ReefGrammie's 90-Gallon Reboot

[sp1187]

I would take the damsel back and do peaceful.

or add a snowflake moray.

 

[ReefGrammie]

I would take the damsel back and do peaceful.

You're right, Simon. I shouldn't settle for what I don't want just because I have a jerk fish! I have some frags to take to the LFS soon and will plan to also bring him a damsel....if I can catch it. Worst case, I can tear apart the BioCube and get him, but I'd rather not do that because I have everything the way I want it now.

I guess I could plug all of the holes with rubble (I know where he hides) and see if I can catch him if he can't dive in a hole. I also thought about putting the net in the water at feeding time and see if he'd get used to that. The clown is so easy....just scoop him up with the net. I don't think the damsel will be that easy! Thanks for your input.

 

[ReefGrammie]

or add a snowflake moray.

Might be a bit hard stuffing a moray into a 16 BioCube! I kept a damsel with a g. smithii mantis shrimp for several years...the evil damsel just might take on a moray!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I was messing with cell phone pictures...I thought these actually turned out pretty good!

I have a "thing" for cyphastrea. I never had any in my previous tank, but I have them everywhere in this one. The bottom one is WWC Bizarro.

JF Beach Bum monti, which is just stunning. I can't wait to see this one grow out more.

Another WWC piece, Electric Daisy stylo....and the CG poser on top of it!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Where have I been? I guess not much is happening tank-wise. I did take a cell phone pic of the BioCube this morning. I really need to set up my tripod and take a picture with the actinics on...it's so pretty!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I haven't been on here in a while! I did something Sunday that I almost regretted. I moved the demonic three-stripe damsel from the BioCube back into the 90. I really like the fish, other than it can be demonic. I thought the Kole tang had enough time to adjust to not being terrorized. Since I got the damsel out of the 90 once, I figured I could do it again if I had to!

At first the damsel hid, but then eventually came out and went after guess who....the Kole tang!! I thought to myself, oh no, what have I done!! Of course, the jerk dwarf angel also got in the act. The Kole tang started hiding and I got really worried.

Thankfully, everything has turned out fine. The tang finally stood his ground and the aggression stopped. He has a little nip on his tail, but the bullies have backed down. Instead of swimming away for his life, he just picks at the rocks and goes about his business. Whew! That could have been a really dumb move. I just hoped it had been long enough to throw the damsel off, being thrown in the BioCube, plus give the tang enough time to gain some confidence.

Now I can finally do what I want with the BioCube! I have it scaped the way I like and will probably add a firefish. I'm thinking about maybe a possum wrasse.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Tanks are well, fish are behaving, and coral are really looking great. Last night, my little grandson was waving goodnight to the fish. Of course it was adorable! ;Joyful

 

[ReefGrammie]

Ever have that one fish that drives you insane? Like this guy?? Cute little clown goby .

That little fish has been jumped the overflow and gone through the plumbing and into the sump twice. Not the first chamber...the little turd crosses both sets of baffles and ends up in the middle chamber with the return pump! First time, it was at least 3-4 weeks before I knew he was in there. Second time, I found him right away. I had to rig the overflow with a screen to keep him out of there. Next adventure was be sucked into the siphon and into the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket during a water change. He darted in there so fast, I didn't have time to even react! Now, I have to watch where he is before starting the siphon.

This week, I was looking around the feeding ring and noticed this lifeless little body floating upside-down. Oh no, I thought, and got my net. I touched him with the net and off he went. I guess he was just randomly floating upside down looking lifeless. Did I mention that little fish makes me crazy? Oh, but look at that precious face! How can you resist! ;Shamefullyembarrased

New tank adventure for the week arrives Thursday. My little grand is going to be so excited. He keeps pointing at my BioCube and saying "no bish." Well, I have ordered two new bish for the BioCube, an exquisite firefish and a possum wrasse. Hopefully, they arrive in good shape and acclimate well. He'll probably be more excited about the box than the bish, but at least I don't have to hear about my BioCube with no bish anymore.

 

[najer]

My gcg makes me smile or chuckle every day as it darts about the place.

 

[ReefGrammie]

My gcg makes me smile or chuckle every day as it darts about the place.

Mine: She (maybe he) Drives Me Crazy...great song. I must admit, mine is either "sunbathing" on the monticap or intwined in my JF Fox Flame. I prefer the sunbathing!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Yesterday was rough. It had nothing to do my fish tanks. We lost our beautiful girl, Maya. She put up a tremendous fight over the last 6 months after surgery, but it was just too much. First the surgery in January, then seizures in March, then advancing kidney disease. She had good quality of life until yesterday afternoon when everything just tanked. In January, we didn't think she would ever make it to her 10th birthday. She made it about 2 weeks ago. We are so thankful for the last 6 months. We had some great times, took many long walks, and gave her lots of love. RIP Maya. You were loved. Here I go again...I almost made it through this without crying, but nope.

