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JamesL's 75g Blog


JamesL

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It is funny ... when you are trying real hard to capture something, you can't. Yet this weekend, when I walked past my tank, I saw the dreaded Sally Lightfoot on the sand near the front glass. I thought, "well, why not try and catch him with a net". And I did!! B) I just very slowly put the net in and trapped him against the front glass. Now I should have a bit safer tank, as he has attacked and ate a clown goby and porcelain crab in the past.

Other interesting development is the clownfish. I have this small pair of cinnamon clowns, who were best buds up to a few days ago. Now it looks like the fight for dominance has started. One has gotten it's fins tore up by the other. Hopefully they will work out the pecking order soon.

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Thanks! The crab has been "dealt with". If I had the time that day, I probably would have taken him to a LFS and traded him in.

One side benefit of getting rid of the Sally is I see my elusive purple porcelain crab more now! He has gotten real big, and likes to hang out where the sally did because it is under a jet of water from the spray bar.

Regarding the clownfish, that is my thoughts too. There definitely is a winner int his fight, so I hopefully the change will happen and we have a happy pair again soon.

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  • 3 months later...

Ok, it has been ages since I have updated here ... mostly because interest in the tank swings from really interested to just keeping it going.

Recent additions have been 3 new yellow clown gobies from RCA. Lost one not too long ago for no apparent reason, other than he was pretty small and stuck against the overflow grating. The other two seem to be doing fine.

I did a minor re-scaping the other night. My toadstool has just gotten huge and have been trying to find a spot for him. I had moved it to near the bottom for the past few weeks, but it was not happy at all... no polyp extension. So I think I found a spot it likes, up closer to the light. I am starting to see little nubs of polyps about to sprout up.

I also moved my ricordias up off the sand, and they seem much, much happier.

You must excuse some of the pictures. Seems my photo taking skills got rusty, thus some are a but blurry or dark.

Click on any of the below pictures for el-grande versions.

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"Jr." sitting on his favorite coral.

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Hi-fin goby with "snap" the pistol shrimp. That shrimp is probably the oldest moving creature alive in this tank. Got him pretty early on.

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Happy ricordias.

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The full tank shot. Please ignore the algae near the bottom... it is almost time for the weekly cleaning, and time to order new compact fluorescent bulbs.

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  • 11 months later...

Without much fan-fare, I have shut down my 24 gallon Aquapod. But the good news is all the contents are now in a 75 gallon tank!

I will update with some pictures in the near future.

One thing I will say is I finally got a pair of naked clownfish for the new tank :)

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Hey seahorsejl. It's been awhile since I've seen you online. Congrats on the 75! Hope apps sales are good. Are you a millionaire now? Can't wait to see pics of the naked clowns.

Thanks... I have been busy with iPhone apps and a new baby (OK, the second has consumed most of my time since she was born at the end of September). So what do I do when I don't have enough free time? Start a new tank :) I hope to be like you and eventually put a streaming webcam on a portion of the tank.

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Ok, I have pictures... but I have not loaded them up on the interwebs, so this is just a post to clear out the text portion.

I broke down my 24g Aquapod and moved everything to the new 75g. Here are the specs:

- 75g traditional tank, with glass hoods.

- 300W Metal Halide fixture (two 150W 20,000K bulbs)

- about 60 lbs "new" baserock and live rock, plus maybe 10-15 lbs from the old tank

- Two Koralia 3, and one Koralia 1 (because I had it laying around)

- Magnum HOT filter... this is going to be replaced soon by some type of real wet/dry system

- Lots-o-sand ... planning on a jawfish down the road

On the stocking side for fish:

- 1 Yellow Clown Goby

- 1 Yellow Watchman Goby

- 2 Naked Clownfish

- 4 Talbot's Damselfish

Inverts:

- 2 Peppermint Shrimp

- 1 Tongo Conch

- 1 Red-Foot Conch

- 1 Red Thorny Starfish

- Assortment of snails and hermits

Corals:

- 1 Long Tentacle Anemone (just got from britsifh)

- GSP (relegated to "exile" island... you will see it once I get pictures)

- Toadstool leathers corals (moth colony + offspring)

- Green candy cane

- Green frogspawn

- Brown frogspawn

- Galaxia

- Some zoa's

- Orange ricordias

- Blue/green ricordias

- Tongue coral

So that is the basics... will get some pictures up here soon.

