Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[thebkramer]

Interesting, thanks.
I do have a pistol, but his home is in a rock with many holes. Will the goby protect the rock? or will the pistol end up coming out and start burrowing in sand? He is still small (the pistol) and I do believe he is a tiger pistol.

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by thebkramer

Interesting, thanks.
I do have a pistol, but his home is in a rock with many holes. Will the goby protect the rock? or will the pistol end up coming out and start burrowing in sand? He is still small (the pistol) and I do believe he is a tiger pistol.

I'd guess that he'd probably start digging as he got bigger anyways. Getting some type of watchman goby would probably help speed that process up.
Edit: It could take a while before they got paired up too.



Don't know if you ever saw this vid it's from a while back but here's a vid of the pistol and YWG. You can see the pistol's antennae on the back of the goby in the vid and the pictures.




Original Video - More videos at *******


Also, some older pictures. The YWG was such a small sliver a fish when I fist got him.
[img]http://i34.*******.com/j9sw2c.jpg[/img]


[img]http://i33.*******.com/wpe7p.jpg[/img]

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by ROB2005

Lets just say sir goby keeps an eye out for the blind pistol, while the shrimp is designing, excavating, and trimming up the burrow for them . Any danger that is too great sends the goby whirling back to the burrow along with the shrimp.

I know the question was directed at Jason, but I thought Id help him out since I have the same thing in my tank, the only difference is that I have a blue spot watchman goby. The shrimp digs a ton of sand, daily and everywhere he is, goby is there scanning the tank for potential threats.

EDIT: Looks like he beat me to it.

@Jason: That YWG is very fat

NO, the goby is just very healthy... don't want to hurt it's feelings.


I like the yasha goby too. I got the Yellow watchman because I wanted a yellow fish and didn't want to get a yellow tang.

[thebkramer]

Amazing!! Your pistol is HUGE! wow!
I'm starting to think it may not be a good idea. I'm thinking that the rock on the sand is not big enough for him to burrow under. I don't know. And thats if they decided to stay there...because on the opposite side of the tank is my dusky jawfish. That would probably end badly.
I don't know. I'm def not going to act quickly. I'm gonna take my time and see if maybe I can switch up my rockwork on my right side first..or just wait for shrimp to get bigger and swap him for coral or something at LFS.
Again, Thanks for your input, much appreciated!!
Give my mandarins a kiss!! lol

[ROB2005]

I say the goby/shrimp pair is very fascinating. If possible and can be supported no reef tank should be without one. In my tank when they lights are on, the goby immediately pushes out the rock and begins his watching duties. Later on, the shrimp does a bit of house cleaning, repositioning old hermit shells and rock pieces. I spot feed them daily so there is enough for them to eat.

As evening approaches, the shrimp begins a massive re-landscaping, widening his burrow preparing a place for the goby to sleep. A few minutes before the lights are off, goby heads into the burrow, his watching duties having ceased, and the shrimp closes it off partly with hermit shells and rubble, and quietly works inside continuously throughout the night.

[jason2459]

Picture of the duncan from tonight. The little baby heads are getting a lot bigger now.

[IMG]http://i40.*******.com/2ro6c5s.jpg[/IMG]

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by jason2459

Picture of the duncan from tonight. The little baby heads are getting a lot bigger now.

[IMG]http://i40.*******.com/2ro6c5s.jpg[/IMG]

those are awesome Jason

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by capn_hylinur

those are awesome Jason

Thanks, it's interesting to watch them develop. I've always seen corals galore out in the ocean but never took the time to watch them develop like this. I've seen them spawn though. That's an awesome event.

I gotta get a little more active over on that other site.

[jason2459]

Super busy and lots of changes happening very quickly will update on that later.

For now my phosphates are registering 0.01, my duncan has 4 more new heads (7 new total now), and my fish love algae.

My clowns would really be ****ed at me if I got rid of it all
[IMG]http://i39.*******.com/34ycxf6.jpg[/IMG]

[jason2459]

Update! I got a job offer I couldn't refuse and will be a big move forward for me and will help support our family big time. Will be a lot more work and will have some travel. Also, this will be out of state so we are going to be moving. With all this change and there's going to be initially who knows how long with just my wife watching the tank as I'll be in another state starting in two weeks. I am simplifying my setup even more so that all she'll have to do is feed it daily a fozen cube and clean off the glass. Do a simple water change and fill the ATO resivour once a week. I already have marks on the back side of the tank so she knows where to drain it to and fill back to the bottom of the top trim. The ATO reseviour has a float valve so in case she forgets, like I do, to turn off the water it will stop itself (hopefully!).

