PDR's RSR 350 - Retired

[ArowanaLover1902]

First customer: I picked up corals from PDR today, we talked for a while and he showed me around the tanks, they were so nice in person. I’d highly recommend him, especially in the future when his setup is all ready for more people. I’ll post pics when the corals are in the tank and out of their float bags, and the anemone a bit later when he’s done acclimating.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Here they are in their bags. I put the palythoas in and they are already puffed up, same with my bam bams.

For some reason my montipora seems to have almost half bleached overnight. I can see my porcelain crab too. My pocillipora seems to have a little bleaching too. I think it may have been the spot feeding from yesterday.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Here they are, the anemone still hasn’t opened all the way because someone pushed him/he crawled under the rock and I had to rescue him this morning. The corky sea finger is looking especially happy. Those palys look amazing under the deep blue lights of my nighttime cycle, you were certainly right about that PDR.

 

[PDR]

Here they are, the anemone still hasn’t opened all the way because someone pushed him/he crawled under the rock and I had to rescue him this morning. The corky sea finger is looking especially happy. Those palys look amazing under the deep blue lights of my nighttime cycle, you were certainly right about that PDR.

Glad you like them!

 

[PDR]

It has been about a week since my last water change so I decided to run all the tests I had to see where I stood. I also added a war coral and acan echinata.

Here are my test results from today:
Salinity: 1.0255
Temp: 80.1
Alk: 7.8
Ca: 450-470
Mg: 1500+
No3: 3
Po4: .06
Iodine: .06 (using red sea test, not sure I trust it)

Not sure why my mag is so high, but overall I'm pretty happy with everything.

 

[PDR]

I have been going back and forth about whether or not I should be actively cleaning my sandbed. There seem to be so many opinions about sand, detritus, microfauna, etc.

I had been actively stirring it up, which was kind of a pain as the "dust" from the sand gets all in the rocks and on/between the corals. It also seems to go against the "keeping your hands out of the tank" philosophy so many swear by.

I originally started cleaning it as I randomly started getting a good amount of diatoms on the sandbed. At first, I thought it was related to dosing Reef Energy, but I stopped that a couple of months ago and I still get them daily. I then thought it was maybe the salt I was using, but I have since changed brands (for other reasons) and have changed at least 100% of the water. It seems to be less if I stir up the sandbed daily, but that is a pain. My nutrients are under control and my RODI is 0 TDS.

I have 3 conchs, over 100 ceriths and several nassarius snails to help keep the sandbed aerated, but still not enough.

I would love to be able to leave it alone, as my tank was much more stable before I started messing with everything, but I can't stand the diatoms...

Any advice?

 

[PDR]

Well, I have some sad news my exquisite fairy wrasse jumped while I was doing maintenance and had the top off. I had my headphones in and didn't hear it. I found him behind the tank later today. You may have seen my other thread, but my royal gramma also died last week from unknown causes

On a better note, the tank seems to be doing a lot better overall. The color has returned to my zoas and all the other coral look great.

I have been changing up my maintenance schedule to find the sweet spot and think I have landed on a good schedule I like. I went back and forth a lot about whether or not to run filter socks, but ultimately I decided to run them and change them out once a week. I also recently added some more rock to the sump to help with pods and my cryptic zone.

Per my last post, I have been going back and forth about what to do about my sand bed, and ultimately, I decided I like clean looking sand and I am willing to trade that for any possible reduction in microfauna. I decided to vacuum the sandbed once a week, but since I do daily water changes, I bought a hang on filter sock holder that I hang in my sump. With everything still running, I double up two 7" socks and run my vacuum hose directly into the socks. I then proceed to vacuum the literal crap out of it and all of it collects in the socks with no water having to be exchanged. I have only done this once, but it worked great!

I promise to get some new pictures up soon, especially since I got the avast porthole and new camera app. Here is one I took the other day when I first got it.



I made a thread on this as well, but I'm not super happy about one of my jebao pumps.



