Coral Kingdom Of Thras ~ Waterbox 130.4 💦 ~ SPS Filling In

[Thrassian Atoll]

I thought for sure the mystic sunset monti would overtake my Sunfire grafted monti.  Fortunately it’s the other way around. 

 

[mitten_reef]

Came across an old pic/post on Instagram of the few tiny neon green specks on my starburst monti, as well as the irregular purple streaks

 

[Thrassian Atoll]

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Came across an old pic/post on Instagram of the few tiny neon green specks on my starburst monti, as well as the irregular purple streaks

 

That’s pretty awesome!  I wish mine would do that.  Mines pretty boring.  Barely able to see the polyps. 
 

 

[Thrassian Atoll]

Scraped the back wall of coralline.  Can’t get down there in the bottom of the overflow box though.  
 

 

 

[Craig.]

Absolutely stunning! 

[Thrassian Atoll]

1 hour ago, Craig. said:

Absolutely stunning! 

Thank you!

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah looks exceptional man, love the Monti really jealous..

[Thrassian Atoll]

17 hours ago, Murphych said:

Yeah looks exceptional man, love the Monti really jealous..

Appreciate it!

[Thrassian Atoll]

Think I forgot to mention that I’ve recently been going with 20ppm of nitrates and .1ppm of phosphates.  So far the tank has been doing great at these numbers.  No algae issues, corals seem to be doing very well.  
 

I was battling a little bit of Dino’s in the back and that seems to be gone.  

[Thrassian Atoll]

Just sold and shipped my first coral frags ever.  Definitely a big step for me in the hobby.  I really hope everything goes well.  
 

I pretty much copied this exact process.

 

 

 

[Thrassian Atoll]

Unfortunately USPS didn’t deliver the next day like they were suppose to with the express shipping.  A very large piece of wwc Sunfire monti didn’t survive.  I am more disappointed not knowing how everything would of been if it had reached the buyer the next day.  First time shipping, I was hoping to be able to know if it was something on my end or it taking 48 hours.  Looks like some other acros and digi will hopefully survive though.

[mitten_reef]

Thank you for the frags. I’m bummed that usps messed up the transit/delivery. 
The acros and digi look ok tho as of this evening. Sorry for my dirty tank

[Thrassian Atoll]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

Thank you for the frags. I’m bummed that usps messed up the transit/delivery. 
The acros and digi look ok tho as of this evening. Sorry for my dirty tank

Thanks!  I am hopeful those will pull through, keep me updated.  I think from now on I am gonna use the zen reef cups for shipping.  More expensive, but probably the best way to ship sticks at least.  Something large like that monti though might not have any other options.  
 

https://www.zen-reef.com/shop/coral-cup/

 

[Thrassian Atoll]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thrassian Atoll]

 

 

[DevilDuck]

This tank is an inspiration! It is filling in really well!

[mitten_reef]

14 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

This tank is an inspiration! It is filling in really well!

believe it or not, back when I joined, N-R used to have mature tanks like this - large and small.  now it's really hard to come across a good journal with observable progress....

[Elizabeth94]

Wow everything is filling in!

[Thrassian Atoll]

8 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

This tank is an inspiration! It is filling in really well!

Thank you! I appreciate that.

 

8 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

believe it or not, back when I joined, N-R used to have mature tanks like this - large and small.  now it's really hard to come across a good journal with observable progress....

Reef forums are the only ones still alive within my hobbies.  But like you have observed, they are slowly dying as well.  They will never die though

as long as Facebook keeps the ban on livestock sales. 

I enjoy keeping my journal updated just to see my own progress and how far the tank and I have  come in the hobby.  Hopefully it will help somebody down the line too. 
 

2 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Wow everything is filling in!

Still a ways to go but it’s coming along for sure!  
 

 

My buddy just picked up a few pieces for me at RAP.  Jason Fox Homewrecker, TSA Princess Peach and Cornbred Valhalla.

[fishez4alivin]

Your tank is really looking awesome....I like the OG Acros you have in there, some real classics.  I didn't see if you got the OG Purple Monster, if you did expect it to be the slowest grower in the tank.  Where most slow growing acros take a year then get the growth spurts, the PM barely covered the 1" frag plug in a year...lol but when it becomes a colony, it's so unique, but you'll earn it... 

 

If you have the opportunity, it really is worth the time, to buy three female Flame Wrasses and let one of them turn into the male.  Once the dominant fish morphs, the interactions between the three will be a daily treat.  They surface and dance around the tank, twitching and flaring his fins, it's pretty incredible.  When I had the trio, I eventually lost the male when he shot through my net top.  But one of the two females morphed into another male relatively quickly.  The netting had gotten a little brittle over the year, so I replaced it.   Wrasses can really fly out of the tank, and you need a solid net to hold them in.  I watched them bounce off the netting many times, just a heads up. 

 

I have a question about your Trident.  Do you have problems when you change reagents?  Failed tests etc?  Other than that, it's really a great piece of equipment.  I had problems with my alk fluctuating at first.  Now it's a straight line, so stable, but I had to increase my testing in order to get it there, since I use Trident controlled dosing.

 

Tank looks great, congrats

[Thrassian Atoll]

8 hours ago, fishez4alivin said:

Your tank is really looking awesome....I like the OG Acros you have in there, some real classics.  I didn't see if you got the OG Purple Monster, if you did expect it to be the slowest grower in the tank.  Where most slow growing acros take a year then get the growth spurts, the PM barely covered the 1" frag plug in a year...lol but when it becomes a colony, it's so unique, but you'll earn it... 

