The Washington Reef 75/200 Gal Reef Tanks

[washingtond]

Thanks Richard and by the way yesterday I had my first flight of the New Year on American to Las Vegas to attend CES.

 

[Hunchback]

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This almost looks like reverse meteor shower/storm, just a differnt coloration, cool though.

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[washingtond]

They do look alike but I do not get the polyp extension that is in your picture. Do you know what the name of the coral is?

 

[Hunchback]

I think its a type of Cyphastrea

http://www.atlantisaquarium.net/frags3.html

http://www.reeffarmers.com/limitedcyphastreaocellina.htm

http://199.237.226.17/sps/Cyphastrea.html

 

[Richard]

@washingtond wrote:

I bet that was fun looking at all the new stuff.
btw, send me one of those Sony discontinued rear projection hdtvs.......

 

[washingtond]

@Hunchback wrote:

Thanks for posting and it could be I will take and post more pictures when I get back home the end of this week to see if that helps.

@Please_fly_AA wrote:

I bet that was fun looking at all the new stuff.
btw, send me one of those Sony discontinued rear projection hdtvs......."]

Being out here at this show is like a kid in a candy store. All I can say is WOW and you would not believe the crowds. It is very hard just trying to walk through the booths and the press is everywhere. NBC is giving away 2G memory cards that you can download shows from all the NBC/Universal networks for viewing on your computer. You have two weeks to do so then according to them poof they are gone. NBC along with FOX and other networks are doing live updates from the CES show.

If you want a Sony rear screen projector you should hurry while you can still get one, they do have an excellent picture.

 

[pineappleface]

@washingtond wrote:

Some of the crowd is there for the Adult Video Trade Show I believe it is in the same build as CES.

Ditto on the Sony RPTVs. I got a 37" Bravia for $675 (after discount, 10% off and free $24 giftcard) from Circuit City late Dec.

 

[washingtond]

@pineappleface wrote:

Some of the crowd is there for the Adult Video Trade Show I believe it is in the same build as CES.

Ditto on the Sony RPTVs. I got a 37" Bravia for $675 (after discount, 10% off and free $24 giftcard) from Circuit City late Dec."]

The Adult Movie Awards are in Jan 12 at the Mandalay Bay. The Trade show could be going on now but don't really know.

 

[washingtond]

Here are some pictures of our aquarium taken this morning in new light, natural sunlight this is coming in through the window this morning. The only other lights that are on are the actinics.

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[washingtond]

Here are a few more:

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[guitareefs]

Neat!

Beautiful tank

 

[washingtond]

The one thing that I noticed is how soft natural sunlight looks compared to the MH’s. To me it’s much more pleasant. The light only shines on the tank this time of year when the sun is lower in the sky and only for about 20 min due to the south side window location.

 

[mossjer]

I picked up a frag of David's Hammer tonight and all I can say is "WOW!!!". David Has two truly awesome tanks. The frag I picked up was open after 5 min. in the tank. I can only hope it will grow as well for me as it has for you. Thanks again David. Your tanks are truly an inspiration.

 

[washingtond]

@mossjer wrote:

Thank you for the kind comments and I know that the hammer will do well for you and grow. Be sure to contact me if you have any questions and hope to see you again at one of the meetings. Let us know from time to time how the hammer is doing and feel free to call if you have any quesitons.

 

[washingtond]

One of the websites that I use to host pictures is going dark on Feb 1st so many of the pictures may be going away. What this really means is that all the pictures in my postings from that site will be gone on Feb 1st not happy. The name of the site is Image Station.

This leaves me with two problems the first already solved. One I need to move all the pics on that site to another site (done) and second replace all the pictures from that site on all the different threads and postings which is a big problem for me since with all the pictures taken and the fact that it is hard to remember which site I used for them (just getting too old). So I will be going through many of them replacing the pictures but may, no will miss a few. The other problem is I really don’t have time for all this which is very frustrating.

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So if you see a posting without pictures that should be there please let me know. Thanks,

 

[washingtond]

I went by DNA this afternoon and they had some Blue Reef Chromis that I have been trying to find for months now so I purchased four of them. If you remember the pervious discussions I’ve been having a hard time keeping them so we will see how these do. I will start by feeding twice a day.

Note to Frank: I still want the ones that you are trying to get for me.

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I also got two Green Chromis as well while at the store.

Yesterday Tippie and I went to the DFWMAS Nextwave and purchased a top down box for taking pictures from Marc. I will post the pictures that I took today this evening.

 

[washingtond]

Here are the top down pictures. The setup is I had to open the top of the canopy to gain access to the top of the tank. This caused the light to be at a 45 degree angle to the corals. Also to get over the corals my shadow blocked some of the light so that meant the corals were not directly lit which resulted in an explosion of color.

Disclaimer: These are my first top down pics and I still need more practice.

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these are some shots without Marc’s box.

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[washingtond]

Well Tippie and I found one of the reasons why the Blue Reef Chromis don’t last long in our 200 gal tank.

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The fish in this picture is the only Chromis from the first batch that were introduced into our tank over two years ago. He takes on typical damsel behavior when new ones are introduced and proceeds to beat the crap out of them. We put four new ones in yesterday and he has already killed on last night, we were able to catch and save another by placing him into our 75 gal also last night. The other two are in hiding but we will try and catch them today.

Another observation was that when he was at his most aggressive state the Anthias also started chasing the new Chromis as well but soon settled down. At first is seemed like every fish in the tank was going after them (like feeding time) leaving no places to hide and every time they would duck into a cave someone when after them there. It was really hard to watch. Must be about territory and they have been there for so long. The Green Chromis introduced are doing just fine no problem they are left alone.

The last time that we put in new BRC they just would hide and never came out and we did not see all this aggression that occurred this time.

Conclusion in order to put any new Blue Reef Chromis into the tank we first must remove the original one and place all the new ones in at the same time. Over time after they are established we might be able to put the original back in but I doubt it. Such ashamed since this is such a colorful fish but… what is weird my feeling is that the group of fish that are currently in the tank will not let any other fish in. At present that would be 2 Yellow Tangs, a Powder Blue Tang, 4 Anthias (one a male) a Wrasse 4 Green Chromis. They all get just fine as if they have a peace treaty or something. The good news is that we have room in our 75 gal for more fish however a story for another time.

 

[Ashlar]

Interesting observations, David. I love it when we observe something that doesn't seem to be documented in the hobby literature.

 

[washingtond]

As of today around noon two of the four Blue Reef Chromis’s are dead with the remaining in hiding. The bully is not actively chasing them today but will not let them come out of hiding to eat so it does not look good. The one that I caught last night and placed into our other tank did not make. He was very weak when I caught him which if you think about is the reason why I could in the first place in a tank with LR and corals; he was too weak to hide.

The Green Chromis are all swimming in a school together just as if they have always been in the tank. Go figure....

The lesson learned is that when introducing a fish like this it must be done at the same time as with Tangs. Hopefully this will help someone else thinking about getting these beautiful fish.