Caleb's first reef tank

[tbrown]

Six line last (or look at a less aggressive variety - maybe a four line?). Fairy or Flasher should be good if you want color and movement.

I like the Springers Damsel or Dottybacks.

 

[Impunitus]

Six line last (or look at a less aggressive variety - maybe a four line?). Fairy or Flasher should be good if you want color and movement.

I like the Springers Damsel or Dottybacks.

Flasher is another one I was looking at! Would it be too much to do a fairy and flasher in a 60?

 

[tbrown]

Flasher is another one I was looking at! Would it be too much to do a fairy and flasher in a 60?

@Slocke @i cant think

 

[Slocke]

Flasher is another one I was looking at! Would it be too much to do a fairy and flasher in a 60?

If you got a small fairy then probably

 

[Impunitus]

Hope everyone had a great day! I'm enjoying the week of madness at work before a week off for Christmas :)

Phosphates have stabilized at/around 0.2. I'd like to keep my normal between 0.1 and 0.2 so will work on slowly pulling down now.

Going to try and make a false bottom in the middle chamber of my AIO during my week off. Dual purpose in getting the skimmer sitting properly, as well as hopefully fitting a little bit of live rock underneath that false floor. The skimmer is making skimmate, but its more wet than I think I want. Its dark but not as nasty as I have seen videos of before.

Thank you for the wrasse guidance! More homework for me to do now. I love the chart, makes it a lot easier for a first timer like myself.

 

[Impunitus]

Progress update for bringing my Alk back up and figuring out what my daily dose needs to be. Have been doing 5ml of AFR to help bring it up. At 8.6 after 4 days of 5ml in the morning. Going to do one more day of 5ml then try 2.5 for maintaining. Calcium was at 450 when I tested today so that is in a good place as well.

Will share results! Happy Wednesday :)

 

[Tinklez]

Hey man, how are you liking the lights after have it set up? Do you have two XR 15s right? I bought the 50 Luger, and have one XR 30. Do you think in retrospect, you would still recommend the XR 15’s? I haven’t set mine up yet and still are in the return window

 

[Impunitus]

Hey man, how are you liking the lights after have it set up? Do you have two XR 15s right? I bought the 50 Luger, and have one XR 30. Do you think in retrospect, you would still recommend the XR 15’s? I haven’t set mine up yet and still are in the return window

I am liking them and I think going with two XR15s over a single XR30 was the right call. I'm running them at 50% right now which I think is roughly where the XR30 would be as well.

The big benefit I have is being able to have more full coverage of my tank. Also if for some reason one dies I still have a single light that I can run harder to fill the gap for the time being. I followed the same methodology with my heaters as well as returns. I come from the IT world so 'one is none and 2 is one' is a thought process burned into my brain.

 

[Impunitus]

Phosphates remain solid at 0.2! I've just been doing the same thing, so glad we are remaining stable more than anything else :)

Nitrates are climbing, and I can likely thank my lack of a water change for that. At 18.1 currently. Slowly rising even with the skimmer going. Will continue to monitor and see if I hit a plateau or if it continues to climb.

First day of 2.5ml of AFR. Before dosing alk was at 8.7. Will test tomorrow before dosing again.

But now I have a question and looking for thoughts on what this is. See a video and a few pictures of my duncan below. Was going to feed and noticed the duncan was more bright in a little spot. I'm not sure if this is somehow damage, I'm not sure from what because it is in a frag rack on the glass. Or maybe the start of a new head and this one is splitting? This almost looks like new growth, but also haven't had this shoot a new head that I noticed at least.

 

[Impunitus]

Bumping! Hoping someone has any ideas on what may be going on with my duncan. Looks just as happy as it has for a few weeks. Hoping this is a new head!

 

[skey44]

Bumping! Hoping someone has any ideas on what may be going on with my duncan. Looks just as happy as it has for a few weeks. Hoping this is a new head!

I don’t see a lot to get concerned or excited about. Cannot tell a lot from the pic, but looks ok. I would just keep an eye on it for progression. Wouldn’t do anything and continue to observe.

