Yanagi

Got my Tunze Turbelles earlier in the week, they're pretty amazing. I think I could of gone with just one and been fine, but the coral isn't complaining. If anything it's looking better than ever. I think I will buy the multicontroller in a few weeks when my funds recover from the massive spending spree I've had this past week. Also got my new test kits but I am a huge moron and forgot phosphate test kit.. That's ok. I guess I'll wait and buy a hanna phosphate checker anyway. Everything looks to be in line, nitrate is actually pretty high, eep. Starting to dose with Red Sea's new stuff now. I had the nitrate/phosphate remover for almost a week now and I've noticed a significant decline in the amount of algae. Also now doing Reef energy A & B which is supposed to force polyp extension and give them a good old feed. Now cutting back on my dosing of aquasonic's sea food and increasing feedings of BBS. Happy with how things are going, just really really need that RO unit to show up some time soon to help with the algae. Oh I also got Guppy's programmable digital timer and while I'm still working out the kinks, it's great. I've now got staggered lighting. RSM stock moonlights run all night, then at some time around 10am the moonlight bar comes on, a couple hours later the main blue LED comes on and the moonlight bar goes off. An hour after that the main white LED bar comes on as well.. Late at night the white bar goes off, then the blue bar, then the moonlight bar kicks in again and stays on for a couple of hours then switches off and back to just RSM moonlight LEDs (super dull, can barely tell they are on). I really really want more light in there though. Thinking of putting the stock lighting back in (i could actually really use the heat they put out in this weather) and ripping the hood to shreds to get the LED strips placed elsewhere. My coral goby is finally starting to put on weight back on. Loving the new sand. The fish came through it all fine, I expected the tang to end up with white spot over the whole ordeal (which is why I decided not to catch him and return him to work.. now I think I'll just buy a fish trap). /Ramblings of hungover and kind of sick Yan

Agree on dumping the plastic plants. My dad's got a similar sort of tank set up. I kept putting cuttings of green hygro and hydrilla all around the back wall of the tank then built it up around the shipwreak, grew moss on the ship and put an anubias on some high points of it and it does look a bit more like some sunken treasure of a ship now. What kind of rock is that on the left side of the ship wreak (big white one)? Does it fizz if you pour vinegar on it?

Still haven't touched the tank, just feel really worn down today. Lights are out, corals are feeding on some coral food and BBS.. I may move one or two rocks tomorrow but I kind of like it now. For now. I know that won't last, lol. Plus a few corals need to be moved. I just went and ordered a fair bit of stuff from guppies.. Here's hoping they send me the right stuff this time. A whole bunch of new test kits as I am not sure I trust mine. Some coral fragging tools (I am so going to start my own zoo garden and tear apart that zoo rock LOL) and some other bits and pieces. I so cannot wait for all my goodies to come! On my list: Tunze 6015 x 2 4 Stage RO unit Coral fragging kit Other assorted awesome stuffs. I'm also now going to be a crash test dummy (almost literally) for the new Red Sea range 'reef colours/reef energy' etc whatever they are calling it. Right now I'm just using the phosphate/nitrate remover but I'm going to get onto reef energy A & B which supposedly force some epic polyp extension and really good feed for the corals. Whatever else I can afford as time passes too as I've just finished paying off my car, WOO. I am considering really modding the RSM right now. I'm not really sure why but all of a sudden my attention has gone off a new tank and back onto it. I do want to get out the dremel drill and butcher the hood to put in some more lighting. Two T5 tubes, maybe another LED panel and definitely some serious moon lighting. I'm also thinking about how to add a sump onto it so I can get a real skimmer. Nothing that I can't pull off the tank and use on another if the need or want arises. I still want it to look absolutely STOCK though, but that shouldn't be hard. The inside of the hood is hollow so carving it out shouldn't be difficult. Just wiring it and coming up with some kind of splash guard is going to be the fun part. Need to look more into that. /ramblings and jumbled thought procress of a tired, sick and sick and tired Yan.

Ok well.. I think I kind of look this randomly tossed around rock look. Maybe there's a few pieces of rock I'd like to move but I think it looks pretty good. Was also doing some reading on a marine forum about a discussion RE shoe eels / snowflake eels VS zebra eels. It seems everyone agrees Zebra is a better choice as far as reef tanks, aggression and fish snacking goes. We do have a zebra eel at work... Hummm... :)

Well I took out half bucket of the old substrate and added almost a full bucket of actual coral sand, it looks SO much better. It really does. It's a million times more natural and WHITER! I got too tired though so I just dumped all the rock and coral back in and will sort out a 'scape when I feel better.. I went to bed at 11pm and got up at.. 12pm. Ugh! I didn't catch any of the fish because I realized I have no idea where I will put them until I can take them back to work, LOL. Plus when I was doing the substrate change the tank was so full of sediment I couldn't see 3 inches deep into the tank. Disgrunted crab has been moved, though. He's in a little live rock tank until I can figure out what to do with it. I couldn't see it before but he actually has grown.. Quite a bit. He is just an algae eater but he creeps me out so yeah, he's OUTTA THERE.

