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.