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

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New&no clue

New&no clue

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1 YEAR UPDATE!!

Can you believe it, that tank is one year old. Such a proud mama. I had plans to make a giant update with loads of facts and everything... but sadly work has got me swamped so I will just post some update pictures.

First Day
FTS1 8.30.19.jpeg

October 2019
FTS2 10.31.19.jpeg

November 2019
FTS3 11.30.19.jpeg

December 2019
FTS4 12.30.19.jpg

January 2020
FTS5 1.30.20.jpeg

February 2020
FTS5 2.28.20.jpg

March 2020
FTS6 3.28.20.jpg

April 2020
FTS7 4.27.20.jpg

May 2020

FTS9 5.30.20.jpg

June 2020
FTS10 6.30.20.jpg

July 2020
FTS11 7.28.20.jpeg

August 2020

5A1C1D8D-9ADB-4399-B977-304477A6B084.jpeg

Sump Day 1 vs Today
CAF02FC5-2B87-4597-9C16-C929AACA555A.jpeg
F3717364-4FF8-42D1-8036-1EAE36A3A7EE.jpeg


Obviously my Soft Corals have grown the most, with my Anemones a close second. The RBTA has now split into three and the RFA has grown a bunch as well. Last weekend it even started spawning. My one SPS in the tank has also shown some good growth which gives me a lot of hope for the future of this tank. The past couple months have been difficult, but I'm just going to keep working at it and hopefully see some improvement.

A couple things I've learned as in my first year of reefing is;
1. Testing for consistence on accuracy. What I mean by that is the most important thing are consistent, and it is better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right.

2.Dialing in a skimmer. This took me the longest time to figure out. I watched countless videos on it, but I just didn't understand what a skimmer was supposed to do. Finally one day after playing with it for several months I understood that a skimmer produces bubbles, and foam... and the foam is what you want going up the neck and into the skimmer cup. The best way to get the foam up is to have the top of the bubbles hit the top of the skimmer, before the cup.

3. Water changes are more for exporting nutrients then replacing Cal, Alk, and Mag.

4. Research your fish before your purchase... and then don't assume your fish will be the outlier, it will probably be the normal. My Coral Beauty is a full on Tank A**H***. I read they can be aggressive before I put him in the tank, but I read others saying they were fine. I hoped he would be fine... but he's not.

5. Flow is extremely important. It may just be my tank, but my coral respond to flow far more than light and if they are getting to much or not enough they will let you know.

Here is a couple individual growth pictures of corals.

Zoa Garden
zoa garden.jpg
Zoa garden8.28.20.jpg


Mushroom-Green Frill
green frill.jpg
green frill 8.28.20.jpg


Pulsing Sinularia
ps2.jpeg
Pulsing Sin 8.28.20.jpg


Stylophora- Viper Strike
Viper Strike Stylo2.jpg
Viper Strike Stylo 8.28.20.jpg
 

jk_s124

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1 YEAR UPDATE!!

Can you believe it, that tank is one year old. Such a proud mama. I had plans to make a giant update with loads of facts and everything... but sadly work has got me swamped so I will just post some update pictures.

First Day
FTS1 8.30.19.jpeg

October 2019
FTS2 10.31.19.jpeg

November 2019
FTS3 11.30.19.jpeg

December 2019
FTS4 12.30.19.jpg

January 2020
FTS5 1.30.20.jpeg

February 2020
FTS5 2.28.20.jpg

March 2020
FTS6 3.28.20.jpg

April 2020
FTS7 4.27.20.jpg

May 2020

FTS9 5.30.20.jpg

June 2020
FTS10 6.30.20.jpg

July 2020
FTS11 7.28.20.jpeg

August 2020

5A1C1D8D-9ADB-4399-B977-304477A6B084.jpeg

Sump Day 1 vs Today
CAF02FC5-2B87-4597-9C16-C929AACA555A.jpeg
F3717364-4FF8-42D1-8036-1EAE36A3A7EE.jpeg


Obviously my Soft Corals have grown the most, with my Anemones a close second. The RBTA has now split into three and the RFA has grown a bunch as well. Last weekend it even started spawning. My one SPS in the tank has also shown some good growth which gives me a lot of hope for the future of this tank. The past couple months have been difficult, but I'm just going to keep working at it and hopefully see some improvement.

A couple things I've learned as in my first year of reefing is;
1. Testing for consistence on accuracy. What I mean by that is the most important thing are consistent, and it is better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right.

