ReefGrammie's 90-Gallon Reboot

[ReefGrammie]

I am working from home with my 3 year old and 6 month old ;Dead (those are frazzled/exhausted faces!) and hubby works long hours.
I haven’t made a whole lot of progress since I started the tank almost 2 years ago honestly;Hilarious one of these days I will...

I can only imagine! I'm used to working from home (have done it for many, many years), but my husband is working from home now and driving me crazy! Kids are grown and out of the house. You definitely need a tank build thread....or at least a starfish build thread!! ;Joyful

 

[ReefGrammie]

New pictures from today, after my latest live sale addiction box arrived. I'm finally slowing it down (maybe)...at least I'm down to 2 this time instead of 14 corals...

TSA The Fuzz - the extension on that piece is unreal. It's glued to a piece of rubble sitting on the sand bed and will be moved up higher to it's permanent spot over about 3-4 weeks.

TSA Carolina Reaper...after looking at the mother colony, I had to have it! Also glued to rubble on the sand bed and will be moved same as above.

WWC French Tickler. I've had this for a few weeks and the colors are starting to show on this one. I've been slowly moving it up and it is probably a foot off the sand bed now.

Avatar chalice, top-down view. I just can't get enough of this piece!!

Cleaner shrimp, who has been living in the refugium for 5 months and has his own thread! Cleaner Shrimp Dilemma
He's been back in the DT all week and seems like his new home.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Just watched part of the BRS video featuring my LED fixture, the ReefBreeders Photon V2+. BRS just recently started selling the fixture. I went with this light when I rebooted because of past experience with ReefBreeders, great quality, great customer service, etc. I also knew I would be mounting the fixture inside my canopy and went with the 50" based on Logan's recommendation. My flasher wrasse likes to go airborne, and I plan to add another wrasse or two later on, so the canopy stays...no doubt there.

The video goes on to discuss par (I don't speak par), light spread, recommended mounting height, etc. Very informative. What I learned was that at 100%, I would fry every acro I have because my light is mounted 8 inches off the water. Well, because it's in a canopy. They tested starting at 6 inches and found the optimal height for the 48" fixture to be 16 inches off the water line. Obviously, I can't do that. Am I pleased with the light? Yes. Am I getting good growth and color? Yes. I can't imagine running that light at 100% and I'm sure I never will. I'm currently running the blues at about 50% during the max period, violet at 40%, white at 35%, and red and green at about 15%. I plan to bump up to 55% and maybe 60% on the blues, but I'm doing that very slowly. Hopefully, I'll remember to follow up on this 6 months from now!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I've gone a little nuts with the pictures lately. I wish I had taken some of these when I first placed the frags, but oh well.

Zoanthid world. I'm not sure where I'm going with this...it's a work in process.

Acans and two of my favorite pieces, WWC Dragonfruit and AOI. I decided to allow AOI on the live rock. I may regret that one day, but I hope not! I generally like to keep zoanthids "portable" on their own rock because they can get out of control fast.

Ricordeas, acans, Jedi Mind Trick monti, ruby dragonet photobombing...

Avatar chalice on it's 6-inch rock. It probably had 2 visible eyes and several forming when I got it. I see about 7-8 more eyes forming, along with the 8 visible eyes. It seems to really like the left front corner and isn't terrorizing my acans/ricordeas. Sweepers are pretty short.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Did a bit of an "upgrade" today on my powerhead. I've had an Reef Octopus Octo Pulse 2 on the left side for several months and have really liked that powerhead. It puts out some serious flow and you can angle it all kinds of ways. I've had the same MP40 in my current tank for at least 4 years (bought it used on eBay). It's been fine, but it's loud if I turn it up and you can't angle it. Since I've been adding to my acro collection, I decided to invest in another Octo Pulse 2. I installed it on the right side today and will see what the acros think!

New shiny toy!

