HOB 40 Breeder***Update 5/6.... New Growth Pics!

[markalot]

Updates!

 

 

Is the Yellow Tang going to stay in your tank? I'd love to do some similar stocking on my 40 breeder tank but I worry about the long term health of the tang. Thinking Ill go with a Kole tang isntead since it wont be pushing it as much.

 

Kole would be better, I had a yellow in a 40 and upgraded before it got too big. I don't think it's as big of an issue as some make it out to be. The only time my yellow really uses all the tank is when he is being aggressive to someone, which is rare now that I removed a second yellow tang.

[ReeferReefer]

Good to know. Ill consider adding a Kole but I just want to make sure that the fish have enough room as I don't know when I would be able to get a bigger tank. I mean I have a 60 gallon but the floor print seems smaller than my 40 breeder so I am not sure I would use it.

[element9540]

Great tank roshan.... can't wait til my 40 breeder is stockable.

[Roshan8768]

Update coming soon... been really busy with school. Have some new fish!

Great tank roshan.... can't wait til my 40 breeder is stockable.

Thanks! The corals are not doing too well atm, but other than that everything is fine in this tank. Be sure to put up a thread when your tank starts coming along... it's a great way of keeping track of changes that you make and the progress you make.

Is the Yellow Tang going to stay in your tank? I'd love to do some similar stocking on my 40 breeder tank but I worry about the long term health of the tang. Thinking Ill go with a Kole tang isntead since it wont be pushing it as much.

No, I will be trading him in when he gets too big. I have a friend who has a nice 12 foot long tank for him to go in. But for the moment he is happy and gets along with everyone as long as he is well fed

[markalot]

Still waiting for updates.

[Roshan8768]

Still waiting for updates.

 

I'm pretty terrible and getting around to doing them HAHAHAHAHA

[Roshan8768]

So.... it's been almost a year since I posted on here, proof that life can get busy for all of us I guess. Tank didn't look that bad throughout this time period but as I mentioned earlier, I was having very little coral growth. With that said my water tested perfect and I had no algae issues to speak off. I decided to "let the tank go" and leave it on autopilot for a while and be happy with whatever corals survive (since everything was struggling despite my intensive attention and care.)

 

I recently (over the last 2 months or so) have found some time (and $$$) to attempt a solution. For starters I reduced the flow by removing the smaller koralia powerhead. I think a lot of my issues with my corals have had to do with the fact that there are not enough good locations in my tank that have indirect flow, and in general there was too much flow. I had my water sent to a professional water testing service to check for any strange contaminants that may be present. Both of these things did not seem to make much of a difference (test came back clean) and the tank looked the same. I hypothesized that maybe the fact that the tank is located in our breakfast area and less than 15 ft from a stove might mean that aerosolized particles from our cooking may be landing in the tank (possibly?) This idea took root from observing that the period of time when I had the most coral growth was when we were all gone for vacation for 2 months (no cooking in the house.)

 

I was about to order a glass top to mitigate this when I began to think about my sand bed. In my pico, I run a BB and I get excellent growth and I use the same water I use on my larger tank. Now this made no sense to me because the 40 breeder is the larger, older, and (supposedly) more stable system. I decided to remove the majority of my sand bed to see if it would help. I still have a thin layer in the front about 1-2 mm deep, and areas of 1 inch behind the rock work that I haven't gotten to yet (may leave these for the wrasse.) I siphoned my sand out with a garden hose over the course of 4- 5 gallon water changes (once a week.) It has only been 7 days, but my duncan coral which had previously been unhappy is looking much better now, so I may be onto something!

[Roshan8768]

I added a small branching hammer frag, some palythoa grandis, a green pocillopora, and a small RBTA this week. Hope they all do well... so far everything is looking great and showing good extension/color.

