Rob’s 30g Tonga Shroom Garden

OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Now thats a update :) Corals look happy ,,

Hahaha I know right, sorry for making you guys read all that. If you were smart you would have went just to the pictures

How are you tanks doing? You ever figure out what was happening with the favias?
 

TheWB

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
2,315
Reaction score
3,575
Location
Puyallup,WA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I haven't updated in awhile so this my be a little long. Its probably because I have been distracted lately with the new Call of Duty Warzone lol, If any of you play, let me know and we can link up. You would think with me being out of school for the virus I would be on here often. Another reason I think is because I haven't really been buying to much new so haven't been as excited. Also still having some issues, lost a couple corals and a few are just about on their way out.

Ok so the issues I am having. In the 30L, some of the colors are still off, although a couple seem to be returning the tiniest bit. Also a couple frags just seem to be melting away while 99% of them look perfectly happy. I really don't think it was when I changed my lights for a bit because all I did was change white from 10% to 8% and turned up the blues slightly. Really the only other things that were changed in this time was I was dosing microbacter 7 every week after water change, I have now stopped dosing it. And I did add chaeto because my nitrates were high and I was getting algae. Who knows, maybe I need to let me nitrates rise again, they are sitting at 3ppm now. I am just scared of getting algae again. I do have one spot in the tank now that has a small patch of green hair algae and a couple frag disks that grow some thicker stuff. I just manually remove it but it returns. Today I took a bag of marine pure spheres out. I did this one because am thinking with taking some out maybe my nitrates will rise a bit. Also I have heard about them leaching aluminum. I still do have one bag of maybe 10 or so spheres still in the back.

I came across some cheap ICP tests and bought some to see if they might give me some insight. They are from Fauna Marin and only $19.99, they also had a 4 pack for 69.99, I ended up getting the 4 pack. The website is ICP1999.com for anyone interested, free shipping to get the tests to you but you do have to pay to send it in, costed me around $3-$4. I sent it out a good two weeks ago and haven't gotten an email yet, it goes to Germany I believe but im not sure if this virus mess has effected it. I also thought maybe my TDS meter on my RODI unit wasn't working and maybe something was getting through and causing the issues. I have a dual meter that measures after the membrane and after the DI. When I start using the unit after it has been sitting, the readings after the membrane are around 10 but after flushing it a few minutes they go to 2 and after the unit has been making water for awhile to zero. I was really surprised I get zero before even going into the resin. My resin still changes colors so I guess its removing something. I ordered a cheap TDS meter to double check everything. Checked my RODI water in the jugs and it read 0ppm. Checked my tap water and it was like 48ppm. To me this sounds really low compared to some numbers I hear thrown out there. This was a pretty cheap meter but it did get good reviews and if it is that low, it kinda lines up with the meter on my unit. Really hoping this ICP test comes in soon.

So the 25 lagoon is where I am having the biggest issue. What I think was/is cyano was getting on the edge of acans, then they were just slowly receding. I ended up completely loosing one of my favorites and probably have 6 or so other ones not looking good. Also I had one goni that just stopped opening up. It was a cheap one I got from a buddy that orders wholesale. I believe it wasn't aquacultured and have heard that wild ones are really tough to keep alive. I was having the red cyano along with other nuisance algae. I added a fuge in the back to grow chaeto to hopefully help with it. I found someone that had a used Intank fuge basket and then I bought a cheap grow light off Amazon. The light was recommended from someone and seems to be doing really well(Let me know if anyone wants the info on it). Then one water change I pulled all the rocks out and scrubbed them in the water change water. Shortly after I started getting a ton of what looked to me like green cyano. Im not sure if thats even a thing but it just made the problem worse. I went ahead and got some Chemi-Clean and did the 48hr treatment while running an air stone. That stuff works great and no corals reacted negatively to it. It seems to have gotten all of the red and green cyano although there may be some tiny spots left, its hard to tell. I think I have that problem solved now and am praying it doesn't return. Now im also having some color issues on this tank as well. One of my electus mushrooms is looking super dull and the Holy Grail Micro lost pretty much all of its color. Looks healthy, the color just isn't there.

As far as new stuff. The only new thing I have got was a pair of Mollies. I was at my friends house and he had some in his frag tank and said they ate algae. Now these are fresh water fish, you just have to drip acclimate them over 24hrs. Supposedly the normal black ones are suppose to be the best ones for algae but when I went to the pet shop the ones they had looked like they may have had ich or something. I was inpatient and they had these other ones called Balloon mollies, I ended up getting a pair of them. At first I put them in the 30L because I don't have a lot of fish in there. Unfortunately the clown fish kept going after them so I put them in the Lagoon. I probably have too many fish in there but everyone seems to be doing good. The mollies are doing great and I have seen them picking at algae. If I ever get a frag system up, ill probably end up getting a bunch of the black ones. They are suppose to breed in the aquarium really easily as well.

