Chuck's 90 Breeder; Custom SPS Dominated Shallow Peninsula Build

[GroktheCube]

Alk this evening was down to ~7.5. I took it right after the Radiums switched off, so that may skew the numbers a little compared to just after lights out. Upped the dosing by 4 seconds per hour, and I'll recheck tomorrow.

I took a trip the LFS today, and picked up four little frags for the QT:

Monti setosa. Pics are a bit blurry because I placed in an awkward position for photography.



Purple plating Montipora sp. The LFS broke this frag off of a wild Aussie colony for me. It doesn't look like a cap, the colony was very thick, and had columns coming up off of it, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. The growth form reminded me a little of a spongodes:



Mysterious brown Acro. it doesn't come out in photos, but there's a hint of greenish blue on the tips. Hopefully this one looks good after it colors up. Never any harm in a cheap mystery coral!



Free orange Pavona:



All have been inspected, Bayer dipped, and plopped in QT. Didn't see anything worrisome on them or in the dip.

 

[GroktheCube]

Very nice. Love the quality of the photos. :beer:

Thanks. Take enough pictures, and you're bound to get a few good ones mixed in there.

 

[GroktheCube]

Fortunately, not major excitement over the past few days. Alk demand has continued to increase, with Alk dipping down to ~7.3dKh tonight. I'm up to 23.76ml/day of ESV B-ionic 2 part. Anywhere between 7 and 8.5 is OK in my book.

I'll do another update with pictures once I get the new return pump setup and the CUC in QT. I might be crazy, but I think things have colored up a bit more.

 

[JGO66]

Nice build man, just got my m1 on saturday. Hope to see more pictures

 

[joshky]

Nice looking build so far. :thumbsup: I have the Vectra M1 as well, hopefully they'll work from the beginning and we're not all troubleshooting with EcoTech in a couple of months. :facepalm:

 

[GroktheCube]

Thanks for the compliments guys! Alk demand is continuing to accelerate, and I'm seeing readily visible growth for the first time since setting up the tank. I'm pretty encouraged given these corals haven't even been in the tank for a full two weeks yet! Colors are also steadily improving. Alk dipped down to just under 7 before lights out today. I'm increasing dosing by 6s/hour this time. Up to about 25ml/day now.

All told, things are going well!

Picture time! I didn't get to take these until after the Radiums had already switched off, so they won't be the best, but still a good representation of how the tank is doing.

FTS:






BN that was looking pretty rough starting to recover and grow. Color still has a ways to go:


Orchid Stylo is settling in well! No growth tips yet, but good PE, and steadily gaining color:




The purple Digi that I accidentally smashed to bits is starting to develop growth tips on all the branches I left strewn on the rock. I think this will make a pretty impressive looking colony after nature takes its course:



Encrusting rainbow Monti also starting to color up and grow again:


This little Jedi Mind Trick frag stuck on the rock is also looking happy. I'm seeing purple around his rim, which means he's growing again. If you look top left, you can see it attack the hitchhiking Palythoa that got a bit too close. Those Palys were the Anthozoans in the tank. I had one tiny little polyp on my original LR that managed to survive exposed to air coming across the Pacific. I know a lot of people consider them pests, but they contrast well with a lot of SPS, and have some sentimental value.



Things are definitely going in the right direction. I'm trying to be as hands off as I can with the tank, other than getting dosing dialed in, though I have been using Joe's Juice on Aiptasia. Beyond that, I'm feeding the fish NLS pellets (algae pellets, small fish pellets, and regular SW pellets) twice a day, and giving them some Mysis and Cyclopseeze every two days or so. I'll add a pinch of Reef Chilli every once in a while. I think the water is still fairly clean, as the skimmer has made at most 700ml of skimmate since setup. Food+Flow+Light-Tinkering=Happy tank I guess.

To do this weekend:
-One bulkhead and one threaded fitting are showing a little salt creep. I'll re-tape the fitting and crank it down a bit tighter this time. The bulkheads were only hand-tight, so I'll pull out some vice-grips and tighten the leaky one an extra 1/4th turn.
-Finish setting up new return
-Start attaching the skin
-Make water for the tank's inaugural WC. It might not need it yet, but I'd rather get in the habit of doing frequent WCs from the get go. I think I have just about 30 gallons worth of ESV salt left, which should let me do 20g on this tank and 10g on my GF's 40 Breeder (home to "Neo" and "Morpheus", the Neogonodactylus wennerae mantis shrimp, and the Three-Stripe Damsel). The snails and hermits from Reef Cleaners arrived today, and are in the QT. Looks like all but one or two snails will be perfectly fine. I ordered the hermits for the sake of my GF, and they're both a bit bigger than I expected.