 

[Impunitus]

Playing around with the new camera, but also noticed the wife's BTA moved a bit and was looking pretty cool under the morning blues her tank starts with before going to a more full spectrum. We have an XR15 Pro on hers rather than the Blues on mine, but she was a fan of morning/bedtime blues on her tank.

I do not currently have the willpower to make a second tank thread for this, so will share pictures/videos of her tank in here from time to time :)

 

[tbrown]

Question on the Duncan: any changes?

Usually, when my Duncan grows, it buds below the existing heads and the new baby grows.

Not saying they don't split, just that I've never noticed any of mine do that.

 

[Impunitus]

Question on the Duncan: any changes?

Usually, when my Duncan grows, it buds below the existing heads and the new baby grows.

Not saying they don't split, just that I've never noticed any of mine do that.

Nothing massive! Will take another look when we get home from breakfast

 

[TheNative192]

Found a new hitchhiker tonight! Some sort of crab that I need to ID still, just wanted to share what we found after taking a look at the tank after lights off when we got home from dinner.

As always, keep on getting surprised with cool things like this. May not be reef safe but nothing in the tank for it to hurt at this point that isn't replaceable. Let me know if you have any thoughts for ID. I'm off to Google and the TBS hitchhikers list to see if I can make a match.

I assume someone said but that is a Porcelain Crab (a good guy) following along!

 

[Impunitus]

I assume someone said but that is a Porcelain Crab (a good guy) following along!

Yes someone did point me in that direction! I actually have 3 now that have been growing. Much more outgoing now after a few months. They are often under/on the same rock as each other and my 3 peppermint shrimp!

@tbrown

Took a better look at the Duncan after we got home. Whatever I was concerned about on it is no longer present (helicopter coral dad after my experience with the hammer...). I do not see any buds on below the existing heads. My understanding was they budded and didn't split so I was nervous when I saw what looked like splitting in a pretty established head.

A couple photos of my different crabs :) still getting the ropes of using a real camera and not a phone.

 

[Impunitus]

Also a FTS from a few days ago. The back wall is getting nasty looking, but I'm going to let it keep doing its thing as it is not hurting anything at this point. Long term goal is for the back to be a GSP wall, but letting the rock from my LFS get completely covered before I try to encourage it going to the wall or fragging some of it onto a part of the wall. The snails also enjoy eating from it, so its serving a purpose.

My leathers have been very temperamental recently. They have very minimal extension, but not what I'm used to on either of them. Have been playing with location in the tank to see if its a lighting or flow issue but not really making a difference. I just blow them off with a baster and have been making sure they aren't completely dead.

I am getting coraline growth on my Orbit and on my returns though! Rock has a few spots where its growing as well, so I'm doing something right! Can't wait until my rock isn't green anymore. The lights do help to hide that fact though :)

 

[Impunitus]

Saw the mantis again today, and got a good video of him. He is in the cluster of rocks in the bottom right of my FTS above. This little guy is very mobile! He has been spotted all over the tank now haha

 

[Impunitus]

Got some pictures to share today from both tanks :)

My mini branching hammer which has thankfully not dropped anymore heads. I'm half temped to chop it off the frag plug its on and putting on one I can put in my frag racks to keep it away from my peppermint shrimp. I've recently caught them picking food from it which I'm sure isn't going to help this things chances.

You can see my GSP behind it, and also below. My LFS gave me this rock for cheap and it had a fairly established colony already, it has really grown out a lot since then!

That same rock also had a macro algae you can slightly see in the above, but you can see it better in this picture with my clowns

Wife's FTS below. So much fun life on this TBS rock!

You can see this light bulb nem in the FTS, but here is a better picture of it. Top right of the cave rock. Some might call it aptasia (because it is!) but its not supposed to be as invasive as indo aptasia. If it becomes a problem we can order nubis.

A smaller version of that nem

A good view of the blue sponge/whatever it is that my wife loves. Also these red macros that are doing super well and making the tank look exactly what the wife is looking for

And a shot of the anemone my wife got on a whim. It is going well, accepts being fed and seems to have found its happy place in the tank for now. This thing really is beautiful, I'm super happy my wife obliged her tank being a saltwater tank so we could have anemones and her macro algaes :)

 

[Impunitus]

These cup corals are another favorite.