 

Over the course of the last 8 months, my stocking has changed a little bit. My tangs started to bicker more and there was some light sparring going on. I was not happy with this, and since my tomini is intended to be the permanent resident, I gave the yellow to my friend. Also, at some point my TSB passed . This was one of my favorite fish because it had so much personality and would always come up to the glass when I walked by. A few months later, I had a great opportunity to pick one of my dream fish a female leopard wrasse!! I had my LFS hold her for a month and make sure she was eating well, then I brought her home. She has adapted well to my tank and has been a permanent resident since July. Also, around August my fairy wrasse found a 1/4 inch gap between my net top and HOB filter output and jumped out. He was roasted to a crisp on the screen top when I got home . After this, my tank looked empty so I tried getting some open water swimmers and picked up 3 juvenile lyretail anthias and 1 royal gramma. The lyretails did not like the move and although they looked healthy and ate at the store they died one after another within a couple of days. The gramma is still with me today. I picked up a maroon clown as a temporary guest for my college pico and I recently decided to rehome him to my 40 and added him to my tank about 2 weeks ago. He is settling in just fine and has even found the RBTA that I added recently! I also added a cleaner shrimp!

So my current stocking is:

 

1 x Yellow Tail Damsel

1 x Tomini Tang

1 x Royal Gramma

1 x Leopard Wrasse

1 x Maroon Clownfish

1 x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

 

Corals:

 

Kenya Tree

Xenia

Red mushrooms

Devil's hand leather

Green palythoa

Green Star Polyps

Anthelia

Duncan (1 head)

Hammer (3 heads)

Palythoa grandis

Green pocillopora

Red Bubble Tip Anemone (technically an invert but whatever)

Will post pics soon!!!

[markalot]

 

Will post pics soon!!!

 

I'll believe it when I see it. Thanks for the update.

[Christopher Marks]

Will post pics soon!!!

 

 

Don't forget

[Roshan8768]

So here's my FTS and some pics from 3 weeks ago:

 

 

 

Current pic:

 

 

And my prized/favorite fish:

 

 

 

Hammer coral:

(old)

 

 

(new)

 

Green Pocillopora:

 

(old)

 

(new)

[markalot]

Yay, update! Looks great!

[Roshan8768]

Yay, update! Looks great!

 

It looks alright for now! Corals are all new, so hard to say anything with confidence, but everything looks good right now. I am dosing the DIY coral snow using the recipe that jedi reposted on here, so maybe that's helping. Does it look like corals are reaching for light to you in the newer pic?

[markalot]

The corals look healthy, can;t really tell if they are reaching for the light but I like the way the hammer looks.

[Roshan8768]

So big news, picked up a used MP40 for my tank. It is a second generation pump, but the wetside had been replaced last year and more importantly I got it for $150!!! Very pumped about this. Got home and installed it on my tank today. Had to move stuff around to avoid blasting them with flow but WOW this thing moves water. It stays at the minimum setting for now, because anything more just looks like too much. My pocillopora was looking alright, but only showing PE on the upper parts that were in direct light before I turned the pump on. Within 30 minutes, it had crazy PE. Also, my favia frag which had looked kind of retracted puffed up and put out its feeder tentacles. I have never seen either of these corals this happy, even at the store. These pumps really do work. Always wanted one, but I could never afford one brand new. Very, very happy that I found this steal

 

So, the poci appears to have grown (gasp) and the palythoa grandis are doing very well! so that's 2/6 for my new additions.The hammer and duncan looked alright but weren't really fully extending. I find it hard to believe that it was from too much light or flow since they were on the edges of my tank. I moved them up in the rockwork, so hopefully that will help with both those criteria. Similarly, the Favia had also been in a low flow/low light environment on the edge of my tank. Moved it up onto the rockwork where there is a little more of both. Hopefully the LPS start doing better! The BTA had gone into a cave and was hiding from the light, but I had to move my Devil's hand to keep it from getting blasted by the MP40 which ended up exposing it again. The good news is it has planted its foot where it wanted to, and it is still very sticky. I fed it a small piece of shrimp which it scarfed down so hopefully it stays put.

