Not a typical doctor's waiting room... 450 gallon reef - Page 12

rppvt · #**276** 03/07/2007, 10:16 PM

reflective shades...

beerguy · #**277** 03/09/2007, 10:18 PM

...

Dudester · #**278** 03/09/2007, 10:24 PM

cbui2 - I'll answer your question since the official thread host hasn't yet. There is no on-site QT. John and Brian own and operate a LFS, and the quarantine occurs at their shop.

We've had a few additions over the past couple of days, as John mentioned. The first were:
3 female McCoskeri wrasses
4 True Percula Tank-Raised
2 royal grammas
3 glass-eye cardinalfish
1 male Blonde Naso

The male McCoskeri flashed his arse off when he saw the females, and John was wise to place 3 females in the tank. That way, as the male swims about the tank, he'll have plenty of places in which to show his stuff. He's absolutely gorgeous when he flashes, and I never saw him do it until the females were added.

The clowns fought a little at first, but now they've paired up and reside at complete opposite corners of the tank. Two are hanging out with the lone torch coral.

The glass-eye cardinalfish never leave one another, and we're probably going to put more in eventually to promote schooling. Currently they remain along the near end of the tank, but hopefully with time they'll venture out more. My phone didn't pick up the color well, but there's a brilliant blue color along their foreheads that should intensify over time.

John was right - the naso is gorgeous. He eats the algae voraciously off of the rocks, and aside from a small flesh wound, the Palani tang and yellow tang seem to get along with him. Check out his early streamers!

And just to prove that there is a surviving Rainfordi goby, you can see it in this picture, along with a royal gramma, some cleaner shrimp, and one of the other percs.

Tonight, 5 firefish, 3 green chromis, and the bluestar leopard wrasse were added as well. The wrasse disappeared into the sand immediately after eating, and 1 of the firefish is MIA, but otherwise all appears well. The next additions will likely consist of CORALS!!

Dudester · #**279** 03/09/2007, 10:25 PM

For anyone who may have gotten 20 emails indicating that updates were available, I'm sorry but I don't think it was my fault. Thanks, beerguy, for fixing the problem!!

thedude15810 · #**280** 03/09/2007, 11:15 PM

Mike,

Please stop breaking threads

jnarowe · #**281** 03/09/2007, 11:32 PM

yeah dude...this ain't the first time!!

Dudester · #**282** 03/10/2007, 01:07 AM

It's not my fault. My thirst to provide the reefing community with photos is unquenchable. Read this and cut a dude some slack.

Sheesh, now that I've alienated everyone, we might as well terminate this thread.

thedude15810 · #**283** 03/10/2007, 01:19 AM

Hahaha

One question, how do you get the fish to stay still to take a picture? Everyone of my closeups came out blurry as hell. They obviously recognize the hand that feeds.

Dudester · #**284** 03/10/2007, 02:55 AM

Well you're the fish whisperer, John, you'd think they'd do whatever you tell them.

Actually, the blonde naso is very docile. He's been hanging out in just about the same area of the tank for quite some time, not really venturing out when people are around. Late tonight I checked on the tank and he was a little more out and about, but he quickly retreated into a cavern with the palani tang. They make a handsome couple, don't you think?

jnarowe · #**285** 03/10/2007, 11:47 AM

That strange multiple reply issue has been happening in other threads too. It's weird because there are no double posts, and not even an original post.

Love the Naso Dude. I tried one but he didn't make it. I think mine was a cyanide caught fish based on behavior and how he died.

jacmyoung · #**286** 03/10/2007, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by thedude15810
Hahaha

One question, how do you get the fish to stay still to take a picture? Everyone of my closeups came out blurry as hell. They obviously recognize the hand that feeds.

Just need a better camera. I am struggling with mine too, using manual mode helped a little but ultimately those who post brilliant fine photos must have professional grade gear.

thedude15810 · #**287** 03/10/2007, 02:06 PM

Jonathan,

If you'd like to try a naso tang and have a good LFS around shoot me a PM and I'll give you some names about who to get one from. I haven't seen many Naso's cyanide caught (as most of them come from Hawaii) but they are often handled very poorly. If they caught the fish too deep and brought him up quickly, the fish often exhibits these same signs of distress.

