Step-by-step account of my first reef (with lots of pics)

[Dudester]

When I did my last run of water tests (1 week ago) there was a huge pH disparity between the Pinpoint monitor and the Salifert test kit. I hadn't felt the need to recalibrate the probe as long as the monitor was reading a number similar to what I obtained with the test kit. So yesterday I cleaned the end of the probe and recalibrated it for the first time since I hooked it up. It was reading too high by 0.3. Maybe I don't have a pH problem afterall. I also put a new Mag-Float in there and cleaned the glass up well in preparation for the pics I'm going to take tonight of my new frags. All of them fortunately are doing pretty well.

[Dudester]

Thought I'd share some pics of my new frags .

This first one is an acropora species?? The frag was bright purple in the bag but under my Phoenix 14K it looks more blue than purple. The coral was very brittle and I had difficulty mounting it in the epoxy. In the process I buried about 20% of it, so it's now smaller than what I had originally. This frag bleached out fairly significantly but there's now good polyp extension and I think it's going to do just fine.


This next one is my new favorite - acropora millepora. It's about 1.5" tall and it's more green than the photo suggests. I hope it's a fast grower, I absolutely love it!


This one is acropora tenuis, so I'm told. This photo is pretty true to its color. This is the one that had RTN on the smaller branch, and that's been cut off. The remainder has done just fine.


While photographing this last acro, I noticed how pathetic my ricordea are. Compare this photo to my avatar. They've looked like this for many, many months now.


I keep hoping that the ricordea will improve over time, but they haven't. Any suggestions anyone?

[melev]

Less light and more nutrients. Basically the opposite direction you are going with your SPS tank.

[Dudester]

Well that's certainly not what I wanted to hear. Although, hmm, now you've got me thinking ... maybe they'll hang in there long enough for me to set up a softie tank? Damn obscession!! In the meantime, should I move them to a spot lower in the tank, perhaps with some shade, or will the lack of nutrients override the effects of more appropriate lighting?

[melev]

I would put them in the shade somewhat. Look at your avatar. Feeding phyto or even target feeding them some pellet food may help.

Your little fraglets look nice, but I'm wondering why you used putty instead of super glue gel.

[Dudester]

Originally posted by melev
Your little fraglets look nice, but I'm wondering why you used putty instead of super glue gel.

The guy who gave them to me (thanks, Brian, if you're out there!!) was with me during the mounting procedure. So I asked him, "should I mount these with super glue gel or putty?" and he said "putty." So I used putty. I was actually almost out of super glue anyway since I'm waiting to get more until our club's group buy later this month. Some people use putty, some use gel, and others (like sonofgaladriel) use a combination of both. What's your mounting technique, Melev (for corals, I mean )?

I would put them in the shade somewhat. Look at your avatar.

I haven't moved the ricordia since the photo in the avatar was taken. Look at this one again, shot from the exact same angle ...

... same shading as on my avatar. But point well-taken. Tonight, the ricordia shall be moved. That'll be just fine with me anyway, since that shelf is prime real estate for more SPS! Believe it or not, my intention is still not to make this into an SPS-dominant tank. I am quite fond of LPS and softies, and I'm just waiting for a small colt and toadstool to come along before adding them to the tank.

Of course I'd now like some more fish too, and hopefully John will be getting in a new juvenile perc and sixline wrasse soon. I still have flatworms, but I've been impressed with their lack of proliferation, even without a sixline in the tank for more than 2 weeks now.

What is growing in the tank is caulerpa . It's intertwined throughout the branch rock at the top of the aquascape, and it's a bear to prune. I'm worried that if it continues to proliferate and reaches a critical mass, it may go "sexual" and contaminate the tank. Can I do anything about it other than prune it out?

[melev]

Pruning is your main option. If you could add a tang or a fox face, they'd eat it but your tank is much too small for that option.

I use super glue gel for everything until I gotta use putty. Putty is my last resort.

A mixed reef is my preference as well. Which means you have to balance high light against less light. You have to feed heavy, yet export it well. You need lots of flow and yet calmer zones. Running carbon is pretty much critical in this situation, I've found. It seems to help substantially.

I have some ricordia in my prop section that look super happy and fluffy, but keeping them in the main reef seems impossible. Odds are it has to be fish related then, since the prop zone is fish-free.

[Dudester]

Originally posted by melev
Odds are it has to be fish related then, since the prop zone is fish-free.

Kinda like my tank ... but that's going to change soon.

