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ReefNewby82's 58g Tank Thread - New Scape!


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Soooo...many of you know Jenn and I have multiple tanks. And have never started a thread....WELL, here is one of them!! haha

 

In our entry way we have a 58g SPS dominate reef...pretty minimally equipped as far as a sump and skimmer goes. But it is working and shows that ya dont always have to have the best of the best equipment if your water chemistry and husbandry is sound. Dont get me wrong, I slack off on occasion...but not much with this tank as it is a little more finicky with being mainly SPS.

 

on 12/20/16 I spent 14 hours breaking down the tank, cleaning algae off of corals and substrate, replaced rocks with Real Reef Rock and cleaned all the equipment. A big shout out to Alan for helping me disassemble pumps and get this project rolling!!

 

Equipment:

 

Reef Breeder Photon 32 LED

Aqua C Remora Pro HOB skimmer with mag 3

8w UV Sterilizer

TLF 150 phosphate reactor

Gyre 130 for flow

Eheim 1260 return pump

Tunze nano ATO

 

Livestock:

 

Bonded pair of Blue line Snowflake clown fish

Tailspot blenny

Pygmy Pink Streak wrasse

peppermint shrimp trio

nassarius vibex, red stripe trochus, baha cerith snails, 2x small mexican turbos

 

Future livestock:

 

pedersen shrimp pair or white spot anenome pair

haliocheres wrasse species like a red line wrasse or a timor orange dashed wrasse

 

here are a few pictures:

 

20161229_083224_zpsmkr1wull.jpg

 

Everything has settled in from the sand and rock swap. I have been dosing MicroLube Special Blend and feeding reef roids and coral food daily while monitoring main water perams. ReefGen Rainbow orchid stylo was the most upset with the swap. I have been target feeding it with PhycoPure from AlgaeGen to assist in xooanthellae repopulation from the areas that have bailed out. While i have not seen new tissue regrowth I have noticed the spot necrosis has stopped. I will be pulling it from the DT this Sunday and target feeding it and soaking it in the PhycoPure in its own tub. Will see what happens!!

 

20161229_083151_zpska7abdma.jpg

 

Cheers for now!!

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Thanks folks! As always it is a work in progress. And I get bored with the same scape and swap it around so this tends to happen 1x per year, or I'll sell lots of stuff off and replace with different species.

 

I'd like to replace the stand, skimmer and sump for the next project. I already have a zero edge 3 foot sump for it. Plan on having the stand built mid year, and am still researching skimmers that will work for this set up and a near future shallow 80g or 100g.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Plan is to use some TLF pink epoxy to mount a few sps coral to the branch rock today. I am going to add some carbon before I do this and get 5g of water mixed up to do a water change after i am done. it seems my protein wet skims anytime i mount corals with this product. once i woke up to my skimmer pump going crazy and about 3 gallons of water in our foyer. not fun. i am hoping this process relieves me of this wet sock problem i have woken up to...

 

alk, calcium and mag have all been a tad low so am raising those up slowly as well. guess the corals settled in faster than i assumed after the tank swap and resumed their normal ppm intake. shows what testing does for you...

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  • 2 weeks later...

phosphates at .04

nitrates at .25

 

loving where the phosphates are currently....would like the nitrates up to around 2 ppm though. been feeding coral food cubes every other night and feeding the fish a tad more than normal also. did not get around to mounting corals last weekend. something always seems to come up lol!

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Well somehow a minute amount of macro algae must have been in the sandbeds or elsewhere. The macro has grown and shot runners under rocks and around corals again...I'm losing my wits with this nuisance. spent a lot of money on new rock and sand just for the same issue to re-occur.

 

Besides a tang to throw ich into my equation....anyone have any other ideas? May just need to sell it all off and start from scratch...don't know that I have the time, heart, or funds to do so though.

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It is weird...I would have to take pics, it's like a fern calurpa almost. Not grape...

 

Long runners with short leaves that look like a fan blade. Runs under sand, attaches VERY well and is sticky, like I've had to use tweezers to pull any shoots off of corals or rocks

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Ordered in a 2.5 inches tomini tang. Getting frag tank ready to acclimate there for now. Will try to make some headway on the 58g this weekend. Will need to do more manual removal of algae off of rocks and corals, going to do a lights out for a few days after a water change and some new GFO in the reactor.

 

Hopefully this will buy me some time. A few corals are really getting aggravated, so will be moving the psammacora and leptoseris into jenn's tank until some headway is made.

 

I feel I've done everything right with this tank from day one as far as husbandry goes. Then to be beaten down my some infiltrating macro algae...it's just frustrating to say the very least.

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Thanks to Kodiak66 for coming over on Saturday to help with this ongoing macro battle.

 

We pulled all the rocks and corals and picked off the sticky macro. Cleaned all equipment, swapped out UV for a larger wattage, and changed all media. Kept as much of the DT water as possible.

 

Ryan came to get a sample of the macro algae and discussed possible dosing of fluconazole which may help rid this specific macro strain. Still debating.

 

I have the tomini tang in QT but he isn't eating well if at all. May need to transfer to the DT early so it can swim and be happy, hopefully inducing an appetite.

 

I'm not a huge fan of the new scape but will leave it be for now. Will try to get pics up at some point this week.

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  • 2 weeks later...

did a little work on the tank this weekend. levels have all balanced out after the macro issue. have added a small tomini tang (not my pic above...still very shy) to the DT and started an octofrog garden. threw anot actual pic up of my timor orange dash wrasse as well, who has really came around the last couple weeks and is now very active. this guy loves to see me walk in the room now...little food mooch!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

tomini is doing well now that its out of its shortened QT. it is a spaz but eats nori sheets like they are going out of style. occasionally it will come out for dr. G caviar, frozen cobalt cubes or LRS. but i have to be far from the tank...its a scaredy cat

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Thanks Paul! There have been some set backs like most reefs here and there.

 

Just working on keeping the oddball macro at bay, while swapping focus toward more of an LPS dominant lower SPS upper reef. You will have to come check out the tanks at out our meeting in May :v)

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You're hosting the meeting in May? Every month I want to make it but my work schedule prevents it. You live about a mile from my work so I may be able to get to it. Also is your tang going after the macro? How's the battle?

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Hey...Yeah in May, you'll have to swing by on your break.

 

Algae the tang likes is what I out in the IM grazer. Hadn't seemed to nip on other stuff. I been pulling out a tad I've seen in sand bed.

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