GOFOR'S 52" x 36" x 26" CDA Peninsula & SoCal Tank Room Build

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#81
FISH UPDATES

I figured I would get one last update before the end of 2020…

This is where my fish list gets pretty interesting, and to a certain extent, a bit riskier. “Risky” in the sense that the fish are historically a bit more difficult to acclimate to the home aquarium, and also because they pose more of a threat to corals. My plan here is to first, just accept that I may not have the best polyp extension on certain corals while still maybe even having to remove some corals altogether. But, to avoid this as much as possible, before adding a single coral in the tank, I will be making sure that the “risky fish” are eating a variety of foods (pellets, frozen, nori, etc.) 3 times per day. My thought here is that if they are already well-nourished and being fed a constant, varied diet, then they will be less inclined to be “hungry” and, therefore, less likely to pick at corals (which, to my understanding, is not part of their natural diet). If I were to introduce these fish after corals had been added, while they were still figuring out what is and is not food, acclimating to the feeding schedule, etc., my thought is a hungry fish will be more likely to go “taste” a little bit of everything and might actually like the taste of something they try.

As for the fish, I obtained them both pre-quarantined from Deven/Docs Aquatics, and I have to say, they were both in excellent health, even eating the first day they were in the tank.

  • Moorish Idol: this has always been one of my favorite fish. I had successfully quarantined one in my previous tank and it was a model citizen with corals up through the time I had to break my tank down. This one (yet to be named) EATS EVERYTHING I put into the tank. I feed a mixture of frozen foods and New Life Spectrum Pellets, and he goes after it pretty hard. His streamer also seems to grow overnight, so he seems to be settling in quite well.



  • Regal Angelfish: my other favorite fish is the Red Sea Regal Angelfish. The colors on this fish are second to none in my opinion. This is also a fish I have never kept before, so this will be my first go-around. This one (also not named yet), LOVES NLS Pellets and will eat larger pieces of frozen with gusto, but not as aggressively as the Moorish Idol. I think this is more of the Regal’s nature (a bit more cautious) and less about his actual food preferences, but either way, they are both doing extremely well.




I have also added (through my own quarantine) a few more fish…

  • Pintail Fairy Wrasse: I wanted to add some more active swimmers with some different colors than what was already in the tank… and the pink/purple/yellow patterns of this wrasse are pretty awesome. I’m planning to add a few more fairy wrasses down the road, but was able to find this one relatively cheap and in good health.

  • McCosker’s or Carpenter’s Flasher Wrasse (not sure which to be honest): another active swimmer and added some orange/yellow color schemes to the tank. He’s so active, in fact, I, for the life of me, could not get a decent picture. So here you go… just use your imagination a little.

  • Sunburst Anthias: a bit less of an active swimmer (likes to swim in the current for a while then go back into the rockwork), but a beautiful fish with shades of pink/yellow.


Next up, is my tang gang… all are in quarantine and will be ready to go in very soon.

And if anyone has any ideas on fish names, please share. My kids’ ideas include things like “Blue” for blue fish, or “Stripes” for fish with stripes… so this is what I’m working with and I don’t feel too creative these days.

Happy New Year Everyone!
 

Smite

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#82
Awesome stocking so far, the tank is looking great. Good call on the pintail as the first of your fairies, they are easily bullied in my experience.

I hear ya on the names, there's one named fish in my tank - Stripey- a bangai cardinalfish.
 
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#83
Awesome stocking so far, the tank is looking great. Good call on the pintail as the first of your fairies, they are easily bullied in my experience.

I hear ya on the names, there's one named fish in my tank - Stripey- a bangai cardinalfish.
Thanks man! That's exactly the fish my kids tried to call "Stripes". Not on my watch :LOL:
 
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#86
what's the list so far? i like what i see!
Thanks! So far, here's what I've got:

1 Bangaii Cardinalfish
1 Bluespotted Jawfish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish
1 Red Firefish
Pair of Longfin Ocellaris Clowns
1 Sunburst Anthias
1 Pintail Fairy Wrasse
1 McCosker's/Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse
1 Starry Blenny
1 Moorish Idol
1 Regal Angel

I think that's all I have in the tank at the moment... I also have some tangs in waiting (I'll let you guys guess which ones for now) along with one non-tang that are all doing great in QT right now. All should be going in the next 10 days or so.

