GatorBen's 75g
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GatorBen
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Thank you revs.
Several weeks ago, with much hesitation I got an eibli angel from a Freind of mine. I have seen warnings of these fish nipping at coral. His tank is full of coral and I saw no sign of nipping. Days after the addition my baseball sized Zoe colony shriveled up like i threw it in fresh water or something. I hoped he was just moving around the tank nipping and it would pass. It didn't the zoes hardly ever opened and I was hoping this coral would be the center piece of my tank since its my only non-frag piece.
Tuesday night I snapped, I was not going to let this punk ruin my colony. I also had a very bad day at work and I knew school was starting today and my projects would slow down, so I'm not normally on edge like this.
Anyway at 11pm my journey began. (!warning! This is a long winded mini story)
First step try to net the fish. HA! I knew it wouldn't work but I just had to try. As soon as the net touched the water, he disappeared!
Step 2, turn off pumps and power heads and start moving corals. Since they are all frags this wasn't to hard. I didn't want to shock them so I placed them in the corner of the tank.
Step 3, start removing hiding places, aka the live rock I spent hours carefully placing in the perfect balance of stability and beauty. Yeah, still a sore spot two days later. I tried to net him after removing every 3 rocks or so. Wouldn't you know I actually was able to leave 1!! Rock in the tank before he just tired out and swam in the corner and let me net him. it was now 12:45am Wed morning.
I was so relieved and tired that I sat on the floor leaned against the wall and slipped into a 15min nap where I dreamed about how well my reef will now grow without the eibli. Then it hit me, I don't have a reef, I have buckets of rock and an aquarium with one rock and no flow. And a bunch of fish wondering what the heck just happened to their home. I wanted so badly to go to bed, but I started, so I had to finish.
Step 4, carefully replacing the rock. So I got a Mellow Yellow and started the process. Did I mention that I JUST did this several weeks ago? Anyway, I decided that since I was so pleased with the way the last build turned out I would mimic that design.
Got to go to class, I'll continue when I return.
Several weeks ago, with much hesitation I got an eibli angel from a Freind of mine. I have seen warnings of these fish nipping at coral. His tank is full of coral and I saw no sign of nipping. Days after the addition my baseball sized Zoe colony shriveled up like i threw it in fresh water or something. I hoped he was just moving around the tank nipping and it would pass. It didn't the zoes hardly ever opened and I was hoping this coral would be the center piece of my tank since its my only non-frag piece.
Tuesday night I snapped, I was not going to let this punk ruin my colony. I also had a very bad day at work and I knew school was starting today and my projects would slow down, so I'm not normally on edge like this.
Anyway at 11pm my journey began. (!warning! This is a long winded mini story)
First step try to net the fish. HA! I knew it wouldn't work but I just had to try. As soon as the net touched the water, he disappeared!
Step 2, turn off pumps and power heads and start moving corals. Since they are all frags this wasn't to hard. I didn't want to shock them so I placed them in the corner of the tank.
Step 3, start removing hiding places, aka the live rock I spent hours carefully placing in the perfect balance of stability and beauty. Yeah, still a sore spot two days later. I tried to net him after removing every 3 rocks or so. Wouldn't you know I actually was able to leave 1!! Rock in the tank before he just tired out and swam in the corner and let me net him. it was now 12:45am Wed morning.
I was so relieved and tired that I sat on the floor leaned against the wall and slipped into a 15min nap where I dreamed about how well my reef will now grow without the eibli. Then it hit me, I don't have a reef, I have buckets of rock and an aquarium with one rock and no flow. And a bunch of fish wondering what the heck just happened to their home. I wanted so badly to go to bed, but I started, so I had to finish.
Step 4, carefully replacing the rock. So I got a Mellow Yellow and started the process. Did I mention that I JUST did this several weeks ago? Anyway, I decided that since I was so pleased with the way the last build turned out I would mimic that design.
Got to go to class, I'll continue when I return.
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GatorBen
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Ok, I'm back. Class was not that long, I got bombarded with issues at work and needed to resolve them before I came home.
Anyway, I think we were on step 5.
Step 5, placing coral back. This wasn't too bad because I have been moving them up and down and in and out of flow to find their " happy place". So it's fresh on my mind who likes what. Here's a lesson learned, coral are similar to fish, not all of them like the cookie cutter conditions you get from the guy at the store. It is a good place to start, but then move them a little this way and that to find what is just right. That is if you want. I'm kind of old school, I want all frags because when my tank gets amazing, and it will one day, I will have a much bigger sense of pride when I know I got them there. Plus if you start with a full tank, where do you go from there? But that's me.
(end of rambling)
I feel like I'm letting the readers down by not posting pics in a while, and come on let's face it, most of us are here for the pics not my rambling.
no I don't have 4 tangs, just one who follows the camera.
