A return to the hobby build (Reefer 170)

[astiesi]

Just to make life interesting my home AC died at 5 am this morning. Going to be without until earliest tomorrow afternoon. Tank got up to 83 degrees already once. Currently have a box fan cooling it down, has it at 82 now. I'm in South FL so heat is a worry year round. So far nothing seems to be bothered by the elevated temp though.

Also considering going the reef-pi route for a controller, make a project out of it. Once upon a time I was a software engineer so it has me intrigued. Anyone have any experiences, positive or negative, that they'd like to share? I'm thinking I'll go the whole way with a touch screen lcd controlling it, in a custom enclosure mounted to the wall.

 

[astiesi]

Unfortunately the six-line wrasse didn't make it through the week. For the first 4 days he was swimming around, eating, looking good. On the 5th day he didn't come out to eat. By the 6th day, he was gone. Not really sure what was at fault. Not noticeable sick. Seemed suddenly super stressed. The tank never got above 83 degrees, all corals have been open and happy, the water tested normal. I have seen the female clown suddenly chasing around the goby out of nowhere recently so maybe there was bullying going on that I just didn't happen to see.

On a positive note, I placed an order for 5 frags with @WWC last week and will be receiving them tomorrow. Looking forward to start filling out this tank.

Also got my hands on a new raspberry pi, so I will definitely be building my own controller for this tank.

 

[astiesi]

Received my first order ever from @WWC and I am super impressed with the frags already. They've been in the tank as of about 11 am this morning and most are already open and looking good. Ended up ordering 7 frags, two a la cart and 5 through the subscription service. I am already excited for what will come in the next order.

And here are some pics of the packaging and the current state of them in the tank.

 

[astiesi]

I quick FTS after a water change.

 

[astiesi]

Another quick FTS from yesterday just to keep the thread somewhat updated. Nothing new as the tank has been on autopilot due to summer vacations but it is going well. I do have another online order coming in this week.

One thing to note, I cannot keep a Duncan for my life. I have tried in 3 different tanks over the years and never had success, even when most everything else flourished (LPS, Zoas, SPS). The Duncan frag I added in the last order, much like every previous attempt, did not make it.

 

[Oldsman]

Tank is looking good ! Everything coloring up nice
I kept melting duncans too..but could keep torches happy I gave up lol

 

[astiesi]

Tank is looking good ! Everything coloring up nice
I kept melting duncans too..but could keep torches happy I gave up lol

Thanks, I'm happy with its progress so far.

As for the Duncans, I'm right there with you, no more attempts for me. I hear people talk about how "easy" they are but must be something in the water where I live. Either way, I'll just stick with the torches/hammers that take off in my tanks.

 

[astiesi]

So I received another frag club order from @WWC today and I'm again reminded how impressed I am with their operation. Frags are all acclimated and in the tank (lights are still off) and already opening. I will try to get some decent pictures tonight of what they sent but here's the quick list:

- Kryptonite Candy Cane
- Green Duncan
- King Midas Zoas
- Peacock Nipple Zoas
- Blue Stylophora

The tank already has a candy cane in it and doing well but that came from the LFS so not a repeat. The one in the tank already is doing great so hopefully this will as well and start to help fill out the tank some.

As for the green Duncan, I ordered one from them directly with my last order (it wasn't a coral club order as they keep track of what was sent to you). I'm excited to try again as I really like Duncans but I'm not going to hold out much hope as I simply never have success with them. Maybe this time will be different. If anyone has any suggestions let me know as I'm always game to try something new. Historically I've done midway up (medium/high light) with medium flow. It's what I've read they like but maybe my idea of medium/high is off.

I will post some post acclimation pictures tonight.

 

[WWC]

So I received another frag club order from @WWC today and I'm again reminded how impressed I am with their operation. Frags are all acclimated and in the tank (lights are still off) and already opening. I will try to get some decent pictures tonight of what they sent but here's the quick list:

- Kryptonite Candy Cane
- Green Duncan
- King Midas Zoas
- Peacock Nipple Zoas
- Blue Stylophora

The tank already has a candy cane in it and doing well but that came from the LFS so not a repeat. The one in the tank already is doing great so hopefully this will as well and start to help fill out the tank some.

