2 Year Old 90 Gallons of Addictive Stress

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Pau Hana Reefer

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So my one-spot foxface is about 2 weeks into copper treatment for ich and still has 4-5 weeks left in QT... and I am absolutely torn.

He has not shown his bright yellow color since the first day he arrived (January 3rd). I know it's because he's stressed in the QT. I've read arguments both for and against QT. I'm trying to remind myself that this is better than introducing ich into my DT, but I hate knowing that he is not happy. :(
 
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I have waaaaaaay too many dwarf cerith snails!!! I started out with 5 and I must have at least 200 now! I've tried giving them away locally and no one wants any. I'm considering just plucking a bunch out and throwing them away. But I hate the thought of killing living things.
 

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The yellow coris wrasse and one spot foxface are doing well one day after arriving. Both are from LiveAquaria, with the yellow coris wrasse from Diver's Den.

Here is the yellow coris wrasse in a 10 gallon QT. This guy is small, only 1.5"!
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And here's the one spot foxface in a 20 gallon QT. I think it's pretty cool how the spot on one side is more like two spots.
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Cool
 

Paulie069

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I have waaaaaaay too many dwarf cerith snails!!! I started out with 5 and I must have at least 200 now! I've tried giving them away locally and no one wants any. I'm considering just plucking a bunch out and throwing them away. But I hate the thought of killing living things.
How far are u from ocean or bay, bring em to either spot
 

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Tank Starting to Come to Life - End of May to Current
Since the end of May, our tank has really started coming to life. We’ve added more fish and our first corals.

Fish:
Red Head Solon Fairy Wrasse - added to QT on 5/22, moved to DT on 6/10
Royal Flasher Wrasse - added to QT on 6/19, moved to DT on 7/12
Helfrichi Firefish - added to QT on 6/25, will move to DT on 7/15

All fish were purchased from Diver’s Den on liveaquaria.com. The fish have only been treated with PraziPro in the QT. All fish were in the QT for 1 week for observation and to ensure they were eating. After a week, they were all treated with the first dose of PraziPro. Both the Royal Flasher Wrasse and Helfichi Firefish were also treated with a second dose of PraziPro.

Corals:
Ultra Green Toadstool Leather Coral - added on 5/22
Purple Gorgonian (Hicksomella SP) - added on 5/22
Zoas - added 6/16
Pink Toadstool Leather Coral - added 6/19
Purple Frogspawn - added 6/28
Finger Leather Singularia - added 6/28
Chalice - added 7/12
Orange Ricordea Mushroom - added 7/12

Most of my corals were also purchased from Diver’s Den on LiveAquaria. The Zoas, Chalice, and Ricordea were purchased from two different LFS. I drip acclimated all coral and dipped them in Coral RX before placing them in my DT. Coral RX worked well in removing pests.. I’ve seen various worms fall off of about half of the coral, it’s pretty amazing. And I don’t know about anyone else, but I really like the smell of Coral RX. Not sure if there is anything toxic in it, but I have been guilty of sniffing it like a kid sniffing Sharpies.

We also had a red tuxedo pincushion sea urchin for a few weeks, but it suddenly passed away last week. I wasn’t able to figure out the exact cause of death. My water parameters seemed fine so I am wondering if the poor thing may have starved to death. It was there one day moving all over the tank, and the next day, I found it lying upside down with all its spines laying all around it. My wife and I were pretty bummed out by it since we both hate knowing that something died in our care. Not to mention, the lil guy was really entertaining to watch.

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Our tank on June 13.

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Close-up of the Red Head Solon Fairy Wrasse, along with the two clownfish below him. The corals are the Purple Gorgonian and Ultra Green Toadstool Leather.

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Our first coral ever... the Ultra Green Toadstool Leather.

I really like that Toadstool... nice color!
 
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How far are u from ocean or bay, bring em to either spot

Hmmm... Interesting thought. I'm 1 hour 15 mins (assuming no traffic) the closest beach. I'm only 15 mins away from Delaware River... But I might as well kill them quickly rather than possibly dying a slow death. The Delaware is not exactly clean where I'm at.

Would'nt these snails die in our cold waters?
 
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I really like that Toadstool... nice color!

Thanks. It was my first coral ever and I picked it for its colors. LiveAquaria called it the Ultra Green Toadstool. As I'm contemplating removing my soft corals and making this an LPS and SPS tank, this is one softie that I'm definitely keeping.
 

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Thanks. It was my first coral ever and I picked it for its colors. LiveAquaria called it the Ultra Green Toadstool. As I'm contemplating removing my soft corals and making this an LPS and SPS tank, this is one softie that I'm definitely keeping.

It's nice to be able to still have your very first coral around... Definitely a keeper!
 
