Great Barrier Breeder

[reefsurfing]

Hi everyone,


I am going for an archipelagic sps build and I have to give credit where its due. Most of my ideas are gleaned from several different builds here on R.C. so thank you all for sharing your hard work to make this possible.

The equipment is quite simply the remenants from my 90 gallon

Lighting choice: Ecotech Radion (2)
Flow: MP40's/Tunze silence
Overflow:Herbie
Tank: 40 Breeder
Rock: BRS Pukani
Sand: Fiji Pink
Water quality: BRS premium reactor w/ high cpacity GFO
Bubble king mini 180


Livestock: (All tranferred from my 90)
SPS
Gorgonia
Sand Sifting Star
Sea Cucumer
(3) Bartletts Anthias
(2) Chromis
(1) Green Spotted Mandarin
(2) False Percs
(3) Sexy Shrimp
(1) Fire Shrimp

Unfortunately, my 90 gallon had issue with the silicone and needed to be taken down rather quickly. You might notice I have tangs in my pictures one of which(sailfin) has already been placed with a club member in a 180 gallon. The other yellow tang is still looking for a good home and is being well cared for in his temporary home. I would never typically transfer livestock to a tank that has only been cycling for a week but I had no choice in the matter and I must say that it worked out well.

In my dire straights I reached for Bio-Spira and after a few weeks have yet to record any lose of life. I was really skeptical of the product but nothing showed any signs of stress. The SpS I chose to transfer over have browned out but are already beginning to exhibit polyp extension.

Heres the First picture after the tank was set up:

 

[reefsurfing]

and a few more

 

[reefsurfing]

So today I am pretty exciting and a little anxious about seeing my normal diatoms, now covering every rock. Cycle seems to be pretty far along, still, no ill effects. One question I have wondered about all day is if the GFO would interfere with the cycle?!

I know it really has little to do with the nitrogen cycle but since I am using Pukani base rock I want everything to be exposed to as little phosphate as possible.

So what do you think; Leave it or take it offline?

 

[creefer01]

I would run it.

 

[Chris Lakies]

Run the gfo.

 

[phasezero]

Goodness that mandarin is obese. Butter soaked mysis? I want it.

 

[reefsurfing]

Im gald you guys agree with me in keeping it up the GFO. Consistency is probably best being that this was an emergency tank transfer. I added an Eheim fish feeder for the sake of the Anthias as they are always ravenous. The fish although active werent as hungry as usual; most likely from the feeder. The cycle is probably hitting its hardest right now so to ease some of the stress I did a small 4 gallon water change and added one small capful of "Prime". I am not a fan of chemicals but keeping my fish safe in this instance takes priority over my preferences.


That Mandarin will eat absolutely anything from mysis to pellets! I think I was pretty fortunate to get him since so many are hard to train to eat anything but Pods. Believe it or not that picture does him no justice, he's garfield esque, I expect him to just split into two mandarins one day.

I will post some pics in a few days when I know what the tanks going to look like when the "dust" settles at the beginning of week four.

 

[reefsurfing]

LIVESTOCK
So everything seems to be passing the stress of the transfer now at the beginning of week four and it was very soft cycle :spin2: . I have seen a few changes in my corals in the recent days.

My pearlberry is starting to be more berry than brown like in the first set of photos. My garf bonsai, red planet and purple plasma which have also recovered; exhibiting better colors and polyp extension. For zoanthids everything made it except for my blue hornets, I still have Candy apple reds, Red hornets, atomic green palys and radioactive dragon eyes that look amazing. Some interesting changes in with the fish in the tnak are also taking place.

One of my Anthias is getting better colors and becoming a dominant male but he seems to have a wife he loves and the other he beats and keeps in the kitchen. Everytime they eat he chases her off What are you going to do?! I also noticed now my Sexy shrimp are coming out more often so I can enjoyu their little dances even more now.

