Adrift's 20 High

[AdriftQuasar]

Ordered the nanobox duo moments ago. I'm stoked.

[AdriftQuasar]

There's been some changes.

 

[Christopher Marks]

It's great to see you back! How are things adjusting to the new lights?

[wow.such.chris]

What can you tell me about that K1 media you use? Do you just have a bag of it in your AC70?

[AdriftQuasar]

It's great to see you back! How are things adjusting to the new lights?

Everything seems to love the lights, but has been less pleased with the rescaping. I'm amazed at how quickly the captain american palys seem to be growing, same with all the other polyps really. I'll try to make it a point to get some more pictures up soon. It's been great to be involved with the hobby again. I'm enjoying digging through posts again. Still need to be better about participating.

 

 

What can you tell me about that K1 media you use? Do you just have a bag of it in your AC70?

K1 media? Right now I'm using Chemi-Pure Elite and some Purigen. I have some poly fill that I use as filter floss. Other than that, just flow. I've been eyeballing the AquaMaxx HOB-1 protein skimmer. Seems solid and will still work nicely when I upgrade. Thinking about going up to a fusion 40 this year. Or maybe a 60 gallon cube if it's a good year.

[AdriftQuasar]

A promised update:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AdriftQuasar]

Seems like I'm past-due for an update.

 

"Accidentally" re-scaped the tank a while back after I tried to move just one coral...

There's been some new additions.

I traded my clown fish back into the store I bought them from almost nine years ago. Never really liked them to be honest. At this point there are just all kinds of fish I find more interesting, but I'm glad they always did well and helped keep me company while I learned more about this hobby.

 

I've been doing all kinds of research and such again. Trying to quietly plan a new setup that I'd like to get going in the fall.

Also built a new stand for this tank to go onto, but I haven't gotten around to moving it. It's going to be a bit of a project to make that happen, not terrible, it's just always stressful to essentially break down and re set up a tank in a short span of time. Pretty practiced at it though. I think I've moved this tank something like 4 or 5 times.

 

Onto the pictures!

 

FTS

 

Some rescued candy canes from Petco we picked up for like $15. Making a great recovery.

 

Brain seems to prefer the newer spot, shrimp is just checking to see if there's any mysis to steal from it

 

These canes are looking a lot better after getting plenty of food the past couple weeks.

 

Picked up a different colored hammer coral to hang out with the existing one:

 

A couple more FTS's because they make me happy.

 

Acans and palys looking good, I feel like I need to move that favia to a much lower spot or something.

 

Millepora with some montipora encrusting the back wall of the tank behind it. Like this shot a lot.

 

More acans and some blasto. Those shells have hermit crabs in them. Some crabs and the cleaner shrimp like to hang out near corals and steal their foods. Tricksy.

 

New lobo

 

Toadstool with the blenny looking deeply introspective behind

 

Crappy picture of it, but my current favorite:

 

Eyeballed that plate for weeks before getting it. Traded in some toadstool and hammer frags for it. Wanted one for years. Had one for a minute, but it didn't do so well. This one is already faring much better.

 

The tank is actually heavily stocked enough with stony corals at this point that I've had to start testing and dosing Ca and ALK. ALK seems to be the bigger issue for me thusfar, but it shouldn't take much to get it to where I'd like to have it.

 

Current plans for this tank include:

Moving it onto the new stand

Considering adding a sandbed when I make the move

Perhaps another new fish or two once the canary blenny's fins are completely regrown

Also about time for CUC reinforcement.

 

Edit: Also wanted to mention my wife picked up a 20H of her own from petco the other day and is in the planning stages of her own tank. She's really enjoyed playing an active role in the restoration of this one and her enthusiasm for it has been great. I feel pretty lucky that I get to share this hobby with her.

[vlangel]

That is super cool that your wife shares your enthusiasm for the hobby. My hubby loves watching my seahorses and on occasion he will ask if he can have a certain coral in the tank. He leaves the care of it to me however.

[AdriftQuasar]

Way overdue update, obviously there's been some changes:

 

 

Pretty pleased with the way things are going. I there was a bit of a catastrophe at one point where an unattached mushroom dissolved into goo and then was spread all over a portion of the tank, wiping out a lot of the stuff that was on the right. There are a few tiny heads of hammer left recovering in the sand bed, but the torch was picked up on black friday. It was my only purchase that day. My wife wanted to go out to the locals shops just to look, and somehow we ended up with about 20 frags on top of my torch purchase. Got rid of the clowns, canary blenny didn't do so good under the care of vacation caretakers, went from three chromis to two, and picked up a couple of the prettiest red firefish I have ever seen recently.

 

Heater failed a while back around the same time as the used mp10 I bought 6 years ago died. Replaced the mp10 with a jebao pump, been pretty pleased, but definitely went a size up. Been running an octopus hob skimmer with an external pump (round body, don't remember the model number), really like it. Ultimately, I'm an advocate for skimmers on tanks, especially if you like to feed. All the additional coral livestock made dosing alk and ca in between water changes. Been keeping it simple buy using some seachem two part stuff since I really don't go through much.

 

In the planning stages of setting up a tank for the wife. It will also be a 20h, but her's will have a 10 gallon sump. I think once we get that going, I've earned a proper upgrade. This tank will be 10 years old in the spring, it's gone through a lot of changes (so have I) and I've really learned a lot from it. Planning is so incredibly important so you're not trying to piecemeal together a more ideal system later on down the road. Some tinkering is fine, but making major changes is going to have an impact on the health of the tank. For now, I'm going to be pretty pleased to sit back and watch things grow while helping the wife move her frags into her own tank (hoping the time for growth makes a lot of them mine too).

[AdriftQuasar]

Update: 

This tank will soon be upgraded into a 68 gallon half-cylinder discovered on craigslist! Going to be crazy to have so much space after 10 years with a 20H. I can't wait to leverage everything I've learned about the hobby so far. Completed a build of a system for my wife not long ago. So we each will have new tanks with lots of room for whatever we bring back from MACNA. Also we're going to MACNA. My wife is kick ass.

 

In the meantime, here's an FTS