MrX's 120G Build
- Thread starter MrX
- Start date
The River Reef
Non-member
Nice! Congrats finally... Now you need the meter so you can test and post some PAR readings...
beelezebubba
Non-member
got some pics of the light configuration/spectrum mr x?
looks awesome
looks awesome
OP
OP
MrX
Non-member
Not yet... once I get my blue-tooth adapter in tomorrow I'll start playing with the software and configuration and get some more info posted up. Over on the PacSun ReefCentral forum there are a couple threads where PacSun posted some of the technical details.
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MrX
Non-member
Woo hoo! Before heading out to today's family festivities I was feeding the tank and DaughterX says:
"Daddy, one of the fish is in the anenome..."; she pauses there, giving me time to freak out and wonder if one of the Hawkfish is being eaten by the nem. Then she continues, "One of the CLOWNFISH is hosting!"
We all gather around to check it out. The little male clownfish is poking around in the nem, rubbing his body all over it, and having a love-in! So cool! After a couple months one of our two clowns has finally 'found' the nem!
When we got home tonight we checked and the male clown was having a great 'ole time nuzzling his nem.
Fingers crossed he gets the female to join him soon!
"Daddy, one of the fish is in the anenome..."; she pauses there, giving me time to freak out and wonder if one of the Hawkfish is being eaten by the nem. Then she continues, "One of the CLOWNFISH is hosting!"
We all gather around to check it out. The little male clownfish is poking around in the nem, rubbing his body all over it, and having a love-in! So cool! After a couple months one of our two clowns has finally 'found' the nem!
When we got home tonight we checked and the male clown was having a great 'ole time nuzzling his nem.
Fingers crossed he gets the female to join him soon!
OP
OP
MrX
Non-member
Yesterday late afternoon/early evening I noticed the female clown hanging out very close to the nem while the male kept poking out, moving towards her, and then back into the nem as if to say "come on in, it won't hurt you." Just before the moonlights went out for the night I happened to look over and see them both in the nem! The little guy did it, he talked a woman into something! *ducks for cover*
Before I went to bed I checked and she was sleeping next to one of the overflows. Guess she isn't ready for a full-on commitment yet.
Tonight I'm seeing like 30-40 tiny baby snails on the glass... hard to tell what kind for sure. I have a lot of CuC now, hopefully the circle of life is doing its thing or I'm going to be overrun at this rate.
Before I went to bed I checked and she was sleeping next to one of the overflows. Guess she isn't ready for a full-on commitment yet.
Tonight I'm seeing like 30-40 tiny baby snails on the glass... hard to tell what kind for sure. I have a lot of CuC now, hopefully the circle of life is doing its thing or I'm going to be overrun at this rate.
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OP
MrX
Non-member
Thanks. No, the fixtures I'm using are Apollo Reef SolarBlast Dimmables. Very nice LEDs.
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OP
MrX
Non-member
Been a while since I posted an update... nothing major had happened or changed. Added a couple more fish and corals. The current inhabitants are:
1x Yellow Tang
1x Yellow-Eye Kole Tang
1x Mystery Wrasse
1x Tri-color Wrasse
1x Manadarin (male)
1x Green-spotted manadarin
1x Yasha Goby / Snapping shrimp (somewhere in there)
1x Dragon Goby
3x Red Firefish
2x Clowns with their nem
2x Cleaner Shrimp
1x Clam
1x Longnose Hawkfish
2x Banggai Cardinals (hopefully M/F pair)
In another thread someone mention creating a fake long-spined urchin for baby Banggais to hide in. In preparation (and hope!) that mine mate/breed I created my own faux urchin:
1x Yellow Tang
1x Yellow-Eye Kole Tang
1x Mystery Wrasse
1x Tri-color Wrasse
1x Manadarin (male)
1x Green-spotted manadarin
1x Yasha Goby / Snapping shrimp (somewhere in there)
1x Dragon Goby
3x Red Firefish
2x Clowns with their nem
2x Cleaner Shrimp
1x Clam
1x Longnose Hawkfish
2x Banggai Cardinals (hopefully M/F pair)
In another thread someone mention creating a fake long-spined urchin for baby Banggais to hide in. In preparation (and hope!) that mine mate/breed I created my own faux urchin:
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Flame Angel
Past BRS Pres/2016MOD
There is some outside of the box thinking.
