My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[Bello]

Glad to hear that things are bouncing back :thumbsup:. Still a bit shocked that despite everything, stn was limited to 2 pieces, that's pretty awesome

In preparation for my holiday, in trying to finish off all the small little things that I kept putting off, but well in advance so I can observe if I missed out on anything. I really wish I'd setup a web-enabled controller, but that'll have to wait when I get back. Hopefully, I won't regret it.

I'm sure that those green fluoro's will bounce back. If they could survive what happened, they'll pull through, now that params are back to normal.

You're supposed to be getting a Colini Angel, not a Flame . That would prove superior troops, a Flame would just be "catch-up" :lol:. He's well behaved so far, fingers crossed, haven't noticed any reduction in PE................... yet Who dares wins

 

[biggles]

Hey buddy, this weekend i have to remove about 15-20 bits of acro branches that are blowing around the tank bottom after i cut them off due to the damage from the alk swing, i have algae growing on the tips of quite a few branches so i didn't exactly get away with it lightly lol.
Triple check everything before you leave and i'm sure you'll return to healthy systems. None of us like leaving our tanks unattended but i'm sure if you plan well everything will be ok :thumbsup:
The flame is destined for the sump tank i think as i still have my heart set on a multi bar angel for the display and i need something to have a go at the bloody red wire algae that refuses to go away unless i burn it with boiling water.
Wake up this morning to find this stupid frag has decided to detach itself from the spot above the orange pav overnight...... great :sad2: Obviously it wants to go somewhere else so i'll stick it down in a new place lol. Remeber it was green when i got it and now it's blue - i'm seriously getting frustrated at how many things are blue in the tank despite my best efforts to mix up the colors :deadhorse1:

 

[biggles]

I forgot to tell you last post that i received the WP-25 and have it running - best thing since sliced bread and i'll be swapping out the 6025's and the 6045 for these things. I have to say Bello that the flow from my $6- pumps is a tad low - i could get more flow drowning a sick butterfly in the bloody sump............ considering the massive financial outlay of $18- for all three i elected to run them in the garbage bin.

Alk is back to 110ml a day, only 10ml less than before the stuff up and colors are almost back to where they were so i'm a happy reefer once again
You can see in this pic where i circled a few corals where i had STN and now some algae. The green stag had 1/2" chopped off the two circled branches, the monti just died in a small spot and the acro frag with the xmas tree worm living in it also burnt at the top. Basically about a third of the SPS in the tank had tissue loss in spots but i chopped it all out before it got a hold.

 

[Bello]

So wanna rub it in, eh? Getting a Multibar angel, shame on you . Honestly, they do tend to be more sps safe, than the other dwarves. I hope you get one soon, it'll look great :thumbsup:

That blue stag on the pic above is drool-worthy. You have too much coral candy in your tank!!! :furious: And, I don't what you're talking about things looking poopy, looks pretty darn good to me....:lol:

The tips don't look too bad either. I believed that with a drop to 4.1 dkh, with alk, you end up with coral soup...and a very stinky version too. I do feel better knowing that they can tolerate such differences. Not recommended, obviously, but good to see their tolerance.

I feel bad for you, so since you have soooo much blue in your tank, I'll send you some greens and you can send me blues . Can you believe I'm still waiting on my frags, it's been 6 months of waiting. I'll be removing some of the not so fun mari colonies from my setup, hopefully I can sell them off. And then replacing them with some choice frags.

Good to hear about the WP-25. I'll probably pick up a WP-40, once I get in some of my more vital purchases. Good thing for you is, that with fewer pumps, it'll look better, and maybe, just maybe, the sand'll stop flying around. One thing that needs to be said, is that while most equipment has a time limit to its functionality, the Tunze pumps are just awesome :thumbsup: I've found them to be the most reliable....ever

Sorry about the $6 pumps, but hey you can use the magnets, to hold up keys on your fridge or toss it at an intruder or something like that :lol:.

