Tank of the Month - February 2005

[Tanu]

Bluereefs: what kind of blennys do you mean?

Jeepjon: I'm not really into medics, but both emergency and ortopaedics seems interesting, I think.

The percs are still doing fine, I'd love to keep them in the main tank, but I don't want to have two species of clownfish. So, two more weeks to enjoy them at home, thereafter they'll move to the nano.

Pics will follow

[bluereefs]

Local adriatic sea blennys,I colect and keep them for fun during summer time.

[Tanu]

You keep them in the reeftank? Do you have a picture?

Today I moved some of the corals and I also made some frags. I'll take pics this evening or tomorrow I think.

[Isayso]

congrats Tanu!
your tank is astonishing ,and the scaping is one that resemble the real backreef

a question.....
how can you keep two flame angel in the tank withoout eating SPS and clam's mantle?????

I red a few books about flame angels ....I fell in love with one of them
but my tank is SPS dominated and 4 clams .....I'm so afraid to put one in it ....
can you giveme more info please
thanks

[Tanu]

Isayo, adding angels, being it dwarfs or full sized, is a gamble you take. Flames belong to the 'lower risk' angels in my opinion.

In my opinion the risk isn't too high as long as you 've thought about these points:

1. Feed the fish enough. Fish need to eat a weight about 5% of their body mass in order to stay healty and to grow. So, 100 grams of fish, means you have to give about 5 grams (dry weight!) of food daily. If you don't feed them, they'll find food themselves...
2. Quality matters! Fats and Carbon Hydrates are presented in almost all foods. Proteins, fibers and vitamins do a lot, not only for humans but also for fish!
3. Keep them occupied. Bored fish will find something to do, this may be pestering other fish, nipping inverts... Keeping them together with fish of the same species is the best way to do this.

Some other advices on this subject:
- make sure the aquascape breaks their sight, so they don't HAVE to see each other all time.
- Buy two angels of a different size, the more difference in size, the better!
- Males have 'sharp' ends on their back and pectoral fins, the fins of the females are more rounded.

Like all angels, they WILL nip. But in my opinion many people overrate this. In nature, there are also fish which steal a polyp every now and then. In my experience 'nipped' corals keep a more compact growth, I think this is because they want to defend themselves against nipping. I know some aquarists who don't keep angels but who damage the growth tips of the Acro's to promote compact growth. I'm lazy and keep angels To keep it short: they won't kill healthy corals, but they may cause your corals not to open as much as they did before you added the angel.

The first weeks, nipping is very unpredictable. They like to sample almost everything, mostly the frequency of nipping is lowered to almost zero after some time.

There's always the change they really go berserk, but I've never heard or seen that first hand. I think I've described the tricks to avoid this above

If I didn't scare you away with this text... Go for it!

Male:



Female:


(Photo's borrowed from www.korallenriff.de!)

[Tanu]

News on the Bubble King: I shut it off today!

I've measured it pulls out about 4 times the ammount the previous skimmer did. Some corals cannot keep up with this fast change of water quality. At some corals, I see tissue receding or even some died parts. I see this at a purple Acro from Fiji, a green Fiji Acro, a bluetip formosa (which frags do well in almost all tanks!) and on a brownish jaquelinae. Because of the fact these problems became visible after the installation of the BK I think it might have to do with the too-fast-change in water quality.

I plan to switch it on during the night only the next few weeks. Here's what I did to stop this so far:
- Feed even more!
- Add an extra dose of amino acids to the tank
- add some fructose (small organic molecules, can be taken up by many organisms very fast)
- Shut the skimmer off. I'll switch it on next night.

I also ordered ammoniumchlorid at the drugstore. I wanted to have calciumnitrate or natriumnitrate, but that wasn't available. Because ammoniumchlorid is broken down by bacteria to nitrate, I think I can give the corals some extra power with this. The ammoniumchlorid comes in next morning.

I want to keep the skimmer on 24/7 in the future, because I believe it removes (almost) all unwanted substances. Some substances it removes are wanted though, but one can dose most of them.

[majesticangelfish]

Crikey about the skimmer! WOW!

[MrBojangles]

Outstanding pick guys.

Tanne, like on our "own" Dutch forum I wanna congratulate you with this well deserved mention here on ReefCentral.

Keep up the great job m8.


Cheers,

Dennis

[Tanu]

Thanks Dennis

Today, I added half a teaspoon ammoniumchloride. I haven't been home that much, so I couldn't thoroughly observe the inhabitants. I just came home, the blue lights of the tank are still on.

As far as I can see know, stn has stopped on these corals. The other inhabitants look ok.

I'm going to calculate how much am. chlor. should be added to 'create' 1 mg/l increase of nitrate. Then, I can make a solution which is more easy to handle. I didn't have time for this today, but anyone with a little chemical background would know that half a teaspoon on this ammount of water couldn't do any harm.

[majesticangelfish]

Originally posted by Tanu
. should be added to 'create' 1 mg/l increase of nitrate.

That something you don’t hear everyday. shows how well the BK works!

[Tanu]

I did some calculations. On the estimated total volume of my system I should add 0,647 gram NH4Cl to get a theoretical increase of 1 mg/l nitrate. Theoretical, because the 'ammonium' part of ammoniumchloride can be utilized by the zooxanthellae as well.

