zoomonster
New member
Couple more of the frags from DD. Came in a little brown and need some color up. Left is the blue bottlebrush and right is the Lantana Monti which is supposed to be a yellow/gold with blue polyps.
ZM's 200g build
- Thread starter zoomonster
- Start date
Couple more of the frags from DD. Came in a little brown and need some color up. Left is the blue bottlebrush and right is the Lantana Monti which is supposed to be a yellow/gold with blue polyps.
zoomonster
New member
I usually have to have at least good red and blue shrooms and here they are. They were part of the DD order and are Indo maricultured. The reds on fire but the blues had lost a lot of color when they arrived. Starting to color up nice and both seem to be very nice morphs. The reds are all solids with at least one speckled. I usually would get these locally because so many variations in color quality but these seem to fit the bill.
As for the fish Gizmo and Kong they are the tank tyrants. Of course except when it comes to the tank jester Flash. Even the most pigheaded of fish are smart enough not to **** off the cleaner.
zoomonster
New member
Ok first real pest algae... bryopsis. Having some real live rock (vs. dead) that's probably the source. Given time most live rock will grow out various sorts of plant life and I have several. I've had my share of hair algae on some previous tanks but I can honestly say I have never experienced bryopsis and was not exactly sure what it was at first. I could be wrong but it seems to be associated more with high flow tanks and this is by far the highest I have had. What I have is some very hearty clumps, mostly around some rock frags on the sand, that look like some sort of feather algae. I watched it for a while to see if anything would eat it but no such luck. Two tangs, three angels and a boatload of snail/crab cleaners not interested. So I looked it up and indeed bryopsis. At least for now I'm fortunate that it grew in fairly tight easy to remove clumps and they went in the trash. I did a mg test and it for some reason fell off pretty quickly to 1160 which does not help the matter. I suspect I may have also gotten my iodine levels a bit high and I'll test that in the next day or two along with everything else. I did add back some mg but I will probably go the Kent Tech-M route starting this weekend. Once upon a time I used Kent products including Tech-M and maybe that's why I never had bryopsis (that I recall anyway).
zoomonster
New member
Hey brother got some fish?
Hey brother got some fish?
Been working on the new camera and outdoors is a bit less of a challenge. This is junior who hatched this spring in the back of my property on what's left of the lake. His head is just now starting to turn blood red like mom and pop who were a few feet away. They generally make the rounds and stop by daily. Sand hill cranes are big and they look like pterodactyls flying around here. They are protected but some country folks like to refer to them as "ribeye in the sky" :eek2: Also have bald eagles, swallow tail kites, hawks and osprey that pretty frequently visit my backyard (they like the couple big pines with a great lake view). And my wife wonders why our little dog has no desire to venture out back without me or the big dog. When the bald eagles are out there even the bigger dog is saying "oh hell no" :lol:
Hey brother got some fish?
Been working on the new camera and outdoors is a bit less of a challenge. This is junior who hatched this spring in the back of my property on what's left of the lake. His head is just now starting to turn blood red like mom and pop who were a few feet away. They generally make the rounds and stop by daily. Sand hill cranes are big and they look like pterodactyls flying around here. They are protected but some country folks like to refer to them as "ribeye in the sky" :eek2: Also have bald eagles, swallow tail kites, hawks and osprey that pretty frequently visit my backyard (they like the couple big pines with a great lake view). And my wife wonders why our little dog has no desire to venture out back without me or the big dog. When the bald eagles are out there even the bigger dog is saying "oh hell no" :lol:
zoomonster
New member
Stopped by LFS today for a quick fix. Pretty good prices on these two especially the red gonipora planulata and the ora green hydnophora is pretty sweet. While I have many colors I have neglected green and have been pretty picky about what I get. Between this, the frog skin acro, green Sinularia and a few green zoa's and Ricordia I should be good to go on green.
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zoomonster
New member
I have not mentioned my refugium in a while. It's just there doing its thing and its been zero maintenance so far. I threw a few crabs, snails and Nassarious in there at startup. Its also had some pods added. It was started with just Chaeto but some red gracillaria and feather were added later. Pretty low nutrients so nothing is booming. I guess the Chaeto has about tripled in size over months. That's a 100w equivalent 6500k power compact on 24/7.
