Hi Troub, thanks for the follow! More room eh? I don't know. :lol:
So I wanted an SWC skimmer but I'm having issues contacting SWC to see why my order apparently did not go through, so I bought one of these instead:
It's been skimming for 2 days now and seems to have broken in quickly. I placed it on 4 pieces of eggcrate bit I'm thinking I might need to raise it up another inch.
Took a vacation day yesterday and moved most of the contents of the 46 over. Good grief I have a lot of corals, and now even less extra space. :uhoh3:
I went ahead and moved my other yellow tang with a mirror at the ready. I was warned this could get ugly, but frankly these are two of the goofiest fish I've ever seen and have no idea how to actually fight. First the try and stare each other down, then the try to back into each other with the blades, but like an old man backing up a car it's not working very well and they end up just floating around each other.
Then, if that's not enough comedy, the Kole tang gets in between them and just sort of hangs out until the yellows go to their corner. Craziest thing I've ever seen. Because I wasn't watching them 24/7 I put a mirror on the side my first yellow likes to hang out. He loves himself and this was good enough to keep him busy most of the day.
So now comes the bubble tip anemone. :worried: I need to move him and his rock and 5,000,073 bubbles of bubble algae. I double check the temp and params, the 46 is at 8.5KH and the 150 is down to 9KH so I think I'm good enough. I used a small bucket, big enough for the rock, so he never hits the air. The last thing I want is him getting all mad and cruising the tank. The move went well and he's still in the spot I picked for him with the same PAR he had in the 46. If he wants to move he can move, I'll work around him.
Next up is the clowns. I've had my female for 2 years and the male for six months. I've had her in my 40, my 46, and now the 150. In the other two tanks she always ends up living in the top left corner. Hoping for the best I catch her and release her so she must swim through the anemone. She does, and then right up to the top left corner of the 150. :angryfire: Such is my lot in life I suppose. She was happy to see her man once I caught the little punk, and now they're both up there on the left.
Next was the Starry Blenny. The old man was hard as heck to catch, and I was using my small white soft next so i would not tear any of his various mouth barbs. He was not happy and sulked for a while, and then he and the Kole Tang got into it a bit, I suppose because they have the same eating habits? The mirror helped distract things for a while and I haven't seen any more aggression after the first hour.
That ended the move from the 46. I left behind my purple Dottyback terror, who will be returned to the LFS, plus a couple of rocks with Blastos, some Acans, and an encrusted Leptastrea that I hoping I can break off and transfer. I discarded most of the rocks from the 46 but moved some of the less infested ones to the sump to try and transfer as much bacteria as possible. All in all the move went well and the scaping also went well, except for my large monti rock, which is just sitting there for now, until I figure out what to do with it. Oh, and the Xenia came over with it.

I need something to keep me busy, right?