My 180 Gallon "Pair" Themed Build Thread

[MrsBugmaster]

Things looked like they were going well so two day later I released her into the DT. Due to the price of these fish, I was so afraid of the male killing her right away and I did not want to be out of that kind of money! I was holding my breath and crossing my fingers.
Here is a video.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

There was a little bit of chasing and posturing for the first 2 or 3 minutes. That was it! After that they get along great! ;Happy;Happy What a relief!!

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Still wanting a pair or group of Pakistan Butterflies, (at this point not caring if I ended up with a pair or group) I decided to try them again. After talking to two different LFS I found out that they each got their fish from different suppliers. Armed with this knowledge I bought 2 from one store and 2 from the other LFS. This would be my last attempt as I hate it when fish die and these fish do not have a very good track record, with me anyway. My thoughts were that I may have a better chance because the different suppliers have different practices. So on May 18, 2019 I got the 4 pakistan's.

A picture of two of them in QT

Well as luck would have it 3 of the 4 ended up dying. Two would just not eat and one did not look good from the beginning. I wish I would've keep them seperated so I know which one came from which store, but I did not. But one did survive!! I was thrilled to say the least. But would the one already in my DT accept this newcomer?

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Well on July 14,2019 I added the Pakistan to the DT. I was getting ready to go on vacation in a week so I did not get the time to take many photos. I did get this one bad photo though.

As you can see, they get along great! I made sure the new one was smaller. Time will tell if they are a true pair or not. I really do need to get out my good camera and take some good quality pictures of these days..

 

[MrsBugmaster]

A sad day on July 20, 2019. Found my Goldflake dead. No visual signs of anything wrong with her and she was acting normal the day before. The Interruptus angel continued to target her and I think he may have finally killed her. :mad:

At this point I'm not sure what I am going to do about another possible mate for the Flagfin/Goldflake Hybrid. Maybe a flagfin,as @puffy127 said that his Interrruptus also picks on his Goldflake nonstop. Not sure if it is the Goldflake or the size of the fish that was an issue for the Interruptus. I have to think on this one for a while.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

So now I am wanting to add some smaller fish and a pop of color. I have decided on a group of Neon Damselfish(Pomacentrus alleni). I have read that even though they are damsels, this particular species can get along in groups in a big tank. I had one of my LFS order in 10 for me. I have read that groups do better in odd numbers, but also know that I may lose some fish in qt also. That is why I went with 10. Along with these fish I also ordered some other gobies to go in my 34 gal reef tank.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

From day one, three of the damsels just hung out at the top corner of the tank and don't look very good. I figure these will end up dying. They all 3 died within a few days. Down to 7 now. I had only one of the qt tanks running since I had a smaller amount of fish. The damsels were all in one compartment of the qt tank because I had some small gobies in the other tank compartments. Well, they started fighting in such small quarters and I lost two more. At this point I did separate them into the different compartments in the tank. The five remaining ones all made it through the qt process and into the DT.

Oh, I almost forgot about the pair of Mocha Clownfish I have in this tank. Two years ago one of my local fish club members was breeding clownfish. He donated a pair to the club for the monthly meeting raffle and I won them! They were very tiny at less than a half inch when I got them. I keep them in their own 10 gallon tank for these two years so they could grow up a little. They are now in my 180 DT.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

And that bring us to today. The tank was going through some dino problems, which I now has taken care of, but in its place came the algae stage,which I understand comes after beating the dinos. That, and along with the busy summer time tank neglect has left me with an algae problem. I am currently trying to get it under control.

The damsels have split up into 2 pairs and one single fish. Two of them make their home on the left side of the tank, two of them set up their home in the middle of the tank. And the single one resides on the right side. Although several times during the day they will be seen all together in a loose group swimming all over the tank. And at feeding time they form a group. No fighting at all. I love the splash of color they add to the tank!

So to recap my current stock list:
Interruptus Angelfish pair
Indian Vegabond Butterfly pair
Pakistan Butterfly pair
Mocha Clownfish pair
Neon Damselfish group of 5
Flagfin/Goldflake Hybrid Angelfish - currently a single fish
Mitratus -single/ 12 years old and not going to pair
Diamond Goby -single for the moment but plan to add another.

