reef junkie. Chapter 1- back off the wagon

[impur]

Congrats on the raffle! Good call on the QT, its a hard thing to do but best in the long run. I learned the hard way.

[littlemissy617]

yeah it kinda sucks when you cant run out and drop 400 dollars on sw goodies like we all dream of doing.....I envy those people who really get to but I know it will make me treasure what I do have or get even more....hang in there!

[dsoz]

Chapter 11- not moved yet.

 

Well this chapter will be a lot of words and no pictures. My son has lost the cable that can connect my camera to the computer. I have pictures, but can not download them :(

 

To begin with, Wave and Bubble (ocellaris clowns) have been enjoying the larger tank after their month and a half in QT while the ick parasite died off in my display. They have not started hosting anything yet, but I have a picture of a clown taped to the glass near the frogspawn. Wave (larger) gets irritated at the "new clown" but does not defend the FS from it. I have also started feeding the clowns by hand about 1/2 inch above the FS. This forces them to get near it and they often brush into the tentacles. I hope that this gets them used to the feel of it so that they start hosting it. They have started hanging out on that side of the tank more often. Good sign.

 

I have plenty of new additions so far this month. I have 6 new frags from Josh. A false superman, purple montipora, orange montipoa, blue staghorn, an orange/peach something (???) and a pink stylopora. The pink stlyphora has become the favorite of my wife and daughter.

 

I have a couple of new mushrooms from SWFS, and a small frag of a green montipora. I also got a box of flatworm exit (have not used it yet because I don't have a way to run carbon on my tank yet). I have not picked up the anemone that I won at the last meeting yet. I figure after I get the tank moved, and everything has stabalized it would be a good time for the anemone. I can't wait.

 

From Reefgeek I got a lawnmower blenny. He is so cute (the blenny, not geek ). My wife thinks the blenny is an ugly fish. She just does not understand that beauty is in what the fish does, not what it looks like. I have so much algae that the lawnmower can eat for a week and not make a dent in it. He must be eating it because he is fat and seems happy. He is so fat and just sits around all day on a flat rock that he reminds me of Jabba the Hutt. So that is his new name, Jabba.

 

This weekend, from Waves, I got a fox coral, a galaxy coral, and a different colored purple monti frag. Those, along with 40# coarse sand, a bucket of salt, and 10# LR rubble, set me back a little bit of change. When I told my wife how much it all cost, the only thing that she could say was "and you didn't even get any fish to swim around!" She just does not understand.

 

I also picked up most of the bulkheads and plumbing that I will need to drill the tank and make some Durso standpipes when I move the tank to the basement. The move will probably happen in a week or two. Time conflicts at work have prevented me from getting the basement ready for the tank. Now that summer is here, I can get the basement cleaned up, and the tank moved in the next week or two.

 

I also went in with Lowman on an order from IPSF. I should be getting a bunch of new snails and other inverts. Shipping is supposed to be on Monday, and delivery on Wednesday. I'll post how that experience goes. It is my first order on-line and by mail. kinda scary (scary).

 

I am going to leave the lights off on my tank for a day or two. I hope that this will decrease the amount of nusance algae that I have going in my tank right now. I am also not going to decrease the amount that I feed the clowns. I have probably over-fed them because I have been trying to train them to use the FS. Too much food going in.

 

dsoz

[180Brandy]

Thanks for the update! I was wondering when the next chapter would come. Find that cord!!! (laugh) pictures are needed.....

[dsoz]

Adding pics

 

Well, my son found the cable to the camera... In his room... BIG SURPRISE!!! So now I can upload some pics! I talked about most of these already, except this tiny frag of a leather coral. It was at the pet store near my house. Its story is that the store had some large leathers a long time ago, and a small piece must have broken off and landed in a hole in one of the rocks. It attached and started growing. I asked the worker if he would sell it, and he said $10. SOLD! I was not about to buy the whole rock, so I suggested cutting it about half way down the stalk. He would have another one grow out of the hole, and the top half would grow in my tank. So I super-glued it to the inside of a shell, and is is sitting in my tank. It only puts out polyps every couple of days. Maybe it is still getting used to the higher light levels.

