A Living Room Reef: 90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

[troubadour11]

Well, I'm not home to see my tank at all right now with work... But they good Wife is keeping it kicking along. On my lunch break yesterday I wrote some code updates for my Reef Angel. Mostly just tweaking the lighting.

Now the Blue/UV channels come on as they did and run for a parabola up to 100% and back down over 12 hours. I adjusted the whites down from the same time schedule to run from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in a parabola that goes up to 80%, instead of 95%, and back down.

I'm curious to see what will happen and hoping that cutting 4 hours a day off the whites and dropping the output will help starve out the GHA but not effect the corals in a negative way. You never know... since I haven't been able to test my LEDs with a PAR meter, maybe I'm BLASTING the upper SPS and don't even know it. So for now. I'm going to tone down the lighting power and length on the White/Color channel and see how things go.

And maybe it will help the SPS that got angry at the SG screw up a bit by lowering the power on them and letting them relax and recover.... maybe .... here's hoping :beer:

We've also been trying to adjust the Fuge lighting some. I've been turning it on around 8:00 pm when I get home and leaving it on until 10:00/11:00 a.m. the next day.

That's, that for now. We will have to wait and see how things adjust and if things like it better/worse with the shorter white/color photo period and lower power. :smokin:

 

[Fishy 1]

Hey troub buddy since you were so kind to subscribe to my thread I'll return the favor by subscribing to yours and it look like a cracker build mate:thumbup: I look forward to sharing my (sometimes) useful input :deadhorse1:. Good luck troub

 

[Bello]

Getting the PAR meter will definitely be a big help, since we're basically guessing what the intensities of the LED's are the moment. I was certain that my LED's were overpowered, but ended up being surprised when tested with the PAR meter.

You could always get the YT for the GHA, but give it a go with the lights first. It'll be better if you can be rid of it by just tweaking what you already have.

Good thing you found the Pistol, cute guy . I really didn't expect him to end up in the overflow. Never had a shrimp do that. Got yourself a :wildone:

 

[troubadour11]

Hey troub buddy since you were so kind to subscribe to my thread I'll return the favor by subscribing to yours and it look like a cracker build mate:thumbup: I look forward to sharing my (sometimes) useful input :deadhorse1:. Good luck troub

Much appreciated!!! The whole reason I'm running a journal here is to get help and hear other ideas then my own. So keep the input coming... useful or not :bum: :beer:

Getting the PAR meter will definitely be a big help, since we're basically guessing what the intensities of the LED's are the moment. I was certain that my LED's were overpowered, but ended up being surprised when tested with the PAR meter.

You could always get the YT for the GHA, but give it a go with the lights first. It'll be better if you can be rid of it by just tweaking what you already have.

Good thing you found the Pistol, cute guy . I really didn't expect him to end up in the overflow. Never had a shrimp do that. Got yourself a :wildone:

- YUP - AGREED on the PAR meter. I really have NO clue what levels I'm around at all. My only way to judge is the corals. My LPS and shrooms below the bottom 1/3rd seem happy and expanding fully. So I can't be overpowering those to badly. I also think that might be hard with a 26 inch deep tank and my LED fixtures about 8-10 inches above the water line. And then the SPS up near the top. The Birdsnest is loving it and got glued down. The Red Planet is sulking near the sand bed and the Purple/Sky Blue is slowly getting moved down in the tank to see if I can get any changes for the better out of it.

And somewhat on that note...

I placed a long planned equipment order this week to "prepare" for the PAR testing and tank mapping. I just ordered the WiFi add-on for my Reef Angel. Once that's in and hooked up, I can control my lights via the internet Portal, or on the Android (or iPhone) App. So I can then dial in each channel easily and quickly for testing. Right now I would have to re-write my menu code and upload it each time I wanted to test a different level and channel, etc, etc.

And besides easy access to lighting control... it will log temps, ph, and anything else I tell it to monitor up to the internet Portal that I can see anywhere and can control the entire controller from any internet access point :thumbsup:

OH!!! and the somewhat related side note. . . when ordering said WiFi add-on, I discovered that Reef Angel sells a PAR meter add-on as well. It's just the sensor that plugs into the system. And they sell it for about 200-250 less then any stand along PAR meter I've seen yet But I didn't order it and will just rent/borrow my LFS meter that I can get access to when it's available. But still nice to know.

