My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[biggles]

Hey Mudbeaver, sounds like you're all set to become a reef addict again mate. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself once settled down so the reef tank is a great idea. I'll probably bother you lots once you start your journal lol.

Lol Bello, i told you i haven't been to a LFS for a couple of months now so everything i've stuck down is just bits of the same acros. Having said that i did finally go to the LFS today - no new fish once again but i took a flubber gallery of pics for you just so you can see some of the 'stuff' that i routinely ignore due to SPS tunnel vision - you have to fight your way through this flubber jungle to find the 'real' corals.........

About 1/3 of the flubber holding systems........

Semi hard flubber.......

Check out the gigantic panther guarding the flubber.........

Flubber discs and rocks covered in all these cool colored zooy things........

Always heaps of cats - look like something a martian cow would regurgitate.......

Everything is fluoro cause it's flubber.....

Flubbercans........

I'll grab some of these blue clams down the track, they love the radium.

So you might think that with all those colorful things on offer i'd come home with some beauties - nope all i managed was two pale bleached zero PE acros that have both started to STN at the base and on some branches, will chop them up tomorrow if they don't stop the kamikaze behavior - and a brown seri that better turn 'not green'. Going to break everything up regardless as i only want small bits not colonies.

Bought this for the branch growth pattern

Brown bomber seri - don't have a good record with these.....

 

[Mudbeaver]

Hey Mudbeaver, sounds like you're all set to become a reef addict again mate. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself once settled down so the reef tank is a great idea. I'll probably bother you lots once you start your journal lol.

Lol Bello, i told you i haven't been to a LFS for a couple of months now so everything i've stuck down is just bits of the same acros. Having said that i did finally go to the LFS today - no new fish once again but i took a flubber gallery of pics for you just so you can see some of the 'stuff' that i routinely ignore due to SPS tunnel vision - you have to fight your way through this flubber jungle to find the 'real' corals.........

About 1/3 of the flubber holding systems........

Semi hard flubber.......

Check out the gigantic panther guarding the flubber.........

Flubber discs and rocks covered in all these cool colored zooy things........

Always heaps of cats - look like something a martian cow would regurgitate.......

Everything is fluoro cause it's flubber.....

Flubbercans........

I'll grab some of these blue clams down the track, they love the radium.

So you might think that with all those colorful things on offer i'd come home with some beauties - nope all i managed was two pale bleached zero PE acros that have both started to STN at the base and on some branches, will chop them up tomorrow if they don't stop the kamikaze behavior - and a brown seri that better turn 'not green'. Going to break everything up regardless as i only want small bits not colonies.

Bought this for the branch growth pattern

Brown bomber seri - don't have a good record with these.....

Where the hell are you Macna?

 

[biggles]

Where the hell are you Macna?

:lol2: You can see now why i have trouble not buying anything when i go for a look. Reeflections is my favorite store in Melbourne and has the best colored corals of any type on a regular basis. All the guys there know their stuff and look after their regular customers but can't seem to rid their systems of the massive flubber infestation they have going on.
I think these things must get stuck in the collectors nets when they're getting real stuff like acros and montis..........

This is the other acro i got today, it's the one i'm really worried about and is dead at the base.

 

[Mudbeaver]

:lol2: You can see now why i have trouble not buying anything when i go for a look. Reeflections is my favorite store in Melbourne and has the best colored corals of any type on a regular basis. All the guys there know their stuff and look after their regular customers but can't seem to rid their systems of the massive flubber infestation they have going on.
I think these things must get stuck in the collectors nets when they're getting real stuff like acros and montis..........

This is the other acro i got today, it's the one i'm really worried about and is dead at the base.

Oh my..... your in the best spot in the world, Macna shmacna , wow, thats one of your local store, you put ares to shame.....i mean prehistoric shame, lol .....no kidding ......lol. :lol: is it possible to hate in a friendly way??? :lol:

 

[Bello]

:lol: biggles, unfortunately, it seems that I've caught the sps tunnel vision from you. I'm actually selling/trading off most of the flubber I've collected over the last few years, using the money towards more equipment and some sps....btw, I'm STILL waiting on my frags :lol:

Nice acro pickups, but how the hell are you gonna fit them into your scape? I find the 2nd one to be very interesting, hopefully they survive and get super interesting. I think the seri you've picked up is a stellata or guttatus... either...I had a pink one like that... it's now green :lol:

Some really nice flubber pics though. The acans are pretty cool, but you're right about a mixed reef being more difficult to maintain than a dedicated sps... either way... I'm getting outta the flubber hoarding :lol:

Oh, and you gotta get one of them blue clams!!! Gorgeous!!

