Lion's Solana Den

[buddythelion]

Wow, 11 bags? I sure wish I was able to roll with you.

Well, it looks like you were able to cherry pick a whole lot of nice piexes. I especially like the Darth Maul micro abd Lilac acans.

Thanks Wes! The darth maul is from Neptunes! Don't worry, one of those bags is for you.

that golden moray is DOPE.

Really like your setup. Question, that rock is mad made and painted, right? If so, gotta say it looks real nice in the tank.

Thanks Pkunk35, I really enjoy keeping a GDME.
Yes, the rock is painted. It's FHI Premium Rock and it's amazing. Lots of nooks and crannies and the look of it is great as well, a lot of character in each rock since it's man made!

 

[buddythelion]

Here's an update on the tank, some pictures were taken through the blue setting in the Kessil.

Red Hornets:

Rastas:

These Mordacious Rhodactus are absolutely gorgeous, the amount of metallic colors they have is amazing.
Rhodactus Corner:

Rhodactus Corner, closer:

PZ Speckled Fire and Ice:

My favorite shroom, even though it's a simple red mushroom:

Newest addition, Blasto:

Regular lighting:

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

The corals look great!!!

 

[Bry]

Great looking tank. That really is a nice looking red shroom.

 

[buddythelion]

The corals look great!!!

Thanks SeahorseKeeper!

Great looking tank. That really is a nice looking red shroom.

Thanks Bry! It's my cheapest mushroom but oddly my favorite!

 

[buddythelion]

As an update, I noticed Saphira was missing so I thought she crawled out of the tank.
Luckily I found her in the back chamber chilling. But then a lot of complicated things happened and I thought she climbed up into the lock-line return since I disconnected the return pump to catch her out. So I had to take apart some of my aquascape to un-attach the lock-lines and she wasn't there. I panicked and thought she swam into the return pump since she's so small and left it in a container to see if she would come out. 1/2 hour nothing.


So I finally decide to check the area where the water goes to the back chambers and there she is.


Gave me a good opportunity to finally get a decent picture of her tail, which is a very bright yellow. Almost like a yellow flame:

I also finally caved in after watching this little guy at the store for over a week. I love flameback angelfish and I originally intended to keep one in the 25 once I upgraded from my 12DX, but all the expensive LPS made me think otherwise. It's just too gorgeous of a fish that I decided to take that risk and it is a very lovely addition. I' just love it and how active and colorful it is. Definitely stands out!


Here it is before I have to try 100k times to get a good photo:

Saphira is already trying to see if he's food, but he's so big she can't do anything and he pretends she's not there.

 

[buddythelion]

The flameback has been grazing a lot, like Centropyges do. He nipped at the algae around the corals, hoping he doesn't get a taste for them. But he's definitely a great addition and fits what the tank has been missing all along in terms of fish, which was an active grazer who's goes in and out of the rock work.


Haven't taken photos of the tank for awhile, so here's some photos:


Saphira, glad she's safe and being herself again:

New Flameback, name yet to be determined (I spent an hour or two trying to get a photo of him around coral, and this was the only decent shot I got )

Metallic red rim, dark blue center, and metallic blue ring blasto:

Weeping Willows:

Reach:

Crook:

Close Up:

Tangled:

Red Hornets:

Yellow Ricordea:

 

[buddythelion]

No FTS, but a video tour of my tank. Do watch, as it shows everything about it including equipment and livestock and you get to see my new buddy.
[video=youtube;b4u5Z5xAn04]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4u5Z5xAn04&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Beautiful corals!

 

[poomba]

Great Video!

 

[Wesley42079]

Thanks for the video tour.

My sandbed looks exactly like yours. Its filled with frags. I am undecided of which zoa frags to cement on .m

 

[poomba]

Im going to take a hammer to some live rock in my sump and make little rocks to mount my zoas on so they arent just on frag plugs

 

[nova65ss]

Nice Solana! Love the eel!

 

[buddythelion]

Beautiful corals!

Thanks Rev!

Great Video!

Im going to take a hammer to some live rock in my sump and make little rocks to mount my zoas on so they arent just on frag plugs

Thanks Poomba! Glad that someone watched it. You should, it's such a different experience when you're watching your zoas grow into colonies rather than leaving them in a frag tank counting the polyps and seeing when they're ready to be fragged. It makes me a lot happier.

Thanks for the video tour.

My sandbed looks exactly like yours. Its filled with frags. I am undecided of which zoa frags to cement on.

Thanks Wes, glad to hear that you watched the vid as well! Yeah, it's a tough call because you have to worry about the growth rate of each one so they don't choke each other. But they definitely look a lot better when they have a solid place to stay. I really dislike my sandbed right now. As soon as these PEs color up I'm going to be passing them along to other reefers that can care for them/will be willing to keep them on the sandbed, I know I want my sandbed clean of frags. LOL. Probably going to keep the Toxic Lavas, BRRPEs, Red Halos, and pink agaves. I have multiple frags of those though.

Nice Solana! Love the eel!

Thanks nova, I love her too.

 

[buddythelion]

So here's an update guys:


New Indo-Gold Torch:

Torch Island:

For some odd reason, they're all indo torches. I suppose that I just prefer the long tentacle variants that come from Indo than the australian morphs.


Japanese Acan:

Vampire Paly:

Orange Fungia with purple and green splatters:

Florida Oranges:

Rasta Growth:

Spiderman Zoas:

Indo Golden Rainbow Yuma:

Radiant Tangerines Growth:

Lizard Skin Chalice (It's one of the first blue chalices I've run into.)

Saphira was photo bombing a good amount of photos.

 

[myzislow]

did you get that lizard skin from AC? Looking good!

 

[Wesley42079]

Nice gold torches. Did you get them fom Neptunes?

Also, I like those Darth Maul micro's.

 

[buddythelion]

did you get that lizard skin from AC? Looking good!

Bingo. I had no idea what they were called. Just that they were blue and a great price. I just happened to be changing my CoralPedia calender and there it was! Joe said that it came from a local reefer. There were 2 pieces, the other piece is still there. It was beating up a miami hurricane pretty badly!

Nice gold torches. Did you get them fom Neptunes?

Also, I like those Darth Maul micro's.

Hey Wes! Nah, two of my torches came from AC but my ridiculously bright green one is from Neptunes. The gold torches from tunes are from aussie, which have a thicker tentacle and white/silver tip. I like the indo morphs more since they have thinner sweepers but they get waaay longer, meaning they need serious room! I'm always afraid of them stinging something.

I thought you picked up a darth maul micro already?

 

[buddythelion]

Alrighty, got some more new corals.


I saw WWC posting this acan on their newsletter and almost bought it but it was pricey so I passed. Thought about it and then regretted it, but then I found out others wanted it too and it was sold within the first 5 minutes.


So I decided to call WWC the next day and ask if they had any more frags, and luckily they did! Glad I called, I now have another new fav coral!


Here's the new rainbow acan, haven't seen one like this.

I also got a red and black plate, something I've been looking for a long time:

While I was at it, took some actinic shots:

Red and Black Plate:

 

[KoleTang]

Tell me about your eel! I have always wanted a golden dwarf.

Does it ever try to snack on fish or inverts? How do you keep it from escaping. If you ordered it online please tell me from where

Your tank is looking great.