My First Softy Tank... which has turned into a mixed reef

[ScottB]

I know I’m addicted. Plus my real problem is I can’t pass up a sale. I just think I’m going to buy these eventually, so why not when they are on sale today.

I've been trying at add a set each month. Give them a month to settle in, test and make sure everything is good before adding another batch... but then Black Friday came, and cyber Monday, and now Christmas sales .

I need to slow down, my tank needs me to slow down, my bank account needs me to slow down.

Like I've said before, you are in good company here. Don't beat yourself up. My UPS & FedEx drivers roll their eyes at me almost daily. (Especially when it is 75lb box of salt day!)

Enjoy.

 

[New&no clue]

For all those on the edge of your seat about the anemones... so far so good.

the RFA settled in perfectly. I put it on the rock I wanted and it found a nice hole for its foot and seems happy.

The BTA I put it on the rock I wanted and it settled down... for 5 mins... then it moved to the underside of the rock, to the left side, to the right side, and then it disappeared completely. I hope it shows up again one day;Meh.

 

[MrWheelock]

Awesome! Im not a BTA fan, but when I had one it hid for a while then came back out. Did its walkabout, hid, came out ect. Until it finally settled.

 

[New&no clue]

That’s what I heard, for the first week or two they will hide as they get us to the lights and flow, but then hopefully they will come out. Of course I’ve also heard of anemones that settle on the backs of rocks rarely to be seen again.

I have covers on my power heads, mesh on the overflow, and heater is down in the sump so I think he’ll be safe wondering until he gets happy.

 

[MrWheelock]

You are hereby dubbed New&some clue ;Hilarious

 

[New&no clue]

Oh where, oh where
Has my Anemone gone?
Oh where, oh where can it be?
With its tentacles sucked in
And its foot dislodged
Oh where, oh where can it be?

 

[New&no clue]

Look who emerged from the depths

looks like I need to move my hammer.

 

[New&no clue]

First thing this morning I wanted to check how a couple of my corals were doing. I didn’t feed the crew first though, so these two sat in front of my face until, reminding me they are starving.

 

[thaistalyn]

The tank is looking great. I'm following along! The clown crew looks like they have a ton of personality and I'm thinking Mrs. Beauty in the back there is ready to pounce on some food.

 

[Deadheadmatt]

I was worried about my lights not being strong enough for some of the new LPS that I got. Especially the ones down on the sand bed. So I decided to supplement my LEDs with some T5 fixtures. I went with a T5 hybrid that can also house LEDs. I bought the aquatic life 48” T5 fixture. I put in two blue+ and two coral+ lights.

48" Hybrid T5HO 4x54W Fixture with Three Circular Mounting Brackets- Black

Limited Time: Circular Mounting Brackets Included! Welcome to the future of aquarium lighting! Combine your favorite LED Light module along with Aquatic Lifes T5 lighting fixture to create a stellar lighting system! Accepts three Ecotech, AI, or Kessil LED Light Module Includes LED Light...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I like them because my current LEDs will fit, and when I finally bite the bullet and upgrade them this system will work as well.

I'm slowly ramping up the amount of hours they are on a day. I think I will add an hour every three days until they are on for 8 hours.

Can you post a picture of how the current usa lights fit into the hybrid fixture? I have two as well and I am think about getting the same hybrid fixture. Were you unable to hang the fixture on the current usa brackets?

 

[New&no clue]

@Deadheadmatt here are some pictures of my lights. I used the feet that come with the current USA lights to hold them on the T5 fixture.

 

[Deadheadmatt]

@Deadheadmatt here are some pictures of my lights. I used the feet that come with the current USA lights to hold them on the T5 fixture.

Thanks! That was exactly the pictures i was looking for!

 

[New&no clue]

Today was some serious tank maintenance. My mother-in-law is in town and she took the boys for the afternoon. On my maintenance schedule for this week is my skimmer. My skimmer is rarely working. It is always overflowing. I would say 8 out of 10 days it’s overflowing. So I pulled the skimmer and SCRUBBED that thing clean. It was gross. Maybe that was part of the issue, I hope so.