 

[troubadour11]

Wow... that was an awesome photo tour! Thanks :thumbsup: I appreciate the flubber tour. I will end up trying at least some flubber in my tank. Either an anemone or at least a piece or two of flubber. I still don't know where my mixed reef idea will fully take me yet. But I can't wait to find out! :rollface:

That brown bomber Seri you picked up looks mighty interesting to me. I, personally, can't wait to see how that new piece takes to your tank!

And I wouldn't be able to pass up those clams. I am very interested in trying to keep a clam once I have a capable system (lighting will come after I actually get water :headwalls Part of the reason I worked really hard to maximize sand bed area in my design were in the hopes to have one or two prime spots for eventual clams. I'm mesmerized by them whenever I see them.

I just got back from the hardware store myself. I picked up some materials for a little plumbing project. I'm working up the courage to cut through the back of my stand and then through the wall to work on the plumbing this weekend. Hard hat, on for construction work: :strooper:

 

[Michigan Mike]

That's quite the LFS you have at your fingertips, flubbercans...lol

Sweep up the clam! Perfect addition!

 

[xxvietxjustinxx]

Great tank. Future TOTM for sure. Are you dosing anything besides cyclopeeze and reef roids (not including 2 part)?

 

[biggles]

Oh my..... your in the best spot in the world, Macna shmacna , wow, thats one of your local store, you put ares to shame.....i mean prehistoric shame, lol .....no kidding lol. is it possible to hate in a friendly way??? :lol:

Yeah it's a cool salt water shop and it's only 50 yds from a train station so i train it there now to save the 90 min traffic snarled drive. They ask me if i'm 'training it' now lol and pack my corals in a poly box for me to keep warm as it's winter here. I'm getting some weird looks at times so no doubt i'll be taken at gunpoint soon by the rail police as a possible terrorist.....:rolleye1:

:lol: biggles, unfortunately, it seems that I've caught the sps tunnel vision from you. I'm actually selling/trading off most of the flubber I've collected over the last few years, using the money towards more equipment and some sps....btw, I'm STILL waiting on my frags

Nice acro pickups, but how the hell are you gonna fit them into your scape? I find the 2nd one to be very interesting, hopefully they survive and get super interesting. I think the seri you've picked up is a stellata or guttatus... either...I had a pink one like that... it's now green :

Some really nice flubber pics though. The acans are pretty cool, but you're right about a mixed reef being more difficult to maintain than a dedicated sps... either way... I'm getting outta the flubber hoarding

Oh, and you gotta get one of them blue clams!!! Gorgeous!!

Ha Bello - good man, get rid of that wavy, silly putty stuff and get more colored sticks. I think we need to beat that LFS guy that you ordered the frags from mate........
Funny you mention 'where can i fit new corals.......' i just happened to discover a redeeming feature of that big ugly green banana stag at the back of the tank - epoxy sticks to it like 'something' to a blanket...... it has a non green 'growth' on it now lol...... Thanks for the seri info Bello - not....... lol. I'm going to smash that thing up and stick bits all over the place to see which, if any i can not kill, shrink or keep colorless. I don't really like seri's now, i'm seri traumatised tbh.
Clam garden in the hidden sand bed between the two rock formations is already planned and they'll also be visible looking through the big rock arch at the front

Wow... that was an awesome photo tour! Thanks :thumbsup: I appreciate the flubber tour. I will end up trying at least some flubber in my tank. Either an anemone or at least a piece or two of flubber. I still don't know where my mixed reef idea will fully take me yet. But I can't wait to find out!

That brown bomber Seri you picked up looks mighty interesting to me. I, personally, can't wait to see how that new piece takes to your tank!

And I wouldn't be able to pass up those clams. I am very interested in trying to keep a clam once I have a capable system (lighting will come after I actually get water) Part of the reason I worked really hard to maximize sand bed area in my design were in the hopes to have one or two prime spots for eventual clams. I'm mesmerized by them whenever I see them.

I just got back from the hardware store myself. I picked up some materials for a little plumbing project. I'm working up the courage to cut through the back of my stand and then through the wall to work on the plumbing this weekend. Hard hat, on for construction work: :strooper:

Hey Troubster, go for it with some flubber with your first reef. I did with my first tank too until i realised that:

1. any alk they use is too much.
2. they're poison spewing, water fouling SPS assassins.
3. if you can't take someone's eye out with a coral then it's flubber and doesn't belong in your tank.

