My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[biggles]

I think I see a smirk on the clownfish's face.

Hi mate, i've found over the years that clown fish are smug little buggers lol.

Hahaha biggles, this just another day in the fish tank office....I swear, I have something like 30 tiny frags of M. Setosa.....why? Because they're clumsy!!!...For the record, I'm exceedingly graceful

Colors look excellent!!! I love the green stag :lol:. The Echi is stunning as well, mine isn't so hot right now, hopefully soon

BTW, it seems that Kevin's making quite an impression on people. Heard he's going to Hollywood!!!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/someone-is-finally-making-a-movie-about-drop-bears

Hey buddy, i kinda figured you'd know what i was going through lol. The colors are coming back nicely, i'm sure it won't take too long for your echi to brighten up once a few weeks of good water works its magic
Kevin checked out that new movie being planned, he went all quiet and mumbled something about ' we don't talk about drop bear club '....... he's out back in his shed - nothing good ever comes of these 'shed' moments....... remember when Hugh Jackman smashed his face going down a faulty flying fox while Oprah was in Aus....... he cracked a joke about koalas a week earlier on tv while Kevin was watching and he went out to the shed that time as well, i didn't see him for a few days but when i did he made a point of wanting to watch that episode of Oprah.......... i take a head in the sand approach to the darker side of Kevin for my own safety. :uhoh2:

As often happens in my moments of acros destruction i was struck with a flash of inspiration about the green stag branch which resulted in me cutting the vertical branch off the other green stag above the one i smashed. I decided that the bright green stag would make the dark blue stag really pop instead of blending into the black back glass. The fluoro green stagg will also look crazy bright with a black background so it was a win win idea for me. I grabbed a frag rock and stuck the two branches to it and then stuck the frag rock onto the top of the green monster behind the blue stag.
The halide stays off when i stress acros so i took a quick snap to show you what i did under the T5's and LED bar. Tomorrow i'll take a top down so you can better see what i did and how i did it, i think it's going to look pretty cool when the bright green branches grow out behind those dark pigmented acros - not a bad result from a goof. I now have echi in five different spots on the rocks btw lol.........

 

[buzzy]

haha you just put "cool" and "green acro" in the same sentence! you must be getting soft with old age

 

[Bello]

I'm seriously wondering if the makers of the Drop Bear movie are reefers, and have been following this thread :lol:, it doesn't sound far fetched

Admittedly, I'm not following what the hell you did with the stags...Did you just stick the massive blue stag over the green one? Pics with circles please, required for me

The tank has really recovered well. I just need to follow your style and get my tank back on track. How's growth coming along? How about a FTS tomorrow, under the halides? Any luck with a Flame angel ?

haha you just put "cool" and "green acro" in the same sentence! you must be getting soft with old age

Hahahahahaha

 

[biggles]

haha you just put "cool" and "green acro" in the same sentence! you must be getting soft with old age

Lol good to hear from you mate, yeah i know it sounds weird but the LED pic below should explain why i make exceptions for some fluoro green stuff

I'm seriously wondering if the makers of the Drop Bear movie are reefers, and have been following this thread :lol:, it doesn't sound far fetched

Admittedly, I'm not following what the hell you did with the stags...Did you just stick the massive blue stag over the green one? Pics with circles please, required for me

The tank has really recovered well. I just need to follow your style and get my tank back on track. How's growth coming along? How about a FTS tomorrow, under the halides? Any luck with a Flame angel ?

Kevin asked me to tell you to shut your gob about drop bears if you know what's good for you Bello......... he's seriously filthy so someone is gonna pay :facepalm:
As you know i stuck that blue stag onto the green monster, there are more green monster branches behind the blue stag so i simply cut their heads off and stuck a rock on top of them that i'd already super glued the two green stag branches to to make it easy to get the job done. Tomorrow i'll take some daylight pics so you can follow what i did though.
Colors are returning a lot quicker than growth but a few things have sprung into new growth so i think it will just be a case of waiting for others to follow suit over the next couple of months.
I'm going to get a blenny for the display first off and now that i'm planning to make the sump lighting SPS friendly the flame might not happen lol.

Pic showing what the tank kinda looks like under the LED bar - makes it clear why i like that green stag so much despite it being greeeeeeeennnnnnnn.

