Nick's Reef

[this is me]

Tunze has a new magnet cleaner you can drag through the sand and it won't put up sand and scratch the glass. Instead of pads it uses dual scrapers on each end.

Thanks for mentioning this. I did not know what you were talking about. But I just saw it the other day and did some reading on it and will be waiting for it to become available.

http://reefbuilders.com/2014/06/05/tunze-care-magnet-designed-simple-brilliance/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLvIcCu7mUQ

 

[MikeG]

Tank is looking real nice!

I'm thinking of getting a Queen angel and an Emperor angel as my "centerpiece" for fish. However, being a clams lover and LPS, I'm really in a hard situation. I really like the fish. I just hope that they won't destroy my reef. I'm holding off on putting any clams and anymore LPS until I decide to go large angels or not. I might try Juvies and see if they will bother the LPS and train them to eat prep food.

The clams I bought from you are still available if you end up wanting to go clams again. Only one person has been interested but cant take them until September...

 

[this is me]

After feeding the fish today noticed this. After about 6 years from 3 months old babies directly from Rod B.

 

[higorc]

Awesome man ! Now try to hatch than!

My Black Ice and Black Ocellaris clowns spawn every 2 - 3 weeks like clock work. I have Never seen the eggs hatch though. One day it still there, the next morning it's all gone

 

[PSU4ME]

Awesome Nick, are you going to and hatch/raise them? I have a pair a sanjays and they spawn just about every 2 week, about an inch above a clay pot bottom I put in there! Obviously they don't hatch because as soon as they break loose, momma eats them.

 

[this is me]

Eggs are still there this morning. I'm not going to try to hatch this first batch. I'll be on Vacation next week for two weeks. I've been reading up on clown breeding last night and need to prep a few things before my attempt to hatch and raise the fry. But yes, it's something I'm seriously consider. Should be a fun and education project.

 

[this is me]

Here's my 2 months update.
The tank has been progressing well. Sump has been received and installed at the end of August. An additional heater has been running since I quickly realized the single 250W heater cannot keep up with the cooler September nights. Fans also been installed to minimized the daytime/night time temperature fluctuation. I spent the last two months tweaking the set up and I think it's where I want to be now.
Since I've been putting in a lot of acro frags and new LPS, I've also put my doser to work.

Here's the FTS.

The custom sump with refugium from Advance Acrylic. I've only been running the chaeto 2 days ago. I have 60lbs of live Oolite sand but I want to do more research on DSB before putting them it there. The Chaeto is lit by a Finnex fuge Ray. Reverse light cycle for 10hrs. This helps my night time PH.

The doser and DIY dosing container from a 10gallon tank. I'm going to see if this will keep up with the tank when all the SPS gets larger. Otherwise, I will have to look into a CA reactor(really try to avoid this).

Sick'n tired of waiting for water so ordered a Spectrepure Maxcap 2:1 180gpd 5 stage RODI. My older 90gpd still running so I can make RODI pretty quickly now.

 

[this is me]

Now, onto the good stuff.
Been collecting SPS the past month. All of them are from members on the board. I will try to stay away from maricultured and wild colony and want to have a completely captive SPS from frags. Also, no frag plug in my tank!
These acro frags are from a nub to 1". They're so small that I can't really ID them. They've been through Bayer dip so they can look a little rough.

Hawkin Echinata

Tricolor(?) Lost the purple!

Ponape Birdsnest

Tenuis?

 

[this is me]

Another Echinata

Teal Stag

Tyree Tricolor

Strawberry Shortcake

Blue Millepora

 

[this is me]

Pink Table

Blue Tip Millepora

Oregon or Cali Tort?

Seller says it's a Rainbow Birdsnest but I think it's just a Pink Bridsnest.

Tyree Pink Lemonade

 

[this is me]

Granulosa

Too small to ID but I think it will be nice.

Stag

Another Stag

ORA Birdsnest

 

[ron168]

Very nice!

 

[bobbybats160]

Looking good nick

 

[SteveDola]

going to be epic

 

[this is me]

Sorry, got pulled into a meeting. Let's continue with the frags

ORA Bird of Paradise

Purple Tenuis

Green Tenuis

Green Slimer

Too small to ID

 

[this is me]

Too small to ID

ORA frogskin. One of my favorite. The form on a colony is awesome! Really miss this one from my old tank.

 

[this is me]

Some LPS.

Master Blasto. The polyps are huge. Over 2" when fully inflated.

Branching Hammer

Acanthrophyllia

Acanthrophyllia.
http://www.pbase.com/nicksreef/image/157859464/original.jpg[/MG]

Acan. More acan to come.
[IMG]http://www.pbase.com/nicksreef/image/157859480/original.jpg

 

[The Reef Pit]

Looks awesome , so jealous of the tank

 

[mvallee]

Awesome pieces and your photography work is amazing especially considering shooting through glass. If you don't mind me asking, do you use off camera flash to get that quality of light or is it your aquarium lights?

 

[this is me]

Awesome pieces and your photography work is amazing especially considering shooting through glass. If you don't mind me asking, do you use off camera flash to get that quality of light or is it your aquarium lights?

Thank you. It's very difficult to use flash and still show the true color of a coral because of the flouresence nature of the coral tissue. Because of this, I never use flash.
Shooting with MH is a lot easier and better than any other light source.