Hey guys!
It's been a little while so I'll
try to keep this short and sweet while covering the highlights.
Aiptasia has been completely eradicated with much thanks to
@Reeftown It only took about a month for 6 little berghia nudibranchs to take care of hundreds of little aiptasia nems. They did indeed breed within the tank, but aiptasia was already gone by the time I saw tiny nudis cruising the glass. Honestly, I was sad for the little guys that were hunting for food that wasn't there anymore.
The clownfish and ywg survived the gauntlet of qt. The clown was showing signs of intestinal parasites but with much assistance from
@Humblefish , I treated both fish by feeding them Metro laced food for 10 days. Symptoms were gone for several days and I FINALLY have multiple fish in the display tank. My last concern with these guys was that the ywg had been paired with a Randall's pistol shrimp. I didn't want the shrimp to eat any meds, so the poor little guy lived in a DIY cage in the display for a while. I barely saw shrimpy for a few weeks as his cage provided some sand and rubble that he promptly buried himself in and wouldn't even appear when food was dropped. Poor guy. I just didn't want to lose him in the display and hoped to encourage both the ywg and shrimp to live under the big ledge on the left. That worked out too.
Once the fish was added to the tank, (released under said ledge), the shrimp was also released nearby, they found each other overnight, and quickly started building a burrow right where I'd hoped they would.
Unfortunately, my old buddy Scorch the firefish is not taking kindly to the new inhabitants. The clown doesn't even approach the firefish, but the goby acts like a little boss and flares mightily whenever Scorch appears. His appearances are happening less and less because as soon as Scorch catches sight of either of the new guys, he darts righ back to his lair and hides the rest of the day. Yesterday's appearance lasted 2 short seconds.
I know I did things wrong in allowing him to live alone for so long, but I was unwilling to add new fish without a quarantine period. I had terrible luck in cycling said quarantine... it took months! Then a hurricane hit and power was out for a week, and that killed the cycle, so I started over. It took months again and then I had my share of sick fish who never made it out of quarantine. I sterilized the qt and had to cycle it yet again. Anyhow, all this took a lot of time and Scorch was a happy guy all the while, until fish finally made it out of qt. Miss my Scorchy.
Hubs is a marine technician/electrician... in other words, he works on fancy boats. This sure comes in handy in the hobby.
He's recently DIY'd us an optical ATO with lots of fail-safes. There will be no overflowing or leaks as long as the equipment is well maintained. It's not fancy, lots of parts came cheap and from overseas, and the reservoir is a WalMart special, lol. But hey, it's working like a charm and there is nothing visible in the display. Yay! Here are some pics of it.
This read board was empty when we got it. He soldered every little thing you see here.
This little doohicky that you see float valves on goes in the reservoir. The top valve will trigger a red light on the control box, alerting us that the reservoir is getting low. If the reservoir level hits that bottom valve, the power to the pump will be cut off, so it will never run dry.
If you look closely at this last one, you'll see that he named it StellATO. I love it!;Smuggrin
Here's the only part that's on the tank and it sits very close to the waterline, so it is hardly noticeable when the tank is viewed from the front. Though, you may be able to see that the high water sensor is very close to the rim. Ehhh, this means that there could be a teensy overflow if things go bad, but not much, and that sensor also triggers a VERY loud alarm.
No more manual top offs for this baby.
Okay, so I missed the mark in making this short, but that's all for now folks.
