The inwall 380 starfire reborn
- Thread starter Sparkss
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in a turn of events all tangs are swimming around together without major incident or aggression. There is still an underlying "menace" to the purple tang, but it will swim right by the powder brown without showing any typical tang agressive "body language". So for now the new trap goes up onto the shelf just in case we need it later for anything 
small update... the tangs were all swimming around this morning like they were family (more or less). Guess I was just too impatient with the purple tang.. for now he gets a reprieve , which is a good thing because I really like him. He is a good looking fish. I will take some pictures of him later on today, after the lights come on
Here is our pair of neons (gotten from Live Aquaria back when we ordered everything else a couple of weeks ago). They had set up a cleaning station behind a rock on the right side of our tank :
We have had neons before, and I had read that they are cleaners, but I had never seen one perform that service in a tank. These two wil team up and look like a remora swimming with the fish that they are cleaning, it is really neat to watch. Unfortunately they were "on a break" when I went to take their pictures last night, but we have seen them cleaning the dottybacks and purple tang and suspect that they also clean the others as well. There are several inches between the glass and that rock that they are on, enough that the largest fish in our tank, the purple tang, can swim by from back to front with room to spare. I think I even recall seeing him turn around at the widest point between the rock and wall. The neons occupy one of the many holes in that rock. They can normally be seen peeking out of the hole just below and to the right of the top most neon.
I will try to get pictures of at least one of them, hopefully both, in their home hole and also of them cleaning the fish (which is great for the smaller fish that the cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp are just a bit too big to do without scaring the fish they are cleaning).
The only fish that shows them aggression is the cleaner wrasse occasionaly swims through their "area" and chases them for a short distance.. maybe he is worried about them encroaching on his "cleaning business" ? Sort of chasing out the competition. It is not so frequent nor so aggessive to warrant any concern. The neons rarely move far to get out of the wrasses way and don't seem really that freaked out by him any more 
, which is a good thing because I really like him. He is a good looking fish. I will take some pictures of him later on today, after the lights come on Here is our pair of neons (gotten from Live Aquaria back when we ordered everything else a couple of weeks ago). They had set up a cleaning station behind a rock on the right side of our tank :
We have had neons before, and I had read that they are cleaners, but I had never seen one perform that service in a tank. These two wil team up and look like a remora swimming with the fish that they are cleaning, it is really neat to watch. Unfortunately they were "on a break" when I went to take their pictures last night, but we have seen them cleaning the dottybacks and purple tang and suspect that they also clean the others as well. There are several inches between the glass and that rock that they are on, enough that the largest fish in our tank, the purple tang, can swim by from back to front with room to spare. I think I even recall seeing him turn around at the widest point between the rock and wall. The neons occupy one of the many holes in that rock. They can normally be seen peeking out of the hole just below and to the right of the top most neon.
I will try to get pictures of at least one of them, hopefully both, in their home hole and also of them cleaning the fish (which is great for the smaller fish that the cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp are just a bit too big to do without scaring the fish they are cleaning).
The only fish that shows them aggression is the cleaner wrasse occasionaly swims through their "area" and chases them for a short distance.. maybe he is worried about them encroaching on his "cleaning business" ? Sort of chasing out the competition
. It is not so frequent nor so aggessive to warrant any concern. The neons rarely move far to get out of the wrasses way and don't seem really that freaked out by him any more after lights out tonight a pair of our peppermint shrimp spawned (all of the shrimp in our tank have been with us for 9+ months). There were little shrimp swimming all about (and fish greedily and merrily chasing and gulping them down . The corals seemed happy also . No pictures, as I just happened to notice it ont he way up to bed and it was over pretty quickly after we saw it happening.
. The corals seemed happy also . No pictures, as I just happened to notice it ont he way up to bed and it was over pretty quickly after we saw it happening.
Thanks Steve.. much appreaciated.
On a sad note I was cleaning out some media in the top sump and found the body of the sea horse that had been living out there. I saw him jetting about a couple of days ago and he looke fine, and there was an over abundance of live food in there, just his size, so I am unsure what happened to him. His body looked to have been dead for some time, so I suspect that he died not long after I last saw him.
On an up note, the pair of neons has been quite busy cleaning our fish, even the pipe fish. Here they are with the purple tang pulling away and the pipefish pulling up to be cleaned.
