The Bluegrass Reef

[Wrassenaround]

Awesome! Could we get some new FTS to show off your new fish?

Here is a true FTS and some other angles. The tank is still pretty bare compared to what I want it to be but hopefully by the spring things will start to fill in.

 

[Wrassenaround]

So I can't catch a break with fish right now. All three of the anthias in the previous post are dead and I got the eight line flasher yesterday and it died from stress while acclimating.....

I do have a red velvet super male wrasse coming in tomorrow so hopefully he will be long lasting. I don't want to change my plan and get basic fish but it has definitely been discouraging.

 

[LeannaBanana]

Oh man, sorry about the fish. Tough day. I do love your tank and setup, though! Fingers crossed for a smooth acclimation for the wrasse on his way!

 

[Wrassenaround]

Oh man, sorry about the fish. Tough day. I do love your tank and setup, though! Fingers crossed for a smooth acclimation for the wrasse on his way!

So far so good! The package came in from Reef Pro in great condition and the fish was actively swimming around in the bag. I followed Reef Pro's acclimation process and within 5 minutes of putting the fish into the tank it was out and swimming around. Today it is swimming around engaging with other inhabitants and eating very well. I don't have any pictures yet as it is very camera shy.

Very pleased with Reef Prom I have another order I may be placing with them depending on how this fish continues to do.

 

[Wrassenaround]

So far the red velvet wrasse is doing very well! Eating like a pig and no aggression whatsoever. This is the best picture I've been able to get so far.
I'm so pleased with Reef Pro that I definitely plan on ordering more fish from them.

 

[Wrassenaround]

So the new year is off to hot start for the tank! My LFS was finally able to get some Anthias in and I picked up 3 females. They are doing great and sorting out their dominance to figure out who will be the male but not being super aggressive. Clownfish and Melanarus wrasse are doing just fine as well. I'm aiming to start adding corals again in late February once I can get a good idea of what my consumption looks like and the tank becomes more mature. More fish are on the way

As far as the Neptune update goes I have the energy bar installed along with an additional power strip for other parts of equipment that don't need the level of control that the apex offers. I am still waiting for the trident to come in and once it does I will setup the rest of the monitoring aspects of the apex. I am building this dry side of the sump off of @Broadfield's build in the past and he has been great to share some of his progress from behind the scenes.
Here are some before and afters of the upgrade in progress.

Here's a little update on the tank, specifically focused on the dry side of the sump.
I didn't and still don't want to screw anything in to the actual stand of the tank so I have used thin plywood to cover up the back opening of the tank and screwed into that instead.

This is how the dry side looked for a couple months. I just had everything in regular power strips and they just sat there in an unorganized mess.

I attached the wood to the back of the stand with half a dozen heavy duty command strips (the black ones with velcro, the white ones do not work, believe me). I also made sure that the pieces would fit snugly in the are so there weren't any gaps from the top and the bottom.

Since the Apex energy bar is so bulky and heavy I screwed that to the board I attached but the screws stick out the back about 1/4 of an inch. The top power strip is held up with more of the heavy duty command strips.

This is how it has looked for the last few weeks. With the addition of a Neptune Trident the space became even more cramped. Definitely a rats nest of wires.

This is how it looks now. I have a lot of the wires behind the tank woven up and labeled incase I need to access them. They are out of the way and not cluttered anymore. I used a wire track on the right side to hide a few wires along with velcro cord ties to keep a lot of them in place. Still doesn't look amazing but a lot better than before. I will be mounting my DOS on the left and I'll likely have my trident on a platform to make more space.

 

[Lavey29]

Here's a little update on the tank, specifically focused on the dry side of the sump.
I didn't and still don't want to screw anything in to the actual stand of the tank so I have used thin plywood to cover up the back opening of the tank and screwed into that instead.

This is how the dry side looked for a couple months. I just had everything in regular power strips and they just sat there in an unorganized mess.

I attached the wood to the back of the stand with half a dozen heavy duty command strips (the black ones with velcro, the white ones do not work, believe me). I also made sure that the pieces would fit snugly in the are so there weren't any gaps from the top and the bottom.

Since the Apex energy bar is so bulky and heavy I screwed that to the board I attached but the screws stick out the back about 1/4 of an inch. The top power strip is held up with more of the heavy duty command strips.

