[dinor2]

Originally Posted by dfurbee

Dinor, I did have an outbreak with my new lights, but is better after last water change. My SPS is coming back also, is getting some bright green polys on it Getting some more SPS in the morning I just love my new lights!

I thought that may have been what it was; I think it's that and the fact that the lawnmower blenny died shortly after as well so there was just more algae since he wasn't there, plus the stronger lighting....

My corals seem happy under this light fixture as well, not seeing a lot of growth in the kenya yet but, maybe that takes more than a week to notice!

[Marine1]

whatreef, I had a cleaner shrimp that cleaned my fish constantly and helped get rid of some ich. I would suggest getting one if you don't have a fish like a trigger or puffer that will eat him. I've read and heard that cleaner wrasses are difficult to keep alive for very long. I would only get one or three cleaner shrimp, because I've read that if you get a pair they will be more interested in each other or eating other things and not cleaning the fish.

Incidentally, the cleaner shrimp is really interesting to watch. It's like a car wash for fish. The shrimp picks a place in the tank and the fish will come in and hover to let the shrimp clean them - its so cool.

[Gohn]

Cleaner shrimp are great and I love my fire shrimp though it hides till I trick him/her out with tidbits of goodies.

[WhatReef]

Originally Posted by dinor2

Well, I wonder if you could hold a net right over the coral he nips at, and wait till he goes to do that nipping then BAM, scoop him up? Course, that could take a while, and success is not guaranteed..... let us know how you get him out!

well i bought that fish trap set me back $80 i dont know how they can charge such rediculas prices but anyways i caought my ich covered powder blue tang and got him into QT but i havnt tried getting the Koran Angel out yet im going to see if the local fish store guy will trade me for a blue hippo tang that would be nice

[WhatReef]

Originally Posted by Marine1

whatreef, I had a cleaner shrimp that cleaned my fish constantly and helped get rid of some ich. I would suggest getting one if you don't have a fish like a trigger or puffer that will eat him. I've read and heard that cleaner wrasses are difficult to keep alive for very long. I would only get one or three cleaner shrimp, because I've read that if you get a pair they will be more interested in each other or eating other things and not cleaning the fish.

Incidentally, the cleaner shrimp is really interesting to watch. It's like a car wash for fish. The shrimp picks a place in the tank and the fish will come in and hover to let the shrimp clean them - its so cool.

I used to have a cleaner shrimp but it died when i was switching things over to my 110 gallon tank, so did you say to only get 1 cause right now i have a coral banded shrimp in there and im not sure if they fight or not? but il most likely get one or two tiny ones cause i like watching things grow instead of buying fully grown ones .

[Marine1]

Originally Posted by WhatReef

I used to have a cleaner shrimp but it died when i was switching things over to my 110 gallon tank, so did you say to only get 1 cause right now i have a coral banded shrimp in there and im not sure if they fight or not? but il most likely get one or two tiny ones cause i like watching things grow instead of buying fully grown ones .

I was just suggesting you to get one cleaner shrimp, because I read somewhere (can't remember the source) that if you have two cleaner shrimp they will pay more attention to each other than cleaning the fish. I would start with only one. They are really cool to watch when they set up their cleaning station and the fish come in and just hover while the shrimp climbs on it and goes to work. My puffer loved getting clean by my cleaner shrimp it was a daily routine.

Not sure if the coral banded will fight with a cleaner?????

[WhatReef]

Originally Posted by Marine1

I was just suggesting you to get one cleaner shrimp, because I read somewhere (can't remember the source) that if you have two cleaner shrimp they will pay more attention to each other than cleaning the fish. I would start with only one. They are really cool to watch when they set up their cleaning station and the fish come in and just hover while the shrimp climbs on it and goes to work. My puffer loved getting clean by my cleaner shrimp it was a daily routine.

Not sure if the coral banded will fight with a cleaner?????

yeah they are neat i think il pick one up tonight but id really like to get my hands on an anemone shrimp the lil purple clear ones those are very interesting but i can never seem to get one they usually sell pretty fast cause i think anyone with a saltwater tank wants one. hopefully my coral banded wont fight with the cleaner i dont think it will cause i have seen them kept together at the LFS so i think it would be fine

[Marine1]

Nice tank you have. I just saw pics on your gallery. Good luck with the cleaner shrimp.

[WhatReef]

Originally Posted by Marine1

Nice tank you have. I just saw pics on your gallery. Good luck with the cleaner shrimp.

Hey thanks man its nice to here that when you have put so much time into something thanks
those pics arelike 2 weeks old i have since than added some nice sand to the bottom of the tank and i have begain to see coraline algae start to grow on my powerheads which is a good sign i think after 2 weeks of having the tank setup mind you most peoples tanks dont look like that after 2 weeks lol i kinda fast tracked a little lol but i had all that stuff in a 90 gallon before and just transfered it over but again thanks and cheers

[dinor2]

Alright guys, here's one of the newest additions to the tank. Hope you enjoy the pics! I LOVE taking pics, and this is great practice. (Taking pics of the tank is HARD!).

