100 gal IM Mangrove Bonsai Reef

[Rubymoon286]

And a few more post manual removal - Quite happy with how it came out, I still need to clean the glass, but I'm holding off a few days - and perpetually on the to do list is getting curtains back up and now rebracing my light bars to hang straight

 

[Rubymoon286]

Today's project was building my Control board from Adaptive Reef and turning the electrical nightmare my cabinet had become into something a lot more organized.

I am seeing some bubbles after feeding the corals for the first time since seemingly beating the Dinos - I can't get a good enough sample yet to see anything on the microscope, so gonna reduce lights for a few days. I've been dosing nitrate and phos to manage levels (and finally have gotten both to level out) So I'm hoping it's nothing to worry about.

Before (utter nightmare)



After


And an updated set of full tank shots

 

[Rubymoon286]

Still dealing with some fogginess, but beautiful parameters today. Phosphate is a little higher than I like at 0.18, but nitrate is slowly stabilizing in the range I like 15.5 today with a goal of 20.

I am working out a deal with someone in the bonsai community who has a few mangroves already in training with a 1.5" trunk. If I end up getting the two I've asked about, it'll be a while before they get planted in the tank as I acclimate them to reef salinity. Currently they're kept in brackish ranges in calcine clay, but great height (just over 24" from roots to crown, and I plan to have the top of the roots six inches above sand) and a great start on training that will translate well to my styling concepts.

 

[CallMeChris]

Cool concept! I love seeing mangrove tanks. Following to see how it goes

 

[Rubymoon286]

Another week more updates. Successfully made a deal for the trees, but gotta wait for it to be under 100F before we can coordinate shipping. Lowest it's been this week was 105F so it might be a bit of time before we can. Bonus of my new planted 5 gallon because I was inspired to make a waterfall inspired black water tank.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Another week more updates. Successfully made a deal for the trees, but gotta wait for it to be under 100F before we can coordinate shipping. Lowest it's been this week was 105F so it might be a bit of time before we can. Bonus of my new planted 5 gallon because I was inspired to make a waterfall inspired black water tank.

Loving the updates!

 

[Rubymoon286]

Loving the updates!

Thanks so much! I struggle to remember to update it, but I love looking back on the earlier photos to see how much everything has grown and settled in

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Looking good!

 

[Rubymoon286]

Well, had a small emergency tonight - my emergency drain bulkhead began unscrewing itself, and I couldn't get my union apart or get it tightened back up. I turned off the return, siphoned the back chamber (like seven gallons) while cutting the pipe to be able to get my bulkhead wrench over the nut. Broke my pipe cutter blade in the process and did some cosmetic damage to the cutters. Thank goodness for fast thinking though.

All said, my carpet was not soaked through since I got a towel under the leak fast, but certainly time to rethink my plumbing a bit. I've wanted to upgrade the return to 1" with a reactor manifold, but first redesigning the emergency overflow (I haven't needed it yet and don't expect to but will have a bucket under just in case)

have a manifold

 

[Rubymoon286]

Replumbed my return to 1" pretty happy with the result, just waiting for my junctions for my reactor to plumb the manifold through my reactor and I replaced my emergency overflow now with no leaks, and cleaned my vectra. things are running smoothly now. I'm already noticing more flow than with the 3/4" even though it reduces to 3/4"for the bulkhead and lockline - one day I may upgrade those to 1" as well, but it'll be a time before I'm ready to.

I've got a ton more work to organize and straighten things out, and the next project will be a shelf to store and hang things from over the sump, including building in some fans to keep the air moving across the top as we continue the 110* weather. Definitely ready for fall to come.

 

[Rubymoon286]

Gotta do some glass scraping, so full tank shot will be later on tonight or tomorrow - but I added some merah/pheonix rasboras to my little freshwater tank which is taking on some nice tannin finally. My two 20 watt heaters weren't cutting it somehow, so I added a spare 200 watt I had sitting around while I wait on a 100 watt. - once the 100 gets here, it'll be nicely hidden. behind either the wood or the fountain.

Next inhabitants to be added are some dwarf brazos crayfish and a handful of cardinia shrimps and I'll be moving about half of my daphnia culture into the tank as live food along with the micro white worms I currently feed.

