EagleEye’s 13.5 (after a decade-long hiatus)

[EagleEye121]

WWC frags came today and they look great!

Green Apple Monti hirsuta

Neon Blasto (freebie from cheesy slogan!)
5 total heads - 2 small ones on back

Thanks @WWC!

 

[thatsruff]

Nice tank, following along!

 

[EagleEye121]

Thank you!

 

[EagleEye121]

Little update. Got 2 frags (favites pentagona and radioactive (??) zoas) from a LFS yesterday and got a small branch rock to create an island on the left side and add more real estate. Also finally got around to it and fragged the leather.

The GHA is a real pain but I’ll take dealing with this over dinos any day

Pics are ~1 hour post water change and (half-butt) rock scrub so excuse the cloudiness

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Looking Good!

 

[EagleEye121]

Really happy to see some spiral/shelving growth patterns on the monti cap! I know it’s not a huge accomplishment but this is my first ever SPS and I love this thing

also the GHA battle continues. Keeping up with water changes and scrubbing but it’s holding strong. Considering vibrant...

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

That Monti is looking great! I had some pretty rough hair algae in my evo and vibrant has it all pretty much cleared up although it took a few months. I think my algae was actually a type of turf algae that looked like gha because for the first few months although it stopped spreading it really didn't start actually going away until I upped the dose to the recommend for turf algae (twice a week). between that and manual removal with my weekly water changes I've pretty much got it beat! I did have a bacterial bloom the first day I dosed it but my tank is bare bottom so its more prone to those although that was my first and last one. I also don't have any sps so I can't comment on how they handle it.

 

[EagleEye121]

I’ve watched the BRS vibrant test video, I think I’m sold. Doesn’t harm any corals or inverts they say. Ordering a bottle tonight.

Scored this frogspawn from my LFS last night. Single head roughly 2” when open. Arguably my favorite coral, pumped to have one!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I hope the vibrant works for you, that frogspawn is a stunner!

 

[Fink]

I love radioactive dragoneye zoas, i had a frag that got killed by aptasia, but one of these days I'll get more. Best of luck!

 

[EagleEye121]

Vibrant order placed as well as a replacement sediment filter for the RODI unit

Between work calls I was playing around with some shots of the tank. I’m clearly no photographer but I thought this was a cool perspective

 

[najer]

Excuse the pic on your journal, my Evo, I only view it from the front / end, I love how people are running these so differently.

 

[EagleEye121]

It’s definitely a very versatile setup! Big fan of the route you took on yours @najer

 

[najer]

Thanks.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

It never ceases to amaze me how looking at your tank on a different angle can make it look completely different!

 

[EagleEye121]

My view for the night

 

[EagleEye121]

So turns out my RBTA split overnight. I found both in the overflow wedged between filter floss and the side of the media basket so I rushed them back in the tank and into a container (which one has already moved out of)

hopefully they make a recovery! I’m a little worried though as the original hasn’t looked great in a few weeks and has moved around quite a bit. Nothing to do but wait I guess!

One in container, one on back of blasto in background

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Congrats on the split! Hopefully they both find somewhere they like (besides on the blasto ;Hilarious).

 

[EagleEye121]

1 week since split. Both nems are doing ok - still pretty shriveled up and trying to find their spot (one is deep underneath monti shelf currently). Haven’t tried feeding yet as I’ve heard that can stress them out. Frankly I think that’s why the original didn’t look so good for a while... too stressed from eating 2-3x a week early on.

In other news, I caught and removed the damsel (bye Satan!) and will be adding another pair of clowns once these nems make a full recovery. Clowns can be tough on them so I want to avoid any unnecessary stress for now. They will likely be the only fish in this tank, although I may add a tailspoy blenny or a small goby.

Corals are doing great and growing! The Monti hirsuta is developing a new peak and is beginning to creep closer to the frag plug. And the favites has fattened up and is spreading pretty quickly.

Lastly, Vibrant dosing has begun! 1.1 mL a week for the foreseeable future.

 

[EagleEye121]

I decided to re-scape the tank... I did this for a couple reasons. Mainly because I wanted to allow for more flow throughout the scape but also because I just didn’t like it as much as I wanted.

I’m happy with the new layout, little bit more open with now multiple caves rather than just one. I think it’ll allow for better coral placement too.

let me know what y’all think!