My buddy is making another wholesale order and asked me if I wanted to add anything. I took a look at what they had and am getting 2-3 things as of now. His order doesn't ship til Thursday and they update stuff on Wednesday so I am going to see what they put up new. I am thinking about buying a mushroom box for the lagoon because I want to start trying to cut up some of my mushrooms and they need a place to heal and attach. I was looking around and am probably going to get the Zen Reef one. Also now that my zoas are doing good its making me want to get some more. Problem is, I don't have alot of room on my racks. I have some spaces but need them for when I cut frags. Since I all ready have two racks in the Acan tank now and am thinking about this shroom box, its not going to hurt to add one more rack, it will give me some room to get 16 zoa frags lol

That is pretty much the tank update. Outside of that my other hobbies are backpacking and Video games, I also enjoy watching a few tv series. I get bored of a games quick but when a new one comes out that I like, I tend to play alot. As far as backpacking, I was hoping to go on a trip here soon but with all these lockdowns, most of the trails are closed and traveling is suppose to be limited. Since I have all this free time I decided to take up another hobby, smoking meat. I am a big meat eater and have always wanted to learn how to smoke meat but never got into it. I saw an electric smoker on amazon and decided to go for it. Should be here sometime in the middle of the week and am looking forward to playing with it.

Broke out the camera today for the first time in awhile because I ran out of pictures to post on Instagram lol. My IG is intricate_reefer for anyone interested. If anyone else is on there drop your info.

P3283832.JPG
P3283866.JPG
P3283876.JPG
P3283882.JPG
P3283888.JPG
P3283890.JPG
P3283898.JPG
P3283912.JPG
P3283918.JPG
P3283928.JPG
P3283934.JPG
P3283938.JPG
P3283942.JPG
P3283944.JPG
Good to see you back Rob. That was a lot of update to pack in there, quit ignoring us :)
Sounds like you’re mostly on top of the issues and all of the pics look great. Sorry to hear about some of the coral losses. My nitrates bounce between 10-25 on the Salifert scale and my Phosphate was at 0.09 last time I checked but my corals seem to be pretty happy. The kicker is trying to control the algae or cyano or whatever else is in there while keeping the corals happy with enough nutrients. I’ve never really had my parameters down low where they are supposed to be, especially phosphate, so I’ve always had algae issues to manage. I have a pretty good algae breakout going on right now. I’ve now just decided to kind of roll with it if my tank is staying stable at the numbers I listed and the corals are looking good. I added some Chaeto to my ghetto Fuge basket and am dosing Nopox to see if I can keep things steady but more than anything I think we just need to let our tanks mature some more. We both went with the dry rock to start and while by now it’s developed the ability to properly filter our reefs I still wouldn’t call it mature or stable. I’m thinking it’s going to be another year before I’m willing to call my tank stable. Right now it’s all about managing things while I’m waiting. I guess I’ll know it’s there when the parameters stay stable and I don’t have the algae breakouts any longer.
Honestly, overall I think you’re in pretty good shape. The coral you posted look awesome.
 
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Got my ICP test in. Don’t really know too much how to interpret it. The two main things that jumped out to me was the high Aluminum and high iodine. I believe the Aluminum is probably due to having Marine pure, I hear this is a common issue with it leaching. From what I read there hasn’t really been any reports of it harming coral though. I would rather not have it and am going to get the marine pure out. I all ready took some out last week. My fuge seems to be keeping my nitrates low so I was hoping by taking it out, it might rise. I’ll probably take out the other bag here soon. As far as the iodine, I was dosing it but stopped a few weeks before the test. I’ve read it gets used up quick so I’m not sure why the level is so high. Maybe because I took the sample right after a water change and it’s elevated right after. I have more ICP tests so maybe next one I’ll send it out a few days after water change.

Under the color relevant elements zinc and copper were low. A few others weren’t really in the right range but not too off. I recently changed salts from live aquaria to Red Sea blue bucket. Maybe I’ll do a couple big water changes and see if it fixes any of the numbers.

Last thing was silicon was pretty high. Not sure what role it’s plays in the reef tank. I believe silicon comes from your source water so maybe I’ll change out the filters on my rodi system. Another idea may be trying another brand of icp tests and see how the results compare. I have seen where people do different tests and get different results. Also I would like to try one of the tests that also checks your rodi water.

Test results
56059A11-13F4-4389-9BE6-A4C12E832EEE.jpeg


Corals are looking up for the most part. It looks like I still have a little bit of cyano in the lagoon. I was thinking about doing another chemi-clean dose but maybe I’ll see how it looks next week.

Smoker came in, so far I’ve tried chicken wings and beef jerky. Both came out pretty good but I’m still learning. Hoping to do maybe a smoked turkey for Easter. Also new corals coming tomorrow. I haven’t bought much lately so I’m pretty excited.
 

