Zoomonsters 200g Build Continued

[zoomonster]

Well... finished work at noon yesterday and finally got the motivation to start the tank overhaul/cleanup in earnest. I removed the entire center section a rock at a time removing anemones, set aside rock I'm going to keep using and ended up with a 5g bucket full of mostly smaller stuff that needs to be recycled mostly from too many shrooms. Those are getting killed off with freshwater, then a bleach and then a sunbake. Just cleaning the center section sand and left front I vacuumed about 55g worth then a 55g water change. I also chiseled off a few stray Ricordia and set aside. Then the bigger pieces of rock got hand scrubbed for shrooms, rinsed and put back in the tank. In the course two sets of filter sock changes and by last night the tank was pretty clear. About 5hrs of work and I was so done lol. The center is not arranged anything close to what I want it yet but I'm far from done. Want to let the tank calm down and will probably do the same next weekend with the right side. Considering leaving the right and left rock pretty much the same and going with more of a shelf arrangement in the center but time will tell.

 

[zoomonster]

Today settled down. Like I said the rock looks like crap but think I'm going to wait until I get the right done. Left I may wait on as the clowns have a large nest of eggs right now. Probably just fish food but no matter.

 

[zoomonster]

Plus after swearing them off I bit on the 20% LiveAquaria sale and got a replacement male Melanurus, 3 female Tierra/splendid Anthias and two Springeri damsels. We'll see how that goes on Tuesday when they get here.

 

[zoomonster]

Ok LiveAquaria order arrived today... No heat pack in box and bags felt really cold. When I got around to measure bag temp floating it was only up to 69F. Needless to say one of the anthias was DOA and the other two had lost a lot of color but they are looking ok now and actually eating. For the springeri damsels one is pretty nice small adult and the second is ultra tiny w/o even markings yet. Otherwise seem to be in good health. The melanurus wrasse is a pretty nice sub adult male. I don't quarantine but everything got dipped and treated except the anthias. All but anthias are in tank and its funny the unexpected aggressions. My absolutely bold (not a hider like most) but non aggressive royal gramma went ape over the damsels. Although I have always had a melanurus my powder blue tang decided to not like it. Things seem pretty peaceful now but probably not releasing anthias until lights out.

Sent LA an email this morning and yet to get a response on DOA and poor packing.

 

[zoomonster]

Since I sent LA and email another anthias and the tiny little springeri bit it. Sent them another email this morning and they actually responded pretty quick and actually issued a CC refund as a one time courtesy after my less than happy email. Lets just say I'm done with LA and would not recommend them to anyone. As Petco they are nothing but trouble.

 

[zoomonster]

Last weekend I snagged a few things from AquaSD that arrived today. No DOA's this time like the PC rainbow last time. Pretty nice stuff. Frags are nice size, aged and encrusted. The Indo colony is very nice and of course there was a freebie. Altogether a nice order.

Bubble gum digi
Ora Red Planet
Indo blue/green polyp sps colony
Some sort of green/red monti (freebie)
Purple tipped florescent green frog spawn

 

[zoomonster]

Alive, well and more to come.

 

[zoomonster]

The reef saga continues $$$$... All that work I did before to get rid on RBTA's out the window. After that waste of money with LA I pretty much let the tank go on auto pilot the past few years of covid with spotty work and not a lot of discretionary free to blow cash. This time really happening and going to do a full remodel.

First off was starting RBTA cleanout. I left a few for the clowns until I get them another tank. Plus, I thought the female true percula (had for 9 years) was going to rip my hand off when I got down to the last 12 or so.

I finally broke down and bought a JBJ Arctica 1/5hp chiller to keep temps a little more stable.
A couple Hanna testers added to my collection and some refill reagents for Hanna and RedSea.

The rest is to replace old and/or dying/broken hardware
Helio PTC heater after my BRS/Inkbird locked on and almost cooked the tank.
Apex EB832 when my old one was not fixable. Still have 2 EB8's never an issue.
Eheim air pump for more capacity to ozone/skimmer.
Ozotech Poseidon ozone. 9 years and old one was beyond repair.
Replacement ORP probe for Apex.
New Eheim pump (never last more than a year) for my Geo calcium reactor and some replacement bulkhead seals.
New 6 Stage BRS RO/DI to replace my 9yr old one. 9 years and it had seen its better day and fittings starting to crumble.

