My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[BrentH]

I've gone through something with my tank recently as we'll it's been lasting for about 2 months things finally barely coming around but I lost a lot a little at a time what I think I learned is damage is done to a reef quickly but even if u correct the water stuff still keeps spiraling down .... For awhile I was surprised to see your tank have a hiccup !! Glad your getting back on track bro!!

 

[biggles]

Those rics sure do look like anemones of some sort.

Thanks for the updates, always a fun read in the morning.

Yeah the one on the left looked weird, it's sealed in a putty tomb now anyway mate. The clown had a brief but intense tour of the sump yesterday morning but i don't think it was any fun for him lol. I heard the emergency overflow drain suddenly running and looked to the water level way way high as expected. I immediately turned the main drain valve to fully open and with a big whoosh and lots of bubbles later up popped the clown beside the skimmer which btw was now over flowing into the cup due to the rapid water level rise. I killed the skimmer and then used two nets to corner clowny who was a bit slow and dazed anyway i think. Scooped him up and put him straight back into the display where he went and hid in the rocks.
He never ever ever hides but he stayed hidden for about 2 hours while i sat on the couch and worried........ i seriously like my perc so when he finally came out i waited 30 mins and then put some flake in to hand feed him and he shot into the rocks and hid. :sad2: He didn't come out even though i put lots of food in all day but i caught glimpses of him sulking so just hoped he was ok. Got up this morning and he's back to 100% and has been hand fed from my fingers all day lol. He's a greedy guts like all clowns so he made a pig of himself.

Do u still have Charlie and the other 2 hitchhikerz that came in on your live rock a couple years ago?

Hey Brent, i haven't seen Charlie for about two months so i think he's gone. He was happily destroying an acro by torch light the last time i saw him. I have the big red brittle star thing monster still living happily in the rocks as i see his arms out when the lights are off. Not sure if you mean those guys.

Hey Biggles did you catch/kill the super acro crab?

Which crab do you mean Fishy, i don't ever catch or kill acro or stylo crabs.

I've gone through something with my tank recently as we'll it's been lasting for about 2 months things finally barely coming around but I lost a lot a little at a time what I think I learned is damage is done to a reef quickly but even if u correct the water stuff still keeps spiraling down .... For awhile I was surprised to see your tank have a hiccup !! Glad your getting back on track bro!!

Hey mate, it's very true about how a month or two of bad conditions can have a negative impact on corals that takes a lot longer to recover from than you hope. Even though the colors on a lot of my acros is returning i still see many acros totally shut down with poor PE despite the pigments being bright and healthy looking......... really weird but as long as they're not losing tissue anymore i'm happy, having been through similar recently i'm sure you know what i mean mate.

Anyway i put a couple of pounds of the cleaned and bleached sand back in and took some snaps of the radium bulb warming up so you can see the spectrum shift until it's finally producing the normal running spectrum of my 400W radium bulb. Just cropped and resized so you can see what the camera sees and just how much blue light is really hitting the corals despite my eyes telling me it's crisp white with a hint of blue.

Btw, Potatohead is in every shot if you look closely lol.

 

[Fishy 1]

Which crab do you mean Fishy, i don't ever catch or kill acro or stylo crabs.

The one a little while back that you tried to squash with the chisel if I remember right.

 

[footballdude2k3]

I am going to have to go back and read this whole thread, your colors look amazing

 

[biggles]

The one a little while back that you tried to squash with the chisel if I remember right.

Ahhh yes, that's the crab i was talking about that i haven't seen for a long time mate - i think he died. I had a clam in the rocks early on but i killed him somehow, probably starved to death when i was running the tank with zero nutrient input for 6-7 weeks to quickly break the GHA cycle.

I am going to have to go back and read this whole thread, your colors look amazing

Hi mate, you'll see that despite my continued efforts throughout the journal to be super serious i'm constantly derailed by the pack of SPS delinquents who hang out here at times.

Excuse many of the over saturated and poorly color corrected pics throughout, i lose the plot at times correcting my phone camera pics lol.


