TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50

[TheWB]

reefbum dip his gulf rock in high salinity water to drive out pests with good results.

That’s what the website recommends as well. I’ll probably do that if I order that rock.

 

[TheWB]

Was very fortunate today to be able to stop by and meet #mywifeisgonnakillme, see his amazing IM 50 EXT in person and borrow his PAR meter. He also hooked me up with a few nice frags which I will post pics of tomorrow or Saturday as time allows. I hope I am able to pay that kindness back one day, hopefully soon, when my system is more grown out and I can start fragging some things. Very good day today.

 

[TheWB]

Here’s the breakdown on the new frags.

A nice sized chunk of green digi

Red and Purple monti cap

Possibly a Birdsnest, not sure.

Purple leather, terrible picture.

Gorgonian.

Pulsing Xenia.

Everything seems to be settling in nicely so far. I’ll be very happy if the montis just hold their color which would make the green Slimer an outlier rather than an indicator of other issues.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Here’s the breakdown on the new frags.

A nice sized chunk of green digi

Red and Purple monti cap

Possibly a Birdsnest, not sure.

Purple leather, terrible picture.

Gorgonian.

Pulsing Xenia.

Everything seems to be settling in nicely so far. I’ll be very happy if the montis just hold their color which would make the green Slimer an outlier rather than an indicator of other issues.

More to come as our little tanks grow out When the new floors get put in next month and ive got to take down, move, and put back in place the 50 gallon, that will a good time to frag a few things!

 

[TheWB]

More to come as our little tanks grow out When the new floors get put in next month and ive got to take down, move, and put back in place the 50 gallon, that will a good time to frag a few things!

The timing of your new floors is unfortunate because the 50 looks absolutely fantastic right now. There’s no helping it but it’s a shame it needs the temporary takedown. It will be a good time to do some fragging though. That way when the 200 comes online you’ll have the frags all healed and ready to place.

 

[TheWB]

I was able to borrow a PAR meter and I think I calibrated it correctly but it’s hard to know for sure. I think by the numbers I am seeing I did it right. I’m going to post a bunch of numbers here just for my personal reference.

So the green Slimer has been at about 313
The montipora digitata is at about 300
The monti caps are at about 255
The branching cyphastrea is at 227 and it gets pretty white during the peak day hours, I don’t think it’s being harmed since it’s encrusting it’s rock but it’s a little faded, might move it slightly.
‘Duncan is getting 157
Torch is at 165
Frogspawn is at 189 at the top.
The Birdsnest frag is getting about 180 on the frag rack.
‘Gorgonian in the back is getting 200 at the base and 255 at the top branches. Purple leather was at 180.

I’m not going to post all the Zoas, they grow anywhere so not important.
‘The anemone is getting about 200 where it’s decided to settle.

Random other numbers.
The surface directly under the right side light was 353 and it was 531 directly under the left side light. Between the two lights it was 429 at surface. The upper and lower corners were all between 13 and 134.
The front glass in the middle of the tank was 116 at the surface and 227 at the sand.

It feels good to know what’s going on with the PAR situation. If anyone has thoughts on the different corals and their current PAR number let me know what you think.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

I think i saw tidal gardens say cyphastrea does not like a lot of light. Your acans, someone correct me, but i think you'll want those in the 75 to 100 range. My big polypy lps likes shade in my tank. I shoot for 100, but have fried a few at 150 or so because i aint got a lot of low par spots. Some finally seem to be adapting after a few months. But i can tell they still have too much light.

Those tidal garden videos are really great for dialing in corals for par, flow, etc

 

[TheWB]

I think i saw tidal gardens say cyphastrea does not like a lot of light. Your acans, someone correct me, but i think you'll want those in the 75 to 100 range. My big polypy lps likes shade in my tank. I shoot for 100, but have fried a few at 150 or so because i aint got a lot of low par spots. Some finally seem to be adapting after a few months. But i can tell they still have too much light.

Those tidal garden videos are really great for dialing in corals for par, flow, etc

I will have to check those out, I have the site bookmarked from a while back. I moved the Slimer down a little and will relocate it somewhere tomorrow during my water change. I also moved the cyphastrea and the caulastrea down a little lower as both were looking a little pale under the higher light although they have both been showing growth.
The clowns keep beating on the purple leather so that needed to move back to the frag rack until I come up with a spot for it. Same with the purple cap, it got knocked over by either a clown or a snail because it wasn’t secure enough so back to the frag rack it went. My clowns are menaces.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

clowns...

