Ward's Island Reef

[fessoclown]

I picked up a 6x80W ATI Sunpower... bye bye Radions! I sold 2 of them and easily paid for the ATI plus the first round of bulbs. This leaves me with a Radion that I am thinking of using on my ATS....lol!

I picked up the fixture and bought the last 4 60" bulbs from NAFB and got some used bulbs from a friend to try out different colours.
I am currently running

Back
AquaFlora (a freshwater daylight bulb with a purple undertone... that came new with the fixture, figured I'd use it for now)
Coral +
Purple +
Blue +
True Actinic (old bulb from a friend to try)
Blue +
Front

The overall colour is a little purple but I kind of like it

I think will swap out the True Actinic and the Aquaflora for a new TA and another B+
Here is the 6 bulb in it's blinding glory (actually not that blinding, my camera sux, it is very bright in the tank) I am only running full blast for 3 hours a day this week, 4 next)

Here is just the True Actinic and Purple +
I will be moving the P+ into a 4 bulb slot and replacing it with a B+

I would like to add an Actinic LED strip a la ReefBright for some shimmer and POP. I find them to be a bit spendy, not dimmable and I would like some UV Violet mixed in so I may do a DIY strip. 24x3W ought to do the job very nicely for around $125

Also,
I also Finally got around to putting doors on my stand. The little one is 8.5 months now and will be able to cross the room any day now... she no longer stays where we leave her...

I can't believe I waited this long to get this done, it looks so much better! I just need to trim the top now... the pink styro is not the look were are looking for...
No too shabby if I do say so me self!

 

[MrineLfRlz]

Looks awesome!
Great turn around with h202! I may have to try this for myself

 

[Tnconcept]

Looks good mate.

 

[Sn8kbyt]

Looks great!

 

[Pife]

Great looking system.

 

[fessoclown]

The tank is chugging along on autopilot. I have made a few coral additions thanks to Frag Cave and FragBox but I am still fishless. Since JUne I have not been home more than 8-10 days in a row and I plan to tank transfer every new addition for ich then QT for another 30 days for de-worming and observation.
I will have been 5 months fallow by then.... yikes! My coral are suffering a little in terms of colour because of lack of fish poo.

My stocking plan is as follows:
1x Yellow or Purple Tang
1x Kole tang (maybe)
5 x (4F+1M) Lytail anthais
3x Randell's anthias or Ignitus Anthias or Carberryi Anthias
1x Sunset Anthias (Pseudanthias parvirostris)
1 x Borb Anthias
1 x Bartlett's Anthias
1x Redfin wasp
1 x Flame hawk or Long nosed hawk
2x Clowns
1 x spotted mandarin
1 x tailspot Blenny

And then eventually a few Wrasses.
Perhaps
McCosker's Flasher Wrasse and a few other flashers...
Golden Rhomboidalis Wrasse
Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse AND/OR 1X Ruby Head Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus cf cyanopleura) or Lineatus Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus lineatus) or Ruby Head Fairy Wrasse.

I posted this list on the check your stocking thread here and got the thumbs up!

 

[fessoclown]

Half hay through the tank transfers, all is going well except:
I bought a brand new Eheim heater set it to 79 and I assumed that it would be calibrated out of the box. it was off by 8-9 degrees...... I noticed by losing one of my Lyretail Anthias.... Totally ****ing sucks....I will never make that mistake again.

Question about feeding in QT. They are starting to eat a little. Do I siphon out the leftover food after a little while? They don't seem to graze the bottom and when I stir it up they get shy and hide basically until the left over food re-settles on the bottom.

The DT patiently waiting for some fish to come poop all over the polyps!

 

[fessoclown]

Photo DUMP
I gotta figure out how to get sharper images.... maybe I have the setting on low MP or something.... anyway here's how the DT is looking these days:

 

[Shawn O]

Customary kid in the tank photo before filling:

You put the kid in before filling? No wonder why mine was thrashing around so much. Uh-oh! Gotta go, be right back.

Question about feeding in QT. They are starting to eat a little. Do I siphon out the leftover food after a little while? They don't seem to graze the bottom and when I stir it up they get shy and hide basically until the left over food re-settles on the bottom.

Maybe you could add a few small hermits or snails to eat the left-overs and siphon out the excess if they don't keep up?

 

[fessoclown]

Update

Update

I have had a seriously hard time with my QTing. Lots of losses since the summer. So far I have only added 4 fish to the DT that have made it through. 1 Lyretail Anthais, 1 Bangaii Cardinal, 1 Mandarin and my Redfin Wasp that has been with me for over 2 years now.... At least I know the fish that made it through are super hardy. I made lots of mistakes but I feel like I have learned many lessons in QT. I think I have it down now and I am determined to not give up on QTing....

So....
Currently I have 3 QT tanks running....
I decided to do TTM for the Linespot Wrasse as I picked up another wrasse:
a Leopard (Macropharyngodon Ornatus) Wrasses are 50/50 for CP treatment so TTM it is. We are 3/4 of the wat through and they will hit the DT on Saturday!

IN QT tank # 2 I have a Firefish a Powder Brown Tang and a Fancy Clown, they are not 23 days into a 30 day bit in CP. Eating well and looking great!

I love this little grumpy pants!!!

