Casey's 120g Peninsula Build

[CaseyP]

Looking at the tank daily makes it seem like coral growth is a snail's pace so always nice to look back on old photos. I tend to take a bunch of photos but never sort through them. 5-6 month progress pics

PC Superman: Dec 2020 - May 2021

RR Pink Floyd: Jan 2021 - May 2021. Bought this one from a hobbyist and not 100% convinced it's a pink floyd. Still like it nonetheless

JF Raspberry Cheesecake: Jan 2021 - May 2021. Had a recent slow bleaching episode at the base but luckily I was able to stop it by moving it then super glueing the receding area

RR Pink Cadillac: Jan 2021 - May 2021

Tubbs Montipora Stellata: December 2020 - May 2021. Going to need to frag this one soon as it's growing very horizontal. Might be challenging since the skeleton is so thick

 

[CaseyP]

Continued

Appleberry montipora capitata: December 2020 - May 2021. Small frag of JF Altered Ego below it

Vivid Rainbow Delight: January 2021 - May 2021. Still cannot pull color out of it but it's growing. It's getting blasted with 400+ par so maybe doesn't like that. Unfortunately it's so well encrusted on a big rock that I cannot move

The Vinh: December 2020 - May 2021. Super stubby growth and slow

ATL Purple Rain: January 2021 - May 2021. Really loving how this one is turning out

RR Prometheus: January 2021 - May 2021. Lost its color but growing

 

[H2OPlayar]

Awesome pics and growth!

 

[Rcruz392]

Yeah great pictures and growth!

 

[CaseyP]

Thanks guys! Made some frags last night to bring to the swap and start a dbtc.

 

[CaseyP]

Unfortunately the tank has gone downhill a bit in the past couple months

I got dinos starting 2 months ago which seemed to have affected just the sps corals. All in all, lost a couple hundred dollars worth of acros. Most of the established ones are doing fine with some color loss, but many of the newer frags went RTN on me. What's perplexing though is I'm not sure how the dinos started since my nitrates have been steady >5ppm and phosphate at 0.1 since I dose. I'm trying to think back on any changes that could have thrown off the balance from changing salt brands to starting to dose phyto. The big system shock I can think of it adding a foxface. I had a good amount of bubble algae that I just lived with since near the beginning which he wiped out in a week.

So far UV sterilizer is not helping either since this species (prorocentrum?) does not migrate into the water column as much as hiding in the sand exclusively. I started adding microbacter7 to see if the increased bacteria can help compete against the dinos.

Full tank shot in June before dinos went into full blown effect.

 

[iani]

Sorry to hear that. What did you end up loosing?

 

[fishy408]

Beautiful tank, thanks for sharing the FTS. It helps people with coral placement and sorry about your loss acros.

 

[CaseyP]

Sorry to hear that. What did you end up loosing?

ASD rainbow milli, vivid confetti, pink lemonade, wild Malaysian acro, tsa dan akroyd, and red dragon were all newer frags (less than 3 months) that overnight RTNd on different days. The established pieces that STNd were a secale colony I've had for years and a tubbs mystic blue stag.

The other established sps colonies seem mostly unaffected and continue to grow with good polyp extension. Euphyllias are fully extending and splitting like crazy. Shrooms types (ricordeas, bounces) did not fare well. Zoas are good as usual. It's kind of all over the place.

 

[fishy408]

Can I ask, were any of your LPS affected? I am on the fence about SPS and may consider LPS only tank since it seems to be more forgiving.

 

[iani]

ASD rainbow milli, vivid confetti, pink lemonade, wild Malaysian acro, tsa dan akroyd, and red dragon were all newer frags (less than 3 months) that overnight RTNd on different days. The established pieces that STNd were a secale colony I've had for years and a tubbs mystic blue stag.

The other established sps colonies seem mostly unaffected and continue to grow with good polyp extension. Euphyllias are fully extending and splitting like crazy. Shrooms types (ricordeas, bounces) did not fare well. Zoas are good as usual. It's kind of all over the place.

Interesting. At least a lot of those pieces are floating around the club. Have you tried bumping up the nutrients at all? I know you have some but doing so may be helpful

 

[CaseyP]

Can I ask, were any of your LPS affected? I am on the fence about SPS and may consider LPS only tank since it seems to be more forgiving.

LPS are doing fantastic as usual, go figure. Acans, torches, hammer, all fully puffed up.

Interesting. At least a lot of those pieces are floating around the club. Have you tried bumping up the nutrients at all? I know you have some but doing so may be helpful

Nitrates were at ~5ppm and phosphates at 0.1ppm but I started increasing my dosing to bring them up further. Going to target 10ppm nitrate

I'm at day 5 of adding Microbacter7 and so far no positive results. If anything cyanobacteria seems to be growing too

 

[Alexx]

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

Tank is just about at a month old and things are stabilizing. 2 part dosing is dialed in to keep alk at 8.4, phosphates a little high at 0.08, but nitrates have been nearly undetectable. I'm feeding pretty heavy already so may need to dose some KNO3 if they stay that way and colors remain pale. All my SPS that faded during the move have started regaining their color so I'm taking that as a good sign to start introducing more.


