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Chud’s 13g Holistic Reef


nicholc2

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After a 3 year absense from the hobby, I have restarted my CPR Aquatic 13g tank. I kept it going for 10+ years and then had kids and didn't have the time to keep up with it, broke it down, and gave my corals/lr to a friend. Now the kids are older and I am starting it back up again. I grabbed 8lbs of Monado from PA and an AI Nano for lighting. It's still cycling at this point, but I want to cronicle things as I go, so here we are. :)

 

July 27, 2018

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March 6, 2013

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Thanks! I'm pretty excited! I went for less LR this time around as before I kept SPS in here and man did it grow quick. I am hoping that with more room, I'll be able to let it get bigger before I have to start the frag process. I want this time to be more about the corals than the LR. Plus I like having more room in the sand to have a plate and a clam. I also had a 150w MH on this before which worked great, but the LEDs will be much better about heat and I can control the output a LOT better.

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Here are some new pics. I added a clown (not 100% sure if Percula or Ocellaris) and a branching hammer. So far all are happy and eating. FYI, I adjusted the Nano to full white for the pics so my iPhone would take a decent pic. Also, is he/she a Perc or Oc?

 

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Here is a shot from today. The tail spot blenny I picked up yesterday is checking out my wife who's taking the pic. The sexy shrimp looks like he's taken a liking to the hammer coral. I grabbed a rock flower anemone as well, but it looks like he's moved so I'll have to try and track him down when I get home.

 

The LR is coloring up very nice. It's getting better every day. Love my AI Nano!

 

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New pic with new additions. It's still a work in progress, but is coming along. Right now I'm light acclimating everything. The Rock Anemone is acclimating itself. He's finally starting to pop back out of his hole in the LR! The pic really doesn't do it justice. I wish I had some camera skills. ;)

 

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I'm hoping this acro will color up nicely. If he does, he'll be pretty sweet! I'm not 100% sure what type it is as it wasn't marked at the store. It was in the frag tank with the other pieces I picked up.

 

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Aussie Acan really likes his spot

 

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FYI, I'm also starting to bump up my lighting intensity some. Starting with the blue and royal blue and so far everyone seems to approve. I'm going to go slowly and gauge the reactions. I've move the acro in the pic above to the top of the LR on the right side of the tank to see if that helps with coloring, but will be watching for bleaching too just in case. I don't think it'll be an issue with my lights still on the low percentage side. Right now they max out at 35% w, 45% b, 45% rb.

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Thanks! I need to start learning how to make the photos better. I have a canon 3ti, but need to experiment with white balance in photoshop to make it look like it does in person.

 

On a side, I have my final fish count established. 1 occ, 1 2 spot, 1 hi fin zebra goby. They are great as the clown is the free swimmer, the blenny hangs in the middle, and the goby on the bottom. Interestingly enough, the blenny has made himself a little borough in the sand beneath a hole in the LR on the right side. The goby of course decided to make his hole under the left side LR toward the back of the tank so I don't see him until feeding time usually.

 

I'm going to pick up some more snails now since it's more established. I didn't want to get too many initially and them starve. :D

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New photo storm from yesterday. Finally mounted all my corals on my scape. Some are still a little perturbed from me handling them.

 

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Wow, this is looking great! Are you planning to let the corals 'grow in', or add some more?

Thanks! Both B)

 

My goal is to have a frag of some sort on all of the LR and then let nature take its course. That's the main reason I made the scape like I did. I kept it low so the sps could take it high and have plenty of room to grow before I had to start fragging it. While I don't want "turf wars" pre se', I would like to see some friendly co-mingling which is why I'm trying to plan out placement and keep the fighters with the fighters and the lovers with the lovers.

 

Also, I want a clam which is why I left that nice big open sandy area right under the light in the middle.

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Ooooh a clam! I am still debating if that is something I should do for the future or not. Do you have any prior experience with them?

