My DIY frag table SAGA

[LRT]

Hey man,

Since you asked for it in my other thread, here's my advice and what I would do if this system was mine.

1.) Get some cool fish that generally stick near rock work, maybe a damsel and a couple pseudochromis in one and a pair of cardinalfish and a fang blenny in the other. In my experience these fish won't jump in those combos, though no guarantees

2.) Feed those fish well with a high protein flake food like Formula 1

3.) Get some cleanup crew a bit soon after adding the fish. Tiger trochus if you're not securing corals well and mexican turbos if you are. I also love cortez red keg hermits and think they should be a part of every system

4.) Lay off the dosing once you get some fish

5.) If you get algae add cleanup crew, if nutrients get low add more fish and feed them

Hey Ike thanks for taking the time to stop by and post. Much appreciated.
I'll be honest I was never comfortable dosing chemicals to get my Nitrates up. Just got to the point it was running at 0 so long I knew it couldnt be good once I started seeing some cyano and gha that i had mistaken for dynos.
As of now i do have a cpl mexican turbos up in the tables to battle the nuisance algae. A little rough on the corals as I've found a cpl mushroom laying over on the floor out of the racks.
What do you think of sea hares? My lfs has a bunch I'm just curious if they would be a little more gentle and not move my corals around.
I do have 15 red legged hermit crabs running around some are getting huge and already moved to bigger shells a cpl time.
Tried a lawnmower blenny but he did jump.
Need to look into chromis.
As well as my wife loves damsels.
I have alot of room in the reservoirs below the tables the only fish I have on the bottom now is the copperband.
Will the damsels play nice with it?
I could put a blenny with him.
And fill the other res with whatever I want to really.
Or do you think I need to figure out a way to get some fish in with the corals?

 

[LRT]

Man you gotta let me know when you do those order... mushrooms are on fire! What’s amazing is your gonna end up with rocks covered with them

Lol for sure man I cant wait. Surprised to see the neon toxic colors coming in on the one shroom.
That shroom you ordered is nice man. I ordered several times from that vendor and never had a problem as well. I have some crushed coral coming from him on monday actually.
I got this baby Toxic that I ripped off my rack on accident that's healing well. Let me know when your rainbow drops one! We can figure something out.
Shrooms are starting to move around a little now. Hope that does mean babies!

 

[Ike]

Hey Ike thanks for taking the time to stop by and post. Much appreciated.
I'll be honest I was never comfortable dosing chemicals to get my Nitrates up. Just got to the point it was running at 0 so long I knew it couldnt be good once I started seeing some cyano and gha that i had mistaken for dynos.
As of now i do have a cpl mexican turbos up in the tables to battle the nuisance algae. A little rough on the corals as I've found a cpl mushroom laying over on the floor out of the racks.
What do you think of sea hares? My lfs has a bunch I'm just curious if they would be a little more gentle and not move my corals around.
I do have 15 red legged hermit crabs running around some are getting huge and already moved to bigger shells a cpl time.
Tried a lawnmower blenny but he did jump.
Need to look into chromis.
As well as my wife loves damsels.
I have alot of room in the reservoirs below the tables the only fish I have on the bottom now is the copperband.
Will the damsels play nice with it?
I could put a blenny with him.
And fill the other res with whatever I want to really.
Or do you think I need to figure out a way to get some fish in with the corals?

Fish in with the corals will help a little, but it won't matter much as long as they're in the system. I would skip the chromis, you'll just end up with one. If you don't want mexican turbos then use tiger trochus and more red legs. Damsels are scarpy, but will leave smaller, agile and more aggressive fish alone. The damsels should be with other srappy fish that generally don't jump.

Skip the sea hare as they often starve to death or just perish for other reasons.

 

[LRT]

Well I went to lfs for some threaded 1 inch barbed nipples to equalize my tables and came home with a fire fish and bicolor blenny.
Took only a few minutes until moose alerted me the firefish jumped out and copperband now has tank mate in reservoir lol.
Blenny is going to be ok with the nemos. He found himself a crack in the rock and is already plucking at them. Plus he holds his own with the clowns!

 

[LRT]

Finally got the tables equalized! I'll be honest I knew the minute I first put water in it I screwed up. Been a long time coming and I will be able to sleep much better at night not worrying about a pump failing.
Was able to get 4 pumps off the system.
Gravity is my friend now.
Man it feels good!

 

[LRT]

Crushed coral arrives tomorrow!
In the interim went and picked up 4 more turbos today. These guys do work on nuisance algae!
Also picked up a Fiji puffer. This little guy is epic!

 

[LRT]

Seriously contemplating on not starting my mushroom garden until I get my nuisance algae thing in check! Crushed coral should be here anytime now. Just not feeling it's time. When it happens I'll probably start a new build thread as I've done alot and made alot of changes to make this system work.
Till then heres a few randoms.
Really digging the colors coming out of some of these shrooms.
Pretty sure this is the Aqua Sd deadpool

Aqua Sd interstellar or some version

Another Aqua Sd shroom looks like it's going to bounce or something

This guy I got as unknown bounce in an order still killing it

Toxic

Frank

 

[LRT]

Just got a box of rocks

 

[LRT]

Whaddup?
Been a heck of a last few weeks now. Still not out of the clear. I have added a bunch of flow. Recently experienced a bio overload after depleting my system of all water after water changes and finding some rookie errors after making those changes!
Still not out of the clear yet. Nitrates a little high still. Got my phosphates at least back to detectable and letting it roll because my reef cant take anymore.
Jawbreakers are still not good. Probably going to lose all my future mamas but babies are going strong!
Take what I can get now at this point!
Is what it is I guess right?
Got my shroom garden rock rinsing and soaking in rodi.
After the rain is gone the sun is here-
Also trying my hand at raising pods In my res.

 

[LRT]

Hey @LIreefguy I believe I got this shroom from you awhile back. Can you give me the name if any and lineage if possible?
It looks similar to the one you posted in your thread. Starting to take on some crazy neon Toxic colors as well as starting to bounce!
TIA

 

[LRT]

Hey @tlips . And everyone else following along I've had enough interest on this DIY to feel like I needed to update my build here as alot has changed since my original build. I've been fine tuning, automating, adding to, tanking away, re engineering, to make this better since it started.
I was going to start a new build thread when I had my mushroom garden set but feel i need to post this so nobody else makes the same mistakes i did out of the gate.

Added some equalizers and alot more return here recently
. Unless you have everything drilled to percission you will need them especially for cross and surface flow.
About to upgrade my Skimmer as well as lights so alot is going on which is why I haven't upgraded the build.
Apologies-