Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence

[Ibuyen]

does it come off easy? does it feel like sponge to touch? eggs or debris, i am not quite sure.

[zachxlutz]

Well, upon further investigation I've identified the unknown "stuff" on the live rock as Cerith Snail eggs. I've linked some pictures below to help others in the event they stumble across this thread looking for information.

 

 

 

I found this information at this link: The Hitchhikers Guide to Your Aquarium

 

Seemingly, most pictures will show the snail leaving it's eggs on the glass which initially stumped me as I searched for images of each type of invertebrate in my tank's eggs.

does it come off easy? does it feel like sponge to touch? eggs or debris, i am not quite sure.

Looks like the answer is eggs! Thanks for the help!

[Ibuyen]

I get about these size portions about once a month or few . Nothing ever happens from them sadly. I think my urchin likes to eat them. Hope you have better luck. Mine are always on the glass.

[zachxlutz]

I get about these size portions about once a month or few . Nothing ever happens from them sadly. I think my urchin likes to eat them. Hope you have better luck. Mine are always on the glass.

Very cool, I've seen eggs pop up on the glass once and now on the live rock. I guess the little snails like their conditions!

[zachxlutz]

Just a few things to report in on, not a ton of progress lately but things are going swimmingly around here.

 

We've set up our QT tank, 29 gallons with a HOB filter and some luxurious PVC elbows! In order to keep cycling to a minimum, I placed two of the filters for the HOB filter in the sump of the main tank for about three weeks and used those plus the filter sock from the main tank in the HOB filter. It's filled with water currently and running. I'll keep my eye on the levels while we wait to pick out our first fish additions. We're still struggling with what fish we're going to want to keep though. We just wanted to get the QT tank set up so when we make the decision, we're ready to bring something home.

 

 

I know, I know... I need to get the stand skinned and painted. Cyclocross season just started and we're basically busy every weekend racing. I basically only have Monday nights free to do tank maintenance and work on anything outside of cycling. I'm hoping to pick up some materials for the stand tomorrow and maybe I'll get something done on that Saturday AM.

 

Obligatory FTS:

 

The snail eggs have seemingly hatched and are gone.

 

The live rock is going through some color changes in the last 10 days or so. The rock has gone from mostly white to a more uniform color of bright green/brown. The green is, from what I can tell, the start of coralline algae. It's not hairy or fuzzy like microalgae or brown/red/bubbly like diatoms or cyano. It's more of like the live rock coming back to life after spending years dry and dark. There are a TON of purple coralline spots poking through the green on the live rock. It's starting to look great. There's a spot of coralline on the back wall as well as almost all the snails and hermit crabs. I can't wait for it to take off.

 

We're currently at the tail end of a hydroid explosion *hopefully*. I've been cleaning the glass almost daily trying to get them to go through the overflows into the filter sock. It seems to be working, the population seems to be dwindling.

 

The macros in the refugium are growing like weeds! The red gracilaria is actually outgrowing the chaetomorpha... fine by me. I'd almost rather keep just the red gracilaria as I hear it's a good option for feeding tangs and it looks super cool!

 

The coral all seem to be doing well... Hard to judge growth at this point but all are open constantly and look bright and colorful.

 

Vitals:

Sg: 1.025

Temp: 79F

Ph: 8.1 (fairly constant with the kalk in the ATO)

Calcium - Ca: 420

Alkalinity - KH: 9

Nitrate - NO3: 0 (no reading on API kit - will invest in something more accurate soon)

Phosphate - PO4: 0 (same, API kit - need something better)

 

Thanks for checking in!

[zachxlutz]

I'm glad to see they hydroids slowly disappearing, too. It seems like they spiked up and my pod population spiked down. I may try and get another package of pods to help re-seed their population.

 

Last night I dosed 14 grams of sodium bicarbonate in an effort to bring up the alkalinity to 10 from 9. I'd like to see if I can now keep it at 10 just using the kalkwasser ATO. The Red Sea Coral Pro is supposed to mix up to around 11, depending on salinity. I think I'm still working to get my levels up to where I want them due to using instant ocean to get the tank going. I've changed out a total of 105 gallons of water since I set the tank up, so I imagine we're getting close to clearing out the original salt and getting to a more unified mix of the Coral Pro salt. After dosing, I retested and found that the Alk did come up to 10, just as the calculator on Bulk Reef Supply said it would. Very cool!

[zachxlutz]

We've got some swimmers!

 

Last weekend we went to Atlanta Aquarium to show my 3 year old nephew the fish and coral and what would you know, we ended up buying our first fish. We saw a pair of really distinctive looking all white clownfish in one of the tanks and inquired about their history and asked to watch them eat. They ate well, looked healthy, plump and showed no signs of disease as near as I could tell. We were told they'd had them for a couple of months now which made me feel better about the purchase as well. They are a mated pair of Wyoming White ocellaris clownfish. We also picked up a nice looking little cleaner shrimp.

