Labridaedicteds 180 Build

[Clayton Jessup]

Very interesting diy reactors ! I loke them great job !!

 

[Labridaedicted]

Very interesting diy reactors ! I loke them great job !!

Thanks! I'm happy with how they turned out. Huge upgrade from the Phosban 150s and they're built like trucks (Except that one joint on top which is a little bit more frail)

 

[Labridaedicted]

Hey everyone!

Haven't posted any tank pics in a while, mostly because I've been battling a bit of stn on several of my wild colonies. I attribute it to scrubbing nutrients too hard and bottoming out my nutrients. (There's a thread over on the sps forum where we came to this conclusion) I've since stopped running media to let my nitrates get back up a bit (which is a bummer since I just made those reactors, but I'm sure I'll have them up again). Since , my nutrients have been increasing, I've noticed the tissue recession has stopped as far as I can see. I'm hoping the colonies can make a full recovery, although I did already lose one large colony to this mess.

I also recently raised my lights over the tank. Previously, they were mounted very low over the system which led to me having to move some light pieces every time I needed to reach in the tank, which with an urchin (aka reef remodeling service) was more often than I wanted to be doing that. So I raised the lights fairly significantly. Previously, the LED and T5 fixtures were mounted about 8 inches off the water and I had the LEDs dialed down to about 40% intensity to achieve about 500 PAR at the absolute peak of the reef. I raised them to be closer to 24" off the tank. This has done 2 things and I like both, so far. One, I can easily access the tank now which has allowed me to do several dreaded maintenance tasks muuuuuch easier and will likely have me doing them with greater frequency (turkey basting the rocks, target feeding colonies, removing sand from the pistol shrimps compulsive construction and destruction of his home (hgtv, if you're looking for a new flipping houses show, I have your star....) etc...) Second, the lights being higher has actually created a much less spot-lighty look from the LEDs. I didn't realize how much of this effect I was getting until I raised the fixtures. I am getting much more even light across all parts of the reef. I am also getting a good bit more light bleed which may become a nuisance in the theatre, but for now, it's not been too distracting. I used the PMK on my apex to match (as close as possible) the par to the same levels at each colony.

Before:

Now:

Also, over the weekend, found a cool hitchhiker. No idea how he made it in since all my corals get a good dip and observant ion in the frag tank before going to the display, but he made it through.....

I was concerned to see a Cowrie at first, but eventually scooped him and got to see his shell. Turns out he (luckily) was a money cowrie (herbivorous, and actually digs eating bryopsis, so he was probably in hog heaven for a while) so he gets to stay. Only reason I found him was because I was checking out the tank before the lights came on with a red flashlight.

Not sure if there's much else new going on with the system, but here's some fish pics anyways!

 

[Labridaedicted]

Hey guys,

Got a new buddy in the midst of his quarantine. Going through prazi now, but thought I'd share. He eats like a pig and was eating pellets an hour after going in qt.

Also, realized I hadn't posted up any full tank shots lately!

I was also checking out growth earlier and was pretty surprised at exactly how much some stuff had grown...

Blue tipped green stag
August

Now...

Mystic sunset Monti
September

Now...

Bonsai (on right)
Mid September

Now....

Mummy eye chalice
August

Now... (still living in frag tank)

I'll share more growth pics another time. I'm pretty happy with how things are running right now. I had a bit of a scare with tissue death on a couple of colonies due to me scrubbing nutrients too low in the tank, but recession seems to have stopped after I turned off my media temporarily. You can see the damage in the fts shots though.

As always, thanks for following along, gang!

 

[Labridaedicted]

I transferred a few more things from the frag tank and piced up a few new pieces, so figured I would throw some more pics up.... Sorry they're a little low res. Used the cell phone instead of the canon this time around.

 

[Labridaedicted]

I've added some new finned inhabitants to the reef. I'm starting to be happy with how the tank is looking. Its nice to have a bit more activity in the system.

I added a trio of bar gobies, a trio of yellow lined cardinals, a Caribbean red spot hawk (Amblicirrhites pinos, I used to have one of these in my old 90 and loved that fish. They're a smaller species of hawk maxing out at about 3 inches. Been looking for one for a while and pounced on it when it popped up on dd) and the pyramid butterfly.

I've also started adding white worms (after reading a thread by Paulb recommending them) to my regular feeding schedule. Very easy to culture and the fish love them.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Hey @Labridaedicted! Any new updates? I'd love to see some more of your reef!

