Khemul's 120 Gallon Tank

I don't want to jinx it but it is looking like the last pieces of that downward spiral have finally worked themselves out.

The last two Frogspawns were apparently in the same process of bailing out. I'm thinking I either created too much flow in the tank or am keeping nutrient levels a little too high for LPS, but since that has been done I figure I'll just stick with the increased flow and move more towards soft corals, ricordeas and zoas. I still have the two larger Frogspawns in the refugium and they are hanging in there, but with no skeleton I think it'll just be a matter of them wasting away. It is unlikely they'll hang-on long enough to regrow a skeleton.

The odd thing about it all. The pickiest coral in the tank was always the Duncan. Change the flow patterns around it in the slightest and it'd sulk for weeks. To get it to open in the tank originally I had to place it where there was zero flow. Then where there was minimal flow. Now it loves moderate flow. It's in the same area where the Frogspawns bailed. :screwy:

And now, a few additions...

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Don't think I did any pictures of this guy. The other one took a sudden turn and didn't make it but this one has settled in very nicely and seems to be healthy.


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Last weekend we went fishing off my mom's dock. We spent half the time trying NOT to catch certain fish. Stingrays, snapper, permit, something bigger then the kid which we didn't get a good look at; all harassing the nets that were being used to catch gobies. If I ever need to stock a 8' + tank I know where to go. :laugh:

We managed 5 new Crested Gobies. One I think didn't make it (it was pretty roughed up before we caught it - haven't seen it the last couple days) but the smaller 4 are all doing well.



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Saw one of the strangest fish I've ever seen recently for sale, a Fingered Dragonet. Someone had already bought it though so we had to settle for a Scooter instead. A little bigger then I wanted to go to start, but it was either that or a 1" one and fish under 2" have a shaky track-record in this tank. So far he is doing well. No prepared food yet, but he did grab some flakes while foraging so he accepts it as food. Just doesn't appear to like the taste much since he spit the flakes back out. Made one attempt at mysis and he showed some interest but didn't eat it. I figure there should be plenty of pods in the tank anyways. But the fact that he recognizes food (even if he doesn't care for it) is at least a good sign.


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Got this guy a few days ago. Was hoping he'd pick a better spot but he set up home right next to the sandsifter. Literally, they share a front porch. :irked: So far they only fight when food drifts by. But feeding times usually involves some tantrums now.


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And the most recent addition. Which I'm getting mixed reviews on whether the tank is too small but I sort of got overruled on this one by the fiancee anyways. :laugh:



And one of those WTF-type pictures...the latest in urchin fashion...
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Urchins seem to lover thermometers for some reason. I see similar pics way more than you would think :).

Love, love the powder brown and I personally don;t think your tank is too small for one. There are more of a territorial tang versus the reef cruiser.

You have quite the variety of life in there! Glad you're back on track!
 
Yep. Other then possibly another blenny I think this is about what the tank will be at for now on. Granted, I have said that in the past and it never seems to work out that way. :laugh:

The stores aren't helping lately. Porcupine Puffers can be caught locally around here. They must be in their breeding since the stores keep getting in 1-2" ones. It is really hard to turn down a 1" Porky. ::1zhelp: But I definitely know one of those wouldn't work in the tank. Although it has given me the idea of plugging a 180 into the system. Course the fiancee also wants a Sea Horse tank on top of the Porky tank, so I may end up with a whole array of tanks plumbed together. But that would be at least a year or two down the line so for now this'll have to do. :grinyes:



Had to do some rearranging since the Sandsifter decided to declare war on the Prawn Goby. Finally managed to convince the Pink-Spot that the right side of the tank was rather nice. The Sandsifter has suddenly decided the left 2/3 is his. He'll tolerate the Pink-Spot as long as it stays in the rockwork to the right. Outside of that and he drives him up into the corners. Hopefully they work out an arrangement. Not sure why he is so territorial since the Pink-Spot isn't a sandsifter and he has no problem with the Crested hanging around his territory (even the newer ones).


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FTS. Lighting in the room doesn't really help. Can't seem to avoid the reflections when taking pictures during the day.

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New rock that recently got added to the left side to add some more homes. It is now infested with small Crested Gobies. :laugh:

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Slight rearrangement to the back-center. Managed to push the Sandsifter from claiming the whole center of the tank into claiming the whole left side and part of the center.

