FL-FL-FL Fillory's Reef - SPS Evo 13

[Reef of Fillory]

I got my Koralia 425 pump in the mail today. Plugged it in and now i'm slightly worried that my anemone has too much flow hitting it. Taking into account how my tank is shaped [rectangle] i'm not sure that I can provide it with lower flow in it's current spot. I like where the anemone has set up camp now, so i'm hoping that the increase in flow won't be too much for it. I'll be switching lights to the AI Prime HD next week too, which might also cause it to move around.


Forgive the background narration, I was watching Cosmos and forgot that video also records audio [i'm so used to just taking pictures =O]

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Got some new corals today

2 Corals didn't get dipped [3 zoa polyps attached to a small piece of rock] and [Brain? coral in the bottom right of the first picture] because they both had rock and I wasn't sure about dipping rocks.

I've never dipped corals before, and have Bayer Advanced. I took the corals off their plugs and dipped them in the Bayer [eyeballed the amount to make it slightly opaque] and dipped them in the Bayer for 5 minutes, then to a saltwater tub for another 5 minutes while I shook them periodically, and then into the tank. I didn't find anything fortunately, but I was kind of curious to watch something crawl out of the corals.

I'd be happy to take suggestions on placement!
This picture shows a new SPS I got [top left] which is very green when it's polyps are extended.
A Hollywood stunner chalice [I think] to the right of the SPS frag, and a 1.5 head trumpet to the right of that.

I've also got another coral [not sure- a brain maybe?] on the bottom right underneath the anemone.

In my last tank I had to glue everything down immediately or my lawnmower blenny would knock them over and my tuxedo urchin will take off with new hats.

I haven't glued any of these corals down just in case my BTA moves when I replace the stock lighting this coming week.


On this side, i've got some zoas on the far left bottom rock underneath the BTA [not open in the pic]

A piece of what I call a watermellon coral to the right of the BTA, the same green SPS frag from the other side in the center, and a cool green frogspawn with purple bulbs.

Here's a closer look @ the frogspawn. The purple doesn't show through in the picture as well as in 'real life'

Here the zoas are starting to open up.

Here's a better picture of the 'watermelon' coral and the green SPS. I'm hoping that I can get a picture of the SPS all opened up int he next few days as it acclimates to the new tank.

Overall my coral haul [6 corals] came out at $65. Not bad I don't think! Or maybe i'm overpaying, but it wasn't from the 'LFS', it was from a guy doing low-key sales from his little aquarium maintenance shop.


My wife won a free Duncan from a vendor online, and we're having the owner throw together a frag pack for us. We're anticipating 3 SPS frags, 3 LPS frags and 4 zoa frags [+ the free duncan] coming shipped for $150. I don't know what frags these will be, but stay tuned!


Thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions on placements [maybe I've put something too high or too low, or you have a suggestion for placement which would help me tank look even better, please let me know! If anyone here's got anything accounting related or Michigan related you'd like to talk about that's great as well!

 

[pjr]

Nice tank! Love the location.

The AA swap was quite decent! But there is so many events... to the point of saturation.

What do you plan to keep in the tank?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Nice tank! Love the location.

The AA swap was quite decent! But there is so many events... to the point of saturation.

What do you plan to keep in the tank?

Planning a mixed reef but with all corals easy to keep under weekly water change routine only. Maybe some kalk in the ato. So it won't likely be SPS heavy. I am contemplating one more BTA and I'll likely put a 3-4" maxima or derasa In there as well.

I got pics of my $150 frag order (told him to grab bag it).

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I also grabbed a couple of pics of my current corals under the blues tonight. The anemone must not like the length of lighting (not currently on a timer) and it shrinks up towards the end of the night, then opens back up once the lights go out.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Tonight I put together a Frankenstein fit media basket for chamber one.

I used a scoring tool the best I could, but after a few cuts it got really sloppy. Hopefully it'll do the job though. I cut a hole in the side under the media for flow from chamber one to chamber two.

I'll be trying it out tomorrow. I'll also be plugging the hole in the back wall and building a net/ screen top for the tank to use with my new light. Going to use home depot aluminum rails with Joanns tule material like I've seen some people on the forums use.

I also have ordered a led grow light for chamber 2 to use as a refugium since the refugium was so successful on my last tank.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Got my new corals in this morning, dipped them and got them in the tank.

Looking for placement suggestions, my corals all seem to be getting lumped on to the top of the rock work.


I also added my final fish - a six line wrasse.

Got materials for a net top, got my ai prime mount on the tank, got my diy media rack in chamber one and got my refugium light put on.

Next is to get the light hooked and set up, new controllable powerstrip from Amazon, get lid on and pull some chaeto from the biocube for the back of the EVO

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Got my light and screen top on today. Im not sure about my fit media reactor, I don't think the flow is working properly through the back chambers

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I'm thinking about adding a second powerhead to my tank. I feel that it's lacking flow.

I also am not having any luck with water being pulled out through the filter chambers. Food stays int he display forever and doesn't get 'whisked away'

I have the stock return pump + Koralia Nano 425. I'm thinking about adding a second Koralia Nano 425 or upgrading the return pump.

I have also plugged the chamber 2 hole.

