Falco's Mixed Reef

[Daniel91]

Your YWG is getting big!

 

Everything looks nice and happy. Good job!

[falcooo]

6 Month Update Photo Dump:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Congrats on your 6 month milestone @falcooo, your nano reef is progressing very nicely.

 

It’s going to be really cool to watch that montipora cap grow on that shelf! Keep up the good work. 👍

[falcooo]

On 9/6/2018 at 11:52 PM, Christopher Marks said:

Congrats on your 6 month milestone @falcooo, your nano reef is progressing very nicely.

 

It’s going to be really cool to watch that montipora cap grow on that shelf! Keep up the good work. 👍

Thanks CM! It’s been a fun journey these past 6 months learning to keep a reef tank. I’m excited to see how these monti & acro frags grow out.

[dferrari13]

Looking great

[dferrari13]

Where did you get the floating island on the back wall

[falcooo]

1 hour ago, dferrari13 said:

Where did you get the floating island on the back wall

I got this one from FragtasticReef.com, and it seems to be great quality. I also got black to blend in with the black background better. But FYI, after I purchased I did see BRS has some cool looking single frag shelves as well.

[falcooo]

Oh yea! I picked up a really nice color green Monti Cap this weekend. Added right onto my floating rock ledge, now I just need a purple cap for the right side and it'll be complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Daniel91]

How about a FTS? 😄

[falcooo]

17 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

How about a FTS? 😄

Not too much has changed these past few weeks. I’m trying to revive a cyphastrea frag I glued in a cave that’s been steadily dieing, and hoping to throw that on the back glass eventually if it recovers. Also, I did order a Sicce .5 so I’m hoping the increase in flow encourages SPS growth.

[falcooo]

UPGRADE! 👍

 

[Daniel91]

Nice, your flow is about to get a solid increase. Do you have the spin stream?

[falcooo]

12 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

Nice, your flow is about to get a solid increase. Do you have the spin stream?

Yep. And I knew as soon as I installed the SpinStream a return pump upgrade was right around the corner.

[falcooo]

A new cell phone seems like a great reason for a photo dump. Updated FTS and some different angles around the tank. I've glued down the SPS frags and moved the toadstool down a couple inches to give it more room to grow because it was starting to lean onto the Acan and Rastas. Eventually I want to break apart the zoa rock and rearrange that back-left corner a bit. All-in-all, everything is going fairly smooth. All of the corals are growing well, except for the Monti Digi which won't grow and one zoa frag that stays closed.

 

 

 

 

  Anyone want to guess the unknown purple/green acro?

 

 Side shot. The toadstool leather is starting to straighten back up.

 

 Frag Rack. The nearly dead cyphastrea is recovering.

 

[lizzyann]

 

On 10/22/2018 at 10:12 PM, falcooo said:

Frag Rack. The nearly dead cyphastrea is recovering.

I was reading everywhere that cyphastrea should do well in low lighting, or even shaded areas, but I'm starting to doubt that in my limited (as in only a single cyphastrea that I've had for a few months 😝) experience. Though it encrusted well initially, the part of my frag in the shadow has turned brown and the polyps seem totally gone, whereas the areas getting some light have nice color, extension, and growth. Sounds like yours was dying in the cave and now doing better in the light? Maybe it's just the type? Mine is a meteor shower. 

 

 

I don't ACTUALLY think this trumps everyone else's experiences I've read about, but just worth noting!

[HookedOnAquariums]

Great tank. I would be afraid of that monti cap in the back shading all my corals.

 

This has always bothered me, is your name based the nintendo falco or something else

[falcooo]

19 minutes ago, lizzyann said:

I was reading everywhere that cyphastrea should do well in low lighting, or even shaded areas, but I'm starting to doubt that in my limited (as in only a single cyphastrea that I've had for a few months 😝) experience. Though it encrusted well initially, the part of my frag in the shadow has turned brown and the polyps seem totally gone, whereas the areas getting some light have nice color, extension, and growth. Sounds like yours was dying in the cave and now doing better in the light? Maybe it's just the type? Mine is a meteor shower. 

Sounds like we're both equal cyphastrea experts, one meteor shower frag for just a few months lol. But yeah I initially read about low light too so I put in a kind of shaded area of a cave thinking it would encrust outward, but it just slowly died turning brown and showed now polyp extension. I broke it off the rock when only maybe two polyps were left and it immediately improved once in direct light. I salvaged what I could and glued to a new small rock on a plug. Now the 4 polyps that are there are looking great and I bet it'll start encrusting that rock pretty soon.