 

[Fishy 1]

Its funny that 1000 smiles got the 1000 post
The fire is nearly settled in now so I'll try to upload a pic in the next few days and I'm still blown away by his colours.
And if you need to buy two blennies and stick them together then so be it, I'll just stick three together imagine a three headed blenny trying to eat the same piece of food :lol:.

 

[sahin]

I am so jealous of your ability to colour up corals mate. Seriously, I have to say, you've got bloody reef fingers.

Despite the atrocity you caused ( :facepalm: ) by hacking up this beautiful Aussie Echinata into pieces ( :facepalm: ) (you'd never make it as a Surgeon mate clown, IT LOOKS AMAZING!

Yours is perhaps the best example I've seen of this coral mate. :thumbsup:

Biggles, you need to get a better camera mate. I seriously believe the photos you post dont show off your corals as well as you could if you had a better camera.

 

[troubadour11]

Pic showing what the tank kinda looks like under the LED bar - makes it clear why i like that green stag so much despite it being greeeeeeeennnnnnnn.

That's a cool example of how/why you placed the "chosen ones" green bits around the tank for a dramatic effect. I like it :thumbsup: But I also like all the different shades of blues you can see in the shot. It really looks like the tank is bouncing back well!

:eek1:

 

[glaukos]

Loved the narration biggles,it was like i was there(something that would make me happy because i could go "kevin" on your tank and steal some frags)!
Impresed with the clownfish face:lol:

No matter what happened with that echi,i'm still in love with your tank:inlove:

 

[biggles]

Its funny that 1000 smiles got the 1000 post
The fire is nearly settled in now so I'll try to upload a pic in the next few days and I'm still blown away by his colours.
And if you need to buy two blennies and stick them together then so be it, I'll just stick three together imagine a three headed blenny trying to eat the same piece of food .

I did think the 1000 thing was a bit weird lol. Piccy will be cool as that's as close as i'll get to a firefish - the Poseidon missile of reef fish...........

I am so jealous of your ability to colour up corals mate. Seriously, I have to say, you've got bloody reef fingers.

Despite the atrocity you caused by hacking up this beautiful Aussie Echinata into pieces ( :facepalm: ) (you'd never make it as a Surgeon mate clown, IT LOOKS AMAZING!

Yours is perhaps the best example I've seen of this coral mate.

Biggles, you need to get a better camera mate. I seriously believe the photos you post dont show off your corals as well as you could if you had a better camera.

Hey Sahin, i just stick the bloody things in the water and they do all the work coloring up - i just watch lol. I would place a blue echi near the top of my shopping list in regards to must have acros, right up there with SSC imo. Lots of stunning examples of blue echi's are on RC, mine has a lot of growing to do yet
I could only drop $600-700 on a camera and lens so i don't think i could get much for that unfortunately When i was in my 20's i had a Nikon D90 from memory and used to shoot heaps of nature macros. I had about ten grand of equipment way back then including my own darkroom for developing and almost made it a career. I can only do so much with the phone camera but now you know why i produce half decent pics regardless lol, if i had a DSLR and macro lens you guys would get sick of the pics as i'd go nuts finally having something i could catch the beauty of the acro pigments with lol. :spin3:

That's a cool example of how/why you placed the "chosen ones" green bits around the tank for a dramatic effect. I like it :thumbsup: But I also like all the different shades of blues you can see in the shot. It really looks like the tank is bouncing back well!

Hey Troub, the tank looks way more outlandish color wise than i can show under the LED's as anyone who does the same will agree i'm sure. I'm glad you saw what i was trying to show about contrast and making acros 'pop' - coral placement can make a so so acro look outstanding and a stunner look drab so it pays to use your noggin when deciding where that new frag should go.

Loved the narration biggles,it was like i was there(something that would make me happy because i could go "kevin" on your tank and steal some frags)!
Impresed with the clownfish face

No matter what happened with that echi,i'm still in love with your tank

I knew you'd appreciate the explanation of what went on Mike lol. The bloody cleaner shrimp made a pest of himself as usual during the entire process as he knows i hold my hand still for 30 secs when gluing an acro down - i think he gets off on the super glue smell.

I woke at 3am and found Kevin standing at the foot of my bed.......... ' think you're real smart don't ya biggles making koala jokes...... sleep well funny guy ' then the light went off...... he's a bit of a worry lately is our Kevin.