I do plan on adding a pair of Green Mandarins. I had a pair of them before and love these guys. I do culture my own pods and phyto, so no problems feeding them.

Then depending on if I feel the tank is full or not I was thinking of maybe adding one pair of the following. Or if something doesn't work out and I will replace with one of these (There are too many fish I like, I can't decide on which one)

Angles:
Pair of Bandit
Pair of Regal
Pair of Cherub
Pair of Flame

Butterflyfish:
Pair of Copperband
Pair of Semilarvatus
Pair of Double Saddle
Pair of Black Back

Other small fish
Tri of Bimaculatus Anthias
Tri of Yellowtail Damselfish(Chrysiptera parasema)
Tri of Azure Damselfish(Chrysiptera hemicyanea)

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Here is a video of the tank today. Please try and ignore all the embarrassing algae ;Shamefullyembarrased

 

[NY_Caveman]

I feel like I just binge watched a show on Netflix with all of the updates. Tank and fish look great!
(P.S. we all have algae.)

 

[MrsBugmaster]

I feel like I just binge watched a show on Netflix with all of the updates. Tank and fish look great!
(P.S. we all have algae.)

Well I did just kinda binge post too

 

[MrsBugmaster]

This morning one of my blue channel of lights is not working. They are older black box leds.
I am thinking of replacing all 3 of them with 3 Photon 24 V2+ leds.
Does anyone have any experience with these lights?

 

[Jeto2004]

Nice thread. Learning a lot about fish. Can’t see the videos on my tablet. Wondering if you could share a few tank shoots of your reef tank.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

So I ended up getting 3 of the 24" Photon V2 lights. Got them installed about a week ago and really like them so far. I will get some pictures later.

Sunday I woke up with a bad flu bug and spent the day in bed. My tank has an auto feeder on it, so I didn't even go to the basement to look at the tank. Yesterday I was feeling a little better, but not much. I went downstairs to check on the tank and it was dead in the water. The only thing running was one of the 3 new lights, which was on a different plug in than the other two, and a powerhead that was on a battery backup. what the heck! I traced it down to the 10 year old EB8 energy bar on my old AC Jr. It would crackle, spark and smoke when I plugged it into a different outlet. Yikes! Thank goodness I had it on a GFI outlet and it tripped. The temp was already at 70, so it must has happened on Sunday. I throw in 4 different heaters I had laying around. And got the return pump going again. Everything that was connected to the controller was still off line. I went to my LFS and pick up a new Apex EL. I've been wanting one anyway. Feeling too much like crap to set it up though. I figured tank would be ok for now that I got heat in it again. So today I am feeling much better and going to set up my new Apex!

 

[Jeto2004]

Sorry on both fronts! Getting sick and having to deal with tank issues - That sucks!!! Glad you already feeling better! Luckily no electric fire started! Anything detrimental to the tank or it’s to early to tell. Hearing these stories .....I really have to work on my energy outage back up sooner than later.....

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Everything is alive and doing well so far.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Time for an update. Shortly after putting on my new lights I had to leave town for a week. I get home and my tank has exploded with algae and what likes like dinos. Not sure if it was the light or what. Mad crazy bubbles all over the algae which is only on the rock. First going to add Reef Flux to get some of the algae under control. Then going to try Dr Tim's Refresh and Waste A Way method for the dinos. Being a FOWLR tank my nitrates and phosphates alway seem high. Will work on getting that under control also with lanthanum chloride . So also thinking about adding a Tang to help with algae control. Can anyone recommend a tang that won't be too aggressive and kill my butterflies and Interruptus angel pair but also be a great algae eater? My Interruptus is already on the aggressive side so I'm not sure if adding a tang is a good idea or not?

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Well I lost the big pakistan butterfly. Not sure why, nothing noticeable on it. Pakistan's are kind of tricky anyway. I got a long nose black tang in QT now. After he is in display I will try another Pakistan Butterfly. After adding the reef flux my algae is almost gone. That stuff really works.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Well I lost the big pakistan butterfly. Not sure why, nothing noticeable on it. Pakistan's are kind of tricky anyway. I got a long nose black tang in QT now. After he is in display I will try another Pakistan Butterfly. After adding the reef flux my algae is almost gone. That stuff really works.

Sorry for the loss

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Sorry for the loss

Thanks.