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Well, that helps narrow things down. Alk doesn't look like big swings. Plot thickens!

Let's test potassium and magnesium, just for the hell of it. But unlikely unless bad salt.

Gonnie looks good, as do other corals, so maybe it's just a tank maturity thing; acros are the last corals to thrive and first to suffer in tanks that are newer (and i think newer lasts a while with dry rock???). I'd say it was a one off on this one coral but this coral looked good for a few weeks?

You could try one of those aquabiomics tests? Or an ICP just for the hell of it?

I have seachem media you can have out of my sump. Probably some helpful bacteria. Low probability of pests because i qt corals and all fish were qt'ed. One guy on youtube who has had mystery bacteria issues doses Dr. Tim's, i think eco-balance. Whatever the one that says it keeps down virbio... He said the dr. tims eradicated the vibrio according to before and after aquabiomics testing. he seems to know his stuff. So that could be a cheap thing to try. Doubt it would hurt.

I think my tank matured pretty quick simply because its rock scape is many years old live rock, swapped from other tanks, that hasn't even been dry and because corals from the old 20 gallon went straight in from day 1 (plus a herd more i bought at the same time, lol).

Funny you mention Eco-Balance. I bought a bottle back when I was fighting dinos but never used it. I've got a number of strange things going on in my tank lately and was just digging it out to give it a try. I'll have to try to find the guy on YouTube so I can see his process.

 

[TheWB]

Small update. The sps frags I put in last week are still holding their color so I’m taking that as a good sign. I moved the green Slimer down a little lower and while it’s still not anything close to the right color it is showing small spots of green, real small but better than nothing.

I’ve been having a heck of a time finding the right plumbing pieces to downsize the 1” output on the Reef Octopus Varios 2 pump I bought back in June so it will work with the outlet nozzles on the lagoon 50. I finally had the bright idea to reach out to someone who does 3d printing to just make a custom reducer for me. Eric at eelrivercorals.com is going to help me out. I purchased the shade for my Radion xr15g4 from him and it was great. I told him what I wanted and he agreed to make it for me. I mailed off three parts to him today so he can take the exact dims on two of them and marry them together into one piece. The third part is the collar that clamps down on the outlet barb on the pump. It will need to be put in place during the print because otherwise I won’t be able to get the finished piece installed. This will all make more sense when I can post some pics of the finished product but basically I’m combining a 1“ barb outlet and the Y splitter that feeds the two return nozzles on the lagoon 50 into one piece. It will sort of look like this.

 

[jcolliii]

Missed this one a few posts back. As someone who once had this battle because I did not listen to exactly this piece of advice: Xenia are pretty, but thy will get into every crevice in your tank unless you keep them on their own dedicated rock that does not touch any other rock!

LOVE their pulsing - super cool and relaxing to watch... possibly the single coolest coral to sit and watch. But saying that Xenia grow fast is an understatement. If you keep that frag on its own hunk of rock, away from other stuff it will be easier to manage. Make sure the stalks can't even touch other rocks - they will, touch, put down some mat, and then that piece will break off and a new colony will be established before you even know what's going on! Again, love Xenia, just very carefully watch it.

Hey, might CBO want that green Paly grandis frag? I put it in my office tank, but can send it along if wanted.

Those look like pretty good PAR numbers. Keep that slimer relatively high - as far as I know they like being blasted with light.

 

[jcolliii]

clowns...

Yep. I caught mine sucking the food out of my open brain's gut. He would open his mouth, push against the coral, and open his mouth all in rapid succession. Little *******.

He now lives in my office tank. Put the auto feeder on that tank. The added nutrient load will be good in there.

 

[TheWB]

Missed this one a few posts back. As someone who once had this battle because I did not listen to exactly this piece of advice: Xenia are pretty, but thy will get into every crevice in your tank unless you keep them on their own dedicated rock that does not touch any other rock!