2.Dialing in a skimmer. This took me the longest time to figure out. I watched countless videos on it, but I just didn't understand what a skimmer was supposed to do. Finally one day after playing with it for several months I understood that a skimmer produces bubbles, and foam... and the foam is what you want going up the neck and into the skimmer cup. The best way to get the foam up is to have the top of the bubbles hit the top of the skimmer, before the cup.

3. Water changes are more for exporting nutrients then replacing Cal, Alk, and Mag.

4. Research your fish before your purchase... and then don't assume your fish will be the outlier, it will probably be the normal. My Coral Beauty is a full on Tank A**H***. I read they can be aggressive before I put him in the tank, but I read others saying they were fine. I hoped he would be fine... but he's not.

5. Flow is extremely important. It may just be my tank, but my coral respond to flow far more than light and if they are getting to much or not enough they will let you know.

Here is a couple individual growth pictures of corals.

Zoa Garden
zoa garden.jpg
Zoa garden8.28.20.jpg


Mushroom-Green Frill
green frill.jpg
green frill 8.28.20.jpg


Pulsing Sinularia
ps2.jpeg
Pulsing Sin 8.28.20.jpg


Stylophora- Viper Strike
Viper Strike Stylo2.jpg
Viper Strike Stylo 8.28.20.jpg
Congrats on the one year anniversary! It really looks amazing, and you can see all the hard work and attention that goes into it. Well done!
 

Nanorock1970

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Awesome update...really shows where you started and how things have progressed in a year...can’t wait for your 2 year update for your wins and losses....inspiration to be more active keeping up with my tank to be...I missed out on lots of months on my current tank...Congrats on your year anniversary!!! Don’t forget you also got the Reef Tank 365 !!! Hooray @New&no clue !!!
 
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New&no clue

New&no clue

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Thanks everyone, it has been a really fun and exciting year. When starting out I don't think I realized how rewarding this hobby is and the sense of accomplishment that comes from it.

I remember when I was in my early 20s and friends would say, "I can't keep a plant alive so I'm certainly not ready for a baby." I would agree wholeheartedly with this statement, until I had kids and I realized kids really don't like to be ignored. Babies cry when they need anything... but that house plant I have in the corner... that thing never lets me know if it hasn't been watered, or if it's not getting enough light. It is perfectly content to just wither and die in the corner and never let me know anything is wrong. So I came to realize that keeping kids alive was a lot easier then the stupid plants.

This tank is the same, it doesn't let me know when something is wrong, you really have to be in tune with your tank. You have to put in the work to see the results. I'm really looking forward to what the next year is going to bring.
 

Sleeping Giant

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1 YEAR UPDATE!!

Can you believe it, that tank is one year old. Such a proud mama. I had plans to make a giant update with loads of facts and everything... but sadly work has got me swamped so I will just post some update pictures.

First Day
FTS1 8.30.19.jpeg

October 2019
FTS2 10.31.19.jpeg

November 2019
FTS3 11.30.19.jpeg

December 2019
FTS4 12.30.19.jpg

January 2020
FTS5 1.30.20.jpeg

February 2020
FTS5 2.28.20.jpg

March 2020
FTS6 3.28.20.jpg

April 2020
FTS7 4.27.20.jpg

May 2020

FTS9 5.30.20.jpg

June 2020
FTS10 6.30.20.jpg

July 2020
FTS11 7.28.20.jpeg

August 2020

5A1C1D8D-9ADB-4399-B977-304477A6B084.jpeg

Sump Day 1 vs Today
CAF02FC5-2B87-4597-9C16-C929AACA555A.jpeg
F3717364-4FF8-42D1-8036-1EAE36A3A7EE.jpeg


Obviously my Soft Corals have grown the most, with my Anemones a close second. The RBTA has now split into three and the RFA has grown a bunch as well. Last weekend it even started spawning. My one SPS in the tank has also shown some good growth which gives me a lot of hope for the future of this tank. The past couple months have been difficult, but I'm just going to keep working at it and hopefully see some improvement.

A couple things I've learned as in my first year of reefing is;
1. Testing for consistence on accuracy. What I mean by that is the most important thing are consistent, and it is better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right.

