45 Lagoon Makeover!!

[PicassoClown04]

Hey y’all. So I just inherited a 45 lagoon! Was in really bad shape. It was SPS dominant but there was ZERO polyp extension and most are either totally bleached or dead altogether. The only one I have real hope for is the Walt Disney which still has good color and you can see the tips of polyps if you squint real hard. Here’s the tank after a massive water change (70%) and some glass cleaning.

 

[PicassoClown04]

My stocking list currently:

Corals:

Future:
At least 2 clams (hopefully 1 maxima and 1 crocea)
Fiji yellow leather
High(ish) end zoas (15+ varieties)
Scolies
Lobos
Open brains
Yuma shrooms
High end
Whatever else I decide I like at LFS

Already Owned:
Neon green Nepthea
3 varieties of clove

Fish:
1/2 Madagascar Coral Croucher
Pair of Fire Clowns
Dwarf angel (probably flameback)
Ruby red dragonet/red mandarin (wayyyy future and captive bred)
Longnose Hawk

Inverts:
Fire Shrimp
Porcelain crab(s)

 

[PicassoClown04]

Holy. Crap. Woke up at 8 am this morning and I’ve been working all day. Took all the corals out and put them in Tupperware with tank water.

Took out all the rocks and cleaned them with a toothbrush in a 5 gallon bucket with salt water to remove some slime algae?? Diatoms?? No idea but it was disgusting and smelled like a 3 month old skimmate cup vomited on a skunk who’d just eaten Taco Bell. Caught all the live stock where it sold much quicker than I ever thought anything could possibly be sold.

Did 4 almost water changes? Basically I did a water change but instead of the water going straight into a bucket, it went through a filter sock first so there was no debris in the old water. Then I dumped that clean old water back into the tank since I did a real 30 gallon water change on it yesterday and the water is still fresh. Did this to get remaining disgustingness out and to make the tank squeaky clean. Then I rescaped the entire tank. Used a technique I’d never seen before, I’m gonna call it the ‘Landslide’ technique. Made a very basic scape with large rocks then tumbled rubble down to make a slope. Heres my first attempt.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Here’s the final scape! I’ll work on changing the lights on Monday to a whiter spectrum and lower par so all the bleached corals have a good chance of recovering in there when I move them back. Small frag of Mohican Suns as a tester coral cause there is no way I’m putting all that expensive sps back in there right now. It seems to be doing okay! First time I’ve ever seen it open actually, and it’s been in there for the entire lifespan of the tank, I think it’s been 4-5 months.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Sorry for the wait y’all! There was a POTO live sale a couple weeks ago (amazing folks over there btw, highly recommended!!!) and I snagged a couple beauties!! They were delivered a week ago so now they’re all settled in. Forgive the photography I’m still learning how to do it properly with this tank. Got a fox coral, Sunset Strip BTA, yellow clove, and a torch that I put in my other tank. Also this neat tshirt!!! Everything came in super healthy and perfect. You can see the star of my next post in the 1/2 tank shot

 

[PicassoClown04]

September 7, 2020. Dreams came true!!! After staring, and looking, and watching, and staring some more at CSBs everywhere I could get my eyes on them. These were actually what slingshotted me into the hobby (before I knew how expensive they were!!!) so I went about my life with my other reef tank, saving every penny, making spreadsheets, talking to people, wheelin’ and dealin’... until I found it. The perfect CSB. It would take my entire savings but... my dream anemone. After weeks of talking, negotiating, trading, begging, pleading, and butt kissery, I finally met in my LFS parking lot and made the trade for the CSB. One nerve wracking car ride home later, he was happily sitting entirely upside down in the deepest cave in the tank. Patience and time, I repeated over and over, all the whole sweating and pacing and checking on it and adjusting the lights. Today, everything paid off and he came out for the first time!!! Everybody!!! Allow me to introduce you to my CSB!!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Okay guys! I know y’all love pictures so here comes some more!! Current stock list (left to right)
Neon green nepthea (not doin too well, don’t know why. It doesn’t seem to want to stand up, it just kinda flops over but the color is really good, no visible polyps)
POTO yellow clove
WWC fireworks clove
Chicago Sunburst Anemone!
POTO Fox Coral
Colt Coral
Plus those three tiny zoa frags that I’m selling and the buyer hasn’t come for them yet.

 

[CrazyCarlitos]

September 7, 2020. Dreams came true!!! After staring, and looking, and watching, and staring some more at CSBs everywhere I could get my eyes on them. These were actually what slingshotted me into the hobby (before I knew how expensive they were!!!) so I went about my life with my other reef tank, saving every penny, making spreadsheets, talking to people, wheelin’ and dealin’... until I found it. The perfect CSB. It would take my entire savings but... my dream anemone. After weeks of talking, negotiating, trading, begging, pleading, and butt kissery, I finally met in my LFS parking lot and made the trade for the CSB. One nerve wracking car ride home later, he was happily sitting entirely upside down in the deepest cave in the tank. Patience and time, I repeated over and over, all the whole sweating and pacing and checking on it and adjusting the lights. Today, everything paid off and he came out for the first time!!! Everybody!!! Allow me to introduce you to my CSB!!

Huge congrats!

it’s a beauty!

 

[fishguy242]

very nice,love the nem!!this is tank#3 or #4??

 

[Everything Aquatics]

Wow this is going to be and great tank, following along

 

[LRT]

Yes this is going to be awesome for sure!

 

[PicassoClown04]

very nice,love the nem!!this is tank#3 or #4??

Salt water tank #3!!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Okay it’s been a hot second but the tank is looking AMAZING. I put a lot of stuff in really fast but it’s looking great
What’s in it?
-CSB
-POTO Sunset Strip BTA
-Neon Green Nepthea
-Colt Coral
-Zoas!
-(left to right) beauty and the beast, yoda, queen strat
-new shrooms!
-fox coral
-5 RFA from a recent group buy on my local forum
-mummy eye chalice
-green monti colony & large browned out frag
-hairy shroom
-green hammer colony
-yellow, fireworks, and mandarin clove
- purple & green acan colony
-orange fungia
-Mohican sun frags I’m fixing to sell

Queen Strat

yoda

Beauty and the beast

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Really digging the new aquascape!

 

[Chrisfish]

Tank is looking great!!! Beautiful corals

 

[PicassoClown04]

Really digging the new aquascape!

Thank you! I’m thinking the rock work may be a little dense, but since very little actually relies on another rock to hold it up, I think I’m just going to replace rock with coral slowly. This fox coral is giving me issues because the skeleton is crazy tall and I just can’t seem to put it anywhere!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Tank is looking great!!! Beautiful corals

Thanks!!! Looking forward to the Zoanthids live sale!! I’m gonna start a ‘living bottom’ (thanks OceansX for that terminology) out of zoas like I did on my other tank. Frankly, barebottoms aren’t very pretty to look at imo but are leagues easier to clean than sand and I don’t have a sand blowing around issue. So, the solution is to cover the bottom with a massive Zoa garden so it looks beautiful yet maintains its most valuable value, ease of cleaning. I think it’s worked really well in my 20 and I’m excited to see how it works on a larger scale here

 

[fishguy242]

just awesome ,keep on growing them corals,beautiful,the way your corals grow..going too need another tank, fox is going to grow like mad

 

[PicassoClown04]

just awesome ,keep on growing them corals,beautiful,the way your corals grow..going too need another tank, fox is going to grow like mad

I hope it does! I love it!! Wish it wasn’t so brown though when I bought it, it was this pretty cream color

 

[fishguy242]

i'll bet little time will be beautiful,yellow green,give her some time