Homers 80G Started on RC

[Petcrazyson]

I have 3 urchins but only one is a Tuxedo
The other two are possum eating betrayers to me.

Speaking of things you got, once I get home I may be adding something cryptic

Ahh screw the anticipation. I’m getting a pair of Pink Streaks

 

[Petcrazyson]

Tank maintenance day, so I thought I would grab an FTS.

Yiur tank is among my favorites! Love the big Duncan! You gave me some ideas for coral placement Whats the big Trachy like coral in the middle?

 

[i cant think]

Speaking of things you got, once I get home I may be adding something cryptic

Ahh screw the anticipation. I’m getting a pair of Pink Streaks

Photos are a must!
Since I have a pair currently I may try find another pair just to get a group of 4 (It’s been my dream to have a group of pinkies and I wonder if an even number is best).

 

[d2mini]

Well I went for a ride to the LFS yesterday.......

They had some tiny little tuxedo urchins. They were so tiny and cute, I just had to have 2 of them. They are literally the size of a dime, maybe smaller. Just so darn cute! Of course my wife fell in love with a transitioning lyretail anthias. So it came home with me. Not super excited as every time I have tried anthias, they end up refusing to eat after a while and waste away. We will see what happens this time.

On another note, if anyone is familiar with an ATI powermodule when you loose power to the unit, the clock resets to 8am(ATI says they are not supposed to do that as they have a capacitor that should hold the time, and yes, I have a brand new circuit board with the capacitor). So it seems my aging apex classic seems to reboot every once in a while, which resets the powermodule. I often times wake up at 2am to go pee and my lights are on full bore!

I decided to take the powermodule off the eb8 and into a regular wall outlet that's right behind my tank. In doing so I have to pull out the cabinet that's behind my tank to get to the hole in my cabinet for the plugs. In doing so I found my pintail wrasse all dried up on the floor! No idea how he got through my lid, but it's happened in the past. I'm guessing he jumped sometime monday night as he wasn't completely dried out.

Certainly one of my favorite wrasses, and one I will most certainly replace.

I always have issues with Anthias too.
My current tank started with 3 Dispar and I'm down to one.

 

[i cant think]

Yiur tank is among my favorites! Love the big Duncan! You gave me some ideas for coral placement Whats the big Trachy like coral in the middle?

I’ve only just seen that Duncan!
That’s a beauty, hopefully mine will eventually live up to that size.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Photos are a must!
Since I have a pair currently I may try find another pair just to get a group of 4 (It’s been my dream to have a group of pinkies and I wonder if an even number is best).

Lol you can name them the pinkie squad

 

[i cant think]

Lol you can name them the pinkie squad

If I did that I’d have to give them an entire theme tune haha

 

[homer1475]

Large coral in the middle is a splitting lobo.

Started off as 2 mouths, now has 6 and has fused in the center. Think I've had that one a couple years now.

 

[homer1475]

Trachy that I've had for many years now. Started off as a regular folded brain looking trachy. Developed a barnacle right in the very center. The barnacle ended up dying many years later, but it caused the coral to split it's polyp into 2 round circles.


Sorry for the dirty glass, didn't clean that side. lol

 

[Petcrazyson]

Large coral in the middle is a splitting lobo.

Started off as 2 mouths, now has 6 and has fused in the center. Think I've had that one a couple years now.

Now I want Lobos lol

 

[homer1475]

Maintenance day so I thought I would take the time to clean up some algae, take the giant snake of loc-line I have on my returns offs, cleaned all the powerheads, cleaned the skimmer, pump, return pump, clean my sandbed, and dump in the bag of sand I've been accumulating over the months. Tanks looks quite nice now.

With the way the tank has grown in, the giant snake of loc-line I found was causing dead areas behind them and the back glass. I was getting significant algae growth on the back glass. Just trying something different. I seem to have more of a "ripple" across my surface now to. I also noticed I could turn the return down as the loc-line created quite a bit of head pressure.

 

[homer1475]

Ohh forgot to mention......

I have my fingers crossed I hear from @NYAquatic as it seems they have a couple chaoti in stock. Unfortunately the city is a 5 hour drive one way. So I was kind of hoping that if I payed for one, they could hold it until I could find the time to drive down there(maybe a week or 2).


Holy grail maybe getting closer to reality!

 

[homer1475]

Certainly a fish I would like to see before purchasing, and one I would not want shipped. The wife and I would just make a day out of it. My usual LFS is a 3 hour drive one way, so whats a couple more hours for a fish. lol

$260 for the fish +
$60 in gas +
10 hours of driving
=
happy homer!

And people say were crazy

 

[homer1475]

So I finally heard back from Ny Aquatic(I actually called them lol). He will hold the fish for me, so I will be driving out to yonkers on tuesday. Since the owner wanted me to just order from their website(no idea why he wouldn't just take my CC over the phone?), I got 10% off. ROFL

HOLY GRAIL IS COMING HOME!!!!!!!

I'M SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've wanted this fish for close to 10 years.

$224 with tax + $60 in gas + 10 hour drive round trip. All for a stupid fish. I must either be crazy or dedicated, but probably both. LOL

 

[Fish Styx]

 

[homer1475]

Suppose I should update this......

