firedancer414 Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 Got a couple of zoa frags from a local fish store, yay! A WWC Twizzler, WWC Blondie, and a Fiji Rainbow.I can see tons of hitchhikers and other crap on them, boo. Guess that's why I have the quarantine. Wish me luck with dipping.Tiny sea starSpider So, post-dip. Found it to be a bit horrifying, TBH. Used 5 min Coral RX (5 mL in 1 L tank water), followed by 15 min Bayer (40 mL in 1 L tank water), two rinses, and into the quarantine for at least a month maybe 2. Had a turkey baster so blowing off as many pests as possible. Soooo many nudes, sort of horrifying, left in the CoralRX dip All closed up and in the quarantine. Not sure what next steps are. Guess because of all the nudes I should dip once a week for the next month, because eggs? Thoughts? Should I be disappointed with the LFS? Is that a normal # of nudes, etc.? Quote Link to comment
Squared Posted April 30, 2018 Share Posted April 30, 2018 By nudes do you mean zoa eating nudibranchs? I would talk to your LFS about that, it is definitely not good that they are selling frags with them on it. Next time, save those little brittle stars! They are very helpful scavengers and they don't touch coral. I have a ton in my tank. 2 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 Yes that's what I meant by nudes, at least I think that's what all those tiny bugs were that fell off the frags. It's much more likely that I just ... don't go back to the fish store. Read later that the brittle star was a good guy, oops. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 Good news was they opened a few hours later, even under my ridiculous Home Depot LED strip lighting Left to right, Fiji Rainbow, WWC Blondie, and WWC Twizzlers. 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted May 6, 2018 Author Share Posted May 6, 2018 Picked up my first LPS, so game on! An acan and a beautiful golden torch. Also have blue LED strip lights now. I re-dipped the zoas, I intend to do that once a week for the next month. Didn't see any pests come off so that was good. The torch had one bug on it but otherwise pretty uneventful. I guess I'll just dip them once more right before I put them in the tank. Quote Link to comment
Noinoi24 Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 Considering Miracle mud? I will be using it on my build. Miracle Mud, Cheato, Marine Pure and Protien Skimmer. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted May 7, 2018 Author Share Posted May 7, 2018 8 hours ago, Noinoi24 said: Considering Miracle mud? I will be using it on my build. Miracle Mud, Cheato, Marine Pure and Protien Skimmer. Everything is going good right now - nitrates/phosphates at 0 so I think I'm done introducing new filtration. 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted May 7, 2018 Author Share Posted May 7, 2018 Have I mentioned how bizarre it feels that I haven't done a water change for the tank in a month and a half? Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted May 9, 2018 Author Share Posted May 9, 2018 Big order from WWC came in today. So exciting to see the quarantine in my office filling up! Everything is open and happy.Lastly need to get a bunch of acros. Trying to decide between getting a Battle Box, Acan pack from WWC, or trying to pick and choose. There are just so many I find it very overwhelming. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 Got a ton of things in the quarantine, things are growing and it's sucking down alk like crazy! Dosing 1 mL of Triton a day to it. Some macro shots - Jason Fox Seriatopora Rainbow acan from the LFS Jason Fox Cry Babies WWC Grape Watermelon Chalice Some of the acros aren't really opening but basically everything else is doing great. One of the acans got stung and two of the polyps - sections of them turned bright white. I cut them off. Have some hair algae (really apparent on the macro of the chalice). Also have some small feather duster worms that have appeared (also pretty apparent on the right side of the base of the chalice) that I think would be OK in the display? 2 more weeks until the first group of corals hit 45 days and I plan to move them over to the display. Exciting! 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 "Unhappy" acros? I don't know enough about them to know if this is good polp extension for my quarantine. WWC Christmas Mirabilis Acro WWC Grizzly Adams ORA Kelly Green Psammocora just because it looks cool 😃 WWC Firepower Chalice with feather duster worm in macro on bottom left. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Feather dusters are helpful filter feeders and some of my favorites. