Turtle's Fairy Tale

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, I removed the tower rock. Only ended up using two boxes of the rocks. Got a lot of caves now... oh and the surprise. We got a trio of anthias. Three female lyretails, Pseudanthias squamipinnis. Pictures are crap because the tank is FULL of micro bubbles. I got most of the corals glued, ran out of glue, broke the green slimmer twice, got bit by my clowns countless times, skimmer is an absolute water volcano... I'm done for today.

I need to do a large water change soon tho. That fluconazole did nothing but screw my tank up and make the ulva grow faster... I'm at about the end of my rope trying to get rid of this ****.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

ANTHIAS!!!!

 

[sfin52]

ANTHIAS!!!!

Very nice

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Change of plans... only slightly. Did a LARGE water change last night and today. Long drug out water change.

Late last night I did my normal drain the sump of all water and refill water change, altho I added the caribsea mineral mud(its 100% black sand no mud about it, and yes I had a severe flashback) as well as the Fiji mud to the large chamber of the sump. Filled it all up with water and tried to let it settle for a few hours while I played xbox.

Started up the return pump a few hours later and turned the tank black. I added a fresh filter sock(previously only had the coarse sponge pad) and went to bed. Fish had already long been asleep and by the time I woke up today, the tank was clear, so no harm done.

Today, fumbling with the 3.5 skimmer and changing out the clogged filter sock... I stirred up more of the sand. Tank got cloudy but wasnt bad. Hmmm, cant be having this ever time we go to do anything down there. Just removing a sock caused enough change in the water flow to stir the sand everywhere. Plus, I havent been able to tune the skimmer at all. It's either overflowing the cup, or its pumping bubbles out the bottom and filling the display.

So I turned the return off again, removed all of the sand and mud, and put it in the actual refugium chamber, the front one. I emptied the skimmer chamber as best I could, and placed my workhorse Curve 5 back in its place.

Of course, stirring up a bunch of sand and mud in a sump full of water made one heck of a cloud... and I turned the return pump on right after doing it. I should have gotten a picture of how dark the tank was but the Kessil couldn't penetrate all the wat to the bottom, I couldn't see more than a few inches into the tank, and my brunneus wrasse laid down on the bottom as if to say "I give up, this dude is crazy."

So, I hooked up the drain of the skimmer cup to a 20' hose and since it was such a nice day, I decided to let the corona inside and just ran the hose out the back door. Simultaneously I had another hose set up to siphon from my water barrel. Ended up slowly draining the whole barrel and pumped it out with the skimmer over about an hour and a half or so.

This was the state of the tank when I left for work. All corals and fish look completely unphased, like a really big storm came thru and stirred up the lagoon and pushed a bunch of silt out to the reef. Actually, they look rather healthy... everything had great polyp extension. Oh, I could see better than the camera, but yes it was pretty much that opaque.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

All better

 

[Scurvy]

Looks a like a candidate for an updated FTS to me, Great Shot!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Took a few more... really wish my clown didn't photobomb the pic of the anthias. That would have been a perfect shot.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Looks a like a candidate for an updated FTS to me, Great Shot!

Done. Post #2 FTS updated.

 

[fishguy242]

hi i have a little...catching up to do ehh, :)

 

[SashimiTurtle]

hi i have a little...catching up to do ehh, :)

Almost 2 year old build thread, yes... you do have a little bit of catching up.

Cliff notes, or TL;DR for millennials...(even the TL;DR is going to be long)

Tank was set up in May of 2018, the original stand failed and the bottom cracked on Memorial day. I resurfaced my hardwood floors and had a tank and stand warrantied from SCA, I believe it was the first week in July I was set back up. Originally we had 3 Kessil A160WEs in a 36" Aquatic Life T5 fixture with 4 ATI Actinic bulbs. After a year we swapped bulbs out for 1 Coral Plus, 2 Blue Plus and one Actinic. Throughout this whole period we really just struggled to keep SPS, but LPS and zoas seemed to do great. This last fall, the tank took a back burner and ended up with a GHA garden all over my rocks. Over the last few months, I've gotten back into a maintenance schedule, upgraded the Kessels to an AP700 and ,so far, have been having success with SPS, even acros,

Over about the last month, I have been fighting a particularly invasive ulva algae. I've had it in my tank since the end of September, but it just recently became a large issue. Removal of the large tower rock that ended up not working with the tank, took 99% of the ulva with it.

 

[fishguy242]

WELL thats just not right summerizing the whole thread in one post ,i am going to unread last post ,take the ride..LOL :)

 

[SashimiTurtle]

WELL thats just not right summerizing the whole thread in one post ,i am going to unread last post ,take the ride..LOL :)

Welcome aboard.

 

[User1]

Well, I removed the tower rock. Only ended up using two boxes of the rocks. Got a lot of caves now... oh and the surprise. We got a trio of anthias. Three female lyretails, Pseudanthias squamipinnis. Pictures are crap because the tank is FULL of micro bubbles. I got most of the corals glued, ran out of glue, broke the green slimmer twice, got bit by my clowns countless times, skimmer is an absolute water volcano... I'm done for today.

I need to do a large water change soon tho. That fluconazole did nothing but screw my tank up and make the ulva grow faster... I'm at about the end of my rope trying to get rid of this ****.