TheWB

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
2,315
Reaction score
3,575
Location
Puyallup,WA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Got my ICP test in. Don’t really know too much how to interpret it. The two main things that jumped out to me was the high Aluminum and high iodine. I believe the Aluminum is probably due to having Marine pure, I hear this is a common issue with it leaching. From what I read there hasn’t really been any reports of it harming coral though. I would rather not have it and am going to get the marine pure out. I all ready took some out last week. My fuge seems to be keeping my nitrates low so I was hoping by taking it out, it might rise. I’ll probably take out the other bag here soon. As far as the iodine, I was dosing it but stopped a few weeks before the test. I’ve read it gets used up quick so I’m not sure why the level is so high. Maybe because I took the sample right after a water change and it’s elevated right after. I have more ICP tests so maybe next one I’ll send it out a few days after water change.

Under the color relevant elements zinc and copper were low. A few others weren’t really in the right range but not too off. I recently changed salts from live aquaria to Red Sea blue bucket. Maybe I’ll do a couple big water changes and see if it fixes any of the numbers.

Last thing was silicon was pretty high. Not sure what role it’s plays in the reef tank. I believe silicon comes from your source water so maybe I’ll change out the filters on my rodi system. Another idea may be trying another brand of icp tests and see how the results compare. I have seen where people do different tests and get different results. Also I would like to try one of the tests that also checks your rodi water.

Test results
56059A11-13F4-4389-9BE6-A4C12E832EEE.jpeg


Corals are looking up for the most part. It looks like I still have a little bit of cyano in the lagoon. I was thinking about doing another chemi-clean dose but maybe I’ll see how it looks next week.

Smoker came in, so far I’ve tried chicken wings and beef jerky. Both came out pretty good but I’m still learning. Hoping to do maybe a smoked turkey for Easter. Also new corals coming tomorrow. I haven’t bought much lately so I’m pretty excited.
I’d say that’s not looking to bad. I’ve never done an icp test but I should, especially now that the version with the RODI water test is available.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Corals seem to be doing good. The algae in the 25 lagoon kinda appears to be coming back but not bothering the frags yet. I’ll probably do another chemi clean treatment Thursday. The colors on some of the chalices seem to be returning slightly. I did turn my lights up a bit but I’m not sure if it’s related. Did a bunch of fragging this weekend and got a few new frags, they are going good.

New Frags

Cyphastrea
5DD6200C-17F2-43BA-A9DD-D69398AC44F9.jpeg

07F3FFCA-AF04-4A1D-B21C-BC7983F1667F.jpeg


Favia/Acan
FACEA9A2-1F3C-44A0-B7A8-2AFE9B5DB5CD.jpeg

2026425A-A9FE-4676-B6BE-D47194C434B8.jpeg


Monti
2A4005A2-E55C-435F-8669-BE337C9F9A17.jpeg


Mushroom
69CAA6DD-742A-41B1-B335-39AB086A6335.jpeg


Some random pics of the lagoon
8E46B6F6-DDFB-4792-9D84-C6E82D168127.jpeg

705254E6-9911-4EB2-85DB-6E7A8322B56C.jpeg

11EF6B1B-B9C6-4BC8-9BBA-F1B20B2A9AEF.jpeg

98252903-B22A-47CC-8948-084A69BAF930.jpeg


In this picture you can see how much color the holy grail lost
3CBBC737-F471-46CD-B13B-452FA11C0DE7.jpeg


The new mollies(not the best pic)
9D15B34E-BAC7-450E-833F-11716C35E92C.jpeg
 
Last edited:

TheWB

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
2,315
Reaction score
3,575
Location
Puyallup,WA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Corals seem to be doing good. The algae in the 25 lagoon kinda appears to be coming back but not bothering the frags yet. I’ll probably do another chemi clean treatment Thursday. The colors on some of the chalices seem to be returning slightly. I did turn my lights up a bit but I’m not sure if it’s related. Did a bunch of fragging this weekend and got a few new frags, they are going good.

New Frags

Cyphastrea
5DD6200C-17F2-43BA-A9DD-D69398AC44F9.jpeg

07F3FFCA-AF04-4A1D-B21C-BC7983F1667F.jpeg


Favia/Acan
FACEA9A2-1F3C-44A0-B7A8-2AFE9B5DB5CD.jpeg

2026425A-A9FE-4676-B6BE-D47194C434B8.jpeg


Monti
2A4005A2-E55C-435F-8669-BE337C9F9A17.jpeg


Mushroom
69CAA6DD-742A-41B1-B335-39AB086A6335.jpeg


Some random pics of the lagoon
8E46B6F6-DDFB-4792-9D84-C6E82D168127.jpeg

705254E6-9911-4EB2-85DB-6E7A8322B56C.jpeg

11EF6B1B-B9C6-4BC8-9BBA-F1B20B2A9AEF.jpeg

98252903-B22A-47CC-8948-084A69BAF930.jpeg


In this picture you can see how much color the holy grail lost
3CBBC737-F471-46CD-B13B-452FA11C0DE7.jpeg


The new mollies(not the best pic)
9D15B34E-BAC7-450E-833F-11716C35E92C.jpeg
Those all look great. Bummer about the Holy Grail though. I’m not a fan of the bare bottom look but I guess if you put enough Acans down there it’s not bare bottom anymore, is it :) The Acan lagoon is awesome, always love to see the new additions and pics.
 

