OP
OP
Thanks! Everything is just motoring along and I think Santa got me some fun new goodies this year
The 40 Breeder Mixed Reef
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- Thread starter Dempsey941
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OP
OP
Thanks! Yea that toadstool is my baby she was maybe 3-4” across when I purchased her, now she is like a 1/3 of the tank, during the “night” of the light schedule she is so top heavy she almost covers the acan underneath all flopped over.
WvAquatics
Valuable Member
Great build. Took me an hour to read through but it is amazing watching the growth. Inspiration for my 40g!
WvAquatics
Valuable Member
Just built my stand for my 40g. Excited!
OP
OP
Just the hob protein skimmer, my fish are pigs and my cuc really keeps the detritus down. I was to much of a chicken to drill when I first set up the system, when I upgrade one day I’ll do a proper sump setup. For now, my system is chugging along keep an eye out for an update sometime next week.
Woot woot!
OP
OP
Tank Update #17: 2020 Visions
FTS:
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
200Watt Cobalt NeoTherm
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.8
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .38
No3: 25
Losses and Wins from the Holidays:
Finally some free time to take note on the comings and goings of the reef tank and the neighbor frag tank. So the purple fire fish in the frag tank passed away, this is now the second fire fish I have lost, and quite frankly I think I am done with them. So now the possum wrasse currently in residence will most likely be the sole inhabitant. Which is fine because he eats like a champ and recognized me, or maybe its the pipette that I feed him with.
I also went to the LFS farther away from my residence and got me a sweet deal on a frag of JF Star Gazers, and some playboy zoas. They are already producing new polyps which is fantastic. I also got to go into "the backroom" which I never heard of until I saw a sign saying you can't go into the backroom without an employee escort. Suffice it to say, it was impressive; holy grail torches, aussie golds, indo torches, some high end acros, and a bunch of other things that made my wallet cringe.
The frag tank has also caught a case of bryopsis and is currently going under a second dose of fluconazol to kill the remaining bryopsis that survived the first dose. Hopefully in a couple of weeks my tank will finally be rid of it and I can move on with my life.
Some 3in frag tiles were purchases and my encrusting montis have been mounted to them for easier fragging in the summer so papa can make some extra bank while school is out.
Final event for this post, one of my jebao pp4's up and died on me on Sunday so I have had to shuffle some items around and move one of my power heads from the frag tank over the 40 breeder to help with the flow, until an upgrade arrives sometime this week.
"An upgrade you say?" correct. I had been researching potential upgrades for a wave maker on the reef tank for a few months and figured I would take the plunge, in the spring or maybe the summer but sometimes the universe decides when it is time to do something. I ultimately settled on a brand new IceCap Gyre 2k. Since there is no real reviews on the this product available it is a kinda leap in the dark for me, but I have read the reviews on the the 1k and 3k models of the previous gyre generation and I think this should provide more than enough flow for my system and it should be an overall excellent product. I will keep this thread updated on the progress of the new gyre, but will probably also open up a thread in the equipment section documenting my experience with it.
That should wrap up this update, as all ways feel free to leave a comment or a question and I will do my best to answer it. Here are some other shots from the reef hope you have a good night and the good rest of the week.
FTS:
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
200Watt Cobalt NeoTherm
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.8
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .38
No3: 25
Losses and Wins from the Holidays:
Finally some free time to take note on the comings and goings of the reef tank and the neighbor frag tank. So the purple fire fish in the frag tank passed away, this is now the second fire fish I have lost, and quite frankly I think I am done with them. So now the possum wrasse currently in residence will most likely be the sole inhabitant. Which is fine because he eats like a champ and recognized me, or maybe its the pipette that I feed him with.
I also went to the LFS farther away from my residence and got me a sweet deal on a frag of JF Star Gazers, and some playboy zoas. They are already producing new polyps which is fantastic. I also got to go into "the backroom" which I never heard of until I saw a sign saying you can't go into the backroom without an employee escort. Suffice it to say, it was impressive; holy grail torches, aussie golds, indo torches, some high end acros, and a bunch of other things that made my wallet cringe.
The frag tank has also caught a case of bryopsis and is currently going under a second dose of fluconazol to kill the remaining bryopsis that survived the first dose. Hopefully in a couple of weeks my tank will finally be rid of it and I can move on with my life.