I'm pretty confident that a Tang will be added at some point down the road. Right now our stocking list is showing a Yellow-Eye Kole Tang as our current choice for potential additions towards the end of the list. I worry about adding a Tang this early when I'm still considering smaller and more timid / less aggressive fish. I think I'd like to get my 1 or pair of Mandarins in and established before adding any "big" fish. (tang or pygmy angel). So hopefully I can manage the algae with snails and other controls until I can get to those stocking choices. If it gets to out of control... we will have to skip ahead and add the tang sooner. All in good time. . .

And I'm SO glad we saved the Pistol!! This is the 2nd one that went exploring down my drain!!! The first one got killed getting shot back through the return pump :-( So I'm glad I happened to be running a mesh sock with GFO at the time this second one went exploring. Now I have better guards on my pumps, but I have a feeling it could fit through the guards if it could fit through the overflow teeth. . . and it bothers me that 2 of them have not seemed content to stay put in the bottom of the DT! :deadhorse:

On the plus side, when I dropped it back in. It took up residency beneath the rock right up front for now :celeb3:

 

[Fishy 1]

hey troub i'd defiantly add the kole last as they can bully new fish not all of them are like that but some are, according to mr.saltwater they are very much a under rated fish and are great tangs.

 

[Ragutis]

Great thread about what looks like a great setup. Don't know how much weight you want to give to the word of someone with my postcountrolleyes, but I have lurked here a while. Do you still have your mystery critter from post #367? Looks like a type of burrowing anemone. No idea which species or if it's trouble in waiting or not, though. I've seen small ones in a couple of tanks. My doctor had one in a tank and it never grew much bigger than 1/2'' in diameter over the couple of years I went there. I'd look for more info, but I'm busy trying to finish reading.

Thanks for the thread, and looking forward to much more.

 

[troubadour11]

hey troub i'd defiantly add the kole last as they can bully new fish not all of them are like that but some are, according to mr.saltwater they are very much a under rated fish and are great tangs.

That's what we were thinking and why I've been trying to fight off adding a tang until later. It looks like cutting down the white/color length and adding some GFO/carbon along with a few more Trochus snails are putting a dent in it for now. We will see how it continues on. Hopefully we can manage to keep it under control until we get to those stages of our planned stocking list.

We've looked at lots of tangs and are leaning towards the Kole just because EVERY tank I see seems to have a YT. And we have a YWG, so it might be nice to try a different color pattern when we get there.

We are at the point of figuring out our next addition to start in the QT cycle now. So let me here everybody's thoughts, votes, and ideas. Right now according to our planned out stocking list we're somewhere around these choices....

- Mandarin(s) - I'm hoping maybe a male/female pair since we should have plenty of pods, etc circulating in the system with a 75 gallon remote fuge with LR and a DSB. Do you think the system is mature enough at this point to go this route?

Temperament, size, aggressiveness, etc makes me think working towards the Mandarin(s) would be a good call. IF the fuge, pods, and system are at a point to support it. I was thinking if we went this route, I'd order a new round of pods and such to seed the fuge with a second time. Thoughts? Then probably start dosing some phyto (in the fuge) to try and encourage a pod-splosion!!!

- Side note question on the Mandarins... what are your thoughts on QT'ing them?

- "School" type of fish. Maybe 7-10 of something very small and peaceful... Right now we're considering ordering some Apogon Leptacanthus to accomplish this look. They could be before the Mandy's if the system isn't established enough to add them yet. But adding a big group before the finicky eating and shy Mandy's makes me nervous and feel it would be best to add them after the Mandy's...

- After these two options the current "planned" list gets pretty short and we may have some space for others depending on our choices from here on out. But after this we had maybe a Wrasse (McKosker's or Carpenter's - not sure depending on food competition with Mandarins), a Pygmy Angel (Flame, Rusty, Coral Beauty), and some Tang.

Great thread about what looks like a great setup. Don't know how much weight you want to give to the word of someone with my postcountrolleyes, but I have lurked here a while. Do you still have your mystery critter from post #367? Looks like a type of burrowing anemone. No idea which species or if it's trouble in waiting or not, though. I've seen small ones in a couple of tanks. My doctor had one in a tank and it never grew much bigger than 1/2'' in diameter over the couple of years I went there. I'd look for more info, but I'm busy trying to finish reading.

Thanks for the thread, and looking forward to much more.

