I hope I remember how to do this

[cmaxwell39]

End view shot from today:

 

[cmaxwell39]

FTS:

Old school classic monti... Pink Sandollar:

 

[dstockwell]

Lookin good

 

[cmaxwell39]

Lookin good

Thanks.

 

[JoshH]

End view shot from today:

Just Beautiful!

 

[cmaxwell39]

Just Beautiful!

Thanks Josh. How is your tank doing? Haven't seen an update on it in a while.

 

[JoshH]

Thanks Josh. How is your tank doing? Haven't seen an update on it in a while.

It's struggling, Coated in a nice thick layer of Aiptasia right now. The basement is being redone right now and the tank will be moved down there in a month or two. At which point It will undergo a reset. Lots of work ahead of me to get things back on track

 

[cmaxwell39]

It's struggling, Coated in a nice thick layer of Aiptasia right now. The basement is being redone right now and the tank will be moved down there in a month or two. At which point It will undergo a reset. Lots of work ahead of me to get things back on track

Man that sucks. Sorry to hear it. Aipistia suck and when they get out of hand they can really be formidable. They are entirely beatable though, just takes some work.

What is your plan for the reset? All new rock and sand? Or just scrub/clean everything you have as good as you can and then employ some method to finish eradicating them?

 

[JoshH]

Man that sucks. Sorry to hear it. Aipistia suck and when they get out of hand they can really be formidable. They are entirely beatable though, just takes some work.

What is your plan for the reset? All new rock and sand? Or just scrub/clean everything you have as good as you can and then employ some method to finish eradicating them?

New sand, and partial new rock. I'm going to seed the tank and new rock. Move fish and coral to the new setup, then go after the aiptasia. Once the old rock has been cleaned of them, I will put most of it back into the tank.

I haven't decided how I will eliminate the aiptasia. MAYBE nudibranchs. But I don't like the idea of them dying off. A friend mentioned raising nitrate to an insane level. It should kill everything except the bacteria so I could maintain well seeded rock to add back in.

Lots of options to go with, just a matter of figuring out which one will work out best.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Got a couple of decent pics of my gem tang this week. Just shot with the phone and edited with on board photo editing built into the phone to remove the blue hue and make it look like what I actually see in my tank.

Also haven't posted water parameters in a while. Weekly tests run last night.

NO3-- 18.8 (Hanna high range)
PO4-- 0.09 (Hanna low range)
Alk-- 8.2 (Hanna)
Ca-- 440 (Salifert)
Mg-- 1410 (Salifert)

 

[cmaxwell39]

Got the good camera out and playing with a new post processing program. Photos were taken in raw and then processed. I used to be able to do all this fairly well, but I am still struggling with getting good pictures that represent accurately the color and detail of what I see in person.

Here are a few that I have gotten processed. More to come hopefully.

 

[Acrononomus]

Looking great !!!!

 

[cmaxwell39]

Looking great !!!!

Thanks. And thanks for all the likes as you worked through the thread. Where in Michigan are you located?

 

[Acrononomus]

Thanks. And thanks for all the likes as you worked through the thread. Where in Michigan are you located?

From Harrison twp. Used to be mt Clemens, i think we used to be friends on mi reefers. I’m getting back in the hobby with a new tank build as well!

 

[cmaxwell39]

Yes, I thought I recognized the name. Used to be on MIreefers. Haven't been to that site in quite a while. Used to live about a half hour from Kalamazoo, now I live in Indiana.

Do you have a build thread up yet. Would like to follow your build.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Every time I think i intend to be better about posting updates on this tank life happens. And life has happened to us over the last couple of months.

I am not one who shares a lot about my personal life on here, but I would like your indulgence about a couple of things. First of all, tank ins chugging along doing fine. Not much new has been added, just kind of a holding pattern right now.

End view phone shot from today:

Now for some of the life stuff. First the good. Our oldest graduated high school on June 4th. That alone kept us plenty busy with end of the year award ceremonies, grad ceremony stuff and obviously a party, but he also had twin cousins who graduated the same day whose party was 5 days later out of state.

Than the bad. Since my last update we found out that my wife has breast cancer. She had surgery to remove a mass in the middle of May (we literally had no idea when I posted last at the end of April). The doctor thought it was just a real small spot that they were going after, but they found more in what they removed than expected. She had another surgery this coming Friday to remove more. They are still saying it is very treatable, but it has been a big kick in the pants for us obviously.

Because of all that, the tank has gotten water changes and fed, and glass cleaned once in a while and not much more. I did snap a few pictures with the phone today so here is a small update.

Blueberry granulosa is really taking off and looking phenomenal lately:

This pearlberry lookalike is doing well too. I think the guy I bought it from called it Tapioberry??

Oregon Blue Tort:

Battle Corals Efflo 2.0;

And finally, JF Fox Flame is really rocking right now:

Sorry for the long post, but if you have made it this far, thanks for sharing the journey with me.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Got some pics of the tank today. Just used the phone, so not the greatest quality, but things are looking pretty good lately so figured I would grab some pics.

FTS:

Falco Hawk:

BC Efflo 2.0

Fox Flame with Carolina reaper in the background:

Kole Tang:

 

[vetteguy53081]

Got some pics of the tank today. Just used the phone, so not the greatest quality, but things are looking pretty good lately so figured I would grab some pics.

FTS:

Falco Hawk:

BC Efflo 2.0

Fox Flame with Carolina reaper in the background:

Kole Tang:

Nothing wrong with this- Looks very nice !

 

[cmaxwell39]

Nothing wrong with this- Looks very nice !

Thanks.

A few more from yesterday.

End view:

BC sex feast milli from other end of tank:

OT:

Can't remember what this one is, but it is doing well:

 

[cmaxwell39]

A few more from last weekend.

Setosa:

I believe it was sold to me as Rainbow Fusion:

BC Rainbow Stylo: I can't pull rainbow colors from it, but it looks good nonetheless.

And finally an end view shot: