Susan's 125 gal re-reboot. 3rd Times the Charm

[Susan Edwards]

They grow fast, in the right conditions.

which one grows real fast?

 

[Susan Edwards]

You need a very fine acrylic sponge to remove that and be very gentle.

ah, you mean the coraline on the glass? I used an algae scrapper with real double sided razor blades. Doesn't scratch glass if you do it right. NOt that this tank, which was used, doesn't have scratches....

 

[Reverend Turtle]

The freebie is a blastomussa. I knew them as Blastomussa wellsi, but that may have changed.
I forgot you had a fuge. Chaeto seems to appreciate red light, might be something to consider.

 

[Susan Edwards]

The freebie is a blastomussa. I knew them as Blastomussa wellsi, but that may have changed.
I forgot you had a fuge. Chaeto seems to appreciate red light, might be something to consider.

Thank you! I was thinking it might be a blasto but wasn't sure. Will other macro also like red lighting?

 

[Reverend Turtle]

Thank you! I was thinking it might be a blasto but wasn't sure. Will other macro also like red lighting?

No problem.
Most macros tend to like more red, but it's my understanding that the one sold as dragons tongue, does better under blues.

 

[Reverend Turtle]

Oh, and I got my order from Saltyunderground.com yesterday. The corals look better in my tank. I think they turn the blues down for pictures. There was one aptasia on a frag plug, so I just changed the plug.
The fish looked fantastic, nice and thick. Once the lights come on in a few hours I'll see how they are doing.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Susan, Nice tank transformation! Looking very good!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Susan, Nice tank transformation! Looking very good!

thanks!

 

[Susan Edwards]

another score day! at the LFS I napped a 5 head duncan, galaxy, Poritidae, acan colony, Candy cane, and another ricordea. Now to go back to my map and make some adjustments. One rock bottom isn't a ledge like I thought, or perhaps a bit more shaded from above, so the ricordeas may go there. Pics are with flashlight and pro setting on camera phone. This is it for corals for a while. I have 1 order I want to do, maybe next month

Duncan-nice 5 heads. need to find a good place-maybe mounted at an angle but sideways. (not under flashlight.)
Acans. I think these, by their coloring, might be aussie lords? Thinking to glue them onto another rock and leave on sand bed so they grow out on rock. The poritidae will go where my goniapora would have gone. NOt sure if you can put the 2 close together or not. Acans and candy cane had feeding tentacles out tonight

I'm hoping now that I have some corals in the tank, they'll use up some of the nutrients and my n o3 will go down.

Duncan-Galaxy-Poritidae-Acans-Candy Cane

 

[Susan Edwards]

All corals in or near their permanent places. Some glued, some just stuck in rock to test lighting and flow. Raised blues to 65 and whites to 7. Not sure if I'll need to go higher or not. No experience with these lights yet.

Thinking maybe the galaxy can go on the top of the arrowhead rock with the gsp? Need to look up where to place candy cane.

A few of the Corals today in their new positions.
Nicely extended and blowing in flow

same. seems happy. opened right up after I moved it

Same. open and fleshy blue eyed lep

Pretty eyes cyphastrea. Not sure how they are supposed to look. But at least I got a decent pic

same with chalice. No idea if happy or not

Full tank shot. You can see cord cover on wall now. Hubby got the black light cord covered.

 

[Susan Edwards]

candy cane tonight. Super happy. All three heads! And finally got a decent pic of the cyphastrea. No color but a clear shot! Anyone else haunt their tanks at night with a flashlight? Lol's

 

[fishguy242]

yep bumped again,we both went coral craaazy this weekend put a heathy sack of seachem denitrate in sump ,knock em down,tank looks great!!!,used to be on label to bake and reuse phosguard,never did it,was taken off label many years agojmo,nope when she gets good and yellow,toss and replace ,just don't strip too low

 

[Susan Edwards]

I will toss then, and order more phosguard to keep on hand. I added some bio spira to add some more good bacteria. About 2/3's dosage. Between live rock, and blocks and rocks in sump, and purigen and chemi elite, you'd think no3 would go down. I just used a new test kit and it said back down to 40. Old test was 80 or higher. So tossing that one! Po .45 which is pretty good from 1.43! I have prime as well. But for now, 40 is a thrill lol's

Fingers crossed that things keep bumping along smoothly

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Tank looks great

 

[Susan Edwards]

@Sleeping Giant thanks!