2.Dialing in a skimmer. This took me the longest time to figure out. I watched countless videos on it, but I just didn't understand what a skimmer was supposed to do. Finally one day after playing with it for several months I understood that a skimmer produces bubbles, and foam... and the foam is what you want going up the neck and into the skimmer cup. The best way to get the foam up is to have the top of the bubbles hit the top of the skimmer, before the cup.

3. Water changes are more for exporting nutrients then replacing Cal, Alk, and Mag.

4. Research your fish before your purchase... and then don't assume your fish will be the outlier, it will probably be the normal. My Coral Beauty is a full on Tank A**H***. I read they can be aggressive before I put him in the tank, but I read others saying they were fine. I hoped he would be fine... but he's not.

5. Flow is extremely important. It may just be my tank, but my coral respond to flow far more than light and if they are getting to much or not enough they will let you know.

Here is a couple individual growth pictures of corals.

Zoa Garden
zoa garden.jpg
Zoa garden8.28.20.jpg


Mushroom-Green Frill
green frill.jpg
green frill 8.28.20.jpg


Pulsing Sinularia
ps2.jpeg
Pulsing Sin 8.28.20.jpg


Stylophora- Viper Strike
Viper Strike Stylo2.jpg
Viper Strike Stylo 8.28.20.jpg
Looks great
 
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New&no clue

New&no clue

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so what's your secret to the explosive coraline growth?

I read to get coralline algae to add snails, hermits, rocks, frag plugs that have it already growing on it. I did this, and had some growth, but not a lot. Then I read the best way is to scrap it off whatever you have in the tank. You might notice in some of my older FTS that the back wall is clean halfway down. I just kept scrapping the back wall whenever there was coralline algae, and that’s when growth really picked up.
 

Sebastiancrab

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I read to get coralline algae to add snails, hermits, rocks, frag plugs that have it already growing on it. I did this, and had some growth, but not a lot. Then I read the best way is to scrap it off whatever you have in the tank. You might notice in some of my older FTS that the back wall is clean halfway down. I just kept scrapping the back wall whenever there was coralline algae, and that’s when growth really picked up.
Trying to understand, when you scraped it off did you relocate it or remove it?
 

CavalierReef

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Beautiful tank and amazing 1st year progress. Congratulation! I've tried all the coraliine in my 4 month old Biocube including 2 bottles of the product above. I used Fiji rock that I had had stored for several years which, at the time I removed it from a tank, was covered in coralline algae. I still have next to no coralline. I just got a rock from my LFS with some coralline on it. Only thing I know of that I haven't tried. Ca is 1340. ??
 

fishguy242

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love the scraping,sharing,coralline,have done for years,scrape into net ,put scrapings into another tank,i believe spraeds spores then dies creating calcium :cool:
 
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New&no clue

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Trying to understand, when you scraped it off did you relocate it or remove it?

I just scrape it and let it blow around the tank. The bits and pieces land on new rocks and starts to grow. And yes keeping calcium up. I noticed when coralline really started my calcium dropped. My calcium is typically 420.
 

boacvh

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1 YEAR UPDATE!!

Can you believe it, that tank is one year old. Such a proud mama. I had plans to make a giant update with loads of facts and everything... but sadly work has got me swamped so I will just post some update pictures.

First Day
FTS1 8.30.19.jpeg

October 2019
FTS2 10.31.19.jpeg

November 2019
FTS3 11.30.19.jpeg

December 2019
FTS4 12.30.19.jpg

January 2020
FTS5 1.30.20.jpeg

February 2020
FTS5 2.28.20.jpg

March 2020
FTS6 3.28.20.jpg

April 2020
FTS7 4.27.20.jpg

May 2020

FTS9 5.30.20.jpg

June 2020
FTS10 6.30.20.jpg

July 2020
FTS11 7.28.20.jpeg

August 2020

5A1C1D8D-9ADB-4399-B977-304477A6B084.jpeg

Sump Day 1 vs Today
CAF02FC5-2B87-4597-9C16-C929AACA555A.jpeg
F3717364-4FF8-42D1-8036-1EAE36A3A7EE.jpeg


Obviously my Soft Corals have grown the most, with my Anemones a close second. The RBTA has now split into three and the RFA has grown a bunch as well. Last weekend it even started spawning. My one SPS in the tank has also shown some good growth which gives me a lot of hope for the future of this tank. The past couple months have been difficult, but I'm just going to keep working at it and hopefully see some improvement.

A couple things I've learned as in my first year of reefing is;
1. Testing for consistence on accuracy. What I mean by that is the most important thing are consistent, and it is better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right.

