Me too! Thanks for following along!
oldbones 56g custom reef attempt!
- Thread starter oldbones
- Start date
Me too! Thanks for following along!
Well, I guess mostly good news from this tank over the last little bit. Losing the Jawfish was a huge bummer, but the rest of the tank seems to be coming around.
I've got just a touch of what I think is Diatoms, a light dusting on the rocks and a little heavier brown coating on the return nozzle and powerheads.
I had a hard time early on with snails, but that seems to have passed and the Nassarius snails are acting normally. In fact, I've got two large trails of snail eggs on the back glass right now.
The only fish in the tank now are the Yellow Assessor and Starry Blenny, both are doing fine. The Assessor is fairly shy, but definitely comes out to eat, and a couple times a day for exploring. The Blenny is fun to watch, it's impressive how quickly and drastically he can change his coloring and spots. In fact, the two of them just met in the center of the tank for a bit of a 'stare down'. There's a Yellow Clown Goby in the QT, may move him over soon.
Zoos and Paly's are doing well, coloring nicely and maintaining size well
I now have 9-10 SPS frags in the tank, and most are doing good. Some have been in two weeks, and a few for about a month now. Some have better color than others, but none are showing any signs of distress, so I'm happy to watch them for a while and see how they do with some time in the tank. Here's a few pics...
Ponape, this one had aiptasia on the frag plug (noticed after a week in tank) so I pulled it off and mounted to a rock.
Some birdsnest from a local reefer (NYXX), he gave me a couple frags for helping out with his recent tank swap.
Stylophora, also from his tank.
Jedi Mind Trick:
And a nice hunk of Bali Green Slimer.
Still nowhere near where I want to be, of course, but with just about a week to the two month mark, I'm not going to complain.
I've got just a touch of what I think is Diatoms, a light dusting on the rocks and a little heavier brown coating on the return nozzle and powerheads.
I had a hard time early on with snails, but that seems to have passed and the Nassarius snails are acting normally. In fact, I've got two large trails of snail eggs on the back glass right now.
The only fish in the tank now are the Yellow Assessor and Starry Blenny, both are doing fine. The Assessor is fairly shy, but definitely comes out to eat, and a couple times a day for exploring. The Blenny is fun to watch, it's impressive how quickly and drastically he can change his coloring and spots. In fact, the two of them just met in the center of the tank for a bit of a 'stare down'. There's a Yellow Clown Goby in the QT, may move him over soon.
Zoos and Paly's are doing well, coloring nicely and maintaining size well
I now have 9-10 SPS frags in the tank, and most are doing good. Some have been in two weeks, and a few for about a month now. Some have better color than others, but none are showing any signs of distress, so I'm happy to watch them for a while and see how they do with some time in the tank. Here's a few pics...
Ponape, this one had aiptasia on the frag plug (noticed after a week in tank) so I pulled it off and mounted to a rock.
Some birdsnest from a local reefer (NYXX), he gave me a couple frags for helping out with his recent tank swap.
Stylophora, also from his tank.
Jedi Mind Trick:
And a nice hunk of Bali Green Slimer.
Still nowhere near where I want to be, of course, but with just about a week to the two month mark, I'm not going to complain.
So, my wife and I accidentally bumbled into the LFS the other day, and seem to have left with a couple little treasures.
Mrs. oldbones picked out this ORA Bottlebrush. She has good taste.
It's in the center here:
A hunk of Hydnophora for an inexpensive splash of dramatic color! This pic was 10 minutes after dipping then placing in tank, it has since opened up nicely.
Last, a very nice color piece of ORA Borealis. Price was good cause frag was small!
Ah, that's a little better!
Mrs. oldbones picked out this ORA Bottlebrush. She has good taste.
It's in the center here:
A hunk of Hydnophora for an inexpensive splash of dramatic color! This pic was 10 minutes after dipping then placing in tank, it has since opened up nicely.
Last, a very nice color piece of ORA Borealis. Price was good cause frag was small!
Ah, that's a little better!