Right back to serious stuff. Got up this Monday morning on my day off intending to do nothing. Get on RC and check out Troub's journal to find he and his nasty sidekick (wife) have gone out of their way to procure a BLOOD SHRIMP !
The Troub's are both very aware how into cleaner shrimp i am and know how much i want a blood shrimp despite having to pay $175-$200 for one. I never see the bloody things for sale or even skunks ( want a mate for Potatohead to hang with as well ). Talk about putting me in a filthy mood Troub........... and you probably paid bugger all for it too :angryfire:

Despite having limited funds i decided a trip to Reeflections was called for in order to buy either a cool fish like a flame angel, some colorful flubber or a nice acro. The budget was $100-

I walk in the door and who is running the shop - bloody Dave ! This is where things started to go south with the budget because every time i go to Reeflections and Dave is running the show i always walk out with a box full of acros. If you go to that LFS for SPS and Dave is working you should just give him your wallet when you walk in the door, he's got some weird habit of always being at the shop when there are cool acros in stock.

I quickly scan the fish tanks and see nothing but boring fish - no bloody flame angels at all grrrr. I then took a deep breath and went to the SPS holding tank.......... i actually murmured softly ' ohhhh man ' and looked up to see Dave staring at me from behind the counter with a big grin on his face.

His grin got even bigger when i said the words he knew were coming - WE'RE GOING TO NEED A POLY BOX DAVE !

Now i no longer have a partner so i don't need to lie, manipulate the truth or by omission deceive. I went in with a budget of $100- and i ended up receiving 10% off my entire acro purchase because Dave is a good guy and looks after SPS idiots like me. Instead of spending $270- i only spent $143- more than i intended ! Now if you take off my initial $100- budget that leaves $43- over budget less the $27- discount so in the end i figure i went over by about $16- as per the biggles SPS purchase algorithm i developed when married........

So if i had a partner still i could say without feeling dishonest ' i only spent $16- more than i said i was going to honey '. Btw don't use a card to pay if using my algorithm - it only works with cash transactions so stop at a hole in the wall teller machine on the way to the LFS. Withdraw triple what you think you need.........

I came home with five acros thanks to bloody Dave who not once said ' that's enough biggles ' - zero help with the budget was our Dave ! :worried:

All five have good PE hours after hitting my tank and every one has great colors compared to what i normally find. All of them will be sliced and diced and stuck here there and everywhere at some point.

You'll notice the sand didn't move with the flow turned right down..........:headwally: Let's not even talk about sand ever again.......

 

[Bello]

Biggles, I haven't posted much thanks to the stupid stuff going on with my tank, but damn those are nice! And the tank seems to be recovering nicely as well .

I'm now pretty close to bloody broke, so it's a case of what makes it, makes it.... I'm not going to be looking at my tank for a while

 

[Fishy 1]

Ahhh yes, that's the crab i was talking about that i haven't seen for a long time mate - i think he died. I had a clam in the rocks early on but i killed him somehow, probably starved to death when i was running the tank with zero nutrient input for 6-7 weeks to quickly break the GHA cycle.

Ok, that's a shame the clam died

Hi mate, you'll see that despite my continued efforts throughout the journal to be super serious i'm constantly derailed by the pack of SPS delinquents who hang out here at times.

Yes Biggles always tries to keep this thread professional but it never lasts long with the SPS delinquents like myself, bello, sahin and the shrimp buying bugger troub we're all constantly screwing it up for him:lolspin:

Right back to serious stuff. Got up this Monday morning on my day off intending to do nothing. Get on RC and check out Troub's journal to find he and his nasty sidekick (wife) have gone out of their way to procure a BLOOD SHRIMP !
The Troub's are both very aware how into cleaner shrimp i am and know how much i want a blood shrimp despite having to pay $175-$200 for one. I never see the bloody things for sale or even skunks ( want a mate for Potatohead to hang with as well ). Talk about putting me in a filthy mood Troub........... and you probably paid bugger all for it too

Biggles the troub's are starting to concern me with their livestock buying antics :worried:

Despite having limited funds i decided a trip to Reeflections was called for in order to buy either a cool fish like a flame angel, some colorful flubber or a nice acro. The budget was $100-

I walk in the door and who is running the shop - bloody Dave ! This is where things started to go south with the budget because every time i go to Reeflections and Dave is running the show i always walk out with a box full of acros. If you go to that LFS for SPS and Dave is working you should just give him your wallet when you walk in the door, he's got some weird habit of always being at the shop when there are cool acros in stock.

