Michael's 168 build

[fishy408]

The heads on those Hellfire Torches are super fat and thick, probably about 2x or 3x the size of mine when I purchased online. @H2OPlayar , thanks for spending the time to show/explain how your tank works and operates, very educational.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. Those unnamed Zoa's you have, you should name them God's Zoa and sell them for $$$. They look way better than some of the expensive named Zoas.

 

[Joseph Lee]

Nice birdnest vs Stylo arch

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Frag the ORA Froskin, get 3 coralites growing off it
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SPS side
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Short side
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So many coralites!!!
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Entry side
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GMK's!!! And some other cool one. Who wants to learn to frag next?

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Monti fighting rock!
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Awesome tank Michael! It was very nice meeting you today.

 

[B the Nano Reefer]

Had the pleasure of seeing this tank again today and learning to frag zoas. Picked up a few frags in the process. Thanks Michael!

 

[H2OPlayar]

A Tubastrea spawned on the underside of the Cali Tort!

Grow NPS baby!

Another one inside of a snail shell!

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Feed them!!

 

[H2OPlayar]

Feed them!!

Oh boy do I

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Have you found any in the sump or overflow?

 

[Chromis]

That is awesome. Looking forward to seeing pics of the growing tank raised tubastrea!

 

[H2OPlayar]

Have you found any in the sump or overflow?

Nope, just a bunch of aiptasia. @JVU how does this compare to your tanks? I want to see that journal of your aiptasia farm!

 

[Turkeysammich]

Those are a lot of filter feeders in that overflow box. They clean the water. Strange they aren’t on the sides. Just the bottom

 

[H2OPlayar]

Those are a lot of filter feeders in that overflow box. They clean the water. Strange they aren’t on the sides. Just the bottom

They are everywhere that touches water. That might be a camera trick.

 

[H2OPlayar]

During a coral feeding tonight, I am 99% sure I saw a blue raven Blastomussa spawn. It squirted a white stream up about 1" in a manner similar to what I have seen the larger snails do, except for it was a constant stream and a duration of 1-2 seconds. I have two colonies of that species in my tank, that were acquired almost a year apart. @Thales or others in the know, does that biology check out?

Also finding baby tubastrea all over the tank, so naturally I added two more colonies to get more coral spawning going. So cool to see these guys grow up.

 

[H2OPlayar]

Happy colonies of tubastrea

Tubastrea baby growing on the underside of Cali Tort Acro

Fire shrimp surfing on a blue tang laying sideways

Walt Disney Acro has finally started growing!

Look at that little finger go!

More baby tubastrea growing

There are these neat hard tube worms that look like oversized vermetid snails and the montipora are growing right over the top of them.

Mandarin chugging along

 

[NickRoseSN1985]

How easy is it to keep tubastrea? Always thought of getting one. You make it seem easy, but its probably the heavy feeding you do.

 

[H2OPlayar]

How easy is it to keep tubastrea? Always thought of getting one. You make it seem easy, but its probably the heavy feeding you do.

If you have a tank rich in food, they do well.

I do have mixed results with the colonies, but my main goal was to get spawning and grow those heads out all over the tank, which is happening and is very cool. The ones that had a strong feeding response at the store are still doing well.

 

[NickRoseSN1985]

I do feed a lot but probably nothing close to you. I feed two cubes of homemade food a day, AB+ and Norwegian Cod Liver Oil every night, 2 million baby brine shrimp twice a week, Reef Roid and yeast twice a week.

What LFS did you get the tubastrea from?

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[rdriggett]

Your thriving NPS is one of your tanks coolest features!

 

[H2OPlayar]

I do feed a lot but probably nothing close to you. I feed two cubes of homemade food a day, AB+ and Norwegian Cod Liver Oil every night, 2 million baby brine shrimp twice a week, Reef Roid and yeast twice a week.

What LFS did you get the tubastrea from?

That's not far from what I feed. I have TDO pellets drop in 4x a day. I try to feed roe eggs every morning with a half sheet of nori. About half the days I feed lunch with frozen whatever I have. And then I try to feed a dinner every night. Maybe 2-3x a week I squirt some phyto in and a separate 2-3 times I pour amino acids in. At least once a week I do the heavy powder food at night. Maybe that is a lot.

Clearwater gets them in occasionally

 

[Joseph Lee]

I had a chance to visit Michael's house to check out his tank and would like to share some pictures taken.
His tank looked terrific with lots of colorful corals and fish under the beautiful shimmer created by the two AP700!
Also thanks to him for being generous and giving away some nice pieces.

The left side of the tank. His fish are very well fed.

One of the top-down shots. Love the aquascape with green and red corals. The female anthias help create a nice vibrant background.

The right side of the aquascape is full of acros.

Another shot of the left side of the tank. He has lots of sun coral babies growing everywhere.

Another top-down shot. I always have been a fan of red digitata because they add a lot of color to aquascape.

Very large gold striped maroon clownfish.

Classic shot with anthias with the acro background.

Shallow depth of field shot focusing on micromussa lords.

 

[Joseph Lee]

The trio of a green montipora with red dots, a blue tortusa like acro as well as a green slimer stag.

Another shot of the gold bar maroon clownfish on a carpet anemone.

Love the corcea clam on the red digitata, I should try this when mine becomes a colony.

The birdsnest points out of the water when the return pump is off.

Feather dusters and duncan and candycane corals on the bottom side of the tank.