Walker's 35g - Home of the Great Zeo Experiment

[Walker]

Since installing the Apex, I've found out that my aquarium gets to be over 82F in the heat of the summer, fluctuating from a low of 78. Typically it'd be about 77-78 throughout the day in winter. A bit high but not too worrying... well, unless we start having a really massive heat wave.

[Walker]

And of course, what would an Apex upgrade be without a Vortech RF upgrade?

 

 

Fairly easy to install, and now the Apex varies my MP10 modes throughout the day.

 

nighttime - 60% lagoonal (to let the fishies sleep)

1 hour before lights on - 90% tidal swell

daytime - 80% reef crest

 

I am also thinking I should set up nutrient transport mode for a couple of hours in the morning before I do water changes, so it shakes out more detritus into the skimmer.

[Walker]

Fragging time again!

 

My bali tricolor has been STN'ing slowly over the past few months, so I decided to break it up to try and rescue a few pieces. All of the frags are now 2 weeks old and doing quite well. They're all starting to encrust.

 

I've also fragged portions of my neon green birdsnest as it's growing quite fast and approaching a torch coral. I figure I can frag it to prevent warfare and maybe make a few bucks.

 

Tricolor frags:

 

The one frag that I fixed onto the rocks:

 

Birdsnest frags:

 

Newly pruned birdsnest:

[TristanC]

Everything looks very healthy great job!

[Walker]

Aaand August FTS!

[Walker]

Oh, in case people are wondering about the change in colour - I am at the end of a T5 light cycle and have started to replace my bulbs. My old combination is 1x ATI Blue Plus, 1x Giesemann Aquablue, 1x New Generation, and 1x Coral Light. I am switching to all ATI - 2x Blue Plus, 1x Coral Light, 1x Purple Plus. I've replaced the whites (Aquablue and Coral Light), and it's whiter than what I've been running, but colours seem better (if a bit more purple).

 

I'll post a new FTS next week once all the bulbs are in. I do some post-processing of the shots anyway but it's a significant difference.

[Walker]

During my weekly water change, I completely tore apart the bali tricolor and fragged the healthy tissue. I've got 3-4 more frags and I'm hoping most of them will recover well. Now I realize why people have frag tanks as the frags look uuugly sitting front and centre of the display. I'll wait a couple of weeks for them to heal up and probably turn most in for LFS credit.

[BattleAthletics]

Such incredible documentation on your tank. I wish I had the time and trial and error as you. It's a shame you don't get more people posting on your thread, I love this tank. Good job.

[Walker]

Such incredible documentation on your tank. I wish I had the time and trial and error as you. It's a shame you don't get more people posting on your thread, I love this tank. Good job.

Appreciate the praise, thank you. This thread doubles as my tank journal as well and it is edifying to look back at my decisions and figure out what worked and didn't work. It also is fun to see how the tank has evolved from a simple vision to what it is now . Glad you enjoy it.

[Walker]

I used to have a nice pink millipora frag that I STN'd way back near the beginning of the year. I left the dead frag in my system thinking that I'd just let the pink prostata encrust over it. Guess what? It apparently recovered from near-death (I suspect down to 2-3 polyps) and is now encrusting! I cut it off the path of the prostata and moved it to where it will hopefully continue its recovery. It's the size of my pinky fingernail, but I think this has good potential.

 

 

In the process of cleaning some annoying bubble algae, I accidentally bumped my forest fire digitata - oops:

 

It hasn't been doing too well (I assume overshadowed by a rock) so I glued the frag near the clam. Hopefully it recovers.

 

[Walker]

Another month, another update. Everything is doing great so far. I am still battling red bubble algae but it seems to have slowed down some. However, there's some wire brush algae that have started to take hold on top of the coralline encrusting the back of the aquarium. I suspect I'm getting up there in phosphates so I have put in a small amount of GFO to take it down.

 

The tank is going to be on autopilot for a few months (thank goodness for aquarium controllers) as my lovely wife has delivered a beautiful baby daughter . I don't think there will be new additions for a while then, but I hope that a hands-off approach will help things grow better.

 

Firstly, fingernail-sized rescue frag is now growing quickly and encrusting to the rock:

 

My bird of paradise is now getting massive. I had thought of fragging it up, but I figure I should let it grow even bigger to make it a true showpiece. Can't believe it started from a 1-inch frag not even a year ago.

