65 DSA SPS Dominant Mixed Reef

[aggie13reef]

Today I performed my weekly water change. My wife and I went to the LFS to get water and I was bummed as they had so many nice mini colonies. Due to a tight budget none were feasible today... One can dream though!

I spent quite a while today pulling algae, moving some things around, and fragging my first coral!

I moved the frogspawn to the left side of the tank to fill the void over there. I also put the Miami orchid frag up in the rock work between my Slimer, Turaki, and unknown. The clowns were not happy about me messing with their home and they bit me constantly haha. I wish I could find a good spot for my valida as it is pretty close to my torch. I will have to move it soon. Here are a couple pictures:

The Frags

Orchid frag

New frogspawn location

FTS

 

[Learn It]

Interesting growth pattern on that green SPS piece. Good looking tank!

 

[markalot]

Looking really good Nick! Maybe soon you can start trading for some new pieces.

 

[mhucasey]

Nick! The tank is becoming and SPS dominant tank! Nicely done!

 

[aggie13reef]

Interesting growth pattern on that green SPS piece. Good looking tank!

Thank you for the compliment! It is interesting so far, I can't wait for it to grow out farther!

Looking really good Nick! Maybe soon you can start trading for some new pieces.

Thanks Mark, thats what my hopes are! I wanted to frag the green bird and let the frags start growing out but I am nervous to break the colony. Also, the fancy frag rack I bought with a gift card from my birthday is about .25 inches too long and wont fit on the back of my tank due to the overflow :headwally:. So I am going to have to sell it and get a small corner one one of these days...

Nick! The tank is becoming and SPS dominant tank! Nicely done!

Thanks! I want a pure SPS tank pretty bad but my wife will never let me get rid of the few LPS we have, I just wont be adding any more... I have a feeling we will be moving out of our rent house sometime in 2016, so that is when I will re-do the scape to be more SPS friendly and give me more locations to place things. I have seen some amazing 65 gallon tanks on here so one day I want mine to be up there with those!

 

[markalot]

How about buying some black egg crate from BRS and a magnetic glass cleaner. Cut, epoxy+glue the crate to the magnet, instant cheap black frag rack. If only I could find black glass cleaners that weren't so expensive.

 

[aggie13reef]

How bout a HUGE update.

My wife and I closed on our new home last Friday and could not be happier! The tank was broken down and moved, so far so good, everything alive is currently in my 40 breeder on the guest room floor. We just got the tank moved into the house tonight, I will get new saltwater and use a 50/50 mix of old and new when I re-fill. I have heard mixed things on re-using the sand, so I wanted to ask y'all your opinions. The sand bed was only about 1.5 inch deep when the tank was running. I want to re-use. I did not wash it and plan on filling it up with water how it sits. The tank (and sand) have been dry since Sunday night. The SPS are all appear slightly more brown but surprisingly look OK so far in the 40B. The way we moved them was insane. We filled up a rubbermade half with water and piled everything in and put it in my wife's trailblazer with no cover and it rode! No pictures right now I will try to post some soon after I add everything back into the tank. Wish me luck!

 

[mhucasey]

How bout a HUGE update.

My wife and I closed on our new home last Friday and could not be happier! The tank was broken down and moved, so far so good, everything alive is currently in my 40 breeder on the guest room floor. We just got the tank moved into the house tonight, I will get new saltwater and use a 50/50 mix of old and new when I re-fill. I have heard mixed things on re-using the sand, so I wanted to ask y'all your opinions. The sand bed was only about 1.5 inch deep when the tank was running. I want to re-use. I did not wash it and plan on filling it up with water how it sits. The tank (and sand) have been dry since Sunday night. The SPS are all appear slightly more brown but surprisingly look OK so far in the 40B. The way we moved them was insane. We filled up a rubbermade half with water and piled everything in and put it in my wife's trailblazer with no cover and it rode! No pictures right now I will try to post some soon after I add everything back into the tank. Wish me luck!

Congrats and good luck! I would not re-use the sand if it's been sitting like it has for the week. Its a small price to pay to replace the sand with fresh, clean stuff and not have to worry about polluting the tank.

 

[markalot]

Congrats on the new house!