The other thing I did was take apart my ATO. I have the Red Sea Reefer ATO and twice in the past week the ATO has been half full but my return pump section was dry and the return pump was sucking air. I did some research and saw others with RSR had the same problem so I went to YouTube and found how to pull it all apart



Then I cleaned all the pieces so we will see if that helps any.

 

[New&no clue]

With it almost being the start of 2020 let's take a look back through 2019. Picture Heavy of corals and fish.

Lets start with the fishy crew. I don't name my fish, which is kinda sad.

Male Clown Fish
Pretty whipped by the female, goes where she tells him, eats when she's done, very docile with all other fish.

Female Clown Fish
Bullies only the male clown fish, constantly pushing him out of her way. Other than that full of personality, always hungry and begging for food. She eats like a horse.

Blenny, next to the Leptastrea
Oh Blenny, my favorite. Spending 90% of his time in two holes with just is face sticking out. The other 10% he is perched on this rock, right next to a power head, and looks like he is going to get blown away at any min.

Coral Beauty
Bully of the tank. She chases everyone around mostly the fire fish and blenny. Both or over her nonsense and refuse to move when she charges at them.

Purple Fire Fish
Poor fire fish she spent months hiding, living in a cave with the Peppermint Shrimp. Just recently she has decided not to take any more **** from the CB and is out loud and proud. I'm happy to see her again.

Demon Goby
The Demon Goby had yet to meet a coral that he isn't going to try to bury. However, it seems he has finally settled down and is happy with his borrow and this surrounding. My sand is amazingly white and whenever algae start to get going it is cleaned up in a couple days. While he truly drives me crazy, I do enjoy watching him take over.

Yellow Tang and RFA
ATTENTION TANG POLICE: This tang will not be staying in a 75 gallon for the rest of his life, I already have made arrangement for him to move when he's ready. He is so sweet, follows me around the room, was very shy in the beginning and hid most of the time, but now loves to be out in front, center of attention.

Blue Tuxedo Urchin.
Without a doubt the best thing I have bought for this tank. First off algae no more. This little guys takes care of it all and so quick. Secondly he is full of sass. He decorated his shell with these plastic gems my 4 year old insisted on putting in the tank. I have slowly been throwing them away with each water change. However, now the Urchin has found the remaining ones and loves them. As you see he went from 2 on his back to 5/6 now. And the third reason he is the best is because when he is tired he hitches a ride on the snail.

Corals and Growth

Bubble Tip Anemone- one and only picture ever
The BTA has picked the perfect spot.. for it... not for me. I moved the hammer so there wouldn't be any fighting, but alas the BTA still decided he wanted to be on the back on this rock. On occasion I see a tentacle or two sticking out.

Blasto at the start VS now + Rock Flower Anemone

Duncan at the start VS today, new head growth

Elegance Coral at the start VS now

Mushroom-Green Frilly at the start VS now
I wish pictures did it justice of how big it has gotten in the past couple months.

Hammer at the start VS now

Kenya Tree-new addition

Mandarin Orange Cloves at the start VS now
This little guy basically died, closed up, shriveled right up, and looked terrible. I moved it and and within a couple weeks it had opened back up, and looking better than ever.

Orange Laptastrea at the start VS now + Blenny

Mushroom-Pink Ricordea- new addition

Pipe Organs- new addition
These sad little guys. I was so excited to get them and they just haven't done good in my tank at all. They also had bubble algae all over them and after I removed that I was left with one small piece of my Winter Frost one. The Green pipe organ had no bubble algae on it. It was doing well for a couple weeks and then just closed up one day and that was it. I'm still holding out hope for it.

Plate Coral at the start VS now

Fuzzy Pulsing Sinularia at the start VS now
This coral is the reason to started to get corals. I saw a full grown one in Mike C's softy tank and fell in love. I found out where he bought it from and got a frag. It look a little bit for it to open up and then it looked great. Now it's closed again. I hope it is just shedding right now, but it's unknown.

