WB's 50 rimless (RESCAPED) New corals and a green algae problem

[Weasel Baron]

recently rescaped. Still has a lot of growing to do, but more corals on the way!

 

Hardware:

starfire rimless 50

20gal sump

 

Lighting:

Kessil A350W

Odyssey 2 bulb t5, giesemann pure actinic and actinic+

 

Filtration and circulation:

sunsun HW-505B canister w/ UV

Jebao WP25 wavemaker

Sander protein skimmer

 

Current Livestock:

 

SPS:

Red/orange digi (Kessil'd)

A tiny piece of bleached porites that probably wont survive the cycle

A tiny piece of cycle-proof Alveopra

Sunset monti

Toxic green monti-cap

Red monti-cap

Garf bonsai

Ponape birdsnest

ORA bird of paradise

Neon green birds nest

Chili monti

Mystic sunset monti

Green monti spongodes

Rainbow monti

Cyphastrea meteor shower

 

LPS

Orange and purple cycloseris plate

Rainbow cycloseris plate

Rainbow Acan head

 

Z/P

Yellow deepwater

Golden maul

Pink zipper

Lord of the Rings

Sunny Ds

Utter Chaos

Chong Bongs

Rastas

Sorcerers stone

Ding dangs

 

Fish

Bartletts Fairy Anthias x3

Baby McCosker's Flasher Wrasse

Swissguard Basslet carpet surfer (RIP)

 

 

Tank Dec 2014

 

January 2015

[Weasel Baron]

just as some eye candy/to answer any questions about previous experience w/ reefing, here are some shots from my old tank. It crashed years ago and I never had the heart to get back into it till recently

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Weasel Baron]

swung by the LFS and grabbed a chunk of LR to help break up some shapes; it came with lots of cool little feather dusters and encrusted corals (porites im guessing)

 

 

is there anything as frustrating as an empty tank that you cant fill? THE CYCLE CONTINUES, nitrites starting to spike

 

 

 

 

[Weasel Baron]

found this bugger on the dark side of a piece of LR, so I broke it off and put it up a bit higher in the tank

 

Woop woop, officially a reef tank now!

 

 

 

if it somehow manages to survive the rest of the cycle I will be impressed

 

will be getting a CUC in a week or so, doing a couple water changes, and looking into some livestock. Will need a new pump for the skimmer too, so I may take the opportunity to just upgrade.

 

Current front runner is a Blue Spotted Jawfish, or maybe some Zs/Ps

[Jay Wee]

Nice scape. Very clean. Good job on that cement rock. Is it too close to the surface though? If you're gonna go SPS they might branch up and get too close to surfacez unless that's what you're going for. Your old tank looked really good. How are u making those gifs? Love 'em. I use photoshop but there's gotta be an easier way.

[Weasel Baron]

Nice scape. Very clean. Good job on that cement rock. Is it too close to the surface though? If you're gonna go SPS they might branch up and get too close to surfacez unless that's what you're going for. Your old tank looked really good. How are u making those gifs? Love 'em. I use photoshop but there's gotta be an easier way.

 

thanks man

 

the leading edge is probably a good 5-6" under the surface, the depth of the tank makes it seem a bit more shallow than it is. As it stands, ill be putting mostly encrusting sps on the top and use the edges for the branching stuff (so it grows out and up as opposed to just up). I actually kinda like the look of branching SPS really close to the surface anyway

 

I use a program called "gifcam" just do a google search and it should be the 1st or 2nd option. I host the .gif files on imgur or photobucket and just bracket them w/ like a normal picture

[Weasel Baron]

WHOOP WHOOP, ITS STILL ALIVE AND GETTING COLOR (sort of)

 

 

 

 

 

tanks perams are finally down to 0 across the board, so in go some cerith snails sometime this week to try and get rid of some of the algae. Will need to pick up a phosphate test kit and start up w/ the kalk-water, but I spent thanksgiving break busting my a** doing some extra test-grading so I can get some extra $$ for corals. Hopefully I'll have some sweet little collection going by the next couple of months

 

decided maybe Ill get a nice nem AND some sps. no point in being exclusionary

[Weasel Baron]

picked up some new stuff from the guys over at reef-candy

 

RPE

 

Golden mauls (?)

 

deepwaters

[Weasel Baron]

picked up some new sticks today from @reefgoddess (does tagging work here?). She's got an awesome setup and has some amazing corals, if you havent grabbed some of her stuff I suggest you do!

 

 

will get some more (non-crap) non-cell phone pics tomorrow, but list is: sunset monti (lower shelf), neon green birds nest and red/orange digi (left spire), and a ORA bird of paradise (upper shelf)

 

 

 

[Weasel Baron]

as promised, here are a couple shots of the new stuff. Im excited for post Xmas, as Ill have a bit more budget to work with and should be able to get some fish and more coral

 

 

[Weasel Baron]

One last post to get you all up to date! I got some stuff! Local LFS had a xmas sale and was letting plates go for about $35.

