35 Gallon Mixed Reef

ArowanaLover1902 · Mar 26, 2018

How about a clam? The next step is to add a skimmer and do a water change. My ATO broke when I accidentally left it without water (I thought it had more than enough but it quickly drained 3 gallons) and it ran dry, so I've also got to replace the pump for that. Any suggestions on a skimmer?

ArowanaLover1902 · Mar 31, 2018

Going with a coralife skimmer. I'm ordering in reef roids and poly-booster to help with feedings. My coral shipment was delayed and comes next week

ArowanaLover1902 · Mar 31, 2018

In other news, the coral looks great. I'm seeing particularly great growth in my duncan coral, who has 5 new polyps working on growing now. Zoa growth is good too, as is everything else.

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 2, 2018

I was given a firefish and a peppermint shrimp. The same day of their introduction, I would later find the damselfish dead in the filter, he had injured tissue on his midsection that appeared to be a bite.

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 4, 2018

Coral shipment arrived and am acclimating it, I'll post pics tomorrow when they have all opened up and look good. Ordering in reef roids, poly-booster, tunze replacement pump, coralife 65 skimmer, and a monoject 412 syring for feeding the corals. I found the emerald crab's molted shell in the refugium (as well as the actual crab). I looked in on the tank last night and there are some really cool things going on in my sandbed, I'm seeing worms, new feather dusters (I know thats also a worm), pods, and snails. I also noticed that my peppermint shrimp changes to entirely transparent at night, why is this? It doesn't seem like a very important evolutionary advantage as red is basically black in the dark (which is why the giant squid is red [though they do possess exceptional chromatophores allowing them to change pigment quickly][I really like cephalopods]).

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 9, 2018

Forgot to post that the shipment contained only SPS as my order was mixed up with someone else's. I've got 8 sps corals in the tank now. Suprisingly, they are still alive and looking great, I've got the birdnest in the best spot in the tank and he certainly appreciates it. I get my zoas this week (finally).

I can't find the firefish and assume he is dead, maybe the royal gramma is killing them. The marks on the damselfish consisted with the gramma's jawline. I'll have to consider getting rid of him, he's an awesome fish, but I prefer my tanks to be civil. Next addition is another yellow watchman goby, hopefully a large one, as I know they are diomorphic and hope they will pair up.

I've also finally got a protein skimmer hooked up and my reef roids, ato pump, and etc are coming later this week (hopefully tomorrow). I look forward to feeding the corals, I'm sure the acans will appreciate it especially.

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 9, 2018

If anyone has any questions about my equipment, livestock, or tank in general feel free to post

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 12, 2018

New zoanthids come in tomorrow, I'm not sure where I'm going to put them all. Probably all on the same rock as the others. I'm getting a pretty good collection going now.

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 19, 2018

Tank pics and a graph of tank parameters - hoping to rebuild sump on saturday, I'm almost done cutting all my baffles (cutting glass is a painnnnnn) and hopefully this will cut down on splash and microbubbles, next step is chaeto

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 21, 2018

Big update:
- Finally went ahead and did all the maintenance I should I have done a while ago, totally redid my sump (a new digital version is attached) and after cutting glass, getting it all just right, and gluing the tank it'll be cured in 12 hours. That means tomorrow I'll be able to have it totally set up (but I'm obviously staying up tonight to get it connected).
- Bought some chaeto while I was at my LFS, it's going to be growing in the first chamber
- Next step is to add some eggcrate for a frag rack and start growing some frags down in the sump, they'll have good flow, awesome lighting, and nothing to bother them
The cyano is still there but hopefully continual manual removal partnered with the new chaeto and sump will be able to outcompete it

P.S. Also in the first chamber will be the mangrove sapling I have as well as a good deal of live rock

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ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 21, 2018

Well just removed all the bubble algae from the mushroom/zoa colony. There was a lot and I'm pretty sure I got all of it. I then rinsed it in removed tank water to get off any spores. Maybe it'll come back, maybe it won't, it really wasn't a problem before and I don't think it'll be able to come back in strength if it has failed to do so for months. I want to get into fragging but sadly there's noone around here to trade with, I could get some awesome frags off of my zoas and shrooms. I guess I'll just keep letting them grow.

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 23, 2018

Tanks going well, still have cyano but it seems to be dying back a bit. I added three barnacle blennies today and removed the royal gramma (he's going to the LFS tomorrow, he's chilling in my sump right now though). The blennies are doing great and are my new favorite.

ArowanaLover1902 · Apr 25, 2018

#reef2reef, #worldwidecorals, #mywwccontest

ArowanaLover1902 · Jun 3, 2018

Been way too long since I updated this. A lot of new stuff too:
- A new LPS coral (not sure what it is, I just told my lfs to pick one for me)
- A new flame scallop
- A bubble tip anemone
- Removed my skimmer, I'm not big on skimmers and one of the guys at the LFS told me about his system, which utilizes way more biomedia than average along with sea-gel, I'm going to be switching over to that.

The zoas are exploding right now, even the designers seem to be taking off. I'm buying a photon v2+ 32 inch lighting system (again, at the advice of my LFS guy). This is to lower the algae (there isn't much, but I have a lot of excess light from my garbage black box) and increase the visual aspect of my tank, corals under this light look really coo, plus there is a remote and I love remotes. I plan on adding more sps eventually, but my current project is LPS corals, lots of them. I need more room for the corals though, I've been thinking about adding to the aquascape, I want to add a big shelf with a huge cave underneath, flow would be a problem, but it would look awesome.