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EQUIPMENT
I had a malfunction on the Elos Top Osmono controller so I emailed ELos Saturday night and got an email back in less than an hour. Jesse from Elos wrote me back and appologized at 8PM on a saturday; THAT my friends is some A+ service. It is an exceptional unit so I will be excited to get that back. Now my flow situation was something I was thinking about changing since MP's are insane in a 40 breeder but any route I go its just not worth it to switch form something I can just turn down. I checked out Tunzes and wanted something controllable and the 6095's with controllers would be wash on the sale of the MP 40;s. For now I think I will stick with these powerheads unless a good deal comes along on something else.

In lighting news I have to say the corals seem to be responding and recovering much faster in this tank than they did in my 90. One of the few changes I made was to switch from AI to maxspect and then quickly to radions. The radion is by far my favorite for a ton of reasons; mostly, the wife loves 'em

sorry for cell phone pics but on my budget they will have to do.

 

[reefsurfing]

I guess this turning into more of a journal than a thread but I saw something today worth writing. I finally and reluctantly turned up my radion to sixty percent. Now , when I came home I expected to see at least one sps to be hurting but I saw huge improvement. The pearl berry had great polyp extension and notable color improvement. I moved all the frags onto rocks; now to wait on them to establish bases so they can take off.

 

[Chris Lakies]

I know what your saying about the mp40's being insane in the 40! I just got a MP40 to sync with my MP10 and it is sweet!

 

[reefsurfing]

ya, i'm curious what setting works for you, anything above the third light is a tornado in my tank.

 

[Chris Lakies]

I have the mp40 set as master. Running lagoon mode. Mp40=5 dots and mp10=10 dots. I use about an inch of caribsea special grade and no problem.

 

[reefsurfing]

The Fiji pink maxes out at three dots with two mp40s! The Fiji is definitely a more fine grain but I love the look and can't get rid if it. I have even considered selling the 40 and getting 6025 tunzes with 6095 grates.

 

[Chris Lakies]

I could crank it up even more, but no need..

 

[reefsurfing]

Good news; finally got the yellow tang a good home and he is enjoying his new 8x4x1 frag tank. Since I gave him away I wanted to add some yellow back to the aquarium so I got a four spot coris wrasse that is an inch and a half long. Also managed to get a green clown goby for the tank. Both fish are being really shy and hiding a lot but the wrasse seems to be coming out of his shell his third day in the tank. The corals have been doing a little better.

Starting to see some encrusting happening with all the corals but also spotted a little bleaching before any real damage was done. So, for now, the frags are back on the sand.
I think Over the weekend I may have kept the lights on too long at the new 65% and they struggled with the change. Frags all seem to be doing well out of the direct light from the radion. I am trying to grow four red planet frags from single polyps and so far so good. One of the single polyp frags is already up to three polyps. Still thinking about switching out the MP 40's for Tunze 6095's

Still struggling to make a decision with the change since these mps are only about 6-9 months old. At this point I dont fee like I ve gotten any use out of them and mine are pretty quiet. I have to be right next to the tnak to hear them even in wave mode.

Any opinions out there?

 

[Mangodude]

Tank is looking good!
Just set up a 40b as a frag tank so I'm using yours for ideas

 

[reefsurfing]

Tank is looking good!
Just set up a 40b as a frag tank so I'm using yours for ideas

Thanks for the kind words! Look forward to seeing yours set up, the breeders have great dimensions, if I am good for a while maybe this will become the frag tank :spin3:.

Have some updates:
The Bio Load has gone from extremely heavy to pretty light as most of the larger fish went to new more appropriately sized homes. You will notice in the newer picstures I have more nano sized fish now.

The New List:
Green Clown Gobie
CLowns
Yellow Coris Wrasse (1")
Chromis
Psychodelic Mandarin
Sexy Shrimp
Blood Fire Shrimp
Sea Cucumber

SPS :
Red Planet
Pearlberry
Garf Bonsai
Purple Plasma

The corals are all starting to engulf their frag plugs on the mission to grow. The frags were all on rocks but after four days in the new spots they showed signs of bleaching: back down to the sand we go for now.

 

[nanoreef13]

Looks pretty good