ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

[ReefWreak]

I'm going to let him design the specifics, but that all sounds about right. Hopefully they'll give us a discount. Even if it's something like $100 to make us feel better about spending $XX,XXX on a glass box filled with water in our living rooms.

And hey, the Oregon Tort frag hasn't died yet! I'm still dialing in since I switched to ESV Bioninc instead of BRS, but so far so good.

My pH is swinging like crazy having family staying with us in a 1 bedroom apartment, so it's been harder to dial in, but I'm hoping to get there. The CO2 scrubber that LQT gave me has been helpful, and I see it turning more and more purple every day, but after 24 hours of everyone being cooped up on a hot day in the AC in the house, the pH wouldn't get over 7.75 in the tank. Low alkalinity + high CO2. But it's been getting better.

Also, my dad noticed a little thing crawling on the glass. I assumed it was a zoa-eating nudibranch, only because my friend recently had them, and even though I haven't gotten a frag from him, it was just fresh on my mind. It looked almost like a nudibranch until I got really really close to it, and then it turned out to be a baby snail! I've never seen a snail that small! I have astrea snails, and they have pretty wide shells, but this tiny guy had a pointed shell.

Either it's a pyramid snail that killed one of my clams (I don't think so, but I don't know why it died when my maxima is still doing great), or it really is just a baby astrea snail, and they start life with a much more pointed cone than the adults have. I'm thinking astrea because it also was an mostly opaque shell (though at that small it's still slightly translucent) where the pyramid snails look like they have white/translucent shells. I doubt it's a pest, but that's where my mind goes when I have tank problems, though usually it's just from running out of 2 part and/or me playing with the tank causing issues.

I have to review and see if the pics I took with the macro lens came out. It was really an astonishing sight, and you really needed macro to see it.

 

[soulpatch]

It could have come from me. I am having some baby snails popping up right now. I only noticed since I flipped the sump and saw them in my fuge area in the old sump.

If from me then it is baby astrea and yes they are small and pointy

 

[ReefWreak]

It's been a while, but tank is still doing alright. My salinity has been perpetually too high (1.030) so I think some of the issues I've been having have related to that. But apparently most algaes don't like high salinity, so I haven't had much algae other than a few outbreaks of bubble algae. I'm on the fence about whether to get an emerald crab for the bubbles or not.

Updated FTS:

 

[ReefWreak]

Oh yea, also adopted/bought some fish from a local who was breaking down their tank. I didn't QT or TTM, because I'm lazy/stupid (choose your own adjective!). They've been in their tank for over a year without issue, so hopefully they're fine. I was also worried about messing around with TTM while reducing salinity in my display and adjusting them to the tank too. Do as I say, not as I do

New fishes:
Geometric Hawkfish (tiny! 1")
Tailspot blenny (also quite small - 1.5")
Yellow-striped cleaner goby (tiny, 1")

So far they seem to have adapted well, though they're all hiders.

I need to do a better job of cleaning the glass so I can see them in the rockwork more, but I need a better way to clean the glass, because weak-*** glass cleaners are a pain and don't do a good job, and I can't reach a lot of spaces with a razor in my hand because of the coral growth. I'm wondering about getting a razor-holding stick and doing it that way in areas I can't reach. But with the front curved glass, that won't work. Everyone keeps saying Tunze nano, so maybe I'll try that. I'm just frustrated with proprietary blades on cleaners.

 

[Rakie]

Just an FYI, that Geometric Hawk will grow BOLD with time. Mine was about 2", maybe a little less and he killed a Yellow Coris Wrasse in 6-7 hours, then killed my Tanaka Possum Wrasse.. Both these fish were much larger than he.

On the bright side, he only showed aggression to new additions and loved to pal around with my Firefish.. He's also going to be an intelligent and inquisitive little guy. Mine used to like to perch on the rock nearest me and watch my computer screen while I'm at my desk. Very cool little fish, HUGE personality.

Oh yeah, and he has no problem checking to make sure your shrimp aren't delicious.

 

[ReefWreak]

Interesting. I've never heard that. I just figured he'd be a bit more docile than other hawkfishes, if for no other reason than his size. Thanks for the heads up though. Hopefully he'll be nice and relaxed since he's a later addition to my tank and I have a lot of liverock.