 

 

[Weasel Baron]

NOM

 

[Weasel Baron]

bit of an update

 

I had heard rumors that corals coming from MH systems were particularly susceptible to LED bleaching, but decided to ignore it, so my red digi is now a burnt piece of toast. I have learned that there is a no-fly-zone directly under the Kessil that will require heavy acclimation

 

but everything else is moving along! Im hoping to give the tank some more time before I try other more difficult SPS. pH is still doing a little wavering.

 

this fatty is getting more and more pronounced orange in his stripes

 

The little frag that survived the cycle is starting to encrust too. Im beginning to think this may not be porites, but something like crateriformis. The coralites dont look right for a porites, and when the polyps are extended its a dead ringer for what LA is selling as crateriformis

[Weasel Baron]

So, here are some more pics

 

 

anyone have an idea what this is?

 

Here's the swissguard, hopefully he becomes a little less shy

 

and some more of the anthias. Awesome fish, school really well, Im hoping to pick up another one or two later

[Weasel Baron]

update:

 

rescaped, picked up a McCosker's and another anthias, basslet went carpet surfing . LFS got some sweet dryrock and LR in and I couldnt resist, now it doesnt look so barren. Still has a lot of growth before the epoxy and whatnot gets covered in coraline

 

 

 

 

 

 

new tank member

 

plate coral is coloring up nicely

 

 

 

 

 

HITCHHIKER, can anyone give me an ID? looks like a porcelain crab. Swam REALLY well though, like surprisingly well for a crab

 

[markalot]

Sorry, no clue on the crab.

 

Nice tank, sorry your old setup crashed. Any idea why it crashed?

 

The frag with the small green polyps

 

Might be encrusting Goniopora? I'm having trouble counting the number of tentacles.

[Weasel Baron]

Sorry, no clue on the crab.

 

Nice tank, sorry your old setup crashed. Any idea why it crashed?

 

The frag with the small green polyps

 

Might be encrusting Goniopora? I'm having trouble counting the number of tentacles.

 

yeah, 2011 southwest blackout. Went without power for 2+ days and I was out of town, so I couldnt even get the generator going... it was a perfect storm of shittiness.

It COULD be encrusting goni, I never thought of that, but I dont think it has the tentacles required. Im pretty sure its at 10ish tentacles, which would put it closer to an encrusting alveopora, and I dont think it has the extension or polyp size for something like that.

 

If that damn crab comes back to haunt me Im going to be so pissed. I generally remove crabs on site because they're almost always bad news, but this bugger was so small I figured why not

[Rehype]

HITCHHIKER, can anyone give me an ID? looks like a porcelain crab. Swam REALLY well though, like surprisingly well for a crab

 

 

 

Would love some input!

 

 

Looks like a porcelain crab to me too..

 

Tank looks great so far love the scape.

[Weasel Baron]

little baby

 

 

still a little shy but if Im not sitting right next to the tank I can see him exploring, aside from that he's eating well

[CurtBoswell]

Your tank is looking good! Can't wait to see it progress! I'm going to follow along!

[Weasel Baron]

Thanks!

 

picked up some new frags (green and red monti, birdsnest, pink zipper palys, garf bonsai, another sps I cant remember) from Xzeror, still acclimating but the neon green monti is crazy bright

 

 

[Weasel Baron]

I think markalot was on to something w/ the encrusting goni/alveopora

 

night shot of the mystery coral:

[Weasel Baron]

freshly acclimated coral

 

 

 

 

 

 

sorcerer's stone on the right, not sure what other monikers it goes by. Chili monti on the left

 

Goddamn hermits

 

The hermits really seemed to love the cyphastrea plug

[Weasel Baron]

mini update:

although it was delayed due to cold weather and my shitty schedule, this came in this morning

 

 

 

part of an xmas present to myself, along w/ the corals from spike's (they're doing well on the sandbed, so Im going to leave the SPS there for now, but will likely try to find a permanent home for the polyps this weekend)

 

Coralline algae is finally starting to take off; finding it on the glass and all over the overflow and loc-lines. Phosphate is about 50ppb, but nitrates are a bit high at ~10ppm. I've started an excel file for everything and have begun carbon dosing again in earnest; Im about 3 days in and just feel stupid adding 0.2ml of 50% ETOH a day to 60ish gallons of water, but the skimmer is pulling out some good scum

[Weasel Baron]

definitely an alve or goni

 

plate has kept its color so far, may move it a bit more into the shade to prevent the orange from taking over (excuse the shitty cell phone pic)

 

gotta start moving things into place, they seem to be doing well enough to hope they're properly acclimated