John's SPS Shallow 90g Peninsula-Lagoon build

[minus9]

It might be time for a new conductivity probe? It’s been slowly going down over the course of a week. I’ll try to clean it first, but I’m not holding my breath.

 

[minus9]

Printed myself a small jawbreaker basket to collect all of the loose jawbreakers in my tank. Figured I would sell them to help fund my metal halide purchase. I wanted a rectangle instead of a round one. Most of the ones I see out there are round, but I think it’s easier to place next to the glass instead of a bunch of small round ones next to each other.

 

[minus9]

And we’re off! Besides a little cyano, which is slowly shrinking, just a couple bad things going on at the moment.
Two colonies have active TN, my pink table (right through the middle of the colony) and my main colony of Valkyrie’s moon. It’s kinda like white band disease if I had to describe it. I think it’s a combination of weakened immune system from the rusted magnet and rapid change of nutrients, but it’s pure speculation on my part. I wasn’t going to treat, but decided to dose witch hazel, so I’ll try my usual slightly elevated dose for a week or more? No pic of the table, but here’s the VM. :mad:

 

[Smite]

And we’re off! Besides a little cyano, which is slowly shrinking, just a couple bad things going on at the moment.
Two colonies have active TN, my pink table (right through the middle of the colony) and my main colony of Valkyrie’s moon. It’s kinda like white band disease if I had to describe it. I think it’s a combination of weakened immune system from the rusted magnet and rapid change of nutrients, but it’s pure speculation on my part. I wasn’t going to treat, but decided to dose witch hazel, so I’ll try my usual slightly elevated dose for a week or more? No pic of the table, but here’s the VM. :mad:

That box worked out great!

Gotta hate those random TN issues. Hopefully the witch hazel does the trick. I'll follow along since I've been tempted to try it myself. Every do just a dip with success?

 

[minus9]

That box worked out great!

Gotta hate those random TN issues. Hopefully the witch hazel does the trick. I'll follow along since I've been tempted to try it myself. Every do just a dip with success?

Thanks! I have dipped fresh cuts of problem pieces, which seemed to help. I need to “open” the tank up a little, so when I do the slight reset with halides, I’ll clear up the tank. I like the idea of having just a couple corals/colonies on each bommie/rock. That was my original goal, but got sidetracked when I added all of the rescue pieces. I’m hoping the local market needs some cool jawbreakers? I have a few with pink spots like the mother.

 

[Smite]

Thanks! I have dipped fresh cuts of problem pieces, which seemed to help. I need to “open” the tank up a little, so when I do the slight reset with halides, I’ll clear up the tank. I like the idea of having just a couple corals/colonies on each bommie/rock. That was my original goal, but got sidetracked when I added all of the rescue pieces. I’m hoping the local market needs some cool jawbreakers? I have a few with pink spots like the mother.

Oh I'm sure they'll go quick! It's tough to thin the herd but it'll pay off and probably end up being easier to maintain without worrying about things touching, ect.
You've ran halides enough to know which pieces you'll really enjoy going forward. I know I've got some new favorites since the switch! That plus shinning you'll need to plan for some major growth!

 

[minus9]

Oh I'm sure they'll go quick! It's tough to thin the herd but it'll pay off and probably end up being easier to maintain without worrying about things touching, ect.
You've ran halides enough to know which pieces you'll really enjoy going forward. I know I've got some new favorites since the switch! That plus shinning you'll need to plan for some major growth!

Yeah, as much as I like to see big colonies, I only have a couple that I want to keep. I may move some over to the 25g if I get that set up soon enough? Besides the montipora, I'll get rid of the huge frogskin, miyagi tort and probably my silly string acro (which is like a duller confetti). I'm keeping the A. florida, because it's such a great old school piece and it really stands out against the very best green slimers. I have some hydroids that I need to get under control, so I'm going to have to pull those bommies out and carefully remove some rock to get rid of them. Hopefully I don't break off the good stuff? I want a nice humilis, gemmifera and I'll pick up some nice Solomon island millie's from Unique and hopefully have enough room for a couple nice smoothies? Of course, this will all change as soon as I put the halides over the tank and see the magic.

 

[minus9]

Despite some of the downers going on in my tank, there are some upsides, like this trio of Ignitus.

Courtesy of Adam from OceanDevotionLA.

 

[minus9]

Well, my first attempt at bonding acrylic together seems to be successful? I’ll know tomorrow when I put some water in and give it a go. Not bad for a $20 used acrylic tank and a baffle kit. Next up is hard plumbing the 25g lagoon.

 

[Smite]

Looks great I like that/baffle tray section!

 

[minus9]

Looks great I like that/baffle tray section!

I like having the fuge first, gives the pods first dibs on leftover food. Plus, it’s easier dealing with the skimmer in the middle chamber. It’s funny, but the M1 looks small in there. No one wants it, so I’ll probably keep it and use it on the 25g.

 

[Smite]

I like having the fuge first, gives the pods first dibs on leftover food. Plus, it’s easier dealing with the skimmer in the middle chamber. It’s funny, but the M1 looks small in there. No one wants it, so I’ll probably keep it and use it on the 25g.