This is how it has looked for the last few weeks. With the addition of a Neptune Trident the space became even more cramped. Definitely a rats nest of wires.

This is how it looks now. I have a lot of the wires behind the tank woven up and labeled incase I need to access them. They are out of the way and not cluttered anymore. I used a wire track on the right side to hide a few wires along with velcro cord ties to keep a lot of them in place. Still doesn't look amazing but a lot better than before. I will be mounting my DOS on the left and I'll likely have my trident on a platform to make more space.

Your pics didn't come through?

 

[Petcrazyson]

Your pics didn't come through?

Same here.

 

[Wrassenaround]

They should be good now if you refresh the page

 

[Wrassenaround]

So its been a minute
I've been pretty quiet over the last few months, the tank is going strong but nothing super crazy to report. I did lose most of my Acros but that was all on me because my tank was not ready for them yet. I took a trip down to Orlando and visited @WWC @TopShelfAquatics & this time I hit up @Living Reef Orlando as I had only heard of them but never visited.

As always I walked away with a lot of coral but even more knowledge, I've been rather frustrated with my "lack of success" with this new tank compared to my old 20 gallon. I used this trip as a fact finding mission and left feeling more confident with this tank. I also came away with multiple corals from Living Reef. 2 torches, 1 chalice mini colony, 1 Acro mini colony (died after shipping, replaced with a 3rd torch) and a multi head gold hammer.

I've also taken the time to completely finish the dry side of my sump and start Trident Controlled Dosing. So far this has made my tank much more stable. Having the DOS go off of what the Trident tests is super helpful, especially when I add more coral. This way I can set a desired level and it doses to maintain it unless it rises or falls below a range, then it defaults back to the pre determined amount.

I'm heading down to Florida this month and I'm hoping on visiting Reef Pro and walk away with more fish to add.

Some pictures to share while I've been away.

Ignore the red trident lol my waste bottle was full.

 

[Jimbo662]

How are you liking the tank itself? I'm considering the 300 G2+ but haven't seen much feedback concerning the quality of the seams on the new versions.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

So its been a minute
I've been pretty quiet over the last few months, the tank is going strong but nothing super crazy to report. I did lose most of my Acros but that was all on me because my tank was not ready for them yet. I took a trip down to Orlando and visited @WWC @TopShelfAquatics & this time I hit up @Living Reef Orlando as I had only heard of them but never visited.

As always I walked away with a lot of coral but even more knowledge, I've been rather frustrated with my "lack of success" with this new tank compared to my old 20 gallon. I used this trip as a fact finding mission and left feeling more confident with this tank. I also came away with multiple corals from Living Reef. 2 torches, 1 chalice mini colony, 1 Acro mini colony (died after shipping, replaced with a 3rd torch) and a multi head gold hammer.

I've also taken the time to completely finish the dry side of my sump and start Trident Controlled Dosing. So far this has made my tank much more stable. Having the DOS go off of what the Trident tests is super helpful, especially when I add more coral. This way I can set a desired level and it doses to maintain it unless it rises or falls below a range, then it defaults back to the pre determined amount.

I'm heading down to Florida this month and I'm hoping on visiting Reef Pro and walk away with more fish to add.

Some pictures to share while I've been away.

Ignore the red trident lol my waste bottle was full.

Tank is looking great!!

 

[Wrassenaround]

How are you liking the tank itself? I'm considering the 300 G2+ but haven't seen much feedback concerning the quality of the seams on the new versions.

So far I love it, I would say based off what I have read before on the previous Red Sea systems with the concerns on the seams that it is no longer an issue. I haven't had any issues whatsoever with my tank at all. Very easy to assemble, the plumbing was a breeze.

The only thing I would change would be have the directions be more descriptive. I found myself plumbing the overflow tubes backwards and the valve with the control was for the back up line instead of the main line. Easy fix but I was really confused since I couldn't figure out for the life of me why I couldn't control the flow rate into the sump

 

[Wrassenaround]

The month of July has been a VERY exciting month to say the least. I decided to do a tank treatment for algae, add some new coral and most importantly added 6 new fish. I also did a small DIY project with coral skeletons.

Treatment:
For some time now I've had small amounts of Bryopsis throughout my tank but I wasn't to concerned with it. Gradually over time it spread and spread until it was pretty pervasive. I had dose Phyto, manually removed it and had no luck. I had read about Fluconazole treatments but have always been hesitant on doing full tank treatments with medicine or chemicals that hasn't been widely used (or at least discussed) by a lot of other reefers.