Anyway the halide will be on shortly so i'll take some pics to show you what i stuck where and how yesterday soon.

 

[biggles]

This shows you how i super glued the two green stag branches to a rock before then gluing that rock onto the top of the green monster acro beside another milli piece i already stuck on the monster a few weeks back.

This kinda catches the fluoro color of the stag. This bit was growing vertically so had shaded itself when it formed the big mop top during the last two months of bad water. Those spots will green in quickly now they're facing the light, the new tips have only formed in the last 2 weeks so he's awake and growing or was until i hacked into him lol.

I'll get a pic of the echi shortly as i stuck him on a rock and then stuck that rock on a stupid monti when i re attached it at a better angle on the far right.

 

[biggles]

My eyes are already going screwy adjusting bloody colors so this will have to do. I glued the biggest piece of the echi to a small rock and let it set in a container of water on the bench for 5 mins until i then used putty and glue to stick that rock onto a monti that was in the wrong place at the wrong time lol. It's out further in better water flow now and mounted at a higher angle. You can also see where i removed two branches from that ugly thing beside it. As usual Potatohead was being a top down photo bomber.

Edit - here's a quick FTS for you Bello, i just took the prostrata branch that was one of your favs ages ago out of the sump and sat it on the bottom - it aint purple atm lol. I need to find a spot to shove a bit of it but that's a lot easier said than done now days.

 

[Fishy 1]

Is your tank topless? I googled the posidon missile and what an awsome thing it is, top was 13,500ks an hour.

 

[biggles]

Is your tank topless? I googled the posidon missile and what an awsome thing it is, top was 13,500ks an hour.

The tank has 2" wide euro bracing around the top and the canopy is now resting on two bits of wood each end which i used to raise it when i went from a 250W to 400W Radium. It's highly likely i will never actually remove them and make a decent hood because i really don't give a toss about what's outside the display lol. Here's the top in all its blue camera phone captured glory.
I reckon a firefish is going faster than that when it comes flying out the top of a tank tbh lol.

 

[biggles]

Look what i just found - a dirty little varmint ! Because this aiptasia exhibits very sneaky behavior around acros, can't be trusted to do the right thing and multiplies secretly just like the tanks at Bello's house i have given it the name Aiptasia Bellomussa..........

Potatohead is driving me nuts today !

Another piece of echi i mounted above the aculeus and below the purpley blue acro.

 

[Fishy 1]

I like the new speices of aiptasia ( very colorful indeed ) and the name is belloiant (bad pun intended ) how are you planning to "take care" of him, I hope its humane as bello might be abit touchy about you removing a tasia named after him lol
Have you had a fire go kamikazy on you before?

 

[biggles]

I like the new speices of aiptasia ( very colorful indeed ) and the name is belloiant (bad pun intended ) how are you planning to "take care" of him, I hope its humane as bello might be abit touchy about you removing a tasia named after him lol
Have you had a fire go kamikazy on you before?

Hey buddy, unfortunately we lost the new aiptasia species i discovered when i gave it a spot feed of RO shortly after making the find. Not sure what went wrong really as i sterilised the bloody water first by boiling it.......... some critters are just too fussy i think even after you go to the trouble of putting 18" of 1/4" airline onto the end of a 60ml syringe just so you can feed them accurately - i think the lesson we can all take from this unfortunate incident is how NOT to treat aiptasia if you want them to live. I used to feed them kalk slurry in the same way years ago but i fed a lot and my pH suffered lol. Boiling RO has no side effects and trust me when i say it instantly vaporises any living tissue on anything in your tank including naughty acro encrusting bits.

Note: fish lovers don't read the following.......

As to Poseidon missile firefish, yes i have launched a couple years ago. The first one was a text book lift off 3 days after the missile was placed into the live fire test facility (tank). I'd been warned that these things were touchy and could fire at any time regardless of how carefully one treated them but on the third day i forgot it was on the launch pad and stuck my arm in to mess with an acro. There was no count down or nothing, just the whoosh as the missile exploded into life before quickly clearing the water atmosphere and following a stunning trajectory past the tank lights. I really thought he was going to break the ceiling barrier but about a foot away the G forces must have caused pilot blackout and the missile kinda sputtered before falling back to earth finally crashing on the tiled floor.
Despite quickly recovering the return module and returning it to water it was dead the next day.
I'm pretty sure the second attempt at a firefish launch failed when the missile struck the 1/4 acrylic screen placed to prevent premature lift offs. No autopsy was performed as there was a media blackout - this is the first time i've admitted being present at the death tbh. I'm certain the pilot likely suffered concussion and then drowned when the return module splashed back down into the ocean water.
After this i dropped out of the reef fish space race and now days i prefer to stand back and watch young guys like you play with reef rockets.

