C-Reefer's Journey Into The Dark Side

[C-Reefer]

@C-Reefer I’ve been experimenting with Matrix and copper, and so far (Day 14) no absorption is occurring: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/seachem-matrix-for-qt-use.363132/

Excellent news! So is there a possibility of keeping the Matrix cycled and keeping it up and running and go ahead and get my clowns as soon as GobiWan is out of QT?

Copper was added today at 7 drops. I will test for copper tomorrow after adding 7 more drops.

 

[C-Reefer]

I've got two definite baby heads on the acan! I've been feeding extra, and they've been growing fast! I'm super busy today/Saturday but I'll update with everything Sunday.

I've got a question. Since inverts can't carry disease, could I put in a skunk cleaner shrimp while the tank is laying fallow? I've really been wanting one, they're so cool. I'd have to target feed him but that's not an issue, and he can clean up any food the corals miss.

GobiWan has been doing quite well in QT, no hard breathing, no issues I can see. Acting normal. Copper is up to about 0.17, lower then I thought it would be by now. I've been adding 7 drops every night. I added 7 this morning, I'll add 7 more tonight before I leave, and then get it up to therapuetic in a few days after I come back Sunday.

 

[C-Reefer]

I got my 12 volt DC adapter today, hooked it up to the ATO and it works!!! Finally! I can turn a light on and off by dipping the float switches in the water. My pump will arrive in about 3-4 days and finally I will have an ATO. Just in time too as we will be going on a 2 week vacation soon.

Gobiwan is finally at 0.5 ppm copper although its hard to tell with the Salifert Copper test kit. I've gotta say I am not impressed with the test kit at all. I love the nitrate test kit, but its really hard to tell the colors plus I'm ticked cause the vial is slightly dyed blue after only two tests... Anyway clock is started, and by the time this finishes he can go back in DT as his month and a half will be up. He is still eating like a pig and looking healthy!

Everything is happy and growing! The SPS are growing super fast, and I've been propogating my mushrooms left and right. Not really chopping them up like I did the first time, only 1 or two, but mainly slicing the foot off, and then the foot regrows and the original mushroom grows a new foot fast. My Candy cane is about to split, it has two months and has started growing flesh across. The GSP has almost entirely covered the rock, when it starts growing on the sand I'll be glueing it to my back glass.

I glued one of the fragged shrooms to a frag plug, put it up high. Kind of an experiment as I've noticed the shrooms under the shadow of the monti is kind of dull, but the ones in higher lighting are bright. If it gets a lot brighter I'll put some more up there. Also I'll sell it eventually.

I fragged my zoas and my Galaxea. The zoas, first I cut off two heads glued them to a frag plug, then the second time I got the mat and got 7. So I have to plugs of zoas, I've been feeding fast but I only fragged them a few days ago. I'm hoping to fill the frag plugs like @grantm91 does, and then sell it. The Galaxea frag has 6 heads, 3 big ones and three small ones. It'll probably take a few weeks to grow in but it will completely cover the frag plug when it does. I've gotta say.. . now its on my sandbed, and away from all corals I love it a lot. Its a gorgeous coral, just extremely mean.

I fragged my pulsing xenia as well, its more then quadrupled in size since I got it. I cut off one of the stalks, but was an idiot and cut the stalk off onto a towell. It was a fluffy towell too. Its what I do with other corals, but the xenia literally melted into it. Sooooo I was holding the towell upside down and scraping it out with a xacto. To put it simply it didn't go how I thought lol. I put it in the tank next to the other xenia, put a bit under the sand as it was low flow. I thought it would stay. Somehow it blew over under an arch, but its stayed there for about a week and is recovering so I'll leave it there until it gets big. Might leave it there indefinitely.

The two new heads on the acan have grown a lot!

So sorry guys, but my PC is acting up and I can't download pics from the camera.... I'll update with pics when I can though!

 

[Pbh-reef]

Glad you’re corals are giving you joy while your goby’s in QT!

how many pounds of rock do you now have in your tank btw?

