June Update

These are my two nuisance fish in one shot.  The dottyback eats my other fish, and the foxface eats my coral.

It's sad too.  This dottyback is a gorgeous purple color.

Cyano outbreak

More cyano on the sand.  It looks somewhat better.

Full fish tank shot.  The green object on the bottom right is a fish trap to catch the dottyback.  The white cage in the bottom right is around my GSP rock so my foxface won't eat it.  It's slowly recovering in there and the fluorescent light diffuser panel lets it get water movement and food.

Tank Pictures

Here's a full-tank shot.  The lights just came on, so the coral aren't awake yet.  I also put caulerpa into the main display tank for now.

The Swimming Dead

The cycle is done and things are progressing nicely.  Coraline algae has started to appear on rocks, and my coral survived the acclimation process and have grown a lot.  I do have a small cyanobacterial outbreak, but I'm working on that.

My youngest daughter came up with naming the tank "The Swimming Dead".  Here are the fish we've named.  The green chromis from earlier are Mika and Lizzie.  Lizzie is the one that's mean and has killed all other chromis.  Mika is the chromis that is afraid of everything and hides.

First up are my Bangaii Cardinals, Glen and Maggie

The hermit crabs are zombies, and they are always trying to kill each other.

My peppermint shrimp is named T-Dog

I have three emerald crabs; Lori, Gabriel, and Morgan

The orchid dottyback is Carol

I LOVE lawnmower blennies!  They are so ugly they are cute, and they have a lot of personality.  This one's name is Eugene.

Just a shot of the coraline algae growing.  It's the purple crust on that rock.

Lastly, my foxface.  His name is Abraham.  He's the largest of the tank and poisonous.

Life

The tank finally has fish and some inverts!  It's been such a boring tank, and now it has movement.

First, I had to drip acclimate the three green chromis.  They didn't much like the process but are now swimming happily in the tank.  They have 150 gallons all to themselves, yet they hang around the overflow in the right corner.

I also added two cleaner clams and 10 hermit crabs.  The cleaner clams quickly disappeared beneath the sand, and the hermits went to work picking at algae.

My green star isn't doing well today.  It's been opening fully and very happy, but today, it's pouty.  I did find an aptasia growing on it, but I was able to get it out of the water and pluck it off.  I hope it opens back up today.

My leather coral is looking great!  It opens up in the morning and puffs.  I'm not entirely sure, but it looks like it may be splitting in two.

This sinularia coral never has been very happy.  It's not dead, but it's certainly not opening all the way.

Sooo boring

New tanks are so bleh.  Here it is though!  I noticed that the tentacles on my green star are turning white, so I'm thinking I have too many lights for it.  It was in a small tank with PC lights and now it's under T5 VHOs.  So, I'm only running the lights for 2 hours a day right now and I'll slowly increase that.  Fish and crabs should be in today.

I also am going to move the green star to the bottom corner.  It's on a rock right now, and I'm afraid it'll take over that entire arch, so I'm sequestering it.

Feather Caulerpa is in the refugium now too.

Setting Up the 150

We started setting up the 150 gallon tank last night.  I inherited some soft coral yesterday so we had to push up the date a bit.  I started with a full tank/sump of tap water, which we ran through the pumps and filters to check for leaks or problems.  All went smoothly!

Now, the refugium is full of salt water and is warming up.  When the sand settles, I will transfer the new soft corals into the refugium until the upper tank is full.

The Sump/Refugium

It's taking forever to fill the 150 gallon tank with the slow trickle coming in from the RO/DI unit.  It pushes out about 4 gallons an hour.  Patience, I know...

The tank itself is looking pretty good.  I didn't know our basement is tilted though, so the water level is 1/2" higher on the right.  I bet no one really notices, but it's going to drive me batty for a while!  

Corals I got yesterday from a fellow Utah Reefer:

• Green Star Polyps
• Kenya Tree
• Sinularia
• Mushroom Leather

There was a change on the lights.  I got a killer deal from a local reefer on a Coralife T5 light.  It is 10,000k instead of 14,000k but I can always change out the lamps later.

I've been shopping for days to find the best deals, and so far I have

An Aquatic Life Twist-in 100 GPD RO/DI system
Seaclone Protein Skimmer for the sump
80 lbs of Nature's Ocean Coral Base Rock
140 lbs of Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite Reef Sand - Samoa Pink
Your every-day 6500k LED sump light
Sump Return Pump
Two SunSun 800 GPH Power Heads
A Refractometer
300w Heaters
A Return Jed Assembly


I realize that on Saturday when I put this all together, I'll be missing something.  However, that's what I have so far.  I realize I'll need to run to the hardware store after tubing, but I can do that later.

The Future

Here are some things I have in mind for this new tank.

First off, the lighting needs to improve.  The tank came with your every-day fluorescent lighting fixture.  That just won't do!

Lighting :
I'm going with an LED light that has 14,000K daylight and then blue lunar lights on a timer.  I found the perfect light bar on Amazon.  It's funny that my old blog has helped me create the new tank.  I couldn't remember which lights I liked, and I do remember having a set that was too yellow, and another that was too blue, and then I found a post about the 'perfect' lighting of 14,000K.

Clean up Crew:
My local fish store has a clean up crew package that has 40 snails, 40 crabs, and 2 emerald crabs.  I'll start off with those.  When things begin to flourish, I would eventually like to get a horseshoe crab and peppermint shrimp.

