Rob’s 30g Tonga Shroom Garden

[intricate_reefer]

Update

I won the Tunze Ato kit R2R giveaway which is really exciting. It is my first time winning a giveaway. I all ready have a smart ato micro that I just upgraded with an emergency cut off float switch. The Osmolator 3155 has an optical switch and an emergency float built in. I will probably end up switching it out as I hear the Osmolator is really reliable.

My 10g frag tank is not doing well. I have told you guys about the zoas not doing good from which I think is a bacterial infection(I'm not sure though). I tried multiple types of dips but they really haven't gotten much gotten better. They looked a little better for a bit then went down hill again. Also the LPS I had in the tank got really pale. Now in my main tank I had the same problem with the zoas but most of them got better after some dips. The LPS in the main tank look spectacular.

Im probably going to tank down the frag tank and sell it. I was thinking about upgrading it anyway to a 25 lagoon to have more space for frags. I ended up moving all the zoas that looked the best from the frag tank over to the 30g. I left 7 in there that look terrible. So it was pretty much two 16 hole Oceanbox desings racks I moved. All together about 25 or so frags moved over. I just moved them over yesterday and most of the zoas are opening a little more all ready

Now if I am going to be taking down this tank I need to do something with the pinked streaked wrasse. Can't put him in the other tank as I have a sixline. Really regret buying that guy, I all ready see him flexing at the female clown here and there. I am afraid to add any other fish to the tank especially if they are peaceful. So right now I am trying to catch him then switch tanks with the pink streaked wrasse. I tried leaving a net in the tank for a day and then at feeding time fed into it but he wouldn't come anywhere near it. Right now I got a bottle trap I made with food in it, hopefully that will work. If not I'm probably going to have to order a fish trap and try that.

Here is a current pic of the tank with the new racks and the bottle trap lol(its hard to see but its by the four yellow favias)

 

[Braves Fan]

Them 6 line Wrasses are a pain ,, I have never had one, but over the years I have read only bad things about them. do they sleep in the sand ,,, I was thinking if they do ,, watch were he goes to sleep at night and use a sand vacuum tube over the top of him ,, would be a quick fix I picked me up a frag of the Wolverine Favia ,, going to give that coral a try again , I lost the last one I had ,, it just never did well for me ,, got a nice 3 or 4 polyp frag ,,

Your tank is looking as good as always Whats your fish list in that tank ? I am trying to come up with a fish list for my Chalice tank ,, I haven't a clue as to what fish will go into that tank ,, except for moving my Marine Betta over to the Chalice tank ,, I don't want a lot of fish in the tank ,,

 

[intricate_reefer]

Them 6 line Wrasses are a pain ,, I have never had one, but over the years I have read only bad things about them. do they sleep in the sand ,,, I was thinking if they do ,, watch were he goes to sleep at night and use a sand vacuum tube over the top of him ,, would be a quick fix I picked me up a frag of the Wolverine Favia ,, going to give that coral a try again , I lost the last one I had ,, it just never did well for me ,, got a nice 3 or 4 polyp frag ,,

Your tank is looking as good as always Whats your fish list in that tank ? I am trying to come up with a fish list for my Chalice tank ,, I haven't a clue as to what fish will go into that tank ,, except for moving my Marine Betta over to the Chalice tank ,, I don't want a lot of fish in the tank ,,

Yea I should have known better as I read about them too. I had one in the past, he was a bully but never killed anything. They sleep in the rock work but that’s a good idea for the ones that sleep in the sand. I was pretty much done writing this message and I look over and he was in the trap eating the mysis. I jumped up and got him. All ready swapped him with the pink streaked. That’s sweet you got that favia but I would of hooked you up for cheap if I would have known you wanted another one. I have another yellow one called favia of the god that blows that one away. It’s still a small frag but grows pretty fast. The only problem is I have to have a few pieces to make it worth worth the shipping. I’ll definitely let you know though once I frag stuff to see if you want me to start making a pile for you. I have never shipped so I wanna try and get some experience.

As far as my fish list, it’s pretty basic as I got them from my only local pet store that doesn’t specialize in fish. Right now it’s two mocha clowns, lawnmower blenny, and now the pinked streaked wrasse. Now that all the fish are pretty much peaceful I’ll probably get a possum wrasse, a royal gramma, and maybe two fire fish. I’m not sure if that would be too many but that’s what I have in my head. How are you liking that marine Betta? I don’t really know much about them.

 

[intricate_reefer]

The pink streak wrasse seems to be doing well in the 30g but they are more reclusive than the sixlines and don’t zip around the tank. I really need to work on the getting the more fish plan.

