I should make an effort to update more than once a month. So much can happen in a month I never even realized...

Where to even start

Woke up one day to a pod outbreak. I added a bottle of Doc's Eco Matter when I first got the tank up and running because I've always wanted a mandarin goby.
I kinda thought they all died out because there wasn't enough for them to eat in a new tank but I guess I was wrong.
Hopefully I can house a mandarin goby in the near future.

http://imgur.com/Ypt1juS.jpg

I decided to turn off my wavebox at night for no particular reason, just trying out stuff. Seems like the firefish decided to sleep in it and got shredded pretty bad when it turned back on in the morning
He healed up in about 3 days though. The rate at fish seem to heal is pretty surprising. Needless to say the wavebox stays on 24/7 now.

http://imgur.com/M0KsSqK.jpg

http://imgur.com/wHfTdGp.jpg

Everyone needs a pair of clowns in their tanks! I decided to splurge a little and got a pair of awesome black ice from JCharles
They are so active it's hard to get a clear photo with a phone camera!

http://imgur.com/O52OEga.jpg

Also got a lawnmower blenny, I've always heard they were peaceful herbivores but my god he is mean to my goby. Will not let the goby have a moment of peace if the goby is peaking out of the rocks.
Can also see the armageddon zoa I picked up right beside.

http://imgur.com/zyKAlie.jpg

Picked up a coco worm from Laurie's tank shut down. I've been dosing phyto to keep the pod population going strong so the coco worm should be happy about that.

http://imgur.com/9URU7H3.jpg

Next I visited Anthony and got a small RBTA for my clowns. It took about 2 hours of persuading to get it off the rock it came on.

http://imgur.com/B7k63LV.jpg

It decided to situate itself on the corner of one of my rocks. Stayed there for couple days before trying to move around to a new spot.
I was checking my tank one night with a red flashlight and suddenly saw something fly across the tank and scared the hell out of me.
Turned out to be the anemone taking flight to a new location. Woke up next morning to it right in the front of the tank so I'm super happy about that.
Clowns showing no sign of any interest of hosting the anemone though. Typical...

http://imgur.com/bThdnGT.jpg

http://imgur.com/6G1nuHN.jpg

A mini brittle star decided to hitch a ride with the anemone so I saved it for my fuge

http://imgur.com/nAyQsRq.jpg

Some new SPS frags as well

Red digi and green birdsnest
http://imgur.com/125qgOU.jpg

Alien haystack and no name acro, if someone has ID on the right frag let me know.
http://imgur.com/bGWr4X8.jpg

Purple pocillopora
http://imgur.com/XTTYor9.jpg

I got a plate coral from Albert for free when I first got my tank up. It was a coral I started liking much more than I thought I would at first.
The issue was that I don't have much room on my sand bed and it was growing really quick! So I traded Anthony the exact same plate coral but for a smaller one.

http://imgur.com/C8UPgL0.jpg

The rainbow acan I got from Albert that I thought was gonna split actually ended up doing so.

It's melting!

http://imgur.com/tcCcgZj.jpg

Ended up with 2 heads of rainbow acan right away. Not bad, just need to wait for them to grow out now.
Here they are after couple weeks of healing

This one healed up into a full head
http://imgur.com/ybCdljY.jpg

This one still seems to be healing. Looks as though it might even attempt to split once again.
http://imgur.com/4fkCdRh.jpg

I also bought 2 heads of green hammer from Albert. I was a complete klutz and accidentally broke one of the heads in half while trying to get it off the plug :redface:
I've always heard you should split euphyllias by cutting a whole head off and wasn't sure how it would do if the head was split.
Couple weeks of letting it be and it's showing signs of recovery. Fingers crossed

When I broke it
http://imgur.com/xMkQTpA.jpg

Couple days later
http://imgur.com/nran5tu.jpg

I finally got new lights as well, china box LED I have been using until now wasn't showing very good signs of growth. After much research I still decided to go with china box LED but the best one I could find.
It's from a company called SB Reef Lights and has full spectrum with UV as well. So far very pleased with them. I've never seen my corals extend so much before until now.

http://imgur.com/QDYyPEk.jpg

Fully custom ramping feature as well. This is really nice since my firefish used to always freak out when the whites went off before.

http://imgur.com/SghIqEy.jpg

Here is that broken hammer frag today under these lights looking much better. Been interesting to see how new polyps grow inside a hammer. They seem to start as a big bunch of polyps that later split into individual polyps.
http://imgur.com/aizNuhu.jpg

Never even realized my frogspawn was this large until I got these lights.
http://imgur.com/Y3sq8hV.jpg

So much polyp extension!
http://imgur.com/v0kJnPR.jpg

http://imgur.com/CyBVBi4.jpg

The coloration under these lights are amazing too!

