55 Patience is a Virtue Seawater Build

[San Raphael Catfish]

Awesome. The coral is darkening and getting bumps that look like openings for polyps to come out.

It is like Christmas morning to run downstairs and see what all is new in the tank.

Bad news, the piece I didn't think would make it, doesn't look all that good this morning. Good news, chunk of real coraline on that debris in came on. Now I have added real coraline.

Nitrite .25

SRC

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Added Chaeto macro algae to my HOB. And 4 coraline encrusted margarita snails.

 

[ReefNoob0424]

IMO you need to slow down with your stock. The snails are fine but try to space out your live stock a little more bc you don't want to shock your tank with too much bio-load.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

I will stop adding for a while and save for hardware and reef salt.

 

[ReefNoob0424]

Good idea! Just try to space them about 5-7 days. That's what I do.

 

[Justintotank]

What is your lighting mate? Or are the leathers doing better? Funny you mention wanting a Xenia I got one a week ago.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

My lighting is a 120w Taotronics. With 10,000k+ white LEDs and blue Actinic LEDs. I am very happy with it and plan to get a second. Maybe if I am lucky, Father's Day.

Planning going all soft corals on my first reef. Got a great place planned for my future Xenia. I like their movement.

Current nitrite below .25

 

[Racnakd]

Looking good.

Hope you get what you want for Father's Day.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Thanks. I think the main leather and the frag from the crown look better each day. The piece that was questionable is probably beyond help. The separate smaller stalk and crown isn't out of the woods yet, but color still looks good. Doesn't have the texture of the other two though.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Grr. Not trying to frag anymore. My rubber bands keep cutting my corals. The rubber band didn't seem tight, but maybe too much flow and it was sawing on them. Making low flow areas where they can attach themselves to rubble rock for the next couple weeks.

 

[ReefNoob0424]

Look into reef/aquarium safe adhesvie so you can glue your coral down w/o damaging it with the rubber. Can anybody help? And is there a wet application adhesive so you don't have to worry about taking your coral out of the tank?

 

[Racnakd]

I use loctite superglue gel. Works great but can't be applied in the water, I've tried. Dried inside the tip. Saltwater rapidly cures it.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Does it work with leathers that keep sloughing off their skin?

 

[Racnakd]

You know, I don't know. Worth a shot. Another thing I've read, never tried, is to get a piece of purlap sack or something like it, and basically wrap the coral lightly so it has contact with the rock, and rubber band it for a few days. The bag allows the coral to stay in place while still able to get light through the openings. Other than just placing it on rubble in a low flow area I don't know.

 

[Sniperhank]

Just a rubber band will hold it in place until it attaches.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

How I am dealing with attaching the coral frag to rubble rock. Gonna leave it like that for a week or so.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Not happy. Won't mention the name of the pet store. You would know the chain though. But they had a one eyed dwarf flame angel. It had both eyes last time that I was in. It has a gash on the right side where the eye was. It is in a tank with a snowflake eel. I asked them what they were going to do with it. They offered to sell it to me for 25% off. I said 75% off. They said no. The lowest was 50% and THAT THEY WOULD THROW IT OUT before they would go lower than 50%.

Another national chain I won't mention the name of has adopted out one eyed fish to me for free before, I just had to do a little paperwork for them.

It had been a beautiful fish before they didn't take care to protect it.

Not that I wanted the fish, but I felt it deserved better than they were doing.

SRC

 

[ReefNoob0424]

It's amazing how people care so little about fish and not just fish but all living creatures.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought the plastic grid i put over the bowl for .49 and a big 12 oz bag polyester fiber fill for 2.99. I think poly fiber fill was selling for at the pet store for 3.99 for 4 oz.

Will be able to change out filter material a lot for uber cheap. The filter pads sell for 12.00 for 6 and uses two at a time.

SRC

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Went to Aquarium Solutions today. Picked up ten pounds of cured live rock. Knocked any questionable soft spots off of it. Hopefully that will put me over the top for the biological filtration that I need.

I like that store a lot more than the one I won't mention the name of. Lots of cool corals there, but I am holding back on any new livestock additions.

SRC