I couldn't manage to get any pictures of them actually cleaning hte pipe fish because my camera was too slow and it is a lower light area that I was trying to photograph. Maybe I will catch that the next time. Here is a shot with them hovering over the pipefish though
On a sad note I was cleaning out some media in the top sump and found the body of the sea horse that had been living out there. I saw him jetting about a couple of days ago and he looke fine, and there was an over abundance of live food in there, just his size, so I am unsure what happened to him. His body looked to have been dead for some time, so I suspect that he died not long after I last saw him.
On an up note, the pair of neons has been quite busy cleaning our fish, even the pipe fish. Here they are with the purple tang pulling away and the pipefish pulling up to be cleaned.
I couldn't manage to get any pictures of them actually cleaning hte pipe fish because my camera was too slow and it is a lower light area that I was trying to photograph. Maybe I will catch that the next time
. Here is a shot with them hovering over the pipefish though
had a decent sized coral/frag RTN over night. Fragged about 1/2" of live coral off of the tip, we will see how it does, but I am honestly not expecting it to survive (but also not ready to give up on it yet). It was one of our favorites too, but such is the way these things go. This is the 3rd coral to RTN in the past month or so, but one was a new frag that was less than a week in our tank, so I attribute that one to succumbing to the stresses of acclimating to our tank (transportation, dips, acclimation, etc).
What with all going on I decided to do the full suite of tests on our water (I admittedly usually only do this every month or three). Here are the parms I came up with, and the test kit I used to cehck them with) :
Alk........... 9.5 (Elos)
Ca........... 400 - 425 (Elos)
NO3......... 5 (Elos)
PO4......... .19 (Hanna)
The Phosphates bothered me, while I don't necessarily attribute the deaths to it, I still knew that I needed to take care of it. We had been dosing sugar for a couple of weeks now, but it was few and far between and far from scientific or controlled (just a half teaspoon or so twice a week, give or take). I decided that we needed to take that up a notch and started today with 2.5 tsp. The two main downsides that I can see to dosing is 1. O2 depravation and 2. Stripping the water too far too fast. There is little to the nitrates to strip, and the PO4 is not abhorrently high, so that takes care of concern #2, and concern #1 should be well handled by our skimmer. That plus I dosed about 10% less than the lowest recommeded first dosage (and had been dosing smaller amounts for a couple of weeks now already). I will continue to report how it works out for us
On a water quality/clarity note, I am still troubled by the "cloudy" water that we seem to be stuck with. I have more or less ruled out micro bubbles, but while doing some work on the main pump earlier this week I had the return offline for about an hour, and during the time the tank seemed to clear up a bit, but that could still be caused by sand being stirred up. I am starting to lean towards the sand that we picked up from a fellow reefers tank when he took it down. We wanted it to help spur on our tank cycle (since we started with 100% base rock), but now I am starting to regret that decision since I think that this sand is just too fine for a reef tank. The tank where it came from was a mainly softies tank, so I don't think that he had much water movement in it, unlike our tank now. I still am not sure what I can do to prove this, beyond shutting ALL pumps off in the tank for a couple of hours (not an option). And if I do prove that it is the sand, then what do I do to "fix" it ? *sigh*.
What with all going on I decided to do the full suite of tests on our water (I admittedly usually only do this every month or three). Here are the parms I came up with, and the test kit I used to cehck them with) :
Alk........... 9.5 (Elos)
Ca........... 400 - 425 (Elos)
NO3......... 5 (Elos)
PO4......... .19 (Hanna)
The Phosphates bothered me, while I don't necessarily attribute the deaths to it, I still knew that I needed to take care of it. We had been dosing sugar for a couple of weeks now, but it was few and far between and far from scientific or controlled (just a half teaspoon or so twice a week, give or take). I decided that we needed to take that up a notch and started today with 2.5 tsp. The two main downsides that I can see to dosing is 1. O2 depravation and 2. Stripping the water too far too fast. There is little to the nitrates to strip, and the PO4 is not abhorrently high, so that takes care of concern #2, and concern #1 should be well handled by our skimmer. That plus I dosed about 10% less than the lowest recommeded first dosage (and had been dosing smaller amounts for a couple of weeks now already). I will continue to report how it works out for us
On a water quality/clarity note, I am still troubled by the "cloudy" water that we seem to be stuck with. I have more or less ruled out micro bubbles, but while doing some work on the main pump earlier this week I had the return offline for about an hour, and during the time the tank seemed to clear up a bit, but that could still be caused by sand being stirred up. I am starting to lean towards the sand that we picked up from a fellow reefers tank when he took it down. We wanted it to help spur on our tank cycle (since we started with 100% base rock), but now I am starting to regret that decision since I think that this sand is just too fine for a reef tank. The tank where it came from was a mainly softies tank, so I don't think that he had much water movement in it, unlike our tank now. I still am not sure what I can do to prove this, beyond shutting ALL pumps off in the tank for a couple of hours (not an option). And if I do prove that it is the sand, then what do I do to "fix" it ? *sigh*.
