Slythy's 70 Rimless SPS Dominate Build

[slythy]

Got a big batch of coral and some new fish! Also killed my first acros!

Fish added
1: One Spot Fox Face
2: Pink Streak Wrasse
3: Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Coral Added
1: Digital Fire Acro
2: Bonsai Acro
3: Carolina Reaper Acro
4: Tequila Sunrise Acro
5: Pantera Rosa Acro
6: Bill Murray Acro
7: Confetti Acro
8: Bubblegum digi
9: Unknown Malaysian torch
10: Show Stopper Favia
11: Red Goniopora

I think the Confetti Acro died in shipping, it didnt look like it had any skin on it Then a few days later the Panthera Rosa lost almost all its skin except on the tips. I cut the 3 tips off and put them on a frag plug in a different place to hopefully have one of them survives. all the other corals look good.

It seems like the corals that had some growth on the plugs all look good, the ones that didnt immediately died or decolored.

Here are my 2 dead corals :/

my attempt at saving these

Anyone know what the new torch is? its the pink tipped one.

bubblegum digi

bill murray

Tequila

Carolina Reaper

Bonsai

Digital Fire

Red Goni

Show Stopper

Seeing some decent growth on my other 2 SPS

And my favorite picture I have taken of my foxface!

 

[slythy]

So its been quite a few months since an update....

My wife and I went on a couple week vacation in Europe in October and my alk plummeted and I had someone add enough Alk back to bring it back to 8.0. issue was I think it went to quick.I did a large water change when I got home hoping it would help but my acro's all started to STN and I wasnt able to save very many. My orange monte that showed really good growth fully died. I now have a cup as a small graveyard of sticks :/. I think it was just too early ambitious to do so many acros.

I added 2 MP10's in a panic to see if flow was my issue. I added them in gyre mode to add a bit of randomness to my flow. One is on the left side with a MP40 and the other is on the back wall.

I ended up purchasing a few sticks as well as a couple torches on black friday. I couldnt help myself.

I also recently had to go on a business trip for a couple weeks and my nitrate zero'ed out. I feel like that caused a bit of an algae spike as well as some cyano show'ed up for the first time. My acro's had algae growing on them but the poly extension was much greater than ever before. I wonder if running 10ppm of nitrates was too high. I have dosed it back up to 5ppm with phosphates staying a constant 0.03.

havent purchased any corals from black friday until this week. Since my torches have all grown and look good I splurged and got a 24k gold torch for a really good price. My LFS had a 3 head they sold me for $250!

I also got a DOS for christmas that i setup for 1gpd waterchanges. I think its going to be a very welcome good addition to my tank. I also ran the lines in the attic through pvc so there is some protection when I go up there. I am thankful my wife has been ok with me doing all this crazy stuff. My next task is to run a 1" PVC line outside. I get a 0.2 PH boost by running the line outside. I 3d printed a filter that I filled with Carbon and a little pad so I can safetly suck air from outside.

Live stock changes
Rainbow Urchin (to hopefully eat my excess coraline)
Blood Shrimp
18 hermits
18 smallish turbo snails

Coral additions:
Cotton Candy Torch
Pink tip black torch
24k gold torch
Toxic green acro?
unknown acro?
unknown acro2?
Purple frammer coral (free black friday deal)
greenish rainbow frammer


Equipment Changes
added 2 mp40's
added 2nd DOS for 1gal daily auto waterchanges
added a Clearview Pisces Exo lid
added a FMM
added a 15" LLS for my sump for AWC trust
purchased a PM1&PM2 to get more IO breakouts
purchased Fishyfunstuff IO PCB's that take float or digital sensors
plan to add noncontact fluid level sensors for my FSW storage container
added 4 more lbs of tropic eden rock ( euphilia mounting)

FTS with new Lid, right rock not in final spot

A shot with all my fish in it!

my shrimp not getting along

picture of my torch garden. My 24k was just dipped so not fully extended, its a little angry, my largest in the back is splitting like 5 ways so its middle isnt too happy,

my hammer/octo garden

my new trial cheapy sps

my only original remaining sps, it had some STN but it stopped and is growing back well

macro shot of my Rainbow Urchin

another random new sps that seems to be doing well

lastly a tip off of my bill murray that seems to be doing ok, hopefully I was able to save it. its only about half an inch.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

So its been quite a few months since an update....

My wife and I went on a couple week vacation in Europe in October and my alk plummeted and I had someone add enough Alk back to bring it back to 8.0. issue was I think it went to quick.I did a large water change when I got home hoping it would help but my acro's all started to STN and I wasnt able to save very many. My orange monte that showed really good growth fully died. I now have a cup as a small graveyard of sticks :/. I think it was just too early ambitious to do so many acros.

I added 2 MP10's in a panic to see if flow was my issue. I added them in gyre mode to add a bit of randomness to my flow. One is on the left side with a MP40 and the other is on the back wall.

I ended up purchasing a few sticks as well as a couple torches on black friday. I couldnt help myself.

