Christopher Marks Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 27 minutes ago, Frag Factory said: Thank you dear! Things do seem to be progressing well. I think I'm officially through the "ugly" stage, diatoms have burned themselves out and Bryopsis has gone. I've also started gluing coral down in position. Here's some sneak peeks, I'm waiting for everything to reopen and look sexy again before more photos. The stuff on the sandbed needs a home but I ran out of glue... I'm already excited to see what this looks like once it's grown in! Solid placements! That's the part I'm always the most indecisive about, and the more corals you glue down the harder it gets to decide on where the last ones should go. That ricordea island is going to be so cool as it grows out! 4 Quote Link to comment
Glauber Carvalho Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 Great choice of the rocks. I loved this rock's scape! And I love Ricordeas and Mushs! Why don't you fill it with more water? It would be incredible! Don't you prefer to put Zoas and corals on rocks, instead of the ground? Really nice tank! I can't wait to see these coral Growing! Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 10 hours ago, Frag Factory said: Thank you dear! Things do seem to be progressing well. I think I'm officially through the "ugly" stage, diatoms have burned themselves out and Bryopsis has gone. I've also started gluing coral down in position. Here's some sneak peeks, I'm waiting for everything to reopen and look sexy again before more photos. The stuff on the sandbed needs a home but I ran out of glue... I'm already excited to see what this looks like once it's grown in! Hmm that’s an epic ric island. Gonna need more in my new tank now. 1 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 10 hours ago, Glauber Carvalho said: Great choice of the rocks. I loved this rock's scape! And I love Ricordeas and Mushs! Why don't you fill it with more water? It would be incredible! Don't you prefer to put Zoas and corals on rocks, instead of the ground? Really nice tank! I can't wait to see these coral Growing! The water level is dictated by the overflow, I don't mind it where it is. I have to run a evaporation lid due to my sucky Victorian era home that can't handle moisture very well. We don't have central air systems in the UK that fry the air for us. The bigger air gap helps oxygen exchange which is a nice side effect. The stuff on the sandbed is also only there as I ran out of glue and epoxy. Next time I do a water change it will be fixed up and the sand should be clear except for the clam. I also want more clams, if I fill the valley I have with clams I would be very happy. 10 hours ago, mitten_reef said: Hmm that’s an epic ric island. Gonna need more in my new tank now. I'm so excited to see that fill out, I've left spaces for a few more colours too. 🤔 1 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 My QT tank has its first resident 😄 My QT regime will be: 3-5 days to settle down 30 days of Chloroquine Phosphate Two 6 hour Tremazol baths 7 days apart for worms Observational time and then into display tank Throughout this I will be feeding medicated food which is frozen mysis and brine shrimp, Selcon, Agar Agar (as a binder) and API general cure. This should nuke any internal worms or parasites. I've done my best to research everything and have every medication I could get on hand which has cost me a small fortune. I think this as a base QT system will do me fine, if I get any diseases pop up I will exit the regime and treat for that specific thing before starting this "baseline" chemo-prophylactic method again. If you're a noob, please do QT stuff. It will save so much heart ache and read some of @Humblefish's threads. The information is soooo good. This should be finished in September, which is when my display tank fallow period ends. It's been a sucky start to this tank for the fish side of things but I'm doing all I can to stop it happening again. Live and learn! 3 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 I am having some awful luck on the fish front, the CB didn't make it through quarantine. 😭 It had ich and possible other parasites, which I fixed with some help from Humblefish... Only for the bloody heater to go pop while I was at work. For those interested I made a thread here. I nearly threw the towel in and just listed everything for sale to be honest. This run of luck is severely knocking my enthusiasm... I'll keep going through, I'm currently sterilising my quarantine equipment, ordering a titanium heater and controller and we go again. In the meantime I've also had some new coral arrive. Zoas, a Duncan and a Litophyton that I hadn't seen before (which came off in transit so I 3D printed a coral holder to get it attached on gravel again). Full tank shot 1 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 I've not really got anything to update, been feeling down about the hobby in general after that kick in the balls from losing my Coral Beauty... But this picked me up today. 2 weeks ago I had increase my kalk dosing by 200ml and didn't understand why. I put it down to coraline algae but today I noticed my Trochus snails have been reproducing at some point. I've got about 30 tiny but perfectly formed babies. Sorry for the bad pics, these things are small and it's the best my phone will do... I'm waiting for my QT tank to recycle and then will be getting some fish! 1 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted September 4, 2020 Author Share Posted September 4, 2020 No offence to fans of chromis... But these kind of kick their arse. 1 2 Quote Link to comment
mfield16 Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 I love the scape, and the ricordias. Makes me want to do a ric rock in my next tank. Sucks on the fish issues. I don't QT, just do the TTM. Nice anthias too! Bartletts? 1 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted September 4, 2020 Author Share Posted September 4, 2020 16 hours ago, mfield16 said: I love the scape, and the ricordias. Makes me want to do a ric rock in my next tank. Sucks on the fish issues. I don't QT, just do the TTM. Nice anthias too! Bartletts? TTM works, it's what I just did with these guys (after a week of metroplex and deworming). AFAIK they are Pseudanthias pulcherrimus. There seems to be a few different versions depending on where they are collected but I'm not 100% sure... Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 I've realised photography is kind of hard, especially when you only have a phone and not a fancy camera. I'm trying to work out some manual settings that work on a phone app (AZ photography) and my LED lights. I thought this turned out ok... The colours look realistic and it's not a totally blue washout... The fish are looking so sweet, but I really can't get them to stay still even for a second. I also picked up a bargain larger Acro and red monti frag at the weekend. Both look pretty browned out right now from the LFS. I'm hoping they settle in and colour up in the tank but they are just experiment frags in truth. I've not got a great track record with SPS but parameters on this tank have been far more stable than previous tanks thanks to my kalk stirrer. 2 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted September 22, 2020 Author Share Posted September 22, 2020 Rare mid-maintenance top down picture of my claim. This thing is getting close to 6" now, it's probably put on an inch in size size my tank move. It's covered in tube worms but they don't bother anything. 2 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 Beautiful anthias and that clam is gorgeous! 1 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 A bit nervous about the anthias here. Hopefully you have significant experience. Resplendent's aren't trivial and it's a smaller tank. Hopefully in six months you can flex to me how fat they are! Good luck and nice clam 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted September 23, 2020 Author Share Posted September 23, 2020 8 hours ago, Spencer7 said: A bit nervous about the anthias here. Hopefully you have significant experience. Resplendent's aren't trivial and it's a smaller tank. Hopefully in six months you can flex to me how fat they are! Good luck and nice clam 🙂 What are you nervous about? The current fattening up seems to be working well, they are all eating flake and pellets at this point. I feed them every time I go near the tank. Aggression seems to be almost non-existent. I see occasional chasing, that's it. 1 Quote Link to comment
Frag Factory Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 An update with some pics. Everything is going well, except for SPS. I've switched out the kalk stirrier/blender because I'm struggling to keep Alkalinity stable. I've gone to aquaforest additives and a jebao doser. I am tempted to rip out the SPS and just fill the flat rock with Euphilia though... Is it worth the hassle... I'm not sure I want a high maintaince tank. Quote Link to comment
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