125 Gallon Office Tank

[bluecheese]

Picked up a Yellow Tang and a Blue Hippo Tang today. Couldn’t get a picture because I had all the lights off while they get used to the tank.

 

[bluecheese]

Tangs survived the night, and were swimming around and exploring their new world when I got to the office this morning.
I put some nori on a clip, but they haven’t been interested in it yet. I guess they still need to be more comfortable with their surroundings before eating much.

 

[bluecheese]

I broke down and bought a protein skimmer - Reef Octopus 110ext - that arrived today.
My hope is that I can set it up outside the sump, next to the auto top off, and have enough room to pull the auto top off bucket out of the cabinet without disturbing the skimmer.
If not, I’ll have to put it in the refugium, which is not my favorite option.
Pictures tomorrow.

 

[bluecheese]

Partially assembled. I need to run to the hardware store and get some flexible pipe, and pvc glue.

 

[bluecheese]

Finally put the skimmer in the sump on Monday.

It’s in the “fuge” area of the sump, which isn’t optimal right now. There is only a 1/2” pipe connecting the fuge to the rest of the sump, which severely limits the amount of water I can push through the fuge. If it’s anything more than a slight trickle, the 1/2” drain can’t handle the flow.

So next week I’m going to drill out larger holes and install a 1-1/2” drain, which should allow me to push more water through the fuge.

Strangely enough, even with the small amount of water moving through there, the skimmer still picked up a large amount of gunk from the water.

The skimmer was still breaking in, and I was still in the process of adjusting it, which is why the skimmate is so wet.

I can’t wait to see what the skimmer pulls out of the water once I get some good flow going through there.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

looking great, keep the good work

 

[bluecheese]

looking great, keep the good work

Appreciate it

 

[bluecheese]

Tuesday, I drilled the holes in the sump for the larger drain. Had some leaking issues, but we eventually got that squared away.

Skimmer is doing well, though I may need to make some tweaks to it.

Current issue: the return pipe is T’ed off to feed the refugium. If I open the valve too much, it basically diverts all of the return water to the fuge. Right now I have the flow in the fuge dialed down.
I may have one of the overflow drains drain directly into the refugium so I don’t have to worry about diverting water from the return to feed the skimmrr

 

[bluecheese]

A new coral store opened in Harahan Louisiana - Reef Consortium. I went by there Sunday and picked up a few additions to the tank:

Frogspawn

Zoa, which hasn’t fully opened yet

Pink tipped Torch

 

[bluecheese]

Some new editions I picked up yesterday.

some sort of lepto

another Lepto (the guy at the store told me what they were, but I can’t for the life of me remember what he said)

and an Acan. I did a poor job of placing it. I may remove it from the rock and put it in a better orientation, because right now you can barely see it

 

[bluecheese]

So my coral guy texted me yesterday “want it?” with this picture attached

And I’m like “yeah, I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give.”

I didn’t realize how big this thing was.

So I trimmed off what I wanted.

When I was trimming the Monti cap, I discovered an acro growing in it, so a little bit of lagniappe

While I was at his house, I also picked up some more euphyllia

and he gave me an acro frag

 

[Gumbies R Us]

So my coral guy texted me yesterday “want it?” with this picture attached

And I’m like “yeah, I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give.”

I didn’t realize how big this thing was.

So I trimmed off what I wanted.

When I was trimming the Monti cap, I discovered an acro growing in it, so a little bit of lagniappe

While I was at his house, I also picked up some more euphyllia

and he gave me an acro frag

Nice looking monti you got!!!

 

[bluecheese]

Nice looking monti you got!!!

Thanks. Hopefully it survives. The last monti I had croaked.

 

[bluecheese]

Corals in the tank so far

Torch

Another Torch

Hammer

Easter Egg Chalice

Another Hammer

Green Star Polyps

Some sort of Lepto (if anyone knows the name of this one, please let me know)

Monti Cap

Another Lepto whose name I don’t know

Acro

More Green Star Polyps

Jack o Lantern Lepto

Zoas

More Zoas (these were the first corals in the tank)

Frogspawn

Acan

Hammer

Acro

 

[bluecheese]

My plan is to slowly but surely turn this rock into a euphyllia garden

 

[afrokobe]

corals looking good and healthy

 

[bluecheese]

corals looking good and healthy

Appreciate that. I'm praying to the reef gods that they stay that way.

 

[bluecheese]

Picked up this little guy this morning. Diamond Watchman Goby. He’s already digging himself a little hole to live in.

 

[bluecheese]

The goby disappeared not too long after I got him. I didn't find him on the floor, and I didn't see him in the sump. No idea what happened to him. Which is a shame because he brought some interesting activity to the tank.

The acros I got for free died. And the red monticap isn't doing too well. Which suggests that the lights I have aren't sufficient for SPS corals. Which is kind of what I expected. Though all leptos and chalices are doing well.

But the LPS I have are thriving. I guess I'll stick with those.

So with that in mind, I ordered some corals from Tidal Gardens; a Candy Cane, a Duncan, and another Zoa.

I received the shipment yesterday. After acclimating them, and placement, I left the lights off the rest of the day.

They look like they're adapting well to the tank:

Candy Cane

Duncan:

If these do well, I'll probably add more. They bring nice bright colors to the tank.

The Zoa frag was tiny, so I wasn't able to get a good picture of it.

 

[bluecheese]

I like the Candy Cane coral so much, I ran out and bought another one. Plus my last cleaner shrimp kicked the bucket, so I picked up two more.