Maroon Lagoon V2.0

[Gig 'em]

Sad news. The pink and yellow goni I posted above randomly died on me this week. Everything else in the tank looks fine and no parameter has drifted radically. All I can think of is the new green and yellow goni I recently added brought in something that the pink goni succumbed to? No idea, but I'm super bummed that this amazing goni is gone. It started off with shrinking polyps on one half of the colony and then in a matter of days all the polyps fell off. Still baffled...

Other than my dead prized goni, everything else is looking stellar!
I moved my ASD Rainbow mille to an area with higher flow, seems to be enjoying it

I forgot how beautiful my mag was when it was on my glass, glad I can see those bright neon green tentacles again!

RCA Baton Rouge is looking unworldly

DaM mille is my favorite fuzzy acro [emoji4]

My favorite little goby in his house

Obligatory Vivids Confetti growth update shot

 

[reefmutt]

Wow! Things are looking really happy in there.
Love the clam and I want that confetti!!!!

 

[Pife]

Your tank is looking good.

 

[Gig 'em]

Your tank is looking good.

Thank you!

 

[Gig 'em]

Maroon Lagoon V2.0

I got a couple more Eviota gobies this week. Can't get enough of these little guys!

Here's a picture of the newest golden eviota goby hanging out with the original one

And for size reference...[emoji1][emoji1][emoji1]

Love those little things. So much fun to be found in the fine details of a reef tank!

While I'm at it, my squamosa is still alive and well [emoji16]

 

[Gig 'em]

Snapped some actinic shots tonight.

The light ripples across this table was beautiful. Wish I could capture it better

My RCA The Hotness mille I've been growing for a while is insane.

This red acro at night is as red as you can get. Even more red than the red planet. Eat your heart out pink tenuis actinic specials!

 

[Gig 'em]

Add a JF Solar Flare to my collection today. This thing is INSANE orange! Here it is next to my RCA The Hotness mille.

Here's an update picture of my RR Firecracker, also looking amazing

 

[tripdad]

Dang! Those are some colorful corals, nice!

 

[Gig 'em]

My squamy is still alive and kicking! Taking lots of photos while I can, you never know about clams and when they'll decide to kick the bucket!

I know I'm probably sounding like a broken record, but man I LOVE these eviota gobies! They're so mobile and inquisitive. When I shut my pumps off, all my big fish hide, but these little guys come out and explore the tank. They're not afraid of anything! They swim up and watch what I'm doing, hardly budge when I move my hand in the water.

Hard to capture the blue of my blue matrix, but it is stunning! Darker blue than my Oregon Tort IMHO.

Vivid Confetti growth has slowed down, seems like it has reached its borders with other corals and is just thickening up now. In the process of clearing more growth space for it...

 

[Gig 'em]

Was going through my thread today and stumbled on a FTS from exactly 2 years ago. How things have changed!

 

[travisstewart]

Add a JF Solar Flare to my collection today. This thing is INSANE orange! Here it is next to my RCA The Hotness mille.

Here's an update picture of my RR Firecracker, also looking amazing

Both is these are hot!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gig 'em]

It's been a month since I've updated so I thought I would do a little photo update and recap!

My wife and I went overseas for vacation for a little over 2 weeks and had a good friend/neighbor/professional SPS guru watch the tank while we were gone. Everything seemed to be going alright until near the end of my trip I got a text at 3 am telling me my neighborhood was experiencing power outrages and that my Vivids Confetti colony was dead. Luckily my house only lost power for half an hour, but I still lost about $2,000 in corals that day. Didn't quite make sense how I could lose so much in that time frame...

My Confetti the day after

Today when I finally had time to tear it out

After I got home I did some investigating before leaving for another week and a half and found that oh! my GFO and carbon had been turned off right about when I had left. I had changed the media out a couple days before I left and there had been water in the canisters, but the sponges were barely dirty when I opened them. Clearly it had been turned on and then shortly after been turned back off. Low and behold my PO4 was above 0.4 ppm after 50 gallons of water changes. I assume the PO4 had gotten even higher before the water was changed. My diagnosis is the carbon/GFO somehow got accidentally turned off and some of my corals just didn't handle the elevated levels very well. [emoji24] Of course it was my most expensive coral that died. [emoji849] If I've ever had luck, it's been bad luck.

Everything seems to be rebounding now. Still working on replacing my lights with T5s and custom LED strips. Here's how things currently look:

My mag keeps growing despite never being fed. Took advantage of a moment it was slightly balled

I now know why my Orphek Atlantik started freaking out. I guess a couple years confined in a hood really did a number on this USB port. Couldn't find the replacement piece at Frys so I'm at a loss until I replace the whole card or find this connection.

 

[Piper27]

That sucks, sorry to hear about the gfo issue. That's why I went to carbon dosing and nitrate additions randomly when needed to lower phosphates that creep up.
That firecracker is insane, number one best deepwater acro. I cant wait to find a nice piece for a deal I can afford. I bought a pack from Tony right before my tank went down the drain so that hurt pretty bad...

 

[Matt_work27]

That red tenius is awesome, where did you get it from?

 

[Gig 'em]

That red tenius is awesome, where did you get it from?

Red tenuis? Mind referencing the exact coral so I don't mistake it for a different coral?

 

[Matt_work27]

The one to the lower right is my GE The Upside Down.

Grabbed a couple more photos tonight while I was cutting frags.

here is the post

 

[Gig 'em]

here is the post

If you're referring to the last photo of the red table, that's the GE REDRUM. I believe it's a hyacinthus. Most red coral I have in my tank, more red than the red planet.

 

[Gig 'em]

Small update (sort of related to my tank) I have decided to remodel the fish room and move things around/add a frag tank. Some progression shots so far. I'm still a far ways off from getting the room fully operational again, but it feels good to be this far and ready to start building a new stand for a frag tank.
Before

Current condition:

I also added a couple of new additions to the tank today. Went to a LFS and saw a gold torch and this gorgeous goni and I couldn't say no [emoji5] I'm hoping the goni survives, something in my water hasn't agreed with gonis in the past few months and half of mind bleached and receded away, the rest are hardly hanging on. I'm hoping another large water change after I replaced my DI and carbon will help.

 

[Gig 'em]

My goni is still kicking and looks gorgeous. Thought I would share in case it kicks the bucket unexpectedly.

I don't know if any of you have experienced this, but my squamosa clam has stopped growing new scutes and I don't really understand why. My nutrients aren't too low, PO4 is between 0.06-0.09 ppm these days and my NO3 is 24-32 ppm, so I feel like that would normally be enough. I also feed the tank pretty heavily with frozen food and dried plankton. My SPS grow just fine, so I am still scratching my head on this one. I take the clam out to feed once in a while. Today it's in a bath of phyto and oyster feast for about an hour. Too much???

 

[Gig 'em]

Started working on a frag tank on the 4th of July. Progress is surprisingly good when you don't have to travel all week for work!

This piano finish I added to my work top is almost too pretty to use! Now I'm afraid I'm going to get it messy and scratched [emoji38]