 

I busted out the proper camera to take some pictures today:

 

Female:

 

Male:

 

Looking everywhere for some mysis at dinner time:

 

Shrimpy shrimp:

(That picture really shows all the specs of coralline algae popping up! )

 

The smaller, lower heads on the Duncan coral seem to be growing well, finally epoxied this piece, disk and all to the live rock:

 

 

Funny story on this little frogspawn frag... Came home from work for lunch one day this week and it was missing. Gone... Poof! The frogspawn came from the store on a typical frag disk that we just had set on the rock while we were deciding where everything should be placed permanently. The disk was still in place, but the tiny little frag had gone bye bye. I think maybe a snail or hermit must have just knocked it free of the disk. I scarfed down my lunch quickly and with the help of my girlfriend, tore apart the rock work and started shaking out the rock in the water trying to find it. Finally dug through about 4 pieces of rock and it came flying out into the sand bed. OPERATION RECOVERY COMPLETE! Now... We had to get it mounted. I was sure it was already stressed out from being blown around the tank and caught under the rocks so I quickly kneaded up some reef epoxy and pushed the frag in carefully and then placed it on the rock. I was worried it wasn't going to make it at first because so much of the skeleton was showing but by the time I made it home from work a few hours later it was already all open and extended. Hopefully it likes the new location and won't get knocked around this time.

 

Finally, FTS:

 

We have some orange gel filters for the nice camera, I need to do some more research on how to set them up with the white balance to get more accurate color capture in the photos.

 

We're excited to head to the expo at Atlanta Aquarium tomorrow and maybe pick up some new things!

[zachxlutz]

Today was rad. Got a sweet deal on 10 new frags... Won $100 gift card to Atlanta Aquarium at the expo. Saw some awesome coral and met some nice people! I'm looking forward to attending again next year... Now, I need to decide what our next purchase is going to be!

 

Here's our newest additions:

 

Purple Birdsnest:

 

Green Palythoas

Closed:

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Open (iphone pic):

 

Mystic Sunset Montipora:

 

Branching Psammocora (I think...):

 

Pavona (I think...):

 

Screaming Neon Green Birdsnest:

 

Acropora (not sure which type. Chameleon? not the best pic):

 

Another pic of acropora from my iphone:

 

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea:

 

Red Digitata:

 

Candy Cane:

 

FTS:

 

Now, we just need to decide on placement and start epoxying! These pictures were taken right after adding to the tank, they're really starting to open up and seem comfortable in their new home.

 

Thoughts on placement? Advice? Thanks!

[zachxlutz]

Today has been a good day so far. Some fun new toys came in the mail today!

 

 

 

Excited to get playing with some new things tonight after work!

[zachxlutz]

UPDATE TIME!

• Loving the new Hannah Alkalinity tester. So easy. So fast. Very precise.
• Loving the random flow from the gyres. I'm running them on random with a max pulse of 80%. Not sure if the flow scales lineal or not, if they do, I'm getting alternating random flow in the tank anywhere from 3200 GPH to 6880 GPH. That's 26.7x to 57.3x turnover. Works for me!
• Not seeing any noticeable PO4 or NO3 in the tank using the new Red Sea test kits. I really like the rotating color chart for comparison, it makes reading the results very easy.
• Still working out how to mount the auto feeder from Eheim. It doesn't fit over the trim on the 120 and with the canopy... not sure what to do.
• Looks like I'm getting some growth with the corals, hard to tell but everything is looking great. I'll work on a FTS soon. I still need to get all the frags off of their plugs and mounted permanently. I'm waiting on a coral propagation kit from BRS to do that. Should have it Wednesday.

New Additions:

 

4x Bartlett's Anthias - currently hanging out in the QT tank. They'll eat anything. Frozen food and pellets. Looking healthy and fat! Can't wait to get these guys in the DT. They came from Atlanta Aquarium and I was told they had them for a couple of months so I'm hoping the QT process goes smoothly and I can get them in the tank ASAP. I'm not doing any prophylactic treatment, just observing for now.

 

 

 

Macroalgae coloration question:

 

The macros in the refugium experienced quite a bit of growth earlier on but have seemingly slowed down or stopped growing altogether. I attribute that to the lack of PO4/NO3 in the water? The red gracilaria has very little red in the new growth. I think I read somewhere that this could possibly be due to a lack of iron in the water?

 

 

Thanks for following along!

[zachxlutz]

More to come later...

