Amp's 35 Breeder

[A.m.P]

On 9/13/2022 at 10:54 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

Whoa. Look at all those healthy colonies! 

I've been really fortunate in how well the system's handled sustained benign-neglect, some animals just aren't cut out for it compared to others, I hope I continue to be lucky!
Hope your systems are doing well, sorry I haven't had to time to poke my head-in and check out everyone's builds lately.

[A.m.P]

The Reef this AM, hope everyone's been okay through this storm.

 

[A.m.P]

Happy Thursday!
 

[banasophia]

Nice top down shot! Looks like everything is growing well. 

[jservedio]

Woah, that's really taking off - those montis are getting big!

[A.m.P]

New year, new plan. I've been spreading these corals out as freebie frags or in trades locally, decided I'm going to start spreading them around in my own tank; let the sps thriving just take over the rocks and see what that looks like.

 

[banasophia]

Looks great - nice photo. Your reef looks really beautiful and I also like how it shows your home through the tank. It make me think about how our fish see us, and also how reefing can be such a big part of our lives. 
 

I like your idea of using frags of your own corals in lots of spots in the tank… I think it will look amazing if they take over!! 

[A.m.P]

Oh and, for whatever it's worth, lubbocks wrasse mucus cocoons seem to be able to smother and cause tissue loss on montis. Had it happen a few times now, wrasse beds down nearby, in the morning I see the cocoon has broken up onto a monti cap and anywhere it touches has lost tissue; rest of the coral is fine and recovers.

Weird stuff.

[Tired]

I wouldn't have expected that, but at the same time, I'm not surprised. Makes sense. 

[A.m.P]

6 hours ago, Tired said:

I wouldn't have expected that, but at the same time, I'm not surprised. Makes sense. 

I mean yes, it absolutely makes sense right? Obviously the cocoon is meant to be noxious and dissuade predators/require them to clear their gills/"cough" if they end up swallowing any, so of course it would be noxious and smother corals too.

But I don't see it talked about at all lol, I guess my scape just puts me in the unique position where it happens frequently and obviously-enough with the total absence of anything else goin'-on for me to notice XD

Lucky me lol...

[Tired]

Plus, even without a potential chemically noxious presence, it is a big thick blanket of slime. 

[A.m.P]

Sigh.. I've been watching the pink streak wrasse for a while now, it started eating soft corals, big bite marks left in the bases and up the trunk, I moved them out and now it's ripping flesh off monti's... 

I really do have terrible luck with this sort of thing, it already completely stripped a leng-sy chunk to the skeleton in a week...

Out it goes, darn.

[TheKleinReef]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:44 AM, A.m.P said:

New year, new plan. I've been spreading these corals out as freebie frags or in trades locally, decided I'm going to start spreading them around in my own tank; let the sps thriving just take over the rocks and see what that looks like.

 

reminds me of the Formosa forest. It was a super famous tank on reef2reef. A tank just dominated by a. Formosa. The guy who started it a long time ago just set up his v2. I love the concept of a few coral dominating the system. This is gonna be so cool. 

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

reminds me of the Formosa forest. It was a super famous tank on reef2reef. A tank just dominated by a. Formosa. The guy who started it a long time ago just set up his v2. I love the concept of a few coral dominating the system. This is gonna be so cool. 

Just looked that tank up… gorgeous 

[mitten_reef]

4 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

reminds me of the Formosa forest. It was a super famous tank on reef2reef. A tank just dominated by a. Formosa. The guy who started it a long time ago just set up his v2. I love the concept of a few coral dominating the system. This is gonna be so cool. 

Oh, just looked that up. I think he goes by Leonardo reef on IG but mostly set up as a frag shop.  Great stuff tho

[TheKleinReef]

13 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Oh, just looked that up. I think he goes by Leonardo reef on IG but mostly set up as a frag shop.  Great stuff tho

yeah, I didn’t know that was him, I’ve been following him for a couple months lol. I didn’t put it together until I saw it on reef2reef

[A.m.P]

 

Things are still chugging along, the whole bottom of the tank is covered in glass-to-glass green coralline.
I think that stuff may be why macro won't grow anymore.

