C-Reefer's Journey Into The Dark Side

[C-Reefer]

Drove into Knoxville Saturday to pick up light hanging stuff and random stuff I needed for the tank. I was going to get fish but didn't have time. Turns out... the bracket I got was 3/4 inch, I needed 1/2 inch. :banghead: So I have to go back, and replace it with 1/2". At least I don't have both lights yet. I did find a suuuuper cool old piece of wood down at an old broken down house, which looks awesome. I think it'll look pretty snazzy when its all hooked up.

I got nori, 200 micron filter socks, bunch of cord management clips, and have another arctic revive coming thursday, which I'll swap the marsaqua for. Hopefully I'll manage to get some fish sometime this week.

So glad I caved and got the filter sock though, my water had had a bunch of fine particulate, and I didn't have anywhere to run floss. Its cleared up immensely. I got two, so I can swap them out.

So... I have two options. 1. put a bunch of matrix and some cheato in the sock place like I have been (sock is small enough that there's still room beneath), but run a cheato reactor as my main nutrient export. I'd basically run the fuge as a cryptic fuge. No light, just matrix, detritus, and sponges. It should still culture pods, but the cheato reactor would also culture pods but be far better at nutrient export. I can get a bashsea reacto from work for about $60. That's waaayyyy cheaper then the $400 for a sump. So I'm going to end up with a cheato reactor, as I do like this sump, just didn't ike the no fuge part. But if I can still run a cryptic fuge, and get the benefits of cheato, without spending that much... it makes sense. I will hard plumb it know that I now what I'm doing, make it look good. It won't look as good as a bashsea or trigger... but mabye eventually.

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looks great! love the euphylia garden. how big has your galaxea grown to now? looks super clean!
Its grown a lotttt but the sonic hasn't seemed to grow that much. It probably has its just been slow. Hoping it takes off to cover that rock.

Diatoms are setting in, I have to clean the glass at least once a day, it accumulates quickly. I've been keeping the rocks clean with my turkey baster and keeping the sand stirred up, and Spock and the CUC are doing a great job but algae is definitely coming. Was really hoping I wouldn't have to go through the uglies again. *sigh. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I need to up my CUC though.

 

[C-Reefer]

ed an order yesterday for a new heater :banghead: but also the ocean magik and tisbe pod culturing starter pack! We should be culturing phyto and pods Thursday

I have three containers, a gallon jug, and two 2 liter bottles. I have a shop light for all three, and I'll be splitting an airstone. For the pods, they'll be going in a dark 5 gal bucket with a piece of live rock, and some phyto feast and fish food until my phyto culture takes off. They don't need aeration, but I'll stick an airhose in their going very slowly every few days.

also found a Jebao 3000 DC controllable return pump https://www.amazon.com/Jebao-DCS-3000-845GPH-Submersible-Controller/dp/B01A9FR4EU for $20 from a local reefer. That'd give me 11.5 times tank turnover, and its controllable. I think I'll be snagging that one.

 

[C-Reefer]

The saltwateraquarium.com order arrived yesterday! Whoohooo! We are now culturing phytoplankton and tisbe pods. Fingers crossed I dont crash either of these :dead: Should be about 5-6 more days before it grows enough to double them again, and then just keep doubling every week. I do have room for one more 2 liter in the bucket, so I'll likely have three going 24/7. The pods are in a 5 gal bucket with an airstone, cheato, some crushed up fish food and phyto to turn the water tea green. They do have a heater as well. I'm actually really really really siked about this, as its one step closer towards having a mandarin and anthias and fairy wrasses!!

In other news, I got my ocean revive ordered, I'll be able to pick it up thursday, and I'm hoping to get the brackets mounted today. I also picked up this super hot coral from work. I saw it and was like.... that is a NEED TO HAVE. I mean, its Vols orange! What could be better? It is super bright in person, probably my brightest coral. I've told myself in this new build, only corals that POP. That WOW. That you can see in the tank glowing from across the room. So new coral additions will be very slow, but that's fine, I want colonies. This one definitely fit the bill.