Heh, hopefully the shrimp is fine. My wife likes him. I think she'd be really ****ed if he went missing.

 

[Rakie]

As a late addition and a juvi he'll probably be alright. I thought the same thing but he turned into the ruler of the tank. Before I let him go to another local reefer he only allowed the Firefish to eat. If anything else tried to get food he'd be on 'em right away.

 

[bitwise]

I'm loving the size of some of those SPS pieces in your latest FTS. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ReefWreak]

I'm loving the size of some of those SPS pieces in your latest FTS. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! My pleasure. It's funny, my new Nexus 5x takes much bluer pics than the old LG G3 did. All can be tweaked in white balance, but I like these more (though it doesn't look that blue in person).

Minor update, Rakie might have been more right. The cleaner goby, who came in with the hawkfish, wasn't doing his usual exploration around the tank last night. I looked around the crevices with a flashlight, and there he was, dead, under a back corner in the rock work. Too bad, cute little guy.

I'm fairly sure he didn't starve to death, as fishes can last a number of weeks without food. I haven't seen the hawkfish go after him, or anyone else in the tank. The only fishes I've seen any aggression from are the clownfishes, who are protecting their usual hosting zone. So not sure what to think. All of the other fishes from the new acquisition are fine, and they were all acclimated together, and they wouldn't have suddenly succumbed to a disease they had before, since they had been in that last tank for a year together.

I'm just not sure why the hawkfish would kill it's former tank mate. Maybe just getting acquainted with the new tank. We'll see. I hope this doesn't become a pattern. My wife is really sad/unhappy about the loss of one new fish. If we lose a/the clowns or the angel, she'll freak and I don't blame her. Hopefully it's just part of the new tank introduction process. I feel bad about every loss, and don't like that I don't yet have a definitive conclusion on this one. I'll be much more vigilant for aggression, though I still haven't seen any from the hawkfish.

 

[Idal305]

Looking good bro. Glad to see an update

 

[Rakie]

I'm just not sure why the hawkfish would kill it's former tank mate. Maybe just getting acquainted with the new tank. We'll see.

BIG POST... Sorry homie, but hopefully it gives you some insight into that little perchlet.

it may have been the hawkfish but maybe not..

My Hawk was aggressively territorial over food, and over rockwork. But I wouldn't call him "mean" exactly. I've been told by people who kept the Geo Hawk that 3' is almost too small for their personality, AKA, rock lust. Within a few moments in my tank he claimed 100% of the rockwork. The only thing he would let near the rocks was my firefish for absolutely no reason other than she was there first.

The Coris Wrasse had to die because the Hawk gets first choice of food, 100% of the time. The poor wrasse was foolish enough to think it could eat :/ so he was chased to death until he got scared and ran into the glass, then took an emergency dive into my shallow sand bed.

The Tanaka? Well he was interested in being near the rockwork. The Geo put that notion to sleep right away, the Tanaka spent 2 days hugging the surface of the water and getting chased and pecked at if he even looked at the rockwork or food.

Now if your new fish came from a bigger tank, i can tell you it's absolutely possible that the hawk has claimed new territory, and possibly larger territory if no other strong-willed rock dweller is there to stand his ground. If that's the case he was probably beating up the cleaner at night.

What makes the Geo Hawk a nightmare to tank mates is that he's fairly nocturnal. When the lights are off, he's on the prowl guaranteed. He absolutely is active during the day, but the first 2-6 hours of lights out he wanders the tank. What *mine* did during this time? Made 100% of the amphipods extinct, and figured out where all the other fish slept and scared the living crap out of them by biting them while they slept in his rocks.

This Hawkfish will torment your fish at night, and you won't see much of the deed. He's also *very* intelligent and will absolutely find ways to launch surprise attacks the other fish don't see coming, which will eventually make them jump or run into glass.

Here's what you watch out for -- When you first see him peeking out of his safety rock to get food he may dash out for a bit of food and high tail it back to his rock. Eventually he'll find a place to perch where the food drifts by when you feed. Lastly, he will pick out only the biggest juiciest looking pieces and play a game of chicken with any fish foolish enough to go after the same piece as him, after they get lose to the hawk OR get bitten in the face a few times the other fish will likely stop trying to compete with him and allow him to pick out whatever he wants to eat -- At this stage he owns the tank, and any fish that gets out of line in his eyes will get snapped at or chased.

