SDReef's 330G CDA Acropora Dominant Mixed Reef

[sdreef]

She looks great!

she’s a beautiful!

Thank you!

 

[sdreef]

Had a little time off for the holiday and took some fish photos.

Mirolabrichthys pascalus

Lineatus

Flame

Eight Line Flasher

Roseafascia

Earl's

Quoyi Parrot

Helfrichi Firefish

Choati

 

[sdreef]

Tank is 2 years old and doing well. I continue to feed the tank about 7 times a day and continue to work to balance export. Nitrates are running at 8 and phosphate runs 0.1-0.15. I've been happy with these levels and coral looks happy. I continue to run AWC with a daily 2% water volume exchange. Carbon dosing with TM Elimi-NP. I've added a second light to the refugium and early observation appears that chaeto growth rate has increased.

With limited remaining real estate for corals, I've gradually added to the aquascape to create more space. Branching rock has been helpful for this. I've used the branch to bridge between structures. Also on flat areas, it's allowed me to add pedestals differentiating the height of the corals, and providing more even flow for new frags.

I've harvested several spawned torches of varying sizes as they have grown and started to sting acropora. The larger the torch, the more challenging the harvesting without cracking the skeleton. I've utilized a surgical wire gigli saw, scalpel, and bone cutters.

In this case, this torch is stinging the base of BC Tijuana taxi and not sure how I am going to be able to access the base of the torch to remove it without destroying the torch.

Added several new frags following QT, here are a few of the new additions

Smurfette millie

Gonzo's cookie monster

RR Firecracker

Pink Floyd

Some other acropora in the system under daylights

BC Blood Bank

BC Rainbow's Army

Walt Disney

RMF Candyland

PC Rainbow

BC Kermit Song Granulosa

TGC Bugatti

Cherry Bomb

Rainbow Loom

TGC Acrolandia under daylight and then blues

A few nameless pieces

FTS January 2023

 

[drawman]

That Bugatti is gorgeous!!

 

[sdreef]

That Bugatti is gorgeous!!

Thanks! I love the bugatti's texture and color combination with the white body transitioning to the purple tips with bright contrasting yellow polyps. It has been growing really fast for me, and I look forward to continue seeing it develop into a colony.

 

[cboltsd01]

I see you took your Kalkwasser offline last year, what are you doing for your PH levels?

 

[sdreef]

I see you took your Kalkwasser offline last year, what are you doing for your PH levels?

Hi there,

Since turning off the kalk, I use a large CO2 scrubber to boost the pH. I last changed the media in the beginning of October so it lasts well for my setup. Running the line for the skimmer to the outside hasn't been a practical option for me, but that would have been a good alternative.

I use this media and expect it will last for a couple years:




At baseline pH runs 8.1-8.35 on avg. It changes if there are more people in the house or the windows stay closed due the weather.

Here is the pH the week before I travelled.

I was out of town last week and the pH went up while I was gone. Once the pH hit 8.45, I reduced the halide photo period from 4.5 hours to 3.5 hours / day. Not sure I needed to do that, but I didn't want to see the pH go higher while I wasn't around.

 

[sdreef]

Hung's rainbow. One of my current favorites.

 

[nuxx]

Tank looks amazing Really miss mine!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Your pictures of your tank are incredible looking!!

 

[sdreef]

Tank looks amazing Really miss mine!

Thanks! You had an awesome fish selection. Love the personatus!

Your pictures of your tank are incredible looking!!

Thank you! I appreciate that!

 

[sdreef]

Tyree Pink lemonade

Colony is growing well, and colors look good.

Over the past month, nitrates have decreased to 0.0. This is down from measuring 5-15 for the past several months. There has been no change in nutrient import, and I believe the decreased nitrates are due to increased growth of the chaeto in the refugium with the addition of a second light in mid-December.

Phosphate continue to run 0.1 -0.15 ppm and carbon dosing also continues with TM elimi-np. I've been carbon dosing for the past months with the volume of the daily dose stable for the past three months. If phosphate levels come down further, I will consider converting the elimi-np to bacto-balance.

Also, I continue to use rowa-phos gfo in a reactor. Currently, I change the media every two weeks, but ultimately I would love stop using altogether if I can maintain stable phosphate levels without gfo.

As mentioned, no change in import, and the fish are growing rapidly. Goldflake has grown substantially and is over a couple inches in size now. Export is starting to approach a balance with the nutrient import.

 

[sdreef]

CC Flaming Sunrise

Polyps have a yellow base but more of an orange-red hue in my system. Mainly encrusting since adding to the system, but demonstrating steady growth, and polyp extension has improved as the frag settled in. I turned off the flow for the photo to capture the polyps better.

Here's what it looks like with the flow.

 

[sdreef]

Some system photos from this morning

Pascalus anthias dominant male. Doing well after two years.

Lennardi, doing well, growing fast

The head wrasse, M. geoffroy going strong after three years.

The most anonymous fish in the system, but I really like these cardinals. Frequently group together, model citizens.

Copper band has a taste for meaty LPS, but not an aptasia to be found in the system

Janns pipe has no difficulty with the flow, really difficult to get the camera to focus on him, but one of my favorites

A few top down shots from this week, under blues Reefbrite XHOs

BC Bloodbank

TGC Bugatti

Tierra Del Fuego

 

[BranchingHammer]

Beautiful pictures!!

 

[sdreef]

Beautiful pictures!!

Thank you! I enjoy the photography, and it's a nice time to keep tabs on how everything is doing in the system.

 

[lubeck]

Just got done reading your build. Truly incredible! Do you have plans for more fish?

 

[sdreef]

Just got done reading your build. Truly incredible! Do you have plans for more fish?

Thank you! Overall, I have a good balance with the fish right now. Everyone gets along and it's a low stress environment.

I do miss having a hawkfish in the system and will probably add a flame hawk. I may add another bluestripe pipefish at some point. Also I love wrasse and have wanted a half-banded madagascar flasher wrasse (Paracheilinus hemitaeniatus) for the past couple years. I've been unsuccessful in finding one available. So these are all possibilities. Also, as some of the pascalus anthias have transitioned to male, there have been conflicts some losses. I have five remaining after a couple years. I may add some female pascalus to the group down the road.

Phone shots from this evening

 

[sdreef]

Goldflake is growing up, he's approaching 3". I didn't realize how much his appearance had changed over this short time until I looked back at old photos. Here's the progression:

November

December

January

February

 

[sdreef]

May Full Tank Shot

Photos from today

Blonde Naso

A. lennardi

C. hawaiiensis

Janns' Pipefish

M. geoffroyi, Potter's leopard

M. choati

C. johnsoni

C. linneatus

C. earlei

Goldflake Angel

M. pascalus

Peng's HOTO

Tierra del fuego

Smurfette Millie

Rainbow Splice

Rainbow loom

BC Bloodbank

TGC Bugatti

Tyree Pink Lemonade

Hung's Rainbow

Wet Thumb's Mother of Pearl

Space Invader pectinia

Quoy Parrot