That's under full blues, here it is under natural sunlight and whites combo

We also got in a pair of black storms and this little guy was super cute :shy:

Lets see... I'm finally kinda figuring out what I want fish-wise.

Two bristletooth tangs, kole and tomini
4-5 fairy wrasses including a mccoskers flasher wrasse.
3 anthias (not sure what type, these will be at the very end)
Splendid mandarin (hopefully this one is kinda soon, once I start seeding with pods weekly and dosing phyto)
Sandsifting goby (this will get added only if the mandarin is doing fantastic and I'm still seeing lots and lots of pods. Mandarin takes priority)
Some smaller fish, like a neon goby pair, a shrimp goby+shrimp, royal gramma, bangaii cardinal, ect. Going to the LFS today, I may either come back with tangs or the small fish, depends on what they have Straight into QT of course.
Once everything grows in and there's plenty of algae, I'm going to attempt a CBA. Hopefully with big colonies, and lots of algae to pick on, it won't nip, and even if it does a little bit the corals will be big enough it won't matter. If its a bad nipper then... I can easily swap it in for another

Your probably thinking, dang C, you're way overstocking this thing! Yeah... kinda. Nutrients will be taken care of with a big CUC and a GIANT cheato reactor. I'm talking 8*18 inches big. That thing will suck up nutrients like nothing else. Should help boost my pod population. I'll be picking that up this thursday from work.

Finally... my Holy grail torch now has three official heads! This thing is massive now! I hadn;t realized how much it had grown until I looked back at my pics. It's definitely my fastest growing euphyllia. I talked to some other reefers who purchased them at the same time, and theirs are a lot smaller and one guy got a two head frag, and its only just now starting to split into three I don't know what I'm doing but I'm sticking with it.

 

[C-Reefer]

I've been so tempted multiple times to skip QT but then I remember all the fish... and its not worth it. Other people can tout their success stories but never for me. A true inspiration for me has been @4FordFamily on his 500g build, and him and @HotRocks QTed EVERYTHING that went in. Full QT. On so many fish too. I always think if they could do that, I can. :woot:

Videography... oh geez. I'll have to start a youtube just to show it off. No promises on quality though! :dummy1: Let me get my lights hung, and then I'll give you guys a tour.

WOW! I'm not sure about that one... at least not yet . Just wait till I get this thing full of fish!

Well, here's your fish update! As soon as I walked in and went to the fish section, I saw a stunning flame fin tomini. I was like, I have to have this guy, so I went ahead and got him placed on hold so nobody else would buy it. All mine! :stop: Since I'd decided on a tang, I looked around, and little fish are not cheap! :bored: The "filler" fish are not cheap like most "filler" fish lol. Neon gobys for $30! So I decided to order the little fish from work as we get them a lot cheaper + I get 20% off. We don't carry kole tangs though on our stock list, and I knew I had to add them at the same time or the one added first would be aggressive. :mad: So I got both tangs there. So I ended up with two tangs. A yellow eyed Kole, and a Flame Fin Tomini. I love them both! :joyful:

I switched QTs and just filled up the 20 instead of the 10, and I'm really glad I did now as they use all the space. I finally caught the tomini eating the nori which I clipped to a rock, but the kole has been stupidly glass surfing on one side. Hopefully he catches on quick. I actually like the kole a lot more then I thought I would, its gorgeous, a bluey color with bright yellow eyes and really cool pattern. The flame fin is an eye-catcher for sure too.

QT treatment for these guys will go as follows:
10 day prazi treatment starting today. This will be a time of close observation, and making sure the fish are eating well and fat before starting copper. Day 5, w/c and redose prazi. Day 10, w/c and start raising copper to therapuetic levels over the course of three days. Day 13, copper treatment starts. Day 17, I start feeding metro/focus bound food. Day 27 I transfer both fish to the completely clean 10 g QT, making sure absolutely no equipment gets transferred. Observe for a day or two, and then into DT they go! This checks all the bases against all diseases. Completely clean fish!

