Onward and Upward ... the 65 gallon that's too big.

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HuduVudu

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Tank is clearing back up. Biology ftw.
Now need to work on the alk drop will be putting a Kalk reactor on hopefully today. Sand should be here today also will get pics when I get that in. LOL then the tank will be cloudy all over again.

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Wife's job could possibly be gone next week so I will have to cheese some lights and may have to hold off on rock. :( The good news is got the electrical drop in the ceiling for the day that I can get lights hung. If only I had thought about ceiling mounting before I put up the tank. LOL, the story of my life.

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HuduVudu

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Plenum in place. Can never get straight lines on these because always somewhere on the side of the the sand slips down. Meh, they still work, so I will just write it off to artistry. :)

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HuduVudu

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Looks like tropical storms and hurricanes are keeping me from getting live rock as quickly as I would like. Was already planning a decent portion of dead rock because the pieces are kewl, so I started early. Hopefully this little T5 is enough to grow some algae so that I can get started. I want to get some limpets moved over, but have to wait for the algae.

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HuduVudu

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Whelp, an unexpected thing happened. I had to change some of my thinking around about what I was going to move from my 20 and I had a epiphany. I should make my SPS tank this one. With that change it changed the possibilities on which fish I can put in. I REALLY like butterflys ... and it so happened I found a healthy four spot at the LFS last Thursday. I decided to wait to see because the fish wasn't eating that I could see. Well here we are. I have been seeding daily with sand from my established system so I have some biology. With this fish going into the this tank I am worried about my weak biology, so I scavanged a few rocks from my 20 and replaced them with dead and then moved the established rock over. Hopefully this is enough biology. Now I am concerned with how to deal with the cure on my live rock. Sigh ... first world problems.

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Looks really good. That’s some serious flow!

I would think the biology to support one fish should be well enough established already. Especially after adding some well cured live rock. Guess you’ll just have to keep an eye on the ammonia.

Cool looking butterfly too. I’d love to do some butterflies in my tank, but not with the reef setup I have currently.
 

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Whelp, an unexpected thing happened. I had to change some of my thinking around about what I was going to move from my 20 and I had a epiphany. I should make my SPS tank this one. With that change it changed the possibilities on which fish I can put in. I REALLY like butterflys ... and it so happened I found a healthy four spot at the LFS last Thursday. I decided to wait to see because the fish wasn't eating that I could see. Well here we are. I have been seeding daily with sand from my established system so I have some biology. With this fish going into the this tank I am worried about my weak biology, so I scavanged a few rocks from my 20 and replaced them with dead and then moved the established rock over. Hopefully this is enough biology. Now I am concerned with how to deal with the cure on my live rock. Sigh ... first world problems.

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Oh ya looking good!
 
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HuduVudu

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Tested the alk today to see how much the increase in aerobic consumption had affected it. I was in for a pleasant surprise. The alk went up after being stable for weeks (7.7 - 8.0). Silly me scratching my head thinking about what could have caused it. Looks like the plenum has started doing it's thing.

How do I get myself into these situations. Now I need something to curb the alk (calcium) addition. All of this under low light conditions. Looks like it's off to the LFS to try and find a small kewl looking piece of LPS. I am really going to get algae now. Gotta figure out how to get a piece of SPS to soak up the nutrients. Hmmmm ...
 
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Looks like the butterfly is flashing. We have ick.

This may seem crazy, but I am actually glad for this. For me it marks the beginning of recovery.

Still need to get her eating, but things are looking good.
 
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Whelp we have a tank that is getting a load. No skimmer makes things pretty frothy and foamy. I am dancing a fine line, trying the million things for the fish and not completely overloading the system. Nitrates still nice at about 5ppm. I am pretty sure that is going to really come up. Thank gawd for the plenum that should keep my nitrates mostly in check for this process. I still haven't figured out how to deal with the alk. It is slowly creeping up, fortunately the biological load is keeping things tamped down until I can figure out how to get a load on under this light.

THE BEST NEWS. My fish is eating, and even better she is starting to recognize that I am the one putting the food in. Looks like live blood worms are the trick for now. I am getting white worms in in a few days but having blood worms now makes a huge difference. Looks like she has stopped flashing so if I can keep her eating things will work out very well. She got a name way to soon, but I introduce you to Ezmerelda, Queen of her dominion, eater of worms that stray from rocks. :)

Pics of the cloudy foamy mess.
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Got live rock today! Yay. Huge shout out to live rock and reef they are the best. https://www.liverocknreef.com/catalog/salt-water-live-rock.html This is the first set of live rock that I actually didn't smell hydrogen sulfide on. It actually smelled like an oyster bar and made me hungry just thinking about it. :p

Lots of halameda and various macros. Even my favorite taxinoma ... blech ;Meh That was promptly removed. Will have to remove some more as I find it.