QT#3 has turned into a QT for a ton of Macro Algae that I scored. The LR and macros were totally infested with Red Flat Worms. I have used Flatworm exit and will do another round next week. I will then let this tank go fallow for 72 days before moving the contents into a 30 G tank connected to my sump. It will be a display fuge after all. I built an algae scrubber a while ago for this tank and it works great so I might keep it running... not sure yet.
Here is the macro QT

A breeding pair of Cardinals came with the macros, unfortunitally I lost one of the Cardinals a couple of days ago... I think it was the Male but it's really hard to tell.... it just would not eat after the move. He was holing eggs during the move... sad...
Here is the tank that the Macros will be moved to to make a display fuge:

Here's a couple of tank shots:

 

[fessoclown]

Japanese Redfin Wasp hanging out on a fragrack

 

[reefmutt]

This looks cool!
Haven't gone through the thread yet but I will..
Subscribed!

 

[fessoclown]

This looks cool!
Haven't gone through the thread yet but I will..
Subscribed!

Welcome abord! I've read your thread and know you from many other threads that I lurk in.

 

[fessoclown]

New Skimmer

New Skimmer

So I sold my Avast CS1 thinking I had a line on a used Deltec, that deal fell through so I scoured the classifieds locally, on AP and Canreef and found an old ad for an H&S. I got an H&S A150-f2001.....This thing is a beast!!

Here it is after just 1 week, I emptied the cup once already! It's soooo nasty and black!

I am really happy with it!

 

[fessoclown]

Photo dump

Photo dump

I finally figured out how to capture somewhat decent pictures with an Iphone 5. I bought the App CameraPlus and it allows you do manually adjust the exposure and white balance at least...

Here's an updated FTS

I picked up a beautiful piece of red, yellow and orange Leptastrea from Thang. This is my new favourite frag!

Purple Monti and RR Red Diablo (can't seem to get a good shot of the Diablo) if you look close at that yellow green deepwater acro you will see Henry the Acro crab.

The Line Spot Wrasse went into the DT last night after TTM. Can't wait for him to colour up again!

A nice Tri-colour from Thang!

 

[fessoclown]

Currently in the tank I have:
Leopard Wrasses(Macropharyngodon Ornatus)
Line Spot Wrasse
Bangaii Cardinal
Lyretail Anthai
Red Fin Japanese Waspfish
Green Mandarin

In QT:
Powder Brown Tang
Purple Firefish
Gladiator Clownfish

What I would still like to ad
1x Copperband Butterflyfish
1x Clownfish
1x Yellow or Purple or Kole Tang
3-5 Randell's anthias or Ignitus or Carberryi
1 x Borb Anthias
1 x Flame hawk or Long nosed hawk
1 x tailspot or Midas Blenny

1x McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
1x Rhomboidalis Fairy Wrasse
1x Exquisite Fairy Wrasse
1 xLineatus Fairy Wrasse
1 x Pink-Streaked Wrasse


That list is 23 fish.... I think that might be quite a few too many... unfortunately the "check your intended fish purchase" thread that Steve runs is closed at the moment...

Anyway that's the wish list, I have been going slow and QTing everything so I am sure I can check the list before my stocking gets out of hand....

It is really nice to have fish in the DT again after so long fallow!

 

[fessoclown]

I moved the Galdiator Clown, Purple Firefish and Powder Brown Tang to the DT today.

Here are some display tank shots:

Here is the Mandarin photobombing the clown!

 

[fessoclown]

I picked up a Copperband Butterfly a few days ago at Big Al's. I am QTing it in my macro tank to get it eating. It didn't eat for the first day and a half, I was getting nervous so I put it in the my macro tank and it immediately began picking at the rocks. I will observe it for a month or so and only tread it if something shows up. It is looking mighty fine!

I also picked up a Midas Blenny and a Kole Tang at R2O today because I couldn't resist the prices and nice fish, not to mention that I had an empty (for all of 4 hours) QT tank to accommodate them...

The Midas Blenny is still super skittish and has changed it's colour to a tiger strip from adrenalin and stress... The Kole looks alright but I think I see evidence of flukes. I will tread with PraziPro in the morning after they eat a bit more.
I have been prophetically treating all incoming fish with Prazipro, it is pretty easy on them.

In The DT:
Powder Brown Tang
Purple Firefish
Gladiator Clownfish
Leopard Wrasses(Macropharyngodon Ornatus)
Line Spot Wrasse
Bangaii Cardinal
Lyretail Anthai
Red Fin Japanese Waspfish
Green Mandarin

IN QT
Copperband Butterflyfish
Kole Tang
Midas Blenny


Still to Come (wish list)
2x Borb Anthais
1x McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
1x Rhomboidalis Fairy Wrasse
1x Exquisite Fairy Wrasse
1 xLineatus Fairy Wrasse
1 x Pink-Streaked Wrasse
3-5 x Randell's anthias or Ignitus or Carberryi

 

[fessoclown]

Santa came early and brought the sweet release of death to the Copperband for Xmas. I am now 1/1. I don;t think I will try again unless someone is selling an established one from their reef.

On a positive note the Kole and Blenny are both eating like pigs in the QT. The Kole was showing signs of some kind of ringworm looking blemish on it's side. I dosed PraziPro 3 days ago and it has cleared up. It is much less shy as well.

The fish in the DT are loving life! The PBT is really enjoying the 6+1/2 foot swimming length and makes good use of it. He has begun routinely getting cleaned by my fireshrimp at the "cleaning station". Really cool to see that.
_________

 

[fessoclown]

Tunze Care Strong

Tunze Care Strong

I got the Tunze Care Strong magnet cleaner for xmas today and all I can say is "WOW, where have you been my whole reefing life?...... Oh ya, I am too cheap to dish out $112 for a cleaning tool!"

This thing RULZ! Best cleaner EVER! I have 3/4" glass and it works like a charm. No worrying about scratching up my Starphire glass and it chews through coraline algae like butter. Can't recommend it high enough!