Current stocking list :
1 purple tang
1 sailfin tang
1 orange shoulder tang
1 tomini tang
1 powder brown tang
1 magnificent rabitfish
1 golden angel
1 cleaner wrasse
1 ornate wrasse (aka christmas wrasse)
1 yellow wrasse
2 blue sided fairy wrasses
1 red tailed tamarin
2 orchid dottybacks
1 indigo dottyback
pair of ocellaris (hosted in an RBTA)
1 percula
pair of spotted mandarins
1 banggai cardnial fish
1 geometric hawkfish
1 banded pipe fish
pair of blue neon gobies
2 squamosa clams
3 crocea clams
1 deresa clam
1 cleaner shrimp
5 peppermint shrimp
6 tiger tail cukes (They all stay on the sandbed)
1 brittle star (last one left to trap out.. I regret having added these guys)
1 purple tang
1 sailfin tang
1 orange shoulder tang
1 tomini tang
1 powder brown tang
1 magnificent rabitfish
1 golden angel
1 cleaner wrasse
1 ornate wrasse (aka christmas wrasse)
1 yellow wrasse
2 blue sided fairy wrasses
1 red tailed tamarin
2 orchid dottybacks
1 indigo dottyback
pair of ocellaris (hosted in an RBTA)
1 percula
pair of spotted mandarins
1 banggai cardnial fish
1 geometric hawkfish
1 banded pipe fish
pair of blue neon gobies
2 squamosa clams
3 crocea clams
1 deresa clam
1 cleaner shrimp
5 peppermint shrimp
6 tiger tail cukes (They all stay on the sandbed)
1 brittle star (last one left to trap out.. I regret having added these guys)
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The water in the reactor is clear, except for the occassional CO2 bubbles (which have actually diminished significantly since this last "bleed off" of the trapped air/CO2 in the re-cycle chamber.
It could very well be the same issue that it bugging our corals.. but on the whole they are doing well.. good PE, good growth, etc. Vacuuming out the sand is an option... possibly running a syphon through a filter sock into the sump to minimize the loss of water, although that will take hours to days to complete (not that any method will be an easy one). I do have several lbs of GAC from a group buy last year, so I can run it in a FBR or passively in the sump ewasily enough. I just hate to lose all of that great microfauna that I know is in the sand now *sigh*... I know it will grow back and that we have plenty more in the rocks and fuge, but it is just frustrating. Not to mention that new sand is an expense that I was not planning on spending. If I knew for a fact that it was the sand, then it would be an easy decision for me.. but as it stands I am still not 100% sure...and really don't know any way to check, but I have some ideas.
Test #1 : Run the return pump and no vortecs for 4 hours
Test #2 : Run the Vortecs and no return pump for 4 hours
Test #3 : Run the Vortecs at their lowest setting and return pump at 25% - 50% for 4 hours (basically as little water movement as possible without endangering the livestock)
Assess water clarity after each test.
Of course these tests will have to be done on a day long after I am convinced that the "sugar" has worn off, to avoid O2 depravation in the tank during any of the low flow time frames.
Thoughts or suggestions ?
It could very well be the same issue that it bugging our corals.. but on the whole they are doing well.. good PE, good growth, etc. Vacuuming out the sand is an option... possibly running a syphon through a filter sock into the sump to minimize the loss of water, although that will take hours to days to complete (not that any method will be an easy one). I do have several lbs of GAC from a group buy last year, so I can run it in a FBR or passively in the sump ewasily enough. I just hate to lose all of that great microfauna that I know is in the sand now *sigh*... I know it will grow back and that we have plenty more in the rocks and fuge, but it is just frustrating. Not to mention that new sand is an expense that I was not planning on spending
. If I knew for a fact that it was the sand, then it would be an easy decision for me.. but as it stands I am still not 100% sure...and really don't know any way to check, but I have some ideas.Test #1 : Run the return pump and no vortecs for 4 hours
Test #2 : Run the Vortecs and no return pump for 4 hours
Test #3 : Run the Vortecs at their lowest setting and return pump at 25% - 50% for 4 hours (basically as little water movement as possible without endangering the livestock)
Assess water clarity after each test.
