Beware the Shallows! An 80g Reef Reboot

skinz78 · Oct 3, 2014

Love the Gorg's, how many did you just add?

skinz78 · Oct 3, 2014

And what's KPA?

jedimasterben · Oct 4, 2014

skinz78 said:
Love the Gorg's, how many did you just add?

I ordered seven and received eight

skinz78 said:
And what's KPA?

KP Aquatics, aka Sealife, Inc. Sea Life Inc.

Run by two people that go and collect everything, Kara and Philipp. Got to actually meet Philipp and pick up some live rock from him, he's really cool, got to hear a lot about their process and some cool stuff about the business

skinz78 · Oct 4, 2014

Nice, I'll check them out!

jedimasterben · Oct 4, 2014

Definitely do if you're looking for anything Caribbean - their prices are unreal for what you get. My order was $180 including shipping and tax, and I got so much for it!

jedimasterben · Oct 6, 2014

So I went and bought some frosted window film from Home Depot today. Was a real ***** to install, and it doesn't look all that great. Yay!

Muriceopsis flavida

I keep forgetting I have the camera in manual mode, so some of the pics are a little too dark.

Already shedding.

And after nearly two weeks of being closed up tight, my green leather is coming back around

Maroon clown is a bit beat up, but that's ok, whatever it takes to keep it male. It also is only allowed near the anemone at night.

jedimasterben · Oct 9, 2014

jedimasterben · Nov 29, 2014

Whoops, forgot about this thread.

I added a 55w UV Sterilizer as a test to see if it will affect the dinos any. Been running since 11/4, but not sure if it has really had an effect as I've also been doing 3-day blackouts at the end of every other week. Hopefully this is a one-two punch that keeps them dormant. I don't mind the $30/yr to buy a new 55w UV bulb.

I also removed my sandbed on 11/14 and put down white HDPE, aka 'starboard'. I had it cut in two pieces so that I would not need to remove all the rocks and stuff to place it in. I did this in order to give the dinoflagellates a less-rough surface to try and cling to. I don't particularly like the no-sand look, but the white looks worlds better than having nothing there at all.

Too much rock over here, but these rocks have some of the prettiest feather dusters I have that are inside the rock (not like stuck to the side or anything), so I'll deal for now.

My black clown has been developing this orange stripe on its back. Wat.

Got a powder brown tang on 11/21. Loves LRS and both him and the rabbitfish love the gracilaria I collected for them

Here is the sargassum trigger I got 11/18. He is getting much more active now that he is adjusted more to the tank life, and feeding LRS 'Herbivore Frenzy' really makes him go nuts! He is tubby

LOOK AT HOW TUBBY. ONE TUBBY TUBBY. TWO TUBBY TUBBY.

And I FINALLY found the molly I was looking for. Took me a year and a half to find another. This one is a male, and survived the drop straight from freshwater to full salt, no acclimation, and does not mind the high flow of the tank.

I checked a couple of rock schmutz samples like I have been under a microscope. Instead of the typical 20-30 each dead and live dinos, I found zero dead and two live. Improvement? seems like it! Between the 55w UV sterilizer and 3-day blackouts every other week or so it seems to be doing something. Maybe.

jedimasterben · Dec 1, 2014

nanokeeper · Dec 9, 2014

Tank looks amazing and I love your coral and fish selection. The Gorgs are gorgeous. I've bought two scribbled rabbit fish (one online and one local) and both died within a few weeks even though they were eating and showed no signs of stress. Those are the only two fish that have ever died in my 14 years of reef keeping. I'm going to have to setup a quarantine take for the next one. I have a bubble algae problem that I'd really like a rabbitfish to help out with.

Where did you buy your's?

jedimasterben · Dec 9, 2014

nanokeeper said:
Tank looks amazing and I love your coral and fish selection. The Gorgs are gorgeous. I've bought two scribbled rabbit fish (one online and one local) and both died within a few weeks even though they were eating and showed no signs of stress. Those are the only two fish that have ever died in my 14 years of reef keeping. I'm going to have to setup a quarantine take for the next one. I have a bubble algae problem that I'd really like a rabbitfish to help out with.

Where did you buy your's?

This is my third S. doliatus, all three from Diver's Den. I've long battled a very, very hardy strain of ich, and I presume that is what got the first two. With that being said, they are extremely hardy fish but don't always come without complications. All three were received with internal worms, though, so I would make sure to run through a round of praziquantel.

nanokeeper · Dec 9, 2014

jedimasterben said:
This is my third S. doliatus, all three from Diver's Den. I've long battled a very, very hardy strain of ich, and I presume that is what got the first two. With that being said, they are extremely hardy fish but don't always come without complications. All three were received with internal worms, though, so I would make sure to run through a round of praziquantel.

More great info. I will definitely do that once I have a quarantine setup. I really want any further fish I buy to live. It's the little things that count. ;-)

jedimasterben · Dec 15, 2014

Before we get to the scaping, look at my purigen! Yikes! This is what it looks like after a five day blackout, full of dino toxins! Yum!

But a little bleach and an hour and we get this:

I got a Canon nifty fifty. I like it, but still gotta get used to it. This is all autofocus, it's not easy to do manual on such a small lens lol

On to the scape!

The new goni. Still not full polyp extension, but I've moved it around like nine times today while scaping lol

Bubbles is like uh, what

Clyde is all OMG WHAT

Tinycat is all just let me sleep.

Took a few more pics before the lights went out.

Scarlet hermit from reefcleaners harassing one of my euplica snails lol

The gang.

jedimasterben · Dec 15, 2014

(Very excitedly) got some shots of the green banded goby today.

Top down of the clown/nem.

Picasa darkened this pic, but can anyone guess what this is?

revhtree · Dec 15, 2014

Great shots man! I have thought about getting a nifty fifty at well!

jedimasterben · Dec 15, 2014

It's a great little lens. Manual focus ring is a little close to the camera body for my taste, I never use autofocus, so it makes it a bit harder to do so. Pics come out sharp, even sharper than my sister's Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 did, and that was some good glass.

Thanks rev!