[zachxlutz]

Coral Surgery Day + New Frag Day + Water Testing and Dosing

Coral Surgery Day:

The tissue recession on the Mystic Sunset Montipora was continuing to get worse so I decided it was time to take some steps to help prevent it from spreading any further. I popped the coral off the rockwork relatively easy as the frag plug that it's encrusting over is very smooth on the bottom and didn't have much to adhere too. A little bit of newly encrusted coral was still attached to the live rock when I pulled it out, so we'll see how that little TEENY TINY frag does.

Pulled the frag out and went to work with the pliers and then set the coral in the Coral Rx dip with the powerhead.

A close-up of the epoxy and chunks of coral skeleton I was able to break off showed no signs of montipora eating nudibranchs or eggs. I didn't see any floating around in the dip water either. Fingers crossed we don't have those.

A close inspection of the piece I'm hoping to save showed no signs of nudis or eggs. I applied super glue gel to the edge of the coral I cut in order to hopefully stop the spread of whatever is causing the recession.

I put the coral back in the tank on the sand bed to be able to close observe over the next couple of days. In just a few hours the coral was back to it's normal self with great polyp extension and showing good color.

We'll see if the tissue recession rears it's ugly head again.

New Frag Day:

Picked up these two beauties at Atlanta Aquarium. Resting on the sand bed currently while they acclimate to the light. I'm hoping I can keep these as bright and fluorescent as they currently are.

Two new montiporas. Montipora setosa and Montipora spongodes. I really love the fluorescence of the red/orange Setosa. It doesn't come across in photos as much as it does in person.

Water Testing and Dosing:

I've been monitoring Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Iodine, Iron, Potassium, Phosphates, Nitrates fairly closely.

I've been dosing Coral Colors ABCD at 2 ml/daily.

My Iron levels will not register on the test kit, I've dosed up 30ml once and attempted to maintain some level of Iron with the 2 ml of Coral Color part B. I dosed 30ml again today and will test tomorrow to see how that is looking. Red Sea's Iron levels are a little scary to try and reach... 30ml is a lot of brown liquid. 30ml should be raising the Fe levels from 0 to 0.05. I wonder if the low iron levels in the water are what lead to the red gracilaria macro in the refugium withering away to nothing or if it was just outcompeted by the chaeto.

I've read up a bit on dosing these trace elements and I understand the skepticism in dosing. It's really hard to point to which aspect of our tank husbandry is causing whatever potential "gains" we think our tanks are seeing.

The other testable levels, Potassium and Iodine are a little higher than Red Sea's target numbers so I'm going to pull the dosing back to 1ml/daily. I'd rather underdose these trace elements than overdose.

Nitrates are continually coming up 0 on the Red Sea kit. I think the ever expanding ball of chaeto in the refugium has something to do with that.

Phosphates have been as high as .06, but are now hovering around .03 or .04.

I'd really like to get the nitrates a little more detectable in the water as I think the coral could use just a hint of nitrates.

Random Photos aka "I Want A Macro Lens":

12/04/2016 FTS:

I'm incredibly happy with the T5 lighting so far. I can't wait to get the tank acclimated, pop in the new bulbs and see how it will continue to do. The corals are looking great and healthy and the ones that have browned out are coloring up again!

The three anthias that made it from QT to the DT have been doing great. They appear to be playing nice enough with each other. There are some signs of aggression but none of it is leading to excessive hiding or injuries. I think the large amounts of caves in the rock work allow for enough space for all three to get along. We'll see... they're beautiful fish and watching them all swim in the open current together is mesmerising. The largest male out of the three loves to show off and pop all his fins out. The pseudo-male and the female just have to get out of his way when he comes barreling around the tank.

[zachxlutz]

I did an approximate 17% water change last night and took some baseline measurements of the freshly mixed saltwater before I added it to the tank.

The hw-Marinemix Reefer salt mixed up to 8.4 dkH and 460 ppm at 35 ppt / 78º F.

These are very close to the parameters I try to keep in the tank. BRS has the salt mix listed as coming up to 9 dkH and 450 ppm. That works for me.

The montipora I did some cutting on shows no signs of bleaching around the part I removed, I'll continue to monitor before I glue it back on the rock.

[zachxlutz]

We just love watching the tank grow and mature!

[Michael_Price]

Awesome setup! Cant wait to see some more updates on this system, Keep it up!

[Ibuyen]

Pavona i think is what i am looking at in your pictures, really changed to bright neon green. almost looks like sea lettuce. looks sweet

[Droy008]

Your tank looks great!

And you got some nice coral as well.

Can't wait to see your corals grow out.

Keep it up.

[zachxlutz]

Yikes! I can't believe I've let my threads go this long without updating!

Let's see... what have we done since last update.

• 12/16/2016: Began dosing KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) to keep the NO3 levels around 5. Constantly fiddling with dosage amounts to keep levels where I want them.
  