SaReef

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2017
Messages
58
Reaction score
82
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thank you! Acans are great, if you can’t tell definitely one of my favorite corals. What size tank do you have?
One of mine as well! I have a 37g, i actually had one started last year, then one day my temp prob decided to give out. My temp got up to 94 for a couple hours before i realized it.
Screen Shot 2020-04-06 at 9.11.17 PM.png
 
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the results from my ICP with some things being too low and high. Decided to add in some bigger 30-40% water changes in the middle of the week then just do my regular 15-20% on Saturdays to try and level everything out. I was also looking at some trace element supplements to see what matched closet to what I was deficient in. One I saw was chaeto grow that is a supplement to help chaeto. It kind of made me think maybe my fuge is sucking out elements that my tank needs. If I remember correctly that may have been around the time my colors started to go down hill. The other one I saw was Brightwell replenish and it seemed like it matched the best with what I need. Ordered that and I’ll dose it for a month or so then send out another ICP.

Still dealing with algae in the lagoon and man is it frustrating. Don’t think I’ll ever start another tank with old used rock. I want to try and start fragging some of my mushrooms so I bought a Zen Reef shroom box to put the cuts in until they attach.
6C36BEF6-A115-4827-92F5-019116B73C31.jpeg


One of my local reef buddies was making an order from Live Aquaria and asked me if I wanted to add anything. The chalice tank is a little thin on fish so I picked one up. I had my eye on a Royal Gramma but they weren’t in stock. Was browsing and came across this Zebra Barred Dart fish. They have never really been on my radar but it said they were peaceful and good for a 30g tank even though the max size is 4in, plus they were only $25, I’m done with pricier fish lol. Came in and man he must be 4in even though it was listed as small. Kinda disappointed on the size but I do like him. He was really shy for like 2 days and hid. Maybe because the clownfish chased him a little fish. He has now started coming out more and more and is eating also the clownfish don’t seem as bothered now.
0536D288-CC9C-470C-B2F5-FE132B7FF98F.jpeg


Killer picture I got of one of my Asian acans the other day
5557E6D4-C83B-4020-80FE-6581032F8DB6.jpeg
 
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
One of mine as well! I have a 37g, i actually had one started last year, then one day my temp prob decided to give out. My temp got up to 94 for a couple hours before i realized it.
Screen Shot 2020-04-06 at 9.11.17 PM.png

Oh wow that’s such a shame, those acans were beautiful. I would never run a tank without some back up temp protection again. My first reef tank years ago got nuked by a run away heater and I was devastated.
 

TheWB

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
2,315
Reaction score
3,575
Location
Puyallup,WA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the results from my ICP with some things being too low and high. Decided to add in some bigger 30-40% water changes in the middle of the week then just do my regular 15-20% on Saturdays to try and level everything out. I was also looking at some trace element supplements to see what matched closet to what I was deficient in. One I saw was chaeto grow that is a supplement to help chaeto. It kind of made me think maybe my fuge is sucking out elements that my tank needs. If I remember correctly that may have been around the time my colors started to go down hill. The other one I saw was Brightwell replenish and it seemed like it matched the best with what I need. Ordered that and I’ll dose it for a month or so then send out another ICP.

Still dealing with algae in the lagoon and man is it frustrating. Don’t think I’ll ever start another tank with old used rock. I want to try and start fragging some of my mushrooms so I bought a Zen Reef shroom box to put the cuts in until they attach.
6C36BEF6-A115-4827-92F5-019116B73C31.jpeg


One of my local reef buddies was making an order from Live Aquaria and asked me if I wanted to add anything. The chalice tank is a little thin on fish so I picked one up. I had my eye on a Royal Gramma but they weren’t in stock. Was browsing and came across this Zebra Barred Dart fish. They have never really been on my radar but it said they were peaceful and good for a 30g tank even though the max size is 4in, plus they were only $25, I’m done with pricier fish lol. Came in and man he must be 4in even though it was listed as small. Kinda disappointed on the size but I do like him. He was really shy for like 2 days and hid. Maybe because the clownfish chased him a little fish. He has now started coming out more and more and is eating also the clownfish don’t seem as bothered now.
0536D288-CC9C-470C-B2F5-FE132B7FF98F.jpeg


Killer picture I got of one of my Asian acans the other day
5557E6D4-C83B-4020-80FE-6581032F8DB6.jpeg
Zebra barred dartfish are great. I have two. in a bigger tank you can get enough to school (sort of, they don’t really swim in unison but they hang in the same general areas) which I think is more interesting than chromis or damsels. Mine do like to burrow though, they live in and under my rock tower with the Zoas on it. Great pics as usual, that’s a really nice Acan.
 
