REEF OF THE MONTH - September 2022: JMacedo's Amazing SPS Reef

[JMacedo]

I love this reef and all the photos of it are absolutely incredible, but I also really love how Jorge let us into his story to learn from his experience! Thanks for sharing your reef with us!

Thank you so much for making me feel a kid again, so delighted for having my humble tank featured here!

 

[Elise_]

This is incredible!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[rjdasilva]

Muito bonito!

 

[death-by-reef]

it looks amazing
i really want a reef, but I thought I could ever have one as beautiful as that

 

[jdpiii3]

Very beautiful tank!

 

[JMacedo]

This is incredible!! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you!

Muito bonito!

Obrigado. (Thank you)

it looks amazing
i really want a reef, but I thought I could ever have one as beautiful as that

Give it time and knowledge and you will have a gorgeous reef. Thank you.

Very beautiful tank!

Thank you!

 

[Lowsingle]

Amazing tank and write up……how do you keep the Christmas tree worms alive with all of those butterfly fish?

Darren

 

[JMacedo]

Amazing tank and write up……how do you keep the Christmas tree worms alive with all of those butterfly fish?

Darren

Until three months ago I used to have only one butterflyfish and the Christmas tree worms were alright. Now with three butterflyfish I have to wait and see, the major threat to the Christmas tree worms is the lack of direct light as corals grew big.
Thank you very much.

 

[Longatto]

Jorge. beautiful pics and summary. Thank you for sharing. It looks like your rocks are hovering! Do you happen to have any pics of your rock scape before all the corals grew in? getting inspired to get back in!

 

[saulgoodmannnn]

Love love love your aqua scape! Amazing tank!

 

[JMacedo]

Jorge. beautiful pics and summary. Thank you for sharing. It looks like your rocks are hovering! Do you happen to have any pics of your rock scape before all the corals grew in? getting inspired to get back in!

Thank you very much. Here is a pic of the right hand-side. I made a large base, like a pedestal that was then covered with sand.

I used the same process for the left hand-side but it is harder to see as there were other rocks supporting the structure while the Epoxy was drying.

both structures:

 

[JMacedo]

Love love love your aqua scape! Amazing tank!

Thank you so much!

 

[Khalilkaram]

great tank and better story keep up the good work

 

[JMacedo]

great tank and better story keep up the good work

Thank you very much.

 

[SamsReef]

Congratulations

Thank you so much for making me feel a kid again, so delighted for having my humble tank featured here!

A huge congratulations

 

[JMacedo]

Congratulations

A huge congratulations

Thank you!

 

[zheka757]

i was very impressed with the collection of wrasse you have. i think it was like 13 of them or so? any challenges of keeping this many in a tank that size? im asking because i want to add in a range of 5-6 of them to my 400gallon tank, and i cant decide on what i want, i do have a 6line in my frag tank already that i can add to that list

 

[spsick]

Stunning reef and amazing husbandry!

Did I miss in the description what you do for water changes?

 

[JMacedo]

i was very impressed with the collection of wrasse you have. i think it was like 13 of them or so? any challenges of keeping this many in a tank that size? im asking because i want to add in a range of 5-6 of them to my 400gallon tank, and i cant decide on what i want, i do have a 6line in my frag tank already that i can add to that list

I love wrasses, love their colours and how good they are at keeping certain parasites under control. The majority of my wrasses aren't that big with the exception of the Coris Gaimard.
IMO, managing 13 is no problem in terms of space... the main problem is their behavior and that behavior can change, usually for the worse.

Six and four line wrasses after being in the tank for while will no longer tolerate new introductions of fishes like Hawkfish, Mystery wrasse (an establish Mystery wrasse won't accept a new six or four line wrasse either) or Royal Grammas. The same goes for Melanurus and leopard wrasses they will not accept new additions of similar shape, in all these cases I find introducing all of them at the same time gives the best chance to keep them all.

Another problem is, if a wrasse hides for a few days or gets weaker the other wrasses will treat that particular wrasse as a new addition even if they were a mated couple before. They will chase the wrasse until he keeps hiding and starves to death. I am starting to think the solution to that may be a bare bottom tank. I used to think that some wrasses would need a sandbed but after seeing a friend having success with a Choati Leopard-wrasse in a bare bottom tank while I failed two times to keep them alive for more than a couple of months, I am starting to think that wrasses might be able to live well, just by sleeping near the base of rocks and not hiding for days and then being chased by others. Never tried this approach but I keep thinking if this could work.

With these many wrasses I won't be introducing a new one any time soon.

TBH I might just have been lucky with the ones I have now.

 

[JMacedo]

Stunning reef and amazing husbandry!

Did I miss in the description what you do for water changes?

Thank you so much. 10% weekly water changes using Fauna Marin salt.