 

Red and green mushrooms. I have cut them both in half. The red one, both are doing great. The green ones I lost, one right after cutting, the other one after it attached to some CC, and I used the CC to glue it to a rock. The next morning it was gone. I hope that they have found an area in the back of my tank that they can survive, grow, and srurprise me later.

 

 

Purple monti- this is the one that I will probably break in half for Bluecheese in the near future.

 

The coral that my wife and daughter like the most. A pink stlypora.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a question. These were in my tank a while back, and I did not know what they were. I could not post a pic (no cable to camera). I don't know what these are. If anyone can ID them, it would be great. THey are SMALL, the lower right corner shows part of a zoo membership card that I use to scrape algae (I have not gotten a mag-float yet).

 

 

And last is the obligatory shot of the Wave the clownfish. I took the shot hoping to count spines to finally decide if she is an ocellaris or a percula. I am thinking ocellaris, but I want to count to make sure.

 

 

Enjoy I know I have

 

dsoz

[Nyles]

Don't worry about those, they are fine, I have them in all my tanks, I read they are hydroids, a type of jellyfish of sorts if I remember correctly. The coral that browned on you WAS in fact the same one that browned on me, just give it time.

[dsoz]

Thanks for the info Nyles!

 

It is not the small jellies that I am woried about, it is vacuuming all the stupid brown flatworms so I can use the FWE without killing off my tank. Lately there have been LOTS of them. I bought a short ridgid tube, and some 3/16" airline tube, and suck those little buggers right out. I cleaned off my front and one side yesterday, and I think I cleaned an equal number of them today. I am going to keep this up for a few days until I can't find any more to suck off the glass. Then I will drop the FWE bomb on the tank. LOL.

 

dsoz

[Nyles]

Just as you already knew, just make sure you have lots of water made up, good luck.

[180Brandy]

Cute pictures. I like the pink coral too. When can we see a full tank shot? Thank goodness your son found the camera cord..

[dsoz]

new additions after the June meeting

 

OK Brandy, I'll get it out of the way first. The FTS! (drumroll please)

 

A little closer of the left side- in the lower left corner you can see the picture of a clownfish that I cut out and taped to the glass in order to entice the other clowns to come over to that side of the tank. I is not working too well... (sad)

 

Center

 

Right side

 

Next is my "old" frogspawn- purple with green tips, This pic is right after "feeding time" when I let some freeze dried krill drop on top of it. The clowns then are forced to eat out of the tentacles of the FS. Here is bubble (smaller clown) eating out of the FS.

 

Here is my "new" frogspawn. Green with purple tips. It also has a macroalgae that is attached to the base. I am not sure if I like it on there yet. I'll give it a little time and I hope that it does not turn into a week that grows out of control.

 

An "old" candycane, that I got as 1 head from J&Jr. There is a second mouth growing off the side of the first. Both take food, and eat about every other evening.

 

My "new" candycane. This guy came as a "free coral" in an order from IPSF. Lowman got the other two heads, and some free red and green 'shrooms that came in the order. This candycane has not put out feeding tentacles that I have seen, and I tried putting some food on it, but it did not take it. I hope that it starts eating soon so it can grow up to be big and strong... so I can frag it!

 

This is a fox coral that I got from Waves a week ago. It has started off more brown, and has started to turn more green. I did try feeding it once, and watched a piece of krill get pulled into one of the mouths (it has 4). There were no feeding tentacles, so I don't know how it did it, but I watched it with my own eyes!

 

A galaxy coral (also a week old from Waves). Kinda cool, but has not shown its full potential yet. I think he is kinda shy.

 

This picture does not do this one justice! A light lavender montipora, with dark purple polyps. My daughter picked this one out of Joel's frag tank as one of my presents for me for Father's Day (the other one was a DVD of Finding Nemo from Disney- My favorite animated movie!)

 

Not pictured are the purple/orange zoas that I got from Advanced. They are just starting to open up, so they will be camera ready in a day or so. Also not pictured is the cowry that I got. I have a picture of it, but my niece is holding it before she got to place it gently in the tank, and let it float to the bottom. I try not to post pics of minors on-line, so I won't be putting her picture here. When it decides to come to the front of the tank, I'll get a picture of it then.