The pink lemonade I had was turning a little pale from the bottom up but couple days with the lights and all its color came back.
This bonsai frag (or purple valida?) has turned deep purple with very florescent green since being put under these lights.
http://imgur.com/JlkiCUN.jpg

This leather coral that Anthony gave me that was accidentally fragged when getting the RBTA showed no sign of life and 2 days with new lights and it's somewhat responding to it. No full extension just yet.
http://imgur.com/50AOuUl.jpg

Even the anemone seems to be enjoying the new lights
http://imgur.com/dCjXzjZ.jpg

I think Albert told me I seem to be lacking a full tank shot so as my final post on this update here it is.
It was right before lights out so most of the corals have already started to retract. You can see that my aquascape got a change since my initial setup.

http://imgur.com/L06zEEC.jpg

Looking good Brian. Glad those new lights are working out well for you so far. Very thorough description for your "monthly" update. Enjoyed it as always. Cheers. Its 3:36 am and I'm finally done with editing papers for the night. Talk to you soon, I'm sure.

Anthony

A night owl like me eh. I'm very glad you lent me those lights because I doubt that any of my sps frags would've survived under the lights I had before. These new lights are like China boxes on steroids though. Here's the retrofit boards that I was talking about when I was over. Could be a worthwhile investment for you in the future. Could even be interesting to see if you changed just one of your lights to these and see if there's growth difference or if I'm just having placebo effect.

https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-upgrad...pcb-board.html

Hey Brian your tank looks awesome so far bud, the coco worm looks happy too.

Thanks Laurie, it's definitely been a beautiful addition to my tank. The plate coral also came from your tank because Anthony told me he picked it up from you:razz:

Ya I thought it looked familiar. :lol:

Tank's too small bro... :P

Tell me about it... Think I've maxed out my livestock already?

Was sold a faulty PC4 module a while back and had some troubles contacting the seller for a bit, but finally got a hold of him and got it all worked out. Instead of a $50 refund I opted to grab this scoly for $20 more.
I've always wanted a scoly but the expensive price deterred me from getting one. $70 is the best price I'm ever going to get for a scoly this size so I couldn't pass up the offer.

The long transit and dip stressed it quite a bit and it lost a bit of color
http://imgur.com/iRtczBP.jpg

3 days later and couple feedings did it wonders but colors are still faded a bit. Hoping that more of the orange takes over and it will be a stunning piece of coral! I'm very excited about this purchase
http://imgur.com/P280o8t.jpg

Right after that Anthony invited me over to see of his new corals and fish he got for a great price (what a showoff! :lol:)
I love going over to his place and always seeing something new despite his famous last words "I can't add any more to my tanks"

He handed me this candy cane which wasn't doing too well in his tank in hopes that a new environment could bring some life back to it
http://imgur.com/6tEbKno.jpg

It was looking a lot better the morning after so I have high hopes for it. If it can recover it will be an awesome addition to my tank as I don't have anything nearly as big as this yet.
http://imgur.com/QWvYYll.jpg

Couple of days later it's still showing good signs of recovery. I'll be working hard to bring this one back to good health!
http://imgur.com/xynnucv.jpg

And by working hard I mean staring at it for hours on end :mrgreen:
http://imgur.com/ZTF4Mof.jpg

Anthony also shared some frags of the big zoa colonies he picked up

I don't remember the name of this one...
http://imgur.com/CONVCaq.jpg

Fire and ice, someone give me some good tips on how to take better photos please. These photos are just dang awful
http://imgur.com/IKtCVjV.jpg

Nice scoly. Hope it colours up for you.
Lots of algae going on there :wink:
Candy canes are the one coral that's bullet proof in my tank so I'm sure it will come back around nicely for you.

For the CC, put it in a low flow low area light. They recover miraculously when they are not getting blasted with light or flow.

