Polarcollision's Nuvo 24: March FTS

[Polarcollision]

Nice corals! I'd like to have neighbors like yours!

 

The favia looks a lot like the Reefgen Poinsettia favia I have:

 

RG Poinsettia Favia by TeenyReef, on Flickr

Here's a better picture from the Reefgen site:

 

Now that's a neon coral. Wow! The green in yours almost makes me feel like putting on sunglasses.

 

How fast do they grow?

And how long are their stinging tentacles?

 

The mother colony of the frag that might be skittles had mostly red and royal purple coloring, with a green growth ring. He buys from cherry corals a lot, so it might be skittles. Or some wild colony with a hyped up name. I really like the way yours and this one hugs the rock closely.

 

The fire lamellosa is unlike anything I've ever seen. It's almost black navy base, very thin. Then the polyps mushroom out in flat pillows of highlighter greenish yellow with orange accents. Those pics don't do it justice at all.

[teenyreef]

I got mine from Laura (Reefgen) at a reef show. She said it's a slow grower, which is not a bad thing for favia. The stingers are very short, so far, but my evil favites didn't get bad until they got bigger, so there's no telling for sure.

[RIP Sebastian]

Your tank makes me reeeaaalllyyy miss my 24.

[gena]

Looks great!!!! You have some really nicely grown in pieces. Those chalices really stand out to me . As well as I'm happy to see you still have your forest fire digitata. You were the first to introduce me to that beauty .

[Polarcollision]

I got mine from Laura (Reefgen) at a reef show. She said it's a slow grower, which is not a bad thing for favia. The stingers are very short, so far, but my evil favites didn't get bad until they got bigger, so there's no telling for sure.

I think you could be right, it does look almost exactly like the poinsettia. I was thrown off by the mother colony (about 6" diameter) color pattern which had mostly red and purple in the heart and green at the growth edges. But yours is even starting to show the red center, sooo... I'm just gonna call it a poinsettia so it can have a name. :-)

 

What do you mean by 'bad'? My chalices' sweepers can be about 1.5-2" which I can work around for placement. But I've heard of sweepers 7" long. That's gonna be a little harder to work around.

 

Your tank makes me reeeaaalllyyy miss my 24.

Awww. It's a great tank shape for sure, though I never truly feel 100% safe with the rounded corners. Some time in the next few years, I hope to scale up to 6' wide x 15" tall x 18" deep.

 

Looks great!!!! You have some really nicely grown in pieces. Those chalices really stand out to me . As well as I'm happy to see you still have your forest fire digitata. You were the first to introduce me to that beauty .

Thanks Gena! Nice to see you again. TBH, I have no idea where to put that giant miami hurricane chalice. It needs to be broken in half at least in order to fit somewhere. Do you still have your forest fire? It's pretty hardy, barely reacting to my alkalinity blunders. I recently had the pump on my skimmer break and the green base came in really strong. All the corals colored up nicely within a week so I left it off line for a few weeks to see what would happen (bubble algae).

[Polarcollision]

When the giant birdsnest and stylophora annihilated each other, all of my carefully dialed in dosing schedules were thrown into chaos. So I've been back to testing the water every 3-4 days. Alkalinity is back down to a solid 9 dKh from 10.5. This takes forever because I don't like to change this parameter faster than .25 dKh in any one day. Calcium is down to 500 from over 650 (yikes!). These swings probably pushed Mg down to 1200. Sigh. So with everything all out of whack, I figured I should run the entire series.

 

Alk: 9.0 (target 7.8-8.2)

Ca: 500 (target 420-440)

Mg: 1200 (target 1270-1310)

pH: 8.1 (target 8.3)

NO3: blue to clear, no pink, which I interpret as 0.5

PO4: 1.47, recheck: 1.45

 

Yep. Every time I've ever tester phosphates over the last 3 years, they have been 0.04-0.07. I knew something was wrong when the reagent tube was actually blue... It's always been clear. I'm just really grateful for the high Alk and Ca while nutrients were so high. This might be why every coral but one rainbow millepora did not react at all to alkalinity shooting up so fast.

