Tony's 72g Mixed Reef Build

[TonysReef]

Took a rock out of the tank and threw it in the refugium. The two pieces on the right were too large for the tank, wanted to give the carpets more space also. Dipped the rock in RO before moving it down and caught two more hitchhikers:

So that's six pistols down, one in the sump I still haven't caught and definitely at least one or two still in the tank. ***.

I may just have someone come help me one night and remove the center structure and all the rocks to freshwater dip everything in one shot and just be done with it. It's all epoxied together though, so it's a pain. But I think it has to be done. I can't handle the clicking anymore, it's literally keeping me awake at night.

Sump shot, I'm also tempted to remove the left baffle and expand the refugium section. Pail on the right has a small green carpet in it that's getting picked up in the morning.

Full tank shot:

 

[TonysReef]

So it hit me last night that I could split the sump rock into two pieces and so salvage some of it for the right side of the display and solve two problems. I still need to rearrange a little, but here is an updated full tank shot:

Also threw in some hose in the hopes of catching a pistol shrimp, but more on that presently.

I contacted a maintenance guy that helped me with swapping out my sump today and he's going to send someone to help me finally rid the tank of pistol shrimps on Friday morning, which I am very excited about. It's something I could tackle myself, but I find projects like these are far better with two sets of hands and eyes and I can get frustrated at times, so having someone else lending a hand mitigates that possibility and the deleterious effects it can have.

Here is my plan, please let me know if anyone has suggestions/criticisms of it.

1. I'm making about 25 gallons of water that I'm going to mix to 1.025 and have heated and circulated and ready for the tank basically as if I were doing a big water change. (The plan is to keep the return pump and clarisea running during the whole rock-out process.)
2. The new water will all be put into the tank while siphoning out tank water into a separate brute garbage pail. That pail will be a holding tank for rocks and maybe some corals. I'll probably put in 25 gallons of new water and only siphon out 20 gallons to compensate for the rocks being removed.
3. Each base rock will be taken out of the tank while someone holds a large net underneath to catch sand and kamikaze shrimp, dipped into a 1.030 hypersalinity dip for about a minute at the base (these shrimp seem to only stay low in all the rocks, which makes life easier. After getting dipped the rocks will go into the brute with siphoned out water for holding.
4. Once all the rocks are out of the tank and dipped and sitting in the brute pail I'll let the tank settle for a few minutes and clean the sand with a siphon to make sure I didn't miss anything. That siphon will drain into a filter sock in the sump to not waste water or lose shrimp if found.
5. Then before putting the rocks back in the tank I'll hypersalinity dip them for another 30 seconds.
6. Lastly I'll siphon out the remaining five gallons of extra water I had put in to compensate for the rocks. Ensure salinity is good and hope for the best.

 

[fcmatt]

Pretty good chance your 20 clowns will become 2 over time. I am surprised you have not found some on the floor yet. Also the weak ones that are harrassed will get eaten as you have seen.

And yes.. finding nice carpets.. show pieces is truly difficult. How did you feel about your aquasd purchases compared to the pics?

Did you decide to feed your carpets often or just once a month or so?

 

[TonysReef]

Friday was D-Day. All the rocks came out, my apartment was a disaster of pails and buckets and water. Anemones were uprooted and rocks were dropped. And in the end... I still have pistol shrimp in my ******* tank.

All rocks came out of the tank and were dipped for about 30 seconds in 1.030 water, then in RO water for about ten seconds. In the end we got two pistols. The one from the sump and one more from the tank:

I realized that night that there was still some faint clicking, so I decided to remove one rock completely from the tank and re-scape a bit on Saturday morning. But as of last night and this morning there is still clicking. I would imagine maybe two more shrimp, but I imagined there were two of them initially and I have already flushed 8. So I'm beginning to believe that there may be an interdimensional portal somewhere in my tank to a pistol shrimp world.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do next. I can't handle the clicking. It is driving me insane and my enjoyment of the tank is severely lessened. I'm always just waiting for a click to make me angry. But I need to let things settle for at least a few days as I had to uproot a few anemones and it clearly wasn't pleasant for them or the tank (or me).