No I would be a total noob with that. But from what I'm researching, LEDs should be more than capable of handling them and it should have plenty of room to grow for quite a while. The good thing is I have time as I want to be sure it survives so I'm trying to ensure the tank is nice and stable and the lights are where they need to be (the sps is helping me with that) before I get one. Especially considering it would be the center piece of the tank.

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No I would be a total noob with that. But from what I'm researching, LEDs should be more than capable of handling them and it should have plenty of room to grow for quite a while. The good thing is I have time as I want to be sure it survives so I'm trying to ensure the tank is nice and stable and the lights are where they need to be (the sps is helping me with that) before I get one. Especially considering it would be the center piece of the tank.

 

Looks like we're in the same boat :P Thing I hear most is having the tank 'mature' and how important that is for a clam. I think what people mean is when parameters are dead stable, as clams can be pretty sensitive. We need Zeph to chime in here!

 

Any specific color you are wanting?

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Looks like we're in the same boat :P Thing I hear most is having the tank 'mature' and how important that is for a clam. I think what people mean is when parameters are dead stable, as clams can be pretty sensitive. We need Zeph to chime in here!

 

Any specific color you are wanting?

You know, that's a good question. I'm not 100% sure. I'm thinking either crocea or maxima since they both stay relatively small or have a very slow growth rate. My guess is one day I'll go into the LFS and see one and say "wow!" and that'll be that.

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So yesterday I started using the Prodibio Nano Reef kit. I am going to stagger the BioDigest and Bioptim every other week until all 5 vials are gone of each and then start the ReefBooster. I'm not sure if I'll use the Stronti+ or Iodi+ vials as I do a weekly change and probably don't need them with my current load. As things progress I'll update. I've seen some pretty good reviews on this stuff, so I'm excited to see for myself if it makes a difference or not. If not, it wasn't too cost prohibitive since I have a small tank. :D

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Did some testing last night. Great results so far!

 

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrates - 0.3 ppm

Phosphates - undetectable via API test

Kh - 7 - down from a couple days ago, so buffered it

Calc - 450 - also down from the partial Sunday

 

Everything looks to be in line with Kh and Calc being used up as expected. The corals all seem happy. Life is good (so far). :D

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Here are a couple of top down pics of my acro. I'm not sure what kind of acro it is specifically, but I am thinking it's going to be very nice when it gets done. So glad I took a chance on this guy who was brown in the store. B)

 

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Ordered an MP10 and it arrived this morning. I'm going to hook it up when I get home from work today. I was happy with my two Hydor Picos with Hydor Flow attachments and then I visited Jordon's thread. I blame you Jordon! LOL

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Like what you've done so far it should grow in nicely. Would like to know if you find the MP10 noisy. I've been toying with buying one but have read mixed reviews on the amount of motor noise they produce.

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Like what you've done so far it should grow in nicely. Would like to know if you find the MP10 noisy. I've been toying with buying one but have read mixed reviews on the amount of motor noise they produce.

Will do. For me it won't be much of an issue either way. My tank is in my man cave/HT room, so most of the time the surround sound is so loud it would have to be particularly noisy for me to notice it. B)

 

And thanks!

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Got the MP10 installed last night and removed the Hydors. Man what a difference in flow. I never realized I had that much detritis built up around the rocks until I pushed that to full speed to ensure no vibrations. Wow!

 

I've tried all of the modes and right now I'm running reef crest like most others. I'm not sure if that's where I'll keep it or not, but for now things are good. Cubeman, no noise whatsoever unless you get right up to the tank with no other noise in the room and then you can hear the propeller spinning up and down. Other than that, perfectly quiet even at 100% except for the waves in the tank at that speed. LOL

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I can safely say that Prodibio is working. I tested Nitrates yesterday before I did my weekly partial and with the low end test, they are zero. Love it! I don't have a low end phosphate test, but the API test was zero as well. I'm assuming that all is well there as well since I have no bad algae. The little bit of somewhat bad algae that I had growing on one of my LR's is gone now after 2 weeks of Prodibio treatment. I'm sold.

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