 

Pics and maybe a video to come soon

[markalot]

Excellent! It's hard to judge how much flow is enough but some corals really need it.

[Roshan8768]

Excellent! It's hard to judge how much flow is enough but some corals really need it.

 

Yes definitely. My softies are all being bent out of shape and not opening even with it on minimum though (I had to move stuff out of the path of direct flow to get them happy, and they're still struggling to adjust for now), so I will likely leave it on minimum in reef crest for now. I like turning up to 100 % for a minute or so though, so much detritus gets knocked loose. The good thing is this is basically dead silent since I run it at the lowest %

[Roshan8768]

2 weeks ago:

 

Today:

 

Angle of the pic is slightly different, but you can see the growth on the base (I think) Hopefully this keeps growing. PE is unreal this morning, so fuzzy. Hammer and Favia look happier for now, but only time will tell if new positions are too much light/flow for them. Duncan still looks pissed off, and RBTA hasn't hid yet so not great, but could be worse

Thoughts on Duncan placement? I've tried it everywhere and I've had it for over 2 months now, just doesn't seem happy

[Roshan8768]

So this may be boring but just documenting growth/ lack there of to keep track of what needs to be moved around.

 

Poci:

 

 

 

 

Looks fuzzier in person and PE is excellent. Is also much greener than either angle shot suggests. Coloration is a little pale on the under sides, but PE is good everywhere, so I assume this is normal.

 

Duncan's and Candycanes:

 

 

The 1 head frag of the "green" duncan that I've had for the last 4 months still isn't happy, so I moved it in to a more shaded area. The "purple" I added last week from the pico looks great . Looks like the candycane might have a head which is about to split.

 

Palys:

 

 

Looks nicer in person, and looks like it has grown a fair bit.

 

Acro:

 

 

It's still alive and hasn't browned out. I'll chalk that up as a win . Keeping my eyes peeled for any encrusting at the base

 

Birdsnest:

 

 

I was told this was a "red" variety. I had it in a relatively shaded idea to acclimatise it and it looked happy and had regained some color. Moved it to some higher flow and brighter lighting as I feel that it will look better there. Also mounted some GSP to the surface skimmer box for the aquaclear

 

Favia:

 

 

Had it for around 2 months, but hasn't looked overly happy. At first it didn't get enough light, then too much. I hope this spot on the sand bed will work well. Hopefully some of the tissue starts to grow on the edges.

 

Goniopora:

 

 

Looked much happier in the pico. I think it was getting too much light where I mounted it at first, so I moved it down to the sandbed. It may have too much flow now though, we will see...

 

All pics were taken an hour after moving anything I said was moved, so they obviously will not be a 100%

[Matteo]

if my flame angel ever starts to nip I am so getting one of these!

 

[Cencalfishguy56]

if my flame angel ever starts to nip I am so getting one of these!

 

yea they are badass

[Roshan8768]

if my flame angel ever starts to nip I am so getting one of these!

 

 

Yup they are my favorite. They are kind of a 2 in 1 fish as well, as they will change colors later if/when they turn male

[Roshan8768]

if my flame angel ever starts to nip I am so getting one of these!

 

 

Time to find one

So my Tomini tang is being a jerk to everyone and chasing everything around the tank when he gets in the "mood." Plan is to stock with more fish and revamp the fish list, but this won't be possible with the damsel and tang in the tank. Will most likely trade them and the maroon clown in for store credit and pick up some new inhabitants who play nicer

[Matteo]

 

Time to find one

 

So my Tomini tang is being a jerk to everyone and chasing everything around the tank when he gets in the "mood." Plan is to stock with more fish and revamp the fish list, but this won't be possible with the damsel and tang in the tank. Will most likely trade them and the maroon clown in for store credit and pick up some new inhabitants who play nicer

Good call!