I just started taking classes for aquaculture at a local community college. I told my instructors that I have a reef tank at home and the program director approached me about setting up a reef display tank at the aquaculture lab. He said he wants to do hard coral but I’m not sure if he knows how much it takes to run a sps tank. I’m thinking a lps tank would be more manageable. I haven’t got all the details as far as budget and what all equipment they have but here is a picture of the tank and sump. It’s 4ft long by 2ft high and I forgot to measure the width. The sump is a wet/dry style currently with some marine pure spheres. The lights on it right now are two Kessil 160s. I don’t think they will be powerful enough for the tank, I hope to be able to get a couple black box leds instead. Now I’ve never ran a tank with a sump, just all in ones. I’m not sure if these wet/dry sumps are good. I know they are not really used anymore. I have a backpacking trip this coming week but the week after I hope to get started on the scape.

 

[intricate_reefer]

Got my Tunze Ato giveaway win in. They were awesome and let me swap the ato container for one of their magnetic cleaners since I all ready have a nice reservoir. I have one of the really expensive algae free cleaners and this one is just as good at 1/3rd of the cost. Haven’t got around to hooking the ato yet.

Went on a 3 day backpacking trip this past weekend and had my dad watch over and feed the tank. This was the first time I was away and was nervous without having cell service. Everything went well which I’m super pleased about. I don’t have any good local fish stores near me so on the way back I stopped. I bought a purple firefish for my tank and some snails and emerald crabs for the reef tanks at school. The firefish is doing great, he is eating and getting along with everyone. I don’t quarantine but he is acting healthy, stress free, and no visible signs of anything. Ever since I put him in the pink streak wrasse seems to come out more, I don’t know why lol. I still want to add one more fish, thinking a possum wrasse. I just don’t know how well it would get along with the pink streaked wrasse, I have read of people having them together though.

 

[TheWB]

Nice looking Firefish. What chalice is that with the orange eyes and green edge?

 

[intricate_reefer]

Nice looking Firefish. What chalice is that with the orange eyes and green edge?

Thanks man! That’s a JF crazy fox, the eyes really glow on that one. How is your everything going with your tank, you haven’t updated in a bit?

 

[TheWB]

Thanks man! That’s a JF crazy fox, the eyes really glow on that one. How is your everything going with your tank, you haven’t updated in a bit?

Thanks, I’ll have to put that one on my list. I’m dealing with a little brown algae breakout. Not unexpected as I have tended to over feed, I like to keep my fish well fed. My few corals are doing well and the fish also seem good. I’ll get my **** together and post an update soon.

 

[intricate_reefer]

Things have been going pretty well with the tank. Still working on getting the zoas back to peak health. I ended up moving the rest over from the frag tank. I’m going to be taking that tank down here soon. The sixline that is in it will be going down to school in a frag tank. Other than the zoas I I just moved over, the rest are really improving. I did change Aminos, not sure if that has anything to do with it or not. I was dosing KZ Lps aminos but then saw a new product called Bio-Enhance from Quantum. It’s actually a 6 in 1 product that is a blend of aminos, proteins, fatty acids, carbohydrates, and vitamins. Been dosing for a few weeks now, haven’t really noticed too much difference in color but things do seem to be growing faster, that may just be a placebo though lol. It does raise phosphates a little bit but it’s cheaper than the KZ stuff so I say it’s a winner.

I’ve been having some hair algae on frag plugs that I can’t get rid of. I keeping manually removing the algae but it just returns. I went back to dosing vibrant and also added some more astraea snails. I probably have maybe 12 total in the tank now, no other snails or crabs, I do have the algae blenny. Nitrates are steady at 2 and phosphate get to 0.1 max then I dose back down to 0.03 with lanthanum, I do this twice a week. I find this easier than messing with GFO.

No new corals. I’m pretty much done buying for this tank. I will probably pick up a few collector pieces a couple times a year but that’s it. I did start to glue some zoas to the sides of the rock. I’m going to try and fill all the sides with the zoa frags I have, which is going to look really sweet once grown in.

Few pictures I took

Top Downs

Zoas I glued to the rocks

 

[intricate_reefer]

Some more frag pictures

 

[TheWB]

Everything is looking great. I love all the color in this tank.

 

[intricate_reefer]

We had a local frag swap today, I had really good time. I know I said I wasn’t getting too many more corals but I did pick up a few, I still came out ahead because I sold a good bit. I also broke down and ordered some high end mushrooms. I have been wanting some electus shrooms so I figure since I was selling stuff at this swap I’d have some extra room. I ordered a green electus, candy crush, dead pool, kryptonite and I nice jaw breaker. They are all pretty small but they should be here Wednesday.

Frags I got from the swap. The favia is really unique, probably my favorite piece.

 

[TheWB]

Nice haul? Is that Favia pink? I’ve never seen a pink one before. What is that on the square tile?

 

[intricate_reefer]

Nice haul? Is that Favia pink? I’ve never seen a pink one before. What is that on the square tile?

Thanks! Yup it’s a favia with like a light pinkish peach and a yellowish green color. Really different, I had to have it. The other one is a JF beach bum monti. Im normally not really into the Montiporas but this one was really bright and I’m a sucker for color lol.