The real reason for getting down there and looking was checking pod populations. I put on a pair of 2x reading glasses and can pretty much see them in great detail. This time around the Chaeto is looking pretty well infested. Sometimes you just have to look in the right place. I just noticed that algae spot top right and it was near covered in pods munching on it. The white specs are some of the larger ones but probably 50 plus congregated in that spot. I have seen a few in tank so they are moving around and population is getting up there. There seem to be a variety of types but no sign of any of the tangerine pods. My sixline wrasse is usually a pig that eats everything pellets/flakes/frozen. He's not been eating for sometime but he's fat as a pig so he must be munching pods. No flatworms or anything else I know of he would be eating.
Anyway happy about all that... Very near future I will be adding some Anthias and a couple Mandarins knowing they won't starve if they won't eat other food.
zoomonster
New member
Been trying to get a decent pic of this Bali Shortcake (Acropora latistella) since the blue popped out. Great color to start from Unique Corals but no real noticeable blue until now. The more red color has not yet fully developed but it really is a little redder and less pink than the image. It may well be my favorite now and hopefully it will grow into one of the main jewels in my collection.
zoomonster
New member
One of the big plusses of this build, despite the money spent, is that I'm still debt free i.e. no credit cards and everything is outright bought and paid for. All that's a good thing considering I'm easily now a certifiable addict again. "Hello my names Jim, I'm a reefaholic". Not that I have not spent a fair amount on fish, inverts and other corals but I've totally been sucked in by SPS and more so acro's. I thought I was bad at times since I started my first reef tank in 1989 but as my income has reached new levels so have I. Like the old saying goes "the more you make the more you spend".
I've been eyeballing a few things at Unique Corals but not much lately to get excited about (or didn't already have). I noticed they have ramped up a bit since Macna getting ready for the busier fall/winter season. Well today what they had online reached critical mass and I pulled the trigger. I almost did yesterday with the listing of the blueberry shortcake but the snapping point was the blue dragon listed today which was a one only and sold out. The rest of the stuff already had me drooling and I got a ORA strawberry shortcake to round up my shortcake collection. The majority of my ORA stuff came from UC but in reality most of the hottest stuff is UC aquacultured. I have things going on tomorrow and Friday so these are due on Saturday with pics to follow.
Acropora microclados "Blueberry Shortcake"
Acropora nasuta- ORA "Shortcake"
UC "Wild Orchid" Acropora
Acropora tortuosa - True "Cali Tort"
Acropora walindii -"Blue Dragon"
I've been eyeballing a few things at Unique Corals but not much lately to get excited about (or didn't already have). I noticed they have ramped up a bit since Macna getting ready for the busier fall/winter season. Well today what they had online reached critical mass and I pulled the trigger. I almost did yesterday with the listing of the blueberry shortcake but the snapping point was the blue dragon listed today which was a one only and sold out. The rest of the stuff already had me drooling and I got a ORA strawberry shortcake to round up my shortcake collection. The majority of my ORA stuff came from UC but in reality most of the hottest stuff is UC aquacultured. I have things going on tomorrow and Friday so these are due on Saturday with pics to follow.
Acropora microclados "Blueberry Shortcake"
Acropora nasuta- ORA "Shortcake"
UC "Wild Orchid" Acropora
Acropora tortuosa - True "Cali Tort"
Acropora walindii -"Blue Dragon"
zoomonster
New member
Next project
Next project
Ok I have a 200g tank... not enough :lol: Seriously though I've been trying to plan out some degree of expansion. If nothing else I need to get some more glass in here for utility purposes like quarantine etc. In addition I want to expand out my display tank with a frag tank connected to it. Between the frags I have bought, been given or created that will make them more manageable than in my DT. I don't really have any aspirations to get back to a "commercial" level where I was in the early 2000's but I fully expect things to get out of hand by the time I truly reach trading status and continue to collect and propagate. Whether plants or corals there's always been that interest in propagation and todays no different. The attached tank just provides a lot of convenience, cost effectiveness and expanded total volume.
What can transpire in the back room is pretty much limitless but for the DT attached frag tank it will probably be limited to 3' in length. Just shy of making 4' and I already have some 3' and 4' light fixtures (but not limiting myself to that). I've looked at a variety of options but I'm kind of leaning towards just going with a 30g breeder drilled with overflow on a black stand to match my DT. I would kind of like acrylic but have not found anything yet that does it for me.
With the amount of power I'm slurping down between aquarium, pool, AC/Heat, water heater, home entertainment etc. my next project really should be solar panels. That's still a distinct possibility.
Next project
Ok I have a 200g tank... not enough :lol: Seriously though I've been trying to plan out some degree of expansion. If nothing else I need to get some more glass in here for utility purposes like quarantine etc. In addition I want to expand out my display tank with a frag tank connected to it. Between the frags I have bought, been given or created that will make them more manageable than in my DT. I don't really have any aspirations to get back to a "commercial" level where I was in the early 2000's but I fully expect things to get out of hand by the time I truly reach trading status and continue to collect and propagate. Whether plants or corals there's always been that interest in propagation and todays no different. The attached tank just provides a lot of convenience, cost effectiveness and expanded total volume.
What can transpire in the back room is pretty much limitless but for the DT attached frag tank it will probably be limited to 3' in length. Just shy of making 4' and I already have some 3' and 4' light fixtures (but not limiting myself to that). I've looked at a variety of options but I'm kind of leaning towards just going with a 30g breeder drilled with overflow on a black stand to match my DT. I would kind of like acrylic but have not found anything yet that does it for me.
With the amount of power I'm slurping down between aquarium, pool, AC/Heat, water heater, home entertainment etc. my next project really should be solar panels. That's still a distinct possibility.
zoomonster
New member
The big picture
The big picture
Progressing nicely but still a bit dreary with lots of dead rock. Coralline is just really starting to take off. Unfortunately more so on powerheads and back wall. Guess I can't complain with a tank just three months old.
You can see some bryopsis over to the left bottom. Got rid of most but I've raised my mg levels and some Kent Tech-M should be here Friday, from Marine Depot, along with a few misc. items. They were probably the first to have new life spectrum ich-shield up for sale and picked up some. For years I used Tetra med green flake food when things popped up but it seems to be discontinued. I also used Tetra MarinOomed in my hospital tank which I believe was methylene blue. I just don't like being without some sort of real medicated food (other than garlic) that's at least fairly reef safe.
The big picture
Progressing nicely but still a bit dreary with lots of dead rock. Coralline is just really starting to take off. Unfortunately more so on powerheads and back wall. Guess I can't complain with a tank just three months old.
You can see some bryopsis over to the left bottom. Got rid of most but I've raised my mg levels and some Kent Tech-M should be here Friday, from Marine Depot, along with a few misc. items. They were probably the first to have new life spectrum ich-shield up for sale and picked up some. For years I used Tetra med green flake food when things popped up but it seems to be discontinued. I also used Tetra MarinOomed in my hospital tank which I believe was methylene blue. I just don't like being without some sort of real medicated food (other than garlic) that's at least fairly reef safe.
zoomonster
New member
Its been a absolutely crazy last week and a half. I was in the ER with a kidney stone, had emergency surgery a couple days later and got the tube out a day before I had to take my wife to get her scheduled foot/ankle reconstruction surgery done. I had taken two days off for that and trust me it was not much of a four day weekend. Between all that I managed to hit up a shop around the corner from Winter Park hospital and grabbed a pair of blood shrimp on my way home and my order from UC showed up this morning. At least there's some light in the darkness :fun5:
This bunch from UC is nice as usual but some little paler from shipping than usual. I did juice the saturation of that photo a bit to bring out the pale colors. Well the cali tort and wild orchid above it did not need it. These were all 1" stock frags but it looks like I got a bonus in the orchid. Very nice "frag". With the blue dragon I was initially like WTH it's pink and looks like a pink dragon. Under full light its showing more blue though. I guess its about right after looking at some pics of blue dragons and morphs. Hey if it turns out to be a red dragon with blue tips I certainly won't complain. What was surprising is the ORA shortcake. It is on an ORA plug but very little if any encrusting which to me is unusual for anything from "ORA". Still a nice frag though.
Starting front going left to right
Acropora tortuosa - True "Cali Tort"
Acropora microclados "Blueberry Shortcake"
UC "Wild Orchid" Acropora
Acropora nasuta- ORA "Shortcake"
Acropora walindii -"Blue Dragon"
zoomonster
New member
Just some eye candy from LFS. I don't believe I have ever seen one in a fish store before or seen one myself for that matter. This was a cell phone snap of a gold flake angel. Absolutely beautiful fish... too bad it's not a dwarf or reef safe. With a 20% sale discount it was $240. Far better price than say LA at $400+.
zoomonster
New member
I had to make an unexpected trip to Winter Park today and before I left I finally hit Top Shelf aquatics. Seems to be a little price war between them and Ocean Blue and they both have weekend 20% off sales. Pretty nice stuff, good prices and they sponsor FRAG which I belong to. Anyway a lot of tempting stuff but I got away with just a few frags at great prices.
