Random Luminosity's 75 gallon build

[Gumbies R Us]

Added some new inhabitants today. 2 Springeri Damsels, a hammer, frogspawn and zoa (now I cant remember what specific variants they are though). I also added 4 corals from WWC's sale last week. And some trochus snails to help with what looks to be an uptick in my ugly stage.

Nice looking corals!

 

[Random Luminosity]

Added a Starry Blenny to the tank this past weekend. He(?) is so cool to watch, definitely my favorite so far. Also added a turbo snail and a fire shrimp, who has decided to hide in the corner between my filter and heater...what a wonderful $50 investment lol.

Also pleased to say that my first battle with cyno was successful

 

[Random Luminosity]

Pic didnt attach

 

[Random Luminosity]

Got some new creatures for the tank today!

 

[GavinTrz]

Love how the tank is going so far! Zoas are super colorful for how inexpensive they are, if you can get a nice garden going they look amazing. Easy way to populate a decent chunk of a reef tank. and with the Hippo Tang, just be sure to watch out for his size, they grow pretty quickly, I've had people tell me they can grow 3 to 5 inches in a year which is insanely fast. I was also thinking about getting a hippo temporarily as I know people who would be able to take it off of my hands when it gets too large for me to care for. I'm also curious as to what level of success you are having with corals? I know I've been battling with keeping my nitrates and phosphates above 0 as my tank is still so new, I assume you aren't facing these kinds of problems as you've got a lot more fish than I do lol.

 

[Random Luminosity]

well, thought Id give an update to the tank. Things havent been well here, both personal and with the tank. This might be therapeutic to get off my chest somewhere, might as well be here. My father's health took a quick and bad turn middle of last month, and he passed away hours after my kids and I got back to try and see him. He was 77 and full of joy and energy, I just wasnt prepared for it. Trying to get back to "normal", but honestly I struggle keeping my enthusiasm for much right now (work, friends, and of course the tank). And to top it off, the tank was going thru a bloom of dinos (presumably, getting microscope verification this weekend) so I came back to a cruddy looking tank with unhappy corals. The cherry on top to it all was one of my clownfish died a couple days later. She had been slightly lethargic and was eating very sporadically, but other than that showed no signs of disease so I had chalked it up to some behavior issue. I kept watching each day to see if I was missing anything, but no indication of a disease and none of the other fish showed any signs of a problem either. I know sometimes these things happen, but obviously...bad timing.

The tank is my focus now, I figure if I can get that going good again maybe it will help me work thru my funk and get me back on track. Gotta take it one day at a time. In addition to planning on getting a sample to my LFS for dino verification, I put in a green killing machine 24w UV today, vacuumed the sand and rocks thru 2 5-micron socks, and Im dosing MB7 and MB Clean. My nitrates and phosphates havent bottomed out (40ppm and .06ppm)...maybe this is a result of using chemiclean in july to clear my cyano.

Also, I moved my Tidal 75 from one side to the other with plans of either adding another 75 or a HOB skimmer. And dang it if in the back of my head I still want to just replace the 75 altogether with an FX4 or 6. Yeah, I know Im gonna get a ton of pushback on that but man it would be nice to not have to hear water everytime the tank water gets a quarter inch low lol (yeah yeah, get an ato. its on the list)

 

[Random Luminosity]

Things are looking up! I appear to be winning my battle with dinos. Been throwing MB7 and MB Clean at it for weeks, and running the UV for about 16hrs a day. They finally stopped showing up on the rocks and I have been seeing hair algae in its place, but nothing that seems to be out of control so far. They were still showing up on the sand during the day though, so I cut back on my lighting. In addition I found a few threads here and elsewhere that recommended raising the temp to 82 degrees so I figured what the heck and tried it. I got it up to 81 and that day they just basically stopped showing up. I still plan or running the tank that high for a while with the UV for a week or two just to make sure, but boy has that had an impact on my outlook on the tank.

My wife wanted to get me a rainbow BTA for my birthday, and I decided today was a good day to give it a try so we picked up a little one and will see how that goes. I had wanted to replace the clownfish that died, but I cannot find another percula in my area this weekend. I thought you werent supposed to mix them...now Im finding maybe thats not the case and it just depends on if you have 2 females or not?

Finally, I picked up a Reef Octopus HOB-100 at the LFS. I was thinking that I was going to get the HOB90, but no one has them in stock here and the 100 was 30 bucks cheaper than online so I figured Id roll with it. Im currently at 6 fish, and Im thinking I may eventually end up with 3-4 more and be maxed out, so Im feeling pretty good about my equipment choices at this point.

 

[NautiTang]

Thats good to hear! I’d like to see some pics when you’re ready

 

[Random Luminosity]

Been holding off on pics as i figured out that the new skimmer was going to require some rock shuffling. Darn thing was going to go right where my tallest rock was, and it was about a half inch too high. But, after a little shuffling its it its place and the rocks look pretty good too. Dinos ate back, kinda. Just on the sandbed. And now i have to head back to nebraska to take care of some estate things...hoping they wont be too bad in the meantime. Ill keep the UV on 24/7 and lower the light period, fingers crosses.

