My new 90 gallon reef tank

Here are some critter shots. I got my second shipment from TBS a week ago today. The second urchin, the black one, was a hitchhiker.

While setting up the tank, I did find a couple of Pistol Shrimp which I decided I would keep. So over the past week I attributed all of the clicking I was hearing to them. Well today I found him! I have a Mantis!! :grumble:

Let the hunting begin. Wish me luck. :death:

Charlie
 

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These two guys were no more than a fuzzy spot on this rock when I got them about 4 weeks ago. The second one is off to the right behind the "stuff". They were both hitchhikers and haven't left this rock the entire time. :mrgreen:
 

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You just cant beat Tamp Bay Saltwater for rock.Its unreal the ammount of hitch hikers you get.
But they are known for sending a few mantis with every shipment.:D
Good luck on the hunt.
 
So it's been about 6 months and I thought I would post a couple of pics. In another forum I posted a pic of my monster Stone Crab which has taken out almost all of my CUC, but he also took care of my Mantis Shrimp. So i'm willing to call it a draw. I was finally able to catch him and he is now banished to the sump.

So anyway, here ya go:

1. Red Mythrix Crab and all grown up Erchin
2. Original Sponges and our "Decorator" Urchin
3. Original something or another with 6 Line Wrasse
4. 2nd Urchin all grown up
 

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So it's been 9 months and I have been living with quite a dilemma. I inherited a Mantis when I got my live rock from TBS. I don't blame them a bit. They couldn't help it. In fact when I first found him I was excited. I think they're quite an interesting animal. Mother nature has a sense of humor! I wanted to keep him, really I did.

Well, after 9 months, the Mantis has been able to kill off almost all of my animals! :frustrat: I mean EVERYTHING; shrimp, snails, hermits, crabs, even small fish. As you can imagine my tank has suffered quite a bit. :grumble:

So much for tolerance! The only way I could get the little (1.5 - 2 " long) bastard out of my tank was to remove everything else. Here is what he looked like (pics below). I didn't have the heart to "flush" him so I took him to my LFS where he is in solitary pending his parole hearing or death sentence. :bye2:

So out came everything, what was left anyway. All of the rock was dipped and scrubbed to rid it of any and all pests. What remained of my other items was placed in buckets and containers for safe keeping. I then cleaned out the tank and all of the equipment and started over yet AGAIN!

My sponges have survived well, as have my urchins. My baby urchins have fully grown now (in my earlier posts I have pics of them when they were young. They came as black fuzzy dots on one of my live rocks from TBS). I still have a couple of snails and only 2 hermits. I also have a great Red Mithrax Crab. He is about 1/2" across his shell!!

The rebuild afforded me the opportunity to re-aqua scape my tank. I now have more tunnels, caves and pathways for my new future fish. I have begun re-stocking and things are going great.

I have added a 2 headed Feather Duster, multi cultural polyp rock and a Colt Coral. I now have 3 blue/green Chromis and a great Hawk fish. He follows me around the tank all of the time. Funny guy. Pics to follow.

All in all it's not been too bad except for the loss. I am going to get a refresher CUC from TBS after the first of the year. Not much to clean up now. :shock:
 

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That sucks, I got 2 mantis shrimp in my rocks from TBS. The first one I managed to get out of my tank with only a pair of tweezers (if you can believe that!) the other has been in there since March and I haven't lost anything to the little guy.
 
Here are some tank shots as of today. The first was with flash, the other two were no flash.
 

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and some close ups of my original items from TBS.
 

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and some new stuff ...
 

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Brian,

I wanted to try to keep my Mantis because he really is, was, neat! Quite the conversation piece when he was out and about. I just couldn't see feeding him all of my CUC replacements again. I tried to trap him but that didn't work. I caught just about everything BUT him. Thus the tear down.

Oh well. Good luck with yours. Is yours a Peacock or Green like mine was?

Charlie
 
I would have loved a Mantis like that! If only my tank was ready and you lived on the opposite side of the USA then I would take him off your hands :D. Nice tank it's a shame he caused such havoc.
 
So for the final touch on my current saga... about a month ago one of my "new" power compact lights quit working. :frustrat:

I was upset that one of my new bulbs had blown out already. Instead of just getting a new one I decided I would swap the plugs and viola, it worked. So now the problem is in the power source. :grumble:

When I swapped plugs I noticed that the "burned out" bulb would just barely flicker when I switched it on. So I figured the ballast was bad. Being somewhat "handy" I decided to take the power unit apart and see if it was something I could fix myself.

The INTERNET is fantastic! I was able to find the make and model of the two ballasts used, ordered new ones, $25 each, and finished rewiring the whole thing this afternoon.

Fixed! :^: Boy I love it when my skills pay off. I'm sure it was less expensive than having to buy a new system.

Happy tank again :Cheers:
 
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