BobcatReefer

Fish update... Current livestock: Potter's Wrasse - purchased from Woods 10 days ago and he's been going like a champ from Day 1. Eating most every frozen food I put in there. Generally just being really pretty and awesome - always out in the open and certainly excited when it's feeding time. Kole Tang - purchased from Just Reef 10 days ago and is also going strong. Kinda keeping an eye on him as he seems to be bullying the Orange Diamond Goby lately, which keeps the ODG from turning over the sand like I need him to. Not real sure how to discourage that...suggestions? Starry Blenny - purchased from Just Reef 10 days ago and doing great. When I got him, you could barely see his white "starry" markings, and now they're brilliant. Ocellaris Clown - had for several years - 5+ maybe? Orange Diamond Goby - had for almost 2yrs Questionably alive: Rainford's Goby - haven't seen him today, so not sure if he's alive, but he does hide for 2 or 3 days at a time, then looks great whenever he comes out. Wally the Watchman - still hiding under the pump in the sump. Can't get a good enough visual on him to see if he looks like he's healthy and eating. RIP: Yellow Watchman Goby - purchased last week. Lasted 1 night, no one harassing him, eating well, then gone the next morning w/ no sign of the body. Purple Firefish - purchased last week. Looked like he was doing great up until seeing what looked like 2 open sores/holes in him on Friday. Was out of town the last 2 nights, and no sign of him today. Yellow Watchman Goby and Tailspot Blenny - purchased 3 weeks ago, disappeared from the Bermuda Triangle QT. Pistol Shrimp - haven't seen it since it went into the tank 3 weeks ago. Going forward... I would still like to add a couple of fish, and maybe swap out some current ones, but I'm a little worried about overall capacity. Want: Haprtail Blenny and Electric Indigo Dottyback Potential swaps: Single Ocellaris Clown (medium size) for two small Ocellaris Clowns, because 2 clowns are more fun than 1. Thought about swapping the ODG for a smaller ODG because initially he seemed to be puffing up and chafing at the idea of losing alpha status, but now that the Kole has started flexing, not sure that's a great idea. Maybe a Sleeper Gold Head Goby would hold up a little better vs the Kole due to the brighter coloration?

Alright, time for a little tank update.... The skimmer still isn't producing skimmate like it should. At this point, I'd like to say that my guess is that the water level isn't optimal, but I'm not sure on that. Bubble Mag 5 manual says 25-27cm, which is 9.8-10.6" and 8.5-9" is the best I can do in this sump. However, I don't see marked (or even nominal, really) improvement even when i flood the sump to 9.5" and pull the rubber footies off the bottom of the skimmer (to give me another 1/4"). Debating on continuing to try and make this work vs buying a skimmer that works in 8-9". Very frustrating. I've finally got the overflows tuned to quiet, but there's a very slim margin for error. Whenever I have to adjust (water changes, cleaning), I have to be very careful and precise when tuning back to quiet, as it's pretty easy to hit a negative flow ratio. Little bummed at how quickly the GFO clumped in my reactor the 1st go-around (maybe 2 weeks?). Hoping that was a 1st time usage deal because that will get expensive quickly! Been turning off the flow switch for 10 seconds or so every couple of days which seems to turn it over a little more in hopes of keeping it going longer. Haven't been able to get Nitrates under 10ish, which doesn't surprise me given the skimmer issues. Nitrite, Ammonia and Phosphate are all 0.

Yup. It's a very new tank - hasn't had time to get all grungy yet!

Poor little lonely Wally...

I thought about putting him in the refugium where at least he'd be able to poke around in the chaeto and nibble live pods, but there's just no way to get him out of there once i put him in. There is only a couple of inches between the top of the fuge and the top of the stand. I can barely get my arm in there to move rocks around. No way I'd be able to chase a fish w/ a net, or get a trap in there.