I also recently had to go on a business trip for a couple weeks and my nitrate zero'ed out. I feel like that caused a bit of an algae spike as well as some cyano show'ed up for the first time. My acro's had algae growing on them but the poly extension was much greater than ever before. I wonder if running 10ppm of nitrates was too high. I have dosed it back up to 5ppm with phosphates staying a constant 0.03.

havent purchased any corals from black friday until this week. Since my torches have all grown and look good I splurged and got a 24k gold torch for a really good price. My LFS had a 3 head they sold me for $250!

I also got a DOS for christmas that i setup for 1gpd waterchanges. I think its going to be a very welcome good addition to my tank. I also ran the lines in the attic through pvc so there is some protection when I go up there. I am thankful my wife has been ok with me doing all this crazy stuff. My next task is to run a 1" PVC line outside. I get a 0.2 PH boost by running the line outside. I 3d printed a filter that I filled with Carbon and a little pad so I can safetly suck air from outside.

Live stock changes
Rainbow Urchin (to hopefully eat my excess coraline)
Blood Shrimp
18 hermits
18 smallish turbo snails

Coral additions:
Cotton Candy Torch
Pink tip black torch
24k gold torch
Toxic green acro?
unknown acro?
unknown acro2?
Purple frammer coral (free black friday deal)
greenish rainbow frammer


Equipment Changes
added 2 mp40's
added 2nd DOS for 1gal daily auto waterchanges
added a Clearview Pisces Exo lid
added a FMM
added a 15" LLS for my sump for AWC trust
purchased a PM1&PM2 to get more IO breakouts
purchased Fishyfunstuff IO PCB's that take float or digital sensors
plan to add noncontact fluid level sensors for my FSW storage container
added 4 more lbs of tropic eden rock ( euphilia mounting)

FTS with new Lid, right rock not in final spot

A shot with all my fish in it!

my shrimp not getting along

picture of my torch garden. My 24k was just dipped so not fully extended, its a little angry, my largest in the back is splitting like 5 ways so its middle isnt too happy,

my hammer/octo garden

my new trial cheapy sps

my only original remaining sps, it had some STN but it stopped and is growing back well

macro shot of my Rainbow Urchin

another random new sps that seems to be doing well

lastly a tip off of my bill murray that seems to be doing ok, hopefully I was able to save it. its only about half an inch.

Love the Rainbow urchin you have!!

 

[slythy]

I built the custom IO interfaces which lets you use an Optical style switch or a standard switch. My hope is that I can run the 4 wire non contact fluid level switches for my AWC system so I have a way to shut off if the water level gets too low.

I need to 3d print the housings to finish it off. I found someone on the Neptune forums who designed this PCB for this use. I might make a varient of this in the future to make it USB powered as well as potentially smaller/ surface mounted parts.

I also am making a filter to run my air to my skimmer outside. I created a 3"x3" filter that is full of carbon with a tiny bit of mesh air filter jammed at the top to stop bugs from crawling in. This will fit directly to a 1" pvc pipe which will neck down to the air filter size that I run into my skimmer. Its a 2 piece design so I can remove it and refill with carbon every once in a while. I am just a little nervous about bug spray every summer they do but its increased my ph from a max of 7.9 to 8.2 which has been amazing.

 

[slythy]

Let there be fresh air!

I ended up cutting a 1.5" hole in the side of our house to get to get fresh air to my skimmer. I am waiting a week to let all the fumes clear out before plugging it in but should be good to go!

Also got talked into 4 new SPS frags since things seemed to go ok and my torches are splitting.

JF Fox Flame
JF Del Fuego
Pink Panther
Short Cake

 

[slythy]

got 13 new corals from the INDMAS Swap including some from @Motorcitycorals

I have had some really good growth on a bunch of my frags since doing the Airline outside as well as the autowater change.

I got some new torches. the middle left was some holy grail varient and the middle right is a knicks.

then I purchased a bunch of sticks, which i know 0 names for!

then i got some frammer

and i got a really cool tonga torch, Its still adjusting I put it in an area by itself because i was unsure if it would be ok near the indo torches.

 

[slythy]

Added 2 new corals, I got a very colorful strawberry short cake and a deep water acro my LFS asked me if I wanted some before he brought it in. I couldnt say no it looked so cool on the mother colony. He sold the large Colony and fragged me off a small piece since I really enjoy seeing them grow and not just buying colonies.

Here is the mother Colony!

 

[slythy]

few updates,

smooth skin sps rtn’ed overnight
My black ice clown jumped


everything seems to be growing and encrusting well torches have grown quite a bit as well. I have 1 that was 2 heads now around 6. Overall its been very hands off and just let everything do its thing.

added a few corals

i got a:
walt disney
Wwc christmas mirabilis
Icefire enchinata

 

[REEFRIED!]

Looking good! Hopefully the tank is stable and mature enough to let those sps really take off.
What is the torch on the bottom left of that last torch garden pic?

 

[slythy]

Looking good! Hopefully the tank is stable and mature enough to let those sps really take off.
What is the torch on the bottom left of that last torch garden pic?

its a indo 24k gold torch. One of my favorites.