Handful of monti's are still pissed off because of the vermetids, been trying DIY reef snow and using a baster to keep them clear of mucus, gotta' admit that reef-snow keeps your water stupid clear.

Still have no clue how this ended up being an SPS reef lol.

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, A.m.P said:

Still have no clue how this ended up being an SPS reef lol.

Monti and birdnest will do that to your tank...they grow and grow and grow.  they make you feel invincible - sps isn't all that hard!

then you go buy acros, a few generic ones - and they keep growing too!   

then you start buying "fancy acros", and WHAM, suddenly nothing wants to grow after that.  Then you're stuck trying to prove to yourself that you can make it work, and then it really worked!   and that's when you become an acroholic. 

 

Story of my life, that was probably 4-5 years ago, the rest is history.  hopefully it won't be yours, lol.  tread lightly my friend. 

 

but for real, that orange palawanensis is always stunning. if it weren't such a weed.  Mine changed colors all the time, based on water params, light intensity, etc.    

[A.m.P]

4 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Monti and birdnest will do that to your tank...they grow and grow and grow.  they make you feel invincible - sps isn't all that hard!

then you go buy acros, a few generic ones - and they keep growing too!   

then you start buying "fancy acros", and WHAM, suddenly nothing wants to grow after that.  Then you're stuck trying to prove to yourself that you can make it work, and then it really worked!   and that's when you become an acroholic. 

 

Story of my life, that was probably 4-5 years ago, the rest is history.  hopefully it won't be yours, lol.  tread lightly my friend. 

 

but for real, that orange palawanensis is always stunning. if it weren't such a weed.  Mine changed colors all the time, based on water params, light intensity, etc.    

Oh yeah man, I don't trust myself with and have no intention whatsoever of moving into the expensive or difficult acro territory. 
I'm interested in red hirsuta monti, red anacro, a select few smoothskins, torts, or stags which are known to be bullet proof, that's it.

Couldn't agree more on the Nauti Spiral, It's such a drop-dead gorgeous coral from every angle. I'm fine with the growth rate, I just give it out to locals. I'm in this because I love the animals we can keep these days, I genuinely enjoy passing them around to whoever wants to try them.

Speaking of trying things out, I cannot get it out of my head the last few weeks, wanting to try a green spotted puffer or figure 8 lol... 

[A.m.P]

I think my Lubbock wrasse scolded me on behalf of the entire tank today.
The clownfish had been having difficulty with its GI tract again so I was going through a round of medicated food.

 

Yesterday was 5 days into the second round of meds; I walk over to the tank with the bag of medicated pellets I keep in the fridge, dropped a few into the tank and she went bone-white and started splashing the surface of the tank.
Grabbed the bag of normal PE Mysis and she immediately colored back up and started darting around excitedly.

I guess they're done with this round of meds XD

[A.m.P]

The clownfish has decided it is a cardinalfish and shoals with the mullock and yellow stripe all day now lol...

[A.m.P]

Dorkfish

 

Sideshot from this Afternoon

[A.m.P]

This Blue Zing birdnest has quickly grown to be my favorite coral.

Tank bred hybrid of Mint green and Bird of paradise, it's as fluffy as a stylo with pastel, easter-egg purples, teals, and greens all splotched around polyps that have that same metallic and bright shimmery/reflective-quality as the mint green.

Should be in just about every tank out there and is going to be a must-have goin- forward for mine.

 

Only real downside is that it's difficult to photograph lol.

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

I do not know how many months its been since the last watechange, maybe 4ish?

Top down right after basting things off, and right before swapping out 5 gallons of water.

 

Still having troubles with vermetids, they catch the blennie's poop and it sits on coral overnight, anywhere it sits for more than 24 hrs has the flesh stripped from it.

Weird stuff, can see a good example on the starburst cap up front and in the top left.

 

[banasophia]

Nice top down! 
 

Vermetids are annoying. I have issues with them in both my tanks. Are you saying the fish poop harms the corals?