Wesley's 40 Breeder Sumpless

[Wesley42079]

I received a couple chalice frags the other day. I am really happy in building up my chalice collection.

These pictures were taken yesterday, right before I placed them in the main display tank.

Thanks Fab1971 for the first 3 chalices.


Cornbred Trash Mummy Eye

I love how bright green the base is with contrasting orange eyes/mouths. I also have the Oregon Mummy Eye and will try and compare these two chalices side-by-side in a few months.

TEC Watermelon

I am so happy that I finally got a frag of this chalice. I can't wait for it to grow into a mini colony and for the colors to pop.

OG Mummy Eye

Jaydas Watermelon

Miami Hurricane

 

[Clearwater]

That color on that tec watermelon is unreal. Can't wait to see a colony shot after grow out. Nice pieces

 

[Wesley42079]

Yes, I can't wait to see how the TEC Watermelon looks in a few months.

I will definetly take progression pictures.

That color on that tec watermelon is unreal. Can't wait to see a colony shot after grow out. Nice pieces

 

[Wesley42079]

New update on corals I've purchased in the past week.



Thanks Blue Water Tropicals for this beautiful Rainbow Welso

White LED's

Blue LED's

Neptune Aquatics Orange Acan (left) & 2 head Blasto from Blue Water Tropicals

2 polyp Utter Chaos (left) and 2 polyp My Clementines (right) [408reefer]

2 polyp Utter Chaos (left) [BluRocket3] & 1 polyp JF Bloodshot (right) [Wetdreads]

 

[Wesley42079]

Is the macroalgae gone?

Yes, I had a Yellow Tang that ate all my green hair algae and feasted on the macro you gave me.

It sucks, because a few pieces started to fire up with the bright red coloration.

 

[buddythelion]

Is the macroalgae gone?

 

[Tankguy001]

Very nice Wesley. Im up in Millbrae and Im considering bringing my 40b out of storage. You've picked up some great pieces

 

[Singlefin]

That orange acan is sick. Very nice.

 

[Wesley42079]

Very nice Wesley. Im up in Millbrae and Im considering bringing my 40b out of storage. You've picked up some great pieces

Tankguy001, bring out the 40B and start a tank build. We would all love to see the progression.

Most of the corals I got fom local reefers or fish stores in the Bay Area.

That orange acan is sick. Very nice.

Yes I picked that orange acan from Neptune Aquatics (Milpitas, CA).

It's a single polyp, but it's HUGE.

 

[Wesley42079]

Greetings my fellow reefers. My son, Jordan, and I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

Here is a partial FTS.

 

[Wesley42079]

I visited a LFS in Union City (Baja Reef) this evening.

I heard that they were carrying the Limbaughi Chromis and wanted to cherry pick a few. As I stepped into the store, I saw multiple tanks filled with different sizes of this little jewel called the Limbaughi Chromis.

Here is the smaller of the two I purchased.

And here is the larger Big Poppa Pump (not his name)

As I made my way through the second half of the store, I walked up and down the row of coral filled fish tanks. To my surprise they were selling the Sun corals at a very attractive price. Last week I was about to drop a Benjamin on a few polyps of the Dendro, but contained myself.

Here is a picture of the mini colony before adding it into my DT @ 8:31pm.

Here is another picture taken around 10:00pm. All polyps are out and happy searching for food. I thought it would take a few days before any of the polyps opened up.

And here is a nice prism favia

 

[Clearwater]

Nice colony of sun corals. A beauty.

 

[mcarroll]

It's like a coral parade!

Love that tank size...got a 50 breeder (but with a sump) myself. Also love that you chose to go sumpless! (Also read where you mentioned your past tank crash...sorry to read about that! No repeats!! My fingers are crossed.)

Just a couple of thoughts, a few questions...

FWIW, while you've created a great collection of coral (I mean "WOW" great!! :bigsmile: ), that's a lotta, lotta, lotta corals if you plan to grow many of them out in that tank. :neutral:

You're re-rockscaping is a good thought IMO. Consider removing about half your rock (or more!) to give more room for corals to grow out.

For an example, I scaled down to prolly around 9 pounds of rock from about 40 when I switched from my 38g to my 50g. Basically four chunks of softball- to volleyball-sized rock "scattered" on the bottom glass of the tank with corals occupying as much as 70-80% of the available water-space above and to the sides. Plates and branches everywhere!! > Only a total of nine stony corals. (I do very few or no fish, but massive colonies. YMMV.) Also consider not having many more fish than you already have...while removing rock will increase water volume and create swimming room, it's still a very small tank.