All of the sps are really spreading their bases out quite a bit, im sure at some point they will grow taller as well lol.

 

[Troylee]

its a indo 24k gold torch. One of my favorites.

All of the sps are really spreading their bases out quite a bit, im sure at some point they will grow taller as well lol.

How’s your outdoor skimmer intake doing? Been wanting to do this myself.. love what you did with the pre filter and carbon etc..

 

[slythy]

How’s your outdoor skimmer intake doing? Been wanting to do this myself.. love what you did with the pre filter and carbon etc..

its working perfectly. I can upload the files if you want them. My PH hasnt dropped under 8.0 where it was 7.8 before.

 

[Troylee]

its working perfectly. I can upload the files if you want them. My PH hasnt dropped under 8.0 where it was 7.8 before.

That’s awesome! I don’t have a printer so it wouldn’t help me lol… I gotta convince the wife I need to blow a hole in the house to the outside

 

[REEFRIED!]

its a indo 24k gold torch. One of my favorites.

All of the sps are really spreading their bases out quite a bit, im sure at some point they will grow taller as well lol.

That torch is beautiful.

 

[slythy]

I got 3 new sps yesterday. Im up to 27 sps and 15 lps/softies. this tank is getting packed!

I got a no name thats bright violet and yellow

A WWC Snow Dragon

Tubbs Stellata

They are still a little angry from the dips.

 

[Northern Flicker]

This is a fun thread to follow. Love your setup.

I’ve never seen someone pull air from outside before, what’s the upside? When I first saw the pic I I figured it was a dehumidifier exhaust.

 

[slythy]

This is a fun thread to follow. Love your setup.

I’ve never seen someone pull air from outside before, what’s the upside? When I first saw the pic I I figured it was a dehumidifier exhaust.

i have a relatively small house, so when we are all home i can see the ph drop or stay low due to excess co2 in the house. Having the skimmer draw in fresh air from outside i get good oxygenated air into ghe skimmer which raises the ph.

 

[Miami Reef]

How‘s the tank doing?

 

[slythy]

How‘s the tank doing?

Well ive had some ups and downs


First I will start off by saying I lost my buddy of almost 8 years. I purchased him when I had a bad motorcycle accident and he was a calming/fun outlook when I was relearning how to walk.

Heres a picture of the Day I bought him (1.5"), Followed by the last pictures I have of him (~13") and a little Tomb stone that I made for where he is buried. He had some deformed lungs as well as never got his Red eyes so he had some deficiencies somewhere but I thought I would get a few more years out of him. He just stopped eating, got really lethargic and then passed. It really hit me pretty hard.

So now my high tech planted 180gal sits empty.


Now onto my 70g tank.

Got some more corals, have a lot of growth, added a Gem tang and got ich....

First I will start with the Gem tang. I have always wanted one and my LFS had one that they needed to move so I got him for a really good price. I watched him for 40 mins before purchasing him. He never flashed once ate ferociously didn't give me any weird signs. I used Safety Stop for dips while I acclimated him and the next day he shows a couple spots of ich... Its not the end of the world as I have a big (relative) sized UV I think I can manage it. Its not velvet and all my fish are eating very well. I also dont know for sure that it didnt come on a coral, rock, snail etc.

I have been reading through all 100 pages of H202 dosing on Humble Fish and decided to try it since it seems like it can almost eradicate ICH after 9 weeks. This led me to purchasing my 3rd neptune DOS.

I am following the following regiment

Week 1: 1mL/8g, 3x per day
Week 2: 1mL/5g, 3x per day
Week 3: 1mL/5g, 3x per day, plus overnight dosing.


I also created a Scheme for a Neptune dose and made it public if anyone wants to start using this method.

The schemes are named as follows,
Week 1 H202 Dosing
Week 2 H202 Dosing
Week 3-9 H202 Dosing

I will keep this posted with my experience with this so far. I will say I havent seen really much in spread of Ich. I also did lose a Cleaner shrimp but am unsure if its related as my Fire shrimp, snails, crabs and corals all seem really unaffected by the dosing.

I added 2 Emerald Crabs and a purple urchin.

Here is an updated picture of all my corals,

I have added some SPS as well as I added a few Zoa's just to fill the island. This peice is unglued so I can remove it at any point and frag these.

I also finally cleaned my UV Quartz sleeve because UV is very important in the H202 dosing process.

Quite a difference with very little effort. I just put white vinegar on a rag, soaked it for 15 mins and it all just wiped off!

 

[Miami Reef]

I never know you had a bad motorcycle accident; I’m so glad you’re OK. That must’ve been very scary.

I’m sorry you lost your fish buddy after 8 years.

Your tank looks…purple! I really like how the coralline covers EVERYTHING! It’s simply purple! The gem tang looks beautiful, and I’m sure the peroxide and now-cleaned UV sterilizer will do the job! It looks like calcium carbonate precipitation which is common on hot surfaces.

Good luck!