TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50

[TheWB]

Man these nems look good! I know it’ controversial but how’s the tomini in a 50 gallon. I know some people do it but I’m too afraid…

Thanks for checking out my thread. I really like those nems, don't really need them to split off any more though, I've got enough now.
It is controversial I guess but based on my personal experience its fine with that Tang only. I got mine small and it has lots of places to hide and feel safe. My scape is raised up so the fish can all swim under most of it, they have more room than you'd think. It's also not as much of a swimmer as most other Tangs, it tends to hover and pick at algae off the rocks and stuff off the sides/bottom of the tank. I'd describe mine more as a casual grazer and it only has aggression with my female clown but the clown is usually the instigator, the Tomini just doesn't put up with her crap. YMMV of course if you decide to try one. I do have an upgrade in the works so it will be interesting to see if it's behavior changes when it has more room to swim around in.
In the pic below the Tang is near the bottom left above the xenia nad caulastrea.

I have no idea how I cropped the tank out of the rest of this picture when I uploaded it to my computer, weird??

 

[Raph]

Thanks for checking out my thread. I really like those nems, don't really need them to split off any more though, I've got enough now.
It is controversial I guess but based on my personal experience its fine with that Tang only. I got mine small and it has lots of places to hide and feel safe. My scape is raised up so the fish can all swim under most of it, they have more room than you'd think. It's also not as much of a swimmer as most other Tangs, it tends to hover and pick at algae off the rocks and stuff off the sides/bottom of the tank. I'd describe mine more as a casual grazer and it only has aggression with my female clown but the clown is usually the instigator, the Tomini just doesn't put up with her crap. YMMV of course if you decide to try one. I do have an upgrade in the works so it will be interesting to see if it's behavior changes when it has more room to swim around in.
In the pic below the Tang is near the bottom left above the xenia nad caulastrea.

I have no idea how I cropped the tank out of the rest of this picture when I uploaded it to my computer, weird??

Hahaha well it looks nice lol… For the tang since i do not have an upgrade planned right now i think I’ll hold back. Thank you!

 

[TheWB]

I did a little cleaning today. Ran the Nero 3’s and the skimmer in some citric acid. The Nero’s were occasionally sticking on restart and the skimmer pump was SO LOUD!!!! Not really sure how I let that go on for so long but it’s all fixed now.
I also moved the skimmer back to chamber 2 and put the In-Tank floss holder back into chamber 1 with a bag of Chemipure Elite in it along with some floss. One of the bags of Seachem Matrix is under the floss holder and I just threw the other one back in the display for now. It will become seed media for a smaller tank I’m working on eventually.

When I moved the skimmer I found an aiptasia on the baffle.

That was disappointing but quickly eradicated.

I also took out most of the pulsing Xenia that popped up near the caulastrea. It’s a little ticked off but hopefully it recovers its color.

Clowns are regularly spawning and guarding their eggs from the wrasse and tang.

Frogspawn is looking particularly fluffy today

FTS

 

[tharbin]

I did a little cleaning today. Ran the Nero 3’s and the skimmer in some citric acid. The Nero’s were occasionally sticking on restart and the skimmer pump was SO LOUD!!!! Not really sure how I let that go on for so long but it’s all fixed now.
I also moved the skimmer back to chamber 2 and put the In-Tank floss holder back into chamber 1 with a bag of Chemipure Elite in it along with some floss. One of the bags of Seachem Matrix is under the floss holder and I just threw the other one back in the display for now. It will become seed media for a smaller tank I’m working on eventually.

When I moved the skimmer I found an aiptasia on the baffle.

That was disappointing but quickly eradicated.

I also took out most of the pulsing Xenia that popped up near the caulastrea. It’s a little ticked off but hopefully it recovers its color.

Clowns are regularly spawning and guarding their eggs from the wrasse and tang.

Frogspawn is looking particularly fluffy today

FTS

The tank is looking really good. I love the colors the light is bringing out.

 

[TheWB]

The tank is looking really good. I love the colors the light is bring out.

Thanks, I'm glad it still looks ok, it's kinda on autopilot right now. The lights definitely have that flat T5 effect and the corals are looking good. I am set up for much less blue with the Sky's than I was with the Unos so the coral doesn't pop as much but they are still looking pretty good and the fish look better. I never liked the way fish looked under heavy blue lighting. The violet and uv in the Unos sure did make the corals pop though.

 

[TheWB]

Official Feb 2023 update:
Nothing has changed and there’s nothing going on.
No pictures necessary.
That is all.

 

[TheWB]

Finally pulled out the test kits today, it had been a while. November 5th was the last time I did it. I'm lazy.
All in all it wasn't too bad.
Calcium 440
Alk 7.2
NO3 10.8
PO4 0.09
Alk is a little low and PO4 is a bit high but nothing that requires any serious attention. All I've been doing is putting in 4-5ml of Nopox every day and about 15ml of AFR. Probably need to increase the Nopox slightly and the AFR temporarily. I don't think the tank has been at my target of 8dkh (which is what my salt mix mixes at) since the move last summer when the tank movers refilled it with water that was lower than 1.026 I've been busy with so many other things and the tank has basically been on auto pilot but I need to take a more active role in the daily management until I get it back closer to where I want it to be.

Current FTS

The nems are out of control. Those are the three biggest, there’s another smaller one down below.

 

[Woodyman]

Looking good!

