Beware the Shallows! An 80g Reef Reboot
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
These are the same. About 1.25-1.5" being generous.
Pappy
Valuable Member
I think it depends on where you live. I pay wholesale price at my lfs and his cost in turn my cost was $38 also. He sells for $60 I believe normally which is very fair considering what he pays.
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Tank is moved! Huzzah! The light is still at least a couple of weeks away, though 
Filling her up!
Put in my newer shipment of live rock from KPA. Still not impressed with it
This is what the holding can looked like after scrubbing the rock with a soft brush to get some of the algae off of it.
All the rock also got a freshwater dip. I'll be danged if I'm going to let dinos back into this system.
A couple of cool white CFL for now. Gives about 50 PAR on the rock.
Closeup of the two nicest rocks, the only ones that really have any life on them. No copepods, no amphipods, no worms or anything on any of them. Le sigh.
At least I have one legally obtained Caribbean stony coral.
Because the tank still sucks, here are some Gerbera daisies
Filling her up!
Put in my newer shipment of live rock from KPA. Still not impressed with it
This is what the holding can looked like after scrubbing the rock with a soft brush to get some of the algae off of it.
All the rock also got a freshwater dip. I'll be danged if I'm going to let dinos back into this system.
A couple of cool white CFL for now. Gives about 50 PAR on the rock.
Closeup of the two nicest rocks, the only ones that really have any life on them. No copepods, no amphipods, no worms or anything on any of them. Le sigh.
At least I have one legally obtained Caribbean stony coral.
Because the tank still sucks, here are some Gerbera daisies
Lilmatty5dimes
2500 Club Member
awesome tank. following along to get ideas.
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
I wouldn't really call it an awesome tank. It's still really crappy lol
Lilmatty5dimes
2500 Club Member
i know the potentially this set up has and believe your going to make it quite epic. plus when i'm done from my break in the hobby i was looking at doing the same thing. lol 80g rimless as a display and a 30g rimless as a frag tank. def following this one to see how it goes.
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
The 30g is now its own separate tank that's going in the living room where this tank used to be. My wife has actually claimed it as her tank lol, and she's made me a list of all the stuff she wants in it. It was originally going to be a Caribbean biotope, but not now lol. Biggest problem with that tank is getting a custom sump made to fit into the stand, I've emailed a couple of people about it but have not gotten any replies yet. I'll have a separate thread up for that tank.
For this one, the Nanobox light housing is ALMOST finished! I'm so excited, I've got basically everything except that and one more set of LEDs I'm waiting on stock of, and then I can finally have a good light system! The Coral Compulsion 40w 18K PAR38 and a 5000K 26w CFL just aren't cutting it lol.
There was a frag swap this Sunday, PBMAS. About a two hour drive or so, and to be honest it wasn't worth it. Everyone seems to think that they're Jason Fox. Picked up a half a dozen corals that I had pre-purchased from Reefgardener and bought a small 'dragon soul' favia frag, and that was it. By far the worst swap I'd ever been to.
The favia.
Three D. sanctithomae mushrooms and a yuma.
The yuma had a mini-brittle star on the rock and several feather dusters, I'm a happy Jedi
After the swap, on my way home I picked up a strawberry crab from my normal LFS (that isn't actually local lol). He is special since he only has six legs
Also, the sand in the tank is what I had in it before I took it down. I siphoned it all out, drained the water from it, and left it outside from the end of December to the middle of March, so it's seen both freezing temperatures some nights and 85-90F days, tons of rain, and just all around harsh conditions. When I rinsed it out to put it back in, I removed most of the snail shells and such, but I did leave a couple of them in. What did I see the day after putting the sand in?
I don't know how it survived, but it did! So he's my full cleanup crew so far
My corals, inverts, and the only live rock worth keeping 'live' from the previous tank are still chilling in the little 14g Biocube I put them in. Today I'm going to do my first in a series of freshwater dips/scrubbings to attempt to be rid of dinoflagellates once and for all. I've been messaging back and forth with a biologist that actually studies dinoflagellates and has taken samples and identified species in peoples' tanks before, and I'm sending him a sample before I attempt eradication. The plan is to have two 10g tanks filled up. I'm going to take all of the rock and coral and place them into a bucket of pH-matched water that will be ~10-15ppt in salinity. The premise is that a large, immediate salinity swing bursts the cell walls of the dinoflagellates, and while freshwater would be best, I have a lot of inverts I don't particularly want to lose if they can't tolerate the dip, so I was recommended a dip with a brackish salinity, as it will still kill the bajeezus out of dinoflagellates. The rock and inverts will then go into one of the 10g tanks to hold them, and the Biocube will be sterilized.