In other bad news, I've realized that I'm down to only 12 clowns. Where responsibility lies I can't be sure. I want to blame the pistol shrimp, but at worst they're only partially to blame as I've never found a body or evidence. So maybe the clicks are stunning the clowns and then the carpets are eating the fish. They seem perfectly comfortable sleeping in the anemones, so I have a hard time believing the pistols don't play a role. But they still have hyper-melanization after a month, so clearly they're not getting used to the anemones.

So I've decided to throw in the towel on the designer harem. Clearly the tank has become a real episode of Survivor. So I'm going to catch as many as I can and take them to the LFS. I also took out my bicolor haddoni which I'm hoping to sell. Once the tank is cleared of fish (and hopefully shrimp) then I'll decide what to replace them with. At the moment I'm leaning towards just trying to find a nice pair of Saddleback Clowns and calling it a day.

I would give anything for something that could eat the shrimp and not get eaten by the haddonis, but I don't think such a critter exists.

Anyhooo, onto good news.

Decided to get some encrusting sps for the overflow and rear walls, first few frags:

Right side of the tank redone:

Left side:

Carpet Garden

And full tank shot:

And yes.. finding nice carpets.. show pieces is truly difficult. How did you feel about your aquasd purchases compared to the pics?

Did you decide to feed your carpets often or just once a month or so?

I've come to learn that I need to email Will at AquaSD for cell phone shots of anemones before considering a purchase.

And I intentionally feed them seldomly, once every few weeks. Less for the larger ones that I don't want to grow.

 

[TonysReef]

Today is War with my tank pt. 2

My greatest fear is that I'll end up with baby pistol shrimp, as 3 of the 8 I've removed were carrying eggs. So I decided it was best to tackle the problem again in earnest. And the clicks really are effecting my ability to sleep well. Also I have a final carpet coming in on Friday, so I wanted to get this sorted between now and then.

Picked up a $20 twenty gallon from petco. I really should have gotten a couple:

Isolated a couple of rocks last night with no luck, although I didn't get it filled with tank water until nearly midnight, so I wasn't thinking through strategy clearly. I threw in a couple of the rocks on one side of the tank to no avail.

As of this morning the clicks were still coming from the tank so I decided to strategize at work. I realized that as long as my apartment is in the upper 70's I can just put rocks in buckets with some tank water overnight. One rock per bucket (more or less) and I can pinpoint which buckets are clicking by spacing them out in the apartment. I would prefer having circulation in each bucket, but for one night I'm not worried about anything bad happening.

At the moment I'm sitting in silence listening for clicks. The first one came from a bucket with two rocks unfortunately. They're now split up and I'm waiting for the next to know which one to attack or just leave out of the tank going forward.

The tank is a mess, but there was no avoiding that. I'm tempted to uproot all of the anemones and put them in a bin while I clean the sand and maybe even catch the fish tomorrow. It depends how successful I am with shrimp tonight.

Hopefully this works and doesn't hit the stability of the tank too hard. I have rock and chaeto in the sump, also the skimmer and clarisea are champs. So I'm hopeful it'll all be cleared up in a couple of days. But at the moment it goes without saying everything is unhappy.

 

[TonysReef]

Quick update.

Last night sucked. I started putting a few rocks back in in the middle of the night after realizing that the center rock of my structure definitely had a larger pistol in it, although I couldn't get it out of the rock so I finally decided to just throw the rock away this morning.

Also there was some faint clicking from one of three rocks, I thought I eleminated the possibility of my RBTA rock, but after putting it back in there seemed to be some clicking from the tank again, so that was scary. It's back out and maybe I can salvage the rock, we'll see.

I also still don't know about my two top rocks, which is a hassle. But I really don't want to take any chances. Tonight I'll put the three remaining rocks into their own buckets and see what I can hear. The problem is that the shrimp don't always click and I haven't found a way to induce it. So it really is a miserable game of patience.

Anyway, here is where things stand:

Things look better than I expected. Especially considering how many of the carpets I had to uproot. The purple on the left was especially attached and I felt horrible for how much I had to fight it. But they get their foot so far under the rock that once the rock is lifted you can't put it back down without moving them.

Here are the rocks still in quarantine.

And now for some better news and a few pics (glass is dirty, but I'm not going to clean it until everything is done. Any algal/bacterial help I can get is welcome at the moment):

Budding purple Haddoni:

Goni Garden is a little cramped at the moment, will space out when the dust settles, but they all seem happy.

