My first tank with corals: 26 gallon bowfront- it has reached old man age!

[rO.oster]

Glad you updated your journal, tank is looking vibrant and full!!

[Christopher Marks]

 

[vlangel]

Hey, congratulations!  That is awesome that your tank is totm!

[Butchy21]

I was super excited about being chosen as the Nano-Reef tank of the month for February!  It's a huge honor and became a great exercise at forcing me to look back at my tank throughout the 3.5 years of it's history.  I would even suggest everyone should write up a few pages that summarize some things.  What was your original goal of your tank?  Did you reach that or go in a different direction? Regrets, disasters, etc.  It may be a good exercise to get a handle on some future goals that you may have.  Also, it has reinvigorated me to make improvements and keep up on my aquarium journal.  

 

I am amazed at all of the things I've learned... but I am equally interested in all of the things that I still am not knowledgeable about and these are several of the things I would like to upgrade in the future.

 

Some things I have started considering:

 

1. Setting up a refugium- space is limited in my stand since the bowfront is more tall than wide.  This leaves me either doing a nano sump (with refugium part) or set up a distinct HOB refugium.  I am concerned about space at the back of the tank though.  It is 24" wide (with 2" of lip combined), my skimmer is 9" wide and the Aquafuge is 13.5" wide, meaning it would be a tight fit!  I would have to remove my compact filter which is where I run my chemi pure elite.  If I did a nano sump- I suppose it is possible to put the HOB skimmer onto it somehow and run carbon in there?  Having macro algae going would mean I would not run my GFO reactor, thus freeing up space as I could remove a pump from the main tank.

 

2. Upgrade to a Kessil LED-  I like the idea of having a gooseneck to hold the light in place but again, I'm not sure how it would fit if I have the entire back wall of the tank taken up with equipment.

 

3. Starting to use a two-part dosing system- this will be great for going away on vacation and just being able to keep water parameters more stable. 

 

4. Set up a coral frag tank-  I just started to take action at fragging my chalice and one of my frogspawns.  I got a dual layer acrylic holder that seems to work well.  I don't have a ton of room for frags at the moment so I would like to get another frag tank running.  What is a nice small tank that would have a small footprint that could work?  What is the minimum equipment needed since there would not be any fish?  15 gallon is 24" wide- so I could switch over my Marine orbit LED light to it.  

 

5. Beginning to feed my corals again-  I started hand-feeding the corals with brine shrimp and will likely pick up some reef-roids to give it a try.  I want my elegance BIG!  It has not grown at all in the 2.5 years I've had it.  It's healthy and it did respond to feeding immediately, as did the hairy mushroom pictured.

 

 

[Butchy21]

So the tank upgrades have officially begun!  I was having constant algae on one corner of the sandbed even though I've kept up with water changes (thinking it may be getting some extra light from the kitchen window).  Finally decided to set up a refugium to help compete out any nuissance algae in the display tank.

 

DIY Aquaclear 70 refugium mod: I'm really happy with how it turned out for the price.  Cost was about $90 total for filter, silicone, caulking gun, and 12W ACKE LED grow light.  To keep the grow light from bleeding into display tank I decided to use black duct tape instead of fully painting it in case I ever have a need to pull it off.  Made a flap on the one the side of it so I can quickly lift it up and take a look inside the fuge as well.  Media bag insert that came with the filter was cut and siliconed in place to make two distinct compartments- 1) can fit small media bag, 2) refugium- placed small rock rubble without a sand bed.  I let the silicone dry 24 hr.  I switched out the propellor for an Aquaclear 50 propellor in order to reduce water flow intensity.  Light was taped onto the back of the filter box and it almost perfectly covers the refugium section- light is 5" x 4.7".

 

Found a local reefer to give me some Caulerpa prolifera- have read that it can go sexual and get into the display tank so I'm running the light 24/7 for now until I get some Chaeto and then I plan to switch it out. 

 

I also finally got a new coral banded shrimp again!  He already molted once in the few weeks that he's been in the tank so he's a happy camper.

[vlangel]

Nice upgrade!

[Butchy21]

Happy to have found a local reefer to trade some corals.  I gave him a frag of my hollywood stunner chalice for some GSP, and two varieties of zoos.  Apparently the one is green bay packer but I am not sure of the second one.  Both opened up soon after getting in the tank so they seem happy. 

 

I am hoping to sell off my encrusting pavona and the large chalice- then make a nice zoo garden on top left of the rock.  I've always place my zoo frags mid tank or lower but my orange ones seem to suggest higher is better.  They barely grew from 5 polyps over a year and then once they inched up to the top of the rockscape- they've gone to 50+ polyps in a few months.  The coral has spoken!

 

Any idea how much I could sell the pavona and chalice for?  Both are probably 6" x 4-5".

