CoRPS' 55G Soon to be Reef

[CoRPS]

So here it is. I'm going to use this thread (if allowed) as a little journal. Keeping any and all notes as I learn more about this new hobby. I made an attempt at a 10g back in 2004. All was fine until the starfish got sucked into the powerhead and wreaked death on everything else. I made sure that won't happen again by getting a Koralia powerhead :)

At first, I only put in 60lbs of live sand and about 50lbs of limestone that I've been collecting. This past weekend I went to Coral Reef Farm in Hollywood and picked up about 15# of some killer live rock.

Right now I've got a Biowheel 350 HOB filter that I used when I had a freshwater tank. I know this won't hold on for too long so I have plans on buying an Octopus 100 or 300 HOB skimmer. The stand I have for my tank doesn't have sufficient space for a sump/fuge.

Onto some pictures:

Full tank shot:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528tank10.jpg

Piece of live rock on left side of tank:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528tank8.jpg


Live rock in middle of tank:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528tank13.jpg

Live rock on right side of tank, also my favorite piece:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528tank7.jpg

After taking some bad advice from the LFS I bought 3 damsels to help cycle the tank. So far, two have died. The last still looks lively, but does barely ever emerges from his many hiding spots. I'm hoping he holds on until everything levels out. Please don't flame me about their deaths, it doesn't make things any better.

Right now there are 5 hermit crabs, 10 turbo snails and a damsel residing in the tank, on top of whatever else may have come from the rock.

Taking the advice of another member, I did a 15gallon water change. Here are the water parameters before and after. Will be doing another test and updating the thread when I'm done.

Before 15G WC:
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0.5

After 15G WC
pH: 8.4
Ammonia: between 0.25 and 0.5 - Hard to tell.
Nitrate: Between 5 and 10 - Also hard to tell.
SG: 1.02275


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, just try not to look too down on me for my mistakes.

[CoRPS]

I've been noticing the last few days that whenever I turn off the powerhead and filter to feed, the damsel will come out, have a few bites, and then he will swim around and check everything out. But as soon as the powerhead and filter turn back on, he's gone until the next day.

Is my powerhead too strong? Is my filter making too much noise for the little guy? What gives?

It's a Koralia #3 (850gph)

[CoRPS]

pH: 8.0
Ammonia: Between 0.5 and 1.0
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0.2
SG: 1.0225

That's wierd that the pH dropped 0.4 in 24hrs. I'll check it again tomorrow.

[mrharris3]

Right now your tank seems to still be going through its cycling phase. In honesty the only thing you needed to get your cycle started was the live rock and the hermits.. This is enough to introduce "biology" into the picture. Right now your levels seem to be coming down, but are still a little high.. One thing is for sure.. you want your PH to be around 8.4 for a reef tank. I would not add anything else for now. Wait until Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0 and Nitrate are near undetectable, though it will alwasy be present. As far as the damsel, hes probably getting use to the tank..I have a Koralia 4 and 3 pushing my tank and its only a 75, my damsel loves swinging into the current. One think I will say is don't cheap out on you test kits.. This is extremely imporant with salt water. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new, but be patient. There is a great line of products I use by Aqua Vitro. Other levels for a reef shoudl be Alk: 1.7-2.8 is normal, Ca between 440-46. These are the only levels I check, with 10% water changes per week, all other things like Mg. etc. should stay pretty good.

[CoRPS]

Right now I'm using the same test kit they use at the LFS, it's from API. It comes with the pH, Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite. I'm testing the salinity with a Red Sea hydrometer. They use all the same things at the LFS so I figured if it was good enough for their 5+ reef tanks, it should be good enough for mine.

As for the Alk and Ca, I haven't bought those yet. I was planning on getting those a little later, after the lights and skimmer. I'm not planning on going to a reef for a few months as my pockets won't allow it.

On a side note, a guy at the LFS I bought my rocks at (not the regular LFS I go to) has a 4x54w T5 setup he's selling for $100. I know the whole watts per gallon thing shouldn't be looked into too much, but that comes out to 216w/55g=3.9wpg.

