OneReef's 120g DreamReef (Part 2)

[OneReef]

OneReef's 120g DreamReef


This is the continuation of my 120g tank build. Here are the previous entries, all future updates will be posted in this thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2053301am

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

tank is looking great. love those last anemone pics. what kind of clowns are those?

 

[OneReef]

tank is looking great. love those last anemone pics. what kind of clowns are those?

Thanks. They are Snowflake clowns from Sustainable Aquatics.

 

[OneReef]

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

dang i think i have to have a pair of those. i love the blue out lines.

 

[OneReef]

ROSE BTA SPLIT


Here is an interesting turn of events. After 4 days in my tank, my Rose BTA just split. I have heard they can split when they are very happy or unhappy. I'd prefer to think it is happy as my tank is very stable. But, either way, I now have two.

 

[N9BX]

Well That sure looks Nice

 

[OneReef]

Well That sure looks Nice

Thanks. I am planning on some changes this fall or winter, maybe another anemone or two, and I am looking to get back into LED lighting. The Radions looks great, but I want to wait to see what MACNA brings this fall so I get get the newest and greatest.

 

[OneReef]

Well, apparently my Pyramid Zoster Butterfly fish has moved on to the great ocean in the sky. Things like that always happen like that when you are gone out of town. After returning home from a week on the road to my wife who was charged with taking care of the tank in my absence, the conversation went like this:

Where is my Pyramid Butterfly?
What is that?
It was my newest fish, the big one.
What did it look like?
It was yellow and white and very active.
I don't remember ever seeing him, when did you get him?
A few weeks ago, I showed him to you and you said how pretty he was.
Oh, I have no idea where he is.....

Lol. Oh well, everything else looks good. Guess my clean up crew took care of him. I'd better do a water change to be safe (ammonia/waste).

 

[OneReef]

New Coral Day:


I haven't added any coral to my tank in a long time. I like to buy my corals locally when I can to support the LFS, but sometimes when it comes to acros, I have to go online to get something different. I have always liked LiveAquaria, they have great service. Took a few pics when they came in. They were packed very well as always, everything looked good. These pictures are the coral straight out of the bag and into the tank, so they don't have good polyp extension yet. I floated them for 30 minutes, they added them. I usually dip my acros, but I didn't this time, for times sake, and as well, I have never had any issues with LiveAquarias Aquacultured corals. (knock on wood)



DFS Northwoods Stawberry ShortCake Acro:

DFS Rasberry Limeaid Acro:

DFS Super Blue Tenuis Acro:

DFS Cherry Blossoms Acro:

ORA Green Planet Acro:

DFS Purple Haze Secale Acro:

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

wow those look great. love the strawberry shortcake and the raspberry limeade. nice addition.

 

[OneReef]

I did a lot of work on my tank today. 20g water change, moved frags around, cleaned the glass, got the cluttered coral of the sandbed, etc. Looks great now, I will try to get up a new pic soon.

 

[OneReef]

Did more work tonight on the tank, took out and disassembled skimmer for cleaning, scraped back glass of all coralline, and cleaned filter socks.

My coral have not been growing much lately. Color is good but not much growth. Tested water for first time in months. Low Ca, low Alk, low mag, salinity low. That would explain it, ha. My Ca was 400, Alk was 5.5, Mg was 1100, salinity was 1.023.

Gotta get back on top of my levels. I adjusted my ph controller setting on the Ca reactor, bumped up manually the ca, alk, and mag levels, just a little though, don't want to do it too fast. Did a 5g water change of high salinity that took it up to 1.024. Things should be growing like weeds when I get everything back in check.

 

[Blindside]

I have the super blue tenius from dfs... keep it high and it will be awesome blue.

 

[OneReef]

My phosphates have been higher than j would like for SPS, .07, so I am adding a GFO reactor. I've had a nice Geo media reactor for a while but it had a crack in it. I used some acrylic weld-on gel to patch the front and the back of the crack, and it seemed to work well. I added water and left it for a day and it did not leak.

I got some phosban media and added it to my sump in the reactor yesterday. I hope that this will lower my phosphate to allow my Coral to grow and color up better. I put on a Maxijet 900 and have it turned down a bit so it slightly tumbles.

 

[Rendos]

Be careful and don't take the phosphate level down too quickly. Your pH will go up and your alk levels may(will) drop. That can be rough on your SPS corals.

 

[OneReef]

Phosban seems to be doing a good job so far. Phosphates have dropped, I am not getting hair algae or green film on the glass now, and colors on coral seem to be getting better. Looks like it has been a positive move so far to add the reactor.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

any update? anything new? or some wicked pics? lol

 

[ifarmer]

very nice

 

[OneReef]

Here is a cool surprise. About 2 years or more ago, when I first started this current tank, I had a little baby starfish come in on a coral as a hitchhiker. It was smaller than the size of a dime, kinda brown in color, seemed harmless so I tossed him into my tank. I have not seen him since. Its been like 2 years I think. Yesterday out of the blue, I see him crawling across my rocks. He has been hidden all this time, but has transformed into a beautiful 'Blue Linckia" starfish. I didn't get a great picture, as a forgot to set my camera on RAW, so I couldn't get the colors exactly right in the picture, but you can see it pretty well here. He disappeared last night, and haven't seen him since. He must be a sneaky little thing to have hidden and grown for this long.