Things are looking good, biggles, and with an angel in.... you'd be golden IMO . I know you like to bend some rules here and there :lol:

 

[biggles]

The Multibar angel is my next system priority, if i don't see one on my next LFS visit i'm going to order one in. I still want a yellow tang along with another skunk and a blood shrimp and that will top out my fish list
That stag is more of a teal color with only the tips bright blue but it appears to have settled in with good tip growth now. That frag with the xmas tree worm did have bright fluoro green polyps and was much more purple before the drop, everything comes good but at different rates i find. I've had quite a lot of alk drops over the years and for me it has always been worse when it happened slowly during full lighting over 4-5 days in between testing. Sudden rapid drops due to consumption respond well if quickly returned to normal levels for me. The halide not running at all during the entire drop also helped me avoid tip burn on a lot more corals.
I can't believe how long you've been waiting for that batch of frags mate, if you score an SCC frag i'm sure you'll think the wait was worth it :thumbsup:
The WP-25 is awesome to me simply because it's the first controllable pump i've run. The tunze pumps are still number one to me but at just $70- each i think 2 of them and the 6095 on a controller will be enough flow for the system. One of them in the sump tank will be plenty with the feed pump flow as well.
The rock on the right of the tank has been annoying me since i put it in so i took it out and replaced it with a smaller one - don't really like that either tbh......:sad2: The hammer coral nearly died from too much flow and was looking very bad so i cut the only healthy bit off the rest of the skeleton and stuck it in a rock on the sand bed. It's really hard to find a quiet flow spot for the hammer anywhere in the tank with 80X turnover currently. :fun5:
The ric is currently living upside down under the rock overhang it was originally on top of so either it's morphed into a NPS or more likely it hates my system just as the red mushrooms do. When the water had phos and nitrates those red shrooms were twice their normal size and loving it - i took the smile off their faces pretty quickly and put it back on the acros lol. A few shrooms are great for an SPS tank, if they look happy, your SPS won't be. Keep them sulking and you know your water is clean lol.

Check out the mandarin who i tried to film slyly but look at the snoop checking me out as soon as he spied me lol, i dunno what it is but now i am stalked by the shrimp and the mandarin......:debi:

 

[Bello]

The fish stocking plans sound really good :thumbsup:, though at those prices, I still think you're going overboard on the shrimp :lol:. What you gonna call them, since PotatoHead is already taken :lol:... I miss my Multibar .

Thanks for the info on the alk drops, hopefully I won't have to use it, but then you never know

Since you haven't posted your recent FTS on this thread, I've had to snoop around on other threads and see your battle preparations....And I've now lost count of how many stags and others you have, that I want!!! With the stags placed the way they are, when grown out, the contrasting heights will look awesome :thumbsup:

On that note, it's officially been 6 months waiting for the frags..... :furious:

I agree with you on the flow issue for flubber. I've still got a couple nice pieces that I didn't wanna sell off, but its been impossible to find a suitable spot for placement in the monti tank. That being said, I've rescaped the Monti tank AGAIN, waiting for my epoxy to come in, to finalize that scape. When it don't look right, meddling is inevitable :lol:

And, I've converted my drop off to ULNS, without actually planning to. Got fed up of the cyano on the sandbed, siphoned it off and went BB. I don't like BB, but because the drop off is positioned so high off the ground, it doesn't really bother me. But yeah, I'm now at ULNS, and with less feeding, everything looks PALE! Will boost feeding and try out a couple zeo additives while I'm at it.

And, since it's now at ULNS, the mushrooms and rics hate it!! I'm in the process of selling of my excess flubber and softies, so I can concentrate only on SPS.

Think its time to get Jason to ID your stags, would really love to know! And, FTS please!!!

 

[biggles]

I'm fairly certain that small multi bar i saw months ago was about $80- and yellow tangs go for $100 so the shrimp will be the last things i add lol. Potatohead is actually the boss of the tank atm, he actually confirmed for me that the acros were grabbing the roids food. He molests the acros when i feed them and is obviously 'cleaning' them of food the sneaky little bastard. I'm really looking forward to adding the angel and tang
I've gone for a dramatic scape and coral environment as i want a wild look to the the reef as a whole so stags placed in the right spot and orientation help achieve my goal, thanks for the thumbs up Bello on what i've done so far
You can see the hammer on a small rock just to the left of the frag stand, that's the best spot i have found so far but it's a bit too shaded there i think - i'm going to keep trying as he's looking much better now and i've always had a hammer in my SPS tanks. I'm still not happy with the right side rock and might end up having nothing there at all as i'm over trying to get it looking how i want lol.
Sounds like a good move removing the sand bed to clean up the tank. I did the same early on and it made things easier until i got other things like algae under control. I think going bare bottom at the start of a tank cycle is definitely a good move and you can always add some at any time if you want the benefits it provides. Pale corals sounds like hungry corals mate so the food and additives won't hurt at all :thumbsup: Can't beat seeing unhappy flubber to confirm your water is clean enough for SPS, i really do think keeping a successful mixed SPS reef is a lot harder than just keeping SPS. I can't even keep a ric living on the top of a rock.........