Do you think the 4x54w T5 will be strong enough for coral? I'm not really interested in a lot of coral. I really like button polyps and pulsating xenia, I'd like to populate most of my tank with just those two types. Also, my mom is a big fan of Finding Nemo, so she must have an anenome. Ofcourse I won't get one if these lights aren't sufficient.

[CoRPS]

On a side note, I live in Miami, Florida and I have a little boat. Should I or should I not pick up some rubble, or even some bigger pieces of rock from out in the ocean to help seed my tank even further? I'm just nervous about bringing diseases into my tank.

[CoRPS]

What can I do to raise my pH back up, and what caused it to drop 0.4 in ~24hrs?

I just tested the pH again now and it's still at 8.0

[sdc19982002]

Collection of live rock in Fla will come with some hefty fines if your caught. The rock that you'll find close to shore will probably be undesirable due to oil,gas and other chemicals from boats waste. I personaly wouldnt put anything but fish,shrimp or crabs in your tank that are caught wild. Corals, rock and some sponges are on the banned list. Trust me... I found this out the hard way while in the keys on vacation..

[CoRPS]

oh wow, good thing I asked. I have some friends in FWC but I woulnd't want to hassle them over some rock.

[CoRPS]

Parameters today

pH 8.0
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0.25
SG 1.02225

[CoRPS]

I think I'm going to do another 10-15g water change on Thursday. Is there any reason I should do it sooner?

Edit: I'm going to leave one of the lids to the tank open overnight. If the pH rises then I know it's a CO2 problem, and will need to open some more vents on the back of the cover.

[andrew22sass]

Well i also have a 55g and with the levels you have i would try doing mabye 5% every week which will be 5 gallons. The corals you like ( Pulsing Xenia & Button Polyops ) do not require that much light the T5s should be fine or mabye try 4 SunPaq Retrofits. I will try to keep posting but for know happy reefing :bum:

[CoRPS]

Will the T5's be good for an anenome as well?

Thanks for the help andrew. I'll do a 5g water change thursday.

[jamest0o0]

PH generally comes down a bit when the lights are off, a lot of people have refugiums with the lights on at night instead of the day to keep the PH stable.

[CoRPS]

I keep my lights on from about 8am to 11pm. I usually do my tests around 8-10pm after the lights have been on all day. I don't think that's the issue.

[CoRPS]

Ok so which of these skimmers would you recommend?

Octopus BH 100 - $109.95 (http://www.aquacave.com/octopus-hang-on-backbr-protein-skimmer-hb-100-495.html)

Octopus BH 1000 - $149.95 (http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=2347)

Octopus HB 300 Dual - $159.95 (http://www.aquacave.com/octopus-dual-hang-on-backbrprotein-skimmer-hb-300-1012.html)

[VacavilleFC3S]

theres no reason to do water changes while your still cycling, you want those different bacterias to multiply, so hold off the next one for about 3-4 weeks .

lights on 15hrs a day is a bit much . a good lighting schedule would be

8am - turn actinics on
10am turn white lamps on
6pm turn white lamps off
8pm turn actinics off

and actually you don't need them on at all right now when it's cycling your just wasting electricity

and hold off on any anemones for atleast 6-8months while your tank is still establishing itself.

just be patient nothing good will happen if you rush things.

[CoRPS]

I'm doing water changes so that the **** in the tank doesn't die (damsel,hermits and snails) Does your suggestion of no water changes still stand?

[CoRPS]

Also, it seems like this morning after taking another pH sample, I'm dropping even further. Almost starting to look like 7.8

What is my problem?

[m_wonnacott]

you may want to test your kH and gH which is the hardness of your water if they are low then that would be why your pH is falling the water does not have enough buffer capacity.

[CoRPS]

I'll try and make the trip to the lfs today to get those tests. What range should I be looking for?

