112 gallon mixed reef is looking like a reef again

[andrewkw]

Good thing there was an extra day this month as I just completed my monthly video of the tank



I'm happy to say since I started making these videos I never missed one. It's a great way to keep track of how the tank is doing.

 

[Blutspitze]

Probably a good choice to leave the scape as it is/was. There's quite a lot that you'd have to do to get it moved around and the like, and honestly it looks beautiful, IMO.

 

[andrewkw]

I'm still playing around with one section. I don't like the big tiles / discs but it's really the only way to keep these corals given their requirements, my lack of space and I don't want my very expensive chalice for instance stuck on the rock and not removable.

Both of my big trips this year were supposed to be this week and in April, so who knows when I'll get new livestock. Small problem, lots to enjoy in this tank and my others. I was very fortunate to see a spawning even in my rhyzo earlier this month.

 

[andrewkw]

Took out my gopro for the first time in years today to shoot a quick video :


Will still do a regular video update shortly but it was fun to use this thing for the first time in quite a while. Quality isn't great as this is an older model but it's good enough. It was quite challenging to hold the camera in the flow.

 

[Blutspitze]

Beautiful shots and video, thanks so much for sharing! Love the coloration in the pics you get.

 

[andrewkw]

Beautiful shots and video, thanks so much for sharing! Love the coloration in the pics you get.

Thanks! I always try and get as accurate of a white balance as possible. Taking a few minutes to do this beats any orange filter. Of course I don't run insane blue levels so that helps too.

 

[count krunk]

tank is looking awesome! no need to change unless you want.

Looks like you're ready to frag several of your pieces.

 

[andrewkw]

Monthly video update. I added some daytime footage to show the tank with sunlight hitting it as well. I know these days everyone has more time for their tanks, but time has never really been an issue for me. That being said I do have other tanks that I don't devote nearly as much time as this tank to which I will be working on more in the coming days, weeks, months.

I'll wait as long as I can to frag things in this tank. One issue I'm going to have is I will run out of frozen food. I am a BIG frozen food fan and if there was a shop near me that sold it, I would feed LRS everyday. Since there is not and I can't get it shipped to me I am reducing frozen feedings to once a week, sometimes twice. That should get me through at least a few months. I have tons of pelletized food, reef roids and all that other stuff so it should be fine, I just prefer to feed frozen. Things will have to be fully back to normal for me to restock since it will require an overnight trip, or a trip to the US which I can't see happening anytime remotely soon.

 

[Blutspitze]

Beautiful video as always. Thanks so much!

 

[andrewkw]

April update : tank is looking fantastic. I made a few minor changes. Just added a tiny piece of rock and mounted some corals to keep everything from stingy. Good thing leathers can touch! I am seriously considering replacing my kessil a360 with an a360x. I have 3 different kessil models but this one is on it's last legs. It can no longer have it's spectrum adjusted and when I push the intensity too high it blinks. It's been blinking for a long long time but starting to get worse. This is an original a360, I still have an older a350 functioning 100% as well as a newer a360we. The X is considerably more then the we but it's supposed to be much easier to be cleaned which is the key selling point for me.

Anyway here are the pictures. I will shoot a video in the next week and post that as well. I always welcome constructive criticism on my reef, if you have ideas I want to hear them.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looking real nice !!

 

[Blutspitze]

Absolutely stunning! Gorgeous pictures and everything is looking incredibly good!

 

[andrewkw]

I always spend a lot of time on this reef tank, more then my other 3 tanks combined for sure, but lately with even more time I've been looking at ways to improve.

I'm really thinking about moving a few large pieces :

The first move I almost certainly will do as long as I can find a suitable way to mount it. By pushing the powerhead on the left side closer to the front it's changed where the gorgonian blows leaving some room behind it. I think I can either find some rubble or even use a piece of pvc to place the circled toadstool in between the pocillipora and the gorg. It's going to be a tight fit but everything is a tight fit in this tank. The toadstools which used to self propagate seem to actually be growing although the one in the center is on it's way to dropping more babies. The one in question though is shading a lot of little corals like my branching cyphastrea. I've had it for a few years and it still hasn't really taken off. Yes it's a lot light coral but everything there is effectively being covered by the toadstool. There is also a blasto colony resting right against the base of the toadstool.

