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

[Thrassian Atoll]

Tank is doing really well.  Coraline algae is finally starting to appear.  All of my parameters have been stable and where I want them.  Nutrients have been good.  
 

I am still on the look out for for fairy wrasses.  I actually bought a golden rhomboidalis from divers den a couple of weeks ago.  It was on there for a while and looked good.  He ended up dying before they could ship him.  
 

I have a bunch of sps frags I am going to pick up from somebody locally next weekend.  Think like 14 in all or something.  Some pretty nice stuff too in the mix.  I’ll post photos after I get them.  

 

 

[Elizabeth94]

Beautiful! 

[Thrassian Atoll]

13 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Beautiful! 

Thanks!  

[Thrassian Atoll]

Picked up a ton of frags yesterday from a fellow hobbyist.  
 

From the top, Left to Right:

 

1st Row - ORA Ponape Birdsnest, ORA Bird of Paradise, Eric’s Red Table, ASD Sunset Milli

 

2nd Row - Cherry Corals Plutonium Tenius, ORA Joe the Coral, ORA Pearlberry, PC Rainbow, WWC DEFCON Cyphastrea

 

3rd Row - Miyiagi Tort, Jason Fox Barney, RR Pink Cadillac, Tri Color Stag, Purple Stylo

 

Large frag of Mystic Sunset Monti and ORA Blue Polyp Cap

 

[Thrassian Atoll]

6 Months In!  I would say things are going well.  Still getting some cyano but nutrients are where I want them so hopefully it goes away in the near future.  
 

I have been consulting with https://quarantinedfish.us/ to get me my next wrasse, either a lineatus or Golden Rhomboidilis.  He’s on the lookout for a young male of either one.  I’ll definitely be buying more sps soon and I actually have some stuff coming from Vivids next week.  
 

 

 

[Opotter]

Looking great!!  Let me know how the pre-quarantine process goes for you! Just curious to see how others are finding the process.  The guy you are working with has a ton of happy customers over on Humblefish’s forum!   My tank is also coming up on 6 months, but coral shopping this weekend at WWC (in person).. so may wait to post 😉 

 

what did you order from vivid?

[Elizabeth94]

Im just imagining how nice this will be once your frags start growing in. 
 

Now thats it has been a while, whats your opinion on the Miniflake sand? With those sps im sure your flow is quite high. Im thinking of going barebottom, but I was originally attracted to the miniflakes. 

[Thrassian Atoll]

2 minutes ago, Opotter said:

Looking great!!  Let me know how the pre-quarantine process goes for you! Just curious to see how others are finding the process.  The guy you are working with has a ton of happy customers over on Humblefish’s forum!   My tank is also coming up on 6 months, but coral shopping this weekend at WWC (in person).. so may wait to post 😉 

 

what did you order from vivid?

Thanks!  I saw his post on humblefish website and hit him up.  He said there are terminal phase males of either fish, but with how short their life span is and that I want to be able to see the transformation, I decided to hold off until he finds a young male/transitioning.  I will definitely update how the process goes and how well he shows me the progress as well.  
 

So I had $250 in credit with Brandon Pierce from like 2 years ago.  😂  I never used it because either I was moving or my tank wasn’t doing well, etc.  I hit him up and he said he would still honor the money.  I gave him a little more money and told him to surprise me.  It will be some non Tenius stuff.  All their signature corals are crazy expensive.  Like $350 a pop expensive.  So we shall see, he’s suppose to ship next Thursday.  
 

I am mostly staying local for all of my sps right now.  I got a guy that I have been getting most of my stuff from at great prices.  Good guy to deal with and he’s got some great stuff.  A lot of high end stuff that I will get later when my tank matures more and I know the sps are in my tank are doing well.  
 

Post after you get your stuff from WWC!  Looking forward to seeing your 6 month tank update!

[Thrassian Atoll]

6 minutes ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Im just imagining how nice this will be once your frags start growing in. 
 

Now thats it has been a while, whats your opinion on the Miniflake sand? With those sps im sure your flow is quite high. Im thinking of going barebottom, but I was originally attracted to the miniflakes. 

Thanks!  Hopefully in a year or so the tank will be full of colonies. I am looking forward to it but at the same time I am still weary, timid I guess.  Things are going well now but I feel like I am cursed with tanks and all goes to hell.  The biggest difference though is that I know I am not moving or upgrading so that will make a big difference with the longevity of the tank.  
 