Some 3in frag tiles were purchases and my encrusting montis have been mounted to them for easier fragging in the summer so papa can make some extra bank while school is out.
Final event for this post, one of my jebao pp4's up and died on me on Sunday so I have had to shuffle some items around and move one of my power heads from the frag tank over the 40 breeder to help with the flow, until an upgrade arrives sometime this week.
"An upgrade you say?" correct. I had been researching potential upgrades for a wave maker on the reef tank for a few months and figured I would take the plunge, in the spring or maybe the summer but sometimes the universe decides when it is time to do something. I ultimately settled on a brand new IceCap Gyre 2k. Since there is no real reviews on the this product available it is a kinda leap in the dark for me, but I have read the reviews on the the 1k and 3k models of the previous gyre generation and I think this should provide more than enough flow for my system and it should be an overall excellent product. I will keep this thread updated on the progress of the new gyre, but will probably also open up a thread in the equipment section documenting my experience with it.
That should wrap up this update, as all ways feel free to leave a comment or a question and I will do my best to answer it. Here are some other shots from the reef hope you have a good night and the good rest of the week.
btmedic04
Well-Known Member
As always, your tank is looking great! Might I suggest a tailspot blenny for your frag tank? I have one in mine and he munches on algae all day and has a ton of personality. Surprisingly he gets along with my six line too.
I'm definitely interested in hearing how your new 2k gore does. I've been strongly considering one or two for my 40b but everyone I talk to says that will be way too much flow.
I'm definitely interested in hearing how your new 2k gore does. I've been strongly considering one or two for my 40b but everyone I talk to says that will be way too much flow.
vetteguy53081
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Very nice updates, project and color.
All my tanks are mixed reef and other than a few precautions, can’t beat the color twists and variations of coral in one tank !!
All my tanks are mixed reef and other than a few precautions, can’t beat the color twists and variations of coral in one tank !!
OP
OP
just a quick video of the McCoskers swimming in the new flow
OP
OP
Tank Update #18: I almost broke.
FTS:
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
200Watt Cobalt NeoTherm
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
*None*
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.6
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .35
No3: 20
Prison Break:
The possum wrasse decided one night to attempt a prison break from his home in the frag tank. I'm not sure how he got out, possibly through the opening where the hob filter sits. However I managed to get him in the tank, but he was not doing well ultimately succumbing to what ever injury or stress sustained during his escape and passed. So now the frag tank is empty. For the time being I am going to just ghost feed the tank with some pellets until an alternative can be found (I am thinking a damsel/blenny combo).
Gyre Installment:
All right before I get too deep into the installation of the Icecap 2k Gyre I want to say this.... My family has spent a lot of money on my education with private schooling a highly rated state university, and it may have been wasted. I like to think I'm somewhat intelligent, but for the life of me the installation of this pump nearly drove me up a wall.
So out of the box this unit feels well made and is high quality material. Everything came plastic wrapped with bubble wrap and looked fantastic.
Installing it into the spider web of wires behind my mounting board was simple enough and the pump was on and working right away. So when first started it was blasting sand fairly well and I assumed that the pump was just running on a higher level than I wanted. So I watched the youtube videos on the gyre setup and began building my presets and settings and such and update the unit. Unit restarts, and continues pushing at the level it was previously, crud. So I continue to play around with settings I dropped everything to lowest possible levels updated the setting and the unit reset, still continued to blow at the previous rate, crud x 2. So then I start playing with placement of gyre thinking that its just in a funky spot blowing the sand, nope. Finally I removed 1 of the gyre blades thinking that the unit is just too strong for my setup with both blades, still nope, and during the process I kicked up a huge sandstorm putting a fine layer of sand over everything.
So I was officially freaking out after 5 hours of me trying to get this stupid gyre to work. I pulled up MarineDepot's return policy and was seeing if I could return this unit and was going to put my band-aid power heads back into their previous spots. However I sat down and said there is "no flipping this unit designed for tanks 20-90 gallons was too powerful for my system. I have a college degree and this hunk of plastic will not beat me, I will make this work!" So I started 100% over I sat down watched every video about the gyre set up trying to figure out what I did wrong, and behold the answer to my question came to me...I was working on the wrong pump. You see I was playing around with the settings under the pump #2 attachment not the #1 attachment. So the entire time my 2k pump was working off the settings preset for a Icecap 4k gyre, not the 2k. So after questioning if my education had failed me I set my schedule and worked out the power adjustments and now the tank is running super smooth, and I am quite happy with the flow produced by this pump and feel that it was a good purchase in the overall.
