ckyuv

Sweet! I’m gona see how you lure them out of the rocks to catch one and you can have em. I think I saw someone on one of these threads use a chunk of shrimp or something so might give that a shot. Was gona order a little more rock from Tampa bay and see they sell the reds so might get another one now he’s cool haha.

Was able to catch him I think that’s what it is

I am thinking it’s a baby red mithrax? If so, it’s getting promoted to display and one emerald gets to go back to rca 🤣

Had to run some carbon so threw a filter sock in my sump yesterday. Just went to take it out and this guy is chilling on it. Any thoughts what this might be? Would have had to come in on the rubble from Tampa bay presumably unless it came on a coral and made it down the overflow:

Diggin the light color. Came out nice!

My dr reefs order came in today. Also my wife went to RCA the other day. This week we added a “pre quarantined” flame hawk, forest fire digi, whatever $10 acro from RCA, a lot more little snails and hermits, a tiger conch and a new bubble tip anemone. the small couple bubble algae bubbles, the cyano or dynos or whatever and the slimy stuff all seem to be going away and all the corals are much more open and happy and getting their colors back. I have been just doing water changes, adding phosphate and feeding 2x a day instead of 1x a day. The mandarin is out a little more and eats the frozen mysis/cyclops in slow motion. I have been buying pods monthly but think I will stop and just keep an eye on it. I got excited cause the Tampa bay live rubble came with a free mangrove. It lost its leaves and looks pretty dead on the top end. Trying to decide if it goes in the composter cause even if it survives roots in my overflow is a bad idea, or gets to stay longer and maybe recover.

The sweepers on the galaxea look cool, everything is looking great!

Great idea didn’t even think of that. Def going to give that a shot today!

Welp I did the thing. I had GSP in one of my old tanks that got on the rocks that always would grow over stuff so told myself I wouldn’t do that or Xenia again. The girls saw the gsp rock with a hermit on it at RCA and the girl working said the hermit looked like a cow grazing in a field. Sooo we got it and the hermit and named the hermit moo moo lol dr reef sent confirmation order shipped. Got more clean up crew (cause I was gona have lots of phosphates and hair algae) a couple corals, a conch and a flame hawk on the way. After buying I was reading they like to jump. 2nd guessing not getting a top before the fish. I had one before that never had issues and didn’t think about it. I can’t get phosphates to go above 0.00 though, I’m not convinced this Hannah checker works or the phosphates I got are just water. Still registering 0.00. Following the directions for the phosphate I have put enough in the tank(I have about 80 gallons total volume) for a 100 gallon tank to have 0.09 at this point. I’ll prob take water up to RCA for another test again this weekend and make sure I’m not crazy. Was hoping to have numbers on the Hannah before my order came in but here we are. slimy stuff on the rocks has chilled out, it’s still there but growing much slower and the diatoms/cyano/whatever on the sand is not growing as fast either. Maybe all you need in life is green star polyps and a moo moo hermit to solve your problems.

I have not heard of the pithos, I’ll have to check them out online. I forgot to mention I got some of the Tampa bay live rubble as well and there was very tiny crabs in the rubble but they were to small to tell what they were. I put them in the sump and will have to keep an eye on them as they get bigger. I’m hoping once I get my phosphate to where I want it, each water change or in my ATO I just add whatever ml to replenish. I’ll have to keep an eye on levels now a little better but I assume bumping it up in about to get some nasty stuff rockin.