As for the green Duncan, I ordered one from them directly with my last order (it wasn't a coral club order as they keep track of what was sent to you). I'm excited to try again as I really like Duncans but I'm not going to hold out much hope as I simply never have success with them. Maybe this time will be different. If anyone has any suggestions let me know as I'm always game to try something new. Historically I've done midway up (medium/high light) with medium flow. It's what I've read they like but maybe my idea of medium/high is off.

I will post some post acclimation pictures tonight.

We want to thank you so much for taking the time to write this. We will always do everything we can to make each persons experience with us the best possible.

-Keith

 

[astiesi]

As promised, here are pictures of the new frags (as best as my limited photography skills will allow).

Green Duncan frag. When closed you can see 4 distinct heads (2 small ones on the backside). Going to try this one lower light and lower flow this time and see how that goes.

Blue Stylophora frag, the first SPS in this tank. Already loving the polyp color.

King Midas Zoa Frag

Peacock Nipple Zoa Frag

And finally the Kryptonite Candy Cane. Trying to decide if I should mount it close to my other candy cane colony and let them grow together or put elsewhere in the tank. Suggestions on this are always welcome.

And here are a couple pics to show the growth of things over the last few months. First, here is a candy cane, one of the first two corals I added to this tank. It started off as a single head and has now split into 4.

Next, is a space invader chalice which I received from WWC just 2 months ago. It originally only had 2 eyes but has already grown a few additional. Great growth for just 2 months. I had the hardest time getting a clear picture of this one however so apologies for it being blurry.

And here is a quick picture of the zoa garden. Every frag colony on here has doubled in size.

And finally my splatter hammer. Again, this was bought with a single head and now has 3 separate heads which you can see when it closes up.

Here are a few picture I just thought came out cool. Enjoy.

 

[astiesi]

Finally got around to mounting the last batch of frags around the tank and figured I would post a picture of the result.

Also been fighting dinos the last few weeks. Started dosing bacteria daily and the results have been very good. Each day it is noticeably less.

Lastly, while mounting the coral frags yesterday with the top off my goby decided to go carpet surfing. He seems no worse for the adventure but I cannot imagine a 4 foot drop was very enjoyable.

 

[astiesi]

It's been a while since I last posted and the tank has been on a bit of auto-pilot during the last few months. I added a few additional frags, lost a frag (the peacock nipple zoas simply melted away) and my cleaner shrimp (I think the pistol shrimp may have gotten him to be honest), and have just been keeping up on husbandry as much as possible. Cyano has subsided but hair algae has taken its place. Just refreshed my CUC so keeping my fingers crossed they can make some progress.

Some quick pictures from the last batch of frags in addition to a few I snapped last night.

 

[kevgib67]

Your scape is awesome and your corals seem to be thriving. Also you seemed to have solved your duncan problem, low light and flow. Well done!

 

[astiesi]

Your scape is awesome and your corals seem to be thriving. Also you seemed to have solved your duncan problem, low light and flow. Well done!

Thanks for the feedback! The scape was one of my favorite things I did with this tank. No more worrying about rock slides whenever I had to add a new frag.

And so far so good with the duncans. I'm not quite claiming success just yet but I'm rather encouraged by what I'm seeing.

 

[kevgib67]

This is what it is going to look like soon.

 

[astiesi]

So I haven't updated this thread in 3 months and quite a lot has happened. First and foremost, the tank is now over 1 year old! I am still, however, waiting for the maturity to help with various issues that are just boomeranging back and forth (cyano, HA). One week the tank looks great, the next its looking pretty dirty. All along my maintenance has been stable and routine, as have been my parameters. If anything, I continue to struggle to test NO3 and Phosphate > 0 pps (although I have plenty given the health of the HA).

I've also had my pistol shrimp go the way of satan and kill quite a few new inhabitants as well as completely decimating my CUC. My next major task will be getting him out and banishing him to the sump. That will probably be a complete breakdown of the tank as traps just aren't working.

