stevie1493's 55g Reef Tank

[stevie1493]

Week Seven - Update!

 

09/02/2021 - I received my package from IPSF today. Was packaged well and everything survived. They only livestock I'm concerned about was the anthelia which smelled a little funky, but I'm hoping it will bounce back.

 

Everything that I ordered was as advertised. I followed the acclimation procedures on their website by floating the bags for 15min before adding 1 cup of tank water to the bags. By the time I got through adding tank water to about 8 of the 10 bags my 15min timer went off.

 

I released the worms first, then slowly poured the wonder mud and live sand out including all of the water in the bags behind my aquascape by slowly turning the bags sideways on the substrate and pulling the bags up and out while the contents remained. The water was not too cloudy.

 

Then I released all the hermits and snails placing the snails on the LR and crabs in the sand. They were scurrying and active even In the bags...scooted all over the tank immediately. I placed the toadstool in the sandbed pictured below and the anthelia on a rock island. They gave me a "free" extra bag of pods so one bag of pods went in the sump and the other in the DT. I turned my skimmer off prior to releasing them. Nitrifying bacteria went in sump and corraline booster plastic shingles (3x) went in overflow box.

 

Each bag came with a little gracilaria or ulva. I bunched and rubber banded the pieces of macro to 3 different spots on my LR in hopes I could get some macro growing...At very least have some algae for CUC members to feed on. 

 

ALSO, I reached out to the owner of Lazy's Coral House here in Dayton, OH..where I live. He normally does not give tours of his setup but graciously offered to give me a 30min tour next weekend. I greatly look forward to getting some zoas and starting my garden..he has dozens of kinds but I'm eyeballing Strawberry Wine, Bam Bam, Rasta, White Walker, Mandarin Orange, Purple Monster, Fruit Loops, and Vamps in Drag, all of which he has listed. I am also hoping to get some other softies like Nepthea, toadstools, and firecracker Cloves.

[Seadragon]

40 minutes ago, stevie1493 said:

I released the worms first, then slowly poured the wonder mud

Interesting, you got me researching this now.  Is Wonder mud and Miracle mud the same thing?  What sort of worms did you release and do they sell them online?

[Subsea]

23 minutes ago, Seadragon said:

Interesting, you got me researching this now.  Is Wonder mud and Miracle mud the same thing?  What sort of worms did you release and do they sell them online?

Miracle mud is inert.  Wonder mud is a detrivore kit.  Check out contents on website.   http://ipsf.com

[stevie1493]

11 hours ago, Seadragon said:

What sort of worms did you release and do they sell them online?

Subsea linked their website which has all the info, but I released 6 spaghetti "Mama Mia" worms and 6 baby bristle worms. I also noticed additional worms in the mud. I was going to take more pictures but I was more focused on acclimating and releasing the livestock as soon as possible. Below is a picture of the bristle worms.

[gena]

Just so you know.....anthelia always smells a little funky 🤮 😂.  It's like xenia when it comes to smell.  Better left in water.

[stevie1493]

10 hours ago, gena said:

Just so you know.....anthelia always smells a little funky 🤮 😂.  It's like xenia when it comes to smell.  Better left in water.

Thank you for letting me know! I was worried about it yesterday but I noticed the polyps looked open today so I can tell they're still alive. Definitely smell.... unpleasant. What species of anthelia are you familiar with? I was expecting MUCH smaller polyps than the species they sent, pictured below. This specimen definitely looks more like Xenia

[gena]

53 minutes ago, stevie1493 said:

Thank you for letting me know! I was worried about it yesterday but I noticed the polyps looked open today so I can tell they're still alive. Definitely smell.... unpleasant. What species of anthelia are you familiar with? I was expecting MUCH smaller polyps than the species they sent, pictured below. This specimen definitely looks more like Xenia

That's the only type I am familiar with.  They are definitely larger than xenia.  More sweeping.  But not in a bad way hahaha. 

[Subsea]

Steve,

 

You asked for pictures of my cryptic refugium.   Awkward to take picture on 30G Ecosystem mud filter with Cryptic refugium because of  configuration of 75G display cabinet.  
 

This is 4yrs setup of 120G display with 40G cryptic refugium.  Until 3 months ago, it was mud & macro refugium.