[CoRPS]

Parameters

pH 8.0
Ammonia: Between .25 and .5 (Hard to tell)
Nitrate: Between 5 and 10 (More toward 5)
Nitrite: 1.0
SG: 1.0225

Edit: Seems like I'm getting pretty close to the end of the cycle. Nitrates are dropping dramatically, ammonia is dropping and nitrites are rising. :smokin:

Edit2: Just want to add for future reference, the tank was filled w/salt water on Sept 13th, 2008

[CoRPS]

Parameters:

before 5g WC:
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: .25 and .5
Nitrate: 10 and 20
Nitrite: .5 and 1.0

after 5g WC:
pH: 7.9
Amm: .25 and .5
Nitrate: 10 and 20
Nitrite: .25
SG: 1.0225

The water change didn't seem to do much. I need to know what I'm supposed to do about the pH, it keeps dropping.

[CoRPS]

Parameters:

pH: 7.9
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0.5
SG: 1.0225

Today and yesterday the damsel has been in hiding. The two days before that when pumps were off he would swim around and eat all the food I dropped in. He hasn't come out since then (Sept 24th)

[VacavilleFC3S]

well really you shouldn't have added any livestock till after it's done cycling. seeing as you still have ammonia your still very early in your cycle.

first ammonia will drop to 0, then nitrites will rise, then nitrites will drop to 0 then nitrates will climb and then settle back down to around 20 or below.

you really need to stop worrying about PH and everything else until your done cycling

i just noticed you filled the tank on the 13th, but when did you add the rock??

[CoRPS]

VacavilleFC3S, thanks for stopping in :)

I know I shouldn't have added livestock, it was a mistake, but it's too late to worry about that now.

As for the rock, the limestone was in from day 1, the LR was added on 9/21/08

[VacavilleFC3S]

ok so your tank has only been cycling for 5 days. take the CUC out loan them to a friend or take them back to the store, your only going to see more death if you don't

if you want to do things right, for the next 30-45 days:

no water changes <--- your just wasting water and salt

test only ammonia nitrite nitrate once every 3 days <--- DKH,Alk,mag,calcium don't matter until after the cycling is done and you start adding corals and livestock. any more often and your just wasting test solutions.

top off with fresh water as needed

lights don't need to be on unless your looking at it. it will only promote algae growth.

you really need to just wait and be patient, even once the test start reading zero the good bacteria are still multiplying thats why people say to wait a good month or 2. ideally you'd want to wait 4-6 months but i don't think anybody is that patient including myself.

[CoRPS]

What about the damsel?

[VacavilleFC3S]

i'd get rid of it. there actually an extremely aggressive fish that would bully to death anything you plan on adding to the tank later.

[CoRPS]

Sadly, the last damsel is circling the drain. He's been hiding for the last two days and hasn't eaten. I found him right now in front of some of the rock work perched on the sand. Like the 2nd damsel, he has some kind of white stuff on him. It covers most of his gill area.

What the hell is this?!

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528photo.jpg

I had high hopes for this little guy, for a while he was eating well, and when the pump and filter was off he'd swim all over the place and looked like he was having a good time.

Like I said, I won't be buying anymore livestock until the tank is fully cycled, I've got plans to bring the hermits and snails to a friend who has a 30ish gallon reef that he's had for a year or so.

[Kdocimo90]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13436407#post13436407 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CoRPS

What the hell is this?!

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528photo.jpg

A really poorly taken picture ;)

[CoRPS]

hah, I know :(

He's so small and with no zoom feature on the iphone, you have to get close enough that the image goes blurry. Let me try and get a better picture.

Edit: Also, http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1479444

[CoRPS]

Alright, I took the picture with an actual camera. Sadly, the flash was on so it drowned out a lot of the whiteness. But you can still tell that something is wrong.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528sickfish.png

[CoRPS]

no one?

[gookster]

rip

[CoRPS]

So it's been a few days since I last put the parameters. So here's an update.

pH 7.8
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrate: Between 10 and 20 (can't tell)
Nitrite: 0
SG: 1.2275

[CoRPS]

pH 7.8
Ammonia: between 0 and 0.25
Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: 0
SG: 1.23

Looks like I'm almost done. I'll wait another few days and do another test. If everything is leveled out I'm going to do a 10-15g water change. Hopefully that will bring the pH up.

[CoRPS]

Parameters:

pH 7.9
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrate: between 10 and 20ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
SG: 1.02325

I've always heard that the biowheel creates a lot of nitrates, so I'm guessing that's why it's so high. I won't have the $ for a skimmer and T5 fixture for a week or so.