So I did take the drive out to yonkers in a semi snow storm. Got to @NYAquatic just about noon. Went in to see mike who knew who I was and went to go bag up my choati. As he was doing that, my wife and I went for a look around.

A few minutes later he comes out white as a ghost and starts to explain he can't find my choati! He has no idea where it is. I go back and help him look. We dig up the tank it was in(not much sand to dig up), and the 3 adjacent tanks to no avail.

I then tell him I guess I'll take a refund, but I'm not happy about the 5 hour drive one way to pick up a fish I already payed for. He then proceeds to explain he had 3, sold 2 on sunday that were shipping out on monday(this was tuesday). He was in the store on sunday to feed the fish, but had 2 employees work on monday. He knows 2 shipped out, but could not get a hold of the employees to see if they knew where it went. He then tells me he has more coming in next week and he'll ship one to me free of charge. Not happy about shipping such a fragile fish, but he will honor his 14 day arrive alive guarantee.

Anyways. I saw an exquisite wrasse in another tank, and said as long as I'm here, how much for the exquisite? He said no charge he'll bag it up for the long ride I took and he felt super bad about not having the choati. As he was bagging that up my wife was telling him how my pintail had recently jumped and we were looking for another. He then said he would order one and it will be in the box with my choati, and free of charge for all the hassle.

Still not happy about a 10 hour drive for a fish thats already payed for and not coming home with me, but i feel mike made it more ok by adding the 2 fish free of charge.

So I'm sitting here still waiting to hear form mike about my choati. If I do not hear from him by friday, I'll most certainly be calling.

 

[homer1475]

So 2 weeks have passed and still no choati! I did just talk to michael @ ny aquatics and he's assured me he's getting some more choati's in next tuesday.

We will see.......

In other news......

My 8 year old jebao pp8 finally died. Not bad considering they are only $70 bucks, and I have replaced 2 wet sides on my mp10's in the same amount of time.

Tank still just chugs along. I did have an alk spike went from 7.5 to 11.6 in 2 weeks. No idea why either. Everything looks fine, I double checked with another test with the same hanna reagent, then opened a fresh reagent, and used an older salifert I had. All confirmed my roughly 11.6 hanna reading.

Doser is turned off for now so I can get back down to around 7, but still not sure how it got so high. Nothing looks worse for the wear, but time will tell.

 

[homer1475]

Since the ALK spike my doser has been off since sunday afternoon. I just tested the tank, again with all 3 tests, it seems my consumption has dropped in half.

I was dosing 238ml or roughly 1.9DKH of randys 2 part, part 2, and now it seems to be down to 151 or roughly 1.25DKH. Nothing looks likes it dying, everything is nice and colorful, frags still growing, colonies still growing, and PH has remained stable, so I have absolutely no idea. I will just monitor it more closely for a while.

Seems I can buy a new, but older model pp8 for around $68 bucks. I know I can buy the newer SOW series(they look like nero knockoffs), but they do not work with the apex module for jebao. I'm just surprised I can still buy a 10 year old pump. lol

This makes 2 pp8's in 10 years. I think I got my moneys worth out of them.

 

[homer1475]

So went and took the 3 hour drive to the LFS today to look for a black leopard. No leopard in 3 shops I stopped in. First time I have ever come home completely empty handed from the LFS. Least it was a nice day for a drive.

When I did get home, I noticed my sarmentosa has some algae on it's tips. Now I do know algae will not grow on healthy tissue, which must mean the tips might have got ALK burn from my alk spike. Maybe, maybe not, I really don't know. I blow it off, and then notice the monti is actually growing up the middle of the colony(this is the one I mounted ontop of the sunset monti thinking it would keep the monti at bay). Think this might be whats causing it to die. So I chiseled it out, and put it elsewhere in the tank. We'll see what happens. I'm sure the giant gaping hole in the middle of the monti will heal over in time as well.

My a**hole of a clownfish is killing my hammer. Not super happy about that one, but unfortunately it is what it is. It's grown quite a bit for a wall hammer, but it seems my clown is getting to aggressive with it, as it will not open up much anymore. I've also noticed the flesh no longer extends across the skeleton.

 

[homer1475]

So lets see it's been 3 months since I updated my build thread.........

A lot has happened.

Lost my tamarin, exquisite, and lantern basslet.

Work got busy and I have lost interest in the tank. Haven't done a WC in 3 months, tank looks like sh**. most of my coral is dead and covered in algae, haven't cleaned the glass in weeks. Haven't tested the tank in probably 3 months. Just keep filling the 2 part, auto feeder, and feeding the fish. About all I've done.

Loosing some of my fish has really put me in a funk with the tank. I really need to get in there and cut back a lot of SPS that are dead and dying. I've lost quite a few coral, and I believe since nothing seems to be growing, my ALK has climbed sky high. I'm still dosing, just haven't tested the tank at all, but I have noticed from feeding the fish daily, that a lot of coral has died off.

I feel bad for my fish, but I just honestly lost interest at this point. I feel I just need to take a break, and feed the fish like I have been, and cut back on taking care of the coral. If it lives, it lives, if it doesn't I'll remove it. Been in a fink like this before, and let the tank go. I'll recover at some point, and be back better then ever, just not right now.

My stupid female clown has killed my hammer, finally, and now she's moving on to my elegance. She has already killed 2 torch's previously. I think it might be time to get rid of the clown?