I also picked up a new brown goni with really nice contrast yesterday:

Alveopora Garden (also with a new addition this week:

Got a tierra del fuego colony on Monday. It is sad now, but is really healthy. I also need to cut the base soon. Just have to bring it to a shop with a saw.

While picking it up the guy offered me a setosa and tort frag for a good price. Couldn't say no.

Lastly I got a little jackolatern frag to keep the elegance company:

 

[Falco]

great thread! Sorry to hear about the never ending saga of pistol's but the rock isolation idea is a great one. Good luck to you and keep updating the thread

 

[TonysReef]

Good news: the tank seems to be resilient and bounced back pretty quickly from getting torn apart. Bad news, definitely still at least one pistol in the tank. Good news, it doesn't seem to be too clicky. I would imagine that the frequency was largely a result of the fact that I had an entire neighborhood of them in my tank. With only one or so maybe there is no reason to be noisy. Either way, we have a temporary cease fire.

War round two netted two shrimp at least. One was in a large rock that I just threw away, here is the one I managed to catch:

I started catching fish last night. So far I pulled five out of the tank, seven more to go. I was hoping to get them overnight, but they nestle deep in the carpets, so it's more difficult than I expected. The carpets have been through enough, so I don't want to hit them with the net. If anything I'll try to get the fish with a hose/siphon. Probably not the most pleasant way to get taken out, but it should work. No rush until I sell the ones that I've caught so far. Don't want them sitting in QT for longer than need be.

The plan after I get rid of all the clowns is probably to sit on a fish-less tank for a little while and then wait until I find a nice pair of saddleback clowns and call it a day.

Yesterday my final carpet came in and I'm really happy with it. Funny story, I got my red carpet from a small lfs with an website that doesn't advertise by sleuthing around one night in search of carpets that might be hidden. I got lucky and found this place, they had two red ones online for $600 a piece. One was clearly a more vivid red, so I asked them to email me a cell phone pic (which you really need to do these days or you're in for some letdowns) and the anemone was awesome, it's the one I've had for months:

It came in super healthy and would have listed for at least double what I paid anywhere else.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and @dieselkeeper asked where I got my anemones. I answered that I wouldn't recommend any of them, but the truth is I first thought of the place I got my red and was curious to see the second one better. In pictures it looked more pink or washed out than mine, but before I recommended the site/anemone to someone else, I wanted to be sure, so I emailed them for a few more pics.

Much to my surprise he said that he preferred the one he still had and that the washed out color was because it wasn't red throughout, but red with green bases to each tentacle around the center. Needless to say that's pretty unique, so I decided I had space for one more and that was the one I received yesterday. It had been sitting in their shop and online for about 4 months at a bargain price. I feel quite lucky to have it really.

So, meet my Christmas Haddoni:

That pic is after only a few hours in the tank, so I'll get some real top down close up shots when it colours up a little more, but here is one that I was sent from the store before purchase/shipping:

That's it for now. Rearranged rocks with everything, but I still seem to have a little rock and glass space. Will probably mount some more frags on the back glass as I think it is far more visually appealing than having it bare. I would love more rock, but maximizing sand space is clearly the goal. I ordered one more Goni yesterday also now that I think about it:

The tank is about done at this point, so everything new I get after this weekend/next week will probably result in something getting taken out to make space.

Also yesterday as a preventative I got a bio block and some bio sphera to seed it and shore up the biological filtration since I removed rocks and stirred so many things up. So far so good.

Full tank shot (glass is still dirty, will probably feel comfortable cleaning tomorrow or so, I need to test nitrates first)

 

[TonysReef]

As usual, good and bad news.

Bad news out of the way, I noticed some flatworms this morning. Debating giving a six line wrasse a shot, just not sure it's worth the risk with 8 carpets and still having six clowns that are territorial and mean. Probably I'll try the eXit product, just always afraid of chemicals. Anybody have experience with it? Also as you'll see at the bottom in the full tank shot, the splotchy carpet is moving around looking for a new spot, which is a pain.

Onto good news. Finally got around to testing nitrates this morning and they were only at 2. So the tank definitely took the tear downs in stride. As a result I finally cleaned the glass and can enjoy the tank a bit, finally.