I'm hoping after a 10-15g water change the pH will go back up to where it should be. I'll try and do the water change on Thursday.

[Rustylugnuts]

Well with things still cycling I wouldn't worry about the pH just yet. Its a tad low but not enough to worry about. If you feel like adjusting it grab some marine buffer (pH 8.4), it would be cheaper than 10 -15 gallons of salt. I don't envy you the hardest part is waiting ( the algae/cyano blooms are a close second).

[CoRPS]

pH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
SG 1.2325

I know water changes help with nitrates, but is 20 extremely high? Is it considered reef safe? I remember on my old 10 gallon I usually had a constant 20

[Rustylugnuts]

20 is a bit high but not way out there. Fish might not like it and corals would likely show their displeasure. With nothing in the tank but rock and sand waterchanges at this point are not absolutely necessary. The numbers you posted suggest that you're gettin close to the end of your cycle. I think it might be better to wait for the bacteria populations to catch up and just keep testin for nitrates till they're below 5.

[Zestay]

i think you test to much... this is how i cycle.


put in dead something.

wait

wait
wait
diatom bloom
water test
wait
wait
coraline algea spreads to glass
water change and test

[CoRPS]

So after a while of no pictures I decided to add another. Not that anything really changed :o

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/58528tankk.jpg

[Rustylugnuts]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13512149#post13512149 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zestay
i think you test to much... this is how i cycle.


put in dead something.

wait

wait
wait
diatom bloom
water test
wait
wait
coraline algea spreads to glass
water change and test

Funny thats how I did mine :D.

[CoRPS]

So I know you guys say I test too often, but I don't have much else to do while I'm at home :)

pH 8.0
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: still at 20
SG: 1.02375

SG is going up because the water is evaporating and I'm not topping off. Not going to until the cycle is done and I start stocking, no reason to, pshh.

[CoRPS]

So it's been a while since I've updated.

pH 7.9ish
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
SG: 1.02375

[Dustin1300]

Like mentioned before...Your gonna know when you start progressing cause of the diatom bloom. You'll hat the looks of it but let it do its thing. You seem to be a bit jumpy on getting things done, just chill out with that. The key to this hobby is patience. I just started last June, lost one fish over the course of a year and 4 months. I've had great success with this so far and am planning a 120 upgrade right now, just got the tank! Anyways, your key is going to be waiting and being patient. If you've got so much extra time pick up some of the more popular books about Coral and reef aquariums. I initially set up my tank and read about 5-6 books last year in a month. If your interested, you'll have no problem reading about this fascinating hobby. I learned a lot from the books, and a lot on here.

[Dustin1300]

Also, get rid of the damsel....They are little devils!

[CoRPS]

The damsel died a while ago and the tank has had consistent readings for about a week and a half.

I'd like to think I'm taking things slowly :)

[VacavilleFC3S]

20 nitrates is perfectly fine, and most beginner corals like mushies and zoas love alittle dirty water. i've always had 10-20ppm nitrates

[CoRPS]

That's good to hear. I think my nitrates are staying high because of the biowheel. I've always heard that was a nitrate machine.

Either way I'm hoping to get a skimmer soon.

Thanks again for the info Vacaville

[CoRPS]

Here's the newest addition... times 2 :)

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/clown2.jpg

[CoRPS]

Some new pictures of my babies.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/thecouple.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/thecouple2.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/quad.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/clowning.jpg

I'm getting my T5's tomorrow from Ansphire (THANKS MAN!) so I'm goign to be going sometime this week or this weekend to pick up some zoanthids. I've got my eye set on this colony at my LFS.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/IMG_0405.jpg

It's bigger than a softball and about $40 or $45 :)

[CoRPS]

During shipping two of the bulbs broke, so right now (until I stop being lazy and go pick up some bulbs sometime today) I'm running on 2x54w Actinic (sp?). Even with just the blue bulbs it looks awesome. Here's a picture, I added one of my regular white bulbs on the right to get an idea of what it would look like once it's done.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/FTS.jpg

[CoRPS]

Updated photos with the fixture positioned correctly.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/FTS2.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/bluelights.jpg

The snail looks so glorious on top of that rock! haha

[Tangweed]

I would raise your SG up to 1.25.

