Tony's 72g Mixed Reef Build

[TonysReef]

Seeing as I have everyone's attention, one last post for the night as the tank lights turn off.

I keep forgetting to post this, but the other week I got a replacement blue anemone which has much nicer colors and another purple. The blue I haven't taken proper pics of yet, stay tuned. But the purple is very interesting in that it has not one, but TWO buds/splits coming off of it. Really looking forward to the progression and seeing how long it takes for some independent baby haddonis. I'll be making a new thread to document this in the clown/anemone forum, but figured those subscribed here deserved a sneak peak.

 

[TonysReef]

Finally caught a pistol shrimp!! I tried using some food in a bottle trap, but when I checked the trap ten minutes later a medusa worm had pulled all the food out for itself. The pistol was out in the open though, so I tried to snag it with tongs, but I missed. Then after waiting it came out again and I decided to try using a hose to siphon it out. Accidentally grabbed an anemone and a goni for a second, but finally got him. One down, one to go.

 

[SPR1968]

Finally took out my actual camera for a few shots.

Beautiful pictures, very nice indeed!

 

[TonysReef]

So I realized yesterday that it would be disingenuous to not show the nipped fins and hyper-melanization.

Things have gotten better, but there is still aggression. I attribute most of it to the fact that they all still like to sleep in the same anemone, during the day they really don't squabble much.

I'm hoping as they mature a bit more they feel comfortable sleeping alone or in their subgroups.

 

[Bkab_Jay]

Battle scarred and everything, they are still a beautiful fish.

 

[TonysReef]

Did an LFS tour yesterday and picked up a few new pieces. A bubblegum digi, a pink milli, a goldish goni, and a green alveopora.

Bubblegum digi along with the green canary in a coal mine sps frag I got a few weeks ago:

Pink milli (I would have preferred to stand it up, but at the store it was laying like this and the bottom is basically dead, so why not just keep it that way and let it grow upward):

Goldish goni with blue tips (hasn't extended yet, opens up really nice though):

Green alve on the left to round out my alveopora garden rock:

And took a few random pics.

Splotchy carpet is finally starting to color up:

Started to organize my goniopora garden on the frag rocks. Tomorrow I have a dremel coming in so that I can cut a bunch off the giant frag plugs and disks and put them on smaller ones to better organize. Also put the purple up on top:

Obligatory full tank shot:

 

[EmilyXLC]

This is hands down one of the most beautiful setups I’ve ever seen— & that is saying something!

 

[New Jersey REEF]

Looking good!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Did an LFS tour yesterday and picked up a few new pieces. A bubblegum digi, a pink milli, a goldish goni, and a green alveopora.

Bubblegum digi along with the green canary in a coal mine sps frag I got a few weeks ago:

Pink milli (I would have preferred to stand it up, but at the store it was laying like this and the bottom is basically dead, so why not just keep it that way and let it grow upward):

Goldish goni with blue tips (hasn't extended yet, opens up really nice though):

Green alve on the left to round out my alveopora garden rock:

And took a few random pics.

Splotchy carpet is finally starting to color up:

Started to organize my goniopora garden on the frag rocks. Tomorrow I have a dremel coming in so that I can cut a bunch off the giant frag plugs and disks and put them on smaller ones to better organize. Also put the purple up on top:

Obligatory full tank shot:

So glad I discovered this tank thread. Quickly becoming a new favorite!

 

[Fudsey]

You not worrying about the Splotchy carpet stinging the alveopora?

 

[TonysReef]

Pulled this out of the tank yesterday, which I think was eating a small alveopora colony that wasn't doing well, hopefully it picks up now.

New gonioporas have started to open nicely.

Couldn't resist a really nice elegance:

It needs to get cut down from the like 5" stem it has, fortunately I got a dremel today with the tips to do that and remove some stuff from frags so that I can properly space and scape stuff, hopefully this weekend.

Been trying to catch my remaining pistol shrimps at night, I think I still have two, no luck yet.

While feeding my gonis today I realized it was a great time for a full tank top down shot. Also I ordered a porthole for my DSLR, so many more proper top down shots to come.

You not worrying about the Splotchy carpet stinging the alveopora?

Are the two not meant to be friends? Because nobody told them.

 

[GlassMunky]

Which LFS do you shop at?

 

[Fudsey]

That looks like a fireworm ;Wideyed

 

[TonysReef]

Put most frags on new plugs and rearranged the Goni Garden and moved a rock to make some space:

Updated full tank shot:

I just got the neon goniopora in the middle and sort of regret it as I don't have a great spot to put it. I also put the zooanthid rock from the top center in between the rocks on the left to make space for something more interesting in the middle. I'm hoping to find a space invader pectinia for that space soon.

The big news of the day is that I just got in a porthole to take real top down shots. I don't have the energy to mess with it now, but I took a few shots to test and already love it.

Jester Goni

Pink Goni

Red/Yellow Goni

Yellowish Green Goni

Rainbow Goni

ORA Goni

Pipe Organ

Greenish Yellow Goni

BTA from the forum (linked thread)

Purple Goni

New Western Australian Elegance:

Pink Alveopora

Orange Storm in Purple Carpet

Orange Storm in Pink Alveopora

Goldish Goni

Bicolor Carpet

Going to Philly Splash show tomorrow, who knows what'll happen. Also have my eye on two carpets to finish up the haddoni garden assuming I don't find any better ones tomorrow.