 

I went over to Coral Reef Pet Center after the meeting. I picked up these purple/orange zoas (different purple and different orange) and 5 astera snails.

 

With these additions, another paycheck bites the dust! How it goes quickly. I was just telling my wife how I think I have enough in my tank, now I just got to let it grow out so I can start trading for new stuff. Then what do I do? Go out and get more stuff!

 

Enjoy the pics! I get to enjoy the real thing!

 

dsoz

[180Brandy]

Excellent!! Thank you Dsoz!!!

Let me just say you forgot one important member where is Jaba???????? Thanks for the pictures! Now when you talk about something I have a picture to refer to. Your tank is cycling very well. Since you were so brave in showing us a full tank shot, I'll post a picture of our tank.(scary)

[dsoz]

where is Jaba????????

 

I realized that I forgot a pic of him once I got all the others uploaded. He hides a lot, so it is hard to get a good shot of him. For the best picture of him, just put in Star Wars episode VI. About 10 minutes into the film, just pause it. That is a close likeness!

 

ha ha ha ha

 

dsoz

[180Brandy]

rofl rofl rofl

[J & Jr]

Your tanks coming along great hope to see it soon.

You Have a PM

[dsoz]

chapter 12- the "big" move

 

The first move occured yesterday. I say first because it will need to get moved again in 4 to 6 weeks. I got it out of the attic, and into the basement. My plan was to also drill some holes for plumbing, but I could not get the hole saws in time for moving. I have some leads on some hole saws, so I'll probably drill some holes next time it gets moved.

 

Before the next move, the area where the tank will be moved to needs to have the concrete waterproofed, and some dedicated circuits need to be wired in. I have two circuits that are not being used right now, so I can re-route the wires to the new spot, then add several outlets for all the power needs.

 

I learned some lessons on this move. ALL corals should be individually bagged and put in a box. I almost lost two corals. They got knocked off the rock that they were superglued to. I spend almost 30 minutes searching for them. One of them was my "old" candycane that came as a single head, and is in the process of splitting off a second head. I love that little coral, it was one of my first, and it it fun to feed both of its mouths. I probably would have torn the whole tank apart and searched the sand grain by grain to find it. Next time all my important items will go in bags so they don't get lost.

 

Also next time I move the tank, I am going to use a large Rubbermaid tub to hold all the rock underwater. It was a pain in the neck to move the rocks around. I think I moved the rock back and forth two or three times by the time I was done. Next time it will be one time out, and one time back in.

 

Another lesson that I learned is I should separate the rock by size. Large rock in one area, and small rock in another place. This way when Putting the tank back together, you can easily pick a rock that is the correct size. Sometimes you need a rock that is large, sometimes you need a rock that is small. Finding the right size rock quickly would help out a lot.

 

Finally, I think I am going to be getting rid of some of my SPS. I don't have the experience, or the mature tank needed for the SPS challenge. Also, I think I like the look of the LPS better. At least for now. I will keep some of the montipora, and the pink stlyo that is my daughter's favorite, but other than those, I am going to give/sell/trade them all away. This will give me more room for my frogspawn (both of them), and other LPS to grow. I can also get different colors of hammers. This will also give me more room for a rose BTA! Now if only the stupid clowns will pick something to host!

 

So moving was not as exciting as I wanted it to be, but move #2 should include drilling some holes and connecting some pipe.

 

Until chapter #13- enter the amenone... Fare-well

 

Dsoz

[180Brandy]

Yippy Chapter 13 (clap) (clap) (clap) (clap) (clap) (clap) Ok that was over kill. I think it is so awesome to see how tanks start!!!!! The progress reports are so great!!!! Keep them coming!!!!

[dsoz]

Chapter 13- the tank leak!!!

 

Well I did not get the anemone last week (which ends up being a good thing), so the next chapter is a horror story, which is fitting for the 13th chapter. (scary)

 

I posted this in another thread, I just wanted the story also in my tank thread to keep everything together.