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Ok, as promised, here are some (pretty quick, and not-so-good) pictures.

In the beginning there was not much (but a crooked tripod):

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Then there was more rock, plus the critters from the 24g tank:

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The left island, where most new corals will go:

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The right island, or "exile island", where the tank invading GSP is being contained:

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And a few pictures of the naked clowns I got for the tank:

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(Actually, I think it is the same fish in both pictures ;) ).

The only thing not pictured is the LT anemone I got from britfish, that is sitting at the top of exile island.

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I picked up a few new additions from Aquadome today. I got two sea cucumbers and a six-line wrasse. In addition, I thought I would try my hand out with some cheap (and small) SPS frags. I will need our SPS guru's to help me re-identify them. I didn't spend a lot of time with the pictures, so they are a little blurry.

Here is one of the SPS frags:

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And here are two pictures of the second plug, which actually had three separate frags on it:

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That tiny frag looks like it has blue polyps.

And here are two pictures of the LTA I got from britfish. Clowns are ignoring it, but my anemone porcelean crab loves it!

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Looks like the 1st pic you got there is a pocillipora (colors they come: green, light pink, deep pink and brown w/iridescent green tips on polyps).

The second pic (the larger piece) looks like a green slimmer. Not sure about the one on the right. The smallest is pink birdsnest w/blueish-purple polyps.

If you ever decide on trying some montipora plates.....I've got plenty leftovers of deep orange, looks brighter in person.

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Looks like the 1st pic you got there is a pocillipora (colors they come: green, light pink, deep pink and brown w/iridescent green tips on polyps).

The second pic (the larger piece) looks like a green slimmer. Not sure about the one on the right. The smallest is pink birdsnest w/blueish-purple polyps.

If you ever decide on trying some montipora plates.....I've got plenty leftovers of deep orange, looks brighter in person.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking/hoping the smallest frag was a birdsnest.

I would love to get some montipora from you some time. I don't have much to trade at the moment, as I am trying to stock up my 75g with the corals from my 24g ;) I do have toadstool leathers ... the mother colony keeps dropping off pieces, and I keep attaching them to rocks and letting them grow out.

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Past couple of days have been busy with acquiring new stuff.... just putting an entry into to capture the names of the new stuff. Will post pictures later.

On Monday went to RCA and got:

- More turbo snails.

- Kenya tree frag

- Zoa frag

- Pulsing Xenia frag

- Small Red Cynaria with green specks.

On Tuesday I finally got a chance to visit Darby Tropicals in New Branfels and got:

- Scopas Tang

- Red branching gorgonian

- Tuxedo Urchin

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You could always draw stick figures of the fish and corals! How was Darby's?

I might have to resort to that, as I am not finding time to take pictures. I was lucky enough to squeeze in a water change last night.

Darby's was nice, but I was told I hit them at their lowest stocking point. They get their shipments in on Thursday's (and I went on a Tuesday). They seemed to cater more towards fish (both salt and fresh), with only a handful of corals... but again, that could be the pre-shipment thing.

It is still a haul from even Buda, so would probably only visit them again if I am in the New Branfels area.

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As mandated, this post contains pictures :)

I still need to fiddle with the camera to get the pictures to come out better. But as usual, didn't have much time.

Tuxedo urchin:

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Cynaria:

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Kenya:

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Red Gorgonian:

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Pulsing Xenia:

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Zoas:

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The SPS I bought before:

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