SPS dominant WB frag 55.2 & 40gal soon to be 120gallons!

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Tonycass12

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Tank and corals are looking great so far, Tony! Other than corals, any more plans for fish?
I'm keeping an eye out for a canary or midas blenny to come in at the lfs and my wife really wants to get a pair of cardinals(was worried about cardinals in a high flow tank but have since seen them in some really nice how flow tanks like Floridarefers TOTM) . Been thinking about a pistol/goby pair as well. When we are happy with the fish I would still like to finish things off with a 6line too but I've seen them get pretty aggressive before so that will be the absolute last addition. Honestly I keep going back and forth on a skimmer but before we finish stocking with fish we will probably end up picking one up to help export some of the excess nutrients out of the tank. We only had 1 short lived algae bloom so far but a 20gal waterchange had it all cleared up in a matter of days.
 
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Well things arrived better then expected from WWC yesterday. No shipping losses! We got a few frags of birsdnest that started pushing polyps out as soon as they got in the tank and added 20 hermits and 10 snails to help keep things clean. Our ricordea was the only thing that didn't arrive looking too good. It came unattached from its plug and was very pale. It started coloring up once it was in the tank, I shoved a frag plug and a small chunk of rock into the sand then added the ricordea and turned one of the small cups they ship the frags in over top of all of it in a low flow area near a back corner. Hopefully in 2 weeks the ricordea will have attached to the plug or rock, it already started showing a lot more color and looked much less pale by the end of the day yesterday. We also found out that out flame hawk (fester) apparently has an appetite for the smaller hermits. He's only claimed 2 so far and only goes after them if they are out on the sand and get turned over by the current I guess we will see how many end up making it. Ill be a little bummed if he eats all of them, not only will it be an expensive meal for him but they are doing a kick butt job getting all the frag plugs back to being completly clear of any algae growth.
 

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Tonycass12

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Full tank shots 3/14/21 finally a day off of work, happy Sunday everyone!
 

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Tonycass12

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Picked up our 2nd ai nero 3 from our LFS today. Pretty dang good flow with the parent pump running at 40%-80% on random flow and the other pump running just out of pace with it. The polyps on all the birds nest started extending even more and the fire digi is digging it too. Our anemone been upset the last day or so so ill assume its time for a water change in the next couple days.
 

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Thanks, Its a good spot to relax. I ended up falling in with a group of kitsurfers here in michigan after highschool and we spent years hammock camping on the weekends chasing wind and waves around Lake huron and Michigan. Most of them when they visit opt to sleep in the hammocks in the basement over beds upstairs.
 
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When my wife asks all ill be able to say is it was too good of a deal. LFS got in a beautiful pink birdsnest colony. Got it for under 100$ and this thing is huge! Also picked up a 6line a little earlier then I planned but he got to many in and gave me a price I couldn't pass up. After getting home and starting to acclimate them I noticed an acropora crab in the birdsnest. Still not my last surprise! After putting it in the tank I noticed we somehow managed to get a pair of acropora crabs! Its turning out to be a good week for me.

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HAPPY FRIDAY! A buddy of mine from down near Detroit was trying to clear out some frags and my wife happened to be down in the area to grab them from him. More corals! Lol excited to see what he sent our way later tonight.
 

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More corals!!!
My friend was overly generous and sent us up 11 frags! We got another birdsnest, a couple monti caps, some more digita and some lps that I have yet to identify.
 

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Got my second dose of covid vaccine yesterday so I'm home from work running a bit of a fever today and figured it was time for an update!

Well since the last post our GBTA decided to go for a midnight stroll into one of the Nero 3s. Luckily I wake up at about 3am for work so I think I managed to catch this not very long after it happened. Water was somewhat cloudy so I removed and tossed the nem and added a new bag of activated carbon in a filter cup in the sump. Everything cleared up by that afternoon and still followed it up with a nearly 80% water change.

Everything else seams to be doing really well! I've notice our leng sy monti cap has began entrusting onto the rocks and a few of the birdsnest frags that we added at the start are entrusting down onto the frag plugs and pushing out the beginings of new branches, one that completly browned out has had all of the colors come back! So happy camper over here.

New additions to the system!
- We added a essence 130 skimmer from reef octopus yesterday. Its still breaking in but already pulling out some "gunk"
-Starting the swap next week from red sea salt to red sea coral pro salt. When I make up saltwater im planning on starting with only 25% coral pro salt and slowly scaling that up as I run out of the normal blue bucket salt.
-Red sea foundation program. Going to slowly start getting on top of this as well so we can keep the growth up on all these little frags. I have not been adding anything since I started the tank up. Just been keeping everything in check with weekly waterchanges.

I'll be trying to post a weekly update from here on out with how things are going and some coral growth/FTS but I'm also getting into the busy season with another one of my addictions (my bee hives) so we will see how well I can keep up on here.

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Why are you changing to Red sea coral pro from blue bucket? I use Blue Bucket myself so curious :)
Figured I would give it a try and see how it goes with the elevated elements in the coral pro mix for only a few $ more why not. Also hope that it will help me stay away from big swings when I do waterchanges. Ive had good luck with the blue bucket so far so worst case scenario thats what I'll go back to if things don't work out.
 
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Little growth shot. Muy Verde birdsnest first shot was from 3/15 second shot from 4/19.

Just one month and this guy is the fastest grower in the tank. Looking like it might really start to take off soon.
 

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Our female acropora crab tried to move onto our fastest growing frag last night. Im thinking its still a little pre mature lol. Had to push her back over to the pink birdsnest so our flame hawk didn't make an easy meal out of her.
 

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Happy Friday. Decided to pull the trigger on the last handful of corals for the tank today from Jason fox. Hopefully everything arrives well and I'll be sharing photos this time next week!
 

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Nice! Gonna look awesome with all of them. BRS used to sell some really nice frag packs but they haven't had any for a while I guess they stopped selling them.
 
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Nice! Gonna look awesome with all of them. BRS used to sell some really nice frag packs but they haven't had any for a while I guess they stopped selling them.
Yeah I noticed they stopped carrying them, was probably an issue that they were really just working as a middle man with I think WWC and one or two other vendors. Im excited to get the rest of this stuff in the tank. If the stuff from Jason takes off like my other frags have ill have a halfway decent looking reef by the end of summer
 
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I have them running on random 22hrs of the day 60-100% then 2 hrs of pulse. I like mixing it up so the change in current can free up stuff in/on the rocks and its always cool to see the wave in the tank. During the pulse the child pump is running opposite the parent but during the random flow its set to 90*phase so it chases the parent pump and creates a more random surge and current throughout the tank. Im no longer running them on the back wall. I have been playing around for the last week with where I have them to see what positions I get the most out of. Right now the left side pump is on the left glass panel in the top 1/3rd of tank pushing across the top/back to the right side. My right side pump is right up in the front corner on the right side glass pushing towards the top center of the left side. Ive found this has put a ton more flow into the tank with a bit of a gyre effect going on. Its been tricky figuring out exactly where to direct them so I dont irritate any corals. Everything seams to be doing really well for now and I'm almost positive this is where I'm going to leave the pumps at for now. You can see the sand has been very slowly pushing away from the front left side but I don't mind it. It takes a few days for all that sand to actually get blown back.
 

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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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