65 DSA SPS Dominant Mixed Reef
- Thread starter aggie13reef
- Start date
aggie13reef
New member
Green slimers go very well at the top, good choice. It can spread out and become a coral focal point
Thanks guys, I see a ton of people recommending to place them at the back of the tank so thats what I did. So far it has better PE back there and looks to be growing just as well.
aggie13reef
New member
Time for a little Sunday update:
Yesterday morning when I was checking the tanks out I saw the hammer in the 8 gal had its sweepers extended to where it was almost touching my wife's rainbow Acan. We have been talking about moving the hammer over to the 65 for a while and I finally got around to it.
Here is the hammer in the 8 gal:
And my work station on the counter:
Here is the finished product:
It started to extend a little more right before lights out yesterday, hoping it looks back to normal today.
We also moved her Lobo to the 65 today as it is a killer in the 8 gal. The snails have knocked corals into it and it has claimed 2 lives, a nice frogspawn and a favia. This little sucker packs a punch.
I am going to run water tests today and make sure everything is in check. Not seeing much PE on a couple Acros and I am starting to worry a little bit. Also we bought another wrasse yesterday! An exquisite wrasse, interested to see what it looks like when its mature. I will try to post some pictures later today when the lights are on.
Yesterday morning when I was checking the tanks out I saw the hammer in the 8 gal had its sweepers extended to where it was almost touching my wife's rainbow Acan. We have been talking about moving the hammer over to the 65 for a while and I finally got around to it.
Here is the hammer in the 8 gal:
And my work station on the counter:
Here is the finished product:
It started to extend a little more right before lights out yesterday, hoping it looks back to normal today.
We also moved her Lobo to the 65 today as it is a killer in the 8 gal. The snails have knocked corals into it and it has claimed 2 lives, a nice frogspawn and a favia. This little sucker packs a punch.
I am going to run water tests today and make sure everything is in check. Not seeing much PE on a couple Acros and I am starting to worry a little bit. Also we bought another wrasse yesterday! An exquisite wrasse, interested to see what it looks like when its mature. I will try to post some pictures later today when the lights are on.
aggie13reef
New member
Update:
Well me and my wonderful wife got married on the 5th and departed on our Caribbean honeymoon on the 6th. Before we left I was stressed as my ATO that was given to me for free when I bought my tank was cracked near the water level device (not sure if its called a float or not) and I did not use it. So I filled the sump up pretty high with half saltwater and half freshwater (my attempt to keep the pH in check) and turned the skimmer off. I still dose manually so I was not sure how the tank would fare for 10 days on its own, I figured the drop would be slow enough not to destroy anything and I would just slowly raise when I returned.
Upon arrival back at home today the tank was a little dirty but the sump still had plenty of water in it and I only lost 1 acro frag. The frag had been looking pretty poor for about a month before the trip I guess that just topped it off. My purple mini colony browned out slightly but other than that everything looks just as I left it!
The trip was awesome though, we snorkeled two reefs off of Cozumel, Mexico and some coral gardens off of Grand Cayman. The guide was cool and let me free dive away from the group. I had a GoPro with me an got some decent shots, however the guide had a nice underwater camera and shared some pics with me for a small fee (he got some of the wife and I as well so I had to get them!). Needless to say this was the first time I had seen real reefs and they are truly incredible. Seeing them makes me want to get scuba certified so I can really do some diving.
I did a 5 gal water change this evening and turned the skimmer back on. Ill post pics when I get the chance this week!
Well me and my wonderful wife got married on the 5th and departed on our Caribbean honeymoon on the 6th. Before we left I was stressed as my ATO that was given to me for free when I bought my tank was cracked near the water level device (not sure if its called a float or not) and I did not use it. So I filled the sump up pretty high with half saltwater and half freshwater (my attempt to keep the pH in check) and turned the skimmer off. I still dose manually so I was not sure how the tank would fare for 10 days on its own, I figured the drop would be slow enough not to destroy anything and I would just slowly raise when I returned.
Upon arrival back at home today the tank was a little dirty but the sump still had plenty of water in it and I only lost 1 acro frag. The frag had been looking pretty poor for about a month before the trip I guess that just topped it off. My purple mini colony browned out slightly but other than that everything looks just as I left it!
The trip was awesome though, we snorkeled two reefs off of Cozumel, Mexico and some coral gardens off of Grand Cayman. The guide was cool and let me free dive away from the group. I had a GoPro with me an got some decent shots, however the guide had a nice underwater camera and shared some pics with me for a small fee (he got some of the wife and I as well so I had to get them!). Needless to say this was the first time I had seen real reefs and they are truly incredible. Seeing them makes me want to get scuba certified so I can really do some diving.
I did a 5 gal water change this evening and turned the skimmer back on. Ill post pics when I get the chance this week!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Congratulations!!!
aggie13reef
New member
Thanks guys!
Now time for a small update with some PICTURES!
Not much has changed since my last post. Things are growing well. My purple acro has grown much more than I thought. I looked at the pictures from when I first added and I was impressed. I manually removed quite a bit of algae the other day, thinking that maybe the skimmer being down for 10 days and myself being lazy about water changes and cleaning the skimmer had something to do with it. I pulled out the skimmer and disassembled and cleaned this past weekend. I need to get the detritus out of the sump but don't know the best way. Just syphon with my water change hose? Now that I removed a large amount of algae my tang is working hard on the rest.
I also added 3 trochus snails and a conch last Sunday as my conch bit the dust about 2 weeks before the trip. I really wanted to add some coral on Sunday but my tank budget is blown for the time being. I am up to about 12 turbo snails and 3 trochus snails along with the conch as my CUC.