The tank is a mess with stuff all over the sand bed and the frag rack in there but here it is anyway. I tried to count the diff SPS and got to 35 so only really cool stuff will be going in there from now on.

6 month FTS as requested.

 

[Bello]

You certainly do love your shrimp :lol:. Hmmm, I think I need to get a couple shrimp for my tank now . The prices for the angel and tang are a bit higher, but you should know that I offered about USD 200 to my idiot LFS for a FEEDING/HEALTHY Multibar, and guess what, no luck. So yeah, if you get one, healthy, I'll be a bit more jealous than I already am .

The tank looks great!!! I'm loving the contrasting stag colours the most! Everything looks really good :thumbsup:. I agree with having nothing at all on the right hand area. More room for the coral to grow, and a cleaner, a visually less disruptive overall look :thumbsup:

I can see the placement problem with the hammer, and I completely agree that its far more difficult to have a true thriving mixed reef, than a thriving sps reef. :lol:, and unhappy flubber makes for happy sps. I have a regular green with pink tips hammer, and while its alive and grows, I know that the growth rates are nowhere near what they could be in a tank with higher nutrients. In fact, I have 2 basic, stand alone tanks, apart from the cubes and drop off, solely for the purpose of sustaining the softies and flubber I picked up in my earlier reefing days. As you can see, they don't do much for me anymore :lol:. Hopefully, I can sell/trade 'em soon.

The frags and frag rack look messy, would love to take 'em off your hands . Can you trade 'em in at your LFS, now that you've coloured them up?

Still battling cyano in the cubes... Worst case scenario, temporary bare bottom. Hopefully, I can solve the issue without resorting to that.... nobody wants to see my bum :lol:

 

[biggles]

I really wish corals and livestock were easier to acquire for you mate, sucks knowing how hard it can be for you to get stuff even when you're offering big dollars
I love the colors i'm starting to see on the different stags as they become settled, the rockwork looks like a porcupine atm with so many things sticking out everywhere lol. I think i'll get rid of the rock altogether - you hit the nail on the head, anything i put there seems to interrupt the visual flow of the tank when viewing.
So you actually have 3 reef tanks and 2 tanks full of crap - send the flubber to Troub so he can give it a go in his waterless reef system........
I'm going to get rid of a heap of annoying frags next time i go to the LFS as quite frankly they **** me up the wall, the sump is full which is why that stuff is in the DT
That cyno sounds like a real pain mate, even though i have no burning desire to see you with a bare bottom i think that might end up being the easiest solution to get that problem behind you - pun intended lol.

Top down pic time, did my best to get the colors to what you actually see.

Raft now has 10 acros, 4 monti's and a pocil on it - i think i can squeeze a couple more things on there though.......

The big blue stags are still sulking and look more grey than blue

The two frags i got a while back for $5- each were worth the money i think...... pink milli and blue/teal milli.

Discovered this colony has a tip with algae growing on it that needs snipping off.

This is a cool red/pink all over colored acro that is developing blue tips now.

This guy is jutting out on the far right of the rockwork with the stupid rock that's going soon underneath it.

Blue xmas tree worm in the blue tipped colony.

 

[Bello]

Wow, just wow biggles!!! I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment, but expect a very long reply soon!!! :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

It takes great reef keeping skills to keep a seri for 5 months Bello and prevent it from growing at all........... Potatohead has definite views on the course of action required - it involves a cement driveway and a massage with one of these. :hammer:
Personally i think sticking it upside down in one of the nastier acros would sort out the problem once and for all........

