Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
Thanks for sharing
Gerry’s Waterbox 180.5
- Thread starter gmdcdvm
- Start date
It's probably the one that Julian originally sourced: https://reefbuilders.com/2012/11/01/pavona-frondifera/
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
gmdcdvm
Supporting Member
Ok,
Time for another journal update since it has been a few months. I was gun shy. Overall the tank has been settling in and doing well, but I did not want to jinx it. Just got back from vacation. I previously had a hair algae problem that I was manually removing. This seems to be in control now, but noticed after vacation I have a cyano outbreak. I will admit we feed a lot (my wife loves to see the fish eat). We talked about it and plan on curtailing the feedings. Prior to leaving on my trip the phosphates were 0.9-1.2. I added a small amount of GFR. Came back and checked 6 days later and phosphates were 0.4ml. I removed the GFR to avoid bottoming out the phosphate.
The good news is the corals have never looked better. They are very colorful, I can see new growth on most of them, I have not lost any SPS or LPS. The bad news is the sand bed has clumps of cyano and it likes to creep up on some of the rocks. I have been blowing it away with a turkey baster. The worst news is I noticed a patch of bryopsis that I have never had before. I must have brought some in with some of the new corals I added. Still thinking about fluconazole, but can't do it until I have a few days off to observe the tank in case something goes wrong with treatment.
I added the last of the fish to the tank that were in QT. I picked up a gem tang, purple tang, and rosy scale wrasse from another member about 1.5 months ago. I picked up a borbonius from Cali Kids just prior to the swap. They all finished QT about 10 days ago, but I did not want to add them prior to my vacation. They have been in the tank for a week and so far so good. Everyone is getting along great. The borbonius has decided to school up (or is it shoal up?) with the three bimac anthias. The borbonius might be my new favorite fish.
Some concerns:
1. I have three bangai cardinals. I had started with four but one disappeared early on. They were all the same size when I got them as babies, but now one is huge, one is medium, and one is very small. The small one tends to be on it's own. So far I have not seen aggression from the others. I might need to catch it and place it in the other tank.
2. The SPS have settled down and seem to finally be growing. Still a work in progress. My Alk has been between 8.5-9.1 Calcium between 390-440. Phosphorous has been between 0.4-0.8.
3. Algae issues: I continue to manually remove the hair algae when I can. The law mower blenny still eats it, but he eats a lot of other stuff. Now, I have to decide on what to do about cyano and bryopsis. I am going to add two reefwave 45's that I have had for months, but I have not had the time to set up. The plan is to increase flow across the entire tank to help with deadspots.
4. Aquascape: Still a work in progress. I realized I have been going a little crazy with coral purchases and did not take into account room to grow. So, now I have all these frags on small rocks or attached to plugs that I need to place in the tank. Essentially I have way too many small corals and if they grow it is going to get crowded. I did not think this through, but I guess there is always the frag swaps...
Here are some pics from the last month. I will post some updated pics of the new fish and current tank as soon as I can clean it up a bit and make it look more presentable. Please feel free to provide any advice or ask any questions.
Gerry
p.s. I hope I didn't just jinx my tank. It has been going well after the last disaster.
Time for another journal update since it has been a few months. I was gun shy. Overall the tank has been settling in and doing well, but I did not want to jinx it. Just got back from vacation. I previously had a hair algae problem that I was manually removing. This seems to be in control now, but noticed after vacation I have a cyano outbreak. I will admit we feed a lot (my wife loves to see the fish eat). We talked about it and plan on curtailing the feedings. Prior to leaving on my trip the phosphates were 0.9-1.2. I added a small amount of GFR. Came back and checked 6 days later and phosphates were 0.4ml. I removed the GFR to avoid bottoming out the phosphate.
The good news is the corals have never looked better. They are very colorful, I can see new growth on most of them, I have not lost any SPS or LPS. The bad news is the sand bed has clumps of cyano and it likes to creep up on some of the rocks. I have been blowing it away with a turkey baster. The worst news is I noticed a patch of bryopsis that I have never had before. I must have brought some in with some of the new corals I added. Still thinking about fluconazole, but can't do it until I have a few days off to observe the tank in case something goes wrong with treatment.
I added the last of the fish to the tank that were in QT. I picked up a gem tang, purple tang, and rosy scale wrasse from another member about 1.5 months ago. I picked up a borbonius from Cali Kids just prior to the swap. They all finished QT about 10 days ago, but I did not want to add them prior to my vacation. They have been in the tank for a week and so far so good. Everyone is getting along great. The borbonius has decided to school up (or is it shoal up?) with the three bimac anthias. The borbonius might be my new favorite fish.
Some concerns:
1. I have three bangai cardinals. I had started with four but one disappeared early on. They were all the same size when I got them as babies, but now one is huge, one is medium, and one is very small. The small one tends to be on it's own. So far I have not seen aggression from the others. I might need to catch it and place it in the other tank.
2. The SPS have settled down and seem to finally be growing. Still a work in progress. My Alk has been between 8.5-9.1 Calcium between 390-440. Phosphorous has been between 0.4-0.8.
3. Algae issues: I continue to manually remove the hair algae when I can. The law mower blenny still eats it, but he eats a lot of other stuff. Now, I have to decide on what to do about cyano and bryopsis. I am going to add two reefwave 45's that I have had for months, but I have not had the time to set up. The plan is to increase flow across the entire tank to help with deadspots.
4. Aquascape: Still a work in progress. I realized I have been going a little crazy with coral purchases and did not take into account room to grow. So, now I have all these frags on small rocks or attached to plugs that I need to place in the tank. Essentially I have way too many small corals and if they grow it is going to get crowded. I did not think this through, but I guess there is always the frag swaps...
Here are some pics from the last month. I will post some updated pics of the new fish and current tank as soon as I can clean it up a bit and make it look more presentable. Please feel free to provide any advice or ask any questions.
Gerry
p.s. I hope I didn't just jinx my tank. It has been going well after the last disaster.
Attachments
Last edited:
derek_SR
Supporting Member
Looking good! I also love my Borbonius - awesome fish.
Whenever I have Cyano pop up, it's just a signal to me to clean my gyres and/or crank up the flow and then it goes away immediately. I run nutrients pretty high also.
I am starting to see why mixed reefs are so hard - when the flow is high enough to keep SPS happy and Cyano away, the LPS get knocked around pretty good. And I find myself slowly pulling more and more LPS out to make space for SPS...
Whenever I have Cyano pop up, it's just a signal to me to clean my gyres and/or crank up the flow and then it goes away immediately. I run nutrients pretty high also.
I am starting to see why mixed reefs are so hard - when the flow is high enough to keep SPS happy and Cyano away, the LPS get knocked around pretty good. And I find myself slowly pulling more and more LPS out to make space for SPS...
gmdcdvm
Supporting Member
The best news so far is that the spotted puffer has been an ideal citizen. He just cruises along looking for food. He is one of the first fish to come up to the feed ring when he sees us approach. He does not bother any other fish and seems to leave the corals alone. Just picks at the rocks here and there.
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
How’s the sharp nose Pufferfish behaving?
gmdcdvm
Supporting Member
He is awesome so far! Since day one he minds his own business. I don't have any small snail or crabs, and he leaves all the larger ones alone. He swims out and competes for food, but does not show any aggression towards any tankmates. When it is not feeding time he just casually swims around looking for stuff in the rocks. I have yet to see him nip at the corals let alone other fish. I would say he is a model citizen!
Gerry
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
Thanks, that’s great to hear.
Any peppermint or cleaner shrimp in your tank?
I wonder if it would eat vermetid snails?
