60g Cube, It's hip to be square!

[hart24601]

I have artful aquatics lids on my freshwater 120 and 180. When the 120 was a reef I actually had 0 jumpers... go figure. I am going to run it without a lid for now and see. Those lids are really nice though, especially on euro-brace they are perfect.

I have 6 dispar anthias so will see how well they do and if they jump. I had a lot of anthias types in the 120 and they never even hit the surface... I don't plan on adding any more fish either.

I think NY aquatics messed up and gave me 5 dispar and maybe a female lyretail as it's bright yellow and doesn't school with the others.

 

[hart24601]

I ordered some Velcro straps for cord management, but it's mostly done. Have dosers hooked up and only running kalk for now though.

Wow that's a lot of stuff.

 

[hart24601]

Have my 1st corals coming tomorrow from unique corals. Nothing too exotic, just some basic SPS. Purple haze monti, purple monti digi, monti stellata, ORA mind trick undata monti, UC red monti cap, ORA green BN, ORA bird of paradise BN and a larger phonape BN.

 

[hart24601]

And I get carried away and ordered some from reef corner... purple/green confusa monti, forest fire digi, neon pink digi, bloody mary monti and superman monti...

 

[hart24601]

Coral coming today...

so excited!

Wish the club's PAR meter was available right now so I could check levels, but with all the flow it should be ok. I am thinking to put the BN and at least 1 digi on the bottom for their home and save the rock for more acros. Had BN on the bottom of the 120 and really liked having it there.

 

[hart24601]

Well... ReefCorner arrived fine, but Unique Corals shipment is help up by UPS! They both went through the KY hub, so I have no idea why one package made it... but Donna at UC said they were packaged for 2 days and if anything dies they will take care of it.

I must say reefcorner is very impressive shipping. The included slip has the photos of the coral included and the bags all have the coral floating with Styrofoam on the base so they are suspended upside down. A+

I will be using them again.

 

[hart24601]

Reefcorner sends a pic of your specific coral before they ship.

 

[hart24601]

Got the controllers Velcro or screwed and extra cable tied together and plugs labeled. Not 100% done but almost! Vinegar and kalk run great off the rkl.

 

[hart24601]

The UC corals made it fine yesterday despite the delay in shipping. Most have PE the same day but the ORA green BN. I remember having it before and it can be fussy.

Got the new finnex 300w heather and controller so installed that and got connect fitting for the dosing containers. Previously I put the tubing on rigid airline tubing inside the containers, but the BRS hard air line is too big, however push connect fitting work on them so had to make that happen - but have the ca, alk and AA set up and running! I think for now the system is set!

Had a tiny leak on the return 90 elbow behind the stand. Thankfully there was enough pipe I was able to cut it out and glue in a new elbow very quickly and resolve it. I did drip some primer on my leather sofa and removed the coloring.... grrrrrrrrrrr pretty much discolored instantly.

Gives it character, right??? Right??? Haha, ok I am a little miffed by that....

I want to feed the coral, but with no acro and the small polyps of montis I am not sure what to start with. I have some decapped brine cysts that I might try. I don't want to over feed the system, but I am huge believer in feeding coral, just those monti might need something smaller. Maybe the 5-50 micron golden pearls.

 

[hart24601]

Coral pics! I want to take some so I can see growth or lack of growth! Not fancy pics, just a reference point and not the best quality as I had just fed the tank and I didn't clean the glass! It can be hard to notice growth when you see it everyday so here we go:
Bloody Mary

Forest Fire Digi

Green and Teal Confusa

ORA Bird of Paradise

ORA green BN

ORA Mind Tick Undata

Phonape BN

Neon Pink Digi

Purple base green polyp monti

Purple Digi

Purple haze

UC red cap

 

[hart24601]

There is a LOT of flow in this system, so I think it will be a while before I get full PE, but everything looks out and happy for the most part. Keep in mind I am running 2 GYRE 150s that I upgraded to the new large cage at 50% constant speed. According to this article:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2015/1/aafeature

Setting 5 is 3000 gph while setting 10 is 4000 from their testing so I am trying to be more efficient and less noise. That is with the old rotor and I think these new ones are more flow, but with 2 running I am pushing 6000 gph constant flow plus the return is giving me over 100x turnover which is my goal with sps tank.

 

[hart24601]

 

[hart24601]

So wwc had eBay auctions. I ended up buying more than I anticipated because some of the prices didn't get bid up much! I put low ball offers of like $15 on some of these. Didn't drop more than $30 on any one coral.


WWC Chilly Pepper Monti
WWC Ghostly Acropora
WWC Firebird Lepto
WWC Mystic Sunset Monti
WWC Chilly Willy Acro
Tyree Yellow Jacket Acro
WWC Grapesicle Acropora
WWC Killer Frost Acropora
Temptation Acropora
WWC Cobalt Tenuis
WWC Plasma Acropora
WWC Yeti Acropora
WWC Thanos Cyphastrea
Notsosure Acropora
WWC Frozen Stick Acropora
WWC Grizzly Adams Acropora

 

[hart24601]

Made a powerpoint of the auctions and saved it as a picture, lets see how this works:

 

[hart24601]

LA/DD order came in this morning. 12 trochus (11 alive) 1 Fromia milleporella starfish and ORA red goni. I had a ORA red before and loved it, found a spot where the gyre flow meets that is going to be about the most gentle place in the tank for it.

 

[hart24601]

All the wwc look good. Smaller than I thought but still heathy.

In two weeks another friend is totally hooking me up with another pack. Will be stocked then, except maybe a hawkins eventually... But here is what he has lined up for me:

3 mouth cornbred space invader chalice
Beach bum monti
Pc rainbow acro
Wwc yellow tip acro
Ora red planet
Ora strawberry shortcake
Oregon tort
Fox flame
Wwc what the heck acro
Rr USA pink Floyd
Uww sunburst monti
Spongodies
Red dragon


Quite a list!!!

 

[tj w]

Nice score on the wwc eBay auctions. Looks like you scored some really nice frags at great prices.

 

[hart24601]

Thanks! Now comes the very long process of growing out to colonies!

Have the clubs par meter coming soon so will be nice to get numbers.

 

[hart24601]

Yay! Growth!

 

[hart24601]

Thought I would share my discus too. These guys are still growing really fast!

Tank is custom 180(ish). The view from my desk, we get to work from home at least one day a week.

I change the filter socks every few days but aside from feeding the tank when I walk by I have not touched it in weeks. The auto water change and power heads are doing a great job. The awc is doing about 20% ro/di daily.

Setting this up to drain from sump to floor drain has just been fantastic. I did grow them from 2" to 4" in a 40B doing larger water changes but it was semi automated.