 

 

[stevie1493]

6 hours ago, Subsea said:

You asked for pictures of my cryptic refugium.

Thank you very much for the photos. I can pick out at least 2 different sponges in your system. I hope to get some sponges in my system sometime soon. Where did you get the mud? I love the simplicity of that setup.

 

Yesterday I took my Kessil, gooseneck, and controller to LFS along with some other equipment to trade. They offered me $60, which didn't surprise me but definitely motivated me to use the light instead of selling it cheap or letting it sit..

 

I decided to convert my WD chamber into a macro fuge using my Kessil A160. Spectrum is turned as white as it can go. Comes on 30% intensity at 00:00, bumps up to 40% at 03:00, 06:00 turns to 50%, back to 40% at 07:00, down to 30% at 09:00, and off at 12:00. DT Orbit Marine lighting schedule was adjusted to ramp up to 100% intensity starting at 13:00 and ramp down to 3hr 10% moonlight at 21:00.

 

I moved 75% of the LR and bioballs into the return chamber. Once I get some corals stocked and save up a little $$$ I will buy a cryptic starter pack from Reef Farmers and allow my return chamber to be mostly undisturbed except for maintenance on skimmer and return pumps. I really think the gulf LR is cool but I have plenty of rock and am paranoid about unwanted pests..

 

I know I got a lot of feedback that my setup was fine as is and I agree. I really just want to test out a lighted macro fuge with this Kessil that was just collecting dust. If I don't get the results I want or if it becomes TOO effective at removing nutrients I will convert the setup back to it's original orientation. The nice thing about macro fuges I understand is they are the most tuneable filtration method due to spectrum, intensity, and photoperiod adjustments.

 

My idea is that this way I can get the benefits of having both a cryptic / semi-cryptic zone along with a macro fuge. I'm considering buying a filter sock mount kit, but kind of like the simplicity I have here. I basically just removed the drip plate and zip tied the drain tubing in place. Right now there is only gracilaria and ulva that came with my IPSF order, but I'll see about buying some chaeto or other macro here in the next week or two.

 

Today is the beginning of Week Eight and my DT parameters are 1.024 sg; 16.7ppm NO3; 0.15ppm PO4. I will complete a 10-20% WC tonight on the DT and 50% WC on QT. I have observed both the YWG and Dottyback eat in QT this week, they have almost reached the end of their first Prazi treatment. I will start Prazi dose 2 tomorrow. I am on the fence about a Cupramine treatment as I have observed no signs of ich in almost a month. If things continue well in QT with no signs of ich I will allow a follow up week of observation after second dose of Prazi is done before transferring both fish to DT and preparing for my next round of QT, which will hopefully be with the mated pair of Tiger Jawfish at my LFS..if they are still available in two weeks.

 

While I was at LFS yesterday I scoped out corals. Tomorrow I am going back and plan to purchase 6 frags: GSP, Xenia, Ricordea, a hairy mushroom, green cabbage leather, and a green Sinularia Finger leather. If still available I also will purchase a Gorgonian and a tiger pistol shrimp. I am going to also purchase some 2 little fishes Revive to dip all the corals.

 

I hope I'm not moving too fast!!

[stevie1493]

Week Eight - Update

 

9/06/21 - Yesterday (09/05) I went to my LFS and purchased 7 frags and a tiger pistol shrimp. I got Xenia, a yellow Ricordea, GSP, a hairy mushroom, a cabbage leather, a finger leather, and a Gorgonian. I took my refractometer into the LFS and measured salinity in their reef system and it was 1.019 😦...she told me they measured that AM and got 1.024, but she also told me they calibrate with R/O FW. I got them home and floating within 30 minutes. After 15 minutes of floating for temp match I placed the frags in about a gallon of LFS water in a clean bucket and started a drip acclimation.  I left the shrimp bag floating and added 1/2 cup of water every few minutes. While the drip acclimation was going I recalibrated my refractometer with 35ppt calibration solution, it was a little off must have gotten bumped on ride to LFS...LFS water was 1.023 and my tank was 1.025. 

 

After the 30 minute drip both the shrimp water and frag water measured 1.025. I placed the Gorgonian directly in the tank after inspection. I followed the instructions for Two Little fishes Revive and added 4 capfuls to the frag bucket and swished them around. Then I set a net over the bucket and slowly poured the shrimp water in to net the shrimp, BUT HE FELL INTO THE DIP BUCKET 😱...I netted him within probably 5-10 seconds and released him into the tank. Within 5 seconds of hitting the sandbed he started digging a burrow under the anthelia island rock. I am still worried about him..would 10 seconds of Revive harm him do we think?

