My First Softy Tank... which has turned into a mixed reef

[New&no clue]

Today I got a new fish in QT.

He seems to be doing good so far. Swimming all over the place, hiding when I show up. He’s been at the LFS for about a month, I’ve kept almost buying him for the past several weeks and today while picking up food I finally did it.

 

[New&no clue]

Also as a side note guess who showed up today. I have no idea where she has been hiding or what she has been eating but I’m so excited to see her back.

 

[New&no clue]

The new rocks are going through the ugly phase, but today I notice a very pretty neon green algae on them. I looked it up and got different results, some said young coralline algae other said it was a because of low nutrients. I don’t know either way but I tested before my water change and everything seems okay. I’m using API test which I’m not a fan of. I find it hard to read the color changes.

Temp 78
PH 8.4
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 440
PO4 0-.25 (closer to 0)
NO3 0-5 (closer to 5)
Carbonate 214

 

[New&no clue]

Getting ready to add some corals here this weekend. I am pretty excited about it. I've decided to do mostly softies with a couple LPS. @MJC softy tank is my inspiration. He was kind enough to share his list of corals he has in his tank. As my tank is smaller I wont be able to have them all but I've picked some of my favorites. I wanted to have a plan in place for placement so I drew up the following

1. Blue and Green Goniopora
2. Pulsing Xenias
3. Nephthea
4. Papaya clove polyps
5. Pulsing pink Sinularia
6. Yellow finger Coral
7. Yellow Fiji Coral(leather, umbrella)
8. Toadstools
9. Zoa garden
10. BTA

Also in the mix I would love a maxima clam, but that will be later. I am lucky enough that Aquacorals is an hour from my house. They specialize in soft corals and have almost everything on my list. I am getting some Ultra Green Zoas and Purple Pulsing Xenia from her. I also have a local guy who grows and does a lot of the expos around here. From him I am getting a Sunny D and Armor of God zoa. I thought I would start out with those as them seem to be the hardest to kill.

 

[New&no clue]

Soooo... I don't know what happened. I bought the corals listed above, I was happy with that, start out small don't bite off more than you can chew... and then I must have blacked out from pure coral jubilation because when I came too I had wondered off to two other coral sites, Marine Farmers and Cultivated Reef, and I had bought a whole bunch more. ;Greedy

Then I full panicked because I have no idea what I am doing, but also because I have a diatom algae outbreak all over my rocks and where will I put these guys? So I called out to R2R for help and luckily someone was smart enough to remind me that there are frag racks...duh;Facepalm... so I can put the corals on those until the rocks clear up.

So all is good right... well then someone else said that urchins are really good at eating algae... and I blacked out again found my way onto Algae Barn and bought a blue tuxedo urchin, because why not add to the fun.;Greedy;Greedy;Greedy

So on Tuesday the local guy dropped off the Sunny D and Armor of God Zoas and also a Pink Pulsing Xenia. Those are in the tank and being harassed by my peppermint shrimp, but not for long because on Friday I have the following coming

Ultra Green Zoa
Purple Pulsing Xenia
Snow White Toadstool
Purple Candelabra Gorgonian
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG GALAXEA
Fuzzy Pulsing Sinularia
CR’s Mandarin Orange Cloves
Neon Green Frilly

Blue Tuxedo Urchin

So Friday will be spent acclimating everyone, wish me luck

 

[New&no clue]

Friday was CORAL CRAZY!!! I got a ton of corals, some in the mail and some I picked up. Starting at 10:00am I got my first shipment and I spent the rest of the day until 9:00pm acclimating different batches. Everyone is now in the tank and happy(I hope). Except the toadstool, everything has opened up. Of course my 4 year old son was quick to point out the toadstool looks like a certain body part. It has still not open today so that is what he calls it the P**** coral.

This is my first time with corals so I was really nervous about acclimating to water, doing a coral dip, acclimating to my lights. I did a drip acclimation for the water after that I did a coral dip in CoralRX. I turned my lights down yesterday when putting them all in the tank, but today I have then on as regular, except I shortened the daily light time. I have them all at the bottom of the tank. Once the diatom algae is better I’ll start to move them to their final home.

Below are pictures of everything, I’m still trying to figure out how to get good pictures of the colors. These all look even more amazing in person. I’m so happy with everything I got.

Ultra Green, Sunny D, Armor of God Zoa

Purple Pulsing Xenia

Snow White Toadstool... P**** Coral

Purple Candelabra Gorgonian

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG GALAXEA

Fuzzy Pulsing Sinularia

CR’s Mandarin Orange Cloves

Neon Green Frilly

And surprise addition CR’s Violet Cespitularia

 

[New&no clue]

OMG!!! I cannot forgot the delivery of what I was most excited about a Blue Tuxedo Urchin, although I think it’s a red one. He gave me a scare when he was delivered. I bought him from Algae Barn and they shipped him in a mason jar. When I pulled the jar out it was empty except the water. I was convinced they sent me a jar of water. I went to get my phone to take a picture of the empty jar to send their customer service. When I came back I saw movement. Even though the box had a ton of labeling that the box contained a live animal with multiple arrows pointing up, I assume it got flipped over because he was up on the lid, when I came back he was slowly scooting off the lid down the side.

 

[New&no clue]

I’ve been pretty disappointed that my phone can’t take even a decent picture of my tank once the lights start to go blue. I love my corals but I can’t show them to anyone so I finally bought a filter clip for my phone. I bought the following

Aquarium Choice Coral Lens Filter Kits for Phone

I was skeptical that it would actually work, or make a noticeable difference, but it really does. The box come with two different clips for different phones, a macro lens, yellow lens, and an orange lens.

These are without any other adjustments to the pictures, but as you can see the first picture on its own it terrible.

 

[New&no clue]

Bought a bunch of new corals on the AquaSD sale, I’m really excited for those to come in

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Looking good, thats on heck of a haul!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Thanks for sharing, comrade

 

[New&no clue]

2 Month progress picture

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

2 Month progress picture

WOW! ! ! ! Will it only be softies? Beautiful, comrade

1 frag of 15 dendronephthya spp. Carnation corals

 

[New&no clue]

The initial plan was mostly softies with a couple LPS. Then there was a big sale last week so now I’m about 50-50. However, there are still a bunch of softies I want so once I get these new guys settled in I’ll start adding more softies in a couple months

 

[MrWheelock]

Coming along nicely!

 

[New&no clue]

Loving my urchin, dressing up for a night out

 

[AngryMike2016]

LOL, that urchin is stylin'

 

[MERKEY]

Nice tank and that urchin tho!! Hahah

 

[ReefHomieJon]

While writing this and looking at pictures I was struck by how different my rocks look today

The top picture is first day in the tank, the bottom picture is today. It’s fun to see the color change in them.

I love those clowns. They’re like the all blacks with an orange face. Never seen them out here

 

[New&no clue]

New corals from Aqua SD came in. All looked good and are doing well so far in the tank. May still move a couple around but right now I’m happy with there placement

PURPLE AND PINK TORCH

ELEGANCE

PLATE

GREEN HAMMER

DUNCAN

MYSTERY FREEB

zOAS

FULL TANK SHOT