Crlkeep's 125 gallon reef tank Part 2 ??????

[Charles Poole]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to upload a new avatar. Thought I would start this section off again with a miniature picture of my mini reef....

[microreefguy]

very nice.

[blackangler]

i love the blue ridge

[Paidbychrist0825]

i want the blue ridge:)

[Charles Poole]

Just to clarify for those who may not be familiar with this coral:

It is the peach colored coral in the lower lefthand corner of the above pics.

It lays down a blue colored skeleton, hence the blue name. It is not visible in a healthy growing specimen.

It gets this blue color from a chemical reaction with Iron. So with fast growing large colonies, Iron Supplementing may be critical.

This coral is classified as an Octocoral, same as most soft corals. But the onlything soft about it is the polyps themselves. In most other respects, it is much like a Stoney coral. They tend to be found in abundance in shallow water, sometimes just below the waters surface.

This is an exciting time for my tank. I have been exclusively using Bio-Sea Marinemix ( manufactured by Aquacraft Inc. ), and the effects on my tank are staggering. Water Clarity is at an all time high, Polyps are coming out on corals that have never really come out before. pH is way more stable than before.

So, after having used all of the following salts;
Instant Ocean
Reef Crystal
Coralife
Red Sea
Omega Sea
Kent Marine


I have found the salt that best performs in my system...

Now to get a bigger tank.... :)

[microreefguy]

i also use bio-sea.

[Charles Poole]

Aside from the quality of the salt mix, the companies CEO ( Micheal Del Prete ) is a real pleasure to talk to. He is very passionate about this hobby, and that means a great deal to me.

I have spoken to other manufacturers as well, and most could seemingly care less about the actual quality of their product. So I refuse to sell or endorse them. I am a hobbyist, and I take my hobby very seriously. Any manufacturers that are in this hobby for strictly financial gain, are not acceptable by me. No matter what they may claim on their products packaging, if they won't talk with me about the products, I won't use them...

[nanoman123]

im jealous of the blue ridge :roll:

[Charles Poole]

In over 2 years at my LFS, I have only seen it once. I'm glad I bought it when I did, it doesn't seem to be a very common coral in the hobby.

[Charles Poole]

Here is a recent shot of my Red Sea Sailfin rescue project. For those who are familiar with this poor guy, he has come a long way huh?

For those of you who don't know, this fish was donated to me in an attept to save its life. It was suffering from severe HLLE. Had almost no dorsal fin, just cartilidge stubs stick out of its spine. No scales on the portion of its body, from the lateral line up. This includes about 85% of its face being white and pitted.

Color has returned to all of the previously bright white areas of tissue. His face is back to around 10% left to heal. His dorsal fin is over 50% regenerated, and 35% of his body has recovered from the loss of scales resulting from the HLLE ( in the area affected above the leteral line ).

[Charles Poole]

here is a picture of the poor guy when I first brought him home... :(

[tepelus]

omg! how can anybody let a poor animal go like that! I'm glad to see he's doing so much better! He's definately in good hands now.

[Condiman]

Excellent work Chuck. 8)

[cich1]

i've seen that so many times in fw fish and amazingly enough most people don't try to treat it till its so far along that permament damage is done or the fish is suffering from secondary infections and there is nothing to be done to save it, good job Chuck, hes looking good

[Paidbychrist0825]

yea, his original post read something like" for those of you with sqeemish stomachs, dont scroll down" but chuck does wonders, you wouldnt think they were the same fish, would you?

[Zack]

:eek2: thats all i can show!

[Charles Poole]

Here is a slightly better picture of him.

[miztahphong2]

wow. she/hes looking good.

[Charles Poole]

She/he has the personality of a dog. She/he fllows me through the room, and comes to the surface and begs for food. I made myself a good friend I guess... :)

[miztahphong2]

lol! thats cool..

[icereefer]

:coolbeans: good job Doc

[Charles Poole]

good job Doc


Ha ha ha.... Love to show that one to my high school biology teacher. He said I was one of few kids to ever flunk his class. I guess I should have gone to his class a little more often... :lol:

[coral_diver]

Chuck did that fish come to you from the store??? OMG!!! I love to smack whoever it was that let that fish get that way I mean it dosen't happen overnight right!! WOW and again WOW! What may I ask did you use to treat him is it something good to use perhaps for a QT tank in general for newcomers to our tanks?

[Charles Poole]

I do recommend the use of a quarantine tank for new or sick fish. But, this fish was suffering more from a "condition", rather than an illness. HLLE that is caused by malnurishment is a bit easier to correct, provided the fish still has an appetite, and appears to be strong otherwise.

I admit that I placed this fish in my main display with my other fish. But I use the invert system at RMS as a sort of QT tank... :) The fish showed no signs of secondary bacterial, fungal or parasitic infections after a week, so I brought him home.

This fish was brought to our store by a SW maintainence company. He went to a "new" customers home, and found this poor guy. I know the owner of this company, and he would never have allowed this fish to get like this under his care... Since it is hard to sell a fish in this condition, we often adopt them out to anyone willing to provide good care for the fish. In this case, I was the lucky parent... :) The fish and I have become quite attached to each other now. I am not kidding when I say that he is like a dog. Only real difference in personality is that he is not to big on being pet.... :lol:

[Charles Poole]

Coral_Diver,

I live in Geneva On The Lake. If I recall correctly, you mentioned a Shop near me called the Sea Shanty. Do you live out this way also?