I'm removing the skimmer for now because I certainly don't expect her to clean out that nastiness. She already complains about the smell when I do clean it. I'm adding a HOB powerfilter. I'm going to use the tetra whisper ex30 I had for the QT setup and put a polyfilter in that one and just picked up a tetra whisper ex70 and run their floss/carbon media. I took out all the bio-scrubbers that are included.

I'll get back at least once a month and will replace GFO and media out of the powerfilters. Also, will mix a new batch of salt water for the weekly water changes so the wife doesn't have to do that either.

Here's the new setup.

[IMG]http://i50.*******.com/2lkr7mb.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i45.*******.com/4t69p1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i48.*******.com/2e2druo.jpg[/IMG]


I pulled out some algae from the algae trough, aka. HOB refugium, and it's working great for growing everything back there.
[IMG]http://i46.*******.com/r1g6z7.jpg[/IMG]


Plus the duncan with it's initial three baby heads getting to be about the same size as the other heads when I first got it. The duncan is growing nicely.
[IMG]http://i47.*******.com/6f5riv.jpg[/IMG]

[thebkramer]

OMG! Jason those duncans are looking amazing!!! How cute are your clownfish
Are you going to pull it where they are? or did you already lol Maybe you could get some maidens hair for them How r my mandarins?

Quick question/favor... could you check out my thread I started? I'm looking for some insight but not really getting it I love the compliments that I've received but I also need some advice...Thanks!!!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1852186

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by thebkramer

OMG! Jason those duncans are looking amazing!!! How cute are your clownfish
Are you going to pull it where they are? or did you already lol Maybe you could get some maidens hair for them How r my mandarins?

Quick question/favor... could you check out my thread I started? I'm looking for some insight but not really getting it I love the compliments that I've received but I also need some advice...Thanks!!!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1852186

I haven't touched the algae in the display tank. It's kind of an experiment to see if these shapelock pellets will keep feeding bacteria enough to out consume the nutrients the algae and cyano need to thrive. So far the cyano has lost. I believe the algae is starting to recede as well.

I'll defnitely head over to your thread. I'm in and out right now but will comment in there later.

BTW, the mandarins blew you a kiss.

[jason2459]

The algae is starting to die off. Hopefully my two areas that have a nice thick mat of the turf algae sticks around. My clowns love them and I think they look pretty awesome waving in the flow of the powerheads.

My phosphates are finally registering as 0 on the phosphate tests.


Found a great place for online research for a wide array of marine biology:
http://www.mbl.edu/
http://www.biolbull.org/

[mr9iron]

The clown in the algae bed is hilarious. The video of the YWG and the shrimp is really cool too!

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by mr9iron

The clown in the algae bed is hilarious. The video of the YWG and the shrimp is really cool too!

Thanks.

Did you see the video of the clowns trying to be hosted by a tiny little orange speck on the glass? Now that was funny. They did that for two weeks, if I remember right, before I finally decided to scrub it off.

[Aquarist007]

congratulations on the job---in this economy that is an accomplishment

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by capn_hylinur

congratulations on the job---in this economy that is an accomplishment

Thanks Capn. I've been really lucky and have had a great job where I'm at now for the past 8 years. I really love my current job and hate to leave it but I just can't pass this opportunity up. It is a big risk too as I'm leaving a very stable job but it is time. Today is my last day and will be starting at the new job next Tuesday.

[thebkramer]

CONGRATS on the new job!

I thought that you would appreciate this video
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1856589

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by thebkramer

CONGRATS on the new job!

I thought that you would appreciate this video
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1856589

Thanks! First day at work today. Wow, my head hurts. Nice to start during a short week.

That video and tank is pretty awesome. I've been following that thread since he started designing it. He did a great job matching his design pretty closely.

[jason2459]

Hi, long time no type.

