionable quality fish. I suspect I brought in MV from here
San Jose: Neptune Aquatics -- Huge store, tons of tanks, lots of display tank set ups--beautiful. Tons of corals. So-so fish. Lost one mandarin but 1 doing good, as well as 2 darwin clowns
Santa Clara: Infinite Aquarium -- new store. Nice corals. Just starting out with fish. going slow. Corals from there doing great

North:
Sacramento and area
Exotic Aquarium -- Huge. More freshwater. Lots of stuff. Just got my 4 anthias and coco worm there on Sunday
Aqua Workz --not been too. Dau and her SO go there. Say it's nice. Next on my north trip
Your Reef -- Roseville Lots of corals. I think this was the one with lots of coral specials. Lost about 50% but I was also setting them up in a new qt
Splash Aquarium -- Smaller store. Nice
Crystal Aquarium -- Freshwater only--just so you don't try it. AND DON'T GO IN. MOLD AND MILDEW EVERYWHERE, EVEN FRONT GLASS WINDOW. EWWWWWW AND YOU CAN'T BREATHE IN THERE!!
Aqua Life Aquarium -- Rocklin -- lost my 2 mandarins. My one leather toadstool is awesome. Some good, some not so good. They'd just moved so coral quality was iffy
Aquarium Depot -- also supposed to be good. Also on my next to visit list.

all of these are worth the visit. Except crystal aquarium <g>

Would love to meet up

Thanks Susan. I'm Maureen. My favorite place was Aquarium Concepts but never opened back up after fire. Do you live in Ripon? Tropical Haven in Modesto is good for supplies but wouldn't buy fish or corals there. Mostly buy on line.