So the sand finally seems to be staying in place pretty well.  I am running the MP40s on 65% reefcrest/anti sync.  I would love to turn it up some more, but this is as high as I can guy without getting sandstorms.  It’s a ton of movement though and when corals start to grow I should be able to turn it up.  
 

Bare bottom is hit or miss for me.  Some tanks look great, some don’t with bare bottoms.  I think the aquascape makes a way bigger difference aesthetically than if you have sand.  

[pokerdobe]

Dropping in, good looking tank!

[mitten_reef]

On 1/19/2020 at 1:53 PM, Thrassian Atoll said:

Picked up a ton of frags yesterday from a fellow hobbyist.  
 

From the top, Left to Right:

 

1st Row - ORA Ponape Birdsnest, ORA Bird of Paradise, Eric’s Red Table, ASD Sunset Milli

 

2nd Row - Cherry Corals Plutonium Tenius, ORA Joe the Coral, ORA Pearlberry, PC Rainbow, WWC DEFCON Cyphastrea

 

3rd Row - Miyiagi Tort, Jason Fox Barney, RR Pink Cadillac, Tri Color Stag, Purple Stylo

 

Large frag of Mystic Sunset Monti and ORA Blue Polyp Cap

 

wooo! corals time!  glad to see you wait a bit this time.  The rocks sure look like the tank is maturing nicely so far.  

[Thrassian Atoll]

2 hours ago, pokerdobe said:

Dropping in, good looking tank!

Thanks!  More to come for sure!

 

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

wooo! corals time!  glad to see you wait a bit this time.  The rocks sure look like the tank is maturing nicely so far.  

Yeah, waiting a lot longer than my old tanks had paid off greatly.  This is the best a tank of mine has been doing at the 6 month mark.  Making sure I have nutrients I think has been the best thing, that and being able to keep my alk really stable.
 

No more white rocks!!   Now only if the dang sand would stay white.  

[Thrassian Atoll]

Some photos after the weekly water change.  Occupancy list also update in the 2nd post.  Starting to get a lot of frags cooking.  Going to get a few more frags tomorrow.  
 

 

 

 

 

[Elizabeth94]

Looks like your frags are doing well, nice color. Do you know what your daily consumption is so far for alk/cal? I bet that Trident will make it so much easier for you once these start to grow. 

[Thrassian Atoll]

18 minutes ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Looks like your frags are doing well, nice color. Do you know what your daily consumption is so far for alk/cal? I bet that Trident will make it so much easier for you once these start to grow. 

Thanks!  Some of them still have a little ways to go to get back to their original color.  Growth is slow but it’s there.  A lot are starting to encrust.  
 

Right now I am using between 30-40 ml of each part of B-ionic.  It’s been fluctuating so I have pretty much been adjusting every couple days to try and get it dialed in.   It’s been kind of a struggle even with the trident to get the numbers exactly where I want them and to keep them there.  I have only tried the automated dosing once and it didn’t keep the numbers where I wanted them at all.  I’ll try again once I get a good fix on how much to dose.  I think the tank is still really young so it’s still fluctuating a lot.  There’s no precipitation though.  The sand is still soft as new and the pumps and heaters look normal.  So that’s good.  
 

I recently started dosing 1 ml of acropower a day and a capful of strontium a day.  A guy out here with an amazing tank swears by dosing strontium.  I bought a test kit but the directions are crazy.  I sent in an icp test though right before I started dosing the strontium and I’ll send in another one after a month to compare the numbers.  The strontium directions actually tell me to dose 5 caps every other day on my 100+ gallons of water volume.  

[Elizabeth94]

Interesting. Im curious why the trident hasn’t been holding things a bit more steady. Thats the purpose of it right? But I admit, I haven’t done much research on them so I could be off. 
 

I also started dosing Acropower. I read a lot of good reviews on it and its so cheap. I don’t my acro anymore after my alk got low, but I read its a good amino acid for the tank in general. It has only been about a week and my LPS are super happy with the change. 
 

Interesting on the Strontium. For some reason 5 caps sounds like a lot to me. I wonder what the levels are in my Aquaforest components. Ill be doing there balling method soon. 

[Thrassian Atoll]

2 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Interesting. Im curious why the trident hasn’t been holding things a bit more steady. Thats the purpose of it right? But I admit, I haven’t done much research on them so I could be off. 
 