 

[Butchy21]

So I was a little pissed at my watchman goby yesterday.  I noticed my new emerald crab either had molted or was dead when I got home.  I looked around and didn’t see anything.  About an hour later, I saw my goby come out of his cave with crab legs sticking out of his mouth!  He must have found the emerald crab before he was able to have his shell harden. It took him at least an hour to get everything into ships stomach!   So much for my algae scrubbing crab....

[mystersyster]

43 minutes ago, Butchy21 said:

So I was a little pissed at my watchman goby yesterday.  I noticed my new emerald crab either had molted or was dead when I got home.  I looked around and didn’t see anything.  About an hour later, I saw my goby come out of his cave with crab legs sticking out of his mouth!  He must have found the emerald crab before he was able to have his shell harden. It took him at least an hour to get everything into ships stomach!   So much for my algae scrubbing crab....

Fish have no remorse! Lol poor crab probably thought he was safe. 

[Butchy21]

A few phone pics... Ernest the crab has also been reincarnated (for a $10 fee). Lol

[Subsea]

On 4/3/2018 at 5:56 PM, Butchy21 said:

So I was a little pissed at my watchman goby yesterday.  I noticed my new emerald crab either had molted or was dead when I got home.  I looked around and didn’t see anything.  About an hour later, I saw my goby come out of his cave with crab legs sticking out of his mouth!  He must have found the emerald crab before he was able to have his shell harden. It took him at least an hour to get everything into ships stomach!   So much for my algae scrubbing crab....

Beautiful tanks.  

 

Crab reincarnation.  Yes of course.  I witness it often.  

Emerald Crabs are an interesting bunch.  I had one that specifically eats Red Grapes.  I banned him to outside growout tanks.  Then when I planted Caulerpa Prolifera, another Emerald Crab decided that C. Prolifera was for lunch.  For certain, one thing these “herbivore crabs” have in common is oyster flesh.  They pull it out of Anemones all of the time.  Emerald Crabs are very opportunistic.  That means they eat anything.

[Christopher Marks]

The reef is looking great this month @Butchy21!

 

How is the DIY Aquaclear refugium working out? Are you seeing good growth with that light?

[Butchy21]

1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said:

The reef is looking great this month @Butchy21!

 

How is the DIY Aquaclear refugium working out? Are you seeing good growth with that light?

Thanks!  There are always little tweaks to be done on the tank ha. Looking to off load two large corals to make room for some new stuff down the line. I got some nice flat rocks that I want to make a shelf in the upper left for a zoo garden and some sps frags. 

 

The fuge has been mostly great so far.  It’s super quiet, no light bleed and adds a little more water flow to the tank.  I’ve seen really good growth of the Chaeto so far, requiring pruning every week.  There are a few kinks that I need to figure out though since I’m getting a lot of micro algae buildup in the compartment. I’ve since added a snail and crab in there to help out and probably going to drop a bottle of pods in there soon. Also I’m thinking about running some Purigen instead of chemi pure elite for the next few months- I’ve been having some annoying algae accumulation on the sandbed that water changes isn’t really stopping. 

[Indiana Reefin]

For your first reef this tank looks amazing! I love bow fronts!! 

[Butchy21]

I've been busy with life things I suppose but figured I was due with some tank updates.  Overall the tank is happy, just chugging along without any major issues with the exception of my whole rockscape collapsing a few weeks ago!  The rocks were slowly edging towards the glass on most of the sides as I would bump them constantly while trying to scrub algae off the inside and finally... it all collapsed!    I had most of my corals glued in place where I wanted them and of course, most of them broke off or were displaced.  Kind of a blessing in disguise since I was itching to make a major change in the rock structure.

 

Had one casualty my coral banded shrimp, Chuck Norris, got caught in between two rocks.  I was nervous that a replacement would be aggressive since Ive heard stories of some of them being a pain in the butt.  Yet, the new one arrived and is behaving nicely in the tank.  I also got another emerald crab, the largest one Ive ever seen!  Everything was good until this week, my six line wrasse was dead.  I had her for a good 4 years so maybe she was getting old but I'm hoping it wasn't any of the new tank mates.  The two clowns and the watchman goby got along well with her so I can't say either way at this point.

 

A few pics of the tank prior to collapse- notice how large my hollywood stunner got!  Bought it at the size of a quarter and after about 4 years, the thing had to go.  It was shading a good portion of my tank.  I broke off some of the green pavona and removed some rocks to make more room for my branching hammer.  I wanted to get a some more flow with the Euphylla and it looks awesome.

 

Other newer pics- my emerald crab immediately flipped my elegance coral!  Then I noticed my frogspawn has morphed into some purple tips in one section of the coral- I did not know that could happen but it should make for some cool green/purple hybrid maybe?

