Dawn's 56 gallon natural nutrient reef.

[Tamberav]

How's the cyano battle going? Mine seems to be 90 percent bstter from doing weekly larger than normal water changes. I am just siphoning it off the sand and stirring what I can't siphon. 

[vlangel]

On 11/23/2018 at 7:48 PM, Tamberav said:

How's the cyano battle going? Mine seems to be 90 percent bstter from doing weekly larger than normal water changes. I am just siphoning it off the sand and stirring what I can't siphon. 

Mine also seems to be doing better but I am doing the opposite.  I am feeding even heavier but I changed the resin in my ro/do hoping to lower phosphates.

I also stir my sand.

[vlangel]

A question for those of you who have more than 1 tank.  When you do something different in one of your tanks, does it usually have ramifications for the other tank?  Ha ha, whenever I do any significant change to 1 of my tanks it almost always ends up affecting the other tank too.

 

This morning I was reading an article on seahorses, flow and hitches.  That got me evaluating my seahorses scape.  I decided to open it up more to allow the ponies to flow surf without the danger of being slammed into the rock.  I also decided to move the corky finger gorg back into the seahorses display since it was a favorite hitch.  Those changes impacted the fish fortress quite a lot as it turned out.  Check it out.

 

The biggest change is moving the epoxied rockwork that was in the seahorses display into the fish fortress.  I also moved some macro algaes too.  Those 2 things really gave the tank a filled up mature look.  Also I like the larger splash of green with the addition of the caulerpa.  It's definitely not minimalist with all the rock that is in this tank now but it will add biological filtration and stability plus more hiding places for fish.

[vlangel]

I tweaked the thread name because this tank really does have a large variety of macro algaes in it.  In the reds, there are red grape, red titan, gracilaria, and a new red macro that my shrimp guy sent me.  In the green calcarous macros I have shaving brush, mermaid fan, segmented halimeda, and an extremely slow growing macro that looks like pine needles when its not covered in hair algae.  In other green macro algaes I have feather caulerpa, green grape cauletpa, cheato, ulva and codium.

 

Today I just ordered HOT5 bulbs from Foster & Smith.  They seem to be the only place I can still find 30" bulbs for my Coralife fixture.  My bulbs are way overdue!  I will have to replace them slowly so I don't shock the coral.

[vlangel]

Today I used 2 flat pieces of LR to make the coral rock structure (from the creative container contest) higher, about an inch higher.  With the addition of the rock structure on the left, the 2 elements were about the same height with the coral rock only slightly taller.  I thought if I could make it definitely taller that would improve the scape.

 

The white lights are off but you can see that the right side structure is higher by several inches now.  I like it better.

 

The cyano/diatomous algae continues to recede.  I am so happy about that as I love looking at clean white sand!

[vlangel]

I love all the life in this tank.  The 7 fish are fun but all the inverts add a whole world of their own.  The emerald crabs can turn up anywhere.  Also the Pom pom crab and porcelain crabs are fun too.  There are around 5 peppermint shrimp who are not shy so the tank is very busy, especially at feeding time.

[vlangel]

Adorable faces!

 

Less than adorable!

 

[vlangel]

December FTS 2018

 

I moved the hammer away from the frogspawn.  I think the tank will look more dramatic if they are apart.  I also moved the sun polyps where they are easier to feed.  Finally I decided to move the road because they just weren't happy where they were. I trimmed some of the photosynthetic sponge so the rose coral is not choked out.  Finally I moved the merletti blastos because the frogspawn was stinging them.  So hopefully the corals respond positively to their new locations.

[vlangel]

This tank has at least 5 peppermint shrimp.  They are awesome cuc.  The merletti blasto on the right will hopefully recover now that the frogspawn is not stinging the life out of it.

Another peppermint shrimp.

 

Another look at the injured blastos and the turquoise Duncan's were moved away from some aggressive acans and now are thriving.

 

Finally a pic of the former 'shrimp chalet rock'.  The coral that have been moved off it are doing pretty well and the coral left on the 'shrimp chalet are doing very well.

[vlangel]

I am slowing changing the HOT5 bulbs in the Coralife fixture and I noticed the tank getting cloudy about 10 minutes later.  At first I was totally at a loss what the cause could be, but then I noticed that some of my grape caulerpa looked clearish and decided that it must be going sexual.  I lifted the caulerpa out of the tank and into an empty bucket.  I pruned off all the mushy dying sprigs and only returned a small healthy portion back into the tank.  I don't know if the new actinic bulb triggered the spawn or if it was just the lights coming on that did it.  Anyway I was glad that I caught it quickly since the only filtration on this tank is an AC 70.  I really should prune the caulerpa more often than I do.  It was never an issue with the seahorse tank because all the big water changes kept the water column supplied with trace elements, magnesium, alk and calcium.  The ponies kept it supplied with nutrients.  I dosed magnesium and trace elements after I saw how poor a lot of the caulerpa looked.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

8 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I am slowing changing the HOT5 bulbs in the Coralife fixture and I noticed the tank getting cloudy about 10 minutes later.  At first I was totally at a loss what the cause could be, but then I noticed that some of my grape caulerpa looked clearish and decided that it must be going sexual.  I lifted the caulerpa out of the tank and into an empty bucket.  I pruned off all the mushy dying sprigs and only returned a small healthy portion back into the tank.  I don't know if the new actinic bulb triggered the spawn or if it was just the lights coming on that did it.  Anyway I was glad that I caught it quickly since the only filtration on this tank is an AC 70.  I really should prune the caulerpa more often than I do.  It was never an issue with the seahorse tank because all the big water changes kept the water column supplied with trace elements, magnesium, alk and calcium.  The ponies kept it supplied with nutrients.  I dosed magnesium and trace elements after I saw how poor a lot of the caulerpa looked.