 

16 minutes ago, HookedOnAquariums said:

Great tank. I would be afraid of that monti cap in the back shading all my corals.

 

This has always bothered me, is your name based the nintendo falco or something else

Thanks! I fear that might happen eventually, but I repositioned and angled the light to decrease the shading it might cause. So I figure, I'll just stay on top of fragging whenever it gets to that point and have a steady flow of monti cap frags to share with others. And Falco is actually my last name, but I can tell you're cool because you went the Nintendo reference haha. I regularly get one of these references; either The Replacements movie (Shane Falco), The Sopranos (Edie Falco), Nintendo's StarFox (Captain Falco), or from those who grew up in the 80's, Falco the singer of Rock Me Amadeus. And I get these references damn near daily, so I totally judge people based on what they say. The Nintendo one's my favorite 👍

[Jman4x]

This is one gorgeous tank! How pleased were you with your choice of return pump upgrade? I’m toying with the Sicce or a jebao dc1200! 

[falcooo]

24 minutes ago, Jman4x said:

This is one gorgeous tank! How pleased were you with your choice of return pump upgrade? I’m toying with the Sicce or a jebao dc1200! 

I can't speak on the Jebao at all, but I do love this Sicce. It just seemed extremely well built and fit into the back chamber perfectly. It provides enough flow for what I was looking for with the SpinStream, and it's super silent. I'll likely stick with Sicce for pumps going forward.

[Jman4x]

Thank you for the input! I think I’m going to get a Sicce! I’ll be following along on your tank!!

[falcooo]

I noticed a baby Trochus Snail this morning on the base of the toadstool leather. I've only got one adult trochus, so I guess this a good indicator that the snail is healthy and enjoying his little reef. I must be doing something right 👍

 

 

Update Edit: I just looked around the tank for more baby torches snails, and sure enough I easily saw 5 or 6 more that same size and what could also be dozens of even tinier ones.

[falcooo]

Quick mini photo dump. Updated FTS, as well as a close-up of my favorite little unknown Acro frag (still, anyone with ID help?) and shot of the Acans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[falcooo]

End of 2018 ten month update, both the good and the bad. All in all, the tank is maturing along fairly smooth with no major setbacks. Soft and stony corals are all growing well. I haven't been dosing anything and have been lazy with testing aside from maintaining salinity and the occasional Hannah alkalinity check. I've been doing regular extra water changes to compensate for the laziness. Also, I just recently took out the rock structure on the left and cut a few pieces off to fit into the corner a little better, a move I've been wanting to do for a long time. So the GOOD is that the fish and inverts all seem to be happy and healthy. All but a couple corals have great PE and are steadily growing. No major algae outbreaks, and the coralline algae is encrusting well. The BAD, is that I went away for 4 days last week and my ATO float sensor malfunctioned and never refilled the tank, raising the salinity and really pissing off one of the ricordeas. Though, coincidentally as one struggles the other finally split into two heads. Another bad situation is my toadstool leather. It's been drooped down and now has algae growing on it. It has been extremely resilient so far and it was one of my initial coral purchases, but now it's not doing so hot. Not sure if I should try to correct it or see if it rights itself on its own.

 

Also, these photos are from my phone and I played around with a new photo editor app. Let me know what you think. 👍

 

The Good...

 

 

 

 

 

The Bad...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[falcooo]

So I received a $65 Gift Card to my LFS for Christmas. Solid gift I might add. And am totally undecided as to how I should spend it. Obviously on a couple corals. But what type of corals? Anyone have any suggestions based on my latest FTS for where a certain type of coral might fit well? Eventually I want a Idaho Grape Monti Cap for the right side of the floating rock, but that'll likely come later from someone on here, I'm yet to see one local.

 

Any and all suggestions are appreciated, thanks!

[Daniel91]

That’s a solid gift. I would bring the person, no matter how clueless of corals he/she might be. Let the person see what you like, and get a chance to pick something random as well. 

This way it turns into a fun activity and person can see what’s being sponsored with $60.

 

My personal suggestions; digitata, fathead dendro and some euphyllia or a Duncan for movement.