Anyways, enough talk. Time for some pics! These guys are all over and still settling in so their a bit timid. WHich means they're really hard to take pics of

I'll hopefully wean them onto the clip in a few days, which will be a lot easier to feed nori.

I have successfully started phyto culturing! Check out the difference in shades. I'll double it in a day or two, and hopefully I'll be dosing phyto in the reef before this week is out.

The pods I can't tell as much. THe water hasn't cleared up at all, but its a small amount of pods in a 5 gal bucket. So Hopefully they're culturing?

One more thing. I spotted this echinata at the LFS I got my tangs from. Phew that thing looked good under full whites alone :nailbiting: I'll be picking up some type of that eventually.

They also had a gorgeous trachy, which I definitely want another of. But man those things are expensive

 

[C-Reefer]

Phew! Sorry about the dump. Now we're caught up I'll try and update frequently. I do have a IG that I post to regularly so I have lots of pictures and stories to tell. I have an update I want to do now but... I had to send in my phone to get it replaced so it won't be back until Wednesday. Ughhhhh

 

[C-Reefer]

My two little jebao SW-2 and RW4 are far underpowered for this size of tank. I have barely any flow. My return is pumping most of my flow, I do have pretty good return flow though with the Jebao DCS 3000 upgrade, which is pumping 845 gph. Not nearly enough turnover, but enugh to get me to 11 times tank turnover, not counting the powerheads. But definitely need more flow, especially when the tangs go in.

Anyways, I've been looking into better flow. Anything from an MP40, to a Jebao CP-120/Icecap 3k gyre to a wavepuck or a Coral Box RN-1. I'm just not sure which one will be best. I'd love an MP40, and may be willing to invest in one if it will last forever and give me the best flow, but.... I can't put it on my back wall, and I'd only be able to purchase one. Would one MP40 blowing across lengthwise, along with my two jebaos on the back on the other side provide enough flow? Or would I be better of with two of the puck-style powerheads? Or, get two gyres. I've heard good things about the icecap gyres, but would I have to get two? Or would one blowing horizantally across the top of the tank be enough? Any opinions?

Also, turns out I need to both feed and dose metro. So I'll start dosing metro as soon as prazi ends and I'm ramping up to copper, as copper is an immuenosuppressant. This means if there's any uronema or brook it will likely set in as soon as copper starts. However if I'm running metro at the same time it'll go ahead and kill it before it starts. So I'll be feeding metro through this prazi treatment, and then start dosing metro during the three days of ramping up to copper.

Really hoping I get my phone back today, its hard living without it lol. I feel lost, like I can't get help if I need it.

 

[C-Reefer]

I think I'm really really leaning towards an icecap 3k gyre on the left side horizantal going across the tank. Or mabye vertical. Anyways, I'll have my returns and jebao to position to provide turbulent flow against the gyre. The 3k is 3000 gph, which alone would give me 40 times tank turnover. But I've been talking to other people too and it turns out if you put it on say else mode or wave mode, where the gyre crashes into rocks, it creats a bit of turbulence, which then reacts with the next wave, causing turbulence instead of a steady flow. I have a feeling it'll still actually be moving lots of water as opposed to a powerhead, but it will still be very turbulent, especially with my jebaos and returns flowing in different directions.

 

[C-Reefer]

I finallyyyyyy got the lights hung, and WOW what a difference it makes! I'd been moving one light back and forth over the top, one side half the day the other the other half. Seeing both halves lit up at once made the tank seem huge, and also everything looks way better. I fianlly have happy corals all day lol.

Because of that I finally busted out the good camera to snap some pics of corals as a reference point for growth later. I also grabbed an FTS or two.

Sonic Galaxea

Fruity Pebbles shroom and shroom rock. I really want more shrooms for this rock, we have some really nice orange discos at work and I want a myriad of ricordea for it too.

