My 210 FOWLR Turned Reef

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Picked up a few things last night from a guy getting out of the hobby. I got Mg, Cal, Alk, Iodine, Strontium Salifert tests kits for $5 a piece! Most of them are very new and barely used. Also bought a few frags and he threw in 3 more. One of them is practically a mini colony. I got a sweet frag of a Mille that is blue and pink. He is selling his 10-12 inch colony too and it is ridiculous. Pretty excited about this mille. Flesh, I have an accidental frag of it for you if you see this. I will try to get a pic of the new stuff, some of it isn't colored up as well as his colonies were because they were under different and not intense enough lighting.
 
Blah...pink and blue...you know I want this.

I wish I could show you the colony in person, but here is a video of it. Doesn't really show the color well at all. The thing also looks small on the video and is pretty large.

[video=youtube;TuHZB2nKpn4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TuHZB2nKpn4[/video]
 
Oh, and I forgot to mention that it is the first colony shown in the tank. Seeing it in person made we want to buy the whole thing.
 
Made a few subtle changes to my rock work to try to open up a few more spots for SPS. Also, finally got some updated shots today of the tank.

FTS
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Couple shots of my favorite corals with my absolute favorite being the Rainbow Acan.
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Vlamingi is hiding in this one.
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Left side
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Right side
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I found this pic from January when I had just gotten a few corals in my 75 gallon. I have current matching pics of the SPS(Mille I think) and Candy canes that show the growth/color change. Found another of a "green" mille I got from Fleshy. It won't color up in my tank, but it's growing like crazy.
Brown SPS in middle and Candy canes on bottom left in January.
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Candy Canes currently on right.
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SPS is still partially brown but with lots of blue, on top right.
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"green" mille in middle of photo in the middle of July.
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Same "green" mille at the end of Sept. It spent about a month on the sand bed and was still growing.
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Now a shot of it from a few days ago.
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I wish I could show you the colony in person, but here is a video of it. Doesn't really show the color well at all. The thing also looks small on the video and is pretty large.

[video=youtube;TuHZB2nKpn4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TuHZB2nKpn4[/video]

The guy selling off his tank just dropped all his prices on his HUGE colonies to 70 bucks so I now bought that millepora colony. He is including a "large rock with other corals on it too". So when I get there it might get even better. Forrest, your frag of this guy just got bigger.

On the bad news front, my baby Chevron tang died this morning in QT. The other 2 fish in there with him are healthy and eating. I think the copper treatment affected him. :(
 
Sorry to hear about the Chevron :( may I ask what the copper was being used for? Was it just a preventative treatment? I know it's not up to me, as to what you do with your fish (obviously) but I personally never use medications unless I'm 100% sure that there is a need for it to reduce risks/stress... but that also said, in the past I have kept fish in QT tanks for well over a month, so if they had any illnesses they would show up in that time. That also said, I'm sure it's usually not a problem that you do, it could have just been a weak tang, (and I'm still assuming you were using it as a preventative treatment so feel free to ingnore me completely if it was for another reason or in general if you like lol).
 
Sorry to hear about the Chevron :( may I ask what the copper was being used for? Was it just a preventative treatment? I know it's not up to me, as to what you do with your fish (obviously) but I personally never use medications unless I'm 100% sure that there is a need for it to reduce risks/stress... but that also said, in the past I have kept fish in QT tanks for well over a month, so if they had any illnesses they would show up in that time. That also said, I'm sure it's usually not a problem that you do, it could have just been a weak tang, (and I'm still assuming you were using it as a preventative treatment so feel free to ingnore me completely if it was for another reason or in general if you like lol).

Thanks, it was preventative. All fish have been exposed to parasites along the lines of transport from ocean to our tanks. Just because a fish isn't showing any noticeable symptoms doesn't mean they don't carry any. Introducing fish into a display without treating most assuredly means you are introducing it to the display. All public aquariums and almost all renowned successful aquarists treat before placing into a display. Doing so is very high risk, particularly in large systems with no way of QTing large quantities of fish if an outbreak were to occur. I am not willing to risk my livestock that is healthy and happy in the display. If a fish cannot make it thru the QTing process, that means they were probably not healthy enough to begin with and would have caused problems in the display.

I have done this with every one of my fish and will not introduce another fish of any kind without first QTing and treating in this manner. I will however reassess the speed, duration, and size of the QT I am using as that could play a role in the problems I have had.

I will also say that I do not disagree with the way in which you go about QTing. I believe you can be successful as the fish has settled into captivity and recovered from shipment, hopefully fat, to enter a stable display environment and stay healthy enough to prevent outbreaks with that display.
 
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