Moved into a new home! The tank had to be moved twice and had a few casualties. Moved it the weekend before moving the entire house as we wouldn't have room to put it anywhere and didn't want to worry about it on moving day. Took it to the sister-in-laws first who was actually the original owner of the tank and she took care of it there for about three weeks. Then moved it from her place to it's final resting spot in our new home.

Lost the male long fin fairy wrasse due to jumping at the temp location. Also, lost the two mandarins due to a land slide and entrapment at the temp location as I just stacked all the rocks in there not really worrying about rockscaping. Apparently they were under some rocks when the rocks shifted, most likely because of the pistol shrimp, and got trapped. Didn't find out until taking the rocks out to move again.

The blasto looks pretty stressed but the duncan and torch look better then ever. The rest of the fish look healthy and normal too. I don't have my skimmer hooked up yet, the shapelock, or the HOB refugium. I do have my ATO hooked up and the plumbing ran to a basement utility/fish room. Again its having to go down and across to get there just like the last house.

I still would really like to try out the bubble magus NAC5e but my fish guy was still waiting for it. So looks like I wont be trying it out for free as I'm no where near him anymore. It looks pretty cheap anyways but its just a matter of finding someone that has it.

A bulb broke and reflector got bent in the moves. I'm going to try out one of those ReefBright LED strip lights to replace them. They are supose to have close to double the PAR of the Blue+ so I'll be replacing two blue+ with one of the all blue LED strip lights.

I have all my rock in my tank now as the HOB refugium isn't running yet and I kind of like the way I have the rock setup now. So, I might just have to buy some more liverock to put back into the refug. I'll probably do that a little bit down the road because I also plan on setting up my 20g long in our living room. I setup the 55g in our family. You can see it when you enter the house, from the dinning room, and when you come downstairs from the bedrooms.

In the living room there is a fireplace that has built in storage on both sides of it and on top of the storage is built in bookshelves. The 20g will be sitting on top of the storage area just below the first bookshelf. I want to set that up for a stomatopod.

I got some pictures and will have to upload them later.

[jason2459]

Here's the pic update as promised

Tank's new home
[IMG]http://i32.*******.com/2vb4ppt.jpg[/IMG]

New Stomatopod setup in Living Room
[IMG]http://i29.*******.com/105vfb8.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i30.*******.com/95svag.jpg[/IMG]

Basement Fish/utility room (still more unpacking to do)
[IMG]http://i29.*******.com/30sym2b.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i31.*******.com/nd8ljk.jpg[/IMG]

[jason2459]

Rockscape
[IMG]http://i32.*******.com/fmuh74.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i32.*******.com/15frxhk.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i30.*******.com/mvki8j.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i26.*******.com/66w57s.jpg[/IMG]

Duncan
[IMG]http://i29.*******.com/2qtgxlj.jpg[/IMG]

Torch
[IMG]http://i25.*******.com/1444ms4.jpg[/IMG]

Blasto
[IMG]http://i27.*******.com/2lih6yp.jpg[/IMG]

[jason2459]

Time to restock and try something new. I'm not to trusting of the LFS's around here from what I've found so far. So, I went shopping on Divers Den yesterday and should get them tomorrow. I'm trying out another dwarf angel but one that seems very unagressive the golden angel. I also found on there a starry blenny that I've always found interesting and thebkramer helped sway me that way with her recent pics. Deffinitly the most I've paid for fish but I think these will be worth it. Pics to come tomorrow.

[jason2459]

My blastos are still looking pretty ticked off at me.... Hope they come out of their funk soon.

I got the Starry Eye and Golden Dwarf Angel. I absolutely love them. The Blenny is making himself right at home already and the Angel is in hiding, which I figured on both. The Golden Angel is very shy from what I've read up on them.

I got some pictures of both but for some reason I can't get the golden angel pictures uploaded.

Here's the blenny:








I'll have to wait for the Angel to come out of hiding to get some pictures of her. I did get some pictures of a nice little bonus I found while moving all my rocks. This nice little cluster

[jason2459]

The Golden Angel (Centropyge aurantia) popped out for a brief second last night. Don't expect much for several days though.

Found several vendors will be getting in the Bubble Magus NAC5e in the next few weeks and pre-ordered one. $114 is dirt cheap for a brand new skimmer if it works as well as the rest of line up.