Fish:
Yep, it'll be a while before I get any fish.  Some of my 'must haves' are :

• 2 false perculas
• 2 banggai cardinals
• 1 lawnmower blenny
• 1 royal gramma

Inverts:

Some of my 'wanty' list

• Brittle starfish
• Rose bubble tip anemone
• Condy anemone

Coral:

Even longer aware are the corals.  I won't be doing LPS or SPS for a while, if ever.  I know I won't do SPS again because I won't mess with metal halide lighting.  I hated those and the electric bill they came with.  I prefer soft, flowing coral.

• Lots of mushrooms
• Frogspawn
• Zooanthids
• Green Star Rock
• Kenya Tree
• Xenia

The Tank

This time around.  I'm going with a 150 gallon tank and 40 gallon sump.  I already have the tank, which has been drilled twice with 1" bulkheads.  I have the back of the tank painted solid black with a black oil-based paint.  The old tank had latex paint and it beaded up when I painted, so I never got a solid color.  This oil-based paint looks amazing!

The bulkheads have strainers on them to keep fish out of the sump.

In the bottom of the 150 gallon tank, I have made a platform out of PVC pipe and fluorescent light grate.  I had one of those in my old 90 and I loved it!  It gives inhabitants a nice cave, plus it saves on rock by building up a little bit.  Once I get the silicone in, I'll glue the grate to the PVC using silicone.

It has a basic black stand, which will house the sump.

The 40 gallon breeder tank (which I bought used for $40) will eventually have baffles separate it into 3 compartments.  I have a protein skimmer and return pump ordered.

Returning

Hello all!

I took an 8 year reef tank hiatus.  First off, I got rid of my old tank for numerous issues.  When I set up my old tank, I went cheap on absolutely everything!  The rocks came out of the Utah desert.  The sand came from a bucket that'd been in someones garage for years.  Nothing was done correctly.  I caved to peer pressure and moved from a 90 to a 120 gallon, and nothing ever survived in it for long.  Even with metal halide lighting, I couldn't keep coral alive.  It go to frustrating that I sold it off.

Now?  Now I have a bigger house and the PERFECT spot for a new tank.  I'm going in a completely different direction.  The tank is going to have real live sand put into it, live rocks, and it's bigger and better than before.  This old blog has helped me a ton.  I'm old enough that I've forgotten a lot of things I did.  Some I liked and will replicate, and some I hated and won't do.  I'll try to detail this new journey.

It LIIIIIIVES

Geeeeesh, creeeepy! My beloved tongue coral that I nursed back from the brink of death, my favorite coral that flows so softly in the current... it is a MONSTER! I dropped a piece of scallop in it's tentacles and.. no kidding.. a MOUTH appeared! It has a huge, gaping, mouth and it devoured the scallop and now has a bulge. o.O

Figured I'd share a picture of it's creeeepy mouth.

Updates

It's been a few months so here are some updated pictures.

Right side of my tank



Left side...


My torch, it hasn't grown much and I don't know enough about them to know if it's doing well or not.



My tongue has put on an inch over the last month! The skeleton is still there, not sure if it'll re-cover that spot but it's growing well.



One of my sponges, it's slightly bigger than a silver dollar.


Mushroom Rock



This is my RBTA, it's usually bigger but he crammed into a crevice. My clowns got a divorce... or one snores... one sleeps in the RBTA and one in the Condy.


GSP Rock



Green fuzzy mushroom


Frogspawn


Digita, a lot of it died off when I first got it but it's recovering slowly.



My condy and it's hosting clown.


Purple clam, he's planted his foot up against the front glass


My candy canes recently split again.


This is one of the baby Bangaii's, they are growing fast!


I think this is an Acro, it's never grown, never dies, just glows green in it's spot.

Hosted!

I thought I'd be nice and buy my little clownfish an anemone that's native to their part of the ocean and preferred by wild ocellaris clowns, I even made sure it was a gorgeous red and orange bubble tip, one that almost glows under the lighting... then what do they do?? They host the condy. ONLY in my tank!

It's an illness

It's an illness I tell you! Heeeelp meeeee... :) Got a 29 gallon tank yesterday with sump/skimmer/lights, the works. This tank will be fish-only (no coral) and is upstairs.

End of Summer Already!

Not much happened in the tank this summer, actually that's a good thing, it was allowed to just grow and not be picked on... course now I have new stuff =P

First off is my ever growing mushroom rock, started almost a year ago as one mushroom and now I have 12 on this one rock and 5-6 around the tank, once in a while the larger mushrooms pop off and float freely, attaching to random places.


Going to try my hand at shrimp again, so here's a new peppermint shrimp hiding. He actually tore off one of my purple mushrooms and at night he goes back into his hole and pulls the mushroom in front of the hole for a door.


Fish trap! I'm going to try again to get my dragon goby out of my tank! I'm so tired of him burying my coral in sand.


Over the summer my candy canes went from 2 heads to 5 and already have 2 new mouths.


Fuzzy picture of my clam, he's now on his side but he has a foot so he can go where he wants, I see no reason to move him.


My Monti Cap has grown quite a bit and has 2 cups coming in.


This is a hammer coral, finally asked. It's gone from 1 head at fragfest to 3 now and has new heads coming in on the side.



Shrek... isn't he cute?? Note the hairy legs. I have 3 of these, 2 emerald's (Shrek and Fiona) and 1 red one that's unnamed.



My newest coral, it's a torch frag.


The frogspawn has grown quite a bit too.


My newest addition, 2 baby banggai cardinals. I wish the pictures turned out better, the little dots on their fins are flourescent.


Tank shot with the trap on the right and my poor tongue coral still in a bowl on the left. As soon as I catch that dragon goby he can come out of the bowl.