Only additions this weekend were a couple of porcelain crabs I couldn't resist and I finally found a fireworks clove frag for a good price to replace my regular cloves. I did leave a few regular cloves that had grown onto the frag rock though.

They're not quite open yet, but it was a really nice frag. Regular cloves above it.

Porcelain crabs:

I was slightly reluctant to get them as I had one a few months ago that I'm sure the pistols killed, but with so many of them removed maybe I'll get lucky and these two will stay safe.

A few random shots, goni garden needs to get cleaned up, which I'll do when the (likely) final one arrives Tuesday.

Highlighter Carpet:

New Christmas Carpet:

Broke out the Nikon and porthole for a couple of shots also:

Black storm in the Platinum Blue Carpet:

Sympodium:

Tri-Carpet:

Current full tank shot:

I'm debating getting some more frag rocks for the empty back sections. Not sure what else I would use that space for, other than encrusting corals. But probably the frag rocks will win out as it'll give me an opportunity to get more corals, so yeah, that'll be the go. Just need to decide large rocks or small ones. For reference I have two large ones on the outside now and a small one at the top middle.

 

[dieselkeeper]

That highlighter nem really glows. Really pops on the FTS. I'm relieved that everything turned on good.

 

[fcmatt]

Do you worry about a nem coming in infected and causing trouble for all the rest? This is a critical time it seems.

 

[TonysReef]

Down to four clowns in the display, going to see if I can start coaxing them up into the water column again, but I'm not overly optimistic. And they seem to hate each other. Maybe a trap or a killer helianthus anemone that an lfs I go to has that I'll borrow as a last resort. Time will tell.

Picked up a bunch of frags and moved a magnet rock to the left side of the tank, also all of the carpets are open at the same time, which is rare. There seems to almost always be at least one closed up. I didn't even realize I had 9 of them, thought it was 8 until just now.

So today we start with the full tank shot:

A few of the new frags:

Pipe organ rock with a beautiful rainbow monti I found mounted above.

Got some star polyps and a couple of sps frags.

Pavona frag, fireworks cloves and the setosa which looks great.

Left side carpets:

Middle and Right side:

Got a new bicolor goni online (on the bottom right), not sure I love it yet. Closer pic:

Goni Garden:

TCK had a sale finally so I have a nice second space invader frag coming in Tuesday, also a lepto frag. Caved and got a clam and another goni from corals.com update yesterday. So Tuesday is delivery day. Will update next weekend.

Also, anyone following along, feel free to vote for #6 in the photo of the month thread. Looks like a lost cause, but gotta go for the win anyway.

Do you worry about a nem coming in infected and causing trouble for all the rest? This is a critical time it seems.

Yes, of course. I've been asking for cell phone pics over a few days any time I get a new one at the moment assuming I don't see it in person to make sure I only get healthy specimens in. Impossible to be 100% sure of anything though.

There was a really tempting rainbow one that was posted here a few days ago, but too expensive and it already sold anyway. Some new ones came into an lfs on Saturday while I was there, will be really curious how they do when I go back next weekend. They got blue ones with great color and a really interesting red one with some contrast as well.

 

[fcmatt]

Not sure I am a fan of those red.. but those blue sure are blue. What kind of lighting were they under? I am also curious what the asking price was for them.

 

[Simon Reefing]

Great tank! I am buying the 100.3 tomorrow. Is the display only 72 gallon? I read on the website it said a little under 100 gallons but I didn't know if that's was total volume

 

[dieselkeeper]

Love your tank. Love all the anemones with all the colorful corals. Totally jealous

 

[TonysReef]

Some updated pics and info. I do have one issue that I could use feedback on. Two of my SPS closed, the pink/purple mille and my tierra del fuego. As of yesterday polyps were completely retracted and the same again today. Did some tests and Nitrates were at 0, so I'm feeding a bit more heavily to correct that, but that shouldn't make them completely retract I wouldn't think. Alk is 7.2, was 7 about a week ago. So steadyish.

It's strange. I can't spot any pests on them and some other sps, like the setosa and a couple of other random frags are happy. Nothing in the tank has really changed and everything else is happy.

Any ideas? Would be appreciated.

