AJ_Tsin's Zeo 47g Shallow. NEW FTS

[markalot]

Great pics, love to see the progress shots. Thanks!

Thanks dude, yea the orange passion polyps are getting really bright, its awesome can't wait until it grows more. I think its the slowest grower in my system, that and the Red Planet that is doing nothing really.

 

Thanks! I am hoping it all turns out.

 

Speaking of growth, here are a few growth shots. As mentioned earlier color is not really 100% where I want it right now. I am in the middle of tweaking lighting height while adding more AAHC CV and Xtra, still looking for the sweet spot, between not having too much light and not darkening the corals too much, nonetheless growth and encrusting differences are going well. Most of these shots are about 1 month of development progress.

 

O.T. 1 Month

 

RR. Wolverine 3 Months

 

RR Avengers 1 Month

 

RR T.D.F. 1 Month

 

Damn page break.

[AJ_Tsin]

Great pics, love to see the progress shots. Thanks!

Damn page break.

No prob, they are probably my favorite shots to share.

 

Thanks for bumping the images, f page breaks.

[AJ_Tsin]

FYI for anyone who doubts the blue bottles. ZeoVit is amazing, I know you all knew that already, but wanted to reiterate how great of a system it is for SPS and fine tuning.

 

Anyone who says it is expensive, it is if you have a large reef but in a Nano its not bad at all.

[Reefmaster1996]

Yeah, I really hope to see what I can do with zeovit, I haven't focused on getting nice coral and seeing what I can keep until now, luckily my system is pretty much past all the issues that occur in the beging, I really want to prove my friends from work wrong about zeovit.

[metrokat]

Progression shots are my favorite. All the corals seem to have colored up nicely and encrusting too.

[AJ_Tsin]

Yeah, I really hope to see what I can do with zeovit, I haven't focused on getting nice coral and seeing what I can keep until now, luckily my system is pretty much past all the issues that occur in the beging, I really want to prove my friends from work wrong about zeovit.

I am sure you will as long as you keep it slow.

 

Progression shots are my favorite. All the corals seem to have colored up nicely and encrusting too.

They are definitely encrusting, still not 100% on the color though.

[Reefmaster1996]

Also what have your params stayed at lately (mag,cal,alk,phos,temp)?

[AJ_Tsin]

I keep temp at 78 f with it varying between 77.8 and 78.2

 

Alk 7.3

Ca 430

Mg 1300

Potassium 400

 

Have been slowly raising my Salinity from 1.025 to 1.026.... I know big change! /s

Havent tested for Phosphate or Nitrate in a long time. Sure they are close to 0 and ULNS.

[Reefmaster1996]

Cool, I'm pretty close, my mag is a little high at 1380, same with cal qt 440-460

 

I keep the tank at 78.4-78.6 and at around 1.024-1.025, I may try 1.026 slowly as well, once I get my mag and cal down as that raises those values in my expeirence.

[AJ_Tsin]

Cool, I'm pretty close, my mag is a little high at 1380, same with cal qt 440-460

 

I keep the tank at 78.4-78.6 and at around 1.024-1.025, I may try 1.026 slowly as well, once I get my mag and cal down as that raises those values in my expeirence.

Yea not sure how much of a difference it will make really.

 

In other news I am fairly certain I will be picking up a Yellow Wrasse and a Sunburst Anthias this weekend to get em into QT now and add them stagged once Prazi and Cupramine procedures are complete.

 

I NEEED more fish in this reef its too clean right now. I am going to take my chances with the Wrasse that it will not jump...

[4x5]

In other news I am fairly certain I will be picking up a Yellow Wrasse and a Sunburst Anthias this weekend to get em into QT now and add them stagged once Prazi and Cupramine procedures are complete.

 

I NEEED more fish in this reef its too clean right now. I am going to take my chances with the Wrasse that it will not jump...

 

I'm in a similar position, my load has seriously dropped since my Flame Angel died, it's actually surprised me how my skimmate has changed since then, but perhaps it's just coincidence.

