Foam Rockwall w/ built in refuge for a 26 gal bowfront

Congrats on graduating! Love the toothpick fence! Genius! Exhaust fans are a great idea too.

I highly recommend Cerith snails for algae consumers. And they reproduce in your tank.

It's tough leaving the tank for weeks, especially without an auto-top-off setup.

I look forward to new pics!
 
Now I'm sure all three or four people that read my thread are wondering why I would leave my tank in the hands of someone else for three weeks?

I am a proud new owner of a wife! - Got married down in Charleston, SC May 30 and went to Curacao for the honeymoon. I have lots of pics to post from snorkeling. Will post some after I sort through them all.. all 881 of them! I used my new Drift HD Ghost action cam to video and capture every moment.

Here are pics of the back strip installed.



Everything was cut out with my dremel - mans best friend




Did all the wiring myself with an old 12v plug converter. Put a nifty little on/off switch and cut out a piece of plastic for the back.


I'll have to pick me up some ceriths. If they don't work as you're advertising, I'm mailing them to you with a bill. haha

Still on the lookout for a bta and fancy clown - might prod the craigslist and local groups.


A growth picture of the digi.
Take note of the gaping hole in the barnacle... wasn't like that before I left. I think it might have been one of the rock boring urchins.
 
Congrats on getting married! Newlyweds! A great time of life!

Your digi looks great and your fan panel is just sick! Nice work, Mr. Basye.

You can't find a rose BTA? Seems like they're everywhere these days…or maybe you just don't want to pay retail?
 
Thanks!

Right, I do not want to spend $75 at the lfs for a 3-4" rbta. Lol

I honestly haven't really looked yet. I found someone with some for $20, but I'd spend more than that driving 3 hours to get it. Then have to drive back!

I think finding a clown I really like will be more difficult. I also want another conch.

I mentioned about having the desire to build a new tank and I still want to, but.. On the strict one tank rule. - Wife imposed.
Costs money.
Wife hates snakes - an eel is a fish, but she doesn't see it that way..

I have been wanting to build a small eel tank with a foam wall full of tunnels. Probably won't happen until I have a bigger house though and not tell her what I'm doing and not show her any receipts lol. Ooh well.
 
Welcome to the club! The wife factor can be a challenge and a good thing. Having another head in the game keeps me from going too nuts with this hobby! I find that getting her involved (a little) helps. Let her pick out a fish (that fits with your plans).

Let the scheming begin!
 
Okay, been a while since my last post.. Have a few good updates since then.

First off, I found a nice SA Blacker Ice Clown at the LFS I couldn't pass up!
The wife gave me the "you brought home another pet store bag" look and immediately accused me of buying another snail or crab.. When she saw the fish, the excitement went through the roof, that is until she asked how much it cost. haha Then the "you brought home another pet store bag" look came back. lol She named it Missy, so I'm kinda off the hook about a $45 fish..




Next, I just received a 10-12 polyp frag plug of Rastas! Got them shipped priority and they arrived yesterday. Hopefully they all open up when I get home Monday night.








Next on the list is I got some small things of pulsating xenia from a local reefer for free. They gave me an infested rock and i scraped them all off, glued to rubble and a dead sea whip rubble. Trying to get it to grow into a sea fan/tree over the old skeleton. You can see them in the new fish pic. It is where the torch used to be :/

Lost my torch of a year for no apparent reason, everything else is fine..

Zoa's and digi's are still growing real good. One head of my cualastrea frag is splitting!

Last thing is my little anemone thing decided it didn't like the rock I put it on.. lol



The happiest i've seen the little guy, cruising around with his homie.

Ohh, My Wall Is Disintegrating!! :( More so towards the top, the big conch shell has some big gaping holes in the top and the single barnacle is getting bigger holes as well. Will post pics of it later on.


When I get around to it,,, I'm going to post a thread in the SIG Forums - SCUBA /Snorkeling subform under my original Curacao thread with all my pictures from the honeymoon.
Will post a link on here to it and add some of the best pics here as well.
 
Great snorkeling pics!

Sorry to hear about your wall. Is it the urchin? It may be time to get 'em out of there! You said it is worse at the top? Is there more algae up there?

Updates?
 
As for the wall, its not really getting any worse than the last time I posted.
I'm positive its not the urchins- they are generally not near the top. I actually don't think they have even chewed up any rocks or the wall.

I talked to a guy I know at the LFS about it all and he wasn't sure why the wall was eroding, but the shells and barnacles would deteriorate like they are just because they are made up of calcium and break down over time. I might be able to slow the process a little with more calcium in the water.

Top center is where the wall is eroding


The green digi is continuing to thrive. I now have 4 heads of the cualastrea and a 5th is splitting. The zoas are slowly multiplying. The rastas didn't make it :/



I bought a soap dish thing from Walmart and it serves as a frag rack. lol. I fragged some of my gsp and its growing on some plugs.



