Another log of a Newbie starting out with TBS rock!

[Scuba Oz]

Dave, did you overcome the algea problem? Like I said up there those new pics are awesome, looks like the new lights are rocking for sure. I need to replace a few of my PC's also, did you get them from the LFS or order them, and if so where?

Hope all is well

[dwculp]

I have now had my TBS reef tank for almost exactly a year. In fact it will have been exactly one year on the 22nd of October. When I first decided to start a coral reef tank a couple of years ago I ran into pictures of TBS rock and i knew I could only have TBS rock for my tank. Many people gave me lots of negatives, such as bad hitchhikers and that most of the life wouldn’t survive.

It has been quite a journey. The initial cycle was nearly non-existent and all the life survived the initial cycle. I got a mantis shrimp and a number of other bad hitchhikers but they were and are relatively easy to remove with a little patience. One year later much of the life is still alive. All of the clams except one are still surviving, a great amount of the sponges are still hanging in there and I have dozens of porcelain crabs and other invertebrate life that is going strong. I am still amazed that I still find new things in the tank after a year. I have a pistol shrimp somewhere I have never seen but that I hear from time to time.

I lost a really nice velvety blood red encrusting sponge that was my favorite because one of my Condy anemones parked near it and destroyed it. I liked the anemone more than the sponge though so I left it.

I had a long and expensive battle with either brown algae or dinoflagelletes. It started when my tank temperature shot to over 90 degrees for a while as the school district cut the A/C in my room while I was away to Florida. I came back to a tank so choked with algae you couldn’t tell the lights were on. I beat it, about 2 months later. Through a combination of frequent partial water changes, new lights, a phos-ban reactor, a treatment of Chemi-clean and killing the lights for almost two weeks. The stuff hasn’t made a return. I am also now dripping kalk.

The tank now looks AWESOME; probably better than it ever has. I have added very little coral, only a branching hammer, a devils hand coral, a Kenya tree coral and a green brain. They are all doing well and the Kenya tree coral has now become more of a weed than a coral. It drops branches on a daily basis. I know one day I bet I will be posting "HOW THE HELL DO I GET RID OF THIS CRAP!!" LOL. The coral that came on the rock is doing really well, the small brain is really inflated all the time and most of the cup corals are alive and looking well. I had to let a couple groups of them die as I just couldn’t reach them all the time to feed them.

The algae problem really took its toll on the life in the tank though. A large amount of my coralline bleached and it managed to kill off a few sponges. However, the tank rebounded really well, coralline is starting to grow again, and I have tunicates I have not seen in forever pop back up.

I have 6 fish, four small Azure Damsles that are awesome! I love them; they have so much personality and color. I also have one Perc clown and a lawnmower blenny. I was really worried about the blenny for a while as he wasn’t eating. He was trying to actually scrape film algae off the side of the tank! He now eats from the seaweed clip. I plan on only one more small fish, a royal gramma.

I have not had any really mysterious fish deaths over the year either. I had a coral beauty angel and a royal gramma get eaten by my largest Condy anemone. Other than that I cannot think of any other fish deaths.

I am going to setup a 110-gallon long in my classroom next year. I debated on whether I was going to go with TBS rock or not, I am. The 100 will be a TBS reef tank. I can probably get the tank in Jan and will slowly buy the equipment needed and order the rock around Sept of next year. I am going to stock it with a whole slew of Azure damsels, a couple percs, a flame angel, a mandarin, and a yellow tang.

I will post pics when I can, they have us so busy at work I have to schedule time to breathe in my calendar!

[dwculp]

Wow, my last entry was on 10/16 2005. Well over a year ago!!

A lot has changed in that year, everything is running GREAT and looking amazing. I still have no regrets whatsoever with going with TBS rock and their "package". I have made or done the following:

1. I switched about 6 weeks ago to IO Reef Crystals for the added calcium and alk.

2. I drip kalk 24/7.

3. I started dosing C-Balance to keep the alk and CA up where it should be. Since switching salts and dosing C-Balance I have noticed everything seems happier and a dramatic reduction in problem algae.

I wont bore anyone with more details. I will just show off some pictures.

The digital camera I checked out from the schools library is suposed to be "better" than our old one but I dont like it. The macro function doesnt seem to work and I can never get as clean and good shots as I did with the old one. Oh well, here are a bunch of pictures!

[dwculp]

More pictures!!

[dwculp]

This is what the hammer coral that you see in the above pics looked like when I got it:



You can see that it is now HUGE and in two pieces. Before I fragged it in two the total head size was around 14 inches.

Not bad work if I do say so myself

[BrianPlankis]

Looking good! Nice to see an update

How is your TBS brain coral(s) doing?

Brian

[dwculp]

Originally posted by BrianPlankis
Looking good! Nice to see an update

How is your TBS brain coral(s) doing?

Brian

The TBS brains are doing well. If you look at one of the full tank shots, look just to the left of the secod stalk of tree coral on the left and you can see one hiding out. When happy and fully inflated he is about the size of a small adults fist.

I had another that refuses to die. When I was aranging rock initially I had to decide what to cover up and what to not because of the amazing amount of life on TBS rock. I decided to cover it up and it resided and began to die off, as I knew it would. When I was battling dinos I actaully scrubbed what was left of its skeleton with a toothbrush a couple of times. It was bare.

It is now coming back and growing quickly. I think many of these animals we keep have an amazing ability to rebound from sickness and poor conditions, much moreso than we give them credit for.