The only issue with dinoflagellates is that some species form cysts (think like ich and brooklynella, which are both dinoflagellates, the cysts that fall off the fish hatch in 3-72 days to make sure that they find favorable conditions), and the freshwater/low salinity dip will not break the cyst. Every 7 days, I will be performing another dip in the hopes that any cysts that would have hatched will be killed. I will be dosing small amounts of vitamin c, which intensely fuels dinoflagellate growth in my experience, to attempt to create favorable conditions so the cysts will rupture so I can attempt eradication again and again. After each dip, everything will be placed into the other 10g holding tank, and the previous one will be drained and sterilized with muriatic acid (or possibly heat, I'm not sure how much heat I'd need to burst the cysts, though), then refilled to be ready for the next dip.
The corals in the holding tank are all doing ok. I've lost a few due to fighting, but the dinoflagellates have seemed to stay attached to only a couple of corals total. Some of the corals are wholly unaffected by them, and have not only increased dramatically in coloration (in the case of my Palythoa grandis) or have had considerable growth. The only maintenance on this tank is to fill the system back up when the pump starts sucking air, and one time I did it with saltwater. Whoops. Everything was fine, and still is, though. Took a couple of pics of my Sympodium for somebody. The GSP is starting to grow over to it, and that mushroom is REALLY stretching for the light, up through the frag rack and took out two acans, a goniopora, and an alveopora.
Also, coralline in that tank has absolutely exploded like I've never seen before. I haven't been able to grow coralline for the life of me, yet in that little tank, it is thriving!
I think that about catches up to now. Hopefully within the next two weeks I will not only have the light housings but have them assembled, too
For this one, the Nanobox light housing is ALMOST finished! I'm so excited, I've got basically everything except that and one more set of LEDs I'm waiting on stock of, and then I can finally have a good light system! The Coral Compulsion 40w 18K PAR38 and a 5000K 26w CFL just aren't cutting it lol.
There was a frag swap this Sunday, PBMAS. About a two hour drive or so, and to be honest it wasn't worth it. Everyone seems to think that they're Jason Fox. Picked up a half a dozen corals that I had pre-purchased from Reefgardener and bought a small 'dragon soul' favia frag, and that was it. By far the worst swap I'd ever been to.
The favia.
Three D. sanctithomae mushrooms and a yuma.
The yuma had a mini-brittle star on the rock and several feather dusters, I'm a happy Jedi
After the swap, on my way home I picked up a strawberry crab from my normal LFS (that isn't actually local lol). He is special since he only has six legs
Also, the sand in the tank is what I had in it before I took it down. I siphoned it all out, drained the water from it, and left it outside from the end of December to the middle of March, so it's seen both freezing temperatures some nights and 85-90F days, tons of rain, and just all around harsh conditions. When I rinsed it out to put it back in, I removed most of the snail shells and such, but I did leave a couple of them in. What did I see the day after putting the sand in?
I don't know how it survived, but it did! So he's my full cleanup crew so far
My corals, inverts, and the only live rock worth keeping 'live' from the previous tank are still chilling in the little 14g Biocube I put them in. Today I'm going to do my first in a series of freshwater dips/scrubbings to attempt to be rid of dinoflagellates once and for all. I've been messaging back and forth with a biologist that actually studies dinoflagellates and has taken samples and identified species in peoples' tanks before, and I'm sending him a sample before I attempt eradication. The plan is to have two 10g tanks filled up. I'm going to take all of the rock and coral and place them into a bucket of pH-matched water that will be ~10-15ppt in salinity. The premise is that a large, immediate salinity swing bursts the cell walls of the dinoflagellates, and while freshwater would be best, I have a lot of inverts I don't particularly want to lose if they can't tolerate the dip, so I was recommended a dip with a brackish salinity, as it will still kill the bajeezus out of dinoflagellates. The rock and inverts will then go into one of the 10g tanks to hold them, and the Biocube will be sterilized.
The only issue with dinoflagellates is that some species form cysts (think like ich and brooklynella, which are both dinoflagellates, the cysts that fall off the fish hatch in 3-72 days to make sure that they find favorable conditions), and the freshwater/low salinity dip will not break the cyst. Every 7 days, I will be performing another dip in the hopes that any cysts that would have hatched will be killed. I will be dosing small amounts of vitamin c, which intensely fuels dinoflagellate growth in my experience, to attempt to create favorable conditions so the cysts will rupture so I can attempt eradication again and again. After each dip, everything will be placed into the other 10g holding tank, and the previous one will be drained and sterilized with muriatic acid (or possibly heat, I'm not sure how much heat I'd need to burst the cysts, though), then refilled to be ready for the next dip.