Of course the usual assortment of new hoses, tubing, clamps, calibration, media etc plus some more Ecotech power supply brackets to try and get my sump area back in some sort of order. Looking much better but that's a work in progress. Sometimes the best laid organization is laid to waste by unexpected and hasty repairs. Not to mention salt creep takes its toll over time.

Lots of new critters and coral in tank but more on that later.

 

[zoomonster]

So, the long-term fish... * = 8+ years in tank
*Cleaner Wrasse (2nd fish in tank)
Flame Angelfish
Bicolor Angel
*Purple Tang
*Six Line Wrasse
Melanurus Wrasse
*True Percula Clown (First fish in tank. The male died not long ago.)
Royal Gramma
2x Blue Sapphire Damsel

Recent additions
African Flameback Angel
Multicolor Angel
Orange Peel Angel
Maine Blizzard True Percula
3x Resplendent Anthias (1 male)

Still want another Powder Blue but kinda scarce and overpriced right now. All the recent fish came from reefs4less. Pretty impressed with very healthy fish (they are in FL but are trans shipping from CA). Took a chance once and was impressed and did it again. Pretty sure one of the resplendent females will be dead by tomorrow but that's the unfortunate chance you take with most Anthias. Next at some point will be more wrasses. Never again will I purchase anything from Live Aquaria but I won't get into that rant.

 

[zoomonster]

Yeah so... That orange peel was a huge mistake. Had one before, without issue, and was excited to find one (usually this time of year). Pretty peaceful but he started eating probably my best brain (wellso) with is now isolated in a box to try and get it to recover. None of my other angels have ever been a problem. Not sure what if anything I can do about him. I have a number of trachys, hammers, torches and frogs he's leaving alone. Of course, I had a problem with a hellfire torch where some Euphyllia eating flatworms made in through initial dip. Saw something moving when I tried an iodine dip. Dipped it in CoralRX again and two big ones came off and the whole base got scrubbed for eggs. At least one damaged head did the brown jelly meltdown, but rest is looking better and should be able to save 1-2 heads.

 

[zoomonster]

I've had mixed results with a couple vendors but there is one I would like to mention which is Morgan (ReefGoddess) from reefgardener. Everything I have gotten from her has been awesome and reasonably priced. I already had some, but I bought probably 25, over several orders, Haitian Florida Ricordia in some pretty awesome color combinations including pinks, yellows, violet, purple, rainbow and all sorts of orange and green variations. Of course many those were multi shroom pieces and most all had multiple eyes. So nice I bought more and waiting for some true Florida Ricordia and some real blue ricordia(dark blue with purple mouth) if any ever shows up. Of course, she has some incredible Neglectus mushrooms which is one of the few things I have not had before. Needless to say, I now have 11 lol along with a few zoa's from her. Didn't save any ricordia pics but here's a taste of stuff I have gotten. I also got some nice freebies. I'll post some ricordia pics when I get around to taking some pics. If you haven't seen them those shrooms are huge and nicer than any overpriced bounce.

 

[zoomonster]

Ok I've been dragging butt other than collecting stuff for my remodel. Part of it is waiting for the Aussie rock I added to color up some more before I decide on rock restacking. On the right-side part that isn't changing I finally started placing some torches. Part of the delay too is giving everything time to fully acclimate to tank and get past any potential health issues before placement. I think I only lost a hulk torch and a couple hammers along the way. Definitely had better luck with torches than hammers that seem prone to brown jelly infections. Aside from a plethora of FL and Yuma ricordia, some shrooms, goni's and lots of zoas I have a variety of torches, hammers, frogs and a purple bubble.

Cell phone pic, under Radion G5 LPS template 60% so excuse the saturation needed to get the torches looking how they really do. Most of my coralline is very dark blood red. Still does no justice to the purple tips on the gold and wolverine. Left Indo gold, Right orange peel, front rasta, middle wolverine, rear dragon soul. The "wolverine" is a darker coppery orange with dark purple tips. Not sure it's not really a true 24k. Definitely a favorite though. Cheapest was the rasta and its very stunning.