This is my favorite picture of her when she was younger. She loved the snow!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Nice weekend out of town. It helped to be away from the house. Tanks look good. Daughter-in-law is a pretty good tank sitter. I did have the best surprise when I got back. Last Thursday, I had a "fish box" arrive with my two hopefully peaceful inhabitants of the BioCube. I ordered an exquisite firefish and a possum wrasse.

The firefish looked great from the start, but the wrasse seemed stressed....not an unusual experience with shipping a wrasse. I acclimated like normal and added them both to the BioCube. The wrasse was definitely alive when added, but didn't seem right. I couldn't find him Friday. We left town Saturday and came back this afternoon. I couldn't believe it when I looked in the BioCube and saw something out of the corner of my eye. The possum wrasse!!! I asked my son, and he said they were talking about the wrasse this weekend, neither one had seen him and figured he was gone. He's very shy (normal for a possum wrasse) and darts back in the rock pretty quickly, but he seems pretty intent at picking amphipods off the back wall. I offered some spirulina brine shrimp earlier and he ate a little bit, but goes back to picking at the rock/back wall.

I needed something good this weekend, besides seeing two of our precious grands! This was a great "therapy" weekend, after the loss of our sweet Maya. I'm so happy about the little wrasse and hope he continues to do well! I finally have my peaceful tank! ;Joyful

 

[BelieveInBlue]

Nice! I picked up an exquisite firefish last week as well. They seem to do quite well despite being deeper water fish. It's currently bickering with the midas blenny.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Not much to update. I washed a million filter socks today. Well, it was actually about 10. I hate turning those things!

A few cell phone pictures of some new additions. I'm a huge fan of ricordeas...and montipora.

These firework cloves really have some potential. I'm keeping them on a separate rock just to keep a watch on them. Some of the wavy, flappy stuff can take over the tank fast. These are beautiful, though!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I wonder if anybody has tried this to "save" a chalice this way. I received a shipment almost 2 weeks ago from an extremely reliable vendor. Everything looked great, was acclimated, etc. Within a few days, the Smoothie King chalice started peeling away from the skeleton on one end. It's not near anything that would bother it. The problem was moving pretty quickly and I figured I was going to lose it soon, so I decided to try some reef putty over the exposed part. It's been over a week since and I'm not seeing anymore white. I have NO IDEA if this will work, but it was worth a try. It's a gorgeous piece and I've become somewhat of a chalice freak. This is my 4th one. I just hope to see the chalice growing back over the putty at some point. Fingers crossed!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I decided to play with tools today and build a cabinet, which would go next to the tank and would store "fish stuff." I also wanted to drill a hole in the bottom so I could put my calcium doser in there so I wouldn't have to worry about our 2-year-old grandson drinking the calcium. I finally found a cabinet narrow enough to fit my space and asked my son to build it yesterday. Well, that didn't happen, so I grabbed my tool bag and went to work.

Out of the box...

Intended wall.

Cabinet finished. I must be hinge deficient. It took me at least 3 times to get the hinges on right...I'll blame the instructions!

My special "assistant," who thought the Kamoer pump was a camera. He kept looking into it and saying "cheese." Very cute, even if I say so myself! ;Joyful

On the wall with fish stuff!

Finished product.

 

[ReefGrammie]

It's amazing what you can do with a cell phone camera now...a few pictures from today.

Rainbow montipora

Cyphastrea

Acans

Firework cloves

 

[ReefGrammie]

My LED has decided to semi-bite the dust. It's disappointing, but Reef Breeders has amazing customer service and my fixture was still in warranty. I'm mainly worried about my acropora and the monticap. The driver has gone out on the right side, so at midday, it looks like whites/blue on the left side and actinic on the right side. Two of my acropora are on loose rock, so I can at least temporarily move them to the left side. I've been communicating with Logan all week because it started out as odd flickering that I noticed at night on the right side. I then noticed that the entire violet channel was out on the right side. Anyway, we figured it all out yesterday and I hope to have a replacement by Monday or Tuesday.

I also wonder if I should ramp the light down a bit when I replace it. I have multiple Excel files with my custom schedules over time. Anyone who happens to see this is welcome to chime in!

This is what it looks like now (excuse the bad cell phone picture). This just started yesterday (Thursday), so I will have this lighting until my replacement arrives hopefully Monday or Tuesday.

 

[ReefGrammie]

From the POTO live sale yesterday. Great sale. Loved the format. I'll definitely be back!

The replacement LED has been installed in my canopy and seems to be working fine. I wanted to be sure that issue was fixed before I added more coral!

For the 90:
TSA Princess Peach (been on my wish list)

Bubblegum digi

POTO Hellblade

Ultimate Miyagi tort

For the BioCube:
White zombie (had to have!)

Captain Marvel

Drax the Destroyer

 

[najer]

Nice haul.