Khemul's 75g Soft Coral Reef

[Khemul]

Guess the standard Toadstools did end up being those small ones that get labeled "Toadstool Colony" or "Colonial Toadstool" around here...


Now there are three Toadstools. Well, there will be when the top finishes separating.


And number 4 possibly on the way. Hard to get a picture of it, but there is a line going down the middle of the stalk of the one of the right. The crown is also getting that indentation along the same line. Seems to be the sign of a split forming with this one.

Think I'll take a shot at fragging when the 4th one arrives.

 

[greech]

I saw a colony rock of those the other day. Looked really nice!

 

[Khemul]

The mystery Jawfish is settling in very well. He has effectively claimed the rockwork on the left side of the tank. He isn't burrowing much, although he may be doing it against the back glass since I do see him come out of there after I turn on the lights. Luckily the landscaping at the new house is covered in coral skeletons that everyone in the house wants moved for various reasons, so think I'll make some crushed coral to sprinkle on his side to help him out. Otherwise the sand is very fine grade.

I was a bit worried at first about the other gobies and how a Jawfish would fit into the social structure of the tank. Turns out my concerns were in the opposite direction. He is perfectly happy to coexist with any of the other fish (especially the Clownfish that he lives alongside), but apparently he isn't willing to take any bullying. The Sleeper tried to push him around last night, like it usually does to every fish in the tank. This time apparently was different since it lead to an extremely agile display of aggression that sent the Sleeper off to the other side of the tank and cowering in fear for 5 minutes, and had the Pink-Spot watching in shock as it tried to figure out whether to step in or run for its life. The Fang Blenny sort of hovered around looking like he was testing whether he was still welcome to his tunnel on that side of the tank, which apparently he was. Things did calm down and the Sleeper is back in his cave under the leathers (also right next to the Jawfish's home), so I guess they worked things out. Was quite an interesting thing to watch though since no fish has yet actually gone aggressive on the Sleeper during the bullying. The closest has been the Pink-Spot who backs up slowly while trying to hold his ground.

 

[greech]

Perhaps this is why they were so scared...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr96e0awx8I

 

[Khemul]

That would explain it.

Guess I better keep this guy well fed... good thing he likes pellets. :thm:
And since I made the mistake of showing the fiance that video, he'll probably get the occasional Mosquito Fish now too (the Black Clown and Lantern Bass needed competition anyways).

 

[Khemul]

Some minor updates.

`
Slight rescape. Replaced the egg crate top with bird screen. Didn't really care about the light loss, or even the odd effect it had on the lighting color, but that weird checkerboard shadow effect was getting to me. The leathers are sulking again, except for the Toadstool, which don't seem to care what happens around them.


The sand cleaning crew. Well, that's the only one that gets seen. There is a grey one too, but it likes to do its best impression of a rock when the lights are on. When the lights are off it is dredging the sandbed. The yellow one stays right out in the open though. Probably because it anchors itself to that Caulerpa.


The garden...



Some experimentation. These were to test if the main group was ready. So far I know 2 died a day after being introduced and 1 is still moving around, the other 4 are a mystery. The main group is up to 1.019 and rising each day. So it would seem so far that it isn't the salinity they dislike but the change in it, the tank is more around 1.026-1.027.


The not-so-little-anymore Frillfin. Still a youngen though.



The mystery fish.


The Lantern Bass likes to pose.



Do I have to change the title to 'mixed-reef' now?

 

[greech]

Very cool tank you have going there.

I have asked for a ruling on the type of tank. My vote is mixed reef. Congrats?

 

[Khemul]

The MTS experiment went in an odd direction. Got them acclimated to full strength saltwater. They survive in a tuperware container filled with seawater perfectly fine. Once they get dropped in the display tank they seem to do fine at first. Crawl around, burrow into the sand, climb the glass, then within 2-3 days there is an empty shell. Only thing I can figure is something in sandbed kills and eats them, since only one has died in the tuperware bin, out of the couple dozen I started with.

 

[Khemul]

The foray into mixed reef didn't go over all that well. The Torch did great for a couple weeks, then got wiped out rather rapidly by brown jelly. So, back to soft coral tank. A couple Rock Flower Anemones also to keep it from being 100% softies. There is a frag of Blasto Merletti growing nicely in the biocube that I'll try in this tank when it gets big enough to frag.

There are also still two Malaysian Trumpet Snails living in the biocube, so apparently that experiment wasn't a complete failure. Guess something in the 75 does kill them, although still not sure what. The cleanup crew in the biocube is basically a more diverse version of the 75. If anything I'd expect the opposite since the 75 has natural population controls on the smaller critters. The biocube is so overrun by starfish, Stomatella's and pods that it is less a fishtank and more an invertebrate tank. Not sure if those two have managed to breed yet but keeping an eye on them.


FTS. Added some seagrasses to the middle garden. There is also a Rock Anemone in there somewhere. It's green and it appears to want to live right in the middle of the garden right now, so odds of seeing it...


Also overhauled the LED fixture. Wasn't getting very good greens and reds, so added cyan (looks green to me either way) and red LEDs. The channels got a bit odd to balance everything, but now channel 1 is 1500ma 10 RB/2 NW and channel 2 is 900ma 2 RB/4 NW/2 Cyan/2 Red. Which quickly pointed out that my cooling methods in the old poorly-made fixture could use some improvement. So, having a pile of plastic outdoor T8 fixtures in the shed (apparently the previous homeowner collected them...), and some free time. A new casing, complete with better cooling and a splash guard. The heatsink barely even feels warm.

All the softies are filling in nicely. Added an Aqeuon 1250 gph powerhead to up flow a little. It may have been overkill. Okay, it was probably overkill. But no one seems to be suffering, so it'll work.

 

[greech]

Dang, you should patent that idea! The added flow will benefit everything. 1250gph in a 75 isn't too big IMO. I got 2000+ in my lil 3ft tank .