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted June 11, 2018 Author Share Posted June 11, 2018 Just realized that the Grizzly Adams _is_ really doing poorly - it's got burnt tips. I swung the alk in my QT tank pretty aggressively in prep of some travel (one day 7.8 -> 8.7, next day 8.4 -> 9.3) and it looks like it took its toll on this acro. Some of the others have been affected but not nearly this much. Alk currently sitting at 8.4 in the QT and going down 0.25 / day. Will keep observing. Oops. Looking back at some older pictures - realized the burn has been going on for some time I just didn't know to look for it. Another learning I've had - I have been using Red Sea black bucket as a salt mix and have constantly been fighting some of the insane (11 dKH) alk it has. I was still in the 9s when I added this to my QT. In retrospect, should have been using blue bucket and will make the switch at some point. For all the BRSTV I watch, never realized that there was a such thing as alk burn. Any advice? Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted July 9, 2018 Author Share Posted July 9, 2018 First, the good news. Have a bunch of coral in my display. I don't think I have any coral pests. I came to my senses on my rockwork and have two pretty islands now with a channel between.I took these shots randomly at night (pretty late) - you can't see the golden torch (left) or yellow hammer (right) out, both look great and happy. Zoas are obviously very happy. Spotted gobies + pistol shrimp are getting big, and picked a great spot where I can see the shrimp pretty often. Alk Spike / Burnt Tips / STN devastation. The STN brought on by alk burn managed to devastate the SPS that I had in my quarantine. Which at one point was quite a bit. Learned quite a bit from that mistake (I just calculated about $1k). Have some stylos in there that are still having STN - holding out a little hope but I think that they will be dead soon. Got just a bit ahead of myself. Yeesh. Trying not to dwell on it too hard. Placed another Jason Fox order (for significantly less), to give it a last shot. I think it should be better this time. Current SPS in there are a strawberry shortcake, vivid rainbow, PC rainbow, ORA red planet, Tyree pink lemonade, and rainbow monti. Good luck trying to tell them apart, sheesh! Nitrates too dang low. I am still struggling to get my nitrates up. Hovering around 0.25ppm. Feeding a ton, running the skimmer dry. My phosphates are OK (0.03 ppm). My acans aren't super happy, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the nitrates being too low (although it may be flow/light related). Particularly the acan to the right of the tank, get quite a bit of light and flow and I'm probably going to move it to a more shaded part of the tank. No iodine? Also, did my first Triton ICP test. Everything was green except that my tank has 0 Iodine? Ordered some iodine so I can dose. Ich or velvet. Unfortunately the devastation hasn't been limited to the coral. Either ich or velvet killed both purple firefish, a green chromis, a royal grandma, midas blenny, and one of my clowns. Currently planning on running "fishless" (e.g., not adding any more livestock) for 60 days post disease. My red firefish had it and recovered (pictured). Sump looking good. In the sump - things have been pretty stable. I moved my carbon (running BRS ROX) from a bag to a reactor, since it was really cheap. Added a Tunze nanostream to the refugium to keep all the detritus kicked up, it's super clean down there. Very little hair algae now, the chaeto ball is super super dense. Quote Link to comment
Reef Diver Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 Loving the progress and the honesty of this build thread. Sorry to hear about so much devastation lately. Here's to hoping that the tides of luck have already started to turn! This really is an amazing tank set up so far. Quote Link to comment
John L Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 I’m Enjoying yr thread, I love yr enthusiasm! Sorry to hear all the acro loss. If yr tank is new it might just not be ‘mature ‘ enough for Acropora yet, along with alk swings etc that you’ve explained. The experience I had ,was for the first 9 months I couldn’t keep any Acropora, they would just brown out/ strip etc no matter what I did or how ‘perfect ‘ my parameters were. I was advised to simply hold off ,until my tank ‘stabilised and matured enough with the right bacteria’s, signs of sponge growth etc. Now I can just add any acro and it settles in well. I Know it’s difficult though when u want to add everything at the same time lol! 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 17 hours ago, John L said: I’m Enjoying yr thread, I love yr enthusiasm! Sorry to hear all the acro loss. If yr tank is new it might just not be ‘mature ‘ enough for Acropora yet, along with alk swings etc that you’ve explained. The experience I had ,was for the first 9 months I couldn’t keep any Acropora, they would just brown out/ strip etc no matter what I did or how ‘perfect ‘ my parameters were. I was advised to simply hold off ,until my tank ‘stabilised and matured enough with the right bacteria’s, signs of sponge growth etc. Now I can just add any acro and it settles in well. I Know it’s difficult though when u want to add everything at the same time lol! Yeah definitely went too fast, in retrospect. On a livestock "break" for at least 90 days. Learning how to dose KNO3 in the interim. Quote Link to comment
