The Life of Blue Spots Tank 1800L

[Blue spot]

[Blue spot]

[Blue spot]

I've read that if you put a piece of orange film over the lens of the camera you can take pictures with the blues on ? I'm gonna give it a go , whenever I take a picture I have to put the lights on full and it sort of washes the colours out . Has anyone tried this ?

[Blue spot]

Just posted about a poorly nem, can anyone help ?

[Blue spot]

Byropsis update , one piece left. I have just placed a slug on it . The war could be won !

[Blue spot]

Goldflake update. Popeye gone with no intervention , sometimes it's best to leave well alone

[Blue spot]

Tank update. Byropsis still nearly gone , just a few tufts still left. I'm still gonna stick with the slugs to polish them off. Two deaths !! My pair of gramiki dart fish were sadly found on top of screen cover. The mesh is quite fine but they must have made it through as the tank was covered. The fact that both of them were their makes me think they were spawning ....... What a way to go ������. So that's the bad. Now the troublesome. Bubble algae.... It's everywhere !! So I'm trying to. Lower my nutrients , let the crabs go to work and manually remove them. My other alternative is I am trying to smother them with corals. Which brings me on to the good section. Went on a Lfs tour this weekend and picked out some lovely stuff. Well I consider it lovely. Got a bright yellow acre with blue tips, an orange branching monti. And a lime green pavona, not unusual but the colour is lovely. Also got my star buy a comencil crab colony . I am chuffed with this as I've only seen them on the Internet. Great fun watching must have around 50 crabs in it ( it's a large piece). And to round it all off ( and I swore no more fish ). A feminus wrasse, love love love these fish , very gaudy I know , but really stands out in the tank. So that was this week I'll try and get some pictures in the next.

[Blue spot]

Forgot to mention. I've started dosing . Only calcium so far, but it a start. My plan is I think to go triton method.... It sort of fits with what I have , but I'll have to ditch the uv and I think my bio pellets, and I possibly may have to many fish ...... Still only thinking and investigating at the moment . But I want to pick a method at some point. Opinions appreciated .

[Blue spot]

Well I posted earlier about a poorly nem (Norman). Anything that's over a year old gets a name in my tank. Glad to say I've followed orions sticky on treating it with cipro and it's looking much better . If you're having nem problems I recommend reading it. Still only 7 days , but I am sure without the treatment norm would have been a gonna. I don't normally advocate to much intervention ( only because I do not trust myself , not that it's a bad thing) but on this occasion , perfect advice , thanks reef central.

[oldbones]

I love this tank. You have a unique mix of really cool corals and some very nice looking fish. Keep up the good work!

I'm a jawfish lover as well. Not the easiest fish, to be sure.

My first died in QT, had a big white blotch on his belly which fits with the mysterious Blue Spot Jawfish Disease.

#2 started off as a very young little guy, but did well through QT and adapted well to life in the DT. He was a fantastic looking fish and seemed 100% perfect right up until he snuck through a crack in my cover one night and died behind the tank.

#3 is in QT now. He is a bigger fish, and had very dark coloration when I got him, almost brown, and his fins were tattered. LFS gave me a 7 day guarantee because he didn't look great. Today is day 5 and he's looking much better, eating lots and building like a champ! Color is coming back, but I wonder if he'll ever be as vibrant as a younger specimen. I guess we'll find out, I don't think I'm taking him back to the shop.

[Blue spot]

Hey old bones. Glad you think I'm doing ok. I do love this hobby and get a lot of joy out of trying to find fish and corals I don't see so often and learning about them ( their is so much to learn !
Interesting what you said about you're blue spots coloration , so is it the juveniles that have the brighter colour? I've mentioned before , Bert was the most drab blue spot really but came as one of a pair . He's now ( I say he , purely because i called the bright showy one her) a fantastic colour , and home wise it just gets more and more spectacular, he definetly has a sand fetish, and has stolen a rock with some high end zoos on to use as the lid. Nothing is to good for Bert lol. From my experience so far food has been key, he loves one specific flake food , let's everything else float by, and it's actually a freshwater flake he eats. If he doesn't go for that food or he goes to bed early I immediately check my temp and it's always on the higher side 78 deg. I normally stay at 77 ( still possibly a bit high for jaw fish but if I go lower I notice a negative change in coral ) 1 deg is hardly anything , but I swear it is always the case. What temp have you plumbed for ? My ultimate aim is to still try and get a pair, but I want to do my best for Bert first and make sure I can keep him alive !

[oldbones]

My tank runs 75*.