The OG acans. These guys started out as three little heads. Finally developing some really nice colors, oranges, reds, and I'm even seeing streaks of green and yellow in the mouths

Next up is the Jack which had been mounted but someone knocked it off and I've been too lazy to remount it. So here he is nice and close on the sandbed which makes for some decent pics. @Stella1979 when I was pulling this guy off the rock he left two eyes behind on a little rock. I've stuck it on a plug and it's growing out, so I should be able to share this guy with you soon since I never sent anything back after the torch! Also gota nice chunky frag of purple birdsnest.

Love this little plate. He has grown a TON! Everyone always said they were slow growers but this guy has been speeding along. I have been feeding him a lot though as he's super fun to watch. I'm hoping my orange plates grow that quick. Speaking of I looked closer and there's actually three of them on there! I'm debating how long I should let them grow before fragging them out, or if I should let them seperate on their own?

Here's a out of focus wrong color temp pic of the zoa rock lol. The blue hornets have finally opened up but ya can't see them cause theres some zoas with like a gold interior covering up the front side. They're the ones in the back left.

Here's a happy acan I got from the expo a while ago. He sat in the JBJ and never really grew much.

And finally, my favorite acan. This thing has some COLORS! This picture is completely untouched. Can't wait to see what this guy develops into.

Last but not least heres a bad blues FTS.

I have more pics under whites+some other stuff I'll share later this evening.

 

[C-Reefer]

Wellllll its not the next evening, but at least it happened right? Some is better then none!

Anyways, here we go. These turned out better then I thought they would. Let's start it off with an FTS. No the room isn't that color. I just had to have the temp turned way up to adjust for the tank. Yes, its definitely going through uglies but I'm fine with that as nothing is breaking out too bad and CUC and Spock (blenny) are keeping it under control just fine. The only annoying thing is scraping the glass twice a day Once the tangs go in I'm expecting it to be spotless. Speaking of tangs, I started raising copper 3 days ago, tomorrow they should be at therapuetic levels, and then 14 days until they're in DT.

Here's the MVP of my CUC. He says "say whaaaaa, I'm just a fat little hungry feller"

This is a better shot of the zoa garden. They're a lot brighter in person. There's Utter Chaos, which for some reaosn haven't fully opened in months but grow really fast, Rainbow Vamps, Blue hornets along with some wierd looking zoa that I need IDd, Rastas, Sunny Ds, Radioactive dragons eyes, mabye fire and ice? Somebright pink zoas that I don't know, and of course the Eagle Eyes.

These are the unknown zoas. They look really cool. All the zoas have been growng faster then I've ever seen them.

This is Ferdinand, he's one of my favorites. Always cruising the tank and looking for stuff. Really pretty color too, he pops!

The skimmer is definitely doing its job, once I get a cheato reactor running I'll likely take if offline unless PO4starts to climb. I have it skimming quite dry as I want it to leave food for the corals. Still haven't cable managed

And finally here's some different angles of the reef.

I have a few things on my wishlist. First and foremost, an Icecap 3k Gyre. I'm selling off a pump, the MarsAqua, and a JBJATO for $150 so I think I'll be placing an order for it. Next up is the cheato reactor, and then I'm quite happy with my equipment. Eventually I would like to upgrade the returns to RFGs but that isn't necessary at all.

Some corals on my wishlist: non green ones . Yeah, I'm trying to focus on getting only EYE POPPING colors. I just want the corals that stand out from across the room.

So, here's a list:
Big colorful trachy- wannnntttt but they're sooo expensive.
A bright acro of some kind to go up between the birdsnest's.
A hammer or another torch
A few more types of popping zoas
Different varietys of mushrooms - disco, ricordea, hairy, ect. I want the fruity pebble rock filled with them!
A few more bright acans.

 

[C-Reefer]

Well I'm terrible about doing uber long pic filled updates that won't all fit in one post so here's another round

Spock agrees

Euphyllia love :hilarious: I've never seen these guys this big and happy. Even my Holy Grail torch (which I neglect taking pics of because I can never catch the colors) is split into at least 3 heads, mabye 4.

Duncan in the sunlight

This shows the state of the new rock. Interestingly enough... The mature rock from the 20 shows absolutelly no signs of algae Hoping it settles in and purples up soon. I also need to find a final spot for M's rainbow but I don't want to until my nems finish moving.

