meknudson2
Active Member
Nice!!!! 
Sean's 56g starphire
- Thread starter reefer gladness
- Start date
StirCrayzy
Well-Known Member
its frickin huge! Nems can be such a chore to accomodate sometimes .
reefer gladness
Well-Known Member
Well I must have jinxed it because I was hoping the nem would continue to grow and the same night I snapped this pic it retreated to the back of the tank and split. So now I have two nems. Too soon for a pic, they're still in the back recuperating from the split.
I've been planning a larger tank in the den but still have some remodeling projects to do so I may setup the RSM 130D again and move some of the corals to that one. Maybe I'll keep the 58g as a nem dominated tank.
I've been planning a larger tank in the den but still have some remodeling projects to do so I may setup the RSM 130D again and move some of the corals to that one. Maybe I'll keep the 58g as a nem dominated tank.
Cool photo, look forward to seeing the splitters.
reefer gladness
Well-Known Member
Guess it's been awhile since I've posted any new pics. Sorry bout that, started a new job at beginning of year and have been pretty focused. The tank is doing good, the two nems settled right down after the split in December. I did lose the filamented wrasse on New Years day though. He was a jumper and managed to find a small gap in the back screen I must have left doing tank maintenance.
I'm testing new salts, having grown tired of the residue left in my mixing buck with the Red Sea Coral Pro. Been using Tropic Marin Pro-reef for the past 6 months, it mixes clear in about an hour which is a major plus. ESV B-ionic salt is next on the list to try. Everything is growing so fast... you can see how much the green star polyps have spread over 7 months. I glued the rock to the overflow wall sometime in January.
So here's the tank. The clowns host both nems and move back and forth, either singly or in pairs constantly. Here they are with one nem:
And here they are just a minute later with the other.
There's one new addition to the tank. I picked up the red mandarin about 3 months ago. He fattened up quickly in quarantine and is doing very well living off the tank pod population. I was able to restock with a variety pods and macros from reefcleaners.org and converted part of my sump to a fuge while he was in QT too.
I'm testing new salts, having grown tired of the residue left in my mixing buck with the Red Sea Coral Pro. Been using Tropic Marin Pro-reef for the past 6 months, it mixes clear in about an hour which is a major plus. ESV B-ionic salt is next on the list to try. Everything is growing so fast... you can see how much the green star polyps have spread over 7 months. I glued the rock to the overflow wall sometime in January.
So here's the tank. The clowns host both nems and move back and forth, either singly or in pairs constantly. Here they are with one nem:
And here they are just a minute later with the other.
There's one new addition to the tank. I picked up the red mandarin about 3 months ago. He fattened up quickly in quarantine and is doing very well living off the tank pod population. I was able to restock with a variety pods and macros from reefcleaners.org and converted part of my sump to a fuge while he was in QT too.
reefer gladness
Well-Known Member
Haven't lost any corals to the nems but I have had to move corals out of the way a few times. The corals always seem to recover quickly if they get stung. The nem on the bottom is just starting to reach the frogspawn and hammer. No real problems yet but I'll need to move the frogspawn and hammer eventually.
theplantman
Active Member
The tank looks incredible, great job and I am glad your mandarin is doing so well.
reefer gladness
Well-Known Member
Every fish is different but my blue assessor sadly spends a lot of time hiding in the shadows. I suspect it was collected from deeper waters and it's not so comfortable under the bright lights. It always comes out when the dusk cycle starts and the lights dim though and it's never shown any aggression. Mine eats Mysis shrimp mostly and won't touch spirulina shrimp or dry foods like pellets.
You may also consider the yellow assessor basslet, one of the few yellow fish that is reef friendly (that isn't a tang). Very beautiful fish IMO.
The dragonet is doing well and I constantly see this fish cruising the tank hunting for pods. They swim near rocks, sand bed or glass and study their food carefully for several seconds before eating anything. My dragonet is 100% sustained from the amphipods and copepods in my tank but will munch on spirulina brine shrimp on occasion.
FWIW, my sump is a basic berlin style with the filter socks removed and a huge mass of chaeto in the first chamber. I was finding a lot of pods trapped in the filter socks and decided I'd rather vacuum the sump floor occasionally if it helped sustain the pod population.
I'll try to update with some pics over the weekend, it's been awhile.