 

[Bello]

I'm never been a massive fan of shrimp, but Potatohead is adorable . You do realize that you have more pics of Potatohead, than of any other fish? I'm surprised you still have the seri in the tank. At least it stayed in place..hahaha

Alright, now about that coup you've pulled off with all those gorgeous top downs!!! Please pretty please, leave the left raft as is , it looks great!!! Beautiful coral colour contrasts, with a mix of plating, bushy and stag structures. Is that teal/blue stag, the abro? Either way, stunning!!!

The red tabling acro has certainly come alive!! The blue growth tips look fantastic!! Great pickup!! And wow, the blue/violet millie looks great!! Remember you were grumbling about them millies? Now I need to know if you've got any tips to colouring up millies that way? I can see the blue pigments (in mine) waiting to come out, but not there yet. Any tips to hurry them up?

Both the pink acros in the following pinks are pretty awesome, but the pale blue stag with the yellowish white polyps is just mad!!!! If I ever get to Aus, I want a frag of that. Either that or I'm sending a fish to pick it up :lol:. It's absolutely gorgeous!!! When did you pick that up, you sneaky b*****?!!!

I need to fix up my tank a bit, at least clear the cyano, and then I should be ok. And I'm trying to get rid of the crap in the other tanks . Need to sell/trade 'em off, but that takes time. Would happily send 'em to Troub, but he's got much better supply than me anyways .

I would love to tell you how much I'm paying for the frags, but I wouldn't want you to end up in the hospital again :lol:.....in shock!!

 

[biggles]

Potatohead is quite a character and i often watch him sneaking around the tank from the couch as i'm only 8 ft from the tank I have Potatohead and the clown both feeding from my hand at the same time and the clown now chases the shrimp away - he's all show and no go lol.
Thanks for the thumbs up on the raft mate, did you notice the STN on the fluoro lime acro at the tip of the raft, about 1/3 the way up from the base - still has zero PE and frankly i'm over it as it's super slow growing and touchy as hell compared to everything else in the tank so don't be surprised if it disappears down the track, i'm done trying to keep it happy.
Yes that's the stag i was talking about, i think it's an abro but i'm hopeless at ID's. If you like that one you'll like the other one i got about 2 months ago, i have another small branch of it that's going on the raft pointing backwards between the pinky red stag and the green one - pointing over the top of the pocil frag on the sand with an algae hairdo. Those two frags spent a month in the LED tank and i returned them to the display recently to save them - compare them to the same piece on the raft, they don't like the LED's i have. Secret surprise acros are all part of tank battles, wonder if i have any more hidden away.........:strooper:

Btw i now also hate that ugly acro on the right of the pic, the brown thing with crappy purple tips - it continually sulks and goes from blue to puple tips and the branches are a disgusting dirty tan color, it's not long for this tank..........:blown:

Those milli frags were lucky scores, remember i actually wanted two of the pinky colored one and getting that one which was green at the time was a mistake lol. The red table is taking off and is scrolling at the top splitting into two swirling growths instead of a flat plate I'll try to get a shot from the right angle so you can see what i mean. I don't think your water is the issue as i know you know what you're doing. It has to be the lights Bello, remember i have a 40x24x18 lit with just a single 250W radium and 4 x T5's and i can keep colored corals top to bottom, side to side. Did i mention that the loser of the tank battle has to convert their tank to the winner's lighting system........you know you wanna do it Bello.........:idea:
Jason thinks that's a horrida, it's a beautiful icey blue with creamy white polyps that's hard to capture and the growth is really delicate compared to the others. The branches are only about 1/4 dia throughout. There's also a smaller piece of the same acro on the raft I picked that up about 2 weeks before i got sick and yes i am a sneaky SPS keeping B
I wish that frag order you're still waiting on would come. It would be a good pick me up, new corals always get me super interested in the tank again. I really can't wait to get my angel now and i'm going to be pee'd off if it's hard since i let the other one go.
Don't tell me what they cost - i would probably keel over in shock lol. I actually think highly of you mate since you have to pay so much more than me for your SPS - not out of choice but simply because of limited suppliers. Your tanks will end up full of color mate we just have to get those bloody lights sorted out i'm sure, damn i've been rambling again lol.......

 

[Bello]

Biggles, you'll have to point out the frags of the abro for me, I tried looking for 'em but went cross-eyed :lol:. I think its worth getting an ID on it though, since I've only heard of them in green and brown, so this could be very interesting :thumbsup:

About the fluoro acro, I see the stn you're talking about. Do you think that maybe it'll do better in even lower light? Just guessing . They're supposedly deeper water acros right?