• 12/19/2016: Magnificent Foxface Rabbitfish added to QT - Transferred to tank on 01/11/2017. Made it through QT fine, preventative treatment with PraziPro for 7 days. Such a beautiful addition to the tank.
  Here's Mr. Magnificent in QT:
  
  I don't have a great shot of him in the tank yet. Time to bust out the DSLR.
  
• 12/22/2016: Began dosing Vibrant @ 15ml 1x week. Found a thread on reef(2)reef and read through it in it's entirety and decided to give it a shot. It has tremendously helped with any nuisance algae, it literally just melts away. My skimmer pulls out the nastiest brownest sludge ever now! Really can't recommend this product enough. Glass rarely requires cleaning. I haven't seen any ill effects. I've dosed 6 times over the last 6 weeks now.
  
• General Notes: Corals have been growing like wildfire. Coloration and fluorescence still leaves a lot to be desired but i'm hoping that with time, consistent water quality, levels and a little luck they'll all continue growing and coloring up nicely. Fish seem fat and happy, eating frozen foods and dry foods.
  

01/27/2017 iPhone FTS:

Typical Water Parameters:

• Temperature: 78° F
• Specific Gravity: 1.026
• Ph: 8.1 - 8.3 slight swing between AM/PM
• Alkalinity: 8.3 dKH
• Calcium: 430 ppm
• Magnesium: 1400 ppm
• Nitrate: 1-5 ppm Shooting for 5, tank depletes rapidly. Dosing KNO3 often.
• Phosphate: .02 - .03 ppm. Haven't changed out any GFO since 11/28/2016. Seems to be holding fairly steadily.
  

Coming soon:

MORE CORAL!
MORE FISH!

[Ibuyen]

careful with the vibrant, i am testing with it for past month or two too. noticing clean effects too but also seeing results of just black cyano.

perhaps its the algae it can't kill. I Lost a few snails and sensitive macros in my biocube too. I do like how clean glass looks after though. I do think your doing the proper dosing amount for your tank though.

[zachxlutz]

careful with the vibrant, i am testing with it for past month or two too. noticing clean effects too but also seeing results of just black cyano.

perhaps its the algae it can't kill. I Lost a few snails and sensitive macros in my biocube too. I do like how clean glass looks after though. I do think your doing the proper dosing amount for your tank though.

 

The cyano issue is discussed at length on the R2R forum. For starters, cyano is not an algae so it makes sense that Vibrant doesn't wipe it out in the same way it attacks algae. I, personally, believe the cyano pops up due to a higher ratio of phosphates to nitrates. I think the key to keeping cyano at bay is to dose KNO3 and keep your phosphates low. Best of luck! Keep me up to date on how it goes.

Awesome setup! Cant wait to see some more updates on this system, Keep it up!

 

Thanks!

 

Pavona i think is what i am looking at in your pictures, really changed to bright neon green. almost looks like sea lettuce. looks sweet

 

The Pavona has changed colors quite a bit since I picked it up. It did bleach quite a bit and become much more neon/mint colored. Recently it's been coloring up and losing the mint color and becoming a deeper green. I'll post a macro of it soon.

 

Your tank looks great!

And you got some nice coral as well.

Can't wait to see your corals grow out.

Keep it up.

 

Thanks!

[zachxlutz]

I took some random video of the tank yesterday and edited it up to a quick little tank tour. I planned on putting the names of all the fish and coral in with the video but realized rather quickly I'd rather put that effort into a video of higher quality. Hope you enjoy!

 

 

Be sure to watch in 1080p!

[zachxlutz]

Picked up two new frags today from Atlanta Aquarium. Had my eyes on a few more but I really need to hold off and see how these hold color. I think I've gotten a few of the pale/brown ones looking better, let's see how these ones hold up.

For nuisance pest control I clipped the acro off the frag plug and did a CoralRx dip for 5 minutes, rinsed for 5 minutes, Bayer dip for 15 minutes and then finally two more consecutive 5 minute rinses.

Orange Plate Fungia:

Tyree Blue Matrix Acropora:

I went ahead and glued the acropora in place, high on the rock work, as I think I've done more harm than good by trying to acclimate these higher light demand corals to my lighting. These coral are coming from a highly lit system and I think I'm better off going ahead and getting the sps corals up higher on the rockwork from the get go.

Fingers crossed we keep color!

[zachxlutz]

I pulled this out of my refugium the other day... bubbly, spongy mass. Any ideas on what it is? It was just floating at the water line. ewwwwwww

[RIP Sebastian]

Yuck-o! No idea, though.

[zachxlutz]

Yuck-o! No idea, though.

 

Yuck-O is right. I've posted it on a few other forums. If I get an answer, I'll post it up on here!