I quickly scan the fish tanks and see nothing but boring fish - no bloody flame angels at all grrrr. I then took a deep breath and went to the SPS holding tank.......... i actually murmured softly ' ohhhh man ' and looked up to see Dave staring at me from behind the counter with a big grin on his face.

His grin got even bigger when i said the words he knew were coming - WE'RE GOING TO NEED A POLY BOX DAVE !

Now i no longer have a partner so i don't need to lie, manipulate the truth or by omission deceive. I went in with a budget of $100- and i ended up receiving 10% off my entire acro purchase because Dave is a good guy and looks after SPS idiots like me. Instead of spending $270- i only spent $143- more than i intended ! Now if you take off my initial $100- budget that leaves $43- over budget less the $27- discount so in the end i figure i went over by about $16- as per the biggles SPS purchase algorithm i developed when married........

So if i had a partner still i could say without feeling dishonest ' i only spent $16- more than i said i was going to honey '. Btw don't use a card to pay if using my algorithm - it only works with cash transactions so stop at a hole in the wall teller machine on the way to the LFS. Withdraw triple what you think you need.........

I came home with five acros thanks to bloody Dave who not once said ' that's enough biggles ' - zero help with the budget was our Dave !

All five have good PE hours after hitting my tank and every one has great colors compared to what i normally find. All of them will be sliced and diced and stuck here there and everywhere at some point.

You'll notice the sand didn't move with the flow turned right down..........:headwally: Let's not even talk about sand ever again.......

Biggles going coral shopping on a budget is never a good idea:crazy1: as it almost always ends in a blown budget:blown: ecpecily if the lfs guy does nothing to stop you picking corals and spending more than you wanted:facepalm:

[/QUOTE]

Some nice looking corals biggles and the tank is looking great:thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

Biggles, I haven't posted much thanks to the stupid stuff going on with my tank, but damn those are nice! And the tank seems to be recovering nicely as well .

I'm now pretty close to bloody broke, so it's a case of what makes it, makes it.... I'm not going to be looking at my tank for a while

I'm really bummed to hear things haven't turned around for you Bello Sending you another one of my intrusive annoying PM's shortly, mind you my PM's are nowhere near as rude and annoying as yours are according to Sahin.......
I haven't bumped yours or Sahin's journals simply because i knew you'd update if and when things were under better control.

Some nice looking corals biggles and the tank is looking great:thumbsup:

Thanks mate, can you believe these weren't new pieces either. Dave (Evil SPS Wizard) said they had been in the shop for over a week ! Can you imagine what the stuff i never got a sniff at looked like lol. I left at least 5 more pieces i wanted behind along with at least 50 SPS for sale.

