This is it. My last build thread

[X-37B]

The bad news above was the loss of my blue haddoni in the 40g basement tank. It went wandering behind the rocks and wrapped itself around the heater. The basement is 60 degrees so the heater runs a lot. The positive spin is now I can add fish without fear of them being eaten and it leaves more room for coral. If I decide to keep nems in the future I'll set a tank up dedicated to them.


RIP Big Blue

Many have luck with nems in mixed systems, but I have learned to keep them in their own system over the years. Then you only need to make sure you have a proper nem gaurd in place. Ask me how I know?
I have 7 nems in my rs 170 with a pair of naked clowns a file fish and a flame back angel.
The carpets I have had in the past would reduce my fish population over time, lol.

 

[tharbin]

No no you were not rude at all. I apologize, It was late for me as well and I shouldn't have mixed bad news in what was supposed to be a positive post. Reactions are a big deal here and your reply got me thinking how is someone even supposed to react to a post that contains good and bad news? I appreciate your reply. The edit was to correct my mistake.

Now you've got me thinking. When I do a tank update I almost always put the bad and the good in the same post so that people don't waste too much time being bored by my thread. I never thought about how it makes it difficult to give a meaningful reaction. I think I will start separating out my bad news from my good news.

Thanks for adding a post about the nem. I didn't read the post until after you had edited it so I was curious about the bad news. Sorry about the new. It looked like a beautiful specimen.

 

[exnisstech]

Haddonis are very beautiful anemones. Getting a nice healthy one seems to be hard to acquire. Everytime I see them in the pet stores. They are very sick.

Even if they are healthy, shipping can cause them to get sick.

That's a terrible loss in my opinion. :(

Agreed. I stopped ordering anemones online years ago. Not sure the cause but the few times I did they arrived a bag full of death. I was lucky and found the blue at a lfs 2 years ago.
Maybe someone will see my post, learn from my mistake and take preventative measures with their heaters.

 

[exnisstech]

Was digging into the phone camera settings today and decreased exposure and was able to get some video without all the blown highlights. Phones have made me a lazy photographer. I need to work on my panning skills.



We have new guests in the house. Estimated to be a week old. Eyes are still closed and some dried umbilical cord still attached. For any cat folks two are polydactyl one also a tort. My Daughters a cat person.

My Daughter took two so we only have to care for two. Feed every two hours and wipe butt till they potty. Fun stuff lol .We have a system, I feed and my Gal stimulates them afterward, aka patting their butt with a damp warm rag after they eat. I think I got the better end of that deal all pun intended.

 

[Rhetoric]

Kittens! How fun in a few weeks and it's kitten Khaos!

Sorry about the nem loss.

 

[Stang67]

I have always wanted a Hemingway cat.

 

[exnisstech]

I have always wanted a Hemingway cat.

We have one for the taking and she's a tortie too so double cool :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes: We're trying to find someone with a nursing mother to take them in but haven't had any luck so we'll probably end up raising them untill they're old enough to adopt out.

 

[Stang67]

We have one for the taking and she's a tortie too so double cool :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes: We're trying to find someone with a nursing mother to take them in but haven't had any luck so we'll probably end up raising them untill they're old enough to adopt out.

So tempted but I can't. I hear they don't declaw them now and that's a no go for me. I do miss my cat though.

 

[exnisstech]

So tempted but I can't. I hear they don't declaw them now and that's a no go for me. I do miss my cat though.

Big negatory on the declawing. My dogs won't allow us to keep one long term.

 

[exnisstech]

Not much going on except rising N and P lol. I started feeding more pellet and flake since i found a flake my female CBB loves but I need to lighten up. PO4 pegged the Hanna ULR flashing 0.9 NO3 went from 20 to 33 in one week. I've never fed much dried food. I know much of it is supposed to meet all the nutritional needs but I just have a thing about processed food. My dogs love that I have that thing because it means they get to eat 100% raw.
I'm going back back to feeding heavy on the frozen and using the dried food as little treats.

The ATS hasn't been doing much lately. Not sure what the deal is but the display is algae free so I'm just letting things flow. Its funny the ATS in my 40g is growing so much I had to shorten the light cycle because I was having to clean it every other day.

Tank is looking decent and I have no deaths to report so on with the show.
Video from last night.



I'm kind of surprised how clear the water is not running any GAC just socks that I usually let overflow for a day or two before changing

 

[Lavey29]

Wow 3 yellow tangs that is so cool. One of my favorite fish that I will have one day when I get a larger system.

 

[Stang67]

It's amazing how different systems can be so different.

 

[exnisstech]

Wow 3 yellow tangs that is so cool. One of my favorite fish that I will have one day when I get a larger system.

Actually there's 4 in there. One is a wild caught and I added 3 biota babies as the first fish in when I started the tank. The babies have colored up nicely. I have another wild caught yellow in another tank. I loves my yellow tangs. I think the yellows and CBBs are two of my favorite fish to see in a reef tank.

This is a video I took a while back showing the biota yellows together with the wild caught.

