Reef Journal V2 - Now with more water

[RMc]

After a short and bitter-sweet romance with my first reef tank ended in an unfortunate crack (34g journal) I have purchased some new gear.

V2:

Gear (March 11th, 2013):
45G glass AQ + 10G sump
Tek 4x 39W T5HO
2x TLF reactors (carbon + GFO)
Remora Pro protein skimmer + Mag 3
JBJ wavemaker + 2x Koralia Evo 750
Tsunami ATO
Eshopps U-Tube Overflow

Coral:
Red / Blotchy blue mushrooms
Brown button polyps
Northern lights palythoa
Purple Zoanthids with yellow fringe
Pink Zoanthids
Pom Pom Xenia
Green Star Polyps
Florescent green Hammer coral
Frogspawn
Pink Ricordea
Tree Coral
Leather Finger Coral
Alien Eye Palythoa

Inverts:
Peppermint Shrimp (3x)
Astrea Snail (10x)
Blue legged hermit crab (3x)
Nassarius Snail (5x)
Podz, starfish, bristle worms and other hitchhikers

Fish:
Black Ocelaris Clown (2x)



The tank
Feb 4th, 2013

Feb 17th, 2013 - No sump yet - everything is still in the upper tank

Feb 23rd, 2013 - added a frogspawn and anthelia. Shortly after this I made a major rookie mistake and dumped a pot (3/4 gal) of cold untreated tap into the top tank for a top-off. It caused the anthelia to die almost immediately which set off a chain reaction throughout the tank. Unfortunately I wasn't running carbon and it took its toll on every coral. Lost the kenyan tree and some clove polyps in the mix, and the remaining coral have still not completely recovered as of march 11th.

The shrooms before they got thwacked

March 3rd, 2013 built a hanging system for the Tek Light

 

[RMc]

March 9th 2013 Full tank update. Sump is in place and black backdrop has been added

March 9th, 2013 Found some evil Majano Anemone on some new live rock - blasted them with some boiling water.

 

[jokersplayground]

i love those shrooms sorry to here about that

 

[RMc]

March 11th:

Update on the T5 fixture. I'm using the following setup front to back. The photos have been color shifted to remove some of the dominant blue overtones

ATI purple plus
KZ new generation
ATI purple plus
ATI blue plus

Overall the tank is too blue for me, and the girlfriend agrees. I have tried a GE 6500 in place of the new gen, and in place of the middle purple plus, but it just didn't look right. With the 6500 and the New Gen the tank had a bit of a murky look. I may end up going with 4x KZ new gens or 2x new gens and 2x purple plus.

Any suggestions to get a 4 bulb 36" fixture to look more like a clean 14k HQI with minimal color wash out let me know.

Tree coral - fresh frag:

Finger Leather:

Candy Cane:

Hammer and ric:

 

[RMc]

March 11th:

Some fun shots

Pom pom Xenia:

Finger leather:

Recovering Frogspawn:

Green Alien Eye Paly:

Ricordea:

 

[RMc]

March 11th 2013 - Some more fun shots

Northern Lights Paly:

Finger Leather:

Xenia:

 

[Trevor]

Great pics man!

 

[Skeeter7424]

dude those macro shots are SICK! Mind sharing your camera/lens combo?

 

[RMc]

Thanks. I use a Canon T3 with a 50mm 1.8 lens. to get macro shots i use closeup filters like these

*The 50mm 1.8 uses 52mm filter kits
They cost $10-15 a set through most of the major online vendors.

I post process every image with lightroom - which I find to be an invaluable tool for getting the look you want.

It's a humble set-up, but I love it.

 

[Intheflesh]

AMAZING macro shots!

 

[RMc]

March 13, 2013:

Unfortunately, looks like the clowns came with Ich - and I have a tail spot blenny on the way. Parameters look good, so I'm just going to up water changes and hope for the best. I've read that high temperatures can rapidly accelerate the life cycle of the parasite, but have read mixed reviews on whether coral will tolerate temperatures between 86 and 87. Some say that their natural habitats range from 76-88 degrees and that they'll be fine and that experimentally this has shown to work. Other people say that it will kill all the coral, but I haven't read any hard evidence that proves it will. I use a skimmer, so oxygenation is a non-issue.

After getting my calcium / trace in check the mushrooms have sprung back.

Montipora

Brown button polyps (smaller frag)

Neon Hammer

Sump with skimmer / reactors / ato / fuge

Recovering Frogspawn with just the purple +

 

[RMc]

Full tank Update: (so...many...pods...)

Final note: the xenia looks like it's been having trouble. My Nitrates/Phosphates are zero, so this may be contributing but I'm hoping that it was simply missing out on a trace element that has since been replenished.

 

[RMc]

A quick youtube video of the tank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXPI-PD03mo&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Lighting = Purple +, KZ new Gen, GE 6500, Purple +

 

[RMc]

Full tank update: can't keep my hands out

Candycane's new home:

Some free Zoas from petco: not bad looking

Pink zoas - part of a trade:

Xenia still not looking good - I can't figure it out but I've unplugged my GFO to see if it has an effect:

 

[RMc]

Last fish that will go in - Tail Spot Blenny: "Keen Andy"

Found 3 surviving Clove Polyps: very exciting

 

[RMc]

After fixing a small issue with the PH, things are looking much better.

Bonnie And Clyde Looking Fat and Healthy:

New Acan Addition (added yesterday):

Moved the dragon eyes up and they browned out a little bit - will the blues come back?

A free blue mushroom from Petco:

 

[RMc]

Meteor Swarm - new addition (thanks Richard, added yesterday):

Purple/Yellow Zoos came back from the dead, still a little bit bleached:

Happy Hammer, top head has just split:

Recovering Xenia: came back after dosing Kalk instead of 2 part

My only stick: Growin

 

[RMc]

One of my first 3 coral, getting some new color:

Some Leather, growing out a bit:

 

[BlackSmith]

Really nice tank and camera skills. I like the black background, glad I painted my tank black as well. Hopefully I'll be up and running soon.

 

[RMc]

05/28/2013 - Just a camera phone FTS: