flooddc February 12, 2021 Share February 12, 2021 Looking good. Nice job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewRyan February 12, 2021 Author Share February 12, 2021 lol that was fast. Looks great!It was indeed. Thanks!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewRyan February 12, 2021 Author Share February 12, 2021 Awesome!Thanks, Lynn!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewRyan March 1, 2021 Author Share March 1, 2021 Been a while, since I last updated so thought I’d share the good as well as the things I am currently thinking through… To begin, I am engrossed in my tank and having a heck of a lot of fun. The little bit of diatoms I had previously noticed are minimized now to barely needing to be addressed weekly before water changes. That’s probably a combination of clean up crew, the tank maturing and some Microbacter Clean that I dose weekly after each water change. Wasn’t really much of an issue before, but it is even less of one now (for the time being). I have been fortunate to avoid disease or death (coral or fish) thus far and so I’m thankful for that. Being new to the saltwater side of the hobby, I know that’s probably attributable to luck more so than research. I know for sure I wasn’t patient. Also on the good news side of the house, I’m really happy with my lid. It was delayed for over a month with USPS, but the customer service at Kraken Reef was excellent and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. I also think the diffuser I took a chance on from 3DReefing has worked well. It’s a very simple product, but very effective in minimizing the “disco ball.” So… for the things I am currently thinking through. I am starting to realize I am terrible at placing corals in the tank. I am far too anxious about cutting and tampering with them so about 50 percent of what I have in the tank is still on a frag plug. Even using bone cutters and razor blades, I just hesitate to mess with it. This is probably due to splitting the skeleton of a hammer early on when trying to remove it from the plug. The hammer recovered (with a bit of glue to hold things in place), but the anxiety to play doctor with new corals remains. In some ways, I think this is ok for certain corals like the zoas on my intended zoa garden rock. I like the idea that I might be able to twist and remove a chunk if need be. I don’t like the unnatural look of the plug on other corals however, like the torch pictured below. You may notice that I am purposely leaving space on the top of the rock formations for SPS. I was told to wait until the tank is about 6 months old or so, before considering the move and it has been one of the few pieces of advice so far (concerning patience) that I have stuck to. My parameters have been really solid. Surprisingly so… actually. Weekly water changes are holding everything pretty constant across the entire week. I leaned into the idea of dosing, but it doesn’t look like I will need to do that for the foreseeable future on this tank. I’ll continue to be diligent about monitoring and adjust accordingly. I placed a bio ball covered in GSP against the back wall hoping it would eventually cover the wall, but nothing so far. It has covered the ball, but not made the leap to the glass. Perhaps this is because I don’t have anything for it to adhere to yet (like coralline). My clowns aren’t interested in the RBTA I added and I’m ok with that. As long as the anemone doesn’t decide to start walking around on me (a likely possibility at some point, I know) then it’s fine. Currently it’s on a loose rock so I changed my mind (assuming it doesn’t move) I could easily take it out of the tank. With limited space in my setup and a desire to fill it with corals, I may end up having to do that. This picture of a frag rack (that I got from none other than Ms. Lynn, herself) represents corals I am not entirely sure about where to place. To be honest, I know 2 of the 4 corals are favia/favites, but I’m even sure about what the other two are yet. I was lucky enough to win them in a recent raffle. Terrible pictures, I realize, but appreciate if anyone is able to identify and suggest placement ideas. The last picture, I will share represents one of my original issues returned. When I bought the branching hammer (one of my first corals), it came with some polyps attached that I didn’t notice until I got home. I thought I removed them all when I originally found them, not wanting something that might turn out to be pervasive. Alas, I have discovered two of these polyps have returned. Open to thoughts on whether these guys should be removed and how best to do it, if so. Again, realize the pic quality doesn’t help much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime March 1, 2021 Share March 1, 2021 Don't get too excited about growing GSP on your back wall. I have it, and now it's brutal maintenance. Weekly trimming it out of my over flow weirs to make sure my tank doesn't clog. One of these days when I do some heavy maintenance I'll pull it all out. Also, you can just glue it to your back wall, that stuff will grow in a toilet bowl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme March 1, 2021 Share March 1, 2021 Great job and looks awesome! I think your maintenance routine is key to keeping things in check so good on you. Agree w/ Isaac on GSP....may turn into nuisance algae-isc. Hard to tell w/ that picture but if it's aptasia, well....you've done enough research to know you may want to get it out. Kraken lids are awesome. I love mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewRyan March 1, 2021 Author Share March 1, 2021 Great job and looks awesome! I think your maintenance routine is key to keeping things in check so good on you. Agree w/ Isaac on GSP....may turn into nuisance algae-isc. Hard to tell w/ that picture but if it's aptasia, well....you've done enough research to know you may want to get it out. Kraken lids are awesome. I love mine.My first thought was Aiptasia, when i first got the frag, but after some crowd sourcing and heavy googling, I’m pretty confident it’s not. It was a field of polyps at first (like 6 or 7) and from searching around, if I had to guess, they are something like Daisy polyps. They have a white center and some greenish tint on the extensions. Either way, I think I’m gonna dab some glue on them next time I’m in the tank.I always liked the look a lawn of GSP on the back wall, but from what you and Isaac are saying I may go another direction to avert the maintenance. Others had told you can peel it off in strips every so often to keep it from going outside the boundaries.Really appreciate the feedback!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas March 21, 2021 Share March 21, 2021 Any updates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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