Johnny C's 57G Illuminata Rimless Reef

[waisianglim]

Nice looking mandarin. Does it eat frozen or pallets?

 

[shawna1972]

Love the manderin! How hard is it to find one that's eats frozen as well? I want one but Im afraid because I see so many that starve?
black tang is a beauty!
ttyl ,take care

 

[chrisqueenz]

Very nice progress!

 

[Flanders]

Love the manderin! How hard is it to find one that's eats frozen as well? I want one but Im afraid because I see so many that starve?
black tang is a beauty!
ttyl ,take care

it's relatively easy to find one that eats prepared food. the difficulty still lies in getting it enough nutrition without plenty of pods to graze on, particularly if there are other tank inhabitants that are more aggressive feeders (in other words, nearly every other type of commonly kept fish).

 

[cardiffgiant]

I've had two mandarins. Neither ate frozen when I got them, and both looked skinny for a short period. I had my first one for 3 years before it took a lethal trip through my sump. I put screens on my return., and tried my luck with a 2nd.

Refugiums and live rock help with the pod population. Getting them to eat frozen helps, but I think that getting my last one to eat pellet was key. I mix pellet with my frozen food, and eventually they just start to associate one with the other. My autofeeder drops 3 small feedings per day, and I give one feeding in the evening.

 

[Johnny C]

Looks great man.

Thanks Aaron! Your tank was definatly inspiring!

Everything is coming along nicely Jon! That is a whole lot of Todds!

Thanks bud, I love my Todds. I'm trying very hard not to frag it, let's see how long my zoanthids will tolerate it! lol

Very nice! I've had a combo of a mandarin and 12 line in my tank for about 3 years now, and I think they do a nice job of keeping a lot of pests at bay.

Thanks Ben. Your right, they are pretty functional fish.

Looks great Cali! I love the midnight WOW that torch got big! Thanks Dan. Your aquascaping skills were key!

Big thanks to you for all of your help Dan-O!

looking very nice! great manderin, nice blue color stripes What off brand T5 do u have? Can I ask why are you switching them out? i am thinking of purchasing a few from ebay...

Thanks a lot. The fixture I have is made by a company called Catalina Aquariums, which is pretty popular among the freshwater community. It's comparable to a Nova Extreme IMO but I want something with better reflectors and 6x39w. T5's instead of the 24's. Plus, as silly as it sounds I really like the sleek look of the newer silver fixtures.

Catalina sells a TON of fixtures on eBay. While they are very decent, I'd recommend spending the extra cash and going for something higher quality.

Vury vury nice!!!!!

Thanks Cully. I still gotta make it out your way, hopefully very soon!

 

[Johnny C]

Nice looking mandarin. Does it eat frozen or pallets?

Yup, he is completely trained to eat frozen Mysis Shrimp and still forages all day for pods.

Love the manderin! How hard is it to find one that's eats frozen as well? I want one but Im afraid because I see so many that starve?
black tang is a beauty!
ttyl ,take care

Thanks Hun. I bought him from RandyO a few weeks ago. Randy had him in a display tank for over a year and he was already trained to eat the Mysis. I got very lucky because I haven't had such good luck in the past with 'em.

Very nice progress!

Thanks Chris!

it's relatively easy to find one that eats prepared food. the difficulty still lies in getting it enough nutrition without plenty of pods to graze on, particularly if there are other tank inhabitants that are more aggressive feeders (in other words, nearly every other type of commonly kept fish).

Out of the many I've seen roll through the LFS, only a select few have eaten frozen. Your right in that they need a balanced diet though, having an abundance of pods is definatly key!

I've had two mandarins. Neither ate frozen when I got them, and both looked skinny for a short period. I had my first one for 3 years before it took a lethal trip through my sump. I put screens on my return., and tried my luck with a 2nd.

Refugiums and live rock help with the pod population. Getting them to eat frozen helps, but I think that getting my last one to eat pellet was key. I mix pellet with my frozen food, and eventually they just start to associate one with the other. My autofeeder drops 3 small feedings per day, and I give one feeding in the evening.

Absolutely. I'm trying hard to get him to accept Spectrum Pellets. That'd be awesome!

 

[dan10342]

Hey any chance at a quick photo of the skimmer?

 

[Johnny C]

Hey any chance at a quick photo of the skimmer?

Don't mind the mess...

 

[briangsxr1000]

wish i could find my mandarin....

 

[toddmh]

hey jon..do you have the Octo nw or nwb model ??I know it the Octo work horse,how do you like it??

I just picked up a nwb 200 for my 120 build..

 

[briangsxr1000]

nw model i believe.....

 

[RandyO]

Don't mind the mess...

This is an NWB Octopus skimmer.

 

[alphaferret]

looks like its rockin for you as well as me!-I have been lovin mine!

 

[Johnny C]

Well, it seems that the Flatworm Exit was a definate success. I picked up a Fighting Conch to help clean up the mess they made of the sandbed.

I picked up a few neat zoanthids this week, here's a picture of one. Purple Death speckly morph! :inlove:

I'll try to get a couple more pics this week.

 

[superkat]

gorgeous! great seeing you today! Kohl Tang with my yellow? No prob.

 

[toddmh]

Well, it seems that the Flatworm Exit was a definate success. I picked up a Fighting Conch to help clean up the mess they made of the sandbed.

I picked up a few neat zoanthids this week, here's a picture of one. Purple Death speckly morph! :inlove:

I'll try to get a couple more pics this week.

drooooooool :fish1:

 

[shawna1972]

Nice!

 

[Capt_Cully]

I saw on the zoo forum that sometimes certain zoos will "speckle". It was related to lighting, I think it was intense lighting that can do it. Either way, those a sick. Never seen PD's with the speckles. Nice pick up. Perhaps someone better versed in zoanthids could chime in??? (personally an expert in killing them)

Rather than me looking back a few pages, how about another FTS. Last one was like 10 days ago, sheesh. I can't believe how lazy these kids are today :fun4:

 

[Henry Colf]

Jon, tanks lookin sweet!!!!