Yeah, all coral does. Google DIY chiller.

I got all the sand washed (probably not enough but that's ok..) but I'm finding it really hard now to dig everything out. It will never go back in the way it was. Never. Just doesn't work like that with rocks. What if I hate the new scape more than the old one? Argh. It needs to be done though I guess. I don't think I want the cardinals anymore, they're pretty boring. The Tang has to go as well. In other news, I've just ordered two epic tiny little Tunze Turbelle Nanostream 6015 so I can replace the big ugly thing that's now starting to rust. The 6015's are TINY, seriously. The two of them will equal about the same size as the big one I've got.. and I can put them on opposite ends! Yay!

WOW at the fins on the red devil one / the one Sarah bought. I think that's the most impressive fins I've seen on a crowntail. Nice body on him, too! Not the typical long-as-a-bus look. He's a show quality CT if ever I saw one. The orchid is really nice too. Is he a real copper or is just funny lighting?

I haven't ordered from there as of yet, Matt. I think it will be the first place I go to when I have funds for a zoo garden though. Y'know, the more I think about it the more I'm in general pretty confused about LED lighting. I have some awesome stuff growing under around 25-30 watts of LED lighting. That's in a 20 inch deep tank. Why the need for these huge panels when I can get an acro coming back to life off my live rock. Under a lot less light! I can't imagine what 60w would do in my tank.. Bleach the coral and blind the fish probably.. lol Eel is going in the 4 footer. He would eat my coral goby and firefish otherwise. I am not getting the current one at work, he's WAY too aggro. He bites and latches onto the trigger, tangs, etc. I don't hand feed that one.. I throw food in it's general direction and watch it wrestle the food out of the triggers mouth. Scary. I am thinking when I get the 4 footer, I will have the cabinet built much longer and get a 2 x 2 x 2 or similar and hook it up to the same sump. I'm over the RSM and It would make more sense to buy a new tank and hook it up to the bigger system than to replace and mod the RSM any further than what I already have. Want to buy it, Sarah? ;P

I found an aquascape VERY similar to what I hope to achieve with the 4 footer. http://i358.photobucket.com/albums/oo21/rodney_ri/Picture-179.jpg From http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=148&t=196860&start=240 that thread. I love that tank. What I want to do though is flip it so the caves are on the right (I am strange like that) with more height and have less rock/bulk to the left side so that it's more open swimming space. Maybe a bommie on the left. I wish I could draw up what I have in my mind but rocks were never my forte.

Lmao Shadoh, not quite up to that part yet unfortunately. I think I may indeed just pull everything out and have a total do-over. It will give me a chance to catch the ugly brown tang and the few nasty crabs I've spotted. I may wait until tomorrow though as I have wanted to change the substrate since I bought the blasted thing. It's this awful red sea max substrate, stupid little ball things.. I want actual SAND. Of course that means I need to go BUY sand. Boo. Oh, there's also for sure a mantis shrimp in here. I saw him for the first time friday morning. I've been hearing him for months now! He's not even one of the pretty ones, just a gross dull brown one. The large clump of star polyps (very front of the tank, left hand corner) needs to go too, I think. It's a bit 'amateur' as far as coral goes and it takes up a lot of valuable space. I may cut it up and use it to fill in any empty spaces though as it's so adaptable I can put it anywhere and it will be happy. I'd love to get a zoanthid garden cranking somewhere in here now that I'm sure my flame angel doesn't touch it. I think it's time to go coral shopping online.. :)

24th July 2 Any better? Still not happy.. Added to the height a bit. I think it might be time to pull everything out and try again.

Apparently I'm getting a snorkel for Xmas from a friend, at least that's what he announced when I said the tank size. LOL Probably going to be the only way to target corals in a tank with that depth!

Oh boy, I just starting writing up a big post. Then accidentally clicked back and now I can't get the post back. Ugh! Ok well I was going to say sorry for mostly using this thread as a dairy but hey, we don't have a tank journals section on this forum and reefer forums can be scary. LOL Barring any SUMCS (sudden unexplained mind-changing syndrome) a 48 x 24 x 30 is on the cards. That's about 150 gallons or 550 liters, which more than covers the 'minimum' recommended tank size for all the fish I want. Well, the Asfur cuts it close but I think a lot of people are rather dramatic when it comes to minimum tank sizes but that's a topic for another day. I am most likely going to have it custom built but I need to do more research on how I want to do the overflow and return. Just as an FYI, this is going to be interesting. I can barely reach the bottom of the RSM (red sea max, current tank) which is only about 20 inch deep.

