Not a typical doctor's waiting room... 450 gallon reef

[jnarowe]

could be the flame or bluethroat...I mean check out that pic, he's not just cruising around...tasting is what he's up to!

[gkarshens]

It's really looking great!

[Dudester]

The receptionists in the office look directly into the waiting room during their work day, and the clams are on the end of the tank closest to them. Granted, they're working (hopefully), but none of them have ever witnessed any clam nipping. I know this doesn't rule that out, it's just a comment. And thanks, everyone, for your compliments. The new corals are thriving, and I can't wait to see what this will look like in about 6 months.

[cbui2]

how long has the system been running before corals were introduced? also how many days did it take for signs of polyps coming out?

[thedude15810]

The first coral was added about 1 1/2 months later and polyps were out in seconds. SPS corals were added at around 10 weeks and showed polyp extension immediately as well.

[melev]

I think I'm going to have to plan a weekend to visit Austin and see a number of tanks and LFS I'm reading about here. I want to see Aaron & Gabriel & Mike's tanks for sure, and then visit John's store too.

Thank you for posting pictures and tell us about how the systems run, both good and/or bad. We all learn and our systems benefit from these threads.

[gkarshens]

Come on down Marc! We would love to do a tank tour for you!

[thedude15810]

Marc,

Didn't get a chance to talk to you during the Port A trip but saw you flashing by plenty on the jetty. I'm impressed you bagged so many peppermints as their numbers weren't very good this year.

I'd love to have you down for a tank tour and possibly a tour around some Austin bars (with lots of beer involved of course).

John

[melev]

John, do you have a picture of yourself? I wish I'd realized you were there. No-one had any sort of ID to know who's who and when people came up to say hi, only a very few clicked with me (memory-wise). For example, I got to meet Fireeater and I've been reading his posts for a long time now.

I did post pictures from my trip on DFWMAS, but not on RC yet.

Definitely need to schedule a visit of your town. I'll need a designated driver though.

[pardalis]

Very nice setup, I cant wait to see it progress!

[thedude15810]

Melev,

Austin has a great cab system so no designated driver is needed haha

Only thing really to report with the tank is that film algae on the glass grows at an annoying rate. I'm toying with the idea of ozone or UV (possibly a combo of the two).

Also, the A/C is going to be out all weekend which means fun for me. I guess 2 days of dark period might be good for the tank

[melev]

Just do what I did and install a window unit.

[thedude15810]

Interesting find tonight... One of the 16"+ gigas clams has been doing poorly in the past few weeks. If you'll remember, we've lost 3 or 4 croceas clams already from a mysterious villain. The clams were in my system for around 3 months, healthy as a.... ummm... clam.... then died one by one.

Today, I went to remove the gigas and he appeared to have some damage to his shell in the hinge area. Not only were nassarius around him, ready to pounce, but several were inside along with CERITHS! What in the heck! I brought the clam back to my store after removing the stupid snails and put him into a coral tank. Not 30 seconds later, a nassarius snail popped out of the sand and went to eat on his hinge! I removed all snails and crabs from his tank and the clam is MUCH happier and opening more than he has in weeks. Hopefully a few months of not being messed with and he'll be as good as new.

I also said I'd post a fish stocking list;

-Palani Tang
-Hippo Tang
-Yellow Tang
-Lavender Tang
-Blonde Naso Tang

-Bluethroat Trigger Male
-Flame Hawk
-(8) Blue eyed Cardinals
-(1) Green Chromis

-Golden Wrasse Male(Came into his adult color form this week!)
-Melanarus Wrasse Pair
-McCosker Flasher Wrasse Pair

I think that's it but I'll double check later...