This is the side view, what you see when you walk in my front door
This is the back. I wanted it airy for good flow
A close up of the cave/overhang.
My zoo colony that the striped devil tortured
This is what it looked like before, and will look like again.
Here is a piece of the colony that broke off. It's doing pretty good.
A chunk of Xenia
Anyway, I think we were on step 5.
Step 5, placing coral back. This wasn't too bad because I have been moving them up and down and in and out of flow to find their " happy place". So it's fresh on my mind who likes what. Here's a lesson learned, coral are similar to fish, not all of them like the cookie cutter conditions you get from the guy at the store. It is a good place to start, but then move them a little this way and that to find what is just right. That is if you want. I'm kind of old school, I want all frags because when my tank gets amazing, and it will one day, I will have a much bigger sense of pride when I know I got them there. Plus if you start with a full tank, where do you go from there? But that's me.
(end of rambling)
I feel like I'm letting the readers down by not posting pics in a while, and come on let's face it, most of us are here for the pics not my rambling.
no I don't have 4 tangs, just one who follows the camera.
This is the side view, what you see when you walk in my front door
This is the back. I wanted it airy for good flow
A close up of the cave/overhang.
My zoo colony that the striped devil tortured
This is what it looked like before, and will look like again.
Here is a piece of the colony that broke off. It's doing pretty good.
A chunk of Xenia
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GatorBen
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This is my plate. I was nervous to do anything but softies till I got some experience but it's almost doubled in size since I got it. Heck, it grows faster than the star polyp.
This is my star polyp frag. I've been landscaping on the side since I was 13 and this is the closest thing to turf I have found yet. I plan to get my hands on a frag of wood polyp this year, it is much brighter.
This is a couple heads of an awesome bright orange zoo. It's in the center and sideways. This is not a blurry pic of the damsel. Also thanks to Tomoko.
This is a Leather of some kind, also thanks to Tomoko.
A frag of colt, well it was a frag.
Condy, yep newbie couldn't pass up the $10 nem
Nice patch of Yellow polyps, also thanks to Tomoko
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GatorBen
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Rock nem. One of the most unique things I've seen, but I'm still new.
Head of hammer. I love the way it looks like it is radio active in the moon lights.
Another colt. Was purple when I got it, any suggestions?
a .......well not sure exactly what this is. Also thanks to Tomoko.
A little better pic of awesome zoos.
And last, and especially least, the striped devil! He has been excommunicated to the lion fish tank. I have not posted picks of that tank because there is no coral, i.e. Not a reef tank. But I'll prob slip a few in later.
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GatorBen
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And here is a pic of my other rock nem. He was in the dark yesterday and I couldn't get a good pic. He also has a nice radioactive glow to him under the actinic lights and moon LEDs.
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GatorBen
Community Member
Got a question maybe one of the vets can help me with. My long term goal in this tank was to have a mandarin goby. I have chosen peaceful fish, a fairly light load of fish, a good amount of live rock, and put a few pieces of liverock that were full of copepods. Although since I have a six line wrasse, I'll assume those rock are empty to stay on the conservative side.
I took someone's advice and removed my bio wheel from my sump, then put a few handfulls of good pourus liverock. I then turned my pump off and poured in a bag of copepods. I waited an hour or two then turned back on the pump. The other night I was doing some sump adjusting and I got a flashlight to better see, I saw many what I believe to be anthepods. From my understanding anthepods are larger like 1-1 1/2 times the size of a flea. So I want to assume that the makeshift refugium is at least doing something. I want to build a 5-10 gallon refugium beside my sump that feeds in right before the pump to minimize the protein skimmer eating my copepods.
So I guess my question is, would a 5 gal refugium with liverock and some plants and algae be enough to provide 1-1/2 times the food the mandrine is going to need?
I also thought about copepod piles, a tight pile of small rocks that fish can't get into that will allow copepods to breed.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
I took someone's advice and removed my bio wheel from my sump, then put a few handfulls of good pourus liverock. I then turned my pump off and poured in a bag of copepods. I waited an hour or two then turned back on the pump. The other night I was doing some sump adjusting and I got a flashlight to better see, I saw many what I believe to be anthepods. From my understanding anthepods are larger like 1-1 1/2 times the size of a flea. So I want to assume that the makeshift refugium is at least doing something. I want to build a 5-10 gallon refugium beside my sump that feeds in right before the pump to minimize the protein skimmer eating my copepods.
So I guess my question is, would a 5 gal refugium with liverock and some plants and algae be enough to provide 1-1/2 times the food the mandrine is going to need?
