Reefkid88 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Yup,that's defintely a NIAHS. Amazing looking piece. I want a piece of Living Reefs Candlelight Deepwater. That thang is sexy !!! Ahh you lucky dog you !! It's a awesome looking piece for sure. I wanna say that was the cheapest piece they had lol. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 Yup,that's defintely a NIAHS. Amazing looking piece. I want a piece of Living Reefs Candlelight Deepwater. That thang is sexy !!! Ahh you lucky dog you !! It's a awesome looking piece for sure. I wanna say that was the cheapest piece they had lol. Thanks! I like the candlelight acro a lot as well but I think I'm full for corals right now till I upgrade to something bigger. The diaseris plate coral is definitely one of my favorites. If it makes any babies you can for sure have one (I see mesenterial filaments coming out now so maybe soon ) Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Yeah if Shaun will give me a good deal on a piece I want to snag it,although it's only $40 a 1" frag which isn't anyways. Is that something plates do when they are going to pop off babies ? I'm now acro's put those filaments out when it's feeding time or they sense food in the water column. But thanks man,I'd love a piece for sure. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 Yeah if Shaun will give me a good deal on a piece I want to snag it,although it's only $40 a 1" frag which isn't anyways. Is that something plates do when they are going to pop off babies ? I'm now acro's put those filaments out when it's feeding time or they sense food in the water column. But thanks man,I'd love a piece for sure. I'm not sure if its what they do but every time my corals have split/grown new heads they do this. I just know diaseris will make babies without you needing to frag it. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Was getting some water today at the LFS and they had this awesome chalice frag I could not pass up on (I keep telling myself no more coral lol). Called Vivid Riddler, is now one of my favorite pieces. Tried to get a shot that best matched the color but my phone does not like violet lights. Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Great addition. I've been on a chalice hunt recently. Think I've got enough now. Lol Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Found a guy over by living reef with a great selection of sps for sale for only $20. Most of the pieces are 2" with multi branches. Hoping to get some here the weekend after Super Bowl. Have you seen LRO Pikachu Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Found a guy over by living reef with a great selection of sps for sale for only $20. Most of the pieces are 2" with multi branches. Hoping to get some here the weekend after Super Bowl. Have you seen LRO Pikachu Great addition. I've been on a chalice hunt recently. Think I've got enough now. Lol Thanks, it's my third now and I'm hoping it will put out sweepers tonight so I can see how long they are. $20 sounds like a great deal for pieces that size. I've never seen the LRO Pikachu either you got a picture? Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Happy to say all the corals are growing well this month except for a few zoa colonies which seem frozen in time. I thought my frogspawn was dieing because it started dropping polyps and swelled up like a balloon, but it was just growing two new mouths at once. My duncan has about 4-5 new heads growing out of it as well. My lobster has been building himself a new cave burrow underneath my glow in the dark rock after he discovered it was dome shaped underneath which means I can no longer see him during the day but he is still using his original cave to hunt from at night. I'm battling a bit of cyano/nitrates now since the lobster has been kicking up a lot of sand to make room in his new home so I'm having to do 2-3 water changes a week now to bring them down. Decided to take a short video of the tank after I did my water change yesterday. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Happy to say my lobster molted last night successfully for the third time since I got him and now has two full size claws again . Very happy he was able to regrow his missing arm/claw with no issues. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Added three aiptasia assassins (berghia nudibranch) to my tank today. They found some hiding places right away so hopefully I will get to see them munching some aiptasia later tonight. They are all so tiny as you can see from the picture. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 My package containing all the products for my new filtration setup finally came! I've decided to switch to Brightwell Aquatics products for their high quality and reputation and I also liked their selection of regenerating resins. The Xport-BIO is seeding for the next 24 hours and will be replacing the Seachem Matrix, IonitR will replace Kent Resin, and I'm trying a product called NitratR which is a regenerating resin that removes nitrates from salt or fresh water (my nitrates have been elevated recently). Hopefully none of the livestock get to upset with the switch. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted February 28, 2015 Author Share Posted February 28, 2015 Ok so I reorganized a lot of picture posts I made onto the first post and added pictures of most of my corals and some of the growth so far. It actually said I can't put anymore pictures into the post (I hope there is a way to fix this) so I'm still missing photos of a few corals. In tank news I got rid of 95% of the cyano with one dose of chemiclean. I plan on doing another dose on Monday if I see a need to. My nitrate levels are back to less than 10 and still dropping and I'm feeding Reef Frenzy daily to both fish and lobster so I'm happy with the Brightwell products performance so far. I'm still waiting to get my Söchting Oxydator which is supposed to be here this week. Hopefully my fish and lobster will enjoy the higher oxygen levels. I'm also looking to see if this will help raise my pH to 8.2-8.3 and if I will see any growth or color improvement from my corals. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 I got my Söchting Oxydator setup today after having to concentrate 3% hydrogen peroxide into a 6% solution (I feel like a chemist now). I'm really excited to see all the benefits plus it is so highly recommended by Albert Thiel I figured it would be a good idea to take his advice. It was incredibly easy to setup and it starts working immediately. Here is a new FTS as well since it is March now (my phone has terrible white balance). Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 10, 2015 Author Share Posted March 10, 2015 My female clownfish decided to jump today for the first time ever while I was at work so sadly she passed away . I've replaced her with a snowflake clown so my male will have a new companion soon! The snowflake is acclimating right now, I will post pictures once I get the new clown into the tank. Took a video since they were reacting so well to each other. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 So today is water change day and marks the start of my new dosing regimen. I have actually stopped dosing alkalinty and calcium since I added my Oxydator. All my levels have become extremely stable since its introduction (I have lost only 1 point dkH and about 20 points calcium in one week compared to sometimes losing that in one day) which means water changes will keep them stable. I ordered two more products from Brightwell, their CoralAmino and Reef Snow complexes. I will continue dosing Aquavitro Fuel but will be cutting back on the amount. CoralAmino is a proprietary form of amino acids for coral tissue growth (smells very fatty), and Reef Snow is a organic and inorganic complex containing all the major and minor elements required for coral skeletal growth as well as nutrients for aiding the growth of soft coral tissue and other filter feeders. My new dosing schedule will be as follows, CoralAmino and Reef Snow will be target fed: Day 1: 1mL of CoralAmino Day 2: 1mL of Reef Snow during day 0.5mL of Reef Snow during night Day 3: 2mL of AquaVitro Fuel Day 4: Start back at Day 1 Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Got some new zoas at WWC a few days ago and they have finally decided to open up nice today. WWC Phantoms Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Berghia nudibranches were spotted last week for the first time since I got them two months ago. They are HUGE now, I'd say about 1.25" compared to less than 0.5" when I received the little guys. My aiptasia is actually almost gone except for the little tiny ones that pop up but I have no more large ones which is great and I haven't used any aiptasia-x since I bought them. In coral news I was FINALLY able to get my new ricordea florida to stop cupping so I decided it was time to take a picture of a couple of them. The colors actually came out really good for once on my phone also. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted June 20, 2015 Author Share Posted June 20, 2015 Well my tank was officially one year old on June 3rd but I've been on vacation and just now had time to make a post. I'm very happy with how things have turned out and have learned tremendous amounts of knowledge and seen many things only possible with keeping your own reef. My lobster has molted a total of 5 times successfully and cleanly since introduction to my tank which I'm very happy. I'm also glad to say I've been successfully keeping him healthy without him damaging or killing any of my livestock. My goals for the next year are to get a steady growth rate from my LPS/SPS since I lost a couple pieces due to a nitrate spike (my filter was off overnight accidently and GHA grew wild the following weeks and killed off one montipora and almost killed my table acro). I would also like to see my clownfish start spawning as they mature. I'm currently using only Brightwell products + Algone with great results. My current FTS compared with Semptember 29, 2014 for growth (sorry for the poor white balance in the new FTS but my lights are too bright for my phone to handle now). I'm still cleaning GHA off the back glass but at least it stopped growing and is dieing off slowly. 9/29/14 6/19/2015 Link to comment
