Digi Forest Resurrection

Electrobes · Dec 18, 2015

I've been away for a while, in short life got very busy, and unfortunately I was in a bit of a reef rut. It didn't interest me for the past couple months, and the tank showed it. Thankfully, it is fairly automated, dosing was kept up with only one valve failure that was easily fixed, Auto top off rarely needed to be refilled, and I did keep up with fish feedings.

One of the few reasons for my reef rut was that the tank contracted something I dread... Colonial Hydriods. Once I spotted it, I knew exactly what it was, and what it would eventually do. It was slowly killing my green digis, and would eventually destroy the rest of my tank.

After a couple of months, I decided enough was enough and I needed to revamp the tank. With life being a hair less hectic I got two friends to help me rip all the rocks and the false bottom from the tank.

My interest quickly grew back exponentially as the cleaning was getting done. Once everything was out, I fragged what I wanted to keep, and gave the rest to my two friends helping me. I got rid of all Zoos/Palys that were supposed to cover the false bottom (About 17 of them), and only kept frags of the Green Digi, German Blue Polyp Digi, and my prized Blue Squamosa Clam. I also kept one of the Zoos (Gobstoppers I believe, I don't keep up with names).. but I decided I will give that away as well and replace it with one of my favorite corals and whose color I desire to see in the tank, the Yellow Fiji Leather!

Here's what the tank looked like after We got everything out, and replaced it with the new rocks (On acrylic stands)

More to come in a couple minutes.. typing this out and getting pics now (We'll do it LIVE!)

Electrobes · Dec 18, 2015

So the next step was something I wanted back for a long, long time... sand! I originally wanted Reef Flakes Grand Select, thinking bigger is always better, but I was convinced by some others to give Regular and Mesoflakes a try. Both are about the same size (Regular at about 3.0mm and Meso at about 2.7mm).

I overestimated what I needed. I wanted about an inch thick sand bed, and it only took about 3.5 15lbs bags. Oh well, I'll keep the rest as back up or something.. this stuff ain't cheap! Also a shout out to Premium Aquatics, their customer service was top notch the entire way through with the bazillion questions I had for them.

I was solo washing the sand and putting it into the tank.. so the process did take a while. While I am glad I washed out the sand, I was shocked to see just how clear my tank was.. less than an hour!
Anyway, here is how my tank currently looks like:

ermartin · Dec 18, 2015

looks good

erk · Dec 18, 2015

I really like the minimalist look of the tank.

Electrobes · Dec 18, 2015

A Mystery!

After the sand was put in, I made sure to account for everyone, especially the fish. Everyone was accounted for. Then about two days ago, as I did my usual morning feeding I quickly became alarmed at not seeing Ru-Paul (My male anthias). His harem was out and about, but he was not. I scoured the tank and all possibly areas he could have been. including the outside of the tank. I have not found a body anywhere. I'm very upset.. not only did I lose a great fish that I cared about (I care about all of them) but I haven't a clue how he met (Most likely) his end. Frustrated, I left it at that.

Then today comes by and I do my typical feeding and see this:

No, that's not my original male (That guy was monster huge), that's one of the females changing into a male. My son has named him Ru-Fast. Oh well, looks like some things are faster at moving on than me!

tikireefer · Dec 18, 2015

I really like the digi only idea!

Electrobes · Dec 18, 2015

My status as of now:

So far so good with the tank. The sand isn't blowing around like I feared it would. Everyone looks happy thus far and hopefully the future looks peachy.

The future:

I'm looking at purchasing a Sea Sweep for my Tunze powerhead. While looking for one in the used goods section, I am also embarking on a DIY version. It looks like fun to do and would be neat if I got it to work well.

I also would like to purchase some Nassarius snails to help turn over the shallow sand bed. I'll probably look into adding some more hermits to the tank as well.

