Lister's Paradise

[Zante]

I have decided to post the videojournal of my reef tank here as well as in another (more marine-specific) forum. I thought that some people might find it interesting and I would enjoy a wider audience

 
The tank is a Fiji biotope, hence the project's name. I won't be ABSOLUTELY STRICT about it, but i will try and keep as close to Fiji as possible. (points for those who guess why I called it like I did

)
 
The expected stock list is as follows:
 
Inverts
1 Bubbletip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor)
6 cleaner shrimps (Lysmata amboinensis)
1 mated pair of coral banded shrimps (stenopus hispidus)
1 Derasa clam (Tridacna derasa)
a few Nassarius snails (nassarius sp.)
a few strombus grazers (Canarium maculatum formerly Strombus maculatus)
1 mated pair of tiger pistol shrimp (alpheus bellulus)

Fish
1 Lawnmower blenny (Salarias fasciatus)
2 mated pairs of Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)
1 mated pair of Randall's goby (Amblyeleotris randalli)
2 Percula clowns (Amphiprion percula)
5 McCosker's Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus mccoskeri) - 1m 4f
1 mated pair of Coral beauty (Centropyge bispinosa)
1 Yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens)
 
I will post all the videos and relevant posts so you can see at what point we are now.
 

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLVMIL74p6Q

 
So it begins. The rock has arrived directly from Fiji, picked no longer than two days ago and now it's sitting in my tank curing.

I will probably move it around a bit before I'm happy with it, for the moment I'm pleased to have it in the tank and started curing/cycling.

 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWnU2lL8LMQ

Test results look weird: no ammonia, no nitrite and 50 mg/l nitrate. It's as if the tank cycled in two days!

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdvj40aRCeI
 
I set up the lights (now only at 20%) and I'm now starting to spot the first hitchhikers.

Also, regarding yesterday's entry apparently those values i measured are perfectly fine. The rocks got from Fiji to my tank so quickly that there was VERY little die-off.

 

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6G6vAcfaa4
 
The lights are now at full power. When i say full power, in the video, I mean the power level I wanted them to reach, which is actually 80%.

Tests are also coming back good. I will run another set of tests on Saturday (including phosphates this time) and if all is well I'll add the sand and start getting some clean up crew.

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO8f1j_cEYM
 
Sand has gone in and a start of clean up crew.

I had a cleaner shrimp and five more have joined it. I also have added three turbo snails.

There is some rock in the sump much of which will stay there, but I have a piece with a mushroom coral which will be repositioned in the display tank somewhere.

A small bucket of macroalgae is waiting to go in the sump, but I have no lights in there for the moment. As soon as the sump lights are be delivered the macroalgae will go in.

I have ordered a mated pair of
- Stenopus hispidus (Coral banded shrimp)
- Alpheus bellulus (Tiger pistol shrimp)
- Amblyeleotris randalli (Randall's goby)

Also my friend at the LFS will sort out a mated pair of Nemateleotris magnifica (Fire goby) from the ones they have in stock.

 
 

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqUIQ9PAQs0
 
First fish going in!

I was planning on adding the fire gobies and Randall's gobies first, and possibly a lawnmower blenny, but the LFS wasn't able to find the pairs I was looking for.

They did have this lovely breeding pair of clowns I could just not resist!

I also got some nassarius snails, but they did what nassarius snails do and they buried themselves immediately.
 

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJaB-5fvng

Introducing my new lawnmower blenny (Salarias fasciatus) and a bit of a catchup on a few details, including some new hitchhikers.

... and that pretty much brings this journal up to speed.

I've come back from the fish shop where I went to get some frozen food. My friend there told me they had just received a shipment of coral banded shrimps, still all bagged up.

I pick up one: male.
I pick up another: female
We put them together in the same tank and keep a sharp eye on them. No aggression whatsoever. They get VERY close, feel each other extensively, and after an hour they are still in that tank close to each other with no sign of aggression.

Again: they had several coral beauties, all in separate tanks. I have been doing some research on pairing up dwarf angels on a marine breeding forum. We tentatively put a little coral beauty (most probably female) with another (not sure of the gender). Again, no aggression, but we saw the beginnings of a courting ritual. The larger CB was poking at the smaller one but there was no territorial display and flaring and there was no real aggression, just "poking".

Once some brine shrimp was dropped in the tank the large one (at this point suspect male) started eating and stopped poking at the small one. Once feeding was over he resumed poking, but with much less enthusiasm.

All through this the little one was trying to escape the attentions of the larger one, but she didn't seem stressed, more annoyed. When the food was dropped in the tank she didn't cower in a corner or anything, she ate as calm as anything together with the other.

My friend working there will keep an eye on them (CBS and CB) for a few days yet. There is no particular concern regarding the CBS. They paired up or they would have already attacked each other. We are less sure of the CB. I had no intention of getting them so early, this is more of an experiment to get them to pair up, but if they do pair up I might take home them too.

 

[Zante]

Text update for today. I have added to the tank one yellow tang and a pair of coral beauties.