About a month back when i got the echi i stuck the yucky browned out base bit i cut off onto the stupid ugly 'used to be purple' monti. It's slowly coming to life and coloring up so i think it's happy stuck back there

Tried to show you a closeup of the yucky weird coloration still present on the SSC pieces, most are still sulking and shut down which is annoying me a tad. You can see the same thing on the grumpy little SSC in the first pic :hammer:

 

[Bello]

Damn, biggles, even your aiptasia look prettier than mine :lol:. I still have a few of those bastards in my system. Good thing you got rid of that sucker, quick. Haven't tried the boiling RO spa therapy for them yet. You could also do what I did to rid them, put in a polyp crunching butterflyfish in there for a few hours :lol:.

I finally understood what barbarism you committed to those acros . FTS looks good, freaking acros on the sandbed :lol:. Any plans to extend that left raft further towards the front? What ballast are you running with the 400w Radium? I think I've reduced my PAR a little too much over the last few months.

Colors on the SSC look good to me, at least. But I noticed the tissue is bulbous on the SSC, not on the others. What do you attribute that to?

 

[Fishy 1]

Hey buddy, unfortunately we lost the new aiptasia species i discovered when i gave it a spot feed of RO shortly after making the find. Not sure what went wrong really as i sterilised the bloody water first by boiling it.......... some critters are just too fussy i think even after you go to the trouble of putting 18" of 1/4" airline onto the end of a 60ml syringe just so you can feed them accurately - i think the lesson we can all take from this unfortunate incident is how NOT to treat aiptasia if you want them to live. I used to feed them kalk slurry in the same way years ago but i fed a lot and my pH suffered lol. Boiling RO has no side effects and trust me when i say it instantly vaporises any living tissue on anything in your tank including naughty acro encrusting bits.

Note: fish lovers don't read the following.......

As to Poseidon missile firefish, yes i have launched a couple years ago. The first one was a text book lift off 3 days after the missile was placed into the live fire test facility (tank). I'd been warned that these things were touchy and could fire at any time regardless of how carefully one treated them but on the third day i forgot it was on the launch pad and stuck my arm in to mess with an acro. There was no count down or nothing, just the whoosh as the missile exploded into life before quickly clearing the water atmosphere and following a stunning trajectory past the tank lights. I really thought he was going to break the ceiling barrier but about a foot away the G forces must have caused pilot blackout and the missile kinda sputtered before falling back to earth finally crashing on the tiled floor.
Despite quickly recovering the return module and returning it to water it was dead the next day.
I'm pretty sure the second attempt at a firefish launch failed when the missile struck the 1/4 acrylic screen placed to prevent premature lift offs. No autopsy was performed as there was a media blackout - this is the first time i've admitted being present at the death tbh. I'm certain the pilot likely suffered concussion and then drowned when the return module splashed back down into the ocean water.
After this i dropped out of the reef fish space race and now days i prefer to stand back and watch young guys like you play with reef rockets.

All that effort, spot feeding and even going to the trouble of using a syringe and it gave up on life. I feel so sorry for your bellotasia lose I really do. I think you have just found the next big thing to keep, bellotasia harder to keep than sps and much prettier. I used so much sarcazim in that iv run out lol.
As for the firefish, maybe that's how they got there name, three, two, one, fire the fish!. I liked your run down on the launch of a firefish very funny lol. I hope mine is a defused misile and if he does deside to go bang I hope its too under his rock and not into space, id hate to report back here wnd say huston we have a problem

 

[Fishy 1]

These are not pics of my firefish but some that are close to the colours of him. Couldn't upload my own pics as the computer is being stupid.

 

[Fishy 1]

Biggles I know you don't like wrasses much but what do you think of the one in my profile pic its a carpenters flasher wrasse.
And maybe you, bello and sahin could post on my new thread ( why do you keep marine) looking for why do we all do what we do. If you guys could do that it would be great:thumbup: