The Journey Continues - Mike & Terry's 280g Reef Savvy

[Mike&Terry]

It's been a while since our last update. Moved corals around this weekend to make room for growth and placed a bunch of frags in permanent locations. Still needs work, but getting there. Some of the larger colonies are a bit peeved with us after face planting (yikes) in the sand bed - Hopefully, the bit of damage will help stimulate some new growth. Here's a video taken earlier tonight:

 

[crazyjay]

What rock work did you use?

 

[Mike&Terry]

What rock work did you use?

We used a mix of maricultured rock (Real Reef, Real Reef shelf rock, Walt Smith Reef Rock 2.0 and the bones of (3) bonsai structures from West Mariculture).

 

[Nick James]

Looks great! I think we have similar taste in fish! (I don't mean beer battered)

 

[Mike&Terry]

Looks great! I think we have similar taste in fish! (I don't mean beer battered)

"...beer battered", LOL!

We're pretty happy with the mix of fish and are getting close to being max'd out on additions, especially once the P. bellae, Terelabrus hogfish and the two Psuedojuloides get moved over to the display.

 

[justingraham]

It's been a while since our last update. Moved corals around this weekend to make room for growth and placed a bunch of frags in permanent locations. Still needs work, but getting there. Some of the larger colonies are a bit peeved with us after face planting (yikes) in the sand bed - Hopefully, the bit of damage will help stimulate some new growth. Here's a video taken earlier tonight:

Well I think my salfim tang is fat so that must make urs obese beautiful as usual

 

[Mike&Terry]

Well I think my salfim tang is fat so that must make urs obese beautiful as usual

The Desjardini ("Big Daddy") has been with us for 14 years (in captivity for 15) and is definitely not missing any meals. He has never been skinny, but has definitely put on some weight since we added the Copperband ("Sunny") trying to out-compete him for food. I think he's finally realizing that there's plenty to go around and has calmed down the past couple of days - either that, or he's too bloated to keep up the crazy binge-eating antics, LOL!

 

[Janci]

It's been a while since our last update. Moved corals around this weekend to make room for growth and placed a bunch of frags in permanent locations. Still needs work, but getting there. Some of the larger colonies are a bit peeved with us after face planting (yikes) in the sand bed - Hopefully, the bit of damage will help stimulate some new growth. Here's a video taken earlier tonight:

Wonderful update and nice corals and scape.
The fish look well fed and happy.
Would you mind sharing the name of the wrasse that appears in the beginning and is seen around 1:25min in the video?
Thanks and congratulation.

 

[Mike&Terry]

Wonderful update and nice corals and scape.
The fish look well fed and happy.
Would you mind sharing the name of the wrasse that appears in the beginning and is seen around 1:25min in the video?
Thanks and congratulation.

Thank You Janci! The wrasse is a terminal male Cirrhilabrus johnsoni (Johnson's fairy wrasse) and one of our favorites.

 

[prsnlty]

Hey guys I really love the new Aquascape! Everything looks beautiful as usual

 

[Mike&Terry]

Hey guys I really love the new Aquascape! Everything looks beautiful as usual

Thank You Jackie! It's funny, I was just going to move a couple of the larger, old colonies to make a bit more room for the growing frags, but one change led to another and another... And before I realized it, half the day was gone, LOL! ;Wacky

 

[prsnlty]

Hahaha, great things happen when you let the artist in you flow.... [emoji12]

 

[Xclusive Reef]

Mike & Terry great looking tank..I might have missed it but what are you dosing your tank and what are you feeding your corals? for people (myself) out there what you recommend to start off with? I see a lot of people use different things with corals, whats your opinion on:
Kalkwasser
2 part dosing
Calcium Reactors
Bio pellets
carbon / GFO reactors

 

[Mike&Terry]

Mike & Terry great looking tank..I might have missed it but what are you dosing your tank and what are you feeding your corals? for people (myself) out there what you recommend to start off with? I see a lot of people use different things with corals, whats your opinion on:
Kalkwasser
2 part dosing
Calcium Reactors
Bio pellets
carbon / GFO reactors

Thank You for the compliment nycluis718!