Unknown Purchase:
So the other day I was perusing the frag section of the LFS and saw these two beauties and has to add them to my ever growing collection of palys, the only issue was that my guy at the store had no idea what they were called and that when they came in from the wholesaler they were only marked as MISC Zoas. So now I am on the hunt for their identity.
If you happen to know please let me know, I like to keep a record of everything in the frag tank so I can better inventory my frags if/when the time comes to sell some.
Well I think that just about wraps things up for this update here are a couple extra pictures of the 40 breeder from the week or so from my last posting. Feel free to leave a comment or drop a question.
FTS:
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
200Watt Cobalt NeoTherm
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
*None*
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.6
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .35
No3: 20
Prison Break:
The possum wrasse decided one night to attempt a prison break from his home in the frag tank. I'm not sure how he got out, possibly through the opening where the hob filter sits. However I managed to get him in the tank, but he was not doing well ultimately succumbing to what ever injury or stress sustained during his escape and passed. So now the frag tank is empty. For the time being I am going to just ghost feed the tank with some pellets until an alternative can be found (I am thinking a damsel/blenny combo).
Gyre Installment:
All right before I get too deep into the installation of the Icecap 2k Gyre I want to say this.... My family has spent a lot of money on my education with private schooling a highly rated state university, and it may have been wasted. I like to think I'm somewhat intelligent, but for the life of me the installation of this pump nearly drove me up a wall.
So out of the box this unit feels well made and is high quality material. Everything came plastic wrapped with bubble wrap and looked fantastic.
Installing it into the spider web of wires behind my mounting board was simple enough and the pump was on and working right away. So when first started it was blasting sand fairly well and I assumed that the pump was just running on a higher level than I wanted. So I watched the youtube videos on the gyre setup and began building my presets and settings and such and update the unit. Unit restarts, and continues pushing at the level it was previously, crud. So I continue to play around with settings I dropped everything to lowest possible levels updated the setting and the unit reset, still continued to blow at the previous rate, crud x 2. So then I start playing with placement of gyre thinking that its just in a funky spot blowing the sand, nope. Finally I removed 1 of the gyre blades thinking that the unit is just too strong for my setup with both blades, still nope, and during the process I kicked up a huge sandstorm putting a fine layer of sand over everything.
So I was officially freaking out after 5 hours of me trying to get this stupid gyre to work. I pulled up MarineDepot's return policy and was seeing if I could return this unit and was going to put my band-aid power heads back into their previous spots. However I sat down and said there is "no flipping this unit designed for tanks 20-90 gallons was too powerful for my system. I have a college degree and this hunk of plastic will not beat me, I will make this work!" So I started 100% over I sat down watched every video about the gyre set up trying to figure out what I did wrong, and behold the answer to my question came to me...I was working on the wrong pump. You see I was playing around with the settings under the pump #2 attachment not the #1 attachment. So the entire time my 2k pump was working off the settings preset for a Icecap 4k gyre, not the 2k. So after questioning if my education had failed me I set my schedule and worked out the power adjustments and now the tank is running super smooth, and I am quite happy with the flow produced by this pump and feel that it was a good purchase in the overall.
Unknown Purchase:
So the other day I was perusing the frag section of the LFS and saw these two beauties and has to add them to my ever growing collection of palys, the only issue was that my guy at the store had no idea what they were called and that when they came in from the wholesaler they were only marked as MISC Zoas. So now I am on the hunt for their identity.
If you happen to know please let me know, I like to keep a record of everything in the frag tank so I can better inventory my frags if/when the time comes to sell some.
Well I think that just about wraps things up for this update here are a couple extra pictures of the 40 breeder from the week or so from my last posting. Feel free to leave a comment or drop a question.
OP
OP
Reef Tank Update #19 No I Didn't Die
FTS
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
150W Eheim Jager
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
*None*
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.5
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .35
No3: 20
So I guess it has been a while since my last update. In all honesty nothing really extreme happened to the reef tank; minus the moving of frags from the frag tank to the main display and back again whilst preforming a 7 day black out.
