Reef Tank DIY - For Dummies

[Dash]

The tank has been humming along, doing its thing. Hard to believe it's been half a year already!

I've been following my dosing regimen (CAL 420 ALK 9 MAG 1350) and coral seem to be happy. The rainbow monti which had lost about 50% of its tissue has grown it all back, except for one little spot that is almost closed up. I'm pretty amazed that the dosing impacted things so quickly. My rainbow stylo still has some little bare spots where algae has sprouted up and this seems to be impeding the re-growth of new tissue. Should I prune the dead branches or just leave them and be patient?

So I've been adding things here and there. Pretty happy about my Oregon Tort. I never thought I'd have a coral this beautiful. This is the closest my camera skills can capture the colour. It's much nicer in real life.


I took some mushrooms that I didn't want anymore to the LFS. Not much there but this caught my eye. So cool! My daughter doesn't understand my enthusiasm ("it's just a blob") but I like it. Hope I can keep it alive.


Meet my little monster Stanley. JL said he's a decorator crab but I believe he's a sponge crab. He is not reef safe so he's in the sump. I just had to have him because who can resist a crab with a toupee?
Funny story...I found him a week later, sans toupee & upside down. I was sad that he was dead. I examined him (cuz he's interesting) and he was heavy and perfect. I put him in one of my flower beds. A week later, there's Stanley in the sump, toupee and all. It had been a molt! How can a molt be so perfect? Anyway, I'm picturing him taking his toupee (it's the same ball of chaeto) off the molt and putting it on his brand new head




My mandarin had lost some weight in the last couple of months in the old 75 gal, but has definitely fattened up in the new tank. He is also much more active and spry, zipping here and there like a ninja. I think I'm ready to get him a lady friend, but it seems there are no female mandarins around. I've asked JL to let me know if they come across one.

[DKoKoMan]

Awesome updates! That crab looks evil ... maybe the chaeto is a ghillie suit I’m which he uses to ambush unexpecting prey. I love the mandarin fish! Super jealous. I tried one way back when I had my 75g but he got so skinny and eventually died. I tried so hard to keep him alive spending a couple $100 in pods added directly in but it didn’t work.

It’s nice to see yours is doing well. I’m too scared to try another one, sometimes I look at night to try to count pods to convince my wife the tank is ready. I have also heard of some mandarins eating frozen mysis (probably hard to get).

Following along! Looks great.

[Dash]

The summer has flown by. Luckily the tank is in our basement which stays very cool so the temps have been stable.

In memoriam...
Sadly I had a couple of losses in early August. I've been very fortunate & haven't experienced this a lot, and I have a hard time with it.

Basil the tailspot. Not sure what happened here, one day fine the next missing at evening roll call. He was almost 3 years old and was mature when I got him (I picked the biggest one) so was it old age? I really would like to get another one but hate to think they have short life spans


Peach the fromia. Well, I enjoyed her for 8 months. I've tried to read up on these guys and this seems to be about the average time they last in tanks. Anyone have a different experience? Beautiful creature - hate to think we are not able to provide the environment for them to live out their natural life span? Very conflicted about getting another one but loved seeing her in the tank. Here she is taking a ride on a snail & falling off.



On to happier news...I finally got the stand doors on and painted. Went with black. Whew! Boring stuff all done.



Got my first (and only) tang! I was lucky and found one in perfect shape. Also just under 2.5" so the price was lower He was shy for about 5 minutes and is doing very well. His personality is like the one in Finding Nemo. Very amusing despite being a tang.


I've continued to slowly add new coral and have settled into watching the tank evolve and grow. Here are some of the goings on...

Awesome new goniopora. Each little "petal" is tipped with a tiny bit of purple. (Not evident with my poor photo skills)


Btw, above monti has totally recovered since I started dosing. This was how it looked back in March.

The other unhappy coral, a rainbow stylo, is almost back to 100%



The Jedi Mind Trick has become a bit of a monster and I've had to isolate the rock. I've circled the original frag I bought from WarDog Oct2016.


The Diablo has also put on good growth. Can't quite capture the colours. The entire canopy part is new growth.


Rainbow Loom is almost all bright yellow (doesn't show in photo). Not sure what I can do to get pink back. Pearlberry is nice though.


Cheato ball really needs to be harvested. Credit goes to Stanley's dedicated grooming. He goes over it like the Little Prince on his planet, carefully picking it over.


My latest additions. So lovely. Hope they don't break my heart...



Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

[Dash]

My mandarin used up the second of his 9 lives (at least I hope he has that many). The first life gone was due to me being an idiot and cutting the top off the bag too fast. It exploded and he splashed onto the floor, right in between the washer and dryer. In a controlled panic, I carefully used my net to coax him into jumping towards me, then ran to dump him into the DT. So much for acclimation, etc. Now two years later, I was staring into the tank and thought, huh what's that pretty blue stripey thing inside the rock...turns out it's Po's face staring out at me. He somehow found a tunnel entrance under the rock where the pistol shrimp lives and got stuck coming out. Luckily my scape is not glued together, so I lifted up the rock & he swam out. Hid in his cave for 2 days barely moving, then he was fine. Any other rock and I wouldn't have seen him but this one was right in front. Whew!

He is especially grateful because JL came through and let me know they had a lady friend for him. She's lovely and the perfect size for him. This guy who does not know other living creatures exist (other than pods) immediately perked up upon seeing her, raising his fin. A little spirited chasing, nothing aggressive. She slept in his cave the first night, but don't judge her. Hoping to see the mating dance soon.

Well, hello... (Is that your dorsal fin or are you just happy to see me?)


The hawkfish trying not to notice the politically incorrect behavior



You'll be back - you can't resist me...

[DKoKoMan]

Hahaha love the story book!!! I had a good laugh reading through your last posts. On a serious note, I think this has made me want to finally acquire a mandarin

[smokinreefer]

Stunning fish!

[lastlight]

Really enjoyed reading all your posts. Totally reminds me of that initial wonder I felt when I setup my first tank. No matter how into the hobby I get I can't quite capture those same feelings again. The new tank is really coming along well done!

[Dash]

Thanks!
Finally finding a female is the culmination of a lot of planning and waiting. I only added one rock when I upgraded to the larger tank. I really think the chaeto & sump has helped boost the pod population.

[Dash]

Lastlight, thanks for the kind words. Religiously reading everyone’s build threads (including yours) helped so much; if I only relied on LFS info, I’m pretty sure I would have failed miserably. This hobby has been so much fun. It’s pretty funny remembering how excited I was to get mushrooms with my rock when I was setting up my first tank. I was so worried they wouldn’t make it through the 5-minute car ride home.

[WarDog]

Tank is looking really good! Keep doing what you're doing!