Budget doesn't exist in this hobby: Brian's 45g Build

[mrhasan]

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

[Etaloche]

Originally Posted by coolhandgoose

Nice scoly. Hope it colours up for you.
Lots of algae going on there
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.

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
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.

Originally Posted by mrhasan

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

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.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

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.

[Etaloche]

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
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.


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.

[Etaloche]

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.


Right eye seems completely clear and will give better contrast to what I'm talking about in the left eye.

[Dash]

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. 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

Maggie

[Etaloche]

Originally Posted by Dash

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. 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

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.

[Dash]

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

[Etaloche]

Originally Posted by Dash

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.

[Dash]

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

Hope your little firefish is recovering. Cheers,

Maggie