 

[aggie13reef]

Congrats and good luck! I would not re-use the sand if it's been sitting like it has for the week. Its a small price to pay to replace the sand with fresh, clean stuff and not have to worry about polluting the tank.

Congrats on the new house!

Thanks guys! I did not re-use the sand thankfully. I am about to post an update with some pics.

 

[aggie13reef]

Update Time:

The tank is finally completely set up (minus the ATO...). I must say I love how the scape came out. It is much better than prior to the move. We did not keep the huge GSP which opened up a large area of the tank. Also got rid of a few smaller LPS frags.

I am pumped about being in a permanent home as I feel the tank can sit undisturbed for a long time hopefully.

On to the pictures

 

[aggie13reef]

This is the blue stag frag. For some reason the tip remains with color and tissue from the middle down remains with the top end dead. I am pumped because I can already see the tissue re-growing.

Purple tipped stag frag that is solid brown :thumbsup: waiting for it to color back up.

The turaki was pretty brown for a couple days but has already colored back up nicely. And the green unknown remains solid brown. I saw a faint green color under all blues late last night which is promising.

Torch loves its new spot.

 

[markalot]

Glad the move went ok. I've been reading a few threads on other forums where at this point people have nuked their tank using GFO to bring down PO4 so if you were thinking of it be careful. SOmething about disturbing a tank followed by GFO usage can lead to a wipeout.

 

[Scorpius]

I'm beginning to think my gfo reactor is pulling to much PO4 out of the water and slowly killing my gfo. Stuff is potent. :lol:

 

[sixpackgarage]

Good to see success after a move. I'm moving my self soon.. doubt I'll be a homeowner again yet, but my lease is almost up. That was a huge consideration when I bought my 65 because it's manageable to move. That torch is killer BTW.

 

[aggie13reef]

Glad the move went ok. I've been reading a few threads on other forums where at this point people have nuked their tank using GFO to bring down PO4 so if you were thinking of it be careful. SOmething about disturbing a tank followed by GFO usage can lead to a wipeout.

Thanks Mark, I do not think I will use GFO as I haven't so far in this tank. But for some reason the bryopsis blew up when I got the tank set back up. I didn't have but a few small patches prior to the move. Once things settle down I will be on a mission to manage it :fun4:

I'm beginning to think my gfo reactor is pulling to much PO4 out of the water and slowly killing my gfo. Stuff is potent. :lol:

:lmao: I don't trust myself with it

Good to see success after a move. I'm moving my self soon.. doubt I'll be a homeowner again yet, but my lease is almost up. That was a huge consideration when I bought my 65 because it's manageable to move. That torch is killer BTW.

Thanks man, It was very stressful no doubt but somehow came out on top. If I had anymore than a 65 I would have had to bring in reinforcements. Good luck with your upcoming move and thanks for the kind words on the torch, I absolutely love it.

 

[aggie13reef]

Well this morning I got my ATO hooked up so the only thing left is to test everything and start getting my Params back where I want them. I have a question for everyone, I would like to get opinions on how y'all would hide my wires. I am thinking of buying/making some kind of "box" that looks nice. I just don't want people looking straight at a tangled mess and water jug when they first walk into the house haha. Here's a pic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[aggie13reef]

Did some maintenance on the tank today mainly pulling algae and cleaning the glass and stand. Didn't realize the tank is a year old this month. I thought I would do a couple growth shots on some of the coral:

Red Planet 6-7-15

Red Planet today

Slimer 9-25-15

Slimer today

Bird 6-23-15

Bird Today

 

[aggie13reef]

Also bought a new acro this weekend! I was told loripes?

I just liked these shots:

 

[aggie13reef]

The near future will consist of trying to battle the algae. I was going to see everyones opinion on purigen. Seems more failsafe that using GFO but i came to that conclusion simply based on reading the directions on the back of the bag :lolspin:.

I also was to save up for an RO/DI filter. Now that we have moved the nearest LFS is 30 mins away and my LFS of choice is over 40. So now simply popping in to window shop and pick up water is costing a bit more in time and fuel. Hand dosing continues and I have not conducted a water change since re-assembly after the move. However I have been skimming heavy having to empty the cup almost every other day. Thanks for reading!