 

[southerntnreefer]

WOW!! What a stunner of a tank now! Congrats! Show's what a little work will get us! Following along.

 

[Susan Edwards]

WOW!! What a stunner of a tank now! Congrats! Show's what a little work will get us! Following along.

Thank you so much! it feels so good to get the tank back in shape!

 

[southerntnreefer]

Thank you so much! it feels so good to get the tank back in shape!

Absolutely!! Love it!!

 

[Susan Edwards]

So no big changes here. Letting it all just settle. I'll keep the sandbed turkey blasted. Getting some of the normal brownish dusting. Everything seems happy so far.

I do wish I could get no3 down. goes from 40 to 80 and back down. I'm dosing more biospira slowly to try to build up good bacteria. Looking for macro algae but everyone is out of stock. Not sure I really want to try dosing. Never had much success with dosing in the past. Tomorrow will reck all parameters. Hoping the weekend I get my doser shelf in and can start dosing. Will use calculators to figure out what to dose to begin with. Right now I'm in the "dump" some in mode. Which isn't bad. It's working lol's. But I tend to forget so time to hook up the doser.

Need to get hubby to finish hooking up my manifold. a) for water changes when I don't need to vacuum sand (mostly turkey bast blow) and b) to see if I need a reactor for either phosphate or nitrates. I'd like to not have to have reactors. Maining I know so little about them so I get nervous...

In the meantime, I have to deal with the 45 g observation tank. The lights will not work when I schedule them. They revert to old schedule --hydra 26's that came with the red sea max e170. And need to replace ato not working or try to figure out why it is not working. I do have a spare. And 3, I should test to see what the numbers are at. I prob. won't set up a doser even though I have, as all I have is a couple leathers and a clown. But am thinking I may add a bta in there for the clown and the new one I plan to get. It is an observation tank, not a qt. I may try dosing fish before they go in while they acclaimate. Something to check. It will be "fun" to get fish out, as there are 3 pcs of live rock in there. Might have to remove rock to net fish (except if the bta is on a rock).

Plan to do water change on friday.. Off to get flashlight and go spy on tank!

 

[Reverend Turtle]

Oh, and I got my order from Saltyunderground.com yesterday. The corals look better in my tank. I think they turn the blues down for pictures. There was one aptasia on a frag plug, so I just changed the plug.
The fish looked fantastic, nice and thick. Once the lights come on in a few hours I'll see how they are doing.

So, I had ordered 2 fish, a small mimic tang, and a Carpenters flasher wrasse. The wrasse was never happy from the moment I took it out of the bag, only lived 72 hours. I contacted them and they refunded me promptly. So I'll give them that. The tang is happy and healthy, and has eaten 99% of the hair algae in less than a week. Didn't have an over abundance, but it was on it's way.
I also ordered 4 corals, a green sun coral, a monti, a LA lakers scroll, and a colt coral.
The scroll seems ok, have yet to see any open polyps, but tissue looks good.
The "colt" has plumped up nicely. Not sure it's a colt though, not slimy like I'm used to.
The green sun coral, has had polyps open since the second evening and eats when I feed it.
Now the monti... Looked great when it came in, dipped in brightwell coral md, saw nothing after. Noticed a little white patch on an edge just assumed it was shipping damage. The little spot got a little bigger so thinking it might be bacterial I got some Seachem reef dip and dipped in that. Then I saw it, a little monti eating nudibranch! Ugh! Ok, no big deal it's just one blew it off with a pipette checked the frag really well and back in the tank. Tonight almost half the frag is missing tissue. Dipped and blew with a pipette again, 4 or 5 more nudibranchs came off. I'm hoping that's all of them. Moral of the story, iodine dips seem to irritate the slugs.
Sorry for high jacking your thread.