Nart's Lagoon Build - Round 2!!!

I usually do my wc's sunday but I need to get into a routine since I threw it off by doing a wc like tuesday to clear the snail poop out. Did my Freshwater wcs yesterday. Oh, and goby wan decided to close his main burrow and move his main burrow to the back and side so I "mabye" filled in those burrows in the back and side and opened up the front. Good news though he's left those buried and came back out front and fixed it up again. Haha little stinker

 

When the weekend comes... you know it's water change day for us fish peeps

I'll get a new FTS soon - I re-arranged some of my SPS pieces. I had ran out of epoxy... so I went over to Petco and bought Fluval's 2-part epoxy. I take it back, not all 2-part epoxy are made equal lol. The epoxy from Fluval was absolutely terrible. As soon as it was exposed to water, it became just like a coral piece and had this slime film over it. Making it nearly impossible to get super glue gel to adhere to it. I ended up wasting 2 hours frustratingly trying to mount my SPS corals to weird places that I wanted. In the end... I had to scavenge around my Saltwater supply boxes and found the pink colored 2 part epoxy from Two Little Fishies... first try, worked perfectly... arghhhhh I was so agitated.
On top of that... while I was trying to transfer one of my Magician zoa polyp onto another frag plug I accidentally dropped the polyp face down right into super glue I wanted to cry. I sat there for 15 minutes trying to pick off the super glue from the polyp. We'll see if it recovers.
ON TOP OF ALL THAT... I accidentally turned on the pump for my freshwater Saltwater batch too soon and dumped about 2 gallons of water all over the floor... oh man. Just was not the weekend for me to work on fish stuff.
Wait, it gets better... I was out walking my dog and almost got hit by a car because he was turning and was not paying attention. I had to fling my puppy out of the way and jumped out and yelled out BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP MAN! Rolled my ankle in the process, not bad, but enough to limp my way back home.
When I got home I fragged some zoas... and I thought to myself "wait.... after all this happening, I really shouldn't frag zoas right now... with my luck this weekend, I'll probably get paly toxin" Thank god I didn't.

Any who, long blab... but that was my weekend.
Did take the wife out to a nice dinner and we saw 12 Strong. Great movie.

Next up.... excited for this weekend! Reef club meet and looking forward to meeting Julian Springs and they have a 5 gallon Jellyfish tank from JellyfishArt up for raffles... $550 value... I think I'll toss some money at that to try and win it.

 

Oh man. Sounds like it definitely wasn't the best fish weeked . sometimes I dread maintnencing my tanks, but then I start and I'm like, I love this! And then I finish and everything looks so much better and I like everything a lot more. I hope you win that jellyfish tank! That would be super cool. Note to self, never buy fluval 2 part epoxy.

 

You should do more youtube, you do so much reef related stuff you could be up there, talking about all this fun stuff, videos on your reef trips etc, I had a bad fish weekend two weeks ago on my last wc, but everything’s better off for it now, I moved a nem on for some cash and got the big purple one isolated and my seiatapora is back in its original spot, wc was slick today sucked all the rest of the sand from under the rock work, reactor is on the way too ordering the light tonight and just for a pump hmmm. .

 

grantm91 man - it is awkward filming myself and talking to the camera. I get too paranoid tbh... Also - it's less stressful not having to worry about making content. I've talked to a few youtubers and they say sometimes it's very stressful in getting good content and then spending hours on video edit.
With that said though... I do appreciate the support you and the rest of the peeps ya'll give me on my YT videos. It's fun to make them every now and then. I'll promise to make one before January ends though. Maybe a walk through of my equipment, unveil the IM10, and a feeding video of the dragonette eating pellets and frozen??

I can't wait to see your chaeto reactor up and running. You'll have to keep us updated on your algae too. To see if it helps it.

 

Yeah that's a biggie Nart, never beat the fun out of your hobby or add stress, its all we have in our chill time, I just like to encourage people when I see good potential as you have that you-tuber style, Il look forward to the videos, also I'm sourcing some Flucanazole and going that route as well as the reactor, I did a WC today but I left my in-tank fuge aka the back glass as it is, so we can watch the algae melt rather than scrape it out, so that should be fun. Il take pics along the way, thinking to do a new thread now I know the route I’m taking with my little cube, looking to make the most of a closed system, like its all hang on, not even a AIO, I like being different, all the amazing tanks are usually sumped or at least a AIO.

 

Update on the scooter.

Check her out. flaring up all her fins at me while I was trying to take a pic of her. She's starting to slowly plump up. Lateral lines arnt as prominent as before



I also noticed her fins, on the edges, she has these neat color of orange around it.

 

Sunny D frags... something so satisfying seeing all of them on the frag rack like this

 

I need a frag rack so bad, your right, that looks soooo satisfying. Next on my list for sure.

 

Wow nart those are growing like weeds for you! I love it. Bet you can make some decent dough selling some of those off

 

Quick feeding video update.

stella1979 can you spot the starry blenny?