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Long over due update

Overall the tanks are doing good but I have lost some corals and a few others are on the way out. I kinda had a trifecta of causes that played a part in the losses. First a few months ago I added some chaeto to the chalice tank again. I ended up getting lazy and not testing my nutrients as much as I should. Also I stopped feeding the corals heavy just out of pure laziness and trying to get rid of the nuisance algae in the acan tank. I was all ready running low nutrients and they ended up zeroing out for like a week, then on top of that I had turned up my lights to try and get some better color in just a few corals. Because of this I had a some corals start to bleach out. It’s wasnt a lot of corals but a few I really like. 95% of my other corals looked great. It’s so frustrating for me to just watch a coral slowly die, especially when they are the expensive ones lol. It’s like once they start I can’t stop them.

I started feeding more to get the nutrients up and also dosed some nitrate. They are now elevated and things seem to be reacting positively. I think I’m going to try the higher nutrient route and see how things go. I’m going to shoot for Po4 at around 0.08 and No3 around 15. I was at 0.03 and 5 for the longest time. I have also been dosing Red Sea Colors iron supplement because it seemed to have most of the stuff I was deficient in on the icp. I really like how on their colors program you know how much to dose based on your calcium consumption. I’m probably going to wait a couple weeks and send out another icp to see where my levels are sitting. I might end up sending one out for the acan tank as well just to get a feel for how things are going with the all for reef and the trace elements in that.

As far as the algae in the acan tank it has really cleared up. There is still a little bit of the hair type algae but it’s not much at all. I think adding the chaeto to that tank and taking the rocks complete out each week and scrubbing them really helped. The cyano is now only a bit on the rocks but not on any of the corals so that is good. I ended up doing another chemi clean dose but it didn’t go away. I’ll probably end up trying it again and cross my fingers, thinking about upping the dose a bit. None of my corals react bad to it at all. I can’t wait till the rocks are completely clean so I can start glueing some corals.

Once that happens I have been playing around with the idea of slowly taking down the 30L and transferring all my favorite corals to the lagoon. I want to start traveling more and backpacking and was thinking one tank would be easier for my family to look over rather then two. I’m still undecided but it’s a thought. If I end up doing this obviously the frag system will be put on hold and it would stink to have to get rid of some of my colonies. Either way the frag system is a ways out, probably at least a year or two until the start.

Not much else is new, haven’t got any new corals. I dose All for Reef in the lagoon and was starting to run low. Went to buy a bottle and everywhere was sold out. luckily I ran across a thread with a recipe that you could make you own and it ends up being quite a bit cheaper if you buy enough of the components in the bulk size. Ended up going that route so I’ll be mixing up a batch once I get a mixing flask in I’m waiting on. It’s going to be kinda fun playing scientist and using the magnetic stirrer I ordered to mix it.

Picture time

This is one of the corals I was trying to get better color out of and it did improve quite a bit, Shame some of the corals didn’t react well
B564957D-E2AF-4C30-81ED-B05F12A62542.jpeg


A freebie I got awhile back with a coral order
023C61F7-4596-4C86-8BE1-1A83248CDCE5.jpeg


Finally the speckled kraks have started taking off and spreading like crazy
E5032684-0C86-4DA8-BB6F-EF4E6C6561C5.jpeg


Just a little rainbow chalice I’m growing back out after cutting it awhile ago. Once I get all my acans on the rocks I’m going to move my nicer chalices over and try to grow them into bigger colonies then I have been before chopping them up.
4EE22B7A-EA2A-486C-A1A3-5335091E6E03.jpeg


Couple mushrooms, the green yuma keeps moving around, dropping babies and stinging stuff lol
83A64FC5-6073-4BDB-A5C7-166677D8C5D0.jpeg


Wolverine paw favia
89724229-285B-439E-96C5-07B6C7A13876.jpeg
 

TheWB

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
2,315
Reaction score
3,575
Location
Puyallup,WA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Long over due update

Overall the tanks are doing good but I have lost some corals and a few others are on the way out. I kinda had a trifecta of causes that played a part in the losses. First a few months ago I added some chaeto to the chalice tank again. I ended up getting lazy and not testing my nutrients as much as I should. Also I stopped feeding the corals heavy just out of pure laziness and trying to get rid of the nuisance algae in the acan tank. I was all ready running low nutrients and they ended up zeroing out for like a week, then on top of that I had turned up my lights to try and get some better color in just a few corals. Because of this I had a some corals start to bleach out. It’s wasnt a lot of corals but a few I really like. 95% of my other corals looked great. It’s so frustrating for me to just watch a coral slowly die, especially when they are the expensive ones lol. It’s like once they start I can’t stop them.

