Nburg's Red Sea Reefer 450 in DC

[nburg]

Sticks

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by nburg

[nburg]

 

[YHSublime]

Is that a goni down in the center of the last photo? I think I bought a frag of that, as well as several other goni frags. Guess I still can't keep them, because none of them made it. 

[nburg]

Yes, the little orange one in the front is the TSA Laffy Taffy (I think its Bernardpora sp., aka micro goni) and another red Bernardpora next to it. I got both from @skysoblue987

 

Then the ones on the larger rock are true Gonis, got the pink one from an online vendor and the 3 others from @thakki just last week. 

 

Time will tell if I can keep them alive, but they seem pretty happy and the ones I've had for a while are growing fast. Edit: I hear they are pretty demanding of certain trace elements like manganese and one of the other obscure metals, but everyone I hear it from quotes a different metal. Either way, my ICPs are always good and my tank really started rebounding last fall when I started doing 10-15% water changes every week so I'll keep that up. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by nburg

[thakki]

Looking good...they all seem to be happy...the green one is just amazing to look at...my fav gonis.

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk

[nburg]

24 minutes ago, thakki said:

Looking good...they all seem to be happy...the green one is just amazing to look at...my fav gonis.

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk
 

 

It really is amazing. Long polyps, contrasting greens and great flow. Its hard to get excited about greens these days, but this fits the bill. Thanks for the great deal! that's practically a 'mini-colony' in today's retail market. 

[roni]

That goni garden is super nice!  I need more gonipora...

[nburg]

I can’t help my self. I ordered a few acros from WWC that I liked, nothing fancy but I liked them enough… then Cherry Corals had a March Madness sale that was too good to pass up. Not a live sale, but a drop sale where all the corals were posted at once, so there’s no frenzy. I love Cherry Corals, frags are always super healthy and often great sizes with plenty of encrusting at the base.  I feel like I made it well:

 

From WWC:

Ultimate Stag

WWC Shark Attack

 

From WWC eBay since I paid for shipping:

WWC Banana Peel

Bizarro Cyphastrea

From Cherry Corals:
RMF Psychoberry

BC Dragonfly

ORA Green Planet #11$14.99

TCK Rainbow Fusion Stag

WWC King Fiji

BC Bubblebath Unicorn #21$59.99

WWC Pink Passion

Greg Carroll Acroberry

 

[roni]

Those look great!  The acroberry is one I almost got as well.  So many nice sticks... So little space

[nburg]

I had the acroberry before and it’s really nice. Very rich, dark color with great contrast between the purple and  green with hints of blue. I also like the thicker branches. 

[YHSublime]

Let me know when you're ready to frag some of that Bubble Bath Unicorn. I lost it in my tank crash and it's a total stunner. 

[nburg]

8 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

Let me know when you're ready to frag some of that Bubble Bath Unicorn. I lost it in my tank crash and it's a total stunner. 

Based on a R2R thread on growth rate, I should have frags in about 3 years, lol. Apparently a slower grower for most. 

[YHSublime]

4 minutes ago, nburg said:

Based on a R2R thread on growth rate, I should have frags in about 3 years, lol. Apparently a slower grower for most. 

 

Yeah, I feel like that's most acro for me. Fingers crossed, that's a steal of a price! 

[nburg]

Not a whole lot to update, but everything is growing. Just started getting Diatoms on the sand randomly… wonder if it’s from either turning up my lights or now there is direct sun that hits the tank in the evening… either way, I’m sure it will go away soon.

 

Here’s a few iPhone pics to highlight some recent growth. All my new acros hit the ground running and everything is growing well.

Left

 

Middle

 

Right

 

 

[flooddc]

looking good. 

[nburg]

Here’s some more pics. Don’t mind the seasonal diatoms. I got some tiger conchs to hopefully eat it. 

 

These are my fast growing colonies. The WWC Aussie Toxic Green Slimer on the left is just going nuts. It’s different than the Bali Slimer in that it’s more branch and bushy, a little darker green and thinner branches. 
 

Newer frags are really looking good with color and encrusting fast. The WWC Pink Passion is growing tons of branches from the base. Happy to see such a beautiful coral growing so quickly. 

 

poletti’s yellow tip - I’ve had this in my system for years, and this one has grown from leftover tissue encrusted on the rock about a year ago… maybe only a dozen total polyps to this (which gets fragged weekly by my blood throat trigger)

 

WWC Hello Kitty that came back from the dead. Sold the colony, but a little tissue remained, which is starting to grow back into a colony.

 

WWC Terra Red - beautiful growth pattern. It’s like a pink Cadillac but darker.

 

 Lastly, this Platygyra is amazing. Deep sky blue with orange mouths. I hope this grows faster than most platys. 

[howaboutme]

Wait! Thought you gave up SPS? Things look great! Ready for your next BC order?

[nburg]

35 minutes ago, howaboutme said:

Wait! Thought you gave up SPS? Things look great! Ready for your next BC order?

 

Lol what I kept ended up doing really well so I said screw it. I put all of my softies in a 20g Cube, so getting the best of both worlds. I don't have a lot of space for more acros at the moment, lol, but I did get some nice BC pieces. 

[nburg]

Decided to try something I used to do many years ago to keep my sand bed clean, which is suck up the top 1/4 -1/2 inch of sand and rinse it out before returning it to the tank. I do 15 gallon water changes every week so I suck up about 1/4 gallon of sand which is washed thru 15 gallons of tank water and a little RO water if it’s still dirty before returning. 
 

Swirling around allows the algae/diatoms to break off the sand and wash away, leaving me with a pearly white sand bed (at lest for a few days). Much more effective than the gravel tube that’s hard to maneuver around my sticks. I figure I’ll do this until the diatom bloom passes. I don’t see too much harm in this since none of the dirty water is returned to the tank and only about 10% of the sand actually is disturbed.  
 

Looks pretty good after a nice cleaning! 

[howaboutme]

Nice! Curious, what do you use to suck up the sand? 

[nburg]

1 minute ago, howaboutme said:

Nice! Curious, what do you use to suck up the sand? 

Usually the longest gravel vac BRS sold, but now just a straight 3/8” tube, rinse and replace the sand by hand from the bucket after draining the nasty water

[YHSublime]

Seems like a lot of work for sand. I've always wondered how people with beautiful tanks keep their sandbeds so clean. Seems like really established tanks don't have as big of an issue? Either way, tanks are looking nice! 

[nburg]

1 hour ago, YHSublime said:

Seems like a lot of work for sand. I've always wondered how people with beautiful tanks keep their sandbeds so clean. Seems like really established tanks don't have as big of an issue? Either way, tanks are looking nice! 

I only have sand for my melanurus wrasse, otherwise I’d get rid of it asap. I’ve read they can survive without it, but sounds like a lot of stress. The wrasse keeps those little snails out of my vortechs so he’s not going anywhere. Actually the method of syphoning and rinsing isn’t too bad. Sand just started getting nasty recently so hopefully it’s just short term. 

[lowsingle]

Looking good.  I have some wrasse dens if you want to keep your wrasse but get most of the sand out of your tank.

 

Darren

 

[beatle]

I actually stumbled onto your tank via YouTube and saw that you don't have the standard black background found on the Reefer series.  It looks great!  Did you remove the background yourself?  If so, do you think it could be done while only 5 1/2 inches from the wall?