[CoRPS]

Actually I've been slowly doing that by not adding RO/DI topoff. I'm sitting at 1.0255 judging by the swing arm. :)

[CoRPS]

Added 6x Peppermint Shrimp today. A little bit of aiptasia on my LR.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/pepshrimp1.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/pepshrimp2.jpg

[CoRPS]

Added an African Midas Blenny today. It took a while for the guy at the LFS to get him out of the display tank, he's pretty stressed out and has turned a bunch of random camouflage colors. Here's a current picture. I will get a new one as soon as he colors up within the next few days (hopefully sooner)

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/blenny.jpg

[CoRPS]

Better picture:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/blenny2.jpg

Will get a better picture when he isn't so shy.

[CoRPS]

New picture of the clowns
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/clownscopy.jpg

[CoRPS]

Also, a picture of the hitchhiker button polyp I got on a piece of LR. It's probably doubled in size since I noticed him.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/polyp.jpg

[CoRPS]

Alright, finally transformed my HOB Biowheel into a HOB chaeto fuge. Onto the pics:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/CIMG0495.jpg

Right side:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/CIMG0497.jpg

Left side:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/CIMG0496.jpg

[CoRPS]

Ok update time.

I bought a couple of corals. A nice sized hammer coral for $40 and a small Xenia frag for $20... Will post some pictures in a few hours :)

Edit: Also it turns out my nitrate test is expired. I took water samples to two separate LFS and my nitrates came back at zero both times. I'll have to buy a new kit soon.

[CoRPS]

Here's some pictures. The hammer isn't opened even halfway yet so I'll get a better picture when he's completely out.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/hammer.jpg

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/xenia.jpg

[CoRPS]

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/CIMG0543.jpg

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/CIMG0537.jpg

[CoRPS]

Here's some pictures of the blenny so you can see his color a bit more.. Not the best picture though, he moves so randomly that it's hard to get pictures of him.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/blenny3.jpg

I'd hate to leave on a bad note, but I'm starting to get algae. Which is wierd because my phosphates came back at 0 the two times I had the LFS test it last week. It may be because I leave my lights on for extended amounts of time. Or maybe I feed to often. Anyway, here's a picture of the algae and the bubbles it's making.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/algae4.jpg

[CoRPS]

So I got some new colonies today. First one is almost all the way opened and the second one is taking it's sweet <expletive deleted> time. I will post an updated picture when it opens up all the way, but you can pretty much see the colors here.

First:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/zoas1.jpg

Second:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/zoas2.jpg

I also moved the Xenia to where I think will be it's permanent location. Here's a view from the right side of the tank.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/xeniamoved1.jpg

You can also see the blenny checkin me out :)

[CoRPS]

A better picture. Hopefully the whole colony will open up tomorrow. Here's a picture right beforelights off:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/zoa3.jpg

[CoRPS]

I just noticed I never posted any open pictures of the hammer.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/hammeropen.jpg

[CoRPS]

Got some new frags today from Bustaphoto (thanks dude). Some orange zoas, some yellow zoas and a frag of GSP. Will post pictures tomorrow when lights are on.

Also, I noticed my male (I think) clown hosting the hammer tonight. Will get pictures of that soon as well.

[gnorts]

tag along was a good read corps, Just becuase I to have a 55 and am still in the proccess of studying corals. Right now its just Fish only with live rock tank.

Get some more pictures up!

[CoRPS]

Thanks man, it's been a bumpy road!

Here's some more pictures
The new frags from Bustaphoto, two kinds of zoanthids and a GSP frag.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/newfrags1.jpg

Here's the orange zoa frag that didn't open all the way earlier:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/orangezoa2.jpg

[CoRPS]

Here's a side shot from earlier today:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/SFTS1.jpg

[CoRPS]

Alright so I bought some new zoas and paly's today. The zoas were sold to me as eagle eyes, but not sure on that one, either way they are beautiful and I got them for $1/polyp. I also picked up some CRAZY paly's. I haven't ever seen anything like them before.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/palys1.jpg

Any idea what they are? I wanna say some kind of people eater.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/palys2.jpg

I'll take some pictures of the yellow polyps as soon as they open all the way.

