Sierra Bravo's 120 in-wall tank, a.k.a "Where I keep my paychecks"

[fightinghippo]

[emoji3] will trade you my maroon clown. That thing is so mean and won’t even let me come anywhere close to the Sherman. It keeps messing up the whole sand bed near it. It’s a battle I stopped fighting. If it wasn’t one of the first ones I got it would have got the boot already.

I do think the clown is also the reason it stays so healthy and grows so big. It feeds it religiously

 

[Sierra Bravo]

 

[jolt]

Looks like everything is very happy to me!

[Sierra Bravo]

My 'nem moved today and I had to place him into an acclimation box because he was brushing against three corals.  Not sure how Gig 'em gets his mag to work in his 120 as full as it is.  

Starting to rethink if having a Sherman or any anemone was a good idea. My 120 is stocked with glued corals and no matter where I put him as he grows and the colonies grow he's going to be in contact with a coral eventually. My ocellaris clowns have not shown an interest, and even if I place them in the acclimation box with the nem and they warm up to it I still don't know where to ultimately put the Sherman back in the tank.

I may consider starting a nano tank at work.

 

[FarmerTy]

My 'nem moved today and I had to place him into an acclimation box because he was brushing against three corals.  Not sure how Gig 'em gets his mag to work in his 120 as full as it is.  
Starting to rethink if having a Sherman or any anemone was a good idea. My 120 is stocked with glued corals and no matter where I put him as he grows and the colonies grow he's going to be in contact with a coral eventually. My ocellaris clowns have not shown an interest, and even if I place them in the acclimation box with the nem and they warm up to it I still don't know where to ultimately put the Sherman back in the tank.
I may consider starting a nano tank at work.
 

Its easy, because his mag is on his overflow and not on the rocks. Before that, it was on his front glass and all you could see was its backside. This is me officially giving him crap for all his BTA bashing about how BTAs wander all the time and his mag has moved two times and my BTA hasn't moved at all. [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] Sorry, had to take a shot while he was in Fiji and can't defend himself... That and I'm jealous that I'm not in Fiji and got stuck watching his tank for him.

[Sierra Bravo]

Gig's in Fiji?  Lucky dog.  All I get to do next month is go back to Chicago. . . almost the same.

Thanks for the advice on R2R.

BTW - I think if I sell the Sherman I'll have to do it down here.  Between JNaylor, Robb and some others up there Austin is saturated.  😁

[FarmerTy]

Gig's in Fiji?  Lucky dog.  All I get to do next month is go back to Chicago. . . almost the same.
Thanks for the advice on R2R.
BTW - I think if I sell the Sherman I'll have to do it down here.  Between JNaylor, Robb and some others up there Austin is saturated.  [emoji16]

[emoji23][emoji23]

See what I mean about Shermans? Jnaylor had about 10+ and so does Robb. They are like rabbits! [emoji16]

[Sierra Bravo]

I received this frag from BattleCorals and there was some discrepancy about what it was.  Now I know it is a Sniper's Blueberry Yum Yum and I wish the camera would really do justice to the color.  Very dark blue with a green base.   I really like this one and can't wait for it to grow out:

[Sierra Bravo]

I sold the Sherman.  I am now 'nem-less.   😟

Tank looks weird without the motion.  I need more hairy milli's to make up for it.  

[FarmerTy]

I sold the Sherman.  I am now 'nem-less.   [emoji45]
Tank looks weird without the motion.  I need more hairy milli's to make up for it.  

Who are you calling a hairy mille you smooth skinned granulosa! [emoji4]

Add some Euphyllia?

[Sierra Bravo]

24 minutes ago, FarmerTy said:

Who are you calling a hairy mille you smooth skinned granulosa!

Add some Euphyllia?
 

We'll see.  I'm going to exercise a little patience and see how the colonies start to grow over the next few months.

Besides, I already have a torch coral.  He's tucked in the corner because my 60x tank turnover rate started blowing tentacles off of him.  😁

[FarmerTy]

We'll see.  I'm going to exercise a little patience and see how the colonies start to grow over the next few months.
Besides, I already have a torch coral.  He's tucked in the corner because my 60x tank turnover rate started blowing tentacles off of him.  [emoji16]

Now that's an acro lover! Flow so high, heads will fly!

I saw a poor conch get blown halfway across the sand during the high current mode today. Felt sorry for the little guy but also thought it was hilarious.

[Sierra Bravo]

Early morning FTS.   Yellow watchman already looking for breakfast.

[RobR]

Wow beautiful tank, such a great selection of corals, so much color🤤will be following, can’t wait to see this grown out! 

