Chort55's 180 v.2.0

[Sir Patrick]

Great videos! Your tank, and the fish in it, are looking great!

[chort55]

Thanks Chris, my corals haven't liked the algae (fields) that sprung up after the switch to ro/di which I have been battling for months now! If it doesnt go away soon I will probably start looking into different reactors (carbon/gfo)... I would just add a new tang or two, but all the ones I want should be in a bigger tank then this (achilles, sohal, naso)

I do plan on adding probably around a dozen more fish before I quit adding to this tank tho.... mostly wrasses, but possibly some more anthias as well. Could end up even seeing a large school of chromis get dropped in but im not sure if I want to try them again

[chort55]

Well, the wife decided to add to the wrasse collection yesterday.... she went to Reef Paradise and picked up a couple Whip Fin Fairy Wrasses, not something I've even considered before, but they are pretty cool and I'd say a good pick by her I dripped them for a few hrs lastnight added them in late with the lights pretty much out (didnt do my normal lights out like I would because I wasnt expecting to add them lol), but it went good and they seem to be doing good. They ate 1st feeding today without any hesitation!

Leopard Wrasse update: They are doing strong, extremely aggressive eaters and are not afraid to shoot infront of my large Passer Angel or my Yellow Coris Wrasse (that is easily double their size) to grab food out of the column!!!!

[chort55]

Well after a bit of thought, Jim has inspired me to do something I haven't done in about 15-20 yrs.... I bought a FW fish, well actually 3 LOL Yup, I picked up 3 black molly's. Nothing fancy (LMAO), just a few simple solid black mollys. My whole thought on it was purely purpose driven, I have been battling algae ever since switching to RO/DI and after hearing these guys eat algae I figured I have enough snails for now lets try something different, and the free fish/coral food with the way these things mate was a nice little bonus. So I went up to the local Petsmart (because Reef Paradise only sells cool stuff, no FW there), dropped $6 and grabbed 3 of these little things (1 male, 2 females) for the sole purpose of algae consumption. I chose the black ones because I have a black background and hope they will blend in nicely. So far, they are hardly noticeable, and I dont think any of my other fish even noticed they went into the tank.... now if only they will make the algae less noticeable lol

Oh yeah, I dripped them for about 3 hrs, didnt check salinity, I've heard they can go straight from FW to SW up to they need 5hr acclimation, so figured around the middle would be good.

[demonclownfish]

what kinda algae you hoping they will get rid of?

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Oh no, not another reefer lost to the allure of FW! JK. I hope they tear up your algae.

I think we all need some pics of the new fish (and an FTS too).

Tom

[chort55]

Originally Posted by demonclownfish

what kinda algae you hoping they will get rid of?

A bunch of hair algae..... like a lot! lol

Originally Posted by Tom@HaslettMI

Oh no, not another reefer lost to the allure of FW! JK. I hope they tear up your algae.

I think we all need some pics of the new fish (and an FTS too).

Tom

Yeah you know the colors of FW fish are just so...... naw can't even do it! lol I was watching them for a little bit, and one of the females was pulling algae off the glass like crazy so hopefully the other 2 will follow her lead and get to work!

A pic of these little things will be hard in my 180, they are fairly hard to find even but I will try to get one of the new wrasses the wife got last weekend for the tank and maybe another FTS, kinda do a before and hopefully have a nice after lol

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Originally Posted by chort55

...I will try to get one of the new wrasses the wife got last weekend for the tank and maybe another FTS, kinda do a before and hopefully have a nice after lol

That's what I was hoping for!

Tom

[chort55]

Here is my most recent FTS from when I did the rescape after removing my blue Throat trigger, flame angel and large cinnamon clown:


Here is my tank at its worst point, you can't see the back glass but it was a waving field of algae:


That was about 4 months ago, the cyano has finally disappeared and the algae fields are receding pretty good, but I figured I would go ahead and add these little black mollys to finish it off and keep it at bay. Sure I could have added more snails, or another tang (which I still may do) and a gfo/ carbon reactor but I like to do things a little different anyways so figured try them out and "add another tool to the tool shed" so to speak lol

I will still try to get some more recent pics later when the lights come on tho Tom!

[chort55]

Well someone decided these FW fish didnt belong in the tank as I came home today to find 2 floaters.... 3rd is MIA