Hey Ragutis, Thanks so much for stopping by and the complement! :thumbsup: And you gave me a good laugh. Post count doesn't really matter much to me. For all I know, you could be a Marine Biologist. :wavehand: So I'm always open to everyone's thoughts. Whether I agree and follow through with anything anybody says or not though can be up to me. :strooper: And I'm sure will ultimately lead to my success or failure...

I may, or may not still have that thing from post #367. When I started adding different types of corals I spent some time playing with the powerheads and flow in my tank. One of the positions I tried dug out the sand in the corner where that thing was. So it either blew away and died... got buried and died... or just moved, dug, wandered somewhere else and is still around. I haven't really seen it since the sand got moved around over there. But your hunch of some type of anemone seems like a good guess. It's what I was thinking when back when I observed it. But I will admit. Since a while back I haven't looked for it. Maybe I'll give it a shot to see if it showed back up.

I'm glad your enjoying the build so far though and thanks for chipping in some thoughts! :spin1: I look forward to hearing some more as you tag along in the future.

 

[Fishy 1]

hey troub i don't have any experience with maddy's so can't really comment on if your tank is ready. but have a look at the fuge at night after the lights have been out for about an hour, then grab a torch and see how many pods you can see (take some pics for us ), pods like feeding on algae at night. i don't think it will really matter as to whether you add the maddy's after the school fish or before but to be on the safe side i'd add the maddy's first. as to maddy's in QT they should be fine and from reading a thread on here maddy's like white worms and you can get them nice and fat using white worms. i wouldn't add any type of wrasse to the tank as they feed mainly on pods and maddy's don't need any competition for pods. the angle can be hit or miss as to whether you get a coral safe one but if they are well fed they are generally safe. i love coral beauty's and rusty angles are very pretty as are flame angles. i don't know if i will put a angle into my tank as i don't want to go through the frustration of catching it if it goes rouge.

 

[Bello]

Troub, I've had amazing success with fish from the Ctenochaetus family. Over the last 5 years, I've kept 3 specimens. 2x Tomini and 1x Kole. Sold off one Tomini and the Kole, and still have a Tomini in my frag tank. Never lost any of these specimens to disease etc. Note that I always kept only one specimen of the family to a tank.

They're insanely easy to keep, and don't need to be fed directly. They'll happily live off detritus, algae and what not. My tomini currently resides in my fuge, eating spillover food and other rubbish. IME, they don't really eat green filamentous algae, they prefer brown ugly algae like diatoms etc. So I doubt that they'd help much with your GHA.

Thing to note, is that once settled they can be very aggressive to newer dwarf angels and similar sized tangs, best to add them last. I'd consider YT's to be much milder to new additions.

 

[troubadour11]

i don't think it will really matter as to whether you add the maddy's after the school fish or before but to be on the safe side i'd add the maddy's first.

- That was my thinking as well. But I was just curious what others thoughts were.

as to maddy's in QT they should be fine and from reading a thread on here maddy's like white worms and you can get them nice and fat using white worms.

- Yup... the QT regiment is my main concern with them. (Other then having enough rock/pods in my big system of course). I've read many accounts of "not needing to QT" Mandarins... But that doesn't make sense to me if I've gone through the process on every other fish. But I do worry about feeding during the QT process. I'm also curious on how others QT their Mandarin. Typically we run Hypo-salinity with a round or two of Prazi-Pro during their typical 1 month to 7 week QT stay.

And I doubt Hypo would mix well with newly hatched baby brine shrimp or pods...

i wouldn't add any type of wrasse to the tank as they feed mainly on pods and maddy's don't need any competition for pods. the angle can be hit or miss as to whether you get a coral safe one but if they are well fed they are generally safe. i love coral beauty's and rusty angles are very pretty as are flame angles. i don't know if i will put a angle into my tank as i don't want to go through the frustration of catching it if it goes rouge.

- You hit the nail on the head with the wrasse and Mandarins too. That is a main concern and a probable reason why we will opt for something other then a wrasse in the long run. Other options to consider instead of the wrasse down the line?

These options were all just what our list was when we started... I've been refining it as I go. We are s till a long way from having everything in there. The Angel is still undertrimed whether it will be added. For the above reasons... but I love their look and am very interested. Not sure whether we'd do one AND a Tang or not.

But all that os for later... right now it's a choice between a potential school of (what???) and/or the Mandarins.

