My blog has moved!
You should be automatically redirected in 5 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.reefdisorder.com
and update your bookmarks.
I managed to catch the large naso tang that I had recently bought (and was too big for the tank). Unfortunately, Captain Nemo's gave me pennies on the dollar for her.
I also picked up to 2 anthias from Pickering Farm & Feed. They are eating well (frozen mysis).
I also replaced Bennie, our lawnmower blenny, though he immediately launched himself into the overflow and has remained there for 2 days. I guess I have to go in after him. arghhh.
I had a really good and bad day with my tank yesterday. It started badly, but ended up okay.
First, the bad news.
I accidentally turned off my 2 Vortechs on Wednesday night before bed, so when I got home from work yesterday, the tank looked "off". I quickly realized the issue and without looking I flipped the switch. Immediately, one of the pumps made a bad noise
and I flipped the switch off. I looked up to see what the problem was and saw a very sad sight. My lawnmower blenny had decided to camp out inside the propeller housing. I managed to get him out and he was still alive, but hurt badly. He ended up dying later in the evening. I am so sad.
Worst part is, that is the only fish in the tank that my 3yo daughter named and it was her favorite. She saw him hurt and was very upset. So, it is off to Captain Nemo's tomorrow to see if we can replace him. I felt so bad for her.
Now, on to the good stuff. During a break in the Phillies game (don't worry, they will win it all) I went over to check on the blenny who was barely hanging on and noticed what I thought were thousands (maybe millions) of micro-bubbles in the tank. Before I had a chance to react (thinking I was sucking air in somewhere), I saw my clam "smoking". It looked like there was a major fire ready to break out inside of him.
Getting a closer look, I realized that the tank was full of whatever was coming out of the clam. I grabbed my video camera and got a full minute of HD video before the battery died...arghh.
So, I had to revert to my little Canon SD1000 digital camera to get some raw video. I only took a minute or so of footage, but it is really cool. It turns out that the clam was spawning!!!! I have never seen that before! It was very cool. I don't know how long it went before I noticed it, but it continued at a slower pace for another 20 minutes after I caught this video:
As promised here are some pictures taken in the last 2 days. For those of you joining recently, this is a 125g reef tank with a separate sump and fuge located in the basement. You read more about the set-up here and updated here.
These are a few shots of my open brain coral. From full to close-up.
My dumb starfish got stuck in my gorgonia. How does this happen? He got himself out luckily.
The dera is one of my favorite clams. I also have a tiny maxima that is dark blue with black stripes and a beautiful ultra crocea that I have yet to take a good picture of.
The obligatory full tank shot (fts). But, with some interesting angles.
This is one of my favorite pictures. This is my orange plate coral as close range.
Finally got a decent shot of my hippo tang.
The elusive copperband butterfly. He is certainly not shy He really likes the camera, but only comes out when the halides are off and the actinics are on. I thought this second shot was great.
I totally forget what type of zoos these are, but they are beautiful and the pictures do not do them justice.
This lawnmower was recently in the overflow for a week. I finally got him out. He is like the granddaddy of the tank simply because of his long eyebrows and facial expression.
This spotted mandarin dragonet has doubled in size in the three weeks I have had him.
I also have some video that I will load up at another time.
So, as many of you know, both of these fish are hard to keep. Each has its own challenges in a reef tank. But, I am happy to say that both are doing very well so far. I thought I would take an opportunity to address the challenges of each.
A mandarin can be a difficult fish to keep. Because of that, most retailers will offer no guarantee on these fish? The reality is that you have to meet certain criteria for the mandarin to survive. If you can meet that criteria, then the fish is actually very easy to keep and will provide you with years of enjoyment.
Mandarins only eat copepods. Copepods are the little white dots you see on your glass at night when you shine a flashlight. They look like tiny fleas. (Yes, some mandarins have been coaxed into eating frozen mysis, but they are the exception that proves the rule.) And, they eat a lot of copepods. These fish spend their days fluttering their fins hovering over the rockwork looking for "pods" all day long. So, you need to have a big enough tank to support their voracious eating. If not, they will deplete a tank of the copepod population very quickly and then die of starvation. Most aquarists recommend a tank of 75g or larger with a healthy refugium and that the tank be set-up for at least a year (in order to let the pod population grow and thrive.)
The spotted mandarin I purchased was looking a little thin. You can tell by looking at their bellies around their fins and the tops of the fish. I could basically see his dorsal bone and he was concave around the midriff. He was starving. Well, he looks so much better now. He is nice and round and looks to be growing quickly. I see him from time to time eating off the rocks and he is quite an entertaining fish.
And, they are basically oblivious to other fish in the tank and the other fish ignore him. I highly recommend a mandarin (either spotted or psychedelic) if your tank can support it. They are completely reef-safe and a joy to have.
The copperband butterfly is an entirely different story and a risky addition to a reef tank. These fish are shy and need to be with fish that are peaceful. They are known to decimate a feather duster and worm population and then turn their attention to clams and soft coral. Why? Because they are hungry and they rarely ever eat frozen anything and hard to even get to live on live brine (sea monkeys).
For me, so far so good. I made sure the fish actively ate live food while at the store. I have always been a sucker for this fish and thought I would take a risk. And, this was a beautiful and quite large specimen.
He still tends to hide in the back of the tank during the day, but as soon as the halides go off, he comes around to the front of the tank. If you approach the tank too quickly he goes back into hiding. I am hoping that will change over time as he gets used to his tankmates and the surroundings.
Last night I saw a marvelous thing. I only feed the tank every other day and then, typically only frozen mysis cubes. (1 cube every other day). The butterfly came out and ate the frozen mysis. Woo hoo!!!