Today, I added the second dose. Still, tissue loss has stopped

Indeed this says very much about the BK. It is a skimmer you should NOT underestimate!

[wastedalf]

Crazy awesome tank. Gives all of us something to shoot for. I only hope I'll have the talent you have when I'm more experienced.

[Tanu]

Wastedalf: enjoy every moment and every small critter. Also very important: watch the tank and note small details and small changes.

Watching a small pod crawling between the rocks gives me the same ammount of joy as watching the regal angel showing it's beauty.

[bluereefs]

You keep them in the reeftank? Do you have a picture?
I do not keep local bleny in reef tank because I have open aquarium and they jump out,people with close aquarium keep them without problem as long as they have plenty of algae for blenny to nip.
One of my local gobbies-triplefin,Trypterygion melanurus -in my reef tank


That something you don’t hear everyday. shows how well the BK works!
Interestingly,first time I heard about dosing chemical nitrate in the aquarium come from German reefer Marcus who use ecosystem-caulerpa-filtrations and he noted that he must dose nitrate to get corals growth because caulerpa took everything out.

[XxDutchxX]

Im chiming in a bit late, but that is a awsome tank. I lke the aquascaping as well as the cap on the left side. Great Work!

[Fliger]

Fantastic! I love the aquascaping - and I'm doing something similar with my sandbed. I've been barebottom for a while and am putting in a shallow sand bed.

I never knew the blue-eyed cards only live 18 months! I have a school of six and have been trying to find more to add, very unsuccessful.

On a personal note - after a successful 14 year career in advertising, I just quit my job and am going to teach biology. 18 months of school (no income) - then a whopping U.S. teacher's salary. I don't know about the Netherlands, but we pay our teachers like @#$ - make them pass unhelpful tests, overcrowd their classrooms, then we give them a hard time because all our kids are straight A students. ;-)

[crypt-keeper]

Originally posted by Tanu
It is 130 x 70 x 70 centimeters, so not very large. I just connected the DIY T5 and it works!

I have to arrange some things, then I think all frags can move out of the main tank...

Well this is simply a dream tank!!! I didn't have time to read all this thread, but shocked that 350watts of light is doing it for such a nice sps tank. At 168 gal. I just wanted to covert the tank measurments for anybody that needs it. 130x70x70cm=51.18"x27.56"x27.56"=168 gal.

Sure wish I had this in my living room to look at all day!!! I guess I need to rethunk my lighting requirements, 2watts/gal??? man I run 12watts a gal, And I just keep softies, new to the hobby. Just VHO not MH.

Wish I could get some full size pic's to add to my Wallmaster pro which changes my wall paper every hour.

What a Great Tank!!!

[Coleskank]

I was just wondering what kind of foam you used for Aquascaping because i was thinking about doing thee same thing. Youre tank looks really great!

[Mangas8282]

I have a question about the cardinals. Ilooked up the scientific name you listed Apogon leptacanthus, and it came up with long-spine cardinals, that look a little different then the ones in your tank. It also said that they were unsuccessful in breeding them in captivity, but you said that yours spawn regularly. I would like to find a schooling fish like that, and those fish are beautiful, a lot more interesting then green chromis. Where did you find yours?

[Fliger]

Mangas - the blue eyed cardinal and the longspine cardinal are one & the same - as far as all the research I've done.

I have never seen mine breed, I wonder if I've been missing something. I think I've had my school for close to a year now. Awesome fish, and I've had a H*LL of a time getting more. I would like a school of 10 or so in my 340.

Beautiful fish.

[Skorpinok]

Tanu.... , there's not much to say but what a tank, great job.

How were you able to keep so many fish in that tank and what do you feed your tank, fish / corals?

Where did you put your clams - in the middle of the tank, sitting on a lr or at the sandbed... croecea or maxima?

[Tanu]

Quite some time since the last time I visited this topic. Nice to see people still replying


Coleskank, just normal foam is used, the yellowish foam which is used for building purposes.

Mangas: they do spawn, but so far I haven't tried to bring up the fry. A few years ago, they weren't available in Holland. Now most LFS carry them.

To-arbitrate: I have one crocea and two maximas. One of the maximas jumps off the rocks and only stays in place on the sand bed. One other maxima is located in the lowest part of the tank but on the rocks. The crocea is located near the surface, on a rock as well.

After a major crash, I refurbished almost the whole tank. After installing the BK, things went downhill real fast. Corals were bleaching, tissue was peeling of the corals, the water was a little cloudy... I figured out the following: the previous skimmer was far undersized, so the other nutrients were broken down by bacteria in the tank itself. These bacteria didn't have much food left after I installed the BK. So, they died off, releasing sulfite, which killed quite some corals. After removing the sandbed, which contained quite some bacteria of course, the die-off stopped. I did some 50% water changes, and things got better slowly. I have bought some new colonies and I also got some frags back from fellow reefers, for which I'm very grateful.

This is how the tank looks now:

[majesticangelfish]

Sorry to hear abut the lost mate, but i must say, your tank is still stunning! Well done! Best TOTM ever IMO.

[Grimstalk]

Gents, what kind of 150W lights do you use, 10K, 14K, 20K?