39 cube mixed reef

[vcollins9850]

Started this tank on a whim in fall of 2019 after years away from the hobby. Ran all my old equipment for the first few months. Old corallife 250 halide and actinic mix and some old maxi jets. Plus a hob filter for some carbon.
Now have a single AI prime puck. One constant power head and a Nero 5 blasting random. Whisper HOB died so replaced it with another for $15 on Amazon. Other than
After a year of good growth was struggling to keep alk stable and lps were suffering so started dosing AFR using a kamoer Bluetooth micro doser. That solved my all issues and everything bounced back. Had some frogspawn at near death and it came all the way back in a couple months. Liked the doser so much bought another to use as an ATO and dose some nitrates in my top off water consistently. After a few months of the AFR my nitrates had bottomed out and zoas were suffering, so started adding brightwell neonitro to get them off of zero. At 3 ml a day I register about 4 on a Red Sea test.
tank is stocked with a variety zoas, lps (love chalices), and montis.
inverts are a handful of asters snails, nassarius, and hermits that I threw in when I started the tank and still going strong. Inherited some limpets hitchhikers from some friends coral and they have proliferated and keep the rocks clean of algae, and coralline I believe.
fish are a pair of cheap percula clowns, a fat mandarin that I got trained on a variety of pellets/dried mysis, and a royal gramma. Will post a full tank shot when I’m home.

 

[vcollins9850]

Forgot cleaner shrimp and heater hooked to an ink bird.
All corals grown from frags. Recently added a torch which is something I told myself I would never do, since they were dirt cheap and had one given to me for free when I first got into the hobby. But with all corals, when you see one and kind of fall for it you talk yourself into things. By far the most expensive piece I’ve ever added.
Old strategy was to never put anything in that I couldn’t handle losing if things went south. But with limited real estate in tank figured it was time to add something deserving of the space.

 

[ClownSchool]

Really nice! Your coral collection is impressive. mandarins are a favorite of mine, though I don’t have one. Congratulations!

 

[JumboShrimp]

Wow, that’s a lot of nice Coral packed into 39-gallons. Congrats on your success

 

[vcollins9850]

Really nice! Your coral collection is impressive. mandarins are a favorite of mine, though I don’t have one. Congratulations!

Ty!

 

[vcollins9850]

Wow, that’s a lot of nice Coral packed into 39-gallons. Congrats on your success

Ty! Yes,packed in is good description. Need a bigger house so I can get a bigger tank! Going to have to move….
Somehow yesterday the acan echinata burned the whole backside of the bubblegum digi frag. Had it mounted above it on a ledge, but acan had grown up under. Must have sent out some long sweepers or something. Never seen anything other than short feeder tentacles from the acan so who knows, but nothing else near the digi. Got it moved so hope it recovers.

 

[Clo]

Your mandarin looks like a lil fatty, me likey.
No full frontal shot?!

 

[vcollins9850]

Your mandarin looks like a lil fatty, me likey.
No full frontal shot?!

Yes she is always picking rocks, like it when she finds a hotspot on the glass and just goes to town on some pods. Got her eating pellets after a couple weeks hike from the store and she just swims up to the top of tanks and waits when pumps turn off. My 7 year old has name her “lady pancakes” which seems very fitting.

 

[vcollins9850]

Got lazy and completely forgot these

 

[revhtree]

DANG! Nice "whim" tank you have there!

 

[vcollins9850]

DANG! Nice "whim" tank you have there!

Thanks. Should have mentioned that I’ve spent a good part of the last year or so navigating the “whim” (or my idiocy if ya prefer) out of this tank.

 

[vcollins9850]

Only update since last week, added a conch. Adorable but spends most of time camped in the sand. Will post when I can catch a pic of him.

 

[vcollins9850]

Not much to update, other than seriously starting to think about a bigger tank!
Did have some sunny d’s close up a couple weeks ago and can’t figure it out. On same rock as other zoas, did some dips and nothing to note fell off. Moved to bottom and other zoas still open but not the sunnies. ??? Any thoughts suggestions to perk them up appreciated.

 

[vcollins9850]

Been a while since anything new. If anything hit some snags. Small explosion of digitate hydroids taking a hit on zoas, no idea where they came from since haven’t added anything to tank in a long time. Not really sure if anything surefire eats them. Stopped using auto feeder hoping that powder from food in tumbler will stop aiding their growth. Cut feedings and moved zoas that were hardest hit to bottom of tank hoping that hydroids would starve there since most are thriving up high. Also made an impulse buy of a bicolor angel (always my fave) had one in the past no issues, but this guy is turning into a picker. Have to decide if she’s worth keeping, or if I could even catch her if I wanted.