Reef System in Progess

[Radom]

Run your skimmer anyways since it needs time to break in. Also if no bioload, skimmer will not produce any discharge into your collection cup till you actually put some fish/coral into the tank. Mechanical filters are not good enough to remove all the disolved biomatter from water and thats what skimmers main job is. In addition, once you start putting fish in the tank keep an eye out for any nitrate spikes since you mentioned "cotton" filters they can become serious nitrate producers if not changed frequently.

[lizarddoctor]

An update and an OH MY GOD!!!!

I was sitting here waiting for the guys to come back over and finish the cabinet, bring some additional water, and complete a few odds and ends. They show up and the first thing they do is drop some assorted anemone and coral in after only a few days of cycling . My wife wasn't here and my Vietnamese doesn't cut it so I was at their mercy when I told them 'no' and they kept saying 'no problem'. After about 30 minutes of disbelief, everything they put in went into a bloom. I couldn't believe it to say the least.

After another trip to the store, some more came back . Now I am astounded. They told me to go ahead and drop some fish in too if I had someone to watch the tank when I go on vacation next week and I buckled. The Tet holiday (the most important Vietnamese holiday) is a few days away and we will have many guests over. Though I do deserve a verbal bashing (I do deserve it ), the costs of each item in the tank is between 1.60$ and 3.20$ a piece and I am praying that the guys that set up the tank know something that I don't.

Some of the anemone and coral seemed to be strugling, but when I moved them either into more current or better lighting, they went to full bloom too. I have added some marine vitamin supplement and bought some freeze dried tubiflex for the fish. I don't have anything yet to test the water and the guys looked confused when I told my wife I needed something first. I will monitor everything closely for sure over the rest of the week.

For better or/and worse... Here are the updated pics and a link of the full size tank as of a few min ago.

http://www.saigonesl.com/FishTank/tankdocs3.htm

And a full size view of the tank as of a few min ago (a little over 2mb)

http://www.saigonesl.com/FishTank/St...nkFullSize.JPG

If anyone can identify some of the items, I would be grateful. I am still searching for pics to compare them too as the book I have doesn't contain the coral and anemone that I have.

[fishobsessed]

Hey lizarddoc.,cool tank,wow fish are cheap over there! That " unidentified fish"as u say is a Oxymonacanthus longirostris,common name long-nosed filefish,orange-green filefish,beaked leatherjacket.

[lizarddoctor]

Thanks a ton. One search for its pic on the net and it popped right up. Although the store said he was ok in there, I am reading that it feeds on hard corals and that it is the only food for it. It hasn't bothered anything else in the tank and I did watch him eat some Tubiflex worms today. He/she just kinda hangs out near the glass and comes over to anyone standing near the tank. A real curious fellow to say the least.

I will update my page in a min. I'll go down and see if the other one happened to climb out of what ever shelter it snagged for its territory.

[Tommy Gun]

The anemone is a carpet anemone...as far as I can tell...I have the same type and it stings me as well. I wear gloves now when I play in the tank but it still gets me on my elbow and forearm! Some people do call certain anemones coral, and sometimes call mushroom corals mushroom anemones.

I am sure you know which are clownfish, but it looks like one is a tomato clown or a Cinnamon clown (the one with two white strips near the head and then the tail). I am going to be upset if the black and white fish is a black clownfish since they cost A TON around here. It might be a three-stripe or four-stripe damsel though.

The corals are some sort of polyp colony, but I am not very good at coral ID so someone else may be able to confirm that or deny it and tell you what it is exactly.

The wrasse, next to the cleaner wrasse, looks like a Lunare Wrasse to me. It is not reef safe since it eats crustations (hermit crabs included) and other common reef 'clean up crew' members.

Hopefully I am right and this helps you out. (you can click on the links to see more info on each and maybe a good picture to compare your fish to)

[gm333]

The what you called green coral expanding is a type of Alveopora Coral, The one you called close up of red coral is a type of leather probably finger leather. The elegance coral is right, and the wrasse is definitly a lunar as Tommy has stated.

[lizarddoctor]

Those links were gold Tommy. As soon as I clicked through, it was like I was looking into the tank.

The black and orange clownfish are identified simply as 'banded clownfish' in my book. Sadly both of them have passed on. All of the clowns came from one store, while the rest came from another which only does salt water tanking and the fish there look much healthier. If the other two clowns go, I will never head back to the first store for any fish. One started to look pretty bad last night and the other went soon after I removed the first one from the tank. The other two clowns are black saddle back clowns if I am not mistaken. They have only 2 stripes and the fin and tail have a white stripe along the edge. They are one of the the most plentiful in the LFS. I have had a hard time finding any other types but those two. I did run across 2 tomato clowns and also some small spotted sweetlips clowns, but they were both already bought by someone else. I will wait a few weeks before adding anything else at the moment anyway.

That is quite an amazing price for the fish though. They all run about 1.50$-2$ a piece here and the stores do have a large selection of things that I have never seen before. I am doing my best to try and figure out what they are before they are bought up by someone else as the stock changes are crazy on a daily basis. I walked in yesterday and could have picked up about 20 yellow seahorses for 3 dollars a piece if I wanted them. Black ones were 1.20$.

The Lunar wrasse picture is identical to the guy in my tank. I figured it was some kind of wrasse since I found a picture of a clown wrasse yesterday with the same body shape, but the colors were off. I did add a large marine plant yesterday to help the tanks environment and he made a new home in it. Along the bottom I have found 1 crab victim eaten, so I knew right away who was guilty. I may return him for another fish as I see that one of the starfish also lost a limb and I would like to add some cleaner shrimp unless there is another recommendation from anyone that would be lunar wrasse safe . He has some character, but I might have a problem finding some suitable cleaners for the tank other than inverts.

As far as the green and red expanding coral, I will try and snag a picture of them in the morning as soon as I turn on the light. They are usually closed up in the morning and look pretty much like an exposed brain. Searching the pictures on about.com didn't come up with a good match with what they have as a brain coral, but the 'ball coral' or 'flowerpot coral' came pretty close. I just did a search for Alveopora Coral on liveaquaria.com and that looks like a match except for the starting shape. One of them has just exploded in size after I adjusted the shelf it was on and is huge after an hour of the lights. The other one looks good, but I may try to find a better location for him soon and see if I can't get it to really bloom. The carpet anemone has moved around a little, but not enough to warrant a new display yet .

I have to head to bed now, but thanks again for IDing some more of the tank and I will update the site pages as soon as I can.

[lizarddoctor]

Site pages have been updated with the help of fishobsessed, Tommy Gun, and gm333. Many thanks for IDing some of the fish and coral. I have been trying to spend a few extra hours per day browsing liveaquaria.com and a few others for pics and info in addition to daily browsing of older threads here to keep from making another lunare wrasse mistake as I still haven't been able to catch it. The store said they would happily trade him for another, but I am looking at another tank for fish only that I might end up getting soon to give it a new home.

I have had a lot of tank progress in the last few weeks concerning water quality and a slow of diatom algae growth with daily maintenence. Most everything looks to be healthy and stable. After doing a complete cleaning of the tank and filters today, I built another update page. Hope you like the new stuff.

http://www.saigonesl.com/FishTank/tankdocs4.htm

[Nereaga]

Very nice tank.... I should have started with a bigger tank... dam it

[gm333]

Its stocking up well, by the way the unidentified fish on the right(the one with the whiskers) is called a Bicolor Goatfish Here is more info on the little guy http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...pcatid=688&N=0