Sharkbait’s 40 Breeder Upgrade

[i cant think]

Well, a Black Friday sale prompted me to get a new coral beauty. While I normally don’t like to replace a fish immediately after its death, I just can’t imagine my tank without an angelfish. It might be my favorite reef fish! I just hope the new one is as well tamed as Flounder. Speaking of well tamed, I also picked up a six line wrasse—so you know, the complete opposite of well behaved. This should go well.. I can’t really think of much these days that Luxo won’t bully, so I need a fish that will give it back. Hopefully a six line won’t give back too much aggression, though. I also picked up a cristata torch, a favia, and a hammer coral, which went into the coral QT, and an rock flower nem, which went into the main tank.

And the fish are back in the tank!! They’re doing great, and the clowns are even testing out the BTA! The goby and pistol shrimp are finally paired, and this time it seems like they’re paired for good. Other times they simply hung out and then separated, but this time, they seem to stick together all the time and act like a true goby and shrimp pair.

I love your tiger pistol!! He’s a stunning specimen, although I can’t not laugh at the size difference between the Aurora and the Bellulus

 

[Sharkbait19]

I love your tiger pistol!! He’s a stunning specimen, although I can’t not laugh at the size difference between the Aurora and the Bellulus

Shrimp definitely grew during the fallow - I don’t remember there being such a difference.

 

[JoJosReef]

I love your tiger pistol!! He’s a stunning specimen, although I can’t not laugh at the size difference between the Aurora and the Bellulus

Same here. I thought "who's watching out for who, here?"

 

[Cthulukelele]

We have similar taste in coral. I absolutely love your tank. Hoping to get mine back to that form after my big crash a year ago. Massive softies are a sight to behold

 

[Sharkbait19]

We have similar taste in coral. I absolutely love your tank. Hoping to get mine back to that form after my big crash a year ago. Massive softies are a sight to behold

Funny - I’ve been trying to transition towards more sps - but still always wind up with more of what I have (mostly because it grows so dang fast). Hopefully once my phosphate issues are figured out (finally down before a water change) I can begin that process.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Funny - I’ve been trying to transition towards more sps - but still always wind up with more of what I have (mostly because it grows so dang fast). Hopefully once my phosphate issues are figured out (finally down before a water change) I can begin that process.

I think we always want what we don't have lol. My previous tank was mostly sps and LPS and a giant toadstool. The toadstool survived and I'm like.... hhmmmmmm maybe softies ARE for me lol

 

[i cant think]

I think we always want what we don't have lol. My previous tank was mostly sps and LPS and a giant toadstool. The toadstool survived and I'm like.... hhmmmmmm maybe softies ARE for me lol

Softies are for everyone
Trust me, once you find those nice leathers you’ll want to begin a collection. I know I did and now I have 6 in my 4’ tank. Obviously I still want more, a pure yellow leather is on my list along with a longer polyped Sarcophyton species.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Softies are for everyone
Trust me, once you find those nice leathers you’ll want to begin a collection. I know I did and now I have 6 in my 4’ tank. Obviously I still want more, a pure yellow leather is on my list along with a longer polyped Sarcophyton species.

I miss my long polyp…
Mine got nice and huge, but eventually my captain jerk palys overran it - needless to say I no longer have any of it. It was a yellow one too.
Those palys could outcompete Xenia.

 

[Mschmidt]

Softies are for everyone
Trust me, once you find those nice leathers you’ll want to begin a collection. I know I did and now I have 6 in my 4’ tank. Obviously I still want more, a pure yellow leather is on my list along with a longer polyped Sarcophyton species.

I used to think they were boring. Then I started filling the tank with slow growing neon lps and thought"you know what I need? Something leather."

 

[Cthulukelele]

I used to think they were boring. Then I started filling the tank with slow growing neon lps and thought"you know what I need? Something leather."