Impressive progress :mrgreen:

Ya I added a whole bunch of livestock in the past few weeks and my feeding hand got a bit heavy cause I got so excited :redface:
Just did a 10% WC yesterday and lots of manual removal of algae. Doesn't help that the weather almost went up 10 degrees in the past week and lots more sunlight coming through even though I live in a basement.
Still learning the ins and outs of algae control.

Oh ok, I just moved it to the lowest flow part of my tank which happens to be a low light area as well. Fingers crossed now. Lawnmower blenny keeps picking at the algae on the tips and making it retract ugh.

The zoas are called Green Bay Packers or Boy Scouts, depending on whether you follow NFL football or not, I guess. If the candycanes survive, they're yours.:wink:

I've been fragging all my zoas when I first get them so that I always start with just 4-5 heads. I just wanted to see growth pattern and speed of their growth individually.
The idea is also to have one of my rock evenly spread with different kinds of zoas.

Anyways, I traded in all my small frags for this open brain coral. I didn't get the one I wanted because it was sold 2 days after I decided I wanted it :sad:
Anthony told me to always ask to have the coral you want on hold from now on. Will definitely take on that advice from now.

Still very happy with this one, has awesome splashes of colors.
http://imgur.com/LTb0vAp.jpg

I noticed yesterday that my firefish has developed a bit of a cloudy eye on one side. After some research I've narrowed it down to some possibilities: physical damage like scratches, internal parasitic infection, or bacterial infection.
I couldn't really get a clear photo but will try to. I have a QT tank setup but haven't been able to catch the fish.
Not ready to tear down my scape and decided to keep an eye on him for couple more days. Planning to add a UV in case it's an infection. Any other advice?

Could be related but I added a springer's damsel to my tank last week who disappeared in a single night. I assumed my pistol shrimp got to it and ate it.
Maybe it was carrying some sort of disease... I really hope not but I'm prepared to act on it in case it was.

Had to whip out the DSLR to get somewhat decent photo of the eye

The cloudy left eye, hard to tell but it has a slight hazey area right in the middle.
http://imgur.com/USB5Pmx.jpg

Right eye seems completely clear and will give better contrast to what I'm talking about in the left eye.
http://imgur.com/m9HizJv.jpg

Hi Brian,

Newbie here. I've been reading tons on Canreef since setting up my tank last Nov. Great info but most of it is so far off from what I've got running:redface:. I have a 75g fowlr cobbled together mainly for my 2 green spotted puffers (that the LFS told me were freshwater). Anyway, these guys have been the gateway to a new addiction, albeit on a budget.

After adding a couple of softies I'm now looking for a new light. I've been looking on ebay for a deal on Evergrow lights but have also looked at the SB Reef lights. Just wondering, what were the Chinese box lights you had before?

Ps. I have a goby/shrimp pair and lawnmower blenny too. I love "character" fish:smile:

Maggie

Are you looking into turning the 75G to a reef tank?

I had SWC Xtreme which are really really old now. A very nice member here who goes by Seahorse_Fanatic lent me some marsaqua lights since the SWC were nowhere near the performance I needed for some corals.

I did hours of research into lights and I would highly recommend 2 16" models from SB Reeflights for your tank. I think they are the best bang for your buck currently, I'm seriously loving mine. They have a range of models from basic, timer, to ramping as well if you feel you want to go fancy. I personally really like the ramping model since some of my fish were freaking out when the lights would abruptly turn off and turn on. With the ramping they seem much more comfortable. Shoot me a PM if you have any more questions although I'm still quite a newbie as well.

Another advice I have is to start up a build thread/journal on the forum. Lots of people will chime in with great advice.

Despite initially vowing that I would do a fowlr, I'm very tentatively looking at acquiring some corals, more on the LPS side. Impossible to resist the dark side, haha. Before I do that, I need to upgrade my lights. Believe it or not, I'm running an old Aqueon modular led that came with the tank (I bought a freshwater setup from CL) but it's keeping everything going.

I'm leaning towards either Evergrow or SB, but recently found a seller on ebay offering more affordable "refurbished" Evergrows - whatever that means.