The Potential for Greatness:
So yea there was a good 2 week period where I was contemplating a complete rescape of the 40 breeder. The end goal of a rescape would be to create more space for my oldest passion, zoas and to create a more dynamic aquascape to help increase the flow across the aquarium. I had drawn out a number of scapes that would allow me create two arches which would become fabulous zoa gardens. In fact I even went to one of my LFS just to play with the CaribSea LifeRock shapes they carry. However even when I was working with the rock I could never quite get the scape the way I liked. I ultimately scrapped the idea of a rescape bought a box of salt and left defeated. I also ordered some 10 pounds of reef rock rubble out of pure stupidity and the idea of creating an arch with the rubble for a zoa garden, that idea quickly died as well, so now I have turned my eyes to improving other things in my life and allow the idea of rescape continue to marinate in my head until another time or perhaps another tank.
WWC Auctions and Livesale:
So once in a blue moon I will traverse the WWC ebay page place a couple of bids and forget only to get an email later saying my bid has been beaten or I lost the auction out right. I just assumed that in order to win any of these things you have to be there right up to the last moment to win. Turns out that's not always true. I won two whole frags and at first was like "sweet got me some sweet frags for cheap", but then "oh crap, I just bought 2 frags and now I gotta pay for the shipping which costs more than the frags I bought combined". Spoke with the team at WWC bought nice looking montipora stellata off the sight and managed to get the cheaper shipping from the website over the ebay shipping. On the whole I was kinda dissapointed by the frags end over especially the stellata. These frags were on .5" plugs and 2 of the 3 didn't even cover the entire plug. The stellata was literally like 25% of the plug itself. However I just chalked it up to over expectations on my part. The frags are still doing great and have really started to grow some nearly have double in size.
WWC also was holding their Tax Return Livesale one weekend in February and normally I wouldn't have participated, just because WWC livesales are always packed to brim and its almost impossible to secure frags. However this livesale wasn't to bad the corals were fairly priced and the people were fun to hang with for a couple of days while my family was away. I may have even found my long lost brother @Pyromofyr which is an added bonus. I mostly was interested in grabbing some AOIs and maybe one or two more items on the wish list, but I think ultimately I had a good sale.
Six Frags were won by yours truly. In all honesty I could have won more, but I think I had everything that I wanted and I was thinking ahead of other needs like food, water, clothes you know ... the essentials.
I was very pleased with my haul and then I learned that WWC had a rewards point system. So I Figured I would take a look and see how many (or few) points I had accrued over my lifetime with WWC, a whopping 550. So I immediately converted those suckers into a $50 gift card and snagged a random zoa pack.
All the corals arrived safe and sound....a month later. So I am on spring break right now and this was the most convenient time to have them delivered, but WWC was completely fine with it which was nice. I will note that the acro frag came in on a naaaasty plug with bubble algae all over so i went ahead and clipped it from the frag and now it seems to be adjusting to its new home. Curiously enough the AOIS grew an extra 2 polyps and the the oxides had at least 6 polyps so I kinda made out like a bandit by waiting.
So now I have a metric ton of zoas to sort through. Which is nice because I like zoas and I know they will succeed in my system.
Trying to make some side cash:
So I made this cute little frag pack of 7 or 8 frags that I would like to ship out at some point this week. I think I may have set the initial price to high so I'll probably lower it for hump day bump day. I would normally just take these to my LFS, but they just brought in some 250 different frags so they told me to comeback in a couple of weeks. Its fine they gotta run their business and I'm cool with it.
Future Notes and Ramblings:
So looking towards the future I would like to add a sixline wrasse to the frag tank. I know I know "its a terror, it'll attack the other fish" look. its in gonna be in the frag tank. The only reason he would be in the main display is by some act of God or a really good jump by the fish. he will live the frag tank take any pests out and at the same time feed my coral with his left overs. My guy at the LFS says he should have 1 of 2 in this weeks order, but he was not 100%, getting one is not the problem is the point. Its going to happen. Maybe. Unless I change my mind at keep a fishless system. But I have noticed my corals do better with fish in the system so its going to happen. maybe.
I would also like to at least reconsider rescaping the main display so i can make some room for my personal collection, but I still think that one needs some time to marinate in the brain before bringing it out again.
I also saw a super cute leopard wrasse at the LFS, and I was 100% going to buy it, but it wasn't eating in the store so I passed. i have no real interest in adding another fish to the system but, if something caught my eye, you never know.
