Nowell's Reef Savvy Pastel Peninsula/Black Widow factory

Nowell · Mar 15, 2018

mrpizzaface said:
Very impressive build. I may have missed it, but what rock did you use?

Appreciate the kind words.

It’s rock I’ve had since the late 1990s. It was originally purchased as live rock from a LFS a med school classmate and I briefly worked at, enjoying the fruit of our employee discount. Prior to this build it sat in a pile on my deck for about 9 months in the elements. The rock is porous and coated with many years and layers of corraline. Different pieces remind me of builds stretching back to a 20 high with a Jaubert plenum. I had a brownish pistol shrimp(?) as a hitchhiker that I saw briefly once and heard often snapping at night.

Closeup of the rock and tail spot blenny:

I suspect the Diflucan has hindered coralline growth thus far to only a few spots.

dbraun15 · Mar 15, 2018

Coral looks like either a stereonephthya or possible kenya tree. Hard to tell without light. If it's pretty purple, I vote for the stereonephthya. If so, sweet find.

dbraun15 · Mar 15, 2018

This may help...
https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/2162/red-tip-tree-coral?pcatid=2162&c=597+600+2162

minus9 · Mar 15, 2018

Is the coral slippery to the touch or kinda rough? If it feels slimy, then most likely alcyonium or cladiella sp.

Nowell · Mar 15, 2018

It's slightly purple. You can see it in the (crazy saturated) reef pics above to the left and right of the gorgonian. I moved it all to the right today. I'll try to get a pic with light this evening.

minus9 · Mar 15, 2018

The natural light pictures are best and as I mentioned before, it's most likely cladiella "colt" coral or similar. There are no visible sclerites on either coral, which would rule out stereonephthya. Also, the natural light pictures above look like they are two different corals, but very similar. The lighter colored one most likely is a "colt". Look up pictures of cladiella and alcyonium. If it's smooth to the touch then it's a "colt", if it's rough, then it could be capnella or similar sp.

Nowell · Mar 22, 2018

Nowell · Apr 1, 2018

Returned from a week in Bonaire to find two RBTAs! I’m filling this thing up with nems.

hwntunda · May 13, 2018

Great craftsmanship and scape, Congrats on the twins lol!!

Ruben's Reef · May 13, 2018

Looking good. Great progress.

Nowell · May 28, 2018

Came back from a weekend in Manhattan to find another daughter born (@10:30 position). The first daughter is now on the away side from the FTS. My non-aquarist, non-hard science wife has hypothesized that the rising pH (8.10 to 8.20 peak) from our absence during trips triggers division. Impressed.

I had an issue with Cyanobacteria which has now cleared using the treatment of patience. It had coated the gorgonian which I removed.

I’ve added Cespitularia to try to push the momma RBTA back left. The piece I put adjacent to the RBTA was stung so savagely that it has not recovered weeks later. My dosing regimen took a nose dive after the Cespitularia was added. May try carbon to see if the decline is due to toxin. Stonies have good polyp extension and color, however.

Also added more Capnella on the other side of the Fiji leather. Two Bangaii found a home here. Unfortunately I suspect I have two males. The beta male stays to the left.

Joshky · May 28, 2018

Following for sure! I'm doing a soft dominated reef as well, loving the cespitularia in the last photo.

Your photos make me miss my T5s so much.

Nowell · May 29, 2018

Joshky said:
Following for sure! I'm doing a soft dominated reef as well, loving the cespitularia in the last photo.

Your photos make me miss my T5s so much.

Thanks for following, Josh. T5s are nice. However, these do not bring out the yellow in the Cespitularia polyps. When I light them up with my phone flashlight they're bright yellow. I think I'm going to change to an ATI T5/LED hybrid in the future and perhaps make a low profile LED spot over that coral, over the back wall, in the interim.

Nowell · Jun 6, 2018

Ernie

Nowell · Jun 7, 2018

My dosing requirement has dropped to somewhere under 4ml/d of ATI Essentials (from low 20s two months ago). Most everything looks healthy. Largest consumers of calcium bicarbonate are the clam, the Montipora setosa, Montipora capricornis, and Turbinaria. I noticed the biggest drop with the addition of the Cespitularia and more Capnella 4-5 weeks ago. The only coral which does not look quite right is the Capnella which doesn't seem to like where it's positioned. They are flopped over.

I added 2 cups of BRS ultra fancy whatever carbon to the sump 6 days ago.

Ordered bulbs and they arrived last night. Will swap two every two weeks until all eight are changed (each bulb has had about 8 months of use and could probably go longer).

I want alk mid 8, however, it has inched up to 9.9. I dropped dosing from 4-->1ml/d this morning. Recently increased feeding to move the nitrate up from 0-2 and it's now 5-10. I have very little skimmate production--1/4 cup per week. Nutrient export is through Chaeto removal. pH 8.00-8.15. Temp 77.5. Periodically check Ca and Mg. They have been boringly in range with KH near 8.5.

I haven't changed any water since the first week to counteract the curious Doser 2.1 200ml alk dump.

I'm going to let the alk slowly drift down to mid 8s and then send off my first ATI test at that time. I suspect a toxin from the Cespitularia (which I cannot test for) or build up or loss of some critical element.

najer · Jun 7, 2018

I managed to go the other way, alk 9.9 but cal and mag low, slowly bouncing my way back up!
I change all 8 tubes at once in mid / late June, max England daylight natural light, the tank gets controlled natural daylight through the summer.