d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

[Abhishek]

Been doing a bunch of water changes because I got a batch of Tropic Marin with severely elevated magnesium. Mine has been over 1700.
But it takes forever to get it to drop with WC's so I'm probably just going to let it fall on its own now.
Haven't started dosing yet. Still need to calibrate my doser and mix up the Triton solutions. Will do it soon though.
Looks like my tank is using up around 0.2 dkh in 24 hrs. Need to test again tomorrow.
I'll do the first Triton Test once dosing is in full effect and stable.

Thanks for the reply Dennis !!

1700 !! You are using Tropic Marin as its suggested by Triton or do you intend to use any other salt like Redsea Blue bucket or HW marine ?

Are you planning to get the Alk to 8 before starting dosing ?

 

[d2mini]

Thanks for the reply Dennis !!

1700 !! You are using Tropic Marin as its suggested by Triton or do you intend to use any other salt like Redsea Blue bucket or HW marine ?

Are you planning to get the Alk to 8 before starting dosing ?

Yes, using TM as suggested by Triton. I have always used Aqua Vitro Salinity in the past. Never liked the others all that much.
Alk is at 8 dkh. Well, it was last night. It's 7.8 tonite. Need to test once or twice more to make sure it's accurate.

 

[d2mini]

Tank looks gorgeous, love how clean it is! I would love to see some FTS!!!!

New FTS below.

Also, note that fat gorgonian on the left next to my huge Turbinaria Cup Coral.
The tallest branch towards the left appears to have a missing chunk. It lost some flesh after the trip from TBS and transition into my tank. That 1" section was a bare branch/skeleton a few days ago. It's now fully covered in flesh again. Pretty cool! Watching to see if another branch is recovering as well. Been dosing Phyto daily.

 

[hybridazn]

Tank is looking great! Where are all the coral gonna go? It looks pretty full already haha

 

[olaggie01]

Looks great Dennis. How's the flow with the Vectra and MP40?

 

[d2mini]

Tank is looking great! Where are all the coral gonna go? It looks pretty full already haha

LOL, I know, right?

Looks great Dennis. How's the flow with the Vectra and MP40?

Thanks, it's pretty good so far. I plan to grab a quick video that shows the flow and how quiet the tank is.

 

[eg8r210]

New FTS below.

Also, note that fat gorgonian on the left next to my huge Turbinaria Cup Coral.
The tallest branch towards the left appears to have a missing chunk. It lost some flesh after the trip from TBS and transition into my tank. That 1" section was a bare branch/skeleton a few days ago. It's now fully covered in flesh again. Pretty cool! Watching to see if another branch is recovering as well. Been dosing Phyto daily.

Tank looks great! I am interested in what phyto are you using?

 

[d2mini]

Tank looks great! I am interested in what phyto are you using?

Reef Nutrition's PhytoFeast daily.
I also use Oyster Feast and Reef Chili.


Mr. Seaweed Blenny came out to play...

And I got the Triton Elements mixed up and in their dispensing containers. 10 Liters each.
Container 3A is empty because that's the magnesium and my mag in the tank is testing at 1700 from an elevated bucket of salt.
So that needs to come down before I can start dosing 3A.
I'll calibrate the dosing pumps tonite and then get that going.

 

[d2mini]

New pics.
Labeled in the watermark as usual.

 

[Black Pearl]

Nice tang( I'm partial) great photos, you make me ashamed to post a picture

 

[d2mini]

So just to update from the past week or so...

I'm now up to 7 fish.
In order of addition...
1 Seaweed Blenny
1 Royal Gramma
1 Juvi Wyoming White Clownfish
1 Powder Brown Tang
3 Springeri Damselfish

Feeding is up but Nitrates continue to fall and are down to about 10 ppm.
Food for the fish has been exclusively Larry's Reef Frenzy.
Food for the rest of the tank has been a daily dose of Reef Nutrition's PhytoFeast and some Oyster Feast mixed in with the fish food.
Occasionally some Reef Chili.
I have not checked P04 yet. Honestly I'm not all that interested in it.
The PB Tang pics on the rocks all day long. I haven't seen him eat Reef Frenzy or Nori yet, other than a quick pick at it. He ate fine in the store, so whatever algae is on the rocks is fine with him so it's fine with me.

I've also started dosing.
Started with 13ml per day of each of the Triton Base Elements, except for 3A which is the Magnesium.
Waiting for my Mag to drop to acceptable levels.

Speaking of algae... the Mars Hydro has been running 8 hours per night for the past two weeks.
The display drains directly into the fuge per the Triton Method and I've got some funky stuff growing already. The chaeto is already triple it's original size at least.
I also tossed in a couple clumps of the Mermaid Sea Fan macros that TBS sent, just to see how they would do down there.
But check out the growth of the mystery algae/macros on the floor and the red baffle.
I also have a few other macros coming in from Live-Plants.com later this week.

The corals I have in the tank also seem to be doing fine so far.
The edges of my big Turbinaria cup coral took a little beating on the way home in the bucket but those have healed.
The blue plate coral I transferred back in from the office nano hasn't skipped a beat.
My new open brain seems to be doing fine, as well as the frags that were gifted to me like the rainbow acan, JF Jackolantern, a plating monti, and encrusting monti, and a few chalices.
I also took a frag of my purple stylo from the office nano.
Too quick to see growth yet, but all colors and PE look good so far.

All in all, everything seems to be running well and staying pretty stable.
Hard to believe the TBS rock and sand all went in just 25 days ago.
Not even a month!

 

[Chibils]

Sounds like we need a new FTS!

Beautiful tank!

 

[mmw64]

Beautiful home. Beautiful tank.

 

[d2mini]

Sounds like we need a new FTS!

Beautiful tank!

Thanks! Not much has really changed in the tank since last week's FTS but I'll get a new one at some point.

Beautiful home. Beautiful tank.

Thanks!

 

[d2mini]

I’ve been playing around with the Apogee MQ-500 par meter.
The three radion pros are 16.5” above the water.
The yellow measurements are as close to the center of the tank as I could get when rock wasn’t in the way.
The extra row of blue along the bottom were measurements taken close to the front glass.
This is the AB+ Coral Lab program and it’s running at an overall brightness of 65%.
Thinking of upping it a little over time to get the upper tier nearer to the 300 mark.

But this is my first time using a par meter so open to suggestions.
Tank will be mostly sps and lps.
From what I've heard, mid-200's is the sweet spot.

 

[kschweer]

Lookin good Dennis!

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Man! I love this tank!!

 

[d2mini]

Lookin good Dennis!

Man! I love this tank!!

Thanks, guys.

 

[d2mini]

Anemone in da house. Not as colorful as I had hoped for or as seen in the seller's pic, but it'll do for now. A little hard to see but it has a green base.

 

[mmw64]

It is gorgeous!