Purple Gorgonian at the start VS now

Rock Flower Anemone

Sonic Galaxea at the start VS now

Speckled Leather- new addition

White Toad Stool

Torch at the start VS now

Toxic Goblin Favia

Trachy

Violet Cespitularia at the start VS now

Viper Strike Stylo at the start VS now
This is the only SPS I have in my tank, trying it out to see how it does.

Pulsing Xenia at the start VS now

Zoa Garden at the start VS now
Sunny D
Armor of God
Red flame skirt
Rasta

 

[Magellan]

Beautiful! Love the progress shots, your light is really doing everything justice

As a proud owner of a Kenya Leather tree (forest!) I would caution to watch out for the sheds. It will constantly reproduce itself by dropping off small pieces here and there, which can quickly attach to literally anything they touch. Also, if you aren’t already, you may want to run some carbon as the leather is all about some minor chemical warfare. Shouldn’t be an issue now, but as it grows larger (it will QUICKLY grow larger!) it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to drop a small bag in your sump.

Your nem seems happy and healthy, which couldn’t be a better indicator of a happy and healthy tank. I agree with the above comment, you definitely can’t call yourself New and No Clue anymore!!

 

[New&no clue]

@Magellan Yes, I run a bag of Carbon in the sump. I haven't been great about changing it out regularly though so I added it to my maintenance schedule for once a month.. or every two months.. something like that, my phone reminds me now when I need to do it.

I also try to keep the more invasive corals to themselves on their own little islands (Kenya Tree, Xenia, and Cespitularia), but I'm sure they will still spread eventually.

 

[Magellan]

Your maintenance schedule is a thing of beauty, just know! Mine is more random, I like to keep my tank on its toes

and oh, they will spread! When my leather first started reproducing, I got excited because “sweet, free new corals!” But now I have a forest, and lawn maintenance has to happen ;Hilarious

also: your pink ricordea is a looker!! never seen one that color before

 

[New&no clue]

Full Tank Shots for 4 months

4 Months
It you look halfway up the left rock structure with the Xenia on the front you can see a couple of the BTA tentacles peaking out. Also when I took this picture I thought only the Tang was in it, but under closer inspection all are there except the clowns.

3 Months

2 Months

Upgrade-Red Sea Reefer Start

Beginning of the End.. 55 Gallon HOB Filter

 

[New&no clue]

your pink ricordea is a looker!! never seen one that color before

World Wide Corals

 

[New&no clue]

So my tank has been fairly quiet for some time. Of course the dark side of me says there must be chaos just brewing below the surface, pun intended ;Joyful . Last night when I got home from work I noticed my Duncan was closed. I didn’t think much as something is always mad in my tank, but this afternoon still closed tight.

So I started really examining my tank, and eww gross.

First, I got three pipe organs from WWC. I was so excited to get these. When they were still on my frag rack I notice two had bubble algae on it. I popped them all off there plugs and cut the frag where the bubble algae was. I didn’t do a great job as two didn’t recover, and one only had one tube left;Doctor. I wasn’t ready to give up on them though and I thought I had got it all... well nope. While searching the tank I found more bubbly algae on my cloves.

I pulled this out and popped the bubble algae off. I didn’t know it was hard. I thought there was only one, but there were three.

Next while looking at my torch what do we see there

vermetid snails. There were three on this coral. So I pulled it out and scrapped the tubes off at the base.

Still not sure why my Duncan is closed. Since cleaning my skimmer it’s actually working and not overflowing constantly, so maybe it’s just not use to a clean tank. Probably should actually test some parameters.

Also to add to the joy of all this tank grossness while I’m elbow deep in the tank my dog starts making that sound that makes any dog own wake from a deep sleep. My 1 year old is napping so I’m yell-whispering at him to get off the carpet... he didn’t make it