So it has been another minute since I have written an update on the tank or posted pictures (which I had promised on an earlier and never delivered on, I'm a terrible blogger). So updates since the last posts:
-Tank aggression issues have been solved! Kind of... So we ended up implementing the trap into the tank to catch Jamie our male Square Spot Anthias. He was too smart for this ploy and never went into the trap. He would go near the opening, peck at the (exterior) bottom and sides when food was added and generally tease us into
ext to the tank hoping he'd venture in. I ended up feeling like wile e coyote by the end of the experience in trying to capture the road runner. Then I tried something different, I decided to turn the lights off and while equipped with a red light headlamp I was able to capture the yellow eyed kole tang who had not fully acclimated to the tank and did not immediately know where to go to find a hiding spot. Great success! We placed her into the acclimation box along with a PVC pipe with nori attached via elastic bangs on the side of the pipe. We kept her in there for 4 to 5 days while aggression lessoned and she got more confident inside the box. She has been out for about a month now and she is doing well. There is still flashing and chasing ever now and again but she has found spots to avoid and escape them. Also every once in a while there is a torn fin but nothing at all like we saw when she was first introduced.
- Lawnmower blenny 2.0: so we placed the lawnmower into the tank and he was unmolested by any of the occupants and getting on just fine. He seemed to be breathing more normally and slamming his face into spots of algea. All was well in both or our lives until one day when I found him in the overflow. I don't know if anyone else has had this experience but the lawnmower we had would make a habbit of swimming up the walls of the tank and then back down to a new perch. I surmise that on one occasion, instead of going along the glass he traveled up the side of the overflow, just perfectly to a small U shaped gap between the overflow box and the return line. he entered in there and then was unable to get though one of the baffles and died. THIS SUCKED SO BAD! My wife and I loved this little guy and he always made us laugh as he went around the tank head banging. I think it will be a while until we try a lawnmower again, my wife is not so happy with our recent luck or lack there of . We are probably going to try a diamond goby as we had first planned. Our plan is to call him Brian after my father, who is a bit of a neat freak.
- Over the last couple weeks my wife and I also splurged a bit and grabbed a bunch of new coral and a few pieces of new equipment. I ended up finding a great guy (Joe from Littleton off 470) via craigslist who was fragging and some of his coral and selling pieces off. We went over looking to browse a little bit and left with 10 new pieces lol. We have firmly stepped foot into SPS territory, adding some acro (green slimmer, birds nest coral, purple acro, blue green acropora tenuis and blue pocillopora) Also got a couple new zoa's for the garden (rasta and green dragon eyes). All said and done it was great to meet another reefer and chat about all the beautiful coral he had in his tank. Also he gave us a great deal, throwing in some pieces for free while he was at it! We got home from our adventure, acclimated and used revive to make sure all the corals were all clear. After that I placed all the new coral in the tank and for the first time I felt like the tank was getting crowded. So I need a bigger tank LOL!
Well I am finishing up with the gluing and my phone goes off. It is Stone Aquatics advising they are closing their doors and a liquidation sale had started. I don't know about anyone else but I love this store. It was close to home and was always figured into my weekly plans (super dangerous to have your LFS be 10 min from home and on my way to work!). I also seemed to get healthy fish and coral from then every time I went. Again this could be just a personal experience but they were my go to. This all being said I hardly had to convince my wife into getting back into the car and heading down to Stone to say thank you for all the help, advise and cool additions they helped me make for my tank. While there we ended up grabbing a new acan colony which my wife had been eyeing for a long time and a pink tipped frogspawn that I passed on the week previous. I also grabbed a new Biopellet reactor by reef octopus to replace my homemade phosban 150 which was a ticking time bomb to be honest. I had issues since I diy'ed it at the beginning of my build. The problem was that I could never get all of the pellets moving and there would inevitably be a small clump in the bottom which would start to turn into a off colored mess. I was afraid that one day I would knock it just the wrong way while trying to clean it and it would come loose and poison my tank. So that disaster has been averted and the reef octopus is working like a champ! I only run about 1/4 of the maximum for my tank because I don't want to overdue biopellets and strip the tank.
While there I also ended up getting a dosing pump for the aquarium. I decided for my level of experience and to the ease of use that I would use a dosing pump for now and then upgrade down the line to a calcium reactor when I get more experienced and comfortable with the setup. I ran through a number of articles and youtube videos on the calcium reactor and dosing pump and at the end of the day the dosing pump stressed me out less. Stone had the Kamoer x4 wifi dosing pump for a great price and I bit the bullet. It certainly has been a learning experience and the setup instructions have not been very intuitive but with the help of a great setup video on youtube by coralvue I got it running. An additional gripe to go along with the first, they did not give me enough tubing for the cal and alk lines. It was a small issue but still an issue. So I have been dosing for a minute now and testing every day to see where my levels are, and they are looking good!
Lastly I went to reef-ed this past weekend and cruised around the tables looking fro a new mushroom for a low light area and a clam if I could locate a healthy one. I saw much more that I wanted but found what I was looking for. Both have been added and I feel like, for the minute, my tank is full with everything I want (coral wise) in the tank. I wish I could have stayed longer but family obligations and honey-do's needed attention. I was going to go to Stone again but I think I missed out as today is their last day open (to my knowledge) and I don't leave work till well after they close. Probably best for my bank account but still I would have like to say good bye and best of luck.
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying any new additions to their tanks from our latest meeting. I'll post again soon(er or later) and happy reefing!
into spending far too long n
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