MANUAL DOSING is wearing me out :facepalm:
Finally on to some pics (I was going to post progression shots together but I am too lazy)....
aggie13reef
New member
aggie13reef
New member
Update:
Another month has come and gone. My wife and I are in the process of buying our first home. With that being said nothing has been added to the tank. I have been having skimmer issues for quite some time now. My skimmer has not been producing skimmate for months now. I have lost two SPS frags in that time period. Sadly we have also lost our longnose hawk. Not sure if it was due to bullying or disease, but the remaining fish seem to be healthy. I keep having to net my exquisite wrasse out of the overflow and sump, I attribute this to bullying by the kole tang. Hoping that improves over time. The other corals did not seem to be affected by the skimmer issues and are growing quite well. The Slimer is taking off as is the red planet. I have seen noticeable growth in the purple acro.
Tonight I cleaned the skimmer top to bottom, all of the components. I found a small amount of algae in the pump and debris around some o-rings. Upon replacing in the sump, the skimmer is working properly! I have had a blow up of GHA and Bryopsis. I am not sure if it is due to the skimmer being down. I have been manually removing during water changes and have cut feeding to every 3rd day. Any other advice? I need to eliminate the source to slow the algae down enough to where my kole tang can manage it. Thanks in advance for the advice!
Another month has come and gone. My wife and I are in the process of buying our first home. With that being said nothing has been added to the tank. I have been having skimmer issues for quite some time now. My skimmer has not been producing skimmate for months now. I have lost two SPS frags in that time period. Sadly we have also lost our longnose hawk. Not sure if it was due to bullying or disease, but the remaining fish seem to be healthy. I keep having to net my exquisite wrasse out of the overflow and sump, I attribute this to bullying by the kole tang. Hoping that improves over time. The other corals did not seem to be affected by the skimmer issues and are growing quite well. The Slimer is taking off as is the red planet. I have seen noticeable growth in the purple acro.
Tonight I cleaned the skimmer top to bottom, all of the components. I found a small amount of algae in the pump and debris around some o-rings. Upon replacing in the sump, the skimmer is working properly! I have had a blow up of GHA and Bryopsis. I am not sure if it is due to the skimmer being down. I have been manually removing during water changes and have cut feeding to every 3rd day. Any other advice? I need to eliminate the source to slow the algae down enough to where my kole tang can manage it. Thanks in advance for the advice!
aggie13reef
New member
The air intake hose was clean (that was my first guess). My best guess is the debris around the o-ring on the pump was preventing a perfect seal allowing extra water to leak in and not letting the pump operate to its potential. I just wish I had a way to prevent it from getting in there to begin with.
aggie13reef
New member
Yesterday I decided to relocate my green birdsnest as my red planet was growing into it. The bird started as a 1 inch frag so I couldn't let it get killed by the red planet. It was inexperience with SPS placement on my part. I was nervous about cutting and moving the birdsnest but all went well. Here is a picture prior to moving it
I cut in 3 places and moved it on top of my monti cap. I don't think that the monti will kill the bird or vice versa (correct me if I'm wrong). I could not get the superglue and epoxy to hold the colony up so I just placed the base in a crevice on the rock where an old frag used to be. Hopefully the birdsnest will bond itself to the rock. The following picture is following the move:
I also picked up a blue stag frag yesterday from the LFS.
I cut in 3 places and moved it on top of my monti cap. I don't think that the monti will kill the bird or vice versa (correct me if I'm wrong). I could not get the superglue and epoxy to hold the colony up so I just placed the base in a crevice on the rock where an old frag used to be. Hopefully the birdsnest will bond itself to the rock. The following picture is following the move:
I also picked up a blue stag frag yesterday from the LFS.
aggie13reef
New member
Thanks man. Yeah the red planet also grew MUCH faster than I anticipated. I will get some pics of the blue tipped stag once I get it up in its permanent spot in a couple weeks. Already seeing good PE at night. I am hoping it grows as quickly as the Slimer.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Nicely done! I don't know which coral wins in a monti vs birds nest battle- that's two pretty wimpy varieties. The acros will definitely kill montis where they get close.Yesterday I decided to relocate my green birdsnest as my red planet was growing into it. The bird started as a 1 inch frag so I couldn't let it get killed by the red planet. It was inexperience with SPS placement on my part. I was nervous about cutting and moving the birdsnest but all went well. Here is a picture prior to moving it
I cut in 3 places and moved it on top of my monti cap. I don't think that the monti will kill the bird or vice versa (correct me if I'm wrong). I could not get the superglue and epoxy to hold the colony up so I just placed the base in a crevice on the rock where an old frag used to be. Hopefully the birdsnest will bond itself to the rock. The following picture is following the move:
I also picked up a blue stag frag yesterday from the LFS.
aggie13reef
New member
So far it seems like the bird is trying to secure itself on top of the monti. Both are growing like crazy and neither is showing any "injury" spots where they are touching.
Hey Mark,
Things are definitely going. Hopefully will be getting some tank goodies for Christmas if my wife has taken the hints :spin1:. Everything continues to grow, I feel like I could get much more growth if I had a dosing pump that could keep things steady. I still manually dose Ca and Alk multiple times a week. Also battling GHA. I control algae and aquatic vegetation in private lakes every day and it ticks me off to come home and see it in my tank! I have cut feedings with the weekly water changes and am skimming to what I think is heavy (I have to empty the cup twice a week). My tang is helping but he cant keep up. Hopefully with some more time it will get better. I keep hoping to see something resembling your blue stag in my LFS but no such luck! The one I bought a while back is doing good still on the sand bed but I don't think it will be the vibrant blue that yours is, man that thing is a beauty! Hope all is well with you.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Christmas reef goodies! That sounds great to me
. For dosing, if you have something to control them(on/off power) it's hard to beat the BRS dozers at 79 dollars.