 

[Labridaedicted]

Hey everyone. Sorry for the extended absence. I kinda had to take a step back from the hobby for a bit after a bit of a disaster. Back in May, I went to a 4 day music festival, but added 3 new fish from quarantine into the display a week or so before. 2 tangs and an exquisite wrasse. Long story short, came home from the 5 day trip (with no cell service) and found i had lost all but 3 fish. Velvet. Basically wiped the fish tank. I figure it must have been present in the tank but the tangs were likely just susceptible to it and gave it a good breeding ground. So. Pulled the remaining fish to qt (hawkfish, goby, and bar goby) to go fallow. I'm approaching the end of the fallow period, so I'm getting back to trying to clean up the tank. Between that disaster and the RTN I experienced before that I almost couldn't look at the tank from how angry it made me. So, i let it go into auto pilot. All the corals are looking good (Except the M. spongodes for some weird reason) and a little algae growth without my fish algae control.

Sooooooo...... hopefully I will be back in full reef excitement mode soon. I'll share updates as I get back into it. Sorry again for the lengthy unexplained absence. Hopfeully I will be back to my usual helpful self, soon!

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Hey everyone. Sorry for the extended absence. I kinda had to take a step back from the hobby for a bit after a bit of a disaster. Back in May, I went to a 4 day music festival, but added 3 new fish from quarantine into the display a week or so before. 2 tangs and an exquisite wrasse. Long story short, came home from the 5 day trip (with no cell service) and found i had lost all but 3 fish. Velvet. Basically wiped the fish tank. I figure it must have been present in the tank but the tangs were likely just susceptible to it and gave it a good breeding ground. So. Pulled the remaining fish to qt (hawkfish, goby, and bar goby) to go fallow. I'm approaching the end of the fallow period, so I'm getting back to trying to clean up the tank. Between that disaster and the RTN I experienced before that I almost couldn't look at the tank from how angry it made me. So, i let it go into auto pilot. All the corals are looking good (Except the M. spongodes for some weird reason) and a little algae growth without my fish algae control.

Sooooooo...... hopefully I will be back in full reef excitement mode soon. I'll share updates as I get back into it. Sorry again for the lengthy unexplained absence. Hopfeully I will be back to my usual helpful self, soon!

Sorry for the difficulties, man. Those losses hurt. Looking forward to seeing you back in action!

 

[Labridaedicted]

Well. I've been letting the reef run on autopilot since the crash back in 2018 until a few months ago. I've started rebuilding in earnest for a few months and the tank is starting to fill back up. I'll probably be around more often to provide whatever insight I can and keep y'all posted on how the tank is doing.

Stocking-wise right now I'm sitting at:
---Tangs---
-2 Spot Bristletooth Tang
-Sailfin Tang
-Powder Brown Tang
---Wrasses---
-McCoskers Flasher Wrasse
-Bluesided Fairy Wrasse
-Lubbocks Fairy Wrasse
-Pintail Fairy Wrasse
-Red Margined Fairy Wrasse
---Anthias---
-3 x Lyretail
-2 x Carberryi
---Angels---
-Female Bellus
-African Flameback
---Damsels---
- Pair of high blue Black Ice Ocellaris
---Blennies---
-Tailspot
-Starry (Frag Tank)
---Gobies---
-Rainfords
-Diamond
-Orange spotted shrimp goby
-High Fin Red Band
-Starboard Goby
---Hawkfish---
-Carribean Red Spotted Hawk
---Rabbitfish---
-Gold Lined Rabbit
-Gold spotted Rabbit (Frag tank)
---Dartfish---
-scissortail dart

I'm pretty good in terms of most fish. Have a few more wrasses to add (some very very soon) and maybe a few more scissortail darts (of my original trio, 2 managed to get through the 1/4" mesh screen top and I just have the one left)

Coral is in and doing well so far with a few minor exceptions of a chalice that I can't seem to get to recover and star polyps that my rabbits love to munch on. They're mostly still small pieces though, so I am looking forward to seeing them fill out. There will always be more coral going in though.

In terms of system upgrades, I upgraded the lights and racks in the Frag system. I have also added a Trident. I also upgraded the Apex main unit to the new model.

I'm sure I will think of more as I think on it a bit, but this a start on updating yall on stuff. Trying to get things in order before March since we have our first child due at the beginning of March, so it's been busy around here.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Little early morning video. System is doing well. Have a few things in quarantine that I'm excited to get out in the dt but for now they will be fattening up.