OP
OP
MrX
Non-member
I dare you to wear that as a hat to the next meeting.
Dare accepted!
Flame Angel
Past BRS Pres/2016MOD
OP
OP
MrX
Non-member
Last night as the OSRAS 'Fragging 101' meeting DaughterX and I were talking about building our own frag rock. Today we picked up a small, semi-flat rock and a 1/2" multi-purpose drill bit.
While the drill bit worked, it wasn't ideal nor fast. And it kept slipping in my drill; I just have a basic Black & Decker with a chuck that you turn, no key. I really need to get a heavier duty drill for all my new projects.
I have to tweak one or two of the holes a bit more but here's what we ended up with:
While the drill bit worked, it wasn't ideal nor fast. And it kept slipping in my drill; I just have a basic Black & Decker with a chuck that you turn, no key. I really need to get a heavier duty drill for all my new projects.
I have to tweak one or two of the holes a bit more but here's what we ended up with:
Turbosnail
Non-member
Looks great! I just did a piece in my tank the same way.
Flame Angel
Past BRS Pres/2016MOD
This is that same technique that Marc Levenson was talking about at the last meeting.
Curious to see how things turnout over time once encrusting starts.
Curious to see how things turnout over time once encrusting starts.
OP
OP
MrX
Non-member
Updates about the tank since my last post:
- Got my ATO hooked up; I ended up using the Apex OSCillation command to turn the pump on 4x a day for 20sec each time. My original plan was to use two float switches, one to turn it on/off and the second as a fail-safe off switch. Instead I'm using the OSC timer and just the fail-safe off switch.
- Fish-sitting a couple fish in the QT for Ellabug; they are comfortable in the QT, just chilling.
- 2 of my 3 Red Firefish are MIA. I bought 3 and put them in the DT together. Two paired off and at first were always out and about, the third was pretty much hiding all the time. That lasted a week or two and then they seemed to switch places. Now during the day I only see one out and about. The other two are nowhere to be found. I've checked the overflows, the floor, etc., and had no luck finding them. Don't think they are small enough to get through the screens on the overflow elbows, but who knows.
- My surviving Yasha goby still loves to hide. It's been two weeks or so since I've seen it... today it popped out for a second or two at feeding time. I make it a habit to squirt a little toward the direction of the cave it hides in.
Banggai Cardinals and Emerald Crab Confusination
The Emerald Crab I bought at the March auction died, or so I thought. It was just sitting in the sand in the front of the tank not moving... 36 hours or so later it was still in the same spot. I figured maybe it's time was up, as I had no real idea of how old it might be. I had wondered if maybe it molted, but I couldn't see a hole or anything in it.
A couple days later I saw on-line that PetCo had them for $5 each, so I went to the local store and got two (they gave me a couple bucks off their price and almost matched the on-line price). After about a week I found one upside down under a rock I had moved to a temporary spot. The rock was a little wobbly and it looked like maybe the crab got caught and died.
A week or so later, last night, I was waiting for the dog to come in at about 2:00am so I was looking in the DT with a flashlight. Normally when I do this I immediately see my two Banggai Cardinals. I got these back in May/June as tiny babies from Kiah at 'Oceanus the Inland Reef'. Last night I only saw one of them!?! Looking around for it turned up nothing... except another 'dead' Emerald Crab.
I did some more research today about molting vs. dead crabs and then remembered the shell of the last one was still in my desk trash bucket. So out it came along with my dissection kit. Well lookee there! A little escape hatch/zipper looking thing. Figured I'd post some pics about what to look for in case others were curious:
Earlier today I thought I was back to zero Emerald Crabs, now I'm wondering if I still have three! Wish I had the other two shells still to check the closer.
