120 gallon reef

[alexiowa]

world wide corals 2 day sale got me good. Here is a list of the corals, or you can just watch the video as I name them all in it.
Hollywood stunner chalice
WWC kiwi lithophyllon
Jason fox limelight hydnophora
WWC green fire turbinaria
Vivids purple montipora cap
WWC slimeball acropora
WWC Gatorland tenuis acropora
green slime acropora
seasons greetings montipora
WWC neon polyp montipora
WWC lime green cyphastrea
Jason fox slow burner
WWC jollopeno acropora

 

[alexiowa]

a few pictures

 

[alexiowa]

Finally installed the BRS 2 part dosers and have the tubes feeding into the filter sock area. Just heard the alkalinity doser turn on at nine pm. Starting off at 10 minutes at three hour intervals. I still am waiting for the corals to fully acclimate to the t5 lighting. I'll post pictures soon and am hoping that this will improve growth even more, now that the t5's have vastly improved color and growth

 

[alexiowa]

So things are happening. The tank is now used to being dosed with two part and is at a stable 8.35 +- .05. I left my eight bulb ati fixture as a four bulb as it got used to the new lighting after ditching the chinese boxes. Well I just added two more blue plus to the mix and think tonight after bulbs have cooled I'll swap a blue plus for a purple plus. I can always switch it back. The rainbow bta has moved again and is starting to open up. I want to mount my neon polyp toadstool somewhere but it's already so big and not many places where it won't take over the scenery. Maybe higher up on the rock next to it. The carpet anemone doesn't help in the taking up space category. That being said I do love feeding and watching it react to things, it's like a pet. The acros are eating up the steady alk and calc the 2 part is providing and responding with growth. I can tell the buds on the jollopeno are starting to grow and the purple stylo is starting to take off again. I'm hoping the two extra bulbs don't start up some algae issues. Not too worried as the scrubber has been working quite well. Enjoy the pics

already encrusting onto the rock

This one was picked out of it's spot by a crab while I was in california for a week. I glued it back in place and within a half hour it had fully extended polyps. This one is really fun to watch. I need a millepora again, I love the sticks with tons of small polyps and stringy segments.

The duncan's are happy glued to a low flow spot after they slipped off the frag plug

knuckle to knuckle is four inches wide for a size comparison. The carpet anemone is six inches further back from the toadstool. Dude is huge!

 

[alexiowa]

I picked up 2 euroquatics e5 blue pop bulbs from a local reefer today. I took pictures of a few corals to see if I could see any differences. The actinic and blue pop in a lot darker than the actinic and blue plus bulbs I had in there before. The 2 bulb channel pictures didn't show that much change at least with a cell phone camera. Since I switched over to the ati eight bulb I have been acclimating the corals to the new light by using it as a four bulb. Two blue plus, one coral plus, and an actinic. Since I added the two e5 bulbs I just moved the blue plus to the daylight area and swapped in a e5.

First image is t5 4 bulb and second is t5 plus e5 6 bulb. Not as much of a difference as if I had a full led t5 hybrid setup but the sleek ati fixture looks better without an led bar on the front of it in my opinion

 

[alexiowa]

took a couple new pics. enjoy

 

[alexiowa]

 

[alexiowa]

 

[alexiowa]

logging the names of recent purchases so I can remember what they're called. Starting off with the recent aqua sd purchases

fuzzy freak pagoda and the aussie blue wave goni are not pictured but easily identifiable. I know that the green one up front is the wukongs command acropora but Im pretty lost on the other acros. I should've taken pictures of them next to the bags identifying them from shape later on. I did that with the farmhouse corals that are coming up after these. I do know that the montipora in this picture is the hot heads monti. I also received two ice tenuis, one named ice man and the other just ice. Obviously the one on the far right is one and the other is just out of frame. The other acros are strawberry, blue mammoth tenuis, and pink mille. Hopefully over time with growth and more coloration it will be easier to tell what is what.

The back left monti is the pink lace and the others to the right are some of the acros named above. The coral in front of the monti is a red planet that got knocked off the rock work and is slowly coming back to life after hiding for over a week.