Sea Golidie. One of my favorite anthias. I've tried 5 of them last year and all came in exceptionally healthy. However, I did something, not sure what, and they didn't make it past the 2 month mark. Part of me believes that the tank wasn't mature enough with regards to coral growth to break up the chasing. One of them will become the more dominate and change to male. While that was happening it was a non stop chasing during feeding time which kept the others away from food so they got little if any. I was feeding frozen during the evening and a mix blend via auto feeder 3 times a day. Still couldn't get the others enough food. This is in my 210 gallon.

I'm going to try 7 or 9 next time and when I do the tank should be at the 2 1/2 year mark or 3 depending on when I can source a good set of them. Tank and rocks are mature enough but the coral growth still isn't what I want.

Super awesome fish though - love them. I've just not personally seen a lot of success with them sadly :(.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Sea Golidie. One of my favorite anthias. I've tried 5 of them last year and all came in exceptionally healthy. However, I did something, not sure what, and they didn't make it past the 2 month mark. Part of me believes that the tank wasn't mature enough with regards to coral growth to break up the chasing. One of them will become the more dominate and change to male. While that was happening it was a non stop chasing during feeding time which kept the others away from food so they got little if any. I was feeding frozen during the evening and a mix blend via auto feeder 3 times a day. Still couldn't get the others enough food. This is in my 210 gallon.

I'm going to try 7 or 9 next time and when I do the tank should be at the 2 1/2 year mark or 3 depending on when I can source a good set of them. Tank and rocks are mature enough but the coral growth still isn't what I want.

Super awesome fish though - love them. I've just not personally seen a lot of success with them sadly :(.

Hopefully these do well. I already have one transitioning, its the one in the post up above. Dorsal spine already growing out and is larger and more dominant than the other two. No color change yet tho. I'm hoping I have enough other fish to break up the group some so they aren't always focused on each other.

 

[User1]

Hopefully these do well. I already have one transitioning, its the one in the post up above. Dorsal spine already growing out and is larger and more dominant than the other two. No color change yet tho. I'm hoping I have enough other fish to break up the group some so they aren't always focused on each other.

I'm sure they will be fine. I'm sure it was something I did :). I'm actually thinking my salinity may have dropped a bit because I lost a lawnmower blenny around the same time and no signs of any parasites or diseases in the tank. When that happens I blame myself :D. Not going to lie.

A good friend of mine has a bunch of them but purchased all females. Few months go by and his wife walked by the tank then later that night scolded him for buying a new fish :). He was like Babe! They change sexes when no male is present or dies. The larger female will switch and take on that role - lol. In any case best of luck. They really are an amazing fish in both home aquariums and while scuba diving. I've gone over a few reef crests with thousands of those things with others mixed in. Stunning.

The male is going to really pop in your tank. It already looks amazing so keep up the great work!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I also feed a ton of frozen food. Gave my wife a quarter sized piece of LRS and a cube of brine shrimp for tonight.

I'm sure they will be fine. I'm sure it was something I did :). I'm actually thinking my salinity may have dropped a bit because I lost a lawnmower blenny around the same time and no signs of any parasites or diseases in the tank. When that happens I blame myself :D. Not going to lie.

A good friend of mine has a bunch of them but purchased all females. Few months go by and his wife walked by the tank then later that night scolded him for buying a new fish :). He was like Babe! They change sexes when no male is present or dies. The larger female will switch and take on that role - lol. In any case best of luck. They really are an amazing fish in both home aquariums and while scuba diving. I've gone over a few reef crests with thousands of those things with others mixed in. Stunning.

The male is going to really pop in your tank. It already looks amazing so keep up the great work!

Thank you.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

@saf1 Do it!!!

LiveAquaria® - Pseudanthias squamipinnis

 

[RichtheReefer21]

I tried 4, qt'd, 1 murdered the other 3 each night till I had just the 1 murderous female left. I hope u fair better with them. The reef looks beautiful, nothing lights up a tank like a school of squam anthias.

 

[User1]

@saf1 Do it!!!

LiveAquaria® - Pseudanthias squamipinnis

Lol - didn't even see that in todays LA/DD sneak peak. I've had pretty good luck buying from them with only 1 purple tang that had issues. They did a refund the next day. Those look good. Tempting. But I'm sort of on hold doing anything with the aquarium. Post op / recovering from a hip replacement :D. Maybe a treat to myself once I can get around safer and better.

Note to self - Robin @ Turtle's Fairy Tail also has good search skills :). Thanks btw - I can't just yet.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I tried 4, qt'd, 1 murdered the other 3 each night till I had just the 1 murderous female left. I hope u fair better with them. The reef looks beautiful, nothing lights up a tank like a school of squam anthias.

I had a trio of flame cardinals do that a few years ago. Seemed fine in QT for a few days, and then there was 2, and then there was 1...

I didn't QT this time. I've heard tons of bad experiences with them in QT so I decided to just add them straight to the DT after a 20 minute drip with some prime to keep ammonia from building up.

I'm hoping I have enough hiding spots for everyone. The entire rock structure is hollow behind what y'all can see from photos. Its arches and caves stacked on each other leaned up on the over flow. Huge negative space on the inside that the fish seem to love.

The aggression between the tomini and my clowns has stopped at least.