Unknown but one of the most stunning green stags I have seen (saw mother also) for $16. Then a piece of ORA blue stylo they aquacultured for $8 and a Setosa for $24.
zoomonster
New member
These guys hid out a bit but ended up hanging out with the two cleaner shrimp. They must have gotten hungry and were pretty active when I fed them... well actually more like a frenzy. Always liked cleaners but blood has always been my favorite.
zoomonster
New member
I really sat down tonight and tried to dial in white balance along with some other settings. Most of what I have taken has been with flash to mitigate the blue I come up with. Not perfect yet by any means but its getting there. These are all uncropped, with maybe a bit of sharpening and no flash under full lights. Much better color rendition... if anything the little bit of algae is exaggerated on the Plexiglas.
zoomonster
New member
zoomonster
New member
Of course this is what happens when you don't change white balance back. That's a light beige wall and before I tweaked it was orange. This little guy snuck in the house to check out all the blue light and was moments away from being a dog or cat toy.
zoomonster
New member
A few zoa frags I got a while back finally perking up. All nice but drooling to get the left three to colony size. To put the colors in perspective that top right piece is actually a pretty nice piece of armor of the gods and it pales in comparison to the other reds, especially the agaves.
zoomonster
New member
Frag racks
Frag racks
Well... I ordered a Captain Salty's extra large frag rack last Monday from EBay and it just showed up today. Listed as in stock but some excuse about supplier issues. I think the word I used was "meh" to describe the pureflow but its far better than what showed up today.
The Plexiglas used is too thin for its size 11"x5" and the magnets are absolute junk. They are not plated and maybe not even Neodymium. Even with three sets and a full back support it won't hold up the empty rack. They appear to be about 3/4"x3/8" in size and both sides encapsulated in plexi making them even weaker. Granted my glass is about 5/8" but...
"We use only high strength and quality magnets for all our Frag racks, Strong enough to hold ALL of our racks, fully loaded, past ½ inch of glass."
Plus smeared across the front of the entire rack is the company name and website address. This is supposed to be an "invisible" frag rack and with tank lights on you see that tacky ad all the way across the room.
Frag racks
Well... I ordered a Captain Salty's extra large frag rack last Monday from EBay and it just showed up today. Listed as in stock but some excuse about supplier issues. I think the word I used was "meh" to describe the pureflow but its far better than what showed up today.
The Plexiglas used is too thin for its size 11"x5" and the magnets are absolute junk. They are not plated and maybe not even Neodymium. Even with three sets and a full back support it won't hold up the empty rack. They appear to be about 3/4"x3/8" in size and both sides encapsulated in plexi making them even weaker. Granted my glass is about 5/8" but...
"We use only high strength and quality magnets for all our Frag racks, Strong enough to hold ALL of our racks, fully loaded, past ½ inch of glass."
Plus smeared across the front of the entire rack is the company name and website address. This is supposed to be an "invisible" frag rack and with tank lights on you see that tacky ad all the way across the room.
zoomonster
New member
Every tank needs an ugly fish
Every tank needs an ugly fish
Still determined to find a better frag rack... I ordered one from Blackrock last night. We'll see how that goes.
I've not seen lawnmower blennies around lately. I did stop in Winter Park today and found a very nice large. Tanks pretty clean but there's one end of tank that needs a little work with a little hair growing in a low flow area. I'll also be interested to see if he touches the bryopsis. I cleaned it up again a few days ago and been doing the Mg treatment but its not dead yet.
I also got a medium-large Coral Beauty. I would have preferred a smaller one but the Potter's terror angel probably would probably eat it alive. The Potter's is a beautiful fish but his days may be numbered if I can catch or trap him and off to the fish pound with him.
Not a whole lot left I want SPS wise but I grabbed a nice sunset monti frag.
Every tank needs an ugly fish
Still determined to find a better frag rack... I ordered one from Blackrock last night. We'll see how that goes.
I've not seen lawnmower blennies around lately. I did stop in Winter Park today and found a very nice large. Tanks pretty clean but there's one end of tank that needs a little work with a little hair growing in a low flow area. I'll also be interested to see if he touches the bryopsis. I cleaned it up again a few days ago and been doing the Mg treatment but its not dead yet.
I also got a medium-large Coral Beauty. I would have preferred a smaller one but the Potter's terror angel probably would probably eat it alive. The Potter's is a beautiful fish but his days may be numbered if I can catch or trap him and off to the fish pound with him.
Not a whole lot left I want SPS wise but I grabbed a nice sunset monti frag.
