New Nano Reef Diary, the sequel

[Blinky]

SF - you're right about angels, some are more nippy than others but all are prone to at least occasionally biting LPS corals. Centropyge argi grows to a maximum 2.5" and is supposed to be less 'mouthy' than many others, seemed like a pretty good choice for the tank as far as angels go. He's a zippy little fella, and is showing some attitude already - yesterday he kept trying to hide in the rocks but found either another fish or the pistol shrimp (who must have clicked about seventy thousand times last night, irritated at having an intruder in his tunnels) barring his way at every turn. By this afternoon, he and the clown goby were facing off, trying to decide whether the smallest or second smallest fish in the tank should be in charge!

FWIW, I was getting sick of the leather - it never fully opened up and instead of the lovely emerald green coral I thought I was buying, it turned into a fleshy brown mound. It was a bit fugly! The tank looks much better with a bubble coral taking up that space I'm pretty sure that's what was causing the problem - the candycane has plumped up bigger than I've ever seen it, the hammer is showing even more extension, and from all the reading I've done, there are several species of leather that can REALLY upset stonies. Sinularia sp. and Lobophytum, either of which mine may be, are two of the worst in terms of toxicity. Ugly and noxious? NIMT

Freddy - thanks, he is a cutie isn't he?

 

[Swimfins]

Cool about the cherub angel. I've got a pretty pink sarcophyton that's doubling in size each month I can see a frag of it in your tank perhaps a tad later on in the New Year I can frag it.
I haven't added anything in awhile,trying to get phosphate under control but Friday is my day off and things have gotten stable sooooooooo,,,,

 

[Blinky]

Thanks SF, that's so nice! I'm not going to put ANY leathers into this tank though, for two reasons - I've discovered that my tastes lean towards 'LPS' corals and zoas and also leathers and stony corals don't get along well. Now... if you have zoas you're fragging, definitely keep me in mind

If anyone's interested in some random tank pics, there's a post in the general marine forum of some that I took today

 

[Blinky]

I have no idea why, but the little cherub died tonight. He was FINE a few hours ago, picking at the rocks and swimming around like nothing was wrong. He ate dinner with the rest of the fish, and no one was picking on him, but I went to feed the corals at 9:30 and found him lifeless on the bottom. All the other fish are fine, the parameters haven't changed, I'm at a loss. Unfortunately the store where I bought him offers no guarantee for SW fish, so I'm out $45 as well as being really sad to have lost the little guy

 

[FreddytheFish]

That really sux...

 

[Blinky]

Well, I went to a marine-only LFS today and asked them if they could order a cherub for me. I suspect, and the store agreed, that my little guy succumbed to cyanide poisoning; they don't deal with suppliers who use cyanide, whereas I'm fairly sure that the store where I got my cherub does.
While I was there I picked up a branching frogspawn (pink tipped of course ) and a couple zoa frags; one has four different colours in various shades of green and orange, the other is hot pink. The tank looks nice and full now, which is good since my wallet is pretty much empty!

 

[Swimfins]

Sorry about the cherub. Pretty fish.
I've got lps and the pink sarcophyton and sps with no issues todate. Dunno.
I wish my camera took better macros because I think you'd change your mind if you could see lol
I was bad yesterday. I bought a LTA and a tomato clown. They are both excellent this morning and the clown is hosting in it. I had to switch places with my frgospawn, as the clown was hovering over that, but placing the anenome front center is a real eyecatcher. His foot is well buried this morning and he's spread out luxuriantly in the sand with his clown hovering inside the tentacles, what a sight! Looks like a bigger tank in a few months, oh well! You started this lol.

You;ll love the froggy. Watch how it flouresces (sp?) under the moonlights. Cool.

 

[Blinky]

Cool! Nothing's cuter than a hosting clown

I FINALLY found some Nassarius snails, brought five home tonight. The goby thought one was threatening his shrimp, shook it like a dog shaking a rat, then handed it to the pistol who took it deep into the tunnels to use as rebar

My new light arrived today, a Jebo 130W PC fixture (back me up here SF, I know you've got one of these which is why I actually decided to try one out). I replaced the actinic bulb with a Coralife 10 000K daylight bulb, since the Jebo bulbs aren't the best and there's already a T5 fixture with an actinic bulb on the tank. Now there's 154W over the tank instead of 104W and, probably more importantly, the light goes from end to end rather than being centred in the middle.

The old light fixture (80W Satellite) is now over the 5.5g (wheeee!) - I was going to throw it onto the terrarium I've got in the works, but we've decided to put off the build until spring so I thought I'd see what happens with 80W over the little tank.

I adopted a big Mexican turbo snail tonight... probably shouldn't have, but he was in a sterile tank, unfed and starving. If he can tackle the film algae in my tank he'll be worth his weight in gold - he's working away as I type, I think I'm going to name him 'MagFloat' lol

 

[Owens187]

I FINALLY found some Nassarius snails, brought five home tonight. The goby thought one was threatening his shrimp, shook it like a dog shaking a rat, then handed it to the pistol who took it deep into the tunnels to use as rebar

hahahahahahaa!!!!!!!!! lol thats funny!!! tanks lookin great Blinky!

 

[mrsdorothy]

Tank looks good Blinky. Don't stop this thread yet. I still reading and learning things here!!!

Haven't set up tank yet, but will in a few weeks. Still purchasing equipment. Have anyone ever heard of Nature's ocean marine white sand and is it any good? That's the sand that they have at petco. I did a search and could not find any information on it. If it isn't any good, I can take it back.