 

So I quickly refreshed Phosban and carbon. 1.5 tbsp Phosban and 4 tbsp carbon into the passive flow media rack. Thoroughly impressed by the sponge and tubeworm coverage in the back chambers. And bristleworm numbers. They're clearly doing good work and thriving. This morning (10 hrs later), PO4 was already down to 1.03.

 

[YaBoyLaj]

That brittle star tho

[Polarcollision]

That brittle star tho

His momma

[teenyreef]

I think you could be right, it does look almost exactly like the poinsettia. I was thrown off by the mother colony (about 6" diameter) color pattern which had mostly red and purple in the heart and green at the growth edges. But yours is even starting to show the red center, sooo... I'm just gonna call it a poinsettia so it can have a name. :-)

 

What do you mean by 'bad'? My chalices' sweepers can be about 1.5-2" which I can work around for placement. But I've heard of sweepers 7" long. That's gonna be a little harder to work around.

Well, in my 4g tank, they were about 2" which was incredibly bad in that teeny tank.

 

I've never seen sweepers on the Poinsettia but it's still only three or four polyps.

 

Edit: I found an old picture:

 

Evil Favites Stingers by TeenyReef, on Flickr

[Polarcollision]

Well, in my 4g tank, they were about 2" which was incredibly bad in that teeny tank.

 

I've never seen sweepers on the Poinsettia but it's still only three or four polyps.

 

Edit: I found an old picture:

 

Evil Favites Stingers by TeenyReef, on Flickr

OK, this can be planned for - at least they're not 7". That would be like 2" in a 4 gallon! Weirdly surprising to me, the yuma mushroom is possibly more aggressive than the chalices.

 

That sexy shrimp's tail next to the favia looks like two googly eyes. Makes me think of mystery science theater 2000, watching revenge of the sweepers.

 

Tested the water again tonight, phosphates down to 0.90 from 1.45 yesterday night. I think I should pull the media tomorrow night when it hits somewhere around 0.50 to give the coral a chance to adjust to lower phosphates. Don't want to stress them out too much or create the GFO overdose tank of death.

[gena]

Thanks Gena! Nice to see you again. TBH, I have no idea where to put that giant miami hurricane chalice. It needs to be broken in half at least in order to fit somewhere. Do you still have your forest fire? It's pretty hardy, barely reacting to my alkalinity blunders. I recently had the pump on my skimmer break and the green base came in really strong. All the corals colored up nicely within a week so I left it off line for a few weeks to see what would happen (bubble algae).

I don't. I actually sold mine when I took down the 45g cube. It will always be one of my favorite SPS .

[teenyreef]

OK, this can be planned for - at least they're not 7". That would be like 2" in a 4 gallon! Weirdly surprising to me, the yuma mushroom is possibly more aggressive than the chalices.

 

That sexy shrimp's tail next to the favia looks like two googly eyes. Makes me think of mystery science theater 2000, watching revenge of the sweepers.

 

Tested the water again tonight, phosphates down to 0.90 from 1.45 yesterday night. I think I should pull the media tomorrow night when it hits somewhere around 0.50 to give the coral a chance to adjust to lower phosphates. Don't want to stress them out too much or create the GFO overdose tank of death.

Lol, I hadn't noticed the googly eyes. For some reason it reminds me of Beaker from the Muppet Show.

 

[FlowerMama]

Good God that favia!!!

[Polarcollision]

02.09.2017 UPDATE

 

Drug the DSLR out of the closet. dusted it off, took a few pics... and left them on the camera for a month. Just finished fully scaping the tank tonight so no FTS yet. Tried to get a selfie for each fish and some of the new corals. I bought 10 packs of OVA in case they run out again. The green mandarin is in the big tank (inside a fish box) snarfing it up. Mysis soon? Plz ignore the cyano. I'm having a nutrient breakout between feeding the mandarin gads of food every day. Partly because I'm feeding the tank 2x a day to get Mr orange-back down there to fatten up even more. They come in so skinny, but Saltwater city was kind enough to quarantine him in all kinds of meds. It's paying off.