Snappy moved all the sand against one side in the 'fuge area..

I decided to buy a condylactis anemone I saw at petco a couple weeks ago. It was small and a nice white color. I had a $5 off coupon making only $5. The little **** will not attach to anything! I have set it in 8 different locations and it laughs at me each time.. Its mouth is always tightly shut and its foot looks fine so idk what its deal is.

Of the 3 mangrove propagules I have, the one that was doing the best (two little leaves and a sprout) has shriveled back and one that hasn't ever budded is taking off. 4 leaves and a tall shoot with a tiny sprout coming up next to it.



My chromis went from being the jerk of the tank to cowering in fear. It used to pick on the goby and now it hides from the new clown which now chases the goby.



The clowns get along great and often swim together when the male isn't looking at algae on a rock to peck at.





 
Your non-settling conylactis is a bummer. Eight different places. Yikes! They do need a ton of light. Have you tried (of course you have) putting it up high on the wall? Have you tried feeding it? Maybe the right combo of light and food will convince it to stay put.

That clownfish is beautiful! That middle stripe kinda reminds me of a profile of Bart Simpson!
 
Your male clown is cleaning a spot for eggs. He's getting in the mood!

Any luck with the condylactis? It's probably starving, having not been fed or properly lit at Petco. Since it was on sale, it may have been there awhile. So it's likely stressed. Good sign about the mouth and column though. I'd try feeding it a tiny mysid or something, possibly while positioning it in the best light you've got. They like to have a socket/crevice to get into. I've also read they like the rock/sand interface, but that looks to be in shadow in your tank. It might be able to extend out into the light though. Also if your water quality is even a little off, they may not settle. Maybe a water change would help.

Hearing of your struggle reminds me how lucky I got with mine.

Hang in there and good luck!
 
Well, thanks for all the condy advice, but... Sadly I just had to flush it because snappy finally got tired of it and mutilated it beyond recognition :/

The first week I had it, snappy was renovating the 'fuge and he has since moved back to the display. He didn't mess with it until today.

As far as locations go. In order, I had the anemone: in the center of the barnacles, to the left of them, lower left in rock hole next to wall, bottom left in sand in the center of a donut I made with some small rock, then same place with a piece of acrylic to attach to at the bottom, same thing on bottom right, in an entrance to snappy's burrow next to the gsp rock, in the crevice of the shell in the bottom left corner.
The last place I was going to try was the top right next to the cualastrea, wouldn't get much light there as it's in the back corner.

Im sure my light is plenty bright for it, oh well. Guess I'll give up on putting a nem in there. This was a trial before buying a bta or similar to see if it would make it.


On a better note, I didn't even think about the name cleaning of the rock for an egg site.. I almost wrote in my last post I thought I saw him do the shake right before I wrote it. He generally does the pecking thing in that area behind the zoas, he's doing it now, as i type, on the barnacles. He does it elsewhere as well, but not as frequently.

Im hoping for a variation of regular, misbar, black ice, and maybe blacker ice being that the male is a misbar ocellaris and the female is a blacker ice ocellaris. I'm really hoping for some weird markings because of the male being a misbar.. We'll see!
I was told no more fish tanks by the land lord... Apparently the ONE tank I have (26g) is causing the power bill to go up significantly..
So the power company is charging them more = me having to pay an additional $24 /month. Spilt the increased bill so I pay half..
Don't get me started on this... This is coming from someone who paid me an expired frozen deli ham the first time and 2 cucumbers to mow/trim the yard the second time.

Anyways, I'll have to hide the tanks if I plan to raise the fry. Lol
 
Oh well, it may have been too far gone anyway. I was thinking with it being white, it may have already ejected its zooxanthellae. Not really ideal putting a nem in that size tank with all your corals. Don't give up on bubble tips. They are much easier to care for.

That sucks about your landlord. You've got LEDs! They use very little power!

It'll be fun watching your clowns hook up. They can get very creative finding an alternate host too. I had one that used a feather duster! It would lay on it and it wouldn't retract! Need proof?

picture.php


I've heard of them using LPS corals as well.

Peace and LOVE, Mr Newlywed!
 
Haha, thanks!

I still may try a bubble tip.. we'll see. I've had a spot all picked out for it for a while now. Will the clowns find a host just to have one, or is it only a mating thing to have a host?

I'm sure it's the ginormous led light over the tank that he thinks sucks the power. Oh well.. I calculated it all and I think the tank uses ~$7 /month in power. The light barely uses any as it ramps up and down from 0-90% for ~7 hours a day.

That might be the coolest clown, just chillin on there like that! Maybe I'll get lucky and they will be hosted by the big conch shell in the front center. I have a feeling it might be the back side of the rock the male is picking at.