OMG there are several bivalves of some nature with the rock. One is actually huge. Thank gawd I didn't put a skimmer on this tank. Those creatures are going to need all the plankton they can get.

Added some rock and rubble to my 20, that should help with some biology. It's been a while for that tank so it is good to refresh it.

On with the pics. :)

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Got live rock today! Yay. Huge shout out to live rock and reef they are the best. https://www.liverocknreef.com/catalog/salt-water-live-rock.html This is the first set of live rock that I actually didn't smell hydrogen sulfide on. It actually smelled like an oyster bar and made me hungry just thinking about it. :p

Lots of halameda and various macros. Even my favorite taxinoma ... blech ;Meh That was promptly removed. Will have to remove some more as I find it.

OMG there are several bivalves of some nature with the rock. One is actually huge. Thank gawd I didn't put a skimmer on this tank. Those creatures are going to need all the plankton they can get.

Added some rock and rubble to my 20, that should help with some biology. It's been a while for that tank so it is good to refresh it.

On with the pics. :)

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Are you going to quarantine the live rock first, or just dump it in? I think I would want a chance to see if I could find any pests (gorilla crabs, etc...) on the rock before I dumped it into my display.
 
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Are you going to quarantine the live rock first, or just dump it in? I think I would want a chance to see if I could find any pests (gorilla crabs, etc...) on the rock before I dumped it into my display.
I just dumped it in. The only thing in that tank now is the fish so I will just work to get it out.

I also dumped some rock into my 20. Will have to watch that closer, but I should be able to get it all out.
 

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I just dumped it in. The only thing in that tank now is the fish so I will just work to get it out.

I also dumped some rock into my 20. Will have to watch that closer, but I should be able to get it all out.
That's one way to do it. I've dealt with pests before when I had to get a mantis shrimp out of my tank. That was not fun, so it has made me a little more paranoid. But dump and run can work too!
 

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That's one way to do it. I've dealt with pests before when I had to get a mantis shrimp out of my tank. That was not fun, so it has made me a little more paranoid. But dump and run can work too!
Years ago I had a 100 gallon tank with 200 lbs of Florida live rock back when its was legal. Is it legal now? idk. Did 2 drops 100 lbs each? Its fascinating just watching the rock grow and all on it. I liked Christmas Tree worms the most. . Its a little smelly at first for a few weeks, well a lot. About like rotten eggs. . My problem was a giant Mantis shrimp I couldn't catch for two years. He would eventfully kill every fish I put in the tank. They make a very loud clicking noise. Some say they can break glass.

I like to fish and do so often in Port Aransas TX. At certain times of the year bait stands will have Mantis Shrimp. They call them Sea Lice and they are great for catching Red Drum. They are very dangerous and will cut your finger badly so we step on the mantis before we bait our hook. Just saying. Beware!;)
 
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Years ago I had a 100 gallon tank with 200 lbs of Florida live rock back when its was legal. Is it legal now?
It is through the collectors. I actually think that they are past the U.S. territorial waters when they collect. Either way the rock in the pictures is from Florida. I think the salesman said that they collect at 30-40 feet, so my cheesy light is going to work just fine.

Its a little smelly at first for a few weeks, well a lot. About like rotten eggs.
The really kewl part about this rock is that was collected the day it shipped. I have dealt with a lot of live rock in my time and hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) was always a part of it, but since this was collected and shipped the same day there was no die off that I could see.

They are very dangerous and will cut your finger badly so we step on the mantis before we bait our hook. Just saying. Beware!
Yup in my first tank in 1996 had a mantis shrimp in it that took me some time to get out. He was small, but I knew he was a pest. It only took me a few days to get him and then I killed him. If I get any from this rock I will probably save them and see if anyone would like a new pet. They are incredibly intelligent and their colors are beautiful. I am not hearing any clicking so far tonight so probably no adults. That doesn't preclude eggs so I will be on the look out for those.

So far the pests have been pretty minimal some calurepa taxinoma and about 5 majanos. Removed the calurepa and have killed four majanos. The fifth one I just found wil get him tomorrow.
 
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So far so good on the pests. Halemeda is coloring up nice ... and then there is Ezmerelda. She went for the black worms and I had a sigh of relief, but the real gambit was on white worms. Being a typical reefer I spent probably too much and justified it. Truth is that I want more butterflys and I know that they are mostly worm eaters (exceptions of course), so I felt I could justify some of the cost of setting up white worm grow out and since even black worms are hard to get I spent some money. Mostly on a full colony of white worms. That's what I get for my impulse buy. So I picked up a used wine cooler from someone who coincidently got the cooler as an impulse buy. From one to the next. :D The colony arrived today and I broke it out into my own containers and set up food. I am going to include the link of the video I found on how to culture white worms. This person's method makes sense to me. So .... video and pics incoming.




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The worms are the white little root looking things. Most have gone to the bottom of the container.

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And of course worm food.

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