 

So I have had an interesting couple of days. It all started on July 4th after the fireworks were over. When we came home, I went to check the tank before going to bed (maybe feed the candycane if its feeder arms were out). THERE WAS WATER ALL OVER THE FLOOR!!!! Sometime while we were gone, one of the seams started leaking!!! I quickly checked all of the equipment, the skimmer, the overflow, etc. and did not find anyplace that the water was coming from. ARGH!!!! It must be from a seam. Inside the stand is all wet, and the water is dripping down from the inside of the stand. This would be bad enough, but we were planning on leaving to go camping at the beach in the morning. This is a disaster.

 

Not that I didn’t expect it. The tank is 15 years old, and I probably re-caulked the silicone about 10 years ago (after the first tank leak). Since then, the tank has been moved about 10 times, and in the possession of at least two other people at my work. It has been used for catfish, goldfish, trout eggs, salmon eggs, other critters that students caught in the creek, and who knows what else. That little tank has gone through a lot. I think the last straw was me moving it down stairs to the basement.

 

So at 11:30 pm, I emptied about half of the water out of it to lessen the stress, said a prayer, and went to bed. I got up early the next morning and found a 33g Rubbermaid tote that only was storing some books. Out came the books, and in went the sand, live rock, and fish. The skimmer went on one side, and the overflow on the other. A quick hang job for the lights, and throw in a powerhead, and we are ready to go camping for two nights.

 

When I came back from camping today, everything seems to be doing ok. A couple of snails had climbed up the side of the tote, and were on the floor. I think I rescued about five of them. But everything else seems to be doing fine.

 

Now I need to decide whether I should redo the silicone on my existing tank, or if I should wait to the end of the month when I may have some money to put into a new tank, or get a used tank from someone. I guess I need to start pricing tanks, and looking at the classifieds. I think a 75g would be about ideal at this time, but I don’t know if the budget can afford a new tank.

 

Tonight I don’t have any time to spend thinking about it. I need to do a quick turn-around and repack. I am going to be gong with my son and his youth-group on a rafting trip down the Deschutes for the next two days. Then I can worry about my fish and their home. They will do just fine in the Rubbermaid tote for the next few days.

 

Dsoz

[dsoz]

pictures of jaba the LM Blenny

 

Do to popular demand (Brandy) I have just downloaded pics of Jaba off my camera. Since my tank started leaking, these are not new pictures, just ones that were on my camera from before.

 

 

Just look at that fat belly. Reminds me of Jaba in Star Wars, episode 6. All he relly needs now is a hooka and some dancing girls. And a REALLY big monster that lives in the sump!

 

And another

 

 

The other kinda cool news is my clowns are starting to swim through the xenia and the frogspawn. They are starting hosting behavior!!! Yay!

 

Also, on my "new" frogspawn, the one that is green/purple tips, there is a small head starting to form at the base of the flesh where it meets the skeleton. I think I read somewhere that these types of corals will make small "clones" that drop off and start a new colony. If this is what it is doing, it is way cool!!! If all it is doing is starting a new head, that is also cool. But I thought that they split from the top of the head where the mouth is. One day it opens up and there are two mouths, then they start growing in different directions, eventually separating into two different heads. At least that is what my "old" frogspawn (purple/green tips) has done. This will be a wait and see. I should go get some pics of this new small head on my FS!

 

I hope I see a bunch of people at the meeting tomorrow.

 

dsoz

[180Brandy]

I love your Jaba picture! I think they are really neat to watch!!!!! Thank you!!!!!

[modularduck]

Wow man really cool to read your thread. ii trust all is well.

[dsoz]

Wow man really cool to read your thread. ii trust all is well.

 

Thanks Duck!

 

After having the tank start leaking, and moving everything to a rubbermaid tote... I guess everything is getting back to "normal"

 

I redid the silicone in my 45 for now. I want to upgrade to a 75g in the near future. I am waiting to see if Petco has the annual $1/gal sale in August (last year it was the second week in August). If they don't do it, the pet store in Oregon City is running a special on 75 AGA for $100. Then I can build my own stand, and drill some holes for a standpipe. I am thinking I can use my 45 as a QT, or as a sump for the 75.