[Blue spot]

Byropsys update. It's gone !!! Hoorah one war down. I am just going to champion the lettuice slug again. Also now that they are well fed and coloured up they are a very attractive creature. I've put a couple in the sump now, just because I'm worried about them finding enough food now the byropsis is gone, hoping the others will stay healthy in the main display but I'll let you know how that goes. So again from my experience, byropsis ..lettuice slug.
Other news , Nems back in the display. Corals are all doing well and fish all seam good, Bert blue spots good aswell, had a trouble free week so far ( as I have wrote that I can hear so thing going wrong in the tank ,lol)
New thing wise picked up an unusual coloured lobo, sort of candy coloured and ringed with white, and a metallic peach coloured chalice . Lovely.
One fish really looking stunning is the moorish idol, I do have a question on this fish though if anyone knows the answer. It had a really long (I'm going to call it ) tassel on the end of its fin. Today it's missing , not seeing any aggression anywhere would this have just fallen off ??

[traveller7]

Congrats on beating back the bryopsis, stay on it or it will likely return.

Originally Posted by Blue spot

One fish really looking stunning is the moorish idol, I do have a question on this fish though if anyone knows the answer. It had a really long (I'm going to call it ) tassel on the end of its fin. Today it's missing , not seeing any aggression anywhere would this have just fallen off ??

If there is a significant breakage in the spine, maybe, but the picture below does not seem to show such damage. Is this the before or after?

Originally Posted by Blue spot

[Blue spot]

In hindsight this is what it looks like now again. But on the end of this fin it had grown a really long whip of skin/ streamer. Like a big version of what you get on a banggai.

[Blue spot]

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[Blue spot]

So update , nothing major this week. Everything just ticking along.

Fish , all good, I had a clown problem but she's now starting to fatten up again.
Blue spot. Still doing well, he's had a new challenge this week in the form of an engineer goby invasion, but he's holding his own, Not sure what to say with regard to engineer gobys. I like them but they do tend to move around the tank and kick out any fish that Is in the way, that being said I never see aggression , just pure Bulshyness !
Corals all seam to be ok - I've had a pearly bubble start to recede a little and a couple of things get dislodged and fall on to other corals which has caused a little damage to a couple , but apart from that looking good. Spa seams to be doing very well , growing nicely. I am a little worried about the colour of one it may be browning out , worry white when I had it now bright green with the blues on , but more brown with daylights , not sure if it's recovering or getting worse. Never kept spas before so no real point of reference.
Equipment - had a radion fail, second time for this light , no problems with the others just the one but radion are replacing it for me , very good service. I have also championed the rollomat , I do love this..... But .. Over time I am not sure of its robustness for salt water. Electrical contacts corroded. Motor intermittent on the float switch, motor no longer powerful enough to drive a full mat, and very difficult to clean and service. All that being said it does strip out the larger waste particles , keeps water clean and no filter socks to change ( I change the mat about one every three months). So good product but needs tweaking .
Dosing - I'm now doing calcium and magnesium . No real difference in the tank or corals I am just doing it because I think I should be. I am having a mystery with my alk. It's always around the 9 to 10 mark, but I never buffer it ? Originally I was a using calk , but I have stopped using this and it's still high. Anyone got any ideas why ? The only negative effect of dropping the calk is my ph was 8.1 to 8 it's now running 8.02 to 7.95.
Pest . Aptasia and bubble algae, I may have a small improvement on the bubble algae, but I've now had an aptasia explosion. Think I'm going to try and get the slug that eats them and see what happens , tried aptasia X but they just come back in the same place only larger.
Going coral shopping this weekend , Aussie shipment in . Hoorah !

[oldbones]

If your Kh is 9-10 and not dropping, there should be no need for you to dose Ca or Mg. Are you testing for those?

[Blue spot]

Testing everything at the moment cause I'm new to doseing. Cal I'm adding 50ml a day of the fauna Marin light baling solution to keep calcium at 420 magnesium I only started Saturday and dosing 5ml . I know I must be doing something as its not normal. I just can't figure out what ?
I already thought it might be the testing (I'm partially colour blind so not my strongest point) but I'm doing alk on hanna, cal red sea , mag red sea. Also got my Lfs to check readings and they got the same. Have I discovered a new form of science laws ?? Could I be up for a Nobel prize ?

[Blue spot]

I'm getting no closer to finding out what is happening so I am going to post my test results until I find out what is happening . Hopefully someone might spot why my kh is high without dosing.
Cal -400, 50ml dose
Mag 1250, 10ml dose
Alc 9.87 , no dose
Ph 8.07

[Blue spot]

Found it, and I am going to admit this even though it makes me look like a right plonker. I was adding a tiny amount of ph buffer just maybe once a week. It reads that it stabilises kh but lifts ph , I went add some today as I my ph was dropping a little then I thought this could be what is raising my alk. On closer inspection I was mixing 100 times the concentration I was supposed to. Chemistry you win again ! I'll see if this explains the mystery . Lol