 

[Lavey29]

Actually there's 4 in there. One is a wild caught and I added 3 biota babies as the first fish in when I started the tank. The babies have colored up nicely. I have another wild caught yellow in another tank. I loves my yellow tangs. I think the yellows and CBBs are two of my favorite fish to see in a reef tank.

This is a video I took a while back showing the biota yellows together with the wild caught.

That's so nice. I'm going to do a waterbox shallow reef set up to maybe the 150. Probably in a few months. Did you have any troubles moving the fish into the new system using all the rock from the old tank? My fish are my primary concern. I know some corals won't make it.

 

[exnisstech]

That's so nice. I'm going to do a waterbox shallow reef set up to maybe the 150. Probably in a few months. Did you have any troubles moving the fish into the new system using all the rock from the old tank? My fish are my primary concern. I know some corals won't make it.

I was fortunate because I was able to keep my old tank up while I got this one running. I started it with all dry rock in the DT but filled the sump with old live rock some from the old tank and some that I had in wet storage so it was pretty much an instant cycle. I've never let any live rock dry out and some of it was over 8 years old.
I put the little yellow tangs in first then brought my convict over and let them get used to each other for a month or so. I was actually pretty nervous to break the other tank down and bring all the fish over but it went pretty well with no losses. I just drained a lot if water and pulled most of the rock to make it easier to catch the fish with less chance of injury to any. I lost my big monticaps because they were spread across several rocks but have pieces that are now growing out. I lost some bubble tip nems also but I wasn't planning on adding them to the new tank. Over all it went smooth but Im glad i didn't have to move everything all at once.

 

[exnisstech]

5/25/25 update.

Tank is cruising
Alk 8.4 dkH dosing 10ml ESV 2part
NO3 28.7
PO4 0.42
Fish are fat and act like they're happy and are getting along well. I'm not seeing any more torn fins on the little yellow tangs. Still not seeing any nuisance algae in the DT and water is very clear so I'm just rolling with the numbers.

I miss my Hippo that I lost unexpectedly after 5 years so I decided to get another. Its in the 40g in the basement and is doing well and eating like a pig. No signs of ich, flukes or anything so I'm not treating. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it in the 40 but I want it to grow some more before I bring it up.
These fish always look so rough with hlle when I see large ones. My last one had zero hlle after 5 years so hopefully I can repeat that. I've read that it can be nutrition related and I feed just well as I always have so I'm optimistic.
Its a beautiful fish but I can never capture blues correctly on my phone camera.

 

[backbayreef]

5/25/25 update.

Tank is cruising
Alk 8.4 dkH dosing 10ml ESV 2part
NO3 28.7
PO4 0.42
Fish are fat and act like they're happy and are getting along well. I'm not seeing any more torn fins on the little yellow tangs. Still not seeing any nuisance algae in the DT and water is very clear so I'm just rolling with the numbers.

I miss my Hippo that I lost unexpectedly after 5 years so I decided to get another. Its in the 40g in the basement and is doing well and eating like a pig. No signs of ich, flukes or anything so I'm not treating. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it in the 40 but I want it to grow some more before I bring it up.
These fish always look so rough with hlle when I see large ones. My last one had zero hlle after 5 years so hopefully I can repeat that. I've read that it can be nutrition related and I feed just well as I always have so I'm optimistic.
Its a beautiful fish but I can never capture blues correctly on my phone camera.

Very cool - good luck! It’s always a crap shoot with adding more fish. I have 3 of them and might add a school of them in the future. However, they can be ich magnets hence the hesitation.

 

[exnisstech]

Very cool - good luck! It’s always a crap shoot with adding more fish. I have 3 of them and might add a school of them in the future. However, they can be ich magnets hence the hesitation.

My last one did very well and actually was one if my velvet survivors. Powder Blues have been my failure. I'm hesitant to add the hippo but because the tank is so peaceful right now. I'll probably keep it in the 40g until its large enough it has to come out.

 

[Joe462]

Don't let your skimmer overflow or really bad stuff happens.
Zoas open like never before

My fox coral got all swollen.

My rock flower started stretching out like never before.

Then started spawning



The spawn intensified after light out so I had to grab a flashlight



I had someone once tell me not running a skimmer was like making my fish live in toilet water. Some people are a bit narrow minded. I think I'm going back to letting them swim in the toilet. The responce I got when the skimmer filled the tank with crap was nothing but positive. I'm going to leave the skimmer off line for now.

Oh and I finally found something my CBBs will eat besides frozen food, tang poop :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing: . I saw them chowing down on it yesterday but didn't get pics.

did you find any baby rock flowers after this spawning event? I think mine spawned last night, thought it was snails at first. but i have seen the results of rock flower spawning in my tank but never noticed the "event" before.

 

[exnisstech]

did you find any baby rock flowers after this spawning event? I think mine spawned last night, thought it was snails at first. but i have seen the results of rock flower spawning in my tank but never noticed the "event" before.

I have not seen any new babies yet in this tank.