Full tank shot as of today 11/20/2020
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View from the living room and couch
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The small SPS garden grown from tiny frags starting 6 months ago. In general I like to start with small frags because the challenge of growing them is most of the fun. Plus the cost savings
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The Vivid Rainbow Delight on the left still has a long way to go in recovering its color.
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Bought two new frags as guinea pigs before I go wild and fill up all the rock space with frags. RR Pink Floyd which I've wanted forever and a tabling PC Superman.
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And here's a shot under the hood.
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Man you got a spaceship over here . That's cool.

 

[CaseyP]

Realized I passed this tank's one year anniversary so will need to get update photos soon. The good news is that the dinos are finally receding so it will look much better. Im throwing everything at them, 55w UV sterilizer, dosing silicates to promote diatoms that compete with them, and growing ulva which has potential alleopathic inhibitors.

In other news, started a frag tank in my home office! Was never my intention to churn out frags other than for swaps and occasional sales. Since I missed the last swap, because i fragged myself with a new baby boy on Nov 10th, the display was looking too cluttered so here we go. Picked up a shallow UNS 60S tank from Neptune and used spare equipment from tanks past. For now I'm going to swap a gallon between here and the display every other day or so to keep up with nutrients. I am toying with the idea or using a DOS to do an auto water exchange between the two systems every day but will need to figure how to route the lines. The main display is on my second main floor and the frag is downstairs in the room directly beneath it. I'm not going to risk more sensitive corals like acros in here til then.

 

[DaddyHook]

Realized I passed this tank's one year anniversary so will need to get update photos soon. The good news is that the dinos are finally receding so it will look much better. Im throwing everything at them, 55w UV sterilizer, dosing silicates to promote diatoms that compete with them, and growing ulva which has potential alleopathic inhibitors.

In other news, started a frag tank in my home office! Was never my intention to churn out frags other than for swaps and occasional sales. Since I missed the last swap, because i fragged myself with a new baby boy on Nov 10th, the display was looking too cluttered so here we go. Picked up a shallow UNS 60S tank from Neptune and used spare equipment from tanks past. For now I'm going to swap a gallon between here and the display every other day or so to keep up with nutrients. I am toying with the idea or using a DOS to do an auto water exchange between the two systems every day but will need to figure how to route the lines. The main display is on my second main floor and the frag is downstairs in the room directly beneath it. I'm not going to risk more sensitive corals like acros in here til then.

View attachment 33382

Love it!

 

[dochou]

LPS are doing fantastic as usual, go figure. Acans, torches, hammer, all fully puffed up.


Nitrates were at ~5ppm and phosphates at 0.1ppm but I started increasing my dosing to bring them up further. Going to target 10ppm nitrate

I'm at day 5 of adding Microbacter7 and so far no positive results. If anything cyanobacteria seems to be growing too

How's the dino situation? Getting any better? what do you think has helped you the most with battling the dinos?
I'm currious because I have a dino problem too.

 

[CaseyP]

How's the dino situation? Getting any better? what do you think has helped you the most with battling the dinos?
I'm currious because I have a dino problem too.

WAY better in the last week. In the past when I had coolia and ostreopsis, UV knocked them out quick since they migrated into the water. For this bout with amphidinium which stays exclusively in the sand, I found that dosing silicates (Brightwell Spongexcel) to promote diatom growth was the silver bullet. I can't say for certain but there was also a study of ulva releasing alLeopathic chemicals that inhibited dinos. I added ulva to my algae reactor around the same time I started dosing silicates.

It's not noticeable to the eye since dinos and diatoms are just brown so I monitored sand samples under a microscope. Initially all the brown mats were heavily dinos.

Over the next weeks I started seeing more and more diatoms. All sorts of beautiful types I've never seen before. Eventually the ratio of diatoms to dinos swung the other way so observation tells me that the dinos are being outcompeted.

 

[Coral reefer]

Beautiful diatoms? Now I’ve heard everything!

 

[CaseyP]

Beautiful diatoms? Now I’ve heard everything!

Anything is beautiful after brown snotty dinos cover your white sand for months

 

[B the Nano Reefer]

WAY better in the last week. In the past when I had coolia and ostreopsis, UV knocked them out quick since they migrated into the water. For this bout with amphidinium which stays exclusively in the sand, I found that dosing silicates (Brightwell Spongexcel) to promote diatom growth was the silver bullet. I can't say for certain but there was also a study of ulva releasing alLeopathic chemicals that inhibited dinos. I added ulva to my algae reactor around the same time I started dosing silicates.

It's not noticeable to the eye since dinos and diatoms are just brown so I monitored sand samples under a microscope. Initially all the brown mats were heavily dinos.
View attachment 33402

Over the next weeks I started seeing more and more diatoms. All sorts of beautiful types I've never seen before. Eventually the ratio of diatoms to dinos swung the other way so observation tells me that the dinos are being outcompeted.
View attachment 33403View attachment 33404

This is really neat! Thanks for sharing