After that, I would like to add some more fairy wrasses (Lineatus and Golden Rhomboid are two that I really like), maybe a Halichoeres wrasse or two (looking at the Yellow Halichoeres and/or the Radiant Wrasse), and a Flame Hawkfish.

That should just about do it, but the fish that come after the tangs will likely be at a much slower pace. My goal with getting in the main group of fish in the DT was to get the tank and its filtration to a place where I could start focusing on getting things stable (i.e., nutrients not bottoming out or getting too high), so I can start introducing corals without a ton of losses. Ultimately, I'm trying to set up an SPS-dominant tank (with some LPS and softies mixed in assuming the Moorish Idol and/or Regal Angel allow it).
 
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#87
How do you like the Versa so far?


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Hey! I finally had a chance to start up the Versa, and I like it so far. The only problem was apparently the tubing included with the Versa needed to be replaced (they sent it overnight after I contacted Customer Service) since there must have been some kind of defect in an o-ring that created a small leak. That aside, it's been really easy to use/control/adjust/etc.
 
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#88
Thanks! So far, here's what I've got:

1 Bangaii Cardinalfish
1 Bluespotted Jawfish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish
1 Red Firefish
Pair of Longfin Ocellaris Clowns
1 Sunburst Anthias
1 Pintail Fairy Wrasse
1 McCosker's/Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse
1 Starry Blenny
1 Moorish Idol
1 Regal Angel

I think that's all I have in the tank at the moment... I also have some tangs in waiting (I'll let you guys guess which ones for now) along with one non-tang that are all doing great in QT right now. All should be going in the next 10 days or so.

After that, I would like to add some more fairy wrasses (Lineatus and Golden Rhomboid are two that I really like), maybe a Halichoeres wrasse or two (looking at the Yellow Halichoeres and/or the Radiant Wrasse), and a Flame Hawkfish.

That should just about do it, but the fish that come after the tangs will likely be at a much slower pace. My goal with getting in the main group of fish in the DT was to get the tank and its filtration to a place where I could start focusing on getting things stable (i.e., nutrients not bottoming out or getting too high), so I can start introducing corals without a ton of losses. Ultimately, I'm trying to set up an SPS-dominant tank (with some LPS and softies mixed in assuming the Moorish Idol and/or Regal Angel allow it).
nice choices, i love the reef safe with caution type fish too. i'm hoping they'll leave a few softies alone and maybe some stingy lps like euphyllia, but if they chow down it is what it is
 
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#89
nice choices, i love the reef safe with caution type fish too. i'm hoping they'll leave a few softies alone and maybe some stingy lps like euphyllia, but if they chow down it is what it is
Exactly! Gotta take the good with the bad. The good news is that they both are voraciously eating both NLS pellets and frozen foods. Ultimately, I plan to feed them around three times per day- some frozen/pellets in the morning, one auto-feeder pellet feeding in the middle of the day, and another frozen/pellets feeding in the evening, and maybe put in some Masstick and Nori for them to munch on throughout the day. Heavy in/heavy out...
 

deaclauderdale

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#90
An amazing build you have here! I just placed my order for a custom tank & stand from Crystal Dynamics a couple of days ago. I too found Zoya to be a pleasure to work with and her response time to emails is otherworldly. Quick question about your stand, did you order the leveling feet for it?


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#91
An amazing build you have here! I just placed my order for a custom tank & stand from Crystal Dynamics a couple of days ago. I too found Zoya to be a pleasure to work with and her response time to emails is otherworldly. Quick question about your stand, did you order the leveling feet for it?


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Thanks! I did order the leveling feet. They really helped make everything perfectly level, so I would definitely recommend going with them especially if you have a wide and/or long tank.
 

deaclauderdale

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#92
Thanks! I did order the leveling feet. They really helped make everything perfectly level, so I would definitely recommend going with them especially if you have a wide and/or long tank.
Great I had Zoya add some to my order. I have a 60x30x24 coming in although I wanted a 36 width but it took up just a little to much space in the room so the wife said no :)
 
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#93
Great I had Zoya add some to my order. I have a 60x30x24 coming in although I wanted a 36 width but it took up just a little to much space in the room so the wife said no :)
Awesome... my dimensions were also determined by how big I could get my wife to approve :D. Good luck with the build!
 
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#95
I’ve been meaning at ask where you got your suction cups from?