I started feeding more to get the nutrients up and also dosed some nitrate. They are now elevated and things seem to be reacting positively. I think I’m going to try the higher nutrient route and see how things go. I’m going to shoot for Po4 at around 0.08 and No3 around 15. I was at 0.03 and 5 for the longest time. I have also been dosing Red Sea Colors iron supplement because it seemed to have most of the stuff I was deficient in on the icp. I really like how on their colors program you know how much to dose based on your calcium consumption. I’m probably going to wait a couple weeks and send out another icp to see where my levels are sitting. I might end up sending one out for the acan tank as well just to get a feel for how things are going with the all for reef and the trace elements in that.

As far as the algae in the acan tank it has really cleared up. There is still a little bit of the hair type algae but it’s not much at all. I think adding the chaeto to that tank and taking the rocks complete out each week and scrubbing them really helped. The cyano is now only a bit on the rocks but not on any of the corals so that is good. I ended up doing another chemi clean dose but it didn’t go away. I’ll probably end up trying it again and cross my fingers, thinking about upping the dose a bit. None of my corals react bad to it at all. I can’t wait till the rocks are completely clean so I can start glueing some corals.

Once that happens I have been playing around with the idea of slowly taking down the 30L and transferring all my favorite corals to the lagoon. I want to start traveling more and backpacking and was thinking one tank would be easier for my family to look over rather then two. I’m still undecided but it’s a thought. If I end up doing this obviously the frag system will be put on hold and it would stink to have to get rid of some of my colonies. Either way the frag system is a ways out, probably at least a year or two until the start.

Not much else is new, haven’t got any new corals. I dose All for Reef in the lagoon and was starting to run low. Went to buy a bottle and everywhere was sold out. luckily I ran across a thread with a recipe that you could make you own and it ends up being quite a bit cheaper if you buy enough of the components in the bulk size. Ended up going that route so I’ll be mixing up a batch once I get a mixing flask in I’m waiting on. It’s going to be kinda fun playing scientist and using the magnetic stirrer I ordered to mix it.

Picture time

This is one of the corals I was trying to get better color out of and it did improve quite a bit, Shame some of the corals didn’t react well
B564957D-E2AF-4C30-81ED-B05F12A62542.jpeg


A freebie I got awhile back with a coral order
023C61F7-4596-4C86-8BE1-1A83248CDCE5.jpeg


Finally the speckled kraks have started taking off and spreading like crazy
E5032684-0C86-4DA8-BB6F-EF4E6C6561C5.jpeg


Just a little rainbow chalice I’m growing back out after cutting it awhile ago. Once I get all my acans on the rocks I’m going to move my nicer chalices over and try to grow them into bigger colonies then I have been before chopping them up.
4EE22B7A-EA2A-486C-A1A3-5335091E6E03.jpeg


Couple mushrooms, the green yuma keeps moving around, dropping babies and stinging stuff lol
83A64FC5-6073-4BDB-A5C7-166677D8C5D0.jpeg


Wolverine paw favia
89724229-285B-439E-96C5-07B6C7A13876.jpeg
Welcome back. I’d hate to see the original chalice palace get taken down but if your going to be gone more it makes sense. It’s too bad you’ve lost a few but that’s kind of the cycle of life with that many frags isn’t it? Hard to keep so many happy. I’ve got the opposite problem. I just lost two corals which was a 33% wipeout of my collection. Guess I better get some more. Your pictures are awesome as usual, I really like those speckled kraks. I’m happy to see your zoas taking off. I remember a while back it seemed like they were your biggest problem. What happened to the sps tank you started at school? Is there anyone there to take care of it?
 
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Welcome back. I’d hate to see the original chalice palace get taken down but if your going to be gone more it makes sense. It’s too bad you’ve lost a few but that’s kind of the cycle of life with that many frags isn’t it? Hard to keep so many happy. I’ve got the opposite problem. I just lost two corals which was a 33% wipeout of my collection. Guess I better get some more. Your pictures are awesome as usual, I really like those speckled kraks. I’m happy to see your zoas taking off. I remember a while back it seemed like they were your biggest problem. What happened to the sps tank you started at school? Is there anyone there to take care of it?