Any suggestions?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Well, the six-line wrasse was terrorizing my male clownfish so I had to trap him and take him in to the LFS. It took around 5 hours before the wrasse finally ventured in to the bottle. I will miss his swimming in and out of the rocks and high bright colors and active personality, but this tank is built around the clownfish and BTA. I am looking to possibly buy a second BTA if I find one I really like for them.

As of now they are not hosting, I am tempted to buy a set from a local guy [ocelaris this time] who are already hosting BTAs, but I haven't convinced myself yet.

On another note, I have my AI prime in acclimation mode and the corals are coloring up nicely, and seem to all be pretty happy. I have chaeto in chamber 2 with an Amazon purchased grow light on the back glass, and I have a new return pump coming from BRS this week.

I decided to go with a Sicce 1.0 and a hydor random flow generator for the output. I'm hoping that this will increase the flow on the 'right' side of my tank.

Anyhow, here's a picture of the trap - I was so excited for having caught the six-line before that I didn't even take a picture of him in the bottle. Needless to say, he was not happy.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Have some new gear coming from BRS today. I ordered some Calcium additive, some soda ash, two mixing jugs and a new return pump!

Going to upgrade to the Sicce 1.0 - also got a hydor flow reflector for the output to the tank.

My light have been slowly ramping up, but my anemone has been showing some signs of stretching for light.

I also pulled out about half of the chaeto, hooked up my ATO with kalkwasser in it and got some poly filter on the top rack of my DIY media rack. I also ordered the InTank media rack, but compared to my [free] DIY version I just don't see how it could operate better than mine. I will be returning it to Marine Depot [I tried just after submitting the order, but was told i'd have to receive the package first, and then return].

Wife comes back into town [was away on an audit] and i'm looking to pick up another batch of corals this weekend!

Thanks for reading

I'll post a 2 week update with pics or video tonight [maybe - if I get around to it]

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Got the sicce hooked up and put the Hydor flow reflector on the tank. Also added a new piece of sps, a new chalice frag and another acan.



Video update before I got three new corals today.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Exciting news...

I anticipated staying simple with this tank, but should have known better...

Just paid for a ReefKeeper Lite Net from a fellow forum member with 8 outlets and the pH attachment.

I also just paid for three BRS 1.1 ml/m dosing pumps from another forum member. I'll be getting those set up and be ready to dose 2-part as soon as everything comes in!

* the short/stubby SPS died off [turned completely white]

* i've discontinued Kalk in my ATO [suspect that it was the cause of the SPS dying

* I've lowered my lighting intensity by 50% using the acclimation mode. I am planning to also lower the percentages to get a lower overall light output, I just need to make the time to sit there in the program and tone things down. If anyone has a good Prime HD+ schedule for an Evo 13.5, let me know and pm it to me!

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Shot this quick video showing the Hydor flow reflector on my tank and how it does water up into the air. It's on the sicce 1.0

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I just realized that I never posted my light settings here:

I have been running it on acclimation mode, but after some thoughts from fellow R2R'ers, I think that the intensity got too high [towards the end of the acclimation period]

I'm going to work on toning each part of the light schedule down, but will probably use the same idea [ramp up with a relief period, then ramp up etc.]

I might go 50-60% on the current values as my "normal" lighting

Ramp up starts around 10:00am, and ramp down is completed by around 10:30

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Here's a few pics of my tank. Some coral pics and a few of the light and chaeto refugium I have set up

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Did my tests today:

ALK: 9.0 [160ppm] * This is my target number
Calcium: 350
MAG: 1450 - Target is 1350, going to let this come down naturally
Nitrate: [Salifert] Undetectable
Phosphate: [Hannah] 0.00
Temp: 78.9

Reduced my refugium light time, added some AquaVitro Fuel and some Reef Chili.

Might add a firefish [wife likes them] and somehow start feeding more. I feed pellets [NLS] every day, and frozen about 4x a week. I'm going to look for a more substantial food, but don't have many options locally from my LFS.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I just realized that I never posted my light settings here:

I have been running it on acclimation mode, but after some thoughts from fellow R2R'ers, I think that the intensity got too high [towards the end of the acclimation period]

I'm going to work on toning each part of the light schedule down, but will probably use the same idea [ramp up with a relief period, then ramp up etc.]

I might go 50-60% on the current values as my "normal" lighting

Ramp up starts around 10:00am, and ramp down is completed by around 10:30

I have adjusted my light settings to:

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Just placed my order for a stand for my tank: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00261295/

I also got my 3 BRS dosing pumps from the forums [waiting for stand to set up]

ReefKeeper Lite Plus Net from the forums [RKL with 2 4 outlet strips, net module and SL1]

Got a new pH probe and temperature probe to add to the controller.


Got some AquaVitro Activate to dose phosphates, reduced my refugium lighting period, dosed some stump remover for Nitrates.

Dimming my light cycle [through lowered max lighting, and using acclimation mode to 100% of peaks] my BTA has bubbled up immediately. I'm wondering if the lighting was too intense for the BTA before. Hopefully it can keep up with the acclimation mode.

 

[Flexin]

Congrats on the new tank and oh my you have it bad... just like the rest of us.

And yes I marveled at the snow today here in Michigan. I think I will make it to the brownstown swap. I went to the Ann Arbor one and regretted not purchasing a gold torch that was amazing!