120 peninsula build

[fragit]

Your LFS seems pretty cool. Mine sells frags of xenia for $30, lol

Yeah they are pretty reasonable. They have some mini colonies of some nice Acros for $45.

 

[Fudsey]

Looking good Fragit. Great to have a good LFS close by

 

[USMC4Life]

You did so much! Good stuff!

 

[fragit]

You did so much! Good stuff!

Thanks man! More to come....Stay tuned!

 

[fragit]

Had my water tested last week and Alk was a bit low. Got my Red Sea test kits yesterday alk sitting at 6.7 dkh. Slowly brining it up to 8dkh then to 9 over the next week. Just did my first water change today, about 10-12 gallons. Filled the QT tank most of the way. I almost made one of the biggest messes of my 15 year reefing career. I was putting some sponges in the hang on filter for the QT. It sits in the stand under the fuge. I stood up too fast not thinking and smashed my head into one of the overflow pipes cracking the glass just above the bulkhead. The crack is small and above the waterline. I quickly shut the water off removed the plumbing and checked the integrity of the bulkhead and tank, all seems well so far. Gonna be checking constantly for a few hours I'm sure as I don't want to flood the basement. Few close call! I think long term it will be okay as it has a coast to coast overflow which adds tons of strength to the back wall of the tank. Plus it is up at the top where the rim is glued on, and as I said before above the waterline. There should be minimal chance of a leak, I HOPE!

 

[fragit]

Been checking my alk every morning and evening after lights out. Starting to get the alk dialed in. Right now I have it at a comfortable 8 DKH. This morning it was down to 7.7DKH so adding about 35mL of two part currently. Hope I win that GHL giveaway I need a doser.

 

[fragit]

Just a little update:
My two fire fish which have been best buddies for the last month or so are no longer pals. One of them who is just a little bigger is being very territorial and chasing the other one off. I'm hoping I don't loose the other one to stress. It is still eating fine, no bad war wounds just a slightly torn pectoral fin. It's time to get some more fish in the tank to break it up! I also need more snails, the 3 large and 2 small Trochus snails that I have are doing great work but not enough to clean everything up. Hopefully when I get a chance to hit the LFS on Thursday they have some available. Corals seem to be growing well, lots of growth tips on all, colors are beginning to come out a bit more. I ran out of AF ProBioS and NP Pro, so I need to pic up some more of that too. My Cheato is going nuts it was grown to a giant mass in the last month and a half, I need to do a harvest. Cleaned the skimmer cup this morning and that thing is pulling some serious nasty stuff out which is awesome. It is running much more efficiently after messing with the air intake and water level a little more. I'm thinking the next fish might be my group on Anthias or maybe the Chalk Bass what do you all think? I would like to maybe go for the Yellow Tang but had planned on adding it last to avoid any aggression issues. I may just do it now so it can help with the algae clean up. I have started to dial in the Alk, and Ca levels. I checked the Ca for the first time yesterday and it was low at 350, now up to 420 right where I like it. Alk is stable at 8 dkh and adding about 35 mL of two part daily. I need a dosing pump and am soon going to be making the switch to Aqua Forest balling supplements, and reef salt. That's all for now I guess. More updates to come soon!

 

[Ahgee]

Just a little update:
My two fire fish which have been best buddies for the last month or so are no longer pals. One of them who is just a little bigger is being very territorial and chasing the other one off. I'm hoping I don't loose the other one to stress. It is still eating fine, no bad war wounds just a slightly torn pectoral fin. It's time to get some more fish in the tank to break it up! I also need more snails, the 3 large and 2 small Trochus snails that I have are doing great work but not enough to clean everything up. Hopefully when I get a chance to hit the LFS on Thursday they have some available. Corals seem to be growing well, lots of growth tips on all, colors are beginning to come out a bit more. I ran out of AF ProBioS and NP Pro, so I need to pic up some more of that too. My Cheato is going nuts it was grown to a giant mass in the last month and a half, I need to do a harvest. Cleaned the skimmer cup this morning and that thing is pulling some serious nasty stuff out which is awesome. It is running much more efficiently after messing with the air intake and water level a little more. I'm thinking the next fish might be my group on Anthias or maybe the Chalk Bass what do you all think? I would like to maybe go for the Yellow Tang but had planned on adding it last to avoid any aggression issues. I may just do it now so it can help with the algae clean up. I have started to dial in the Alk, and Ca levels. I checked the Ca for the first time yesterday and it was low at 350, now up to 420 right where I like it. Alk is stable at 8 dkh and adding about 35 mL of two part daily. I need a dosing pump and am soon going to be making the switch to Aqua Forest balling supplements, and reef salt. That's all for now I guess. More updates to come soon!

