Jon Lazar August 29, 2011 Author August 29, 2011 We started putting some of the hardier corals in the tank this weekend. Mostly zoanthids and mushrooms, but a couple of acans and a blastomussa frag as well. Hard to believe there's 27 frags and colonies in there...it's starting to take shape, but still looks half empty. Not nearly as empty as my frag tank look though!
Chad August 29, 2011 August 29, 2011 It looks wonderful, Jon and Maureen! Once again, your photography skills make me jealous!
TonyInVa August 29, 2011 August 29, 2011 Tank looks good. What did you use to adhere your frags to the top inside of the arch?
Jon Lazar August 29, 2011 Author August 29, 2011 Tank looks good. What did you use to adhere your frags to the top inside of the arch? Superglue gel from Lowes. I think it's Loctite brand.
Jon Lazar September 1, 2011 Author September 1, 2011 We've got fish! Also added a peppermint shrimp, emerald crab, and a couple of snails and hermits. To top it off, we installed our Tunze osmolator this evening as well.
rainbowfish September 6, 2011 September 6, 2011 Jack, I used a two-part epoxy putty made by Oatey to help hold the rocks together. I get it from the plumbing section at Lowes. Jon Thanks for the info. Jon! I'll get some to try it out. Jack
roni September 8, 2011 September 8, 2011 I've named him "Roni"! lol. he is a handsome fish Where'd you pick him up?
MLazar September 9, 2011 September 9, 2011 lol. he is a handsome fish Where'd you pick him up? He is a handsome fish! His tail looks like stained glass and he moves through the water as if he's a graceful dancer in a ballet. I love watching him. John at BRK ordered him in for us, picked him up on Wednesday.
Jon Lazar September 18, 2011 Author September 18, 2011 Time for a fishy update: Our pipefish still seems to be doing well, thanks mostly to us hatching batches of baby brine shrimp every couple of days and feeding three times a day. I'm anxious to get him weaned onto frozen cyclopeeze, which I know others have been able to do, but he hasn't shown an interest yet. I use a drop of Kent's garlic extract on both the BBS and the cyclopeeze, hoping to train him that the lovely garlic taste=great food. I can see that there are still pods in the tank small enough for the pipefish to eat, so he hasn't cleaned the place out yet. The Bartlett's anthias are also doing well. We bought the trio as all juveniles, but one of them is definitely developing into the male. His coloration is changing to a much more pronounced pink than the females, and the male is getting a purplish stripe of color on the top of his head like a mohawk. We hit a bump with the neon gobies. We mail ordered them as a mated pair wild-collected off Florida, and one of them arrived emaciated and lethargic. The fish had lost so much body weight, it looked like it hadn't eaten in weeks. After a few days it stopped coming out of it's hole and was declared KIA. The good news is that I had a single neon goby in my frag tank that I bought a while back from the same collector. I added the old goby to this tank, and he swam directly to the other goby and they immediately became an item. I've paired neon gobies before and bred them, but I never saw two fish take to each other like that before. There wasn't a single flash or dart from either fish; it was like they were old buddies reunited. I'm working on a DIY LED replacement for the stock RSM lights and I was able to bench test it today. I'm using 16 Royal Blue LEDs and 8 Cool White LEDs on two different Meanwell drivers so I can change the mix of blue and white. So far I'm very happy with the color, and to my eye it seems very similar to my radium 20k metal halides. I attached all the LEDs with screws so I could make changes to the LED colors if required. Next time I have a free weekend I'll work on pulling out the PC lights in the RSM hood and installing the LEDs. I know 24 is a lot of LEDs for that sized tank, but I wanted good coverage without a lot of shadows tht comes from wide spacing. I'm happy to run more LEDs at a lower power setting, rather than fewer LEDs at high power. The whole idea for the project is to have a lighting fixture that runs cooler, saves on electricity and bulb changes, and gives us the option for any kind of coral or clam we might want. Today we also added a boatload of new frags, but I don't have any pics yet.
MLazar September 19, 2011 September 19, 2011 Wow, looking good! We need to get over there soon! Thanks Roni, we're really enjoying it, can't wait for Jon to take more pics. Still have more fish and corals to add before I'm done (at least for now). We need to set a date for a visit, I know we have frags to swap!
Jon Lazar October 10, 2011 Author October 10, 2011 We picked up a tail spot blennie late last week and he's settled in nicely. There isn't much filamentous algae growth yet, but there are a few strands starting to grow and we hope the blennie will help with this. Maureen loves the personality and the markings of the tail spot blennie anyways, so even if the fish is a loaf and doesn't help at all, she like him.
