Coral Overview

With my fresh start in the 90 gallon tank, I have added more coral! So far it's all looking great and I can't wait to have the tank crowded with coral.


First up is the mushroom, the "old timers" of the tank.


My newest addition, candy cane corals... I hate the look of the epoxy holding them on but they wouldn't stay upright.


Green Star Polyp rock #1


Green Star Polyp rock #2... I have WAY too much GSP as it grows fast and is considered a weed but I already had some when I found more on a new rock I had added to the tank.



My Ricordeas, they were dying in the old tank but have perked up nicely in this one! It grew another mouth and yup, it's splitting again.



My new pride and joy... a Frogspawn coral, isn't it pretty??


The Digita is growing nicely and is all puffed out with new white tips.



Complimentary tank shot.



My unknown SPS coral is turning brown which is wonderful! White coral is bleached and dying coral and now it's getting some color back.


All 5 fish... does Rocky remind you of the neighborhood grouch? "Get off my rock!"


I'm taking care of this pest this weekend, seems my aiptasia is getting bigger.


We lost both Shrek and my Featherduster Worm in the move :( I still haven't seen the porcelain crab so I don't know if she made it or not.

It's Up!

We're basically up with the 90 gallon tank! It took ALL weekend and the lights still need some adjustement, some sand needs moved, etc but we're basically there.

First off I decided to paint the back glass instead of using a cover, I'm hoping this'll stay nicer longer. I put a swirly base of navy blue then later topped it off with swirly black, it actually looks pretty.




I'm going to try something new.. I built this PVC stand to hold rock, a member of Utah Reefs told me it'll make it look like I have more rock than I do and will also help with circulation.

Top shot of the shelf. You can see the dark background but for some reason on film the swirlies aren't showing up.

When the first layer of paint dried this odd fish shape appeared... very weird.

Darren drilled me some holes... hrm... he won't let me use the drill /shrugs

Then I mounted my power strips onto it, it's going to be much nicer than my last setup.

Time to fill it...

Last minute I decided to put a little difuser panel on my shelf.

The 55 gallon tank is looking pretty sad!

I moved the sump over...

Then I did my initial aquascaping... sat back and waited for the dust to settle so I could start rearranging.

In the meantime I set up my sump, put the protein skimmer back in and the tubes up to the tank. I'm so excited to have the sump/fuge under the tank now instead of in a seperate room.

After who knows how many rearranges I finally found an aquascape that I like... with a big cave in the middle. Here's the left side.

And the right side...

My featherduster finally opened last night but his plume is pretty wilty looking.

Rocky tried out every nook and cranny and finally found this nice little home. Can you see him?

After all was set up I saw this! I have aiptasia... UGH.. and I can't even get to it. We tried squirting it with boiling water but it didn't seem to do the trick. I found it on the back of one of my old rocks from the 55 gallon, it had to have been there for a LONG time but oddly enough I haven't seen it spread.






MIA:

Shrek is still missing

Haven't seen the Porcelain Crab

The Cleaner Clam wasn't found either

A zoo frag is missing

Giving Away:

Butterfly (she's aggressive!)

Unnamed Coral Beauty (she's a coral nipper)

Livestock:
2 False Percs (Little Mermaid and Hercules)

2 Green Chromis (Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella)

1 LMB (Rocky)

Corals:

Tons of GSP

2 Ricordea Heads (that's all that survived)

Purple mushroom rock (looking VERY mad atm)

Digita

An Unkn SPS

The tank is looking VERY empty! I hope to get more coral and a few more fish but for now I'm going to just let everything settle and calm down.

Almost there!

I'm sloooowly getting ready for this weekend's big move! Thanks to the Wasatch Marine Aquariam Society and some VERY helpful members I think I may have solved my coral issue plus got a lot of additions for my 90 gallon that'll make things easier.

First up is a new HUGE batch of Chaeto and Calurpa in the sump that is swarming with copepods and a few brine shrimp I've noticed. I'm going to buy some brine shrimp eggs and hatch them in the sump, I bet my critters will LOVE munching on those!




Here's a Montipora digitata Coral that another member gave me... he's not looking well but I just drove him 20 miles in a bucket of saltwater so I wouldn't be very happy either. He's an SPS so he won't be completely happy until I get him under some Metal Halides.

This new rock came with a HUGE colony of Green Star Polyps (GSP)... the original owner also informed me that those tiny white starfish that I love.. yeah.. they eat GSPs. Time to get a harliquin shrimp to eat them.

This rock came with a Misc SPS coral... hope it opens up and grows once I get it under MH's too.

My poor 55 gallon is full! I put the rock with coral attached into it so they have the benefits of my PC's, they are stacked pretty tightly but it's only for about 48 hours.

The rest of the rock is in a vat of saltwater with heat and now 2 powerheads to keep the water moving. I know one of the rocks has a bunch of peanut worms!

I've decided to paint the back of the 90 gallon and not bother with the back cover that just gets salt trails under it. Plans are to buy more difuser panel to make a top for the 90 and to put under the new rock to distribute the weight. I'm going to Home Depot today though to check out some PVC materials for a small platform for rock too. LOTS and LOTS of great ideas from the 3 tanks I've seen in the last few days.

Metal Halides!

I just bought a set of 175 watt RetroFit Metal Halides! So what's that mean? It means I can have the WAY pretty coral now, the coral that uses light to eat... yay! It also has a retro-fit PC light but I'll probably keep my own light bar, it has LED moon lights already. Oooh I hope this solves my tank issues.. more water... better lights...

The only other thing I'm waiting to get for the new tank is an additional powerhead, that'll put me at 17X water flow in the new tank. I have a co-worker bringing me additional base rock to round out my aquascaping. More later! This weekend's the big day.

Bigger is better?

This weekend I get my 90 gallon tank and I start the LONG process of upgrading tanks. Things "should" go easier, in the fish world bigger is better and I'm adding 35 gallons of water so hopefully my coral will do better. Now though.. it's going to take weeks and weeks to move everything over after I cycle the new tank!

Here's a picture of the tank.. I get the tank and stand, none of the rock and such.