I have also started dosing Iodine into my system. My Softies have really perked up with the additional Iodine so it is probably going to stay as part of the dosing regiment until I see a reason to discontinue.
Alright I think that's a good place to wrap up this update here are some other pics of the reef tank comments, questions and concerns are always welcome.
FTS
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
150W Eheim Jager
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
*None*
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.5
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .35
No3: 20
So I guess it has been a while since my last update. In all honesty nothing really extreme happened to the reef tank; minus the moving of frags from the frag tank to the main display and back again whilst preforming a 7 day black out.
The Potential for Greatness:
So yea there was a good 2 week period where I was contemplating a complete rescape of the 40 breeder. The end goal of a rescape would be to create more space for my oldest passion, zoas and to create a more dynamic aquascape to help increase the flow across the aquarium. I had drawn out a number of scapes that would allow me create two arches which would become fabulous zoa gardens. In fact I even went to one of my LFS just to play with the CaribSea LifeRock shapes they carry. However even when I was working with the rock I could never quite get the scape the way I liked. I ultimately scrapped the idea of a rescape bought a box of salt and left defeated. I also ordered some 10 pounds of reef rock rubble out of pure stupidity and the idea of creating an arch with the rubble for a zoa garden, that idea quickly died as well, so now I have turned my eyes to improving other things in my life and allow the idea of rescape continue to marinate in my head until another time or perhaps another tank.
WWC Auctions and Livesale:
So once in a blue moon I will traverse the WWC ebay page place a couple of bids and forget only to get an email later saying my bid has been beaten or I lost the auction out right. I just assumed that in order to win any of these things you have to be there right up to the last moment to win. Turns out that's not always true. I won two whole frags and at first was like "sweet got me some sweet frags for cheap", but then "oh crap, I just bought 2 frags and now I gotta pay for the shipping which costs more than the frags I bought combined". Spoke with the team at WWC bought nice looking montipora stellata off the sight and managed to get the cheaper shipping from the website over the ebay shipping. On the whole I was kinda dissapointed by the frags end over especially the stellata. These frags were on .5" plugs and 2 of the 3 didn't even cover the entire plug. The stellata was literally like 25% of the plug itself. However I just chalked it up to over expectations on my part. The frags are still doing great and have really started to grow some nearly have double in size.
WWC also was holding their Tax Return Livesale one weekend in February and normally I wouldn't have participated, just because WWC livesales are always packed to brim and its almost impossible to secure frags. However this livesale wasn't to bad the corals were fairly priced and the people were fun to hang with for a couple of days while my family was away. I may have even found my long lost brother @Pyromofyr which is an added bonus. I mostly was interested in grabbing some AOIs and maybe one or two more items on the wish list, but I think ultimately I had a good sale.
Six Frags were won by yours truly. In all honesty I could have won more, but I think I had everything that I wanted and I was thinking ahead of other needs like food, water, clothes you know ... the essentials.
I was very pleased with my haul and then I learned that WWC had a rewards point system. So I Figured I would take a look and see how many (or few) points I had accrued over my lifetime with WWC, a whopping 550. So I immediately converted those suckers into a $50 gift card and snagged a random zoa pack.
All the corals arrived safe and sound....a month later. So I am on spring break right now and this was the most convenient time to have them delivered, but WWC was completely fine with it which was nice. I will note that the acro frag came in on a naaaasty plug with bubble algae all over so i went ahead and clipped it from the frag and now it seems to be adjusting to its new home. Curiously enough the AOIS grew an extra 2 polyps and the the oxides had at least 6 polyps so I kinda made out like a bandit by waiting.
So now I have a metric ton of zoas to sort through. Which is nice because I like zoas and I know they will succeed in my system.
Trying to make some side cash:
So I made this cute little frag pack of 7 or 8 frags that I would like to ship out at some point this week. I think I may have set the initial price to high so I'll probably lower it for hump day bump day. I would normally just take these to my LFS, but they just brought in some 250 different frags so they told me to comeback in a couple of weeks. Its fine they gotta run their business and I'm cool with it.