 

[TheWB]

Interesting. I wouldn’t have pegged that as a Monti. It’s really nice looking though. Do you have a good spot for it based on how your tank is scaped?

 

[intricate_reefer]

Interesting. I wouldn’t have pegged that as a Monti. It’s really nice looking though. Do you have a good spot for it based on how your tank is scaped?

Thanks, yea it doesn’t look like the type you typically see. Montis are sps and they do like light. They don’t need as much as an acro though. I have one monti cap that has been growing well at the top of my rock-work, this monti isn’t the same type but I’m going to give it the max light I can. My tank is overall pretty low light. I had someone come over with a seneye monitor. I heard it’s not the most accurate but it gets you in the ball park. With how my lights are set right now I’m getting around 60 par at the bottom corners and 120 at the highest rock right under the light.

 

[TheWB]

Thanks, yea it doesn’t look like the type you typically see. Montis are sps and they do like light. They don’t need as much as an acro though. I have one monti cap that has been growing well at the top of my rock-work, this monti isn’t the same type but I’m going to give it the max light I can. My tank is overall pretty low light. I had someone come over with a seneye monitor. I heard it’s not the most accurate but it gets you in the ball park. With how my lights are set right now I’m getting around 60 par at the bottom corners and 120 at the highest rock right under the light.

I was thinking about it’s placement from the standpoint of shading other corals like Monti’s sometimes do. That tile it’s on looks pretty big though so I guess that’s not too much of a concern right now. Or, is that not the kind that plates? My sps knowledge is pretty minimal and I’m not planning on having any, at least not anytime soon.

 

[intricate_reefer]

I was thinking about it’s placement from the standpoint of shading other corals like Monti’s sometimes do. That tile it’s on looks pretty big though so I guess that’s not too much of a concern right now. Or, is that not the kind that plates? My sps knowledge is pretty minimal and I’m not planning on having any, at least not anytime soon.

I’m pretty much a noob as far as sps. I do know there are at least two different types. The caps that grows upward towards the light and sometimes scroll. Then one that kinda encrusts over the rock, that’s what this one is. This kind is known to be colorful and there are a few different really nice stains ive seen. I’m not really sure on the light requirement for each one but I would think they would be similar. Hopefully this one will be happy next to where I had my other one and hold it’s color and grow well

 

[intricate_reefer]

So I started out using Redsea coral pro salt but switched to fritz when my bucket ran out. I switched because I decided I wanted to keep my Alk around 9 where redsea was 12. Plus fritz was a lot cheaper. So I got bought a box of fritz, mixed it and everything was good expect mag was at 1550. I used it anyway and I’m now almost done the box. Decided I was going to switch again and bought a box of liveaquaria salt. But then I’m not sure if any of you guys read, someone claimed fritz salt crashed their tank. It happened to a pretty well known youtuber. I haven’t had any issues with it except the high mag. Someone told me Liveaquria salt was the same stuff as fritz because it has almost the same numbers and the packaging looks really similar. Now I’m scared to use it.

I went ahead and ordered this LPS pro biotic salt by this company called Quantum. They are an overseas company I believe and the salt is sourced from Australia. It’s the same company that makes the 6 in 1 aminos I switched to. I’m happy with them so I thought why not and it’s suppose to be for lps.

Only thing is this salt mixes high around 11 I believe. I was keeping my tank at 9 so I’ve been slowly raising it up in preparation for the salt change. I’m down to about 2-3 water changes left with the fritz and am thinking about starting to mix them half and half to let the corals get use to the new stuff. I’ll probably start this Saturday

So I’ve been really bad lol. Earlier this week I said no more coral then ordered the electus mushrooms. Now I went back on my word again lol. I have had my eye on a couple chalices for awhile now but frags weren’t available yet. Well the guy told me he is cutting them, I had to get um. They are different than most of the other rainbows I have seen, they have this darker green on them, not the typical neon green on the rim. And one has green on the body which I have also never saw before. These aren’t the actual frags I’m getting but examples.

 

[intricate_reefer]

Last week I noticed what I think was hydroids on one of my zoa’s frag plug. I took it out right away and trimmed the plug down to get rid of them. At first I thought maybe that was what has been going on with my zoas but I inspected others and didn’t see anymore. Well last night I saw a bunch growing on the front edge of my frag rack. I had to move all the zoas, then I scrubbed the rack with hydrogen peroxide and did a vinegar bath. Hopefully that was all of them and they don’t return

Hydroids, hard to see, pretty sure that’s what they are

Electus mushrooms came in today. Apparently they don’t ship well and often detach. All four of mine did and hopefully they will reattach quickly. I turned off my Mp10 so they don’t get blown out of the cups. The Jawbreaker I ordered from someone else didn’t make it. Very sad as it had really nice colors which is hard to find on a baby. The seller was super chill and is going to replace them with some chalices.

And oh course when I ordered these shrooms I added on some chalices