I decided to bite the bullet and go for it, because if I didn't I would have reef tank with just algae.
I purchased a bottle of ReefFlux (Fluconazole) capsules. Being a 91 gallon tank and each capsule treating 10 gallons, I used 9 of them. I cut the ends off and emptied the powder into a small bowl with some RO water to mix the solution.

I poured this solution directly into the tank in front of a power head, as the solution dissipated into the tank. I settled in to wait and see if this would work. Going in I knew this would be a 2-3 week treatment which meant no water changes during then.

I didn't get any progress pictures but I did get before and after the treatment of the worst areas of the tank.
Here are the Before pictures. I'll post the later pictures when the treatment is completely finished.

New Additions:
I went out on a limb and got an Exquisita Stag, Birdsnet and a Strawberry Limeade Goni from TSA. So far they are all doing great. Especially the Goni. I also wanted to start to have GSP grow on the back wall of the tank, TSA helped with that by sending a big chunk. I didn't anticipate it being on a huge rock so I had to manually remove it. So far this part hasn't worked out as well as I had hoped. I'm having a lot of issues getting the pieces to stay glued to the back.

Goni from TSA

I picked up 6 new fish from an LFS in Nashville Tennessee.
1 Blue Eye Kole Tang
1 Blue Sided Fairy Wrasse
1 Solorensis Wrasse
2 Blue Reef Chromis (Pair)
1 Diamond Goby
All fish have been doing very well except for the goby. I haven't seen it in about a week and there are no new areas of sand being moved so I believe it swam into a hole and died. Im keeping my eyes peeled if it re appears.

DIY Project:
When I first had corals die I would discard the skeletons. Within the past year I have been keeping them incase I wanted to use them for something and some just because they were bigger colonies and the skeletons looked cool as-well. I picked up a lamp at Home Depot and decided to put skeletons from my tank and some that I have found at the beach in the base of the lamp (clear glass cylinder).
This project couldn't have turned out better. It's a good story piece and also reminds me that when things maybe aren't going well that its been worse in the past and it has worked out.

If you want to replicate this I HIGHLY recommend you soak the skeletons in a bleach mixture or spray them with Clorox Bathroom Bleach. It makes them much whiter.

 

[Wrassenaround]

Did some testing today aside from what my trident tests for daily.
When I added 5 fish a month ago I was hoping to raise my nitrates a little to help with coral coloration. Since then the corals have colored up and the polyp extension on them has improved greatly.
My nitrates as of this morning are a whopping 0.0 and my phosphates are 0.07 (up from 0.06in July)

As I've said in the past, I let my corals do my talking for me and this is the best they've looked since I've set up the tank. Not going to try and chase numbers as stability is king.

 

[i cant think]

Did some testing today aside from what my trident tests for daily.
When I added 5 fish a month ago I was hoping to raise my nitrates a little to help with coral coloration. Since then the corals have colored up and the polyp extension on them has improved greatly.
My nitrates as of this morning are a whopping 0.0 and my phosphates are 0.07 (up from 0.06in July)

As I've said in the past, I let my corals do my talking for me and this is the best they've looked since I've set up the tank. Not going to try and chase numbers as stability is king.

It’s the same here, if my parameters say they’re out I just see what my corals look like. If they’re thriving I’m happy

 

[Wrassenaround]

It’s the same here, if my parameters say they’re out I just see what my corals look like. If they’re thriving I’m happy

Looks like you have a few new badges since the last time you commented on here! Congratulations!!

 

[i cant think]

Looks like you have a few new badges since the last time you commented on here! Congratulations!!

Thankyou, I’ve been watching but not commented recently

I love the tank.

 

[Wrassenaround]

Thankyou, I’ve been watching but not commented recently

I love the tank.

It's definitely been a work in progress but it is really starting to come around now. The pictures don't really do it justice. The colors are a lot more vibrant in person but the lens cover on my phone doesn't help a lot.

 

[i cant think]

It's definitely been a work in progress but it is really starting to come around now. The pictures don't really do it justice. The colors are a lot more vibrant in person but the lens cover on my phone doesn't help a lot.

That’s great to hear! What’s the fish stock at now?