New Reef, any comments/criticisms?

[Meisen]

Another critter.....fighting conch!!!

Another critter.....fighting conch!!!

I love these little animals for some reason. Maybe its that they look like Snuffleufagus (sp!?) from sesame street or just that they hop around like a tourist on a hot beach all the time. Ours has personality dangit!!! She is a longtime survivor and thus has a name: Petuna. Guess who named it? Anyway, I am glad I have a large enough tank and sandbed to keep her well fed. I am wondering what happens when all the pest algaes and cyanos totally dieoff though......Will I have to pollute the tank on purpose just to keep her fed?

 

[Meisen]

A couple of the corals.....

A couple of the corals.....

Here are some more shots of the new tank. These are all frags that have (mostly) started to take hold in the tank.

Here is a plating green montipora added to the tank in the beginning of December.

Here is a bird's nest frag from the CMAS swap:

(along with a blue-tip acro)

 

[Meisen]

Sideview comparisons over 1 month:

Sideview comparisons over 1 month:

Jan 05

Feb 05

 

[Meisen]

A few things are showing serious growth while most just havent totally taken off yet. Note the green montipora cap in the center of both pics. It was one of the first frags in the tank in Nov and started at about silver dollar size with a quarter-size lobe. Now its closer to 4X that. Both caulastreas visible in the pic are growing however some of the difference is in the placement/tissue expansion of the animals (moved one of them).

 

[Meisen]

OK I will try and keep this updated as things continue to be added and grow.

 

[eidillitih]

looking real good, keep it up

 

[Meisen]

Thanks Eidillitih!

 

[Meisen]

Here is a bit of a bummer about zip tying your rocks together like I did: its much harder to get corals to stick to the live rock when you cant do it dry! I used to take the rock I wanted to mount a frag onto right out of the tank and dry it off before glueing frag (s) on. Now, thats not an option. I have managed to get corals to stick (pre-cure the glue for like 10' outside of the tank on th frag, then add some fresh glue and get it to where you want it immediately) but it certainly isnt as easy. I guess its a tradeoff with 0 rockslides to date.

 

[Meisen]

latest whole tank shot

latest whole tank shot

OK still working on getting a good shot of the tank...dang whats the secret?

Anyway, here is today's tank pic in all its glory lol. As you can see, still a bit messy. Also note the cleverly hidden eggcrate frag box front and center.

 

[Meisen]

What the heck? I did this like 100 times before.....anyone know why this one didnt put the pic into the post? Something on RCs end?

 

[Meisen]

Current Livestock List:

Current Livestock List:

Here is what is currently in the tank (that I know of) for those that asked:

Fishes:
6 Green Chromis
1 Bicolor Blenny
1 Red Sea Tang (juv)

Molluscs:
1 Derasa Clam
5 Carribean Astraea snails
1 Fighting Conch
1 "sand" conch
4 Nassarius snails
20+ Cerith Snails
Stomatella Snails
4 "Trocus" grazers
Several Small mussels
4 "Bumblebee" snails
A whelk (trying to eradicate him as I think hes killing my stomas)
6 IPSF "Strombus" smails
Several vermetellid snails (some large, some small)
1 Unidentified snail from LFS (some kind of Turban snail I havent seen before)


Echinoderms:
1 Small green urchin (1/2")
Microstars
2 red brittle stars
2 Red serpent stars
2 small banded serpent stars
3 sea cucumbers

Crustaceans:
4 scarlet hermits
10 blue leg hermits
4 peppermint shrimp
1 acro crab
2 emerald crabs
Amphipods
Mysids
Copepods
Isopods (not the parasitic kind)

Annelids:
Coco worm
1 feather duster
various minidusters
bristleworms

Cnidarians:
3 flower anemones
Sea Whips
2 Acropora sp
ORA Pink Montipora
Purple tip Monty
Brown Monty (yes, it grows fast....)
Green plating monty
Orange plating monty
Pink Bird's Nest
Ricordea yuma
Ricordea florida
Zoanthid sp.
Protopalyzoanthid sp.
Palyzoanthus sp.
Caulastrea sp.
Frogspawn
Xenia sp.
Pipe Organ


I am working on getting some more accurate ids of some of these things....got some time and some books to do it next week....and there's always Dr Ron lol.

 

[55Reef]

Nice!:thumbsup:

I really like the rock work

 

[Meisen]

Pics of the fuge

Pics of the fuge

Just finished installing my new sub $50.00 in sump fuge.

It is a 5 gallon Rubbermaid wastepaper basket
Uses a Lights of America 65 W pc fixture
Water flows through ~50 gph with a old aquaclear powerhead splitting between the fuge and sump circulation.
Fuge has about 25 lbs of southdown, 5 lbs live rock, mangrove props and chaetomorpha.

Here are a few shots of it as well as how it fits in the sump:

 

[Meisen]

^

 

[Meisen]

Revisiting tank progress.....1 year later

Revisiting tank progress.....1 year later

OK so my tank has been coming along. It is just over a year old now so I thought I would give some updates and some pics. Here are the current lighting specs:

AB Oceanlight2 X 250 W HQI & T5 Actinics. This light originally came with 10K ABs and I felt it was too yellow. I am running AB 20K MHs right now.

I have added some fish to the tank (and lost the bicolor blenny to jumping):

R.S. Sailfin Tang (orginal inhabitant
Atlantic Algae Blenny
4 Green Chromis (lost 3 of the originals over the year)
Yellow Watchman Goby
Solarensis Fairy Wrasse
2-Spot Hogfish
Flame Angel
Male Bellus Angel
Black Saddle Clown
Scott's Fairy Wrasse

 

[Meisen]

Inverts

Inverts

Here are the current inverts excluding the corals:
Pair Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
6 Peppermint Shrimp
Fire Shrimp
10 Pistol Shrimp
Tiger Tail Cucumber
25 Astrea Snails
10 Blue-leg hermits
10 Scarlet Reef Hermits
5 Zebra Hermits
5 conchs
15 Nassarius Snails
4 Cerith Snails
2 Feather Duster Worms
3 Coco Worms
1 Squamosa Clam
2 Maxima Clams
2 Derasa Clams
3 Crocea Clams

 

[Meisen]

Some Pics

Some Pics

Here are a few views of the tank today:

I spent like five hours trying to get this shot where the wrasses look like they are about to kiss:

lol jk it just came out that way....

 

[Meisen]

Male Bellus Angel

Male Bellus Angel

Here is one of the newer additions to the tank:

He took a while to settle in like most of the Gemicanthus sp. I think the Tang kicking the stuffing out of him every day might have had something to do with it. I barely saw him for a couple of weeks. He is now a total pig and even takes mysis from my fingers. I would like to give him a pair of females however I think the fishload is already too high (who can I get rid of though?).

 

[Meisen]

The Bane of my existence......

The Bane of my existence......

This stuff is the bane of my existence.

You can see it in some of the older pics I took of the tank. Now it is the largest coral in the tank even after taking all that I could break off out 4X!!! I have a couple other plating Montiporas in there and yet they all grow much more slowly. Of course, they are much nicer looking too.

 

[marinelife]

looking good