Alex's Truly Mixed 20g Reef

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update Time

Within the last week we have officially started the Ugly phase and im a little scared. I have never payed much attention to it in my previous tanks and now im going to start paying attention to it. So i added a little bit of a CuC. I bought 2 trochus snails, 2 Astrea snails, and 2 Nassarius snails. From the looks of it i either got diatoms or dinos its a little early to get a very clear diagnosis. Here are some Pictures
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Also ive been dealing with a low calcium problem due to the fact ive been using RODI with a PH of 10 due to me adding a PH buffer to the RO because i was trying to battle a low PH problem. I started up the skimmer about seven days ago and i ran the air intake through the window to help keep the PH stable. But by that time my calcium had reached a low of 350. So i picked up some 2-Part from my LFS and I'm currently dosing it to bring up the PH and keep it there until i do a water change and figure out after that how much calcium and alkalinity my tank will consume. I got the ATO on the way from BRS. Coral and fish are doing very well. zoanthids are recovering from a little impact they took. The candy cane has feeding tentacles out all night and most of the day. Here is a full tank shot as requested. Id like to seed the tank with pods and some phyto aswell as I've been thinking of trying my hand at mangroves and doing a little DIY to a custom caddy media basket to accommodate a mangrove.

 

[Gedxin]

Nice looking FTS! Seems like diatoms to me, but would need another photo under whites to confirm. Diatoms are no big deal, it's basically a right of passage.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Nice looking FTS! Seems like diatoms to me, but would need another photo under whites to confirm. Diatoms are no big deal, it's basically a right of passage.

Yeah i believe its diatoms im thinking about throwing the UV on for a few days see if it does anything but i would like the problem to mature a little more so i can know if im getting results from the UV. Its a right of passage, most defiantly.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

UV sterilizer has been added last night.

 

[jcolliii]

UV has done good by me. Keeps some of the nasties at bay a bit. Probably know this, but just remember that if you dose bacterial products, turn off UV for a few days (simmer too).

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

New Addition


We added a nice frag/mini colony of some scrambled egg zoa's. This thing got about 15+ heads and opened up within a hour of getting in the tank. No Zoa collection is complete without these.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

UV has done good by me. Keeps some of the nasties at bay a bit. Probably know this, but just remember that if you dose bacterial products, turn off UV for a few days (simmer too).

Yeah the UV helped alot with the diatoms they went always pretty much completely except for a tiny bit on the rocks and sand. The only thing i have dosed is a little 2-part to raise calc and alk.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update Time (this is gonna be a big one)
Full tank shot at the end.

So i scored a few nice frags from the WWC Live sale. I waited and waited for them to arrive excited as hell. They show up and the two frags i wanted the most and they also were the most expensive were severly damaged. Ive had problems with FEDEX in my area. I was supposed to add pods to my tank via Algae Barn the day before the coral arrived but FEDEX decided to sit on the Package and basically turn it into a big wet pancake made out of cardboard and foam. The two Frags that were damaged were a WWC Rainbow Hammer and a bi Colored Frogspawn/frammer. They both had exposed skeleton aswell as tissue loss and tears that were visible. here are some picture of them.

Left side is the Rainbow hammer Right side the Frogspawn.

Now the rest of the corals i ordered which was as follows came in perfect condition.
-Rhubarb Pie Bowerbanki
-Spiderman Favites
-CC Tangerine Juice Leptoseris
-Teal Rim Aussie Lord

Here are some photos of these coral they will be in order as listed.

All the corals have been doing very well. The Candy cane is starting to split the Unnamed Pink Zoas have at least 3 new polyps and the Scrambled eggs have a good 4-6 new Polyps. About a week after i got my WWC shipment i received another Algae Barn Order and got the Pods in the tank everything came in one piece and i even got a few stickers.

On Another note im fighting diatoms and trying to get my nutrients Balanced. i recently realized my Phosphate bottomed out due to the trifecta of the protein skimmer really starting to work the chemipure blue and the diatoms. i started feeding a little more brought them back up and honestly i think the diatoms are starting to go away slowly.

Yesterday i decided to add a new fish to the tank a nice little Bangaii Cardinal.