I also thought about copepod piles, a tight pile of small rocks that fish can't get into that will allow copepods to breed.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
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GatorBen
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I decided to go with a 20 gal long sump/with refugium
The pics are bad but you get the idea.
I put 2 kinds of macro in the fuge section and a bag of chemi pure elite in the pump section. Ans a skimmer in the first with a filter sock on the incoming pipe
The 5 gal water jug is attached to the auto top off.
School and work are whipping me pretty bad so I'm just tweaking things as I can. I have a few clumps of cyano but I'm hoping the chemi pure will choke it out by removing phosphates and nitrates.
I also got a beautiful mandarin goby last week. From the several people I talked to and have seen my tank, they all felt I had plenty of pods and pod production to maintain two. I'll take it slow and see how this one does. Maybe I'll get another later. I tried to get a pic but she is camera shy.
The pics are bad but you get the idea.
I put 2 kinds of macro in the fuge section and a bag of chemi pure elite in the pump section. Ans a skimmer in the first with a filter sock on the incoming pipe
The 5 gal water jug is attached to the auto top off.
School and work are whipping me pretty bad so I'm just tweaking things as I can. I have a few clumps of cyano but I'm hoping the chemi pure will choke it out by removing phosphates and nitrates.
I also got a beautiful mandarin goby last week. From the several people I talked to and have seen my tank, they all felt I had plenty of pods and pod production to maintain two. I'll take it slow and see how this one does. Maybe I'll get another later. I tried to get a pic but she is camera shy.
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GatorBen
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Another thing I've noticed lately is that my diamond goby is getting scary thin. I did a google search and it seems that a lot of people have them starve in their tank. It seems that they clean so good and fast that they start running out of food. As most of us have found, it's hard to feed the bottom dwellers because the rest of the fish ravage the food long before it hits the bottom. So for what it's worth I've documented attempt #1 on my "save the goby" campaign.
I've attached a 1 1/4" PVC that goes from the bottom of the tank to 5" above the tank. I've secured it to the center brace via rubber bands. The rubber bands also produce good friction on the pipe to keep it pressed against the sand bed.
I placed the pipe right beside the goby's cave opening.
The theory is that as he digs beside his cave, he will stumble across the food jackpot. So he will filter the food from the sand, which is what he naturally does. After he takes a bite, the sand fills back in around the pipe keeping other greedy tank mates out of his food.
It seems to be working pretty well.
I put a frozen cube of emerald entree frozen food in the tube. As it thaws the food sinks and preloads the pipe. Thus keeping a well stocked food supply for ole skinny.
Another angle
well it's not pretty but I am putting my goby's Heath above the aesthetic value. However if this works, it will be a permanent fixture. If not he will just get skinny again for the same reason. But if this works I can reroute the pipe where it will barely be noticed. I figure it will be purple in a few weeks anyway so we'll see.
Now I just keep food in the pipe and wait to see if it works.
I've attached a 1 1/4" PVC that goes from the bottom of the tank to 5" above the tank. I've secured it to the center brace via rubber bands. The rubber bands also produce good friction on the pipe to keep it pressed against the sand bed.
I placed the pipe right beside the goby's cave opening.
The theory is that as he digs beside his cave, he will stumble across the food jackpot. So he will filter the food from the sand, which is what he naturally does. After he takes a bite, the sand fills back in around the pipe keeping other greedy tank mates out of his food.
It seems to be working pretty well.
I put a frozen cube of emerald entree frozen food in the tube. As it thaws the food sinks and preloads the pipe. Thus keeping a well stocked food supply for ole skinny.
Another angle
well it's not pretty but I am putting my goby's Heath above the aesthetic value. However if this works, it will be a permanent fixture. If not he will just get skinny again for the same reason. But if this works I can reroute the pipe where it will barely be noticed. I figure it will be purple in a few weeks anyway so we'll see.
Now I just keep food in the pipe and wait to see if it works.
SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
Interesting idea on the feeding pipe. Fingers crossed that your goby will be plump in no time.
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GatorBen
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I figure now that I know what end is up I will resurrect this thread.
An update on the goby is that the pipe worked to get him plumped back up. Then I started feeding the whole tank more and just tuned my skimmer and beefed up the CUC.
Unfortunately I added a royal gramma and the next day the goby went carpet surfing, and landed right beside the halide ballast.
I plan to take some pics of the new display fuge and new "clean" sump set up........clean for now anyway.
Pics to come..........
An update on the goby is that the pipe worked to get him plumped back up. Then I started feeding the whole tank more and just tuned my skimmer and beefed up the CUC.
Unfortunately I added a royal gramma and the next day the goby went carpet surfing, and landed right beside the halide ballast.
I plan to take some pics of the new display fuge and new "clean" sump set up........clean for now anyway.
Pics to come..........
