Renton's Upgrade

[Renton777]

For those who may not be following the LEAR frag swap thread, my orange spot filefish were the inspiration for the swap t-shirt! (Shameless plug :spin3 If you are interested in ordering a shirt and have questions feel free to shoot me a PM.

The 2013 LEAR Lake Erie Frag Fest T-shirts are now available for pre-order.

$20 Short Sleeve

$26 Long Sleeve

Limited Supply Available - order now (Scroll halfway down the page to order)

T-shirt Orders will be available for pickup at the swap (it is highly recommended that you pre-order, there may not be any for sale at the swap)

Please provide your full name with your order.

This year's shirt features the lovable Orangespotted Filefish (Oxymonacanthus longirostris)

Order your shirt by clicking here or visiting learclub.com (Scroll halfway down the page to order)


We can ship the shirts to you if you are unable to make the swap.

Shirts will be shipped after the swap.

An additional $5 shipping charge will apply.

If you would like your shirt shipped, please indicate that in the note section when you pay on paypal. You will then be sent an additional $5 invoice to cover the shipping.

 

[Renton777]

2-8-13 Top Down

I finally took some top-down shots of my corals. First time I have done this since I setup the new tank. It is a bit more difficult to do with this tank.

I took the pictures from above the water, no top down photo box, with all the pumps off. Still difficult to get pictures of some corals without distortions.

 

[Renton777]

 

[Renton777]

 

[Renton777]

 

[mike660r]

Your corals all seem to be growing very well. Good job!

 

[Renton777]

LEAR FRAG SWAP & Achilles Tang

LEAR FRAG SWAP & Achilles Tang

So this weekend was a big weekend for my reef tank.

Friday an order from Diver's Den arrived. In that order was an Achilles tang. I chose Diver's Den once again to acquire a difficult-to-care for fish based on the fact that the other very difficult fish I have gotten, a pair of orange spot filefish and Hawaiian potters leopard wrasse, all came from Diver's Den and have done great in my tank.

The first day in the tank the Achilles got roughed up pretty good from my yellow-eye Kole tang. But the hostilities have subsided for the most part.

So far the Achilles has only really chowed down on red seaweed and picked at the socks a bit. I will be offering a wide variety of food over the next several days.

After about 30 pictures these were the best I could manage.

Saturday was the 2013 LEAR Frag Fest! Over 800 people and a ton of vendors!!

Here are a few of the goodies I got:

 

[Renton777]

Not the best picture but the colors are great on this favia

Finally got my webcam back up and running. I am going to try and be more consistent with having it on, more for my benefit (I can even check it from my cell phone), but feel free to check in when you are bored at work : http://www.ustream.tv/rentonreef

 

[Clarkii01]

Looks really good. I can't wait to get some pics of all the stuff I picked up yesterday. It was better than Christmas!

 

[DEERE G]

Achilles... One of my favorite fish. Looking good!

 

[d-maz]

Hey Renton, I picked up the Anti Venom favia too. Boy is it small. Hope it grows well. Where do you plan on keep it? Bottom or a little up from there?

 

[Renton777]

Hey Renton, I picked up the Anti Venom favia too. Boy is it small. Hope it grows well. Where do you plan on keep it? Bottom or a little up from there?

Nice! I love it. I plan on keeping it on the bottom. It is really shaded now, but I may move it into a lighter area at some point depending upon how it does. Jason emphasized to keep it low light so I am starting there.

 

[Renton777]

Quick Achilles tang update. She is now eating Sustainable Aquatics Dry Hatchery Diet pellets (the same pellets my orange spot filefish eat).

 

[cash03ins]

Love the Achilles tang

 

[johndawg]

Awesome tank! Great thread! Just read from beginning to end. Any chance you can talk about the stuff under the tank, what you dose, water changes etc?
Thanks,
John

 

[nmouncey]

Funny. I went right to Jason and asked about Anti-Venom and he was out. Now I know where it went : )

I "settled" for Dankas Favia, which I love almost as much.

 

[Renton777]

Love the Achilles tang

Thanks, it is eating more now so I am hopeful it has settled in.

Awesome tank! Great thread! Just read from beginning to end. Any chance you can talk about the stuff under the tank, what you dose, water changes etc?
Thanks,
John

Thanks John. I do not have a recent picture of underneath to show it, but I have 2 five gallon buckets for dosing calcium and alk. I use Bulk Reef Supply 2 part using the soda ash. I have dosing pumps controlled by my apex that dose for 1 or 2 minutes at a time, several times a day. This keeps my ph right around 8.4, just where I like it. I use Kent Tech M to supplement magnesium.

I shoot for 10 gallon water changes every week. With an occasional 15 or 20 gallon change.

I have bio pellets running in a Two Little Fishies 150 reactor. I fill the reactor up about 1/3 of the way with pellets. A little bit of bio pellets goes a long way in my experience.

I have recently started dosing a vial of Prodibio BioDigest bacteria every two weeks. I did this because I was getting some brown daily growth on the sand bed in a couple areas. Since dosing the bacteria that has gone away.

I feed a medium to heavy amount of food, frozen in the morning consisting of a mixture of mysis, brine shrimp and ova. Then various pellets through out the day. I also feed purple and green algae sheets a few times per week. I do believe that the bio pellets combined with the bacteria do a great job with controlling nitrates and phosphates, both which test extremely low to undetectable every time I test.

Any other questions John?

Funny. I went right to Jason and asked about Anti-Venom and he was out. Now I know where it went : )

I "settled" for Dankas Favia, which I love almost as much.

I actually contacted Jason before the swap and asked him to bring a piece of the Anti-Venom. He ended up bringing 3 pieces I think. Every time I see the mother colony on his website it just strikes me.

That Dankas Favia is sweet to.

 

[johndawg]

Great info, thanks!

 

[Renton777]

I should also add that I run a small amount of both carbon and GFO. The output is fed into a filter sock to help contain any GFO or carbon dust that may escape the reactor.

 

[Melchior]

I really wish I could move into keeping some favias and chalices as they seem to be the most colorful, but they haven't done well historically in my tank. Don't know why, phosphates maybe? I don't run a reactor but I do dose the same two-part you do. Maybe someday I'll try a few more chalices other than the red one I've got which is iffy from day to day