 

[Murphs_reef]

Another week more updates. Successfully made a deal for the trees, but gotta wait for it to be under 100F before we can coordinate shipping. Lowest it's been this week was 105F so it might be a bit of time before we can. Bonus of my new planted 5 gallon because I was inspired to make a waterfall inspired black water tank.

Your reef is starting to come to life... Looks good

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Gotta do some glass scraping, so full tank shot will be later on tonight or tomorrow - but I added some merah/pheonix rasboras to my little freshwater tank which is taking on some nice tannin finally. My two 20 watt heaters weren't cutting it somehow, so I added a spare 200 watt I had sitting around while I wait on a 100 watt. - once the 100 gets here, it'll be nicely hidden. behind either the wood or the fountain.

Next inhabitants to be added are some dwarf brazos crayfish and a handful of cardinia shrimps and I'll be moving about half of my daphnia culture into the tank as live food along with the micro white worms I currently feed.

Tank looks incredible as always!

 

[Rubymoon286]

Some evening blues. I haven't done much beyond letting her cook this week. Phosphates jumped a bit up to 0.15 and I'm not sure why - they've been steady at around 0.05 the last few tests till today. I must have lost a snail or something and just didn't find it or something. Did an extra six gallons on top of my daily 3 today and I'll test again tomorrow after the normal daily one goes off to see where I'm at. Nitrates are still steady at 19.8 so I can't complain too much. Fish are all fat and happy.

Dynamic Duo (Scopas tang and the biggest, fattest, starry blenny) have continued to follow each other around and showing some interesting behavior. The tang finds the good grazing spots, and usually swims back and forth between the blenny and the grazing spot, until it comes and starts to eat and they dine together. When they spook, it's right into the same cave, right there on the short end, and I'm pretty sure they share it overnight too. I will try to get video of them together, but their current names are Thema and Louise (though Batman and Robin sound cooler) I don't really name fish typically, but these two just have such character together! I'll try to get a video of it because it's quite possibly my favorite thing about this tank right now.

The littlest blackwater tank got an upgrade today, I'll snag photos tomorrow after the water clears again. I added a cannister filter, moved some of the plants around and rebuilt my waterfall to suit the cannister filter. The sponges worked out great for what they were, but this lets me have a little bit more real estate.

Got some new inhabitants earlier in the week - some cardinia shrimps and some brazos dwarf crawfish, which are similar to Mexican dwarfs but blue in color. It's been a fun little tank to get back to my roots on (pun wasn't intended, but there it is, whoops)

My health has taken a pretty dramatic turn as well, and I don't often talk about the details. I have a very rare immune modulated neurological condition that isn't well understood. I've been struggling with seizures and root nerve damage, especially with the heat, which exacerbates everything. Today our "nice" weather went back up to near triple digits, so it's back to being very careful in where I put my energy, until fall finally arrives, but come fall, I have a good handful of DIY things designed to keep me busy during the cooler weather as I'm able to do including some quality of life upgrades.

I'm thankful for all of the innovations in the fish keeping hobby for automation. It lets me still enjoy my zen, without as much manual labor, and lets me stay in the hobby despite my limitations. Looking forward to continuing the journey on both of these tanks to see how they settle in and grow.

 

[Rubymoon286]

And a shot of the littlest blackwater tank - part of the structure failed last night on the waterfall, so I'm gonna redesign it and rethink the top portion a bit but very happy with how things are settling out Getting my daphnia culture today and adding half or so to the tank to establish a colony in tank, but also going to keep the culture itself going.

Editing to add a link to the finished rebuild of the waterfall structure in action
Google video link

 

[Rubymoon286]

Today brings tragedy and a lot of questions. I was gone for a weekend, and had the owner of my little lfs check in yesterday on things, and while the fish were fine brown jelly took my aussie torch completely (three heads) and took out my blue hologram wall hammer. I've never had brown jelly affect any other lps, but my welsoni and scoly both completely melted away (they were healthy and fat on friday) He peroxide dipped all of the other lps as a precaution (after asking if it was okay) and save for the duncan and the kermit alve, everything looks healthy. I also had half of my midnight daisy polyps colony melt.

