Lily's first reef! - updated

[IridescentLily]

Oh! Is that what it is? I had no idea. Thanks so much for the info Sir Patrick.
I'll read up on them to make sure they are compatible with other stuff I'd like to grow in this tank.

 

[SIR PATRICK]

Glad to help- any time! I hope the nem fits into your plas, because they are pretty sweet!

Hope to be able to follow your build.....been waiting to see this happen for a very long time!!!

 

[IridescentLily]

Heres the ro/di auto top off system for the tank.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVlwZyo8bTc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rFEif71Vtk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thusfar it's working perfectly
I saw some corals at my lfs I thought were interesting in keeping so I video-d short clips of those corals. That will help me make up my mind about what to keep in the tank.

Thanks much.

 

[Jarred1]

The rock scape looks awesome!

 

[IridescentLily]

The rock scape looks awesome!

Thanks!
In the planning of it I'd imagined a "horseshoe" type of rockscape, with a piece of LPS in the center. Luckily I was able to add one additional level of rock vertically, so the horseshoe became more of a cave. And then come to find out when I looked that it's a through-pass (or is it pass-through?) cave, so I was stoked.

 

[Jarred1]

It would be neat to put a nice open brain or plate coral in the center of the cave.

 

[IridescentLily]

Yes! That's what I was thinking too.
I'm doing price comparisons of corals and it's like...holy crap there's quite a difference in the pricing of similar corals. So I've gotta look around a bit more.
The Ammonia is going down but s l o w l y. I'm assuming the nitrite will start to build soon.
I almost feel like whining but not yet, lol.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Ahh the slow pace of waiting for that ammonia to drop. Such an agonizing time.

I like the idea of the videos keep them coming.

 

[cherubfish pair]

That rock looks like it has lots of interstices. Cant wait to see it all corallined up!

 

[IridescentLily]

Ahh the slow pace of waiting for that ammonia to drop. Such an agonizing time.

I like the idea of the videos keep them coming.

Hi dude!
I know right? The waiting. But i know it's SO worth it.
Thanks about my vids, I hope they help some folks. I like the livestock animal parts best lol.

That rock looks like it has lots of interstices. Cant wait to see it all corallined up!

Thanks Cherubfishpair! Me too. The lfs we went to last weekend had some live rock with insane coralline growth.
As far as fish we've pretty much decided on a gramma loreto/royal gramma.
And a Blenny.
And a blue tuxedo urchin.
Thanks for reading.

 

[IridescentLily]

 

[SIR PATRICK]

Looks like you are good to go! You see a diatom bloom yet?

 

[IridescentLily]

Looks like you are good to go! You see a diatom bloom yet?

Hi Sir Patrick!
No diatom bloom yet.

 

[IridescentLily]

I got my first corals and my clean up crew!
2 nassuris snails
2 Cerith snails
2 blue leg hermit crab

There is a rock frag with three different colors of zoas. And then we got this one coral mystery coral that we dont have a 100% ID yet but we think it's a tonga mushroom. We thought to start with these hardier corals first before other corals to see if they do alright and to make sure I know what I'm doing first.

 

[Misled]

Hi kids!!!! I see things are moving right along!!!!!

:wavehand:

 

[IridescentLily]

Hi kids!!!! I see things are moving right along!!!!!

:wavehand:

Dude! It's good to see you
Yes things are moving along well so far.
I saw two spots of green film algae right after i told Sir Patrick that I didn't see any yet lol. Yay! This is a good thing.
I've been waiting for two years for a reef tank with corals, so today I feel like a kid at Christmas!

 

[BlueCorn]

I've been waiting for two years for a reef tank with corals, so today I feel like a kid at Christmas!

It's been a long time coming for me too. I haven't had a tank I cared about in years.

 

[dc]

You guys almost look like you know what you're doing.


Looks great.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

:thumbsup: Now the fun begins!!

 

[IridescentLily]

Lol Debi, and thanks you three

Today I moved my zoas out into the light.
I started them off in the "cave" area because it was shaded. Then I noticed about 12 hours later that the 4 zoas that were the only zoas in the light were wide open, and the ones in the shade were closed. So today I moved them an inch to the right into full light. They all opened after that! I was so excited

Then late this afternoon I decided to feed the zoas and the mushroom. We got a blend of various flake food from the guy at the lfs.
So we bought a turkey Baster. We put the food into a container then i took a bit of tank water into the baster, then put it into the container that I put a bit of flake in. Then I mixed it together a little and sucked only a bit of that mixture into the Baster. Then I put the tip of the baster about an inch over the zoas and *poof*. And squeezed a bit to my tonga mushroom too.
About 10 seconds later they were all curled up eating the food.
After about ten minutes they were all happy and puffed up again.

I-am-lov-ing-this