The tank lights are off to help the new fish to settle, so I wouldn't be able to film much, and anyway I want them to settle without a big black eye staring at them
They are still hiding a bit, and just minutes ago I got my first glimpse of the female coral beauty coming out of hiding. The yellow tang was the first one to show but even now he's keeping close to the ridge, ready to dive in.

I caught a glimpse of the male coral beauty a while later, but i decided i needed to rip out some green hair algae from the rocks and i must have scared them back into hiding. Literally minutes ago I saw the female swimming with the male, doing a lap of the left island and back behind the rocks.

As I said I felt I needed to rip out some GHA from the rocks, the amount of greenery had become impressive. Literally foot-long strands waving in the currents. To be honest they weren't entirely ugly to look at, and if it were easy to contain such a growth in a corner of the tank I would consider it, but it had become very invasive and had smothered the little frag of torch coral. I ripped out an impressive amount of it, but there is still plenty in there.
The tang and the blenny have their work cut out!

I will make a video of the new fish tomorrow if they are more settled and feel sociable.

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkP88rkSRk
 
A yellow tang and a pair of coral beauty are added to the reef.

The tang has settled very well. Still a bit timid, but he went in just yesterday, so quite understandable.

The pair of coral beauties aren't and ACTUAL pair yet, they are a male and a female that won't attack each other. In the shop's tank when they were put together there was some courting behaviour, but then it became pecking to estabilish a hierarchy.

Now they are in their permanent home, once they're properly settled in a more natural environment, maybe there will be a proper pairing.

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4iKGop6xPc
 
Not a journal entry, I just thought that my phyto reactor looks cool like this.

 

[Zante]

Just a quick update, not enough to warrant a clip.
 
I've added two tuxedo urchins to help with the algae (and I like them )
Funnily enough the WoRMS database reports sightings of tuxedo urchins all around Fiji, but not on Fiji itself. I am assuming they ARE actually found on Fiji, and that the WoRMS database just hasn't any records of it.
 
The tang and the coral beauties are now braver and are swimming fairly unconcerned even when I'm right up to the glass staring at the miniature feather duster colony I have on the sand.
 
The coral beauties aren't yet a proper pair, I'm still not totally convinced the larger one is a male yet. There is a bit of bullying on the female, but it's not aggression, it's more a "remember who's boss here!" kind of thing.
It kind-of reminds me of teenage boys when they discover girls are actually interesting and awkwardly "bully" girls they actually like. I know, I know, it's completely different, they're fish and not apes... I know, it just reminds me of that.
 
As I said in the last video, no aggression whatsoever from the clowns. Either I have a really peaceful pair or their reputation is unjustified.
 
I was hoping for a pair of coral banded shrimps, but the male and female put together in the shop are tolerating each other but definitely WON'T pair up. TMC usually has pairs for sale, but they ran out when the guy from my LFS went to stock up.
They had no firefish, no randall's gobies and they had some pistol shrimps, but no pairs.
 
... oh well... maybe it's for the better. The ecosystem has coped BRILLIANTLY with the stocking I have subjected it to so far, but it's not a bad idea to give it a breather and settle with this population for a while.

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5XK8PtvCHo
 
I have given the ecosystem a bit of a breather while the fish shop looked for the fish I want, but now I'm back with more fish!

The algae are receding slowly but surely. Phosphate levels are now undetectable after the addition of my phosphate reactor. There is a bit of diatoms growing on the sand, but I'll get on top of those too.

Four fire fish have been added to the population and a pair of tiny coral banded shrimps. A few hours after addition the shrimps have found each other and are sitting under the overhang. The three firefish in the video are still happily out  and about, the fourth one is still AWOL, but I didn't see much of my female coral beauty for the first week, and the yellow tang only came out when he was starving for the first few days, so I'm not worried. He'll come out eventually.

 

[Zante]

I have just seen all four firefish out in the open at the same time for the first time!
Ok, one dived for cover immediately, but still... slowly settling in, and isn't "slowly" the key word with aquariums?

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxNXuTIa5Y8
 
A bit of an update on the reef and a little bit more stock.

Algae have pretty much gone and the sump is packed with macroalgae, I'll have to thin it out a bit.

I will be getting some corals soon, probably montipora or pocillopora, I'll see what the fish shop has.

 

[ncguppy830]

beutiful reef you have on their

 

[Zante]

Thank you.

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh-kI6lm7LQ
 
Stock is almost complete, only the BT anemone is missing, and I'm thinking of a clam, but with 2 coral beauties I'm not too sure about it.

Stock to be added today, a pair of Randall's gobies and a male and three females McCosker's flasher wrasse.

I also exchanged phytoplankton from my reactor and macroalgae from my refugium with some SPS frags. I still have to decide where to put them though...

 

[fm1978]

The reference is of course, Red Dwarf...

Should have said; it all looks fantastic so far and I'm quite jealous you're able to do such a great job of a reef set up! I'd love to one day but seems very difficult...