Heres the current state of affairs:

 

[Random Luminosity]

things are starting to stabilize in the tank. Dinos are for the most part gone, just a small patch in the back under the filter intake that comes and goes. Ive gotten my parameters more in check as my nitrates/phosphates were pretty high (a result of heeding advice to keep them high to fight dinos, without anyone really explaining what "high" means). Ive added a few more corals, and yesterday picked up a carpenter wrasse. Getting some aggression from the Royal Gramma, Starry Blenny and one of the damsels, hopefully that dies down.

 

[Featherweight]

Right on, looking good

 

[Random Luminosity]

 

[Random Luminosity]

ups and downs here on the reef. The tank really looks good right now, been adding corals (zoas, a frogspawn, new york knicks torch, some favia) and they are all looking good. Ive moved past the ugly stage and fought off dinos. But...

these fish! Ever just get an ****** fish that you love but just makes you want to throw in the towel? Last post I showed a fish I really loved, a carpenter wrasse. Well, lost him to a tiny gap in the lid where the light bracket is. probably 2x.5 inches. I should have known better, but Ive rectified that by 3d printing custom gap fillers for the entire back side of the tank (even covered the opening for the Tidal HOB filter and around the pipes for the skimmer). But as I said he was getting bullied big time by my Starry Blenny and I think that contributed to it. Fast forward to two weeks ago, been wanting a diamond goby and finally found one. As soon as he got in the tank, instant bullying by the blenny. Hardcore. I couldnt catch either of them so turned off the lights and left it alone hoping it would calm down. Next day and theres no trace of the goby (no disturbed sand, nothing)...I guess my cleanup crew is top notch. Two days ago my LFS had one and I figured i would make one more go of it. I have an acclimation box but somehow the new guy got out. Again with the bullying. It got worse last night rather than better, so I tried to catch the blenny to put him in time out but couldnt. Turned off the lights to try and calm it down again. and of course not sign of him this morning. Its infurating. I dont know what else to do other than put a trap in there and try to get the blenny out. Its a bummer because I really like him but hes an absolute jerk (ive seen him attacking nassarius snails in his free time too), but at this point I cant trust putting another fish in there. Anybody else have issues like this with blennies?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

ups and downs here on the reef. The tank really looks good right now, been adding corals (zoas, a frogspawn, new york knicks torch, some favia) and they are all looking good. Ive moved past the ugly stage and fought off dinos. But...

these fish! Ever just get an ****** fish that you love but just makes you want to throw in the towel? Last post I showed a fish I really loved, a carpenter wrasse. Well, lost him to a tiny gap in the lid where the light bracket is. probably 2x.5 inches. I should have known better, but Ive rectified that by 3d printing custom gap fillers for the entire back side of the tank (even covered the opening for the Tidal HOB filter and around the pipes for the skimmer). But as I said he was getting bullied big time by my Starry Blenny and I think that contributed to it. Fast forward to two weeks ago, been wanting a diamond goby and finally found one. As soon as he got in the tank, instant bullying by the blenny. Hardcore. I couldnt catch either of them so turned off the lights and left it alone hoping it would calm down. Next day and theres no trace of the goby (no disturbed sand, nothing)...I guess my cleanup crew is top notch. Two days ago my LFS had one and I figured i would make one more go of it. I have an acclimation box but somehow the new guy got out. Again with the bullying. It got worse last night rather than better, so I tried to catch the blenny to put him in time out but couldnt. Turned off the lights to try and calm it down again. and of course not sign of him this morning. Its infurating. I dont know what else to do other than put a trap in there and try to get the blenny out. Its a bummer because I really like him but hes an absolute jerk (ive seen him attacking nassarius snails in his free time too), but at this point I cant trust putting another fish in there. Anybody else have issues like this with blennies?

We just had a discussion thread talking about how blennies can be butts! It's crazy because I thought they were these peaceful fish that never caused issues

 

[Random Luminosity]

We just had a discussion thread talking about how blennies can be butts! It's crazy because I thought they were these peaceful fish that never caused issues

well, I caught the little bugger and took him back to the LFS I got him from and traded him for another flasher wrasse. So far (knock on wood) things are going well and honestly all of the tankmates seem to be a little more free going. Maybe he was more of a bully than I knew, we will see.

Now Im working up the final design of a 3d printed light bracket along with 2040 stock that will go over the tank. Im not real happy with the popbloom arms, they just dont clamp to the tank well and it triggers my OCD every time I look at the tank and see one side sagging. Eventually, Id like to DIY a lightweight hood for the whole thing

 

[Random Luminosity]

Things have been going well with the tank. Corrected a drop in magnesium, and am working on lowering phosphates to a more manageable level (currently near .3). Alk a little high but coming down slowly to below 10. Corals are growing well and coreline algae has started all over the rocks and plastic surfaces. My anemone split last week, fortunately so far the new one hasnt caused too much damage while roamimg for its home. Best of all, my clownfish finally decided to accept one of the nems hospitality and is now being hosted. Id kinda given up on it ever happening, but one day it just started brushing up to it and by the next day was fully engulfed. Wifey is very happy to see that.

Looking to add another yellow coris wrasse soon (lost one a couple months ago due to my stupidity trying to rearrange the scape) and probably an orange back fairy wrasse. And of course more corals