In regards to the Banggai, I still haven't seen it today. I PM'd Kiah with the news of its disappearance and she mentioned that it might be the male, in hiding with fry. I hadn't considered that, so it's an exciting prospect. For months the two had grown steadily, and then one started to pull ahead and is now almost twice as big. I was kinda figuring the smaller one got bullied or wasn't eating enough/etc.
It's hard not to climb up on my stool and start pulling rocks out to see where all these critters went, if they are still there.
In other non-news... still having a heck of a time with SPS. 90% of everything else is growing great (or at least very stable)! Sad too, cause the couple SPS I have that are polyping up look awesome.
Guess it's time to start looking into dosing or something to keep my params even more stable.
- Got my ATO hooked up; I ended up using the Apex OSCillation command to turn the pump on 4x a day for 20sec each time. My original plan was to use two float switches, one to turn it on/off and the second as a fail-safe off switch. Instead I'm using the OSC timer and just the fail-safe off switch.
- Fish-sitting a couple fish in the QT for Ellabug; they are comfortable in the QT, just chilling.
- 2 of my 3 Red Firefish are MIA. I bought 3 and put them in the DT together. Two paired off and at first were always out and about, the third was pretty much hiding all the time. That lasted a week or two and then they seemed to switch places. Now during the day I only see one out and about. The other two are nowhere to be found. I've checked the overflows, the floor, etc., and had no luck finding them. Don't think they are small enough to get through the screens on the overflow elbows, but who knows.
- My surviving Yasha goby still loves to hide. It's been two weeks or so since I've seen it... today it popped out for a second or two at feeding time. I make it a habit to squirt a little toward the direction of the cave it hides in.
Banggai Cardinals and Emerald Crab Confusination
The Emerald Crab I bought at the March auction died, or so I thought. It was just sitting in the sand in the front of the tank not moving... 36 hours or so later it was still in the same spot. I figured maybe it's time was up, as I had no real idea of how old it might be. I had wondered if maybe it molted, but I couldn't see a hole or anything in it.
A couple days later I saw on-line that PetCo had them for $5 each, so I went to the local store and got two (they gave me a couple bucks off their price and almost matched the on-line price). After about a week I found one upside down under a rock I had moved to a temporary spot. The rock was a little wobbly and it looked like maybe the crab got caught and died.
A week or so later, last night, I was waiting for the dog to come in at about 2:00am so I was looking in the DT with a flashlight. Normally when I do this I immediately see my two Banggai Cardinals. I got these back in May/June as tiny babies from Kiah at 'Oceanus the Inland Reef'. Last night I only saw one of them!?! Looking around for it turned up nothing... except another 'dead' Emerald Crab.
I did some more research today about molting vs. dead crabs and then remembered the shell of the last one was still in my desk trash bucket. So out it came along with my dissection kit. Well lookee there! A little escape hatch/zipper looking thing. Figured I'd post some pics about what to look for in case others were curious:
Earlier today I thought I was back to zero Emerald Crabs, now I'm wondering if I still have three! Wish I had the other two shells still to check the closer.
In regards to the Banggai, I still haven't seen it today. I PM'd Kiah with the news of its disappearance and she mentioned that it might be the male, in hiding with fry. I hadn't considered that, so it's an exciting prospect. For months the two had grown steadily, and then one started to pull ahead and is now almost twice as big. I was kinda figuring the smaller one got bullied or wasn't eating enough/etc.
It's hard not to climb up on my stool and start pulling rocks out to see where all these critters went, if they are still there.
In other non-news... still having a heck of a time with SPS. 90% of everything else is growing great (or at least very stable)! Sad too, cause the couple SPS I have that are polyping up look awesome.
Guess it's time to start looking into dosing or something to keep my params even more stable.
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THE WOOKIE
Just Keep Swimming
i think that "zipper" you are referring to is a place for them to carry eggs. not positive tho, have seen blue and green crabs in the wild with eggs at the same spot
