abcha0s' 300G Ultimate Reef

[Delphinus]

Looks fantastic Brad!

[reefermadness]

nice progress.....like the aquascape.

[abcha0s]

Thanks Victor - You live close to me. Come see the tank some time.

Thanks Tony - Any updates on your build?

Thanks Darryl - Congrats on winning TOTM. I have the same vision of a mature SPS reef. I'd say that I'm a couple of years away from realizing it. Good job with your setup.

I really do appreciate the feedback. I don't always post as much as I probably should but I am still following most of the other great builds on Canreef. Thanks again.

[lastlight]

Any updates Brad? Colours look to be doing really well in your last round of pics (which I somehow missed).

[abcha0s]

I've been fighting my share of demons. I learned (thanks Brett) that I had Red Bugs, treated with Interceptor and believe that I have been bug free since. I didn't seem to lose anything else. My pod population didn't even really take a hit which worries me somewhat, but I'll take it.

I've recently lost a couple corals. I can't yet pinpoint what the cause may have been. The tank seems to have restabalized, so hopefully the worst is over. I did notice that my phosphate levels were high, so I brought that down. I also replaced my carbon, but other than that I haven't really changed anything. All other water parameters are in check.

The best theory that I have is that it was related to lighting. I did allow a fair bit of particulate matter to build up while I was away for a couple of weeks. Perhaps when I cleaned up the water quality the extra light penetration bleached the corals. Just a theory.

I've started to get some algae on the sand. This is really the first nuisance algae that has shown up in the display tank. There's a fair bit of algae in the sump, but it hasn't been a problem before now. I'm not exactly sure what kind of algae this is?




The rock is really starting to mature. I started off with about 250 pounds of base rock and less than 50 pounds of live rock. You can still pick out the original live rock, but the base rock blends in very nicely. Coraline growth has been excellent. You only have to go back about 8 posts to see how much the colour has changed.




I finished stocking the tank with fish. Just for fun, here's what I have.

False Perc Clown (mated pair)
Mandarin Dragonette (1 male, 1 female)
Indigo Dottyback (2)
Royal Dottyback
Firefish (2)
Orange Diamond Goby (2)
Yellow Tang, Purple Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Sailfin Tang, Hippo Tang
Solar Wrasse
Flame Wrasses (mated pair)
Rhomboid Wrasse (3 male, 1 female)
Bartlette Anthias (3 male, 9 female)
Metallic Foxface

Here's a full tank shot for August.




I suck at taking pictures, so when I get a good one it's rather exciting (for me at least). Here's one of my Mandarin Dragonetts.




.. and one of my wrasses




I really enjoy watching the fish as the sun sets. With the Vertex Illumina lighting, it's a gradual shift from left to right as opposed to a dimming of the entire lighting system. The fish really do behave differently during this time. Here's a sequence that I took this evening.

9:00pm



9:15pm



9:25pm



9:35pm



9:45pm



9:50pm



Check out the Anthias schooling in the last two pics (9:45 & 9:50). They do this every night as the lights dim. 30 seconds after the last light fades, they are completely gone - hiding in the rocks.

Most of my automated systems are working well. I don't spend a lot of time maintaining the tank any more. There are still lots of little projects, like paneling for the stand, but at the moment I am just enjoying the tank. The projects can all wait. I've been building for years now and it's nice that this isn't such a high priority any more.

- Brad

[lastlight]

Wow the rock went purple quite fast that's impressive. It was bone white when last I saw so that's a great sign. Awesome collection of fishies you have there. We should do LED sunset beverages one evening lol.

[Delphinus]

Sorry to hear of the challenges. .. summer is a hard time for tanks I think. Things are looking good though.

[abcha0s]

2/3 of my SPS are thriving. The colours are deep and rich. The PE is good.

1/3 of my corals are either dying or dead. Some still have reasonable PE, but have completely bleached. Some are clearly dead.

I can't figure out what's going on?

Somewhat frustrating...

[lastlight]

Sorry to hear that Brad. I can't offer any suggestions but I hope that turns around.

While your rock is looking more mature that stuff might take a long time to really catch up to where live rock would have been I imagine. Maybe not... just thinking aloud. Isn't this hobby FUN?

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by lastlight

While your rock is looking more mature that stuff might take a long time to really catch up to where live rock would have been I imagine.

I've been wondering this same exact thing too Brett. Even though my dry rock looked like collected live rock by around the 2-3 month mark, at 9 months in my tank just seems to be having issues that one really would expect out of a newer tank. It's not unfair to think that dried rock needs more time to catch-up.

I'm sorry to hear of your issues Brad. FWIW, and probably for a myriad of potential causes, summers are hard on tanks. With the level of attention to detail you've put into yours, I'm sure yours will turn around in time. My own tank is suffering issues. No coral losses (well, one montipora did recede but it's not a loss at this point), but, just stuff that shouldn't be happening. Bryopsis, hair algae, sludge algae, cyanos, diatoms, dinoflaggelates. Dinos are the worst thing, it's so demoralizing because it just doesn't go away, and it's lethal to anything that samples it.