Mark's 150 gallon

[markalot]

Happy New Year everyone. May we all go broke buying acros! :celeb1:

I added some branch rocks and moved things around on the right side again to further open up the scape and provide places for new frags. I'm not exactly happy but I suck at scaping so this will have to do.



Instead of placing the Rainbow stag to the left of the Miami Orchid I put a branch rock there for the tenuis and my KBG frag. I read in multiple places that the PC Rainbow does well at slightly lower par so I placed it on a branch to the right, in front of an exquisita stag. Hopefully it works. This also guarantees the Aussie acro to the left will also be red.

Even before dropping PO4 the Nasuta had started to recover. CHeck out how much better the skin looks, and polyps are colored up.

All the phantom bite marks are gone.

 

[reefmutt]

Wow, that nasuta does look better.. That's great!
May you experience rapid growth and extreme health this year!

 

[markalot]

Wow, that nasuta does look better.. That's great!
May you experience rapid growth and extreme health this year!

Thanks Matt, same to you!

It's still covered in pods at night, but apparently they are not the cause of the damage.

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks Daniel!

I've got some epoxy, a lot of rock rubble, and small solid rocks (BRS natural frag plugs), tonight I start building over the brown pallys. My goal is to completely cover the area they are growing in and let them slowly wither away. I won't be able to get rid of them, but I can slow the spread.

The other corals I received this morning ...

UC Wild Orchid (mine looks better than this stock photo)

Fundip Tenuis (I kill tenuis, let's see how long this lasts. )

I dont have much luck with Tenuis either...good luck with that one, its a beauty!

 

[joshky]

Mark everything is looking fantastic! I love your new frags, especially the PC Rainbow, hopefully it'll do well for you.

Happy New Years!

 

[markalot]

Mark everything is looking fantastic! I love your new frags, especially the PC Rainbow, hopefully it'll do well for you.

Happy New Years!

Thanks Josh, Happy New Year!

 

[nemodan]

HAPPY NEW YEAR MARK !!!!

Daniel

 

[Wrangy]

Things are looking great Mark the new frags are killer!

All the best for the new year mate to you and all of your family!

 

[markalot]

Things are looking great Mark the new frags are killer!

All the best for the new year mate to you and all of your family!

Thanks Dom, same to you.

So today is the day I'm going to tackle the polyps on the left side of the tank. Talking to myself here, trying to come up with a plan. The slimer can't be moved, so that's an easy choice. The teal stag has barely encrusted but I would really hate to disturb it. The SSC colored a bit, then browned out as bit, so I think it's going to get chopped back to a frag and that entire infested rock removed.

I like the blue cloves because the invasive pests can slow the spread of the polyps and they don't nuke the tank when you scrape them off.

Really the only question is how many acros am I going to break trying to fix this? :headwallblue:

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks Dom, same to you.

So today is the day I'm going to tackle the polyps on the left side of the tank. Talking to myself here, trying to come up with a plan. The slimer can't be moved, so that's an easy choice. The teal stag has barely encrusted but I would really hate to disturb it. The SSC colored a bit, then browned out as bit, so I think it's going to get chopped back to a frag and that entire infested rock removed.

I like the blue cloves because the invasive pests can slow the spread of the polyps and they don't nuke the tank when you scrape them off.

Really the only question is how many acros am I going to break trying to fix this? :headwallblue:

Removing the zoas? God those things are little better than weeds. It's too bad your foxface doesn't eat them

 

[markalot]

Removing the zoas? God those things are little better than weeds. It's too bad your foxface doesn't eat them

Yea, they're pallys and technically they are the first coral I ever owned. Rat bastards. Half way done, no major breakages. The blue stag fell but I caught it seconds before hitting the glass. Wife told me to watch my mouth.

Going to the store to get more water weld. Skimmer had to be turned off but corals look happy.

 

[markalot]

It's done. The slimer broke into 4 huge pieces but in the end I think this was a good thing. More flow, more space, and more room to grow up.



The pile-o-slimer on the right will go to the LFS tomorrow.

 

[mhucasey]

Looks pretty good to me! You'll have plenty more slimer in no time as you know. A bright yellow or pink Acro on the right side would work well with your aquascape

 

[markalot]

Looks pretty good to me! You'll have plenty more slimer in no time as you know. A bright yellow or pink Acro on the right side would work well with your aquascape

Thanks. I have 3 possible red ones on the right, time will tell, might have to try and find a yellow.

Forgot to mention, apparently I had been running the tank around 76F rather than 77F due to the probe being out of calibration. I kept wondering why the water felt so cold.

 

[markalot]

A few more pics.

Took a top down with pumps off before I started working.

This is when I knew things might get difficult. With the teal stag on its side you can see the full size of the slimer, just before I tried to move a critical rock.

Here is why I wanted to re-mount the teal stag. Polyps invading and the darn thing barely encrusted.

I chose to mount it to a square plug, then glue that to a rock which is glued to the shelf rock. This is not a work of art.

Frag Rack. Saved pieces of Mystic Sunset monti, the SSC, and an older CR Rainbow Acro that was constantly struggling. I need more branch rock to try and make the area holding the slimer frags look nice and stay open.

 

[reefmutt]

Nice job! Like Matt said, in a couple weeks you won't even notice you hacked it all to...rhymes with Schmidt..
It was well worth removing those polyps before they really took over.
Now you got new real estate. Woo hoo!!

 

[markalot]

Nice job! Like Matt said, in a couple weeks you won't even notice you hacked it all to...rhymes with Schmidt..
It was well worth removing those polyps before they really took over.
Now you got new real estate. Woo hoo!!

Thank's Matt, I said a few oh Schmidts while working.

I am really happy how it turned out, and relieved I bought myself some time by knocking them back. They are still on the center rock which I'm covering with epoxy, and at some point I will have to deal with them on the far left side. I may go with shading rather than epoxy. Another couple of well placed monti caps perhaps.

 

[nemodan]

Mark, the new aquascape looks nice. Now let see those nice frags grow.

Cheers
Daniel

 

[glaukos]

Nice work there mark:beer:
Square or round or triangle, it will be the same beauty buddy!After all the real artist is the coral itself
Your fts's are always awesome!

 

[markalot]

Mark, the new aquascape looks nice. Now let see those nice frags grow.

Cheers
Daniel

Thanks Daniel, can't wait for it to fill back up.

Nice work there mark:beer:
Square or round or triangle, it will be the same beauty buddy!After all the real artist is the coral itself
Your fts's are always awesome!

Thanks, so here's another now that the dust has settled and the slimer frags have been traded. I have some significant browning except for the darn stags, which have been out of water and man handled and apparently like it? The green of the slimer is pretty intense!



Two old school thermometers on the glass to double check the tank temp.