Onto pictures:

I'm down to only two clowns after catching two others last night:

One of my BTA's seems to have split from my stressing them out moving the rock around in going after the pistol shrimp. I don't mind having 3:

Top Right:

Top Left:

Middle left:

Right/Middle tank:

Left anemones:

Goni Garden:

Goni closeup:

Jackolantern:

New Pipe organ closeup:

Full tank shot:

Lavender anemone on the back left is probably going to get traded soon. It never really colored up and it takes up a lot of room. Especially if the ones I saw last weekend are healthy and reasonably priced tomorrow. Really hope I can catch the last two fish soon and then I'll be on the lookout for a saddleback pair.

As the post started, would appreciate any input on the SPS being retracted. Strange that it's only like three of them and everything else is happy. Cheers.

Not sure I am a fan of those red.. but those blue sure are blue. What kind of lighting were they under? I am also curious what the asking price was for them.

They weren't sure on pricing yet. Will find out tomorrow if they're still available and healthy. Will also try to check lighting, but they keep the spectrum white in the anemone tank, which I appreciate.

Great tank! I am buying the 100.3 tomorrow. Is the display only 72 gallon? I read on the website it said a little under 100 gallons but I didn't know if that's was total volume

Correct. It's just over 100 for the total system.

Love your tank. Love all the anemones with all the colorful corals. Totally jealous

Cheers.

 

[Fudsey]

In case you didn't see it, I wanted to point it out. I'd remove the rock, scape/ clean it off and superglue the hole it's in if it's what I think it is....

 

[chizerbunoi]

Very nice tank thread. Not sure if you knew but other clownfish species like the saddlebacks click when they communicate as well. Not sure if that will drive you up the wall after going through the pistol shrimp issues.

 

[TonysReef]

Rainy day update.

Ride side shot:

Left side shot:

Full tank shot:

Got a second rainbow monti:

Jackolantern Frags:

Macro of the top frag:

Macro of the bottom frag:

24k Gold Lepto frag:

Emerald Lepto growing out off the frag:

Got a kung pao monti yesterday. Couldn't resist.

Purple/green monti and tubbs stiletta (sp?): (if anyone knows the monti name, please let me know.

One of the porcelain crabs molted which I'm happy about. The old shell had algae growing on it when I purchased. Can't wait for the larger one to molt as well.

Got a second, larger space invader Pectinia so that the first one would have company.

Pulled the original sympodium frag off the rock and am hoping to get it to grow on the clam shell.

Once diving I saw a giant clam with clove polyps covering the shell and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen underwater. Hoping to replicate it with this combo.

Two stylos were also on the menu this week. A loony tunes and a burning banana:

Most people are probably thinking that I have to be out of space, and yes. I basically am. Someone posted locally that they had a 10G Nuvo with a light for $100, bunch of test kits also. So I grabbed it. A little cleaning, new pump, and I have an isolation tank now. Also means I got to clean out my sump. Everything in this tank is for sale, so it gives me time to wait for a buyer. Large purple carpet was restless and upsetting the other anemones. Also I prefer the newer budding carpet. So it's in isolation until sold.

Tierra del fuego started to decline. Other SPS still aren't thrilled, but are improving. I think an emerald crab may have been picking at them, but they're still not fully extended. I haven't really been feeding the tank since I got rid of fish, so I get the sense 0 nutrients isn't helping them. Going to double daily feed corals this week and see what happens.

That's it for now. Nothing ordered or on the horizon. Except for potentially clowns. Still trying to source a nice pair of saddlebacks. If anything I'll go with two black ones from ORA, but I would prefer orange ones if possible. I'm thinking of getting a pair of banggai cardinals also. Seems their swimming behavior would keep them safe and above the anemones. Anyone else have ideas for what could safely be added with 9 haddonis?? I'm assuming it's a very short list.

In case you didn't see it, I wanted to point it out. I'd remove the rock, scape/ clean it off and superglue the hole it's in if it's what I think it is....

Yeah, I get the occasional aptasia that pops up. I needle them with kalk. I was a bit behind, but I caught up the other day. Appreciate the heads up. There was actually a second one in the powerhead guard that is just to the top of the pic you posted ironically.

 

[dieselkeeper]

Absolutely amazing tank.