I’m 99.9% sure…it Blends. Can’t find em, and I doubt what I removed was a molting.
Not sure there is any way I could have prevented this. Main circulation is a MaxiJet 1200 Pro setup in Laminar flow mode. Is 1300gph too much for a 90g? Its amazing how much flow this Maxi is putting out. Its dead quiet too, but did require me to super glue the propeller to the plastic piece that holds the magnet/engages the prop. I know people hate on these pumps, but for the price, mine is moving ALOT, almost too much water. Start/Stop are still noisy and sometimes reversed, so wave controller is still a negative.
Anywho, added a second Chromis and 3ea of Astrea and Nerite snails. Nothing big, slowly but surely building up this reef tank.
I know many may argue, but shrimp are some of the most delicate animals you can keep in a reef tank. If you are just starting out it may have been the tank was not mature enough of something was wrong with the chemistry.
MJ1200 are a made in China rip off of a good Italian pump that was coupled with good old American mod sold by a faceless cooperation. ( Can you tell I am one of those that doesn’t like them 
) In my opinion it is extremely unlikely that pump is putting out too much flow for a reef aquarium. That isn’t to say if you pointed it at certain corals it wouldn’t hurt them, but directed correctly so it moves water around the tank and not directly at an animal, I am sure it is fine.
I like the color in your tank from your lights and your rock scape! Coming along!
Might look into some Strombus Tonga fighting conchs and large nassarius snails(Nassarius distortus) with maybe a couple smaller nassarius(Nassarius vibex) mixed in. The last time I was at Delaware’s Premium Aquatics they had some large Nassarius in. Great sand bed stirrers.
Do you full have a fish stocking plan yet or waiting to see what you come across?
Thanks Gordon. Yeah, I’d like to keep a shrimp or two at some point for their utility and I just like to watch them. I figured they’d hang out on the bottom and not head up to the corner of the tank to get blended up like that. Better with an 8$ pepper than the $30 cleaner that I want eventually. I would like to think my chemistry is good, but my Nitrates are still hanging around 20ppm. Everything else is right on. Right now I’m not dosing anything, and just doing a 20gal water change every month to refresh trace elements. I test religiously for Ph/Ammonia, No2 an No3. I do not yet have Alk/Calc/Mag tests.
I haven’t given too much thought about a complete fish list but let me give it a shot here.
Blue Green Chromis x3
Yellow Eye Kole Tang - Algae control
Orange Spotted/Diamond Goby - for stand bed cleaning (over nassarious snails?)
Clown Fish x2 - Visual Appeal
SixLine Wrasse - cleanup
Cleaner Shrimp
Astrea/Nerite/Cerith snails
Thats probably about it actually. From the shot above I still have about double what you see worth of DIY base rock to add to the tank to make two columns in the tank…but that stuff is taking FOREVER to bleed the lime out of it. Ph is 8.8+ after 24hrs still. Patience is a virtue…
[quote=“Faralon, post:4, topic:5591”]
Better with an 8$ pepper than the $30 cleaner that I want eventually. [/quote]
Hate to put different price on animals lives, but I understand what you mean exactly. When I first started my first marine aquarium I drove over 2 hours to pick up a $30 “cleaner shrimp”, drip acclimated it for an hour, and before it hit the bottom of the tank… a $9 brittle sea star caught it out of the water column and ate the entire animal!
I say “cleaner shrimp” in quotes as most marine biologist would laugh at the common name as most shrimps we important into the hobby will serve as cleaners. In my personal experience pepperment shrimp can be more willing to clean then “cleaners”.
[quote=“Faralon, post:4, topic:5591”]
Everything else is right on.[/quote]
Everything? How is your ORP? Potassium? Boron? Copper? Just messing, as I know many people would cringe at that sentence knowing you are not testing everything. It sounds as if you are missing three very important kits.(when you go to pick them up I would recommend Elos)
Most successful aquariums have more frequent water changes done on them. It’s possible monthly will be ok for a while, but you likely will have better results doing them more often.
Are you testing pH with a chemical test kit? If so you’re likely wasting your time. These are typically off about .5 and never predictably off. They have enough of a margin of error they are worthless. Use a digital pH probe or ignore pH all together until you can get one. That being said it is even more important to get Ca, Alk, and Mg kits if you decide to ignore pH.
“Patience is a virtue…” dead on! Very wise statement.
lol, thanks for the reality check on water parameters Gordon! Man, talk about an upsetting return from the fish store w/ that cleaner/star event! Yeesh!
Interesting point on the Ph. I work as the Asst. Winemaker for a winery here in Elkton and have access to a Hana Instruments: HI2212. Its a high resolution Ph meter that compensates for temperature. Accurate to: 0.01. I’ll have yet to test a tank sample on it, but perhaps it’d be a fun test to see how close to the API test kit it is.
I totally agree that a digital Ph/ORP probe would be nice, and those test kits are coming soon.
I keep looking at my fish list and thinking that its like 90% of every other one out there with the exception of maybe a Blue and a Yellow Tang in there. heh. Ah well…its the corals, their growth and placement that will be unique!
Countless aquariums I believe are beautiful are full of the most common fish out there. Question is can you beat the color of a yellow tang? Nothing really tops them, but talk about common…
If you start to look at pH and ORP consider a Neptune controller. You can buy florescent lights and upgrade to PC and upgrade to T5s and LEDs. You can buy a zoo med power sweep, then upgrade to a made in china maxi jet mod, then upgrade to a Vortech. You can buy a ph test kit, then a digital pH tester, then a cheap DA controller, then a good Neptune controller.
Or you can buy the best equipment the first time and buy a boat with the money you saved. Or you can go freshwater and put a kid through college with the money you saved, lol.
Don’t tell my girlfiend I said this, I bought the cheapest worst equipment 7-8 years ago and have slowly upgraded part by part and man did it cost us.
Sounds like a life story of upgrades there Gordon, thanks for the info.
Get this…Peppermint Shrimp LIVES! It really did molt right after putting it in my tank. What I pulled of the maxi was definitely the fan end of its tail, and its face!
Little bugger is hunkered down in the middle of the main column in the tank…waiting for his new exterior to harden up I’m sure.
Those guys molt more than you think. If the thing you found is somewhat transparent don’t worry. A dead shrimp is pink or white and you cannot see through it. Since you don’t live too far from me you can borrow my digital ph meter and orp controller if you want for a day or so just to see what is going on.Things seem to be progressing nicely.
I know what you mean about buying an all in one controller like the neptune. It does soooooo much, and I REALLY want one. Had I saved the money paid for all the other stuff (like ph monitor) that the controller can do, I would have one. Just dropping $500+ at once hurts, especially on my budget.