 

Yellow wrasse is awesome, I love the colours - looking forward to seeing yours. I ordered a Fathead Anthias yesterday, stoked to have it - its been on my list for so long now, hopefully next week.

[Alex B]

Yea not sure how much of a difference it will make really.

 

In other news I am fairly certain I will be picking up a Yellow Wrasse and a Sunburst Anthias this weekend to get em into QT now and add them stagged once Prazi and Cupramine procedures are complete.

I NEEED more fish in this reef its too clean right now. I am going to take my chances with the Wrasse that it will not jump...

Awesome fish Aj!!

 

A word of caution. Wrasses and anthias don't do very good with cupramine. I just finished introducing the same fish into my dt in the last 2 weeks.

 

I did a prazi pro treatment, and then observed. Wrasses are actually very hardy to external parasites. They have a thicker slime coat like most fish that burrow under sand. Makes it much harder for them to get ich and what not. Make sure you have some sand in quarantine for the yellow wrasse. If the qt is BB a small plate with sand is usually fine, but I'm sure you know all that already

 

For the anthias I did the same. 2 doses of prazipro. The sunburst are awesome! Very picky eaters though. Mine only eats frozen and live so far. Trying to get him on pellets. I tried doing copper for the anthias, but he would not eat.

 

Good luck and awesome fish!! I

[Alex B]

Also no top for me. I hate them. My yellow wrasse has been good so far!

[1.0reef]

Awesome fish Aj!!

 

A word of caution. Wrasses and anthias don't do very good with cupramine. I just finished introducing the same fish into my dt in the last 2 weeks.

 

I did a prazi pro treatment, and then observed. Wrasses are actually very hardy to external parasites. They have a thicker slime coat like most fish that burrow under sand. Makes it much harder for them to get ich and what not. Make sure you have some sand in quarantine for the yellow wrasse. If the qt is BB a small plate with sand is usually fine, but I'm sure you know all that already

 

For the anthias I did the same. 2 doses of prazipro. The sunburst are awesome! Very picky eaters though. Mine only eats frozen and live so far. Trying to get him on pellets. I tried doing copper for the anthias, but he would not eat.

 

Good luck and awesome fish!! I

This, in fact, some hardcore Fairy/Flasher wrasse collectors just use an acclimation box, no QT.

[Alex B]

This, in fact, some hardcore Fairy/Flasher wrasse collectors just use an acclimation box, no QT.

 

Very true. I have a leapord wrasse pair waiting for me at my lfs. They are going straight to my display tank! They are already eating frozen and looking super healthy. Leapords qt so poorly...but I'm willing to take the chance adding them straight into the display. Crossing my fingers!

[Reefmaster1996]

I don't quarintine anymore, I just hand pick healthy specimens from work which where hand picked from the wholesaler, no problems in the past year so far except a bad batch of lyretail anthias. I also have a yellow wrasse with no lid except at night

[AJ_Tsin]

Thanks for all the advice above guys. Its great.

 

So I got 1 Fathead/Sunburst today, its home an in QT with lights off currently its hiding under a piece of PVC. I may forgo copper for now and see how it looks in a few days. I will likely give it a day or two to settle and then start a Prazi treatment. (LFS did not have the Yellow Wrasse anymore so I will likely wait until his next order to get it.)

Seems like a healthy fish and was eating Mysis at the LFS. No signs of surface parasites or injury so fingers crossed. I tend to have absolutely terrible luck with fish...

 

I was tempted to get a pair but I will stick with just one. I think it will do better on its own.

Good news is I will be forced to feed the tank more which will likely really benefit the SPS. Hoping I can eventually get it to take NLS Spectrum Pellets.

I also ordered a second Energybar for the APEX and a long BUS cable so I can have the "upstairs" and "downstairs" setups all controlled by the same APEX, currently my sump and all related equipment are powered but the ATI fixture and MP-10s are still on a regular powerbar and timers upstairs.