Clams are easier to keep happy than a lot of SPS so you'll have some nice ones living in your reef down the track for sure mate. I used to have 4 electric blue maximas in the last tank - they made those ones i posted look like garbage lol. I don't see any for sale any more unfortunately.
Good to hear you're getting some things done on the system Troub, might want to grab a third heater too as we'll be well into the next ice age by the time you get water into that bloody tank

That's quite the LFS you have at your fingertips, flubbercans...lol

Sweep up the clam! Perfect addition!

I'm lucky having a couple of great LFS's i can regularly visit and always know i can walk out feeling bad at how much money i spent yet again lol.
I was just looking at the clam pic and thought - why didn't i buy one of those rather than sulky sick SPS :headwallblue: must get clams, must get clams...........

Great tank. Future TOTM for sure. Are you dosing anything besides cyclopeeze and reef roids (not including 2 part)?

Thanks mate, still very young but hopefully it'll be on for young and old with coral biffo as things grow and do bad things to each other in the name of acro supremacy. I generally let things fight it out unless it involves any of my SCC frags - i kill anything that goes near them lol.
I feed the corals a pinch of roids twice a day, same with the cyclops powder but i dissolve that one first so it doesn't float. Every second night i feed a pulverised frozen mysis cube, big pinch of roids and cyclops all soaked in half a cup of tank water for 20-30 mins. I add a small bit straight away to let the corals know dinner is coming and they get all polypy with the 'taste' lol. After 20-30 mins i just tip the lot in the display and turn the skimmer off for an hour. I have no socks or any other mechanical filtration so everything can go everywhere.

 

[Bello]

Hmm... today's Saturday.....Wonder what biggles is upto? Says he won't visit the LFS soon, but we all know he's a sneaky b******..... :lol:

Can't believe you stuck an acro on the poor green colony!! Alright, since you rightly won't post an FTS until I clean up my nonsense, how about a pic of how you've epoxied the acro on the acro... this just sounds weird .....and it'll be bye bye flubber very soon. Just had a moment of umm, brilliance? Will convert the drop off into an easy softie/lps reef, and leave the cubes...... full sps.

Thanks for all your help biggles :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Hey Troubster, go for it with some flubber with your first reef. I did with my first tank too until i realised that:

1. any alk they use is too much.
2. they're poison spewing, water fouling SPS assassins.
3. if you can't take someone's eye out with a coral then it's flubber and doesn't belong in your tank.

Clams are easier to keep happy than a lot of SPS so you'll have some nice ones living in your reef down the track for sure mate. I used to have 4 electric blue maximas in the last tank - they made those ones i posted look like garbage lol. I don't see any for sale any more unfortunately.
Good to hear you're getting some things done on the system Troub, might want to grab a third heater too as we'll be well into the next ice age by the time you get water into that bloody tank

Those all sound like valid reasons. If I don't keep a Nem... I'll definitely have a couple flubbery pieces. I always seem drawn to branching flubbers (hammer or torch). So I'm sure I'll have a couple pieces at least in the beginning.

Really interesting to hear you feel clams are easier to keep then lots of SPS. That sounds promising to me for sure :dance: I'd love me some electric blue clam :love2: I'm looking forward to having a clam as much as anything else in my tank. Although all of that will come after water :facepalm: I'm definitely getting closer though now!

Hmm... today's Saturday.....Wonder what biggles is upto? Says he won't visit the LFS soon, but we all know he's a sneaky b******..... :lol:

Can't believe you stuck an acro on the poor green colony!! Alright, since you rightly won't post an FTS until I clean up my nonsense, how about a pic of how you've epoxied the acro on the acro... this just sounds weird .....and it'll be bye bye flubber very soon. Just had a moment of umm, brilliance? Will convert the drop off into an easy softie/lps reef, and leave the cubes...... full sps.

Thanks for all your help biggles :thumbsup:

+1 ... any close-ups of that reef bonsai?

 

[biggles]

Hey ho guys

Troub - go the clams buddy when the time is right, they're awesome and always catch the eye of visitors - them and the stupid fish lol. I saw you're getting a lot closer to being 'wet', a good thing as i don't know how much longer i can keep Bello off your back......

Not going anywhere this weekend Bello lol, i like the drop off tank plans to isolate all that crap into one big dump. :thumbsup: mind you i think the ocean would be even better for all that flubber.......

Ok so the stupid 'purple' stag branch i bought that was browned out is in the top right of this pic i posted the other day. You know i'm always complaining about too many blue acros Bello, well i even asked what color it was when it came in - 'oh pretty sure it was purple, yeah it was purple. ' Ok i'm on a winner here i thought........