 

[C-Reefer]

Thank you! I can't wait till he's out.

I think around 15 pounds? I used to have alot more before the rescape, probably upwards of 20. Then I replaced half with 3 lbs BRS reef ready rock... which was almost the same volume of rock. The previous rock was basically a solid mass, super heavy and not super holey, but the reef ready is awesome, super holey and lots of bacteria room. I'd recommend it lots.

 

[C-Reefer]

So finally pictures are uploading, so lets start with some FTSs! As you can see the big ugly pill bottle of the ATO is kind of ugly, but it doesn't stick out too bad. To me, benefits far outwiegh the bit of ugly. And meh, I'll put some zoas on it! Then it'll look good lol.

Flash! As you can see the standout white on the reef saver rocks is gone, replaced with uglies . At least it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb. Can't wait to get some coralline growing on it.

Here you can see the purple/blues of the birdsnest. It also is green at the base. It grows so fast! I like it a lot, I think the polyps look super cool . Grows way faster then the setosa, but the setosa grows, just realllll slow.

My Candy Cane is about to split! He's got two heads, and is starting to split down the middle. I love watching him eat, he slurps Roids up.

Ahhhhh the top downs :hungry:

Annnnnd another FTS. Love the :spam:!

The Fruity Loop rock . I hacked a bunch off the rock and stuck em in a jar to root.

Agent Orange Zoas are doing great. Lots of new pups and constantly growing

Happy Galaxea! He's a meany but I've come to love him

 

[C-Reefer]

Who's ready for more pics!?? Pic spam coming up!

So now the sun has moved a bit, sunlight shines in the evenings. Check it out. Some of these were taken by me, some by my sister.

More sunlight pics cause they're super cool

I like this one a lot, my sister took it.

So my monti digi was always broken off where it used to be placed, which was on the birdsnest rock. So I moved it to the new rock scape, laid it horizantal, and its been encrusting like mad! I love the color on it. I have so many green corals, this ones a really nice orange.

Finally getting fast coralline growth! I haven't wiped my back glass in a month or two, I've decided i'll be leaving it alone, let coralline grow and hopefully when I glue my GSP to the back it will take over.

I love my monti plate. This one was taken with flash on, but it glows under blues and grows really fast.:smug:

Here's the Galaxea frag I did the other day. Its got 7 heads. Soooooo galaxea is super easy to frag. The skeleton is very fragile. I literally took my glass scraper and ran it around the 3 polyps I wanted, and then broke it off. The four little polyps broke off as well. It's already gotten bigger.

Here's a frag plug full of zoas. I attempted to frag more, and this time insteadof cutting off indivual polyps i ripped the mat off. Far better for the zoas. This has got 7 or 8 heads. @Stella1979 if that's enough for you thats the one I'll be sending. I can alwasy send more if you want though.

My un-named pink head has finally sprouted a baby! Now there's three.

The overtaking GSP! I can definitely see how its a pest, I sure am glad I isolated it. I love it though, so much motion and a pretty color. When it grows off onto the sand I'll cut off strips and glue them to my back glass. I think it'll look super cool :happy:

The little xenia frag I got about a month ago has more then quadrupled in size. And that's after I hacked off a full branch, which is currently floating around the tank recovering. Mainly the little guy stays under the arches in the new scape.

 

[C-Reefer]

My WWC entry! #reef2reef, #worldwidecorals, #mywwccontest

Hmmmm so last night I dreamed my splattered hammer broke off straight in the middle and was floating around. Thankfully this morning its fine lol.

So, this will be a quick overview of making the holders for the ATO. I'll probably write a sticky or article eventually on making it, as I found there weren't many good videos/pages that gave you a good description. Most were vague or assumed you had a good knowledge of electriciy. So I'll do one that everyone can use, a double float switch, one emergency, with redundancy, and safe.

First, I cut the acrylic on my bandsaw. This was the part I was worried about, but it worked great.