Their movement and uniqueness of shape while still looking natural and reeflike is unparalleled imo

 

[Cthulukelele]

Here's a picture of my 5 year old watchman goby with his tiger pistol shrimp. He's the one making the pistol look little in comparison to swapped for you.

 

[Mschmidt]

Their movement and uniqueness of shape while still looking natural and reeflike is unparalleled imo

I'm not sure I have the words for why I like them, but you might be close to my thoughts.
Edit: great name by the way.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Well just when everything is going well something has to give…
Lost the 6-line in qt - appears to have been ammonia poisoning (redness around gills + frayed fins). All I’ve got is an API for ammonia that is reading about 0.3. He was perfectly fine and eating well last I checked, so something must have happened very recently.
Angel is doing very well, so hopefully I can correct the issue with minimal casualties.
I guess it might be a blessing in disguise given the 6-line reputation.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Well just when everything is going well something has to give…
Lost the 6-line in qt - appears to have been ammonia poisoning (redness around gills + frayed fins). All I’ve got is an API for ammonia that is reading about 0.3. He was perfectly fine and eating well last I checked, so something must have happened very recently.
Angel is doing very well, so hopefully I can correct the issue with minimal casualties.
I guess it might be a blessing in disguise given the 6-line reputation.

I was all primed to say your last line... then you got it.

 

[Sharkbait19]

So the holidays have been an interesting time for my corals…
I managed to fix the phosphate problem that had been plaguing my tank. Of course, the continued water changes bottomed out nitrates, which is equally, if not more, devastating. First I lost one euphyllia to a bailout, which cascaded into BJD taking out one and a half more. So definitely not my week for corals…
That said, I’ve begun dosing nitrogen and saw an immediate turnaround for most survivors. Now I’m stuck debating whether I move the remaining corals back into the main display or leave them in quarantine (a tank that has become a complete nightmare, overrun by phytoplankton)

 

[rmorris_14]

So the holidays have been an interesting time for my corals…
I managed to fix the phosphate problem that had been plaguing my tank. Of course, the continued water changes bottomed out nitrates, which is equally, if not more, devastating. First I lost one euphyllia to a bailout, which cascaded into BJD taking out one and a half more. So definitely not my week for corals…
That said, I’ve begun dosing nitrogen and saw an immediate turnaround for most survivors. Now I’m stuck debating whether I move the remaining corals back into the main display or leave them in quarantine (a tank that has become a complete nightmare, overrun by phytoplankton)

probably a dumb question to show my ignorance... but how does a tank become "overrun by phytoplanton" and would having your corals in there assist with its consumption?

 

[Sharkbait19]

probably a dumb question to show my ignorance... but how does a tank become "overrun by phytoplanton" and would having your corals in there assist with its consumption?

My guess is that the lighting conditions and introduction of phytoplankton (not sure how that happened) led to a bloom. Though there are some corals in the QT, it’s not nearly as much as in a fully functioning reef, so they probably have little effect on consumption.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Well, Luxo attacks corals now, as demonstrated by the decimation of my anacropora, which was guilty of being a bit too close to the anemone. Ah, Luxo, will you ever not be a problem?

In other news, BJD seems to be continuing between some of the euphyllia. Hopefully I can get this under control, and hopefully the new year is a better one for the corals!
Have a happy and healthy new year, everyone!

 

[Sharkbait19]

The development of RTN on the anacropora forced me to frag off the healthy end and put the remaining portion in quarantine, along with many of the lps, some of which were threatened with BJD and others still reacting poorly to the main display. Luckily, it forced me to get the coral QT back into working order.

Here are some FTS updates on the main display:

 

[Sharkbait19]

As I’m tossing around ideas for further stocking, dragonets have come to mind. I know a mandarin would be very hard to maintain in this size tank, but what are all of your thoughts on a ruby red? With my luck, I wouldn’t be able to train one on frozen, so assuming that, would I still have to resort to dosing pods or does a 40B offer enough space?