Lastly I have 2 ATI Actinic and 1 More Blue+ Bulb coming with the Energybar. Plan is to ditch the Coral+ at least one if not both and get into more of a 20K Color combo. I am really not into running 2 Coral+ and a Purple+ with 5 Blues its too whitish pink, washes out all my coral colors, and frankly when you have a tank full of high end super colorful stuff I would rather use a bluer light to emphasize it all. The real motivation behind using the Actinics is to knock down the PAR a bit coming from he light.

 

I am finding it still too bright for a shallow ULNS reef and as I raise the light the corals are reacting positively, but I can only raise it so far.

[Alex B]

Good plan Aj!

 

My anthia will not eat pellets. Maybe you get lucky and yours will. I don't mind it actually. Gives me a reason to feed reef frenzy. My anthia loves it and my corals benefit from it also. It loves blackworms though!!

[AJ_Tsin]

Soo, the Anthias did not make it more than 24 hours in QT. Once the light came on next day it was covered absolutely covered in ich and a red lesion appeared on its side. It seemed extremely sick and the move from LFS to my home must have stressed it too much. I didn't even get a chance to dose any medication or anythign before it was gone. I am really sad about this one. Sucks.

As always I have again extremely bad luck with fish. It seems the GTA is a great place to buy corals, but a terrible place for fish as the LFS are just moving soo many fish, they almost always are really sick.

There is a guy locally that is beginning a small operation and only ordering about 5 - 10 fish at a time, so maybe I will have better luck with him as he literally will not be able to afford losing fish as a startup.

 

Anyways SHIT, sometimes I hate this hobby.

In other sombre news, new bulbs and second Apex energy bar 8 came it. I ran USB through the floor and now the Apex downstairs is also powering the lighting and pumps upstairs. I am way happier with lighting right now but, hard to be positive about it.

[Alex B]

Did the anthia have any signs of ich when you bought it?

[NanoTopia]

Sorry to hear about the Anthia's, fish are always hit and miss for me as well, my Flameback is doing great though, eating pellets, mysis, purple algae (once and a while), and I am glad to say no coral flesh !

 

I always try to pick fish that have been in the LFS for a month or two, usually they have had time to de-stress and acclimate to the glass box, eat and regain their immune system.

[AJ_Tsin]

Did the anthia have any signs of ich when you bought it?

Not that I could really tell, but it was in the far back of the tank. So I couldn't really see too clearly. It had a bit of fin fraying but I assumed it was just getting nipped by the other one in the tank.

 

Too bad. I drove about 1 hr specifically for the fish, so I kinda just bought it and assumed I could cure anything it may or may not have.

 

 

Sorry to hear about the Anthia's, fish are always hit and miss for me as well, my Flameback is doing great though, eating pellets, mysis, purple algae (once and a while), and I am glad to say no coral flesh !

 

I always try to pick fish that have been in the LFS for a month or two, usually they have had time to de-stress and acclimate to the glass box, eat and regain their immune system.

 

Yea thats probably a good call. It sucks there is no place locally that I can frequent and keep an eye on the livestock before picking it up.

[NanoTopia]

Not that I could really tell, but it was in the far back of the tank. So I couldn't really see too clearly. It had a bit of fin fraying but I assumed it was just getting nipped by the other one in the tank.

 

Too bad. I drove about 1 hr specifically for the fish, so I kinda just bought it and assumed I could cure anything it may or may not have.

 

 

 

Yea thats probably a good call. It sucks there is no place locally that I can frequent and keep an eye on the livestock before picking it up.

I always watch the fish for a good 30 minutes before committing to buying it. I like to see it eat and I watch it's behaviour, gives me a good chance to check for anything abnormal about the fish and check it's physical state. I think a lot of times fish are goners long before you buy them, their travels from the reef to the LFS does them in.

 

Did you get a credit for them?

[AJ_Tsin]

They reluctantly gave me 50% store credit back. Also sucks.

[D Z]

They reluctantly gave me 50% store credit back. Also sucks.

Now that's ridiculous.