 

How long did it take your goby to come out and start just being around and not scared when you come by? Oh and I just joined R2R to join the ETRC reefing club (East Tennessee) and saw your thread immeaditly so I'm reading through. I'll have to post! Oh and Culprit was taken so I'm C-Reefer now. Get it? Sea Reefer? Also C first letter of name? Oh hohohoho i'm so smart lol

 

Culprit My first yasha goby was a beast. I think it started running the place like the next day I got it lol. But this yasha goby took a longgg time to come around. I think it didn't even come out much for the first two weeks when I got it home. probably closer to the 2 month mark it started coming out more. I train all my fishes that pump off + tongs = food. So each time I feed it, I try to get closer and closer to it with tongs without scaring it away. LOL at your C-Reefer. Pretty hi-larious haha.

I can't even explain to ya'll how beautiful and breath taking this clam is.
Look at that mantle extension!

 

I'll definitely give him time. Hes still pretty skittish but slowly getting better I think. I can walk around the room as long as I don't make any sudden movements and stay at least 5-10 feet away. Now that your yasha's comfortable does it just stay out in the tank and only go in its burrow if it gets scared or at night? I'm trying to teach it that pumps off plus syring equals food. Generally if I squirt some in the mouth of his burrow he'll dart out and get it even while I'm still moving my hand around in the tank.

I love your clam nart!! I bet its so much prettier in person too. is that a duncan on the left of the clam? Did you get it as a single head or did you frag it? I love the way it has that blue fringe on the edges, and then the speckled center!

 

that's a good sign. at least you know its eating. Mine didn't even come out for the first two weeks lol. I thought it was dead at one point.
Mine comes out occasionally. I think mostly it's hanging with the pistol shrimp digging away. I'd probably say, I see mine about once every other day (not counting feeding time). It's especially special when you see the pistol shrimp come out... it makes you kind of freak out and grab everyone around you to see too haha.

That is a Duncan to the left. I got it for free from a local reefer. It was a tiny little head about 0.75" when I got it. I had traded my original big 5 polyp Duncan way back.. and regretted ever since. Loved that coral. But, good thing that you are mentioning about that Duncan. So when I got it, I wasn't sure it was going to survive. ask grantm91 we were discussing corals and I told him how annoyed I was at the Duncan because it wasn't opening up since I got it... It was not happy for about a month, some days it didn't open, some days it did. I was finally able to tell that it was getting too much light cus I had it right at the middle of my tank. I dropped it down about 2 inches and a few weeks later it finally opened up. Good example of leaving the coral alone for the most part... and now it's even sprouting a baby polyp. Btw - that Duncan is in a medium - high flow area. it gets hit by the flow deflected from the glass quite a bit. No issues for it!

 

Haha yeah I see him about 2-3 times a day. He'll be out just his head sticking out of his burrow if its quiet all day. Sometimes when I feed him if I stay still for a few minutes I'll see the shrimp! And yeah, its always super cool. Ive a few times after a really quiet school day been able to sneak up on him and he'll be all the way out of his burrow swimming around some and the shrimp will be out and about working on his burrow and finding food.

I love my Duncan already. Super cool the way it feeds and exhibits such a great feeding response. Its always out before lights even turn on too! Ahhhh gotcha. Hopefully it continues growing and gets big like your last one! I'd say mine is medium flow too.

 

Looks like you found a perfect spot for your Duncan. Your corals will tell you if they are happy or not. Glad you are enjoying the Duncan. It's a lot of fun keeping em

 

Sharing some pics from the club meet today. Julian Sprung gave a presentation on Natural Disaster Planning for your reef tank.

Frag stands up for shopping!



Julian, InappropriateReefer, DC Reefer



D.C. Reefer interviewing Julian



Julian giving his presentation



Got some grape Calurpa from InappropriateReefer.



Came home and my girl was greeting me at the magnifying glass.



All around fun day chit chatting and won some acro raffles

 

Rock on! Was he speaking on preparing your reef tank for things like hurricanes or storms that disrupt our electricity or natural disasters within the eco of our tanks?

 

Nanologist spot on GB. Julian lives in Miami, FL. Hurricane Irma hit his area and he lost electricity for 6 days. It was his first time giving this presentation as he felt inspired to talk about this. Man... he lost just about his entire tank at home in his 350g, fish and lots of corals. He lost his clowns that he first bought in '95... and stuff like that. He lost some of his stuff at his two little fishy store too. But yeah, interesting topic.

How's your snow trip btw?

 

Nanologist spot on GB. Julian lives in Miami, FL. Hurricane Irma hit his area and he lost electricity for 6 days. It was his first time giving this presentation as he felt inspired to talk about this. Man... he lost just about his entire tank at home in his 350g, fish and lots of corals. He lost his clowns that he first bought in '95... and stuff like that. He lost some of his stuff at his two little fishy store too. But yeah, interesting topic.