Friends, let me tell you the tale of Wally the Wandering Watchman... You see, I really wanted a Yellow Watchman Goby, so when the Bermuda Triangle Tank vanished my 1st YWG into thin air (thin water?), I mourned... When we mourn, we don't always make great decisions, and at the RCA 1st Friday Sale the very next day, I grabbed the very next YWG I saw. This was a poor decision on several fronts: 1st, I should really have figured out wtf was going on w/ my Bermuda Triangle Tank before getting any new fish and 2nd, this guy was tiny - just a wee little thing! We all know that the success rate drops when you're getting such small specimens, and I've been in the hobby long enough to have been burned by it several times, so shame on me. Anywho...back at the casa, I decided this guy wasn't going anywhere near the BTT, but acclimate and into the display right away. As soon as I released him, I realized how dumb that was - he just wasn't big enough (or smart enough) to handle the tank. Instead of heading to the rock and seeking shelter like most smaller fish do, he was up at the waterline and out in the open, just begging to get picked on - thankfully we're a happy tank and there's no meanies to harass him. After about 30 min or so, I came back to the tank to tidy up all the bags and buckets and nets, and as I'm bent over picking stuff up off the floor, I see Wally swimming around next to the protein skimmer. Little sucker had wandered over to the overflow and gone for a ride! Luckily for me, he was easy enough to catch, so I put him back into the display. Damned if he didn't swim directly across the tank, back to the same overflow and right back down into the sump - he was in the display less than 2min. Scoop him out again, cover up [most of] the overflow w/ my net and kept an eye on him the rest of the night. Still there in the morning, so I'm hopeful he's learned his lesson. Ha! Joke's on me! Was gone all morning on a training ride and when I get back, not only is Wally in the sump, but he's defeated the baffles and is in the return chamber. That was Saturday, Mar 2, and since returning him to the display tank 11 days ago, I haven't seen hide nor hair (scale nor fin?) of Wally since. I figured he wandered his happy arse on to fishy heaven and hadn't thought much about him until last night when I pulled my skimmer out to give it the once over and see if I could get it working correctly. About 10pm I'm making one last adjustment before hitting the rack and see a little yellow flash peek out from under the return pump. That little sucker has been living in the sump the whole time! And I've been all over the sump working on the GFO/Carbon reactor, trying to get the skimmer right, dialing in the overflows to get noise down - it's not like there haven't been 100 opportunities for me to see him. I tried to give him some food last night and even set up a little feeding station w/ 1/2 a triangle of Cyclopeeze, thinking the poor guy must be starving! Not sure if he took the opportunity to munch at all, but this morning he was back on the other side of the baffles and hiding under the skimmer. Not really sure what to do w/ him now, especially since I've added multiple larger fish to the display. Overflow antics aside, it's no longer a good option in terms of tank mates. Never mind that there's another YWG in there now! (note: this one is 2.5" and doing fine so far) I'm thinking of letting him stay in the sump for now and hoping he can get a little bigger. If anyone has a nano and looking for a 1" YWG, Wally would probably appreciate a nicer forever tank.

Tank looks SO clean now Kim - congrats! But bare w/o that big beautiful green guy!

Yeah, I think he's going to be up for grabs soon. I already gave his running buddy to mFrame earlier this week. If anyone wants a big conch, shoot me a pm.

Thanks jolt! I'm hoping it's doing what it's supposed to, but I don't really know if it is. Hopefully there are a bunch of horny pods making baby pods in there. Meanwhile, back in the display tank, I'm hoping I don't have a Nassarius hunting Fighting Conch on the loose! Last night after I went to bed, I started to hear some loud clicking(?) noises and I was hoping it was the Pistol Shrimp I haven't seen since he went in a week ago, so I hopped out of bed to check... Nope, it was the Fighting Conch I had thought might be dying earlier in the day (he hadn't moved in a day and a half or so), acting like a total spaz. Extending his foot down into the sand and picking his shell up off the sand, launching himself 4" across the sand, just doing things I'd never seen before. As I video this, I'm confused as I'm trying to figure out body parts and then figure out he's digging up one of the Nassarius! Be warned for a moment of NSFW language toward the end of pt1. Hoping it's just the conch being a weirdo and he doesn't have a taste for the flesh of my favorite tanksters!

I know, right??

QT is not covered, but there's no dead fish anywhere, and neither is a jumping breed. I'm 99.9% sure the dog hasn't eaten any jumped fish either for a couple of reasons. 1) He avoids my messes entirely. If his ball or toy end up under/around any of the fish mess I have out right now, he just stands there and looks at me. Won't even go lay in his bed by the window because there's too much fish mess over there now. 2) Incredibly picky eater. Won't even take new treats from me - always has to be the same 3 or 4 varieties he already gets. No way he's pushing past the fish mess to eat a fish on the floor. 3) He is locked in my room overnight (he tends to have an early morning pee in the living room otherwise), which is when the fish have been disappearing. No real way for fish to get sucked into the pump or filter. I guess a fish could get sucked into the pump inlet, but if that were the case, I'd see it. Definitely going to figure out a cover situation though, because I feel like I should be quarantining all fish before going into the display, but this is getting ridiculous!

Aaaaand this morning the Tailspot Blenny has disappeared. This quarantine stuff is for the birds!

No such luck. I just don't understand this phenomenon. 2nd time in 2 months.

Less than 24h later, I want to throw tanks out the window! My Yellow Watchman has vanished. 20g tank w/ nothing but PVC fittings in there, so I don't think he's hiding... He's not on the floor or table and my dog wasn't in the room at all, so he couldn't have been eaten after jumping... *fingers crossed* that he's just a ninjafish and/or I'm an idiot and he's swimming happily when I get home.

