Rummy's 65g Reef Build

[mr_X]

the tank is barely done it's cycle. it's not your doing if the anthelia goes south at this point.

 

[NickRummy]

I think my wife is pulling my leg. I think that one of the smaller stalks is turning white and dying off but there is no white fuzz......

Just added about 30lbs of dry rock tonight and got it looking pretty good. Going to leave it as is and see how it goes.

Nitrates are still 0. Ph is 8.0, SG 1.26, KH between 9 and 10

Also picked up a BRS reactor for running carbon or GFO. What are you thoughts on either of those Doug? (Or anyone else, haha)

 

[mr_X]

well, phosphate remover has become pretty popular lately, but i never felt a need for it. folks would tell me you need to use this in order to get good color in your sps, but my sps looked just as good as theirs. i'm sure there are situations where it's necessary, but i don't think they are as common as folks make it out to be.

as for carbon, yes, i like to run carbon. it really "polishes" the water nicely.

 

[NickRummy]

Great, I have the same outlook. It's nice having the option to run GFO if need be. I have read a lot about the carbon. I think I am going to run it on and off. Maybe two weeks at a time. I don't want it to strip EVERYTHING out of the water.

 

[mr_X]

i don't think that's possible either. i was always told to run it 24/7 because it can really clear the water up, and that would expose the corals to more intense lighting on the days you use it.
i have seen this happen, but not by sporadically running it. i put a carbon reactor on the gym tank and bleached a lot of corals within a week of running it.
if it really stripped everything out of the water, we would have no need for R.O.D.I. units.

 

[NickRummy]

I was reading it could strip helpful organic items? Things that are in the tanks water that might be helpful.

 

[mr_X]

well, they say that about protein skimmers too. i don't think either component will hurt you.

 

[NickRummy]

Tank water is clearer now so snapped a few pictures. These are from 1.12.11

Anthelia

The person I got the live rock from brought this over the other day with Xenia on it.

Found this little guy moving around in the Chaeto

Better pic of the Mushroom

Hard to see but there is some type of new growth on the right side edge of the rock. It's purple and looks to have stalks and possibly a polyp on top?

Here's a shot of the new rock work. Looks pretty bland from the front in the photo. It has a lot of depth and ledges. Photo turned out really yellow for some reason too. No lights are on obviously.

 

[mr_X]

some of that rock looks pretty dense nick. what do you think about it?

 

[NickRummy]

Only the 3 larger white pieces are somewhat dense. I was a bit skeptical but they do have a lot of crevices. Kind of hard to see in the pics. The dark rock is all really pourous. The large piece on the bottom left is all hollow.

 

[NickRummy]

Fried my VHo lighting saturday while messing around in the sump...... Reef Octopus 110 and Nova Extreme Pro 6 x 39 will be here tomorrow. I wanted to go with the 1000ss skimmer but having to buy new lighting will short the cash flow in your wallet pretty quick....... My DIY LED will have to be on hold for a bit.

I did a %25 water change late last week and picked up a couple tank bred Ocellaris clowns along with some Dwarf blue and red leg hermits and a Trochus snail Sunday. Clowns are pretty small, around 1.5" or so I'd say and are doing great. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all still 0 3 days after the new tank mates have been in. Ph is 8.0. Is that something that needs raised somehow? SG is 1.025 when filled, 1.2055 - 1.026 when sump is low on water. Is that a concern? I've been trying to top off morning and night to keep the SG as stable as possible.

 

[NickRummy]

Snapped a few quick pictures tonight. Going to try and get more later on. Only one of the clowns would cooperate.......

 

[mr_X]

cool pics!

 

[NickRummy]

Couple new shots

 

[NickRummy]

The 9th

From Yesterday. The Chaeto is like a mutant monster...... Time to trim!

 

[mr_X]

looks good nick! hey..bust that rock with the zoanthids on it and get rid of that aptasia!

 

[NickRummy]

Yeh the aiptasia is on my list...... Unfortunately there was some on one of the first small pieces I got and it's spreading. I have a feeling it's going to get out of control quick if I don't deal with it.

 

[NickRummy]

Still working on ridding the tank of aiptasia but here's some updates and new tank mates.

How do new heads grow on frogspawn? It looks like there are some new little polyps or "heads" growing at the foot. Hard to get a picture of.

 

[NickRummy]

Is this normal? This mushroom has split 3 different times in less than a month. The last split left what looks like a whole row of new pieces.

 

[mr_X]

great shots as usual!