Greg's Reefing Saga ( photo dump )

[Airedale.Reef]

Ah, not quite September and already have the tank wet!  I don't blame you at all haha! I don't think I would have waited either. So glad you got it started, and happy that you have accomplished the exact look you've been chasing! Always a good feeling, and excited to watch this play out! Scape looks great, and looking forward to seeing all of your livestock choices! 

 

Congratulations once again!! 

[ReefGoat]

Tested the water for the first time today and the skimmer finally stopped micro bubbling and is working fantastic for a el cheapo no name Ali express skimmer. 
 

nitrate: 8 

phosphate: 0.15 

ammonia: 0 

[ReefGoat]

Also purchased a new heater because that Sicce Scuba heater is whack. It’s going to be used in the water mixing station from now on. Went with what my gut told me from the beginning and bought a Ehiem Jager that’ll be hooked up to my hydros. 

[ReefGoat]

After reading a few reviews and emailing them. I’ve decided I’m going to spend the extra money and buy my fish from Dr. Reefs quarantined fish. I’ll probably place the first order next week. Then in 2 weeks they’ll ship out. My fish list will be as follows and not all at once obviously. I’ll spread them out in probably 3 groups of additions. 

 

Group 1:

Bristletooth Tomini Tang

2 regular clownfish

 

Group 2:
1 red head Solon fairy wrasse

3 pajama cardinals 

 

Group 3: 
1 blue dot jawfish

1 fire fish 

 

 

first corals will probably go in early October because me and the wife are going to the Coral Vue Coral bash in New Orleans in early October. As much as I’d love to make this a SPS dominant tank. I’m going to listen to my gut and accept that my skills probably aren’t there yet. So this tank is going to consist of mainly Euphyllia, Acans, Chalices, Encrusting LPS and some Montipora caps. Likely Idaho Grape, Orange and Green. 

[ReefGoat]

Looks like my fear of the hurricane is materializing. I may get lucky this time though. If it keeps tracking eastward then I’ll get extremely lucky as I’m basically on the Texas/Lousiana border. 
 

However it is currently tracking toward all my new reefing friends and mentors I’ve met in the past 6 months. Not to mention all the best reef stores in the state. Hopefully it’ll weaken down and all the Louisiana reefers will dodge a bullet here. 
 

Generator is now currently a top priority over coral for the 80g. I’m going to go with my gut here. I’ll still probably go ahead and get the fish in there though. But after that. Generator 

[Reefkid88]

Stay safe in that storm !!! I was hoping it would swoop east and make its way to FL but we couldn't be that lucky. 

[ReefGoat]

5 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

Stay safe in that storm !!! I was hoping it would swoop east and make its way to FL but we couldn't be that lucky. 

I think I’m going to be lucky this time. Would’ve been a huge setback for sure. I was mentally prepared though lol. 

[Reefkid88]

Sucker kinda snuck up on everyone I feel like. Just stay safe out there !! I feel like if you are a state that has a beach you always need to be mentally prepared lol. 

[ReefGoat]

Well I dodged a bullet. It didn’t even rain here. The reefing gods have smiled upon thee for the time being. 

[ReefGoat]

First fish in! Bristle tooth tangs are WAY harder to photograph than I thought. I got 1 bristle tooth tang and 2 pajama cardinals. They’re all using the entire tank and eating twice a day. It’ll probably be a week or so before they’re associating me with meal time and not running every time I walk up to the tank. I’ll try and get photographic when they do. 
 

2 weeks from now I’ll order the clowns and the wrasse. 
 

I’m actually thinking about switching up from the red head Solon and changing to a mystery wrasse. It’ll be the only wrasse in the tank. What y’all think? 

[mitten_reef]

12 hours ago, ReefGoat said:

Bristle tooth tangs

is it the white-tail?  I want that one....

don't know much about many wrasse varieties.  I, personally, prefer the look of the Solon more.  Seems like the Mystery may have a bit more utility in the tank tho.   

I put a reserve on one Melanurus in quarantine at LFS - probably one or two more week before I can pick up.  

[ReefGoat]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

is it the white-tail?  I want that one....

don't know much about many wrasse varieties.  I, personally, prefer the look of the Solon more.  Seems like the Mystery may have a bit more utility in the tank tho.   

I put a reserve on one Melanurus in quarantine at LFS - probably one or two more week before I can pick up.  

