37 Gallon Reef Development

The female clown has not been shy about it and started hosting/being hosted this morning, the male doesn't show the same level of interest.

The rose is still on the top of my rock structure, but moved to the peak of the rockwork with its foot hidden in a crevice on the backside. Maybe I should call this nem Red Foreman with its foot so far up this rock's rear crevice!
 
Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. They now sleep in the anemone at night instead of wandering the surface of the water.

 
Small update on the anemone and a few new reef additions. The anemone seems to be content on the upper right part of my rock structure as it has not moved since the initial journey and has it's foot secured in the same spot.



Picked up a new purple with blue outlines maxima clam, it's rather small since it's aquacultured, but each day it opens up a bit further than the previous. I'vegot it down on the sand bed to adjust to my lights and eventually will move it up into the rock work.





Got a 2 head frag of dragon soul/aussie red prism favia, but the LFS that I have gotten a few frags from has an aiptasia issue and the vinegar I used to zap them upset the favia. Pictures in a few days after it has settled back in.
 
Very nice build. I have a question about your sump/plumbing:

IMG_20140323_155819_745_zpsab23545c.jpg


In this picture, what is the acrylic piece that is holding the vertical bulkhead for your drain/filter sock? Where did you get it, and how does it attach?
 
It's an Eshopps filter sock mount. It has a 90 degree bend with a feeder screws to keep it in place. I had it over the aquarium trim of the sump but the drain line bent too harshly, so I mounted it on my tallest baffle that separates the ATO reservoir from the rest of the sump.
 
So after a couple weeks of staying stationary, my anemone decided to make the descent to the sand bed. I ended up moving my blastos and a few other frags in the area to avoid catastrophe and decided to get a few pictures.





Enhance



Enhance...



Also picked up some softies from a local friend including astro turf and red mushrooms, captain america Palythoas, pink and gold Palythoas, and clementine Zoanthids.

 
I've been collecting a few more corals for the reef here recently, mostly Euphyllia or at least LPS in general. Some came from Gundo5000 here on the board after my last Wichita visit.

Also added a separate reactor to run ferric oxide for phosphate removal, after a friend, RandoReefer, brought over his Hanna phosphate checker and my reef read 0.07ppm

Captain America Palythoa in the foreground, Eagle Eye Zoanthids in the back



Growth shot of my tricolor Favites war coral



My bam bam Zoa colony is hovering around 35 polyps



Dragon soul Favia, recovering after a rather aggressive aiptasia eradication



OG bubble gum chalice



Gold maul Palythoa, around 15 polyps now



Bicolor frogspawn behind my first frogspawn, the new one is a darker purple with neon green tips, the original has a more mint feel to it.



Seafoam branching hammer adjusting to my LEDs, it will be moved up to the hammer garden shortly.





Last picture of my rogue anemone. It was stationary for around 3 weeks, then went on a little adventure which forced me to move frags daily out of its path. It seems to have settled again...in the exact same spot as before. Time will tell

 
Not a bad idea at all, I've not looked up their care information, but will make it a point to. I don't have many aiptasia as of right now, but had a spell of some very small ones coming in on frag plugs.
 
Decided my sand bed was getting a bit crowded, so I did some different coral placement and got a few shots in the process. I'll get a FTS after the lights kick on this afternoon.

ORA green toadstool


A couple new Acanthastrea lordhowensis from Austin Aqua Farms, excuse the lawn


And some top downs from the water change last night


 
I've been struggling with an algae outbreak for the last few weeks and I'm wondering if it's because of the rocks that I used. I bought them from a guy that is notorious for buying setups that crash or are being torn down and I opted not to acid bathe the rocks before I started my cycle. Maybe it's phosphates leaching out of the rock?

It's a very fuzzy brown algae, similar to hair algae. So far my parameters are as follows:

Temp: 78 F
Specific Gravity: 1.025
Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0.07 (last checked with a Hanna, then added a GFO reactor and have not restested)
Calcium: 460ppm
Alkalinity: 9-11 dKH
Magnesium (have not tested, weekly 10% reef crystals water changes)
Photoperiod: 8 hours

In some of these new pictures you can see the described algal bloom

Here's a new Montipora setosa that's been doing rather well for the past week, and the horrendous algae.



Acropora 'purple fuzz'



Supposedly Utter Chaos Palythoas, a bit bleached and clearly not cared for well, had it for 2 days.



And I finally picked up an ORA micronesian hammer coral from Petco, I'll be curious to see what colors the zooxanthellae gain under the LEDs.



 
Added a few new corals to the reef this week, thanks again TurkeyTy.

Here's a new pink with green mouth Ricordea yuma and a few newly forming babies.



A bonsai Acropora



Red planet Acropora



A few others that I didn't get very good pictures of were:

ORA frogskin Acropora
Turquoise staghorn Acropora

And the obligatory...

07/19/2014
 
My fuzz algae is nearly gone and the rocks are getting a darker coating of algae. I can see purple coralline starting to spread a bit more and has a few patches instead of random small spots. It's really exciting seeing a reef mature and being able to look back on my previous pictures to see growth and change.

This is the best area to show my algae bloom, in the previous pictures, it's a small forest, here it is today, and a small amount of Montipora setosa growth.



Here's a full tank shot showing most of the SPS mounted and a few new additions:



Torch coral (Euphyllia glabrescens) Purple with green tips
Sun coral (Tubastrea coccinea)
Black sun coral (Tubastrea micrantha)

And I believe for my final two pieces, I will be adding an ORA red Goniopora and a pink Stylophora in the following weeks. That should roundoff this tank while I search for an upgrade!
 
Last edited:
This is a fantastic tank! I have a 37 myself but not nearly the coral as you do. I am curious about your flow, I have two 1050 koralias in mine which I think is too much for it, would you just go with one? How are things with the mp10?
 
I don't have any personal experience with koralias in this tank, but it will depend on what type of coral you are stocking the tank with. My is nearly all LPS and I run my MP10 on Lagoon Mode at 50%.

The bam bams are doing very well for me and have started my trend towards orange zoanthids. Thanks for the compliments!
 
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