Thanks! Yea all of the zoas I have now look great and are healthy. That is true about the percentage lol. I probably have 200-300 frags between the two tank granted alot of them are cuttings off others. So the SPS tank at the school never ended up happening because they were temporary holding some fish in the tank until the breeding room got built out, then the whole covid thing happened. I was just working on the frag tank down there, someone has been looking after it but it doesn't get alot of attention. The corals are doing pretty good but its just softies really. I added a few lps to the tank but they didn't make it. I think just because it didn't get alot of care as I was only there 2 days a week and their was no doser. The tank really sucks down ALK and CAL as there is a ton of coralline. I didn't get all my hours done so a guy at the lab offered to show me the ropes growing phyto/zooplankton and other stuff so ill probably be going down there over the summer and getting some more hours in. Hopefully while I'm there I can work on the frag tank again.
 
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Have a kinda exciting update

First the not so exciting. The bleached corals...mostly chalices aren’t really recovering. Luckily I didn’t lose too many really nice ones and all my rainbows look good. A local reefer who buys a lot of frags from me came over yesterday and got some stuff. I gave him a bunch of the frags that were bleached and receding and told him maybe he can get them to recover and if they do I would get a piece of it back in the future. I told him I had pretty much they were just a death sentence in my tank and I all ready counted them all as a loss so if they died it’s whatever and don’t feel bad. He really seems like he knows what he is doing and has been in the hobby over 10 years having a tank the whole time.

I also think I pretty much decided to take down the chalice tank and stop selling so many frags. The plan is to transfer my nicest stuff over to the acan tank and make it a display. I mean I’ll still frag and sell here and there but no where close to what I have been doing. I think I have pretty much saturated our small local market anyway and not crazy about shipping at this time.

The exciting part is the algae in the acan tank is now gone and the corals are looking great. I started to glue some of the acans to the rock last night. I’m starting with all the stuff that grows slow as I’m not worried about fragging them in the future to recoup some costs and they will be display pieces.
Some of the fast growing ones I’ll probably keep a growout frag and glue a separate one to the rock for display.

Im trying to plan out placement and want to keep things grouped and have a contrast of the different colors while leaving a bit of space for growing in while having as many as possible. This is the scape I’m working with.
65FAD9EB-E615-4371-8404-C6585E809F13.jpeg


The Japanese acans I glued last night
669DDAE0-F31E-4E20-B3EA-7E999B9F8EAB.jpeg


Ok starting from left to right his is what I was thinking. What do you guys think of the plan?

On the empty space on the front and left of this rock I was going to put all my micro acans
7DAFB3DE-D523-4ED3-BE3E-B9D18DE73FDD.jpeg


On this one I was going to put all my regular acan lords. Some of these grow fast so I’m going to cut the bigger fastest growing ones tonight into three frags. One for growout, one to sell and one to glue to the rocks. Not sure if I’ll be able to fit them all but we will see.
BE413DE9-CCF1-494B-9D7E-EB7CBF20B056.jpeg


The next rock I’m not completely sure but I maybe my high end mushrooms or possibly a mix of mushrooms and acans grouped if I can’t get all of the ones I want to keep on the previous rock.
CC92CB8B-BFC3-413A-963E-AA0138912252.jpeg


The final rock do my gonis but I’m not sure. I’m just concerned with it being so close to the frag rack they may sting corals. The short tentacle ones stung a couple close by acans. The longer tentacle one didn’t seem to bother them. The other thing is my Midas blenny likes to go in that hole and hang out so I’m not sure if he still will if a Goni is there. If would be super neat if he did and would make great pictures though. There is another hole he likes to go in on the middle rock so I’m going to leave a bit of space around that one is well.
FBF9569B-2CB2-4CFF-AAB2-61A0E26F1BDB.jpeg


Once all the acans get moved up and I get rid of the ones that aren’t super nice I’ll start moving the chalices over. All this is so exciting and I’m looking forward to turn this tank into a beautiful display
 
Last edited:

TheWB

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
2,315
Reaction score
3,575
Location
Puyallup,WA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Have a kinda exciting update

First the not so exciting. The bleached corals...mostly chalices aren’t really recovering. Luckily I didn’t lose too many really nice ones and all my rainbows look good. A local reefer who buys a lot of frags from me came over yesterday and got some stuff. I gave him a bunch of the frags that were bleached and receding and told him maybe he can get them to recover and if they do I would get a piece of it back in the future. I told him I had pretty much they were just a death sentence in my tank and I all ready counted them all as a loss so if they died it’s whatever and don’t feel bad. He really seems like he knows what he is doing and has been in the hobby over 10 years having a tank the whole time.

I also think I pretty much decided to take down the chalice tank and stop selling so many frags. The plan is to transfer my nicest stuff over to the acan tank and make it a display. I mean I’ll still frag and sell here and there but no where close to what I have been doing. I think I have pretty much saturated our small local market anyway and not crazy about shipping at this time.

The exciting part is the algae in the acan tank is now gone and the corals are looking great. I started to glue some of the acans to the rock last night. I’m starting with all the stuff that grows slow as I’m not worried about fragging them in the future to recoup some costs and they will be display pieces.
Some of the fast growing ones I’ll probably keep a growout frag and glue a separate one to the rock for display.