Fish we've lost:

-Blonde Naso Male 8" w/streamers (killed by construction companies no A/C)
-Rainford Goby x2 (also killed by A/C)
-Powder Blue Tang
-Clown Tang x2
-Firefish x11
-Green Chromis x4
-

[melev]

John, since you are a LFS owner, I tend to believe you've seen it all, but just in case the tiny ceriths are actually pyramid snails that burrow their way into the shell of a clam to eat it. And some snails that look like nassarius are actually whelks, again a type of predator.

If you already knew this, ignore my post.

[jnarowe]

firefish x 11??? Ouch...And take heed to Marc's comments about the pyramids. They do look like small ceriths. I don't believe that ceriths killed your clams. And the nassarius will find any kind of decaying matter and eat it.

[thedude15810]

Thanks Jonathan and Marc for the input. This clam in particular came from a mutual friend (fishypets, truly amazing tank) and did have pyramid snails when I got it 8 months or so ago. I got rid of the problem with weekly scrubbings, freshwater dips, and wrasses.

These weren't pyramid snails but FULL grown, brown shelled cerith snails. I have no real clue what they were doing in there and one of the shells didn't even have a snail in it. I've heard of a hawkfish bombarding a clam with snail shells to kill it before but I figure SOMEONE would have seen the hawk around the clam.

Interesting point on the whelks too Marc. I've learned through experience, to only trust the big pacific nassarius snails and order them as such. If anyone has seen a large gigas clam the part I'm talking about is almost disconnected from the shell. Two halves, them at the hinge, a small strip of shell.

Weird and I really wish I could figure out what was systematically killing these things. The Derasa clam FYI, is doing GREAT and has grown almost an inch in a mere 4 months.

John

[thedude15810]

Also, I'm at a complete loss as to what happened to the firefish. They were added in groups on 5 (gone in one day) then a group of six (2 gone in the first day, the rest dead in about 6 days). I feel like they either got sucked into the pump/overflow, or something killed them, then the nassarius took over.

[jnarowe]

got an eel hiding out in your tank? OR...how about the dreaded worm incident? Seriously, this could be a possibility, and I would still be VERY suspicious of the pyramids.

Whatever the case may be, time to remove any remaining clams, and set up a seperate system for them. I would consider a FW soak, new sand, and that's it.

Another thing to consider is typical lifespan and water quality. The snails, as I mentioned, could just be taking advantage of a diseased or somehow compromised clam.

I have had something like 40 Mexican Turbos dies over he last month, and virtually every one of them has been packed with baby DIBS Turbo sp. The DIBS snails seem to be drawn to the decaying snail matter, and when I say decaying, I mean the most foul smelling stuff known to man. I have had a sea hare die in my tank and it smelled better than these Mexican turbos. Those nasty, putrid shells were completely packed with DIBS turbo babies. I highly doubt the babies killed the Mexican Turbos.

[thedude15810]

I don't suspect a Eunicid because I used Tonga rock, not Fiji. I have a feeling one of the fish is messing with them but I tend to agree with you Jonathan and may make the tank clam fallow for awhile to try to resolve this.

[jnarowe]

not much else to do really. just watch the temp. in the temporary tank...I have a buddy that had a sweet clam in a prop tank that lost it's prime and roasted.

[GMFett]

John- Its ok- D had 9 Powders before one lived!

[GSMguy]

you need a clam/sps rimless cube in your office lol

[Charlie97L]

so where are the locks on the cabinents?

looks great, i'm glad the tank in general is making a comeback!

i would (from my experience) hold with something stressing the clams, and then the snails going after it when it's dying.

i had my cleaner shrimp start eating my maxima a few days after it was damaged by a falling powerhead.

[Dudester]

The cabinet locks are inside the doors, hidden from view. They're activated/released by placing a magnet over them, which releases the latch. We use the magnet cleaner for that instead of the small, less powerful magnets that came with the devices. I picked them up at Lowes.

[thechad21]

Wow, Finally done skimming through this thread after four days. Very impressive! Working on a 225 sps tank mysylef. It will be in my office. Your temperature problems have me slightly worried for my own tank.