Revamp Reef

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

4 minutes ago, righttirefire said:

The BTA walked to the side of the rock at some point after introduction amd was within about 1.5" of the acan. When I woke up i noticed it had been sweeping into the acans. I kept an eye on it for a an hour to see if it was still walking and when i was satisfied it was going to stay put. I rotated the rock the BTA was on. So I was in contact for possibly up to 8 hours? Its been 2 weeks. And the most damaged head is still showing skeleton but it is puffing out and putting out its feeding tenticles, so im assuming it will come around

That's crazy, it still amazes me the power some of these animals have. Corals are hardy thats for damn sure, you should have seen my hammer after I unintensionally tried to kill it. Flesh was 95 percent gone and a month later both heads have flesh and I can only see a little of the skeleton.

[righttirefire]

So much action over the last couple weeks. The BTA split. The mangrove looks miserable. And this little monster favia swept into the rainbow acan.

 

Reefcleaners is on its way to handle the return of my bubble algea.

 

Im seriously think i need to re-scape my tank.

 

My new test kit refills showed up yesterday, Red Sea and Hanna

Temp - 78*f

Salinity - 1.025

Mg - 1620

Ca - 580

dKH - 7 (125 ppm Hannah)

No3 - 4 (high range test)

Po4 - 0.08 - 0.12 (low range test)

 

Ive done about 20 gallons of water changes over the last 3 weeks. I wanted to do a final cleanup for Christmas and I had a fish die and the BTA split so i did a waterchanges twice a week

 

[righttirefire]

So Darwin @Legendary Corals, asked for a link to my build thread. How disappointed is he going to be, so Darwin this update is for you.

The FTS, its a sumped 20 long with a older 4 channel nonbluefish controller. If i remember correctly its running about 25% on what @DaveFason recommended for an lps/sps ratio about 3 years ago.

The sandbed and rock are at least 1 year old, with the left island being the original rockwork from my "hi-jacked IM8" which should put it about 3 years old. The sump has a deepsand bed and macros.

I just tested last week the parameters are above. I do a weekly 5 gallon waterchange. Just bulked up my cleanup crew from @johnmaloney from reefcleaners last week.

I did have a fish die 2 weeks ago. No signs of illness. No stress on the remaining fish, my original clowns about 4 years ago, muran goby about 6 months ago, and Springer damsel about 2 months ago. The rainbow bubble is about 6 weeks in my tank and Dec. 26th it split.

 

The left island has orange plating monti, purple green encrusting monti, "bloody mary" plating monti, setosa monti, forest fire monti, orange monti with blue polyps and white hairs encrusting monti, brown/purple with blue new growth edge and light blue polyps encrusting monti, sour apple birdsnest nest, jack o lantern lepto, "sunrise" orange/yellow, with green speckled leptastia, and pinwheel candy cane.

The middle rock has a 2 frags monti undata?, tyree flower pedal plating monti, a piece of the brown/purple with blue new growth edge and light blue polyps encrusting monti, my original red and blue pinwheel acan lord, green and red acan lord, BTA stung purple and red acan lord, rainbow acan lord, and a green and purple pinwheel acan. 

The right rock has @spectra zoa frags 4 kinds. And the rainbow BTAs

The sand bed had 2 RFAs and Yellow polyps

 

Thanks everyone who's helped along the way looking forward to some @Legendary Corals frags.

 

 

[mitten_reef]

hey, the tank looks pretty nice 👍🏼.  much better than when it was the bubble algae farm a couple months ago.

 

 

[DaveFason]

Great to see the update!

[Legendary Corals]

Thanks for tagging me in this post! I have a couple of frags that I think will do well in your tank. Particularly the middle and right rock. 

[HarryPotter]

That’s looking really nice. The zoas seem to be reaching a bit- they might want a bit more lighting. 

 

Love the acan garden, I could never make them happy in my tank 

[righttirefire]

@HarryPotter here you do the post where i brought home red and blue pinwheel acans. 3 heads. May 23nd 2015, ive had it 3 years

 

[jack1978]

Howdy, dick.

Tank is looking great!

....love your 'cans. 

[righttirefire]

I was running out of room. So i decided it was time to eliminate so some negative space. Last weekend i added another 8# of dry rock and rescaped and moved corals around. 

 

I thought i did so well and accounted for all the corals... even tore apart the left side of the rockwork to find a lost lepto...

Late the next day i found the blasto. Bone dry in the cabinet drawer. I was pretty disappointed in myself.

 

Im just observing for the time being. The duncans havent opened much and the hammer is still small. But in my experience. Leave it along. It'll find its grove in the next month

[spectra]

Is that a coral on the sand

[righttirefire]

1 hour ago, spectra said:

Is that a coral on the sand

You mean whore island?

The favia with the sweepers thats on island of its own and not buried by the goby? 

[righttirefire]

@vlangel how'd i attract a legendary nano-reefer like you into this humble thread

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, righttirefire said:

@vlangel how'd i attract a legendary nano-reefer like you into this humble thread

LOL, wow I had no idea that I am legendary!  I love reading everybody's threads because there is always new things to learn.

 

I like your tank and the choice of coral you have.  I will definitely be back to watch them grow.

[righttirefire]

Just now, vlangel said:

LOL, wow I had no idea that I am legendary!  I love reading everybody's threads because there is always new things to learn.

 

I like your tank and the choice of coral you have.  I will definitely be back to watch them grow.

Thanks. I definately stalked your threads when i was early stages of reef keeping just for your dedication and unique tanks.

[vlangel]

6 minutes ago, righttirefire said:

Thanks. I definately stalked your threads when i was early stages of reef keeping just for your dedication and unique tanks.

Thanks, I remember when I joined how intimidated I was to comment on some of the 'legendary' threads so I also stalked.  Its funny, but I hope reading my threads helped.  I am happy to help with anything if I can.

[righttirefire]

Why not a saturday update...

The bubble algea is advancing again. Im up to waterchages twice a week. My 2 emeralds are the non-bubble algea eating type. So ill go back to manual removing.

 

My phone isnt uploading pictures again. So ill try again later

 

I bought my last corals for this tank so its in grow out mode. 

[righttirefire]

Uploads are working again!

Recovering acans.

[WV Reefer]

44 minutes ago, righttirefire said:

Uploads are working again!

Recovering acans.

Have you ever tried a red mithrax crab for the bubble algae?

[righttirefire]

6 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Have you ever tried a red mithrax crab for the bubble algae?

No. I will need to order them. The 3 LFS between home and work never have them. And reef cleaners sent me emeralds.

[righttirefire]

On a good note, my LFS had a red mithrax crab. I manually removed some bubble algea last night during a water change. 

I also started dosing alk (seachem reef builder) into my ATO. 

[pgrVII]

6 minutes ago, righttirefire said:

On a good note, my LFS had a red mithrax crab. I manually removed some bubble algea last night during a water change. 

I also started dosing alk (seachem reef builder) into my ATO. 

Nice,always good when it works out like that. 

[righttirefire]

1 minute ago, pgrVII said:

Nice,always good when it works out like that. 

Still picking away at the bubble algea. Itll clean up. Waterchanges are twice a week and feeding is down. So ill catch it

[righttirefire]

This silly hobby. I have my ATO "screened" with plastic canvas #7 from Michaels. Glued to sheild. A tiny snail got past the screen and its shell got stuck with the float in the up position. 

The first time this happened it got on top of the float and emptied the ATO into the sump.

This time my return was blowing micro bubbles. Over a gallon low 

[righttirefire]

Digging through my photobucket i found a picture of the screen as i was building it to glue onto the float switch of the tunze 3152