 

[TheWB]

RIP to my Orange Back Fairy Wrasse. I've had him for 4 years and he was a super male when I got him so I think it was just his time. Sad to see him go though, he was a nice looking fish. I never had many good pics of him, he was always kinda hard to photograph but here's one where he's right out front and center.

 

[TheWB]

Current FTS.

 

[TheWB]

Side shot, this is my main view of the tank currently as my workspace is off to the side.

Well, more like this actually.

 

[cwerner]

The Zoa's and that huge hammer colony are gorgeous.

 

[TheWB]

The Zoa's and that huge hammer colony are gorgeous.

Thanks, I really like the look of lots of zoas grown out the way I have them but you have to be careful. I have one kind that isn't very attractive and its an absolute weed that I did not do a good job containing. It has overrun quite a few corals although some are making a comeback and taking back some of the ground they lost.
Thats a Frogspawn and its my most successful coral by far other than the zoa weed. I got it as a one head frag and now its about 30 heads, maybe more. It needs a little more room though, I really need to upgrade the size of my tank.

 

[TheWB]

I lost my female clownfish today. It was looking pretty beat up yesterday and I think it’s been fighting with the Tomini Tang. Not Tang aggression though, I’ve always seen the clown as the instigator whenever they’ve butted heads before. There was a pretty good gash on the side of the clown so I think it got the scalpel treatment. The other clown is now the last of my original 4 fish that started this tank. Sad that this happened so soon after I lost the wrasse but stuff happens.

 

[TheWB]

I decided that after some recent losses, and a period of time where I just let everything be, that it was time for something new.

The orange back fairy wrasse that passed recently was never supposed to be in this tank. The person at the lfs who netted it out of the store tank got the wrong wrasse. I was actually trying to buy a Lubbock’s and didn’t notice until I got all the way back home 40 miles away that I’d been given the wrong fish. Wasn’t gonna go back so I just rolled with it.

I stopped by Barrier Reef in Renton on Friday before work appointments but I got there at 11:15 and they don’t open until noon on weekdays now. I went on to do my job and then tried to go by Saltwater City in Bellevue only to find that they were closed until 2:30 due to staffing issues. I was a little frustrated. I grabbed some lunch at Fatburger and then decided to go back by Barrier Reef. I’m glad I did and that it worked out where I was on my way back home because they had the nicest looking Cebu variant of a Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse. So full circle on this fish 4+ years later I finally got one.

 

[Woodyman]

I decided that after some recent losses, and a period of time where I just let everything be, that it was time for something new.

The orange back fairy wrasse that passed recently was never supposed to be in this tank. The person at the lfs who netted it out of the store tank got the wrong wrasse. I was actually trying to buy a Lubbock’s and didn’t notice until I got all the way back home 40 miles away that I’d been given the wrong fish. Wasn’t gonna go back so I just rolled with it.

I stopped by Barrier Reef in Renton on Friday before work appointments but I got there at 11:15 and they don’t open until noon on weekdays now. I went on to do my job and then tried to go by Saltwater City in Bellevue only to find that they were closed until 2:30 due to staffing issues. I was a little frustrated. I grabbed some lunch at Fatburger and then decided to go back by Barrier Reef. I’m glad I did and that it worked out where I was on my way back home because they had the nicest looking Cebu variant of a Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse. So full circle on this fish 4+ years later I finally got one.

Now I'm hungry.... Good looking Wrase though!

 

[TheWB]

Now I'm hungry.... Good looking Wrase though!

I might be the Rookie. The Fatburger nearest to me closed so I haven’t been to one in a while. Last time a large combo was like $13.00, now it’s $20.00 not including any cheese. I ordered mine without tomato’s or pickles. Since I’d been there last they have apparently added sweet pickle relish to the toppings and I didn’t notice. So I get a burger with no cheese and slathered in pickle relish. It’s my fault for not looking more carefully but you would think that if someone orders no pickles the person taking the order might just want to say hey, did you still want the pickle relish? To that I would have replied no and thanked him for asking. Maybe I’m just a jerk but for those inflated prices I expect better service. I took a bite and the predominant flavor was pickle. It was a lot of relish. I was not very happy and it went back.

Then I went and bought a fish.

 

[Northern Flicker]

That's gotta be the healthiest frogspawn I've ever seen. I wonder how many heads it has?

 

[TheWB]

That's gotta be the healthiest frogspawn I've ever seen. I wonder how many heads it has?

Thanks. I don’t have an exact count but I’m guessing about 30.

 

[TheWB]

Last time I was at the LFS I saw this juvenile Lamarck’s Angelfish and I almost bought it. Ended up getting the Lubbock’s wrasse instead. Well, was back at the LFS today for some supplies and guess what was still there. This time I decided to go ahead and get it.

Here it is in the bag temp acclimating in the Tenecor 17 gallon peninsula in the garage while I did a little prep work on the display tank.
That’s just freshwater in the garage tank, I’ve been testing out the Innovative Marine Helio 200w Heater to see if it could keep the temp stable all winter in my freezing cold garage. The verdict is that yes it can.

After temp and salinity acclimation here it is in the tank

Unlike the wrasse who completely hid for a few days this one is swimming around in the top back corner. So far with the lights out the Tang and Filefilsh are doing the most snooping around and the Gramma is keeping tabs from a little further away. Nobody has thrown a punch yet so I’m taking that as a good sign.