 

I am also getting excited about the CFM that will happen in August! I hope to score some nice stuff. I am also waiting to get my RBTA from Fanta-seas. I think I should have plenty of room for it and all my corals in a 75g.

 

Everything should be ready and stable by the end of August!

 

dsoz

[dsoz]

baby froggie

 

I was looking at my tank, and noticed a small growth at the base of the flesh on my "new" frogspawn (got at the June meeting at Advanced).

 

 

A baby head of FS! I'm gonna be a daddy (again)! It is SO cute!! I wonder when it will learn to walk. What will it's first words be? Will it look like me, or its mother?

 

I had to pick it up and shake it a little so the heads would retract and get out of the way, then turn it to get the good shot. I hope it does not develop shaken baby syndrome... LOL

 

This is the cool part of this hobby. Watching the different ways that these things reproduce. I watched my other frogspawn split from 2 heads into 4, now there is a baby growth.

 

dsoz

[dsoz]

Chapter 14- CFM and more

 

Like I stated in my obituary for a clownfish, the larger of my two ocallaris clowns decided to go carpet surfing this last week. I still have the smaller one, Jaba the LM blenny, and Hector the goby. I got an orange spot goby, but Jaba chased it all around the tank, and I think caused him to also go carpet surfing. That is two fish lost in two weeks. (sad)

 

This is the single head of candy cane that now has at least 4 heads, with 2 more mouths that have not formed heads yet. Also some zoas. On the upper right are eagle eyes, the lower right are more eagle eyes that are closed, and on the left are the metallic blue center with orange skirts that I got in June from CRPC in Salem.

 

pulsing xenia that I have taken several frags off of to give away.

 

From left to right, false-superman monti, yellow toadstool leather frag, orange stylopora or pocilipora (not sure), and a blue/orange zoa (different blue and different orange than the other blue/orange zoa that I have).

 

fox coral

 

pink stylophora that is still my daughter's favorite.

 

A browned-out purple encrusting monti that my daughter got for me for father's day. It is starting to show color in the new growth.

 

Orange monti, and the green frag to the right is a new green Psammacora from the CFM. Supposed to be a slow grower, so don't expect frags anytime soon.

 

My LPS collection. Three different colors of frogspawn, and a green hammer. Along with Hector (pronounced Ec-tor like in Spanish) the Hector's hover goby.

 

A new torch coral that I got from Jay last week, along with the largest frogspawn from the last picture.

 

Zoas that were hitch-hikers on the bottom of the torch.

 

Orange acro from SWFS, and a new "moon zoa" from Jay.

 

A Kenya tree that I also got from Jay. This is the larger of two pieces that he gave me.

 

my second candycane.

 

I broke down and bought a sea hare. His name is Shreck. He does not seem to be doing well, he keeps falling off the rocks, and he does not eat as voraciously as people have claimed that sea hares eat. We'll see how he does.

 

ORA cali tort. I swear that this piece is large enough to make at least 3 frags. I plan on letting it grow for a while. I hope it does not brown out like some of my other pieces.

 

A highlighter-green hydnopora (I think?) that is plating now, but Ryan said it should start growing branches up.

 

Pink plating montipora. Also from Ryan.

 

monti digi that J&Jr won in the raffle, there were two frags, and he shared one with me. I guess that puts him first in line to get a frag of anything he wants out of my tank.

 

Green "lillypad" Montipora mollis from CFM

 

My new "green BTA" from SWFS. This is the anemone that I won in the raffle at the may meeting. Patrick says it is a "green" but it looks more red-brown. It does not have the pink color of a rose, but that is ok. The clown that is left has not figured out to host it yet.

 

A small green anemone that I am holding for defigart until his tank is ready.

 

A sand sifting star.

 

Lastly a FTS

[180Brandy]

Thanks for the pictures! My favorite is still the pink one. Your tank is coming along nicely. Thank you for the update.

[Barelycuda]

Very nice progression. I think bubbles needs a new friend!!! Give me a call & you can come pic one out of my fisrt batch of clowns. There are some that are ready now. We'll work out the details later.

 

Cuda