Troub, I've had amazing success with fish from the Ctenochaetus family. Over the last 5 years, I've kept 3 specimens. 2x Tomini and 1x Kole. Sold off one Tomini and the Kole, and still have a Tomini in my frag tank. Never lost any of these specimens to disease etc. Note that I always kept only one specimen of the family to a tank.

They're insanely easy to keep, and don't need to be fed directly. They'll happily live off detritus, algae and what not. My tomini currently resides in my fuge, eating spillover food and other rubbish. IME, they don't really eat green filamentous algae, they prefer brown ugly algae like diatoms etc. So I doubt that they'd help much with your GHA.

Thing to note, is that once settled they can be very aggressive to newer dwarf angels and similar sized tangs, best to add them last. I'd consider YT's to be much milder to new additions.

Thanks for the great info on your experiences with them Bello :thumbsup: Very much appreciated. It's great to hear actual feed back. Almost EVERYONE I mention a Tang to tells me to just get a Yelow Tang and nothing about any of the other potential options for a 90 gallon DT. So that's awesome to hear a solid first hand account.

And very interesting to hear about their aggression. That is more or less what I've heard about almost all Tangs. Just heard though, no practical experience. But for those reasons, that's why we were expecting to add any Tang as our very last fish. Most likely if we did add an Angel, it would be second to last followed by the Tang. For the most part, everything else can be slipped around in the stocking order except for those 2. Because these would be the largest, "big dog" fish in the system most likely. Everything else will be small and peaceful.

So we're interested in other options that could go with this school of (x), Mandarins, and potential Tang/Angel at the end.

Now for some quick photo fun... :dance:

 

[troubadour11]

So here is our sneakiness from last weekend...

- Here's our new Zoanthid frag we picked up.

- When we moved the rock up to the front. The Zoas that were still there bounced back and seemed really happy. So we picked up an alternative color piece this time to add in up there.

I'll have to try and get some shots of them under daylight hours... next time I'm home during daylight hours anyway... :facepalm:

- Here they are after their dip and getting popped off the frag plug onto a piece of rockwork.

- I still haven't really seen them FULLY open. The Mrs. has during the day though. I'm just missing out :-(

- And here's as close to open as I've seen them. This was an hour or so after adding them to the tank.

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- I also picked up some new dry food to try out... One of our LFS buys their tank bred clowns from here and I thought I'd give their hatchery food a shot.

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- On the first feeding... ALL shrimp and fish went NUTS over this stuff!!!! And they had never eaten it before. That I know of....

Now to pause for a short break while I do some work :bum:

 

[Fishy 1]

Troub those zoas should be very pretty when they settle in. The food looks good as well, what does it have in it?

 

[troubadour11]

And here are the two really exciting new pieces...

- Here they are in their Revive and tank water dip/bath for about 10-15 minutes. An Orange Montipora Digitata and for now, we'll call it the unknown stag SPS.

- If anyone has an idea on the "unknown stag," I'd love to get an I-D on it.

- Here are a few more shots. I flipped the frags over to get a shot of the other side in this shot.

- Up close on "the unknown"

- Just after adding the Orange Monty.

- An hour or so later as it settles into the tank.

- Here's the unknown stag chilling down at the bottom of the tank.

- I would guess this stag will turn out to be green with pale green/yellow polyps maybe. It had a pale flouro-yellow look to it when we bought it. But BOY was it fuzzy the first morning I woke up. That thing has had CRAZY PE each morning so far!

- I'm still working on figuring out my new camera phone. I can manage to get great color accurate shots during the day. Getting it to focus on what I want can be a different expletive laden story. But here's a night shot of this stag piece. While the background is WAY overexposed blue... the actual flouro look of the coral piece is actually somewhat accurate to what it looks like.

- And to my GREAT surprise!!! I never would have guessed the Orange Digi would have been (or appears) flouro too!!! It really appears to glow from across the room.

- Here's a pic of the stag that I grabbed in the morning using the flash to show the PE that started within the first night. :bounce1:

And one more short set of pics to come for fun....

 

[troubadour11]

Troub those zoas should be very pretty when they settle in. The food looks good as well, what does it have in it?

Hey Fishy1... I'll try to remember and snap a shot of the ingredients list and the rest of the labels for you the next time I have a few moments of downtime in thing living room. I remembered reading all about them when our LFS gave us their pamphlet when they started sourcing their clowns from them. I dug through the site a bunch to check it out and remembered being really impressed with what they said about their custom food.