 

After ten minutes in the dip I took out the frags one by one and brushed the rocks/bases with a toothbrush and placed them in the tank after inspection. Xenia was the only one on a plug, everything else was on a disc or rubble. The only hitchhikers I found were astrerina starfish and some bubble algae which I removed. None of the frags were in the dip longer than 14 minutes. (Dang that Revive smells good!)

 

My brain tells me I'm going too fast with stocking...because before I went to the LFS I ordered from reef Cleaners and got 50 dwarf ceriths, 7 Florida ceriths, 7 nassarius, and 3 ninja star snails along with various macro for DT and fuge. Reef Cleaners will take about a week to arrive. I will do my best to cool it on stocking for awhile, however I'm not sure if I should trust myself when I go to check out Lazy's Coral House (local hobbyist/aquaculture business) this weekend 😅

 

More pictures of corals today or tomorrow as they open up.

 

Edit: I also had an enjoyable interaction with my cleaner shrimp, who decided to climb all over my arm while I was placing frags on the sandbed. I guided him to the palm of my hand and he was just chilling out with me! I think I am going to call him Napoleon.

[debbeach13]

I think a new FTS would be nice after every thing settles. So we can judge just how full the tank is getting. LOL but seriously good luck with the new additions. 

[Subsea]

Go for the gusty.  Your tank will tell you if you are going too fast.  What you just added is negative nutrient in, because those corals  are biological filters.  Fish load up a tank biologically.  
 

Be cautious when it comes to impulse buying with respect to fish overcrowding.  I am not addressing nutrient loading with the cautious comment.  I am addressing fish stress from overcrowding.  Most of my tanks, mature & new, I keep relatively low fish populations but I desire high nutrient systems with much diversity of filter feeders.  To that point, I feed micro fauna & fana in substrate & live rock which includes coral zooanthellia.  To supplement high organic nutrients in, I dose ammonia and ChaetoGrow as inorganic minerals required for growth.

[stevie1493]

4 minutes ago, Subsea said:

Be cautious when it comes to impulse buying with respect to fish overcrowding.

Thanks for the feedback, I assume you mean go for the 'gutsy', as in boldly stocking corals/filter feeders since they do not add to bioload? 

 

I have never impulse bought a fish in all of my time in the hobby. I am not worried about that, I have my fish plan and QT procedures and will follow them through.

 

Impulse buying corals however....is a different story.

[stevie1493]

11 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I think a new FTS would be nice after every thing settles.

Below is a FTS and some shots from the sides.

 

Also, the pistol shrimp came out during feeding time long enough for me to snap a quick photo under actinics. I have an 18" coral feeder that I used to squirt a blend of three different frozen foods in his burrow (after feeding the hungry clowns and cleaner shrimp of course). He appeared to take multiple little bits during both of today's feedings and really came out during the 2nd feeding. I'm glad he seems to have adjusted and not be ill-effected by the coral dip incident.

[stevie1493]

I also have a 24hr update on the new corals. Everything seems to have bounced back from the stress of the move and dip. I placed all of the corals on the sandbed except the hairy mushroom and the Xenia Frag, which are in their permanent spots.

 

The Sinularia finger leather shrunk way down after transport and dip. Appears to be close to the size I observed while it was at LFS with mostly full polyp extension. This one is on a disc buried in the sand, eventually I will glue it somewhere on the rockwork, probably close to what will be the eventual mushroom garden rock.

 

Gorgonian appears to have good polyp extension. Would love to have a solid ID on the species. I ordered some reef chili from BRS which I will feed once per week to supplement this guy. I plan to keep him in the sandbed unless someone convinces me of a different placement mounted on LR.

 

Yellow Ricordea is on a disc buried in sand. I will either place him on the mushroom garden rock or lower under what will eventually be the GSP tower.

 

Cabbage leather is on a disc in the sand and has doubled in size since acclimation.. close to what I remember at LFS. Will eventually glue his disc on LR on the right half of the tank either under GSP tower or on the rock directly in front of the Xenia.

