Khemul's 120 Gallon Tank

[RNeiswander]

I've got some random green ones, I had one that was getting pretty big but I moved the rock it was on and I bleached it out. It's slowly coming back, but I've noticed a few others recently too. Saltwater never ceases to amaze!


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[Khemul]

Yep. I hear they are pretty common. The only odd thing with these is that is the only rock I have that'll grow them. Not sure what it is but I have yet to see any pop up anywhere else in either the old setup or this one. Just something about that rock. Otherwise I would have split that rock in half months ago since it is a little difficult to scape around.

 

[khmerspec]

Very nice. I love tank upgrades, but my wife doesn't. It's, " WOW there's so much room, looks so much better." And a few days later, " It looks kinda empty, lemme fill it up with a few $100s more of rock, a few $100s more of corals, and a few $100s of fish, and then a few $500s of upgrades to make it look better because my last light is too weak and such and such."

Concerning superglue, I prefer it to epoxy, with problems as you stated. The only issue I have with sglue is that it's messy. Get a bucket of salt water on the side, and as you sglue your *** to rock/plug, dip it into the bucket. Make sure to dip head down first. This will make the top layer of glue harden quickly, but theres some residue that floats, reason to dip head first. Then just repeat until your satisfied.

 

[greech]

Sorry to hear about the ich . How's the LTA doing? I know I owe you a PM but I've been crazy busy lately with work, family and my own tank .

 

[Khemul]

The LTA is... hopefully improving.

The whole special nem area failed. The Sea Hare kept walking back and forth through it and the nem kept drifting off to the left towards the Frogspawns again. I finally just gave up, broke down the area and let it go where it wanted too. I was a little worried about it venturing down the Engineer pit (area next to the Frogspawns) since it was vanishing into the abyss they formed. But when I tried to pull it out and improve the area for it I noticed the nem had extended and shaped its foot to the form of the cave at the bottom of the pit. Figure as much as it seems like a dark abyss, it seems to like the environment is to the nem's liking so I'll just leave it there and hope no one thinks it'd be a good idea to fill in the hole. :laugh: I've decided to just let it do its thing. Me constantly trying to help it is probably annoying it more then helping it at this point. Guess if it is used to sticking out of a 4-5" hole in the sand then a 5-6" hole in the sand and rockwork shouldn't be horribly different.

No worries on the PM. I figured you were seemed a bit busy lately.


Unfortunately the Ich problem seems to have tipped over the point where natural treatment is possible. Think I'll lose the clowns and Eibli if I let the disease run its natural course. Time to set up a hospital tank and start copper treatment. Definitely going to move the clowns over, probably the Eibli and the rest of the damsels will depend on what I can manage to catch (maybe two 10g tanks if I can catch any of them). I know doing the full fallow tank style treatment will be impossible without a full breakdown, but hopefully I can at least nuke the parasite population enough to return to the old balance.

 

[greech]

Completely agree to just let the nem be if you want to keep it. Just not an animal one can control.

Really bummed for you with the ich issue. Hope you can get it under control.

 

[Khemul]

Got the hospital tank set up and moved the Clowns over. They seem to be doing much better. The black clown was really getting bad, think if I waited another few days it would have been touchy on whether it'd make it. The orange clown wasn't all that bad, but I don't want to break them up so they'll both be treated until the black clown is ready to go back over. The Eibli unfortunately didn't make it. Not sure if it was the Ich or some other issue but it was looking REALLY bad (not a lot of Ich but the fish looked really sick). Didn't make it through one night in the hospital tank.

Still have to catch the other damsels, although all of them except for one of the Staghorns seem to be fighting it off pretty well on their own. I'd still be a bit more comfortable treating them all, but catching damsels is a bit of a nightmare.


On the invertebrate front, the GSP experiment failed miserably. Someone ate them. I don't mean "someone picked at the polyps until they didn't open anymore" like before. I mean they were scraped clean off the rock. They weren't really a big loss though. They grew in the refugium but weren't handling competition with the algae down there very well.

The LTA seems to have attempted suicide. It pushed itself all the way down the goby pit. Then tried to push itself through a gap down at the bottom of the rock. It came out the other side looking like it hit a powerhead. :wall: Normally I'd hold out some hope for it since the tentacles are still mostly intact, but it gave itself a nice big cut right down the side of the foot. It is now sitting towards the front of the tank for observation, but that cut seems to be pretty bad. Think maybe this tank just isn't going to do anemones.



And on a more cheerful front...for those wondering why they call them "Sea Hares"...

It apparently didn't feel like digging into the sand so it just picked a perch and decided to blend in for a nap.

 

[greech]

Yay for Sea Bunnies!

Sorry about the eibli . Also sorry to say that if the LTA has a torn foot, it would be nothing short of a miracle if it recovered. LTAs are really bad when it comes to that and they almost never recover. Don't get too discouraged on the nem front. While LTAs are not the hardest nems to keep, they are certainly not the easiest. I had a carpet for all of 2 weeks before I lost it and I still want another. Problem is I have too many corals now and really don;t want to part with them. If I come across one that has been in captivity for a good while, I will probably pull the trigger. Only other option I would consider is if i can afford one off LADD.

Hope the clowns recover soon!

 

[Khemul]

Yeah, unfortunately the Eibli wasn't a surprise. I knew the moment I netted it out in one swing that it was going to be rather unlikely to survive the hospital visit. Still not sure if it was Ich or something else, since it wasn't heavily infected, but maybe it had a lower threshold then the other fish.

The hospital tank is now 2 Clowns and 1 Sergeant Major. The other one is too damned smart. And the Staghorns and Golden aren't all that interested in getting trapped. :irked: Shame I don't need to catch gobies. They go in and out of the trap as if it were a tank decoration. :laugh:


I may try another LTA or even a BTA in the future, but for now I'll focus on other things. I'm considering trying one of the discount LED routes towards the end of the year (either a GU10 array or a Chinese fixture) so maybe when I eliminate lighting as a potential major factor I'll try again.


It has opened up the opportunity to play with flow in the tank again. Think I am going to try to set up the MJ 1200 again. I'm thinking of swapping out the MJ 600 on the left side with the 1200 pointed towards the front glass. Then set the MJ 600 on the back glass opposite the other MJ 600. I tried the 1200 along the back glass and the Kenya Tree was not amused (but at least it knows what goes through a palm tree's mind during a hurricane...). No one seemed to mind it on the left panel though, although it did cause some sand movement (not a sandstorm but enough to shape that area).

 

[Khemul]

Just some pictures...

FTS with the new powerhead placement.

Got the other Sergeant Major into the hospital tank. The black clown started to take a bad turn the other night, but then made a quick recovery and is looking great now. Still some spots but they are going away quickly.