[CoRPS]

These were sold to me as Eagle Eyes but they look a bit different from the eagle eyes I've seen.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/eagleeye.jpg

[CoRPS]

Update:
It seems as though my hammer coral has brown jelly. The last few days the skeletal structure has been breaking down as the polyps extend less and less. Here's some pictures, each a day or so apart.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/skeletel.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/skeletel2.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/skeletal3.jpg

It's very depressing. However the good news is that's its an LPS disease and the hammer is the only LPS I've got. I've started dosing Iodine in hopes that it will help, but so far nothing.

Today I picked up about 6-8 heads worth of ricordea. Half orange and half green. I glued them both to a piece of loos rock I had in my tank. Here's the best picture I could get of them:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/cordias.jpg

About a week ago I picked up two fighting conchs. They didn't do too much in the way of cleaning the sandbed so I picked up a third conch. not sure what kind it is but ever since I got him the sand bed has been pristine.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/conch.jpg

Can anyone ID him?

Here's some updated shots of some of the zoas/palys. In this first shot you can see a new paly baby poking it's head out. I've counted about 4 new babies since I've gotten this small colony.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/babypaly3.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/zoa10.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/dragoneye.jpg

[CoRPS]

Picked up some frags from Jimbo today (thanks man) I'll post some pictures up tomorrow.

[CoRPS]

Updates on those paly's. I named them The Rabbit Holes after not being able to find an ID.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/rabbitholes.jpg

[CoRPS]

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/zoasmacro2.jpg

[CoRPS]

FTS 2/17/08:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0249.jpg

[Rjukan]

Hey corps, looks nice man. Have you started getting coraline on the glass yet? It looks so clean!

I just read through the thread and I cant help but feel things went very fast when it came to stocking the tank. That hammer coral ultimately didnt make it Im guessing? How did those rics you got turn out? They looked really nice in those pics.

The zoas look amazing! Very nice choices when it came to color, I hope Ill be able to find similar specimens lol! The xenia looks like its very happy in your tank as well.

If I were you I would try to grab a rock or 2 of cured LR from a friend or LFS thats covered in different colors of coraline to seed your tank. Ive also heard just scraping some off a friends tank and dropping it in your DT will do the trick as well. Unless of course you dont want coraline for some crazy reason ;)

Im curious about that conch you got too, I would love to get something that would work on my sand bed.

Cheers!

[CoRPS]

I've gotten a few pieces of coraline on the back glass but sadly I had to scrape the rest of the algae back a week or so ago and got rid of the coralline too. I have a bunch growing on my base rock and my powerhead though.

I know it looks like I don't have much coraline in there, but I have over 20lbs of live, purple, red, beautiful rock. They are pointed out in this picture:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0249-1.jpg

An example:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0252.jpg

The Ricordea has produced a couple extra heads, however with the high flow the other rics usually end up on the sand. I placed one in a low flow area (orangish/pink one), and I gave a monster green one to my friend. Here's a picture of them from today:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0251.jpg

The xenia too are doing great. If you look back to the pictures of when I got it you can kind of see how big and happy they've gotten:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0254.jpg

I have a couple conchs in my tank. I've got 2 fighting conchs and a no-name conch. I have no idea what kind of conch he is, but he's a cleaning master. He's pictured above, the fighting conchs I'm not sure if I've taken pictures of.

The batteries in the camera are dying so I couldn't keep taking pictures until I got good ones. On top of that I'm on a computer that doesn't have photoshop so resizing and cropping was left to photobucket.

[Rjukan]

Ahh, very nice. The detail pics look great! Your really doing a nice job, its amazing whats lost in the larger pics.

I think you have helped me out, I was wondering why my photos look pretty decent on my computer but look like crap on photobucket. Never thought of them being degraded in quality during the cropping/resizing on photobucket. I have to pick up photoshop. Thanks!

