ksfulk's Red Sea Reefer 525xL

[ksfulk]

So... I did a thing today...

Before:

After:

Nothing that a hacksaw can’t fix... that Birdsnest was 10” across and almost that deep as well. Took it to the LFS for a pretty nice credit there.

Good news is if you buy a Birdsnest in West Michigan in the next month or so... likely came from my tank

Now time to monitor my parameters a bit and make sure nothing goes crazy. I cut my dosing in half and we’ll go from there.

 

[ksfulk]

Results are back from ATI... everything is about what I thought it would be, though I do admit I thought PO4 would be higher...

 

[ksfulk]

Small updates - though I’m overdue for a tank video for this month. Anyhow, i was going to shut down my qt and clean up the table a bit when a unique critter fell into my lap.... a multi bar angel (P. multifasciata)

So I ran him through some dips and acclimated (along with the accompany royal gramma) and into QT they went this weekend. I’ve seen it peck at spirulina mysis, so I’m cautiously optimistic - but only time will tell with this finicky little guy. I’m hoping to grab some black worms on my way home later this week to entice him to eat.

 

[ksfulk]

Seems as though too much flow can be a bad thing :mad: I had cleaned my gyres and WAVs this weekend and put them back in the tank in a slightly different configuration than before so that the water wouldn’t tumble so much at the surface, sending salt spray everywhere. Apparently I moved them too much and my RR Aussie Gold took the brunt of 9600 gph. ;Blackeye;Blackeye

I clipped off the branches that were flesh shredded and moved the pumps back to their original configuration, so hopefully it’s all kosher now - suppose only time will tell.

 

[CDavmd]

Enjoyed reading through your build! I love your color scheme I'm doing a similar scheme on a 425xl based on Eric Reefer525xl build. I wanted to ask you, where did you get the barnacle shells? They really add a nice touch to your scape.
Thanks!

 

[ksfulk]

Enjoyed reading through your build! I love your color scheme I'm doing a similar scheme on a 425xl based on Eric Reefer525xl build. I wanted to ask you, where did you get the barnacle shells? They really add a nice touch to your scape.
Thanks!

Hey thanks for reading this whole mess over

The barnacle clusters were purchased from @reefcleaners and they are super awesome. My blennies and anthias all duck into them to hide or eat or rest constantly. They also are great for filling out areas that don’t have corals but you still want something visually appealing. I would recommend getting 2-4 large clusters from John and you’ll get a few liners that come off the big clusters and you can break them up into smaller pieces as you need to.

 

[ksfulk]

Random pictures of the tank from today.

 

[ksfulk]

What could I be upto today?

 

[ksfulk]

Well... I think things went well today. I got a pair of structures built using fauna Marin aquafix- which was pretty neat stuff to play with. I got lots of great rock to work with from Marcorocks and what’s pictured above is 20lbs of cherryscapes.

So... some before and after pictures. I’ll have to figure out the placement of some of the other pieces that had to move around to accommodate the new rock work. I’ll let it get settled before I start attaching corals.

 

[ksfulk]

Weird... it cut off a few of the last pictures...

 

[ksfulk]

I feel like I’m behind with updates. I shot a bit of a video so I can at least get back on track with monthly video updates. I’ll probably spend some time mounting most of my frags this weekend, as well as trimming a few of the more prolific sticks.

I’m digging the new rock work, I and it seems to be past the funky algae phase, so I can start fixing frags to it without fear of a gha outbreak.

 

[ksfulk]

Things have strangely and suddenly taken a turn for the worse. I’ve had two large colonies rapidly lose tissue from the base up within a few days, my derasa clam that I’ve had for 3+ years was withdrawn yesterday and then dead this afternoon when I came home from work. As a result my alkalinity has spiked from 6.8 to 8.4 dKH which has most other corals irritated. I’ve turned off the dosing pumps, run a full gambit of testing and have done a 25% water change. I’m sending off for a ICP test kit, but I doubt if things keep up at this pace I’ll be able to solve this issue before all the sps are toast.

 

[Elias Kalogiros]

Keep us posted please. Would like to know what caused this. That is terrible news!!
I have something similar happen when I started over feeding causing my phosphates and nitrates to spike.

 

[Velcro]

Sorry to hear man. Stupid hobby.

 

[ksfulk]

Seeing a bit more recession on another colony.... *sigh*

Tissue recession on my shortcake has stopped - I think? Hard to tell with how bad the colony looks like. But the red planet is slowly being eaten away, as is one of the ORA Scrips. Just blah... I should get the ICP test kit on Friday... so we'll see what comes back next week.

 

[Velcro]

Seeing a bit more recession on another colony.... *sigh*

Tissue recession on my shortcake has stopped - I think? Hard to tell with how bad the colony looks like. But the red planet is slowly being eaten away, as is one of the ORA Scrips. Just blah... I should get the ICP test kit on Friday... so we'll see what comes back next week.

Well you know who to call if you need to insurance store some stuff.

 

[ksfulk]

Well you know who to call if you need to insurance store some stuff.

Thanks - I might hit you up if things get worse over the weekend. Oddly, all of the frags on the racks are looking great and growing. Figures. At minimum I'll get your burning banana back to you - its about as big around as the plug and fully crusted now.

 

[Velcro]

Thanks - I might hit you up if things get worse over the weekend. Oddly, all of the frags on the racks are looking great and growing. Figures. At minimum I'll get your burning banana back to you - its about as big around as the plug and fully crusted now.

strange that it's only colonies...

 

[pelphrey]

Curious if you think adding the new rock to the system caused any of the coral problems? How is the new rock looking? I've thought real hard about replacing my right rock structure.

 

[ksfulk]

Curious if you think adding the new rock to the system caused any of the coral problems? How is the new rock looking? I've thought real hard about replacing my right rock structure.

I dont think it has anything to do with it really, as the rock work was added a month ago and this was literally overnight. Ive used the marco rock in several other builds before without any real issue, and so I dont think its that. If anything I think it might have something to do with the clam going sideways. The derasa hasnt had much in the way of shell growth in a few months (since February really), and so its likely it has been dying slowly over the past few months and when it finally kicked the bucket, the alk demand dropped dramatically, and since my alk is generally pretty low (6.8-7.0 dKH) a spike to over 8 probably just tore up the acros. Even after getting it back down (7.0 dKH currently) things are still a bit up in the air at the moment.

The new rock is looking nice now, actually. Its gone from a bone white to a more natural green-gray and starting to grow coralline in spots. I think the only real wildcard there is the plastic coralfix, but that type of plastic is pretty inert typically.