The orange Ricordea rock broke free of where it was previously epoxied. Moved it to a new location left of center and superglued it down this time.

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Some new Ricordeas.
 
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Ah the soap opera that is a marine aquarium... :laugh:

So the Sandsifter and the Prawn Goby declared peace. I still see him up in the corners sometimes, but I'm starting to think he actually likes being up there. He does seem rather lazy, and roams around trying to share burrows with everyone else, instead of making his own (maybe because he doesn't have a shrimp to dig one for him?). So far he has staked out one of the Frill-Fin burrows and the Bar Goby's burrow as temporary homes. He also apparently doesn't like the Tang, although the Tang doesn't seem all that concerned over whether anyone like him or not (anyone tries to bug him and he just gives a tail wag and continues on his way). :grinyes:


In an odd development, we did find out the Sea Hare eats flakes and pellets. It doesn't hunt for them, but if it runs over them while grazing it'll gobble them up. Same with the Scooter with mysis shrimp and pellets.

Started turning off the powerheads during a few feedings each week to feed the corals and try to get the Scooter a little more aggressive with eating.



Think I'm just about done with Maxi-Jets. I figured out what makes them sometimes run backwards and how to fix it. But now one of the 600s is refusing to restart unless it is broken down and put back together. Think I'll start looking into replacements. Probably will be looking into Koralias. Just not sure if I'll go the same speed or upgrade a little. I've heard Koralias aren't as focused as Maxi-Jets, so I'd either replace the 600s (700gph) with Evo 750's or 1050's. The 1200 (1300gph) would eventually be replaced with a Evo 1400, since that seems to be the highest size before jumping into the Magnums.
 
Tanks looking good! Totally agree on the piece heads, though sometimes mine like to startup backwards too. I have evos, but at least they always start lol. I just unolug them and plug them back in and they are fine.


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Yeah, the backwards startup didn't really bug me. Actually now that I play around with it I don't think I fixed it but I did reduce the frequency of it happening (thought it was hair and algae stuck on the shaft, but that seems more related to the noisy startup on the 1200 rather then the backwards startup). But now that that 600 has decided to lock up if it gets turned off a couple times, it is removing that option. May have fixed some of it with a thorough cleaning but will see over the next few days.

Gonna look around. Seeing mixed reviews on whether the Koralias are all that much better quality-wise really. But since Tunze is too expensive and a Vortech would probably get me killed, it is either probably either Koralia's or a JBJ wave kit.
 
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That's how you sell it.

"Honey, I had to buy the tunze cause if I had bought the Vortech you would have killed me! So, you can plainly see that my life depended on this purchase!"
 
Buy used Tunzes :).
 
Think I may just wait a little while and buy a couple Tunze 6025's for the tank. :laugh:

Took the MJ1200 out of the tank the other day. Just can't seem to get that one balanced. No matter how I face it it ends up blasting something. So for now I'll just put up with the two MJ600's and eventually replace them with a couple 6025's when I get the chance. The cleaning didn't fix the lock-up issue on the one but did reduce the frequency of the issue enough to put up with it for a little while longer.
 
Not much in the way of updates. Kenya Trees are doing great. Ricordeas are doing great. Zoanthids are a bit iffy. The green ones are still going strong but the reds and the black/green ones are struggling. Not sure if they are getting irritated by algae or something else.

Did find out my pod population wasn't nearly as strong as I thought it was. But I've now got the Scooter eating frozen and accidentally eating pellets and flakes (mix it in with the frozen and he accidentally takes a bit while hunting :evil_lol:). He seems to be slowly fattening up again but feeding is a pain. Have to shut off all flow and basically shower him with food. The corals love it though. Think the Kenya Tree wants me to keep the pumps off permanently :laugh:.

Without the semi-reef safe fish in the tank the various feather duster populations have exploded. May be another suspect with the Zoanthids since I notice small groups of micro-dusters popping up around the Zoanthids. Only annoying thing with the micro-dusters and the mini-dusters is that it can be a pain to tell the difference between a baby aiptasia and a micro-duster or small mini-duster. Located one that is definitely an aiptasia and will be super-gluing it into its cave soon.
 
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