I had a nice surprise this morning. Woke up earlier than planned, so I enjoyed my first cup of coffee in front of the tank with a flashlight in hand. Something caught my eye deep in a cave (bottom left), which upon further inspection turned out to be the little Pom Pom Crab that I dropped in the tank over a month ago, and hadn't seen hide nor hair from since!
The crab looks a bit bigger than the last time I saw it, and so do her anemones. I say "her", because she was also carrying a nice brood of eggs on her belly! I was pretty happy to see the crab, honestly I had kind of given up on her since I hadn't seen her once since 10 seconds after she entered the tank.
The crab looks a bit bigger than the last time I saw it, and so do her anemones. I say "her", because she was also carrying a nice brood of eggs on her belly! I was pretty happy to see the crab, honestly I had kind of given up on her since I hadn't seen her once since 10 seconds after she entered the tank.
It's been almost a month since my last photo update, so I tried to get a few shots of the tank today. I was too lazy to get out the tripod, so you'll have to suffer through some less than stellar focus, but the color is pretty darn close so you'll get the idea.
Haven't had any major difficulties lately, just trying to get a handle on dosing. I've got a Jebao DP-4 dosing pump ready to install, and an eshopps dosing container to feed it. Currently using Red Sea Reef Foundation Parts A,B and C, but will be switching to something more affordable soon.
Recent additions to the tank have been some Darth Maul zoas (paly?), a nice Rainbow Acan, something my LFS sold me as "Raspberry Lemonade", but I think may be Red Planet, a couple Rock Flower nems, McCoskers Flasher Wrasse and a couple Sexy Shrimp. Also moved a Frogspawn back into the tank, it was one of the pieces that almost died with the first wave of stuff I put in this tank. I nursed it back to health in my QT.
Ok, here's some pics...
Sexy Shrimp visiting Frogspawn
McCoskers...
Bubble Gum Monster Chalice
Unnamed Acro, maybe Cali Torte? Happy it's holding it's color.
Haven't had any major difficulties lately, just trying to get a handle on dosing. I've got a Jebao DP-4 dosing pump ready to install, and an eshopps dosing container to feed it. Currently using Red Sea Reef Foundation Parts A,B and C, but will be switching to something more affordable soon.
Recent additions to the tank have been some Darth Maul zoas (paly?), a nice Rainbow Acan, something my LFS sold me as "Raspberry Lemonade", but I think may be Red Planet, a couple Rock Flower nems, McCoskers Flasher Wrasse and a couple Sexy Shrimp. Also moved a Frogspawn back into the tank, it was one of the pieces that almost died with the first wave of stuff I put in this tank. I nursed it back to health in my QT.
Ok, here's some pics...
Sexy Shrimp visiting Frogspawn
McCoskers...
Bubble Gum Monster Chalice
Unnamed Acro, maybe Cali Torte? Happy it's holding it's color.
ZeeSparrow
New member
Lookin' good, man! Great coral selection you have... love the chalice!!
Well, nothing super exciting to report regarding the health of the tank. Most everything is doing ok - good, with some exceptions either way.
My Jebao DC3000 return pump turned out to be very sensitive to precipitation, and just flat stopped on me a couple of times. That made me nervous, so I replaced it with a Reef Octopus RODC 3500 and retired the Jebao to the spares closet. The RO is a MUCH nicer pump, built like a brick compared to the Jebao.
I did find Montipora Eating Nudibranch in the tank, on that white looking digi top right. I pulled that piece out, fragged the good parts off, dipped them and they are healing nicely in my qt. I'm hoping like mad they didn't make it onto any of the other 4 or 5 monti's in the tank, we'll see.
Most of the Acro's are just kind of hanging in there, not doing horribly, but with lackluster color and poor PE. I'm trying to just be patient, let the tank continue to mature, and see how things go. However, I do have a couple changes going on as well.
I picked up the JBJ nano glow fuge light, mounted it in the center section of my sump and dropped in some chaeto. I've got it running 8pm - 8am. I figure it may help with nutrient export, pod population and ph stabilization, and all those things sound good for my reef!