 

The pink prostata is very very hairy (love it!) and is now branching:

 

Incredible Hulk has faded some (because of new lights?) but is still growing from the base, not from the existing branch. Only the tips of the new growth have that green tint.

 

Cali tort is one of the happiest coral in the tank, putting on well over an inch of growth plus multiple branches in three months.

 

And of course, FTS:

[Walker]

Sometimes bright ideas don't work out too well... I figured I'd try to do an algae turf scrubber by getting cross-stitch cloth and putting it where the AC70 flows (so lots of water movement + the lights are right there). I didn't really want to run an additional set of lights so I thought this would work nicely.

 

I've had this set-up for about three weeks.

 

At first, brown algae populated the sheet, but the snails zero'd in on it quickly. Every time I'd turn around there was a trochus slurping it up. Eventually, that stopped happening and I was anticipating turf algae growth any minute (I rubbed green algae on the screen to seed it). Wonder of wonders, the algae that started growing was coralline! It encrusted the entire sheet within a week. I pulled the sheet last water change as there was no point.

 

I think that the water was already pretty clean (I use a combination of chemical adsorbents, very light vinegar dosing, and skimming) that algae growth was slow enough to be overtaken by coralline.

 

If I had to try any sort of algae-based export again, I would have to do several things to swing growth towards turf algae or chaeto:

 

1. Protected area without herbivore grazers.

2. A specific light that encourages algae growth.

3. Back off on GFO/vinegar dosing.

 

So far, I see this as proof positive that what I've been doing actually works well, so I'll just keep it status quo and enjoy my coral growth .

[Roshan8768]

Brilliant tank man!! Just check up on this thread, it looks totally different from a year back!! Awesome coralline growth too, looks fantastic. I really like the new bulb combo you've got going. We're using the same light fixture, so would you mind sharing what you're running in the latest FTS? Also, now I'm thinking about cutting back my light cycle to 9.5 hrs... I've been running for 12 hrs a day.

[Walker]

Brilliant tank man!! Just check up on this thread, it looks totally different from a year back!! Awesome coralline growth too, looks fantastic. I really like the new bulb combo you've got going. We're using the same light fixture, so would you mind sharing what you're running in the latest FTS? Also, now I'm thinking about cutting back my light cycle to 9.5 hrs... I've been running for 12 hrs a day.

Thanks dude . Appreciate the comments. I've learned a lot over the past year, and I'm happy that the tank has been doing well. I am a little annoyed at my rockwork being too close to the glass, but at this point I'd rather not rescape unless it's to do a tank upgrade.

 

The light combo is the most recommended ATI combo I've seen - 2x ATI Blue+, 1x Coral Light, 1x Purple Plus. It does give it a slightly purplish-red hue that makes red/purple pop.

 

I've never really seen much of a difference with light cycles. With your wider tank footprint it might be better to keep it at a longer cycle (maybe 10.5 hours?) to compensate for the bigger area.

[Walker]

One of the very few wild corals in my aquarium finally adjusted to tank life (only took a year, ha). Now I have no idea what it is, only that it's finally started to send out branches from the encrusted part.

 

[Roshan8768]

Nice, I need to get me a starter SPS. I've tried a monti before, but that was a year back. Hopefully the tank is in better shape now, I'm thinking birdsnest? But what color variety?

[Walker]

Birdsnest and Bird of Paradise have given me the least issues and best growth in the tank so far. Montiporas don't seem to like me very much. I'm about due to post an update, so I'll showcase just how fast my green birds and BOP grows.

 

As far as colour variety, I really like the ORA bird of paradise colours (which I think I have, but can't confirm as it came from a local reefer) - very hairy purple polyps, green/peach base. If possible, get it from a local as almost all of the frags I got locally have survived (if not exploded in growth). Wild-caught and storebought have been much slower to grow, and I've outright lost a couple.

[Roshan8768]

Birdsnest and Bird of Paradise have given me the least issues and best growth in the tank so far. Montiporas don't seem to like me very much. I'm about due to post an update, so I'll showcase just how fast my green birds and BOP grows.