Skinny Mandarin appears to be dying.. I knew I should have grabbed the other one. Stupid expensive fish, ugh. Whyyy do they have to be so hard to keep in captivity?! Blah.

At home I use a Fujifilm finepix S5800 with a macro lens. I much prefer the camera we have at work which is an Olympus SP600UZ. The white balance on that one is just so much better and it's dead easy. A blind monkey could take brilliant photos with it. Cannot adjust the white balance much on this one, I can't even get pics of my tropical tank looking right under the given W.B. settings. Though this may just be the fact I don't read manuals and I may have not found out there's some other way to adjust the W.B. setting. Un-edited, just resized. At the moment I have changed my mind yet again RE the 'rockscape'. It gives me a lot of options for coral placement, but if I keep accumulating acans and favias I am fast going to run out of room. I thought y'all might be interested to know.. I think I am going to head in a different direction with the 4 footer (now looking at a 4' by 2' by 30"). I am in love with the Asfur Angel (click it, I already googled it and grabbed a pic for you LOL) at work. He was pretty shy when he came in but I've got him hand feeding, recognizing me, will sometimes let me give him a pat on the head. The only problem is that Angelfish especially of the large variety are notorious coral eaters. I'd also like a Harlequin Tusk fish, which again may not be reef safe. As everyone has already noticed, I have fallen hard for Super SaiYAN the Powder Blue Tang who is reef safe but LARGE. Plus the 'Shoe Eel' aka Snowflake eels grow very, very large. However the risk of him eating my fish is minimized by the fact all the fish I have listed thus far are WAY TOO BIG to be eaten. What I am now thinking is I will start out FOWLR (Fish only with live rock). I will feed these fish into rotund beasts almost resembling whales. Then I will add some.. DUN DUN DU~UU~UN~.. LPS coral. I think they are less likely to be eaten. I hope. Things like Hammer corals, Elegance (Cats) corals, Frogspawns, Torches and eventually moving onto Favias, Blasto, Brains, etc as long as the fish show no signs of nipping the first listed corals. In theory fish with full bellies shouldn't be interested in coral but obviously it doesn't always work that way. If they're going to pick coral there's nothing that is going to stop them aside from not having any coral. Of course all this relies on the fact I get a large enough tank (minimum 4 x 2 x 2). If I don't, well, all this thought and planning has gone to waste. Actually no, scrap that. It hasn't. Thinking about fish is never a waste. After all, it beats clothes, handbag and shoe shopping. I've lost my train of thought. Ummm... Ok well, next salty topic. The only issue with live rock being up against walls of the tank is you can't get in there properly to clean the glass. Waaah. And let's dive right into the next topic again. That little live rock holding tank I mentioned a few posts ago.. It has a fishy in it now. A skinny little Mandarin who isn't doing too well. We'll see how he goes.

Huh?? I posted a reply.. I swore it went through. It's gone?? I guess my internet is still funny. Anyways, sweeper tentacles are an aggression and protection tactic. They have a toxin in them that's very comparable to a bee sting but they effect people differently. In any case, it HURTS. So yeah, if there's another coral too close they may be able to put out their sweepers a 'burn' the neighbouring coral to death. Different corals have different length of sweepers. Nothing quite like seeing a huge Torch coral putting out massive sweepers. Some people develop a reaction to the stings to the point where they can put their hand in a tank with the coral they react to and feel a tingling sensation. Isn't coral cool? LOL :P

Just snapped this pic of a new coral I grabbed yesterday. If you look at the circled bit.. you'll see some sweeper tentacles. Took it after lights out. Totally unedited by the way.

Nice! But where's the full tank shot? :P

Blasto with some pretty freaky cool polyp extension.. :D

Oh man, the barracks is GOOONNNNNEEEE!!! I'm slowing working on my parents. 'You know, a 6 footer would look GREAT along this wall.', 'I just did up a few measurements and as long as my door is taken off the hinges and I move the community tank which I want to do anyway, it will right right in!', etc... This way they are less likely to say no to a 5 x 2 x 2.. LOL Oh god what have I done.. reefing. It's like drugs. I'M HOOKED. Oh and I found these AWESOME LEDs.. At least they look/sound awesome on paper. I've never heard of them before so not sure on quality. However they look UH-MAZING. 3w Cree. Dimmable. Programmable. Controllable via remote. CHEAP for how amazing they are. I am so, so tempted to buy some even though I have no idea what size tank I am going to end up with. The lights are on sale... I could always buy 2 units which would be enough for a 4 footer.. Get more if I need to, right? Right?? Some pics to come later, maybe a video too. :P