Reef Tank

[andywg]

Well, it seems like ages since I posted any pictures about the reef tank, mostly due to the frogfish in the refugium above it getting all my attention. However, a new inhabitant arrived at the weekend, so I have been taking a few pictures and thought I woudl share them with you.

The new inhabitant is a rose anemone, an orangey reddish colour morph of a bubble tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor). Looks nice as the colour still fluoresces under the actinic lighting, but stays a pinky red rather than the green that everything else tends to go. I even managed to get a shot during acclimatisation of the oral area. It seems to have settled into a spot very near to where I placed it, which is good (so far) and it has eaten some chunks of spratt and prawns.

I also finally managed to get some good shots of the clowns without excessive blurring.

Head on and side profile of the tang

The dragonet, who seems to be doing well having got through over a year now with us. I can only assume he must be eating.

The saffron goby, who has recently given up flake food again, hence him looking a bit thinner.

An attempt at showing the coral crab that came in on another frag and has since moved across to this coral which has come back from the jaws of death (being almost entirely white with but a few small lonely polyps) and now seems to be faring well.

So, how about a whole tank shot? You can see here that I have gone for minimal Live Rock to maximise swimming room. I figured with a 35 or so gallon sump and a 20 gallon fuge that I could drop some LR and gain a better looking tank than one just crammed full of rocks. Once I finally get rid of the last of the cyano (and I am winning) then it should look really god.

Here's a shot of the left of the tank (a bit empty as there needs to be space for the wavebox, if Tunze UK ever send it back to me)

A shot of the right hand side, with a sort of mini atoll of reef

And a shot of the sump, for all those of you who like those sorts of things. One day I will skin the stand to make it look pretty.

The White ribbon eels decided he was hungry, and showed this by coming out of his caves.

The eel eventually joined a mothers' meeting with the clowns, the tang and the betta. Strangely the tang seems to hate the eel and will adopt a defensive side on posture to it whenever they are near each other.

And it would appear the eel was most certainly hungry...

 

[1entra]

Looking good andy! By the way is that small ell reef safe then? How big does it grow? Oh and what is that coral in the second to last picture, looks like a trumpet or brain? Its just I got a small frag of the same thrown in for free when I went to my LFS the other day along with few other bits and bobs and dont really know much about it, nor can do a google search on it as I dont know what it is...?

Keep up the fight againt the cyano mate, you'll get it sorted soon, make it one of your new years resolutions! And after thats dealt with then you can turn to taking care of all the pest anemones (unless you like them and want to keep them that is!).

PS. Happy New Year

 

[Musho3210]

different from america i guess, everyone here is going for the red, very rare to find a green one around here....

 

[Lynden]

Excellently done. The rock layout scheme is almost exactly how I want my 90 gallon to be. The anemone looks awesome as well, good luck with it. Glad to see the eel is still feeding/living, though somehow I'm not surprised. Also glad to see someone that didn't kill their aiptasia, I can never understand why people always choose to annihilate them. Great tank overall.

Though if I can make a suggestion, a group of the motile plate corals Fungia sp. would, in my opinion, make a great addition to that sand bed.

P.S.
Apparently most reef fish are not too fond of muraenids even in the wild, posing defensively or even pecking at them. My trigger always tries to be 'the tough guy' when feeding time rolls around then just ends up being overpowered by hungry G. tile.

 

[andywg]

Looking good andy! By the way is that small ell reef safe then? How big does it grow?

It's currently 30" long, so I am not sure we can still refer to it as "small" It appears reef safe. Their diet is not entirely known but I had it living with feeder shrimp for ages, so decided it was unlikely to do any hamr with the larger inhabitants of the reef. Pseudechidna brummeri has a max length over 1m, so it will hopefully get a bit longer yet.

Oh and what is that coral in the second to last picture, looks like a trumpet or brain? Its just I got a small frag of the same thrown in for free when I went to my LFS the other day along with few other bits and bobs and dont really know much about it, nor can do a google search on it as I dont know what it is...?

We are not entirely sure. We assumed it is a brain coral of some sort but it does look a little like a Blastomussa wellsi. Mind you, anyone who reads literature knows that the identification of croals to a species levels is very difficult and a large number of species ID in magazines are just wrong.

Keep up the fight againt the cyano mate, you'll get it sorted soon, make it one of your new years resolutions! And after thats dealt with then you can turn to taking care of all the pest anemones (unless you like them and want to keep them that is!).

There is no fight, I just leave the tank and the cyano slowly dies off. This tank is very low maintenance with most efforts spent on photographing and attempting to feed the frogfish living above it.

PS. Happy New Year

And to you

Also glad to see someone that didn't kill their aiptasia, I can never understand why people always choose to annihilate them. Great tank overall.

Oh I have tried... This infestation comes from the smaller reef which this has replaced. I have 4 peppermint shrimp in there and a copperband butterfly on order (if TMC the wholesaler ever get a decent one in for my lfs to pick up). These things truly exploded to plague proportions. I woudl leave them but they can be a pain to SPS which is the wy this tank will head.

Though if I can make a suggestion, a group of the motile plate corals Fungia sp. would, in my opinion, make a great addition to that sand bed.

I am not truly sold on the Fungia spp. They look nice, but with a max size of 12" could lose a lot of the sand bed. I also note that Dr Shimek comments "Mobile Fungia are rather fascinating animals, but they do have a drawback: both their nematocysts and copious chemically laden mucus secretions pack quite a punch. As they move they may bump into other corals or animals in the tank and cause significant damage."

I am more likely to look for a second nem eventually to take up the left hand side and then stick a load of Acoprora and Montipora and Seriatopora in the tank (and probably then design a calc reactor as the ca levels plummet into free fall... ). I am not a fan of LPS or softies, and the brain coral is only in the tank as it was failing in the pico tank in the kitchen. Once I set up the sepereate frogfish tank I may well throw that coral in there to make more room for SPS.

The aim is to have a few plating corals dotted around, and then have branching crals taking up a large amount of room from the atoll and from the edge of the rocks on the left.

P.S.
Apparently most reef fish are not too fond of muraenids even in the wild, posing defensively or even pecking at them. My trigger always tries to be 'the tough guy' when feeding time rolls around then just ends up being overpowered by hungry G. tile.

I did figure that it might be something of that ilk. It's just odd when you compare the mouth size of this moray to the body size of the tang.

 

[SkiFletch]

And a shot of the sump, for all those of you who like those sorts of things. One day I will skin the stand to make it look pretty.

I keep saying that to myself Andy. I'll get around to it eventually too

Great RBTA there, looks like a really healthy specemin. Was it tank-bred?

 

[andywg]

Great RBTA there, looks like a really healthy specemin. Was it tank-bred?

I believe so, I don't think TMC (the wholesaler my lfs uses) tend to use too much wild caught nems.