Cali Kid Corals

Vincent's 40g AIO

It may be a little early for corals. You're going to get a lot of swings in parameters as the tank stabilizes so don't be surprised if some corals perish or behave poorly in case the parameters change drastically.
 
I was going to say the same thing as Denzil.

Corals are animals too and as such they are also super sensitive to lingering ammonia and nitrite.

My strategy for new tanks is usually inverts>fish>coral.

But if you're just putting in 10$ frags, it's cool! Yeaaaah excited about seeing this tank color up :)

Remember to consider:
  • Stinging sweeper tentacles of some corals
  • Color placement
  • coral growth pattern (encrusting, branching, matting)
  • Light/flow requirements
 
Some new additions!

Picked these up from the tour.

Rasta Zoa (lousy picture, I'll try to get a nicer one tomorrow)
RastaZoa.jpg


Rhodactus
Rhodactus.jpg


No name Zoa rock, think they look like Nuclear somethings

Zoa1.jpg


These were picked up today from someone in San Rafael. Dipped in CoralRX AND Revive then into the QT

Bird Of Paradise

BirdOfParadise.jpg


Ponape

Ponape.jpg


Pink Zipper Zoa

PinkZipperZoa.jpg


Stylo

Stylo.jpg


There is also a Grandis Paly but it is not fully open yet so I'll take a pic when it feels better!

Here is a lousy picture of the Gold Maul I got off Enderturtle with the new baby! Its in the DT now.

GoldMaul.jpg


I've moved all my previous coral from the QT to the DT. Everything is doing great except for the Bowerbanki, its sulking a little, deflated but had feeding tentacles out when I fed the tank.
 
Well, I've started dosing, sorta.

Check parms last night and they were lower. Mg was 1240, alk was 7.8, cal was 400. Down from 1400,12, 460.

I had some Aquavitro supplements @tankguy gave me and I dosed the max daily recommended doses for mg, alk and cal. I've also added Kalk to my ato reservoir.

These are just stop gap measures until I figure out what exactly is happening. I think I may have the start of coralline growing in the tank.

I'll be leaving for about 4 days come Tuesday, so my plan was to do a largeish WC Monday night. But depending on what the parms are tonight when I test, I may bump up the timing.

On the plus side, the Bowerbanki is starting to come around. I think it maybe my nightingale for tank parms. After I dosed last night, it perked up today. Starting to fill out a little. Might be coincidence but I'll keep my eye on it.

Everything else is doing great! Acans are fully inflated, Zoas are all open and some have gained more color from the higher lvl of light in the DT. Duncan is loving the flow but color is lightening up so I'll move him a little lower down in the tank. The Blasto not so much so I may move him away from the flow but keep it at the same level. Favia is doing well.

Sticks in the QT are doing well, color is coming back. Have good PE, esp the Stylo. Pink Zippers are full open and looking good. Grandis paly is still kinda midway. Not quite full but not quite closed. He just go cut a few days ago so might just be healing up.

Time to decide if I want to do kalk in ATO or kalk as a dosing supplement and biopellets or vodka. If I dose kalk and vodka I can get by with a dual head doser. If I want to do kalk in ato + 2 part I would need a 3 head.

Hmm.. decisions decisions.
 
Another new addition.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1434938383.460247.jpg


Couldn't resist esp after hearing Australia and other countries may start banning export of Euphyllia.

CRC has a nice wall bicolor hammer I might pick up too
 
Did measurements and the numbers are a little funny. Mg is holding at 1280 but alk is at a low of 6.2 n ca is high at 501!

This is after I added Kalk to the ATO but at 50%. 2 tsp for 2 gallons. Didn't dissolve fully with lots of left over even after stirring.

Just did a 25% wc n topped off ATO without adding more kalk. Unfortunately I have to be away for a few days or I'd test everyday to see the progression. I'll test when I get back on Saturday.
 
Last edited:
I went on a 4 day trip to NC. Son competed in the National Gymnastics Competition. Tank was on autopilot the whole time and came back to a slightly unsightly tank, algae on the sides and in the tank but everyone survived. Temps soared into the 90s here while I was gone and I was worried the 2g ATO reservoir wasn't enough and sure enough it wasn't. But sg only dipped to 1.024 so wasn't too bad. Brought it back up to 1.026.

Measured params again when I came back on Sat and alk was @ 5.93dkh, cal was high @ 510 and mag steady @1280.
I'm going to take the kalk off line and just use straight ro/di until I get the alk and cal back in sync.