Finally, while I'm getting pretty good growth on just about everything (SPS included), I continue to have no real luck with the duncans and my center zoa rock has been completely melting away. At first it was just a single colony but now it seems to be spreading, restricted only to the middle rock. I've been searching for an answer to this for over a month now and it is not any of the common pests. My current running theory is pods. I know that seems absurd but the rock was covered in them, many of which were fairly large. Just this last weekend I decided to do a freshwater dip on the rock and see if that helps. I noticeably affected the pod population and now I wait to see if the zoas recover. I will post some pictures from the last 3 months next.

 

[kevgib67]

So I haven't updated this thread in 3 months and quite a lot has happened. First and foremost, the tank is now over 1 year old! I am still, however, waiting for the maturity to help with various issues that are just boomeranging back and forth (cyano, HA). One week the tank looks great, the next its looking pretty dirty. All along my maintenance has been stable and routine, as have been my parameters. If anything, I continue to struggle to test NO3 and Phosphate > 0 pps (although I have plenty given the health of the HA).

I've also had my pistol shrimp go the way of satan and kill quite a few new inhabitants as well as completely decimating my CUC. My next major task will be getting him out and banishing him to the sump. That will probably be a complete breakdown of the tank as traps just aren't working.

Finally, while I'm getting pretty good growth on just about everything (SPS included), I continue to have no real luck with the duncans and my center zoa rock has been completely melting away. At first it was just a single colony but now it seems to be spreading, restricted only to the middle rock. I've been searching for an answer to this for over a month now and it is not any of the common pests. My current running theory is pods. I know that seems absurd but the rock was covered in them, many of which were fairly large. Just this last weekend I decided to do a freshwater dip on the rock and see if that helps. I noticeably affected the pod population and now I wait to see if the zoas recover. I will post some pictures from the last 3 months next.

Sorry to hear about your duncan and zoas. As for your zoas are you able to test your iodine levels? They tend to not do well with low iodine. Lugol’s makes a great iodine supplement. Good luck.

 

[astiesi]

Sorry to hear about your duncan and zoas. As for your zoas are you able to test your iodine levels? They tend to not do well with low iodine. Lugol’s makes a great iodine supplement. Good luck.

I'll definitely give that a look. What surprises me is how they took off (1-3 polyps of each type to 30+ in many cases) and then started to suffer a single colony at a time. My other colonies are still spreading all the while. Really seems something more localized than a water parameter but that's a great observation and i'll be checking it out.

I've also considered going back to dosing vitamin c. I did so many years ago in my first bunch of years in the hobby and it seemed to really help, specifically with zoas.

 

[astiesi]

These first 3 pictures are from 11/18. As you can see this is one of the periods where I was battling a bit of cyano but otherwise things were doing well.

Here is a quick picture taken on 11/29. I picked up this cherub angel and couldn't have been happier with its temperament and ability to get along with my bully clowns. In fact, there was no aggression either way and he did great for quite a few weeks. The morning he died I was marveling at this as I've had nothing but aggression issues with my female clown and he was still happy, swimming, and eating. About an hour later I find him next to the pistol shrimps cave, same place I've found the 6-line wrasse I added as well as the cleaner shrimp who was a resident for 6+ months. This is also the CUC graveyard. While I didn't want to blame the pistol (I always thought they died and were just "cleaned up"), after seeing the angel's health 1 hour prior I am certain it was killed and the pistol is the prime suspect. I haven't been this bummed about losing a fish in quite a while...

And some additional photos from 11/29. This was the zoa garden in its prime.

A quick FTS from 12/12. Not the greatest shot as it was right after a water change but during December the cyano was basically non-existent.

And finally a few photos from 1/18/23. As you can see cyano is back, HA is thriving but only on the top of the rock structure, and the zoas are pretty much decimated. But, as you can see the blue stylo now has multiple branches and even the relatively new green stylo frag is splitting, all with great polyp extension. The roller coaster ride continues...

 

[nuxx]

Looking great so far