metrokat Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 My package containing all the products for my new filtration setup finally came! I've decided to switch to Brightwell Aquatics products for their high quality and reputation and I also liked their selection of regenerating resins. The Xport-BIO is seeding for the next 24 hours and will be replacing the Seachem Matrix, IonitR will replace Kent Resin, and I'm trying a product called NitratR which is a regenerating resin that removes nitrates from salt or fresh water (my nitrates have been elevated recently). Hopefully none of the livestock get to upset with the switch. How are these products working for you? Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted June 20, 2015 Author Share Posted June 20, 2015 How are these products working for you? They perform extremely well imo, much better than what I was using previously. Since I switched to their bio-filter products I can do water changes much less frequently if need be (before I had to do them twice a week sometimes) but I still like to do my 4-5 gallon WC per week to replenish any nutrients my corals might be using. Currently I have my canister with Xport-BIO and Algone in the first stage, Xport-NO3 in second stage, and I use the final stage for Carbonit-X3 and ExtraxPhos when needed or sometimes NitratR if I ever need to get nitrates down below 10 again (NitratR is the only product I've seen that pulls out nitrates so efficiently and quickly and it can be regenerated). I liked the IonitR but now use Carbonit-X3 instead. Carbonit-X3 is probably my favorite product that they sell, simply because of its toxin removal properties. It removes ammonia, chloramines, and DOCs from the water as well as increasing ORP. If you ever have any ammonia spike this stuff will remove the ammonia directly from the water in mere hours and restore balance to your tank (not bind it for later biological removal like Prime or Amquel). Honestly, everyone should own the Carbonit-X3 and NitratR as it allows you to deal with ammonia/nitrate spikes very quickly without having to do large or multiple water changes. Their salt is quite unique as well and an extremely pure product (as is all their elemental additives). It contains only elements that are degraded over time or absorbed by the various life in our tanks. It mixes to 1.025 S.G. with 134 grams of salt per gallon and matches the exact same levels every time I mix a bucket. I do add 1mL of Calcion and 10grams of Magnesium-P per 5 gallons because I like to keep those levels slightly elevated (calcium around 430 and magnesium around 1350). Since I started dosing their coral amino and reef snow (only using Fuel before) I've seen a huge explosion in the tiny filter feeders around my tank. Before the filter feeders multiplied very slowly, if at all, and different types would come and go but now all the varieties I've seen over the past year can be found and are thriving. I even noticed I have a tube worm with a newly formed crown growing out of my live rock (and potentially two others) which amazed me considering the rock is from when I soft-cycled my tank a year ago and this new growth came about within the last month (I haven't added any new livestock since April). My SPS were responding very well to the coral amino and reef snow before the nitrate spike, showing great polyp extension and better coloration (even my kenya tree seemed to benefit). So far they have had only minor STN (only one encrusting monti and one chalice were lost) and are recovering very well since I got my nutrients back under control. I'm never going on vacation again . I hope this answers any questions you might have. Link to comment
metrokat Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 What would you be doing to cause ammonia spikes? This isn't a new tank, there should be no ammonia spike of any kind unless you lose all your livestock or throw in a whole jar of food and everything rots. An established tank had the full biological capability to handle any ammonia the tank produces for any reason - barring an utter total crash of all livestock or the whole jar of food rotting. Perhaps it is a product that would work well for a new setup, but I honestly can't see a reason to use it in an established tank. I don;t think I've owned an ammonia kit for years now. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted June 20, 2015 Author Share Posted June 20, 2015 What would you be doing to cause ammonia spikes? This isn't a new tank, there should be no ammonia spike of any kind unless you lose all your livestock or throw in a whole jar of food and everything rots. An established tank had the full biological capability to handle any ammonia the tank produces for any reason - barring an utter total crash of all livestock or the whole jar of food rotting. Perhaps it is a product that would work well for a new setup, but I honestly can't see a reason to use it in an established tank. I don;t think I've owned an ammonia kit for years now. When I was on vacation my filter got shut off on accident the night before I came home(about 14 hours total) so when I came home I was glad to have the carbon available for an emergency like that. Everything was shriveled because of the presence of ammonia and in three hours (not exaggerating) it was like nothing happened. I didn't buy it for ammonia removal but the fact that it is capable of doing so is just a great bonus imo and a lifesaver in a situation like that. Currently I only use about once every two weeks for 24 hours to remove DOCs and it performs great. I only use about 8-10grams at a time so very very little is needed to achieve results. Link to comment
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