Diving straight in - Sameer's Waterbox Infinia 230.6 build thread

[MichaelB]

Ampipods great If you have some. Like tiny shrimp basically. Bigger brothers to pods.

 

[clownvan]

Unfortunately the halloween crab didnt survive, saw bunch of scavengers on top of it a couple of days later! Alas!

Another Chromis passed away yesterday, and very strangely it was not the one of 2 that were hiding.. symptoms were the same - I didnt see it couple of days during lunch/dinner breaks, one day it came to the top gasping for air.. It did have torn fins but no redness, I observed it for a few mins, and Blue tang attacked it while I was there and it had red bruises all over its body.. I moved it to the sump but it didnt survive.. I still have 1 Chromis in the sump, hand feeding it every day, hopefully it gets some confidence to swim in the open before I rehome it.. And one other Chromis is hiding and not eating in display.. 5 of 8 left! Guess it will be first and last attempt at keeping them in Display.. Very disheartening to see them all bruised up.

Question to the fellow reefers - I see a lot of these crawling insects on the sand bed at night.. what are these? Amphipods or something else? Good or Bad guys?

maybe it is time to get a blue devil chromis and show those tangs who is boss =)

 

[Royce023]

Added a 6 head (4 big + 2 small) Dragon Soul Torch I got from @CaseyP.. the one above it is a CC 21 tails torch I got from @Royce023 .. As all new reefers, I like the flow and movement of these torches.. I am sure this will change with time and I will probably start liking zoas and sticks more!

After 1 of the wrasses jumped out of the tank, I made it a point to check my tank every night before going to bed, and slowly I became obsessed with the life at night in my reef tank.. I love how the tank looks so different at night, and still with so much life - wrasses web, sea cucumbers in action, Snails all over the tank, Amphipods crawling on the sand bed.. Last night, I saw 1 of the halloween crabs without their shell and one leg less than what they should have, struggling to find its shell that I found in another corner of the tank.. I dont know how that happened (must be a fight that this one lost?), but I moved the shell next to it before it became a tasty meal for the hermits, wrasses and probably the Marine Betta.. Honestly, I don't know if it will survive but felt good to give it a 2nd chance to live!

I run my tank predominantly with white spectrum. Curious to see if the CC 21 Tails will change colors in your tank. I hope yours will grow like a weed.

 

[spuri87]

Picked up up a few torches, hammers and zoas last week that I bought from a few supporting members and FB marketplace. Not too happy with their placement currently, I am sure I will be moving them around very soon!

Torches: Dragon Tamer, Indo Gold Torch, Ultra Bright Indo Blue Tip Torch, CC 21 tails torch, Dragon Soul, New York Knicks.

 

[spuri87]

Hammers (Right to Left): Green Tip Frammer, Gold Hammer, Hologram Hammer (Top), Yellow Hammer and a big (40+ head) colony of bright Gold Hammer

 

[spuri87]

Some Zoas (Sunny D and 1 other kind (need ID)):

 

[spuri87]

Full tank view:

Planning to do more regular testing (until I buy APEX/Hydros) and frequent water changes to replenish nutrients. Not comfortable right now with manual dosing, so I guess water changes is the best alternative!

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Full tank view:

Planning to do more regular testing (until I buy APEX/Hydros) and frequent water changes to replenish nutrients. Not comfortable right now with manual dosing, so I guess water changes is the best alternative!

Probably cheaper too

 

[PizzaOven]

Full tank view:

Planning to do more regular testing (until I buy APEX/Hydros) and frequent water changes to replenish nutrients. Not comfortable right now with manual dosing, so I guess water changes is the best alternative!

Tank is looking great! Nice work.

 

[Coral reefer]

“A few”

 

[PjFish]

Looking great !! Time to grow some bushes and hedges!!

 

[FinalPhaze987]

If I didnt go all SPS id do a euphyllia tank. Looks beautiful and love the movement. Well done.

 

[spuri87]

I have increased the number of feedings back to 2/day after reading comments from other BAR members above and debating in my head to decide what's more important to me personally - Corals or Fish! At the moment it's the fish

well, this didn't last long!

Long due update.. my paternity leave is ending in couple of days from now, I thought I might as well update the build thread before life takes over.. it was a wonderful summer where we got to bond not only with the (now) 3 month old but also our older one who turned 6 during the summer.. Family visits from India were cherry on top! And, in whatever spare time I could find between changing diapers and playing with the kids, my new love for this hobby just kept on growing more and more!

Couple of months back I randomly posted in facebook groups "LF: LPS or Softies colonies.. nothing exclusive or too expensive.. just got bored looking at the rocks, so want to cover them with some color! Feel free to DM me what you have - torches, hammers, zoas whatever with prices!".. a lot of folks replied and I got to see some of the most wonderful LPS and Softies fellow reefers carry in their tanks.. I remember in my conversation with @H2OPlayar when I was looking at my nutrients very closely, where he said "you can have absolutely stunning LPS and Softies tanks, you dont need to chase numbers to be in perfect range trying to go SPS".. I bought a few of the colonies from fellow reefers and started researching more and more, and soon got absolutely obsessed with these.. A few online auctions and live sales from Tin (Coral Exotic) and Justin (JB Corals), few trades, and some other frags and colonies later, this is how the tank looks like:

3d printed frag plug holders that @VacavilleFC helped print for me have been an absolute game changer for me personally.. I can just move around the frags if I don't like their positioning or feel that they don't like their positioning. Thank you again for your help.

I also got APEX system with Trident ACM and NP and dosing AFR and a little bit of Magnesium every day to keep the nutrients stable.. Justin from JB Corals was gracious enough to help plug it in; it didn't take long for me to realize that this new toy is really daunting to start playing with alone.. My Alk fluctuates from 8.2 to 8.5, this is last 7 days graph:

Calcium sits around 380ish and Magnesium at 1350ish.

Also ordered ICP kit (finally).. will send it for testing hopefully next week. Knowing myself, ICP results will probably throw me deep down the rabbit hole of changing things around.. I just hope it wont be the start of another mini-project for me.. only time will tell!