Future Notes and Ramblings:
So looking towards the future I would like to add a sixline wrasse to the frag tank. I know I know "its a terror, it'll attack the other fish" look. its in gonna be in the frag tank. The only reason he would be in the main display is by some act of God or a really good jump by the fish. he will live the frag tank take any pests out and at the same time feed my coral with his left overs. My guy at the LFS says he should have 1 of 2 in this weeks order, but he was not 100%, getting one is not the problem is the point. Its going to happen. Maybe. Unless I change my mind at keep a fishless system. But I have noticed my corals do better with fish in the system so its going to happen. maybe.
I would also like to at least reconsider rescaping the main display so i can make some room for my personal collection, but I still think that one needs some time to marinate in the brain before bringing it out again.
I also saw a super cute leopard wrasse at the LFS, and I was 100% going to buy it, but it wasn't eating in the store so I passed. i have no real interest in adding another fish to the system but, if something caught my eye, you never know.
I have also started dosing Iodine into my system. My Softies have really perked up with the additional Iodine so it is probably going to stay as part of the dosing regiment until I see a reason to discontinue.
Alright I think that's a good place to wrap up this update here are some other pics of the reef tank comments, questions and concerns are always welcome.
Reef Tank Update #19 No I Didn't Die
FTS
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
150W Eheim Jager
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
*None*
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.5
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .35
No3: 20
So I guess it has been a while since my last update. In all honesty nothing really extreme happened to the reef tank; minus the moving of frags from the frag tank to the main display and back again whilst preforming a 7 day black out.
The Potential for Greatness:
So yea there was a good 2 week period where I was contemplating a complete rescape of the 40 breeder. The end goal of a rescape would be to create more space for my oldest passion, zoas and to create a more dynamic aquascape to help increase the flow across the aquarium. I had drawn out a number of scapes that would allow me create two arches which would become fabulous zoa gardens. In fact I even went to one of my LFS just to play with the CaribSea LifeRock shapes they carry. However even when I was working with the rock I could never quite get the scape the way I liked. I ultimately scrapped the idea of a rescape bought a box of salt and left defeated. I also ordered some 10 pounds of reef rock rubble out of pure stupidity and the idea of creating an arch with the rubble for a zoa garden, that idea quickly died as well, so now I have turned my eyes to improving other things in my life and allow the idea of rescape continue to marinate in my head until another time or perhaps another tank.
WWC Auctions and Livesale:
So once in a blue moon I will traverse the WWC ebay page place a couple of bids and forget only to get an email later saying my bid has been beaten or I lost the auction out right. I just assumed that in order to win any of these things you have to be there right up to the last moment to win. Turns out that's not always true. I won two whole frags and at first was like "sweet got me some sweet frags for cheap", but then "oh crap, I just bought 2 frags and now I gotta pay for the shipping which costs more than the frags I bought combined". Spoke with the team at WWC bought nice looking montipora stellata off the sight and managed to get the cheaper shipping from the website over the ebay shipping. On the whole I was kinda dissapointed by the frags end over especially the stellata. These frags were on .5" plugs and 2 of the 3 didn't even cover the entire plug. The stellata was literally like 25% of the plug itself. However I just chalked it up to over expectations on my part. The frags are still doing great and have really started to grow some nearly have double in size.
WWC also was holding their Tax Return Livesale one weekend in February and normally I wouldn't have participated, just because WWC livesales are always packed to brim and its almost impossible to secure frags. However this livesale wasn't to bad the corals were fairly priced and the people were fun to hang with for a couple of days while my family was away. I may have even found my long lost brother @Pyromofyr which is an added bonus. I mostly was interested in grabbing some AOIs and maybe one or two more items on the wish list, but I think ultimately I had a good sale.
Six Frags were won by yours truly. In all honesty I could have won more, but I think I had everything that I wanted and I was thinking ahead of other needs like food, water, clothes you know ... the essentials.
I was very pleased with my haul and then I learned that WWC had a rewards point system. So I Figured I would take a look and see how many (or few) points I had accrued over my lifetime with WWC, a whopping 550. So I immediately converted those suckers into a $50 gift card and snagged a random zoa pack.
All the corals arrived safe and sound....a month later. So I am on spring break right now and this was the most convenient time to have them delivered, but WWC was completely fine with it which was nice. I will note that the acro frag came in on a naaaasty plug with bubble algae all over so i went ahead and clipped it from the frag and now it seems to be adjusting to its new home. Curiously enough the AOIS grew an extra 2 polyps and the the oxides had at least 6 polyps so I kinda made out like a bandit by waiting.
