Some new pictures

Andyoybna · 04-28-2007, 11:27 AM

well, my tank is finally settling down after an outbreak of cyano bacteria, all of the coral is settling in nicely, fish are doing great, and hopefully, i'll be getting a bit more color in my LR soon, while I just let the tank sit and get pretty and of course, I got a new camera that I just had to try out!

Full tank

Cleaner Shrimp

Mandarin

Flowerpot

Andyoybna · 04-28-2007, 11:29 AM

Various Pictures:

gm333 · 04-28-2007, 12:17 PM

Looks good Andy, May I suggest a little trick I learned on cyano. Next waterchange use 3/8" tubing and suck out the cyano in the tubing. It works very well and doesnt take too much water out too quickly this way you have more time to get more cyano out.
Also is there any reason you have your lights on backwards?

Andyoybna · 04-29-2007, 10:13 AM

Thanks for the tip on the cyano, I may try that next water change, it really looks to be slowing down, so thats a good sign. What I've been doing so far is brushing it off of the rocks or sand and letting it get sucked up in a sponge I put on one of my powerheads, or the skimmer, for some reason I have no luck sucking that stuff up with my siphon though. When you say use 3/8 tubing, thats what I have on it, should I just use the tube without the big part on the end of it?

Ahhhhhh the backwards lights! I had to go with function over beauty! Basically what was happening, is if you look closely there is a T5 Fixture on the front of the tank as well(itty bitty) Anyways, the PC light on top of it was being slightly blocked by the t5 fixture. On the back side of the PC fixture was about 3" flat area with no lights except my moonlight LEDs, sooo I just turned it around and now the only thing that gets blocked is the LEDs at night, but I just take the T5 off and lay it on top of the PC fixture at night. Also, the reason the T5s are on backwards is so the wires wouldn't be on opposite sides of the tank.

Anyways, quick update with new pictures coming a bit later:

Blue linkia star is dieing, didn't look good when I picked it up(stuff hanging out the mouth/foot) I tried it anyways though, but my friend gauranteed it for me, so its not a total loss.

Plate coral is getting really messed up, something has been getting sand all over it, and since that has been blacked out it is bleached/dead in those areas

, I moved it over in the tank a bit, hopefully it gets its color back, I think the cucumber may have been doing it.

Also, as much as I tried to talk her out of it.......... new fish YIKES

We ended up getting a valentini puffer, he is doing very good though, really cute fish and thankfully still way too small to eat our shrimp! But he will be going in the 90 whenever I get that set up, which will probably be the end of the summer.

gm333 · 04-29-2007, 10:20 AM

Kepp en eye on the valentini, they are reputable for munching on corals. I dont know if they will bother the softies though.

Andyoybna · 04-29-2007, 10:32 AM

Well, the thing that I would assume he would want to munch on the most would be my star polyps, but they grow like weeds so it doesn't matter much, I really don't think he would try to eat anything larger than that though. Although he probably won't even want to until he gets bigger, and by that time it'll be in a fowlr tank.

Andyoybna · 05-06-2007, 03:18 PM

Well, here are some more pictures that I took over the last couple of days.

Valentini Puffer

And here he is again getting surpised by my cleaner shrimp, I actually watched the cleaner sneak all the way accross the tank behind the LR and then jump on the puffers back and start cleaning away! They're good friends now though

My frogspawn is doing very well now, it looks like it is actually starting to split two of the branches, I took this with the polyps retracted this morning, it is easier to see on the right side since it is more of a side shot, but in the middle you can see how tall it is getting instead of the circle that it normally is.

By the way, this is the skimmer I am running, got it on ebay for like $60, just a generic skimmer, any comments on it as far as design, does it seem to be performing OK by what you see in the collection cup (about a 2 days worth)

edit:
Wow, did you know smileys count as an image?

Nereaga · 05-07-2007, 05:43 PM

Nice puffer Andy!! I can't wait until I get me one of those skunk cleaners. From what I hear they are pretty cool creatures. Id like to actually see one piggy back a fish for a snack!!! Awesome frogspawn too!! I have to wait another 2-3 months or so until I can dabble in some softies..... Soon....

Andyoybna · 07-04-2007, 07:37 PM

Well, its been a while since I've updated this, not too much has changed though, reduced the lighting slightly, I'm down to 108 Watts of t5+40 watt NO, which is actually doing nicely right now, added 2 HOB whisper 30-60 filters, I was having a bit of a problem with film on the surface of the water, which is gone after the addition of those filters.

As for livestock, fish are the same, except I picked up a HUGE yellow tang, about 6-7" when I bought him, as for corals, I'm not sure what I added when, but recently I picked up a large 8" or so yellow toadstool, and a very, large elegance coral maybe, 10-12" and 18 or so branches.

Inspiration from GM here, since a video is worth 1000 pictures, I just took one today, I could have waited, just did a water changed and moved a few things around, so a couple of my corals are less than thrilled.

Andyoybna · 07-08-2007, 10:22 AM

Well... I had to do it... I know I didn't really want to add another fish to my tank, and I think I'm really pushing it, however... I couldn't resist!! Damn you petco!

Of course, I had to show up right after they got their order in... what do I see? Longfin Bannerfish!(henochious) Jokingly I'm talking to the manager, how much is it? I'll give ya 20 bucks and we can call it a day. So, he comes back.... gets the scanner, gets the order invoice, puts the SKU in... 19.99! I just could not pass it up!

And of course, like and idiot... I thought I wasn't going to add anymore fish, so no QT right now. However he is doing very, very well despite being picked on by my tang for the first few days, eating pods and refrigerated phyto plankton. Ever seen Top-Gun? Just hit the brakes and let em fly right by! Well, that is EXACTLY what the bannerfish does when the tang wants to chase him, then the tang gets stuck in a corner or something and has to slowly back up, the tang has really given up for the most part now, and luckily it hasn't stressed the bannerfish at all!

Pics coming soon!