It's always interesting finding new things in the tank

So I've had a few losses in the tank since my last post. Sadly, mostly unnatural causes. My blue tang finally died after having a case of white spots. My hammer coral died since the naughty yellow tail damsels kept kicking sand onto it. My favourite fish punchy died from being stuck in the weir. I was so sad to come home and find him dead. my long noes butterfly died the day after.

On a happier note, I have got some new fish.



This is a sand sifting goby. (The pic was taken when he just got put in so he freaked out my goni coral) I have 2 of these now after picking up another one from Malcom this afternoon. They clean all the sand on the bottom eating all the left over food.



Alan and I have been looking for one of these for so long! He's a scooter dragonette. He is one of the main reasons we started a marine tank. We saw one at the aquarium shop when we were buying freshwater fish and thought he was the cutest thing but sadly he was saltwater. Hence, the new tank :D



Among the many random things I've found in the tank (including a sea urchin), I found this. I still have no idea what it is



Night shot with the moonlight LEDs.

Ordered a lot more goodies that should be arriving this week!

Photos!

Finally pulled out the DSLR to get some decent shots of the tank rather than just half-assed pics.

Hermit crabs:







Corals













My Trigger and starfish:



Punchy!



Got a new anemone today. One of the clownfish has already claimed it as his:

My cowfish punchy.

So have been going through HUGE updates with the aquarium. So excited. It's all coming together :D
Have quite a few corals and fish now.

Just 4 of my 7 coral:





It's so interesting watching them eat:



One of my fish (hes a niger trigger) stealing my nem's food:



I have 6 yellow tail damsels (they were one of my first fish in the tank). They can be aggressive but mine seem to like hiding



This is one of my cardinals. I have a bangaii and a pyjama. This is the bangaii:



This is my fave hermit crab (I've lost count on how many are in there). He's really active and just walks around the tank. So I named him Ferdinand after the explorer Ferdinand Magellan:



And this is the star of my tank. He is a long horned cow fish. So small and cute but Alan has named him punchy since he seriously always seems to want to fight. While other fish are scared by me cleaning the tank, he follows the glass cleaner and me around. He then bit me when I tried to put my hand into the tank! He also follows the camera around like crazy when given the chance. Check out how small he is:



Latest full tank shot:

Aquarium Update

Been doing some major updates in the last few days/weeks.



Installed a new Marine sources skimmer. Rated for 1500L :). Also got a auto top up system :)



He looks so angry. I can't remember what kind of fish these are so if anyone could help me out that would be great.
My tank now currently has 6 of these. They always hide when I get too close to the tank unless it's food time. The other livestock in the tank are my 2 black clowns, 1 blue starfish and a bunch of hermit crabs and snails. I think I may have spotted a Brittle star that came on the live rock but have only seen him once.




Did some more Aquascaping. LHS



Middle



RHS



Full tank shot. <3

Almost ready for fish!

Finally went and picked up the last of the live rock. Got about 50kgs (at a bargin price!) from John off MASA. Top guy and his tank looks awesome. I could tell he had put a lot of work into his tank. It's a shame he had to get rid of it.



Got a few crabs and shrimps with it too! Here's one of the little guys (the only one I could really get a picture of)



Tested my waters and everything seems good. Almost ready for fish after a water change on the weekend.



Full tank shot after my aquascaping!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Went to Beach Aquariums today in Bondi to pick up some rocks and more instant ocean mix (wasted half the bucket in the leaking incident!).

Had dinner at Kelly's with Justin and Christina. Justin and I both ordered medium pork ribs (which were awesome) and lets just say one of us finished all of it and it wasn't him. :p

Also picked up his old light since he's converted to LEDs as well as a box of rocks which I will be putting together tomorrow. (Thanks again!)

Just some of the rocks in the tank:





My favourite piece:



Ripples from the Power heads:



Full tank shot:



In another one of our 5 tanks (the goldfish one) I bought this guy over a month ago. Despite what it looks like, he's not dying. Since I got him for some odd reason he tends to over-eat and floats on his side all night long. In the morning he is fine and back to normal. How strange.

Aquarium Crazy!

I have been going completely aquarium crazy recently. Spending all my spare time on MASA and researching for the tank. Also did a few updates myself.

I spent Thurs filling up the rest of the tank and testing all the pumps.

This waterfall effect looked really nice going into the weir but it was effing loud and the cat did not approve.



Ended up putting this pipe back in (after I spent so much time taking it out during cleaning!)



Also relocated the power board which was previously nailed to the wall:



These came in the mail on Friday from Guppys (been spending a lot of time on there too!):



They are a little strong so I will have to find a way around it:



As I mentioned in my previous post, I also needed to find a way to nicely put the return pipe so I set off to Bunnings (for like the 5th time this week!) ended up getting some piping and just hooking it on. That way the cat also wont accidentally knock it out if he's playing under the tank (which he is doing quite often):



My parents have also started getting interested in my tank and bought me a large bucket to put my sump into (just in case there is a power outage and the sump overflows. Full tank shot (see the bucket on the bottom left):



Of course whenever I sit down to do anything under the tank, my puppy tries to crawl into my lap thinking it's play time: