Reelsilly's Reef

reelsilly · Sep 15, 2014

Thank you! I can't wait to take pictures of everything to show growth. My frogspawn and toadstool are pretty darn happy (well not right now because of panic mode)

reelsilly · Sep 15, 2014

Okay, here are a few pictures of the tank to include a FTS. Sorry for the quality, I was rushing.

Reggie with a pouty face

Oopma and Loompa (my little niece named them)

Sarah the Leopard Wrasse

Neon Green Toadstool

Frog Spawn

Eye of Rahs (Now has some babies)

Full Tank Shot

fishroomlady · Sep 15, 2014

what kind of clowns are those?? absolutely gorgeous!

reelsilly · Sep 15, 2014

Well, I think they are earmuffs but came from sustainable aquatics as frost bites. Those fish are very similar and mine have more black than the whites or earmuffs.

Scubafrog · Sep 15, 2014

Great looking tank, corals, and fish.

My Nerite snails like to hang out in the third chamber of my Biocube. I'm not sure if it is the pump or sterilizer that attracts them. Came home today and found a snail on the floor. As far as I can figure he must have crawled out the hole for the electrical cords.

I just added my first fish (ocellaris clown pair) and am trying to decide on my first coral. I love seeing what others do with their Biocubes. Are frogspawn difficult to keep? I love the look of them, torches, and hammers.

reelsilly · Sep 15, 2014

I find the frogspawns very easy to keep. I give them medium alternating flow and they do the rest for the most part.

I feed Reef Frenzy and Area 51 phyto and my stuff responds very well. To me, LPS is better than SPS. They are in general, easy to keep and I like the movement you get with them. SPS is just there

Scubafrog · Sep 15, 2014

Yep, I like the movement of the LPS and soft corals as well.

Scubafrog · Sep 15, 2014

Do you run your sterilizer all the time or just when adding new fish/corals?

reelsilly · Sep 15, 2014

Continuously as it is plumbed directly into my return pump.

Scubafrog · Sep 15, 2014

Yeah, I know it is inline with the return pump but I have heard that some unplug the UV to keep from killing off beneficial copepods and while dosing to treat problems. The transformer plug won't fit on my powerstrip so I keep it plugged into a seperate outlet that I can plug/unplug with ease.

Your tank looks awesome so I'll trust you.

The only thing I don't like about my tankso far is the fine sand particles floating around but I haven't done a water change yet. Also, all the bristle worms I'm seeing in the rock. Otherwise I'm loving the Biocube. Great AIO system.

reelsilly · Sep 19, 2014

I would not sweat the bristle worms unless they get pretty big. I love having them as a working member of my clean up crew.

As far as you sand goes, do you have too much flow in there? I'm running the stock return pumpkin but have a MP10 as well. I run it at 50% at its highest performance level. Anything above that, and I start pushing my sand.

Scubafrog · Sep 19, 2014

I just have the stock pump and a Hydor Koralia Nano 425 in between the two inlets of the first chamber.

I think if I add some filter floss or polishing pad and do my first vacuum/water change it will help the new sand particles.

reelsilly · Sep 19, 2014

Yes, I usually run filter floss as the first bit of water cleaner. It does a good job at pulling fine particulates from the water, it's easily removed and is cheap.

HmoneyReefOkc · Sep 22, 2014

Looking really good! glad you found Reggie. I've had quite a few fish over the years end up in my overflow boxes, in fact I thought my terror of a 6-line had finally succumbed to old age over the past few weeks of not seeing him and then yesterday I saw him swimming HAPPILY in my overflow of my 175 DT. And I really have no desire to get him out, and don't think he does either as its fulll of pods and he gets first dibs on overflow food before the sump inhabitants.

reelsilly · Sep 22, 2014

Here is my weekly update of with a few pictures. The tank is doing amazing right now and I am pretty dag on excited about it. Remember, I am running all stock lighting with only a few upgrades on this tank. The rock is starting to grow some coraline and the coral and fish are very happy.

Here is my neon green toadstool when I first started.

And now!!!

Here is my sun coral with new growth on it. You can see it as it is a depper orange and a lot smaller than the rest. Im really happy about this as I have always been able to keep them alive and thrving, but I have never gotten any growth on them.

This is my frogspawn as of today. This thing started with 10 heads, (really was 9 but had a tiny one so I counted it). I now count 14 heads and it is getting huge. I dont have the comparison pick but you can see the first pic taken of it at the beginning of this thread. This thing is doing amazing and I do NOT want to jinx it.

Here is a random macro shot of my blue and orange chalice under blues.

A quick run down of how I do things. I run Purigen, Chemi Pure and filter floss in my media basket. I also run an upflow algae scrubber on it and clean it every 7 days. I have a stock return pump and a coralife in line UV as well. I do weekly water changes in the amount of about 3 gallons, using reef crystals. I also dose with seachem aquavitro. I dose magnesium, calcium, alk, and use their "fuel" product every three days. I feed Larry's Reef Frenzy for my feeding (AMAZING STUFF), and Area 51 phyto and pods.

Other than that, I run everything off of my Reef Keeper and keep my hands out of it, (REGGIE ALLOWING). Thank everyone for tagging along and I hope yall enjoy.

metrokat · Sep 22, 2014

very nice

reelsilly · Sep 22, 2014

Thank you. I am really having fun doing this. I guess I have never really payed attention to the growth of coral, as I have always just put it in, let it grow and just look at it. This contest has really made me think, be patient, and keep true to the K.I.S.S. method, you know, Keep It Simple Stupid!