As far as photography goes, it's something that I'm looking to get into fairly soon. Luckily, Greenmako lives in Austin and takes some of the best pictures I've ever seen. I'll just have to copy his setup then bribe him to teach me with some frags haha.

John

jnarowe · #**288** 03/10/2007, 03:31 PM

Good point John. It certainly could have been a decompression issue. The fish really seemed dull witted and did not interact with the other fish. It just hung around looking stupid and never ate anything. It did not react to the other fish at all and one day I found it in a GBTA. I was really bummed and the colors were super vibrant.

Dudester · #**289** 03/14/2007, 03:37 PM

Tank's doing OK for now. There were several fish deaths, probably a combination of collection technique and 'too much too soon.' The algae's still pretty abundant, but the tangs have plenty to eat as a result. We're expecting the completed cabinetry to occur this week, as well as some modifictions in the tank room that we'll elaborate on as they arise.

I just went out to the waiting room to speak with a patient's parents and the tank is completely swarmed with kids. Some of them are unruly, banging on the glass, and I had to ask 1 boy to stop. We're going to have signs posted not to touch the glass once the cabinetry is up. The fish don't seem to be bothered too much, but this has got to stop. Nevertheless, it's very gratifying to see all of those kids enjoying the tank.

jnarowe · #**290** 03/14/2007, 05:17 PM

Double edged sword. I know my fish are not used to strangers and can get skittish when someone makes a sudden move near the tank. Yours will adjust to the traffic over time, but banging on the tank is a tough one.

Unfortunately, what I find in my business, is that people either don't see the signs, or assume it doesn't mean them. Like yesterday when a gal parked in one of our parking spots directly looking straight at a large red towing sign about 3 feet from the hood of her truck. When I followed her to her business and asked her how long she was going to be, she said she had no idea it was private property and that there were no signs.

martinphillip03 · #**291** 03/16/2007, 07:04 PM

Dudester, nice tank another nice thread. I am going to have to work hard to get my tank and equiptment as clean as yours. Could you expound on your sump. Is there live rock in it? Any plants? Will you leave the sump light on opposite of the tank lights? Since you have a calcium reactor, do you need the Kalk. Who will test the tank and put in the additives to get your readings correct.
Well I am off to Melev's starfire thread

Marty

Dudester · #**292** 03/16/2007, 09:37 PM

jnarowe - I feel your frustration - aren't people just amazing?

Marty - Currently the sump is bare bones - only a Rowaphos reactor and a heater. We have to keep it simple until the cabinetry is finished around the sump, as currently there's a temporary vaneer that's screwed into the surrounding frame, and it's a real pain to remove (just ask John and Brian). The cabinets were supposed to be installed last night, but they weren't. Once they're finished then the sump will be accessable for placing LR, chaeto, or whatever we ultimately choose to use. For now it's just another 150g of volume and not much more. The cabinets will also allow give us access to complete the lighting the way we want it.

Good question about the kalk reactor. I tend to believe in topping off with kalk, but you're right in that we could probably achieve excellent Ca and alk stabilization with the calcium reactor alone. John/Brian, do either of you care to comment on why we're using the kalk reactor? Honestly I think that piece of equipment fell into Kingfish's lap, and they decided to use it on this tank as a Deltec showpiece. I'm happy to be the benefactor of their generosity

. John and Brian will be and have been testing the water parameters and they'll be responsible for the tank's upkeep. I'm just here to enjoy it and to help decide what goes into it.

We're still battling algae but no more losses to report.

thedude15810 · #**293** 03/17/2007, 02:05 AM

The kalk reactor by no means fell into our lap (

) and was added to the tank for a specific purpose... to keep the pH up at night. The stirrer will be on a timer and only come on at night to raise pH.

The no cabinets thing is a huge pain and I haven't seen the Rowa reactor in over a month now. I HOPE for the sake of the wood guys that the cabinet magically appears this weekend.

