28 gal Hex of awesome—1 year old

[Tamberav]

Closest thing I can think of is the red blade from LAreefs but doesn't look exact. Yours has split ends.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

It looks kind of like Halymenia and kind of like gracilaria hayi, but the bumps and the way it feels is wrong. Thanks for looking around for me.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

I'm getting a good dusting of diatoms from the Marco rocks, but my CUC is doing a nice job keeping it in check. I've removed the two big whelks and a bunch of smaller ones. There are still more little ones though. When I get a chance, I'm going to order some pods and more nassarius vibex from Reef Cleaners.

 

My new jawfish has started popping out a little. Cute!

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

So, I almost got out of the LFS with just two crazy zebra hermits. But we ended up with a fish too. It's a blue neon goby, so I think we will be okay. Here are a few fishy pics:

 

Jawfish:

 

Mandy:

 

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

Neon goby:

 

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

I heavily pruned my caulerpa Sunday hoping that my other macro would get a chance to grow without being out competed by the caulerpa...so now I have a brown sand bed. Come on red macros! Grow!

[bonsaidarrell]

What did you decide with the sump/skimmer?

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

I just did an AquaClear 70. Trying to get into the sump area and do anything was RIDICULOUS even with the smallest skimmer mockup.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

The nasty brown algae was getting pretty bad. I noticed that it went away at night only to return about half way through the next photo period. I did a water change Sunday and then a three day black out starting Monday. I took the sheet off this morning and I don't see any sign of the brown algae. Everything else looks good and my macro no longer has a brown film.

 

I also added another trochus and 3 real tongan nassarius.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

I cleaned the glass and expoxied down a few things during today's water change. Here are some pics while the tank is nice and clean.

 

FTS:

 

Fishes:

 

 

 

 

 

Hermit:

 

Blue Ochtodes:

 

Love how these are coloring up!

[Tamberav]

Tank is looking great!!! Awesome pictures too! The clarity of the acrylic is soooo nice!

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

Thank you everything in the tank seems pretty happy so far. Looking forward to getting more coral soon.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

So I don't get what is up with this acan. It looks like it is reaching, bleaching, and growing new heads all at the same time.

 

Here is what it looked like when I got it:

 

(This was in the BuoCube)

 

This is still in the BioCube not long before moving it to the Hex:

 

 

This is what it looks like now:

(No blues on)

 

(Blues on)

 

It has a bunch of new growth...lots of babies. I spot feed it once a week giving each head a mysis shrimp. I blow food over it daily (a combo of mysis, Ova, bbs and cyclopeeze). My moonlights are on 8 am-9 pm. The rest of my lights are on from 12 noon-6:00 pm. Blue LEDs are at 60% and the rest of the spectrum is on 50%.

 

I'm going to test alk, calk, and mag tomorrow.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

Our second car was totaled a few weeks ago and between that, being down a car, and having family in town the tank went three weeks without a water change. Here is the macro jungle I grew!

 

 

But over all, I think the tank did okay. Here is a FTS:

 

Today I got to clean it and do a water change, yay! We also went to a different LFS thank usual. We looked ALL over the store, twice, for a chalk bass and didn't find one, so I picked out a rock flower nem (yay!) and a lovely dendro. As we were checking out I spotted a chalk bass! So we got him too. needless to say, spent too much on the tank today!

 

Here is a pic of the nem:

It looks so much better in my tank than it did at the store. It was blah brown at the store. Under my lights it has a green center that fades out to teal/blue and maroon and dark blueish green tentacles...though that doesn't really come through in the photo.

 

Here is the dendro. I'll get better pics when it opens:

 

 

The chalk bass is hiding, so no pics of him. I also got a magician ply a few weeks ago. I'll post pics of it later too.

 

Here are a few other inhabitants.

 

 

Crab stacking:

 

The acan still looks like crap, but I have tons of new growth. So...idk?

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

Dendro open:

 

 

(Neon goby photo bomb)

[Tamberav]

Awesome new additions! The flower has some nice looking ruffles.

 

Everything is looking really healthy!

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

Thank you I'm really happy with how everything is doing.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

A little photobucket editing and here is what the rock nem really looks like:

 

 

It also moved itself up a bit.

 

The chalk bass is making forays into the open. He has something on his tail fin. You can see it in the last photo. I thought it was sand at the fish store, but it is still there. Idk what it is, but he seems healthy.

 

 

 

 

Lone magician ply:

 

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

The tank is two months old now. It seems older, but I'm sure that is because I transferred things instead of starting from scratch.

 

About a week ago, my neon goby disappeared. He was there on morning as usual and gone that evening. No idea what what happened to him. Other changes: the rock nem moved itself up a few inches; added a second occy clown; added a toad stool; everything is growing.

 

Here are some pics:

Dendro and magician ply

 

Photo bombing chalk bass

 

 

 

Slightly better looking acan with tons of babies

 

Toad stool and dirty glass

 

Rock nem's new home

 

Top down shots

 

Monti has finally started encrusting the rock

 

 

New clown and old clown up top. Chalk bass and mandy below.

 

 

The jawfish wasn't participating in pictures that day, but he is still in there and doing well.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

So, yesterday was not the best fish Mother's Day. I found my tongan nass eating my jawfish. I'm positive the chalk bass brought in ich. I also managed to cause the HOB to overflow while I was messing with something else. Fun. I glued an apista on my dendro and it has been pissed and won't open ever since. My toadstool won't open either. I moved it, so maybe it will be happier in its new location and open today. I also removed some bubble algae.

 

In good news, my rock flower nem had a baby! I don't know how, as I only have one, but a have a baby rock nem in my tank. I can only imagine that is where it came from. I also got a purple NPS gorg with white polyps.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

I replaced the ClearFx Pro last weekend and did a 5 gallon water change. The tank is looking nice and clean again. The dendro opened up yesterday too. I was getting worried. The toadstool still hasn't opened despite moving it to a few different places...can't believe I'm having a hard time with a leather coral of all things! I'll have to post a new FTS soon.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

3 months old:

 

 

 

No blues:

 

Growing well

 

 

Finally looking normal

 

 

 

Splitting Richordea. It grew a new mouth and I'm having some luck hiding the dendro from the clown's affection. I can at least feed it now.

 

 

Huge blue ochtodes growth. They over shadowed and killed my red Gracilaria and some of my cuelpeura. I pruned the ochtodes today and spead my cuelpeura out all around the bottom (minus one sude in the front). As you can see, the mandy loves hunting around the ochtodes.

 

[Tamberav]

Look at all that purple! I think some birds-nest or something would look pretty cool near the top but angled out so it grows into the open water column.

 

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

That is actually the plan I was going to put stylophora up there, but I don't dose anything and I don't want to start. I think I'll just get a green birdsnest or orange monti digitata. The Northern Lights monti really seems to be doing well, so my SPS confidence level is slightly improved.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

The clownfish found the dendro again and is trying to make it host her. Ugh! I put it right next to the toad stool hoping she might like ithe toadstool, nope! Still pestering the dendro. I'm going to try catching it with a fish trap and taking it back to the store.