So jammed a big gob of epoxy putty into the heart of that disgusting green monstrosity that tried to kill one of my SCC frags - ain't never forgiving it for that. Stuck the brown branch into it where it's copping a roasting from the halide - talk about driving out the zoa fast lol. Look at the two shots after 4 days of light nuking and you tell me if you see purple - it's another bloody blue acro ! :deadhorse1: It hasn't put out a polyp since i shoved it under the sun but i expect to see that improve within a few days.

 

[biggles]

Top down time - it's always a good time for top downs.

Can you spot the little white clawed crab who's the king of the castle in the red table lol.

I 'grafted' another small branch on the blue stag - i just stuck it on with glue and epoxy lol. That was two weeks ago and it'll be healed over completely in another couple of weeks.

Here's the new 'yet another blue stag' that i stabbed the green monster with....... didn't kill it though.

The new acro i was worried about - he's settling right in now and is starting to color up nicely at the tips.

One of my purple acros, i'm still finding it hard to find purple SPS....

The A. horrida branches are all developing yellow tips, the monti is my fav monti - it was green when i bought it and has turned very 'yellowish' now.

SCC in high light is still encrusting away instead of growing branches

Another SCC frag but this one is down low on the raft - same colors as the much higher light frag above.

This bloody thing is just ridiculously colored, it's insane how rich the pigments are in the tissue. Oh and another SCC frag lol.

I still want a YT, multibar angel, clams, another skunk shrimp & a blood shrimp. Oh i need to get the clown a mate at some stage just because......

 

[Quintis]

Looks amazing as always biggs! The color of your corals is just awesome. I must I was surprised to see that you use the MH reflector from Fishstreet!?

 

[biggles]

Looks amazing as always biggs! The color of your corals is just awesome. I must I was surprised to see that you use the MH reflector from Fishstreet!?

Thanks mate, appreciate the thumbs up I chose that reflector purely for the narrow width so it would fit in between the two double T5 light bars, it's rectangular profile was perfect for my requirements.
I used to use $15- white batwings when spider reflectors were all the rage and everything still went nuts lol. Mind you i did have 1050W of halides - 4" off the water on my 4x2x2........now that thing was a smokin hot radium tank - literally lol.
You don't need reflectors capable of bouncing a signal off the moon to grow SPS well, as long as most of the light hits the water one way or another you're good to go. The larger footprint tank i'm going to attach to this current setup will fit one of the more efficient reflectors you guys all like to use.

I should prob clean the dust off the top of the reflectors, salt off the bulbs and actually build the canopy lol. You can see the reverse cycle air con pointing straight at the tank - that's the end of any temp probs winter or summer

Night here now so the tank is asleep but i took this shot and the one above with just the lounge room lights illuminating the tank. Bottom left - even at night that bloody shrimp manages to sneak into the shots lol.

 

[Bello]

Whoa biggles!!! Those are crazy pics!!!

The tanks looking amazing!! The last purple millie/pros is gorgeous!!!

Wondering of the SSC would branch out better in lower light? Your opinion?

I've pretty much been underwater, battling AEFW, go easy on me

Poor green acro....:lol: but it'll be interesting to see if the blue stag encrusts or the green acro fights back

 

[echopiece]

Looking great biggles!! I hope to get my light that close to the water one day lol

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hello mate,

You have a great tank and you should be really proud.

I have just finished reading your entire journal. I was determined to do so before going to bed tonight. Phew ... :twitch:

My tank's dimensions are very similar to yours. I am hoping to follow your footsteps to emulate your success.

Are you still using that blue amino acid zeo bottle? I use Salifert's amino acids, but frankly cannot say that it makes any difference to coral colouration.

Have you ever recorded PAR values with a quantum sensor? I would like to be able to compare my PAR readings with yours. I am predicting that my corals receive a fraction of PAR that your corals get judging from their growth rate and vibrant colouration.

Cheers

:wave:

PS. I find the shrimp prices over there insane :uhoh3:

 

[biggles]

Whoa biggles!!! Those are crazy pics!!!

The tanks looking amazing!! The last purple millie/pros is gorgeous!!!

Wondering of the SSC would branch out better in lower light? Your opinion?

I've pretty much been underwater, battling AEFW, go easy on me

Poor green acro....but it'll be interesting to see if the blue stag encrusts or the green acro fights back

Hey Bello, thanks mate I have an SCC frag on the raft down very low and as you can see it's not branching any better than the others in higher light. The shot is dark so you can see the green on the encrusted base of the frag, it washes out in well lighted shots. The teal stag branch tip bottom right has made a very poor choice in direction aiming at one of my SCC frags..........:blown: I bet you think that hairy green stag is cool don't ya Bello :facepalm: I have one acro battle rule mate - green always loses (with my help) :strooper:

Looking great biggles!! I hope to get my light that close to the water one day lol

Thanks mate, next step is to work out how to stick the frags to the actual bulb and save all this mucking around with bloody water.