I'm still sold on LED's :lol:. It's either start or start a fire with the halides. I did mention that I don't get proper fixture here right? So in the past, I've often come home to the glorious smell of melting wires . Whether the colours are there or aren't, doubt I'll ever shift. Besides, you wouldn't be able to make fun of me then :lol:

Still battling cyano, so spent a lot of the day going a bit old school, Chaeto and 2 remote DSB's added. Let's how that does.

Man I can't even begin to grumble about them frags. The worst part is knowing that you've paid so much, and the subsequent pressure of making sure that it survives and thrives.... On the bright side, with access to more corals, there'd plenty more rescaping/meddling done, so maybe its for the better..

Just made an LED refugium light for the chaeto with some led's lying around, but dead tired.

 

[troubadour11]

All right... I have been missing out lately. You're back with a picture taking vengeance! :fish1:

The 6 month FTS looks incredible. It's all starting to grow up so fast :celeb3:

I'm really, really liking that blue tipped colony with the christmas worm living in it!

But Biggles: if green colonies are your nemesis, it sure looks like they're starting a take over ;-) Or maybe they're just ever so slowly on their way out. hahaha.

Well, I don't have much time to fool around in here today. I just thought I'd pop in and let you know I was at least stalking all these awesome photo updates.

Keep up the good reefin' dude!

 

[biggles]

Lol Bello, i thought the blue tipped stag on the raft might have been an abro but after looking at the AIMS data again i was way off - i've never really been big on requiring sp. ID's of my acros let alone calling them fancy designer names. My 'strawberry shortcake' is actually just a pink acro as is everyone's that didn't originate directly from the colony originally given that commercial name SCC. Mine will now be referred to as TPT - the pink thing. Btw did you notice the frag of TPT gone from the front of the overflow box, i found it laying on the sand bed a week ago, apparently it's into base jumping..........:spin2: i replaced it with a piece of the red table i chopped off the base when sculpting it for attachment to the rock work.
The fluoro piece on the raft is on its own now, other than fragging it up yet again if it implodes it's now a 'Shawshank' acro that needs to get busy living or get busy dying. I pointed a 6025 directly at it to assist it in making up its mind, it'll either toughen up or blow away - as i said i'm over babying that touchy little @&$%!* - the fact it's 'greenish' is not going in its favor at all lol.
If i was going to swap out my lights for LED's i'd be using at least 4 x 120W full spectrum units mounted high and run them all on lower intensity as i still believe the biggest draw back and the commonest issue reefers are experiencing is poor spectral mixing not a lack of the required spectrum.
If that cyno doesn't go away just pull most of the sand for a month and knock the problem on the head mate. I'm getting annoyed waiting for these frags of yours too Bello lol - you'd go broke if you moved here and came SPS shopping with me......... The LFS convo would go something like 'Oh here we go again Bello - stop buying green SPS sh*t and stupid acans ! ' :debi:

Nice to hear from you Troub A friend dropped by the other day and she hadn't seen the tank before - ' Oh wow it's so beautiful, i especially love the green ones.......' she's obviously demented like you and Bello and doesn't realise green SPS are what you buy when no other colors are for sale...... :strooper:

Here's the tank getting ready for bed after i cleaned up the right side and yes i know shoving all the frags onto the left side sand bed isn't a good look either lol. I have the small hammer rock at the front and a small flubber rock behind it - i need my red shrooms as they're better than algae for letting you know your water's SOFSPS - spot on for SPS - see how shrivelled and sulky they look lol :thumbsup: I don't mind the look now, i might even stick an acan or two down there (only if there's no SPS for sale) :lol2:

 

[Bello]

It's been rather tiring, the last few days.....and frustrating too, with the damn cyano, well, that was my fault anyway.

I actually noticed the absence of SCC on the overflow . Thing is, I don't know much about acro naming or lineage, but it seems that in the case of SCC, its more of a common name, as opposed to "Biggles Special Butt Kicking SSC". In that case, one would have to look at lineage, and ascertain that it came from your tank. Right now, as I understand it, SSC still refers to the wild colonies... I could obviously be wrong , but I prefer SSC to TPT :lol:

I'm still, very very very very tempted to pull out the sandbed out of one of the displays, but trying not to do anything too drastic.