Me trying to dismantle a powerhead...;Chicken

 

[ReefGrammie]

Water change is done. I received a Hanna alk checker and I'm very pleased with that! Been rearranging coral (again). I made an executive decision on the zoas I had on the main LR and decided that had to go to my 2 zoanthid rocks. One had already spread onto the main rock and I remembered how fast those things can spread. At least I can contain them on the two rocks. I've also decided to drop my sand bed down a few inches. It's probably 6 inches deep in some places! I would like about 3-4, which would still suit the pistol shrimp/goby just fine. I'm VERY slowly removing, about 1/2 cup per week, trying to disturb it as little as possible.

 

[ReefGrammie]

A little trip down memory lane...

December 2019 ;Sour

March 2020...better.

June 2020...progress! ;Joyful

 

[TriggerFinger]

Great progress!!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Great progress!!

Thanks, Trigger! At least it doesn't look like a swamp now...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”

 

[WiscoFishNut]

This thread is very inspirational It gives me hope that I can beat the uglies and get my tank to a happy place ;Woot

 

[DiefsReef]

A little trip down memory lane...

December 2019 ;Sour

March 2020...better.

June 2020...progress! ;Joyful

Looks great!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Looks great!

Thank you!!

 

[ReefGrammie]

This thread is very inspirational It gives me hope that I can beat the uglies and get my tank to a happy place ;Woot

Thanks so much. It can be done, but I probably ripped half my hair out in the process!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Project of the day: Water change the modify my fish-no-jumper-outer.

One thing that made me crazy with my first reef tank was jumpers. I had a few at first and couldn't take that. When I upgraded, I definitely wanted a setup with a canopy. After my reboot, I pretty much slapped some cardboard in the cutout section in the back of the canopy. I also have an open section above the light, which is LED is never gets hot. I still want as much air flow as possible and I've been meaning to do this little project. All it took was egg crate, pliers, and gorilla tape. Trim and add a few cutouts for cords. Stick in place and anchor with a little tape. Done!

Now for the water change...

 

[ReefGrammie]

Dendrophyllia status: This is one of the more fascinating corals to me, so once I rebooted, I just had to have one. It was doing really well at first, low light, low flow, placed low in the tank. A while back, it just slammed shut. I thought sometime might have made it mad, but I pretty much had stopped Vibrant or any other additives. I'm only dosing alk, and calcium and magnesium as needed, along with performing a weekly 5% water change. I add ReefRoids about twice a week.

I did notice it would be wide open at night, so last weekend I moved my rock a little and tried to create a little cave for the dendro. It's under a little ledge now, and i noticed that it was opening back up during the daytime again. It has 2 large heads and a baby, so will see what happens down the road.

 

[TriggerFinger]

I just added a couple wrasses to my tank and need to get a better fish-no-jumper-outer ;Hilarious Where did you find white??

 

[ReefGrammie]

Yes, the fish-no-jumper-outer has served me well! ;Hilarious I just bought a stock sheet of egg crate at Lowe's. My cabinet and canopy are black, but since it's on the back and doesn't show, I just bought what they had.

I can't wait to add more wrasses! My LFS was basically destroyed by tornado right before Covid hit. We thought they were going to reopen soon, but they're having more delays. I really want to wait until he has new stock so I can buy from him! What kind of wrasses did you get? I only have the flasher now and definitely have room for 2-3 more.

How's the red starfish doing?

 

[TriggerFinger]

I have black currently and I’m too short to see the top of my tank so it doesn’t bother me. I think the white would let more light in? I don’t know...
I was told it’s a carpenters flasher and a C. solorensis. I’m going to ask in the wrasse ID thread when I can get good pictures. The carpenters is quite small and sunk to the bottom when I put them in...it basically crawled to a rock; I was sure he wouldn’t be there by morning but both new fish are out and ate quite a bit in both feeding so far!! My starry blenny was the lone fish in this tank for over a year and he’s quite upset about new roommates. He’s been perched on the gyre all morning and puffing up at me. Kraken is doing great, eats well and comes out often so I can see all her beauty. All of her legs are growing back the tips so I think she’s going to be fine!

 

[LRT]

Following along here. Did you get the new reef breeders light in?
I have the 24 v2+ coming sometime next week. Really excited about the light. For the money it definitely holds it own against the much more expensive ones.