Trey's SPS Dream Waterbox 180.5

Trey · Jan 14, 2021

So it appears that my 10 trochus snails have turned into 100

. Pardon the messy reflection but check it out! Oh and it also seems that the coralline algae is of a darker red variety I have not seen a lot of. Was hoping for that beautiful purple color most tanks have.. oh well.

Trey · Feb 2, 2021

Just a quick update on the coralline growth. It is a bizarre color, but growing quite nicely. Something to note, it is only populating on the rock, with a couple of small spots on the gyres, nothing on the glass or elsewhere.

I also added 3 tester corals on 1/31. All cheapies from an lfs. A tiny paletta pink tip, a mariculture tenuis frag, and a forest fire digi. We will see if I can keep them alive. Here’s a few crappy iphone shots

Trey · Feb 2, 2021

A few other updates!

I finally installed the trident paired with a dos and I must say it is doing an amazing job at keeping everything stable. Very very cool piece of equipment!

The fluctuation shown in the graphs is from calibrating the trident and does not reflect tank params.

I also made a small change to my lighting. I found that the standard 18” width of the aquaticlife hybrid fixture was not adequate to position the lights over the tank correctly. I could not find the 24” end plates and end caps in white, so I ended up installing the black ones and it actually doesn’t look half bad. I also changed the orientation of the radions to a front to back configuration. I’ll have to get a couple of pics of that on here later.

CrimsonTide · Feb 2, 2021

I like the build! I hope the new corals make it so you can really start you tank going! Have you added any other livestock than the Midas and the 2 clowns?

Trey · Feb 2, 2021

CrimsonTide said:
I like the build! I hope the new corals make it so you can really start you tank going! Have you added any other livestock than the Midas and the 2 clowns?

Good question, there should be a lot more fish editions, but it is a long story as to why I have not yet acquired them.

So the two baby clowns didn't make it, unfortunately. They were getting sucked into the overflow, and I was subsequently sucking them out just about every single day. The stress proved to be fatal. The Midas (Sir Midas, King Lenny the Blenny of Kravitz) is doing fantastic however. I have also added a royal gramma, a melanurus wrasse, and an azure damsel. Right now those fantastic four make up my fish livestock.

I have been awaiting a more sizable pair of occelaris for a bit now, as well as a mccoskers flasher wrasse. They should *hopefully* be on their way soon, as well as a tail spot blenny, and perhaps an as yet to be determined fairy wrasse.

After that was supposed to be a quartet of tangs. The original plan was yellow eye kole, yellow, purple, and achilles. With the recent Hawaii ban, it looks like I may be changing that list to exclude the achilles and yellow, and sub in a powder blue... but we shall see.

Later on down the line, once i figure out feeding and nutrients (because, honestly corals matter more than fish

) I may entertain some anthias, and a few other species.

Thanks for asking, and for the kind words.

CrimsonTide · Feb 2, 2021

Trey said:
Good question, there should be a lot more fish editions, but it is a long story as to why I have not yet acquired them.

So the two baby clowns didn't make it, unfortunately. They were getting sucked into the overflow, and I was subsequently sucking them out just about every single day. The stress proved to be fatal. The Midas (Sir Midas, King Lenny the Blenny of Kravitz) is doing fantastic however. I have also added a royal gramma, a melanurus wrasse, and an azure damsel. Right now those fantastic four make up my fish livestock.

I have been awaiting a more sizable pair of occelaris for a bit now, as well as a mccoskers flasher wrasse. They should *hopefully* be on their way soon, as well as a tail spot blenny, and perhaps an as yet to be determined fairy wrasse.

After that was supposed to be a quartet of tangs. The original plan was yellow eye kole, yellow, purple, and achilles. With the recent Hawaii ban, it looks like I may be changing that list to exclude the achilles and yellow, and sub in a powder blue... but we shall see.

Later on down the line, once i figure out feeding and nutrients (because, honestly corals matter more than fish ) I may entertain some anthias, and a few other species.

Thanks for asking, and for the kind words.