If so, feel free to stop by and say Hi... :) If you call RMS and ask for Margie, she will tell you how to get here, or give you my cell #, so I can tell you.

You can see why my neighbors call me "Ace Ventura"
I think it has to do with the 3 dogs, 4 cats, 2 birds and 3 fish tanks...

[MikeS]

What two birds do you have?

Mike

[coral_diver]

Yea Chuck I am in Roaming Shores..ring any bells? You were with Chris and I when I took my damsels home for the 5gal hex.I know it was a while ago it's ok. I met Margie a while ago but didnt realize untill we called you about the sand sifting cucumber :lol: :lol: :lol: that she was your wife. Love to stop by sometime and check out the tanks. :D I hate to say it but I frequent RMS all to often I am sure everyone thinks I am strange with the exception of maybe Chris and only because I have been buying from him and tearing all the store display tanks down for years now IE that really nice 15H freshwater that Bridget and another girl cant remember her name set up on the corner counter where the 20H sw is now, maybe a little over a year ago now resides on the bar in my house. :badgrin: I am now eyeing the salt display and thinking humm wonder how much they would charge me to tear that out of there :hmm2:

[Charles Poole]

You can't have my 30 gallon High SW display tank on the counter by the registers. You have no idea what it took to get that tank to stay running without employees interference... :lol:

That is also a project tank of mine. I use it to demonstrate the effects of current and nuisance algae growth. Currently it is in the "NO" algae stage, but I plan to switch it back to a Cyanobacteria farm in a month or so. I am also finishing my first article on this very subject, so keep your eyes on the lookout for it... :)

You are welcome to come over anytime and chat reefs.... :) :) :)

[coral_diver]

Thought it was a 20gH???My mistake but I do really think it is a cool little tank!!! I will keep an eye out for the article sounds good. I think I am planning on trying one of the sand sifting cucumbers if they still look healthy, got a tip from a guy that has one and he suggests that they dont injest very much sand they really filter feed more the reason for the tenticle licking :lol: They also sometimes sweep the sand with the tenticles. He feeds baby brine every day to every other day or so. He also says they are non toxic unless of course death occours and then they can spike the ammonia etc. this with anything I suppose. I figure it's worth a try I will just keep an watchful eye on it and see what happens if it starts to look bad then I will remove it to my QT. I AM EXCITED :) Think I will pick one up Friday I will say hi if you are in. BTW keep an eye out for some good corals for me would ya It's hard when you live so far from the store, I have about 3.5w lighting if I can keep my circuits from blowing~

[Charles Poole]

I can offer you some of my softies if you are interested. I have a couple different colors of tree corals, and 3 different colored star polyps. Chris has dibs on one of the green star polyps, but I have so much of them, that it would not hurt to part with a little more.

Only catch is, you have to come get them... :)

[Zack]

Only catch is, you have to come get them...

:( :(

[coral_diver]

I would be verrrrrrry interested!!!! Let me get the new lights on my tank *end of next week*and I will see if maybe Chris wants to come with me and we'll come over and see what ya have. I am sure he knows where you are right? I love star polyps I have been eyeing them in Erie for about 2months now :shock: I am into that whole florescent thing for some reason if it glows it goes in the tank :lol: It is definatly time to start getting some color into the tank besides the fish though ya know. Almost bought a red sponge today but I know Rex has his eye on it so I left it at the store plus not sure it would do well in my tank as of yet. Not really familiar with tree corals? I'll look them up in a bit they are softies too? PM me if you would and let me know what you are looking for $cash wise. Once again I am getting excited! I picked up the cucumber today and a mandrin I will let you know how it goes with the cucumber. Heck of a storm was going threw though I had to check out in the dark after they came to find rex and I in the dark with a flash light, bagged the fish at the front counter, and swam home in the flooding :lol: :lol:

[Charles Poole]

Yea, Chris comes over to my house often. We have backyard bar-b-ques, and always welcome guests... :) BYOB I don't drink very often, so my fridge is usually empty. :)

See you here sometime. :)

[reewik]

I have a blue ridge also. I will have to post a shot of it. Mine is a chocolate brown with pink colored polyps. I too bought it cause I do not see it that often.

[Charles Poole]

I would love to see a shot of your Blue Ridge coral. :)

My 7 year old daugter is starting to take quite an interest in my tanks now. It is so much fun to pull up a couple chairs and just talk about the tanks with her. So I know exactly how you feel Eric.

Oh ya, it is nice to meet you Eric, and welcome to Coralforum.. :)

[Charles Poole]

me and my Sun Conure "Sunshine"

[MikeS]

Great looing bird Chuck!

We used to have a Blue & Gold Macaw, a Yellow Naped Amazon, and an African Senegal parrot....they all currently reside with friends. We gave them to friends when we had our son, but I miss them alot.

Mike

[Charles Poole]

This is a snapshot of an outfit that I am designing with my 7 yearold for a fashion show on a new online interactive chatroom.

This new chat room is like The Sims meet AOL Instant Messenger.

If you are interested in finding out more about this incredibly fun type of virtual chatroom, send me an email or PM containing your contact email. I will send you a link to this site....

[Charles Poole]

and another one

[Charles Poole]

My favorite birdies...... :)