The "She Said Yes!" 120 Gallon Build

[ralquist]

Holy coral batman! Been wondering what was happening with your system, looking awesome, haven't been getting updates as usual... stupid...so had to search you out!
I think my last phosphate swing took my similar branching cyphastrea out, removed off the rock and the darn thing has started to come back just where it had started to grow on the main rock!
I also recently got a red dragon acro, it instantly stripped and bleached during the dip. I don't know if its because my phosphate was still elevated but it was dead dead real quick, this same thing has only happened to some ponape birdsnest. This was dipping using coral RX with other acro in the mix and only one with this problem.
Looks maybe like in the Xanthid crab family, very interesting!
Glad things are coming along and your getting some coral in that tank!! Wahoo!!

Hope everything else is well with ya!

 

[dangles]

Holy coral batman! Been wondering what was happening with your system, looking awesome, haven't been getting updates as usual... stupid...so had to search you out!
I think my last phosphate swing took my similar branching cyphastrea out, removed off the rock and the darn thing has started to come back just where it had started to grow on the main rock!
I also recently got a red dragon acro, it instantly stripped and bleached during the dip. I don't know if its because my phosphate was still elevated but it was dead dead real quick, this same thing has only happened to some ponape birdsnest. This was dipping using coral RX with other acro in the mix and only one with this problem.
Looks maybe like in the Xanthid crab family, very interesting!
Glad things are coming along and your getting some coral in that tank!! Wahoo!!

Hope everything else is well with ya!

I’m still battling PO4 stability. Ever since I was on vacation and my fleece roller was acting up I've been up to 0.3 or so, then down to almost zero, repeat. I had installed a GFO reactor and any time I replace the GFO my PO4 tanks. I need to replace the larger canister with a small one and just replace much smaller amounts from here on out. Good news is my NO3 has been steady around 6-7

I started a thread about my Red Dragon and a few people mentioned that the tea tree oil based dips (Revive and Coral Rx) are both REALLY hard on acros, and that the Red Dragon is especially picky. I ordered some Polyp Lab Reef Primer (potassium salt based) to try instead. It's supposed to be really gentle on corals.

My pectinia is worrying me now but I'm not sure that was dip-related. That might be flow or nutrient swing related.

My birds nests are LOVING my system though. The polyps are ***** long and flowy


*edit* Ugh my pics/vids suck

 

[ralquist]

I’m still battling PO4 stability. Ever since I was on vacation and my fleece roller was acting up I've been up to 0.3 or so, then down to almost zero, repeat. I had installed a GFO reactor and any time I replace the GFO my PO4 tanks. I need to replace the larger canister with a small one and just replace much smaller amounts from here on out. Good news is my NO3 has been steady around 6-7

I started a thread about my Red Dragon and a few people mentioned that the tea tree oil based dips (Revive and Coral Rx) are both REALLY hard on acros, and that the Red Dragon is especially picky. I ordered some Polyp Lab Reef Primer (potassium salt based) to try instead. It's supposed to be really gentle on corals.

My pectinia is worrying me now but I'm not sure that was dip-related. That might be flow or nutrient swing related.

My birds nests are LOVING my system though. The polyps are ***** long and flowy


*edit* Ugh my pics/vids suck

Birds nest is a beauty! Good info about the acro dip.

My pectinia both seem to hate much flow at all. Still battling to find a happy spot for them.

 

[dangles]

Birds nest is a beauty! Good info about the acro dip.

My pectinia both seem to hate much flow at all. Still battling to find a happy spot for them.

My pectinia is healing up nicely

The rest of the corals are looking great too. I’m stating to see new growth on a few of the new montis which is exciting! And my Fascination favia is coloring back up after starting to look bleached in a few places.

I have not seen any signs of the tiger cucumber since a few days after I put him in. Same with the asterina starfish. I’m seeing more and more baby stomatellas, though! And my copepod/amphipod populations are still OUT OF CONTROL which is super fun

Here’s a pic dump, including an updated shot of my sump…

 

[ralquist]

My pectinia is healing up nicely

The rest of the corals are looking great too. I’m stating to see new growth on a few of the new montis which is exciting! And my Fascination favia is coloring back up after starting to look bleached in a few places.

I have not seen any signs of the tiger cucumber since a few days after I put him in. Same with the asterina starfish. I’m seeing more and more baby stomatellas, though! And my copepod/amphipod populations are still OUT OF CONTROL which is super fun

Here’s a pic dump, including an updated shot of my sump…

Beautiful and so clean!!