Well sorry the little dudes didn't make it. If you had a smaller tank to grow then out in probably would have been best. But also like you said they were super tiny and you probably have a lot of flow with no substrate. Midas Blenny's are really cool and have great color. With the Hawaii Ban unless you had the fish ordered you are in for an extreme expense for a fish that was $70 bucks last month at your LFS. The flasher wrasse will look really cool. If you're interested in fairy wrasse the Naoko Fairy Wrasse have some really crazy colors. Goodluck and let us know when you add more coral and fish!

Trey · Feb 3, 2021

Here’s my melanurus wrasse. Taking photos of fish is not easy ‍Smh

JCM · Feb 12, 2021

Nice build! But are you're keeping a Melanurus without sand?

Trey · Feb 12, 2021

Mccool said:
Nice build! But are you're keeping a Melanurus without sand?

Thanks man. He has his very own sandbox behind the rock work. It’s a Pyrex loaf baking dish filled with a couple inches of special grade.

JCM · Feb 12, 2021

Trey said:
Thanks man. He has his very own sandbox behind the rock work. It’s a Pyrex loaf baking dish filled with a couple inches of special grade.

Very cool. Love the aquascape too

Trey · Mar 2, 2021

I had some issues with a some kind of weird macro algea, but it seems to have diminished with the help of a little manual removal.

Although I’m not entirely sure what it is, or where it came from, the best guess I have is something similar to chondria. I haven’t been able to find anything exactly matching this, but an increase in light intensity and flow seemed to help eradicate it.

The red turf algea on the original 10 trochus I received ( and furiously scraped) seems to have returned to their shells and subsequently spread to the rocks to some degree. I am in the process of trying to procure a Mexican turbo or two to help out with this.

The coralline growth has continued to increase and there now seems to be some other colors/species colonizing. The typical purple has popped up on the pumps and some rock, as well as a nice spotty blue color and some other light green/ yellow intermixed.

I will say I have been SO lucky to have yet (knock on wood) experienced any noticeable dinoflagellates, diatoms (odd), hair algea, or crazy bacterial blooms. I want to attribute this to firstly; the process I implemented of no light, then low light with a short photo period before moving to the planned photoperiod and lighting schedule, and secondly the addition of Microbacter xlm, Microbacter 7, ARC pink and purple, and algae barn phyto and pods.

I have been in a battle trying to keep phosphates up as well.. despite that, most of the tester corals have been doing great. I fought some red bugs and had to dip in Bayer a couple of days in a row, but it seems I have won!

Besides a rainbow monti, who is doing horribly for some reason. I have experienced an increase in growth and/or color in the first corals introduced..
the forest fire/ bubblegum monti has exhibited growth, but it’s flesh has paled to a white, while the polyps have become a more vibrant orange with one or two green ones:
Feb 1

Mar

The Paletta pink tip micro frag has almost encrusted the frag plug, and is reaching several edges.
Feb 1

Mar 2

The no name super fuzzy blue green awesome acro I picked up that was absolutely infested with red bugs is doing super well! The polyps have transitioned from a brown color to a green/orange color and the tips are now glowing! If anyone can ID this I’d appreciate it.
Feb 4- showing red bug infestation

Feb 11- red bug “free”

Mar 2

The “bonsai” type acro I added responded rather poorly to the Bayer dip and died back on the edges a bit, and lost color. The edges actually grew algea... it seems to have recovered ok!
Feb 9

Mar 2

The “wild” tenuis frag remains largely unchanged. A couple of the polyps seem to be gaining the slightest amount of color.. here’s an updated shot:

I also added a frag of ORA red planet, and although it didn’t look fantastic when I bought it, it has admittedly browned out significantly..
Feb 9

Mar 2

I also added a lepto, maybe a JF lethal, I placed it mostly in a cave under an overhang and it seems to be happy
Feb 9

Mar 2

Besides those guys, I picked up a few frags from @BoomCorals, who is amazing to work with btw. A couple of corals came in, in rougher shape than I’d imagined, but I’ve never ordered online so it’s probably par for the course. The packing job was superb, and the sizes were fantastic! They came in Wednesday Feb 24 and are all doing well so far! I would definitely recommend this seller, if for nothing else than his customer service and communication. Here’s a quick pic of what I got:
Feb 24