The 57gal Rimless Reef -- My Build Thread!

[phytofish]

Update! Two new fish! After almost a month of trying to decide what I wanted next, I now have two new residents in the tank!
I wanted a melanurus wrasse for a long time until I found out about a close relative of the Melanurus wrasse, the Vrolik's Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysotaenia). I did some research and apparently they are very similarly mannered and they're similar shape and size but the Melanurus is just more well-known..
I am excited about this guy.
The other new edition is a hooded fairy wrasse. She's smaller but adds some nice color.
Hopefully I can get some better pictures in the days to come. I have the lights turned down for now

 

[phytofish]

The hooded fairy wrasse made it to Sunday night and died.. sad.. he just hid for those first 4 days in rocks where I could always see him, and then finally he started laying on his side, then he died and the hermits got to him.
The Vrolik’s wrasse hasn’t been seen since 30 minutes after I put him in the tank. They say this is normal so I’m not too worried about it. Especially because he ate some mysis right after I put him in.
So $100 later and my tank still appears to have the same livestock - grreeaattt

 

[phytofish]

The vrolik’s wrasse showed up about 30 minutes after I posted that on Tuesday and has come out to play everyday since! So apparently he has his own R2R account and saw that I was upset with him!
Got a handful of zoas frags from a friend today. They’re opening up and looking nice so far! I’ll post some pics..
Also my frogspawn has opened up to twice the size that it was when I bought it.



Just ordered Ca, Alk, Mag Red Sea test kits and the BRS Bulk Kalkwasser Starter Kit.
I plan on getting the 3 stable where they need to be and then dosing kalkwasser in my RODI water.

We have a local frag swap coming up in a couple weeks so hopefully there will be big updates soon with a lot more pictures !

 

[phytofish]

Diatoms.
And this picture doesn’t show the worst of it.

I got a sweet frogspawn piece though, 22 heads total. Then I fragged off 7 or 8 heads to trade for other corals.

Going to a coral trade on Saturday so I’ll have more to show after that.

Vrolik’s wrasse and the two clowns are doing great! I hope to get them a couple new tankmates within the next few weeks!
i’ve decided I want a tang. A smaller tang. I’m between a yellow eye kole and a squaretail bristletooth.
After that, i’m thinking a yellow coris wrasse, and lastly, an orchid dottyback.
This will give me a great diversity of fish sizes, colors, and a lot of movement

 

[phytofish]

New corals and a new tankmate!

 

[phytofish]

had a cyano outbreak. started spreading across the sand and then onto the rocks and grew over some zoas.. so I am currently in the middle of a 2-3 day blackout to try and kill this stuff.. prior to the blackout I did a 10% water change and tried to scrub off and siphon up as much of the cyano as i could.
I'm running my fuge light 24hr a day during the blackout to try to keep the pH from swinging.
hoping this will giving my chaeto a good head start too since it hasn't been growing well at all

 

[phytofish]

Would like some advice as to placement of birdsnests before i glue them on. These are my first two sps corals other than red monti caps..
Is this too much light for a birdsnest? they are getting medium to high flow right here too. Thanks!