 

Orange-back fairy wrasse

 

Orange-back fairy wrasse with forktail fang blenny

 

Yellow Candy Hogfish

 

Lubbocks Fairy Wrasse

 

Purple Firefish

 

Chocolate clown

 

Oregon tort is finally a colony. I grew it from an $80 nub half the size of the left branch. Every morning my prayer is 'please don't die, please don't die'

 

Joe the coral is one of my oldest acros - definitely a colony now. :-)

 

Yuma and ricordea garden for nemo. There are babies! I did not know yuma made babies. It's hard to say, but they're picking up some of the green from the ric and some of the orange of moma. Only 1/2" so far.

 

Rainbow millepora. It's peach with green polyps. I tried to kill in in the alk swing when the rainbow stylophora and teal birdnest annihilated each other. It will be peach again some day...

 

Red planet just planted. It will be a while til it colors up.

 

Red chalice, happy forest fire digi, red hornets, magicians

 

One of my first acros - tricolor valida

 

I forgot what this is. From Cuttlefish and Coral. It's some kind of rainbow acro, I think with blue pink and green. It didn't like living on the frag rack and this is all that's left. Crossing fingers it pulls through

 

 

wild acro. It came with a sweet crab. Hopefully it continues to color up...

 

ProCorals Rainbow acro. I also tried to kill this one on the frag rack. It's starting to get the pink tips at least. Another one from Cuttlefish and Coral.

 

Branching cyphastrea. It lost all it's color where light hits it directly. I'm giving it a month to start coloring up and then it will have to go in the shade.

[vlangel]

Those are some beautiful pics!

[Christopher Marks]

Great shots @Polarcollision! That yellow candy hogfish is very cool, and joe the coral is looking great! Do you have a shot of it from back in the day?

[Polarcollision]

14 hours ago, vlangel said:

Those are some beautiful pics!

Thank you! So it's worth the hassle of using the DSLR?? ;-)  I was sooooo hoping the iphone would satisfy.

 

12 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Great shots @Polarcollision! That yellow candy hogfish is very cool, and joe the coral is looking great! Do you have a shot of it from back in the day?

Thank you Christopher! Hogfish is a great addition to the tank. I was worried at first that it might be too aggressive with my super passive crew, but so far it only seems to bother the lubbock fair wrasse who is much smaller, but not getting any skinnier. I did find a picture of Joe the Coral! And a trip down memory lane. Oh man my tank went through some rough patches, to put it kindly. Here's the frag I got from the Bob Moore frag swap on 02-14-2015, so it is 2 years old now. It's actually my second Joe the Coral. My cat essentially killed the first one when she broke the chiller hours before we left on a week's vacation. Most of my acros died that week, so I guess that means most acros in the tank are from august 2014 or later. The center yellow frag is now the largest of my acros, and the mille to the left has spent most of it's time with me as a brown turd, only managing to double in size in 2 years. Weird how some corals really thrive and others struggle in the same conditions.

 

[samnaz]

Polarcollision... This is hands down the most beautiful and inspiring tank I've seen, PLUS the most informative, thorough and oh so interesting write up... I almost want to read it all over again. I started a 20L a few months ago (newb here) and this thread has been a great help. If I ever succeed and have a reef half as nice as yours I'll have you to thank! 

[Rain24]

Wow, PC...I haven't been on NR in a while and today Weetie mentioned you so I had to look up your tank thread. This tank is amazing! I love your photos too. A long time ago, we had started our AIO tanks around the same time.

 

I've since moved to your neck of the woods and I'm trying to visit the local LFSs so I can start my own little reef jar!

[Polarcollision]

On 3/5/2017 at 0:17 PM, samnaz said:

Polarcollision... This is hands down the most beautiful and inspiring tank I've seen, PLUS the most informative, thorough and oh so interesting write up... I almost want to read it all over again. I started a 20L a few months ago (newb here) and this thread has been a great help. If I ever succeed and have a reef half as nice as yours I'll have you to thank! 

Wow, you read the entire thread??! I'm honored you have the stamina to dig through it all. He he! It's pretty dense in places. I'm also really happy that everything is helpful to you. It's one part memory aids for me, one part hoping it will help save new reefers from the frustrations I went through trying to get my reef to thrive. :-) I'd put money on your reef being successful AND beautiful. Where's your tank thread? I'll follow along. I don't see a link/signature in your post...

