MadReefer’s No QT 180g mixed reef

[tehmadreefer]

In the spirit of @Paul B and by special request of @Humblefish, with special guests @HotRocks and @4FordFamily

I have decided to document my current non QT’d 180g mixed reef tank. This is a relatively new tank as the rock and some fish came from a smaller fowlr.

I have a special fondness for difficult fish as I have had FOWLR tanks since about 2007 I think as always liked the cool more difficult to keep fish and the challenge of keeping them successfully.

I am a reef noob when it comes to corals, so expect losses there, lol

I run a very simple system consisting of let miro 8 bulb t5’s, 2 OW jebao powerheads, a lighted algae barrel that drains into a cryptic fuge full of rock, sand and my skimmer. No heater as I live on the southeast coast of Florida.

Please keep in mind I do not qt anything and never have in my tenure in the hobby. I feel it is just added stress and there are far more losses than the old standby of temp acclimate and dump in DT. I dont even drip acclimate...

I do have a bad aiptasia outbreak due to letting them get out of control but have about 20 Berghias doing their thing.

Current stock list includes:

Regal Angel
Powder blue tang
Copperband butterfly
Foxface
Niger trigger
4 Lyretail Anthias
2 clowns
Green Mandarin
Midas Blenny
Filefish
Ritteri nem

SPS:

Garf Bonsai
Superman monti
Orange setosa
Copps myagi tort
ATL shades of fall
BC pearly cadaver
Wwc yellow tip
Purple tip valida
Pink lemonade
Red planet
Pink milli
Blue milli
ATL Eric’s red table
Green pasc
Jack O’ lantern lepto
Suharsonoi Acro
Purple stylo
Green stylo


LPS:

Duncans
Candy canes
Frogspawn
Hammer
Torch

 

[Humblefish]

Following along!

 

[PookieGV]

Pics?

 

[HotRocks]

Following as well! Pics or it didn't happen! Lol

 

[tehmadreefer]

First pic with lights in sunset mode, ie: only a few T5 bulbs on lol
Stupid aiptasia exploded during tank transfer as I used to like keeping them for food for my coralivore butterflies.

 

[Humblefish]

A few berghia nudibranchs will eat all that aiptasia quick!

 

[tehmadreefer]

Oops forgot also have a green mandarin hiding in there.

Ya, I got 20 in there. Picked some up on Sunday from a guy with a frag house corals T-shirt on. Wonder if he is a member here??

 

[tehmadreefer]

Ok so I’m itching for a new fish since I can’t add corals until the nudi’s do their job.

I have 3 must haves: blonde naso, regal angel, and ghost ribbon eel.

Help me pick the next one to get!

 

[harley3]

Regal Angel. That is on my list for this year.

 

[DSC reef]

Vote for regal

 

[HotRocks]

Regal all the way!

 

[tehmadreefer]

Well I haven't done much since my tank was absolutely infested with aiptasia. I only added a Niger trigger to get rid of the mix of true and false peppermint shrimps. Still no qt lol!! Just temp acclimate and drop in dt.

So just let the aquarium run on auto mode not testing no water changes nothing, until this weekend, now that aiptasia is at a fraction of what it was.

Time to get water quality back up to par and get some stonies!

The berghia nudis are slowly getting rid of them. I added 10 in December and 10 in January.

Most all corals were lost from the aiptaisa and peppermints took out the acans and rics. But have a few still things.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Tank still chugging along, not much corals yet still... added a few more fish.

Nothing too exciting.

 

[HotRocks]

Tank still chugging along, not much corals yet still... added a few more fish.

Nothing too exciting.

Looks good! You got rid of all your hitchhiking pests i see! Fish look good!

 

[tehmadreefer]

Looks good! You got rid of all your hitchhiking pests i see! Fish look good!

Yep that's why I have no corals lol aiptasia are the worst!

 

[HotRocks]

Yep that's why I have no corals lol aiptasia are the worst!

Yes they are, how did you end up getting rid of them?

 

[tehmadreefer]

Berghia nudi's 20 of them at first, then they had babies of course. Took about 3 months to clear them out. But some remained in the overflows at the water linw, which is fine. I'm killing those from time to time when I think about it but DT is 100% cleared.

 

[HotRocks]

Berghia nudi's 20 of them at first, then they had babies of course. Took about 3 months to clear them out. But some remained in the overflows at the water linw, which is fine. I'm killing those from time to time when I think about it but DT is 100% cleared.

They did the job for sure! Did you get them from salty underground? Just curious as I’ve heard good things about them?

 

[tehmadreefer]

I bought the first batch of 10 off Ebay, but it came from saltyunderground. They were cheaper on Ebay than their website and the other batch of 10 I got from someone local off craigslist as they were only $5 each from him.

 

[HotRocks]

I bought the first batch of 10 off Ebay, but it came from saltyunderground. They were cheaper on Ebay than their website and the other batch of 10 I got from someone local off craigslist as they were only $5 each from him.

Good deal, glad to see your tank is on the uphill! What kind of coral are you into or do you plan to add eventually?