Griev's IM-200 Mangrove Lagoon

[Griev]

Got my first two rows "planted" and so far so good. Battle corals is sending me replacements for the belles that didn't make it, and I'm buying a couple more of the Summer Harvest to do a small 4th row on the ledge below. Can't wait to see this whole area all grown in.

 

[Griev]

My wife knows just what to get me for our anniversary. This trio is settling in great and already eating the pellets from the auto-feeder.

 

[TheWB]

My wife knows just what to get me for our anniversary. This trio is settling in great and already eating the pellets from the auto-feeder.

They look great. I really liked that pair of spotbreast angels you had before in the Lagoon. Now all you need is Pinky lol.

 

[Griev]

They look great. I really liked that pair of spotbreast angels you had before in the Lagoon. Now all you need is Pinky lol.

Yeah those spotbreasts were awesome, great personality. These appear to be similar, very active and curious, figured out the auto feeder shoots are where food comes from on day 1. The anthias still have no clue, it's just magic food in the water time for them, lol.

Luckily genicanthus angelfish aren't too aggressive across sub species so I might also add a trio of spotbreast or Japanese masked in the future.

As much as I love wrasses, I don't think I'm going to get one with this tank. The male anthias would definitely charge them thinking it was a female anthias in the pecking order. Pretty sure that's why pinky was always jumping.

 

[TheWB]

Yeah those spotbreasts were awesome, great personality. These appear to be similar, very active and curious, figured out the auto feeder shoots are where food comes from on day 1. The anthias still have no clue, it's just magic food in the water time for them, lol.

Luckily genicanthus angelfish aren't too aggressive across sub species so I might also add a trio of spotbreast or Japanese masked in the future.

As much as I love wrasses, I don't think I'm going to get one with this tank. The male anthias would definitely charge them thinking it was a female anthias in the pecking order. Pretty sure that's why pinky was always jumping.

Solid speculation there, you’re probably right.

 

[Griev]

It's been a while since I posted a FTS and progress report. Still NO water changes on this tank since I set it up. :)

I had a weird phosphate spike to 0.13 which wiped out a few of my new Battlebox corals, but I've since brought it down to 0.06, aiming for 0.03. Nitrates are a little less than 1, but I'm dosing to keep them from bottoming out. Definitely feel like I've got a really good handle on the right blend of skimming, ats, and filter media rotation periods. SPS appears to be slowly bouncing back, but keeping my fingers crossed on a couple of them.

I guess I should also wrap up my reefdelete review. Overall I don't think it's really worth it. Even with my 3d printed 'trigger' to make it more comfortable to use, it's still a pain to hold it in place for 2-3 minutes. It works well on smaller aiptasia, but working well means that it still takes one 2-3 minute exposure a day for 2-4 days. On larger aiptasia, it really hasn't seemed capable of actually killing them. I've blasted a particularly big one for 5 minutes 5 days in a row, and it definitely wilted and looked dead, but about 8-9 days later it started re-inflating and was back to mostly normal in a few more days after that. I did notice that it seemed like the shriveled aiptasia were easier picking for the nudibranchs, which are still working steadily but slowly. I will probably end up keeping it, so that in my aiptasia free future I can nuke any small ones that may come in on frags, and it might have some utility in the future for keeping the zoas I have planned for the bottom away from the rocks.

For now though I've enlisted the help of this little alien looking guy. So far it appears that he too only likes to eat the small aiptasia, lol;

 

[TheWB]

It's been a while since I posted a FTS and progress report. Still NO water changes on this tank since I set it up. :)

I had a weird phosphate spike to 0.13 which wiped out a few of my new Battlebox corals, but I've since brought it down to 0.06, aiming for 0.03. Nitrates are a little less than 1, but I'm dosing to keep them from bottoming out. Definitely feel like I've got a really good handle on the right blend of skimming, ats, and filter media rotation periods. SPS appears to be slowly bouncing back, but keeping my fingers crossed on a couple of them.

I guess I should also wrap up my reefdelete review. Overall I don't think it's really worth it. Even with my 3d printed 'trigger' to make it more comfortable to use, it's still a pain to hold it in place for 2-3 minutes. It works well on smaller aiptasia, but working well means that it still takes one 2-3 minute exposure a day for 2-4 days. On larger aiptasia, it really hasn't seemed capable of actually killing them. I've blasted a particularly big one for 5 minutes 5 days in a row, and it definitely wilted and looked dead, but about 8-9 days later it started re-inflating and was back to mostly normal in a few more days after that. I did notice that it seemed like the shriveled aiptasia were easier picking for the nudibranchs, which are still working steadily but slowly. I will probably end up keeping it, so that in my aiptasia free future I can nuke any small ones that may come in on frags, and it might have some utility in the future for keeping the zoas I have planned for the bottom away from the rocks.

For now though I've enlisted the help of this little alien looking guy. So far it appears that he too only likes to eat the small aiptasia, lol;

Same experience I have had with the Aiptasia Eating File Fish. He mowed down every little on in my sandbed, and there were a lot, but it never even picks at the bigger ones on the rockwork.

 

[Griev]

The largest female has started turning male, and the smaller male is turning back female. It's been pretty cool to watch them slowly swap.

Here's when the stripes first started coming in;

And one week later

The gold stripe is coming in next, it's just barely visible from certain angles.

The smaller male's face markings are coming back, and its stripes starting to melt away. The process of going back to female seems to be significantly slower.

 

[TheWB]

The largest female has started turning male, and the smaller male is turning back female. It's been pretty cool to watch them slowly swap.

Here's when the stripes first started coming in;

And one week later

The gold stripe is coming in next, it's just barely visible from certain angles.

The smaller male's face markings are coming back, and its stripes starting to melt away. The process of going back to female seems to be significantly slower.

That’s very cool. I’m hoping to add a pair when I upgrade tank size in the next few months.

 

[Griev]

About a week later the yellow stripe is definitely coming in, but still hard to capture in pictures. He's also almost completely lost his head markings.

The smaller male is still slowly turning back female. The gold continues to fade away, as do the stripes on his side. Most interestingly is his forehead markings are coming back quicker than his stripes are fading.

Here's the full female for comparison

 

[Griev]

Some new additions for the middle rock

 

[Griev]

Did some light gardening today

 

[Griev]

Did some fragging this weekend to get the softie section more filled in.

Here's the before. I've already split the yellow Tonga leather once before, and each half is now about as big as it was originally. The other is a Japanese leather coral. It's a really pretty mint green color with some purple at the tips.

So far a successful operation. Letting things get fully attached in my new printed shroom box for a week or so.

Still struggling to keep nitrates above 1, I guess I need to add more fish!

 

[Griev]

Looks like reef delete upped their power and is offering a free upgrade. Hopefully the upgrade makes it work more like they promise!

https://reefbuilders.com/2022/05/20/reef-delete-v1-02-sees-a-1-7-times-power-increase/

 

[Griev]

What a flirt

 

[Griev]

Drive-by

 

[Griev]

New arrivals

 

[Sean Clark]

New arrivals

Is that a pair?

 

[TheWB]

New arrivals

2 pairs now? Wow

 

[Griev]

Trio!

3x wantanabe and 3x spotbreast now. The big male keeps checking out the box and flashing his fins at the new trio, so going to give them a few days to get used to each other.