Finally time for an update! I've moved pretty much everything I want to keep from my old tank to this one, and after going through an ugly round of what I assume was dino (brown, stringy stuff on everything, eventually cleared up), it's starting to feel like it's settling in.
Right now, there are only 3 clowns, a bicolor blenny and a fire shrimp in there plus a few snails and hermits. For corals, to me it's already looking a bit filled in - and I have not yet added anything that did not come from my 25 gal... Still not sure how I was able to get the big birdsnest colony on the left out of the old talk with out destroying it - got really lucky.
My little valida turned a nice shade of brown when I moved it over. But its starting to encrust and slowly get some color back. Not much polyp extension, but seems to be ok.
Green slimer from
@HiFidelity bounced back from the move pretty quickly.
My favorite zoa colony is recovering. Almost lost it to a case of what I think were "zoa pox" - at least that's what the internet tells me. One day, they seemed to not be opening much, which happens sometimes, but they were covered with white bumps. The next day, the closed polyps were looking kind of shriveled, that's when I panicked and drove around to three LFS's untilI I found some BiFuran+ (same drugs as Furan 2) and ran a three day dip treatment. Will probably follow up with another dip or two this week.
The other bad - and I'm sorry
@jonmos75 - my beautiful RBTA did not like being moved. Originally, it was very happy on a large piece of rock, that has a bunch of nuisance algae I'd like to avoid directly introducing to my new tank, so I gently worked at getting it to let go of the rock. After a couple of days, I was finally able to get it off, uninjured. Moved it to a "perfect" (haha) location in the new tank, it stuck, I fed it a little and the next morning it had moved a few inches. No problem! The morning after that, I had to leave for a couple of days for work, and it was gone. After I returned, I found a few bits of it in my filter sock - it made it through my intake siphon even though there is a screen over it. But, one of the pieces had a not-dead color to it and was attached to the PVC, so I gently took it off, and put it in a deli cup with a small piece of rock and covered it with some plastic netting. After a week or so, it stopped moving around it the cup, found a crevice in the rock, and is starting to look like an anemone again - just a very small one. Would post a pic, but it's in a tricky spot to photograph.
I think I almost have my Ca-Mg-Alk levels set, they've been way easier to dial in in the larger tank, and I want to add some more fish and corals. I'm thinking of some of the small lyre tail anthias that Neptune usually has, and/or a kole or tomini tang. The anthias adults don't look too big for my tank, but would welcome any feedback from people who keep them. Figuring I will use my 25 gal which is still running as a QT/observation tank.
And the halides... Ugh, they seem to work well, but they're big, and hot, and use a lot of electricity. The Kessil AP700 sure does look good, but I love the spread of the lights I have now. Decisions, decisions...
. The water also smells a little, and I had to clean some pretty foul goo out of the skimmer cup. Threw a nylon bag of carbon in the sump, and am now running GFO in a small reactor. Am planning on testing these params for the next few days before bringing Ca, Mg and Alk up to what I'd like. So far, my only "starter" is whatever was in the live sand, that I imagine is being fed by what's leaching off the rock. Looks like moving over fish and coral will need to wait a little longer...