Ok this update is overdue. Been pretty busy and have not given the tank a ton of love lately but getting back into it again. The fish have been doing great. Mandarin was a huge worry but it’s plumped up. It still does not come out all that much, mostly lights out. I’ve been feeding often though and I guess stuff makes it in the rocks. Corals have been struggling a bit. My phosphates have been consistently low(0 on every test kit) so I have dialed back on water changes and fed the fish a little extra. I also bought some phosphate to dose the tank with. I think it’s working as I am starting to get some Dino/cyano/whatever the past week. those who said live rock and I shrugged it off cause I didn’t want things like bubble algae or ocean germs or whatever… you win. All the frags I have gotten at RCA have had bubble algae on the plugs at this point so it’s a thing. I should have listened. I got an emerald crab, ordered a new cleanup crew as well as a flame hawk and some corals from dr reef quarantine fish or something online. Anyways, now I am dosing phosphate and got a Hanna checker. Hanna is still showing 0.00 so I upped the dosing. Not sure what number I’m shooting for yet but want to slowly bring it up. Any “final” numbers to try and level it off at are welcome if y’all have numbers you try and keep it at. The internet has a thousand different suggestions here. My anemone has been closed up for the past couple weeks, it must be phosphate hungry but it keeps moving so I put the sponge on the mp40

I have been away from the house the past couple weeks and came home to a bunch of gooey stuff on the rocks. It started in small amounts after I started to dose phyto(I think, maybe just coincidence) but even after I stopped dosing the stuff is growing. siphons off easy as pie, so mostly it’s just visually annoying. I’m chalking it up to me finally getting the uglies in this tank(it’s about 6 months old) but curious if anyone has had/seen this before. I won’t lie, I don’t own test equipment stuff aside from temp and salinity. I might take water up to RCA to test as I’m kinda concerned the dry rock is maybe just leaching crap. I did have a hammer and a red dragon die while I was out of town but I’m assuming that was due to ato running dry for a few days.

We’ll that only took you 6 months haha. Thought about lights at all? You might need another kessil for this one huh?

Not sure I catch your drift here, your thinking just like inverts or whatever that I might not want later on? Also, you said add more. I said ok. They had a cool acan at RCA so nabbed one while grabbing pods: the mandarin came out last night after lights out which was cool. I turned the lights off to add pods today and it came out right away. Hopefully it just needs a few days, it’s so small I’m concerned my anemone or euphylia or something will eat it 😂

The mandarin has not come out since going in the tank, I assume I won’t see it for a couple days. I def have a solid pod population and I dumped pods in when I got it. Assuming it will be ok for now. I did just order some more pods and phyto that will come early next week as a just in case. I just don’t want it to move off prepared foods and to live only… this is what I got: https://www.algaebarn.com/shop/live-foods/combo-packs/5280-pods-oceanmagik-phyto/ I was able to stick the urchin on a thing of nori as well and it seems to be eating it. When I move it to the glass it hung on and has been there all day. If I am about to be feeding the tank 5x a day for this baby tang and baby mandarin I imagine I’m about to have plenty to feed the urchin in the very near future. I’ve been waiting to add too many corals until I got more fish so I could raise the nutrient levels in the water. Presumably that’s about to happen quickly lol

Had an order come in from Biota today. I guess I didn’t think about the sizes they sold their fish as when they advertise them but holy smokes are they tiny! No complaints, just tiny. I got a manadarin that is the size of a housefly. Maybe 1/2”? Also got a yellow tang that is about an inch. Both look great, I’m not sure what a healthy fish is supposed to look like when it’s the size of a housefly, but we shall see. Loaded up on some cyclops, reef mastick, b2 pellets, extra small pellets, baby brine frozen cubes, nori and live pods. Hopefully that gets them rocking, I’ve never had fish I thought could be considered fry. Yellow tang is in and doing work on the hair algae I have been getting. As expected the mandarin vanished but probably because it’s too small to see. Oh.. and my urchin was laying on the bottom “belly up” today. This thing will normally do 100 laps around the tank in a day. It has not moved. Hopefully it’s ok, I’m a big fan.

That’s the same tank I have, and a single mp40 on one side did just fine. The kids kept trying to take it off so I moved it to the back where they can’t get to it, and if you have it hidden I think it needs a little more just to sierras the flow out a little more evenly. If having it on the side works for you then it’s wayyyyy more than enough flow. I couldn’t go over like 50% without turning the tank into mayhem.