Then I tried boiling them... didn't work. Again, thats what they showed in the vids. So instead I took a lighter and did a sweep or two back and forth on one side, flipped, and did it again on the other side. After 2-3 flips it was very bendable, and I just layed it on the counter and bent it. You have to make sure you hold it until it's solid or it will warp back.

Unfortunantely, one of the float switches arrived missing the top nut. :mad: So I drilled the hole just big enough to barely squeeze it into. It worked. The other was fine though. So I drilled a hole in the bent part for the float switch, then three holes on the long part for suction cups. Make sure you leave enough room for a snail guard on one. I want a small clear pill bottle, or mabye a clear acrylic bottle for the snail guard, as the big white pill bottle sticks out. On the snail guard, drill one tiny hole in the very bottom, and a tiny hole at the very top. If you don't, wave motion will be constantly be flipping the float switch on and off which makes it very hard to calibrate to the water level. Again, something I found out the hard way. :dead:

As you can see, it doesn't look bad above water. The blue hose is where the water came out. I wasn't thinking at first and stuck it in my HOB, cause it would mix it before going in. Whelp when the pump turns off it becomes a siphon lol.

Here's the view from where I sit. Part of the reason I wanted a new scape.

After never having cleaned the fuge, I noticed the chaeto was getting filthy, even after rinsing multiple times, and flow was slow. So I pulled the matrix out, put it in a mesh bag for easy removal, and wiped everything down. It looks so much better and cleaner and flow is way better. I'll be adding that to my monthly or bimonthly maintnence list.

Last but not least, Gobiwan is doing great! Copper levels been holding at 0.5/6 ppm and he's healthy and eating like a pig. Not too much longer until I start metro (May 7), and then he'll be out in 10 more days after starting metro! Unfortunantely only about 50 days will have gone by by then, so he'll need to stay in QT another month. :banghead: I hate not having a fish in DT, and not being able to get fish into my FW because I don't have a QT. :meh: Sooooo I'm getting a Skunk cleaner today! Basically, it may be carrying ich into the system encrusted onto its shell. But, when it molts I just need to pull the molt out of the tank, and the tromonts (floating things) will die after a maximum of 15 days due to not having a host. So yay I'll get some life n the tank today!! And mabye another coral.... or two

 

[CastAway]

You’re killing it man. Awesome work!

 

[C-Reefer]

You’re killing it man. Awesome work!

Thank you! I'm getting a Cleaner Shrimp today, and mabye some more corals. Life in the tank since GobiWan will be out for a while. Also... there's a possiblility, if I can talk my parents into it, I'll be getting a JBJ 24 AIO cube! I'd use it as coral QT/frag growout/sell tank. Give me some good extra tank excuses! It comes with all the equipment, return pump, hydor powerhead, fragging tools, additives, ect, and a good light. It is old, but... It would go up in my room. All I'd need would be salt mix to fill it up (which I have), sand, and rock and they may come withe the tank.

 

[C-Reefer]

Picked up a jar of phyto feast and a small skunk cleaner! I've got to leave soon but i'll update with pics tomorrow.

 

[C-Reefer]

Sooooo the long awaited update on the shipped corals!

@Stella1979 and I did a crazy experiment. We attempted to ship corals with priority mail, under $10 for shipping. :nailbiting: The corals were shipped from Florida on Thursday around noon. The corals shipped were a stunning Ricordea Floridae, and a Hollywood Stunner Chalice. The corals were at the post office Friday morning, but regrettably I had testing and so could not pick them up. They were delivered at 1:48.

I anxiously ripped the box open, and there were the corals, in a chinese takeout cup, in two plastic bags. I opened it, and there was water in the cup. I quickly pulled them out, and put the bags in the water, to get them temp acclimated. This is one of the frags, I already pulled the other out.

I turned my lights to moonlight so as not to burn the corals. :bag: An hour later, I pulled them out, and put the chalice in the tank, as it was just the coral. No pests on that one. The ric, I decided it would be less stressful to take it off the frag plug. I peeled it back a little bit as it was loose, and then very gently scraped it off, it came right off as it was on a smooth frag plug. I set it on a rock, and turned pumps off.

