roni

Yeah, I had originally ordered a tiny gem from an online dealer who will remain unnamed. Tiny ones are hard to find but this one was a good size, not too tiny to hang but about 2" They don't. They've talked about setting up in house qt but it's a labor intensive process and truly, for stores it can be hard to justify the cost for the increased amount they can charge. I don't know that anyone does a legitimate qt locally with multiple rounds of meds and observation. A couple places condition and might do some low level copper and a treatment of prazi. Tsmaquatics does a great job with a legimate full qt but they are online. I've been very impressed but shipping does add cost and stress.

Thank you! A gem tang has been on my dream fish list for a while and it's been nice to see them come into the realm of possible. I still remember when they were 2000-2500! Thanks! Things are settling into an uneasy balance. We'll see if it lasts. Yeah, Nova is a nice shop. Clean and the owners/employees are eager to help out and open to suggestion. They started carrying lrs food on a suggestion right after they opened and have also been willing to special order fish (my male clown came from them). Opening during a pandemic is rough so hopefully they stay open and successful

Newest addition, courtesy of @novatropicals Healthy, eating well and able to hang with the bully of the tang, the powder blue. Also priced as low as any online place but without the stress of shipping

The plank has been great for me and really allows me to space out my feedings in the middle of the day when I'm not home as well as providing more consistency for nutrient input. That multicolor looks great. Eating well? Where did you pick up, if you don't mind me asking? i've long considered a pair of multibarred or multicolor angels, though the multibarred are even harder to get healthy and eating.

ah, makes sense. Both of the reefs are on the main floor. My qt set downstairs in the unfinished has the same neglect. Out of sight...I bet the trachs will do better with that extra attention. I had good luck with my last copperband, which munched on aiptasia but left everything else, including zoas, alone.

Congrats on the new house and lol about the former occupants and urban dictionary reference. You should lean into it for the fishroom decor...

It's a nice problem to have but I can imagine. Looking good!

Those trachs are great! You have your side tank; why not move them over to there if they are getting picked on (potentially). My zoas and meaty LPS are slowly moving over to the kids' tank as I prep for potentially less reef safe fish. I think why certain corals thrive in certain systems and others don't is always a mystery. I have a tck pikachu that almost died off and is now recovering at a much lower par. It's probably the one acro that hasn't done well that I can't figure out why. I think part of the trick is trying different flow/lighting and part of it is just deciding how important it is to keep that particular coral. I do think that some of the slower growers in terms of acros are those that take a long time to really adapt to changes and take off. My oregon tort is a coral that historically hasn't grown fast but in the last couple months is really starting to put on some size (still basically a frag though). That LRO piece from Francis is nice! He hasn't been on the forums in a while.

It might just need to settle in too. It hasn't been super long since you traded right? Tank looks great! Any closeup shots of those trachs?

Yeah, I have an automated calcium reactor and it's pretty dialed in. It's been pretty consistent on weekly tests, which is why I've considered not doing as often but I feel that's the road to failure. I do check my co2 reactor gauge as part of my morning 2-3 min check of the tank before heading to work. Not super concerned. To be honest, most of my fish are free swimmers and get more upset with other free swimmers. My bigger concern is the anemones as I'm not sure if I lost one of my mandarins to one of them.

looking great and great to hear on the trach. it's a beauty!

Haha, you and I are brothers from different mothers. Between work, family, and hobbies, I'm sure it's the case for many. I think reefkeepers that are the most successful longterm either don't share those traits or learn to mitigate the impact. For me, hopefully we're at a point where we're doing tank tours again and just talking reef in person, as I'm always more motivated and consistent afterwards...and you always pick up little pointers that help improve your tanks (at least I do). Barring that, automation and setting up checklists have helped. Thank you! I really like the waterbox tanks in general. A few gripes but overall, good quality mass produced tank. My fish stocking is pretty light right now. pair of clowns at least 1 mandarin (hadn't seen either in 2 months and then suddenly saw one 3 times the size of when it entered the tank just a week ago) tailspot blenny powder blue, convict, desjardini, yellow, purple, tonimi tangs flame hawk starki damsel flame angel will still be adding: pair of fridmani pair of dragonface pipefish geometric hawkfish imperator angel copperband moorish idol May add a group of anthias down the line if I get the energy to set up a larger system to condition them or someone sells a batch. May also add a regal angel or 2 and a couple more flame angels versus a pair of rhomboids.