Of course these tests will have to be done on a day long after I am convinced that the "sugar" has worn off, to avoid O2 depravation in the tank during any of the low flow time frames.
Thoughts or suggestions ?
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10077450#post10077450 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
Here is the purple goni that we got in trade this past weekend. It has finally recovered from it's dips, has shown good response to target feeding and is finally starting to come out. But it still has a ways to go
I have had good luck with my purple goni by placing it on the rocks with lot's of light and lot's of flow. LPS that likes to be treated like a SPS, I almost lost mine in the sandbed before I moved it a few months ago.
Thanks for the heads up Dan. I may leave it where it is for a short bit longer to get a feel for how it handles our tank. Just for an example of our lighting levels, we have several acros growing and coloring up sitting right on our sand bed. Obviously they do even better when moved up onto the rockwork, but then again moving them up too fast can also be bad But it is good to know that the purple gonis need more light than a typical LPS... thanks
But it is good to know that the purple gonis need more light than a typical LPS... thanks well, I am not sure if it is the sugar or that I cleaned the skimmer or that I finally got it tuned in properly or that it maybe finally broke in (although from what I hear it is still too soon for that last one), but here is 20 or so hours worth of skimmate (definitely an increase from before.. and still pumping it out).
On a different note, I have been playing around with the idea of throwing a couple of 24" URI actinic white VHOs across the front of the tank. They make it easy since they have the built in 50% reflector. I pulled out one of our IC 660 ballasts and some waterproof VHO endcaps and wired them up for a 2 light configuration. Those bulbs look more pink than blue, but that was just fired over the concrete floor, so maybe it was just my eyes ? I picked up materials at HD tonight to make a basic lighting rack for the 2 bulbs. I am going to start out with two 24" bulbs for 2 reasons. 1. I only need something across the front of the tank for now and 2 is the minimum that the ballast will fire (according to the wiring diagram, although I have yet to test that... and 2. I already had the bulbs .. 4 of them actually, bought from an LFS going out of business (sort of). The second being the main driving factor for now . I can always change things around later if I feel the need.
On a different note, I have been playing around with the idea of throwing a couple of 24" URI actinic white VHOs across the front of the tank. They make it easy since they have the built in 50% reflector. I pulled out one of our IC 660 ballasts and some waterproof VHO endcaps and wired them up for a 2 light configuration. Those bulbs look more pink than blue, but that was just fired over the concrete floor, so maybe it was just my eyes ? I picked up materials at HD tonight to make a basic lighting rack for the 2 bulbs. I am going to start out with two 24" bulbs for 2 reasons. 1. I only need something across the front of the tank for now and 2 is the minimum that the ballast will fire (according to the wiring diagram, although I have yet to test that... and 2. I already had the bulbs
.. 4 of them actually, bought from an LFS going out of business (sort of). The second being the main driving factor for now . I can always change things around later if I feel the need. 
Thx Bax
Well, I finished the light rack Saturday morning (had everything but 4 bolts finished Friday night, so a quick HD run Sat morning and I was done). I made the rack long enough that I could mount 6' bulbs onto it if we wanted to. So if we move away from the 24" bulbs (of which we have 4 brand new URI Actinic White bulbs, 2 sitting in a box, 2 on the rack), when I can move the endcaps and be done.. no rewiring or anything else needed . (We also have some T5 endcaps in case we decide to go that route).
I can adjust it front to back on the light carriage. Right now we have it all the way back and it works out great. It doesn't add too much "punch" when the MHs are on, but we can see a fill in the corners and other areas, but beyond that and just a little more color, not much. The nice thing is that we run them an hour before and after the MHs, and over all they only cost us $10 per month to run the VHOs. I plan to lower the MH lighting period a little to see the "sweet spot" between growth, color and electrical consumption
I have them just at the bottom of the LAIIIs, which works out well. Even being this far forward of the tank, when the MHs are off and the VHOs on, they light a good majority of the entire tank. But to get mroe "pop" I may look into actinics versus the actinic white bulbs.. I haven't decided yet
Well, I finished the light rack Saturday morning (had everything but 4 bolts finished Friday night, so a quick HD run Sat morning and I was done
). I made the rack long enough that I could mount 6' bulbs onto it if we wanted to. So if we move away from the 24" bulbs (of which we have 4 brand new URI Actinic White bulbs, 2 sitting in a box, 2 on the rack), when I can move the endcaps and be done.. no rewiring or anything else needed . (We also have some T5 endcaps in case we decide to go that route).