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

All caught up...for some reason I wasn't getting notifications of new posts in here.

 

[dangles]

All caught up...for some reason I wasn't getting notifications of new posts in here.

Weird. Ralquist had that same issue. I was starting to wonder where everybody went

 

[dangles]

A couple of night finds from tonight…

The cucumber is ALIVE!

And I have a baby trochus!

 

[dangles]

I did another thing…

A local reef buddy is getting out of the hobby so he’s unloading a bunch of his stuff. I scored 5 large zoa frags (15-30 heads each!) and a 3-head Indo gold torch for a super good deal.

Almost all of these zoas were ones I was planning to get anyway, but I would have ended up with MUCH smaller frags from my LFS and even smaller from an online vendor.

From L to R…

Kedd’s Reds
Fruit Loops
Bam Bam
Scrambled Eggs
Bob Marley

 

[ralquist]

I did another thing…

A local reef buddy is getting out of the hobby so he’s unloading a bunch of his stuff. I scored 5 large zoa frags (15-30 heads each!) and a 3-head Indo gold torch for a super good deal.

Almost all of these zoas were ones I was planning to get anyway, but I would have ended up with MUCH smaller frags from my LFS and even smaller from an online vendor.

From L to R…

Kedd’s Reds
Fruit Loops
Bam Bam
Scrambled Eggs
Bob Marley

 

[TheWB]

I did another thing…

A local reef buddy is getting out of the hobby so he’s unloading a bunch of his stuff. I scored 5 large zoa frags (15-30 heads each!) and a 3-head Indo gold torch for a super good deal.

Almost all of these zoas were ones I was planning to get anyway, but I would have ended up with MUCH smaller frags from my LFS and even smaller from an online vendor.

From L to R…

Kedd’s Reds
Fruit Loops
Bam Bam
Scrambled Eggs
Bob Marley

Nice score. Be careful with the Bam Bams, they became kind of a weed for me. On their own rock is probably a good idea.

 

[dangles]

Nice score. Be careful with the Bam Bams, they became kind of a weed for me. On their own rock is probably a good idea.

Yeah that’s my plan for all of them. Do you think they’ll outcompete and cover other zoas?

 

[TheWB]

Yeah that’s my plan for all of them. Do you think they’ll outcompete and cover other zoas?

Based on my experience I think they would overwhelm the scrambled eggs for sure. My SE’s grew much slower than the Bam Bams did. I haven’t owned the other zoas you bought but generally I would keep them on separate small rocks close together to get a sense of growth rates and then do a mixed island once you see how they do. I use the flat cut Little Feet from Two Little Fishies. They work great for mounting zoas. Just drill a hole for the frag plug in the flat part of the rock, stick the plug in and let it do its thing.

 

[dangles]

Look at all them BUGS!

I think it’s time to start looking for a pair of mandarin gobies



*edit*

Pom Pom gracilaria > chaeto

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

I did another thing…

A local reef buddy is getting out of the hobby so he’s unloading a bunch of his stuff. I scored 5 large zoa frags (15-30 heads each!) and a 3-head Indo gold torch for a super good deal.

Almost all of these zoas were ones I was planning to get anyway, but I would have ended up with MUCH smaller frags from my LFS and even smaller from an online vendor.

From L to R…

Kedd’s Reds
Fruit Loops
Bam Bam
Scrambled Eggs
Bob Marley

What is the green contraption around the torch? Never seen anything like that before.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Look at all them BUGS!

I think it’s time to start looking for a pair of mandarin gobies



*edit*

Pom Pom gracilaria > chaeto

Any way you might send me a jar of it when you need to do a harvest? I'd cover shipping!

 

[dangles]

Any way you might send me a jar of it when you need to do a harvest? I'd cover shipping!

The gracilaria? Or the little critters?

 

[dangles]

What is the green contraption around the torch? Never seen anything like that before.

The guy I bought the torch from 3d-printed it. It's a fancy frag plug holder. The thing over the top is removable and is there to protect it while it's in a transport container. The bottom "screws" into the sand bed to keep it stable. Pretty cool for short term. Once I decide on a place on my rock scape for it I'll remove it and glue it down.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

The gracilaria? Or the little critters?

The gracilaria or both...

 

[dangles]

The gracilaria or both...

Shoot me a PM!