Tank is a Year Old Now!

[SushiGirl]

I never did a build thread or anything here, but our tank turned a year old in October.

55 gallon with 20+ gallon sump, 4 T5s for lighting. Reef Octopus for skimmer. I started with 75 lbs of dead Vanuatu rock that had been in my garage for 6 1/2 years, added 15 lbs of live Vanuatu, and about 45 lbs of sand. We cycled and let it run for 3 months before adding any inhabitants, so inhabitant-wise it's now a year old. These are just pics of the tank & its inhabitants during the year.

10/11/10

4/17/11

8/13/11

1/1/12

 

[cyberwild360]

Congrats! And it's looking awesome!!

 

[SushiGirl]

Fish: 1 orbic cardinal, 1 6 spot sleeper goby, 1 orange-spotted goby, and 1 yellow coris wrasse.

We added all 4 fish at once (thank god for a hard cycle, not even a blip in ammonia LOL) in March 2011. We started with 2 orbics, but the larger one harassed the smaller one into getting stuck behind a rock in July and sadly he didn't make it after being there 8 hours while I was at work. He held out for a few hours, but was just too beat up.

Orbic Cardinal (we now call it Puppy Dog because it follows me around the tank).

6-spot Sleeper Goby. I can't repeat his name on a family friendly site, but his initials are AH. He earned that name 30 minutes in the tank when he jumped into the overflow and we had to remove the standpipe, then I had to stand on a chair up to my shoulder in the overflow & feel around for him.

 

[SushiGirl]

Thanks, Cyber! We've really had some amazing growth so far. I'm afraid pretty soon it's gonna be all leather & zoas LOL.

 

[SpencerG]

Nice tank! Amazing what a difference a year makes.

 

[SushiGirl]

Orange-spot shrimp goby named Spot (duh). Or as I like to call it, Spotty McSpotspot LOL. This one now spends the day hiding because the 6 spot has gotten more aggressive since the addition of the wrasse. For some reason, Spot came out today while I was taking pics, yay! First one is from today.

Threatening the crab to stay away.

 

[Fish4Me2]

Congrats, it looks great! Mine also hit a year this weekend, so I'll wish us both a happy reefiversary.

 

[SushiGirl]

Thank you, Spencer, and yes it certainly is. Just goes to show how patience pays off (and how quickly time flies)!

This is the latest addition, we bought it in October to deal with pyramid snails. It hid in the sand for 9 days, apparently only coming out when we weren't home and eating the pyramid snails LOL. Now it thinks it owns the joint, except Puppy Dog sets it straight sometimes. Taking pics of this one is like taking pics of the sun, the camera can't handle the brightness!

 

[SushiGirl]

Very cool, Fish4me2! Happy tankaversary LOL.

Other inhabitants are one skunk cleaner (had 2, but the big old one died after killing & eating one of our cerith snails before our very eyes!). The original one was huge & the fish were afraid of it, name was Antennas. I bought a smaller one that the 2 gobies aren't afraid of & they let it clean them. The other 2 fish are still like "No way, man! It keeps lunging at me!" LOL This one is Minitennas.

We also added a Candy Pistol shrimp back when we added the fish back in March, but it hasn't paired up with anyone. It takes food out of the baster, but I can never get a good pic, so it's a good thing I took one before I let it out of the bag LOL. Of course, when I added it, the cardinal immediately tried to eat it, so I don't blame it for not being brave. I'm hoping when we get the 140 set up and AH moved over, that Spot and "Snappy" will pair up.

 

[SushiGirl]

We had 3 peppermint shrimp, but we lost the largest and oldest one week before last, apparently. I've noticed over the years that when shrimp get big & old, they do strange things (like the skunk eating the cerith). This one would jump on my hand anytime I did something in the tank (I was moving a coral this time). You can see how large & fat it was.

This is the medium-sized one that is left.

This is the little one that is still really small.

 

[SushiGirl]

The first critters in the tank were 3 rather large, male emerald crabs. I got home from work one day, and they were in bags floating in the tank for me to acclimate. At the time, my boyfriend was really impatient & knew nothing about saltwater. He bought these exactly at the 3 month mark (I told him 3 months before adding any critters LOL). Unfortunately, the last one finally passed a month ago, which of course was his favorite one. We've had no algae in the tank, and 3 large emeralds in a 55 meant I had to feed them. I still think I didn't feed them enough, though, since they weren't always where I could get to them. Now that the last one was gone, we started seeing bubble algae and hair algae pop up, so we bought a small female the other day. She's busy now.