I can adjust it front to back on the light carriage. Right now we have it all the way back and it works out great. It doesn't add too much "punch" when the MHs are on, but we can see a fill in the corners and other areas, but beyond that and just a little more color, not much. The nice thing is that we run them an hour before and after the MHs, and over all they only cost us $10 per month to run the VHOs. I plan to lower the MH lighting period a little to see the "sweet spot" between growth, color and electrical consumption
I have them just at the bottom of the LAIIIs, which works out well. Even being this far forward of the tank, when the MHs are off and the VHOs on, they light a good majority of the entire tank. But to get mroe "pop" I may look into actinics versus the actinic white bulbs.. I haven't decided yet
I am not sure.. likely not. But I opted for the A/C option because we had planned to put in a glass sheild to protect from splashing, etc. While that hasn't happened yet, we do want to leave our options open (the glass shield hasn't happened, that is.. the splashing happens all too often, but not enough to reach the bulb, thank goodness, just enough to dirty up the reflector).
And about the VHO light rack... we had a set of door rollers left over so it was relatively easy. The rollers themselves used 1/4" bolts to hang the door latch from, so I just got some 1/4-20 all thread and cut it to our desired length and used a barrel connectors to tie them together.
I noticed that our LAIIIs tilt a little towards the back. The ceiling that the track is mounted in is not 100% level, this I knew from the beginning, but I honestly didn't notice how bad it was until I put the VHOs up next to them (which is odd, since the VHOs run parallel to the tilt axis). But the solution there will be a simple one.. same as the method that we used to hand the VHOs, that is to use all thread and a barrel connector to drop the front of the lighting carriage down a bit. I wonder if that wil improve or diminish out light spread ? Right now the reflectors are putting more light towards the front.. I would guess that once I adjust them flat they would put more light towards the back (than they are now). Once I get to HD to pick up the pieces parts I need I will find out. It should be a relatively simple adjustment
I cleaned our eco cooler today (first time in a year *uugghh*) and surprisingly enough it was not that dirty inside. There was a bit of sand and dirt collected in the bottom, but no problems with the DLS that I could see. I also cleaned the skimmer and adjusted the Ca reactor since it was running a little on the high side. And I did another dose of sugar today as well.
I checked our parms today and here is what I found :
Alk 11 (went up since last time.. hence why I adjusted the reactor down a little)
PO4 .11 (down from the middle of last week, progress was being made, also why I dosed sugar again today)
(the glass shield hasn't happened, that is.. the splashing happens all too often, but not enough to reach the bulb, thank goodness, just enough to dirty up the reflector).And about the VHO light rack... we had a set of door rollers left over so it was relatively easy. The rollers themselves used 1/4" bolts to hang the door latch from, so I just got some 1/4-20 all thread and cut it to our desired length and used a barrel connectors to tie them together.
I noticed that our LAIIIs tilt a little towards the back. The ceiling that the track is mounted in is not 100% level, this I knew from the beginning, but I honestly didn't notice how bad it was until I put the VHOs up next to them (which is odd, since the VHOs run parallel to the tilt axis). But the solution there will be a simple one.. same as the method that we used to hand the VHOs, that is to use all thread and a barrel connector to drop the front of the lighting carriage down a bit. I wonder if that wil improve or diminish out light spread ? Right now the reflectors are putting more light towards the front.. I would guess that once I adjust them flat they would put more light towards the back (than they are now). Once I get to HD to pick up the pieces parts I need I will find out
. It should be a relatively simple adjustment I cleaned our eco cooler today (first time in a year *uugghh*) and surprisingly enough it was not that dirty inside. There was a bit of sand and dirt collected in the bottom, but no problems with the DLS that I could see. I also cleaned the skimmer and adjusted the Ca reactor since it was running a little on the high side. And I did another dose of sugar today as well.
I checked our parms today and here is what I found :
Alk 11 (went up since last time.. hence why I adjusted the reactor down a little)
PO4 .11 (down from the middle of last week, progress was being made, also why I dosed sugar again today
)
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