The corals in the holding tank are all doing ok. I've lost a few due to fighting, but the dinoflagellates have seemed to stay attached to only a couple of corals total. Some of the corals are wholly unaffected by them, and have not only increased dramatically in coloration (in the case of my Palythoa grandis) or have had considerable growth. The only maintenance on this tank is to fill the system back up when the pump starts sucking air, and one time I did it with saltwater. Whoops. Everything was fine, and still is, though. Took a couple of pics of my Sympodium for somebody. The GSP is starting to grow over to it, and that mushroom is REALLY stretching for the light, up through the frag rack and took out two acans, a goniopora, and an alveopora.
Also, coralline in that tank has absolutely exploded like I've never seen before. I haven't been able to grow coralline for the life of me, yet in that little tank, it is thriving!
I think that about catches up to now. Hopefully within the next two weeks I will not only have the light housings but have them assembled, too
OP
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Did the first low salinity dip on all my corals.
New holding tanks set up in place of the 20L fish QT.
How bad the dinos are in the three places they grow.
So my fingers kinda burn.
All done. Put in some filter floss and KZ coral snow to help clean up.
Can't really pick up how awesome my nems look under this 'ghetto' light.
So the one on the right was kinda under a rock for the past three months.... whoops.
New holding tanks set up in place of the 20L fish QT.
How bad the dinos are in the three places they grow.
So my fingers kinda burn.
All done. Put in some filter floss and KZ coral snow to help clean up.
Can't really pick up how awesome my nems look under this 'ghetto' light.
So the one on the right was kinda under a rock for the past three months.... whoops.
OP
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
There are literally piles of dead fire worms in the holding tank.
This one's around 3" long or so.
Corals are looking good though. Put a Coral Compulsion 40w 18K PAR38 (my design ) over the corals to take some nicer pics without all the red.
I got these grandis palys last October from Aquascapers, they were poop brown, you can see them in the very left of this pic.
And now look at them!
I almost tossed this goniopora, I really don't know why I kept it and put it back on the rack, but I'm very glad I did - ONE polyp is clinging to life after being stung by the giant mushroom!
This blasto is toast.... but it looks like my green leather had a baby on it?
My friend's rock nem. Can't get a good pic of it, it's very red, not orange.
My favorite things ever. Seriously considering a tank just with a crapload of them.
I also got some goodies yesterday. Three little blue chromis, an ORA blackline blenny, and a surprise that is red (not a fish, though). I'll try and get some pics of it today
This one's around 3" long or so.
Corals are looking good though. Put a Coral Compulsion 40w 18K PAR38 (my design
) over the corals to take some nicer pics without all the red.I got these grandis palys last October from Aquascapers, they were poop brown, you can see them in the very left of this pic.
And now look at them!
I almost tossed this goniopora, I really don't know why I kept it and put it back on the rack, but I'm very glad I did - ONE polyp is clinging to life after being stung by the giant mushroom!
This blasto is toast.... but it looks like my green leather had a baby on it?
My friend's rock nem. Can't get a good pic of it, it's very red, not orange.
My favorite things ever. Seriously considering a tank just with a crapload of them.
I also got some goodies yesterday. Three little blue chromis, an ORA blackline blenny, and a surprise that is red (not a fish, though). I'll try and get some pics of it today
OP
OP
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
The blackline blenny, Meiacanthus nigrolineatus
Yucky algae.
Goniastrea from PJ86, DAYUM it's bright!
Bicolor hammer and frogspawn from Reefgardener
This is some kind of coral.
Yucky algae.
Goniastrea from PJ86, DAYUM it's bright!
Bicolor hammer and frogspawn from Reefgardener
This is some kind of coral.
I can't believe you went to the PBMAS swap and didn't say hi to me! I was next to Morgan, my dragon souls were so much nicer!
Also, if your filtering your own water, as precaution change out the filters. You might have chloramines which TDS doesn't mean anything. Essentially your adding ammonia into the tank which things like montis die first, then acans, hair algae, browned out SPS. If you had a Jedi Mind Trick monti, it was the first to go. I've saved a lot of tanks already and you sound like you've had similar problems. I've been through it myself and it's a PITA. I lost all my prized acans and 2 fish that did excellent in the tank.
Also, if your filtering your own water, as precaution change out the filters. You might have chloramines which TDS doesn't mean anything. Essentially your adding ammonia into the tank which things like montis die first, then acans, hair algae, browned out SPS. If you had a Jedi Mind Trick monti, it was the first to go.