Im using the ap9x as well with the hard mounting arm on my xl 300 and have no issues with coverage. Love the app, love the shimmer, I’m in the club haha.

I recently(about 3 months ago) got the reefer xl 300 g2 and have been happy with it. I think maintaining sps/lps is more relevant to your lighting/flow/stock than it is the glass around it. I’m going to be bias on lighting suggestions as I have also been out of the hobby for quite some time so have no good comments there. Just want to say I’ve been happy with the style/quality of the Red Sea so far. If money isn’t a concern I think deciding if you want a controller and if so which one you want up front helps. I decided not to do one so I could go all Red Sea and just use a single app… then didn’t get the Red Sea lights or pumps so now nothing integrates. Might be worth a thought as your googlin lol

Back in town. Tank survived me being sparse for a month and a half. Now that it’s been running 3 months, I think I want to try more fish and corals. Everything has been steady, before I left I bought a little bubblegum digi and a red dragon frag. The digi didn’t make it and was up the highest, I think the kessils are bright (should have figured after it burned my desk) I also thought the sand bed was a little thin so I added another bag the other day. Next up, more livestock at the end of the month. After adding sand, I have no clue if that messes with any bio activity so I’ll give it a couple weeks. I have been stalking the biota site for yellow tangs… but I kinda like idea of a mandarin, a yellow watchman goby and a pistol shrimp. Their fish are super super tiny. Think 3 months is too soon for a mandarin if it’s eating pellet/prepared foods? Was thinking maybe a clam as well.. Also still want to look into sponges for the sump. Met up with with Tim today as well for a goodie. So far, it’s loving life! Going to find a more permanent spot for it tomorrow once I grab some glue: Oh… we had a “going back to school” party. An mp40 is apparently something that’s destined to be knocked off a tank multiple times when you have a bunch of knuckleheads over. You can’t really reach anything else I guess. Moved the mp40 to the back where the kids stop knocking it off and ordered a 2nd one for the back to even the flow out.

You said they have no brain so I just went to gossip town

It was in the front corner above the powerhead where there is low current on the surface. I wonder if that’s what it was doing. never saw anything come out of it but have not been home the much few days so may have missed it if it was spawning. I’ll have to keep a closer eye out when I see it up there again. Of course since I asked I have not seen it do that lol

IMG_0156.mov So I have had this urchin for a bit and it’s pretty cool. Overall it seems healthy and loves to eat everything in its path. It has been at the surface of the water quite a bit since I got it, and always seems to be trying to get air or something? It’ll cruise the tank all day, then come up and do this for about an hour before going away. Is this just one of those weird saltwater tank things or does it seem odd? Can’t say I’ve ever seen it before.

I left it in. A day after my post the fish must have made a wish because the top was missing and it is totally gone now. No more dandelion for me haha

I like your style. I think we have settled on a pink cowgirl hat or a mini mouse hat with ears for the urchin. For the ATO, I got a big ol "heck no" for a container by the tank, everything has to be in the stand. I was looking around and I have ~13" side to side and 24" front to back space in the stand. I think I might go with something like this and use the read sea ATO pump even though I don't want more electronics: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/ruby-ato-10-gallon-reservoir-trigger-systems.html 10 gallons should buy me plenty of time between having to refill. For the sump, the sponge is a great idea. I'll have to do a little reading. Ultimately the #1 goal for me in the refugium is to have rocks for filtration and pods so I can get and sustain a mandarin one day(my dream fish). I have never had much luck keeping any decent sponges outside the blue one I scored from aquadome at one point. I might have some learning to do to get them set up as filtration. Presumably Ill need to wait till I get more fish/bioload. The kids really want dory, and I really want a yellow tang. They usually win though unfortunately. I have a trip to New Orleans coming up then Kentucky so we have a few weeks to duke it out.