There are many ways to run a reef successfully. What works for one person, may not be the best approach for someone else. We try to keep things as simple as possible considering the number of fish and types of corals we keep. We make use of filter socks to remove excess nutrients, run 2 skimmers (SRO 6000sss, Deltec AP851) and do regular, weekly water changes.

Here's a pic of our Super Reef Octopus 6000sss

• Here is what we are running:
  GEO 618 calcium reactor (while lights are on)
  GEO kalk stirrer and dose via Litermeter 3 at night (to help keep pH stable)
  TLF 550 reactor with Rowaphos (GFO)
  TLF 550 reactor with activated carbon - we do not run it all the time, just on occasion when we want to polish the water.
  
• We are in the process of replacing our Santa Monica algae turf scrubber (it's undersized) with a Pax-Bellum A.R.I.D. to help export excess nutrients and hopefully eliminate the need for GFO (or at least reduce the amount significantly).
  
• The only dosing we do for corals on a regular basis is a strontium/molybdenum supplement.
• We do dose vibrant on a weekly basis; stability and Special Blend about every 3 months.
• Since our reef is heavily stocked with fish (who are fed quite well), we do not feel it necessary to feed our corals any special foods.
  .
• There is nothing wrong with dosing 2 part - we know many folks who are successful in this approach.
• We have never tried biopellet/carbon dosing - just have not felt the need as we have never had an issue with high nitrates.

Thanks again for the compliment and also for taking the time to post in our thread.

 

[Mike&Terry]

It has been a busy Father's Day weekend for Mike who single-handedly knocked a couple of projects off of our reef "To Do" list.

On Saturday, he replaced and tested the marine battery for our battery backup which runs our return pump and SRO 6000sss skimmer in the event of a power outage:




On Sunday, he tackled the Pax-Bellum A.R.I.D. C30 installation. We had originally planned to use a Pan World 40PX, but decided a direct feed from our chiller return (Pan World 150PS - 1100 gph) which also feeds our 60g frag tank made more sense.







We should also mention that we purchased the optional Ca Reactor Feed/Injection Assembly for the A.R.I.D. C30 which allows us to direct excess CO2 from our calcium reactor to the C30.


Now let the growing begin...

 

[tcarter1936]

It has been a busy Father's Day weekend for Mike who single-handedly knocked a couple of projects off of our reef "To Do" list.

On Saturday, he replaced and tested the marine battery for our battery backup which runs our return pump and SRO 6000sss skimmer in the event of a power outage:




On Sunday, he tackled the Pax-Bellum A.R.I.D. C30 installation. We had originally planned to use a Pan World 40PX, but decided a direct feed from our chiller return (Pan World 150PS - 1100 gph) which also feeds our 60g frag tank made more sense.







We should also mention that we purchased the optional Ca Reactor Feed/Injection Assembly for the A.R.I.D. C30 which allows us to direct excess CO2 from our calcium reactor to the C30.


Now let the growing begin...

That algae reactor makes my diy tlf 550 algae reactor look like a plastic cup with a light bulb lol.
No seriously though I've got reactor envy. that thing is bright[emoji41]

 

[Mike&Terry]

That algae reactor makes my diy tlf 550 algae reactor look like a plastic cup with a light bulb lol.
No seriously though I've got reactor envy. that thing is bright[emoji41]

The imagery your description provoked was hilarious! ;Playful Curiosity got the better of us, so we took a look at your DIY chaeto reactor thread - pretty slick and definitely not a plastic cup...

 

[Mike&Terry]

Look who's out and about..

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool! Looking forward to reading more on your experience with the pax bellum.

 

[revhtree]

What I love about your tank is the "vision" you guys have for it. You see what you want it to look like way before it gets there. It sure is getting there too! Very nice!