 

As far as colour variety, I really like the ORA bird of paradise colours (which I think I have, but can't confirm as it came from a local reefer) - very hairy purple polyps, green/peach base. If possible, get it from a local as almost all of the frags I got locally have survived (if not exploded in growth). Wild-caught and storebought have been much slower to grow, and I've outright lost a couple.

 

I'll look into the bird of paradise, looks stunning! As of late I've been getting most of my frag from local reefers. The prices & selection are better, and the livestock is healthier. Plus you get to meet some cool people!

[Walker]

Growth on green birdsnest from August 12th to September 29th (48 days). Very impressed at how fast this grows.

 

Frags:

Aug 12:

Sept 29th:

 

Parent colony:

Aug 12:

Sept 29:

[reefernanoman]

Wow, you have done a great job with your tank.

[markalot]

I like your thread and tank, good documentation! I've been struggling with the green color of the Forest Fire digitata. Apparently it will lose the green at a PAR higher than 230 or so. I rented a PAR meter and discovered mine was getting blasted with 290 so re-arranged some bulbs to lower the PAR. Just FYI if you lose the green ... ATI bulbs are bright!

 

As far as STN, my tank finally stabalized around the 1 year mark so hopefully your issues will go away.

[Walker]

Thanks Markalot and en28so . I agree with you on the forest fire digitata - it's quite finicky in the amount of light it likes. I put it slightly shaded and it STN'd on the undersides. I put it lower in the tank but in bright light and it looks just like an orange digitata. The STN has stopped on the shaded frag so hopefully it will eventually start developing that green.

 

Good to know the PAR cutoff at 230! I'm quite surprised my "budget" coralife fixture puts out that much, but I guess you're right in that ATI bulbs put out a lot of light. When I first switched over to better bulbs (Giesemann and ATI) I bleached the heck out of my orange chalice. It's recovered now but you can really tell what part is shaded and which part isn't by the pigmentation. The shaded part is a dark dark orange, the unshaded part is a light orange.

[Walker]

I just wish I have a surefire way of getting rid of red bubble algae. That's the only algae I've had trouble with. It's everywhere. I figure that I have a slight phosphate issue now as I'm seeing red wire algae popping up as well - I'll run a regimen of a couple of weeks of GFO plus stepping up vinegar dosing. I'll have to increase my oyster-feast feeding to compensate.

[markalot]

I haven't had any STN for the longest time, so I wonder what's up in your tank? I know I made (keep making actually) a lot of assumptions that end up wrong. I would stop everything except 2 part and make sure your calcium stays above 400 and KH around 8, mag 1300+, and let it ride. If phosphates are high your corals should be brown and algae everywhere. Don't sweat the bubble ... red is better than green. My corals kill off the bubble as they encrust.

 

Are you vacuuming the sandbed when you do a water change to help exports?

 

Take my 46 for example. I have an AC110 with Chaeto and a small bag of carbon (leather coral). I have an Eshoppes skimmer for export and that's it. I am doing extremely heavy feedings to try and color up the corals. Various flake foods 3 times a day and either Reef Roids or BRS Reef Chili every day (1/4 dose). I have Phosguard or GFO ready to go if I see a problem, but so far wet skimming seems to be keeping up. That plus weekly water changes with gravel stir and vac so my change bucket is a smelly brown color.

 

If your like me you research the hell out of everything and then end up running a sterile tank.

[Walker]

I haven't had any STN for the longest time, so I wonder what's up in your tank? I know I made (keep making actually) a lot of assumptions that end up wrong. I would stop everything except 2 part and make sure your calcium stays above 400 and KH around 8, mag 1300+, and let it ride. If phosphates are high your corals should be brown and algae everywhere. Don't sweat the bubble ... red is better than green. My corals kill off the bubble as they encrust.

 

Are you vacuuming the sandbed when you do a water change to help exports?

 

It's very particular corals that STN - I suspect those corals came from tanks that had higher phosphate to begin with, and the shock of going into near-ULNS triggers a reaction. Typically if they're fragged and start encrusting they survive. I had stopped GFO and reduced vinegar to minimum (2x a week) and have let it ride for a while already . Now that algae is making a comeback I figure I'll step up the nutrient export again.

 

I've tried vacuuming up the sandbed but even a little bit of vacuuming triggers minor diatom blooms. Besides, I have so little sandbed exposed it's a pain to vacuum it! I just let my nassarius and ceriths stir it up.