Speaking of nems... :mad: This is my big beautiful RBTA. My darn little Rainbow BTA was sitting happy on the other side of the rock, until I caught him moving a few days ago. He disappeared and I haven't seen him since. No telling where he'll turn up As long as he's not in the powerhead I'm fine with it.

And finally here's a frontal phone FTS without white balance touched

 

[C-Reefer]

Didn't get those top downs yet lol. I'm a slacker. Been super busy with sports and other things.

I'm finally starting to get ready for our Suwanee trip, where we paddle the upper part one year and the lower the next. We're doing the upper part this year and leaving in two weeks. 10 day trip. My favorite one ever. Packing food is fun though haha. Anyways, I finally added those two tangs in. It took them a few days, they hid the first and second day but then the Tomini very quickly established dominance and bullied the Kole into a corner. Gave him a pretty good slice or two. :mad: So I caught the Tomini yesterday and stuck him in the sump for timeout. I'm going to let the Kole establish territory so when the Tomini goes back in hopefully they'll equal out and get along. He's already been getting far braver and venturing out of his corner. If that doesn't work I guess I'll return the Kole. Or return both and get a purple.

Yes I still need to cord manage, I keep meaning to snag some velcro from work to mount controllers but I haven't yet. I'll do it thursday.

Meanwhile, check out how much CRAP my skimmer has been pulling! What a beast :vamp:

My corals have been looking absolutely fantabulous recently and growing like weeds. New zoa heads popping out everywhere, and my sonic galaxea has been growing really fast too. Hopefully it'll grow onto the rock soon.

I need to move a few polyps of these blondies over to my zoa garden, they've been doing really well and I love they're color pattern.

Good growth can probably be attributed to the heavy feeding I've been doing. I've been trying to go at least twice a week, and I'll feed either a Reef Roid/phyto slurry paste or clams and mysis and brine and lots of other little critters.

My phyto culture has been doing really well but I think my pod culture failed. I never saw the water lighten in color. :sorry: I'm going to pick some more pods up and try a different method.

 

[C-Reefer]

Check out what came in yesterday! Icecap 3k gyre. My tank has had super low flow because two 20 gal sized Jebaos aren't going to do anything. This puppy will pump out 3000 gph... Which means if I ran it at 100% I'd be turning my tank over 40 times. That's without my return or other two powerheads!

I opened it up, and first off was really impressed with the feel of the thing. It felt heavier duty then my jebaos. Nice and solid. I chucked it in the tank to see what it would do and it automatically started at 40%. Instantly the whole tank started a gyre movement and detritus was EVERYWHERE! Wow. So I let it go like that to stir up detritus. I'm really really impressed with the gyre flow. You'd think it'd all be laminar, but that's not the case at all. Sure, its mostly one direction but looking at my torches, they're going all over the place even more then when I had opposing powerheads in the 20 long. Getting much more random flow then ever before. It's not a solid stream either that will rip your corals up, its gentle but the whole tank moves. Really really impressed. Euphyllia are super happy but my nems are POd lol. The great thing is it even has screen guard you can put on. Its big, but definitely not overpowering. I'll get an FTS with it when whites go on. No noise from it whatsoever.

Since I finally grabbed all the cord management stuff I needed from work, I decided with another controller, to finally organize my cords. Here's the end results. It could definitey be better, but for never having cord managed before and some cords being way to short, I think I did pretty stinking good. Its sooooo much nicer to have my controllers right on the door, and not have a GIANT mess of cords.

Speaking of the gyre controller, I'm really impressed. A bit difficult to figure out at first but once you do, its fairly simple to go through. 5 different modes, pulse, sine pulse(ramp), random, constant, and sync with another one. You get 3 different times to set different flow modes throughout the day. I have random mode going up to 70% starting at 7, and going all day until 10, where it switches to high flow gyre constant mode to stir up any detritus. That goes for an hour before settling to 40% pulse through the night. I'll see how that does, and I'm sure it'll change.

