Raindog3030 Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Happy birthday to you! We have officially passed our first year, and wow what a year it has been! This little reef has gone through so many changes over the last year to be where it now, a fairly stable marine ecosystem! We have swapped out lights, heater, and power heads...the only original equipment is the el cheapo 20 gallon long container and the AquaClear 50 HOB filter. We have also seen our fair share of problems from dinoflagellates, cyano bacteria, turf algae, and aiptasia. Despite all of these ailments and growing pains, there have been so very few fatalities in this system, I feel like it has been a great success so far! We hope y'all have enjoyed this as much as we have, here's to many more years! So, without further ado, a comparison FTS from then to now! (probably could have waited a day after the water change, or closed the blinds for glare, but I am impatient!) Original Post: I've been stalking the forums for a few weeks now, and this seems like a good place to keep my journal! Bare with me, I set this little bugger up about 2 weeks ago now, so I am starting off a little behind, but we'll make up for it! The current Setup: Aqueon 20 gallon long Aquaclear 50 w/ PicO Aquarium Systems surface skimmer (2) Koralia Nano 240 pumps (we added a second one yesterday...more is better!) Koralia Hydor 50w heater Zacro Digital thermometer Current USA Orbit Marine 24-36" fixture (this is getting repalced...soon!) (2) Kessil A360WE Pendants with Controller The plan is to stock with mostly zoas, some LPS, and some SPS (maybe a shroom here or there, but when did these get so popular...and expensive!?!) Dos ORA clownfish will be introduced in not too long, hoping for Black Oscillaris, but my guy on the inside says maybe I go for the Designer Black Snowflake instead? Fill date: January 20th, 2018 In any case...welcome to my journey/journal, hope you enjoy seeing me stumble back into my most beloved hobby! UPDATE: We did it, we drank the Kessil Koolaid! And let me tell you, it tastes so good! Still waiting on my not $20 Kessil control cable to arrive today, but I have a temporary one in place...see below! Now, with Koolaid! 1 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 CUC and Chaeto were introduced after week 1 (cycle happened quickly...thank you live rock/sand!) I constantly fail at the most important, well known, virtue of the hobby...patience Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 And this past Sunday we introduced the first (of, hopefully, many more) zoa colonies, our LFS called these Dragon Eyes, big ups to Psychodelic Relics, LLC! Kind of like a reverse Eagle-eye? I am still absolutely blown away at the diversity of zoas now-a-days...way back when, the only named ones were Fire and Ice, and they cost a small fortune! Can't believe how cheap they are now...Fire and Ice will probably be the next purchase, for nostalgia's sake (could never afford these before, despite working at a LFS!) As of this morning, this little colony is extra happy! They were partially open before the sunrise cycle began this morning, and fully open before the daylight kicked on 30 minutes later! (Probably enjoying the large bag of Algagen pods we introduced yesterday...so lucky to live so close to so many aqua cultures...both large and small!) OK, now you are all up to date! 2 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 Algae is still running a little rampant, and the nassarius snails are slackers...so my wife stopped and picked up some supplemental CUC (trochus and cerith) from the LFS on her way home..she is enjoying this way too much! Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 Monday morning update from the weekend! My wife and I were lucky enough to visit the Florida Frag Swap this past weekend over in Lakeland, and we were blown away! We met some cool people and picked up some beautiful frags for this reef, check it out! Almost every critter was mostly open by nightfall on Saturday, and by Sunday morning, everyone looked happy and well acclimated! The only one we really missed out on, that we were hunting for, was an orange hammer(I think AP Frags had a few?), maybe next time! Our priority was JoshPorksandwich Zoas, and we were the second people at his table, success! Pictured: AP Frags: Yellow Hammer Orange Yuma JPS Zoas: Rastas Purple Space Monster Utter Chaos Forgot the name, will have to check my journal later: Bastomussa Hobe Sound: Acan Also collected, but not pictured: JPS Fruit Loops Zoas Fire&Ice Colony w/ Watermelon Zoas Steal Your Soul Zoas Lobophyllia, from Wisconsin! Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 Fed some Coral Dust last night, got a little bit for a trial...I have yet to see the Yuma reach like that! Also started messing with advanced features of the camera on my Galaxy s8, getting better! Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Wow looks like you got some great frags. Once all settled in I would love to see a new FTS. I think your tank is going to be some thing special. Following along. 1 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 FTS just before dusk, don't mind the diatom bloom...lol Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 I like the new scape. Always good to have a cave:) 1 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 2 minutes ago, debbeach13 said: I like the new scape. Always good to have a cave:) Thanks! It was more of an effort to create horizontal space for frag placement...but you can never have too many caves! Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 1 week since their introduction and everyone seems to be very happy, especially these! Looks like the blasto has a new head forming, 2 new polyps on the utter chaos, and good god that acan is fat! 2 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 It was bound to happen sooner or later, but we have a pest! Well, actually, its the second/third pest we have found thus far... (1) Myrionema Hydroids (my wife seems to have successfully removed them on her own, wife points up!) (2) Conolutriloba retrogemma (not sure if rust colored because of species, or because they may be feasting on diatoms...but I have witnessed them attacking the 'pods!) (3) Aiptasia!!! So, the wife spotted 2 hydroids on a frag, removed frag and excavated both hydroids stem and all. I did have to re-glue the zoas onto another frag plug, but they have fully recovered and there has been no site of hydroids for almost a week now! Then these damn flat worms...still not sure if they are simple grazers or not, although they have been hunting copepods on the front glass...I'm resisting the urge to put a six-line wrasse in to deal with this nuisance since we have not really decided on vertebrate inhabitants yet. No noticeable offenses on the corals, yet. And worst of all, the aiptasia! The absolute bane of any aquarist! I noticed a small brown bastard peeking its way out from under one of my base rocks...thank goodness there are so many more resources today than those of yester-year! Order has been placed with Reeftown, and we will have 3 medium Berghia arriving Thursday morning to combat this great evil! Wish us luck! Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 Well, I couldn't stop her, my wife stopped off at the LFS on her way home from work yesterday and collected our first non-CUC, non-coral inhabitant...I'd like you to meet Jacques! (Yes, she named him after the fictional movie character...lol) Needless to say, he must really like our system, he molted almost immediately after being introduced, probably to let his antenna out, and was already out and about by feeding time! He has no need to hide, currently Jacques is the largest mobile creature in our little ecosystem...long live King Jacques! 2 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 15, 2018 Author Share Posted February 15, 2018 Look what FedEx dropped off this morning, they're Berghia! I have dubbed them Larry, Curly, and Moe, in the order below: Thank you much to ReefTown USA and Capt. Jeff for sending these over! Looking forward to being rid of the aiptasia! 2 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 17, 2018 Author Share Posted February 17, 2018 It appears that the Berghia have already started consuming aiptasia, how wonderful! On a different note, my wife and I took a trip to World Wide Corals yesterday to collect a couple eBay frags...can you believe I got out of there only spending another $31?!?!?! They actually didn't have one of the WYSIWYG frags from our eBay purchase, so they gave us a free upgrade! So, instead of the Mystic Sunset Monti, we got to take home a gorgeous chunk of Grafted Cap! Our new frag rack from @OceanBoxDesigns also showed up yesterday, what an amazing piece! Build quality is superior, and it looks excellent in our reef! (I did actually end up filling it up after the pic I took, those are my first 2 frags I cut on board!) Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 Well, since we ended up with that gorgeous Grafted Cap...we have decided to upgrade our light fixture. This was something I had hoped to avoid for awhile, but oh well, we got a decent bit of change back from Uncle Sam...updates to come! Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 While we patiently await our new lights, I made this little ditty in Premiere for practice...my first movie! And it is a horror flick to introduce our new vertebrate resident! https://www.facebook.com/bruce.a.turner.9/videos/2120109291333373/ Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 Picture dump from last night, love the shimmer of these Kessil lights! Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 Well, we kind of ran into a real problem...the aiptasia is pretty much gone, the flatworms have been devastated (Springer's Damsel is superior!) But then...then we had a huge outbreak of dinoflagellates...oh boy! So, we scrubbed, scraped, siphoned, and ran a 3 day blackout...which ended today! During the blackout, we doesed 1.5mL 3% H2O2 every 12 hours...this seems to have done the trick! Our lighting schedule picks back up today but we are sitting on a plane heading out of the country for a week...very anxious to see whether or not the bubbly brown gunk comes back during our absence. Wish us luck! 1 Quote Link to comment
Rene Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Great tank journal so far! All of the challenges you are running into, from pests to diatoms to dinos, are a normal part of cycling a new tank. You can expect nuisance green algae and possibly cyano at some point too, if you are not lucky. Take your time and be patient adding frags and livestock and you will minimize your losses. Your tank isn't even a month old yet and will take some time to stabilize even though the nutrient cycle has completed, so consider going slow now before adding anything else. You have all the time in the world to enjoy your tank and I would hate to see you loose what you are clearly so excited about. 1 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted March 5, 2018 Author Share Posted March 5, 2018 2 hours ago, Rene said: Great tank journal so far! All of the challenges you are running into, from pests to diatoms to dinos, are a normal part of cycling a new tank. You can expect nuisance green algae and possibly cyano at some point too, if you are not lucky. Take your time and be patient adding frags and livestock and you will minimize your losses. Your tank isn't even a month old yet and will take some time to stabilize even though the nutrient cycle has completed, so consider going slow now before adding anything else. You have all the time in the world to enjoy your tank and I would hate to see you loose what you are clearly so excited about. Thanks for the advice and kind words! I am all too aware of how impatient we have been, this is not nearly my first reef, just my first in almost a decade! It has been incredibly difficult to hold back, as you can tell...lol...in any case we are now in a holding pattern until Reefapalooza in April, hoping to find something special there as long as everything is stable. We have been very fortunate to not have had any coral loss thus far, despite the dino! Funny enough, of all the systems I have kept over the years, everything ranging from 160 gallons, all the way down to the old JBJ 2.5 gallon picotope (bought it when it first came out!) This is the first time I've run into dino. Having beaten cyano and every other pest known to man in the past, I am more than confident we can kick this pest as well! Too bad we haven't gotten any cool pests yet, like a stomatopod...hehe, maybe in the future! Quote Link to comment
Rene Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 ;). You should be so lucky! Mantis shrimp have been, hands down, my favorite marine pets. Have fun at Reefapalooza! Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted March 5, 2018 Author Share Posted March 5, 2018 17 minutes ago, Rene said: ;). You should be so lucky! Mantis shrimp have been, hands down, my favorite marine pets. Have fun at Reefapalooza! We had a small red smasher once when I worked at the LFS a billion years ago, he was always one of our favorite residents! Then I saw a huge peacock at WWC last time we went...I may be planning a biotope...again...lol 1 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 Good news everyone! We got back from vacation and got to come home to the most amazing thing...a happy reef! Our 3-day blackout with H2O2 dosing was a success! I also had our caretakers continue dosing once every 24 hours during the week of our absence, and it was very successful! I mean, just look at this beautiful thing! Woohoo! 3 Quote Link to comment
Raindog3030 Posted April 11, 2018 Author Share Posted April 11, 2018 New FTS, we picked up some fresh pieces from RAP Orlando...I believe we are just about fully stocked! Please ignore my over-zealous use of putty on that Bali Slimer...lol...lesson learned 1 Quote Link to comment
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