2.Dialing in a skimmer. This took me the longest time to figure out. I watched countless videos on it, but I just didn't understand what a skimmer was supposed to do. Finally one day after playing with it for several months I understood that a skimmer produces bubbles, and foam... and the foam is what you want going up the neck and into the skimmer cup. The best way to get the foam up is to have the top of the bubbles hit the top of the skimmer, before the cup.

3. Water changes are more for exporting nutrients then replacing Cal, Alk, and Mag.

4. Research your fish before your purchase... and then don't assume your fish will be the outlier, it will probably be the normal. My Coral Beauty is a full on Tank A**H***. I read they can be aggressive before I put him in the tank, but I read others saying they were fine. I hoped he would be fine... but he's not.

5. Flow is extremely important. It may just be my tank, but my coral respond to flow far more than light and if they are getting to much or not enough they will let you know.

Here is a couple individual growth pictures of corals.

Zoa Garden
zoa garden.jpg
Zoa garden8.28.20.jpg


Mushroom-Green Frill
green frill.jpg
green frill 8.28.20.jpg


Pulsing Sinularia
ps2.jpeg
Pulsing Sin 8.28.20.jpg


Stylophora- Viper Strike
Viper Strike Stylo2.jpg
Viper Strike Stylo 8.28.20.jpg
Its looking really great. Awesome update post!
 
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New&no clue

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Thanks, everyone, for the tank praise. I've worked really hard on this tank, but I've decided it's time to work less and start automating. I have been dosing my hand. I wanted to learn this tank from top to bottom. Dosing definitely helped, but that is a lot of work, and let's be honest, I forget some night to do it. I have had my salt mix pretty consistently, and I've had small decreases in parameters. However, over the past couple of weeks, the batch of salt I have isn't mixing the same, the drops are more significant, life has gotten more hectic, and there have been parameter swings. I don't know if this is the cause, but I have a big beautiful Elegance coral that had started and now almost completely retracted tissue or bailout (not sure what its called). I'm so sad as Elegance corals are my favorite.

The coral started in another tank, but the light was not strong enough for it.
Elegance1.jpg


So I added it into this tank which my other Elegance coral had been doing so well in.
Elegance-New.jpg


One morning I noticed it was looking fuller. On closer inspection I notice that it was pulling back from the skeleton.
Elegance-BO.jpg


And here it is toady.
Elegance-BO2.jpg


This leads me to automat as I don't want to lose any more corals, and I'd like to add more difficult corals at some point. I was researching a doser. I decided to go with the Kamoer X1 Bluetooth Micropump.
Pumps.jpg


Currently, I am dosing Alk and Calcium, and it has been working well. I want to add a Monti to the back wall, but I want to make sure I have a really stable tank before I do that. Hopefully this helps.
 

Magellan

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Thanks, everyone, for the tank praise. I've worked really hard on this tank, but I've decided it's time to work less and start automating. I have been dosing my hand. I wanted to learn this tank from top to bottom. Dosing definitely helped, but that is a lot of work, and let's be honest, I forget some night to do it. I have had my salt mix pretty consistently, and I've had small decreases in parameters. However, over the past couple of weeks, the batch of salt I have isn't mixing the same, the drops are more significant, life has gotten more hectic, and there have been parameter swings. I don't know if this is the cause, but I have a big beautiful Elegance coral that had started and now almost completely retracted tissue or bailout (not sure what its called). I'm so sad as Elegance corals are my favorite.

The coral started in another tank, but the light was not strong enough for it.
Elegance1.jpg


So I added it into this tank which my other Elegance coral had been doing so well in.
Elegance-New.jpg


One morning I noticed it was looking fuller. On closer inspection I notice that it was pulling back from the skeleton.
Elegance-BO.jpg


And here it is toady.
Elegance-BO2.jpg


This leads me to automat as I don't want to lose any more corals, and I'd like to add more difficult corals at some point. I was researching a doser. I decided to go with the Kamoer X1 Bluetooth Micropump.
Pumps.jpg


Currently, I am dosing Alk and Calcium, and it has been working well. I want to add a Monti to the back wall, but I want to make sure I have a really stable tank before I do that. Hopefully this helps.
Any update on the doser? I’ve dosed by hand for 1.5 years now, but think my tank would probably appreciate the added stability of 12 small doses a day instead of one large one ;Dead
 

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