He is doing well and seems to get along with the clowns in the tank. At this point its been about a week and a half to two weeks since i put the WWC order in the tank and both the Hammer and Frogspawn are bouncing back amazing.

The Frogspawn (right) seems to be splitting into two heads and the hammer is still only one but i not one to complain i got what i wanted and they didnt die getting shipped to jersey. Here is a full tank shot like i promised i will be doing more updates soon i will try and get one done bi weekly and go into water chem and whats going on there.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

@Peace River @revhtree is there anyway you guys are able to move my thread to the members tank section i started it before i became a supporter . if not no problem sorry for the disturbance. Thank you -Alex

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@Peace River @revhtree is there anyway you guys are able to move my thread to the members tank section i started it before i became a supporter . if not no problem sorry for the disturbance. Thank you -Alex

It is moved!

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

It is moved!

Thanks Boss

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Stock List

Fish

- 1x Frostbite Bullethole Clownfish
- 1X Davinci Clownfish
-1x Pink Streak Wrasse

Coral
- Neon Green Candy cane
- Scrabled Egg Zoas
-Teal Rim Aussie Lord (Starting to develop a yellow ring within the red with some hints of green)
-CC Tangerine Juice Lepto
-WWC Rainbow Hammer
-BI-Colored Frogspawn
-Green Splatter Hammer
-BloodSucker Zoas
-Mohawk Zoas
-Red Montipora Cap

Cuc
- 4x Nassarius Snails
- 2x Astrea Snails
- 4x Trochus snails

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update coming today stay tuned

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update Time
Full Tank Shot at the end



So we encountered a few hiccups and solved a few problems aswell as added some frags. I know everyone loves new frags. Ive been nursing this frogspawn and Rainbow hammer back to health. Its been a bumpy road but we are back on track. The first problem was my lighting schedule and intensity. I had the kessil a360w on this tank running at 50 percent on a 13 inch deep tank for over 7 hours during the day. I slowly lowered the intensity aswell as the length of time the light was on. I've reached a good point I'm running it at 36 percent for 6 hours and ramp up and down on either side. The next issue was a nutrient spike I reached a peak of .25 because i was feeding some baby brine shrimp that came in a bottle full of water. little did I know the water was full of phosphate. so that's starting to come down we have been holding at .12 for the last week and I'm seeing some improvement. These are the two corals that were really effected by these issues. They bleached out almost completely but are starting to get a ton of color back and surprisingly fast. I also believe the frogspawn is splitting.



Now id like to update you on some of the other corals that are in the tank. First thing is the candy cane is splitting i couldn't get the best picture cuz it in a weird spot but is maybe a week or two out from completely split in 2.The Scrambled Egg Zoas are doing amazing i got somewhere near 28 polyps now vs the 18-19 i started with. Here's a nice shot of them.


The Teal Rim Lord is doing amazing he is always opened up completely even through the whole nutrient and lighting swings he is one of my favorites for sure.(they are all my favorite)Here is a nice shot of it aswell a snail pushed him up against the glass but he doesn't seem to mind.


Now for the good part the frags from @TopShelfAquatics i scored six frags from them two beings some amazing Euhpyllia Pieces. I also got 3 Zoa Frags (Mohawks, Bloodsuckers, and Gatorade Zoas) a Red Montipora Cap. For the Euphyllia side of things I got a single head of a Green Splatter Hammer and 2 heads of the TSA Hologram Hammer. Here are some shots of everything.




Currently I'm trying to keep a eye on calcium and Alk consumption and especially the Phosphate and nitrate. I plan on doing a 5 gallon water change this Saturday and sucking up most of the algae of the back wall and sandbed as its starting to die off and i don't water that to negatively effect water quality. I think that about sums up what has been doing on and as i promised a full tank shot.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update Time
(Full Tank Shot at bottom)


so my nutrients have finally came down to a normal level and I'm sitting at about .08-.1 on my Phosphate readings. once my phosphate came down and stabilized I experienced a ALK swing because i believe the corals started to uptake more ALK. I didn't realize it and my ALK dropped by a 1.0 over a 2-3 days. Which angered the coral so i started dosing about 2ml a day religiously of 2 part and I think I might have to up it to 3ml. The biggest breakthrough was i found a LFS that let me take their PAR meter home and I was able to map out my par. which allowed me to realize why some corals weren't doing to well vs why some were.

