Bacterial Bloom and another new fish!

A couple of days ago my tank randomly turned very cloudy... besides for the tang, I didn't really add anything else over the last few days. Needless to say, this is strange. The last time the tank turned this cloudy, we were cooking something in the house that smoked up... carbon took care of it last time in a day, but again, it did nothing for the tank this time even with two bags.

After much reading, it seems like I have a bacterial bloom. Since the haze is gray/white and not green (algae) or yellow (ammonia?) that seems to be the only logical conclusion. I guess to back track just a tad bit, I even took my water to the store to get it tested and everything came back and I quote: "perfect!"

Ah well... with perfect but cloudy water, this was good enough for me to add yet another fish. Although my first two tangs suffered ill fates maybe due to high nitrates or bad collection habits... I was REALLY glad to see that my Mimic Tang was healthy, eating, and not fighting with the existing inhabitants.

Well, I wanted to push my luck and decided to add a Clown Tang into the tank. I've always loved the colors and the patterns on these fish and so fargood to see that he too is getting along with the other ones in the tank. Now all I have to do is wait for the haze to be gone and I'll be back to my happy self again.

Tang Attempt #3

I went to the Buckhead fish store after work yesterday to pick up a couple of clowns for my new tank. Yeah, I realize it's a bit soon but the cycling time for my tank has been minimal mostly due to me filling the tank with dry rocks and live rocks from my 90. Well, I ended up not getting the clowns but walked out with some more rocks and a mimic tang.

My favorite tangs thus far have been the red sea sailfin desjardini, achilles tang, the purple tang and some of the powder blue and browns. Most of the others have not been of interest to me but for whatever reason, this one REALLY caught my eye. Apparently, according to the store owner, this particular Mimic Tang was mimicking a Eibli Pygmy Angel like the one pictured below... which must have been it cause I remember liking those as well.

Well, the crazy store owner quoted me $110 for this fish... after much MUCH debate, I ended up getting him. This was probably a bad decision b/c the two tangs I've tried before had not fared well at all. The purple tang died. The hippo tang also died mysteriously after a week due to not eating.

Also, the flame angel I bought was terrorized to death by the Potter's Angel and MUCH to my dismay, didn't make it through day two.

So here I am, buying a tang which doesn't stand much of a chance living (apparently)... as well as mimicking another dwarf angel which may cause issues in itself... I dunno; almost everything about it smelled fishy to me.

But the funny thing was... while I was worrying about this fish, the owners were worried about this tang terrorizing my current tank mates. I guess we were on different pages.

Well, I'm glad to say this story has a happy ending so far... when the fish finally rang up, it was only about $55 w/ the ARC discount. At first I thought I got a killer deal but I was just misquoted the price. Also, since the introduction to the tank, it seems like it has taken on the dominate role. The other fish are cautious, but no one has even tried to harass the tang yet (which I guess they didn't harass tangs before either). Vice versa, the tang hasn't decided to pick fights with anyone yet. I'm not sure if the colors will continue to stay as the Eibli, but I hope so... I really like the way this one looks... but I guess time will tell.

Can anyone ID this?

Could this be a new baby plate coral about to form? It looks awesome but I have no idea what it is. Can any of you ID it?

From Hobbiest to Addict...

I'm not sure if I've been trying to avoid wedding planning or if it's something else that's urging me to procrastinate and not think about work... but these past 2-3 weeks I've been on a craze looking up new zoas, new corals, new deals to trade, etc. Nevermind the fact that my tank is SOOO crowded right now that I'm actually a little pissed at it. Believe it or not, there actually is a fine line between looking like a true reef to looking like a junkyard for corals and I'm pretty sure I crossed over onto the dark side.

So what would a sensible person do? Probably sell off some frags, rearrange the tank so every piece would have a good chance to grow out, etc. What did I do? Start looking for the next tank that's under 75 gallons and trying to find a place for it. At first it was a 40g breeder... then maybe a 58 gallon (I think I saw a good deal on Craigslist) then progressively it got bigger and more expensive and so on... ACK!

Alright, so my senses compromised a bit. I went downstairs into my garage where the unsold 29 gallon is still chillin, cleaned it up, painted the back, and I'm now going to put it to work. So far, luckily I have yet to spend a dime besides for more black paint. I guess lucky me I just happened to have a spare tank, stand, 150w MH light, heaters, sand and of course salt and water. I will need to get some more rocks I think but I haven't quite figured out how this new frag / zoas and ricordias tank will be aquascaped.

So now that I'm finally jumping over from just having one tank to two tanks, I'm now officially an addict. The sad part is... I'm setting up the second tank in the guest room, a room that I maybe visit once a month. If anything, this just screams MORE WORK!