I have also ordered up a third AI Prime for over the tank. Currently, the two I am running are reaching about 60% for a four hour peak. I've been slowly increasing the intensity and duration, and I'm just now starting to see what looks to be a little reaction from some SPS. What was really just brown, is starting to show signs of color. I am worried about hot spots however if I try to push them much higher, so I decided to add the third for better and more even spread. I'll run a 30% acclimation over the next few weeks after adding the third light.
I have a Royal Gramma and Blue Spot Jawfish in qt, really they are ready to move in. The Jawfish is much older than the previous, and his colors are a little darker and less vibrant, but he'll still look nice in the tank. I've been moving frags off the rack and out of the sandbed in preparation for the Jawfish's introduction to the tank.
Oh, yeah, I'm running BRS two-part now as well, with an Eshopps container and Jebao DP-4 dosing pump. 12ml CA and 36ml Alk per day seems to be keeping things pretty stable, but I'm still testing nearly every day. May need to bump up the CA dose soon.
So, that's about all I have to report for today. I know, nothing too exciting, but hopefully soon I'll start seeing some better color and growth from my SPS. Once that happens, I'll feel better about shopping for some nicer corals to replace some of the starter pieces I have in the tank now.
My Jebao DC3000 return pump turned out to be very sensitive to precipitation, and just flat stopped on me a couple of times. That made me nervous, so I replaced it with a Reef Octopus RODC 3500 and retired the Jebao to the spares closet. The RO is a MUCH nicer pump, built like a brick compared to the Jebao.
I did find Montipora Eating Nudibranch in the tank, on that white looking digi top right. I pulled that piece out, fragged the good parts off, dipped them and they are healing nicely in my qt. I'm hoping like mad they didn't make it onto any of the other 4 or 5 monti's in the tank, we'll see.
Most of the Acro's are just kind of hanging in there, not doing horribly, but with lackluster color and poor PE. I'm trying to just be patient, let the tank continue to mature, and see how things go. However, I do have a couple changes going on as well.
I picked up the JBJ nano glow fuge light, mounted it in the center section of my sump and dropped in some chaeto. I've got it running 8pm - 8am. I figure it may help with nutrient export, pod population and ph stabilization, and all those things sound good for my reef!
I have also ordered up a third AI Prime for over the tank. Currently, the two I am running are reaching about 60% for a four hour peak. I've been slowly increasing the intensity and duration, and I'm just now starting to see what looks to be a little reaction from some SPS. What was really just brown, is starting to show signs of color. I am worried about hot spots however if I try to push them much higher, so I decided to add the third for better and more even spread. I'll run a 30% acclimation over the next few weeks after adding the third light.
I have a Royal Gramma and Blue Spot Jawfish in qt, really they are ready to move in. The Jawfish is much older than the previous, and his colors are a little darker and less vibrant, but he'll still look nice in the tank. I've been moving frags off the rack and out of the sandbed in preparation for the Jawfish's introduction to the tank.
Oh, yeah, I'm running BRS two-part now as well, with an Eshopps container and Jebao DP-4 dosing pump. 12ml CA and 36ml Alk per day seems to be keeping things pretty stable, but I'm still testing nearly every day. May need to bump up the CA dose soon.
So, that's about all I have to report for today. I know, nothing too exciting, but hopefully soon I'll start seeing some better color and growth from my SPS. Once that happens, I'll feel better about shopping for some nicer corals to replace some of the starter pieces I have in the tank now.
A little over a month since the last update, and no good news to report. About the time of my last post, things started sliding back downhill. I saw less PE on my SPS, followed by random die off. I was testing almost daily, and never saw any parameter changes that would have explained my problems. Alk has been quite stable at around 7.5, but has now slowly started climbing into the 8's since most of the SPS have died off.
I had tested Nitrates at zero, with Phosphates at 0.08 about a month ago, so I was feeding fairly heavy trying to get Nitrates at least detectable. I cut the skimmer back to only a day or two a week (120g skimmer on 56g system) because I felt maybe I was stripping the water to much.
Zoa's, Paly's, Chalices, Acans and Rock Flower Nem's are doing well, although a Jack-O-Lantern Lepto and War Favia are doing poorly.