Space is not going to be the tank's first challenge though - have you considered a dosing strategy? (You may have and I just haven't run into any mention yet. Lemme know how it's going if so.) With that many stony corals in that small a volume you're going to really want a quality doser and probably sooner than later is better for all parties. Try to get into a daily dosing habit in the mean time.

Whether you DIY or buy an assembled product, a doser that can delivery very consistent, very small doses will be crucial once your corals attain a decent size. In general, any type of peristaltic pump should make a good choice, and your APEX's excellent timers give you an easy DIY path if you want.

I would also consider adding this kalk doser to your ATO as soon as it makes sense, which may already be the case. (I love my 5074, BTW. There are other makes of kalk dispenser that have a similar idea...this is just the simplest and my favorite. ) What are you using for ATO, btw?

How has your experience been so far with the canister with your relatively low (but growing) bioload?

Best of luck!

-Matt

The Reefkeeper's Maxim: "Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank."

 

[Wesley42079]

Mcarroll, thanks for stopping by and visiting my build thread.

I especially appreciate your recommendations on the SPS corals and making enough space.

Sadly, I had a ALK swing a few weeks ago and decimated my SPS frags.

As much as I want to keep a mixed reef, I think I will keep it easyand just keep it to LPS, softies and chalices.

I love how SPS branch out and grow, but the husbandry is very delicate.

For ATO, I do it manually. Every 2-3 days I add about 16 oz of RO water. There is a specific line on my tank that I watch for. If the water dips below the line, then I add RO until the line is met.

As for the Fluval canister, it is a pain to remove any detritus and water left inside. Also, I have it sitting inside of a 10 gallon empty aquarium just in case it overflows.

All in all, my low tech setup has been great. The only items using electricity are:

(1) Kessil a350
(2) Tunze mp10 ES
(1) Heater
(1) Fluval

And periodically I will turn on the skimmer.

 

[buddythelion]

Mcarroll, thanks for stopping by and visiting my build thread.

I especially appreciate your recommendations on the SPS corals and making enough space.

Sadly, I had a ALK swing a few weeks ago and decimated my SPS frags.

As much as I want to keep a mixed reef, I think I will keep it easyand just keep it to LPS, softies and chalices.

I love how SPS branch out and grow, but the husbandry is very delicate.

Sad to hear man.

What do you think caused the swing? Haven't seen you in a long time btw! The guys always tell me what your latest pick ups are though.

 

[Wesley42079]

Darwin, there was a 3-4 week period when I didn't check my levels or do any water changes. I normally do weekly water changes. But other than that, my levels have always been on point.

I will be passing by Neptune's today to get some saltwater and pickup a frag from Jimmy.

I regularly pass by Neptune's during the weekdays on my way home from work. It's hard to pass by on the weekends, since I am so busy with my newborn daughter.

I saw a pic or two that Kessil posted on FB. Your tank sure is filling up and looking great.

 

[revhtree]

Great additions!

 

[mcarroll]

Mcarroll, thanks for stopping by and visiting my build thread.

I especially appreciate your recommendations on the SPS corals and making enough space.

Sadly, I had a ALK swing a few weeks ago and decimated my SPS frags.

Ack! I was too late! Sooooo sorry! This is a predictable thing...darn it.

Since someone asked, in a nutshell here's what happened:

There's barely any alkalinity in seawater to begin with (compared with lots of calcium and lots and lots of magnesium). As soon as your stony frags settled in and began growing they used up all the alk that can be considered "extra" which brings alkalinity down to 2.5 meq/L or lower. Once alkalinity is low like that, there's nothing to buffer acids generated naturally in the water - especially at night when CO2 concentrations naturally climb in most tanks. No buffering plus acids equals a pH crash. pH crash = tissue loss and often death.

Once you got 4 or 5 stony frags in the tank, I would have recommend testing as often as it practical - at least once a week - and dosing every time the tank is below normal (4.0 meq/L; 11 dKH or 200 ppm). Even if you're only testing weekly, you might need to be dosing daily....and I would recommend daily testing for about a week or so every time you add a new batch of corals because usage (hence, dosage) will change.
​

To help out getting a good start, I would really recommend you to start out with Brightwell Calcion and Alkalin8.3 for your dosing chems. They have the absolute best instructions for testing and dosing when you're starting out that I've seen....and it's hard to overestimate the importance of having a testing/dosing procedure that you are confident and comfortable with. They're a little expensive compared to common DIY chemicals, but you shouldn't really have to dose much at first anyway so no big deal. Once dosing becomes substantial you can confidently switch to dosing whatever chem's suit you and your budget. I would also recommend adding kalkwasser (limewater) dosing at this point to cut dosing down and maybe put off teh chem switch, if any, a bit longer. (I used Brightwell for probably a year or two....first liquids, then powders. I use baking soda and driveway salt now...which I would not recommend for anyone starting out.)