Ok, ok, I deviated from my indo pacific theme with this one but, he was such a great looking specimin, couldn't pass him up! Been doing great so far.


He loves grazing with the clown on the tiny pods on the glass and rocks.


Half of these white specks are pods, the others are bubbles from the outflow on the skimmer. Going to fashion a better bubble trap here soon. Also going to add cheato to the overflow soon.


Cherub angel and cleaner shrimp peaking out from his home (near bottom middle)


Also going to up the water change from 5 gallons per week to 6 to help cut down on the algae growth.


Caught him with his mouth open, getting a pod snack.


Anyone experience the cherub angels picking at certain corals and/or inverts or clams? I really like this guy, very interesting to look at and always going in and out of the caves.

I also have a banded brittle star, course I couldn't see him but he's been coming out a little to catch some frozen krill I squirt in his cave for him. I'll try to get a pic of him later. Again, suggestions are very welcome! This is my first saltwater/reef!

[Gohn]

WOW - pics are great and I teach photo - My pics look tiny online so nothing compared to yours - just trying to figure out how to post anything bigger than a thumbnail - new to posting. Yours look good any way you present them though - you should be proud.
Anyway - I "hand" feed my fish etc. - bought a set of very long tweezers from lfs to pick up fallen bits + found that if I cut up tiny bits of frozen shrimp or fish planned for a meal - I take tiny pieces and put near ea. of my fish, shrimp, "N" snails, hermit crabs, and YES the brittle star which is now used to it and comes forward to snatch a treat from my tweezers and chow it down. Am I wrong for doing this? Nothing wasted/floating around + I'm having fun. I only do it very seldom. Just an idea. The shrimp love to come and get hand fed - even the very shy fire shrimp come flying out of hiding.

[dinor2]

Originally Posted by Gohn

WOW - pics are great and I teach photo - My pics look tiny online so nothing compared to yours - just trying to figure out how to post anything bigger than a thumbnail - new to posting. Yours look good any way you present them though - you should be proud.
Anyway - I "hand" feed my fish etc. - bought a set of very long tweezers from lfs to pick up fallen bits + found that if I cut up tiny bits of frozen shrimp or fish planned for a meal - I take tiny pieces and put near ea. of my fish, shrimp, "N" snails, hermit crabs, and YES the brittle star which is now used to it and comes forward to snatch a treat from my tweezers and chow it down. Am I wrong for doing this? Nothing wasted/floating around + I'm having fun. I only do it very seldom. Just an idea. The shrimp love to come and get hand fed - even the very shy fire shrimp come flying out of hiding.

Thank you so much for the compliment, photography is another passion of mine, just slightly above the saltwater tank, or, actually maybe it's a tie... anyways, someone told me about how to post the big pics. Just copy the IMG of the picture and paste it right onto your reply. I always upload the pics onto photobucket.com and then paste them from there to here.

That's a very cool way to feed fish and inverts I think! I have a turkey baster I try doing that with, my clown has no fear of it and starts biting the tip of it before I can squirt anything out! I'm going to try to find my sea star tonight to feed it a piece of frozen shrimp, that would be cool if he'd take it from my hand...

[dinor2]

Btw, John, I forgot to ask but, I'm trying to get clearer pics of the fish without them blurring, any suggestions? I have a dslr so I can try lots of different things. I've tried on shutter mode at 80sec and iso of 600-800 but the higher the iso, the grainer they get, is there a way to stop the action with clarity?

[Bamaguy]

Nice tank! I love the rock work. Did you brace them with PVC to get them that tall? I have two new perculas I just added tonight. You should really grab another, they are really entertaining together and they brought my only other fish (a foxface) out of hiding as well.
I am debating names for them. Since one will turn female eventually I was thinking Lucy and Desi but I think I will let my 4 year old decide.

[dinor2]

Originally Posted by Bamaguy

Nice tank! I love the rock work. Did you brace them with PVC to get them that tall? I have two new perculas I just added tonight. You should really grab another, they are really entertaining together and they brought my only other fish (a foxface) out of hiding as well.
I am debating names for them. Since one will turn female eventually I was thinking Lucy and Desi but I think I will let my 4 year old decide.

Actually, no pvc was used. Which, was a pain to place all 80lbs of it because after placing the 'base' rocks, it was a matter of keeping space or little caves between rocks. Thanks for compliment, the process nearly broke my back I think!

The clownfish will be next for sure, I'm considering an anemone as well but can't choose between that or a frogspawn coral... Hopefully, after May (my birthday!) most of my lr will be covered in corals and not look so rocky!

[WhatReef]

Originally Posted by dinor2

Actually, no pvc was used. Which, was a pain to place all 80lbs of it because after placing the 'base' rocks, it was a matter of keeping space or little caves between rocks. Thanks for compliment, the process nearly broke my back I think!

The clownfish will be next for sure, I'm considering an anemone as well but can't choose between that or a frogspawn coral... Hopefully, after May (my birthday!) most of my lr will be covered in corals and not look so rocky!

Ya! nice tank i used to have the exact same tank, i recently updated to a 110 Gallon tank, which i love loves awesome i have to post more pics soon, but hey keep up the good work tanks looking good man...

