And now for something a little different ...

[LBReefer]

I bought a midnight clown and decided to move the clowns a bit to create some more interesting pairings. This may end up being disastrous.

These two paired up well right away because there was a meaningful difference in size.

These two on the other hand have being duking it out all morning. I see some further moves in my future.

 

[LBReefer]

I made an impulse buy. I've been watching a new hobbyist/business in my area and saw that he had posted an achilles tang for a killer price $160. I verified that it was eating well and pulled the trigger.

Here's a shot of his amazing setup:

And his spiny lobster:

 

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And the koi and birds.

 

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Here's a sub-par, blue hued photo of our new friend:

He's holding in the acclimation netting until I can do introductions.

 

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Well those intros did not go well:

 

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[LBReefer]

I decided to use this as inspiration for several fish swaps and a major assault on my vermetid snail challenge. The latter have started bothering most of my SPS.

Here are some shots of the various rocks during the attack:

And a shot of the fallen soldiers:

I think I counted a total of 100 tunes along the way. At some point I gave up counting.

 

[LBReefer]

I returned the squabbling clowns and made yet another impulse buy. Impulse may be overstating it. I've been admiring this pair for a couple weeks and decided that the squabbling was a sign.

Here's the new pair settling into their new home. Ignore the bubble algae in the background.

 

[LBReefer]

I originally tried to move the purple tang to my other tank at home. The red stripe angel and tang didn't bond well. While the standard deviation tank is 80 gallons, the cube shape isn't ideal for tangs.

I successfully capture both and added to my main display. I can't tell if the scratches are from the various fights or brushing against the rocks as I attempted to capture them.

The purple tang has been a bit challenging to photograph.

And the decoy tang was helpful for 30 seconds.

 

[LBReefer]

I added sand back into the tank mostly out of guilt/concern for my pistol shrimp. He doesn't seem to seem to care and has found a cave to call home.

 

[LBReefer]

Part of the inspiration for this tank was to add a couple mangroves. I've always loved the idea, but struggled with how to mount them in a standard 24" deep tank.

This location probably won't work long term as it will cause too much shadowing, but in the interim it looks pretty cool.

 

[LBReefer]

I was really bummed to find this today. My blue jaw trigger, which had been doing well for months, was laying dead in the back corner of the aquarium. I worry that all the new additions brought on undo stress.

 

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And I lost one of the anthias a few days ago in the frag tank.

 

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The other two seem just fine.

 

[LBReefer]

The losses have piled up. Predictably, my impulse buys had devastating effects. The Achilles and Powder Blue tang came down with ice and infected everyone in the new frag tank. The Achille, Powder Blue, both anthias and now the white and black clowns are gone.

I'm really frustrated with myself. I've failed every time I add a Powder Blue tang. Clearly there's persistent ich in my system. This was coupled with a 10 degree temperature drop due to issue with my heaters.

I'm not sure what to do from here.

 

[LBReefer]

After all these losses I decided to add a UV Sterilizer. I shopped around, tried to find reviews and ultimately went with the Aqua Ultraviolet 57w. I decided to pay an extra $10 to patronage my LFS and more quickly get on the path to wellness.

I then forked over an extra $40 for the mount. At $630, I would have thought that the mounts would be included, but what do I know.

I went back and forth on this many times. This will make my plumbing a bit more challenging, but it's a good excuse to start up the manifold I've been debating for some time.

First steps:

 

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Plumbing the manifold was not quite as daunting as I feared. Nonetheleas, the measure twice, cut one proverb proved true as my original lengths for the manifold were far too long:

 

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The final product prior to installation:

I will probably add a third manifold to fees the calcium reactor at some point down the road, but I have enough complications in my design at this point.

 

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I had to borrow my wife's hair dryer to get the tubing on to the spigot.

 

[LBReefer]

She's alive!