Biff's 233g 'automate all the things' & poverty fish room build

Gumbies R Us

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Long time, no update, let's change that! It's been a long, painful journey thanks to the good 'ole dino's and VIBRANT documented above. Never again, lol. The tank is really doing a lot better these days, and I'm super happy. No more dino (yay!), coraline is growing again, all algea is gone, and now I'm keeping lps & sps!

Things that I've done since the last udpate-
  • stopped dosing vibrant
  • more regular water changes
  • added an ATS
  • let the tank settle and get healthy since vibrant was destroying all the good bacteria
  • added some more live rock from an older tank to add biodiversity
  • testing, and more testing
  • patience!!
So I slowly added corals once I felt like the tank was ready. The first things I added were some easier to care for coral

The first was an octo, gonia, and a space invader in April'22
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The only thing to survive is the octo and the gonia is on its last legs - space invaded did NOT make it. The gonia is hanging on now that the tank is fully healthy but it is def not thriving.

I then added a forrest fire digi in May'22
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...that didn't last long, 1 week later-
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but I also added a torch which still is not thriving but is alive and ok
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Once I was able to keep the LPS alive (heads splitting, no issues from what I could tell) I decided to add an easier sps, a monti - added May'22

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...it didn't like my tank... by early June'22 it was bleached (no lighting / alk changes)
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... rest in peace forrest fire digi...
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but by Sept'22, the monti recovered! And it started to encrust
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so in Sept'22 I also got some more torches since the first one was still living (lol) and sps was still a long shot. I needed some sort of corals in the tank. I added a nyn and a cotton candy

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both are alive and doing well today! In december my alkatronic freaked out and was giving me incorrect readings, and I had ran out of hanna tests AND got laid off (fun fun).

I splurged on some hanna alk tests and realized alk was way off which is why my monti looked like this-
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but once I dialied things in, it recovered again-
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by march'23 I was employed again, I was able to limp the tank along for those 3 months of hell. Finally, I felt like it was time to try some sps again, so I bought a cheap test frag. It's ugly, but got the job done.

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it started to thrive (didn't do the typical flesh peel o death (s/rtn)) so I knew it was go time. I tried the forrest fire digi again at the end of mar'23

Day 1, ticked
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a few days later, fat and happy-
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I noticed the digi was growing!, so I got a little more bold and picked up tsa the fuzz and an ora blue tort in mid May'23. I also picked up the fuzz to ensure I didn't have any fish nipping at polyps...I do have a pygmy angel in the tank

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crappy pic of the fuzz
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by late May'23 the digi was taking off-
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So in late may of '23 I picked up a slimer too
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and Finally, in early July'23, I picked up a large pack of sps!

JF Foxflame
RMF Tigers Blood
BC Hyperberry
BC Bonfire
JF Blowtorch
WWC Electric Melon
ARC Fireworks
BC Aquatic Man
TSA Bill Murray
Vivids Confetti
JF Jolt
CC Pink Highlighter

It's now 3 weeks later and all of the frags are starting to encrust on their plugs nicely, I can't wait to see these take off!!

fts (no filter, sorry)
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...slimer doing well...
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...and the orginial lps are doing great!! many heads on the nyn, dragon, cotton candy, and octo!
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and major shout out to the OG mushrooms which survived it ALL!
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Anyways, good update, hoping my next one will be just as awesome!
Some amazing progress!! Curious to know if you have a personal favorite coral from all of that!
 
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Biff0rz

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Some amazing progress!! Curious to know if you have a personal favorite coral from all of that!
You know, that's a tough question to answer lol. I'd say today, since the corals are just frags, the RMF Tigers Blood looks awesome in it's current form. Looking at grown out picture, jf jolt will likely be a hard coral to beat.
 
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ScottB

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You know, that's a tooth question to answer lol. I'd say today, since the corals are just frags, the RMF Tigers Blood looks awesome in it's current form. Looking at grown out picture, jf jolt will likely be a hard coral to beat.
It is an amazing list. Might be hard to choose at this point. Decide in 6 months.
 
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Biff0rz

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Added some new sticks this week...

Garf bonsai
Pc Rainbow
Tsa reaper
Strip tease
Poto Side chick
WWC Heart breaker
Golden rod
Black jack

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Large pc rainbow

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Reaper and strip tease with some digi frag flanks

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Poto side chick

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Reaper

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Golden rod

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Strip tease, can't wait for this to grow out!

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WWC Heart breaker

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Same rainbow

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Black jack

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Garf bonsai
 

fishguy242

Cronies..... INSERT BUILD THREAD BADGE HERE !!
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1st dibs on frags... ;)
nice pieces ,nice colors ...:)
 

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