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

[bcoons]

Originally posted by thedude15810
Bruce-

Also, the sun coral is great but I'm way more impressed by the modern! That is one happy beast!

Yep, he looks happy as a clam (oh, wait........)

See if you can show the sun coral pic to Lucy at AA. She's the one who helped me.



Any idea when the next Austin Reef Club meeting will be?

Bruce

[bcoons]

Originally posted by divecj5

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


Adam

Adam,

Thanks, but I'm not all that far ahead of you. My little 20L is only 9 months old. And I learned a large majority of what I now know right here on this thread. I discovered this thread early on and have follwed it all the way through. I think of it as my "home" thread, even though it really belonds to Dudester. He, and John, and melev, and bax and a bunch of others who hang out here are really a great bunch of guys.

Be sure to keep us up with how your tank is coming along.

Bruce

[divecj5]

I agree Bruce. This thread has been some of the best information and insight that I've gotten thus far. I guess because all of you all's tanks are about what I'm shooting for is why the information has been so pertinnent.

I will definitely be starting up a thread of my own or at least keeping you all up to date on my progress (just sprayed the back of the tank blue this weekend and finishing the stand tomorrow. Rock, sand, and salt maybe this weekend)

Just to put a plug in for Melev, just listened to the first couple Reefcast's and they're great. Hilarious and informative.

Adam

[bcoons]

Originally posted by divecj5

Just to put a plug in for Melev, just listened to the first couple Reefcast's and they're great. Hilarious and informative.

Adam

Yep, Reefcasts are a kick. BTW, I see you list yourself as a GIS Tech. As in GPS? If so, are you going to the ION GNSS conference in Fort Worth in September? If you are, you'll be on melev's turf. I plan to be there, but I also hope to meet melev for the first time at the MACNA XVIII conference in Houston the week before.

http://www.macnaxviii.com/

And Dudester, where are you? Man, you must be working too hard!

Bruce

[divecj5]

Hey Bruce. Actually, it's GIS (Geographic Information Systems) so it's more dealing with creating various map depictions and internet mapping sites but we do use data points and the software that I use can utilize all sorts of GPS and satellite info. I'll have to google the ION GNSS conference and see what it's all about. Maybe some point I'll be out that way and be able to meet Marc and others in that area in person. That would be a kick.

Adam

[Divetime]

DiveCJ5, Glad to see we have some fellow GIS users out there. I use it mostly for the mapping aspects & would love to get more involved in the data output. I was up in Charleston a few years ago at the NOAA training facility inorder to get some GIS training.

I've been following this thread for a while as well. I really can't say enough about everyone & everything that I have learned from RC. Keep up the beautiful tanks and I'll slowly continue to work on my lil 55 gallon

Now back to our regularly scheduled program of RC searching

[divecj5]

Don't want to get this off track but had to answer Divetime....actually I am working at a GIS Tech. at the NOAA facility you're talking about although I wasn't here when you came for training. Small world

[Dudester]

Originally posted by bcoons
And Dudester, where are you? Man, you must be working too hard!

What do you mean, where am I? I posted here yesterday at 10:18 a.m. . I've been enjoying sitting back and reading the banter between you, divecj5 and Divetime! Y'all are starving for data, aren't you? Besides, I haven't had anything nearly as good to post as the pics of your beautiful sun and modern corals. I will definitely move the sun up on my list. Yellow is a color my tank definitely lack. Now I just have to find somewhere to put that rock of green zoas to make room for it ... I wonder where that will be?

The next Austin Reef Club meeting has not been definitively been scheduled, but we have a tentative date of Sat, Aug 5. I'm sure I'll see you there!

divecj5 - By "finishing the stand" I hope that includes several coats of some type of urethane finish. You won't believe how many ways there are to spill water onto your cabinet. Sounds like you're coming along nicely - keep us informed

Rock, sand, and salt maybe this weekend

Don't forget the water .