So now I have a metric ton of zoas to sort through. Which is nice because I like zoas and I know they will succeed in my system.
Trying to make some side cash:
So I made this cute little frag pack of 7 or 8 frags that I would like to ship out at some point this week. I think I may have set the initial price to high so I'll probably lower it for hump day bump day. I would normally just take these to my LFS, but they just brought in some 250 different frags so they told me to comeback in a couple of weeks. Its fine they gotta run their business and I'm cool with it.
Future Notes and Ramblings:
So looking towards the future I would like to add a sixline wrasse to the frag tank. I know I know "its a terror, it'll attack the other fish" look. its in gonna be in the frag tank. The only reason he would be in the main display is by some act of God or a really good jump by the fish. he will live the frag tank take any pests out and at the same time feed my coral with his left overs. My guy at the LFS says he should have 1 of 2 in this weeks order, but he was not 100%, getting one is not the problem is the point. Its going to happen. Maybe. Unless I change my mind at keep a fishless system. But I have noticed my corals do better with fish in the system so its going to happen. maybe.
I would also like to at least reconsider rescaping the main display so i can make some room for my personal collection, but I still think that one needs some time to marinate in the brain before bringing it out again.
I also saw a super cute leopard wrasse at the LFS, and I was 100% going to buy it, but it wasn't eating in the store so I passed. i have no real interest in adding another fish to the system but, if something caught my eye, you never know.
I have also started dosing Iodine into my system. My Softies have really perked up with the additional Iodine so it is probably going to stay as part of the dosing regiment until I see a reason to discontinue.
Alright I think that's a good place to wrap up this update here are some other pics of the reef tank comments, questions and concerns are always welcome.
Dude, I love this setup, it is absolutely gorgeous. I wanted to tell you, absolutely go for the six line if you're wanting one. I finally had time to do my extremely complex 2-months-of-planning nuclear strike on my planaria infestation (you know, since my army of wrasse did absolutely nothing to reduce their numbers.), and during, I was unable to recover and remove my coris, green, melanurus, and six line, so I assumed I had lost them. About halfway through the chemical onslaught of Pimafix and flatworm toxin, my melanurus showed up looking drunk. Having learned from last time, I already had a standby tank that I was housing my frags in for just such an emergency, and in she went. Took her a few minutes but she did fully recover. Shortly after, same story with the green wrasse. But apparently, the coris and sixline were doomed and nowhere to be found, since they had buried themselvesin the sand bed. Fast forward 3 days to lights on and GAC-a-palooza, and theres my little yellow guy, happy as can be. Found the sixline in the overflow poking his beak through the surface at me for food shortly after. Point is, all 4 of those wrasse, and even a blue devil, have been cohabitating in my 95 gallon mixed for several months now, and they are hands down my absolute favorite, yet most unexpectedly, livestock I've ever housed together. And the six line is the star of the show, she CRAVES attention. Of course, I say all this and you end up getting Queen B**** of ****** mountain, lol.Reef Tank Update #19 No I Didn't Die
FTS
Tank Specs:
40 Breeder
2x AI Prime HD
Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer
Tunze ATO
ApexEL
150W Eheim Jager
Apex DOS
Current Stocking 40 Breeder:
2x Occ. Clownfish - formally named "Mama Clown" and "Male Clown"
Royal Gramma - "Purple Guy"
Yellow Not-so-coris Wrasse - "Yellow Guy"
Mcoskers Flasher Wrasse - "The Red Guy"
Bangaii Cardinal - "Stripes"
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby - "The White Guy"
Longnose Hawkfish - "Lance"
Current Stocking 20 Long Frag Tank:
*None*
Latest Testing Results:
Salinity: 1.026
Ph: ~8
Alk: 9.5
Calc: 447
Mag: 1470
Phos: .35
No3: 20
So I guess it has been a while since my last update. In all honesty nothing really extreme happened to the reef tank; minus the moving of frags from the frag tank to the main display and back again whilst preforming a 7 day black out.