Second I have a large hammer colony you can barely see. I'm pretty sure the back end is bleached from lack of light. The front end that you can just barely see is rubbing up against the various polyps in front of it. I think it would be better in the corner where I have more kenya trees as well as a nice blue sponge and some cyphastrea that would be fine tucked away. For that to happen I need to find a recent piece of rock so it may or may not happen. At one time I had boxes of dry rock but I'm down to a couple of good pieces as they've been used either in this tank or in others.

Finally monthly video update where I basically go over what I just wrote about as well as a few other things. As always constructive criticism is always welcome. The goal in this tank is simply to have a beautiful reef. I don't overly worry about 1 or 2 corals ect. I doubt it will happen for a long time but I'd really love to get a couple more fish in here...

 

[Blutspitze]

Loving the pics and video as always. Really gorgeous. As for the move, I think the hammer moving in particular would be great. It'd be nice to get it out of the more heavily shaded region.

 

[Elmervc15]

Tank look nice, one small detail that can help a lot, is a black background, im not a fan of blue background, i think the colors of the corals get loose on the blue, the black one is totally opposite, colors stand out a lot more.

 

[andrewkw]

Tank look nice, one small detail that can help a lot, is a black background, im not a fan of blue background, i think the colors of the corals get loose on the blue, the black one is totally opposite, colors stand out a lot more.

So out of my 4 tanks I have this light blue, a dark blue, a black and a white (bottom). This light blue is by far my favorite. I can see black being ideal if I'm going for a crazy blue neon look but I'm not.

Really though imo you can paint the back any colour the biggest thing is keeping it clean. Bright yellow would preferable to spotty coraline and algae patches. This is a 14 year old tank that's scratched to hell but keeping it clean keeps it looking clean. That should be obvious but look how many don't clean their back glass...

 

[andrewkw]

So I did go ahead and move that hammer from under the big green leather to the corner. It's taking a little getting used to but I think this is definitely for the better. I removed a bit of the kenya tree but pushed the rest to the back. While working under there I noticed just how shaded some center corals were. I had this old par38 laying around and it does make a slight visual difference.

It's basically pointed right under the green leather from the left hand side dead center in the tank. I just had this laying around but I will find another slightly more powerful cheap light to serve this purpose in the future I think. It doesn't have to be super strong, I just want the zoas and low light lps to get some light there.

Unfortunately I'm out of dry live rock so I either gotta breakdown and try man made rock for the first time or pillage some from my sump in my frag system. I know rock walls fell out of favor a long long time ago but if I do have to get some more rock I am thinking of placing some on the overflow and creating some very very shallow ledges. Unfortunately I'd have to try it to get an idea if I like it or not and they may be hard to remove. This would just be a way to get some more coral in the tank. Even though these days corals are hard to come by. Before the pandemic I had kicked the tires on possibly trying to move this year but that's not going to happen.

Finally maybe I need a 4th Kessil? Probably just need to space the lights better but you can see the far right is very dark. This has been fine in the past but if I go through with my plan and add some rock / corals I'll need a bit more light there.

 

[Blutspitze]

Liking the new/updated setup. Looks pretty good for sure.

 

[andrewkw]

Some new pics.

This lobo was pretty damaged when I got it but it's looking great now.

After removing powerhead for cleaning and placing it slightly more toward the front the new flow causes the gorg to hit both the front and the back glass, plus it's still breaking the surface. He needs a taller tank!

Anyone know what the green coral on the left is? I thought it was porities but I really don't know for sure. In my frag tank its very fuzzy but here its polyps basically always look like that.

Hammer adjusting to it's new spot.

I have some frags that need to finish QT and then I'll find some spots to cram them in. One thing I have noticed in the last picture is the rhodactus to the left is bouncing. I've probably had them for 5 or 6 years. The one on the right is not... I know that's not really a big deal but interesting none the less.

 

[andrewkw]

Video for May :



I always welcome constructive criticism on my reef got a few more things to play around with and some corals that will be out of qt eventually to add.