Only this one had a name...Big Red (my boyfriend is a huge Nebraska Cornhuskers fan). He lost his claw when the guy netted him at the store.

The others weren't named.

 

[SushiGirl]

This is another thing I came home to floating ready for me to acclimate. This was back in February. When I saw it, I told him no more buying without me there. Sadly, despite my attempts to keep it fed with phyto and various other things, it shrank steadily then dropped its head and died early last month. First pic is February, 2nd pic is November. You can see how much more scrawny it looks in the 2nd pic.

 

[SushiGirl]

Zoas were the first coral I put in the tank. I love zoas. Back when I first started in 2002, they were called *whatever color* polyps, not the fancy names that drive the price up & mean nothing! :lmao:

1/8/11

1/1/12

This frag did great, then the mushroom moved in (on its own). The zoas can't bail fast enough to get away from it.

1/22/11

4/17/11

8/13/11

1/1/12

2/27/11

1/1/12

 

[jacob.morgan78]

So is this going to be the update thread where you post new additions and updates???

Great pictures!! It's hard to get shots like that! You must have a really nice camera...

 

[SushiGirl]

Yeah, jacob, this is where I'll update & stuff. I originally had it on another site, but I'm here more than there, so figured I'd get it going here. We have a Canon 30d, which isn't great for tank pics, but I make it work. My old point & shoot Nikon was great at tank pics, but it won't focus anymore. When we get our 140 build going, I'll be starting a 140 build thread.

So, on with more zoas.

4/3/11

4/17/11

8/13/11

1/1/12

4/3/11

4/17/11

8/13/11

These did well, then someone kept knocking them off the rock. I moved them, but they seemed less happy there. I found a ball anemone on them and they were always closed, so I managed to make it leave & they're a lot happier now, but still not at their previous glory (and too far back in the tank for a good shot LOL).

 

[tebstan]

Threatening the crab to stay away.

Awesome Picture!

 

[SushiGirl]

These zoas are doing well, but they are what introduced pests into my system even though I dipped the heck out of them. I got out all but one ball anemone that I missed and now I have 5 that love bugging zoas. I found a polyclad flatworm in there (BTW, it took 10 days to die in the Coral RX, which didn't phase it, I found it & removed it manually). The beautiful palys I had next to these are now pretty much gone (trying to recover in the sump, but not likely). And we have red planaria fortunately not in plague proportions. All I can say is, if you look at someone's tank & think "Man, I better dip this stuff" just don't buy it. Dipping didn't help.

5/21/11

8/13/11

1/1/12

The original ball anemone.

These were the beautiful palys that are now in the sump. I really don't think they'll make it. I never found a single pest on them.

3/26/11

4/17/11

8/13/11

9/19/11

11/19/11. And they're way worse than this now.

 

[SushiGirl]

Thanks Tebstan! I just happened to be taking pics when that whole thing went down. the crab eventually got to Spot's burrow (that he stole from AH) and tried to go in. Spot bit him, and he took a swipe at Spot, scaring him away LOL. I have a whole series.

Still have these, but I couldn't get a good shot this time.

4/3/11

4/17/11

8/13/11

These we won at a local meeting.

11/19/11

1/2/12

 

[SushiGirl]

This coral was given to us, I cringed when he gave it to us because I'd never kept one before (favia/war coral LPS). It's had its trials and tribulations, for sure! It did great, grew a bunch of mouths very quickly. Then it bleached, then it made a comeback, then it spent two 8 hour days in a row knocked upside down on a mushroom and looked like it wasn't going to make it. Lots of tissue recession. Then my boyfriend moved it next to a leather, then I moved it away and it's recovering very nicely.

1/8/11

4/17/11

5/20/11

8/13/11

11/19/11

1/1/12. In this one, you can see a tiny hydroid. These things are taking over by all my zoas and irritating the crap out of them. I'm not sure what to do about them because they're hair thin so I can't inject them and I can't paste over them without killing the zoas. Tricky little devils. Pluck them off with tweezers? If anyone has suggestions, let me know.

 

[patekphilippe]

nice