Comeback Tour - Haggisman14's Eshopps Deskmate Build

[Haggisman14]

My Last BC order back from 5 years ago...CANNOT WAIT!

(must say I love my handy little frag rack that i put together with zip ties and egg crate!)

 

[Haggisman14]

 

[Haggisman14]

YESSSSS!!!

 

[Haggisman14]

I tell you...the day before delivery day is always the worst...b/c you just want it to be delivery day!

Really excited to see what Adam hooks me up with! I asked for a Fox Flame and PC Rainbow (2 of my all time favorites), and to surprise me with the rest. I've been drooling all over the recent Battleboxes that have been going out, and cannot wait to see the rest of the pack that he builds out!

Rest assured, tomorrow I"ll hit y'all up with some unboxing pics, and then follow up pics on Wednesday.

As always, thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Got a great Battlebox from Adam @Battlecorals this morning. He hooked me up with a Fox Flame, PC Rainbow, Poison Envy and Blue Tort. These frags are going to be amazing additions to my reef.

Within 5 minutes of being in my tank everything had polyps out.

The Blue Tort is thicker than my thumb (talk about a 'frag'), and has this absolutely insane teal-ish color to it, and is just beautiful.

The PC Rainbow & Fox Flame are 2 of my all time favorites. Nice big chunky flame, and a really tall PC frag.

The Poison Envy is one that I hadn't seen before, but looks like it'll be a really cool one as it grows out.

Now I'm working on figuring out where I"ll put all of these frags in my little Deskmate.

Thanks again Adam!

Honorable mention to @cromag27 and his Octoaquatics nano frag rack!

 

[Haggisman14]

So I'm never one to sit on my laurels when it comes to placing corals in their final resting place in my tanks, especially since the Radion has an "acclimation" phase, i'm not worried about the corals burning or anything like that by putting them in my tank.

Since the intensity of the light is lower, my camera isn't taking the best pictures right now, but here it goes. Since my new Blue Tort was SOOOO BIG, I had to relocate my alien eye candy cane to another area. This actually worked to my advantage b/c now I can see the green eye which is much more appealing than just the brown flesh on the sides. All new frags are along the top, with the exception of the blue tort. I don't think light "intensity" is going to be an issue for the blue tort, b/c even though it's at the "bottom" of my tank, it's only 16" from the light, and about 5" from the waterline.

Since it's hard to see the pictures b/c they do have that blue-ish tint, I circled where they are...starting at the blue tort (bottom right of the tank) going clockwise they are:

Blue Tort
PC Rainbow
Poison Envy
Fox Flame
Alien Eye Candy Cane (relocation)

 

[Haggisman14]

I also just made a little light "guard" for my Radion. The level at which my desk chair sits when I site back and view my tank puts my eyes right in line with the bottom of the Radion...and dang those little LEDs are bright! I had some acrylic left over from when I made my lid...cut 1 piece in half, doubled it up, and glued it to the bottom of the Radion....bingo bango, I no longer get "Blinded by the Light"

Might not be the aesthetic for everyone (those 3D printed shields are really nice), but for free, it's perfect!

Thanks for looking as always!

 

[Haggisman14]

Gotta love a good water change! Changed out 2 gallons, scrapped some algae, cleaned my return pump and RFG, and tank is looking crystal clear!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[Haggisman14]

So I came into the office this morning and overall everything was doing well. My Fox Flame is getting it's yellow tips, my Blue Tort is encursting even more and staying massive, and the Poisen Envy encrusted more over the weekend too. The bad news is that my PC Rainbow took a turn for the worse! It RTN's from the inside out. As of 8:52AM I still have a solid 1/4" base, and about 1/8" top that I can probably save. I'm thinking I'm going to cut it and try and save it.

Honestly I'm not sure what caused this to happen as all my other SPS are thriving...but that's part of this hobby...sometimes there's not a good reason, and things just happen!

Friday:

Monday:

 

[Haggisman14]

Got some better pictures...looks like it might not be AS BAD as I thought it was...going to leave things a lone for the moment and keep my fingers crossed!

 

[Haggisman14]

So it took about 4 months, but my meteor shower cyphastrea is finally coloring up again! While looking through the tank, I just noticed the the whole bottom half of the coral finally is getting it's greenish base color back! It's been encrusting like a champ over the last 4 months. Went from 3 lone polyps to 35-40+ polyps, but the base was nothing but a pale pinkish color. Here we are today, and we're coloring up!

LIke they say, nothing happens fast in a reef tank! Very happy with the new update!

It's really hard to tell in the picture, but you can tell the top of the coral looks almost white, while the bottom is a different shade. It now is starting to get the greenish color (my iphone just can't capture the color).

I circled the parts that now have greened up!

 

[Haggisman14]

I love seeing progress....even small amounts in only a few days!

This Blue Tort from @Battlecorals is a BEAST, and looks like it's going to be a fast grower. When I first got it there was a visible skeleton towards the back where you can tell that it was fragged and was healing (totally healthy). Well within a week, it has fully grown over and healed itself, and I can tell more encrusting on the frag plug, as well as the current coralites!

