90g Peninsula

[Linlox]

Flame Angel and Lubbock Fairy Wrasse moved to the display last night from qt. Blue eye tang was not happy and chased the angel pretty hard through all the rockwork and beat himself up. Put a mirror on the tank and he turned his anger on himself. Was able to remove the mirror this afternoon and everyone seems fine now.

Started dosing nitrate @ 4mL a day to get them off 0 on 10/01/24, since then everything has exploded with growth. Red and purple coralline went crazy over the rock, ulva sea lettuce exploded in the refugium, mushrooms and zoas are making babies.

Added a Tunze powerhead for more flow, dont think the gyre is doing what I want and it has become very loud and annoying, will replace it with another couple Tunze powerheads when it annoys me enough or I get sick of cleaning it.

Sand bed is still a hot mess of algae but it doesnt bother me, will let it form a mat and just pull it out. Must have been something strange with this sand, kind of wish I had gone without but had planned on wrasse and a goby that would use it but the plan changed.

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Video of the tank this afternoon:​

 

[Linlox]

The order from @SBB Corals showed up yesterday and holy cow are they amazing!! Pic of all 14 pieces one day after putting them in.​

Shane and SBB Corals did a great job in communication, packing, shipping, and providing an outstanding product!!! Will definitely be participating in the next sale.

Had setup the 20 gallon long in the office as a coral and invert quarantine tank while waiting for the order to arrive. Using another AI Prime 16 setup exactly the same as the display tank, which will also allow me to just add it to the display tanks 3 other AI primes when done with qt. All of the white specs in the above pic are pods breeding like crazy in the tank with no predators.

Unpacked, floated for 40 mins, dipped in Coral RX for 10 minutes with a power head, rinsed in tank water and inspected every piece under magnification and they all looked perfect. Everything opened and looked great with an hour of going into the tank.

Can't wait for these to go into the 90g, my wife has been picking their spots out in the rock work for them. They will be in this tank for at least a couple months while inspecting for pests.

 

[Linlox]

Everything seems to be in cruise control now. Fish all seem to be gaining a lot of weight and coral is growing.
Found aiptasia in one of the zoa frags and regretfully discarded it cause I fought that battle years ago and it can cost more then a zoa frag once it gets a foothold.
The new corals on the quarantine tank are looking spectacular.

 

[Linlox]

Just a quick update, everything is looking great except the sandbed is a mat algae mess, manually removed it all and two weeks later it was back. Received a reefcleaners package to hopefully help with the sandbed, and will continue manual removal.

Removed the refugium and cleaned up the sump really well. The ulva and refugium light was creating a mess in the sump and dosing nitrate to grow algae in the refugium seems silly. Nitrates are now around 2 and po4 0.3, going to leave things alone for a while and then see where the nutrient levels head to. Will probably carbon dose for nitrate control instead of using a refugium and mix in a little GFO if needed for PO4. Still have a spreadsheet I used in 2012 for carbon dosing but will see if there are updated methods as if memory serves the ramp up was tedious.

Will get some pics of tank this weekend hopefully, but the dog and cat were having a morning!

 

[Linlox]

Shot of the tank from each side after scooping out the top of the sand bed, rinsing it out with peroxide and putting it back to kill the cyano in it.

Started some GFO/Carbon mixed in a reactor earlier this week cause po4 was climbing again, shooting for <0.1, was at .4 and have been changing the filter sock daily or every other day since removing the refugium.

 

[Linlox]

Adjusted the light cycle to fewer hours of heavy white light, 8 hours to 4 hours total a day. Also decresed white intensity from 65% to 45%. Never liked the idea of a blueberry looking tank but the coral pop is pretty amazing and its growing on us. Still need that white cycle to make the fish pop though.

 

[Linlox]

Received a gift package from @Bulk Reef Supply and it has a ton of super cool stuff, (we will use everything), even a couple dog leashes, a T-shirt for the wife, and a hat for me! The fish and coral will love it. Thanks BRS!!!

 

[Linlox]

Moved coral over from the coral quarentine tank to the display this last weekend, everything is doing great.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Moved coral over from the coral quarentine tank to the display this last weekend, everything is doing great.

Glad all of your corals are doing great!

 

[Linlox]

The coral quarantine tank is ready for the shipment coming in on Thursday, temperatures look scary low but the seller does not seem worried.
Completely removed everything, cleaned it up and re-assembled, new hang on back on order because the old one was getting salt creep everywhere and started leaking.
Did a 16 gallon water change in the main tank and put the old water in this one. kept the rock in a heated bucket with a powerhead overnight.

Before tear down:

After tear down pics:

 

[Linlox]

The big order from @SBB Corals was delivered and I was sure worried because it was -11F last night and -6F when I picked them up at 11:30!​

Had them delivered to a friend's business in town so they were only on the ups truck an hour, and then 30 minutes home in my truck with the heat cranked and heated seat on for them.
Everything looks great considering it was only 66F in the box.
Did not dip, scrub, or inspect anything. Just floated for 20 minutes and got them into the quarantine tank, I think they had enough stress for one day. Will dip them in coral Rx in a couple days when I inspect them under magnification and only if I see something.
Torches and Goni are already starting to come out and see some polyps already on the sps!
one large aiptasa on the scoly, will cut that off.

Pics:​

 

[Linlox]

After just 3 hours everything is open and healthy looking.​

Used the dremel to cut out the chunk of rock on the scoly that had aiptasia and also mounted it on a new plug.

 

[Linlox]

 

[Linlox]

 

[Linlox]

The three fish I ordered for the frag tank arrived from https://mnaquatics.com/ today and they are healthy and happy! Out swimming, eating and exploring already!