Macro Algae & Corals 25 Gallon Peninsula

OldRed1 · Oct 19, 2022

Busy family of pods getting their house made up in the sand bed. So cool to watch them work!

JoJosReef · Oct 19, 2022

Enjoying your build thread, and welcome to the TBS club! What a lucky bunch of macro you got on your rocks, and good move with the sand as well--I ended up using all of my extra sand to mix with my other tank that had CaribSea sand, and it made a huge difference. Sorry about Ursula, but I think you made a good decision for the long run. Funny how you get attached to these bizarre little animals!

OldRed1 · Oct 19, 2022

JoJosReef said:
Enjoying your build thread, and welcome to the TBS club! What a lucky bunch of macro you got on your rocks, and good move with the sand as well--I ended up using all of my extra sand to mix with my other tank that had CaribSea sand, and it made a huge difference. Sorry about Ursula, but I think you made a good decision for the long run. Funny how you get attached to these bizarre little animals!

Thank you for your kind words and support! And yeah, we miss Ursula too but it really is for the best. With her out of the tank I’ve been able to start gluing corals down to the rocks. I was afraid of doing that before because I didn’t want them knocked over.

JoJosReef · Oct 19, 2022

FYI, prepare to discover new critters months down the road. 8 months in, and I discovered two baby porcelain crabs (also a gorilla).

officialreefbros · Oct 21, 2022

Wow you guys are making me want to set up a small tank just to see what happens with live rock!

OldRed1 · Oct 21, 2022

officialreefbros said:
Wow you guys are making me want to set up a small tank just to see what happens with live rock!

I’m just here to enable. Do it, do it!

Mhamilton0911 · Oct 21, 2022

If I ever do a tank on my desk again it will be a live rock and it's own hitchhikers tank for sure.

OldRed1 · Oct 21, 2022

For anyone in upstate New York, please stop by the 2nd Annual Adirondack Frag Swap!! The hosts of this event have pulled together more than $1,000 in raffle prizes! Hope to see you there!!

officialreefbros · Oct 22, 2022

OldRed1 said:
I’m just here to enable. Do it, do it!

How often have you been doing water changes so far? I'm tempted to just toss a 5gallon on my night stand together to watch what happens

OldRed1 · Oct 22, 2022

officialreefbros said:
How often have you been doing water changes so far? I'm tempted to just toss a 5gallon on my night stand together to watch what happens

I do a weekly 20% water change. Having a 25 gallon tank with 5 gallon Home Depot buckets makes that a convenient figure haha.

OldRed1 · Oct 22, 2022

I am heartbroken…Just watched as Sally the Shellback Crab went buffet style on one of the hitchhiking cup corals. She is definitely NOT reef safe. Not sure what I’m going to do just yet; may ask the LFS if they want her as a donation.

OldRed1 · Oct 23, 2022

Had a great time at the Adirondack Frag Swap. Huge thanks again to @Maokin for putting this great event together. Had the chance to connect with some area reefers and grabbed some great corals for the tank. Will definitely be back again next year!

Corals are still finding their happy places in the tank, so I’ll post more photos once they all open up. The zoas in the background came from the swap, the purple frilly came from @tundraguy1106 and the rose gold hammer from @Fishyfish22. I think the tank is coming together beautifully!!

tundraguy1106 · Oct 23, 2022

OldRed1 said:
Had a great time at the Adirondack Frag Swap. Huge thanks again to @Maokin for putting this great event together. Had the chance to connect with some area reefers and grabbed some great corals for the tank. Will definitely be back again next year!

Corals are still finding their happy places in the tank, so I’ll post more photos once they all open up. The zoas in the background came from the swap, the purple frilly came from @tundraguy1106 and the rose gold hammer from @Fishyfish22. I think the tank is coming together beautifully!!

How’s the corky doing? That one grows like a weed in my tank

OldRed1 · Oct 23, 2022

tundraguy1106 said:
How’s the corky doing? That one grows like a weed in my tank

It’s doing really well! I’m still planning out the portion of the tank where the corky is placed, so I haven’t taken been taking photos of it yet. But I love the corky much more than I thought I would. It adds some really nice movement to the tank.

tundraguy1106 · Oct 23, 2022

OldRed1 said:
It’s doing really well! I’m still planning out the portion of the tank where the corky is placed, so I haven’t taken been taking photos of it yet. But I love the corky much more than I thought I would. It adds some really nice movement to the tank.

That was my first and still my favorite… just wait till it starts branching!

OldRed1 · Oct 23, 2022

tundraguy1106 said:
That was my first and still my favorite… just wait till it starts branching!

Do they branch from the bottom?

tundraguy1106 · Oct 23, 2022

OldRed1 said:
Do they branch from the bottom?

They can… mine does both… it will encrust over the plug and then pop off more branches and then branch out off those branches as it grows.

OldRed1 · Oct 23, 2022

tundraguy1106 said:
They can… mine does both… it will encrust over the plug and then pop off more branches and then branch out off those branches as it grows.

Sweet! Will the frilly encrust the plug, too?

Dav2996 · Oct 23, 2022

OldRed1 said:
That's what I was thinking too, but since water evaporates from the return chamber, I wondered if that would cause lower temps in that chamber compared to others.

I just mount it on my dosing rack on the side where the water returns back colder