Rêverie Reef - Video thread

[Ardeus]

I will get only this smaller one for now:


Does he seem to have a problem on the right gill?

 

[Ardeus]

I have been thinking about my plans for the circulation and just the return and the Jebao CP-150 aren't going to cut it.

The Jebao pushes around 27000 liters/hour and the return will probably pump around 7000 liters/hour. I am deducting 1000 l/h for the refugium and a 2000 l/h loss from the way up to the top of the tank.

But I will use the Jebao in reef mode and that will cause a big reduction in flow. So today I ordered another one (together with a spare return pump).

Here's the plan:

The 2 Jebao's will be positioned vertically at the edges of the overflow and they will push water around the tank.

The return will be split in 2 with a flow accelerator swirl eductors, which randomize the direction of the flow. They will be pointed at the centre rock structure.

 

[Ardeus]

If everything goes according to plan, monday I will get the new fish.

- 2 Marine bettas
- 2 Flame hawkfish
- 2 Matted filefish
- 2 Wheeler's gobies (plus 1 or 2 candy cane shrimp)
- 1 Diamond goby

With the 13 fish I already have, it will make 22 fish.

All fish will be in pairs except the clownfish (a trio) and the tomini tang because he wouldn't appreciate the company of a conspecific.

None of these fish swims a lot, so it will continue to be a peaceful looking tank. Hopefully it will continue to be a non aggressive environment.

Nowadays, whenever I look at the tank there's a 50% chance I don't see a single fish and I have to wait for them to come out and say hi 1 or 2 at a time.

Having the fish in pairs makes me feel better because I believe they feel better too.

I hope that this will be an interesting tank to watch because all the fish are "intentional movers" (they seem to only move because they have a reason) and it's almost all pairs.

Even the Tomini tang is one of the tangs that doesn't swim all over the place. In fact, the only fish I see less than him are the 2 yellow assessors (I occasionally see them early in the morning).

I an hoping the quarentine will go without problems.

 

[Ardeus]

Yesterday I went to Lisbon to pick up the fish and also some live rock to help in the quarentine tanks.

The live rock was supposedly mature but it was in a big container with a pump, no heater, outside. The water temperature was probably 5 degrees C. When I was taking the pieces out, an old dead tang floats to the surface and quite a big one at that.

Still, I decided to put the rock into 2 buckets with lids and bring them. Almost all this rock went into what I planned to be the betta's tank.

It was time to fetch the fish. The guy from the store that was selling me the fish (Aqua Station in Oporto) was at the retailer picking them and I wasn't allowed in, strict rules. He was sending me photos and videos and we kept texting. The result was that I got 2 extra fish by mistake.

Here's what I brought:

- 2 Marine bettas (1 small, one medium)
- 2 Flame hawkfish (2 medium, one slightly bigger than the other)
- 2 Matted filefish (small)
- 1 diamond goby
- 1 Candy cane shrimp

And here's where the confusion happened: I had chosen a mated pair of Wheeler's gobies. At some point while we were texting, he sent me pictures and videos of other gobies: 2 draculas (in 2 different tanks, possibly a pair), a pair of yasha's and a pair of xanthorhinica's.

I assumed (and assumptions are the mothers of so many things) he was suggesting a replacement for the Wheeler's gobies.

The draculas were not a matted pair and they were even more expensive than the Bettas, so no.

The choice between the yasha's and the xanthorhinica's came down to which species looked better equipped to deal with bettas.

I thought the yasha's looked a bit more frail and in the videos I had seen they do a lot of hovering, and didn't stay as close to their burrow as other gobies. So I chose the xanthorhinica's.

I only found out that the wheelers were also in the box while we were having lunch.

 

[Ardeus]

I think the xanthorhinica's may be have been misidentified.

I hadn't heard about them till yesterday, so I googled them before making a decision. A lot of pictures of them show fish with high fin, which I think they don't have. Maybe they are barber pole gobies?

 

[Ardeus]

When I got home it was time to begin acclimating all these people and making decisions about who goes where.

I moved the rock structure on the top tank to the bottom and I built 2 caves with the new rock on the top tank.

The Betta's went to the top tank. They are going to stay there for a long time while they train me to hand feed them.

The wheeler's and the high fin gobies went to the bottom tank. The high fin's are really tiny. The wheeler's are always out and the high fin's immediately disappeared under a rock.

The filefish are also in the bottom tank. They hang a lot together, I have hope they may be a couple.

The high fin's are so tiny that I was afraid to put the hawkfish and the diamond goby in the same tank, so they are staying with the Bettas.

The pistol shrimp arrived in a very different salinity, so I knew he had to go right into the display tank. He's so tiny that I knew I would lose him when the time comes to replace the tank, so he's in a container.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Sounds like a very productive day. Congratulations on all the new life.

 

[Ardeus]

Thanks. A very stressful day. Moving all these guys around freaks me out. It's so easy to go wrong.

These 3 tanks will at some point have to merge into one and there's some potencial for disaster in the combination of these 24 fish while they are settling down.

I want to leave the Betta's alone as soon as possible so that they can begin feeding. So the hawks will move into the display tank probably after I finish adjusting their salinity in 5 or 6 days. I am still deciding where to move the diamond goby. My display tank is open top and that guy is a jumper. It depends on how the high fin's adapt during the next few days. I am really afraid the diamond goby may eat them!

The pistol shrimp will go into the bottom quarentine tank as soon as the salinity between the tanks is matched.