The Potential for Greatness:
So yea there was a good 2 week period where I was contemplating a complete rescape of the 40 breeder. The end goal of a rescape would be to create more space for my oldest passion, zoas and to create a more dynamic aquascape to help increase the flow across the aquarium. I had drawn out a number of scapes that would allow me create two arches which would become fabulous zoa gardens. In fact I even went to one of my LFS just to play with the CaribSea LifeRock shapes they carry. However even when I was working with the rock I could never quite get the scape the way I liked. I ultimately scrapped the idea of a rescape bought a box of salt and left defeated. I also ordered some 10 pounds of reef rock rubble out of pure stupidity and the idea of creating an arch with the rubble for a zoa garden, that idea quickly died as well, so now I have turned my eyes to improving other things in my life and allow the idea of rescape continue to marinate in my head until another time or perhaps another tank.
WWC Auctions and Livesale:
So once in a blue moon I will traverse the WWC ebay page place a couple of bids and forget only to get an email later saying my bid has been beaten or I lost the auction out right. I just assumed that in order to win any of these things you have to be there right up to the last moment to win. Turns out that's not always true. I won two whole frags and at first was like "sweet got me some sweet frags for cheap", but then "oh crap, I just bought 2 frags and now I gotta pay for the shipping which costs more than the frags I bought combined". Spoke with the team at WWC bought nice looking montipora stellata off the sight and managed to get the cheaper shipping from the website over the ebay shipping. On the whole I was kinda dissapointed by the frags end over especially the stellata. These frags were on .5" plugs and 2 of the 3 didn't even cover the entire plug. The stellata was literally like 25% of the plug itself. However I just chalked it up to over expectations on my part. The frags are still doing great and have really started to grow some nearly have double in size.
WWC also was holding their Tax Return Livesale one weekend in February and normally I wouldn't have participated, just because WWC livesales are always packed to brim and its almost impossible to secure frags. However this livesale wasn't to bad the corals were fairly priced and the people were fun to hang with for a couple of days while my family was away. I may have even found my long lost brother @Pyromofyr which is an added bonus. I mostly was interested in grabbing some AOIs and maybe one or two more items on the wish list, but I think ultimately I had a good sale.
Six Frags were won by yours truly. In all honesty I could have won more, but I think I had everything that I wanted and I was thinking ahead of other needs like food, water, clothes you know ... the essentials.
I was very pleased with my haul and then I learned that WWC had a rewards point system. So I Figured I would take a look and see how many (or few) points I had accrued over my lifetime with WWC, a whopping 550. So I immediately converted those suckers into a $50 gift card and snagged a random zoa pack.
All the corals arrived safe and sound....a month later. So I am on spring break right now and this was the most convenient time to have them delivered, but WWC was completely fine with it which was nice. I will note that the acro frag came in on a naaaasty plug with bubble algae all over so i went ahead and clipped it from the frag and now it seems to be adjusting to its new home. Curiously enough the AOIS grew an extra 2 polyps and the the oxides had at least 6 polyps so I kinda made out like a bandit by waiting.
So now I have a metric ton of zoas to sort through. Which is nice because I like zoas and I know they will succeed in my system.
Trying to make some side cash:
So I made this cute little frag pack of 7 or 8 frags that I would like to ship out at some point this week. I think I may have set the initial price to high so I'll probably lower it for hump day bump day. I would normally just take these to my LFS, but they just brought in some 250 different frags so they told me to comeback in a couple of weeks. Its fine they gotta run their business and I'm cool with it.
Future Notes and Ramblings:
So looking towards the future I would like to add a sixline wrasse to the frag tank. I know I know "its a terror, it'll attack the other fish" look. its in gonna be in the frag tank. The only reason he would be in the main display is by some act of God or a really good jump by the fish. he will live the frag tank take any pests out and at the same time feed my coral with his left overs. My guy at the LFS says he should have 1 of 2 in this weeks order, but he was not 100%, getting one is not the problem is the point. Its going to happen. Maybe. Unless I change my mind at keep a fishless system. But I have noticed my corals do better with fish in the system so its going to happen. maybe.
I would also like to at least reconsider rescaping the main display so i can make some room for my personal collection, but I still think that one needs some time to marinate in the brain before bringing it out again.
I also saw a super cute leopard wrasse at the LFS, and I was 100% going to buy it, but it wasn't eating in the store so I passed. i have no real interest in adding another fish to the system but, if something caught my eye, you never know.
I have also started dosing Iodine into my system. My Softies have really perked up with the additional Iodine so it is probably going to stay as part of the dosing regiment until I see a reason to discontinue.
Alright I think that's a good place to wrap up this update here are some other pics of the reef tank comments, questions and concerns are always welcome.
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