He has yet to bother any of the coral (though I wouldn't mind if he feasted on the xenia that grows like a weed in my tank) and he is eating and healthy!!!
I will try to post a picture of both of these fish soon, but all my previous attempts have failed as they are both camera shy.
Here is a link to the article. Turns out, it fed early humans. They found it while trying to establish a breeding program for the Tridacna Maxima, a popular clam in the reefkeeping hobby.
Of course, I had to read the comments. Take a look at the comment from NekoMimi (2nd comment). Its soo ridiculous, you have to laugh. I am continually amazed how humanity can be so brilliant and ignorant all at the same time.
After losing 8 fish in a month, I took a break from purchasing any new fish for the tank. In addition, I have horribly reneged on the deal I had with my wife on this tank and she is not happy.
So, my tank has been stable for some time and I really needed to quit smoking again, so I made a concerted effort to quit smoking. After making it a whopping 2 days, I decided I needed to treat myself for a job well done. So, I went in search of a copperband butterfly. This is a risky fish for a reef tank (as is any butterfly), but I thought I would give it a shot. I found a beautiful specimen that was eating well at the lfs. And, I finally found the spotted mandarin that my wife loves so much. So, I picked up both.
Big mistake!
Oh, the fish are fine. And, as far as I can tell, both healthy. the spotted mandarin spends his days picking copepods off the rocks blissfully unaware that any other fish are in the tank. And the butterfly is swimming around happily. I am not sure if she is eating or not as I haven't seen it happen, but she still looks great and is swimming well. And, I have seen no evidence that she is picking on any of the coral or inverts in the tank. I have to say that this is one of the most beautiful fish and their price is very reasonable.
The issue is that I two days later I was smoking again. If there ever was a poster child for cigarette addiction, I am it. I have always said, thank god I never tried drugs because my will power sucks. So, I managed to really tick off my wife again by breaking our deal again. And, I continue to struggle with smoking.
I can not seem to break this habit and I fear more and more that I never will. I need to figure out a way to stop. I continue to be more and more depressed about my inability to quit and disappointed in myself for my weakness.
Its funny (in the so-not-funny-its-a-shame kind of way) really. My relationship with my wife would be so much better, my health would be so much better, my fish tank would have a lot more fish if I could just break this effin habit.
And, with a trip to Vegas just 3 weeks away, signs don't look good for quitting. Vegas is not the place you want to be right after you quit smoking.
Anyway, I will post some pics of the fish in the next day or two and have my wife post pics of my lungs when I die a young man...
Well, I am back from vacation and was able to start working with the RKE. The directions do not get into specifics on how to connect everything up, so I just took a shot at it. And, man, is it easy. Each module has two ports (1 and 2) for the bus cable. The head unit has a single port. Simply connect the head unit to either the SL1 (module for temp/pH/ORP probes) or the PC4. Then daisy chain them from there.
Once a PC4 is plugged in, the system has power. NOTE: You need to turn down the contrast on the display or you get vertical lines through it.
I started by calibrating the temp and pH probes and then placed them in the sump. I enabled the graphing and let them do their thing for a few days. Then I hooked up a heater to the PC4 and programmed it to go on if the temp goes below 78.5. You can also set the degrees of latitude. I set it at .4 So, the heater goes on when the temp reaches 78.3 (-.2) and goes off when it reaches 78.7(+.2).
That is all I have done for now. I need to order a 20ft bus cable so I can run that up stairs to the main tank. Once that is done, I will set the fans to run on a PC2 upstairs and set them to go on when the temperature reaches 79.5.
I also need to order 2 more PC4s for all of my lights upstairs and downstairs and another SL1 to monitor the pH in the CA reactor. Once that is complete, I will be able to have multiple programs that evaluate the ph of the tank and turn the ca reactor solenoid on or off.
One of the things that the unit has already told me is that my pH is low. It is hovering just below 8.0 at around 7.9. I would really like that value in the 8.1-8.2 range, so I have to figure out whether the probe is poorly calibrated or the pH is low and then fix that.
My ReefKeeper Elite (RKE) arrived today! No time to set it up. It will have to wait. But, here are some pictures!!!
I have not been posting a lot lately, but for good reason. I changed jobs at the beginning of the month and it has been hectic. But, i have not been neglecting my tank. I still haven't gotten my AquaC calcium reactor dialed in correctly yet. I think it is too high up above the sump but I have to build a little shelf to lower it down, so for now, it is off.
The Reefkeeper Elite from Digital Aquatics shipped last week and mine is due to arrive tomorrow. I will definitely keep you all int he loop on that one. I am psyched.
In the meantime, I purchased a school of bangai cardinals who all perished and I mentioend that I purchased 3 anthias (1 male, 2 females) and only one female survived. I definitely have a fish problem. For now, I am not buying any more fish. The existing fish all seem healthy and fine. They are:
Also, my tank was getting very warm. The daytime temp was over 84 degrees which was stressing my corals, causing diatom blooms and possibly part of the reason for my fish loss. But, I just can't stomach $700-$1000 for a chiller right now. So, I went to Radio Shack and bought 3 large AC fans. I got plugs and electrical cord from the hardware store and mounted them on the beck of the tank blowing out across the water. WOW is all I can say. The tank now stays at 79.5 with the fans on and goes to 80.1 with the lights off and fans off at night. Highly recommend this!
So, now for some pictures. I cleaned all the coraline off the back glass and took these pictures on Sunday night. There are a lot of them so I hope you enjoy! Some are out of focus, but I am getting better every time I use the camera. It is just a Canon SD1000.
That's all for now... Enjoy!
