I'm realizing it has been an awful long time since I updated the build thread with everything else going on so wanted to check in and give an update. The last 3-4 months have been crazy to say the least.
I have added about 40 frags, mostly SPS, to the system over the last 3-4 months and everything has been going really well. I am seeing really good growth on all corals and a steady increase in Alk uptake which is always a good sign. Making that Geo CRX reactor work finally!
I had some major fish disease hit which must have come in on a frag of some sort even though I was extremely careful to dip and not transfer any water when adding corals. My Whitetail Bristletooth started showed signs of small white dots on fins and was riding / scratching the glass. I noticed it pretty quickly but it spread very fast. I ordered a fish trap and moved my fish over to QT as soon as possible. After reviewing everything with the guys on the Humeblefish forums, it was determined that I was probably dealing with Uronema, Brook and possibly velvet. I tried a few different treatments but eventually went with a freshwater dip and 30 days of copper, prazi in water column every 48 hours and fed prazi / focus infused frozen twice a day during the month and it has cured all problems. Fish were moved to a sterile QT tank for 30 day observation after treatment as well. Lost a lot of my fish to this outbreak but was able to save my Whitetail Bristletooth Tang, yellow tang, (1) anthias and my bangai cardinal. All fish are back into the DT and doing very well. See link below for additional information.
https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/disease-identification-help.940/#post-14288
I am still battling the red turf algae. At this point, I had tried Vibrant for 3 months as step #1 with no luck against it. Water parameters are perfect and have stayed perfect throughout. Step #2 was to add (5) Mexican Turbo snails / restart refugium. Step #3 was to try Tuxedo urchins.
I have been working on setting up a custom frag tank that will be connected into the main display sump.
With all that said, I have been working on setting up and launching a YouTube channel called Hurdbird's Reef to track progress of the tank, build projects, etc and will be looking into expand some other areas as well. Stay tuned for more information on the channel and for some channel launch raffles over the next few weeks! Follow along on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram.
See below for a quick time lapse I ran on the tank last week. I have wanted to do this for a while. I love to see the movement of the reef and the lights ramping down.
Happy reefing!