Mandarin Goby

Picked up a new fish for the 50 yesturday. I've been wanting to get a mandarin for a while now. All the reports of these fish starving to death in a tank kept me from purchasing one. The 50 is very well established and absolutely crawling with pods as I've had nothing in there to eat them since I sold the 6 line wrasse 2 years ago. When I saw this fella at the store he/she was munching down bloodworms......so....for $18 I thought I'd give this one a try. I took some pod filled cheato from my frag tank and stuffed a big wad behind the rock in the tank. I figure this will help as a place for the pods to breed and escape to. I also picked up some frozen bloodworms and when I put some in this morning I could see the fish behind the rock scoffing them up. I hope this works....it's a beautiful fish....I will post another pic once it starts coming out of hiding...which I hope will be soon ! These fish are absolutely gorgeous !

Long Time No Post !

Been a long time since I put anything up here. Haven't done much of anything new with the tanks since moving the 50, but I do have some new pics to share.....

I finally got around to moving the 50gallon into the other room. My husband is going to be putting in the fireplace insert and the tank was sitting right next to the fireplace. In the process of the move I lost the copperband......I guess it got a little too close to the intake of the 110 and got stuck there. By the time I noticed it was too late. I had put the coral and the fish into a 10gallon while making the move....guess the 110AC was a bit too strong for a 10gallon. Rats !
Well, I did get to rescape and it came out very nicely...much better than the pile I had tossed together when I picked up the new rock.

Been a long time since I posted anything. I picked up a new fish for the 50. It's a copperband butterfly. I've had it a week and it's doing very well. Started eating mysis on the 5th day. It's a beautiful fish, though a bit more timid than the clowns and they're much quicker at scoffing up the chow than the butterfly....but it manages to get enough. Right now I'm in process of finding a 75 gallon tank. I want to put the 29 and 50 together into one. I shouldn't have to spend more than just for the tank and new light fixture. I have enough rock, though I may want to put in new sand and just use a little bit of the old. Right now I have the pair of ocellaris clowns, one yellowtail damsel and the copperband in the 50.......a pair of purple firefish and a two spot blenny in the 29.

What I've been up to lately.....not a whole lot.......

I added a few more things to the 29. I purchased another high fin goby. I had two previously in the 50 but both of them went carpet surfing on me. I really like those little fish so I thought I would chance another but put it in the 29 with the two firefish. I have a glass lid on the 29 and there is VERY little room for anything to flip out....soooo...here's hopin !

I also picked up an "Armor of God" zoanthid. That's it in the middle picture. A very nice zoa and the name of the coral is dear to my heart. I also traded one of my blue striped shrooms for a frag from a nonphotosynthetic gorgonian. I like the yellow color and the fact that I don't have to worry about placing it in the light. Too many things are competing for that space up top and I needed something for the lower shaded areas. This one seems to be very happy so far.....lots of polyps peeking out and scoffing up the tiny microrganisms I must have floating around in there....I have no skimmer.... I did a good cleaning and water change on the tank the other day and it's looking really nice right now !

Spent a good part of the day today doing a water change on the 50. I decided to take out 20gallons this time around. It needed a good freshening up. Right now all I have for fish in the 50 are the pair of ocellaris clowns and a yellow tail damsel. I lost the yellow watchman. I suspect that one of the heaters I had in there was no good. It looked as if some water had gotten inside it so I was probably getting a current in the tank. I really need to add to the rock in that tank and once I'm sure all is well in there I'll decide if I want to add another fish or not. I've been considering a marine betta....but, not sure if that would be a good choice or not.

Update on the 29.....we got CORAL !

The 29 is looking good. It's gone through the diatom/cyno stage already. I've tossed in some coral here and there. The chalk bass aquired a huge pop eye....I think it was caused by an injury.......it's now in QT getting clean water changes daily. It's been in the QT for a week now and is doing really well. Everything else in the tank looks great !

New 29 reef

I finally got sick of the 29planted. I had stopped dosing with the flourish excel because it's pretty expensive and I didn't want to buy it anymore. Things went south pretty fast. Cyno, moldy gunk...etc...just plain ugly. Basically it just had too much nutrients in the substrate and I didnt' have enough light for the plants to be able to make use of it...so the cyno did...blah !

I moved the fish over into a 20hex I had laying around.....1 gold marble angel, 2 blue rams, 4 pristella tetra and a kuhli loach. The hex has a bare bottom and both filters from the 29 are running on it. I have a new home for them, just have to hold them till he gets his tank setup. I'm going to miss those fish...but I'm way into salt now and seem to have lost my interest in fw setups...ah well....

So.....after emptying the 29, I cleaned out the tank really well and tossed everything in. I had purchased about 20lbs of rock the week before...fully cured fiji for $3 a lb...great deal ! It has been sitting in tanks for a week and all looks good...so into the 29 it went...along with the 2 firefish and a new chalk bass I picked up. I'm not concerned about a cycle, but I'll keep an eye on things just to be sure. I do have a place to put the fish if it looks like it's cycling...no worries.

This tank sits between the livingroom and kitchen...high traffic and I can look at it while I'm eating...or sitting at the computer. I LOVE it !