LMDAVE First reef and build log. 38 gal Bow Front

[LMDAVE]

Thanks, what’s the best sign that light isn’t doing well for the hammer?

 

[LMDAVE]

Added a red lobo brain, and a cleaner shrimp. Hermit crab keeps nesting in green Monti (see in video). I knock him and he finds his way back up there. Is there harm in this?

Reef Update:

 

[LMDAVE]

Are lobos this sensitive? When I bought this Lobo from the LFS I saw some of the exposed skeleton, I probably didnt think much of it assuming it will probably grow back. Thinking about it now, maybe I should have gotten a discount on this one. Either way, this has been the state of it.

1: Sunday 2 PM
2: Sunday Evening
3: Wednesday afternoon looked very fragile and shrunken. Only parameter outside of norm was Alk down to 7.8, I did a 25% water change, raised alk back to 9 and also did a coral feeding with "reef bugs" (which I'm not sure if they like that or not)
4: Thursday morning things look a little better.

The only other feed I did was squirting a little Rod's fish food in it's direction while normal fish feeding.
Just looked like I was losing the lobo already yesterday, glad to see it recovering a little this morning.

 

[LMDAVE]

Removed a piece of rock from the bottom middle. It was a rather ugly piece of rock actually (see earlier pics) but this now opens up the bottom cave and give the tank a lot more depth. I’ve yet to ever even catch a glimpse of the mysterious pistol shrimp I’m hearing in my tank but I’m getting a watchman goby and this will help me keep an eye on them. More updates to come.

 

[LMDAVE]

Looks like I had to remove all 3 of my fish and my tank will be in fallow. My total gramma had be flashing like crazy, and finally saw the white spots come on, so him and my 2 clowns are in cupramine.

At least i have my corals going. I ordered a yellow Fiji leather from live aquaria but the sent me a brown toadstool leather by accident. They are making goodnon their mistake and sending me the correct yellow. In the meantime even though I didn’t want tbe brown toadstool i am warming up to it and it’s in my sandbed. Waiting for it to hopefully stand up soon.

 

[LMDAVE]

Late updates on my tank. Toadstool didn’t make it, but I did get shipped the correct yellow Fiji leather. Added a frogspawn frag to the right near the hammer to start a euphyillia garden.

 

[LMDAVE]

Decided to get a second Fluval Marine 2.0 light strip supplement the one I had. This is definitely improves the coverage and intensity. My new fiji leather is much happier already, but the big test will big if I eventually get any growth out of the monti caps. After a month and half of nothing from them I already see small polyps popping out the red on.

 

[LMDAVE]

Just added this blue maxima clam. I know as things grow, the future euphyllia garden will irritate the clam. I guess his snap at the end is normal during adjustment.

 

[LMDAVE]

Cerith snail laying eggs. My tank is fallow right now, wonder if this Increases chances of hatching.

 

[LMDAVE]

Tank updates

 

[LMDAVE]

Decided to try a goniopora, even though I hear about them failing for some after 8-10 months. It opened up with an hour and seems to like this spot

 

[LMDAVE]

Full tank shot

 

[LMDAVE]

I'm finally starting to see growth from my Monti Cap after 3 months in the tank. My tank is 5 months old, I did upgrade lighting to 2 strips about 2 months ago, but this is probably due more to stability. He a small time progression of the monti cap. (1) is from 3 months ago, but pics 2-4 is probably just over the last 3 weeks.

Also, now that I've seen some Monti cap growth, I decided to try a few SPS. A purple staghorn acro, and a rusty pink Millepora frag on left.

 

[LMDAVE]

6 month video update

 

[LMDAVE]

I started introducing some SPS acro frags into the tank. I have a Purple staghorn in for about a month now. It never did seem color up yet, still has a brownish tint on it. It's at the highest point in my tank. along with the staghorn I put a Rusty Pink Millepora frag which has since died after a month of what appeared to be RTN.

So, just recently I'm trying my lucky again with a Jason Fox acro, Tierra Del Fuego. It will be near the spot where the Millepora was. So far its color has been holding up, but it's only been a few days.

 

[LMDAVE]

I did some rearranging in my tank. I know it's not usually good to move coral around. But, I'm still in a learning process, and the original spots for these I'm moving wasn't probably the best spots, so after a couple of months, I'm trying these new spots. I moved the toadstool frag from the bottom up to the top right. I read they do need medium to high light and I don't think it was getting enough at the bottom. That also gave me an excuse to move the acro staghorn to the front top left, it just wasn't showing any signs of acclimation or growth where it was. Then I move the green pocillopora up to it's spot since it got bumped from where the toadstool was going. Here is a before and after shot of the moving. I like the new positions and hopefully the toadstool will grow up and look awesome in the back right upper corner.

 

[LMDAVE]

 

[LMDAVE]

My wife got me these Coral View lenses to clip on my iPhone so thought I’d try a few pics under blue light

 

[LMDAVE]

I just upgraded my Fluval lights to an SBReef Light 16” timer model. First day , but I immediately see I had to do something about the light now staring me in the face from the sofa. I went straight to Lowe’s and got some 1x6 cabinet boards and made a quick canopy (which will be stained to match the case) But that definitely fixed the problem. It’s open top so no heat trapping.

 

[OffTopic]

Looking great! Keep the updates coming