45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[CBonito]

Mine was already transitioning when I picked him up. A few months later, he was still transitioning and I added a female Lemon Meringue (leucoxanthus) that was about an inch and a half. He transitioned really quickly after that addition and then my leuco grew and transitioned and I added a female Macropharyngodon meleagris Leopard. She's tripled in size but is unlikely to transition from my understanding.

Mine's really hard to get a good detailed photo of. he has beautiful colors and is like completely unblemished. He's done some things that have got me mad a few times, but so have all my dogs. I'm attached to him. I couldn't rehome him. Screw that!

My dogs still have a home and they were 100 times worse!

One day I came home to my dining room set flipped over, potting soil soaked with laundry detergent all over the floors and my 1500 dollar leather jacket on the floor with a pile sitting on it. I couldnt salvage that man...the stink was too great and I was starting to see white dots. It had to go. They were BAD when they were little!

 

[CBonito]

My wrasse will never pinch one out on my jacket. So there's that.

 

[tbrown]

My wrasse will never pinch one out on my jacket. So there's that.

They might... They're shifty little critters.

 

[CBonito]

"Blah blah blah...I'm going to get two more lyres..." - My Wrasse!!!

I dunno man, I hear these things have some snort. We'll find out.

I think you can even "peg-leg" these and run only one side right? I know some of them can, not sure which.

**I have two more female lyres in the sump right now acclimating.**

These are from the same place I got the first two. Good healthy fish. I think these two females are a bit larger than the female I have which is probably good for introduction purposes. I'm not adding them until the light gets a little dimmer so things can be calmer.

 

[tbrown]

"Blah blah blah...I'm going to get two more lyres..." - My Wrasse!!!

I dunno man, I hear these things have some snort. We'll find out.

I think you can even "peg-leg" these and run only one side right? I know some of them can, not sure which.

**I have two more female lyres in the sump right now acclimating.**

These are from the same place I got the first two. Good healthy fish. I think these two females are a bit larger than the female I have which is probably good for introduction purposes. I'm not adding them until the light gets a little dimmer so things can be calmer.

I have 2 Maxspect 330s. Currently running one plus an IceCap Jump 2K and a Tunze Turbelle Nanostream in my 70. They each run about 45%-50% at their maximum.

 

[CBonito]

So they told me I needed some water movement.

And I said "oh yeah?"

 

[CBonito]

I cant wait to see what this looks like in a tank with light. That vid above is just "moonlight" from my kessils which is just the violets on 1 and it's almost pitch dark. I turned the exposure way up on the video. That's why it looks like a crack tank. I'll make another clip that doesn't suck today.

 

[CBonito]

Punkass is getting his butt whooped. lol
That's what you get for messing with people bigger than you. The lyres are awesome. I freaking love them.
So much action. They're totally peaceful, but mess with them and you'll find out. They can bite. When I throw food in, forget it man! They're crazy! Everything is doing good and even though punkass is a punkass, he's ok. He's just getting put in his place. Everyone knows what it's like getting put in your place when you were a punkass like punkass. lol

The only other fish I may consider if I get a big pair, is some kind of algae blenny. But I don't know if my diamond goby would like that very much. You saw, he was down there ready to get a piece of punkass too.

I'm super pleased with how my tank is looking. My corals are starting to grow and get color and life is good.

 

[tbrown]

Punkass is getting his butt whooped. lol
That's what you get for messing with people bigger than you. The lyres are awesome. I freaking love them.
So much action. They're totally peaceful, but mess with them and you'll find out. They can bite. When I throw food in, forget it man! They're crazy! Everything is doing good and even though punkass is a punkass, he's ok. He's just getting put in his place. Everyone knows what it's like getting put in your place when you were a punkass like punkass. lol

The only other fish I may consider if I get a big pair, is some kind of algae blenny. But I don't know if my diamond goby would like that very much. You saw, he was down there ready to get a piece of punkass too.

I'm super pleased with how my tank is looking. My corals are starting to grow and get color and life is good.

