Unwanted Guest
Just found this slug in the tank - It was laying eggs!!!! I've removed all of the eggs that I could see and it was still laying them even in this container. The camouflage of these creatures is astounding, I've never noticed it before and it's approximately 2inches long. I think it looks like it's from the tritoniid family and obviously a soft coral muncher.

Bully Boys

These 2 are definitely the last editions to the tank. After removing a couple of fish a few weeks back it left me with a little room to introduce a couple of babies to the system. Hopefully these will both be long terms inhabitants along with the blue ring angel.

The Clown Trigger

He may only be around 3 inches long but this is a fish with a big personality and reputation. He already stands his ground with every fish in the tank and does not back down. The killer reputation may prove to be true with this one when he matures!! He already enjoys a nibble on corals !!

The Powder Blue Surgeon / Tang

This is another fish with a big personality and reputation. This specimen has only been in the tank for 24 hours and is trying to dominate it. I'm hoping that it settles or it may not be a long term inhabitant. This fish has come from someone's aquarium so it is used to prepared foods and has no problem taking any food, with coming from a tank it is also far less at risk from the sudden demise that most of the powder blues suffer when coming in from their natural environment. These shots were taken when the tank was in full sun, hence the yellow colouring.

A Pair of Old Timers

The Fiji Damsel

Lawnmower Blenny

Rubble Base - Again

I've decided to install the rubble base again. I can't live with the bare bottom tank, even when the coralline is covering it. The fish are happier with it back in, especially the triggers and butterflies who enjoy a good rumage around in it.

Hogfish Removed

The Dianas Hogfish was taken out a few weeks back because of continual fighting with the Pinktail Trigger . The tank was peaceful before it was introduced but as the trigger has grown, they both wanted to be dominant. The hogfish changed to pure white when fighting, which was amazing considering it's normal crimson red colour.

The great Christmas Competition from Reefcove Forum

Click on the picture and enter the competition for free with a chance of winning some absolutely stunning prizes donated by

Acropora House & Monitors Direct

Upgraded skimmer

With not being able to fit the shorty inside the cabinet and being able to lift off the cup, Aqua Medic have just released a new model skimmer that sits between the 1000 model I currently have and the shorty. It's called the ' turboflotor blue 3000 '. The design is a little different from a cylindrical acrylic tube because it has a built in bubble trap at the front of the skimmer, another thing that may seem odd is the colour. Instead of the black/clear we have become used to this is blue/clear acrylic. It comes with all pipework which are push fittings and an OR3500 feed pump, it only runs from the one pump. It has a very good dial adjustment to raise the level in the cone in minute adjustments if required. Its also a hang on if you've not got a sump but it is fairly large and ~2ft tall x 10in x 7in for the body alone. The cup holds around 2ltrs of skimmate but their are drain holes on the cup, which are screw fittings.

The following picture shows all of the pipework etc. that is supplied when built. The outlet uses standard 40mm pipe. To give an idea of size the round part of the cup is the size of a deltec apf600 cup but with the square extension section added this is huge.

This picture is the unit straight from the box.


Here it is installed in the sump, it's just got to bed in a little now.

Rubble Base Removed

After a few weeks of having a rock rubble base in the tank I have decided to revert back to a bare bottom system. The butterflies and triggers loved rummaging around in it and eating bristleworms and mysids but I found that it was holding way too much detritus even with a relatively strong flow around the tank. With no rubble the detritus is kept in suspension and removed through the filter system.

Auto top-up installed

I've just purchased an auto top-up system from a member on ultimate reef who makes them himself. Although it's a basic model it will do the job more than adequately for my needs. I've attached it to a small newjet pump and I'm using a 25litre container for an RO top-up reservoir. Even if it fails at the on position it won't fill my sump and overflow and the extra 25 litres wont alter the sg. of the water too drastically to do any harm. I'm very impressed with it.

The last inhabitants

The following pictures are the final 2 members of the setup.

Dianas Hogfish

Crowned pearlscale butterfly

At last the tank is full of fish. Well to be honest it's a little over stocked at the moment. The small fish from the old system now definitely have to be re-homed ( approx. 6 ).

All of the remaining fish will be allowed to grow until the tank can't cope with them or the fish actually get too big for the tank. They will then either be placed into a newer larger system or found new homes in large systems. There are 2 or 3 fish that I know will have to go eventually. All of the fish when grown will be split into different tanks or I will make the decision of which to keep, a few have already developed personalities that I would miss. It may prove to be a hard choice.

Pyramid butterfly

Yet another new addition to the tank. This is possibly the most suited butterfly to a reef tank or a tank containing corals. It's mainly a planktivore and enjoys anything that's placed into the aquarium from brineshrimp to nori. He's not been in for very long and he just has a nip on his tail which was caused by the multitude of other butterflys he was in the shop tank with. His face is also a little darker when settled, obviously he doesn't like having his picture taken and has gone a little pale and showing his displeasure.