And yes, I am super excited! Pumped to have new fish in the tank and very much in hobby honeymoon phase, learning so much and executing ideas I've had for a while, techniques I've only read about, modifications to fit my exact situation, etc. My fish nerd level is redlining right now.

There's a 3"+ DSB in the fuge and it's sand from my old tank so I think it's good to go for now and the bioload is only going to go up, so I think he'll be ok. My worry is that he and the conch will compete too much for the same food. Your chaeto is doing exactly what I wanted Kim - to stay in one dang place and in one dang piece! SOOO many little feather dusters!

I've taken your collective silence as confirmation, so all death guilt will be shared! Power outage at work today, so I'm "working from home"...after I received my clean up crew while waiting in the dark for :30...and then stopped at the Dome on the way home. Swapped out Blennies as the Starry had disappeared and a Tailspot showed up. Fish store elves? 3 Emerald Crabs - thinking 2 small ones in the display, big one in the fuge. 2 Fighting Conchs - one display, one fuge ~15 various tiny snails - all display Sand sifting star - fuge Pistol Shrimp - display Yellow Watchman Goby and Tailspot Blenny Rainsford Goby

Stopped by the Dome today to pick out some fish that will be coming home tomorrow and need some advice on acclimating multiple bags worth of critters... As I mentioned earlier in the thread, my acclimation procedure to date has been to float the bag and add some water every 5 or 10 min and then into the main display after about 30m. Today, I have a dedicated acclimation tank set up, but I've never done a drip acclimation and not sure if I need to with fish or not? Here's what's coming home tomorrow: Pistol Shrimp Yellow Watchman Goby Rainsford Goby Starry Blenny Sand Sifting Star My guess is to float the fish and drip the inverts - does that sound right? Probably shouldn't put the shrimp and star together for acclimation though, right?

It's definitely doing better, I'm just hoping it's truly because of what I'm doing! GHA is the culprit, and I got in and scrubbed a ton off the rock and glass earlier in the week, and 24h later, it was back 100%. I changed the lighting schedule to 7h of blue (11a-6p), no white, 6h night led (6p-12), and fuge light on 24/7. Yesterday, I did another (much more thorough) scrubbing, a 20g water change, and then fired up the reactors. Not only was the water much more clear this morning, I didn't see any of the same quick re-growth of the algae today like I did during the week. We'll see how that holds up over the next couple of days. edit: Nitrates down to 5ish?, Phosphates .02 (pretty sure...I need to write this stuff down!) edit2: looks like I can cut down the fuge light: this is my fuge light: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auqa-gadget-magnafuge-innovative-marine.html

Dang, what a difference a day makes! Got the GFO/Carbon Reactor set up last night and felt like I could already see a difference this morning. Not that it's very scientific, but I certainly didn't see the crazy 1-day algae growth I saw earlier this week either. Got some chaeto from KimP and ordered some CUC help, so hopefully I can stay ahead of the curve and not be battling algae every day!

Question: When should I set up the GFO and Carbon reactor? My assumption was that doing it right off the bat (like, now) would be a little counterproductive in getting the bio levels up and settled, and should wait for a month or two. Am I off base there?

Yup!

The nitrates showed no sign of rising, just hovering around 5-10, but the last 24 hours had a bloom of algae, both on the sand and rock, so I put everyone in the display tank to do work. Took a toothbrush to the rocks, magnet to the glass, turkey baster to the sand before adding the fish, and I'm mixing batch of new water for a change now (20g/25ish%). Salinity is a high 36 - need to drop that to 35 Temp is 76.8-78.2 - think I can get the high down by dropping the target setting Lighting is pre-programmed setting now, thinking of reducing it until I get corals. Thoughts? Zone 1 WHITE START 9:00 - END 17:00 [1100-1600] Zone 2 BLUE START 8:00 - END 20:00 [1000-1900] Zone 3 NIGHT START 20:00- END 6:00 [1900-0100] Fuge lighting is 16on/8off (18/6? can't remember) - go 24h on? Here's what's in the tank today: Ocellaris Clown Orange Diamond Goby Brittle starfish Coral banded shrimp (somehow lost an arm over the last week) Cleaner shrimp Urchin 4 Nassarius snails This weekend I'll clean the temp tank and get it ready for new fish! Right now I'm thinking a Tiger Cowrie and a fighting Conch for algae help, maybe a couple of Nerite snails? Fish: Electric Indigo Dottyback and/or Indigo Dottyback Rainsford Goby Pistol Shrimp/Yellow Watchman Goby Tailspot Blenny Harptail Blenny Thoughts on fish additions? Don't think Orange Diamond and Watchman should have conflict, right? Watchman isn't a sand feeder so that should be OK. Nothing else stands out as an issue to me. Is two too many Dottybacks for a 75g?