Maroun.c 400 G build thread

[maroun.c]

Echinata and Plana frags

Still have to Id this one

Setosa growing super fast

Couple of Bonsais growing and coloring up nicely but I can't get the colors right on Camera

Pink tip green accro

Yellow tip accro

And some clams wish I could see these colors from the front :)

 

[drernesto Verified Sponsor]

As usual amazing shots! Great growth and colors!

 

[bige]

Everything looks awesome. That pink tip acro is huge

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks Bige. Yup it's quite large and growing very fast.

 

[143MPCo]

Absolutely amazing build man, great shots and the attn to detail is top notch!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

We need an update!!

 

[maroun.c]

Absolutely amazing build man, great shots and the attn to detail is top notch!

Thank you

We need an update!!

update on the way :)

 

[maroun.c]

Quick run over the updates that took place over the last 2-3 months as I was crazy busy to post any updates.
I finally decided to restart my Nano cube running in the basement so I took the rocks out and rescaped it and reseeded it with coral frags which I will add a few more to fill it up and shape as it grows to hopefully Achieve a look I have in mind.
here's a few pictures which I posted on the cube own build thread as well.

will post monthly updates on how the cube progresses and more details can be found here
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/maroun-c-26-g-nano-cube-build-thread.250701/

 

[maroun.c]

Back tot he DT updates, starting with fish.
I had added a female bellus few weeks back and was on the look for a male to add and then decided to go for a trio. ran with some bad luck on couple of female bellus but eventually got one which after coming down with Ich, stopping eating, flukes and then pop eye recovered nicely and built on some weight and was added with the male to the tank. had also acquired a pair of swallowtail with a terminal color male and a nice smaller female which were doing well in the frag tank and decided to add all angels in one go as that would split the aggression of the resident female bellus. the agression came from a yellow eye kole tang that has been developing a very aggressive behavior towards many fish and especially new additions. I had to trun off the lights the first few days and things did improve but it kept all new fish on their gards with multiple charges especially at the female swallow tail and the males. taht resulted in teh new female bellus stopping to feed and getting confined to a corner and dying after few days. the aggressive behavior kept on going and he switched focus to my olld bellus and also a newly added blotchy that he severly attacked the first 2 days after addition. so eventually pulled the trap and on second day of food in he was trapped in.
I will be replacing him either by two hawaiian yellow eyes (love those but not getting lucky with two) and with 2 tomini tangs that I recelntly got and are tolerating each other in the frag tank. I always had kole tangs but this is the firts time one displayed so much agression or had to be removed.
one thing worth noting is that between teh quarantine and the introduction to DT both males have lost their terminal male colors and their streamers and switche back nearly to female color (more ont he swallotail than bellus) they have so far recovered their streamers and colors are changing a bit on the swallowtail... so wondering if the yellow eye being taken out will make them switch back to full male colors faster.

Swallow tail

Bellus

Blotchii, was aiming for a pair but lost one. Not sure if I'll risk adding a second

Also added 2 fridmani one of which went missing the last few days in quarantine.

Last added 2 Mandarins, one male and one female but I haven't seen them together since addition.

 

[maroun.c]

Few more coral additions in the last period.

Red Dragon Frag

Red Sea baby Blue accro which browned out and regaining colors

Red Planet
lost my colony grown from a frag in 2011. Finally sourced a Red planet frag. might be an easy to get coral in the US but in the middle east it's not easy to find.

Accropora Suharsonoi anotehr one I was on the look for. Still in light acclimation.

Aussy scoly not fully open yet , not sure if anything is nipping on it and causing it to stay closed.

Aussy Acan,
Beens truggling with Acans and chalices on my right island so tried this one on teh right island where the flow is much less and doing great so far.

Added 3 Balanos around 3 months back and they've been doing well without feeding.
might try my luck with some sun corals next.

Red sea pink poci, browned out with no signs of improvement since addition around 3 months back and on the right a purple milka stylo that I've been on the look for since years. Still far from it's best colors but getting there!

And a Blue Berry Aussy Accro that browned out upon introduction and is starting to regain its blue.

 

[maroun.c]

Tank has been running rather stable recently and I have started seeing a steady growth and coloration, except for a couple of times where my phosphates have spiked a bit. also overall my phosphate issue seems to be improving as I'm using way less rowaphos than before (down from 1-2 Litres per month to less than a litre every 4-6 weeks) and doing less water changes (10 percent every other week) fish are well fed and all seems in place.
my Alk and Ca comsumption is up to 350 ml/day and growing.
So decided to start working on a few optimizations beyond the basics. sent my water for Triton testing and results were rather fine except for few elements to fix. I won't obsess on this but will just rectify some clearly needed elements that are deficient. but overall pleased with the results with only water changes and no dosign except for Alk, Ca and MG.
here are the results I got. The Ca spike was known off before sending water for testing and that was because I overshot a bit while correcting a drop in my Ca weeks before. its on the way back to 420.

 

[maroun.c]

To end with a few growth shots of some of the corals

still have to ID this one.
Mid Jan

Blue matrix.
Oct 2015 when it recovered from a totally brown and dry stick which I thought was dead and was about to remove

June 2016

Setosa
oct 2015

26 Mar 2016

June 2016 after multiple frags taken off by fish hitting it.

Garf Bonsai

end of MArch 2016

June 2016 after it got shadowed by a coral on top which is slowing it's growth

 

[maroun.c]

One update I skipped is the lighting change in March.
I was running 3 250 W halides with 4 lines of T5s 92 (2x54 W per line) changing nthose became a hassle every time especially that LFSs stopped getting them and switched to LEDs.
So I took out the T5s and inserted couple of Orphek 2.1 in between the halides for color supplementation and actinic suk and dawn effect. those covered most ofthe tank except a bit on the sides which remained dim. so added couple of 120 W razors I had laying around to cover the sides and will be replacing them with 160 W in the future to get more front to back coverage.
overall I attribut the growth I get to the halides esepcially when I compare growth to the frag tanks lit by LED only.
the actinic color and phosphorescence cannot be matched by Halides nor T5 yet T5 had this uniform nice blue that LED ain't close to. coverage and shadows are a pain even in areas under the LEDs but that could be cause I always compare them to Halides coverage which I do still prefer. best part in LEds is how some corals and Zoas look under actinic...

 

[maroun.c]

Some more growth shots.

Accropora florida?

25 Oct 2015

31 Dec 2015

June 2016

Millepora

31 Dec 2016

June 2016

Yellow Tip accro

Jan 2016

Mar 2016

June 2016

 

[A.G]

Amazing Maroun!
Tank is heading to the sweet spot . Colors are definitly improving :)

Hope to see you soon

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks bro.
Hope to see you and your new setup soon.

 

[maroun.c]

Red and green montipora growth,

Oct 2015

Mar 2016

June 2016

another Red monti
Mar 2016

June 2016

spongoides

Jan 2016

June 2016

 

[SeaMonkeys]

Wow!! Tank is looking really good.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks.
It still has a long way to go :)

 

[maroun.c]

A second setosa I have in the tank

Oct 2015

Mar 2016

June 2016

ORA Green birdnest

Oct 2015

Mar 2016

June 2016

Strawberry shortcake

Oct 2015

Jan 2016

Mar 2016 Top Down shot

June 2016 after clipping some front branches as growth is only from the posterior side.