125g saltwater startup

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#161
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#161
Lotus how was the drop of the bangaiis? did you manage to save any of the fry? I noticed this morning my male is just about to drop again.....jaw distorted, not eating....fat mouth. I have totally given up on trying to catch him prior as it just stresses them out and they drop prematurely. I still have the two in my sump, I really need to try and catch them and locate them into my 29g. They hide out though and are the quickest swimmers......darting around stuff.
 

Lotus

Lotus

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#162
Aug 26, 2003
15,115
13
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Southern California
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#162
Well, my banggais don't seem to want to hold eggs for more than about a week these days :( Maybe we need to transfer them out.

The tank is a year old this week, so I thought I'd post a few pics. In the works are a possible major rescaping of the rocks, and a little more algae removal for the front of the tank, and of course some bubble algae removal. I did some major scraping a few weeks ago, but it needs hitting again. We recently changed one of the blue actinics for a white actinic, and I don't really like the colors under the new lighting. I did some color adjustment on these pics to make them a little more like the way they look. For some reason, the lighting/camera really give very red looking images.

The gobies hanging out:


Bam bam zoas, crocea clam (was bought at an auction before I could protest), acanthrastrea and organ pipe coral:


The blue mushrooms:


The green star polyps (gorgonian type):


Daisy polyps (which don't like to spread onto coraline), leather and favites (it had an accident, hence the dead patch):


Full tank shot:
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#164
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#164
Looking really nice Lotus. Have you given any thought to a couple of emerald crabs to take care of the valonia? I have heard that they eat it and it may give you a leg up on it. I wouldn't worry about the bangaiis they may give it a rest. Any idea why he is spitting them? are there any stressors ? If you seriously want to breed them then you will have to move them to a dedicated tank.......hopefully with a long spine urchin or fake to protect the babies. Mine seems to hold about every 6 weeks then I notice him eating again.......so I know he released them but I haven't seen any babies hanging out. He tends to release them in the middle of the night.
 

Lotus

Lotus

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#170
Aug 26, 2003
15,115
13
38
Southern California
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#170
Thanks everyone. :D

It does need some work on it. We've been busy lately, and have really only had time for water changes/regular maintenance. When we get some time, we'll probably take all the rock out, get the bubble algae off, and rescape the tank.

For the banggais, we may put them in their own tank at some point. Right now we have a QT set up with a new wrasse who should come out next week. We also have a tank with a bunch of LR we got for free, and some frags I've made. That rock may go in the main tank, or maybe for a banggai tank (I think there's about 25lbs of it). Once we have some time, we'll consolidate and maybe set up a banggai breeding tank. We have plenty of tanks hanging around, just no space to put them or time to set them up right now. :)

There are plans for a couple of more fish in the works. Probably a yellow clown goby or two, and probably a pair of clowns (most likely ocelaris). I was dealing with ich in the QT for way too long, so those plans have been on hold for a while. The wrasse has been ich-free for almost four weeks now.

By the way, the fridmandi/orchid dottyback absolutely refuses to be photographed. If he sees the camera, he hides.
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#171
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#171
that is funny the orchid dottyback.....I wondered if you still had him.

I really like my clarkii pair they are great hosting immediately in my lta.....quite the characters. Much more active and around than my pair of ocellaris who only hang out by their host candycane......I may move the ocellaris to the 29g and put the clarkiis into the 75.......
 

azfishgal

azfishgal

Large Fish
#172
Dec 3, 2006
141
0
0
Arizona USA
#172
Lotus, your tank is awesome! *thumbsups I hope you have better luck with your Bangaii pair in the future. I know I got lucky with mine, first batch 40+ babies and I catch most of them. I'm sure that won't happen again. :p For now I just hope I can keep the little fries alive.
 

Lotus

Lotus

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#177
Aug 26, 2003
15,115
13
38
Southern California
home.earthlink.net
#177
Here's a few updated pics. The tank is just over five years old, I believe. The tank has certainly matured. There's a small algae problem right now, and we need to scrape some coralline off the front glass. I've had fish and corals come and go. What I have now seems to be thriving, so I'm leaving as-is for the time being. Some of the larger softies need trimming, that's for sure.

Full tank shot:


Some LPS corals and zoas:


Some of the large softies:


More large softies:
 

Lotus

Lotus

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#179
Aug 26, 2003
15,115
13
38
Southern California
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#179
I think it's a hammer coral, rather than a frogspawn.

We had a slight problem with our RO unit (forgot to change the DI resin), so phosphates have probably been running high. The phosphate reactor media also probably needs changing. The refugium light went out a few years ago, and we haven't replaced it. So, yes, a number of things contributing to the algae. We really do need to get it up and running in an ideal way again. It hasn't been neglected, but there are some things we've slacked on.
 

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