[CoRPS]

Bah, I couldn't NOT take a better picture. These ones came out much better. Here we go:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0257.jpg

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0256.jpg

[CoRPS]

I was feeding the fish tonight and my clown ran off after a piece of mysis and ran right into my black longspine urchin. He was acting pretty funny for a while, his breathing got much quicker and he started hiding a lot more, which is abnormal for him.

I had to go to school about 20 minutes later and hoped he wouldn't die. When I got back about 3 and a half hours later he was completely fine. He's still got a scare where he was stabbed (on the right side of his mouth, I think part of the spine is still actually in his body) but he's acting completely normal. Swimming around having a great time with the other clownfish.

I'll update tomorrow and maybe within the next couple of days if anything happens.

[ReefHawke]

Nice pics, Well done!

[CoRPS]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14429669#post14429669 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefHawke
Nice pics, Well done!

Thanks dude!

Just a note, the fish is back to normal, he's got a cool lookin scare though. If anything happens I'll be sure to post it on the site.

[CoRPS]

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/rabbits.jpg

[CoRPS]

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/pinkzoa.jpg

[CoRPS]

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/midas.jpg

[CoRPS]

So, I haven't tested my water in a long time so I decided to do it today...

pH: 8.4
SG: 1.025
Nitrate: 0
Calcium: 420
Alk: 8

[CoRPS]

I bought a beautiful flourescent green torch coral today. Once he's done acclimating and he's open I'll take some pictures of him. I hope this LPS experience goes better than the last!

[Rjukan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13907447#post13907447 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CoRPS
These were sold to me as Eagle Eyes but they look a bit different from the eagle eyes I've seen.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/eagleeye.jpg

I really like the green ones in the middle.

[CoRPS]

Yeah those are great. I bought 17 of them for $1/polyp. About 3 months now and it's up to over 45 (lost count). They grow pretty quickly!

Here's a better shot of them that I took a week or two ago:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/zoamacro3.jpg

[Rjukan]

Beautiful!! Great deal too. Thats some seriously fast growth for only 3 months.

How bout a FTS ;) Looking really good CoRPS.

[CoRPS]

FTS 3/07/08 - 5 Minutes ago

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/7153861b.jpg

[CoRPS]

Here's a better picture of the torch, will post a picture tomorrow when he's fully open. It's hard to take pictures of glowing green corals!

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/torch.jpg

[CoRPS]

Edit: double post... whoops

[CoRPS]

Newest addition:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/mushie.jpg

[CoRPS]

I just installed my skimmer again after it got back from the distributor and the torch is all retracted right now. I think it's either the god awful amount of bubbles that it's getting hit with or maybe a little bit too much flow.

Also the way it's set in the rocks, the bottom two heads get less light and so they stay a bit more retracted than the top two heads. I'm hoping they realize what's going on and send out their tentacles further than the top two! If not I'm going to have to find another spot for it... But it's just so perfect where it is :(

In other news, I fragged off a piece of my radioactive dragon eyes for a friend. I fragged off four polyps and it came out pretty nice. So far two are completely open and the other two are opening. Going to try fragging off a couple more polyps so the rock isn't so empty!

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0315.jpg

I also made a frag rack!
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0318.jpg

It runs the entire length of the tank, and it's about..... 4" wide? It's pretty cool, can't wait to load it up with some frags! Don't mind the dirtiness. I was waiting for my skimmer to scrape all the ###### off. Now my excuse is that I want to wait until the skimmer is running at 100%. it's pretty gimp right now. Working with the distributor now to get a fix.

[CoRPS]

Update on the frag pictured above and a FTS from tonight:

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0341.jpg

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk62/CoRPSx/DSCF0339.jpg

[CoRPS]

Huge Update:

Today I bought a 90G single overflow tank from Jimbo78. It's a huge step up from my 55G. I need to build a stand//canopy for it and then I will start transferring everything over. Hopefully I'll have it ready to go within the next month or so.

As of right now, I'm not sure if I'm going to go with using my current 55G as a fuge for the 90G, or just set up the 90G completely separate from the 55G and run two large tanks.

Maybe that's something you guys can help me decide?

As for the new tank, it's painted blue. I need to find something other than a razor blade to get the paint off. I'm not sure if paint thinner will be safe so I've started a thread in the DIY forum to find out.