 

On 3/5/2017 at 8:55 PM, Rain24 said:

Wow, PC...I haven't been on NR in a while and today Weetie mentioned you so I had to look up your tank thread. This tank is amazing! I love your photos too. A long time ago, we had started our AIO tanks around the same time.

 

I've since moved to your neck of the woods and I'm trying to visit the local LFSs so I can start my own little reef jar!

Hi there! Welcome back!! I totally remember you and your tank. Are you in Seattle now? Reef jars are so cool. And the ones I've seen popping up lately are just incredible. Looking forward to seeing yours evolve into a masterpiece too!

 

I almost quit this tank. Aptasia are my nemesis. But I really like the new scape and hopefully I can just keep throwing peppermint shrimp at the aptasia until they're finally gone completely. Found 3 tonight, darnit! Anyway, I've just discovered the paper-thin favias and I'm in love with all kinds of new to me encrusting corals. Have about 5 different species glued to the back wall. Willing them to grow so the GSP can be relegated to a little island in the sand.

[teenyreef]

I love seeing the pictures of all your fish, I just want to copy your stocking list and buy all of them 

 

The corals are looking great, too! I had an un-named coral that looked a lot like Joe the Coral in my 10g tank before all the SPS died in it, and it was one of my favorite corals.

 

My OT in the 40g is in the nub phase still, and I say the same thing every day 

[Polarcollision]

Just now, teenyreef said:

I love seeing the pictures of all your fish, I just want to copy your stocking list and buy all of them 

 

The corals are looking great, too! I had an un-named coral that looked a lot like Joe the Coral in my 10g tank before all the SPS died in it, and it was one of my favorite corals.

 

My OT in the 40g is in the nub phase still, and I say the same thing every day 

Do it! Do it! Do it! I have a bunch of video from the 5D Mark 2 but in 6 years I never learned how to open the native files for editing... so they just sit on the hard drive for 'some day'. so sad. ha ha!

 

It's nice to have all the coral planted and the frag rack OUT of the tank. I swear they suffered up on that rack for half a year while I killed aptasia. A local reefer with a 300 gallon tank has some acro frags I may go snag. Really nice stuff too. There's still room for 5 more acros. 7 once the mandarin is trained and eating pellets. Sooo happy OVA is back in stock!! You un-named might be Joe. It was one of the designer corals from a while back, only now 'everyone' has one. It's a strong coral, but not terribly fast growing. Really pretty teal and sky blue tips.

 

What is an OT? Nubs. Nubs are nubs FOREVER. until they aren't. And then they aren't. Am I right??!

[teenyreef]

5 minutes ago, Polarcollision said:

Do it! Do it! Do it! I have a bunch of video from the 5D Mark 2 but in 6 years I never learned how to open the native files for editing... so they just sit on the hard drive for 'some day'. so sad. ha ha!

 

It's nice to have all the coral planted and the frag rack OUT of the tank. I swear they suffered up on that rack for half a year while I killed aptasia. A local reefer with a 300 gallon tank has some acro frags I may go snag. Really nice stuff too. There's still room for 5 more acros. 7 once the mandarin is trained and eating pellets. Sooo happy OVA is back in stock!! You un-named might be Joe. It was one of the designer corals from a while back, only now 'everyone' has one. It's a strong coral, but not terribly fast growing. Really pretty teal and sky blue tips.

 

What is an OT? Nubs. Nubs are nubs FOREVER. until they aren't. And then they aren't. Am I right??!

Yes, so much all of this

 

OT = Oregon Tort

[Polarcollision]

03.11.17 Full Tank Shot

 

 

I think most corals are placed now. The left side is still a work in progress since they're just itty bitty frags. only 3 aptasia known to be in the tank. Peppermint shrimp were the way to go.And the emerald crabs took care of all but a handful of bubble algae. I'm pretty happy with the tank right now. Corals are looking better and better and the fish all get along. It's hard to see in this pic, but the right side of the tank is mostly small bridges with lots of caves and arches for the fish to swim through. It's incredible how much more active they are with this one change.

 

I've discovered favias. So many gorgeous choices! A few years ago it seemed like there was only red and green options, but now... I want them all. So! I will have them all. And they're going to live on the back wall where the GSP used to live.

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

Love this, just amazing.