Cleaner Wrasse

This fish came from my last system and I've owned it for around 2.5 years. It is the most efficient form of parasite control in my tank and is always doing a cleaning service for one of the other fish.

Sorry for the blurry photo but he never stays still enough to snap

A couple more tankmates

My Bluethroat trigger lurking in the shadows

My lipstick Tang having a morning grooming session

The rescue mission

The photo below is supposed to be a regal tang. He was advertised for sale on ebay for the meager price if £2. The picture below is actually the ebay photo. After various members of Ultimate Reef contacting the seller she decided to withdraw the sale and hand the fish over to someone else with the intention of helping it to recover. He know resides in my display tank after a being in quarantine with medication and a few medicated dips. He has major HLLE beginning to get a firm hold on him, his face and gill covers are massively erroded and the lateral line is just starting to form pits along it. He has also been in some major battles and has old bite scars along his flanks. His fins have been chewed away and also a possible fin rot infection hasn't helped. The caudal fin is so badly chewed it is growing back deformed.

So who is to blame? the owner for letting it get like this or the shop for obviously selling a delicate animal that needs expert care?

Despite all of the problems that the little fellow has had he really is a fighter. He eats as much as I can put in front of him and shows no fear when I feed him from my fingers. I did originally go to fetch him from the owner with the intention of euthanasia but after thinking about what he's gone through for apparently 2 years, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So here we are today after having the best enriched foods I can get hold of and excellent water quality his face has slowly turned blue again after only days. There's just a patch around his eye stil that is healing and his fins are slowly growing back, even the rays on them are growing.

For the soppy people out there, he has been christened ' Miracle ' by my wife because she thinks that it's a miracle he's alive!!

Another addition

These 3 pictures are of my Paletail Unicorn Surgeon. He can change his colour instantly from a silvery blue to a mottled colur ( as below ) and then to almost black at night.

You can just see the horn starting to grow between his eyes

This side view gives a better impression of the horn growth

A few more tankmates

Juvenile Blue Ring

Magnificent Rabbitfish / Lemonpeel Angel / Cleaner Wrasse

Bali Jawfish

The tank after 2 weeks.
Everything seems to be settling in nicely.

Welcome

Well it looks like it's finally going to happen. My old system is going to be stripped down and removed and replaced with the tank below.

It will be run as a mainly fish system but will have a few of the more noxious soft corals until I can get used to not having a reef system. The beauty of this tank is that it can easily be used for both depending on what my final outcome will be. Basically due to running my own business I'm finding it harder to maintain a full reef as good as I'd like to. Fish and some hardy soft corals will withstand a minor spike in nutrients and nitrates without any disasters.

As the tank starts to take shape and progress I'll keep adding posts to keep you informed. I hope you will all enjoy the read as much as my last tanks pages.

Aqua-medic Anthias 120

The following link will direct you to Aqua-medics own site with the full specifications of the tank

http://www.aqua-medic.de/seawater/en/7/Anthias/



The filtration system that comes with the tank is the riff 500. Although not a bad system, it needs a little help along the way to be more efficient. I either plan on altering the sump setup or running another more powerful skimmer alongside the existing one to cope with the large fish bioload.

The following link will direct you to Aqua-medics own site with the full specifications of the riff 500 filtration system

http://www.aqua-medic.de/seawater/en/10/Riff%20500/


The enclosed sump and pipework, it has twin sliding doors on the front and a removable lid for full access.

The sump ready to fit and the tank/cabinet in place. The tank is actually on a metal stand inside the cabinet with the feet sticking through the base. The feet have levelling screws to adjust the tank.

The sump installed and plumbed in

Water in and light installed with the Tunze stream fitted to a magnet holder on the right hand side. I have kept the bactoballs in place ( right hand side ) with eventually converting to a mainly fish based sytem. The light is mounted onto acrylic stands, this eliminates the need for hanging wires. The light unit is a twin 150watt ocean light.

Aquascaping, left open with plenty of room all around to enable the fish to swim the full length of the tank. I wasn't planning on putting that many corals in the tank but when they're stuck to 35kgs of living rock, I didn't have much choice. I have placed the remaining 12kgs of rock into the sump with a 't' piece from the return pump flowing over it.

All corals and fish in their new home. When everything settles down and the corals open in full I'll add a few more pictures.
The current fish stock list:
Blue ring angel (juv.)
Blue throat trigger
Pink tail trigger
Regal tang
Paletail unicorn tang
Magnificent rabbitfish
Lipstick tang
Lemonpeel angel
Maroon clownfish
Cleaner wrasse
Convict blenny