mojo's Blog

[mojo]

Well there we have it, living proof that absense truly does make the heart grow fonder! Clint, you must be so delusional that by now you think aiptasia are beautiful. Did you SEE my cali tort? It used to be a deep, dark, rich blue, and now it's barely sky blue. The purple selago is now a light-blue color, and the Miyagi tort, which used to be dark purple with a green base, is now pretty much white with purple highlights. I'm still trying to be patient, and I think the colors will eventually turn around, but they're nowhere close to what your corals looked like. Trust me on this one.

The "acro sp" was purchased from Austin Aquafarms. Matt didn't know exactly what it was either, but I thought it looked nice and had potential. I doubt it's one of the ones you listed, but I think it will turn out great eventually.

And speaking of Austin Aquafarms, that is an incredible place. We are lucky to have such a facility in our back yards, and Matt is great to work with. I would encourage everyone to support that facility so that it thrives, not only for Matt's benefit, but also so that we can continue to have a local source for premium imported corals.

My wife took the pictures with her camera, and she did use a tripod. She doesn't have a flash for this new camera, though, and she thinks the images will look better once she gets a flash.

Thanks for the compliment, Clint, I do appreciate it.

[mojo]

I haven't updated this blog in a while so here's the skinny. All of my fish died, I've got flatworms (NOT AEFW), and there's a cyano bloom, probably from adding too much ZEOvit product without titrating the doses. That's about a month's worth of frustration boiled down to one sentence. Regarding the fish, I'm keeping the tank fallow for a full six weeks before adding any more. I'll get some wrasses to eat the flatworms, until then it just bothers me that they're in there. I tried a FWeXit treatment but the worms just laughed and the snails just died.

In more positive news, I finally got the opportunity to change out the ballast on my Powermodule. If you recall, the ballast that controls lamps 1 and 2 went out, and I received a replacement from Reefgeek a while ago but didn't have the time to make the switch. Wow, this was a pain, but it was a success and I now have all 10 lamps firing. I took the opportunity to clean the unit well and I changed out a few of the lamps to give a bluer spectrum which I hope will color up the corals better. I removed a UV Aquasun and replaced it with a KZ Fiji purple, and I removed an Aquablue (which actually looks white) and replaced it with a Blue plus (20K look). Here's the new array.

For those keeping track, the lamps are as follows:

top

blue plus

auablue

super actinic

pro color

blue plus

fiji purple

blue plus

super actinic

blue plus

aquasun

bottom

"Top" corresponds to the front of the tank, while "bottom" corresponds to the rear. I'm in the midst of some maintenance but I'll get a photo of what the tank looks like with this lamp configuration soon.

[cmanning]

Hoping for the best in eradicating flatworm infestation. I'm assuming the corals aren't dying but if you ever need to restock I've got almost (all) the same frags you got. You are more than welcome to mine.

-Cindy-

[+ACampbell]

Mike, I'm sorry to hear about your fish. I'm sure you really miss those clowns.

BTW really like the new array.

[Headless_donkey]

Now that is what a T5 fixture should look like. I am glad you got it fixed. Sorry to hear about your fish. You might have the worst luck with fish I have ever seen. Maybe it is time for a school of chromis and be done. LOL

That ZEOVIT sounds pretty picky if it can cause a cyano bloom. You should definitely tell us all about your experience using the system during a meeting!

I guess the corals are doing well. Are you seeing growth?

I know you have 9 other bulbs on the tank, but how do you like the Fiji Purple? I am thinking about getting one next time I replace bulbs.

[mojo]

Cindy - Thanks for your generous offer! The corals are actually doing fine, as the flatworms I have are pretty harmless to corals. I just don't like having them. I'll get some wrasses eventually and that should keep them at bay.

Andrew - The clowns are a HUGE loss for me, as I've had them for over 2 years and one was one of the first fish I ever had. I take fish losses pretty hard, so this was tough for me. Glad you like the lights.

James - You're right about my bad luck with fish. I'm a friggin' mess when it comes to fish. From now on, mandatory 6 wk in quarantine before going into my tank. Period. I'm sure all of my fish would have been fine if I would have quarantined that PBT. The corals are all growing pretty well, but the color could be much better. I'm hoping the new lamps will fix that. The fiji purple really adds some pop to the color, I think I like it quite well, although I wouldn't recommend adding many as the PAR is not as high as many other lamps you might like to use. As for a ZEOvit talk, sure, I'd be game.

[reefman]

Mike,

I have a six-line I was going to take to the LFS next weekend when I break down the 90 and set up the new Elos (he would be coming out of the Wave tank, which hasn't had any of the issues below that the Corner tank has had). You are welcome to him if you want it. He's fat so I'm sure he would clean the flat worms out real fast if you didn't feed him too much. We got hit in the corner tank with ich the same as what John told me you did. To date we have lost an Atlantic Blue Tank (the carrier), a Black Cap, and today I had to watch my Midnight Blenny die that we had had for about a year and a half (he was considered a pet). I can certainly empathize, and Nora and I we just talking about a quarantine tank too.

