Project 150!!

[Maxx]

01-02-08

Sorry about the long break in between posts....holidays, work, being sick, blah, blah, blah.....

Also, sorry for not replying to your offer of the Blue Tang, Scott. I honestly just saw that. Hope you found a good home for her.

Anyway,
The new Ritteri is still alive, amazingly enough. Its severely bleached, and the tentacles are not sticky. It also wont attach to anything. Its currently in an eggcrate "box" inside the tank, to still get light and flow, and not be blown around the tank. Thats the bad side of things with the anemone...

The good side is that it ate a small piece of raw shrimp today, its mouth has been tight, no more slack jaw/imminent death look, and its regrowing tentacles in the shredded area. They look like little nubbins for the moment, but will no doubt regrow to normal tentacles over time. I'm just glad it ate to be honest. That gives me hope that it will survive. If it continues to eat, then it should be fine. Even though its bleached, its not deflating and wilting away from the light.

I bought a small Convict Tang, Acanthurus triostegus, from Clayton Pet Emporium the other day. Its smaller than the Purple Tang, at about the size of a quarter. The purple is now a little larger than a silver dollar, but has the attitude of a much larger fish. So the Convict went straight into the 120. Convict's arent the sexiest fish out there, but he is kinda cute, (in a kinda baby basset hound kinda way), and they are the most docile of all Acanthurus tangs. They will get beaten up by almost everything else out there, so its good to get them in first if your interested in getting one at all. When I was a kid in Hawaii, we would catch them fishing with hook and line and eat them. Pretty good if you grill em right.

I have no intentions of eating this little guy, I just want him to munch on algae. Hopefully between him and the purple, one of them will take a liking to the halimeda algae I have in the 120...

I just changed out all my RO/DI filters including the membrane on top. It was the one that came with the RO unit originally, some 4 years ago. I've been going through filters fairly quickly lately, and I want to see if that slows the process down, I'm willing to bet it does.

Anyway, thats about it for now.

Nick

 

[Scooterman]

Nick, how big does that Tomini tang get? I get Live Aqua showing 6" but other sites seem to think 11" max size in a tank.

 

[Maxx]

Scott,
Tomini's are the smallest tang. They come in at a max size of 6.3 inches, (16 cm according all the stuff I've read which comes out to 6.3 inches). I had my first one for just about 3 years and it was a little over 4 inches. Great fish, zero complaints about them. Thats why I bought another one which is currently in QT.
You will see some authors claiming that Tomini's are the nastiest tempered tangs.....not my experiance at all. Mine would only get hostile if crowded by the Regal for food. It was just posturing, and not something that got serious. IME, the Purple I've also got in QT is much fiestier.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

3-6-08

Need to take some pics to update this thread and bring it back to life....
Quick run down of things....

Had some issues with the calcium reactor. I have a Geo 612. The problems were not actually with the reactor, but were actually a couple of things happening at once. The effluent line from the reactor fed to a 15 inch clear 1/8th inch rigid airline tube. This tube slowly got clogged with algae inside since it was exposed to the sump light. This decreased flow through the tube and consequently through the reactor. Since the flowrate through the reactor was slowed, Co2 built up inside the reactor, and basically shut it down. After I cleaned everything out, I determined the Co2 tank was running out, and needed to be replaced. Cant remember the exact date I replaced it last...but I'm guessing it was about 6 months ago or so. I have recorded it this time around in the little hardbound blue note book I keep where I log tank parameters, Reactor settings, water changes etc....

Speaking of parameters, here's where they sit today:

Dkh 10.75
Ca 470
Mg 1500
Salinity 1.028
Temp 80F

I want to bring the Dkh up to about 12 or so, so I have been playing with the reactor settings to get there. The reactor is currently running at 30 Co2 bubbles per minute, and 12 ml of effluent per minute. The Dkh of the effluent is at 47.2, and the calcium level of the effluent is 820. All Dkh/Ca/Mg tests done with Salifert test kits.

I ordered a second pair of Tunze Streams today. Got another pair of 6000's from www.socaltropicalfish.com . The 6000's and the 6100's were discontinued by Tunze last year to make way for the new 6101. The 6101 uses less power than the 6100 (36w vs 45w) and moves more water. However, this is also significantly more expensive than the 6000. I bought my original 6000's for about $259 each. I bought these two today for $209.99 each, and shipping was free. They are supposed to arrive on 03-12-08. I'm looking forward to having them in the tank as I plan to replace the Maxi-mods with them and will be able to control the tanks flow better.
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

I bought a juvenile P. asfur angel on 01-22-08. I was in a LFS and saw it hiding in the corner of one of their tanks. I initially thought it was a p. chrsyrus juvenile, and the LFS said thats what it had been sold to them as. It had a nasty case of ich, but it was still curious, and ate mysis when they put it in tank. The store manager agreed to sell it to me very cheaply since he wasnt sure it was going to make it and he thought it had a better than average chance with me. He agreed to give me a refund if the fish didnt survive 48 hours.

The angel was given a formalin bath for 1 hour, and placed in a 10 gallon hyposaline qt, (salinity was at 1.009). The angel was given 2 more formalin baths in the following weeks, and was ID's by both Boomer here, and Copps on RC (rare angel nut...knows his stuff) as a juvi Asfur angel. I was still very happy since I like that species of angel as well. The juveniles of both the Chrysurus and the Asfur angel both look very similar when that small, and this fish about 1.25 inches nose to tail. It did very well in QT and ate pretty much everything I threw in the tank...pellets, Nori, mysis, Angel Formula from Ocean Nutrition....

