WarEagle88's Evo 13.5

[WarEaglesReef]

Been SUPER busy the last couple of weeks and haven't had time to look on r2r. I can on and went straight to your thread... was blown away by how quickly you tank has progressed over the past month. Incredible.

Thanks so much!! What a lovely compliment. Really enjoying this new hobby, so I'm glad to hear others think my tank looks as awesome as I think it does.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Those are really cool Coral pieces what type are they.

Most people still call them acan lords, but they were reclassified last year as micromussa rather than acanthastrea last year. So if you wanna be technical, they're micro lords, but not a whole lot of people are calling them that. I'd say 99% of the people I've encountered are still calling them acans. Old habits die hard. Haha.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Now that everything's settled in, here's some new full tank shots!!

 

[brett_schn]

Now that everything's settled in, here's some new full tank shots!!

That's such a good looking tank. The corals and everything make it look [emoji817]%

 

[reef-rc]

Very nice progress. Those xenia will surely fill that back wall in no time.

Not sure if you plan to do this...I am looking to eventually graft both the orange, green, purple and purple rim montipora. I've seen interesting collate of this and would thing it's possible given just a bit of effort once they establish.

btw - i think you surpassed the biota livestock limit . your tank is not null and void ;Facepalm

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking great!

 

[WarEaglesReef]

That's such a good looking tank. The corals and everything make it look [emoji817]%

Thanks man!

Very nice progress. Those xenia will surely fill that back wall in no time.

Not sure if you plan to do this...I am looking to eventually graft both the orange, green, purple and purple rim montipora. I've seen interesting collate of this and would thing it's possible given just a bit of effort once they establish.

btw - i think you surpassed the biota livestock limit . your tank is not null and void ;Facepalm

Yeah, I'm ok with the xenia if it decides to creep onto the back wall. I put it up there because I knew it would overtake any rock I put it on, so at least on the wall it will be easy to razor blade off should I want to remove some. It's started "shedding" though. Found a piece floating around my tank last week. Glued it to a spare frag plug I had...now I just need to find someone local to give it to. Currently my urchin is parading around with it as a hat.

Haha...I'm most definitely past Biota's livestock recommendations. It's clear why they have those though. My tank absolutely requires a ton more effort and maintenance than their simple 1 gallon/week water change. Pretty sure everything in my tank would be dead if I was that lax about it.

Looking great!

Thanks!!

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Found my old filter gels from college and had a ton of fun mixing various gels with the AI PrimeHD color settings this evening. Got some great photos with royal blue at about 85% and a 3401 orange filter gel. Colors are crazy electric!!

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Having a bit of a diatom bloom in my sand today which is odd. I'm wondering if maybe the Marine Pure spheres I added last weekend have some silicates in them that are being broken down or something. Lookin' a lil bit ugly today...hopefully it clears up soon!

 

[reef-rc]

I know this doesn't need to be asked but i'll ask anyway...are you keeping with your regular maintenance schedule?

 

[WarEaglesReef]

I know this doesn't need to be asked but i'll ask anyway...are you keeping with your regular maintenance schedule?

Yep! Testing all my levels and doing 20-30% water changes every 5 days. Phosphate's a bit higher than I'd like it to be. Replaced my GFO last week, so hopefully that starts to come down soon.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Hey WarEagle... I'm sure you've mentioned this before in your build but how do you have each chamber set up? I'm tinkering with mine right now and was just looking to get ideas.

 

[Maacc]

Intank basket arrived last night. It let me add 8 marinepure balls, chemipure blue and polyfilter with a regular filter all in the first chamber. I am working on installing an upflow algae scrubber in the second chamber this evening. I will keep you posted. I have another 8 balls in the bottom of the second chamber.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Hey WarEagle... I'm sure you've mentioned this before in your build but how do you have each chamber set up? I'm tinkering with mine right now and was just looking to get ideas.

I've got the skimmer running in the first chamber, with 10 Marine Pure spheres in the empty spot below.
In the second chamber I've got a DIY media basket made of egg crate with some Coralife fine filter pad running along the intake slots and another small piece on the slots that go to the return pump chamber. The media basket holds those in place and I take them out and clean them when I do water changes. I've got BRS's ROX 0.8 carbon and GFO in the media basket along with the little bag of Fluval's Biomax media (not sure I will need that much longer with the Marine Pure added). At some point I want to try to find a way to either make a new media basket that can go below the little lip in the middle chamber or remove that lip somehow so that I can sit the media lower down in the water where it gets stronger flow.
In the third chamber I've got a bag of Seachem Denitrate above the return pump where it gets minimal flow. It's taken a few weeks, but I'm definitely noticing it starting to help with nitrate removal a bit. That's also where the ATO sensor is sitting...had to move my heater into the main tank to make room for that.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Intank basket arrived last night. It let me add 8 marinepure balls, chemipure blue and polyfilter with a regular filter all in the first chamber. I am working on installing an upflow algae scrubber in the second chamber this evening. I will keep you posted. I have another 8 balls in the bottom of the second chamber.

Nice! Looking forward to hearing how it works out. Have you always been skimmerless, or did you remove the skimmer to make room for the new media basket?

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Tank plague!
Currently doing a peroxide test to find out if the red grossness I woke up to this morning is cyanobacteria or spirulina. Followed the instructions in this thread and I've got a few bits of it that I could scrape off sitting in a peroxide bath cookin'. Thankfully I only see it in two small spots in the tank currently, so I'm hoping to nip it in the bud before it gets totally out of control. Looking like perhaps I will be headed to the LFS for some Chemiclean this afternoon since it can treat both of those issues.

 

[reef-rc]

what's the size of this thing? curious if it's in a low flow area. definitely hate yucky slime

 

[WarEaglesReef]

what's the size of this thing? curious if it's in a low flow area. definitely hate yucky slime

It's growing on the skeleton portion of my struggling goniopora, and in one spot on my sand. Neither are low flow areas...maybe a total of 4 square inches between the two spots. But I see it slowly creepin' off the goni and onto my rock and I'll be having none of that. So far my peroxide test is leaning towards it being spirulina rather than cyano but it hasn't been the full two hours yet.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Peroxide test came back with a positive for spirulina. I went out and picked up an air stone and a box of chemiclean even though I'll attempt to see if I can naturally get rid of it before dosing the chemiclean in the tank. Came home and did a large water change and took the time to super deep clean the tank blowing all the detritus out of all the holes in my rock work and moving everything all around so I could siphon through every last bit of sand. (The nassarius snails are sufficiently ticked) I got pretty much all of the visible red snot removed and then plugged my air stone in and put it under my little powerhead to do a bit of makeshift bubble scrubbing to help pick up any of the super fine particles from all of the crud I stirred up so hopefully all of it goes up and through the skimmer and mechanical filtration rather than settling back into the sand. Got to observe an interesting mix of reactionary behavior from the corals to all the fine bubbles. Some of them are huge fans opening really wide to catch all the floating particles and others scrunch up in protest.

If the red snot returns, I'll remove my carbon and dose the chemiclean. Fingers crossed that it does not!

 

[reef-rc]

Ahh...man that sounds like a lot dirty work that is needed. I am sure it'll work out...hopefully without need for chemiclean.

Usually when I do water change, I make it a habit to blow the rock with squirts of water using a baster before I start siphoning the water from the tank to ensure I pick up as much of that debris as possible. I rest I leave it up to the filtration. This way at least there is little chance of dead spots long term.