Speaking of lps. My wife and i went back to see family this past week and I finally went into the tile store downtown that has a 90g sw tank I spotted through the front window.
The owner has a poodle my mom wants a puppy from and I'm gonna get her to snag me some coral. Lol there's a ton of hammer coral with babies popping off the skeletons all over and two of the biggest basketball sized birdsnest corals I've seen - Looked very fragile. The lady said they occasionally knock off some of the plating monti cleaning the glass..
 
The clowns use the nems for protection in the wild. They don't need them in a tank, but it is an instinctive behavior I guess. So no rush on the bubble tip, as far as they're concerned. They'll get busy and lay eggs regardless, like a couple of newlyweds!
 
Not much new going on. Thoroughly cleaned the wet side of the mp10 for the first time. Had to dial it back a little.

Removed a good amount of snappy's shell rubble that was an eye sore.

Fed the tank a little nori for the first time. Bought it for the urchins, but they showed no interest.. the crabs loved it however.

Thought I'd post some sweet pics of the clowns with my wife's new dslr camera. Just got a telephoto lens and took some close ups. One of these days I'm gonna buy a macro lens for some good macro shots.






My female blacker ice clown is definitely starting to darken.

When I first bought it.


Now


 
Nice pics, Sam. Your clowns are beautiful! She's definitely darkening. Does that mean she's getting in the mood?

My wife has a nice camera as well, but every time I try to use it on my tank, it auto focuses on the glass. Wonder if i can turn that off. I've been getting decent pics with my newish iPhone.

Everything else doing OK? Hard to tell without a full tank shot…
 
My LFS always has the best colored reg. clowns around. They make the pale orange ones at Petco look awful. lol I think they are tank bred and sold to them.
The female is from Sustainable Aquatics via my LFS, which also has tank bred clowns.
I wonder since both are tank bred, the 'finding a host' thing is reduced..

The camera is a Nikon d3300 dslr with the Nikkor af-s 55-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 zoom lens with a bunch of different doodads like vr, swm, ed.. taken with the flash off and in autofocus. I have to stand way back ~4'-5' in oder to get the things to focus with the zoom lens. To get the super close up ones ~7'-8' back with full zoom.
Fun story.. Went to BestBuy to look around - against the wife's will. and staggered over to the camera area on the way out. They had a display model for ~$70 off of the 55-200mm lens and I decided I wanted it, being that it was on sale. Went home to get my $50 gift card, came back with the camera body to test it out, and the rubber was cracked, lens all smudged and was sticky when rotating the lens. Needless to say, left without it. I got on the laptop looking for a good deal on one and ended up getting a better lens, -300mm, for 1/2 off! It was a manufacturer refurbished lens from B&H photo. It ended up being $80 cheaper than the -200mm display at BestBuy. Got the lens in the mail the other day and it looks brand new and came with both caps, a soft case/bag, and clip on hood.


As for the whining for a FTS,,, I give you extras!

Tank and Stand


FTS


Mangrove


Urchin




Poor gray fish that gets bullied


Monti, zoas, and digi


Cualastrea


Larry and the GSP


Digi, stylo, birdsnest
 
Thanks Sam. I'm still in awe of your foam fake wall! Your corals look great too.

Be careful with the xenia, zoos and star polyps. They can overrun a tank.

Like I should talk. I've got caulerpa taking over my tank as we speak!
 
Thanks! It's not really that purple like it is in the pics. The lights play tricks on the camera. I actually have almost no coraline algae.. I'm gonna raise my Ca level. It was 410 last I checked last week. I've been rather slack on dumping in additives.

I really like the wall too, and was thinking today - would I save it, or sell it with the next move.. Almost all the corals can be pulled out or popped off.
Something strange about the wall. My green digi and pinkish/peach stylo will Not grow onto the wall.. It's like they hit the wall and won't encrust. The monti has started growing on the wall from the base. About the size of a quarter.

I wouldn't mind if the zoas took over, but my gsp can't leave the rock it's on, like an island. It's actually starting to plate at the very top. I'm gonna frag it again soon. The Xenia I like in patches, but not everywhere. I might move the frags as they're all getting blasted by the mp10 and aren't showing much signs of growth. And I don't get the cool pulsating look I like about them.

I have already decided - and told the wife (to which she strictly said no, and probably doesn't believe I'll actual do it. I'll buy it without asking and say it's nonreturnable Heheh). But my next tank is going to be a foam wall eel tank. I really like the CAD lights 18 or 30 AIO cube as it looks good and can be easily sealed.
It will have a rock/foam tower in the back with either a ton of PVC tubing covered in foam or lots of connecting caves/tunnels for the eel to live in.
Livestock will be a Hawaiian dwarf golden Morey and a school of azure damsels, or similar.
I really like the blue ribbon eel, but they get really long, unlike the Hawaiian Morey. All depends on tank size...

It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission right??
 
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