Yup white tail bristle tooth.

 

i think I’m going to go with the mystery wrasse I’ve always loved them. 

[Airedale.Reef]

I LOVE the Mystery Wrasse! If I had a tank that could house one, it would surely be on my stock list! Can't wait to see it! 

[ReefGoat]

Absolutely love this fish. 
 

no he’s not ich’d up. The dam skimmer started throwing some micro bubbles again. The flow also keeps particles in the water. May have to look into a new skimmer if it doesn’t stop. 

[TheCoffeeReef]

he's looking bold cruising past the scape 😎 cool.

[Staticmoves]

Love that Rock!

(you could say it………Rocks………)😎

[ReefGoat]

5 hours ago, TheCoffeeReef said:

he's looking bold cruising past the scape 😎 cool.

Yeah he very quickly started associating me with dinner time. 
 

way more out and about during the day 

[ReefGoat]

Well, it was never the skimmer bubbling all along. It was the return pumps. 
 

since I’ve set the tank up it’s been pretty loud in the back chambers kinda like a gurgling bubbling sound. 
 

I had the pumps running full blast and I turned them wayyy down. Micro bubbles stopped by like 80% and the back chambers are quiet and seem to be performing like they should. 

[ReefGoat]

Looks like I made it a month. No real big happenings since the fish additions. Livestock is pretty much on hold now because I have 2 big purchases I need to make to finish off the equipment I just need two more items. I want to add an algae scrubber and that’s about 230 bucks and then I need to buy the XP8 hydros power strip. I’m not too big on the WiFi ones. They’ve turned out to not be very reliable. The XP8 is like 279 bucks. 
 

So the current reefing coins are going to have to go to equipment instead of livestock. 
 

Alk- steady holding at 8.5 using all for reef every other day (1ml)

Calc- steady-ish in the 420s

Nitrate- a little high working to get this down with water changes. I’ve gotten it down to 15 from a high of 20. Good thing is that it’s not always bouncing around so I’m not too worried. 
Phosphate- besides the first test like a week after setup. It’s never tested above .10. However it will creep up during the week in between water changes. I’m currently mitigating this by adding 3 drops of L.C every 2 days. This regimen keeps it between .05 and .07. I’m ok with this. 
Salinity- hasn’t changed from 35ppt since setup. 
Temp- finally worked this out by ditching the Sicce Scuba heater. Now holding stable at 78.

Today during the water change with the lights off and just the light on my ceiling shining into the tank. I did notice that the coraline that came in on the rocks is noticeably spreading. It was kinda surprising. I’m guessing this is what’s soaking up those little variations of alk and calc I see. 
 

im hoping getting that algae scrubber online will keep those nutrients down. This is the first tank I’ve had that wasn’t nutrient deficient 

[Crawford_T]

That rock is so killer, nicely done. Looking forward to this one filling in. 

[ReefGoat]

I lied lol. 
 

I needed to pick up a Tiger Conch because, one I wanted one because they’re cool and two. I needed one because I’ve had some diatoms show up on this stupid Fiji Pink sand that I knew better than putting in. But the wife liked the sand….
 

these corals were absolutely too cheap to pass up in the WWC outlet. I got those three frags and the tiger conch shipped overnight for like 90 bucks. 
 

WWC is notorious for sending booger sized frags and they didn’t disappoint lol. However I was OK with it because these 3 are fast growers. 
 

 

[Reefkid88]

That favia looks awesome. I love their outlet,I need to eventually snag some monti's. 

[ReefGoat]

16 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

That favia looks awesome. I love their outlet,I need to eventually snag some monti's. 

Their frags are so small. But so clean and healthy.  
 

I trust them a lot. So I guess it’s worth it. Not to mention, their tanks are all epic so I don’t mind bringing in their bacteria and diversity into my tank. 

[Staticmoves]

Where abouts are you placing the Hollywood, they can get some long sweepers after lights out. Though quite the nice color, and a power head can take care of the sweepers.

photo is not my tank.

[ReefGoat]

7 minutes ago, Staticmoves said:

Where abouts are you placing the Hollywood, they can get some long sweepers after lights out. Though quite the nice color, and a power head can take care of the sweepers.

photo is not my tank.

Far left lower corner away from where I’m planning on putting everything. 
 

im planning on it being a big showpiece away from everything