Starry Blennies can usually hold their own but they get fairly large.

 

[CBonito]

Starry Blennies can usually hold their own but they get fairly large.

Yeah, I know I don't want to go there. They can all get fairly large.
Which ones don't get big like that? I have enough chunkers I have to worry about. lol

I love the way things are now though. I just fed them so they're all riled up, but everything settles down and becomes peaceful. I do need an algae eater though. No tang, someone small and sneaky who flies under the radar.

 

[tbrown]

Yeah, I know I don't want to go there. They can all get fairly large.
Which ones don't get big like that? I have enough chunkers I have to worry about. lol

I love the way things are now though. I just fed them so they're all riled up, but everything settles down and becomes peaceful. I do need an algae eater though. No tang, someone small and sneaky who flies under the radar.

Molly Miller? Combtooth Blenny, stays small, can hold its own in the tank, eats Cyano and Aiptasia...

 

[CBonito]

Molly Miller? Combtooth Blenny, stays small, can hold its own in the tank, eats Cyano and Aiptasia...

I'm going to look into these. The problem with algae isn't high nutrient per se in the water, it's because of my diamond goby's digging in the shallow tank. He throws stuff up on everything and I have to blast the crap off the rocks almost daily so he's releasing crap from the sand in short. I had to move a cap and a stellata away from his bunker. I don't mind it, but it would be nice to have an algae eater to keep everything polished off. Otherwise I have this little brush shoved into a piece of pipe that I use.

I'm not worried about the bioload. I have an octo elite 150 and it kicks butt. I have my mud refugium out in back of the tank too, I'm running GFO. Doing normal water changes to avoid more bottles of crap. Only dosing kalk. And I control the ph simply by air circulation in the room. It'll shoot up to 8.5 with the window open at peak photoperiod and sit at 8.39 or so at night. ORP sits in the 380s-390s.

Phosphate was over 1 a week ago, so I put a GFO reactor in exactly that long ago. I'm going to test tonight or I'd be talking out my butt. Remember this tank ran for a year with no water changes through uglies etc, so it's expected there would be some. I changed about 35-40 percent of the water since. Not a big deal though. The corals are not protesting it. They're growing. I'm thinking the phosphate is less than it was a week ago. We'll find out. Nothing that can't be easily straightened out. Just trying to not dump bottles of crap in my tank.

My aussie is going to get big. It's growing a lot of little branches at the base. It's liking all of the extra water moevement a lot.

Ok, I'll shut up.

 

[tbrown]

That's why the Molly Miller is cool. They supposedly eat anything and everything. Any algae eaters that potentially eat Aiptasia and Cyano and are hardy and not picky eaters are good algae eaters in my book. However, I had to move mine out of the 8 gallon because he was making the YWG and Shrimp stay inside. He wasn't ever seen bullying but they did not like him being there.

 

[CBonito]

That's why the Molly Miller is cool. They supposedly eat anything and everything. Any algae eaters that potentially eat Aiptasia and Cyano and are hardy and not picky eaters are good algae eaters in my book. However, I had to move mine out of the 8 gallon because he was making the YWG and Shrimp stay inside. He wasn't ever seen bullying but they did not like him being there.

I'm going to look into one of these. Fast little suckers! I saw a video of them.

 

[CBonito]

New Additions from Battlecorals. Look at these bad boys...
They're super nice man and I know most of these ought to do great.
I may have trouble keeping the red one red. We'll find out!

Stay tuned, I have 10 more frags coming tuesday.

Oh, and I added 5 star snails and an algae blenny because i have some hair algae and very few snails left.
I think the blenny will be a great addition to keeping the tank clean.

 

[TheWB]

New Additions from Battlecorals. Look at these bad boys...
They're super nice man and I know most of these ought to do great.
I may have trouble keeping the red one red. We'll find out!

Stay tuned, I have 10 more frags coming tuesday.

Oh, and I added 5 star snails and an algae blenny because i have some hair algae and very few snails left.
I think the blenny will be a great addition to keeping the tank clean.

How are those new corals doing?