Divetime - Thanks for the kind words and welcome aboard.

[melev]

Originally posted by divecj5


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.

They can filter feed, but their preference is meaty foods. Cyclop-eeze and mysis are the easiest for us to offer, and they like them both. I tend to mix the two together and baste the corals.

If any of you are in the Ft Worth area, let me know and you can come over to see the tank and chat.

[Dudester]

Hey Melev, while you're in the mood for answering questions, have you had a chance to give any thought to my fish question? Just to remind you, I was wondering if there's an alternative to the sixline wrasse that I could have in my tank that eats flatworms. I tried a thread in the fishkeeping forum, but there have been no fruitful responses. As always, your help (and that of ALL thread followers) is most appreciated!

[melev]

I didn't answer that question because I don't have a good answer. Sorry about that. The LFS owner I know swears that blue damsels eat them and has one in every tank, but I really have a tough time believing it.

Do you have a mandarin? A Leopard Wrasse may eat them as well.

[alexk3954]

Wow, that sun coral looks amazing!

I got back from a short trip today and when I look at my tank, I notice my clam was not where I left it. It was lying on the sand and is not looking to good. Unfortunately it jumped right next to my tube anemone which must have stung it because the edges look a little frayed. Hopefully it will recover, it was looking very good. I can't understand why stuff like this always happens when we are gone on vacation.

[Dudester]

Originally posted by melev
I didn't answer that question because I don't have a good answer. Sorry about that. The LFS owner I know swears that blue damsels eat them and has one in every tank, but I really have a tough time believing it.

Do you have a mandarin? A Leopard Wrasse may eat them as well.

I didn't get an email message that you responded, so I'm only seeing this today. Funny that you mention a mandarin, as only last night I was talking with John about this very fish. My 30g tank is probably too small (not enough pods) to support a target mandarin long-term, but John has had success training them to eat prepared foods (like you, Marc) and we decided that once he has one properly trained, then I'll take it. I like the blue ones the best, John, if I may be so picky.

I love leopard wrasses, but with an 89% mortality, I'm a little hesitant so spend that kind of cash for a fish right now. I do see this fish in my future, however.

I notice my clam was not where I left it. It was lying on the sand and is not looking to good. Unfortunately it jumped right next to my tube anemone which must have stung it because the edges look a little frayed. Hopefully it will recover, it was looking very good. I can't understand why stuff like this always happens when we are gone on vacation.

That's certainly a possibility, but you also have to consider pinched mantle disease. If it is the latter, you can potentially treat it with Prazi-Pro (praziquantel). Can you post a photo of what the clam looks like - maybe we can help?

Stuff like this happens when we're away because we're so compulsive, we constantly and immediately intervene whenever something is awry. It's all part of the addiction and our desire to do the best for our tank inhabitants. For example, just the other night I saw the acan lord trying to consume my last lettuce nudibranch. Naturally I rescued it, but if I wasn't at home that frag would have had quite a meal.

[bcoons]

Originally posted by Dudester
My 30g tank is probably too small (not enough pods) to support a target mandarin long-term, but John has had success training them to eat prepared foods (like you, Marc) and we decided that once he has one properly trained, then I'll take it.

Just for another point of reference, I had also heard that it takes a large system with lots of live rock to provide enough 'pod for a mandarin. However, for various reasons, I bought a green mandarin goby from my tiny little LFS in Copperas Cove. It's been in my 20L tank with about 20lb of LR for about two months now. It seems to be growing and is noticebly fatter. He has been pretty shy and stays in back of the rockwork, and just recently has started venturing to the front of the tank when I'm around. He seems curious. He doesn't seem underfed.

My modified AC 500 refugium seems to be pretty good at breeding conditions for 'pods. And they are all over my LR.

Granted, I've only had him for a couple of months, and he shows no sign of eating any other foods, but maybe a 30g tank could produce enough 'pods to support a mandarin.