Bubbletips Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Great thread. I have a Red Sea 170 and will be following. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 Sure can give a quick update. Short version is I've been learning reefkeeping through a very expensive trial-and-error process, moving too fast (although I started almost 11 months ago). Few notes. Got back from a 2.5 weeks vacation to New Zealand, and came back to a tank that was still standing. Apex + ATO + GHL Doser + autofeeder, pretty rad. Finally feel like my chaeto is really taking hold. It's taken a while. Equipment wise, very few changes. I added another MP10 and moved the pumps to the back of the tank, to increase flow. Just completed a chemiclean treatment to get rid of my cyano. I've had a ton of cyano + turf algae issues and I've been trying to wait it out without avail. So did the treatment + upgraded the cleaning crew a bit (emerald crab + urchin). I've done well with my chemistry. Held alk between 7-8 for the last 6 months. Used up my black bucket salt and switched to blue bucket. I found a great LFS (Aquatic Collection in Hayward - 20 min drive) - much better than the store closer to me (2 miles). Better selection, much less pests (close store is covered in aptasia, for example). So that has made stocking the tank much cheaper + easier. I've bought coral online from WWC, Cherry, + Jason Fox. The best frags I've received were from Jason Fox (massively plugs, encrusted on them). I've learned that my main tastes are for "old" coral classics (I name a few on my wishlist below), and to stay away from relatively new + expensive named acros, etc. Learned that you can't dip red dragon + ORA Hawkins, they were dead in 24 hrs. Good thing I really trust the new LFS, I've dipped everything from them in both CoralRX + Bayer and only seen pods come off (maybe a bristleworm?) I feel like I'm turning a corner with the tank (finally) and can keep SPS alive (the rainbow monti, chili pepper, green slimer, and Cali tort seem to be doing really well for the last 2 months, some showing signs of growth). But it's been slow going and I've probably killed (eek) ~$2.5k worth of coral. I've learned a lot about the types of coral I like, my wishlist (pending a month of survival with current stock) is Pink Lemonade, Strawberry Shortcake, PC Rainbow, Bonsai, Red Planet, ORA Pearlberry. Acans/Zoas? (Utter Chaos) Not the best photos but here's the stock Fish 2 ORA Ocellaris Clowns Midas Blenny Bicolor Blenny Diamond Watchman Goby 2 Orange Spot Gobies + Shrimp Melanurus wrasse Red firefish Notable inverts 1 skunk shrimp + 1 blood shrimp 1 (new) hairy colored pincushion urchin (unclear how it's doing) 1 emerald crab 1 electric blue + 1 electric orange hermit Tons of nassarius + cerith snails (no other kinds) 1 Stomatella that somehow got into my sump A lot of chaeto SPS Acropora Green Slimer Cali Tort (I think - they said it was an Oregon Tort but I think it has too much green) Red Dragon ORA Hawkins Enchinata Montipora Rainbow Chili Pepper Stylo - Green polyp / purple body LPS Euphyllia Purple/green frogspawn Neon Torch Green Hammer Golden Torch (although very unhealthy - not clear if it will make it) Blastos All acans I had are near death Zoas JF Atomic Sunrise Blue Eyed Blondies WWC Emerald WWC Twizzlers WWC Funny D's WWC Fire + Ice Rastas Quote Link to comment
bar|none Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 First post here. I'm just about to start a Reefer 170 build and you have saved me a ton of time with the mods you did to your sump. I just ordered the acrylic mod panels from your template files. Thank you. It was amazingly easy through Ponoko. I plan do do all the sump mods before getting everything wet. The Tunze skimmer dimensions really help with the space. That is genius. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted June 11, 2019 Author Share Posted June 11, 2019 On 4/17/2019 at 1:20 PM, bar|none said: First post here. I'm just about to start a Reefer 170 build and you have saved me a ton of time with the mods you did to your sump. I just ordered the acrylic mod panels from your template files. Thank you. It was amazingly easy through Ponoko. I plan do do all the sump mods before getting everything wet. The Tunze skimmer dimensions really help with the space. That is genius. Awesome!! Good luck! It has been a hell of a journey. I went way too fast with SPS and have gone back to softies with some LPS (euphillia). 1 Quote Link to comment
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