My Fox Flame is also coloring up nicely (I know they're known to lose color during shipping, but not even a week later it's got the yellow tips, and is encrusting on the base and sprouting new polyps!

PC Rainbow has NOT lost anymore tissue, and it even looks like the tips and base are showing a bit of the "rainbow" coloring today. Here's to it healing up quickly!

 

[Haggisman14]

A little FTS!

Light schedule has been tweaked a bit to give a nice photo period in the morning (solid 4 hours with some increased whites, and then it drops back to blues for the afternoon).

One of these days I"ll get one of those filters so I can get "real color" pictures.

 

[Haggisman14]

 

[Haggisman14]

Found my first aiptasia today....dangit! Located it on the bottom right of my pandora zoas, which I know probably means there's more...but hopefully not. Never had any sucess with any aiptasia killers, so on Monday I'm probably going to make a little epoxy/glue ball, and cover it and try and squash it. Fingers crossed this is the only one and I can snuff him out!.

Hitting up the LFS today to pick up fresh RO water, and my 3, 5 gallon bucks of mixed salt. Starting Monday, I"m going to start my WEEKLY water changes of about 1 gallon of water. Hoping that will help me keep my parameters exactly where I need them without any fluctuation!

PC Rainbow continues to make good progress and is on the mend. The base and the tip are starting to get that green color again that the base always gets as it grows out! Hoping to come back to the office on Monday with all the tissue back!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[Haggisman14]

Came in this morning to a happy tank! As long as nothing goes wrong over the weekend, Mondays are always nice b/c I get to see a decent amount of "visible" growth after being away from the tank for 2 full days.

PC Rainbow is doing well on the rebound. The top of it is almost fully covered in flesh again, has great polyp extension, and has that nice bright green color to it.

Fox flame is almost fully encrusted on a frag plug, and has about 6 new yellow polyps pop up over the weekend. Everything else is encrusting and happy.

Only 2 negatives in in the tank right now is that 1 aiptasia head I saw, and my bubble algae...but an emerald crab should take care of that!

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Got a refil on my water today, did a little 1 gallon water change (just below the return pump nozzle), and added a bottle of Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods to the tank, and my clowns went absolutely insane!

In the bottle it looks like a lot of pods, but once I put it into my tank (3/4 into the display, 1/4 into the rear chamber) my tank was full of those little guys swimming everywhere! I shut of my lights and pumps as advised on the bottle, but having the lights off didn't seem to make any change...clowns still went nuts! Looking forward to having some extra biodiversity in the tank. Should work as an added treat for the clowns, and maybe help a bit in terms of the cleanup crew too.

No other pictures aside from the earlier one of the PC Rainbow healing itself! More pictures later this week!

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Found my first aiptasia today....dangit! Located it on the bottom right of my pandora zoas, which I know probably means there's more...but hopefully not. Never had any sucess with any aiptasia killers, so on Monday I'm probably going to make a little epoxy/glue ball, and cover it and try and squash it. Fingers crossed this is the only one and I can snuff him out!.

Hitting up the LFS today to pick up fresh RO water, and my 3, 5 gallon bucks of mixed salt. Starting Monday, I"m going to start my WEEKLY water changes of about 1 gallon of water. Hoping that will help me keep my parameters exactly where I need them without any fluctuation!

PC Rainbow continues to make good progress and is on the mend. The base and the tip are starting to get that green color again that the base always gets as it grows out! Hoping to come back to the office on Monday with all the tissue back!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm not sure if this was the only aiptasia, and if this is going to actually work...but I was able to use my little dropper to suck it out of its hole (seems as if I got the whole thing as I was able to see it floating in the pipette).

Fingers crossed as this might have been the easiest aiptasia removal ever!

 

[Haggisman14]

A little FTS for the week

Got some better coloration that looks pretty true to the eye. The only thing I can never capture is how HOT PINK my pink stylo on the left side of the tank is!

PC Rainbow is also continuing to improve (pics below are actually on point as to what I see in the tank!)

(top view)

(side view)

So happy I didn't go crazy and chop it up when it suffered tissue loss last week! Slow and steady wins the race!

 

[Haggisman14]

Quick Monday update! Getting ready to do my weekly 1 Gallon water change over here.

All corals are good and happy. Lighting schedule has 2 more days until it's ramped up to the fully 85% programming. The "photo" period is running from 8:30AM-2PM, and then it switches to blues until lights out at 6PM. Seems to be giving them good growth, and then gives me some nice viewing time under blues until I leave for the day.

Took these two pictures today showing some growth on the @Battlecorals Poison Envy, and Fox Flame. Corals got placed in the tank on 9/19 (so this isn't even a month of growth. Fox Flame is encrusting really well on it's plug, and shooing out new bright yellow polyps. Poison Envy has seemed to thicken up a bit, is encrusting as well, and has colored up nicely.

PC Rainbow is also on the mend. Continuing to cover it's skeleton on green tissue that will no doubt turn red before I know it!

Fox Flame
Top Picture: 9/22/23
Bottom Picture: 10/9/23

Poison Envy
Left Picture: 9/22/23
Right Picture: 10/9/23

PC Rainbow making good progress back to health!