Im trying to plan out placement and want to keep things grouped and have a contrast of the different colors while leaving a bit of space for growing in while having as many as possible. This is the scape I’m working with.
65FAD9EB-E615-4371-8404-C6585E809F13.jpeg


The Japanese acans I glued last night
669DDAE0-F31E-4E20-B3EA-7E999B9F8EAB.jpeg


Ok starting from left to right his is what I was thinking. What do you guys think of the plan?

On the empty space on the front and left of this rock I was going to put all my micro acans
7DAFB3DE-D523-4ED3-BE3E-B9D18DE73FDD.jpeg


On this one I was going to put all my regular acan lords. Some of these grow fast so I’m going to cut the bigger fastest growing ones tonight into three frags. One for growout, one to sell and one to glue to the rocks. Not sure if I’ll be able to fit them all but we will see.
BE413DE9-CCF1-494B-9D7E-EB7CBF20B056.jpeg


The next rock I’m not completely sure but I maybe my high end mushrooms or possibly a mix of mushrooms and acans grouped if I can’t get all of the ones I want to keep on the previous rock.
CC92CB8B-BFC3-413A-963E-AA0138912252.jpeg


The final rock do my gonis but I’m not sure. I’m just concerned with it being so close to the frag rack they may sting corals. The short tentacle ones stung a couple close by acans. The longer tentacle one didn’t seem to bother them. The other thing is my Midas blenny likes to go in that hole and hang out so I’m not sure if he still will if a Goni is there. If would be super neat if he did and would make great pictures though. There is another hole he likes to go in on the middle rock so I’m going to leave a bit of space around that one is well.
FBF9569B-2CB2-4CFF-AAB2-61A0E26F1BDB.jpeg


Once all the acans get moved up and I get rid of the ones that aren’t super nice I’ll start moving the chalices over. All this is so exciting and I’m looking forward to turn this tank into a beautiful display
That’s great about the algae clearing up, I know that was a struggle. Do you think the Molly’s made a big difference? I’m excited to see what you do with the lagoon display. I think your plans for placement will work out well.
 

Jimbhoy13

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 29, 2018
Messages
8,436
Reaction score
62,280
Location
Derbyshire
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thought I’d share my reef tank journey. I had a build thread on another “smaller” forum but lately reef2reef has been the forum I frequent more. Plus it seems like there are quite a few 30L owners on this forum which will be great to interact with. So I decided this is going to be my new home. If any of you 30L owners have a build thread please post the link. Also any other chalice addicts lol

The tank is an Innovative Marine Nuvo 30L with a custom oak stand. I started it around the 1st of the year, it’s right around 7 1/2 months old now. Things went pretty smooth from the start. I dealt with a couple small algae outbreaks and a minor Dino issue. Things are really starting to settle in now and I’m getting beginning to get good growth.

Here is a basic list of my equipment

2x Ai Primes with 3D reefing diffusers
2x Sicce 1.0 returns
2x Neotherm 75w heaters
Ecotech MP10
Cad Lights PLS-50 Elite ll skimmer
Smart Micro ATO
Apex EL
DOS

092fd60002808eefb51d5a983500563d.jpg


Here is a picture of the stand me and my father built
42055a6f2b9d9f43c2f0d621f7f43056.jpg


Ok so Im adding my Innovative marine 25g lagoon to this build thread instead of starting a whole new thread and ill will update both tanks here. I want to make this tank focused on Acans. The plan is to put acans on the rock work then some of my nicer chalices and mushrooms on the bottom.

Equipment for the 25 lagoon

Radion XR30
Icecap K1 Nano Skimmer
Apex EL
Sicce 1.5 return
50w Neo Therm
KPS Wavemaker
Smart ATO Micro
Kamour X1 Dosing Pump

30g FTS 12/24/2019
D427B330-E20E-4800-A169-0FBCA8FF6B57.jpg


25g Lagoon FTS 02/23/2020
Welcome to R2R. Lovely corals in the tank.
 
OP
OP
intricate_reefer

intricate_reefer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
1,099
Reaction score
1,924
Location
New Bern, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That’s great about the algae clearing up, I know that was a struggle. Do you think the Molly’s made a big difference? I’m excited to see what you do with the lagoon display. I think your plans for placement will work out well.

Yes I think they did. Also me taking the rocks out and scrubbing. I mean they aren’t going to completely solve the problem if you don’t have stuff under control but I see them picking at the rocks all day. They are great for smaller tanks where you can’t have tangs. I think they are better in blennys plus you can have large groups if you want. Supposedly the regular black ones are suppose to be the best for algae but these ballon ones are doing well for me.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 37 54.4%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 37 54.4%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 15 22.1%
  • None.

    Votes: 15 22.1%
  • Other.

    Votes: 6 8.8%

New Posts

Back
Top