[Gohn]

Excellent points as well! My pair still clean the fish but they may be just oddballs. They enjoy ea. other but take off to explore and clean the fish.
My 1st. week with fish and only time with suspicious dots on fish - the cleaner came on over and in 2 days the dots were gone. Never again have I seen any ich like dots on anything. I loves them shrimps!

[dinor2]

Originally Posted by Gohn

Excellent points as well! My pair still clean the fish but they may be just oddballs. They enjoy ea. other but take off to explore and clean the fish.
My 1st. week with fish and only time with suspicious dots on fish - the cleaner came on over and in 2 days the dots were gone. Never again have I seen any ich like dots on anything. I loves them shrimps!

Will the fish only want to be cleaned when they are sick? My two fish know where my cleaner shrimp is but, I've never seen them get cleaned before....

[Gohn]

Nope - my cleaner shrimp have attended to the blenny right from the start all the time (esp. inside the mouth and gills) as well as tomato clown and any other who feels like stopping by. I believe they kind of entice the fish with their long antennae as they approach and stroke the fish to see if they can get them to come on over. Other times the fish seem to come right to them, esp. more so after they have given it a first try.

[dinor2]

This is so exciting I thought I'd add it to this thread! My last water change (Sunday) I took out 6 gallons instead of 5 and I do weekly water changes. Before this last water change, I have been battling algae a little, it's not overrunning the tank but it is a nuisance. I have the film algae, hair and started seeing cyano (tinkering with powerhead placement to help flow as well). But after the water change, I am already noticing that the film and hair algae is not growing back nearly as fast after I scrape it off! The surface of the water in the dt is still crystal clear (it was kind of filmy right before the water change) and the cyano should be gone I"m thinking in the next couple of days. All because of taking ONE more gallon out at the water change!

This is exciting to me because it's a cheap way to improve my water quality and thus makes for happy corals and fish! AND, less algae! Just wanted to let you all know! Will post pics again soon, think you'll notice a 'before and after' look where the algae is concerned. (I'm not scraping the glass this week so I can see just how much nutrients are still in the water for the algae).

[WhatReef]

Originally Posted by dinor2

This is so exciting I thought I'd add it to this thread! My last water change (Sunday) I took out 6 gallons instead of 5 and I do weekly water changes. Before this last water change, I have been battling algae a little, it's not overrunning the tank but it is a nuisance. I have the film algae, hair and started seeing cyano (tinkering with powerhead placement to help flow as well). But after the water change, I am already noticing that the film and hair algae is not growing back nearly as fast after I scrape it off! The surface of the water in the dt is still crystal clear (it was kind of filmy right before the water change) and the cyano should be gone I"m thinking in the next couple of days. All because of taking ONE more gallon out at the water change!

This is exciting to me because it's a cheap way to improve my water quality and thus makes for happy corals and fish! AND, less algae! Just wanted to let you all know! Will post pics again soon, think you'll notice a 'before and after' look where the algae is concerned. (I'm not scraping the glass this week so I can see just how much nutrients are still in the water for the algae).

Yes i had the exact same problem with that exact same tank, the tank looks good but it does not allow for proper water flow i learned that when i had that same tank and also having the lighting to close to the tank top will also cause those algaes to grow fast so what i did was added an extra power head (3 altogether) and raised the light off the top a few inches and i also went out and bought myself a SEA HAIR (a.k.a The Lawn Mower) it will eat the algae in like a day or two so you might want to consider getting one since the algae has already seeded in your tank plus they are just good to have any ways cause the are just like big snails minus the shell but with good water flow and the lighting not to close to the yop of the tank you should be fine, but just so you know thats why i went back to the sqaure tanks cause the water flows easyier

[dinor2]

Ok, newest addition is the lawnmower blenny, and he actually sifts thru the sand! It's the first one I've seen do that! He mostly eats off the rocks and glass though. He is helping with the algae and slowly it's starting to stop growing as quickly and the bottom rock that was covered in hair algae is not completely algae free! Well, except for the coraline! Which, I might add is starting to spread like wildfire on everything! I'm posting pics tomorrow afternoon! Ready for May to get here! (My birthday!)

[dinor2]

Ok, I know I'm late on the pics but here they are! Any feedback is greatly appreciated, I'm especially interested to see what you all think of my yellow polyps and the kenya tree (notice how much it has grown!) Also, there's much more coraline algae and still some hair and bubble but that's slowly going away. Doing daily suctioning of those algae and doing a 6gal weekly water change along with cleaning the power heads and skimmer. Thanks for looking and for any suggestions/comments!

the cherub angel, still healthy and loves hanging around the clown fish.


the clownfish will soon be getting another clownfish friend, hoping they'll pair up.


Left side of tank




Middle of tank



More pics on the following post....

[aquasalt]

Dana everything is looking fantastic from here! The coralline is really starting to take-off. I love those fishes! What are all those white spots on the back glass? If you look closely the may be little spiral worms. I forget what they are called, but if they are it may indicate over-feeding. Not the end-of the world, just something you may want to consider.