Yesterday I added a BRS mini reactor with GFO and Carbon. I am still afraid there may be a toxin in the tank I am missing, and the phosphate to nitrate ratio is off.
I have struggled a bit with precip in the sump and the sandbed, not sure what to do to correct that. My dosing is spread out with no dose bigger than 3ml and at least an hour apart.
I get a dusting of brown on the glass that needs cleaned about every three days, and a light-med amount of what looks to be green cyano on the sand bed.
I wish to heck I knew what I am doing wrong. It's definitely discouraging watching corals die without any clear cause to blame and fix.
I would certainly be open to any suggestions, and I'll do my best to answer any questions if you think you can help me figure this out.
I had tested Nitrates at zero, with Phosphates at 0.08 about a month ago, so I was feeding fairly heavy trying to get Nitrates at least detectable. I cut the skimmer back to only a day or two a week (120g skimmer on 56g system) because I felt maybe I was stripping the water to much.
Zoa's, Paly's, Chalices, Acans and Rock Flower Nem's are doing well, although a Jack-O-Lantern Lepto and War Favia are doing poorly.
Yesterday I added a BRS mini reactor with GFO and Carbon. I am still afraid there may be a toxin in the tank I am missing, and the phosphate to nitrate ratio is off.
I have struggled a bit with precip in the sump and the sandbed, not sure what to do to correct that. My dosing is spread out with no dose bigger than 3ml and at least an hour apart.
I get a dusting of brown on the glass that needs cleaned about every three days, and a light-med amount of what looks to be green cyano on the sand bed.
I wish to heck I knew what I am doing wrong. It's definitely discouraging watching corals die without any clear cause to blame and fix.
I would certainly be open to any suggestions, and I'll do my best to answer any questions if you think you can help me figure this out.
more light more flow less food
more light more flow less food
you have a very similar setup to mine but about 25% larger in all. i have two primes that ramp up and down to 100% over the course of 12hours and they go up and down fairly quickly. if your still at 50% intensity your PAR levels are going to be way too low for these SPS corals to survive. I have a birdsnest doing well and an Acro that is doing OK. at 100% im getting just about 125 PAR a 1/3 of the way up from bottom. the SPS need at least this much light.
unfortunately you also have a very young system especially starting off with dry rock. most threads recommend SPS for only established systems which only come with time.
you have low fish stock like me. ive got two clowns and a diamond watchman goby (highly recommend for that brown sand!) and only feed them one small pinch of dry pellets each day. corals get a dose of fine rods reef food twice a week, and some of them are quite large now.
probably just rambling at this point but if you dont get the light up the SPS are doomed IMO. For that size tank you need at least the full 80W of LED's you are using if not more. Those corals use Photosynthesis for 90% of their food and need light. They may look bright to you, and i thought the same but PAR meter dosent lie. And with just two Primes dont worry about frying the coral. Get up to 100% quickly. Good Flow, More Light, Less Food is what i would try.
more light more flow less food
you have a very similar setup to mine but about 25% larger in all. i have two primes that ramp up and down to 100% over the course of 12hours and they go up and down fairly quickly. if your still at 50% intensity your PAR levels are going to be way too low for these SPS corals to survive. I have a birdsnest doing well and an Acro that is doing OK. at 100% im getting just about 125 PAR a 1/3 of the way up from bottom. the SPS need at least this much light.
unfortunately you also have a very young system especially starting off with dry rock. most threads recommend SPS for only established systems which only come with time.
you have low fish stock like me. ive got two clowns and a diamond watchman goby (highly recommend for that brown sand!) and only feed them one small pinch of dry pellets each day. corals get a dose of fine rods reef food twice a week, and some of them are quite large now.
probably just rambling at this point but if you dont get the light up the SPS are doomed IMO. For that size tank you need at least the full 80W of LED's you are using if not more. Those corals use Photosynthesis for 90% of their food and need light. They may look bright to you, and i thought the same but PAR meter dosent lie. And with just two Primes dont worry about frying the coral. Get up to 100% quickly. Good Flow, More Light, Less Food is what i would try.
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