Rain's Reef ~ Photo Gallery

[Maddlesrain]

Very nice photos!

Thank you, Rev!

 

[GaretMac]

I'd love to see a full tank shot from the front. This thing is gorgeous.

 

[Maddlesrain]

I'd love to see a full tank shot from the front. This thing is gorgeous.

Thanks!!
Here's a photo I snapped last weekend of the front. I'll update with a photo with less glare once we get the lights better positioned. They're sitting across the top now, but we should be hanging them from a ceiling mount in the near future!

 

[Maddlesrain]

I make this announcement with a heavy heart...
My fish came down with ick and I was forced to catch them all, which ultimately led to the death of my beloved filefish this past week. I think the stress of the sickness and the tearing down and capture of all the fish proved to be too stressful for him. The tank is currently running fallow while the rest of the fish go through quarantine. I do observational quarantine with new specimens typically, but hadn't for new corals being added. I'm not sure if one of the corals may have been contaminated or if a fish added this summer could have been harboring the parasite.


This is one of the final photos I captured of my dear Joker before he passed. May he swim in peace.

My mandarin dragonet also disappeared right before the epidemic occurred. Very sad to lose that fish as I've had her for years.

Having to take apart a lot of the original scape also made me realize I wanted to change some things, so the tank has been transformed a bit. I will update with photos of the new scape at a later date when I'm able to take photos.

 

[Gablami]

Sorry to hear that. You had a beautiful tank, and I'm sure it will be beautiful again soon.

 

[Maddlesrain]

Sorry to hear that. You had a beautiful tank, and I'm sure it will be beautiful again soon.

Thank you, I'm actually a little happier with this new scape as it gave me more room in the upper region for corals to grow.

Trying to make lemonade out of lemons!

 

[Maddlesrain]

No new full tank photos (the tank is in a bout of uglies I’d rather not document lol), but the fish are back in the tank and doing very well!

After all the crap that went down, I still have my pair of clowns, three chromis, a pajama cardinal (he was taking a vacation in another tank during all the halabaloo), a masked goby, and my potter’s angel.

I’ve lost some corals and added others; overall the tank has widely evolved. The orange gorgonian is sadly on its last legs, but the red and yellow are still doing fairly well. I just moved the red tree and it has opened up very nicely. The yellow has been moved to a similar location and showed a little interest in opening back up. Ultimately, cyano did the other gorg in. There are still a few polyps left, so there’s still hope for it, albeit not much.


The lights over the display have been swapped out for a Zetlight 6500A and I’ve added a DIY algae reactor to the back of the tank this past week. The automated feeder was taken offline and the DOS will be repurposed for dosing once the corals start growing out. I’d like to try getting into sps.

To combat the algae problem - the cyano has almost completely died out of its own accord and now there’s hair algae - I’ll be picking up a couple algae munchers this coming weekend (hopefully an urchin and a large snail or two) to help me out with cleanup.

 

[Maddlesrain]

Picked this lil’ rainbow bta up this morning.

 

[Coral Hygiene]

Picked this lil’ rainbow bta up this morning.

Nice grab! I just got a rainbow bta too [emoji23]

 

[Maddlesrain]

Nice grab! I just got a rainbow bta too [emoji23]

You have good taste (; Goodluck with your new anemone!

 

[Coral Hygiene]

You have good taste (; Goodluck with your new anemone!

To you as well!

 

[tehSAC]

Love how unique this tank is!

 

[Maddlesrain]

Love how unique this tank is!

Thank you!![emoji170]

 

[Maddlesrain]

Pulled out the good camera again today. Fish are doing well, corals look good, I’m studiously combating the relentless hair algae. The photos turned out with really nice dark backgrounds today; made the fish stand out pretty well.

The fish:

Coral shot:

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Beautiful!

 

[Maddlesrain]

Beautiful!

Thank you [emoji1374] [emoji4]

 

[FloridianReefer]

Nice grab! I just got a rainbow bta too [emoji23]

What kind of camera did you use to take that picture

 

[smiley28]

Can we get pics of the feeder? Im amazed at the idea of feeding straight from a fridge.

 

[Maddlesrain]

What kind of camera did you use to take that picture

The first photos of the anemone were shot with an iPhone 6s, the picture I took today was taken with a Canon Rebel EOS T6i.

Can we get pics of the feeder? I amazed at the idea of feeding straight from a fridge.

I actually just dismantled the feeder. I was using one of those tiny insulin fridges that can be plugged into a wall or car port. When tested outside of the stand it cooled very well, however, inside not so much. The food wasn’t staying cold enough and was spoiling too quickly for my liking.

I might try again with a slightly larger fridge that would have to be housed outside of the stand at some point in the future (probably in about a year when I move the tank into a new apartment).

Sorry I didn’t take any photos of the contraption when it was up and running! If I go for round two I’ll be sure to document my process

 

[Maddlesrain]

No pictures today, but thought I’d give a brief spiel.

Hair algae is still a mega issue. I’m going to begin Vodka dosing. I’ll try to document my results (no promises though, I’m terrible at keeping track of this thread).

I’ve been slowly trying to get my water parameters at acceptable numbers as my alk came out at 4.0 a few months ago. I thought my test kit was going bad, but after a trip to the lfs they confirmed that the alk was indeed that low. Eek!

Although the hair algae is bad, raising the alk and calc in my tank has eradicated the red slime algae I had also been dealing with... So I’m slowly moving forwards in a positive direction.

My fish are fat and most of the corals have been doing well. Some were taken down by algae, but most have prevailed in the battle we continue to fight. It’s difficult changing much when I’m away the majority of the week for school.

The tank will be transported to a new house this Wednesday as my family is leaving our current location for a new one.

During the move I will be possibly changing a thing or two. I’ve become obsessed with underwater waterfalls, so I’m going to try adding one to my scape and overall changing the scape!! I’m feeling really pumped about the updates. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed they will go well!

Happy reefing (and Easter) !