 

[GroktheCube]

Bonus shots! This is one of my more unorthodox aquatic pets, a rather large and very aggressive Xanthid crab. He was captured using a bottle trap when he was still about half the diameter of a 500 mL coke bottle. He's grown quite a bit, obviously. We call him "Closet Crab", because he spent about 6 months living in a 15g tank in my GF's closet.

I feed him krill from time to time to make sure he doesn't break out of the sump and murder me in my sleep.





The amount of force he can generate with his claws is very impressive.

This is all the remains of an unfortunate money cowrie that somehow ended up in the sump.



At one point a year or so ago, he did this to an unlucky Turbo:


Here are the two Clibanarius hermits Reef Cleaners sent, human thumb for scale:

I think they're both close to the size of my Halloween hermit!

 

[M007]

Couple more years and that crab will make a tasty meal

 

[GroktheCube]

Couple more years and that crab will make a tasty meal

You're not kidding. He's appetizer sized now. I'm kinda curious to see how big he'll get. It seems like his growth has slowed down a little bit over the past 6 months or so, but he wasn't even dime sized two years ago.

 

[GroktheCube]

A few more shots since I got a little camera happy.

Red Monti cap re-encrusted over broken off edge, new polyps budding:


Trochus earning his keep cleaning the bottom glass:



For some reason, my Halloween Hermit seems to really like this shell:



"Fire and Ice" Zoas on M. globulus urchin:



Baby Galaxea. These must have come from the big colony when I broke it off this rock:



Male C. lineopunctatus. The blue on his fins seems to have gotten a bit deeper:

 

[GroktheCube]

The tank is doing well! I've had to raise daily dosing by another 6s/hour, which I take as a very positive sign. First WC will be happening either this weekend or next week.

I have a tentative list for fish that will be added:
-Tailspot Blenny
-Citron Clown Goby
-Helfrichi Firefish
-Valentini Puffer
-Royal Gamma or some sort of Dottyback
-3x Dispar or Ignitus Anthias, OR a couple of Fairy Wrasses (Exquisitas and Lubbocki, most likely)

I don't think I'll be adding any Tangs. The Foxface is already a large fish, and two large fish might be a bit much. I didn't have good luck in the long term with a bristletooth tang in my 120, it eventually got extremely aggressive as it grew, so I'm inclined to avoid tangs in 4' tanks.

Does anyone have any critiques or suggestions for that list?

I communicated with Adam from battlecorals via email. After talking to him, and reading a lot of positive reviews, I think I'm going to place an order for some frags in the very near future.

 

[scumbag_gli]

The tank is doing well! I've had to raise daily dosing by another 6s/hour, which I take as a very positive sign. First WC will be happening either this weekend or next week.



I have a tentative list for fish that will be added:

-Tailspot Blenny

-Citron Clown Goby

-Helfrichi Firefish

-Valentini Puffer

-Royal Gamma or some sort of Dottyback

-3x Dispar or Ignitus Anthias, OR a couple of Fairy Wrasses (Exquisitas and Lubbocki, most likely)



I don't think I'll be adding any Tangs. The Foxface is already a large fish, and two large fish might be a bit much. I didn't have good luck in the long term with a bristletooth tang in my 120, it eventually got extremely aggressive as it grew, so I'm inclined to avoid tangs in 4' tanks.



Does anyone have any critiques or suggestions for that list?



I communicated with Adam from battlecorals via email. After talking to him, and reading a lot of positive reviews, I think I'm going to place an order for some frags in the very near future.

I would personally ditch the royal gramma or dotty (they get mean AF), as well as the blenny (not mean but I'll explain why). I personally have seen way better results keeping 5, as opposed to 3 with anthias. IMO. They are my favorite fish and I've had quite a few, behavioral wise, 5 do much better. Also make sure your puffer is safe with your tank...I have one in my SPS tank and he does fine (I keep him extremely happy and fat) so I have never seen him nip (over a year). Good luck, tank looks gorgeous

 

[GroktheCube]

I would personally ditch the royal gramma or dotty (they get mean AF), as well as the blenny (not mean but I'll explain why). I personally have seen way better results keeping 5, as opposed to 3 with anthias. IMO. They are my favorite fish and I've had quite a few, behavioral wise, 5 do much better. Also make sure your puffer is safe with your tank...I have one in my SPS tank and he does fine (I keep him extremely happy and fat) so I have never seen him nip (over a year). Good luck, tank looks gorgeous

Thanks! I don't have any inverts small enough that I'm worried about the puffer.

Why do you say to skip the Blenny? I thought tailspots were generally SPS safe? I had one in my 120 for a couple years without issue.