The sale tanks for all the corals are look down height and only about 14" deep going back about 3 feet x 10-12 feet long. It's easy to spot an SPS newb shopping because they fall for the trap the sneaky shop has set - looking at corals from the top down under blue spectrum lighting. Always, ALWAYS look at stuff from the side panel because this is what you will see 99% of the time when you drop it in your tank. Everything looks amazing from the top simply because the pigments are concentrated in those areas facing the light - up.
Many things look as good from a FTS perspective as above, a few may even look better but not many. Most stuff looks much less eye popping and pigment saturated but the places those pigments reside will decide whether you buy it or not. If you're looking for a particular piece and have a spot in mind on the rocks then make sure you view the acro from the same angle you will see it in your tank. No decent SPS LFS will mind letting you fondle stuff or do it for you once they know you're not a tire kicker wasting their time. As an example most milli's look best when growing AWAY from the front not towards it like most of us do a lot. The pigments are most concentrated on the inside of the branches because the underside or parts facing away from the light basically shield themselves due to the growth pattern. Another thing about milli's while i'm on the subject, don't use the side polyps as a PE guide. A milli would look hairy in you sat it in RO lol. Look at the axial polyps on the branch tips for signs that the acro is happy.
I've gone off on a ramble again.......... the stuff i say is just my personal opinion and only based on wild sourced acros.
( I actually think (know) i know everything but i have to appear gracious so less people despise me ), it's a bit like how Fishy tries to appear normal but we all know something's not quite right.......... :reading:


I took some night flash pics so you can see why i adopted these acro orphans.

This has very pale green branches almost cream with bright green polyps and corallites, the contrast and shade of green is super cool - fully intact colony.

This is actually much more blue than purple but flash shows most blue and purple pigments as purple only. The branches have a green hue over brown and in person it jumps out at you so i hope i can keep it looking decent.

This is a fully intact pink colony that is either faded out pink or part bleached red, i asked Dave if it was pink or red and then said i didn't want any red acros. Dave was a good guy and told me what i wanted to hear so i bought it. Neither of us had any idea if it's really pink or red but we both pretended i might actually leave it behind........

This piece of branch is completely blue all over and looks stunning, i need blues so was very happy to find this little guy.

This branch looked a cool purple in the shop and i asked Dave if it was purple like it looked - he lied again and said purple as i wanted him to but as soon as i dropped it under the radium it looks very bloody blue Dave ! You might wonder why i bought this guy as he looks a bit drab compared to the others from this angle. The inside corallites on the branches have traces of some fluoro pigmentation like green or something, anyway it might have more than one color with luck. It might also just be wishful thinking lol.

 

[Fishy 1]

I haven't bumped yours or Sahin's journals simply because i knew you'd update if and when things were under better control.

Same here, hope things turn around for you soon bello:beer:

Thanks mate, can you believe these weren't new pieces either. Dave (Evil SPS Wizard) said they had been in the shop for over a week ! Can you imagine what the stuff i never got a sniff at looked like lol. I left at least 5 more pieces i wanted behind along with at least 50 SPS for sale.

The sale tanks for all the corals are look down height and only about 14" deep going back about 3 feet x 10-12 feet long. It's easy to spot an SPS newb shopping because they fall for the trap the sneaky shop has set - looking at corals from the top down under blue spectrum lighting. Always, ALWAYS look at stuff from the side panel because this is what you will see 99% of the time when you drop it in your tank. Everything looks amazing from the top simply because the pigments are concentrated in those areas facing the light - up.
Many things look as good from a FTS perspective as above, a few may even look better but not many. Most stuff looks much less eye popping and pigment saturated but the places those pigments reside will decide whether you buy it or not. If you're looking for a particular piece and have a spot in mind on the rocks then make sure you view the acro from the same angle you will see it in your tank. No decent SPS LFS will mind letting you fondle stuff or do it for you once they know you're not a tire kicker wasting their time. As an example most milli's look best when growing AWAY from the front not towards it like most of us do a lot. The pigments are most concentrated on the inside of the branches because the underside or parts facing away from the light basically shield themselves due to the growth pattern. Another thing about milli's while i'm on the subject, don't use the side polyps as a PE guide. A milli would look hairy in you sat it in RO lol. Look at the axial polyps on the branch tips for signs that the acro is happy.
I've gone off on a ramble again.......... the stuff i say is just my personal opinion and only based on wild sourced acros.

Gee some great info there biggles :beer:

( I actually think (know) i know everything but i have to appear gracious so less people despise me ), it's a bit like how Fishy tries to appear normal but we all know something's not quite right.......... Reading

Yeh sure you do biggles.
Biggles I am innocent of sneaky activity (unlike the troubs) unless you count my sneaky nano that I'm about to start stocking with corals:dance: (that's why my 67 build has gone quite.......apart from my drop dead gorgeous, half price wrasse), So if you want to follow my sneaky nano build that would be cool.

