0 To Reef My 32.5 Flex

[Cincyreefer513]

My wife's phone takes photos like this. Same filter used on both, but hers definitely look bright. I'm super stoked to see how this super cheap chalice turns out. Check out all of those colors!

The torch is still my favorite coral in the tank.

 

[ElementReefer]

Can’t wait to see them all placed!

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Can’t wait to see them all placed!

I did a fair amount of rearranging and gluing last night. Not sure if it's the final destination for some, but I'll try to get photos later.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

As stated before, I've done a little rearranging and mounting although my wife doesn't like the placement of some so this is already updated a second time since my last post. It's still a work in progress, but I'll get closer grouping photos soon. I've mostly been doing close up individual shots lately.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Here is a sampling of some close ups. All coral photos taken with a Lazy Lense set and $60 Android.

 

[ElementReefer]

That hammer is looking for a fight lol

 

[Cincyreefer513]

That hammer is looking for a fight lol

I know, right? It's my 3rd hammer and first to show any sort of sweeper. It's usually just one, but one night it sent out 3. Definitely aggressive. They seem to come out at the same 1 or 2 times each evening.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

My reef is nearly 13 months at this point and is finally getting some real stability over the past 2 months. While the corals all look pretty now, it wasn't the case 6 months ago.
I'm about to show just how ugly this tank got last summer. All was well until the end of April when I noticed the tank going downhill. Corals weren't doing well, but I couldn't figure it out. The nitrate test kit was suspect, but I kept using it until I finally realized it was off and I really did have 0 nitrate. This went for 6 weeks. By the time I figured it out, it took a major toll on the tank. Lots of zoa's were melting and some of the lps were bleaching.
I began dosing Brightwell NeoNitro which brought nitrate up, but the tank continued to decline.
Then the dinos came...
They took hold and wreaked havoc.
Hydroids spread throughout as a double dinger and then I somehow got bryopsis.
The tank was a wreck.
I was getting mixed opinions on everything and finally sent in an ICP test. Interestingly enough, my calibration fluid was off and my water was actually at 28ppt, not 35. I have no idea if it had always been like this. I now calibrate with rodi since I know that is 0 ppt. It's better to use this than chance faulty fluids. So far so good.
A few of the corals seemed to not only do ok, but still grew, however, I lost 3 hammers and 15 zoas to this. There are a few other lps that have since recovered or are thinking of recovering. The toadstool remains as a very slow recoverer and the goni may or may not ever come back. It's still alive, but has been fully retracted for at least 6 months.
UV didn't work, a blackout worked for a week and then the dinos came back. My McCoskers wrasse ended up dieing about a day after the blackout which added to the misery. I have a couple theory's for this.
I took the rocks out and scrubbed them down which helped. The final thing was scrubbing all rocks a second time as best as I could outside of the tank followed by dumping in a bottle of pods. All of my pods had died before so this replenished them. Things finally started turning around in early November and so far so good.
The only real benefit to this whole ordeal was the over 2 dozen apstasia melted down to 1 single one. I still have it currently since it is attached deep within a crack. One day...

It's late and it's possible something was forgotten, but here are some photos.

Look at all of the trapped air bubbles.

Got bryopsis? It adds that warm, cozy feel to the tank.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

When things were finally cleaned up, I added 2 test corals in mid November. Both are cheap chalices. When they didn't die, but started showing growth, I began adding more corals. Soon, reefing became fun again. I can actually add coral again and watch it grow! I'm happy with all of my parameters currently except phosphate which is still on the high side, but steady (was 0.17-0.2, then went up to mid 0.30s so I added Profx which has kept it a steady 0.25). The rocks are probably still working out things phosphate wise.

One of really cool things to see has been the recovery of several corals. Check out the before and after on these. It's amazing when parameters are good and nonsense algae is gone, corals can come back from the dead.

Totally grayed out lepto with algae growing on it.

It's back!

Raja rampage had a tiny bit of yellow while the rest was brown. The meteor shower was also brown and only had a few dimly lit polyps. Half were melted away.

Huge recoveries in progress.

The goni is hanging on. We'll see. I also have a chalice that is still alive, but not great.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

With the tank right about at 11 weeks post dinos, things have really begun to stabilize. I'm thinking a lot of this has to do with the salinity now at the correct level.

Alk has generally been pretty stable since starting testing nearly a year ago at 8.3-8.45 and continues this trend.
Calcium has been in the 430s dropping to 420s so I've had to dose a little each week to keep it in the 430s.
Magnesium has been mostly upper to mid 1400s with a slight decrease so I dose this 1-2 times a week just to keep it more consistent.
Nitrates are pretty solid at 10.
Lastly, phosphate still continues to be the one that remains high. When I first got my Hannah kit last March, it was 0.55. it took several months to widdle it down to 0.17-0.2. I've wondered if the high phosphate is why coral growth has been low to nonexistent. Everything looks healthy, but some corals just don't want to grow. Still, some continue to put out new growth pretty quickly. Especially the chalices and favia. Anyways, it went up from 0.20 to 0.38 very quickly one day a couple weeks ago and I'm not sure why since I quit using Reef Roids and only feed 3-4 days a week. This is how I got my numbers down initially and not much has changed. I wanted to try Chemipure Elite, but the lfs didn't have it and told me the Profx they had was the same stuff. I figured I'd try it and over a week, it dropped from 0.38 to 0.25 and has been holding pretty steady. I thought this stuff would make it drop more, but apparently not. Either that or the rock is leaching out some serious phosphate and the Profx is just keeping the numbers stable.
I have decided not to chase numbers since I'd prefer closer to 0.1, but instead let my reef do it's thing. If the corals look happy and healthy, that's what really matters. Growth will come when it does.

Coraline algae is really taking to the rockwork now that the parameters are in check so that's cool.
My pod population has really taken off too which is great to see.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Some closer shots of the current tank look after things were moved around. Not everything is placed in their permanent home necessarily, but it's a start.

Feeding time for the micro/acan garden

His thrown...

Chalice row

My "goni garden". Here's to hoping the original red goni pulls through and comes back.

Hammer/frammer garden with meteor shower

Blasto "garden"

Remaking a zoa garden. For some reason my new pink diamond started melting 10 days after I got it. Currently it's showing signs of possible improvement, but not sure what's wrong. It had been in lower light doing well and then just turned.

 

[ElementReefer]

Looking good!

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Thanks, Element!

I'm terrible at overhead photos, but here are a few.

 

[Cthulukelele]

What's your experience with the goni been like as far as being temperamental? Wonderful tank

 

[Cincyreefer513]

What's your experience with the goni been like as far as being temperamental? Wonderful tank

I appreciate it!
My first one was a tank raised, red goni. Very strong and healthy. The first month was solid, but due to a bad test kit, my nitrates bottomed out for 6 weeks. I think the shock of 0 nitrates made it retract and it was fully retracted by about the 9-10 week mark. It's still alive, but hasn't come back out yet. It's been in the tank almost 10 months now.

The newest one is an ORA red goni. Also strong and healthy. So far so good, but tomorrow marks just 2 weeks in the tank. Time will tell...

 

[Cincyreefer513]

One of the most exciting things in reefing for me is watching coral growth. Some grow fast, some grow slow, and some haven't grown at all in 10 months.
Here are a few.

4 week difference

5 week difference

5.5 week difference

9 month difference

 

[lubeck]

This has been a great read. Following.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

This has been a great read. Following.

Awesome, thanks for reading and following!