Tank Make Over

During the Wrasse Saga, husband and I came up with several ideas as to why the wrasse was aggressive and how to limit that aggression.  As you can see, so far we've done isolation and re-introduction.  We also redid the tank.

The Sixline Wrasse is a really cool fish.  They are super active and predatory which is probably where a lot of the natural aggression comes from.  Predators are not know for being nice.  Aside from those basic traits, the six line also makes a cocoon when it sleeps at night for protection.  It goes into a coma like state when sleeping and because of that, prefers rocky holes where it can sleep for the night.

Just for fun, here's a brief comparison of the sleeping habits of my tank inhabitants:
Coral- suck up when the lights turn out. The xenia and zoas go to bed first. The GSP usually stays up the longest
Clowns- they sleep whenever in the bottom of the tank, belly touching the sand.  the female likes to sleep "upside down" on her head.  Freaked me out the first time.
Wrasse-  Instantly hides when the lights turn off.  He then makes a cocoon and stays there until morning.

So one hypothesis we came up with was a lack of suitable hidey holes.  We figured our aquascape was not very good for corals and now it may be sub par for fish as well.  We took this as an opportunity to thoroughly clean and rearrange the tank including the refugium.

Goals
Before getting started, we outlined our goals for this three hour project.  Our goals were:

• Rearrange the rock work for easier coral placement and happier fishies
• Aim for a minimalist scape without taking out rocks
• Inspect each rock for Aipstasia
• Kill Aipstasia if found
• Clean and rearrange refugium
• remove old carbon, replace with new carbon
• put in filter sponge
• add new refugium light, JBJ NanoGlo
• get rid of liverock rubble and replace with SeaChem Matrix
• Not kill any fish or coral

With those things in mind, it began!

Step 1: remove "valuable" lifeforms (fish, coral, one hermit crab. Snails are on their own)

We knew we'd be kicking up a lot of sand a detritus and didn't want to kill anything.  So everything had to come out.

Clownfish in the ReefGently

Coral and hermit in Coral Bucket

Step 2: INSPECT!

We did find Aipstasia on one rock.  We swiftly dealt with it by taking a syringe and needle and injecting it with lemon juice.

The little bubbles is where the exterminated Aipstasia is.

The weapon.

Step 3: Rearrange and wait for sand to settle.

Sandy tank and the tank guardian.

Step 4: After rearranging, clean refugium, do water change

Step 5: After three hours worth of work, re-release the inhabitants. Except for the wrasse so the clowns can set up shop.

Pretty post-pox zoas.

BEFORE:

Holy crap, look how white our rocks were when we first set up!

AFTER:

Much better scape.  Corals are happier too.  I'll post better pics later.

From the pics, the layout looks "less interesting".  however, it's way more fun.  I'll post a video detailing its new levels of funness.  PS  Hopefully I never have to do this again.  

And everyone is getting along much better.