 

Future plans- not really sure at the moment.  I would like to make a flat rockscape in the top left and get a zoo garden up there but I would have to remove the pavona completely.  I also really want to clear up the substrate from as many corals since I have to remove them all everytime I vacuum the sandbed.

 

Happy reefing!

 

[vlangel]

Wow, those pics are great.  Will be anxious to see what you do with the new scape.

[Butchy21]

Well yesterday was one of those days... you start with moving one rock, two rocks- then 4 hours later, every rock in the tank has come out!  I really have been itching to do a full rescape. A few weeks back I changed a lot of it but I ended up going all in this time. Not sure if it’s finalized but made some serious headway. 

 

The problem a that this started with 11 new corals acclimating... ha. Went to a local reefer who has a business out of his house. Traded in some orange mushrooms, a large chalice frag and my big rock of Pavona. Really excited because I got some awesome pieces!

 

1. Red Monti cap

2. Red digitata

3. Some type of pink eye chalice- not sure the name

4. I think a stylophora?

5. Green slimer

6. Green and purple lobo

7. Meteor shower cyphastrea 

8. Not sure what this is- maybe a green monti? Seems to have small orange specks in it. 

9. Red and blue micromussa (formerly acans?!)

10. Huge red micromussa! 

11. Bam bam zoos

 

Also learned some interesting things - the dealer said Rocordeas are hard to come by since Florida has outlawed acquisition from the oceans- supposedly they are doing stings to bust dealers that buy illegal mushrooms. Also, several places in the world where acans/micromussas come from are banned- so he’s having trouble getting these.

 

Happy that with all the coral out of the tank for several hours, everything opened up rather quickly. Still in a holding pattern since I will not be gluing anything down until I finalize the rock setup but excited to see how I can build it. 

 

[vlangel]

So.....when is the unveiling of the new scape?

[Butchy21]

20 hours ago, vlangel said:

So.....when is the unveiling of the new scape?

Ha, well at this point I had to just fit all of the corals back in the tank but didn’t want to glue anything until I’m happy with the rock work. Also, I may cure a few pieces of rock I bought awhile ago  dry and hence this may take a lot longer than I’d prefer!

[Butchy21]

On 2/23/2019 at 5:44 PM, vlangel said:

So.....when is the unveiling of the new scape?

Ha, well at this point I had to just fit all of the corals back in the tank but didn’t want to glue anything until I’m happy with the rock work. Also, I may cure a few pieces of rock I bought awhile ago  dry and hence this may take a lot longer than I’d prefer!

[Butchy21]

Mostly ready for the new light that should

be coming next week!  Curing some flat rocks for some last changes to scape. Would like to build another shelf for either zoos or something else. 

 

Have had a pretty annoying week with the tank. Was in the middle of raising my Mg levels and started seeing what appeared to be precipitation all over the tank. Checked all of the parameters and they were good. Someone suggested a coral may have spawned based on the spherical nature of the white balls. Andddd it ended up that my purigen bag tore open!  Refugium was a mess and the sand bed is now littered with them. 

 

Then I was getting all kinds of GFO dust accumulating everywhere so had to quickly change that out. Not sure what happened there- I always change it every 2-3 months and haven’t seen the GFO really degrade like that. 

 

But anyways- tank is healthy after almost overdosing kH. I got rid of the large chalice and never adjusted my dosing so I think the kH was creeping up until is was pretty high. No effects on appearance of corals but glad I caught it. 

 

New frag rack- started cutting back my one type is zoos and the trumpet corals. Hoping to trade for some other goodies. 

[Butchy21]

I still want to work on the rockscape but currently in the middle of trading some corals to get rid of some larger items.  Have no idea what to do with the rockscape to make me happy ugh.

 

Left side- flat rock: thinking of putting chalice / monitopora there with some room for branching corals at the back of the rock.

Right side tower: will be putting SPS frags on top, LPS or encrusting corals on a few of the shelves.  Would then do zoanthids on second shelf from the sand and maybe acans on the lowest ridge.

 

Just drove to NH to trade for some awesome new zoanthids.  Have a fake plug holder coming next week that I will be using to start my zoo garden.  Hoping  to cram about 8 types on it.

 

Finally got the DSLR out again- took some pics of old tank inhabitants and the new zoos.

 

Let me know any scaping suggestions / where to glue my frags- I currently have encrusting monti, monti cap, chalice, two duncans, all my zoanthids, two acans and lobo that need permanent homes!

 

 

[Butchy21]

Photodump#2

[Butchy21]

Photodump#3

[Butchy21]

Found a guy selling corals for great prices. 

Picked up 5 corals:

1. Red Acan with pink mouth

2. Green and purple acan

3. Orange lobo

4. Orange and blue leptastrea

5. Common red zoos

 

The sandbed is way too full lol. Hoping to start gluing some corals soon.