John

jnarowe · #**294** 03/17/2007, 09:56 AM

cabinet makers have their own special method of keeping time.

martinphillip03 · #**295** 03/17/2007, 02:42 PM

Was anything special done to the live rock, other than being cured? . IE dipped for FW, red bugs or that other thing you had.

Marty

drummereef · #**296** 03/17/2007, 03:05 PM

The Naso looks nice.

thedude15810 · #**297** 03/26/2007, 12:40 AM

In the interest of full disclosure I'll give ya'll an update on the tank. At this point, the plan was to begin stocking the tank with coral but we are actually going backwards. Basically we don't have a means of tank cooling, cabinets, and to top things off the light in the office is on 24 hours a day.

A week ago today, I walked into the office and immediately noticed something was not right. The AC wasn't on at its fullest and the tank inhabitants looked very very stressed. Upon inspection of the tank room I noticed the temperature of the tank was 84 degrees. I had set the reefkeeper 2 to turn off all the lights at the cutoff of 84 (and it had cutoff the lights) but the damage had been done. At night, the tank normally sat at 79 degrees and the temperature that weekend must have been swinging wildly. I tried to account for all the fish and found that everything had a nasty case of ich.

Mike called me on Monday to let me know that all the fish were seemingly doing better and the one I was most worried about (yellow tang) had recovered and was eating with his normal gusto! To top off that news, the bluestar leopard wrasse (whose name was Jesus at this point as he was seemingly dead) was out and eating.

That was where the good news for the week stopped as we lost quite a few snails due to the temperature problem. The new blonde naso tang developed a bad case of ich (and possibly velvet) and died this Friday. I can't get into the tank to remove anything and thankfully the naso died in the open sandy area and was able to be removed (with the help of a 5 foot stick of PVC with a net on the end of it). Other fish MIA include a McCosker's female, all three royal grammas, and I don't have high hopes for the blackest of the clownfish. A water change is mixing currently but things continue to decline.

We had an incident with the kalk reactor and spilled 3 gallons of water on the floor and it was determined that a floor drain should be added to the tank room. This drain was supposed to be installed yesterday and the construction company's foreman was given SPECIFIC instructions to tarp off the tank and equiptment. I even left a tarp in plain sight for them to use! You can probably guess what happened...they did not tarp off anything and concrete dust was on everything.

I'm going to work on the tank again tomorrow and I hope that in the morning I find everything doing better. If you're dealing with BBL construction and want an aquarium, my advice at this point is to run as far away from them as humanly possible. I'll update again tomorrow.

John

thedude15810 · #**298** 03/26/2007, 12:59 AM

Marty,

The live rock wasn't dipped or anything of that sort as the initial ammonia spike curing live rock goes through pretty much kills off anything but bacteria and algae. I guess it is possible that an AEFW could make it through the curing process but would certainly die without a host acropora.

John

Bax · #**299** 03/26/2007, 04:45 PM

thedude15810

I feel your pain. It is very hard to start up and maintain a reef tank at an office where temperature is not always in your control. And having to walk away from a problem because it's time to go home is just gut wrenching.

I live it every day with my 120 and always have a sizable list of things to do for the reef.

thedude15810 · #**300** 03/26/2007, 06:04 PM

Just got back from doing a 90 gallon water change, adding carbon, and changing the RO/DI prefilter for the 4th time.

The tank doesn't look any better but it also doesn't look any worse. The tank room was incredibly hot and humid but the tank itself was at a steady 78. The portable A/C that was supposed to be installed in the room wasn't there and concrete dust was everywhere the install guys could not reach. So if you're curious as to what concrete dust will do to a saltwater aquarium, stay tuned...

One female McCoskers wrasse was missing and the last surviving one looked bad, the rainfordi goby is gone again (but not necessarily dead), we're down to 2 clowns and both look like they're covered in flour, and I think I counted 50 or so snail shells with no snail. The water smelled like the ocean at low tide and hopefully the water change and carbon will help.

Frustrating indeed.