I've saved a lot of tanks already and you sound like you've had similar problems. I've been through it myself and it's a PITA. I lost all my prized acans and 2 fish that did excellent in the tank.
OP
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Wait, you were there? I swear I looked for you! Maybe it's just been awhile since I saw you, I thought I remembered what you looked like but apparently I didn't lol. I brought a bunch of cash hoping you were there, you've always got good stuff.I can't believe you went to the PBMAS swap and didn't say hi to me! I was next to Morgan, my dragon souls were so much nicer!
Also, if your filtering your own water, as precaution change out the filters. You might have chloramines which TDS doesn't mean anything. Essentially your adding ammonia into the tank which things like montis die first, then acans, hair algae, browned out SPS. If you had a Jedi Mind Trick monti, it was the first to go.
I have a well that I draw water from, so I've got a general idea of what's in the water. I have a treatment system, too, an aerator removes sulfur and adds a little chlorine, the softener removes hardness, and a carbon filter removes the chlorine, and then on the RO/DI system the 0.5m sediment and 0.5m carbon blocks are new. The tap water doesn't have a chlorine smell, neither does the RO/DI, plus during mixing the chlorine would off gas like ammonia due to the mixing.
The hair algae was on the rock very soon after I got it. I went to Ft. Lauderdale to pick it up, so it was always in water from the time it left KPA, so I didn't think that it would have such a hard cure. A couple of days after I had it sitting in a garbage can with new saltwater (with light and strong flow), the water was thick and white and smelled up my whole house with a death smell. I drain the water, move it to another can with more new saltwater, and in the bottom were thousands of dead fireworms, one of which was 8-12" long :shocked:
Overall I'm still not impressed with this rock, I shouldn't have given in and gotten cured rock instead of just waiting for uncured, my shipment of uncured rock from them before was just awesome, that rock is STILL gorgeous even though it's in a tank that's half lit and is my experimental tank, with freshwater dips, peroxide, blackouts, etc. But, I digress lol.
OP
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jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
I finally got some spare time to clean the dry rock from the tank with muriatic acid.
Be safe when dealing with strong acids, guys.
Also, don't miscalculate how much acid to add. Bad choice.
Still not done, let's add a box of baking soda.
Ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Four boxes later, it still wasn't done, so I stuck the hose into it and turned it on (the well water is very, very high pH and hardness) and dumped out what I could, and let everything rinse several times before touching.
Powder sand, anyone? (and this is what didn't get dumped out when I was trying to stop the reaction)
Just need a strong rinse and they're good to G-O
I found my friend's mantis that I didn't think was alive
Put most of the rock in the tank/sump a couple days later. I put a lot in the display, and almost all the rest into the sump to get it nice and bacteria...y. A lot of the rock from KPA will be coming out of the display and put into the display fuge and into the 30g tank eventually, for now not sure where to stick them so the coralline doesn't die
A red mini carpet anemone, Stichodactyla sp., can't find any data on the species name of it.
The brain coral from Reefgardener, finally starting to puff up
Be safe when dealing with strong acids, guys.
Also, don't miscalculate how much acid to add. Bad choice.
Still not done, let's add a box of baking soda.
Ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Four boxes later, it still wasn't done, so I stuck the hose into it and turned it on (the well water is very, very high pH and hardness) and dumped out what I could, and let everything rinse several times before touching.
Powder sand, anyone? (and this is what didn't get dumped out when I was trying to stop the reaction)
Just need a strong rinse and they're good to G-O
I found my friend's mantis that I didn't think was alive
Put most of the rock in the tank/sump a couple days later. I put a lot in the display, and almost all the rest into the sump to get it nice and bacteria...y. A lot of the rock from KPA will be coming out of the display and put into the display fuge and into the 30g tank eventually, for now not sure where to stick them so the coralline doesn't die
A red mini carpet anemone, Stichodactyla sp., can't find any data on the species name of it.
The brain coral from Reefgardener, finally starting to puff up
OP
OP
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
This conch is doing his damnedest to clean my rocks :hail:
But he'll be having some backup coming Tuesday from LiveAquaria.
Ctenochaetus truncatus
Siganus doliatus
Also got a 'Grubes' gorgonian, Pinnogorgia flava
I had another trio of money cowries in my cart, but I was waiting on a Paypal payment to come in and by the time it did, they were sold :mad2:
But he'll be having some backup coming Tuesday from LiveAquaria.