I took some night flash pics so you can see why i adopted these acro orphans.

This has very pale green branches almost cream with bright green polyps and corallites, the contrast and shade of green is super cool - fully intact colony.

This is actually much more blue than purple but flash shows most blue and purple pigments as purple only. The branches have a green hue over brown and in person it jumps out at you so i hope i can keep it looking decent.

This is a fully intact pink colony that is either faded out pink or part bleached red, i asked Dave if it was pink or red and then said i didn't want any red acros. Dave was a good guy and told me what i wanted to hear so i bought it. Neither of us had any idea if it's really pink or red but we both pretended i might actually leave it behind........

This piece of branch is completely blue all over and looks stunning, i need blues so was very happy to find this little guy.

This branch looked a cool purple in the shop and i asked Dave if it was purple like it looked - he lied again and said purple as i wanted him to but as soon as i dropped it under the radium it looks very bloody blue Dave ! You might wonder why i bought this guy as he looks a bit drab compared to the others from this angle. The inside corallites on the branches have traces of some fluoro pigmentation like green or something, anyway it might have more than one color with luck. It might also just be wishful thinking lol.

Biggles there's some brown on those sps but i'm sure they will color up in quick time.

 

[martinphillip03]

$16.00 dollars over budget. Your one heck of a shopper.

Marty

 

[BrentH]

I have this exact coral it's recovering but hardy and deep purple I'll post a pic for ya under good conditions I think it will turn into a stuner

 

[BrentH]

Also I'll bet the last pic of your new corals will turn blue ???

 

[troubadour11]

Right back to serious stuff. Got up this Monday morning on my day off intending to do nothing. Get on RC and check out Troub's journal to find he and his nasty sidekick (wife) have gone out of their way to procure a BLOOD SHRIMP !
The Troub's are both very aware how into cleaner shrimp i am and know how much i want a blood shrimp despite having to pay $175-$200 for one. I never see the bloody things for sale or even skunks ( want a mate for Potatohead to hang with as well ). Talk about putting me in a filthy mood Troub........... and you probably paid bugger all for it too.

Despite having limited funds i decided a trip to Reeflections was called for in order to buy either a cool fish like a flame angel, some colorful flubber or a nice acro. The budget was $100-

I walk in the door and who is running the shop - bloody Dave ! This is where things started to go south with the budget because every time i go to Reeflections and Dave is running the show i always walk out with a box full of acros. If you go to that LFS for SPS and Dave is working you should just give him your wallet when you walk in the door, he's got some weird habit of always being at the shop when there are cool acros in stock.

I quickly scan the fish tanks and see nothing but boring fish - no bloody flame angels at all grrrr. I then took a deep breath and went to the SPS holding tank.......... i actually murmured softly ' ohhhh man ' and looked up to see Dave staring at me from behind the counter with a big grin on his face.

Well, I'm sorry we ruined your day off Biggles. :fun2: It was meant to be an exciting thing we shared by adding it to the tank. It was never meant to instigate a new reef addition war. And I'm absolutely positive that I could not manage to come home with the stuff you did only going $16 over budget.

I mean really... I could buy maybe 3 or 4 good colored frags the size of my pinky for what you spent. But then again, I could probably buy about 7 or so Blood Red or maybe 10ish Skunks for your recent blown budget. lol :blown:

Ok, that's a shame the clam died

Yes Biggles always tries to keep this thread professional but it never lasts long with the SPS delinquents like myself, bello, sahin and the shrimp buying bugger troub we're all constantly screwing it up for him.

Biggles the troub's are starting to concern me with their livestock buying antics.

Biggles going coral shopping on a budget is never a good idea. as it almost always ends in a blown budget. ecpecily if the lfs guy does nothing to stop you picking corals and spending more than you wanted.

