Double or Nothing... AJ's 405-Gallon Reef Savvy Upgrade

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Stylo328

Stylo328

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Good evening R2R. It's been about a month since my last update; probably too long...

I ended the last post with the sentence "let's hope my next update is a positive one". While I was doing all I could to stay positive, I fully expected to have some fish losses as a result of the ick. Here we are a month later and I am happy to report that the only losses were the red margin fairy wrasse, who died after the trigger bit its pectoral fin off and was subsequently killed by its tank mates. My wife saw him missing the fun in the morning and called me. I expected to get him out later that evening after work. By the time I got home there was not enough of him left to even pull a carcass from the tank [emoji15]. I also lost the red velvet fairy wrasse who jumped out while I had the canopy open. He could not have been on the floor more than a few minutes while I was in the garage. By the time I found him and put him in the sump, it was too late. He swam around a bit and died within minutes.

As for the ick, I used a combination of a DE filter (Vortex XL with mag drive upgrade) and Poly Lab Medic treatments to tackle it. I wont vouch for either of them as I have no clue which one worked or if the fish just developed immunity to the ick. Nevertheless it's been over a week since I last saw any white spots on any fish or any scratching against the tank floor or rocks. I now have to decide if it is worth adding any more fish and risking another outbreak or just leaving things as-is.

On the coral front, I am sad to report that I have discovered AEFW in the tank. Some eggs must have snuck in. We Bayer dip and check every frag. Oh well... such is life. I have started a regimen of using a maxi-jet 1200 to blow off all of the corals and fortunately the fairy wrasses are consuming all of the flat worms that are blown into the water column. These wrasses learn quick! They now follow the MJ1200 around the tank waiting for the meaty little morsels to manifest. Not sure I will ever eradicate the AEFW, but this is the best option I've got...

I also have what I think is a bryopsis outbreak. There are little patches within several acro and zoanthid colonies. I am strongly considering giving the fluconazole treatment a try. I may order the capsules this coming week. I'll post some progress photos if I do.

I added some macro algae to the refugium. A batch of dragon's breath, some more chaeto and a clump of caulerpa prolifera. They came in earlier this week. The chaeto and prolifera are looking great. The dragons breath, not so much. I have since moved it into the shade a bit as the 300w light may be a little much. I also added some additional dry rock to the refugium.

Finally, I added another larger rock to the middle of the tank. I wasn't loving that one rock structure and feel the addition looks much more natural. I glued several frags to the new rock and am looking forward to seeing it fill in a bit, both with some encrusting from the frags and with coraline.

Thanks for reading now on to the pics:

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And a few chalice shots. Some are mine while others are being babysat for a friend.

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Thanks again!
 

locito277

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Pictures! Tanks looking good! I haven't had luck with dragons breath either :-/
 
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Stylo328

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Looks great!!

Thank you very much. Always appreciate your posts.

Awesome tank. Have you thought about setting up a quarantine system?

I was going to originally, but a few fish snuck in during the move and eliminated the option. Now, there are just too many fish to even try. So far there have been. I more signs of ick.

Gorgeous!!!!

Thank you very much.

Beautiful Tank!

Thank you!

Pictures! Tanks looking good! I haven't had luck with dragons breath either :-/

I found the dragons breath today. It's still alive. Doesn't look nearly as good as it did when it came in the mail though...
 
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I've been noticing a little more algae than I would like, particularly on the starboard and rear glass. Decided to add 50 more turbo snails. I think I underestimated the surface area of the tank.

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Within minutes I could see a difference.

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I also cleaned out the refugium today. Should have taken a before picture - the algae growth was unreal. Here is the end result.

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And just for fun, here is an actinic shot I caught of the mystery wrasse. Since the addition of the fairy wrasses, his vertical stripes have really popped.

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Daniel@R2R

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Awesome tank! Sorry to read about the losses. Thanks for keeping us updated on your gorgeous reef!
 

revhtree

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Man tank is looking awesome!!
 

kingdog22

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Today saw plenty of tank activity. Pedro (vividclearglass.com) arrived at 10:30 to polish out several scratches that I discovered on the front and side panes. I was surprised to find how much the MP40s the previous owner had on the side panes had marred the glass.

To prepare I drained all the freshwater last night, relying on the shop vac to collect what the siphon left behind. By the time Pedro arrived, the tank was dry and ready.

Here are a few photos of the scratches (difficult to capture) and the polishing process.

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And the final product, scratch free!

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The polishing process does create some distortion when viewed at an extreme angle, but the absence of the scratches is well worth it!

I have to recognize Pedro. He quoted me a price based on a two-hour job. When he arrived and evaluated the tank, he identified far more scratches than my wife and I had found. He was here working for over seven hours and the final price was consistent with the quote. A great guy and his attention to detail was incredible!
Hopefully Pedro received a well deserved tip!!!
 
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Stylo328

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What's good bro? Your a spotlight thread! How's the tank?

How's it going brother? I was pleasantly surprised to be a spotlight thread - super cool. Tanks is good. I'm probably going to do another big water change on Saturday. Trying to get the upper hand on this algae[emoji35]

I ordered the BRS high capacity GFO a few days ago. This will be my first time using GFO, ever.
 

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The tank is really looking great! Cant wait for mine to start looking more grown in. Love your fish also.
 
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Stylo328

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I've been battling algae for the last few weeks. I attribute it primarily to the amount I'm feeding to make sure the triggers get enough nutrition. Today I did what I thought was a deep cleaning and a 75 gallon water change. Sadly the tank looks like I didn't even touch it.

These are picture after the water change and scrubbing:

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I think it's a combination of bryopsis, hair algae and this brown stringy algae that seems to be everywhere.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

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