It seemed to have grabbed on after an hour or two, so I turned pumps on and it stayed in place. It was already filled back out some, but the chalice was pretty brown. A few eyes were green, but not too many, mabye two or three. :bored: I was a bit scared for that one. the next morning when I woke up, the ric was shoved back in a tiny crack. I blew it out, and wedged it in a little crack. (different positioning)

The chalice had gained color, and almost all the eyes were green. Then I had to leave, as we were going for the weekend to the Smokies. Camping, white-whater kayaking, and hammocking. :joyful: So much fun. I'll do another post on that. Anyways, when I got back this afternoon, the ric had fell down to the substrate, but it was grabbed on, and very happy. So I decided to leave it there for now. The chalice had filled in all the eyes, and blue has started to spread. :happy: So far quite a sucess!

I will be shipping a Galaxea frag, Agent Orange Zoas, and Fruity Loop mushrooms back hopefully either tomorrow or the next day. We can see how those will do! I'll also chip off a tiny corner of my monti plate and send it, to see if SPS will be OK. Now it will be my turn to chew my nails off to see how they shipped! :yuck:

There's about 10-11 polyps.

 

[C-Reefer]

Time for coral and skunk cleaner updates! I'm pretty siked as I've been getting lots of great growth, just noticed another new baby head on the acan! So now I'll have 4 baby heads, and the two originals have grown really fast, they're already developing color and are about 1/4" across. There's another one on the backside of the bigger baby polyp. I fed them a little squirt of roids last night, trying to hustle them along

The new head I noticed yesterday.

Love the top down shots of my SPS rock. See the little tiny piece of monti cap? I glued that there about 2 weeks ago, after I accidentally broke it off the big one. It was mabye 3/4 of the size it is now, and its already completely encrusted. I'm also superduper happy with how crazy fast my birdsnest grow, I can see the difference every week!

My monti Digi has also been growing like a weed. I love it, look how much its encrusted! Hoping it will start branching up and out soon. Its a really pretty color, and I just got a tiny frag from Jeff, but its doing great.

Greedy hammer! :vomit: Look how big his mouth is! He loves it though, I'm hoping he'll sprout another head though as he's one of my favorite corals right now.

See all the new heads on my zoas @Stella1979 ? They grow awesome for me. Hoping they do the same for you!

The good ole' Galaxea. He's stuffing his mouths right now. I love him. I really do. Absolutely gorgeous coral, once you get used to the mean. :vamp: Grows really well too.

This guy
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I'm really hoping that he splits soon! I've been feeding him enough. :mad: He's close I think, got real wide and two very distinct mouths. Here he is stuffing his mouth after a good feeding.

And finally, the boss himself, the Skunk Cleaner!! I'm already in love with this guy. The first night, after I rbought him home, he hid behind the GSP island. He did that about half of the second day too, and then cautiously came out and started exploring. Now he's all over and scared of noone! He's still a baby, as he's pretty small, but it'll be fun to watch him grow. He's very pretty. I had to shoo him away from my acan while it ate LOL.

So I dosed phyto before I left. An hour later no feeding response. I thought it fed corals too? I dosed two drops straight into the powerhead. Huh. Yesterday I gave it two drops too, no feeding response. Pods look the same as always, all over. :joyful:What will phyto help with exactly? I know it will help biodiversity, but is that it? Will increasing biodiversity in turn help feed the corals as they feed on the biodiversity?

Oh, I'll probably be shipping out today! :nailbiting: Really nervous about this, I'll do the best job packing I can. I think I'll follow @Stella1979 lead by putting them in a takeout cup, so if one leaks it'll be fine.

I'll be sending the Galaxea frag, Zoa frag, and some Fruity Pebbles Shrooms.

 

[ScottandAlisa]

You have an awesome tank C-reefer, and your corals look amazing! Im excited to follow and see even more progression!
I do have a question though, how do you like the current light? I got one for my newly cycling tank and was worried it may not have as good of a reaction from the corals as some of the higher end brands like radion or kessil.