Happy with the sps growth I'm seeing. Plus finally getting more measurable nutrients in the tank (mostly because I have drastically increased the size of the manual feedings and maintained the numerous auto feedings. Have a Avast Plank coming to add to the auto feeding regimen as well. The fairies and anthias keep the pot bellies on them so I'm happy with the feeding regimen. The tank processes the nutrients better with many small feedings) which has helped with growth rates. I've been impresses from the start at how well this system processes nutrients (honestly too well at times).

Adding 2 more wide flow pumps to the rear of the aquarium to help ensure flow through the rock stacks as well.

 

[Labridaedicted]

So. Its been a bit since I genuinely took inventory of my fish... I'm realizing I have a looooooot of fishes in here now. Although once my lineatus and rhomboid get here, I'm pretty much done until I track down another P. attenuatus and the occasional goby that is just larger than my hawks mouth. I suppose the nutrients are staying low, though and aggression is minimal (really just the male anthias' and the wrasses occasionally chasing, but nothing serious).

Display stock
2- Carberry Anthias
3- Lyretail Anthias
2- Bimac Anthias
2- Ocellaris Clowns
1- 8 Line Wrasse
1- Pintail Wrasse
1- Lubbocks Wrasse
1- Carpenter's Wrasse
1- Katherine's Wrasse
1- Bluesided Fairy Wrasse
1- Flameback Angel
1- Female Bellus Angel
1- Matted Filefish
1- Sailfin Tang
1- Binotatus Tang
1- Gold Lined Rabbitfish
1- Orange spotted Shrimp Goby
1- Red Spot Hawkfish
1- Red Headed Goby
1- Starboard Goby


Frag Tank
1- Gold Spotted Rabbitfish
1- Starry Blenny
1- Pink Margin Fairy Wrasse

Conditioning in the Fuge
1- Maldives Regal Angel
1- Copperband Butterfly
1- Mandarin Dragonette

Incoming
1- Lineatus Wrasse
1- Rhomboid Wrasse

 

[Labridaedicted]

 

[Labridaedicted]

Well, the Blue channel on one of my SB lights finally failed. Pretty painfully, as we enter the last week before we have our first child.

I have mixed opinions on having now been pushed into getting new lights earlier than I thought. I planned on getting new ones eventually, but had kinda hoped it would be after the little man was a little older.

So I have a trio of Radion XR30s on the way along with the mounting rail. Fortunately the install should be pretty easy given that the SBs were also suspended. I will say I'm extraordinarily excited to use a more intuitive app for scheduling my lights instead of manually inputting about 300 numbers each time I have to change things. Now to break out my par meter and find out what I'm gonna need to set these bad boys at when they get here. I'll post before and after pics with the new lights.

Excited to see if the radions live up to the hype I've heard about all this time.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Been ramping up the radions and decided to go with an aquatic life 4 bulb t5 hybrid to round it out. I'm so far happy with how it's looking as the corals adjust to the new lights and the tank is starting to look good I think.

 

[Labridaedicted]

 

[Labridaedicted]

Frag tank is lookin pretty good right now....

 

[Labridaedicted]

So, back in March I swapped my SB Extreme lights for radions when the white channel failed on one of the SBs (otherwise, loved those things). When I did that, I added the 3 radion gen 5 pros in addition to the aquatic life t5 rack.

After the time it's been going I've decided that the 3 radions aren't enough in terms of coverage to get the acros growing like I want. The 24x24 coverage estimate provided seems to be a bit exaggerated and I would suspect it's more in line with 12x24 in terms of good coverage for sps. It seems to dissipate rapidly outside that. So. I made the I'm going to say too expensive choice to add an additional 3 radions to the array and run the vertically front to back to get a more even coverage. I did decide to get the radion blues for the 3 new ones as it should help make the colors pop. They won't be here till next week, but I'll post pics when I get them installed and dialed in. Gonna have to dust off the ol PAR meter as well to make sure the PAR doesn't get set too high (don't wanna raise par,really, just even it out.)

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. Been busy with the new baby, but ill be getting more active soon.

 

[Susan Edwards]

that's exciting! And yeah, $$$! How old is the baby? I'm assuming you referred to a baby/child and not a new tank/baby lol's

 

[Susan Edwards]

ah, a son! Congrats! Awesome tank!