 

If you have the opportunity, it really is worth the time, to buy three female Flame Wrasses and let one of them turn into the male.  Once the dominant fish morphs, the interactions between the three will be a daily treat.  They surface and dance around the tank, twitching and flaring his fins, it's pretty incredible.  When I had the trio, I eventually lost the male when he shot through my net top.  But one of the two females morphed into another male relatively quickly.  The netting had gotten a little brittle over the year, so I replaced it.   Wrasses can really fly out of the tank, and you need a solid net to hold them in.  I watched them bounce off the netting many times, just a heads up. 

 

I have a question about your Trident.  Do you have problems when you change reagents?  Failed tests etc?  Other than that, it's really a great piece of equipment.  I had problems with my alk fluctuating at first.  Now it's a straight line, so stable, but I had to increase my testing in order to get it there, since I use Trident controlled dosing.

 

Tank looks great, congrats

Thanks!  I haven’t found OG Purple Monster yet, but I would definitely add it.  That’s definitely a tough one to come by.  I know there’s a couple people selling it on reef2reef but I’ve been burned on a couple things not being what they say they were.  True purple monster is pretty rare.  
The list on the 2nd post/first page is up to date on everything in the tank.  I am pretty much out of room though.  I am hoping my frag tank gets its act together and let’s me start adding stuff to it.  It’s been running for 8 months now, but it’s maturing super slowly.  Probably because it’s rockless.  That would be my guess.
 

Flame Wrasses now are probably a $1000 a piece due to the Hawaii ban, if you can even find them.  I haven’t looked.  Knowing that yellow tangs are selling for $500, I can only imagine.  I know they are a Hawaii only species though.  I actually have a Lineatus that’s been paid for since last August through BayBridge Aquarium.  I am really hoping he ships one soon.  With the addition of that, my fairy wrasses will be Flame, Lineatus and Golden Rhomboidalis.  I really wanted a variety of fairy wrasses.  
 

I have a nice tight lid from Clearview on there.  Take it off once and a while for photos.  It’s a solid lid for sure.  Definitely seen and heard fish bouncing off of it.  Haha

I haven’t had any problems with my Trident.  I’ve read a lot of issues on Neptune’s Facebook page, but I haven’t ran into any.  It’s definitely a game changer and the auto dosing has helped me out a great deal, especially when I switch my light schedule when I switch work shifts.  The dosing amounts go crazy during the switch with the lights off.  Mine keeps alk pretty stable.  I think it could be closer though.  I get .4 DKH swings daily.  Would prefer it around .2 or less.  That’s with dosing more when the lights are on too.

 

[fishez4alivin]

Yeah I think it really helps when you increase the amount of testing, at least with alk.  Just increasing to testing every four hours seemed to allow it to really fine tune it.  
 

As for the OG Purple Monster, I knew someone locally and he sold single branch 3/4” frags once in a great while.  He’s out of the hobby now.  That Bay Bridge Aquarium is across the bay from me.  I heard they quarantine but no first hand experience.  Yeah those flame wrasses are not worth 1000, when they used to be 150 for small females.  

[Thrassian Atoll]

5 hours ago, fishez4alivin said:

Yeah I think it really helps when you increase the amount of testing, at least with alk.  Just increasing to testing every four hours seemed to allow it to really fine tune it.  
 

As for the OG Purple Monster, I knew someone locally and he sold single branch 3/4” frags once in a great while.  He’s out of the hobby now.  That Bay Bridge Aquarium is across the bay from me.  I heard they quarantine but no first hand experience.  Yeah those flame wrasses are not worth 1000, when they used to be 150 for small females.  

It’s all supply and demand.  Yellow tangs used to be $25.  At least there is Biota yellow tangs for sale now for $150.  They look kind of weird to me though compared to wilds.  
 

 

My Trident schedule is testing Alk 6 times a day right now.  The curve is bigger testing more for me.  It kind of makes sense though because your not seeing that low dip in the alkalinity, your only seeing the highs during the testing hours, so it looks more stable.  

[fishez4alivin]

If I had Flame Wrasses I would do the same. Hopefully Hawaii will allow them to be exported in the future.   Yeah I saw the Biota Yellow Tangs and something seemed different with their head/nose.  They also had a translucency that similarly sized wild caught ones did not have.

 

Yeah knock on wood, I haven't had an issue with my Apex/Trident except when I don't carefully route the tubing when I close the tray.  Tank looks great love seeing the frags growing into colonies, great job

[Thrassian Atoll]

6 hours ago, fishez4alivin said:

If I had Flame Wrasses I would do the same. Hopefully Hawaii will allow them to be exported in the future.   Yeah I saw the Biota Yellow Tangs and something seemed different with their head/nose.  They also had a translucency that similarly sized wild caught ones did not have.

 

Yeah knock on wood, I haven't had an issue with my Apex/Trident except when I don't carefully route the tubing when I close the tray.  Tank looks great love seeing the frags growing into colonies, great job

Thanks!  A lot of the acros are growing way slower than I like or think they should be, but nothing else I can really try different.  I’ve tried different light intensity, nutrient amounts, etc.  I haven’t tried raising the Alkalinity, but that always worries me because I can start getting into that low nutrient range if I am not careful and high alkalinity would be a killer.

 

  The captive bred tangs are definitely way more translucent.  Hopefully Hawaii regulates exporting in the future.  I don’t think they had any regulations.  A complete ban was a knee jerk reaction in my opinion.