Really enjoying your tank build thread as I can understand most of it lol

Maggie

You can't go wrong with either in terms of softies, if you do one day decide to try LPS or SPS I can already guarantee that you will get better growth and colors with the SB.
The price is almost no different as well from what I know. Not sure how much these refurb units are going for.
I know that the owner of SB was doing a scratch and dent sale last week with some great prices for practically new lights as well. I can link it to you in a PM.
SB also sells retrofit boards with their custom spectrum that you can buy later down the road and install into your evergrow if it's compatible so that's also an option.

https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-upgrad...pcb-board.html

In any case, with the right conditions both these lights will grow corals perfectly fine.

Thanks for the info - I'll def check it out.

Hope your little firefish is recovering. Cheers,

Maggie

Not too much going on in the tank lately and just been watching the corals grow out

Some new additions

http://imgur.com/nxfLNFx.jpg

http://imgur.com/TFqkhXm.jpg

Warren if you see this can you give me the name of this coral? I totally forgot.
http://imgur.com/Ri4acmu.jpg

http://imgur.com/ungAazr.jpg

You can see my new orchid dottyback hiding in the rock in this one.
http://imgur.com/UiND1tl.jpg

http://imgur.com/rjCY2Dd.jpg

http://imgur.com/XFgJ7fg.jpg

http://imgur.com/p4m5g2g.jpg

http://imgur.com/ZRo78j9.jpg

This acan has been growing out beautifully. One of the first corals I ever got

http://imgur.com/RdDYw4k.jpg

The candycane has made some great recovery. I've been battling some algae and lost a single head when the algae took over but have since got it under control. I've also been feeding each individual head by hand every couple of days and that's how its been nicknamed the sun coral :lol:

Feeding time
http://imgur.com/L8hjpvk.jpg

http://imgur.com/wJghuWp.jpg

When I first got the coral
http://imgur.com/Hfhacxq.jpg

Today, still got a long way before full recovery
http://imgur.com/kTC5Ezw.jpg

Zoa garden is taking shape
http://imgur.com/Af3ntYW.jpg

Some new zoa and paly waiting to be mounted. Thanks GoFish for providing me with a frag rack. It's been very useful
http://imgur.com/mBwQZ97.jpg

http://imgur.com/IoUDRfL.jpg

http://imgur.com/Fww9h1r.jpg

I also finally got a mandarin goby!
http://imgur.com/bUFTNP3.jpg

Built this target feeder I saw on the internet and hatched some brine shrimp for him. Eventually started putting mysis on the feeder and he happily accepts any frozen foods now. Very happy that training him was a breeze :mrgreen:
http://imgur.com/VNJ41DR.jpg

Halloween urchin which has been a big help with algae control
http://imgur.com/IBqNxpC.jpg

Also got some other critters. This pom pom crab has to be my favorite crab.
http://imgur.com/wVPRbMa.jpg

This porcelain crab is very fun to watch too.
http://imgur.com/QTyH37z.jpg

Finally, the latest addition to my tank has been this sharknose cleaner goby.
http://imgur.com/57k7pKE.jpg

Only recent changes have been that I started dosing the Prodibio BioKit and changed my salt to the Aquaforest Probiotic Salt

http://imgur.com/KDhLqSv.jpg

http://imgur.com/HRznnNq.jpg

http://imgur.com/bQV4Tip.jpg

Looking good buddy. That would be a Turaki, original colony out of Jeff's tank at J&L.

Gotcha thanks

Wow... time flies, I can't believe it's already been 9 months since my tank has been set up. Just realized my last update was 5 months ago.
Been busy with a new job and school starting up again and caring for the tank has been quite a challenge. Only recently have I finally figured out my ritual and been able to tend to my tank in detail again.
Lots have happened and I had to even set up a frag tank to accommodate room for more stuff. I'll make an effort to do an in depth update on my tank!

http://imgur.com/tvp8tKv.jpg

http://imgur.com/GMI29ZA.jpg

Looks great Brian keep it up! Hard not to have a frag tank when trying to stock a 45g when you want a piece of everything :)

Looks awesome Brian! Good job!

Great looking scape Brian keep up the good work!

Wow, more than a year has flown by now. I've been making lots of long term trips for longboard racing lately and broke my arm on one of the tours. The tank took a hit during that time, but I'm finally out of my cast and getting the tank back on course.

It's amazing to look back at how much some things have grown lately! I've started dosing more diligently and finally got a doser set up this week. SPS has taken off since dosing but I still cannot keep a euphillia alive for the life of me.