Hello mate,

You have a great tank and you should be really proud.

I have just finished reading your entire journal. I was determined to do so before going to bed tonight. Phew ... :twitch:

My tank's dimensions are very similar to yours. I am hoping to follow your footsteps to emulate your success.

Are you still using that blue amino acid zeo bottle? I use Salifert's amino acids, but frankly cannot say that it makes any difference to coral colouration.

Have you ever recorded PAR values with a quantum sensor? I would like to be able to compare my PAR readings with yours. I am predicting that my corals receive a fraction of PAR that your corals get judging from their growth rate and vibrant colouration.

Cheers

:wave:

PS. I find the shrimp prices over there insane :uhoh3:

Thanks a lot for the kind words mate. I stopped using amino acids months ago and don't think they're needed as long as you feed the corals appropriate food in enough quantity. That's not to say i think they are not a good thing, just that their use is not required unless you're failing to supply them through your food types. The zeo guys have very strict control over their nutrients and water overall and i can see how that method does require amino's. Btw i won't ever go the zeo route just due to cost and the lighter pigment saturation it seems to cause in many tanks, but i don't think zeo is all snake oil etc, too many awesome SPS tanks on here to dismiss the zeo method as rubbish.
I don't have a PAR meter sorry but i can keep color and growth on any acro frag almost anywhere on the bottom so there's definitely good levels everywhere thanks mostly to the Blue+ T5's that fill in all the shady spots the single 250W halide doesn't reach.
I haven't changed the lighting since day one so i don't believe the colors and deep saturation i'm now getting are due to that. In the last few months i've increased SPS food from 1 feed a day to five - that's when everything started to light up in the tank. I put a green acro under an overhang receiving nearly no light at all 2 months ago just to experiment with my food idea. The acro is 70% bleached white, has great PE on all the branches and goes PE crazy just like all the colorful SPS when i feed the corals. Some of the branches have been completely white for 6 weeks now and don't look like losing any tissue still. Kinda points to the coral surviving on food in the water almost exclusively to remain alive in my opinion.
This is why i think you feed the corals lots and they expel zoa which is masking the pigments, they decrease their solar panels as they aren't relying on light anywhere near as much for nutrition. I've run 1050W over a 4x2x2 and the colors weren't anywhere as saturated as in this tank with much lower lighting levels.
Lol yeah the shrimp are bloody expensive, a friend found me a yellow tang while doing a LFS visit today and i was happy to pay $120- for a very healthy and richly colored little fish. How much do you pay in the UK for YT's mate - btw your cricketers are cheating, non walking when they should bastards...........

He lets Potatohead touch him so the stupid shrimp thinks it's xmas, he's in the shot as usual...........

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thank you for your response mate. I have combed through your journal again to get specific ideas (in case I missed anything in my first read) about using specialised SPS food. You advised another contributor to your journal:

"As you know i always strive to keep undetectable nitrate and phos so i'ts a very ULNS that relies on direct SPS targeted food rather than the byproducts from food consumed by fish etc to feed the corals. I think either way works just fine and you should do what is easiest for you, i'm sure your going to have quite a few fish so using them as coral food machines would make sense to me."

Following your advise, I am going to go down to the direct feeding route. I have tried coral food in the past (Salifert Coral Food) before but got bloody cyano all over my sand (perhaps due to overfeeding and some other factors) and had to stop dosing. I got good growth but did not see any significant change in colouration. My tank is now almost ULNS, I have no sand bed, NO3 and PO4 are undetectable. There is no algae growth on rocks. Vigorous growth of chaeto in my sump must consume any excess nutrients before they are detected with test kits. I guess the time is right for another experiment with SPS food.

Do you use a commercial product or do you prepare your own SPS coral food mix by yourself? I could not come across any recipe or brand name in your journal unless I missed it.

As for cricket, I take your word for it mate. :lol2: I am not a cricket follower. I find the whole cricket jargon too complicated. I am a very keen football follower. My two sons are en route to become professional footballers. I breath football all the time .....

The price of YTs start from £35 over here for small ones (up to three inches) and go upwards depending on the size. I have a YT in my tank too. A mate of mine gave it to me as a birthday present (God bless him). I believe that he paid £35 because I know where he bought it from.

Cheers

PS. I am in the process of buying a macro lens for my iPhone. Thanks for the tip.