 

GSP is on an old coral skeleton. I will eventually move him up to the tallest tower of (reef saver) rock on the right half of the tank in hopes that GSP will mostly encrust this rock.  Very pleased to see this level of polyp extension after 24hr. My understanding is that it can take days for GSP to open up sometimes.

 

The hairy mushroom frag is located on the largest piece of LR that creates the large cave on the left half of the tank. This rock will be a mushroom garden. The mushroom appears to be mounted on a piece of an old barnacle.

 

Xenia is on a frag plug that fits securely in a hole in the LR. I plan to leave this rock mostly uncontested to allow it to spread freely. I'm worried about the low flow on this half of the tank and plan to add an additional powerhead in the next month or so. 

 

[debbeach13]

Your right every thing appears to be adjusting fine. Looking good! 

[Subsea]

I would not leave the Gorgonians foot very deep in the sand.  I have had good results with them glued to small rock.  I bury small rock in sand but it also makes it easy to move Gorgonian until he likes where you leave it,

[stevie1493]

21 hours ago, Subsea said:

I would not leave the Gorgonians foot very deep in the sand.  I have had good results with them glued to small rock.  I bury small rock in sand but it also makes it easy to move Gorgonian until he likes where you leave it,

I glued the gorg to a small piece of rubble rock using Loctite gel (cyanoacrylate) and placed him in the same place he was at so that his base is not buried by any sand. I don't think this will be his permanent spot, but so far he seems satisfied with what appears to be good polyp extension. On Monday I will be getting some coral food in the mail and will start to feed once a week.

 

Over the last two days I've noticed the Tiger Pistol digging new burrows. He now has three separate burrows in the tank. I watched him use shells I put in the tank to cover his burrow this evening, which was pretty cool. In the process of building yesterday evening he buried the Ricordea, which I moved up onto the rockwork today.

 

In preparation of more corals coming in I also moved the Sinularia (or Nepthea?) up on the rockwork...I'm not sure if this will be a permanent spot but he seems happy. I also glued the neon green cabbage leather and GSP up on spots on the LR. Yesterday I ordered 12 frags (along with a 3 free frag pack offer) from Cultivated Reef. I ordered a 3 soft coral pack with corals selected by CR (I requested mushrooms/Gorgonians), a 6 Zoanthid pack with Zoas selected by CR, Nirvana Zoanthids, blue star polyps, and Violet Cespitularia..for the 3 free frag pack offer I requested a combo of mushrooms and Zoanthids. We'll see what I get this Friday! 

 

I also have macro and snails from RC coming in the next 24-48 hours. Going to be an exciting few days for the reef.

 

NOTE: In the 2nd picture below you can see the scratches on my acrylic tank I missed before setting it up by the leather 😞 - I also included photos of all the Pistol burrowing projects

[stevie1493]

Week Eight - Update

 

9/10/21 - Today will be the last update for week Eight, and I have a lot of updates to provide! Yesterday I received my order from Reef Cleaners (Thanks @johnmaloney) a day ahead of schedule. My second order with them and the quality of packaging and specimens were once again a reminder to me why they're the best in the biz for CUC and macro.

 

I was home when the USPS arrived and immediately floated the bags as soon as possible for about 20min before adding specimens to my tank. For CUC I added 51 dwarf ceriths, 7 Florida ceriths, 3 ninja star astraeas, 7 nassarius, and pods. For macro I added 1 carpeting Halimeda, 1 flame algae, 3 Mermaid's fans, 3 Christmas trees, 4 pencil caps, and 2 shaving brush. I also added 1 fern caulerpa to the fuge.

 

Today, one day later, the only loss I had was one ninja star snail. I placed all three on a piece of rock yesterday and two appear to have attached, but this morning I observed the cleaner shrimp and a hermit crab cleaning out the third astraea's shell on the rock. The caulerpa appears to be pretty pale in the fuge, almost clear on some parts. I hope a sprig survives. Wondering if my Kessil A160WE at 30-50% intensity could have cooked it during the 12hr photoperiod? Also one of the Christmas trees is still very pale, almost white, but most all the other calcareous algae has colored up nicely, especially the Halimeda. Unrelated to RC but I also noticed three of the nassarius cleaning out a periwinkle snail shell... I noticed the Periwinkle fall on the sandbed and righted him while I was acclimating RC order but he must have expired. Nassarius doing their job already. I also will note that the fuge has a diatom bloom going on now which I did not observe yesterday.