Now that I've said that, my poor mandarin is probably a goner.

Bruce

[thedude15810]

Mike,

The reason I suggested a target mandarin is for whatever reason, they accept prepared foods much much more readily. Of the 100 or so of both species I've seen and taken care of, 20 or more of the targets have accepted frozen food while only ONE green mandarin made any attempt to eat frozen food.

[Dudester]

I will say this. Since the loss of my last sixline wrasse, the 'pod population has exploded in my tank. True, there may be enough in my tank to keep a mandarin happy, but I'd rather have one that eats prepared foods and utilizes the pods as a snack or as a 'between meal' supplement as opposed to that being the primary source of nutrition.

John, are you saying that target mandarins are never blue, and only the ones with the striped pattern (psychedelic, I believe they're called) are blue?

[melev]

Originally posted by Dudester
are you saying that target mandarins are never blue, and only the ones with the striped pattern (psychedelic, I believe they're called) are blue?

That would be correct. The Target Mandarin (S. picturatus) tends to be green or sometimes orange, while the Psychedelic Mandarin (S. splendidus) come in blues, greens, reds.... The target is always the smaller of the two species.

[Dudester]

My Marine Depot order arrived, and I unpacked the loot last night. Here's what I got:

1. Current USA Lunar Light Moonlight - I was all prepared to get the IceCap moonlight, but when I spoke with the Marine Depot guy on the phone, he talked me into this one by Current USA. He pointed out that it's half the price, comes with 2 LED's as opposed to 1, and additional LED's can be added on serially without additional power cords if I ever want to use this on a larger tank (and I will!). I hooked this up last night and let me say this. I will never own a tank without a moonlight again! Let me repeat, I WILL NEVER OWN A TANK WITHOUT A MOONLIGHT AGAIN!! The fluorescence of the favites coral, the frogspawn, the mouths of the zoas, and even one of my acro frags (the a. austera) was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Best 15 bucks I've spent on the tank, hands down.

2. Mag-Drive Supreme 12 Impeller (x2)

3. Mag-Drive Supreme 5 Impeller - shoulda gotten 2

4. Dissekt-Rite 7" Coral Fragging Shear - What can I say, I'm an optimist!

5. Jager TS 50W heater - What? In the summer? IN TEXAS?? I know, but I got it in case one of my other ones fails at some time. Plus, I think I'll use it in my QT as I have been very unsatisfied with the performance of the Hydor heater that I use in there.

6. ESV B-Ionic 2-Part Calcium Buffer 2 gallon - I know, I know, I said I was going to use Randy's 2-part solution. But when I was ordering the other stuff, it was so much easier to click the button than to try and obtain all of the components for Randy's solution, bake the baking soda, mix it up, etc. What can I say, I'm a slave to convenience.

7. Hagen Isolation Tank with Cover-Lid - I'll use this to acclimate new fish. I've been using a plastic paint container that I've hung over the side of the tank, but it's not transparent and I can't view the fish with this while they acclimate. The Hagen unit is pretty small, but the fish I buy for my tank are also quite small, so this should do.

8. Marina Floating Thermometer - A little cheapy thing for my saltwater mixing can.

9. and 10. Tom Aqatics Aqua Lifter dosing pump (x2) and Pre-Filter (x4) - I change the pre-filters regularly, and since I can't afford for the siphon to fail, I will change the dosing pumps every 6 months.

11. Python 25 Ft Air Line Tubing (x2) - Hey, you can never have too much air line tubing.

12. Rainbow Lifegard Aquarium Digital Thermometer Little Time or Temp - This is the same thermometer I use in the main tank, and the suction cup no longer sticks to the glass. It's been floating behind the aquascape for months now, and since I couldn't find a simple replacement suction cup, I just bought a new thermometer. You'd think I just won the lottery or something, eh?