What's crazy is I have 3 Firefish. 1 Exquisite purple one purple and one red. All added in one at a time starting with the two purple. For the first week they all got along great. Then all the sudden over the last couple days my regular purple Firefish has been picking on my red Firefish so he hangs out in a different part of the tank with part of his tail ripped off :-(

 

[Ahgee]

What's crazy is I have 3 Firefish. 1 Exquisite purple one purple and one red. All added in one at a time starting with the two purple. For the first week they all got along great. Then all the sudden over the last couple days my regular purple Firefish has been picking on my red Firefish so he hangs out in a different part of the tank with part of his tail ripped off :-(

 

[fragit]

What's crazy is I have 3 Firefish. 1 Exquisite purple one purple and one red. All added in one at a time starting with the two purple. For the first week they all got along great. Then all the sudden over the last couple days my regular purple Firefish has been picking on my red Firefish so he hangs out in a different part of the tank with part of his tail ripped off :-(

Yeah, I don't get it! I've always kept them in pairs in the past and had no aggression between them or other fish. They are typically really peaceful in my experience. Mine are now on opposite sides of the tank, maybe I got two males who knows. I did do some research and could not find anything about determining the sex of fire fish other than a small difference in the dorsal fins. They appear to be both males to me so hopefully they work it out with out killing each other. I'm hoping some more fish will change the dynamics of the tank.

 

[fragit]

Picked up a Yellow Eye Kole Tang yesterday. She had been in the coral tanks at my LFS for a month. The only other fish in that system were three clowns and a couple wrasses. So I know it's a huge risk but decided to put her in the DT by passing QT. I will be Using the QT for any new fish from this point forward. I don't want to risk it. Honestly I'm a little paranoid at this point anyway. I'm very hopeful that she is disease free. Looking good so far! She's still a little shy in her new home but is already picking at algae and swimming the tank. My original stock list was to get a Yellow Tang. I'm glad we decided to get this one instead, she is so pretty. I had one years ago, but had forgotten how beautiful they are, and their markings are really cool. I will get some yellow in the tank, probably in the form of a Choris Wrasse. All the fish are named after Lord of The Rings Characters. So far we have Fili and Kili the fire fish. And here is Arwen the Kole Tang.

 

[fragit]

So the tank is cruising along. Corals are starting to encrust more and are growing. Parameters are stable and getting dialed in. Hope to get my CP script for the QT soon. For the last two days or so my Fire Fish have been in hiding. I think they are scared by the Kole Tang. I saw one on Monday evening after work, but they were not seen out and about yesterday at all. I know where they are hiding, but they won't come out. Hopefully they will make an appearance tonight when I get home from work. They have to be hungry. Here is a FTS from this morning.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looks good!!

 

[fragit]

Picked up some fish food, and salt today. Ended up rescuing a few frags of a blue stag for $15! Mounted these nice big chunks on a plug I had.

 

[fragit]

Took a tip from @Paul B and went and collected some copepods from the beach today, it's getting cool up here in Maine so I probably got around 50 or so. Went to do a water change with my Aquaforest Probiotic reef salt. Got a 5kg container yesterday and the thing was a solid block! I was planning on only doing a 10% water change. But do to the state of the salt ended up doing a 20% change. Totaling about 30 gallons. Boy was I p$&@@36! when I opened that container. It was probably for the best as I started the tank with Instant Ocean.

 

[fragit]

Not much new to report. The reef is in auto pilot. All my 3 fish seem to be getting along okay now. My rescue coral is doing well, not much real noticeable change yet. Pod population is sky rocketing, and I saw some baby mini brittle stars in the fuge the other night. There are also quite a few mini feather dusters growing in the substrate too. Got a script from my vet for some CP and placed an order with Diamond Back Drugs today. Getting ready for the arrival of our baby. 3 weeks to go maybe sooner, that is going to delay any progress on the tank. I would like to place an order with Battle Corals but I think that is some time off. Who know though I could win the lottery.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Not much new to report. The reef is in auto pilot. All my 3 fish seem to be getting along okay now. My rescue coral is doing well, not much real noticeable change yet. Pod population is sky rocketing, and I saw some baby mini brittle stars in the fuge the other night. There are also quite a few mini feather dusters growing in the substrate too. Got a script from my vet for some CP and placed an order with Diamond Back Drugs today. Getting ready for the arrival of our baby. 3 weeks to go maybe sooner, that is going to delay any progress on the tank. I would like to place an order with Battle Corals but I think that is some time off. Who know though I could win the lottery.

I got a chance to see Adam's setup at Battle Corals picking up a grow out order. Amazing guy and an amazing setup and collection. I would definitely recommend him and his corals.

Oh and even the care he takes in bagging and packaging coral for an hour drive, I could only imagine what he does for shipping.

A couple recommendations: BC Day Glo Milli and BC Schizopolis Sunset. The Schizopolis is a slow grower but fantastic looking. The Day Glo took off and the teal new growth is phenomenal. I also get a little orange in the tips when running a purple plus bulb.

 

[fragit]

Picked up a new inhabitant today. It's a green and purple splatter Hammer. And I was just now looking around the tank and discovered an aptaisa anemone ugh! I don't have a clue where it came from. Only thing I can figure is it came in on the Chaeto I picked up from the LFS. Tomorrow I will pull the rock and try and kill it. Fortunately it's a smaller rock so it won't be a problem.

 

[fragit]

 

[Fudsey]

Peppermint shrimp took care of my aiptasia outbreak very quickly. I had multiple ones growing and bought 2 for my 72G and within a week it was all gone