As I mentioned earlier, I'll be removing the Zoos/Palys and will be replacing it with a Yellow Fiji Leather. I am really looking forward to having this back in my life again, that leather always makes me happy to look at! I am contemplating adding some Orange Digi in the back of the rock, meant for the YFL. We'll see what I decide, eventually.

dbl · Dec 18, 2015

Looking good Christian. Sometimes we all need a "reboot" to get the juices going again.

JFrar · Dec 18, 2015

I've been wondering about your tank, good to hear your back in it for the success! I specifically remember you because we both bought frags of the bubblegum digi at the reefapalooza earlier this year... Did you manage to keep some of it alive ??

JFrar · Dec 18, 2015

I always manage to hit my digitata's and accidentally frag them ... so i have 3 or 4 frags of the bubblegum all through my tank... I'm on the east coast of FL but would hook you up for free with a frag if you lost yours. I've never shipped though

Electrobes · Dec 18, 2015

JFrar - Thank you very much! I originally bought four frags from Reefapalooza and two died almost immediately. The other two actually grew well.

I gave those two frags to reefer friends here in Fort Myers. Though they grew well, their colors were a bit off so I thought it best for them to go with others in the mean time.

As odd as this will sound, I probably won't be adding that coral because of my trying to keep a limited amount of coral, to allow them to get huge. Having such contrasting colors with one colored corals just sounds fun to me.

Though I'll miss having so many Digi corals, I'm excited about the scope this tank is taking.

Also, if you're ever in need of German Blue Polyp Digis or Green Digis, let me know!

Shep · Dec 18, 2015

Glad to see the tank back in action!

Electrobes · Dec 19, 2015

Here are some feeding pics during the "Sundown" period of the lights with bonus fish eye lens!:

Electrobes · Dec 20, 2015

I spent about three hours cleaning the entire sump, including the skimmer, plus I did about an 8G water change getting the scraped off funk out... man it feels good! Unfortunately, I took a terrible photo...

UFreefer · Dec 20, 2015

Looking good Christian! I like it alot better with real sand instead of the faux bottom. Ed was just up at my house this weekend, both of us are getting our tanks going again and bought a bunch of acro frags from a local reefer.
Phil

Electrobes · Dec 21, 2015

UFreefer said:
Looking good Christian! I like it alot better with real sand instead of the faux bottom. Ed was just up at my house this weekend, both of us are getting our tanks going again and bought a bunch of acro frags from a local reefer.
Phil

That's awesome Phil! Post a linky if y'all start a thread, I'd definitely want to see it. [emoji7]

revhtree · Dec 21, 2015

Hey bud welcome back and looking good! I've always loved your tank!

Electrobes · Jan 5, 2016

My tank did well for having new sand, new rock, AND being left alone for 10 days! (I did monitor it the entire time via Apex Fusion).

Now that the hard test is over, I'll soon be adding the third coral.. And I've decided it should be the Orange Digitata. I think it'll really add to the tank, and completes the Digitata theme.

I just got doing some clean up, the mini-cycle is almost done

I am, unfortunately, going to have foot surgery tomorrow.. And will be out of commission for a while. I hope to be well enough soon to work on the tank before my six weeks of healing is done.

I made a Tunze Rotator (Think DIY Sea Sweep), but the motor I used is too loud. I ordered another one hoping it will be quieter. This is crucial, for me anyway, that I complete this project for my tank. I truly believe it will do wonders for the tank. Here is where its at thus far:

Chrisfish · Jan 5, 2016

Your tank is really awesome! Love the simplicity of your rock scape. Good luck with your foot surgery, I had one in June. Do you mind telling me want brand and how many gallons your tank is ?

Electrobes · Jan 5, 2016

Chrisfish said:
Your tank is really awesome! Love the simplicity of your rock scape. Good luck with your foot surgery, I had one in June. Do you mind telling me want brand and how many gallons your tank is ?

Hi and thank you! My tank is a custom 1" thick acrylic 100G half Cylinder. It was made by a friend of mine.