The Garden -- Rakies shallow SPS cube

[Rakie]

Thanks @bubbaque -- I'm going to be doing a 3 day blackout starting tonight. I'm not too worried about it, but as suddenly as it's come on I think it's early enough that I can kill it off. It hasn't moved from the frag tank to the display yet.

 

[Rakie]

Blackout Started. See ya Tuesday, Tank.

 

[Rakie]

Did a 10g water change, bleached sock, skimming wet, GAC.

Just a couple frag tank pics of my non-corals

 

[Rakie]

Small update: Dinos dead. Lymphocystis on two fish who freaked out over the 3 day blackout, and lack of skimming.

So here's some shots of my frag tank and non-corals (where the dinos thrived)

DON'T DROP SOPRANOS... they don't like it

JF Rainbow Incinerators

CaliKid Rainbow Godzilla

 

[Janci]

Great news.
Good that you intervened quickly.

 

[Rakie]

Great news.
Good that you intervened quickly.

After having dealt with it once successfully I had a feeling it was likely the same species of dinos, which I decided to treat the same way. There's always dinos in our tanks, so in theory if you have a second outbreak it's most likely the same species as before. A bit of a gamble I guess... But it definitely worked.

The fun thing about dinos I can tell you right now, is when threatened, they form a cyst keeping them safe until conditions are favorable. The #1 thing I tell people after they beat dinos breaks their heart -- In 3-6 months, it will come back. The cysts will open. Just get back to war immediately, doing exactly what you last did. Hopefully it will only come back the once.

So based on that -- I'm expecting them back in 3-6 months. It sounds very unfortunate, but seeing my first bout with dinos took 6 months, and this one took 4 days... Being prepared is worth its weight in gold.

 

[Janci]

I did not know all this.
And I am sure many do neither.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Rakie]

Finally my rock structure is complete -- And it seems to be completely cycled... But I'll give it a few days to make absolutely sure.

19" x 18" x 13.5"

Before using reef welder

After using Reef Welder

Reef Welder really helped me get the right pieces on and fill in all the gaps, as well as cover the exposed PVC. It'll all turn splotchy with coraline in time so I'm not too worried.

Took about an hour to drill out the new rocks -- The real reef rock is MUCH thinner, and offered a very good opportunity for me to get a better scape. I'm much more pleased with the result.

Thanks for the reef welder @ReeferBean

 

[hybridazn]

Small update: Dinos dead. Lymphocystis on two fish who freaked out over the 3 day blackout, and lack of skimming.

So here's some shots of my frag tank and non-corals (where the dinos thrived)

DON'T DROP SOPRANOS... they don't like it

JF Rainbow Incinerators

CaliKid Rainbow Godzilla

Glad to see they cleaned up.

Great pics as usual

 

[ReeferBean]

Finally my rock structure is complete -- And it seems to be completely cycled... But I'll give it a few days to make absolutely sure.

19" x 18" x 13.5"

Before using reef welder

After using Reef Welder

Reef Welder really helped me get the right pieces on and fill in all the gaps, as well as cover the exposed PVC. It'll all turn splotchy with coraline in time so I'm not too worried.

Took about an hour to drill out the new rocks -- The real reef rock is MUCH thinner, and offered a very good opportunity for me to get a better scape. I'm much more pleased with the result.

Thanks for the reef welder @ReeferBean

Looks pretty sweet. Nice job.

 

[Janci]

Wow. That turned out very nice.
Well done.

 

[najer]

Nice work.

 

[Rakie]

So then... Some pictures.

New JB Mother with some green/red

Old JB Mother

Some wild pink-red thing.

Golden Basket Full Spectrum

TDF from WWC, or someone... TDF though

JF Fox Flame finally recovered from the intense fragging

Some wild stag with purple/blue tips

Sapphire Milli

Vivid Wolverine

Vivid Tequilla Sunrise

CB Maleficent

RRA Diablo

WWC Whooly mammoth Milli

Rouge Milli

St. Thomas / AKA Nazgul Bounce

Soprano Zoas

 

[bubbaque]

So then... Some pictures.

New JB Mother with some green/red

Old JB Mother

Some wild pink-red thing.

Golden Basket Full Spectrum

TDF from WWC, or someone... TDF though

JF Fox Flame finally recovered from the intense fragging

Some wild stag with purple/blue tips

Sapphire Milli

Vivid Wolverine

Vivid Tequilla Sunrise

CB Maleficent

RRA Diablo

WWC Whooly mammoth Milli

Rouge Milli

St. Thomas / AKA Nazgul Bounce

Soprano Zoas

Wow, you got a nice set of corals there! It's nice that you got the green in the jawbreaker. As your maleficent grows out you will love it.

 

[Rakie]

Wow, you got a nice set of corals there! It's nice that you got the green in the jawbreaker. As your maleficent grows out you will love it.

Yeah the JB is a little hard to see that green stripe developing. The mouth had a green tint but not like the proper green splotches. And speaking of green... While everything is sitting on the racks things seemed to go green. Waiting for the maleficent to shed it's green tinge.

 

[Rakie]

Sucked out about 2/3 of my sand so far, and about 1/3 of it today. Leopard wrasse is confused and dumb, he doesn't know what to do with his sand box but he keeps looking at it trying to connect the dots... Poor lil guy.

Removed some rock too. Getting closer to putting in the new structure. It'll probably be in by this coming weekend.

For now -- All my fish are sad!

 

[GoVols]

Rakie,
I did not know you had a Leopard wrasse.

It's got to be freaked out...

 

[Janci]

Must be confusing for those guys

 

[bubbaque]

Why are you getting rid of the sand?

 

[Rakie]

Rakie,
I did not know you had a Leopard wrasse.

It's got to be freaked out...

Someone in a wrasse thread once said they were afraid to go BB, but once they did their wrasse adjusted in like two days and happily sleeps in a nook in the rockwork like all the fish do.

Im going to keep a small sandbox for him. This is just the one I had on hand. I feel he would appreciate a more shallow one.

Must be confusing for those guys

Yep. But to get in the new rockwork I'm going to need need to remove some stuff so they will adjust until next weekend.

Why are you getting rid of the sand?

Three reasons! Two mine, one a friend making me worry.

1) My friend convinced me to remove it due to AEFW, and wanting to go full 'clean slate'. I dipped for 8 weeks and all but eradicated the AEFW, but, it appears the little bits of encrusted acro that grew back on my rockwork sustained them. And they're back. I even took out all the rocks and hit them with a dremel to get all the encrusted coral off.

2) I've always wanted to go BB so I'm giving it a shot.

3) My sand is particularly ugly... I've regretted it since the day I bought it. I didn't know you could pick sand wrong -- Now I know.

3.5) Blame @GoVols and @WallyB

I do have some very clean dry sand laying around. If I get cold feet I'll throw it in. Thankfully it's clean enough I can dump it in while fish are there and not worry about a cloudy mess.