Tank Journal – 125 Reef

[Mitchell0605]

Awesome Floyd! That is some nice growth.

 

[Don7]

I love reading your stories Floyd. I'm nice to see your doing a difference in the world. haha.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Worm? Ident please!!

I did a 20% PWC today and changed the filter socks, when I dumped one of them out into a bucket, this guy came out of it:

Can anybody tell me what in the world this is, and if I should be worried that I found it in the system??

 

[Mitchell0605]

Bristle Worm. It's fine. It scavenges food on the sand. Only comes out at night.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Update, pics, Aitapsia!

It's been an interesting month. The temperature issue was addressed by adding ventilation to the vestibule and adding a vent in the ceiling near the tank to help improve circulation. That has kept the tank below 82.5 but we haven't had too many hot days since that week. In addition to that, he is cycling 2 liter bottles of ice in the sump every day to keep it below 80, which is cheaper and less invasive than a chiller, but needs to be done daily.

Today we noticed a 1"+ aitapsia growing at the base of the xenia in the center of the tank. It was hard to see because it's roughly the same shape and color. I've read about these before but never researched how to get rid of them until now. A quick Google search revealed that using a needle/syringe filled with lemon juice from concentrate and injecting that into the base will kill it off in about 2 days, so I'm going to give that a shot. Literally. Just need to find a syringe now!

On the lighter side, here's a current set of pics. I'm going to a Coral Swap this Saturday so this is the "before" set...

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

And the fish...

...the green mandarin wouldn't come out to play.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Nice.

 

[Don7]

Great job.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

New Corals!!

I scored a bunch of frags at the Coral Reef Fest here in Des Moines on Saturday, I dipped them last night and put them in a 10g tank until today. It took me a while to find places for all of them based on their needs, and I'm sure I'll be moving a few around to find the right spots, but here's what's new:

ORA Screaming Green Birdsnest from Paul's Corals (paulscorals.com)
Leather Coral from House of Corals House of Corals

Rose Millepora from the VP of GIRS, can't remember his name...

Orange / Red Caps from same guy

In the back right is Tri-Color Valida from same guy

In center is Bubblegum Coral, then in front left is Red/Green War Coral and an Acan from Paul's Corals

Frogspawn from someone I can't recall....

Also from same guy, Kryptonite Candy Cane and another I forgot to write down. Oops. I think it's a Zoanthid

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

More Zoanthids from Paul's Corals

Branching Hammer from House of Corals

A Sun Polyp from House of Corals

And finally, an anemone from the Keys from Paul's Corals

All in all, quite an improvement. Also means I have to start watching the KH even closer and the Calcium, and I bought a Magnesium Salifert kit to boot so I can start watching that.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

And here's the full tank shot

Left side

Center

Right

 

[Mitchell0605]

You'll probably need to feed the Sun Coral cause it's not photosynthetic. Looks awesome. Nice Acan.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yep, I talked to the owner about getting a few corals that need to be fed, and from what I've learned you can feed them once or twice a week and they'll be ok....

 

[Mitchell0605]

Yep. Do you know how? BTW I want that green Acro. Sooooo much.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I was told that you can feed them the same brine shrimp that you feed the fish, just squirt it at it with a feeder syringe. But I'm sure there's better food. He said it was open in the morning but closed back up again. I'm thinking either it needs to go in deeper shade or just get acclimated to the light. I've read you're supposed to feed them in the evening, so I don't know how that will work out seeing as no one is there after 4 or 5, but the 10KKs shut off around 3 and the Actinics around 3:30, so maybe it will open up and that can be "evening".

I went in today to check on everything and take a water sample, and everything was opened up and totally cool looking. I'm going in again tomorrow over the noon hour with my camera and will post better pics.

The Acro near the bubble gum and war coral got huge. I'm going to have to reposition several of them to make space and probably will frag the Xenias and sell a bunch. Any takers? That colony on the right side of the tank was about 3-5 heads I put in on 2/1 and about 3-5 more on 3/11. Now 2+ months later it's easily doubled if not tripled in heads and doubled in size.

And yeah, that candy cane is super cool. I'll take a pic under actinics only it's wicked.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Yeah that's a good way but you can also feed them by chopping a 2L (or big soft drink bottle fo you guys, dunno what the measurements would be) in half and then squirting it and placing the half-bottle over to stop fish getting at it.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Long overdue update!! 1 of 4

[FONT=&quot]Well, it's been a busy summer and I haven't had much time to update this thread, though I do have plenty of pics or all the new growth!

Following are sets of pics from 6/15 and 7/30 showing growth over that period...

Star Polyp 6/15

Zoa 6/15

Star (moved to lower) & Zoa 7/30

Waving Hand Anthelia 6/15

...7/30 (after fragging twice)

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[FONT=&quot]Red Sea Pulsing Xenia Colony[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]…and I’ve fragged at least 8 off and sold.[/FONT]

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Long overdue update!! 2 of 4

[FONT=&quot]Green ORA Birdsnest[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30 (with leather) getting crowded by Xenia[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Frogspawn & Hammer[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30 (moved, kept falling)[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]War Coral, Acan[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30, along with Zoa #2 which is not doing so well[/FONT]

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[Floyd R Turbo]

Long overdue update!! 3 of 4

[FONT=&quot]Zoa #3m, also not doing so well[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Kryptonite Candy Cane & Leathers, doing nicely[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Rose Millepora, holding it’s own[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30[/FONT]

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[Floyd R Turbo]

Long overdue update!! 4 of 4

[FONT=&quot]Tri-color Valida looked like it was dying, then the death stopped, but someone bumped it and snapped it off the frag plug and I can’t find it.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]RIP[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Goniopora[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6/15[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]7/30[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Mushrooms & Fuzzys 7/30[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Full Tank Shot 7/30[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]The Bubble Gum coral bit the dust. I don’t have good pics of the Anomone, it just chills out on the backside of the LR, seems to be doing fine.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I didn’t get pics of the Red Caps, but they finally took hold and are growing a little.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The biggest news is that I made a decision to forego the miracle mud refugium in favor of building a turf-algae filter, and doing away with the skimmer and filter socks completely. This should solve the phosphate problem (not really a problem, but there) and give the corals a nice boost, along with eliminating one pump which will help with the tank heat (which gets up to 82 some days, even with ice bottles). Plus I won’t have to clean filter socks anymore. Yay!![/FONT]