I did finally get a bunch of killer top downs the other day, just have to transfer form the camera.

 

[C-Reefer]

Well I've been busier then a Pooh-bear in a hive. I got back from my 10 day Suwanee trip Sunday, but have been absolutely busy every day. I've been trying to do a water change for three days for goodness sakes (still not done ). Lots and lots to do. The tank looked great when I came back except the back was COVERED in hair algae. Eh. More food for the tangs. I've only managed to test some parameters (cal was 380 and nitrate was 0.02), I'll finish before I do my wc. Anyways, everything is super happy, so we'll start with a cool sunlight FTS

I picked up a reactor before I left, and ordered rope lights too. Meant to pick up tubing from work yesterday but didn't have the time. Hopefully it'll be up and running soon, and it should super boost my pods. Yeah I need to find a way to secure the rope lights on. I'm actually really really excited for this. It'll allow me to stock my tank really heavily without worrying about nutrients ever.

Speaking of pods... My pod culutre officially failed. I'm pretty sure it was from not having fresh phyto and attemtping to use some off brand stuff I had on hand. I was hoping to keep them alive until my phyto culture kicked in but that wasn't the case. I'll pick up some more pods from my LFS soon and start again now that my phyto culture is BOOMING! :woot: Check it out. I let this batch go for a little over 2 weeks to see how dark I oculd get it. Pretty dang good if I say so myself. I've been dosing really heavy as I have tons. The tank goes crazy when I put it in. Once the cheato reactor starts I'll pick up dosing even more and hopefully really boost the pod population so a mandi will be somewhere in the future.

Fish-wise, the tangs are doing great. The Flame Fin Tomini is definitely the king of the tangs, but the Kole is getting braver. Everybody is working together really really great and it is SUPER cool to see everyone out swimming around like never happened in the 20. Even Spock (Tailspot blenny) will swim around. I love it and cant wait to stock it more. I'll be leaving for vacation in the end of April. We'll be gone for a week and have somebody who's never taken care of our house or animals or fish house-sitting. Sooooo I'm going to wait to get any fish in QT as that would be extra load and QT is a time of very close observation by me to detect early warning signs. Even if they do make it through QT they'd only have less then a week to settle in and that's very close observation as well. Once we get back though... I'm going to place an order for a variety of smaller fish. Some kind of shrimp goby, 2 blue line gobys, small cardinal pair, royal gramma, and a firefish. This'll add variety and interest before I finish out my stocking with a mandarin, mabye a sand sifting goby, and wrasses.

Here's some pictures to sweeten the overload of text.

 

[C-Reefer]

I'm confused and and a little mad right now. Overnight my bird'snest bird'snest completely polyp bailed out. I saw a few bare patches that day, nothin major and that's happened before. Really tiny spots. By the next afternoon polyps had been coming off in big sheets. I've enver seen anything like it. Really stumped about this. Hoping I find babies all over the tank though.

Meanwhile , cannybody ID this coral? I spotted it at a client's tank and have no idea what it is. Almost looks like a Galaxea except it's SPIKY!

Happy zoa's and Hg torch after feeding

This grouper at another client's house really caught my eye, he looks like candy in person! Unbelievably bright colors.

This is at another clients house, this thing is massive!!

He had a super cute pair of scooters too so of course I had to snag a pic

 

[C-Reefer]

I forgot to say, parameters were absolutely perfect. No changes to the tank in lighting, flow, temp, anything. Just came out of nowhere.

A few friends suggested running carbon, which I've only done once in the 20 for PO4 removal (chemipure blue elite). Would it be beneficial? I don't want PO4 removal, so would it be best to get chemipure blue or the rox 0.8?

 

[C-Reefer]

Figured I'd post some quick pics. The tank is doing really fantastic and I'm picking up a super sweet coral tonight! The tank hasn't been getting much love because I've been slammed so its pretty much running on autopilot. Fantastic growth tho and finally starting to grow and color up some acros. I'll try and get an FTS sometime lol.

 

[revhtree]

Ummm looks amazing!