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Since, at the time I ordered them, we were all on lockdown due to COVID, I just looked up on Amazon to find the most highly rated ones that weren't crazy expensive. If you weren't in Pasadena, I would offer them up for you to borrow (unless you're ever down in Orange County).
 

deaclauderdale

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#96
Since, at the time I ordered them, we were all on lockdown due to COVID, I just looked up on Amazon to find the most highly rated ones that weren't crazy expensive. If you weren't in Pasadena, I would offer them up for you to borrow (unless you're ever down in Orange County).
I’m in Hacienda Heights now so I may take you up on that when the time comes, but I’m also going to browse Amazon and see what they have.......thanks.


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#97
I’m in Hacienda Heights now so I may take you up on that when the time comes, but I’m also going to browse Amazon and see what they have.......thanks.


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Happy to help where I can... just hit me up if you end up wanting to use them.
 
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FISH UPDATES

Hey Guys,

It has been a while since I last provided an update with any substance. In part, that was due to me simply being extremely busy, but I’ve also run into a few issues. I’ll start with some fun updates…

I added what I expect to be some of the last fish residents for the tank that I’ll be adding for a little while (I’ll likely add some more wrasses or other smaller fish later), here is my team of tangs that will hopefully keep the peace AND clean up any algae that pops up in the tank…

  • Powder Blue Tang: in my opinion, one of the prettiest tangs out there, and made it through my QT very easily (as did all of my tangs). He seems to still be sizing up the other tangs and my Starry Blenny (who tells him to “Get off my lawn” every now and then), but, at this point, he seems to be all flare with no substance behind his threats… the supermodel of the group.



  • Purple Tang: out of the Zebrasoma genus, one of my favorites. Not many fish with it’s deep purple, almost blue coloration, and the intricate lines running laterally down its body make this fish stunning.


  • Whitetail Bristletooth Tang: not to be outdone by the prior two tangs, and one of the prettiest tangs in the “Bristletooth” family, this guy is a worker and has very underrated colors/details. A nice deep purple rim, with a deep red body, yellow eyes, and a bright white tail… the beauty of this fish is really hard to capture in a picture.


And the grazers are at work...


Interesting story (that may be of interest only to me) leading up to me placing the tangs into the tank… in preparation of introducing the Moorish Idol and the Regal Angelfish into the tank, I turned the lights on a week in advance to promote some algae growth on the rocks so the MI and Regal would have stuff to pick on throughout the day if they decided to go on a hunger strike when first introduced (which didn’t happen). Thinking that since my excess nutrient levels were at good levels (Nitrates at around 7ppm and Phosphates at about .10), that excess algae growth would not be a problem. Something I didn’t take into consideration was the fact that I was going to feed my tank significantly more than I had before once I introduced the MI and Regal to make sure they were eating a wide variety of foods, and the resulting byproduct that ultimately fed the very little algae already present in the tank. Long story short (or maybe a medium-sized one), my tank went through a little bit of a hair algae outbreak. So, while I waited for all of my tangs to go through QT (which was over a month since I didn’t have room to QT them all in the same tank and wanted to introduce them all at once), I had to take a toothbrush to my rock and siphon as much of the hair algae out as I could two times before my tangs would make their debut. I honestly was a little concerned with whether or not my tangs would be able to make a dent in the rainforest of algae (slight exaggeration, but still) that was now in my tank. All of my planning to try and avoid the “ugly phase” and here it is, staring me straight in the face.

So, I figured I would just add the tangs and see what kind of dent they could make, then help them out in a week or so if they couldn’t keep up with the algae growth. Well, I am EXTREMELY happy to say they took out ALL of the hair algae within 24 hours of being introduced to the tank. There is still some green algae that coats part of the rock and keeps them busy, but it looks MUCH, MUCH better. Just waiting now for the coralline algae to start popping up.

And not to be outdone by the tangs, I also picked up a very beautiful fish that I hope won’t hide TOO much…

  • Helfrichi Firefish: I hesitated in adding this fish to the tank because of its shy nature, but it is just such a pretty fish. With that in mind, I initially placed him in one of those acclimation boxes that you attach via a magnet on the side of the tank. Apparently, he did not agree and, after about 36 hours, decided he would wiggle his way through one of the slits in the acclimation box and find his home in the tank. I guess he was ready, since for now, he does not seem to get bullied by anyone and just cruises in the current waiting for bits of food. Hard to get a good picture of him though…
 
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