Adam's 55 gallon Reef (Lots o' Pics) - Page 17

divecj5 · #**401** 12/05/2006, 08:10 AM

Sorry for the lack of updates and PICTURES but nothing too much has been happening in my little piece of the ocean over the last couple days.

The "unnamed" sifter goby has been doing great although he was incredibly messy for the first couple of days. He went ahead and proceeded to create a sizeable dust storm in the tank the second day he was in there and went ahead and made sure to drop ALL sand that he collected in his mouth on top of the candy cane and zoas that I have on the sand bed. I guess that'll learn me

That happened for the first couple of days and I was actually startging to get worried that we would have to come to blows since basting off the rocks every evening is just about as much fun as beating yourself in the head with a bat

I think that either he has gotten the hint that I didn't enjoy that or is just doing it less since although some of the piece still get some sand on them, it's not the dune that he was moving on top of them like before.

Other than that, he has been doing great and is now swimming up toward the upper half of the tank and seems to be getting along great with the clowns as well

which makes me really happy.

divecj5 · #**402** 12/05/2006, 08:18 AM

Other than that, I went ahead and FINALLY picked up some frozen mysis from the LFS the last time that I was in there. I intend on using this to spot feed my candy canes and acan possibly a couple times a week when I feel like it after or right before the lights out.

I have to tell you that it is probably one of the most amazing things to see. I usually get the corals all worked up by putting some "juice" in the water and then give them 10-15 minutes to get ready. I then turn off all the pumps and skimmers and just suck up a couple in the turkey baster. I then just let them slowly fall on the polyps and the acan heads one by one. It is freaking amazing what the acans look like with just the head or tail of the shrimp sticking out of it's mouth while it's sucking the other end down. I really still can't believe it when I see it. It's almost like they turn themselves inside out and then just swell up around the shrimp and down the chute it goes

I will DEFINITELY get a picture tomorrow night of the feeding.

My girlfriend was laughing herself to death last night watching me stare at the tank with just the actinics on and getting all excited about my "precious corals" eating

Just reinforces that she's a keeper since she didn't barate me, just laugh and tell me what a goober I am.

Anywho, other than that, things are just moving closer to Christmas and hopefully closer to me getting a auto top off and possibly starting to build a sump.

Just because I'm always trying to learn more about cool fish, what are some of the more personable blennies out there? I have ready that algae and lawnmower blennies are interesting but since I try and keep my algae down to somewhat of a minimum, I heard that they can starve. I saw a midas blenny that looked really cool.

Back to work.....

Adam

divecj5 · #**403** 12/15/2006, 07:58 AM

Wow....seems like forever since the last time that I gave an update on my tank and how things have been going in the carolina reef

I have been exceptionally busy with travelling for work over the last week and with the holidays, you all know how hectic things tend to get. No excuse not to update though

....I will make sure to keep things a little fresher from here on out.

Hope that everyone else is doing great and I hope that this thread continues to be useful to others out there as well.

Nothing too much has changed in my tank over the last week and a half. The dragon sifter (still need a name for him) has finally gotten to the point where he isn't dumping sand ALL OVER the place and I there are no more of the sand storms. He has actually gotten really pretty comfortable in the tank and grabs some of the meaty scraps that make it to the bottom when I'm feeding the clowns....so it seems like he was a good choice for the tank

I have been spot feeding my acan frag and candy cane corals about 2-3 times a week with mysis and a turkey baster. The acan frag has already started to grow 2 new heads and is starting to creep down the other side of the rock that I got it on. I still need to head to HD or Lowes and grab some epoxy so that I can put it in it final spot to grow out. I have been overall really happy the way that it is puffing up now and growing.

The zoa frags that I got are doing great as well. I have only seen noticeable growth on one of the frags and that includes about 4-5 new polyps in about 2-3 weeks that I've had them now. So I'm really excited about that as well.

divecj5 · #**404** 12/15/2006, 08:03 AM

On the other hand, I have found over the last couple weeks that I have some vermitid snails in my tank. Although I first noticed these about a month or two ago now, I had heard that they were basically just harmless and wouldn't really affect anything. After posting on another thread (the guy has a 450 gallon tank) his tank is overrun with the things and we have been trying to figure out a good way to get rid of them.

We have come to the conclusion that until we come up with better ideas (we have already tried soaking in RO/DI water, putting vinegar and alcohol on them) that the best way to get rid of them is just to remove the rock and scrape them off. So that made for a fun afternoon when I took out all of the rock on the right side of my tank and got to scraping. I am planning on taking out the rock on the left side of the tank this weekend in a two part process and doing the same. The only solution that we've come up with is that it's a possibility that blue legged hermits possibly eat the webs that the snails send out to grab food. Other than that, they are basically like cockroaches, only a nuclear explosion would kill them.

For right now though it seems like they aren't getting bigger and there aren't any more being produced so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Well, better get back to work but just wanted to keep this thing updated. Hopefully i can grab some pics this weekend and put some up here. I have some new aquascaping that I did to the left side when getting rid of some anthelia that started to pop up throughout the tank

Adam

divecj5 · #**405** 12/15/2006, 08:04 AM

Looking back over the last four posts....looks like I'm talking to myself in here (echo echo echo)

captbunzo · #**406** 12/15/2006, 10:56 AM

I hope you weren't jumping to conclusions by removing the snails. Just because someone has a big tank, doesn't mean he has a clue.... I could post some example threads, but that would be mean.

Anyhow, glad the dragon goby is working out. Great little fish, indeed!

divecj5 · #**407** 12/15/2006, 12:50 PM

Thanks Paul for the response. Yeah, I just don't want to let them get out of control in the tank. I would like to be more proactive than reactive with things like this. Some of the pics that he posted did show that some of the snails are now growing through some zoas and other corals.

Yeah, I am overall really happy with the sifter...it is really a cool fish for sure.

How are things with your tanks? Haven't seen anything on your post in a while

Adam