I moved it over to the 120 today, expecting to see a little bit of tension from the Regal Angel or the Convict tang. There was an absolutely amazing display of indifference towards the little Asfur Angel from the Regal Angel and the Convict tang. Neither one of them were remotely bothered by the newcommer. They looked at it curiously for a few seconds then went on about their business...

I need to take more pics of it, but so far the only pics I have are when it was in QT. Here ya go. They are far from great, and to make matters worse, there was alot of crap on the glass of the QT:

This is a 1 inch pvc 45 degree elbow he/she is swimming into...

These photo's were taken 02-01-08...
Its swimming around much more confidantly in the 120 than it was in the 10 gallon Qt. So I expect to be able to take some better pics here soon..

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Took some more pictures tonight. Dont have time to edit them, upload them, and post them before I go to bed tonight. I'll put some up tomorrow.

Latest parameters:

Dkh 11.5
Ca 465
Mg 1500
Reactor was running at 28 bpm and 11.4 ml/min
Effluent Dkh 42.56
Effluent Ca 650

The previous reading of 820 was due to a math error on my part. When corrected, it came out to 620.

I'm still wanting to bump up my Dkh, so I increased the effluent rate to 23 ml/min. I will test the levels again tomorrow and see where they are at.

Nick

 

[Scooterman]

Nick any reason why your pushing your alk up so much, same with ca?

 

[Maxx]

Hey Scott,

I'm primarily wanting to increase coralline growth, which is why I wanted to bring up the Dkh. The calcium levels were brought up in an effort to keep things balanced...but Ca got a bit ahead of Dkh. I'm also interested to see if increased levels will increase coral growth at all.

Nick

 

[Scooterman]

Can't remember exactly where but Anthony once had a writeup about that & basically it boils down that they actually done better in the 400 to 420ppt ca range. I'd like to see how your coralline does because mine is horrible. I may start with the two part solutions method being I don't have a loaded tank yet!

 

[Maxx]

Hmm....can you see if you can find that write up? I'd like to learn more if possible.

Nick

 

[Scooterman]

I couldn't find exactly what I was talking about but look at post #7

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25524&highlight=CA

 

[Scooterman]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Experiments on Stylophora pistillata, for example, show that low calcium levels limit calcification, but that levels above about 360 ppm do not increase calcification.[SIZE=-1]<SUP>3</SUP>[/SIZE] Exactly why this happens was detailed in a previous article on the molecular mechanisms of calcification in corals.

I see Randy has a larger range for keeping calcium & alkalinity, where Anthony suggest a lower range in a reef tank.

I may of confused you because that reply was meant for corals not the growth of coralline, which was part of that post you made that I was referring to.

 

[Maxx]

03-14-08

Here are the pics I promised. Sadly, they are even worse than my usual pictures since my camera needs to be sent to Canon for cleaning, so I used my wife's digital camera which is just a point and shoot.

I had to bump up the ISO on the camera to catch the fish, so the images are a bit grainy. Anyway, nuff excuses. Here are the pics:

Nick

 

[Maxx]

More....these show size comparisons between the three fish...

Today, I need to farg my pocillipora coral. Its got some sort of disease that sounds like white band disease, (cahracterized by, you guessed it, a white band!) and is dying. The band is a few millimeters wide, and the flesh is sloughing off in the white band area. Every day, the band advances.

No idea what caused it, but I'm going to frag heavily to save as much as possible. No signs of this on any of the other corals.

I also need to get new bulbs for the MH's over the tank. Its been about a year, and there seems to be more yellow in the color now.

I will also test the water after a several day break. My wife had sinus surgery and needed/needs to be taken care of.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

3-21-08

The pocillipora was fragged heavily, with the pieces mounted on two separate rocks. They are doing fine w/ no further signs of WBD.

The new Tunze 6000's were installed and placed on the multi controller. They move more water than the Maxi jet mods, and have the advantage of being controllable. But, they are much bigger width wise than the Maxi-mods, and they cannot be angled for deflection vertically. The Maxi-mods are definitely a good investment IMO, I just wish they could be controlled.

I moved the Tomini over to the 120. Again, very little fan fare from everyone else in the tank. Its doing just fine.

The newer H.magnifica has been doing much better in the last week or two. Its been eating small pieces of uncooked shrimp. The tentacles are still white tipped and faded, meaning no nematocysts in them, (They were bright yellow just before it got shredded by the pump), and the feeding response is still sluggish. But its regaining Zooxanthellae, and isnt deflating after eating anymore. Hopefully soon, It will be back to good health.

Nick

 

[logiktest]

Your fish are looking good Nick. Glad to hear that your H.Magnifica is recovering well.

 

[Maxx]

6-5-08

...thought I'd take some pics and dust off this thread....

I cant get the color right on either of these two corals to save my life....they are much prettier in person......

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Nick

 

[Curtswearing]

your tank is really looking awesome Nick

 

[Maxx]

Thanks Curt.

I dont think so, but it does look a whole lot better than my ghetto fabulous 20 gallon did way back when I first got started in reefkeeping....



Nick

 

[Scooterman]

Thanks Curt.

I dont think so, but it does look a whole lot better than my ghetto fabulous 20 gallon did way back when I first got started in reefkeeping....



Nick

no Nick, it does look Awesome, well kept & growing, I can't say how It could be better other that let it age some more & grow out but that would be no fun It it all happened at once!
Very nice all around & a big step up from your 58 I'd dare to say!