I also started dosing Acropower. I read a lot of good reviews on it and its so cheap. I don’t my acro anymore after my alk got low, but I read its a good amino acid for the tank in general. It has only been about a week and my LPS are super happy with the change. 
 

Interesting on the Strontium. For some reason 5 caps sounds like a lot to me. I wonder what the levels are in my Aquaforest components. Ill be doing there balling method soon. 

Alk is holding stable enough in the sense that for people testing manually it’s been great.  It’s always between 7.5 and 8.2 but I want it to sit at 8 and not move.  Haha.  I’ll try the automated dosing again soon and see if it works.  Last time I had it set it raised it up to 8.5 from being set to 8 dkh. 


Acropower you just have to watch for the cyano, which I already have so I am going super slow with it.

 

My buddies tank strontium level is around 17ppm.  Normal is around 7-9.  

[Thrassian Atoll]

Added some new stuff recently.  Got my random

stuff from vivids and also got a few pieces local.  
 

Vivids Sherbet

Vivids Lavender

Vivids Magenta Table

Vivids Gummy Worm

Vivids Banana Fingers

ORA Miami Orchid

ORA Red Planet

WWC French Tickler

ORA Hawkins Echinata

ORA Tri Color Valida 

WWC Yellow Tips

Battle Corals Blood Red Milli
 

I am hopefully going to be making an order from Harry’s corals soon.  It’s been too cold for him to ship now.  He has a true Oregon Tort that I want as one of my centerpieces.  I will grab a couple other things too.  In the next couple of weeks as well I will be getting an incredible frag pack of a local reefer.  A few high end pieces. My SPS list is updated on the 1st page.  Have around 50 pieces now.  
 

I recently added a wyse camera to able to look at my tank from anywhere now.  Haha.  I also added a Fire 7 tablet to my cabinet and got rid of the stock apex display.  

 

 

Dr. Reef hit me up recently too and said he can hopefully get me my fairy wrasses soon.  Not sure if he’s a member on here or not.

[Thrassian Atoll]

Here’s some photos from today.  I have no clue why my sand won’t stay white.  It’s the only issue I have been having.  Made a super long post on askbrstv to see if anybody can figure It out.  Of course their super slow to post stuff though. 
 

[Thrassian Atoll]

[Elizabeth94]

Looks great. Whats on your sand? Cyano? What kind of clean up crew do you have for sand? Sine I added sand I am thinking a conch of some sorts will help. My new sand is starting to get some color to it now too

[Thrassian Atoll]

41 minutes ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Looks great. Whats on your sand? Cyano? What kind of clean up crew do you have for sand? Sine I added sand I am thinking a conch of some sorts will help. My new sand is starting to get some color to it now too

It honestly all looks the same.  I can never tell the difference.  Diatoms, cyano, Dino.  It’s red and brown.  Not stringy or bubbly.  I have 2 fighting conchs and a bunch of nasarius.  They don’t anything though.  Thinking maybe sand sifting star or diamond goby.  Really need to figure out what’s causing the issue though.

[Thrassian Atoll]

Tunze Macro Algae Reactor 3181 and Nyos Quantum 160 Skimmer going in.  
 

Needed a skimmer with a smaller footprint than my octo150 and this one seems to be a nice one.  Also grab the algae reactor.  My nitrates have been around 15 for a while and I am planning on adding more fish, which one gets here Friday!  Anyways, really want to keep the nitrates between 5-10 and hopefully the chaeto reactor does that.  
 

I’ll install the skimmer today and probably the reactor in a day or so.  Hopefully I can grab some chaeto locally this weekend.

 

[Elizabeth94]

Curious how you make out with your algae reactor. I was looking into them a while ago, specifically the PaxBellum. Just hesitant to drop money on one. 

 

Are you planning to run the skimmer 24/7? 

[Thrassian Atoll]

1 hour ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Curious how you make out with your algae reactor. I was looking into them a while ago, specifically the PaxBellum. Just hesitant to drop money on one. 

 

Are you planning to run the skimmer 24/7? 

There’s a ton of mixed reviews on the algae reactor.  We shall see how it goes.  
 

The skimmer will be on 24/7 like my other one.  I am not sure if the algae reactor will be on 24/7 or if I just have the light run during night hours?  Not sure yet.  My skimmer is hooked up to my c02 reactor.  Oh drops a ton when it’s not on.