Rebirth

[Janci]

Still looking impressive

 

[Alex Costa]

One of my favs:

T. crocea

T. derasa

Alex

 

[Alex Costa]

Some minor changes:

Small Island - Front

Small Island - Left view

Small Island - Right View

Alex

 

[Alex Costa]

Red Fire BBT goes to display tank.....and a few hours later, come back to frag tank, after try to walk through the rock work.

Alex

 

[Alex Costa]

Just found a very nice squamosa

Alex

 

[Janci]

Hi Alex, late reaction on the pictures.
I hope all is still going as well as in December.
Wanted to ask you about your pseudanthias cooperi. How do they do and were they easy to adapt to food and eating ?

 

[Alex Costa]

Hi Janci,

Last month was not very good.
I had a little Alk spike and the nutrients, due to some changes, go very very down.
As result, some lost tissue in the base of some acros and the color, in general, get worst.
But the things are already better.

About the cooperi, as others anthias, they very active swimmers. Mine get well with the 2 squamipinis and all other fish in the reef.
When I bought them, they're eating dry flake food in the store, so to get them eating here was not hard at all.
Now I'm feeding them 3~5 times a day with flakes and pellets from BCUC, shopped shrimp and....NORI algae........When I feed my lineatus tang they eat the algae as well.
So, despite the feeding habits of the rest of the genera, they're very good eaters.

Bets regards

Alex

 

[Janci]

Sorry to hear about the alk swing Alex.
Good that you noticed it on time and things are getting better.

Wow, you feed them 3-5 times a day. That is a lot.
I can program dry food 2-3 times a day and give some frozen at evening when I am home.
Will try to get 6 Ps. Cooperi to add to the reef next week.

 

[Alex Costa]

Many times but small amounts...
I hand feed them....so I can control the amount of food.
I put only 2 due to the price here (anthias in general are very expensive) and because I have no previous experience with this species.
I want now put a pair of dispar.......and.....maybe......very very maybe.....a pair of purple queen....rsrsrsrsrsrr

 

[Janci]

Dispar are nice.
Purple queen... evil... too difficult for my taste but gorgeous.

Sunset anthias is in my opinion the best. Little fragile at the beginning but great when settled.

Good luck

 

[Alex Costa]

I didn't know that about the purple queen...I avoid bartletts for this reason.
I thought that they're are peacefull, but almost impossible to feed well

Sunset I never seen on fish stores here in Brasil.

 

[CoralWealth]

tank is looking great from your last picture update, hope you didnt lose any corals from your alk spike!

You had some great growth going in the past year or so. How long do you have your lights on for a day?

 

[Alex Costa]

tank is looking great from your last picture update, hope you didnt lose any corals from your alk spike!

You had some great growth going in the past year or so. How long do you have your lights on for a day?

Hi Cody,
Right now, the tank isn't so colorfull. I'll make some photos this week.
Untill now, I didn't lose anything, but some corals are still losing tissue......nothing I can do about it.
I'm feeding the tank heavilly and some sps browned out a little.
Next month I'll receive some bottles of Koralle... and then I'll set back to my routine again.
Let's see....

About my lights, I run them 12h a day.....This is the ramp:

Regards,

Alex

 

[revhtree]

WOW what a beautiful reef!

 

[echopiece]

Did you get the diatoms on your sandbed under control? If so, how did you accomplish that? It seems I can never keep my sand clean.

 

[BigJohnny]

Beautiful reef and very fast growth, did you start with the rock from your previous tank? If not, was it live rock or dry rock?

Thanks.

 

[Alex Costa]

Did you get the diatoms on your sandbed under control? If so, how did you accomplish that? It seems I can never keep my sand clean.

It's 90% clean.....
I just start to change my DI resin (mixed bed, 60~40 resin) more often.
In fact, now I test the water for silicates before it goes through the second stage of resin.
When the test shows something other than ZERO, I change the resin....
It took 3 or 4 months to the silicates that already are in the system to be consumed, and exported.
I syphon my sandbed (1" deep) every WC that I made.

Beautiful reef and very fast growth, did you start with the rock from your previous tank? If not, was it live rock or dry rock?

Thanks Johnny,
The rocks are from my previous setup.
I cleaned them with 2 baths: 1 Acid + 1 Chlorine.
After that, I filled the system with RO water and run Rowaphos (about 1 kg) for 2 wweeks, before to add the salt.
In this period, I also run another 0,5 kg of Brightwell GAC.
My phosphates are 0,0 since the start.
These rocks are a mix of sansibar, pacific rock and some others....
Here in Brazil is almost impossible to get live rocks...It's ilegal to extract (I heard about only one company who has autorization for it) and no one imports it.
Regards

Alex

 

[Alex Costa]

No new fish
No new coral

But some new photos.

Slowly the sps are regaining color and are starting to grow again.
The greens, the color that suffered the most, are turning a little better too.

Until the end of 2017 I was doing monthly FTSs but from now on, I'll be doing it bimonthly just to register the evolution of the tank.

I think the tank needs no less than 2 months to start to look like it was before the problems with nutrients/Ra.

I'm now keeping a very little portion of chaeto, of the size of a tenis ball.
And I'll harvest it more frequently to let the nutrients level of the tank rises again.
To help with it I'm feeding the fishes with fresh food again, heavilly, and I'm dosing a lot of stuff, with a positive response (Koralcolor, Aquavittro Fuel, Borochrom, Ferrion, Lugol's ,Potassion)

Alex

 

[Alex Costa]

 

[CoralWealth]

looks great!