The Scleractinia Shallows

[martinphillip03]

Dom, Now is the time to get a Fireworks frag. They are no longer Big Bickies! Rumor has it a certain private reefer has flooded the market with countless frags. Needless to say Dave isn't happy about this. I heard frags are going for a Pink Lady and a Coat and a couple of Fatties.

Marty

[Wrangy]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Gonna be an Aussie acro brawl!!
Fight!
Fight!
Fight!

Please do not feed the animals! They hardly need any encouragement!

Originally Posted by martinphillip03

Except for Dom. He doesn't have any!

Marty

Hey, I have a few pieces finally... lol

Originally Posted by Rakie

Wrangy, I love that tank and the Wrasse collection is stellar.. But we need to pop a quick intervention on you for that floppy jump screen. If it didn't cost both arms and a leg I'd build you one and ship it out lol

Tell me about it! I hate the bloody thing lol it looks awful! I am getting a nicely made acrylic one for the tank but that will take some time so I'll just have to put up for the mean time lol

Originally Posted by biggles

I guess it will be up to me as usual to mediate and cool things down Matt, who's fighting anyway mate ?

How about we all get back to Dom's reef and his ridiculous attempt at screening the top to prevent the suicidal dominant fish display running out of livestock........

These look right up your alley Dom

I'm already preparing myself for a stern talking to about wasting precious acro money

At least I've got it so the blasted things can't get into the overflow anymore!! a$$holes! lol

Do the birds come standard or are they extra??

Originally Posted by martinphillip03

Dom, Now is the time to get a Fireworks frag. They are no longer Big Bickies! Rumor has it a certain private reefer has flooded the market with countless frags. Needless to say Dave isn't happy about this. I heard frags are going for a Pink Lady and a Coat and a couple of Fatties.

Marty

Already got one One of my favourites! lol It's pretty happy with a prime spot in the centre of the tank too! lol The next acro missile should be pretty good too!

[Rakie]

Originally Posted by Wrangy

Tell me about it! I hate the bloody thing lol it looks awful! I am getting a nicely made acrylic one for the tank but that will take some time so I'll just have to put up for the mean time lol

As long as were on the same page, lol.. Your thread is absolutely on the 'check for updates' list, and now I know what i'm waiting for, that jerk to finish your jump screen!

[Wrangy]

So not only have I been wasting precious acro money on fish, I may have committed a far worse crime on my last trip over to Dave's....

FLUBBER lol I must admit I've secretly been looking for some amazing and crazy awesome acan's to add to the tank for a bit of flubber pop and they're easy to deal with as well which is nice, symphyllia is one of my favourites but waayyy too volatile for an sps tank!
I ended up picking up two crazy little frags of two different acan species from Dave's instead of any acro and that's no small thing lol After a few weeks tank life and a little bit of growth the real specialness of these guys will come to light! Here's some pics anyways

[Wrangy]

Well I didn't realise but I set the tank up exactly five months ago Time to report in and have a look lol
In terms of equipment things are running real smooth
- R6 is still kicking butt and skimming very nicely.
- I love the Vectra silent and doesn't skip a beat! Really nice pump to have running on the tank!
- I recently upgrade the heater to a titanium one and the temp now only varies by 0.2 degrees, I'm thinking about dropping the standard running temp to 24.5 for summer, especially with the halides lo
- My light schedule is currently 12hrs of t4's and 3hrs of the halide I want to boost the halide to 5 but I'm going to wait till after summer to do that because I don't wamt to deal with it over summer lol.
- Flow-wise I'm just running a Tunze 6025 and an RW-8 but still want to get a gyre 250 for the tank!
- Kore is keeping things stable and the ATO is working really well on it too so I'm happy.

Now onto the tank. I am DYING to get some more fish! I've got my five fish and I really want to get some more but I have to wait for them to be caught and delivered lol. For the moment though, the babies that I do have are all doing really well in the tank and everyone seems to be fat and happy so I guess I can't really complain! The acro's are growing, the clams are growing, the zoa's are happy and the acans are loving the tank tank! Overall I'm really happy with where the tank is at this point in time. Could be better but I know what needs to be done to fix that.
Here's a crappy FTS for everyone


Now onto the parameters of the tank, the alk is holding steady at 8.4dKH. A little higher than I want but I want to leave the AF dosing at the basic 50ml rather than decrease the dosage so I'll wait till the uptake increases and brings the alk down to 7.5dKH and the readjust my dosing. Phosphates are at 0.00ppm on the phosphorous checker so suuupper low, I want to bring these up just a little And now we hit the reason the acans are so happy.... my nitrates hahaha My nitrates are currently sitting around the 50ppm mark but it's cool, I'll be adding some Pro Bio S to my dosing regime to seed the matrix a little faster and bring the nitrates back under control lol. I'm not worried about it though, the acro's are a little poopy and colour isn't great but that will come back with the nitrates being removed! Here's a pic of one of the happy acans!

[FloformAustria]

looking good Dom!

love the new flubber!! *thank god Biggles is so far away*

keep those updates coming!

Cheers

[joshky]

Dom your tank is coming along very well, seriously beautiful.

I think I'm done adding flubber to my tank, I added a multibar angelfish on Friday and it loves LPS! I'm choosing to keep the angel obviously, haha.

[reefmutt]

Yep! Looking really good!
I really like the low scape. Nice and mellow.
Once the acros take off, it'll be a very cool contrast.

[markalot]

Looking incredibly good ... has it been that long already?

So these T4's, is than an Aussie special bulb size?

[Wrangy]

Originally Posted by FloformAustria

looking good Dom!

love the new flubber!! *thank god Biggles is so far away*

keep those updates coming!

Cheers

Thanks Flo The new flubber is awesome, there were some even nicer pieces when I went in yesterday lol but I didn't get any, just picked up pro bio s to try!

Originally Posted by joshky

Dom your tank is coming along very well, seriously beautiful.

I think I'm done adding flubber to my tank, I added a multibar angelfish on Friday and it loves LPS! I'm choosing to keep the angel obviously, haha.

Cheers Josh I'm really happy with it overall!

It is absolutely gorgeous your multibar!! There were some GORGEOUS butterflies in store yesterday but I was barred from buying any of them

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Yep! Looking really good!
I really like the low scape. Nice and mellow.
Once the acros take off, it'll be a very cool contrast.

I really like the low scape as well but I do worry about hiding spots for the fish as there's not as many as I would like, I might get some smaller pieces and make some more hiding holes without changing the scape in any obvious manner
Going to be loots of fun with more acros!

Originally Posted by markalot

Looking incredibly good ... has it been that long already?

So these T4's, is than an Aussie special bulb size?

Yeah certainly has lol and thanks Mark, thanks for picking up on one little mistake They're a secret Biggle weapon

[Alex Costa]

Uhhhhhhh....
Very very nice acans.......
Welcome to the flubber club...Your ID card is on the mail.

[Jim Z.]

You have been flubberized--they do look nice and colorful. I'm also guilty of purchasing a couple of marine flubber species. Your reef looks pretty good with the giant clam centerpiece and colorful frags. My reef also has high nitrates (20ppm) and all corals include acros and flubbers seem to be doing very well at that level of nitrate concentration.................Jim

[plyle02]

Tank is looking sweet Dom, great job, your patience is paying off mate!

[Wrangy]

Originally Posted by Alex Costa

Uhhhhhhh....
Very very nice acans.......
Welcome to the flubber club...Your ID card is on the mail.

As soon as I saw them I made sure my name was on them so no one else could steal them! lol They're slowly getting better and better colour with the halides lighting them up nicely! I just need a strip of blue led's for some wank value as I do love blue pop! haha

Originally Posted by Jim Z.

You have been flubberized--they do look nice and colorful. I'm also guilty of purchasing a couple of marine flubber species. Your reef looks pretty good with the giant clam centerpiece and colorful frags. My reef also has high nitrates (20ppm) and all corals include acros and flubbers seem to be doing very well at that level of nitrate concentration.................Jim

I have indeed but it's okay because I know Biggles has some as well so he's not allowed to tell me off
The nitrates will slowly come down over time with the matrix nearly being close to seeded so we'll see what happens over the next two months

Originally Posted by plyle02

Tank is looking sweet Dom, great job, your patience is paying off mate!

Thanks Perry I'm really happy with it and the acro's are all growing and happy The Pro Bio S was totally not what I was expecting either lol I was expecting a slightly cloudy nearly odorless colour but it's brown and stinks! I'm looking forward to seeing what some bacteria in the tank does again, especially with the matrix to house it all

[Wrangy]

Well I went round and visited the lovely Andrew yesterday and came back with a little more than I was expecting, 3 styro boxes filled with all my babies What a glorious day it was and now I have shitloads of work ahead of me to try and place everything happily lol




As you can see the tank is nearly filled already and we haven't even hit the 6 month mark haha. It is really nice to have all my babies back again and I'll hopefully be getting another fish of my list in the coming month too A. lennardi!!!

Today is water change and testing day Going to do a full 75L water change as I've been a little lazy of late lol

[Rakie]

Things are looking good in there. Wrasse are fat and happy, colors coming in well, new sticks poking their way into all the rockwork soon, floppy jump screen. 99% perfect!

[ryanrid]

Already full and time for an upgrade, looking good Dom

[Wrangy]

Originally Posted by Rakie

Things are looking good in there. Wrasse are fat and happy, colors coming in well, new sticks poking their way into all the rockwork soon, floppy jump screen. 99% perfect!

haha thanks, I think? once I get the chance to have a play properly things will look even better!

A few other pics from around the tank after the water change today too this little guy decided he no longer wanted to be a sandsifter




I always love this piece, the Hairy Maclary acro lol

[markalot]

Great to see all the acros back! Watch that Alk, I imagine it's about to take a big dip.

[deaclauderdale]

Looking good Dom, really liking that 'Hairy Maclary.'

Reef keeping is life!

[joshky]

Seriously impressive update Dom, congrats on getting your acros back! Loving the look of the tank, can't wait for you to get them all positioned and everything.

Good luck with the lennardi, such a beautiful fish, hopefully you're able to keep it long term.

[sahin]

Dom, the tank looks great! How are the acro colours holding up?

I also bought a Vectra M1 for my tank and really like the pump. What setting are you running your pump at? Please let me know either the % or the watts.

Looking through your thread it appears your filtration is:

1. Skimmer
2. Matrix (4Litres)
3. Sand and Rocks
4. NP Pro from AF.
5. Some kind of PO4 remover?

And you are dosing AF 3 part right?

The tank is certainly looking great; love the fish selection mate. Oh and I'm very jealous that you got acro goodies from Andrew.

[Rakie]

Love that Hairy Maclary! There's so many green sticks out there I just stay away from green at all costs, but every once in a blue moon there's a really nice looking green like that guy! Makes me think I should give some of those emerald sticks out there a second look, juuust to be sure

[reefmutt]

Nice little coral addition!
Now we are headed for serious acro bush!
Looking sweet, Dom.

[Wrangy]

Originally Posted by markalot

Great to see all the acros back! Watch that Alk, I imagine it's about to take a big dip.

Me too, I've got my Hanna alk sitting right next to the tank lol. I am SO SO happy to have them back again though just awesome!

Originally Posted by deaclauderdale

Looking good Dom, really liking that 'Hairy Maclary.'

Reef keeping is life!

Cheers man! It's a dark horse favourite of mine lol! Can't wait to get everyone happy and settled into their new home though!

Originally Posted by joshky

Seriously impressive update Dom, congrats on getting your acros back! Loving the look of the tank, can't wait for you to get them all positioned and everything.

Good luck with the lennardi, such a beautiful fish, hopefully you're able to keep it long term.

Thanks Josh, it was definitely a joyous day getting my babies back and having them all in my possession again! I've got some thought and plans in my head so hopefully it turns out all right haha

I'm hoping so too Hopefully with the much much shorter shipping times and being allowed to settle at each stop will increase my chances as they're absolutely gorgeous

Originally Posted by Rakie

Love that Hairy Maclary! There's so many green sticks out there I just stay away from green at all costs, but every once in a blue moon there's a really nice looking green like that guy! Makes me think I should give some of those emerald sticks out there a second look, juuust to be sure

I have a very good eye for greens lol. Andrew hates green but was upset when I took all my greens back haha

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Nice little coral addition!
Now we are headed for serious acro bush!
Looking sweet, Dom.

Thanks Matt, the tank feels a lot more lively with them back and looks a little more interesting too lol the fish are enjoying it too!