13. Captive Sun 4" Coolilng Fan Kit - I've renamed this fan "The Marriage Salvager." This fan better be quieter than my current Radio Shack fan, or I'm in trouble. I considered the IceCap variable speed fan, like Melev suggested, but that fan comes with a temperature probe that measures ambient air, not water temperature. So I went with a more standard fan that I can plug into the ReefKeeper to control the on/off positions. I haven't hooked this up yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

14. and 15. Maxi-Jet 1200 and Hydor Flo Rotating Water Deflector - If you revisit page 1 of this thread, you'll see where one of my goals of this system was to avoid placing any powerheads in the tank. After seeing the flow in the tank where my last batch of SPS came from, I decided that my 30x/hr turnover was inadequate. So last night I placed this powerhead into the tank, just beneath the overflow and aiming behind the aquascape. There was a tiny sandstorm that resulted, but it had settled by this morning. With this extra 295 gph of water movement, my tank now turns over its volume ~40x/hr. Now the mille frags really whip around! It doesn't look too bad, quite honestly, and I'm going to hook this powerhead up to the ReefKeeper so that it shuts off during the night time. If only I could make the suction cups stick better to the back glass. The glass was covered in coralline and I scraped it off with a razor blade, but it still doesn't seem to want to stay in place. Any tricks?

16. and 17. Salifert Magnesium and Iodine test kits. I've never measured either of these, so I'm curious what my levels will be. I sorta hope my tank is Mg-deficient, then I can add some and maybe this will help to provide some color to my pale SPS. The iodine kit is also important since I have been dosing 2 drops of Lugol's solution every week. Naturally I'll let y'all know the results once I run these tests.

If anyone needs links to the above items, let me know. Or just search them out on MarineDepot.com - they're all there.

[divecj5]

Man...looks like someone did a little shopping . Funny thing is, like you all know, that I'm getting ready to set up a 55 in the next week or so. I just ordered the last bits that I needed from Dr. F & S (they had a great sale on salt) and there's just something about ordering a refractormeter, thermometer, small backup heater, etc. that's cool and geeky at the same time. There are just so many cool "toys" that I have to steer away from. It always leaves me saying, "man that is so cool and would do [blank] and that should eliminate [blank]." I must be in too deep already considering I don't even have my tank full of water, sand, or rock yet

Looks like you made some great purchases and can't wait to see some pics of the corals under the moonlights.

Needless to say I can't wait to get my goods in tomorrow and get things filled this coming week. Getting ready to take the plunge....

Adam

[fishypets]

Great thread Mike...Oh and by the way you will have one awesome little reef in no time!

[Dudester]

divecj5 - Yep, it's confirmed, you've got the bug! You're in for a lot of excitement.

fishypets - Glad you found this thread, Clint. Please feel free to chime in whenever you see that I'm screwing up.

[Dudester]

I did some more shopping, and this time it wasn't dry goods. On Thursday my main man John called to report that he had a spunky, healthy-looking juvenile percula clownfish at his LFS. He held it for me and Friday (3 days ago) I went and picked it up, along with another sixline wrasse and 2 emerald crabs. And just to prove my desire for a "mixed" reef, I got a small sarcophyton (toadstool) coral as well. Both fish ate hardily at the store, and later that night at home. The sixline is probably the prettiest one I've ever seen - beautiful bright colors, clear eyes, and not a nipped fin or any signs of disease. The clownfish is about 1/3 the size of my current female. There was the expected amount of initial agression when the newcomer tried to enter the realm of HER frogspawn, but after a few hours they began to hang out together and I haven't seen any malicious activity since. I'm feeling really good about this one!

The toadstool ain't happy in my tank. At the store it was standing straight up and beautiful green polyps were extended from the capitulum, the disc-like platform on the end of the stalk. I gave it a 20 minute Lugol's dip and placed it into the tank at the bottom, in moderate flow. The stalk has been totally "limp" and I've not seen any polyp extension since it left the LFS. At the store it was under fluorescent lighting, and my tank has a 250W MH, so maybe it's too bright. I meant to place it into a shady spot but I forgot. I'll do this tonight when I get home if it looks the same. Any more advice from all you leather coral experts out there?