Some nice looking corals biggles and the tank is looking great:thumbsup:

I've been interested in having a Maxima Clam at some point. I haven't gotten around to trying it yet. We're testing the filter feeding waters with a simple $10 giant feather duster right now. If that sticks around and does well, I'll really look into a clam once I get my PAR levels tested for my LEDs. Until then, I'll just have to keep hearing about them and seeing them elsewhere...

And what's to be concerned with Fishy? All we're doing is trying to catch up to the awesomeness everyone has on here. Granted it's going SUPER slowly. But I swear if I ever get things balanced out, levels to stop ping-ponging around, and the algae/cyano gets under control... :bounce3: Then you might have some true concerns with our stocking expansion ;-)

And I agree with Fishy, no shopping on a budget. If you hadn't had that stupid "budget" that was limiting you (despite blowing it). Well, then maybe you would have shown up with a Fire Shrimp too. That really would have shown me :clown:

Biggles I am innocent of sneaky activity (unlike the troubs) unless you count my sneaky nano that I'm about to start stocking with corals:dance: (that's why my 67 build has gone quite.......apart from my drop dead gorgeous, half price wrasse), So if you want to follow my sneaky nano build that would be cool.

I promise, I'm really not trying to be sneaky. Although I may have an addition or two that still hasn't shown up yet. Give me a break, they're coming so quick I can't keep up!!!! LOL No, not really. But between work, life, Mrs Troub, the dog, and the tank; I just haven't gotten all the pics up on there yet.

Well, that and it's not worth putting something up if it just withers away anyway. (Troub makes a sad face and shakes his head). So I've taken to observing a few of the pieces before I share them in there underrated glory.

$16.00 dollars over budget. Your one heck of a shopper.
Marty

Biggles, I'm horrible at math so I'm still trying to figure out your algorithm for your reef budget. But if I only went $16 over budget every time we went to the LFS, I'd probably only have snails in my tank! :sad2:

But it looks like you made a potentially great haul despite busting the budget. :thumbsup: I can't wait to have a thriving SPS piece the size of your purchases in my DT! :uhoh3:

OH YEAH and I forgot about THIS:

This has very pale green branches almost cream with bright green polyps and corallites, the contrast and shade of green is super cool - fully intact colony.

I mean really. Hell must've frozen over everyone!!! Biggles not only likes green acros now, but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere on here he's in the market for "some colorful flubber" too! What's next, hearing him curse Radiums and give praise to those new-fangled Disco-Christmas-LED thingy-ma-jiggers.

LOL

 

[cFloor]

Biggles, your tank certainly seems to be bouncing back nicely. Well done! You got some good deals on those corals there. Would be much more expensive in Cali. Looking forward to what you end up doing with them. Glad everything is back on track

 

[biggles]

Biggles there's some brown on those sps but i'm sure they will color up in quick time.

They all appear to be settling in fine so far mate and doing well despite being chopped to pieces and stuck all over the place.

$16.00 dollars over budget. Your one heck of a shopper.

Marty

Thanks Marty

I have this exact coral it's recovering but hardy and deep purple I'll post a pic for ya under good conditions I think it will turn into a stuner

Thanks Brent, so far it's looking good so fingers crossed we both keep them looking good. A pic of yours would be great if you can manage it mate.

Also I'll bet the last pic of your new corals will turn blue ???

i think you're right mate, sure looks blue instead of purple to me at this stage under full lighting...... bloody Dave.........:deadhorse1:

I mean really... I could buy maybe 3 or 4 good colored frags the size of my pinky for what you spent. But then again, I could probably buy about 7 or so Blood Red or maybe 10ish Skunks for your recent blown budget. lol :blown:

I mean really. Hell must've frozen over everyone!!! Biggles not only likes green acros now, but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere on here he's in the market for "some colorful flubber" too! What's next, hearing him curse Radiums and give praise to those new-fangled Disco-Christmas-LED thingy-ma-jiggers.