So then when we were at completely different LFS, and I saw the food there... I just had to buy it to try it out. And like I said, both clowns, the orange firefish, the yellow watchman, and the cleaner shrimp all went nuts like I threw fishy-crack in there!

and in honor of the new Godzilla movie coming out soon, check out this reef monster in action!!! It's like a cleaner shrimpzilla on the attack!!! ... or checking out the newest addition and trying to steel food from it :angryfire:
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- So this whole time, I was trying to catch the clowns swimming behind the new orange-Monti.

"It's about me, not those stupid clowns!" ... says the cleaner as he butts in to show off for the camera.

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- I got the clown in there behind him though. Despite his best efforts to obscure the view.

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- And finally perched atop his Monti-throne...

Well, that be all the updates for now Not a bad score this past weekend, what do you think? :bum:

 

[Fishy 1]

Looking good troub and may I say you have such nice fingers :lolspin: :fun2: I like your shrimpzilla he is beautiful nice score on the monti and the mystery frag. Biggles, bello and Sahin should be worried about troub the noob super reefer. I have lots of catching up to do but I think your doing a great job of stocking your war machine troub:thumbsup:

 

[Bello]

Nice pickups Troub, I love zoas and sps in general, and you picked up both :lol:

The unknown sps is most likely a millepora/prostrata/spathulata(?), they're pretty cool, but have been rather irritating to color up for me recently.

The pellets seem to be quite interesting as well. I wonder how they'll do with more finicky fish....

Tangs usually end up being the "big dogs", well at least in my case...my big dog will have been around with me for 11 years this June . I remember keeping a very very aggressive red grouper/coral hind(?) that pretty much terrorized every fish in the tank, apart from the tangs who weren't even bothered by it (despite a couple of the tangs being bite sized), go figure...

 

[HiImSean]

Looking good!

The unknown sps is most likely a millepora/prostrata/spathulata(?), they're pretty cool, but have been rather irritating to color up for me recently.

I was gonna say the same thing. I had a mille/pros/spath frag that was going well for a week then RTNed on my over night :angryfire: That's the only SPS I've had trouble with in my tank. I've read that they can be touchy for awhile. I'm trying to find a more mature frag/colony now.

 

[troubadour11]

Looking good troub and may I say you have such nice fingers. I like your shrimpzilla he is beautiful nice score on the monti and the mystery frag. Biggles, bello and Sahin should be worried about troub the noob super reefer. I have lots of catching up to do but I think your doing a great job of stocking your war machine troub

HA!!! Nice fingers :lolspin: I actually used that picture for a reason. My finger gives at least somewhat of a sense of scale to the size of the frags. If you couldn't tell by them already being in a 4 cup measuring cup.

I appreciate the thumbs up on the stocking list :bounce2: Slowly but surely we are making some progress. The tank just always seems so bare. Besides continuing the fish stocking and corals... I'm heavily considering sculpting a new rock tower for behind the archway and adding a rock to the top/center area in front of the overflow too. :idea:

Nice pickups Troub, I love zoas and sps in general, and you picked up both

The unknown sps is most likely a millepora/prostrata/spathulata(?), they're pretty cool, but have been rather irritating to color up for me recently.

The pellets seem to be quite interesting as well. I wonder how they'll do with more finicky fish....

Tangs usually end up being the "big dogs", well at least in my case...my big dog will have been around with me for 11 years this June. I remember keeping a very very aggressive red grouper/coral hind(?) that pretty much terrorized every fish in the tank, apart from the tangs who weren't even bothered by it (despite a couple of the tangs being bite sized), go figure...

- I'm glad you dig the new zoas and SPS. The Wife is quite happy with the new Zoas. She had been a little ho-hum on them lately. But when we moved that rock up front, the ones we had started to really POP! So when I saw these new "1980's acid washed - blue jean centers" looking ones with orange tentacles for pretty cheap, I had to add them onto the rock up front!

And thanks for guess confirming that it's probably some type of Millie ID. That's what I thought, but the salesperson at the LFS had no clue what I was talking about. I asked if it was some type of Millie and got a crazy, mumbled response... "oh, that's not a Milliepora. We call that a 'shmoozaplazooripora'." (he mumbled some B.S. name that I couldn't even vagule make out and have never heard mumbled in the aquarium industry) LOL :facepalm:

The good 'ol wife said my response was awesome. A long pause while I obviously tried to figure out what he said, then paused to consider asking further questions... (all this went on in my head while I probably just stared slack-jaw at him and my wife watched). Then I said "Oh, ok. So anyway I think we want..." LOL

I'm excited to test out the new pellets. Especially because I think we're heading towards a Mandarin pair next. I'm hoping they can grow to like these teeny-tiny fish hatchery sized pellets. And speaking of those pellets. I had a request for more info on what it contains.
- Here's the back label -

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Looking good!

