lexiemc

Thank you, Jake.

Glad they get a bigger tank too. Hope you enjoy them.

Jake, will come get them.

Pump failed!

1 Percula

1 tailspot blenny

Need rescue to good home!!!

pm / text to six nine five five one seven four.

Very tempting. Lil'Kim has my preferred coloration.

Approximate size on Cleopatra? and the class B pair Lil'Kim and Big Poppa?

We currently have a very docile single clown that is aprox 2yrs old and 2".

Thoughts to adding another or a pair?

Where would you be delivering them to?

anybody?

I am looking for a smallish *nonagressive single clown. (Amphiprion ocellaris) or (Amphiprion percula).

Preferably darker red orange with distinct bar banding.

We already have 1 but needs a companion.

Aquatek used to give loner jugs with purchase of water for initial set up, so long as you return them w/n 24 hrs. Call ahead & confirm they are available.

Have any Crown conchs coming in?

good call & good luck.

We watched for 4+ mths before we agreed to just bite it and order one.

Don't regret it.

Be sure to look four the 2nd gen. It runs much quieter.

Sometimes we substitute clam shells we have pre-soaked / cleaned in RO water.. works wonders.

Tank Gone!

Their just teasing your subconscious while distracted by pretty corals...

"Ooooh, new home for my bigger tank...more coral..."

someday.

What's left? Pm'd.

1 year Updates & Comparison to share here.

For those wanting to know the difference b/n starting out with all live rock vrs dry rock. Slower is definitely good. Here are some clear comparison pictures.

So last July (2009) we started out cold turkey on this tank. Pentagonal 44-45g tank with a 75g aqua clear hob filter, and a Coralife 96wt power compacts (my husband had traded some one else for them). We also have and Aquaclear 70 sponge filter x power head and 1 Koralia1 pwr head. Aprox 40+ lbs dry rock, sand, water & tank. We built and epoxied the dry rock to resemble a shelf from a lagoon. Then let it set up for at least 24hrs before we added water. Then seeded it with 5-6lbs of live rock and let it run.

It was most of a month before we were ready to put in the first few select coral finds. B/c of out lights we started with low light corals, and saved up to upgrade later. The torch and a few mushrooms were added in Aug '09. It was many more months before we added any other zoas. By November & December we added a few more pieces and tried reworking our rocks / flow for better. In March we ordered new LED lights for the tank. We added another rock shelf to the existing structure to better accommodate future sps corals and shade the other lower light corals (mushrooms & zoas). We have seen a significant growth boom since we added the LED's. Not to mention the LED's are significantly cooler and the water temp is fairly constant 78 even in the hot summer.

The pics below show coral growth difference. c.

As for fish...That took us much longer. We knew we wanted to keep a passive reef safe group that would not over tax the bio load. But we encountered several common problems with acquiring fish so we opted to leave the tank fallow for several weeks at a time before reintroducing any new fish. We added the first group of fish: 2 ocellaris clowns & 2 yellow clown gobbies sometime around April. A few weeks later we added a Tail Spot Blennie. Pics of fish are in earlier posts here.

Because we have kept the bio-load small, we only added our skimmer about a month ago. We opted for the Tunze 9002 (2nd gen) b/c of the small internal foot print. It fits snugly in the back corner of the tank.

SW tanks & corals can be very enjoyable but as most anyone can attest it can also have some major draw back & learning curves at any given point. Take your time to research any new addition be it coral or fish. Enjoy.

Torch Coral LPS. Aug'09 : Aug'10

Birds nest, SPS. Dec'09: Aug'10

Great start here. We let our little one (3yr old) share in finding new things as well. So far he picks good fish.

Have to agree with mcallahan.

Dead rock is the best way to start.

Yes, It takes a bit longer but will save you the stress and headache of trying to remove unwanted critters & pests down the road. Not to mention avoid a lot of the stress of massive die off.

You also have more room for sculpting your rock structures dry. You can drill or bond the rocks together. We use a 2 part epoxy you can order or pick up at any LFS. I then press dry rock chunks & sand into the surface. This helps hide all the joints as well as allow for Coraline to bond later.

You can then add / seed select pieces of live rock to help start the Coraline algae once you get your sand & water settled out.

We have even made several additions since the start.

You can check out pics of our tank to see an example:

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/11491-new-fish-44-gal/

Good luck.

Any luck yet?

Absolutely. The Hott pink zoas and half of the mamba jambas had opened up in the bag on the way home.. the green bay packer zoas still haven't all opened, but the 3 polyps that have look really good. Of course one of the urchins already decided to haul one of the new frags around and drop it behind a rock, but that's to be expected. Are your gobies eating the coral, or just perching on it?

So far just perching, no eating we hope.

No! Hi-jacking urchins not good. think there's a spoof waiting to happen.

Hey Belinda,

So far the Darth Mauls look good. They were already opening up on the way home in the sunlight. Thanks

Agreed only treat what you know needs treating and only if you are sure what it is.

We dealt with Zoa Pox back in May.

It will take the better part of 2 weeks to see how everything shakes out after the treatment.

also FYI use caution and gloves when handling zoas for treatment. They are toxic if you get in blood stream and some especially even with just dermal contact.

pm'd on magicians.

Both awesome looking pieces. I was going for the cherry garcia zoanthids, but had to stop myself before I got too out of hand.

well are you happy with your winnings?

Kev is quite content with the Hoekesmai sps as are the gobbies.

Pretties! Wouldn't mind a few of these...

Tunze Nano 9002. 2nd gen. small, Internal, quiet. just plug & dial in.

Very effective very quiet.

We had a Remora HOB for the first tank but it was fussy to get dialed in and set up. Do not recommend.

It was nice meeting every one today.