Don't call me a liar, but I didn't move the ricordias last night. I picked out a perfect new place for them, under a slight overhang with plenty of shade, moderate flow, and based on the amount of lettuce algae growing nearby, plenty of nutrients. One problem though ... no super glue gel to attach the rock! I guess this transfer will have to wait until the end of the month. Oh well, they've lasted for 9 months in their current location, what's another few weeks, right?

[Dudester]

Over the past month or so I've noticed that my emerald mithrax crab's shell has changed from green to white. I just figured that calcium precipitates were accumulating on it, just like on my pump impellers. Yesterday morning I saw the crab sitting out in the open, immobile. Last night it was in the exact same location, which is quite odd for this crab. So what does one do when they don't know if something is dead or alive? That's right, I poked it with a stick. No movement. I removed it from the tank and the shell had absolutely no tissue inside. It had a mild odor but not nearly as bad as I expected. I presumed, therefore, that this must be a molted shell and not a dead crab. Would this be correct? There's no sign of a living crab in the tank, but perhaps it's hiding in the rocks while its new exoskeleton is hardening, yes?

[divecj5]

Hey Dudester. After about two and half days of off and on reading at work and home, I've finally made it through all 25 pages of this incredible thread. I have to say that although I've read other "follow along with me" threads, this has to be one of the most in-depth, understandable, informative, and overall fun (except for hearing stories of flatworms and SLW that just won't stay alive ).

I have been researching different setups and acquiring different equipment along the way for about a year now but have only stumbled upon RF about a month ago. I think that I am finally ready to setup my 55 gallon FOWLR (and probably some LPS) within the next week or so and this thread has given me a ton of information and excitement along the way (unfortunately this suspense has come at your expense).

Your tank has come so far and although I'm sure that you've been ready at times to just forget the flatworms and make yourself a strong "caucasian" it seems like you've made it through with the help of the amazing people that have contributed to the thread and you have now become really knowledgeable and can offer suggestions to others as well.

I am definitely jealous of the LFS that you have out your way and I am still attempting to hunt down some Charleston reefers that are as helpful as those out where you are.

I will definitely tag along for the ride and will let you all know how my tank starts up and comes along as well (I will start a thread sort of like this in the weeks to come).

Although I'm sure you didn't know it, thanks for all of the help that I've gleaned from this thread already and can't wait to see your newest additions.

Oh yeah, since reading this thread and realizing the last time I'd watched the Big Lebowski, I had to watch it last night

Adam

[melev]

Originally posted by Dudester
There's no sign of a living crab in the tank, but perhaps it's hiding in the rocks while its new exoskeleton is hardening, yes?

Yes, possibly.

[Dudester]

divecj5 (Adam) - Thanks for joining us and for wasting, I mean spending 2 days catching up. Hope you didn't miss too much work . It's been a lot of fun keeping this thread updated, and I certainly appreciate the input I've been fortunate enough to receive from so many new and experienced reefers out there. You're right in that my tank has progressed nicely, but I still have a long way to go. The LFS's here in Austin truly are excellent; not any one place has the best of everything, but I am willing to visit several in order to get what I want. I'm even more fortunate to have a friend in John who works at one of the LFS's, and he's not only a smart guy but he's always on the lookout for things that I want (thanks again, Dude!). I'd suggest you do a search for other RC members in Charleston, contact them via pm and find out where they shop locally and any information regarding a local reef club. I bet you'll be surprised with what's available in your area. Again, thanks for your comments, and make sure you provide us with a link to your new tank thread. And oh yeah, Lebowski rules!

Melev - I still haven't seen an emerald crab in the tank since removing that exoskeleton, but I'll give it a few more days before losing hope. I definitely need one in my tank since I have plenty of valonia. I actually want 2 of them, so if I don't find him in the tank when my next fish come in (a juvenile perc and another wrasse) then I'll just buy 2 of them. As far as the new wrasse, I love sixlines, but they don't seem to last more than a month or 2 in my tank. Any other suggestions for wrasses that are flatworm killers? Curiously, the flatworm population hasn't ballooned, even without a sixline in the tank .


OK, so last night I found some super glue gel and relocated my ricordias to a location with less light and, hopefully, more nutrients. The ricordia rock was firmly attached to the aquascape despite my not fixing it there with any glue or epoxy, and when I ripped it off it tore about 1/4 of one of the ricordia polyps off. This remains healthy looking and attached to the aquascape, and I hope that what I've done was to accidentally frag a ricordia .

Oh yeah, almost forgot, I also got 8 new premium acro frags.