Well, upon getting home, my firefish and my wheeler goby both jumped at some point between yesterday and getting home. My LFS is wonderful and has offered to comp me for both fish on the off chance that it was their fault the fish jumped (I declined, I really don't think my friend would have just not noticed if it had happened while he was there, and gobies are gonna goby)

So I tested parameters today when I got home to see if anything was majorly out of whack, and I had some weird spikes. I noticed on the seventh my CA had jumped up a bit from it's usual 450 or so to 502. I haven't dosed anything, or changed salts recently. I use Red Box Fitz after slowly transitioning from Blue box since I was struggling with my Alk (still am, and I don't understand what's eating up my alk, but that's a question for another day)

Nothing has been dosed to the tank in the three days since I last tested. I even tested PH independent of my probe today just to be sure I didn't need to calibrate. I don't understand why my Calcium jumped up so much. I test every three days, so in the last week it's gone up around 100 ppm and Mag 270. My probe is reading out 8.5, and my salifert ph tested out at 8.4 so it's well within the margin I expect it to be.

I make my own saltwater at home, I use RODI, I just changed the cartridges and resin last weekend, not because it's been used to the point that the color has changed, but because it's not changed colors in two years because our water is just very low tds to begin with (normally it reads about 8 incoming 0 outgoing) I figured it would be a good idea.

I'm pretty devastated by both the firefish and the Wheeler goby, but more so the wheeler because he was one of my first fish. He was less than an inch when we got him, and had grown to about two inches, and really colored up in the last four months.

I just don't understand the rising calcium. I guess it's time to send off a couple of icp tests and see if I'm missing something in my water. Will try to update with full tank shots tomorrow when hopefully everything that's left opens and continues to show no signs of brown jelly/tissue necrosis.

 

[Rubymoon286]

Some late evening blues, about an hour before the lights turn off, plus the final member of my freshwater tank, and an update of the littlest blackwater tank.

The Reef is recovering. Still not sure why some of my parameters are sky high, but I've been letting them drop naturally and will continue monitoring. The duncan and candy canes are recovering, and none of my other lps have melted it seems.

Dr. Reef is an incredible business, and have earned a life time customer with how they've treated me. After reaching out regarding my fish, they helped me out with questions about my goby, and even only asking that I pay shipping on the order to get new ones, despite it not being a doa situation.

The planted tank is going a bit wild, so I may do some trimming this weekend. Very happy with how it's going, and especially love the little waterfall/cannister filter combo. It was a good call for sure to swap it.

 

[Rubymoon286]

Had a blast at Reef-a-palooza, and ended up with a great haul, and finally wading in to the acro game a bit. Got a Japanese Kenya tree and a fox coral too, plus unpictured a beautiful red goni that is still adjusting and a bit angry. I got a clam from Clam Mania as well that's' gorgeous, but I'm having a hard time photographing the intricacies of it's mantle - I'll try again later with the flow off. Overall very happy and excited for the new growth, and VERY happy to have a clam again.

 

[Rubymoon286]

Took a few more photos, still don't do the clam justice unfortunately - if anyone has clam photography tips please let me know. The goni also came out a bit, and my acro is more extended than earlier.

 

[Rubymoon286]

It's been a while, but snagged some photos today after doing a deep clean in the sump. Late last week, my clam was quite angry, I discovered hydroids on the shell today, cleaned it well with a stiff bristle brush. Also ended up with alk on the low side, so started bringing alk up as well. The urchin is probably going to be sumped soon, it keeps absconding with corals despite a wealth of shells and things to use as hats. I just have been hesitant to remove my coralline vacuum. I suppose I should embrace it though, and clean my glass more often than I do!

I do need to get some mid sized sand and fill in where the neros have been blowing, but all in all, just cruising right along in easy mode. Finally picked up my X10 yesterday, so I've been setting it up today, and it's quite the upgrade from the x2, my Command bus cable was delayed, so I'll be playing with making a collective when that arrives this week, and got my dosing set up. I still plan to test alk with my Hanna since I'll still be testing everything else and it takes no time to add it to the other tests, so instead of the IV I've got it set up to dose 2 part as needed based on the tests