And since everyone likes pictures, I figured I'd add some random weekend pics

I spent all Saturday morning helping my wife set up for a wedding. Took her less than two hours to arrange this on site.


And here is my little helper (Landon) . We had to put up a gate to keep him out of the fish room, definitely not baby proof atm.




This week is going to be crazy (someone has to fix all these clocks ), but hopefully, I will be able to take time to get some decent pics and maybe a video.

 

[PDR]

My parameters have been rock solid for the last several weeks now and it shows. Everything seems really happy with the new routine now that they have adjusted to it. I even think my torch spawned last week.




P04 is higher than I would like so I cut out the reef energy (something I was just testing) and the daily addition of coral food. That was a couple of weeks ago and I have only seen positive results, so I don't think the reef energy or extra coral food was really benefiting at all.

For several reasons, I decided to dedicate my soft coral farm to zoanthids for now, so I ended up moving most of the leathers and all of the mushrooms back to this tank. I had to use some fresh rock from the sump hence the stark white rock (forgive the glare).

 

[DSC reef]

Amazing tank @PDR. That low boy would make a nice clam tank.

 

[PDR]

Amazing tank @PDR. That low boy would make a nice clam tank.

Thanks, and yeah it really would. I might do that once I upgrade to a larger frag tank. I've never kept a clam but have always wanted to.

 

[DSC reef]

Thanks, and yeah it really would. I might do that once I upgrade to a larger frag tank. I've never kept a clam but have always wanted to.

We always wanted to do a clam only tank one day. A low boy would perfect for that top down view.

 

[PDR]

I don't think I mentioned it in this thread, but I had a mass die off of my brittle stars a few months ago. I made a separate thread about it to see what people think happened.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/micro-brittle-star-mass-die-off.485180/

 

[PDR]

I was looking at the tank today and noticed this massive (to me) yellow sponge. It's about 2.5"-3" long.


New fts after adding all the zoas to the tank (check my other build for details).

 

[Katrina71]

I love sponges! Nice.

 

[toti21]

I love your tank! My tank is similar to yours LPS/Softies/Nem. I am hoping my leathers would be as nice and healthy as yours someday.

 

[PDR]

I love your tank! My tank is similar to yours LPS/Softies/Nem. I am hoping my leathers would be as nice and healthy as yours someday.

Thanks!

 

[PDR]

A couple of vids of my pulsing leather. It wasn't as active as it has been but still pretty cool.


Make sure you watch the top right of the coral at the end of this one.

 

[PDR]

A couple of changes this week. I removed the sandbed from my frag tank and ended up adding some of that sand back to the sump in my DT. I was planning on firing up the fuge again after my phosphate and nitrate readings were rising over the last few weeks, but this week I found them back down. I'm going to hold off on firing up the fuge for now.

After removing the sand in my frag tank, I moved both wrasses and all my conchs and nassarius snails to this tank. I'm mildly concerned about the wrasses as I haven't seen them after adding and it's been 2 full days. I know wrasses can hide for a while, but I just haven't had any hide this long before.

Since I am going in a different direction with the frag tank, the zoas will be staying in this tank. The next step will be fragging them up and finding a place for them to go in this tank and selling off the extras.

 

[PDR]

Just some new pics for all my followers (pretty sure that's all of nobody lol)

I experimented with taking pictures at a different angle and idk, I think it looks better.


Close up of the zoa garden I am starting to grow out. I think it will be pretty sweet in about a year.



I usually don't do this...but I made an impulse purchase at my LFS. I just couldn't help it...




I know it looks like his fin is missing, but it's not, just two pictures taken at the wrong time.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Just some new pics for all my followers (pretty sure that's all of nobody lol)

I experimented with taking pictures at a different angle and idk, I think it looks better.


Close up of the zoa garden I am starting to grow out. I think it will be pretty sweet in about a year.



I usually don't do this...but I made an impulse purchase at my LFS. I just couldn't help it...




I know it looks like his fin is missing, but it's not, just two pictures taken at the wrong time.

Wow. Looking absolutely beautiful. Your new friend will love it!