[divecj5]

Thanks for the welcome Dudester. Since being here on RC, I have actually found a couple of people in the Charleston area and a local club that meets "semi" regularly. Hopefully once I get my tank up and running, the six line that I'm thinking of getting at some point doesn't decide to go AWOL like your's have

Can't wait to see pics of the new acro frags (as I always love seeing the pics of your new inhabitants). Do you have any good links about info. on Ricordia? I did a google search but didn't know if there was anything out there that you found helpful with info.?

Adam

[Dudester]

divecj5 - The sixline is a great fish - you will love it and I'm sure you'll have a better experience with that species than I have had. As for the pics of my new frags, I'm going to wait until they're a little more settled before taking any pics. I've got good PE on 5 of the 8 and there's no sign of RTN on any of them. As for ricordia info, I believe there's a section on them in Eric Borneman's book (see p.1 of this thread), and you can do a search for "ricordia" here on RC and get a ton of information. On the search page I entered "ricordia" for the keyword, searched all open forums, searched titles only, and selected posts from only a month ago; the search yielded 17 threads, and I only searched back one month!

Speaking of the new frags, after seeing the flow in their tank of origin, I realized that I'm probably a little short on flow in my tank for good SPS husbandry. So as a potentially short-term solution, I went ahead and bought another MJ1200 with a Hydor rotating water deflector from Marine Depot (along with a bunch of other stuff!!). But I was serious when I said I wanted a mixed reef -- really! I'm going to hold off on any more SPS for a while and let these grow out. Famous last words, right? I'm on the lookout for a nice trumpet or candy cane, scolymia, tubastrea, fungia, and perhaps a bubble coral, but not sure about this last one.

[divecj5]

Hey Dudester. Glad to hear that the new frags are doing well and there aren't any serious problems with them. Sorry for the "newb" question but what does RTN stand for? It's obviously something dealing with the structure of the coral and NOT GOOD but didn't know exactly what the abbreviation stood for. I will have to search for info. on Ricordia since I'm definitely interested in keeping some in the future down the line.

[techreef]

divecj5, RTN stands for Rapid Tissue Necrosis. It's when a coral basically sheds everything but its skeleton.

[divecj5]

Hey techreef, thanks for the response. I thought that it had something to do like that but didn't know the exact term. Thanks

Adam

[Dudester]

Well, my emerald crab is likely a goner. It's been 5 days since I removed what I thought might have been a molted exoskeleton. Based on the increase in valonia in the tank, I'd conclude that instead I removed a hollowed-out shell of a previously living emerald crab . He was a member of my original clean-up crew and was introduced to my tank on 9/28/05. If he was indeed eating the bubble algae, then I feel certain that I'll now need 2 of these crabs, since the algae was growing faster than he could eat it.

Last night I experienced another seizure (at least the tank did, anyway). After the 15 minute "pump off" period (feed mode on the ReefKeeper controller) the pumps are supposed to turn back on. The return pump did not. The last time this pump was cleaned was on 6/12, so not very long ago. After disassembling the pump I saw some calcium deposits but not much. I washed everything in muriatic acid until it was completely clean but when I tried to fire up the pump again, it wouldn't turn on. I had a spare impeller and when this was installed, the pump worked just fine. I'm not sure why the other impeller didn't work, even after it was totally cleaned, but I'm considering contacting the manufacturer.

I made another change last night. In the past my closed loop pump would turn off during feed mode so that I could target feed the LPS and so that I could feed the fish to saturation. What that means is I would slowly add food to the tank and the fish would eat almost directly out of the turkey baster. In this way I would only feed what the fish needed and there wouldn't be a lot of leftover to cause nutrient accumulation. Since adding those 8 SPS frags and seeing the tank a little fuller than in the past (but not too full, of course) and seeing how others feed their tanks, I decided to let the CL run during feedings. This will hopefully disperse the food to all of the corals in the tank, and the clownfish learned instantly that she'll have to swim a little now for a meal. I just hope that a relatively large piece of food doesn't cause any obstruction to the SCWD.

All of the new frags are looking quite good, so it'll be picture time very soon! Speaking of corals, Bruce (if you're still out there), I have some green zoas that I'd be happy to give you, if you want them.

[bcoons]

Hi Mike, yep, still here. I was out of town for awhile but now back for a couple of weeks. Then it's back on the road again. I'll be on travel status every week in August. I get home for the weekends, but it's a different city every week for awhile.

