Adventures of a Glass Box | My 75g mixed reef
- Thread starter kelp47
- Start date
I took my first trip to my LFS yesterday to buy LIVE goods!
I picked up a fire fish, as I had planned since he’s the shyest one on my list. He is now in my QT and accepted some finely chopped shrimp this morning. I think he actually got choked up on one piece, so I’ve learned just how fine the pieces must be. He has one fin that looks like it is split, and a small red spot at the base of it. It could be from another fish picking on him at the store, or from transport despite my careful handling. Other than this, he seems fine. I don’t think I’ll have to quarantine him very long, but I would like to see the fin heal up completely before transferring him.
I also picked up a very nice star coral. I understand this is a great beginner coral, so I have high hopes that it will flourish. The coral was dipped and placed in my display last night. My one concern here is that I have three or four good-sized red mithrax crabs. I’ve read mixed reviews, so I decided to give them a chance – innocent until proven guilty. Within minutes of placing the coral in my tank, one of the crabs was on it, pinching away. Into the sump he went. None of the others have bothered it at all; I’ve seen one move all around it with little interest. My seaweed blenny, however, is VERY interested in the coral. He has been watching it since it was introduced, and even seems to be guarding it. I watched him harass one of the crabs that came near it last night. (But I have seen him do this on other occasions as well.) This morning, once the lights came on, I saw the polyps beginning to extend. Hopefully it will be in full display this evening
Pictures later…
I picked up a fire fish, as I had planned since he’s the shyest one on my list. He is now in my QT and accepted some finely chopped shrimp this morning. I think he actually got choked up on one piece, so I’ve learned just how fine the pieces must be. He has one fin that looks like it is split, and a small red spot at the base of it. It could be from another fish picking on him at the store, or from transport despite my careful handling. Other than this, he seems fine. I don’t think I’ll have to quarantine him very long, but I would like to see the fin heal up completely before transferring him.
I also picked up a very nice star coral. I understand this is a great beginner coral, so I have high hopes that it will flourish. The coral was dipped and placed in my display last night. My one concern here is that I have three or four good-sized red mithrax crabs. I’ve read mixed reviews, so I decided to give them a chance – innocent until proven guilty. Within minutes of placing the coral in my tank, one of the crabs was on it, pinching away. Into the sump he went. None of the others have bothered it at all; I’ve seen one move all around it with little interest. My seaweed blenny, however, is VERY interested in the coral. He has been watching it since it was introduced, and even seems to be guarding it. I watched him harass one of the crabs that came near it last night. (But I have seen him do this on other occasions as well.) This morning, once the lights came on, I saw the polyps beginning to extend. Hopefully it will be in full display this evening
Pictures later…
Yesterday I committed a premeditated aquarist sin...
After losing my first fire fish just two days into QT, I went back two weeks later and bought another to put directly into my display. But things are going well! It didn't take him long to find that he could hang out in the flow from the return and get some nice fresh food (pods and such). I posted on another forum about my fire fish saga, so I won't go into that here.
I also bought a pretty pink birds nest coral--partly because I just wanted it, and partly because I knew it would distract my blenny, who has had the tank to himself for two months. It seemed to work well; he has been guarding the birds nest like he did the green start polyp.
And the green star polyp is doing great! I had placed it in the middle of the tank, but after reading about how quickly they spread, I moved it away from all rock structures and against my overflow. I'm hoping that it will cover the overflow, and it should be pretty easy to trim up.
I need to do some tidying up before taking more photos.
After losing my first fire fish just two days into QT, I went back two weeks later and bought another to put directly into my display. But things are going well! It didn't take him long to find that he could hang out in the flow from the return and get some nice fresh food (pods and such). I posted on another forum about my fire fish saga, so I won't go into that here.
I also bought a pretty pink birds nest coral--partly because I just wanted it, and partly because I knew it would distract my blenny, who has had the tank to himself for two months. It seemed to work well; he has been guarding the birds nest like he did the green start polyp.
And the green star polyp is doing great! I had placed it in the middle of the tank, but after reading about how quickly they spread, I moved it away from all rock structures and against my overflow. I'm hoping that it will cover the overflow, and it should be pretty easy to trim up.
I need to do some tidying up before taking more photos.
I did some cleaning this weekend and got rid of the stubborn green algae at the bottom of the glass. So here is my photographic update...
I found two of these guys (purple urchins, I believe) about a month after adding the second part of my TBS package. This is the smaller of the two. They both carry around objects from the tank, including hermit crabs.
I have several of these rock urchins that have grown really big!
My flame scallop seems to have settled in this spot. How he got in there, I don't really know...
I also have quite a colony of comb jellies growing in my overflow box! Here you can just see their bodies stuck to the glass, but there are probably a couple dozen throughout the box.
Here is the green star polyp I got a few weeks ago. It's doing great! I hope that it will start growing on my overflow box, and I'll just trim it and see if I can get some bargains at my lfs.
Here is one of my anemones, which I'm afraid someone will tell me is bad. But I really like it, and it hasn't spread in the two months I've had it. As I understand it, it can't be aipstasia because it hitchhiked in from the Gulf of Mexico. But it could be related, so I'll just keep an eye on it.
My new bird's nest coral is looking great!
My firefish is doing well!
FTS next...
I found two of these guys (purple urchins, I believe) about a month after adding the second part of my TBS package. This is the smaller of the two. They both carry around objects from the tank, including hermit crabs.
I have several of these rock urchins that have grown really big!
My flame scallop seems to have settled in this spot. How he got in there, I don't really know...
I also have quite a colony of comb jellies growing in my overflow box! Here you can just see their bodies stuck to the glass, but there are probably a couple dozen throughout the box.
Here is the green star polyp I got a few weeks ago. It's doing great! I hope that it will start growing on my overflow box, and I'll just trim it and see if I can get some bargains at my lfs.
Here is one of my anemones, which I'm afraid someone will tell me is bad. But I really like it, and it hasn't spread in the two months I've had it. As I understand it, it can't be aipstasia because it hitchhiked in from the Gulf of Mexico. But it could be related, so I'll just keep an eye on it.
My new bird's nest coral is looking great!
My firefish is doing well!
FTS next...
whiteshark
Active member
lol that net in the first pic makes it look like you have massive waves going on in there. Looks good!
Well, GQuinn, I guess I shouldn't have given Cobalt the benefit of the doubt...
I purchased two 200-watt Neotherm heaters in April of this year, and started using them mid-May. After a couple of months using them, one of them started putting out some stray voltage, which gave me a light shock when I touched the water. I didn't toss it, but kept it in case I needed a backup for heating fresh saltwater. I left the other heater in my aquarium until last night. I suddenly began smelling a burning smell throughout the house, and my husband and I searched for the source of the smell. We finally determined it was the Cobalt heater in the aquarium. I quickly turned it off and removed it from the tank after a safe amount of time. Upon inspecting it, I found an approximately 3 inch crack along the heating element. Fortunately, I was at home when it malfunctioned, so I was able to get it out quickly without any adverse affects to my livestock (it seems so at this point, anyway) or my home. I feel very fortunate for that. Both heaters were installed correctly. While the first heater (with the stray voltage) could still be used for heating fresh saltwater, I no longer feel comfortable using it for that purpose.
I've asked for a full refund, but we'll see what happens.
