15 build 1st coral

Rabidbeast666 · Jun 24, 2023

Got my 1st coral yesterday. A little half thumb size torch for $29. Looked kind of skanky yesterday. But moved it up and give him more flow and he's looking a bit fluffier today.

1112-425XL · Jun 24, 2023

Looks good! Ready for coral #2.

Rabidbeast666 · Jun 24, 2023

Thanks and yep. I'll be adding 1 or 2 small frags a week. Next week I'll add another fish. Zoas and rics are going to be my main focus in this tank.

Rabidbeast666 · Jul 1, 2023

Got my 2nd coral. A pretty little Florida ric that seems to be doing ok after 24 hrs in his spot. He's a muted rust color with up to teal on the edges. Looks better in the evening but fits the scheme I want. When he's stressed he draws up to nothing. Happy he's relaxing. Want him to take off down there and cover the low portion.

Rabidbeast666 · Jul 3, 2023

3rd day in. He's liking the spot. Constantly pulling snails and crabs away from under. I now notice a small 3rd mouth. Hopefully get some growth. Feeding phyto for the acrocyclops gets his attention and they along with my cuc have wiped out the start of a diatom bloom. My water has stabilized and is staying consistent with a weekly 3 to 4 gal water change on a volume of 12.2 gal in a IM 15. Nitrates 5 or below. No phosphates yet even with the phyto, pellet,mysis I feed on a daily basis. Added rubble rock to my return area and am about to add a 1/4 " random flow return to scale that huge 1/2" with low flow to the edges setup it came with.

UkiahTheTurtle · Jul 3, 2023

Rabidbeast666 said:
Got my 1st coral yesterday. A little half thumb size torch for $29. Looked kind of skanky yesterday. But moved it up and give him more flow and he's looking a bit fluffier today.

Nice deal on a torch ones near me are always $100 +

Rabidbeast666 · Jul 3, 2023

UkiahTheTurtle said:
Nice deal on a torch ones near me are always $100 +

It's only a cristata. They go for that usually for about 2 heads here.

Rabidbeast666 · Jul 28, 2023

About 9 weeks in. Added a Florida ric and an utter chaos. In bit of an over feed but reef roids helped to finally get a trace of phosphate with my nitrates at 5. Steady. Plan on adding a hammer and acans and a couple of more zoas in the next week. The green on the rock worried me but it's kind of a spicy mustard color and has gotten no worse or hairy. So I'm just watching it. If you zoom in you can se the pod larvae that's starting to explode since I started with the phyto daily.