 

[C-Reefer]

You have an awesome tank C-reefer, and your corals look amazing! Im excited to follow and see even more progression!
I do have a question though, how do you like the current light? I got one for my newly cycling tank and was worried it may not have as good of a reaction from the corals as some of the higher end brands like radion or kessil.

Thank you very much! I love watching them grow, I realized today the tank is almost 5 months old now! Crazy how fast time goes by.

I like it a lot. I can tell it doesn't have as much power as the Radions my LFS has, but its been keeping LPS and easy SPS thriving. I do have to keep them higher then normal, but in a shallow tank it works just fine. I likely won't be able to keep high end acros but thats fine, I don't really like them. I' keeping a Galaxea on the sandbed and its growing like a weed so I'd say they have plenty of power. I love the controllability and how easy it is to program the lights, you can set up your lighting schedule exactly to your needs/wants.

 

[C-Reefer]

The shipped corals were succesfull so far! Everything arrived and is OK, she said that they looked good. Waiting on pictures that I'll get tonight @Stella1979 .

I dosed 20 drops of Phyto the other day, due to a recommendation, and my candy cane went crazy, feeders all over. Also my other LPS enjoyed it. I'm going to try feeding with a mix of phyto and roids tonight, update ya'll on that later.

My hammer I got from @CastAway sprouted a new head! Its small but growing fast. Unfortunately its at a wierd angle thats impossible to photograph, but i'll get pics when it gets bigger. I swear, the amount I've been feeding it it should have 23 new heads lol. Gets 3-4 mysis and thick Roids mix every other day. Really happy though because its one of my favorite corals.

 

[Stella1979]

The experiment has been a wild success so far. Happy, happy, corals after priority shipping took a bit over 48 hours to get to me. Lights aren't on yet, but I'll get some new ones today. First pics were ok, but they're looking even better after a day or two.

 

[C-Reefer]

So. I've got a decision. I can get a JBJ 24g biocube, with lighting, equipment, and all the stuff the guy used to run his tank for $100, but my parents said I have to trade one of my tanks. The tank that might be traded is my 5g acrylic bowfront. which I really like as it sits on my dresser, and it was my first tank. Right now its a heavily planted shrimp tank. The biocube would either go net to my bed, or right outside my door in the playroom. It would be a frag growout/invert QT. What do ya'll think? Was thinking mainly euphyllia, with mabye some high end softies. Or, I could do a mainly RBTA tank as I've heard they grow fast and those sell for pretty good money.

 

[C-Reefer]

I think I've made my decision. Biocube will be coming soon!! The 5 will still stay running, it will go up on my scapers stand as a biotope/ember tetra/shrimp/moss paradise. I'll just sell of moss and shrimp whenever there's a lot. The biocube will be going up in my room, either on my dresser if I can reinforce it enough, or beside my bed. I'm super excited!!! The plan is to be mostly a frag growout tank. I'll be keeping mostly euphyllia and higher end softies like shrooms and zoas. Then I can sell them and make back some money. I'm debating really hard if I want to have fish in it or not... A) extra money B) if not I could use this as an invert QT... C) If I did, well, I'd have fish! I might try breeding bangaii cardinals in it... idk.

 

[C-Reefer]

Its day 20 for GobiWan in Copper. That means its time to add Metro and then 10 days and meds are DONE! He's been in QT for 39 days now, only 46 more to go. It takes soooo loooonnnnggg

I saw @Nart is putting up a Nem dominant tank... idk mabye I could enjoy the nems through him and go with euphyllia/softie tank. What do ya'll think? I need to figure out a stand, either build my own which, I don't think a square stand would go that great with a rounded biocube... I do want it next to my bed, but I'd have to build a stand and I'm not sure if it would look as nice as on my dresser which I'd have to reinforce. BUT if I used my dresser I don't have under-stand space for storage/ect. Juts had a thought on the stand... I do the base a little small, and put a piece of staingrade 1/2 plywood on top. I can cut the plywood to exactly the shape of the biocube with only a little big of extra. Wouldn't look too bad I think.