Joevember's 65g reef

Looks great, but I would stick a blue or black sheet of mylar on the back so you don't see the plumbing. Blue would give the tank depth and black would give a slight mirror effect.
 
jrwoltman said:
Looks great, but I would stick a blue or black sheet of mylar on the back so you don't see the plumbing. Blue would give the tank depth and black would give a slight mirror effect.
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Thanks, I was thinking of just painting the back with black acrylic paint. Is mylar better? I assume it wouldn't take as long to dry as the paint would be, and that would mean less stress for the fish.
 
I forgot to mention the fish I have in the tank ��.
Fish: snowflake oscellaris clown, black/white oscellaris clown, 6 line wrasse, yellowtail damsel, and a coral beauty angelfish (which is a jerk to everything else).

Coral: orange leptoseris, duncan, green bubble, blasto merletti, and a single head of purple candy cane.

Clean up crew: 6" derasa clam (technically part of the CUC), ~6 nassarius snails, 8 margarita snails, chitons, limpets, and some copepods, amphipods, and macros in the fuge. I know it's kind of small at the moment, but I'm going to buy some more critters from reef cleaners in the next couple weeks.
 
Joevember said:
Thanks, I was thinking of just painting the back with black acrylic paint. Is mylar better? I assume it wouldn't take as long to dry as the paint would be, and that would mean less stress for the fish.
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Mylar is easier, especially if you decide to switch colours.
 
Added a green purple tipped torch coral today, can't wait for it to grow out! The candy cane hasn't been looking great. Its sweeper tentacles haven't been extending at all in the past week and it has been looking pretty deflated during the day and with its mouth retracted. I tried to put food around it wed. morning and I think I saw the feeder tentacles come out, but I'm not that sure. However, when I tried to feed it the body swelled back up after about an hour and it looked healty. By the next day it looked the same as it did before. Any help?View attachment 24534View attachment 24535
 
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Spent too long finding the best placement and pattern for my powerhead... hopefully I won't have to do it again.
The torch is a lot bigger than I would have thought. When I bought it the price was 25/hd, but this morning I was checking it out and I counted 5 mouths!
I finally took the 'clam cage' out and am feeding my coral beauty a lot more so it wont nip. In the next couple weeks I'm going to be replacing my coral beauty with a sleeper goby and a starry blenny.

Let me know what you think of everything.

Rock anemone too fatView attachment 24547View attachment 24546
 
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Well I thought I wasn't going to do a water change today because I got hit by a car today while I was on my bike (nothing broken except my bike...). But the tank comes before me so I picked up some new salt and did a 25% change.
The tank is doing a lot better than I am right now. The bubble coral is bigger than ever and my 24 leptoseris looks like I will be able to frag a hanging piece off in the next couple weeks.
View attachment 24581
Everything is good, except for the hatred my coral beauty has for my clam...View attachment 24582
 
I noticed my hermit has been acting strange the past week. It was under my duncan colony and wouldn't move at all. When I moved him away he would go right back.
After I changed the water I thought he was dead outside his shell, but he just molted.
First time I saw this happen, and it kind of freaked me out.
 
Well just got rid of the coral beauty today. It must have liked me because it relly didn't want to leave.
View attachment 24584
Now I'm thinking of fish to stock the tank with. And I'll have to get rid of the 6 line before I can add anything because people have been telling me that it would be too aggressive to new tankmates.
How many fish do you think I could add at once? How many could my tank support?
 
Went to Wojteck's shop on wednesday and picked up 2 zoanthids. Not sure about the names, and Wojtek didn't either. They opened up fully and look good. The only thing I'm worried about is that one has somehow grown on the bottom of the piece of rubble it's on, so I don't know how it's going to attatch to my rock.
View attachment 24591
I've also been battling nitrates recently and am doing carbon dosing. I'm one week in and my nitrates have come down from 20-40 to the 5-10 range. I dose 3ml of vodka everyday in 2 parts. The skimmate I'm getting out of the tank is crazy.
Also the chaeto I had died. A week back parts of it were becoming clear and the ball started falling apart. Not sure what it was. The chaeto was also extremely dark and stiff when I got it. Anyway, I only have grape caulerpa, and it has been growing in great. I only started with one strand, and after cutting it a couple times I now have about 8 long ones.View attachment 24592
 
Well my finals are pretty much over at the moment so I will have a lot more down time to do some work on my tank. I'll also be able to buy things for it because I'll finally start working again.
With that said I am proud to say that I purchased an rodi system by aquatic life. I would have (and should have) bought it a lot earlier, but again.... money. Hopefully it's going to get rid of the silicates that I think are fueling my diatom ridden sandbed.
I will also get a CUC package from Reef Cleaners of around 100 members, plus some chaeto for my fuge. If you have any ideas as to why my first ball of chaeto died please let me know.
I'm also considering purchasing 2 AI Prime HD+ to replace my light, I'm not happy with its performance and spread. Plus i have a plastic bracer right under it.
Can't wait to get some more awesome corals in my tank.
Also I changed the layout to a 2 island sort of look.View attachment 24611
 
Looking good!
I've had trouble keeping Chaeto alive too. In the end I think it was just a matter of nutrients being too low. Now I feed a lot more and Chaeto stays alive and will slowly grow.
 
My nassarius snails have been breeding like crazy ever since I got the tank. Their eggs are everywhere.
Here's one of them just laid a batch on the side of my clam.
 
goatous said:
Looking good!
I've had trouble keeping Chaeto alive too. In the end I think it was just a matter of nutrients being too low. Now I feed a lot more and Chaeto stays alive and will slowly grow.
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I'm still trying to find why it died, because my nitrates were pretty high. I'm going to try my luck again with some more soon because the other macros are spreading quickly in my fuge, and biodiversity is a good.
 
Two new discoveries in the tank. After moving my torch's rock 2 inches back I noticed a small hitchhiker mushroom right in a cave in the rockwork. It extended about an inch to try to get to the light so I think it deserves to be left in there for a while, or until it could become a problem.
View attachment 24660
Another thing I found was a few small red brittle stars inside a rock. Found them half an hour after the lights went out. From what I've seen around the internet is that they are good detritavores, so I'm excited to have them in.
 
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