Saturday I mounted the new fan. I located it behind the wood on the light rack instead of in front of it, so the appearance has improved. I'll get pics as soon as I find the energy to photograph all of my new corals. The name I gave the fan is accurate! The thing is whisper quiet, but this comes at a price. It's not as powerful as my previous fan, and the tank temp now max's out at 82.7, which is warmer than I'd like. Nothing seemed to suffer in the tank, however, so I don't think I'm going to freak about it. Rich Durso's tank runs higher than 83 in the summer, if I recall correctly, and his tank is awesome, so I'm not all that worried.

Yesterday Bruce (bcoons) came over to the house, and we traded one of his home-aquacultured xenia frags for a rock of green zoanthids. Until now I've underappreciated the amount of flow in my tank due to a lack of long-polyped corals (except for the frogspawn which abuts the aquascape). I wanted to place the xenia in an isolated spot on the substrate so that they wouldn't spread onto the aquascape. I selected what I thought was a low-flow zone so that the xenia could pulse, but it turns out there really aren't any low-flow zones. Even though the coral was fixed to some LR rubble, it got swept away in the current immediately. I ultimately had to wedge it's rock beneath additional pieces of LR rubble, and if it does well it will likely spread out onto those rocks, which I'll remove and give to others or trade. When it was floating in the bag during acclimation, the polyps were fully extended and they were 'pulsing' as expected. Under the flow it's subjected to now, the polyps are only about 1/2-1/3 extended, and there's very little visible pulsatile activity. I hope they acclimate to the higher flow soon.

In other news, my new acro frags are starting to lay down a base, and the ricordia love their new location. They're coloring back up and they're more open than I've seen them in months.

Sorry for the lack of pics - I really need to get some updated shots, but I've been busy at work and barely have enough time to work on the tank, let alone take pictures of it.

[melev]

The leather coral may be stressed by the purchase, bagging and subsequent Lugol's Iodine dip. It may take 5 - 10 days for it to come around again. If you see it melting away, you'll want it out of the tank PDQ, but remember all leathers shed so don't panic. Study the coral closely before taking any action.

[Dudester]

I'm running carbon just in case, and now that I have a toxic sarcophyton in the tank, I think I'll keep carbon in the sump 24/7; I'd hate to place the other corals at risk. The carbon is in a media bag in the sump between the fuge and return section, so it gets pretty decent flow even though it's technically still being used "passively." There's no sign of shedding, but if it does I'll try and remove that 'skin'. I'll heed your advice, Melev, and just leave it where it is and watch it closely. Strangely, I'm actually more comfortable with husbandry practices for SPS corals than I am with softies.

[bcoons]

As the Dudester noted, I got to see his tank in person on Sunday. As many other people have noted about many tanks, photos just don't dioit justice! Man, what a nice tank. It's layout, clarity, colors, and overall appearance are just beautiful. I really like the way the stand puts it up at a slightly higher than normal height. It makes it really easy to view and enjoy.

One other thing I have to note. As an engineer, I tend to look at layout, design, equipment placement, functionality, and overall systems integration. I probably groove on the engineering aspects more than the critters themselves. For me the challenge is creating and maintaining the environment, the critters are the criteria to test the results. I gotta tell ya, for a guy that's not an engineer, Dudester's tank is one nice environmental machine. It shows a lot of forethought, design, attention to detail, and most of all well-engineered functionality. It made me come home and look at my own system with a more critical eye. I'm going to incorporate some of his ideas on cleaning up my under-cabinet wiring.

His tank is truly something to aspire to. When he gets to the "monster" tank, I envision it giving Weatherson a run for the money.

"Tanks" for the tour, Mike.