The large green brain in the center was given to me as half a skeleton. It has grown tremendously and is now almost too big for the tank, or at least the place I am keeping it in.

[BrianPlankis]

Good to hear they are doing well! We will be attempting to breed the TBS brains early in 2007, since you have two of them, you might be able to participate

If you are interested I can PM you with more details.

Brian

[dwculp]

Originally posted by BrianPlankis
Good to hear they are doing well! We will be attempting to breed the TBS brains early in 2007, since you have two of them, you might be able to participate

If you are interested I can PM you with more details.

Brian

Im always up for experimentation! Drop me a PM.

[dwculp]

Update:

After being in the tank for a couple of years, Lenny, my lawnmower Blenny went carpet or actually desk surfing today.

I found him dried up behind the tank. It is actually sad as he was an active and healthy fish.

In addition my skimmer sprung a leak.

Somedays......

[techreef]

Boo. Sorry to hear about Lenny. Baxter III will be arriving to carry on the lineage of numbskull midas blennies in my tank. First went carpet surfing, second took the magical mystery tour down my overflow's plumbing. now EVERYTHING is covered or eggcrated, so I'm hoping three's a charm.

Your tank looks great! What do you call those reddish/orange corals that are in your last and third to last (closeup of a snail) pics? Are they tube corals? Mine are staying very healthy, and one colony developed a beautiful emerald green coloring to each polyp.

[dwculp]

I am wondering why he jumped. Was it just that bad in my tank?

Actually, I have a theory. He has taken to sitting on the heater. The heater is only a couple inches below the water line. I am wondering if he went to sit on it while it was on, got burned, jumped in reaction and left the tank on accident.

[dwculp]

The tank is going along really nicely, except of the LMB jumkping last week it has been problem free and really looking quite good.

I got the followling new additions from a friend, which you can see in the pics:

Orange zoas
Green mushroom

I moved my one and only SPS coral to the front, a Hydnophora which is growing quite well. I may try my hand at more difficult SPS soon.

I have been dosing Kalk for a long time via a gravity feed system and it just doesnt work that well. It clogs up and getting the drip rate right is a pain. A few weeks ago I accidently dripped over a gallon and a half into the system overnight, skyrocketing the pH. Nothing died and the pH came back to normal on its own through the course of the day. I am seriously considering getting a dosing pump, probably an Aquamedic dual. I can place it between my FO and my reef and dose both tanks from the same bucket!

I bought some strombus grazers from ipsf.com over a year ago. They are suposed to breed in your tank and though I have seen eggs I have (up until recently) not seen babie strombus snails. They have now exploded in the tank and in the evening I can count 40-50 tiny snails on the glass. I have about 200 eggs awaiting hatching right now.

My water parameters are looking really good except I am having difficuly with alk and CA (who doesnt). My alk seems to come down very quickly and my CA has difficuty staying above 300. I have been dosing C-Balance on a daily basis. Something is using up that alk and CA!!

Since I have been doing C-Balance my coraline has made a return, the rocks are more purple and green and that is a good thing!

On to the picture fest!!! The pics are in no particular order, just the oprder I snapped them in.

[dwculp]

[dwculp]

The hermit below is in my FO, NOT my reef tanks!

[BrianPlankis]

Great pictures!!! Stunning

B.

[dwculp]

Originally posted by BrianPlankis
Great pictures!!! Stunning

B.

Thanks, pictures make it look like a "white trash reef", it looks much better in person!

[BiggySmalls]

did u have to pick up the live rock at the airport

[Scuba Oz]

Dave those hammers are beautifuul looking!! Tank is looking great as a whole also, very healthy. Sorry to hear about Lenny.

Hope the ice storm fairs you well tonight, totaly missed us last night, but has us tonight.

Great pics, nice to hear from you again

[dwculp]

Originally posted by BiggySmalls
did u have to pick up the live rock at the airport

Yes, you have to pick up TBS rock at the airport, but it is well worth it as it comes packed in seawater and it truly is live rock! Some much life on the rock it is almost crazy!

[dwculp]

Originally posted by Scuba Oz
Dave those hammers are beautifuul looking!! Tank is looking great as a whole also, very healthy. Sorry to hear about Lenny.

Hope the ice storm fairs you well tonight, totaly missed us last night, but has us tonight.

Great pics, nice to hear from you again

Wow, nice to hear from you! I thought you had died!

Ice missed us, but it is really, really, really cold right now!

[rivank]

I have heard of nasty little hitchhikers on TBS rock. Pistol Shrimp, Mantis Shrimp etc. Did you have any problems with that and if you did what did you do to resolve it. I am currently working on buying everything for a 125g RR tank and was considering going the TBS route. BTW, any suggestions on a sump/refuge for a 125g tank anybody. It will have to be under the stand.

[Redstratplayer]

Wow i just read all 79 pages in 4 hours...........

By the way your tank looks i see that almost or all of the sponges have died off.
I see some tube corals.
The TBS brains are really cool.

The sand is not that nice looking IMHO it looks like CC How big are the grains??

At the start of this thread i really liked the TBS rock but... now that the sponges are gone.......


What i want to know is what Inverts have survived?

[Redstratplayer]

Wow i just read all 79 pages in 4 hours...........

By the way your tank looks i see that almost or all of the sponges have died off.
I see some tube corals.
The TBS brains are really cool.

The sand is not that nice looking IMHO it looks like CC How big are the grains??

At the start of this thread i really liked the TBS rock but... now that the sponges are gone.......


What i want to know is what Inverts have survived?