This birdnest was one of the first pieces in my tank
http://imgur.com/60yMDSb.jpg

You just don't notice things are growing unless you compare them in photos I think haha
http://imgur.com/kkelrd7.jpg

My SPS garden is finally settled in and growing well
http://imgur.com/1gBPfvs.jpg

http://imgur.com/eW9va4b.jpg

GSP is starting to take over my zoa garden a bit, and the zoas are taking over themselves now that there is no room
http://imgur.com/ewrxYyb.jpg

http://imgur.com/0U8ifVB.jpg

This Crocea clam has been with me for couple months now and during neglect of the tank the clam seemed to love it. It's grown quite a bit putting on 3 new layer of scutes so far!
http://imgur.com/gLpGURU.jpg;

http://imgur.com/tOH2dz3.jpg

Xenia has taken over the right side of my tank but my clowns love it and hosts it as their home. I've just decided to let it run wild until I upgrade my tank one day.
http://imgur.com/YT9qddn.jpg

New dosing setup
http://imgur.com/VQRq6DV.jpg

Full tank shot
http://imgur.com/b9g8FCu.jpg


I've also recently got into collecting exotic succulents, especially of the Haworthia species. I've been trying to find some specialty soil in Vancouver which has been proving quite difficult. I know many here are into plants as well as planted tanks which use similar substrate, so I'm wondering if anyone here might know where to find some of these stuff. I'm looking for anything along the line of akadama, turface, pumice, or crushed lava that is fine grade. Basically anything that provide great drainage for plants. Let me know if anyone has any idea where to find these substrate or alternative in greater Vancouver area thanks!

http://imgur.com/JKSEZzq.jpg

http://imgur.com/dFmYY8J.jpg

http://imgur.com/N7iytqM.jpg

http://imgur.com/uVCTnvg.jpg

Akadama soil they use to carry at the bonsai store on broadway before boundary but have since closed down, we used it to breed BKK shrimps before.

I am guessing your best bet is online, maybe eBay??

Thanks for the help, was trying to find something local as anything online basically doubles the price with shipping.

I thought by now I'd be able to figure out the balance in my tank, but I'm still struggling. SPS are thriving, but I still struggle to keep LPS alive. I have a clam and a sea apple which show no sign of stress so it's not the water quality. I've pretty much never had luck with Euphyllia, now my acan and plate coral are deteriorating out of nowhere. I've tried feeding them as well which usually recovers LPS very quick in my experience, but no luck this time. Don't have a test kit to test nitrate and phos, but rest of my parameters are as follows. Can anyone give me some suggestions/advice on what I could do to achieve a balance between LPS and SPS

Alk: 9.6
Calc: 450
Mag: 1360

https://imgur.com/UgXiStA.jpg

https://imgur.com/UZZZsqv.jpg

https://imgur.com/WbWERVB.jpg

https://imgur.com/OL7GiL6.jpg

I have my LPS at either ends of my 150 6ft tank: Euphylia on the left and Candy Cane on the right under actinic t5's. My SPS in the middle are under an LED. All are thriving.

AquaAddict

I would suggest you buy a po4 and no3 test kit so you at least know what your levels are.

Yes, probably a good idea, will do so next visit to the store. Any idea on why my acan is not doing so hot? It's one I got from you ages ago and it has been doing fine all this time, and then suddenly went downhill :cry:

If your nitrates climb up and phosphates you will see a decline in your LPS. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out why my small scan frag was struggling, reduced my nitrates and phosphates and it looks better. That being said, most the damage was done and it hasn’t grown much.

Did you notice any symptoms with your SPS when the nitrates and phosphates went up? I always thought I'd see my SPS colonies showing signs so stress before my LPS would.

I noticed when my Nitrate and phosphates were high that coral row th slowed. As well the vivid colours went to a brown not like a pale colour in a ULNS.

I find the opposite when it comes to acans , if nutrients get too low they are not happy. It also depends “how” they’ve gotten too low. If you are feeding the tank plenty ,and the nutrients are naturally low ,due to denitrifying bacteria doing their job, then it’s usually not an issue, however if they’re low from excessive carbon dosing , and stripping the water with carbon/gfo etc , then LPS and in particular acans will suffer ime.

Well judging from your frags you got it down! :biggrin:
So there is no doubt in my mind your tank parameters are spot on.