 

Today I received an order from @Cultivated Reef which shipped out yesterday from Maine around 7pm EST and arrived at my front door via FEDEX at around 10:40am EST. I met the FEDEX driver in my driveway and received the package. I opened the box and allowed the corals to acclimate to the lighting in the room for maybe five minutes before I began floating the bags. The only corals I selected were Nirvana Zoas, Blue Clove Polyps, and Violet Cespitularia, everything else was hand picked by CR. I received 12 frags in addition to the aforementioned three including: 1 Orange Spiny Gorgonian, 1 Golden Plume Gorgonian, Mandarin Cloves, Liam's Cloves Polyps, a blue mushroom, and a green Ricordea...for my 6 Zoa pack I got Bam Bams, Oxides, Sour Lemons, Rastas, Scrambled Eggs, and Granny Smiths.

 

I set a 15min timer for temp acclimation and siphoned about 2 gal of my 1.024 sg tank water into a 5gal bucket (after an incident detailed below). I added 7 capfuls of Revive (1 less than recommended) to the bucket and began adding the corals one by one for the dip when the temp acclimation timer went off. The only real pests I observed were hair algae on the clove frags and the Cespitularia. I also noticed blue Clove Polyps on 2 of the zoa frags, which I plan to scrape off with a dental tool at some point prior to mounting the frags to keep BCP out of my zoa garden. I set a 10 minute timer for the dip and it took me two rounds of dipping (Gorgonians went straight in without a dip) to get all the corals before adding them into the tank in a row on the substrate. Everything was mounted on small plugs except for the blue mushroom and Cespitularia, which were on LR rubble and were placed up on the LR.

 

I had a semi-catastrophe during the acclimation when I realized the water displaced by all of the floating bags started to overflow the DT. I immediately turned of the return to allow it to drain. 30 seconds later I heard a trickling and noticed that my sump was overflowing and submerged my fuge Kessil lamp by about 40%. I turned the return back on, unplugged my ATO and Kessil, and began a siphon to get the water level back down. I got a bunch of dirty towels to clean up the mess on the floor (Vinyl flooring - wasn't too wet). I should have started the siphon right away instead of turning off the return - I have my sump filled to a level where if the return goes off it will not overflow, but did not account for displaced water from bags.

 

After some swearing and finishing the dipping and placement of all the corals I rinsed the Kessil in RO/DI, shook it dry, and placed it in a bowl of rice. I called Kessil support and got detailed instructions for a deep cleaning emailed to me which I will do tonight.  I clearly now realize my fuge light is in a dangerous spot and will need to reconsider my setup. I'm confident the Kessil will be okay after a deep clean.

 

Overall I am very happy. Reef Cleaners and Cultivated Reef were excellent to do business with and I'd highly recommend both. I am going to leave everything where it is for at least a week to acclimate. I'm done with additions for awhile, although I still plan to tour Lazy's Coral House this weekend...I will limit myself to 1 frag if I get anything. Outside of that I am going to just maintain the system for a month before changing anything (after a week I may move QT fish over to DT if all is well, which it appears to be on the fish end). So far the only corals that haven't really opened up 4 hours later are one of the Gorgs, Mandarin/Liam's cloves, and the Cespitularia. I also moved the gorg I got earlier this week...since I glued it on the rubble I couldn't get it in the exact spot it was opening up in when I initially placed it. It hasn't opened up since I glued it on Wednesday. I'm going to leave it where it is for at least a week though unless someone tells me to move it.

 

I'm sure I'm missing something but have half a headache ATM and this post is long enough as-is. I will post photos of the corals and a FTS after sundown this evening.

[debbeach13]

Geez I am glad you got things sorted out. 

17 hours ago, stevie1493 said:

had a semi-catastrophe during the acclimation when I realized the water displaced by all of the floating bags started to overflow the DT.

 

[stevie1493]

On 9/11/2021 at 9:16 AM, debbeach13 said:

Geez I am glad you got things sorted out. 

Yeah, I caught it really quick and got that return pump off pronto before much spillage. Next time I float a bunch of livestock I will remember to siphon off a few gallons first. No electrical shorts or damage to flooring so no worries this time.