Ctenochaetus truncatus
Siganus doliatus
Also got a 'Grubes' gorgonian, Pinnogorgia flava
I had another trio of money cowries in my cart, but I was waiting on a Paypal payment to come in and by the time it did, they were sold :mad2:
OP
OP
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Fishies are ok!
Rabbitfish is showing its normal coloration after a couple of hours in the tank now.
The tang is beautiful and WITTLE BITTY
Two different lights hitting it
Rabbitfish is showing its normal coloration after a couple of hours in the tank now.
The tang is beautiful and WITTLE BITTY
Two different lights hitting it
OP
OP
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
So I've been reading about regenerating Purigen with peroxide instead of bleach. Had to try it
This purigen has been dry for four months or so.
Added about 200mL of peroxide, and it expanded to this.
A little more and I got to this.
And this morning I had this. wat
I also had two goals for today. One, to make the tank stop looking like a box of rocks, without yet removing any of the rock in there (since I don't want it to die without light). Two, to get the anemones out of the QT tank and into the display.
This is what I started with.
Decided to give the meat a snacky poo.
The nems were attached to my favorite rock. I was really upset that I had to smash it apart to get them off.
But after 25 minutes or so of careful pulling, tugging, smashing, and prying, here they are, a little worse for wear, but their feet weren't too banged up.
And this is what I ended up with. Half a dozen or so rocks will still be taken out, but nowhere to go or put them for right now.
Right side
Left side
Middle
My SPS 'frag' (either a pocillopora or stylophora) attached to the Grube's gorgonian is doing well.
Nems are already starting to get comfortable. Still have the pumps all off to let them settle down a bit.
Favia
This purigen has been dry for four months or so.
Added about 200mL of peroxide, and it expanded to this.
A little more and I got to this.
And this morning I had this. wat
I also had two goals for today. One, to make the tank stop looking like a box of rocks, without yet removing any of the rock in there (since I don't want it to die without light). Two, to get the anemones out of the QT tank and into the display.
This is what I started with.
Decided to give the meat a snacky poo.
The nems were attached to my favorite rock. I was really upset that I had to smash it apart to get them off.
But after 25 minutes or so of careful pulling, tugging, smashing, and prying, here they are, a little worse for wear, but their feet weren't too banged up.
And this is what I ended up with. Half a dozen or so rocks will still be taken out, but nowhere to go or put them for right now.
Right side
Left side
Middle
My SPS 'frag' (either a pocillopora or stylophora) attached to the Grube's gorgonian is doing well.
Nems are already starting to get comfortable. Still have the pumps all off to let them settle down a bit.
Favia
OP
OP
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Trachy and the newest maxi behind it. That one will be pulled from its rock and put on the one that the others are on soon.
Some ricordea. One I accidentally pulled in half, whoops.
My grandis palys, pulled them from the plug they were mounted to and gave them a good scrub and rinse.
More than likely all that will be left of my 'mind blowing' palys colony.
For reference, over 100 polyps:
My starlet coral.
Some ricordea. One I accidentally pulled in half, whoops.
My grandis palys, pulled them from the plug they were mounted to and gave them a good scrub and rinse.
More than likely all that will be left of my 'mind blowing' palys colony.
For reference, over 100 polyps:
My starlet coral.
OP
OP
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
She's a little bleached, but dumping food into it will fix that in a jiffy
Had two, one torpedoed out yesterday. This one seems sad, it's been looking mopey the whole time I've been home.
So this petri dish had a cover sitting on it that was at an angle, I guess this dude knocked it over sometime int he past couple of days, I noticed it today and removed it, and it was loaded with algae inside. I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose so he could do this.
Got this for $22 But this nem is a dick. I put it on the rock that has all of my other maxis, which is across the tank, and left the pumps off for several hours to let it attach. Well, the next day when I come home from work, I couldn't find it! I look, and find it in this little cup that used to have some ricordea in it lol
One of the ricordea was all *** you, I'm goin' home!
And a gorgeous feather duster
Had two, one torpedoed out yesterday. This one seems sad, it's been looking mopey the whole time I've been home.
So this petri dish had a cover sitting on it that was at an angle, I guess this dude knocked it over sometime int he past couple of days, I noticed it today and removed it, and it was loaded with algae inside. I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose so he could do this.
Got this for $22
But this nem is a dick. I put it on the rock that has all of my other maxis, which is across the tank, and left the pumps off for several hours to let it attach. Well, the next day when I come home from work, I couldn't find it! I look, and find it in this little cup that used to have some ricordea in it lol
One of the ricordea was all *** you, I'm goin' home!
And a gorgeous feather duster
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