Hey since you have a lot of macros, any advice on them? I wanted to add a few little things to my tank in hopes of battling the hair algae with it. Think that could be possible?

[vlangel]

1 minute ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Hey since you have a lot of macros, any advice on them? I wanted to add a few little things to my tank in hopes of battling the hair algae with it. Think that could be possible?

Definitely if your aquarium is not an ultra low nutrient system.  Macro algae once it gets established is an excellant nutrient export and can outcompete nuisance algaes.  The reds tend not to go sexual as easily and they do well in darker areas of tanks.  Some of them are quite attractive too like dragon's breath, gracilaria, red titan, and red grape caulerpa (which is not related to caulerpa at all).  The greens need more light but the calcarous varieties (the species needing calcium) are nice, controllable and do not go sexual.  Gulf coast ecosystem is a great place to buy macro algaes.  They can certainly add a lush feature to any aquarium.  

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

7 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Definitely if your aquarium is not an ultra low nutrient system.  Macro algae once it gets established is an excellant nutrient export and can outcompete nuisance algaes.  The reds tend not to go sexual as easily and they do well in darker areas of tanks.  Some of them are quite attractive too like dragon's breath, gracilaria, red titan, and red grape caulerpa (which is not related to caulerpa at all).  The greens need more light but the calcarous varieties (the species needing calcium) are nice, controllable and do not go sexual.  Gulf coast ecosystem is a great place to buy macro algaes.  They can certainly add a lush feature to any aquarium.  

Thanks for info . I was looking at some stuff on algae barn, I think it was called pom pom gracilaria and was going to get sea lettuce . I can't wait to add some, love the look of your tanks  with the algae in them. 

[tanacharison]

All the fish look amazing. With all the life in that tank as it matures I bet it will be really stable. I'm loving the pair of tanks next to each other..did you build the stands?  

[Poodges]

Love your tank. It’s very cool.  I enjoyed your videos.  Thanks for sharing.

[vlangel]

57 minutes ago, tanacharison said:

All the fish look amazing. With all the life in that tank as it matures I bet it will be really stable. I'm loving the pair of tanks next to each other..did you build the stands?  

Thanks Alonzo.  I am hoping that this tank is both stable and easy to care for.  I feed it heavy, (which is why the fish are nice and fat) so the macro algaes and coral have lots of food.  Its amazing that I do not have nuisance algae but I guess the nutrients are being utilized by the coral and macro algae.  Even the diatomous algae is slowly dissipating.

 

No I bought the stands with the tanks.  They are AGA (Aqueon) but I did paint them and I added decorative trim to the 56 column.  Also my hubby bought me the seahorse handles for the doors.

[vlangel]

54 minutes ago, Poodges said:

Love your tank. It’s very cool.  I enjoyed your videos.  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Poodges, that is very kind.  I will try to keep the videos coming!

[vlangel]

Feeding video.  I never tire of watching the barnacle blennies at meal time.

[vlangel]

Ha ha, Barney and Betty, the barnacle blennies remind me of claymation.  Their eyes move like Shawn the sheep!

[WV Reefer]

Everything looks so good!! 😃

[vlangel]

5 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Everything looks so good!! 😃

Thanks WV, I love peering in all the crevices and holes in this tank.  It is so busy with creatures doing their thing, which makes it a lot of fun!

[WV Reefer]

2 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Thanks WV, I love peering in all the crevices and holes in this tank.  It is so busy with creatures doing their thing, which makes it a lot of fun!

That’s why I love it...... it looks so natural.  

[vlangel]

18 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

That’s why I love it...... it looks so natural.  

I hope to someday to make the equipment less obvious to make it even more natural.  That probably won't happen until after seahorses so that I have a spare tank while I am working on this one.

[vlangel]

I noticed new growth on both the shaving brushes and the halimeda.  Even some old halimeda that never flourished because it got covered in HA is now growing well.  I am very encouraged.

 

Watching my own video has given me some ideas where I would like this tank to go.  I always wanted RFAs and I am thinking if I place them in the sand at the base of the shrimp chalet rock, that they might stay put.  It is an easy spot to feed them and they are somewhat corralled by the rock.

 

Also I want ricordia because of the beautiful color they add plus they like nutrients.  I am thinking they might really like being on the plating skeleton on the left side of the tank.  They can nestle together and make a little garden.  This plating coral skeleton might be a good spot to put a clam also.  I had excellent luck with the blue crocea that I used to have but I am thinking a derasa or maxima this time.

 

Finally I would like to try some simple sps.  I am thinking a green slimer and a pink birdsnest.  Both of those I think will tolerate the nutrients, plus are hopefully more forgiving of alkalinity changes as long as they are not too drastic.  I plan to use 2 part.

[vlangel]

I had not seen Cheerleader, my Pom pom crab in a long time until the early morning hours today when I fed microvert.  I am pleased that Cheerleader has adapted to this bigger tank.