Kobi's Cosmic Reef - Waterbox 190.5 Build

[Kobkobico]

Things have been going pretty alright in Cosmic Reef. All creatures are alive except, unfortunately, for three out of the five nerite snails. I'm not sure what it is that they're not able to tolerate, as everyone else is doing well. I have started to feed the crabs Hikari Tropical Sinking Wafers and they love this stuff. As soon as I drop it in they scramble over and surround it, then fight over the same one even though there's like 3 more of them nearby.

I also attended Reefapalooza, and found myself 7 nice frags. I will have to spend some time IDing what I got; I only know for sure that I have a hammer. I did ask the vendors to recommend some that are easier to care for, so hopefully that's what I got and these guys grow in nicely. Right now they're sitting in the sandbed, but I will move them soon to their permanent homes.

I also spent some time sprucing up the space the tank is in to make a nice area and I love how it turned out. I think it'll be an amazing space to chat and relax, especially as the tank fills in.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Reefapalooza was fun! I got five frags too. Hard to see in the pic-what did you add?

 

[Kobkobico]

Oh nice! Right you're also in CA, if you go next year maybe we can meet up at the next one. I went to the Saturday one, but I might consider Sunday next year to snag the better deals at the end of the event.

It turns out I underestimated how many I bought, I guess I actually bought 10 frags. Attaching some blurry pictures of them under less blue light.

 

[Kobkobico]

I do think I'm going to also look for some corals that look good under white light. Most of what I got pop under blue light, but I do want the tank to look nice under a whiter spectrum too.

 

[Kobkobico]

Got the first fish in the tank, two clowns and one six line wrasse. I know the six line is a gamble especially added this early; unfortunately one of the corals I brought in came with flatworms so it was added in to get ahead of the issue. And, indeed, it's done a great job keeping them under control!

I've come to like the six wrasse quite a bit, it's clearly the brains of the tank. Always exploring the rockwork and finding channels through the rocks I never would have guessed existed. So far it's been a model citizen but will have to see what happens as it gets older.

The two clowns are cute, they paired up immediately and have been civil with one and other. Easy to tell them apart, as one is a bit darker than the other. Still not sure who will end up the male and female, haven't seen too many displays of dominance and the minor ones I've seen have gone both ways.

I also finally set up a quarantine system, so no more throwing stuff in the display and wishing for luck. I'll let the display sit until mid-December until I add more fish, so that I'm confident there's no disease there. I will then buy the fish pre-quarantined, and use my quarantine system for corals and inverts which are way easier to deal with. Will get a frag rack soon so the poor one in there isn't lying on its side.

Also starting up a refugium to control nitrates better, will see how that turns out soon.

Corals are doing well, still sitting there on the sandbed but I've had no losses so far. Unfortunately one of my favorites, which I later found out was a Kenya tree, was removed because I learned they can be difficult to manage.

Video of the fishies below, and corals. As you can see, one got knocked over courtesy of Noseybonk, the local conch.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Cute fishies! And your rock work looks immaculate- no GHA yet? Your CUC are rockstars.

 

[Kobkobico]

I did had some spring up, but I think the turbos (Petunia and Periwinkle) demolished it quickly. The sandbed also got nasty with diatoms for a bit but I think conch Noseybonk has made a big difference cleaning and turning it over.

CUC has been doing a great job!