These corals are from the farmhouse corals live sale and I was able to document these far better. The aqua sd I did as quickly as possible so I could get back to work. I know this is one of my favorite looking corals since I bought two of them without knowing, part of the game is being quick on the trigger. I never even saw the name, just beautiful coral. These are the game over millepora. coloration is better even after a couple days and the camera doesn't do it justice.

On the left we have arctic lava which was a freebie (an expensive freebie). then in the back middle is the lemon haze which is way prettier irl. Rift to reef green acro after that and up front is the tickle me pink freebie I received as well.

Up first we have the always fun to stare at minty mille, the ora green planet, and the frozen berry.

These are by far the smallest but some of the most stunning of the group at this point. Left is the peachy keen which I have no others this color, incredible colors, then the halle berry mille, and the purple poison. the purple poison has the purple and green that most corals seem to be but in a different way that makes it really unique.

The fraghouse live sale was fraught with peril from the six hour sale lasting a little over two hours and the links not going to the site for a couple rounds. The links were redone and made available again but I know I missed at least one $1 frag. That doesn't matter because the coral shipping and the quality of the coral is insane. I've never had full polyp extension from every coral inside the bag after being shipped overnight. Don't go to the september sale here on R2R. I don't need any competitors.

 

[alexiowa]

Well since I added all the corals from the previous post most of them are doing well. I don't know if it was the addition of so many coral at once or if it was the lack of on time maintenance. Much longer work weeks during the summer. I started dosing red sea reef energy and then having to need no pox. I thought "if I could just do more water changes then I won't need it." Nopox worked but it worked a while longer than it should've. nitrate and phosphate tests were both at 0. I dialed it back and feel I have a handle on the system. Knock on wood. Also added was a Orphek OR120 UV bar light. This thing is epic!

My purple stylo was doing well but when I added the UV light it started getting white growth spots within 24 hours. I just ordered a second bar that will be at the front of the ati fixture. I plan on mounting the bars to some flat steel and rest them on the fixture. It's bolted into wood in the ceiling.

Just a couple frag snaps before I go including the newest little frag buddy. Getting further into hight end sps with a walt disney. I can't wait until it starts developing the lucky charms colors

 

[alexiowa]

Well I received my second orphek light bar and the color is bonkers. The UV is an incredible light and I've seen massive growth since adding it but this sky blue really pops everything. Having t5's is great but if I were to do it over again I wouldn't have purchased the ATI 8 bulb. I always figured that I would get a larger tank and this would still be a great looking housing for me to see in the "fish room". These light bars produce so much pop and provide so much light I am thinking about switching back to my 4 bulb t5 retrofit kit and throw them both in a cupboard looking canopy. I just hope that the new lighting change doesn't start an adverse effects, I finally got everything moving in the right direction.



Here are a couple coral shots. I've been dosing 4ml of calc and alk 4 times a day each, around 10 ml of reef energy, and 1.25 ml of red sea colors program to boost the color performance. The next big adventure is the murder of dozens of aiptasia. I've been meaning to get a syringe to inject a kalkwasser paste but have forgotten every time. Here are some new pics with the both the UV and sky blue light bars and the actinic and blue plus bulb. I'll take some daytime shots later, and thanks for visiting

 

[alexiowa]

just took these this morning and thought I'd post them on here. fhc peachy keen and fhc game over mille

 

[alexiowa]

Well the Fraghouse corals live sale took a couple bucks out of my wallet but everything looks incredible and I couldn't be happier. This is mainly so I can remember the names of the corals down the road. Enjoy

 

[alexiowa]

Well this page will be changing soon as I just bought a 120 gallon dual megaflow tank. This weekend I plan on building the stand and moving the old tank and installing the new on in it's place. I am building the stand tight to the wall instead of the two inches away from the wall the tank is currently. During the week I have plumbing parts coming from BRS along with a bottle of nopox and another maxspect gyre 250. I hope to just have the two gyres and the two returns for flow in the tank. I'm planning on cutting the acrylic and siliconing it in place in a 40 breeder to make my own sump. Planning on two 4" filter socks then going into a large skimmer/heater section, then through a bubble trap that leads to the return section. I have been hauling buckets for water changes and for ato water. If I was going to stay in this house I'd drill through the wall and floor but I'm not planning on being here that long. I have done some cleaning on the tank but I need to get it we to clean certain areas. I'll be updating soon