But, today I practically cleaned out a fellow reefers supplies. He put up his 120g + practically everything he had (ATI 4X24 lights, Hanna checkers, Milwaukee sg checker, Salifert test kits, all his pumps including a Sicce 3.5 and many many other things) on CL for $250. If I had the room I would have snagged it all but I didn't. Luckily someone offered to buy the tank only so I got the rest of the gear!

Included is a complete, never used BRS 2 part bulk dosing set. So, I guess I better pick up a doser and start doing it right!

Been reading up on the BRS 2 part setup and seems easy enough. The tough part is getting alk to the necessary levels 1st. I have some alk additives from Aqua Vitro. May give that a try to see if I can get it close. Then do a bigish WC to bring it up to the necessary levels.

But, still need to get a doser. Eyeing the Jebao DP4, can't afford the DOS right now
 
So when you came back your specific gravity was 1.024 so you increased it to 1.026? Generally when water evaporates, the specific gravity increases so I'm a little confused as to how it got there. It looks like your alkalinity values are relatively low. If it were me, I'd try to mix in some alkalinity buffer solution to bring it up to 8 or 9.
 
So when you came back your specific gravity was 1.024 so you increased it to 1.026? Generally when water evaporates, the specific gravity increases so I'm a little confused as to how it got there. It looks like your alkalinity values are relatively low. If it were me, I'd try to mix in some alkalinity buffer solution to bring it up to 8 or 9.

lol.. oops. I meant it was 1.028 and I dropped it to 1.026

I'm dosing the eight.four additive from Aqua Vitro to try and get it higher.
 
Check params today and its looking better.

Alk @ 8.17dkh
Ca @ 422ppm
Mg @ 1280ppm

Need to up the Mg a little but that itsn't as bad. I will be mixing the BRS 2 Part today and start figuring out dosing tomorrow.

I did add to the tank today.

TyreeElegance.jpg


Picked it up today. This one did not go into the QT. Been reading that these can be fragile so I didn't want to stress it out too much. Acclimated it, checked for pests (it came from a local BAR member so I'm taking a leap of faith that it is clean) as much as I could then placed it on the sand bed in med/low light, med flow.

Will be observing it closely but it looks good so far. Opened up even more after I put it in the tank. I took that as a good sign.
 
Oh did you grab one of those Tyree Elegance Corals too?

There's a lot of history in that piece. Very easy to keep and easy to frag if you have a bandsaw and know what you're doing. It does not need to be fed.
 
Yup.

I couldn't pick up last week as I was gonna be in North Carolina and the tank would be on autopilot till I got home last weekend. Didn't want to leave such a nice coral unattended in a new tank. Luckily he agreed to hold one for me.

I've been reading up on its heritage and I'm very happy to have a frag of it.

Next thing is to pick up a frag of the Mystery Tiedye Jawbreaker.
 
Lots has changed in my tank. Unfortunately my PC decided it needed a vacation too so I have not been able to edit any of the photos I took recently.

Using an old MacBook right now but it doesn't have Lightroom so I'm going to try n dust off my photoshop skills.

But the latest addition besides the rock nems is this little gem

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1437196573.523207.jpg


It was in the 10g that I got from Roberto earlier this week. It has pretty colors but I was afraid to move it after hearing all the horror stories but I bit the bullet n did it tonight.

Tried Nav's toothbrush tip, didn't work. Just scrunched down tighter. Tried ice on the foot. Didn't work. Got even smaller. Tried to pick a corner of the foot up with a blunt pick. Didn't work. Got EVEN smaller. Then I realized it had latched itself into a crevice that led to a hole inside the rock and it is squeezing itself in further every time I tried something.

So out came the hammer. Took a while and I had to be carful the hammer didn't slip n smoosh the nem. But got it almost all the way and it still didn't want to let go, so I used cutters n cut up the rock around it. It came off still holding a small chunk of the rock.

Placed him towards the back with low/med flow n med light 1/2 up the rock work. Cleared out all the surrounding coral to give it room.

Hope this works out. I had said I wasn't gonna put a bta in the tank but oh well. It's been a nem week anyway!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nav
It moved. ALOT! Went from the left side middle to the center under the top most rock. Was getting beat up by the flow. Luckily he was on a smallish piece of rock, I moved it n turned it upside down so now he is facing up n partly sheltered.

Open n inflated.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1437242217.606793.jpg
 
Back
Top