40 Breeder in a wall

[gypsyboy38]

haha... My battle with Red bugs is as far as I'll go. I'll pass on AEFW... I'm still new to this hobby.

How do you keep your sandbed, glass, and rocks so clean? It's amazing. I run Carbon/GFO, weekly changes, and "try" to feed less, but there is always some algae in my rocks at least. I have to scrub the rocks to even see the nice purp coraline underneath... but then the algae just comes back. I even did the 3 day black out, which worked, but it came back...

That's a good question! I'm not exactly sure... I'll give you my algae story and you can make your own conclusions.

2 months before my baby was born the tank cracked. I transferred everything into a 45g brute while I purchased and drilled a new tank. About 1-2 weeks after I got the tank back up and running, a brown stringy algae set in for the long haul. I tried a biopellet (supplemented with mb7) reactor for 3-4 months with no success. I always maintained very vigorous GFO/carbon usage, which never seemed to make too much of a dent in the algae. I tried 1-2 3 day blackouts, which were, of course, very temporary bandaids. I fed my three fish about 1/2 or less of a cube of frozen food per night.

Until recently, when my yellow wrasse was purchased, the tank was bare bottom with an excessive amount of flow, but I did have a few large very holy, porous pieces of rock. The last major attempt at algae removal I remember doing was to remove pieces of rock that had excessive amounts of nooks for waste to settle. I believe this is what finally led to beating my algae problem, but I made a lot of changes sequentially, so it is hard to say. It is hard to tell by looking, but the rock I have in the aquarium now is very dense. It is probably not a desirable setup, but it seems to work.

 

[Reefer1225]

Thanks, GB. My nitrate is 0-5 (salifert) and phosphate at 0 (Hanna), so don't know what else I can do water quality wise to fight the algae. I have very porous rock, and I blow it with a baster and know a lot of deitrus settles in there. I have an MP40 and MP10 at 100% (90 gallon tank), so maybe I need more flow? Too late for me to replace the rock, so I will make the most of it. My sandbed finally became white again after almost a year. My tank is only a year old, so maybe its part of the process.

I just like the clean look and hopefully can achieve your success in time. Can't wait to see your frags/mini-colonies grow out more. Keep us updated.

BTW - I'll trade my JD for a PHD or MBA anyday... made a wrong turn at some point.

 

[maelv]

BTW - I'll trade my JD for a PHD or MBA anyday... made a wrong turn at some point.

Well I feel like a dummy here, ha ha ha...I guess I better lay off RC and get back to school. :wildone:

 

[gypsyboy38]

Generally, if algae is present in sufficient quantity, it will suck up NO3 and PO4 giving false readings. If your sandbed is clearing up, it sounds like you are on the way. Basting is probably a better idea that switching out rock, I just never felt like I could get them as clean as I wanted. It's also unlikely flow is your problem, that sounds like plenty!

However, I'm not exactly the best source of information on a stable tank, so please take what I say with a grain of salt!

 

[gypsyboy38]

Pink Lemonade

Angled FTS to show scape

Ignore the corals on the substrate. . . I'm trying to get rid of them.

 

[allsps40]

Anyone know what this is? Bottlebrush?

FTS

Yep looks like a Blue Bottle Brush to me.
Very nice looking tank, clean and colorful corals. I hope you kill off all the AEFWs they suck. I just found a bunch of bit marks on some of my sps. Good luck and keep it up

 

[gypsyboy38]

Yep looks like a Blue Bottle Brush to me.
Very nice looking tank, clean and colorful corals. I hope you kill off all the AEFWs they suck. I just found a bunch of bit marks on some of my sps. Good luck and keep it up

I have been AEFW free for a while now. They were part of last summer's difficulties. Thanks for the compliments!

 

[gypsyboy38]

Yesterday I tested the big three for the first time in about a year. Numbers were a little off...
7.7 ALK, 480 Ca, 1770 Mg (oops)

Don't even ask about the Mg. Let's just say I dose that in a less than regulated manor... My nitrate/phosphate levels were also irritating, but do explain the lack of polyp extension and fading colors I've had for the past few weeks (0.5 ppm NO3, 0.02 ppm PO4). I have slacked a little on my feeding regimen, so it looks like I will have to go back to feeding the oyster feast 2x/day. PO4 I am fine with, obviously.

Here are some current pics. I tried a few top downs, but it was really hard to get a sharp picture because I have to take them at a slight angle.

Pink lemonade

Here is my blue stag. I promise you this is not photoshopped bluer! In fact, this is literally the warmest I could make the picture in lightroom. I'd say it is fairly accurate for a top-down view.

Terrible focus, I know. Just wanted to show the strawberry shortcake I recently purchased is beginning to color up. If I could get my nitrates to be ~5 ppm I think it would be much prettier.

Also awful focus! I like this piece but my wife hates it. It looks ho-hum from the front, but you can see it's greenish w/purple tips from above. Not my favorite, but not bad.

Sunset millepora (a little faded..)

Ora borealis/pearlberry

 

[gypsyboy38]

The last few pictures were a little dimmer than I'd like... I always have a hard time setting the exposure/brightness correctly in lightroom. It will look fine on my screen, but then really dim when I export/upload them!

 

[gypsyboy38]

Thought I would include some growth pictures. Each set represents growth from January to June.

As you can see, my green monti, which is still faded, had almost completely died back as of January. I think this slowed down the growth, but it is starting to come around.

My orange digi was also pretty sad in January. I'm satisfied with its growth so far.

The green digi growth is from February - June.

Here is my "pink" millepora. For some reason it never photographs well. This one has been rotated a little, so the comparison is somewhat confusing.

 

[barron]

Still waiting for a reply from you regarding the skimmer...

 

[gypsyboy38]

I'd say keep this to PMs, but apparently I don't notice those expediently.

 

[vietnam]

I'm jealous of your tank. The growth rate and colors...

 

[sahin]

Very nice tank! SPS colours are good, but could do with a little bit darkening as they look somewhat pale still. Keep up the good work.

 

[gypsyboy38]

I have good and bad news. I got my PhD, but my tank essentially crashed in the process... I'll snag some pics of the rebuild shortly.

 

[Hyperion1337]

congrats on ur PhD! its a shame ur tank crashed it looks amazing.

 

[CeeGee]

aww man. That tank was looking fantastic. What happened?

 

[gypsyboy38]

I added screen to my phosban reactors that apparently leached something into the water. It started with my corals fading, which I incorrectly guessed was due to lack of nutrients... By the time the corals started shedding skin, the dissertation due date was so close I couldn't sacrifice much (any) time for the tank. It became a race to finish before they all died. I did manage to save a handful. Fortunately, they were all aquacultered, so, while I regret the losses, they didn't represent the primary death of any reef inhabitants.

 

[gypsyboy38]

congrats on ur PhD! its a shame ur tank crashed it looks amazing.

Thanks! I think the rebuild will look better!

 

[tdb320reef]

Great Setup

Great Setup

Great Setup - I love the color and placement. So simple and clean. Nice work!