LOL

Just had to bring up the shrimp prices again didn't ya Troub........... :mad2:

I only like SOME green acros and SOME flubber mate, as for not running Radiums........ you're dreaming Troub........

Biggles, your tank certainly seems to be bouncing back nicely. Well done! You got some good deals on those corals there. Would be much more expensive in Cali. Looking forward to what you end up doing with them. Glad everything is back on track

Thanks mate, yes i can only imagine how expensive they'd be over there lol. Everything is chopped and stuck now and i went to great trouble to overlap contrasting colors when possible.

 

[Fishy 1]

That's a nice pic biggles:thumbsup:.

 

[biggles]

That's a nice pic biggles:thumbsup:.

Thanks mate, the colors are too saturated because i swapped out 3 of my 4 blue plus T5's for different tubes........... sneaky stuff...... :smokin: Not used to color adjusting the new phone pics. This is a better one although now the pink is too pale lol. Notice the clown bum, hiding yellow tang and stupid banggai in the shadows like some weirdo fish......... i don't like him because he sits by himself all day and does nothing. Checkout the difference in brightness of the tang being lit by the 400W radium compared to the banggai only illuminated by the T5's.

 

[Bello]

Beautiful shots Biggles :thumbsup:

Love the contrast with the 3 pieces. Right now, my blues and pinks, are all beautiful brown, but the damned greens, they're as green as ever!!! At least they make my tank bearable to look at though

 

[markalot]

Clown Bum

I have one of those green with pale yellowish brownish skin acro frags that is getting intense turquoise tips. I'm really hoping I have a nice blueish acro and not another green one. My slimer is enough green for the entire tank.

I got a couple of blue eyed cardinals. Little guys, not much color except a brilliant blue streak over the eyes, but they are active and school nicely. I've got 3 more on order to bring my total to 5. I've always thought both of the bigger cardinals look like zombie fish, especially the red eyed ones. :uhoh2:

 

[troubadour11]

Everything is chopped and stuck now and i went to great trouble to overlap contrasting colors when possible.

^^^ :inlove: ^^^ - Nice pic, I always like all the attention you give to color placement :thumbsup:

Notice the clown bum, hiding yellow tang and stupid banggai in the shadows like some weirdo fish......... i don't like him because he sits by himself all day and does nothing. Checkout the difference in brightness of the tang being lit by the 400W radium compared to the banggai only illuminated by the T5's.

Hahaha... CLOWN BUM, :clown::bum: I like it. :smokin:

What you're saying about the Banggai, and what Markalot says below is one of the main reasons why we scratched the Banggai's as our choice for a large group. We were planning on them originally because we thought it would be neat to watch a pair try to mouth-brood if they pair up and spawned. Is "mouth-brood" the right term? Because when they spawn they try to protect the fry in their mouth. I may have made up a world. LOL. But hopefully you know what I'm saying :hmm4: Because sometimes, I don't But maybe that would spice up your boring Banggai?.?.?. Ever thought about looking into pairing it up. Or would that just make 2 dull fish lurking in the shadows? Just a thought.

Thanks for pointing out the difference between the lighting on the two fish. That was interesting to note :beer:

I got a couple of blue eyed cardinals. Little guys, not much color except a brilliant blue streak over the eyes, but they are active and school nicely. I've got 3 more on order to bring my total to 5. I've always thought both of the bigger cardinals look like zombie fish, especially the red eyed ones. :uhoh2:

- This is actually kind of great to hear for me! DisBeReef and I have been looking for fish we could add a "large" group of. Maybe 7-10 or so of something that would be small and peaceful in a large group for our 90 gallon DT. We've looked at a lot of different types of cardinal fish for this and ended up on probably the blue eyed cardinals. At least that's what we've been thinking about for now. We were expecting to add the group after we get the Mandarins in there.

We've also considered the yellow striped cardinal fish instead of the blue eyed. But I think I may be more partial to the silver body with blue eye because I don't think we'll have other silver fish. So with all the other types and colors of fish, I was thinking it might look pretty good to have a big group of silver in amongst all the color.