First Reef Tank - IM Nuvo Fusion 40

[Tahoe61]

Your Utter Chaos are more colorful than mine, very nice.
Did you get a wrasse? Yellow tail damsel worked well for me.
How are the frags doing now that you moved them down?

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[muzikalmatt]

Looking good!

Thanks @revhtree !

 

[muzikalmatt]

Your Utter Chaos are more colorful than mine, very nice.
Did you get a wrasse? Yellow tail damsel worked well for me.
How are the frags doing now that you moved them down?

Thanks a lot @Tahoe61 ! They've definitely colored up nicely and are growing really well for me. I started with one polyp and I think I'm up to 12 or so now. I'm trying to get them to grow off the frag plug and onto some rubble I've placed next to them so I can get some frags to share.

I haven't picked up a wrasse yet. I'm still getting my quarantine setup situated and getting all of the potential medications I might need. I haven't quarantined any of my fish thus-far, but I don't want to keep playing Russian roulette especially since most of my fish I've had for over a year now. I just feel it's too risky. Once the quarantine setup is good to go I'm probably going to pick up either a yellow wrasse or a pink-streaked wrasse (if I can find one).

The frags are actually doing a lot better now that I moved them to the sand bed. That seems to be my "sweet spot" with most corals. Pretty much everything I put there seems to do well as it has the best balance of lighting and flow. The favias are starting to encrust the frag plug and the micromussa is starting to recover as well.

Here's a pic of three of the frags in the back. (pavona, favia, and micromussa)

 

[Tahoe61]

Very nice.

I really like Pavona.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Very nice.

I really like Pavona.

Thanks! I really need to get a better picture of it. The texture when you get up close is amazing. And from the research I've done their growth pattern is really unique so I can't wait until it grows out a bit.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Here's an updated full tank shot from this past Saturday. I really need to do something about the trash palys on the center rock structure as well as prune back the Xenia in front of the stylophora. It's not really bothering the stylo but I just don't like that I can't see it from the front anymore. The hairy mushrooms are also really taking over!

 

[muzikalmatt]

I was messing around with Sony Vegas and put together a quick montage of the tank. Sorry it's mostly vertical footage. I filmed it all with my phone. Let me know what you think!

 

[muzikalmatt]

I tried taking a few macro shots of some of my corals a few weeks ago and figured I would post them. I'm trying to improve my photography, but I'm still just using my phone with the Polyplab lens filters so there's only so good these will be. Let me know what you think!

Bubble Coral

Fungia Plate Coral

Frogspawn

Blastomussa (not really a macro shot, but I still like this one)

Ricordea Florida (again, not really a macro shot, but I thought it turned out well)

 

[revhtree]

Here's an updated full tank shot from this past Saturday. I really need to do something about the trash palys on the center rock structure as well as prune back the Xenia in front of the stylophora. It's not really bothering the stylo but I just don't like that I can't see it from the front anymore. The hairy mushrooms are also really taking over!

It's a beauty! Nice job!

 

[muzikalmatt]

It's a beauty! Nice job!

Thanks so much rev!

 

[Tahoe61]

I tried taking a few macro shots of some of my corals a few weeks ago and figured I would post them. I'm trying to improve my photography, but I'm still just using my phone with the Polyplab lens filters so there's only so good these will be. Let me know what you think!

Bubble Coral

Fungia Plate Coral

Frogspawn

Blastomussa (not really a macro shot, but I still like this one)

Ricordea Florida (again, not really a macro shot, but I thought it turned out well)

Those are great images. Corals look fantastic.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Those are great images. Corals look fantastic.

Thank you!

Even after 18 months, I can't get over how beautiful these creatures are. I could stare at my tank all night if only I didn't have to sleep.

 

[Tahoe61]

Taking images is so addictive. Take 100 use 5 lol. What phone are you using?

 

[muzikalmatt]

Haha! That's definitely me! I take sooo many pictures and try to wittle it down to just the good ones.

I'm using a LG G7 ThinQ. The camera seems to do a pretty good job, especially with the Polyplab lens. I've just started tinkering around with some of the settings though to try and get some better images instead of just using the auto settings.

 

[melfish]

The trash palys have taken over

Trash plays ;Hilarious reminds me of bin chickens (Ibis). Maybe I have questionable taste but... I don't hate the trash plays????

 

[melfish]

Still obsessed with this tank ;Drool any updates?

 

[muzikalmatt]

Good Sunday morning everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! It's been over a year since my last tank update and while it's still going, it has undergone some serious changes. Unfortunately with dadlife and other things, I neglected the tank for several months and of course that caused some issues, namely high nutrients. At the highest I was at 55ppm Nitrates and 0.39ppm Phosphate, and the Alk had bottomed out around 6dKH. This led to an explosion of bubble algae and a loss of most of my sensitive corals and inverts over time.

After a period of frequent water changes, restarting my chaeto refugium and running both Rowaphos and Chemi-pure Elite, I have the nutrient levels back down to 9ppm Nitrates and 0.10ppm Phosphate. The algae growth has slowed and the corals all look happy. So the tank is essentially soft corals only at the moment other than a small hammer and some blastos that managed to survive my neglect.

Since I finally got things back in line and stable, I went to one of my LFS's and picked up some basic coral frags and an Emerald crab to hopefully help with the bubble algae. The Emerald crab went right after the bubble algae as soon as I put him in the tank! Yes! I picked up three softy frags including a green sinularia, some green star polyps, and Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoas. I figured I'd stick with the softies for now and see how they do.

Other than that the soft corals that survived my neglect have thrived in the absence of competition. Here are a couple of recent photos.

I'll post more photos and updates soon!

 

[muzikalmatt]

Had a little fragging session this morning! I fragged some zoas off my frag rack, and also fragged the xenia at the top of the right rock structure. It had grown up the stylophora skeleton so it was pretty easy to separate. I also took some pictures of two of the new corals, for some reason the GSP hasn't opened yet.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Well, I finally decided to do something about the texas trash palys last night. They had grown onto the left rock structure and were starting to sting my toadstool coral, so I geared up in full PPE including arm-length rubber gloves, goggles and a face mask to take them out. I removed the top left rock with the palys and toadstool on it then placed it in a separate 5 gallon bucket of fresh saltwater. I then proceed to remove the palys from the rock with bonecutters. Luckily they had mostly grown over an old moticap skeleton so they were fairly easy to remove. I then placed the rock back in the tank and did a 5 gallon water change to remove any potential palytoxin from the water column. Overall I am super happy with the results! There are still a few small stragglers left on the rock, but I can take care of them individually during future water changes.

Before (Top down - Texas Trash Palys on the left by the toadstool.)

After (Rock structure clean and the toadstool is mad at me. He'll come around though!)

After (Full tank shot)

As you can see, I still have the original colony on the center rock structure to deal with. I don't think I can remove that piece of rock so I'll have to do it during a water change, but it's not nearly as many polyps plus the green hairy mushrooms from the back are starting to beat them back. I think soon enough I'll have them under control and have the prime real estate at the top of my rock structure back under control. Honestly, I wish I had done this sooner!