[Sierra Bravo]

Moved my pair of greenbanded gobies from QT to the display.  I have a feeling I'm not going to see them much. . . they are so small they were hard to find sometimes in an empty 20-gallon tank.    But they are cool little dudes.

[+Dogfish]

My green neon gobys hide and are hard to find. After 4 months 1 comes up to where I feed with a baster. He hides under a coral and darts out to grab a worm or 2  that the shrimp misses.

[Sierra Bravo]

6 minutes ago, Dogfish said:

My green neon gobys hide and are hard to find. After 4 months 1 comes up to where I feed with a baster. He hides under a coral and darts out to grab a worm or 2  that the shrimp misses.

I have so many pods in my rock and rubble I doubt they will ever need to come out.  I'm hoping, however, that they eventually find a coral to perch on during the day after they get used to the environment.

[Sierra Bravo]

I am worried that my mystery wrasse might make a snack of them, though.

[ShawnM]

Wow they are tiny but beautiful fish


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[Sierra Bravo]

I started dosing nitrates today in the form of a sodium nitrate solution.  Up until March my nitrates held around 4 ppm using a Red Sea Pro test, but since then they have been barely detectable and I bought new reagents to make sure it wasn't the test kit.  I've increased fish load and feeding with no effect except increased phosphates.  I'll see if I can get them slowly back up to hold at 4 ppm over the next week.

 

I started dosing nitrates today in the form of a sodium nitrate solution.  Up until March my nitrates held around 4 ppm using a Red Sea Pro test, but since then they have been barely detectable and I bought new reagents to make sure it wasn't the test kit.  I've increased fish load and feeding with no effect except increased phosphates.  I'll see if I can get them slowly back up to hold at 4 ppm over the next week.

 

I started dosing nitrates today in the form of a sodium nitrate solution.  Up until March my nitrates held around 4 ppm using a Red Sea Pro test, but since then they have been barely detectable and I bought new reagents to make sure it wasn't the test kit.  I've increased fish load and feeding with no effect except increased phosphates.  I'll see if I can get them slowly back up to hold at 4 ppm over the next week.

 

 

[Sierra Bravo]

I added a swallowtail angel to the DT and to my surprise, brought the chromis back out into the water column. My purple tang has had them cowarding in the rocks most of the day but the angel has injected them with newly found bravado.  Looking forward to adding my bimacs.

[Sierra Bravo]

WWC Grafted Sunfire monti:

[Sierra Bravo]

I was getting salt collecting around the top of my mixing tank. Found this wide funnel online:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073XWV9SC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Sierra Bravo]

Update

A side effect on adding the swallowtail angel: Even though she is of the Genicanthus genus of angels, which are planktivores and one of the few "reef safe" angels, I noticed that within a week of putting her in there I've had a large reduction in my polyp extension during the day. I watch her and have never seen her pick at any of the corals. It's as if the tank knows that there is some type of angel present.

Some frags I picked up from Ty the last time I was over admiring his tank. Top to bottom: Farmer Ty Eternal Flame shortcake (colors dulled a bit in my system - waiting for the pink to come back), Farmer Ty Ectoplasm (this one is going to be nice) and a Farmer Ty Blue Lemonade. Very nice frags.





A couple more to share:

Top left is a frag from a wild acro I received from Boom Corals.  Top right is an unknown I picked up at an LFS that looked like it would color up nicely.






Fraghouse Corals Purple Bonsai which looks more amazing every week:





And I couldn't help myself - I bought a male Ruby Red Dragonette and have him in QT. I put a ball of chaeto in with him to supply some food and am also feeding him tisbee pods. I'm not overly concerned about getting him to eat frozen because my display tank is loaded with pods when he's finally introduced.




Finally, I guess out of all those cerith snail eggs a few make it. Seen this little guy this morning:

 

[Timfish]

On 6/9/2018 at 11:51 AM, Sierra Bravo said:

I sold the Sherman.  I am now 'nem-less.   😟

 

I'd say that was a smart move.  Looking at my clients tanks BTAs have caused more coral loss than aiptasia, majano's, krakon worms, Xenia and Anthelia combined.  Looking at fish loss from "ick" the last 15 or 20 years in my clients tanks having an hours old BTA clone crawl in front of a wavemaker pump output that then ripped it open has killed more fish.   Even if BTAs stay in the same place for years when they reach full size with an oral disc a foot across can give them an area roughly 2' across where they can kill corals.  Having my brown/white BTA clone line for 20 years now one thing I can say with certainty is it's just a matter of time until a BTA goes on a walkabout.