I moved these Lords over to a area of about 70 PAR and I got to move the Bowerbanki because due to spread issues from having such a big light mounted only 8 inches away. the rock ledge above the Lords only gets 60-70 PAR so that's the lords hopefully final destination I'm just slowly getting them used to lower light because they were sitting in a good 110-120 PAR previously.

Now we are still nursing all the hammers back to health slowly but surely the splatter hammer has regained a lot of tissue at the stalk and the rainbow hammer is starting to do the same. The Monti cap I added started to get pale I freaked out and gave it to my buddy because i thought if the Monti died it would have tainted the water and made my nutrient problems worse.

So one thing that has help with the nutrients is the conch I added he has done a tremendous job of cleaning up the sandbed only thing is he always knows over my corals. But the frogspawn is starting to really make a recovery and the zoas are starting to grow like weeds the scrambled eggs has so many polyps i cant even get a accurate count. some of the zoas are still getting used to the higher light because that rock is receiving a good 100 par at least. Everything seems to being going well (knock on wood) I'm going to keep dosing and keep a good eye on my nutrients and ALK. I'm also thinking of sending out a ICP test in the next few weeks just to see if everything is 100% water chemistry wise. im also gonna try to get another update in before ReefAPalooza NYC in JUNE. Now time for the full tank shot.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update Time



The Lord Garden is starting to come together i glued both of these is a are with about 60-70 PAR. The Lord on the right has a baby head sprouting on the opposite side.

The Zoa garden is growing out of control and the frogspawn is in the middle of splitting i can see two separate mouths. I plan on fragging some of the zoas because the Mohawk zoas are starting to grow over the scrambled egg zoas and not letting a few open up. Not bad for 5 months in IMO. i will be re locating the frogspawn and pulling that rock out on Saturday.

So lets get to the Hammer garden i moved them from the sandbed to what I'm confident will be their final spots. i believe the sandbed was irritating them therefor they were loosing tissue from the bottom up.

Within a week ive seen positive signs of recovery in the hammers i couldn't get a good picture of the other two but i could of the rainbow hammer.

The last thing i wanted to touch on was my ALK and Calcium consumption. in the last update i stated that i might have to bump 2-3ml a day well ive bumped it up to 5ml of each part of the two little fishes 2 part. Time for a full tank shot.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update Time
(Full tank shot at the end)


Alright a ton has happened with the tank since the last update aswell as i went to ReefaPalooza in June and got a ton of fire frags for the tank including some nice high end stuff. So lets jump into it.

ReefaPalooza was a great time i met a ton of people talked to a bunch of vendors and bought a lot of coral. One of the main things i was looking for was a nice Fungia Plate aswell as some mushroom either a bounce or a Jawbreaker. I ended up going both days and on day one i scooped a Sunkist Bounce for $50 which was a steal. i also picked up the Fungia and the first SPS frag of the tank which is that big Green Staghorn From JF. Im having a little trouble with it but i think im going in the right direction. I also went the second day and i was able to haggle someone for a Jawbreaker which i was super pumped about. i picked up 2 zoa frags one was a utter chaos and the other was a single head GMK that i haggled them down to 60 a polyp for. It was a great time and i cant wait to go back next year and get some good coverage of the booths i visit for the instagram.

As you can see the Zoa Garden is doing great ive already fragged the Mohawks once and im gonna have to do it again. you can see the little grow out platform i made for the GMK hopefully we can get a couple frags made of the GMK within the next few months. My Hammer corals are doing good i had a glass top on for a few weeks which made everything mad because of the lower light but they are coming back and looking great.

The Micro Lords are living life they are growing and sprouting new heads. plus i moved the frogspawn over there and he has really split at this point he has 2 separate heads that are growing in a y formation. All the way to the left you can see the little jawbreaker i got in a rhinos reef shroom basket. Im super scared of this thing detaching and getting chopped up because these are my first ever mushrooms. Basically everything is doing good but im still dealing with a bit of stability issues but everything seems to be happy.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Update Time (Picture Heavvvvy)

Normally I drop the Full tank shot at the end but I wanted you guys to see the growth and how different the tank looks after only a few months. One giant issue was that my heater had not been cleaned since i started the tank and it was running cold my tank was running at 75 degrees I know this isn't terrible but once i cleaned it PE was better immediately. The tanks and corals have been through a lot we lost a fish a few frags but overall the tank is thriving these days. Lets get into it.

I got in a shipment of corals from SBB Corals about a week or two ago and one of them being that orange Monti cap. the last one I had died but I'm hoping we can get this one to thrive and do well. The lord garden is doing well the red one on the right has sprouted a new head and the one on the left has just been trying to heal up still. It came in from WWC with a significant amount of damage from being stung by another coral but has bounced back considerably since I got it. The frogspawn is just growing like crazy I think the flows a bit high so its not opened 100% but its split at least 3 times already and regained most of the flesh on the stalk. My plate coral is doing fine but its been upset since i put that frag rack above for the new sps. I'm going to talk about them specifically later. We Lost the cardinal fish i don't know why or how but one morning i woe up and he was half eaten by the CUC it was a big loss but the silver lining was my nutrients were too high to keep any sps at all so this loss allowed my nutrients to come down to a reasonable level. Up Next the Zoa Garden

The Glass is a little dirty but the zoas have grown out control and over each other I'm glad its isolated to a single rock. But i raised my whites and my Lepto bleached out but is regaining its color rather rapidly I've documented this pretty well on my Instagram story's. But the candy cane that almost died aka the first coral had a second wind and has been doing amazing idk why or how but its okay with me. Up next the frag rack

As you can see we got two 3D Printed detention centers for the mushroom made by my buddy Rhinos Reef an its facilitating my naughty jawbreaker and bounce shrooms. Here is a nice shot of the Jawbreakers finally settled in. This Jawbreaker was a really pain in my you know what but i finally found a good placement and got good expression after a few almost detachments and just a unhappy mushroom in general. I picked it up for a steal at RAP and its a coral I've been dreaming of acquiring since 2016 so I'm super happy with the way it turned out.

Next up on the rack is this very nice Treasure Chest Gonipora i got from the homie SBB Corals this thing is nuts and looks amazing I'm looking forward to the challenge of keeping a new species of coral I've never kept.

The Next thing I wanted to talk about is the hammer garden I was struggling with the temperature issue was the main thing keeping these corals stagnate they weren't growing fast and their flesh bands were very short. I've seen a significant amount of regeneration on the flesh bands and a difference in PE correlated to nutrient levels which ill talk about at the end if your really interested.

Here are the Grand Master Krakatoa Zoas i got a RAP in July when I got them I only had one polyp now i have 3 and more to come I'm sure. I was super worried about them melting but thank got they didn't and will not knock on wood.

Alright so I scooped these Acropora up from SBB Corals. The one on the top Left is what i believe to be an Acropora Carduus. The bottom left is a Smooth skin I cant ID but they call it the Sailor Moon. The other two are Millepora and they are in some high flow and light. The other two are in a little bit lower flow and lower light. My biggest challenges when it comes to these four corals is keeping Alk steady and my Nutrients steady. I've been following a rigorous Maintenance Plan which includes. Cleaning the skimmer once a week, doing a minimum 15% water change a week.
Hand dosing keeping ALK steady at 9.5 aswell as hand feeding very slowly to keep nutrients steady and by way of fish poop not leftover food. Testing alk phos and nitrate once a day and manually topping off 3 times a day. There are definitely some things I'm forgetting. But you get the idea I'm busting my a** to try n keep these alive.

The parameters of my tank have been something I've had to figure out on the fly. When i had my cardinal fish my phosphate never went below .1 but now it sits at a cool .07 now ive definitely noticed some lps not super pleased with this change but i think they will get over it as some of my hammers are starting to do so. One critical mistake i was making that was the reason i killed my SPS from RAP off was that when i would do a water change i wouldn't dose that night so i would wait 24 hours to does which created a .4 ALK swing every time i did that. Now i can tell you that definitely didn't help me. Currently my parameters are as follows
ALK - 9.7
Ca - 465
Ph - 8.2
Phos - .08
Nitrate - 14.0
Mg - 1400
Salinity - 1.025-1.026

Thank you all for reading along if you made it this far drop a like and stay tuned for the next update.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

dang i gotta do an update alot has happened since the last update.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Can't wait to see the update haha,