That’s crazy it’s a great pump. If you decide to run a manifold you’ll have plenty of power

I like that layout too. I don’t think many pods are going to be skimmed so I think that layout is the best way all around. Looking forward to the 25

 

[minus9]

The long term plan is to have a 10g shallow tank connected to the same sump/return, so I may just use two 1/2” returns on the 10g with RFG’s? The idea is to have a couple clams and mangroves in the 10g lit by a single Kessil with a narrow reflector mounted high. I figured a Kessil on 100% color/violet with some red/green mixed in would make the clams really stand out and provide a good spectrum for the mangroves as well. I’m almost tempted to use a Tuna Sun instead of the Tuna Blue. Clams under 6500k would look awesome! I’ll try one of my 360x’s before I decide on swapping it out for a Tuna Sun.
I might go with one of the UNS shallow nano tanks or the waterbox mini 10?

 

[minus9]

Overall the new sump works pretty well, there were a couple beads of water at the bottom of the first chamber, so I’ll try to add more cement, but I’m not worried too much. I just discovered why my ATK has been giving me constant alarms and has been filling up when it shouldn’t. The first optical sensor is toast. I can see tiny beads of water inside the sensor, so I need a new one and I’ll probably buy another as backup. Really wish Marine Depot was around, then I wouldn’t have to wait a week to get them. Thanks BRS, we west coast peeps loved MD for that reason.

 

[minus9]

So, things inside the glass box are kinda all over the place, but that’s the fun with keeping a tank. One of the anthias has developed a large spot, which looks to be a type of fungus or bacterial growth? The male has a slightly puffy eye, so I’m going to try and catch them and give them a bath in some meds, but honestly need to treat them with antibiotics for a week, which means setting up a QT that I don’t have. My purple/gold maxima decided to move itself under one of my rocks while I was gone and I managed to move it out in an open area, but it looks really bad. I think it was trying to escape the yellow tang? It’s retracted its mantle quite a bit and looks really faded, so I give it less than a 50% chance of surviving?
I’ll most likely set up the 25g as the QT and treat with antibiotics, as least this will provide me with a leak test and few other things that I can check off. I added a few turbos and a couple trochus snails to help with the algae until I can swap out the yellow tang for the scopus and tomini. Now I need to 3d print some corner pieces for a DIY screen top for the 25g. The drama never ends.

 

[minus9]

Well, my maxima is pretty much gone. I’ll most likely pull it at the end of the day? It’s hard watching it go, especially after seeing it grow for several years.
Onto unrelated reef news. My son’s birthday was yesterday and he’s into ants and tarantulas. So, for his birthday he wanted to go to the desert in search for the elusive desert leaf cutter ant. After traveling for nearly 3hrs, we made it right at dusk, which is the time to start looking for emerging colonies. We spotted some cool beetles, tarantulas and eventually some very big colonies of leaf cutters. But, during the search, we came across one of my favorite reptiles, the California kingsnake (desert phase). It was absolutely flawless and a perfect example of a Cal king.

 

[Janci]

Well, my maxima is pretty much gone. I’ll most likely pull it at the end of the day? It’s hard watching it go, especially after seeing it grow for several years.
Onto unrelated reef news. My son’s birthday was yesterday and he’s into ants and tarantulas. So, for his birthday he wanted to go to the desert in search for the elusive desert leaf cutter ant. After traveling for nearly 3hrs, we made it right at dusk, which is the time to start looking for emerging colonies. We spotted some cool beetles, tarantulas and eventually some very big colonies of leaf cutters. But, during the search, we came across one of my favorite reptiles, the California kingsnake (desert phase). It was absolutely flawless and a perfect example of a Cal king.

Wow, some serious reasons for me to keep my focus on the sea.

 

[minus9]

I pulled the maxima yesterday, which absolutely sucked! I had that clam for 3 years and it grew from 2”. I couldn’t bring myself to take a pic of it before I pulled it. For those who think tangs are 100% reef safe, I’m sorry, but that’s simply not the case (and it never has been the case). I’ve always found that you can generalize fish behavior and traits, but fish have personalities and their behavior is also tied to their environment (our glass boxes), so what they do is always in question.
I’ll definitely get another purple and gold maxima, but it may take me a while before I find the right one?
Today I picked up a brand new Aquamaxx rimless 10g for $60, which will be my mangrove lagoon, so I’m getting closer to getting the nano(s) put together. Just need to build the stand for the 10g, paint it, then pick out some wood to wrap it with. I’ll probably use the same walnut that I’m using for my 90g so they will be “tied” together with the same theme.

Here’s the clam when I bought it in 2018.

Here’s a pic from a couple months ago. :mad:

 

[minus9]

Well, more death happening in my reef, this time around it’s my main colony of Valkyrie’s moon. It had a small spot in the middle that TN’d on me, then it seem to slow down and looked like it was going to recover, but recently started to peel flesh, so it’s going fast now. Meanwhile, everything else (including two mini colonies of VM) is humming along and growing like weeds. It just proves the fact that nothing in our tanks is 100% happy. In the meantime, I’m slowly putting together the 25g lagoon, but have to wait until my next show starts before I can purchase the halides and 8020. The next step is to catch the yellow tang and prepare for the arrival of the scopus and tomini. Should be fun!

 

[minus9]

This is never an image that one gets used to or wants to see. This was my main colony of my Valkyrie’s moon, fortunately I have two more mini colonies in the tank and one with my LFS and another with @Smite, so I have backups, but would rather not need them. It’s crazy that a pathogen or bacteria can be isolated in such a small space and only affect one colony? As I step back and look at my tank, it’s not what I had envisioned. The side of me that doesn’t like to see things suffer, took on too many corals to help a friend out and now I have so many corals that I really don’t want. I have some cool pieces, but there are so many that I don’t want. Once I get all of the necessary pieces together for my metal halide switch, I’m going to reset quite a bit in my tank.

Here’s the mess from the front.