As much as I want to keep a mixed reef, I think I will keep it easyand just keep it to LPS, softies and chalices.

I love how SPS branch out and grow, but the husbandry is very delicate.

With a good approach, and smart selection of corals there's nothing to make keeping SPS harder than any other stony coral, but I completely understand if you wanna stay away. (But do come back soon!)

I think stonies easier than zoa's, personally.

For ATO, I do it manually. Every 2-3 days I add about 16 oz of RO water. There is a specific line on my tank that I watch for. If the water dips below the line, then I add RO until the line is met.

As for the Fluval canister, it is a pain to remove any detritus and water left inside. Also, I have it sitting inside of a 10 gallon empty aquarium just in case it overflows.

All in all, my low tech setup has been great. The only items using electricity are:

(1) Kessil a350
(2) Tunze mp10 ES
(1) Heater
(1) Fluval

And periodically I will turn on the skimmer.

Stability is the #1 thing you want to provide for stony corals...maybe particularly so for SPS. Even for the corals you still want to maintain I would try to adopt as many of the following as you can:

ATO: Required. Stabilizes salinity. At the very least try to top up manually every day.
Daily Dosing: Required. Stabilizes alkalinity which directly affects a number of things, not least of which is pH. Low alk promotes pH swings...as does the respiration period. As I mentioned earlier I would highly recommend a peristaltic pump-based doser when you can swing the bill for it. (If money is holding you back, DIY is not a bad option as you already have a good controller. PM me or check out the DIY forum for lots of good ideas.)
Skimmer: Depending on bioload, OK to run part time....I'd run it opposite of your lighting cycle on its own timer to promote gas exchange during the respiration period (night) when corals are giving off CO2. Mostly a safeguard. Just curious, what skimmer are you running now?
Canister Ditch it ASAP. Start by removing 25-30% of any biomedia every few days or once a week until it's gone, then sell it on craigslist or move it to a fish-only or freshwater tank. If you were depending on it to any degree for flow, make sure you do something to make up for it (new pump, rearrange existing pumps, whatever). If you do keep it, make it the least-efficient mechanical filter that you can by removing most/all the media and trays and use it only for flow and as a part-time carbon/chem reactor. Unless you're going to max out your bioload, necessitating chem filtration, personally I'd just ditch it.​

Again, sooooo sorry about this happening.... (Not quite as bad for the corals, but sorta been there myself.)

Best of luck!

-Matt

 

[Wesley42079]

On 1/11/13 I visited Aqua Exotic (Belmont, CA) during my lunch break. I passed by a few weeks ago on my way to a bridal fair Cookware presentation. In one of the aquariums were 5-6 colony's of Dendro's. I wanted to pickup a few heads, but I didn't want it to sit in my car for a few hours in the cold weather. As I walk looking at each aquarium to see what goodies they had, I noticed one huge Dendro colony (probably 16+ heads) left and one small colony of 6 heads.

I spoke to Matt (owner of the lfs and a great guy) for a few minutes and decided to get a small colony of 2 adult and 2 small baby heads. I had to jump on this opportunity since I haven't seen any lfs selling Dendro's for a long time.

Well, time for some pictures. Enjoy!


This is how the Dendo colony looked about 1 hour after I placed it into my aquarium.

After a few hours of getting used to its new home, both adult and baby heads opened up.

These Dendro's are no joke. The tentacles and color are truly magnificent. I am truly happy in adding this beautiful coral to my glass box of water.

Here is a group shot of the Sun Polyps and Dendro's. These corals definetly add more life and color to my aquarium.

 

[Wesley42079]

After my tank crashed in December 2011 and took all my chalices (specifically the My Miami and BCP Flamethrower), I have been able to get another beautiful frag of the My Miami.

Welcome home!

By the way, this is a nice four eye colony I picked up from a local reefer.

Here is a picture of the colony from the seller, Leicalux. (This photo was taken by Leicalux and not by me).