Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[BreadmanMike]

Wow! Wish I could come.

Merry Christmas to you and your family Marc!

[melev]

That's great Amy. I bet anyone that decides to attend will have 0 regrets. There is just too much to gain to gripe about the tiny entry fee.

Thanks Mike! You too.

[melev]

Yesterday, I spent some time watching the reef, seeing what fish go where. It really is nice to see the tiny Six Line Wrasse cruising in and out of the rockwork. Spike, my previous fish, was 3.5" long, and this guy is barely 1" long. Adorable.

I saw the red mandarin come out briefly for 20 seconds, and disappear, but later saw it with the huge blue male rising upwards together one time.

The new Longnose Hawkfish must be hosting the ghost of the last one, because he perches in all the same spots. The new one is just so tiny, it is wierd to see it when I'm used to the large one I saw for so long. This one is 2.5" maybe and quite thin by comparison to the previous one.

The new orange mandarin doesn't swim out in the open, and I think the green Target has something to do with that. Still, I see her appear all over the place in the tank. She needs time to fatten up, that's for sure.

Coral-wise:

The Blue Tort acropora doesn't seem to be doing much, and I don't even see polyp extension. And this morning, it is missing. Something broke it right off its rock. I'll see if I can locate it.

Many corals are doing just fine, but a couple aren't. I lost one that was rather strange a couple of days ago to RTN. The whole piece (5") pretty much went up in smoke overnight.

I have a finger Lobophytum for at least a year or so. Each polyp is on its own branch, similar to candy cane. Every head looks miserable. I did catch Nipples2 (Diploastrea) sending out one heck of a stinger that is obviously affecting the nearest one, but that doesn't explain why the other 4 are just as distressed.

The suncorals look great, as does the Pini, the Maze, the blue tipped Staghorn, the Scripps and many others. Overall, everything is happy except for a very few.

I guess what I want is a tank with 100% happy corals. That's not much to ask, right?

[melev]

I think I figured out why some corals are not doing so well.

[melev]

A new 400w XM bulb was installed. I'm officially out of backup bulbs now. Time to start looking for new ones.

[arconom]

Marc that could explain alot, where were your troubled corals in relation to the bulb?

What made you look at the bulb?

[TippyToeX]

Owch, that can't be good.

[otolith]

Any idea how that happened? Splash a little water on it? What type of bulb is that? I'd be curious to see what type of bulb you look to next. I'm in for a change (only had these 4 bulbs running for 1-1/2 yrs ).

[melev]

Directly under this bulb, one 5" SPS RTNed 48 hours ago. A lovely staghorn suddenly today closed up its polyps over one branch while the rest looked perfectly happy, as if a fish decided to pester it relentlessly. A small branching hammer that has look great for weeks suddenly has looked constricted for the past day and a half, while another hammer lower in the tank is completely fine.

These corals were pretty much near the spot where the glass was cracked and the UV shield would have been lacking. It was a hairline band basically, if I were to assign it the blame.

I heard a loud pop several days ago, but everything looked fine, and that bulb was lighted like normal.

[melev]

It is an XM 400w 20,000K and I replaced it with the same, as I had a back up. I'm going to be ordering new bulbs soon, and several in our club are really promoting the new Coralife Reeflux bulbs so I'm going to order 10,000Ks for the outer 250w bulbs. I don't know what I'll do about the center bulb - maybe get a Reeflux 400w 20,000K?

[Broodingwolf]

marc you said

I saw the red mandarin come out briefly for 20 seconds, and disappear, but later saw it with the huge blue male rising upwards together one time.

are you talking about their mating dance there? Are those 2 different mandarin species?

[melev]

These are the same species, but the girl is much smaller, maybe half the size of the male. And since they rose together only once, I can't really say it was a mating dance. More like carpooling.

[Knyght]

Marc,
Thx 4 the 411 on NW.
I`ll be in touch after I`m home.

p.s. I`ve had that crud myself, still tryin to shake it.

[melev]

The club's site has been updated with the information on the newspage as well as a mention on the front page of www.dfwmas.org

[melev]

I decided to reward all the abundantly growing aiptasia with a nice meal of kalkwasser paste tonight. They all ate it like fools, and I felt so much better.

I fed the suncorals, and the other LPS and a few others that just looked like they might like a snack. To my delight, I discovered where the Blue Tort frag fell and was able to retrieve it. Now it is rubberbanded to a rock so I can keep a good eye on it.

Last night, 35g were changed and the carbon replaced. I need to find out where I can buy carbon in bulk, if possible. Do any of you do that, personally or club-wise?

[Micki]

Marc, Please post if you find a place with bulk carbon, I'm in need as well!

Thanks!

[Lunchbucket]

dang sorry to hear about your bulb. hope that you didn't or don't loose too much

Lunchbucket

[melev]

I got a few new pictures for today. First of all, here's something I've never been able to see. The underside of my Serpent Starfish. I had to be quite the contortionist to get this shot from the side of the tank inside the fishroom by the electrical panel. It was at rest, and I thought it looked pretty interesting.



Here is a tiny anemone that just showed up suddenly in the past couple of days. This is the kind you usually see attached to the shell of a hermit crab.



The new Six Line Wrasse doesn't stay out long, and in this shot, I had another guy obscure the only decent picture.



Another difficult shot from the end of the tank inside the fishroom.



And finally my Tyree coral - still growing slower than grass.

[Lunchbucket]

nice shots as always marc. merry christmas buddy!

glad to see that tank is looking good

Lunchbucket

[gkarshens]

Originally posted by melev
And finally my Tyree coral - still growing slower than grass.

I wish my corals grew as fast as my grass!!!

[melev]

I see we look at growth rates a little differently. To me, it seems eternally slow. Does that help?

[gkarshens]

I was justing making a joke about how fast my grass grows. If I could get my corals to grow that fast I would be happy.

[melev]

So now even your yardwork exceeds mine. You won't stop attacking me, will you?!























Just kidding.

[rjwilson37]

Hey Marc, here is a macro shot of my X-Mas Snowflake, I wish I could get my fish to stop and pose for a macro, that would be something.

[arconom]

Marc and updates on your Calcium reactor phosphate issue?