I was gonna say the same thing. I had a mille/pros/spath frag that was going well for a week then RTNed on my over night. That's the only SPS I've had trouble with in my tank. I've read that they can be touchy for awhile. I'm trying to find a more mature frag/colony now.

Thanks for the complements and help with the coral ID. :thumbsup: Hopefully it does well in my system. I'm slowly trying to amass one or two pieces of the different SPS. Kind of an all around litmus test for the more difficult specimens. Slowly we should be able to dial everything in while we observe our first couple pieces of each. I'd love to see this piece and the Birdsnest start to really show some color over the next month or two.

- And here's to the new tank toy!!!! -

- Once set up... I can control my Reef Angel from anywhere I can get internet access on a computer or my smart phone (through a free app). I don't know how yet, but it will also log temp, PH, and anything else it's monitoring up to graphs on-line. And I should also be able to adjust lighting parameters and times through it as well without having to upload full-reprogram code changes.

And then we just placed a couple orders for a few more equipment additions. I'm picking up some new lighting for over the refugium. Hopefully that will help the cheato to really start to take off in there! We also are waiting on some smaller supplies... fragging / propagation kit and some epoxy to maybe join a couple pieces of rock together or something :wildone:

Now to wrap up eating my lunch and get the rest of this overtime Saturday done with so I can maybe stop at a LFS on my way home. Here's hoping they still have that piece I saw last week. :fun2:

 

[troubadour11]

Well, I only had 1 day off over the weekend. I got off work on Saturday in time to swing by a LFS. But all their corals were closed up and not looking to good. I'm not sure if I caught them in a lighting change, just after feeding, or if there was some "other issue." They had recently lost 2 of their 3 frag tanks due to something.

So when I saw something that interested me, I waited a full week on it and went back to check it out. Everything was all closed up and not looking happy, so I opted to pass on this one.

BUT then there was sunday :smokin: :strooper:

- We will start off with the sad stuff. I forgot to take a picture of this before hacking it. But I grabbed the ORA Red Planet and did a little hack job on it. Unfortunately the tissue recession had ever so slowly continued. I thought it had completely stopped, but it was getting worse VERY slowly. So... time to try my hand at hacking off a piece of coral for the first time. Cut away the bad so we can keep the good I hope!
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Basically I had to cut off the 2 biggest branch pieces about 1/2 way or 3/4's of the way to the base. :sad1: I guess we'll continue to see if this piece can stick around and pull through or not.

- Our new Red "Jawbreaker" Mushroom rock getting it's dip on. -

- Still getting it's dip on... -

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- And then a couple of it placed down in the tank after getting glued onto some rock rubble -

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- This little fella is going down by our other Ricordea's. Does anyone have a specific ID on this mushroom? Unfortunately I'm not sure if it's a Ric or not but it kind of looks like one. Either way, it's hanging out on the little mushroom island.

And now a break before a few more pictures from my day of adventure.

 

[troubadour11]

So my good wife talked me into this purchase! :inlove:

- Here's our new Fugia Plate Coral!!! It's sold at the LFS as a "Royal Orchid Fungia." Here it is getting a nice washing off in some fresh tank water and posing for a close up.

- After pushing the sand back into the corner (old power head placement dug out a ditch there). Now the new piece is sitting pretty on the sand bed waiting to open up.

- After it slowly is starting to open up in it's new home... It had great extension and puffed up within a couple hours and was open all night under the moonlights until bed.

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So far (all like 6 hours I've gotten to see it in the tank) it is pretty awesome! I have to give it to the good 'ol Wifey on this one. I think it was a solid pick up for that front right corner of the tank. And it looks pretty darn cool to boot too! :inlove:

This was a bit more of a impulse pick up. She's been pushing me to get a plate coral for awhile now. So I finally gave in to the demands on this one. If anybody has good experience or advice with these, feel free to shoot it our way.

I did a quick bit of reading on it and feel pretty confident to supply it with all it needs. But I'm always interested in tricks of the trade :thumbsup: