Little Piece of Reef Version II

[westreef]

I had torn down my tank about 16 months ago. The original tank thread is in

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...2098313&page=3

I had it restarted with fresh dry Marco rocks. The hope is to just do an SPS dominated tank and get rid of mushroom, monti and most of Zoa. Also, I redid the scape so that there would be more room for fish to roam and corals to grow.
It is a two islands approach with 2 caves in the right side island. The height of the rock is only half of the height of the tank depth.
Only a small amount of the corals were saved -- most of them died even before the revamp. So majority of the SPS were obtained online. Some were from local reefers.
Since the revamp, I am very lucky that only 1 sps died.


This is the FTS on 2015 November

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This is the FTS on 2016 November (12 months later)

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Some Milli grow very fast, but a few sps just sit there and do nothing.

Some more group pictures.
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A few months ago I had a major algae outbreak. Now it is under control.

I will post some close ups in a few days.

[Piper27]

Nice growth, looks like everything is stable and growing well. Which corals aren't growing well?

[westreef]

Originally Posted by Piper27

Nice growth, looks like everything is stable and growing well. Which corals aren't growing well?

Thanks.

The Schizo Sunset. It has been like this for a year but PE is okay.

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Another one is called Fire Polyp Table, same here very little growth in a year.
I have seen another reefer's Fire Polyp Table grows very well. According to Adam of BC, this is a very finicky coral. As you see, the PE is reasonable.

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[plyle02]

Nice tank Bernie!
I was wondering where you have been, obviously busy with the tank I love the re-scape and the new setup, looks awesome!

[westreef]

Thanks Perry, I have been secretly using the AF products for a bit. Good stuff.

[sahin]

Beautiful tank Bernie. Are all the equipment specs same as last setup?

[westreef]

Thanks Sahin.
I keep all my original equipment, namely skimmer, light, sump, GFO GAC reactors and pumps. I only added a third dose pump. So together I have 3 pumps for administering AF Component 1+2+3+.

Some more pictures as promised.

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[Cyberdude]

How much component are you dosing?

[westreef]

Originally Posted by Cyberdude

How much component are you dosing?

I am dosing 112ml per day for each component.

Alk 7.3
Cal 410
Mg 1350

The levels are holding relatively steady.

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The bottom red acro is a wild one from a local store. It was an inch specimen cut from a large colony when I first got it. I have never had any success in the past of keeping any wild one. But this one strives in this tank. The coral and I are happy.

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[westreef]

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As you can see these 3 corals are touching one another. The green acro lost to the Millie. And I have to trim the dead branches (you can see from the photo). However, the yellow Millie and the purple Millie just tangle together and nobody wins. Very interesting. Again I don't know the names of these corals.

[westreef]

The Oregon Tort in front and Frog Skin behind.
The base of the OT was bleached due to the hot water treatment of the bryopsis accidentally touched its base. Now, it is healed and back to blue.

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[sahin]

Awesome!!! Those corals look proper yummy. Can you please provide a full fish list? Thanks.

[tfp]

Looks great Bernie! You gotta come visit...

[westreef]

Originally Posted by sahin

Awesome!!! Those corals look proper yummy. Can you please provide a full fish list? Thanks.

My fish list:

1 Leopard wrasse
1 Pink Anthia (bought 4, 1 left)
1 Tomini tang
1 Yellow Eye Kole tang
1 Fairy wrasse
1 Fire fish
1 Bangai
1 Hoeven's wrasse
1 Clown
1 Matted File fish
1 One Spot Foxface

I feed the fish at least 2 times a day with frozen and flake food.

[westreef]

Sahin,

Your suggestion of using Vibrant seems to help to fight algae. My sand bed usually have dark brown spots. After 24 hours of using it, the brown spots disappeared like magic. Also the bryopsis seems to be weakened a lot. I still have some of them though but is not a threat anymore. I remember during the outbreak, it was everywhere -- on the wall, on the sand bed, on the pumps, on every snails and of course covered every rock. I used to collect manually several cups of this pest during water change. I am still using Vibrant twice a week to see if it would get rid of the bubble algae.

In addition, the foxface and reintroduction of GFO keep the algae under control.

[westreef]

Originally Posted by tfp

Looks great Bernie! You gotta come visit...

Hi Tim,

Yes I miss your tank a lot. Will come to visit you one of these days.

[westreef]

Two close ups

Cold Blue Tenius -- it was brown when I first got it. It is now one of my favorites.

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Rommel's Watermelon

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[Big E]

Nice job, Bernie......that one year growth comparison shot looks great!

[westreef]

Originally Posted by Big E

Nice job, Bernie......that one year growth comparison shot looks great!

Thanks Ed. I always amazed by your coral color. By the way, i follow your advice of using C+ and B+ T5 bulbs.

[sahin]

Originally Posted by westreef

Sahin,

Your suggestion of using Vibrant seems to help to fight algae. My sand bed usually have dark brown spots. After 24 hours of using it, the brown spots disappeared like magic. Also the bryopsis seems to be weakened a lot. I still have some of them though but is not a threat anymore. I remember during the outbreak, it was everywhere -- on the wall, on the sand bed, on the pumps, on every snails and of course covered every rock. I used to collect manually several cups of this pest during water change. I am still using Vibrant twice a week to see if it would get rid of the bubble algae.

In addition, the foxface and reintroduction of GFO keep the algae under control.

Thanks for the feedback Bernie. I read good reports on it and thought you might find it useful for your tank. It's one of those rare times when a potion made for the hobby actually works as advertised.

I wonder whether it kills the bryopsis for good. Hopefully for good.

[sahin]

Originally Posted by westreef

Two close ups

Cold Blue Tenius -- it was brown when I first got it. It is now one of my favorites.



Rommel's Watermelon

Those are looking sweet.

[sahin]

Bernie are you using just GFO and GAC as far as the filtration is concerned? Do you have a refugium or use Siporax etc? What return pump are you using?

[westreef]

Originally Posted by sahin

Bernie are you using just GFO and GAC as far as the filtration is concerned? Do you have a refugium or use Siporax etc? What return pump are you using?

I don't have a refugium.
I do have a liter of Siporax and 1 liter of Matrix in two separate bags sitting passively in the sump.
I have a Eheim 1260 Universal pump for the return.
To catch large particles there is a filter sock.
The skimmer is AquaMaxx ConeS CO-1.
For water movement, there are two Ecotech MP40Ws.
And recently I re-introduced GFO and GAC in the BRS reactors.
Then daily I use AF Pro Bio S and AF -NP Pro to keep the nutrient down.
As of about 3 weeks ago, I also have started using Vibrant liguid aquarium cleaner.

N 0.5 (Salifert)
P is undetectable (Elos Professional PO4 kit)

However, the algae in the tank might have fooled the test results. And the colors of the corals are not saturate enough to my liking.
I need to clean the front acrylic wall about every 3 days.

By the way, since revamp, I have been using Tropic Marin regular salt but for the past two water changes, I have switched to AF reef salt because it is similar and less expensive. They seem to be excellent salts.

[westreef]

This Nasuta survives the reboot.

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[FoothillCorals]

Very nice Bernie, That is good growth on your OT for the time you have had it. I am stepping up to a bigger tank next year I will have to hit you up for some frags.