Jon Lazar October 16, 2011 Author October 16, 2011 Our latest critter addition is a yellow watchman goby and bullseye pistol shrimp. Originally we were looking for a tiger shrimp, but the markings on this one were beautiful with bright purple claws. I created a few burrows for the shrimp in places where we could easily watch their antics. Of course, the shrimp selected the most obscured part of the reef to make it's burrow. Other reefers have reported it's not uncommon for the pair to move locations now and then, so we'll wait and see for now. The bad news is that we lost our blue striped pipefish, despite feeding it cyclopeze and freshly hatched baby brine shrimp three or more times a day. The pipe was noticeably skinny from day one, and didn't seem to put on any visible weight despite our heavy feeding nd watching it plow through dozens of BBS. I also transferred him to my 55g refugium for a week and let him chow on the zillions of pods there, and that didn't seem to make a difference. The rest of the fish are doing well. The two-spot blennie's tail fin was a little tattered at first, but have since grown back. The alpha female anthia is dominating the other female into hiding, so we're keeping an eye on here and will pull her out for a breather if things don't change. Lots of new zoa and acan frags this weekend too.
Jon Lazar October 17, 2011 Author October 17, 2011 The pistol shrimp was kind enough to come out and pose this evening:
CaptainRon October 18, 2011 October 18, 2011 That is very cool. I have a yellow watchman too - but I almost never see the little bugger. Always hiding in his hole in the back of the tank. Perhaps a shrimp buddy would make him less shy. Very nice shots!
MLazar October 18, 2011 October 18, 2011 That is very cool. I have a yellow watchman too - but I almost never see the little bugger. Always hiding in his hole in the back of the tank. Perhaps a shrimp buddy would make him less shy. Very nice shots! Thanks Ron! I highly recommend trying to pair with a shrimp. The shrimp and goby were not paired when we found them at Fins and Feathers this past weekend, but I really liked both and wanted to give them a try, even though the shrimp was larger than I'd wanted. Jon created a nice little spot for them with some rubble and a piece of pvc pipe, dropped both of the hole ............... and they both went in different directions. I knew this was not likely an easy pairing (due to difference in size of both) but we were hopeful. The shrimp found a favorite spot first, under/behind a beautiful mushroom rock we got from Tony in VA. Yesterday I was delighted to find the goby peaking out from the same rock! We see a lot of the goby, she's a blast to watch, but very little of the shrimp as of yet. Jon drew the shrimp out with food to take the picture. I am pleased to say that against the odds I think they're going to pair nicely (I thought the goby would have to get much larger before being comfortable with the shrimp). On a side note, the claws on the shrimp are a gorgeous, deep, purple, although they show blue in these pictures. Thanks Sean! Hoping to get all my new acans and zoas from Petland in the RSM, thanks Ben at Petland! Maureen
roni October 19, 2011 October 19, 2011 Pretty amazing pics! The tank is looking good. We need to get together soon!
MLazar November 19, 2011 November 19, 2011 (edited) Really great read. Any updated corals and scape shots? Thanks so much for asking! Jon is just finishing up upgrading the lights to LEDs. I'll have independent control over the blue and white lights as well as dimming capabilities. We've been taking pictures along the way for this thread and probably DIY if anyone is interested. Our replacement pipe fish is eating well and very active. I lost one of my female anthias that had been bullied by the other female. I came home to find her being consumed by the emerald crab, and when he was done she ended up face first into the bubble coral. It was pretty gross, but of course I took pictures. Loving how beautiful the colors of the corals are with the new lights. Will post pictures soon. Maureen Edited November 19, 2011 by MLazar
Jon Lazar November 27, 2011 Author November 27, 2011 Red Sea Max 130D LED retrofit Probably the most attractive aspect to us of the Red Sea Max is the finished appearance of the tank itself. We really wanted something that all fit together and looks like a piece of furniture, not a project that I cobbled together out of different parts and stuck on an Ikea end stand. This meant an enclosed hood with no pendant light, and while the stock compact fluorescent lighting is adequate for a lot of critters, I knew early on that I'd want to upgrade to LEDs. The tank would run cooler, require less power, and avoid the expense of frequent bulb changes. To make things tougher, I wanted to keep the hood's stock appearance. No holes in the top for cooling fans, or cutting out space where the original lights were mounted. We chose the RSM mainly because of the clean look of the hood, tank, and stand, and I wanted to maintain that look. LED Fixture Build I decided to go with 24 CREE LEDs on two Meanwell drivers so I could independently adjust the output of the white and blue drivers. I could have gotten away with fewer LEDs, but for me it was worth it to have more LEDs running at lower power on two ballasts. More LEDs also gives me better color mixing and less of the funny shadows you sometimes see with LED fixtures. LED layout and wiring diagram. LEDs marked
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