They subtly take over. You can tell by the feeding stages above.

 

[Rakie]

Any update on the little Geo hawk?

 

[ReefWreak]

Crap, I've been meaning to thank you very much for taking the time to write the above!

So no updates on the geometric hawk. He's been doing well, generally just kinda hiding in the shadows. Everyone else has seems just fine, no torn fins or anything else. The hawkfish still just stays in the shadows for the most part, only occasionally coming out on one side of the tank, or poking out the top of the rockwork.

During feeding time, he's actually the only one I don't see come out for food. Even now the blenny comes out and grabs some food, then goes back into the rockwork. I haven't seen the hawkfish eat (though he doesn't look skinny when I do see him around). I've been broadcast feeding frozen rods food to make sure there is plenty for him to eat.

Most of my fishes are also not easily startled/surprised. The angel is scouting all day and night around the tank, the clowns have their territory that they defend aggressively, and the blenny has just seemed kind of chill, and found some nice hidey-holes around the tank to relax in. Maybe the hawkfish will go after them, but so far it looks like everyone has been comfortable in their places.

Re-reading your note, I'm feeling better about not purchasing a pair of helfrichi firefish this weekend...

 

[ReefWreak]

All is going mostly well. Just finished up a gallon of ESV 2 part, and started AquaForest A, B, V, and E dosing this past weekend, so 1 week in. So far so good. Looks like my bubble algae is slowing down (last 2 weeks or so), and everything is mostly doing well. Thanks for checking! Below is some eye candy for your time

Guess I'm doing something right?

 

[BarryV]

Looks GREAT, Reefwreak
Thanks for sharing,
Barry

 

[soulpatch]

You need larger tank.


Hey you doing the nj frag swap? I might be up there

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

 

[ReefWreak]

Thanks Barry!

I do need a larger tank. But I got nowwhere to stick a larger tank. Oh well. I just keep stashing my lunch money away for when I do have somewhere to stick a bigger tank...

I wasn't planning on it. I saw the post and it sounded good (almost sent it to you, but remember you mentioning it already in your thread so I didn't), but I just don't need anything and can't fit anything else. Lemme know about that CC live auction though... those things are amazing...

 

[Rakie]

I think you could fit a nice 36x24x18 in your house somewhere.

Honesty if you could have taken out the false wall and drilled your BC it would seem significantly more spacious.

 

[ReefWreak]

I think you could fit a nice 36x24x18 in your house somewhere.

Honesty if you could have taken out the false wall and drilled your BC it would seem significantly more spacious.

There's floorspace, but the logistics of it, combined with landlord resistance, and other big life changes going on, make it not worthwhile. It's okay though, I'll keep on trucking. It just means I need to make more frags

What I really need to do is figure out how to get a much larger array of LEDs over my tank than the current setup. I've nudged RapidLED a few times to make a larger sized heatsink to cover more of the tank area. I've done a lot of measurements to see where I could fit more lights:

The obvious and easy answer is remove the hood, raise the lights, and I'll get the coverage I desire, but then I get the evaporation and a couple of other frustrations that I don't desire. I really like how well insulated the tank is from temperature with the top on, and the hood is almost the last bastion of the simplicity of an all-in-one.

I had/have a line on a good deal on a sick ATI hybrid fixture that needs some TLC, but I'd have to go open top, and that's already been voted down (though I got a lot of support from my RC/MR friends, thank you for your input!).

It's just grow in, prune back, keep my head down time, and eventually I'll have the dream tank :smurf:

 

[Rakie]

Well there's a few other sites you could go to and order specific sized heatsinks. Heatsink USA comes to mind.

With those heatsinks you could space out your LED's more, or you could run more LED's on the outside without any optics which will give a GIANT spread with a blanket of low par. It helps a lot of shading.

Additionally, you could tilt the LED's on this outside edge I'm talking about ---> \\\\ tank //// this will help a little with light on the underside and broaden that blanket of light to area's your current lights don't get.

Also, I'm torn on that latest top down shot from you. It looks 99% amazing, 1% like a bomb went off in a small frag tank, lol. I'm siding with amazing, but it looks like if you want anything new a trim wont do it, you'd need to outright replace those guys. They're gonna turn into 1 solid giant acro entwined around each other.