Gilroy 425g Build Thread (All Apex, all the time)

So yesterday I got a personal delivery from Chad of my Reef Nutrition secret coral growing sauce - aka Oyster Feast. Man the corals go wild for this stuff. He knows I go though it so I super-sized me and brought their big trucker-sized bottle of oyster "juice" for me. And he even surprised me with some more pods. Thanks Chad - your stuff rocks!

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Made a nice little DIY frag rack tonight - one was just not enough and I found a few of these magnets laying around the office - so voila!

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Halfway through this thread and it has been a good read. Wanted to say thanks while I was thinking about it and have a lot more to read :) Few comments:

1. Gilroy - nice area. I pass through heading down from Sacramento when I go diving in Monterey. Even stopped by during one of the Garlic Festivals :)
2. Shoutout to Neptune support - Luis is awesome (reminds me I need to hit up your sub forum here)
3. Sea Swirls - they are bulky - but they work great. I am running a pair today on my 240 gallon. Ed is super nice
4. Beautiful tank - I am somewhat kicking myself for not going with them on my custom but after seeing some of your images I do like what they delivered to you
5. Nice dog
6. Thanks for sharing information - it sure does help others
 
Well it's been a few weeks since the last update so I guess it is time.

A few things have changed on the tank in that time. Mostly good. Let me try and summarize.

First off, I built a new frag rack for use on the back wall inside the display (until I set something up in my sump for this purpose. The frag rack I purchased is still in use and growing out some cool frags like a walt disney acro. I still needed a bit more room though. So, rather than buy another rack, I decided to recycle some returned WAV magnetic mounts and use them along with some egg-crate material to make my own. It worked out really well. No pics here as I forgot to shoot some, but I will on the next one I build. just a little grinding with the cutting wheel and some frag glue and it was a piece of cake.

Next, it has been a while since I have added any fish. It is always a risk, especially because I don't always quarantine - I know, I know. But, I am do a pretty thorough multi-dip process and acclimation, and I always hope luck will be on my side.

So, two weeks ago I brought in a fairly large order of fish from one of my industry contact suppliers. Here is what came in:

- Borbonious Anthias
- five Evansi Anthias
- 15 orange anthias
- tiny multibar angel
- huge square spot anthias
- two barred gobies
- african midas blenny
- three firefish
- red scooter blenny
- aiptasia eating filefish - ugh, yes, i have aiptasia
I think that's it other than a few other fish that did not make the trip (package was late and too many heat packs)

All the fish looked super healthy except for the filefish. And in fact within two days he died.

Three days later I found my borbonius missing - and a day later, found him, at the base of a rock, dead.

Other than those two, everything else has been healthy for two weeks now without a sign of disease, and even the evansi I have coaxed into eating - well at least three out of the five. The squarespot is absolutely gorgeous. The photos do not do him any justice.

I have been feeding like crazy so they all can stay fat and healthy. I have been feeding lots of different kinds of eggs and dried plankton so the anthias will eat.

Other things I picked up are some corals from Neptune Aquatics which include a cool orangeish millipora (my first in the tank, as well as my first tubastrea (pic below). Also pictured below is my "dippin' dots acro" from UltraCorals.com

All the photos below are from my iphone so some are not the best - i will hopefully breakout the dslr soon and get some nice snaps. For now enjoy. More gear updates soon!

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Be interested to see how the evansi do for you. I've never been able to keep them longterm in my tanks.
 
Ya, the filefish died. Strange as they are super hardy. The borbonious (blotched) come in waves. Sad I lost mine, but stoked on the success of the rest - at least short term so far.

The evansi are difficult. I knew what I was getting into. I do know people that keep/kept them though and it’s all about feeding heavily. Often. And what they eat. And I feed a lot.
 
All those anthias are stunning! I love seeing large groups like that.
 
The evansi are difficult. I knew what I was getting into. I do know people that keep/kept them though and it’s all about feeding heavily. Often. And what they eat. And I feed a lot.

Also a function of tankmates as they are easily spooked. Maybe not Tuka spookable, but close. Hope they do well for you.
 
This weekend I finally cleaned my skimmer - it had been three weeks. Also, it had been almost four weeks since I thinned out the macro algae when Chad came over. So I ripped out a 5g bucket full of it. You can hardly tell in the pic below that I shot of my macro patch after the thinning out.

Also cleaned out and topped off my calcium reactor with Two Little Fishies ReBorn. Did the secondary chamber too.

Going to do a wiring and equipment rearrangement soon to hopefully clean things up so I can actually take some more photos and not be embarrassed.

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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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