Which LFS do you shop at?

Quite a few from NJ to LI. In no particular order, the ones I like:

Pop Corals
Advanced Marine Aquatics
Iconic Aquarium
Tropical Island Aquarium
New York Reef Aquatic
Reefco

That looks like a fireworm ;Wideyed

It is (was).

 

[TonysReef]

So bad news first. I seem to be down 4 or 5 fish and have no idea what happened to them. I would imagine somehow the red haddoni took them, the fish have always been wary of it even though they go in all the other carpets. The other culprit would be the pistol shrimp, but it is smallish and I have a really hard time believing it got so many fish before I noticed. I think within a week or two I went from 20 to 15 or 16. One of them was a jerk though, so not all bad.

As a result of that I declared war on the pistol shrimp last night. I lost. Tried to siphon it out for a while and then epoxied its burrow up (it had an escape hatch it seems).

Last bit of bad news, a snail seems to have knocked my rainbow acan off a ledge (I hate epoxy) and it seems to have fallen into a haddoni, I think the splotchy one that moved, and I think it ate the acan, with the putty. So that's great. Hopefully it spits it out soon, nothing I can do but wait and see what happens. The splotchy carpet basically moved to the red one and all but under it.

The bicolor one also decided to take a walkabout. At the moment it's on the other side of the tank, but still doesn't seem settled.

Onto the good news..

Went to Philly Splash on Saturday which was small, but a great show. After one lap I thought I would leave empty handed, but upon closer inspection the second time around I found exactly what I hoped to find before going:

A neon yellow carpet

A space invader pectinia

And of course an addition to the goni garden:

Today I also stopped by Pop Corals and grabbed a new acro frag

Bicolor in it's current spot:

New top down:

Full tank shot:

 

[TonysReef]

Those following along may remember this post from about two weeks ago:

After catching that little ******* my elation fairly quickly subsided as I realized I still had clicking coming from both sides of my tank, so my one remaining pistol shrimp was still two. I kept trying the bottle trap to no end and finally last night I decided it was time to lift some rock out of the tank and finally freshwater dip them out.

After lifting the one rock I knew had one in it out this little bugger dropped right out onto my styrofoam lid. So far so good.

It actually gave me the opportunity to rescape the left side of the tank which was nice as I wasn't optimizing space well. In looking at the above picture I'm fairly certain that one was carrying eggs, so hopefully I don't end up with a ton of babies, at that point I would just take the tank down and start over. Hopefully any eggs that fell off the copepods take care of. I have a ton of them.

After watching the tank for a while longer I saw a big ******* on the right side of the tank by the clownfish sleeping, so another rock came out and this ******* fell out:

So far so good, but then I realized there was still one left in the left rock structure I had already removed! I tried plugging up the rock holes with glue and carbon reactor media, but he kept finding new escape hatches. So this morning the rock came out of the tank again, and alas:

So that's four down. I think there is actually only one more left on the right side. The rightmost rock I'm not too keen on taking out, but I may do so tonight if I hear the clicking again. Not sure if the blue carpet is attached to it somehow. But if I have to upset it to finally have a silent tank I will.

I really love my real live rock and most of the life on them, but these pistol shrimp are beyond annoying. I'm still not sure if they're actually responsible for killing my 5 fish. I feel like I would have seen some evidence of that if it were the case. Either way, I enjoy flushing them down the toilet and can't wait to be done with this chapter.

I also finally managed to remove the small green carpet I've been wanting to get rid of from a rock, so that's in the refugium now, hoping to sell it this weekend.

Heading to a bunch of stores today, odds of me coming back empty handed are none and none.

 

[dbl]

What a pain but I'm glad you're having success finding them.

 

[Ardeus]

Can the gonioporas touch the carpets?

 

[dieselkeeper]

Very nice tank. Where did you get the anemones?

 

[TonysReef]

So, after posting yesterday I ended up pulling out a large rock without success to find the clicking. In so doing I managed to break my bubblegum digi frag which is upsetting, but one of my LFS's is meant to be getting a malaysian acro shipment next weekend, so maybe I'll be happy for the real estate.

This morning I heard some more clicking and pulled a smaller rock out though and managed to find not one, but TWO little jerks. Unfortunately one managed to escape into my chaeto in the refugium. I half don't mind as I realized how much detritus was at the bottom of my chaeto in trying to catch it. Cleaned some of that out and I'll modify my refugium a little to avoid it in the future. Once I get rid of the carpet I have in my fuge I'll properly hunt it out. Second one was successfully captured and flushed though.

So that's five down, number six in the sump. And I can't be sure until I catch the sump shrimp, but I think there is still clicking in the tank. I don't even know how the limited rockwork I have supported all of these things. Either way, it's nice to be winning battles, but the war isn't yet over.

Onto the good news. Went to a few stores this weekend and managed to snag a cool dendro colony at a steal of a price and a new goni.

Dendro opened within ten minutes of being thrown in the tank without acclimation. (I was exhausted from battling the pistols in the morning and couldn't be bothered to acclimate)

New Goni has some cool coloration:

More to come later this week or next weekend. I ordered a neon green carpet finally. Been trying to find one for ages.

Can the gonioporas touch the carpets?

I have gonis and alveopora touching the carpets without issue.

Very nice tank. Where did you get the anemones?

A few online vendors, can't say that I would really recommend most of them for one reason or another though.