Too bad about the emerald crab. I don't have one of those, but always liked them. I also seem to have lost my peppermint shrimp. He was an original tank inhabitant, since Oct 05, but I haven't seen him in days. Now I only have the camel shrimp left from the original CUC bunch. Come to think of it, I haven't seen the hermit crabs for a couple of days, either. I better go look.

I made an impulse trip down to Austin this afternoon. Spur of the moment. The wife wanted to go by one of the Chinese food markets. So I grabbed some of the xenia frags out of the tank and went to AA. I swapped them for some store credit and bought a nice Sun Coral, which is drip acclimating right now. AA made me what I consider a good deal on the frags. I still have a bunch of xenia frags in the tank, and need to prune a few more stalks off the main colonies, so I'll be happy to swap some for some green zoos. Let's try to plan a get together next weekend sometime.

I gotta tell you, those xenia are happy in my tank. They are growing like crazy. In fact, there was a spot on my live rock where I had cut off a main branching right at the rock surface. All that was left on the rock after I cut it off with the scalpel was some thin bits of flesh too hard to scrape of the rock. Well, those bits of flesh have now (about 4 weeks later) turned in a thick bunch of healthy colonies and are happy and pulsing. Man, those things are hardy. You better plan on trimming them periodically. Of course, that's more fun than trimming nuisance algae!

The other big activity this weekend was setting up a new home computer. Replaced my 5 year old desktop with a Dell XPS400. Spent all day yesterday loading software and transferring applications. I haven't tried connecting the digital camera yet. Maybe I'll take some pics tonight and see if I can download to the new computer. If so, I'll post some pics of the xenia fragging I took before, and some of the new sun coral.

Time to transfer the new acquisition to the tank. I'll be back on tonight.

Bruce

[Dudester]

Bruce, if memory serves me correctly, I believe I once warned you about the hardiness of xenia. You're smart to try to keep them isolated. I'm actually wondering if I want any in my tank at all! This weekend looks good if you want to come check out the tank and pick up some green zoas, just let me know. We can discuss via pm or give me a call, I think you have my #.

How's the sun coral (tubastrea) doing? Per my previous post, that's one of the corals on my "want" list. Are you target feeding it? I don't know if you've seen it or not, but Melev has a nice section on his site on caring for them - you should check it out if you haven't already.

[bcoons]

Yep, you warned me, the xenia critters turned out to be pretty hardy. They grow fast, and need to be trimmed now and then, but I really like them. They give a lot of movement in the tank and the pulsing action is mesmerizing. I wouldn't go without them. Plus, my wife got a real kick out of the fact that we actually sold some of the frags for credit. She, being the frugal Chinese merchant type, immediately saw the business opportunities there. Now she wants to think of us as "coral ranchers."

The sun coral is doing great so far. Boy, that page you pointed me to on melev's site is really nice (thanks melev) and full of info. I put the critter in the tank about 7 pm last night and fed it some of the frozen H2O Coral Food. It opened right up and extended it's yellow polyps. After reading melev's site, I fed it some frozen mysis shrimp tonight, and sure enough, it gobbled them into the mouths of the polyps. I may feed it some zooplex right at lights out. Right now it's the most colorful thing in my tank.



I have it sitting on the sand right next to the clam and the modern coral.





We'll see how it likes the light and flow where it is.

I'll send you a PM on a meet for this weekend.

Bruce

[bcoons]

Geez, about an hour after lights out I went to look at the tank, and the new sun coral looks really nice. This is a flash pic and the colors are very close to true.



Dudester, I think you might want to move one of these up on your list. AA had another nice one on Sunday afternnon.

Bruce

[melev]

I love suncorals. They are awesome. And you've made me go thaw some food to feed mine now.

[thedude15810]

Bruce-

Really great looking sun coral! Remember to feed him and I'm sure he'll do great in your tank. Also, the sun coral is great but I'm way more impressed by the modern! That is one happy beast!

Mike-

Got your call today and ended up getting distracted. I'll give you a call tomorrow and fill you in on everything and we have much to discuss.

Melev-

You missed a really fun collection trip in Port A this last weekend. Several of your club members came down and I hope to see you there nect year.

[divecj5]

Wow...although I'm just getting started with my 55 gallon, I will definitely have to place a sun coral at the top of my list once I gain enough experience in the hobby. They are just incredible creatures and your look stunning BCoons when they are open.

Melev, great article about sun corals on your site. Very informative and it amazes me how the polyps feed like that and try and "share" the mysis. Do sun corals only feed on solid food (mysis) or can they filter feed as well? Just curious for future reference.

All of you guys tanks look incredible and are inspirational to look at and learn from.


Adam