 

[alexiowa]

Here's what's going on so far. I built the stand and just recently put the plywood on the front. This tank isn't staying here long but I didn't necessarily want to look at the sump all the time. Overall things have gone well. The tank is maturing after different crashes in the past. Things have been going well for a while and then the reefkeeper died. It was able to turn the lights on and off and sometimes read the temperature so I had to make the jump up to the apex. It took a minute to figure out the programming but it's pretty easy once you understand how it works. I've had wild ph swings now that I'm able to monitor it again. I was wondering how good my test kits were considering i bought them off amazon so I picked up the alk and calc from salifert. I already had the magnesium and knew how easy and consistent they are. I've been doing around a 12% water change every week and dosing 2 part (until the reefkeeper gave up) along with the red sea program. Seems to be working alright. When the reef keeper went out the dosing went from 20-25 ml a day of each to 0 a day. The tests I was using before for alk and calc testing gave me whole numbers and the colors weren't great. I started dosing around 60 ml of alk for a couple days and am at 45ml right now. The calc is off as one test showed 520 and the other 500. I am now around 10 dkh and my magnesium was low but I've since added more over a period of a week. I will test that again this week but things have been going well for a while. I added my old jebao pp15 and only turn it on during the day. The flow is pretty massive with the two gyres and the jebao and the growth just over the past week has been great. I'll post more pics of specific coral soon but things are growing and doing well for the most part. I do have an aiptasia issue, I also have a few emerald crabs that I believe ate the peppermint shrimp that were keeping the aiptasia at bay. There were two mag racks in the tank for the longest time. I finally put them on the rocks and sold the encrusted frags from overgrown coral.

I have two 48" blue plus bulbs, an orphek OR 120 UV and sky blue bar with the new OR2 blue bar ordered

It's not the best picture but I will more posts on specific corals. The gyres ramp up to 70 and back down with a two and four second interval while the jebao is on w1 on it's lowest setting. Just this speed alone creates a small wave when the gyres aren't too reved up.

I can't wait to redo the sump when this setup changes. I needed the return plumbing to empty into a 1.5 inch pipe and then have a gate valve to keep the bubbles out of the roller mat. The skimmer didn't seem to be doing much since I'd dump it once a month or so. I put the algae scrubber back in and haven't seen any growth in over ten days. I replace the carbon in the reactor whenever it looks like it needs done.

Theres the new toy. Pretty sure the girlfriend doesn't really care what the ph is at any given moment

Glad to see that the temperature controller is as accurate as I'd hoped now that the apex is saying the same thing. The reef keepers temp probe didn't register for a while.

 

[alexiowa]

Here are an assortment of coral and fun shots of the tank

The top coral is pretty impressive looking in person. This is the best pic i could get since it's in the back of the tank, this shot was taken with my iPhone in a waterproof bag.

This is the same coral with the iPhone zoomed all the way in through an orange filter. I can't wait to see it grown out

here is a local WD that looks good but isn't the colors of a true walt disney

I know that because this is a real big r corals WD. The colors on this coral are far brighter

side view

emerald crab in the purple stylo

I sold this cluster of trumpets. Started out with a couple heads and have probably sold 100 heads

 

[alexiowa]

I need to get a dslr, these cell phone shots just aren't cutting it

 

[alexiowa]

This is a very similar to the photo above. The only problem is that I lost the dark purple blue with green polyps sps on the bottom right. It was one of my fastest growers but when RTN lets you know that your dosing lines are clogged it's not fun. Luckily I managed to take a couple clips that had grown out. I replaced the dosing lines and immediately started dosing calcium. I put around 100m in and waited around 15 minutes before i took readings. It took more calcium and a fair amount of alk dosed between calc dosings. At one point it looked like the we had won, but the battle was short lived. Now with levels back to normal I hope this stops here. This is the first time this has happened. I hope it's the last

 

[alexiowa]

I decided to start you tubing my tank. Hopefully you check it out and let me know what you think or want to know more about.

 

[alexiowa]

Here is a video on seeing my mandarin dragonet for the first time in around a month and a half. There are plenty of other videos when you're done with this short clip