 

[Ardeus]

A few frags arrived today and I don't plan to add much more, beyond a couple of acan frags. No more fish or corals for a loooong time, hopefully.

It's a set of montis and a pink stylo. I am not a collector or corals and I don't want to make my life too hard by keeping more difficult corals. I like to pick my fights very carefully.

Deciding how to quarentine is a difficult decision.

I find it difficult to justify putting the fish into a bare tank with only a few pipes. Some of them could easily cope with that, others no so much. The challenge with Bettas is getting them to eat, even more when I am only providing frozen food. I can't imagine them eating in a bare tank.

My goal was to do an observation quarentine, but yesterday I noticed the female hawk began scratching her head against the rock and sand. Today, the same.

I don't see any exterior signs but I will not wait to find out what it is. Both quarentine tanks are now with chloroquine phosphate.

Today was not a good news day: the brace broke while he was separating the 2 laminated glasses. He's making another one.

 

[Ardeus]

I just saw the large marine betta getting out of his cave for the first time.

It was scary, I was not expecting it.

The diamond goby was moving sand around to create a burrow on the rocks where the Betta is staying. Suddenly I saw a dark undulating shadow burst out of the cave chasing the goby away.

That is one freaking scary fish! Stupidly long fins moving in every direction and a white mouth opening and closing.

So, the first time I saw this fish out in the open was during a display of aggression.

I have to keep the tank quite dark because of the chloroquine and I filmed it with my tablet wihout moving from where I was, so this is probably the worst video of a betta ever made.

 

[SkiCatTX]

Can’t wait to see the tank set up either! Hope it gets finished soon!

 

[Ardeus]

I am a bit desensitized by now. There's a time for everything and for me it has passed to a certain degree.

The enthusiasm I had for the project is half of what I had in the beginning. There many times that I think to myself "I just want 5 freaking glasses glued to put water inside".

It's a personality clash.

He doesn't mind working on the system for a couple of years and even losing money. He's a perfectionist without any hint of time management skills.

I am a guy who believes my first attempt at anything is perfect and I am never late for any appointment. I wouldn't have been able to achieve most of my dreams if I had to wait for the perfect conditions to go ahead.

I think this tank will be out of this world, but I hope I can fully enjoy it for some time and that time frame is shrinking. I have an old dog who's been with me 24/7 for over 13 years and I know my ability to enjoy life will take a huge blow in the near future. I would like to be able to enjoy the tank before that happens.

A couple of days ago we were messaging close to midnight because he was putting the doors in place. He heard some loud noises in the warehouse next to his. At first he wasn't scared, but as it went on he realised that it was being robbed and he had to call the police.

 

[Ardeus]

Things also went wrong in one of the quarentine tanks.

One of the hawks was scratching against the rock and sand and I used chloroquine on both quarentine tanks.

I hadn't noticed that the rock I got for that tank had some sponges and soft corals. Yesterday morning the diamond goby was dead. No ammonia. The hawks weren't eating.

I moved the 2 hawks and the 2 bettas to the other quarentine tank. The new fish are all together there. There are 10 fish in there now with the 4 gobies and the 2 filefish.

In my current tank, a 100 gallon shallow cube, you can't see any fish 75% of the time and there's 13 of them. When I look at the quarentine tank, it's basically the same and I fear that the new tank will also look like it's running fallow.

I think I need to quickly rethink this. I hate quarentines and if more fish are going in, I want to get them in there soon.

On the other hand some of these fish will still grow significantly.

The filefish, hawks, tomini tang and the 2 flame angels are the more visible ones that will grow.

I could go back to my original idea of increasing the threadfin cardinals group or include some anthias or chromis.

 

[Ardeus]

Progress is so slow... When? When? (sigh)

 

[Ardeus]

He began working on the sump. He's going to paint the back in red.

 

[Ardeus]

One the recent problems that I noticed that this delay is causing, is that I now think this tank is... "old".

I'm not kidding, this combined with the frustration of being constantly disappointed by failing delivery dates is making me consider ordering a different tank.

 

[Jacked Reefer]

this probably is getting frustrating. honestly at this point I would say i'm getting the tank at at this date or i'm not paying you.

 

[Ardeus]

As I said before this is a tricky situation. Building fish tanks is not what puts food in his table and with this tank in particular he's not making money at all.

I already cancelled a trip back in early December because he was supposed to deliver the tank. Then I told him to set a new date, which ever he wanted. Any further day beyond that date would cost him 10 euros.

I ended up not having the stomach to go through with that penalty because I felt sorry for him.

I believe he can take 2 or 3 months to finish the tank. Here's what's left to do:

- Finish the brace (I am not sure if it's the 3rd or 4th attempt) and glue the tank again.
- Put the overflow in the tank (it's less than half done). It's 2 sheets of laminated glass with a weir and 2 holes for the returns.
- The sump is probably 2/3 finished.
- Plumbing (he says he will do it here).

I think the cabinet is finished, but I'm not sure. He did an amazing job, but it's possible that he may find some tiny issue that he will need 3 months to finish.

Everytime he sets a new date, I have to begin preparing for the move. This happened so many times that my tank had far too many swings in many parameters and I am having some problems. The last time he set a delivery date (10 days ago) I didn't bother to prepare.

I love his work, but I am getting really close to giving up and getting a much lower quality (but bigger!) tank. I just want a freaking glass box to put my fish and corals!

 

[Ardeus]

 

[NY_Caveman]

Sweet!