 

Today is the beginning of Week Nine.. the tank is officially 2 months young! Last week I ordered BRS reef chili, a 48" Current Orbit Marine IC LED light fixture, and Phosphate reagent refills for my Hanna Checker, which I got everything in the mail yesterday and today. I realized just before the reagents shipped that I ordered the HI774-25 Phosphate ULR Reagents when I needed the HI713-25 Phosphate Checker Reagents. I will call BRS on Monday and return the reagents as they are unopened, and see about exchanging them for the correct product.

 

I set up the Current IC light fixture tonight. My old Current Orbit Marine 48" LED that lights the tank was my original setup on my first reef tank. It grew softies, albeit VERY slowly... At an 18" depth it will put out 20-35 PAR. The new Current IC fixture should put out about 50-70 PAR at 18" according to manufacture specs. I'm not exactly sure how they will work together but I presume the two combined should put out around 70-105 Par at 18", which is the top of the sandbed where most of the corals currently are...not incredible, but more than adequate for softies. I emailed Holly from Cultivated Reef who informed me they keep their softies at around 100-125 PAR. My setup from 12"-15" should put out around 105-140 PAR, which is where probably 75% of all of the corals will end up on the aquascape. At the top of what will be my GSP pillar, which is the tallest part of the aquascape about 6"-9" from the fixture, should be getting something in the ballpark of 190-280 PAR.

 

I also tested parameters today (minus phosphate due to no reagent). Nitrate is 17.8ppm, pH was 8.0, temp is 77°F, sg was 1.024. I then performed a 15g WC which is about 25%. I also cleaned the siphon sponge and cleaned the glass really well. WC water was close to 8.6 I think but Salifert pH kit is hard to read IME.

 

On QT I just keep an eye on temp, salinity, and ammo badge. Temp was 78.7°F, sg was 1.024, and ammo badge looked fine. I did a 75% WC and added in a bag of chemi pure blue now that the second Prazi treatment is done. I think the Orchid Dottyback and YWG are about ready to transfer to DT anytime (a few days short of a month in QT), but I'm going to give it at least another week for observation. I want the DT to stabilize a little bit after all the new additions.

 

As far as other updates I noticed two tiny aiptasia, one each on two of the frags from CR. One is on a zoa frag and one is in the middle of the Blue Clove Polyps. I don't think that the glue option will be possible to kill them due to their proximity to desirable coral polyps and their teeny tiny size. As a result I am considering Aiptasia X. I regret that I don't have any pictures yet but I was busy with family today and didn't get to it last night. All corals appear to be opening up nicely, even the gorg I have been worried about was maybe 25-33% open today. Both Clove Polyps are still 80% closed and the Cespitularia appears pale, although it has taken on a fuller shape - hoping the new lighting perks it up. I will feed Reef chili tomorrow (half recommend dose) to help everyone out. Hoping new lights help some of the macro that is extremely pale and start to get everyone growing.

 

I am going to place an order for a new powerhead. I am sure that the far right side of the tank near the overflow has much too low flow and will need one powerhead. I also will see about getting some chaeto for the fuge. Still need to figure out the lighting situation since the Kessil might not work out.

 

Pictures coming soon!

[stevie1493]

I will upload FTS tonight after sundown.

 

Everyone is opening up!

[stevie1493]

Love the tank under the blues.

 

@ECLS Reefer thoughts on improving my smartphone photography skills?

 

[ECLS Reefer]

44 minutes ago, stevie1493 said:

Love the tank under the blues.

 

@ECLS Reefer thoughts on improving my smartphone photography skills?

 

Yeah even I haven’t figured out how to make a smartphone do nice things. I did buy a lens to make it more wide lens viewing for videos but I only use my phone for that- videos only. Otherwise I’m using my big camera. My camera also takes great video- it’s just heavy and I’m too lazy to break out the tripod. 
 

I can say for videos- either get your lights to a good setting that translates well on your phone or get an orange filter clip on. And a tripod helps make it record more smoothly. 

[stevie1493]

9 hours ago, ECLS Reefer said:

orange filter clip on.

I've seen these before but wouldn't know which one to buy. Do you have a specific recommendation or should I just buy one within my budget on Amazon?

 

I'm going to dust of our Nikon sometime this week and try taking a few pictures with that.