How's your snow trip btw?

What a learning experience... for him and all the fans.

Little snow yet as I'm only in Omaha, NE now, but I got to the best outlet mall in all USA. You'll get pics of Beaver Creek Resort tomorrow then Vail on Monday.

 

Nice Nart! I'm inquiring about when the ETRC meets and where. Do you have to pay to be a member? I'm thinking I'll definitly visit a few times as a guest before becoming a member if I want to since I have to pay a fee. Sounds like a lot of fun though!

 

Most clubs require a yearly fee. Of like $20. If you do one time guest visits they normally charge like $10 entrance fee. Soooo.... lol.

 

New toy coming next week super excited. Time to graduate from the AI Prime HDs.

 

Nart does the aI prime arm fit it ? Also would the 15 cover a IM25 I thought about the 15 before as it boasts a big spread for a little unit, I just thought maybe a 15 may struggle with my depth ?

 

Nart does the aI prime arm fit it ? Also would the 15 cover a IM25 I thought about the 15 before as it boasts a big spread for a little unit, I just thought maybe a 15 may struggle with my depth ?

Na. The arm doesn't fit it. Different mounting system.

XR15s Pro will cover a IM25 just fine. Not for a SPS dominated tank though. Plenty of power for a 24x24 with 12" depth. I only got the XR30 Pro so I don't have to rebuy lights when I get my bigger tank. That way I can just buy another XR30 Pro down the line and I'll be done with lighting.

 

Duuuudddeeee. Sweet lights. I can't wait to see what these babies are like after the AI Primes were so good

 

Can you say Squamosa Clam?

 

So cool!! I bet this one is going to be gorgeous just like the derasa!

 

Let's talk about some updates with ya'll.

As some of you know, I have a freak accident with my montI caps. I lost them all in a matter of several days.
I did something out of the norm, which you should learn from me, always wash and clean all parts of your body going into the tank. I had various lotions on my forearm, which I normally don't put any on... arm went in the tank to water change and move some corals around, accidentally dropped my big hydnophora SPS on the montis.. yeah. didn't turn out so well. It's always hard for me to talk about losing corals, so just make sure you clean your hands/arms, well before they go into the tank.

Otherwise, the rest of the tank looks okay now.
Upon coming home that day of losing my montI caps... I saw this, made me chuckle a little.
Looks like the Starry Blenny found himself a Temperpudic bed haha. The Derasa clam has really gotten used to it's surrounding and not too phased with the fishes rubbing up on it.



The squamosal clam on the other hand has been a challenge.
It's been very temperamental. The slightest sneeze near the tanks makes it react and retract lol. It has also moved itself all over the tank too. Hopefully it'll settle down soon.




Look what I just went and picked up (had UPS hold the package)
sooooooo excited to get home and play around with this. though I won't be able to put it on the tank till tomorrow as the RMS mount doesn't arrive until then.





That's all for now.
Ya'll excited to see the new lights on the IM25??!!!!!!

 

Man.... the person left out the micro USB cord with the Radions. I had to sift through my entire place to find a "non-data" transfer micro USB cord to plug it into my laptop and get it working. What a pain.

Unit itself was a little dirty too... salt creep central. So I took it apart and started cleaning.



Ta-da! Got it all back together and programmed. Ready to rock n roll tomorrow as soon as I get the mount.

 

Oh man, think I’m as excited as you that's the best thing you ever got nart !!!

 

YAS YAS YAS! I'm not even thinking about work today. I just want to get my meetings over with, so I can swing by the UPS store, grab the mount, go straight home and install this puppy!

 

I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED NART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S RADION DAY!!! A day late.... Guess I'll quit complaining over a missing cable for my Apple TV remote (no extras, we're PC peeps around here but for the TV thingy.) What a bummer about your cable. I'd have been so aggravated yesterday!!!

I can't believe that I missed weeks of posts here! Didn't even get the tag about finding the blenny! I did spot him though, and truly enjoyed that video.

I have to say, the story of Julian losing so much brought a tear to my eye.... but also made me swell with pride. I had 6 days without power post Irma too, used a bunch of gasoline, but kept those car batteries charged and didn't lose a dang thing. Sunlight and flow baby! Granted, that worked for a 20g. So, so sad to hear of the 350g and the clowns. I believe the 350 is his local species tank. Love that tank! Did he mention if the side fuge with the mangrove survived?

 

I'm not sure which emoticon captures how I feel. Maybe all of these:


Nart going pro... grats!

 

OFF WORK EARLY!!!!
Radion lights here I come!!!!!!

 

 

First glance right after install. Have to head to dinner so I'll mess with it more later. What do y'all think?

 

It really fits that tank perfectly even though it's definitely overkill for most nano tanks(unless filled to the brI'm with SPS). That mount looks beefy too. I love the aesthetics of it.

 

As GB said, it looks great, can't believe the size man, your ready for anything with that haha, you ascended to another realm of Reefing nart.