LOVE their pulsing - super cool and relaxing to watch... possibly the single coolest coral to sit and watch. But saying that Xenia grow fast is an understatement. If you keep that frag on its own hunk of rock, away from other stuff it will be easier to manage. Make sure the stalks can't even touch other rocks - they will, touch, put down some mat, and then that piece will break off and a new colony will be established before you even know what's going on! Again, love Xenia, just very carefully watch it.

Hey, might CBO want that green Paly grandis frag? I put it in my office tank, but can send it along if wanted.

Those look like pretty good PAR numbers. Keep that slimer relatively high - as far as I know they like being blasted with light.

The Xenia are going to stay on their own little rock. I may at some point allow them to grow up the back wall but not anytime soon. I’ve been contemplating a new aqua scape and I’ll need to figure out if I’m even going to do that or not. That will affect the placement of several things.

I think CBO is in Florida so if he wants the palys definitely don’t send them here lol.

I lowered the slimer slightly and it’s starting to look marginally better. Too soon to tell if it’s going to recover but it’s definitely better. I’ll raise it back up if it regains it’s color.

 

[TheWB]

I took down the Unos this afternoon and changed their height above the tank. They were at 10.5 inches above the rim and now they are at 12 inches. I wanted PAR at the sand bed to be lower as some of my LPS have been getting too much. The SPS towards the top middle should still be getting 250-300 and I can get them up a little higher if I need to. I’ll be double checking before returning the PAR meter.

Hers a new FTS. You can see that the green Slimer is getting just a little of its green back.

The branching cyphastrea in the front left is one of the corals that was getting too much par, it’s a little white at the top where it should be blue/red. The caulastrea right in the front middle above the Devil’s Armor Zoas is also getting too much light, I’ll need to move it lower and to one side or the other. I’m starting to run out of places to put lps with the current scape. I’ve been cooking up a new scape idea in my head and it’s about time to start drawing it out and figuring out how to do it for real.

 

[TheWB]

Some top down shots from this morning. I had all the pumps off because the larger gorgonian in the back had broken off it’s plug and needed to be re-glued.

You can see how the branching cyphastrea and the caulastrea in the next two pictures were getting too much light.

Here’s the green Slimer looking like it’s starting to regain its color.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Some top down shots from this morning. I had all the pumps off because the larger gorgonian in the back had broken off it’s plug and needed to be re-glued.

You can see how the branching cyphastrea and the caulastrea in the next two pictures were getting too much light.

Here’s the green Slimer looking like it’s starting to regain its color.

Wow, the color is coming back! Looking good!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

The Xenia are going to stay on their own little rock. I may at some point allow them to grow up the back wall but not anytime soon. I’ve been contemplating a new aqua scape and I’ll need to figure out if I’m even going to do that or not. That will affect the placement of several things.

I think CBO is in Florida so if he wants the palys definitely don’t send them here lol.

I lowered the slimer slightly and it’s starting to look marginally better. Too soon to tell if it’s going to recover but it’s definitely better. I’ll raise it back up if it regains it’s color.

Not Florida (but with a low of 0F yesterday morning I was sure wishing I was there), the middle of nowhere Montana actually. Love the look of palys...but in other people's tanks. Still haven't got over being just a bit afraid of them!

I resisted putting xenia in my tank after seeing it pop up all over my last one (and the nano, too, it's even growing in the sand) but finally decided that I just plain like it and if it pops up in strange spots, so be it! It looks awesome. I'm ready with my scissors and tweezers.

 

[TheWB]

Not Florida (but with a low of 0F yesterday morning I was sure wishing I was there), the middle of nowhere Montana actually. Love the look of palys...but in other people's tanks. Still haven't got over being just a bit afraid of them!

I resisted putting xenia in my tank after seeing it pop up all over my last one (and the nano, too, it's even growing in the sand) but finally decided that I just plain like it and if it pops up in strange spots, so be it! It looks awesome. I'm ready with my scissors and tweezers.

Weird, I wonder why I thought you were in FL Lol. I need to pay better attention.
I obviously like my Zoas and palys but those particular ones do make me a bit nervous.
I think I can manage the Xenia and if it starts to spread on the sand I’ll scoop it out. For now it’s fine.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

I love xenia, always have. The island ir the back wall are good spots. It tends to grow up or to the side, not really down, so that helps. I ordered some blue and cool red xenia to go along with the red sea and pom pom.