Virginia Beach 65G Mixed Reef

[Noxsolaris]

I decided I would just go ahead and start a thread for my tank. I have a lot of questions and figure this might be the better place to post them than creating a new thread every time I’m perplexed or concerned. I started my 65G about 4.5 months ago after a 10 year hiatus from the hobby. Just got my first coral about 3 weeks ago. Everything seems to be going good thus far. I went with an external/HOB system as I was a little hesitant about running a sump (won’t be making that mistake once I upgrade).

Currently I have:
Black percula clown (Socrates)
Picasso ocellaris clown (Cheeto, deceased)
3 speckled mollies (Dorothy,Blanche, and Rose)
Sand sifting starfish (Shinobi…vanishing star)
2 Mexican turbo snails
4 peppermint
Fire shrimp
4 trochus snails
8~blue/red leg hermits
Bar goby (new addition since last night. Hiding somewhere in the rock/sand)
2 hitchhiker stomatella snails
2 hitchhiker feather dusters
Neon green candy cane
Red and green blasto (got it last night)
Jackolantern lepto
Red and black encrusting (can’t remember what dude said it was. Will post pic later for ID)

Equipment:
Fluval canister
Reef Octopus HOB skimmer
Sicce voyager Nano and stream 3 power heads
Red Sea led 50 lights (x2)

 

[dmsc2fs]

You will need to keep an eye on the rock and substrate in the back right corner. Or that little arch in the front might be a spot. If you see algae starting to get away from you the sun through the patio door isn't going to help that. You can probably find a blue or black material to cover the back with if needed. I think I see a HOB protein skimmer on that same side? This will be another spot prone to algae growth from the sunlight. It should be easy to remediate by increasing the cleaning schedule.

 

[Noxsolaris]

You will need to keep an eye on the rock and substrate in the back right corner. Or that little arch in the front might be a spot. If you see algae starting to get away from you the sun through the patio door isn't going to help that. You can probably find a blue or black material to cover the back with if needed. I think I see a HOB protein skimmer on that same side? This will be another spot prone to algae growth from the sunlight. It should be easy to remediate by increasing the cleaning schedule.

Thanks for the advice. The blinds are usually closed. I opened them to get a little more light in the corner to look for our baby molly. He likes to hide back there and can be a little hard to see sometimes. Lol.

 

[LiamPM]

Nice start and welcome back to the hobby.

Not sure id worry too much about the sunlight coming through. Ive had a few tanks that got their fair share of sunlight and never had any major algae issues. Algae requires more than just light to take off......Water parameters ould need to be out of whack etc and the fact we blast our tanks with high power LED's from 8 inches away also adds to the fact that sunlight is not as bad as its made out to be. Its difficult to beat the natural look in my eyes.

My only concern would be the sandsifting starfish. Ive never been able to keep them long term and my tanks have all been far larger with a far larger sandbed to sift through. Difficult one to sustain in my experience.

Nice start though, look forward to seeing it grow some.

 

[Noxsolaris]

So I have a slight issue. I got a frag of red and green blasto from my LFS last night. Has one large head and two smaller ones and what looks like skeletal remains of another. Got it in the tank and secured to the rock of choice and let it be. This morning, I noticed what appear to be some bubble algae on the skeletal head. Should I break off the skeletal portion and toss it, as I don't really want a bubble algae problem? The only worry I have is that breaking off that piece would cause additional stress to the frag on top of the stress of the rehoming. Should I wait to break it off, break it off now or just let it ride? I'll post pics when I get home.

 

[Noxsolaris]

Pics below of affected blasto and new coral I need help ID-ing.

 

[Noxsolaris]

Anybody know what this is from? Kind of looks like spider web.

 

[Noxsolaris]

New residents. Pretty cool dudes.

 

[Noxsolaris]

I appear to have a pregnant(?) peppermint shrimp. She won’t come out of hiding long enough for a picture. What are the odds that the baby shrimp will make it or am I just looking at free food for my fish and coral?

side note: the blasto has been looking a little under the weather the past day or so.

Today

Two days ago

 

[Noxsolaris]

Think I figured out the blasto issue. I had adjusted the flow on my smaller power head which increased the flow rate over the blasto. Apparently it don’t like that. Returned the flow to what it was before and it started filling back out some.

Got a Kenya tree and GSP that seem to be acclimating nicely. The Kenya tree is a little slow to open back up fully. Everything looks pretty happy for now.

 

[Uroplatus]

How big is the Kenya tree?

 

[Noxsolaris]

How big is the Kenya tree?

 

[Uroplatus]

Be careful you may regret you ever added it

 

[Noxsolaris]

Be careful you may regret you ever added it

I’ve seen a few posts talking about that. LOL. The wife really liked it, so we got it. Trying to keep her interested in the tank. Thanks for the warning though. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it and stay on top of the pruning.

 

[Uroplatus]

I’ve seen a few posts talking about that. LOL. The wife really liked it, so we got it. Trying to keep her interested in the tank. Thanks for the warning though. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it and stay on top of the pruning.

I have it in my tank I like it…. It’s not so much pruning, it’ll start dropping branches which float in the current and start new trees

 

[Noxsolaris]

Mama shrimp cleaning(?) the sand sifter.

 

[Noxsolaris]

Picked up some new coral today. Got a purple people eater Zoa colony and some red mushrooms. Almost immediately one of my peps started picking at the edge of one of the polyps. Anyone ever had this issue with the shrimp?

 

[Noxsolaris]

 

[Noxsolaris]

Early morning before the blue light “makeup” gets put on.

 

[Noxsolaris]

Everybody seems happy right now. Blasto has become much happier after correcting the flow issue. PPE Zoas have acclimated pretty well as far as I can tell. Candy cane still hasn’t split but I think it is only a matter of time. The orange stylo has puffed up considerably, as has the Kenya tree. I adjusted my light settings to what I saw in another post and all corals seem happier for it. The lepto is starting to melt(?) over the edge of the frag plug. All is well in the dining room ocean.