The gig isn't bad. it's just incredibly sticky and i try to be really careful to not hurt it, so the culmination of a lot of stings adds up sometimes. I had a cut on my finger the first time I moved it this week and that wasn't fun. I don't know that I'd handle a haddoni the same way. Ritteris/bubbles have very weak to imperceptible stings. It literally takes 2 min to test but I'm starting to get into a lazy phase of reefkeeping. My biggest problem is time/interest waxes and wanes and sometimes getting together the inertia to do simple tasks is difficult and other times I'm using a razor blade to clean the back glass off a 6 foot panel! Hopefully have a special fish coming in tomorrow. Still not sure if I'll put in the 100 or the 270. It was a war in their when I added the last 4 fish.

Thanks Isaac! So I think I cursed myself by taking a video. Same night, the gig decided to take a walk all the way to the back left corner of the tank. Freaked out in the morning when I do my spot check! Geared myself up to move it, as it's always a pain, though timewise and actually getting stung and moved the gig back to the center. It's moved more then any anemone I've ever had, including other gigs. This time I put a couple flat rocks down so it could bury it's foot underneath but sprawl out. So far so good. I also had a rock come tumbling down as the red planet has grown so had to rearrange that and use some epoxy. Fingers crossed. Been debating getting a trident as testing regularly is getting to be a drag. The other tank is starting to settle in a bit. Have a pair of skunks in there and one of them finally figured out the ritteri in that tank is a good host so fingers crossed that they will both hang out there. The anemone in their is a little small so will need it to grow a bit through feedings. I've moved a lot of zoas over as I prepare to add the final batch of fish (angels/butterflies).

Fingers crossed for the trach. That was a great idea to check in with her :). I had a trach recover in the past years ago after having another coral fall into it and kill about half. I think keeping scavengers away and treating if you have a secondary infection is probably prudent. Great to see the sps come back from nubs. Almost like getting great Walt smith Fiji rock in the past and seeing which corals arise in a year

Quick little video update. Waiting on a few fish but starting to get a little movement in the tank. https://youtu.be/tRo37UDMqbI

Wow, missed this update. Things look great!

Tank looks great! How is the trach doing? Looks like you added a new torch?

I had a pretty horrific experience with them. My general view is that if everything goes fine, they are good to deal with. If you have a problem, good luck. I would recommend either locally (I've had good experience with Nova Tropicals) or going to a more reputable online dealer (TSM aquatics is really good). I will never use NY Aquatics again. It's the only place I've ordered from that I feel that strongly about in the last 15 years. Just my opinion; best of luck.

sorry man, that's terrible.

fair enough. what irks me the most is that it checks ca/mg so often. I'd be good with alk once a day, ca/mg weekly. I'll probably end up splurging once my credit cards recover from stocking the tanks

you know you're going to have to upgrade. my space invaders is at the edge of a shelf with only zoas around it, which are getting moved when my angels get here next week. i've seen massive sweepers so that probably is the cause. hopefully the trach recovers okay. i have a cyanaria that has had 3 different massive stinging episodes from other corals falling into it, lost 1/4 of its tissue each time and recovered in a couple weeks each time.

that sucks man. I feel like I'll eventually get a trident too but the KISS person in me wants to avoid more gadgets. I've got a frag of your SSC when you're ready. just let me know.

Yeah, I think consistency is probably more important then absolute value. As I stocked up on frags, I realized how different everyone's salinity was. I measure with 3 different methods and had people with salinity ranging from 1.025 to 1.028. One thought with your large colonies and something a couple of people have mentioned with mature tanks is that water motion gets pretty choked off as colonies get bigger. I have a wavebox in my 270, which I love...though my wife doesn't love the noise so I'm having to decrease the amount of time it's on. It provides an upwelling of flow which really does a good job on the undersurface of the rock and corals, imo. I know that in my 100 as things grew I upped the number of mp40s from 3 to 5 at the end. Just something to consider, though maybe not the issue for you.

Yeah, that would have been a short mystery On the other hand, anyone have ideas about these eggs?