If I moved over to Aus, I'd setup a 5x5x1.5 cube, with only green acros and chromis, for that gorgeous natural look....... AND to p*ss you off, of course

Funny thing is, my bloody drop off is at ULNS, cyano has almost disappeared from there, while my cubes are filled with this crap!! As, you can see, between possible aefw's, cyano, my flame angel feeling a bit sicky....I'm irritated :furious:

Just keep reefing, just keep reefing...reefing...reefing x infinity

 

[troubadour11]

Nice to hear from you Troub A friend dropped by the other day and she hadn't seen the tank before - ' Oh wow it's so beautiful, i especially love the green ones.......' she's obviously demented like you and Bello and doesn't realise green SPS are what you buy when no other colors are for sale...... :strooper:

Hahahahaha: :facepalm: ^^^ This made me laugh! ^^^ I went out looking for a picture of some aquarium that for whatever reason had ONLY green for you. :uzi:

But I failed! :worried:

I did stumble across this in my quick lunchtime search though. It seems right up your alley Biggles: How to Avoid Going Green in the Reef Aquarium :lmao:

If I moved over to Aus, I'd setup a 5x5x1.5 cube, with only green acros and chromis, for that gorgeous natural look....... AND to p*ss you off, of course

+1,000,000 times INFINITY!!!! LMAO!!!! Now you just got to get down under Bello. LOL

Biggles: that picture when the tank is getting tucked in for the night (well it looks awesome) but seems pretty blue and green :-D Maybe it's time to find a nice red/pink piece for that left hand side to balance it out. Maybe harvest a flubber piece or two for the shadow under the overhang eventually? Or don't mess with perfection, I'm just trying to contribute something worthwhile and sound like I know what I'm talking about :twitch:

 

[Quintis]

Amazing tank and thread biggles! Your tank is truly an inspiration for me. I hope my upcoming sps tank looks half as good as yours. I have a question if you don't mind. What are your thoughts on running a fuge on a heavy sps tank. I've read lots of conflicting information and I can't decide if I should have a fuge section in my sump or not.

 

[biggles]

Green chromis are the fish equivalent of green acros, you'd never have to worry about me pinching frags from your tank if you stocked that crud Bello lol. What's up with the flame angel mate, sounds like you gave him the 'slap' treatment.......... I'll chase up how your systems are going in your reef journal as i see you have some cool growth shots up

Hey Troub, your suggestions are always welcomed mate and i want to put some non photosynthetic life on the dark rock under hangs. I found a nice orange sponge growing on the back of the chalice that i dumped in the sump so too bad for the chalice as he's going to get chopped up and stuck face first on the rocks soon lol - he's taking one for the SPS team so to speak (he's green btw)..........:lmao:

Thanks for the nice words Quintis We have all types of SPS systems covered here, i do mixed colors, Bello loves green crap and Troub is still tweaking his dry invisible SPS system.........:dance:

I've had a healthy population of pods from day one as i used good live rock at the start. Since about the second month i've also had a thriving mysis population in the display and all over the sump. As you know i have the frag/coral dump section and it makes life very easy when fiddling with the display as it's a great place to temporarily place stuff and acclimate things to temp and water conditions.
I rely on feeding the corals more directly rather than keeping the water a bit dirty like most so i feel strongly that all these critters are breeding and putting food into the water column continually - i've always had fuge life in the sump and don't know that i could keep the colors i do if i ran zero measurable nitrates and phos without so much natural life and food in the system.
If you put a 120W full spectrum LED over your fuge rather than the blue white one i have you could use that section to grow corals or algae or anything you want just by adjusting the spectrum so i think you should go for it if you can. That red macro algae at the front of my display has been pruned back to nothing 3 times so far and is a colorful water pollution sponge just like others keep in the sump.
As you know i rely on the natural processes to keep my tank healthy rather than mechanical intervention so anything that adds to the micro diversity in my system is a good thing for the corals :thumbsup:
Have you got a journal going yet (one involving water) as i'd like to follow your tank and help out with advice if you need it ever, Troub will handle air related queries and Bello can show you how to create a bloody lettuce garden in your tank.........