 

[zoomonster]

Here's my current ladies in waiting... L-R banana, tiger, kryptonite, green (sent to me by mistake) and hellfire. Thats a gold hammer in the background (really wish I could find a solid orange). The hellfire (oldest) was much larger but almost lost it to euphyllia eating flatworms. Definitely a favorite. The first 3 just showed up today from ASD. Can't see in picture but the kryptonite has a mix of orange and blue tips and its very florescent green. That banana may end up being my new favorite.

 

[zoomonster]

Here's what hammer's & frogs I have other than the gold hammer. yellow and orange frogs, green (having issues), 3 shades/mixes of orange, purple orange tip, purple pink tip and an alleged Aussie holy grail 3rd from right.

 

[zoomonster]

Finally got some more Euphy placed this weekend and a lot left to do. I have another hammer coming this week and some more fish. Adding two more Resplendent Anthias, a blue flasher wrasse, red Coris wrasse and going to try another Naoko's fairy wrasse from a different source. I recently added a pintail and lubbocki multicolor wrasse that are doing well. I did sadly lose my flame angel today to unknown cause. There will be another sometime soon but there seems to be something of a shortage of them right now and prices have pretty much doubled from the $80 I paid for this one.

 

[zoomonster]

Today went pretty well with my fish order here by 10 via Fedex but as usual UPS dropped the ball with weather delay on an expensive hammer. It did finally get delivered 5 hours late but that was better than what they were saying this morning that it would be delayed a day. Just happy it got here in one piece.

On the fish I have had been getting them from reefs4less and the quality each time has been extraordinary. Healthy, fat and eating right out of the bag. Yes, over multiple orders I got 7 resplendent anthia's and lost two but not unexpected. Pretty sure I figured out who the CA drop shipper is in Hawthorne CA based in city and fish they have in stock. Pretty certain it is Blue Zoo Aquatics, and the funny thing is prices are much lower getting them through reefs4less. Now reefs4less only has a 2hr DOA guarantee but you can pay extra for 5 day. Even at that the prices are considerably lower. If I had of gotten the guarantee I think it would have been an extra 80 dollars for this order. Like extended warranties just not worth it in my case. I was a little hesitant on the Naoko's fairy wrasse being the one from NY Aquatic barely made it out of the bag before it died. This one healthy and eating right out of the bag like the rest including the Anthias. My only complaint, I've said before, is the salinity which was at 23.5PPT. Maybe that works and they ship very well but it takes a lot to get them acclimated up to 35PPT. Took about 8 hours and some would say overnight. I was going to keep the wrasses in an acclimation box but I slipped and the blue flasher got in the tank. Not long after that the Coris managed to get out. Finally just said the hell with it and let the Naoko go too and alll are doing well. A little while longer and I let the anthias go too and they promptly hooked up with the harem now 1 male and 4 females.

And yes, that is really a blue flasher. Color came out funny in pic.

Right after escape Coris bug hunting

 

[zoomonster]

Here's a sneak peek of this most unusual 8 headed hammer. Pretty lousy pic but tough this time of day with lights. Hopefully something better tomorrow. It's an unusual blend of orange tips with purple/blue mixed in with green and some variations in between. About as close to a rainbow hammer as it gets. Can't wait until fully open and fully colored up. Best part is it was not ludicrously expensive at about $60 a head. Pretty tight heads on compact base is probably the only reason this was not chopped up and sold per head.

 

[zoomonster]

Ok I spoke too soon. One of the resplendent anthias disappeared never to be seen again. They are a PIA but love them even at ~60% survival rate. Good thing they are still reasonably priced at $35. Anyway, the recent wrasse additions are awesome. Thankful to get a Naoki that actually made it out of the bag. This bunch was actually eating mysis right out of the bag.

Blue flasher, Naoki and older pintail hanging with anthias/

 

[zoomonster]

A few more of the kids

The elusive clown I can't catch

 

[zoomonster]

Baby Coris

Orange Peel