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It's nice to be able to still have your very first coral around... Definitely a keeper!

Agreed. It really pops when I only have my blue lights on.

So I didn't feed my corals anything until two months ago and that toadstool stayed pretty much the same exact size for 7 months. Since I started feeding my corals reef chili back in December, the toadstool has nearly doubled in size.
 

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Agreed. It really pops when I only have my blue lights on.

So I didn't feed my corals anything until two months ago and that toadstool stayed pretty much the same exact size for 7 months. Since I started feeding my corals reef chili back in December, the toadstool has nearly doubled in size.

Wow, nice. Reef Chili is definitely good stuff. I thought about making my own at some point.
 

Paulie069

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Hmmm... Interesting thought. I'm 1 hour 15 mins (assuming no traffic) the closest beach. I'm only 15 mins away from Delaware River... But I might as well kill them quickly rather than possibly dying a slow death. The Delaware is not exactly clean where I'm at.

Would'nt these snails die in our cold waters?
Can’t tell u how many snails wind up on deck of my boat every trip( thousands) and it’s 36 degrees where I’m fishing
 
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Wow, nice. Reef Chili is definitely good stuff. I thought about making my own at some point.

Nice! I just saw the other day that BRS share their recipe to make your own. Now I'm curious.

I'm going to give reef roids a try too. I saw a past that on here with a poll asking which one everyone preferred and most people choose reef roids.
 
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Had a lot of friends over on Saturday night and they were all admiring my tank. It's a pretty awesome feeling when non reefers are amazed not only at the fish and corals, but also by everything from the DIY stand to the sump setup. Everyone kept referring to the torch corals as anemones. Lol.

The icing on the cake was when I was holding my friend's 1 year old as he kept pointing to all the fish for 5-10 minutes. I was telling my 3 year old to take notes. :p
 
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Chrysophytes are back. I cannot figure out what has changed over this past week that brought this back. Looks like I'll be scrubbing rocks again this weekend after getting a break for the last few months. :mad:
 
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You know you have a reef problem/addiction when... You decide you can't go on as long of a vacation as you'd like because you're worried about what might happen to your tank while you're gone...

Yep, wife and I just booked a last minute trip to head to Colorado the first week of March for some snowboarding and to introduce our 3 year old to Breckenridge. I told her I didn't want to go for more than 6-7 days because I'm worried about the tank. Before I had a reef tank and during my freshwater tank days, I'd be disappointed if we weren't out there for more than 10 days.
 
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Ugh... got back from my vacation and my new Aussie torch coral is pretty much gone. I suspect the remaining peppermint shrimp was snacking on it because it looks like it was torn up. I need to figure out a way to catch this last shrimp!!! :mad:

My one spot foxface is in its second round of Prazipro. After 10 weeks of quarantine including 35 days of Copper Power and three weeks of Prazipro, the poor guy will finally be going into the DT this weekend.
 
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Over two months since my last update... you would think this lock-in would allow me more time to update this thread. lol

Couple of big updates:
  • Our red head solon died back in March. I found him dead one day amongst the rocks. He was prefectly healthy and showed no signs of illness or duress. I'm wondering if he accidentally got stun by the new one spot foxface
  • Coral growth has really taken off with a number of my corals:
    • Aussie torch coral has split into two heads
    • Grape coral in process of splitting heads
    • Neon green toadstool leather doubled in size
    • Zoas growing the fastest
Coralline has also started covering the overflow box though still not really taking to the rocks. I've read others who used marco dry rock also having tough times with coralline growth as well as low/non-existent phosphate and nitrate.

Lastly, participated in the WWC Timesplitter livesale over the weekend and have 8 new corals coming later this week.

Will share some picture updates later today!
 
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I participated in my first R2R livesale over the weekend... the WWC Timesplitter. My wife was awesome enough to watch our 3 year old and let me spend most of the weekend here on R2R. I went in with the hopes of getting a rasta zoa, my first digitata, and my first birdsnest. It was an absolute blast and a great way to change things up from over two months of being locked in. Met some great people and had a lot of laughs along the way. WWC did a amazing job.

There were a lot of amazing corals that I could not even try to get due to the rogue peppermint shrimp that's still roaming around somewhere in the tank. But I still spent about $100 more than I originally had planned... all due to the beautiful WWC AOI Zoa that I had not planned on buying. But can you blame me? Just look at it!!!

Can't wait to get my corals, it will be my first order from WWC!

Here's what I came away with:
wwclivesalewinnings.PNG
 
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My WWC Timespliter Livesale order comes today and should be here within the next hour! First ever order from WWC. Looking forward to seeing how they compare to other vendors and LFS. Feeling like a little boy on Christmas morning!!!

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