Stephen

[mojo]

Stephen,

Wow man, sorry to hear about your losses. It's really rough when you lose a fish that you've had for so long, and I agree about feeling like they're pets. My daughter was really attached to the two 'nemos' and I've got to find replacements, eventually. That's really nice of you to offer up your sixline. I had a sixline almost the entire time I had my 30g cube before it jumped out only a few months before the transfer to the new tank. It's a great fish but I've already ordered 3 wrasses that I'm going to quarantine, then place into my system. I'll have to do some research and see if the sixline would get along with the ones I've ordered. Thanks so much for the offer, and I'll let you know what I'd like to do soon. Good luck with your new Elos, those are bad-a$$ systems!

Mike

[mojo]

Here are some long-overdue pics. First, the obligatory FTS. You can probably appreciate the difference in color with my new lamp configuration, more blue than before and more natural, IMO.

Slightly different angle.

Side view.

Added a couple critters as well .

cont ...

[mojo]

In addition to the achilles, I got a Hawiian flame wrasse, Cirrhilabrus jordani.

His jumping tendencies necessitated putting a lid on the tank. Instead of egg crate, which is bulky and not too nice to look at, I fashioned a top out of bird netting and a window screen. All materials were purchased cheaply from Lowes, and this is a well-described top. You may have noticed it in the tank photos above, but if you didn't here's a better look.

I also picked up 2 cleaner shrimp and 2 linkia starfish. The orange one isn't looking so hot, whereas the blue one is doing quite well so far.

Here's my red gorgonian with white polyps. It's hard to get this in focus, especially with the pumps on.

I hope you all like the pics, and thanks for following along.

[fishypets]

At least you didn't go with egg crate.

[mojo]

Of course I didn't, Clint, I'm a classy guy. But when it's yours, you can cover it with 2x4's for all I care

[mojo]

I picked up some frags yesterday from my office tank. Most of them will be shown in the following photos. I mounted most onto KZ frag plugs, which attach to weighted bases. They can be moved around the tank safely and without being blown around until a 'happy' spot is found, then the tops simply pull off of the bases for permanent mounting.

Here's a full tank shot, actinics only. I need to scrape the coralline off of the back.

And while we're in actinic mode, here is a cluster of new frags.

Acro turaki

birdsnest

milles (ORA rose and another one)

efflo

Lights all on. This ricordea is in my avatar and is the 2nd coral I ever purchased some 3 years ago. It only recently became happy in my tank since the change from the 30g cube.

more to follow ...

[mojo]

I mentioned I've had some improved coloration recently. Here's what I mean. There's also been some growth, it seems .

Miyagi tort, 1/13/08

4/20/08

acro tenuis, 1/13/08

4/20/08

green slimer, 1/13/08

4/20/08

blue tip stag, 1/13/08

4/20/08

[mojo]

cali tort, 1/13/08

4/20/08 - still not yet dark blue, but getting much better

Beneath the toadstool you can see a new gorgonian.

In the background is the Leng Sy cap, looking mighty fine.

I got this acro frag from Austin Aqua Farms a while ago. Here it was on 1/13/08

4/20/08, sorry, different angle, but the same angle is above with the gorgonian.

[mojo]

Here's the Hawaiian flame wrasse. See if you can find him in these photos.

This is the achilles tang. Don't worry about the spots you see, that's stuff blowing around the tank as I did not turn off pumps for any of these photos. There is absolutely no ich and he's gaining weight nicely. His color is as black as black can be.

Here's the full tank, all lights on.

Right side.

[Headless_donkey]

It looks like the tank is doing really well. I must be doing something right. You have crazy coriline growth. The corals look real good. I would venture to guess that your "favorite" frags are growing the slowest. right? The polyp extension on that acro tenius is sweet!

Are your duncans growing?

[mojo]

Isn't that always the case, where our most prized corals tend to lag along while the others set an olympic pace? One of my favorite frags is a pink millepora with crazy blue and green highlights, and it's growing quite nicely. There's no photo of it here, as I didn't turn off the pumps and with the freakishly long polyps waving in the current it was difficult to focus. The duncans are indeed growing, albeit slowly. These pics don't show the extra heads that have developed, and the angle doesn't show the increased height either.

Here is was in November.

And a couple days ago.

[cmanning]

Where did you get those cool plugs from.....less to worry about fish or inverts knocking them over. Good to have them when a frag is not big enough, or if trying to acclimate to lighting, they can be secure on the sandbed for awhile, until they're ready to be mounted onto the aquascape.

[mojo]

I really like the frag plugs, for all the reasons you mentioned.

I got mine from aquarium specialty

http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/catalog/p...roducts_id=1867

... but you can get them from any vendor that sells KZ products. If I recall correctly, Kingfish will be carrying KZ products near the end of the month.