Reefmack's RSM 130

[Reefmack]

Well, I got envious of so many owners having a tank thread here in the RSM subforum, so I decided to start one here. I have a pre-existing Reef Chronicle with my tank history, but not many visit it, and it doesn't get updated very often. Rather than repeat the history here's a link to my chronicle:

Reefmack's Old RSM Chronicle

The chronicle was started before Reef Santuary was nice enough to give us RSM tank owners our own subforum. I seldom update it and it doesn't seem like many owners find their way to it.

So, I'll start off with an FTS from yesterday, and go from here.....

I scraped a lot of coralline yesterday, even though it may not look it. The back sides are hard to get at without knocking corals loose. In addition my 2 Ocellaris clowns call the back right their home, and are raising their 6th batch of eggs since Thanksgiving in late November! They lay them in the corner between the back and right side glass, and the eggs progress and hatch, but where the fry end up I have no idea - fish and coral food I assume. I wish the clowns would take a break before they wear themselves out. It seems like they only have a few days between one batch of eggs hatching and the next batch being deposited.

I'll try to pass on my new successes, and failures, in this thread. And I have had, and still do, have my fair share of failures! But, I try my best to learn from them, and if I'm extremely lucky I don't repeat them!

 

[Rue]

...so beautiful...*sigh*...

And then there's mine...lol...

 

[Jeremy0322]

You have like 1000 purple zoas, you fragging soon?? Im first in line if you do!!!

Beautiful tank, i want mine to look that full!

 

[Reefmack]

You have like 1000 purple zoas, you fragging soon?? Im first in line if you do!!!

Beautiful tank, i want mine to look that full!

Hah - 1000 is correct! They came on the rock 18 months ago, and are trying to overgrow everything, and tend to outcompete other zoas. They look better in pictures - they're kind of a brownish purple, but have an orange center that really glows under all actinic lighting.


Thanks Rue. It looks a lot better when you can see through the glass. the day before the picture it was pretty yukky!

 

[redsea reefer]

Beautiful Tank Reefmack !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Whipitup]

Nice tank Reefmack........

 

[MatthewJ]

You have like 1000 purple zoas, you fragging soon?? Im first in line if you do!!!

Beautiful tank, i want mine to look that full!

I think redseareaf is first in line for frags from reefmack's tank

reefmack's tank is one of a couple RSM tanks on the site that I aspire to have one day ..and yes, by "have" I mean physically take from the owner:angel3:

 

[mzreenie]

Beautiful!! - and I guess I am third in line for frags of those purple zoas!!

 

[Reefmack]

Thanks all.

MatthewJ - there are too many days that I'd probably help you carry the tank out - you might actually be doing me a favor.

I'll really should look into trying to frag some of those zoas off my rock, if it's possible without having a rockslide. I could pop a few frags in the little tank I just restarted and see if they survive. As long as I don't go through another palytoxin type release and poisoning of the tank. They're a different type of coral than my toxic palys, so maybe it would be OK. But they always look nicer in the pictures - they're a bit drab actually. I doubt I'd ever pay any money to buy the things myself.

 

[redseareef]

RM,
I wondered why you where working on the tanks all week!!! AAHHHHAAAAA!!!!! I knew you where up to somthing!!! Decided to start your own chronical now huh? The tank looks superb indeed!
Great job! Keep us posted and let me know when the frag trading starts! With the way the economy is going thats all we are going to be able to do. Trade things!!!LOL!!!

 

[redseareef]

PS The Vortech blends in nicely once it's purple!!!

 

[Reefmack]

redseareef - these darn little boxes of water are too much work and money! I've noticed that the price of corals seems to be dropping and many more sales than usual - another effect of the global economy in trouble? On the Vortech - I wonder why coralline loves to grow on plastic so quickly? I think that's usually the first place you see the stuff show up in a new tank.

 

[Mavjoy]

Nice looking tank you got there RM...Is it a Red Sea Max?...LOL....jk...You have soo much zoos...I just bought a frag of Tubbs Blues(7-8 heads) yesterday and they look soo cool. One of the reefers over here said that Lugol's solution is good for them and I should dose some. Is this a good idea? Anyways, AWESOME TANK and keep it up.

 

[MatthewJ]

there are too many days that I'd probably help you carry the tank out - you might actually be doing me a favor

I know what you mean, I have fleeting thoughts like this too, usually a day or so after I buy something for the tank. So far I've been able to suppress them by buying more stuff or planning on how I will buy more stuff.:hammerhea

 

[FallChinook]

Your tank looks GREAT! I can only hope that one day mine will look half as good!

 

[mmaness]

Very nice. I hope mine grows up and looks like that someday. Of course, knowing me, somewhere along the way I'll not take that left turn at Albuquerque and end up with something totally strange ...

My life, in a nutshell.

 

[Reefmack]

Mavjoy - I used to add a drop of Lugols every couple weeks till I found out that too much iodine can be deadly. Lugols is really just iodine, and more concentrated than some of the other iodine additives. I've heard of dipping corals in a week solution of Lugols, before adding to the tank, but not intentionally adding it for the health of the zoas. But, I sure don't know everything about all of this stuff. They always say don't add it unless you'll test for it. Water changes should raise iodine/iodide levels also. I love those Tubbs Blues!

MatthewJ - I use the same approach you do, LOL, but I'm out of room for corals (have said that before) and can't think of much equipment that I need anymore (bit I think of something!).

FallChinook - yours will look as good or better eventually! I see a lot of RSM that look a lot better than mine. Plus It seems like after a while I change mine. Maybe I'm just never happy with it!

 

[Reefmack]

mmaness - totally strange may look great!

 

[mmaness]

mmaness - totally strange may look great!

If totally strange looks great, then I'm Brad Pitt!

Seriously (and I'm rarely serious), your tank looks great! I decided a long time ago to be patient with my tank, but whenever I see yours, I have to stop and count to 10. When that doesn't work, I have to count the money I've spent on this 'hobby' thus far. That usually does the trick.

 

[Reefmack]

Off topic for the RSM forum, but here's the little Nanowave 9 gallon that I mentioned that I cleaned out and restarted on Saturday - new substrate (live sand) and new rock:

The sole survivor of the ordeal - my little green clown goby (and the cleaner shrimp and a few snails):

The little nanowave has a skimmer (that skims!), a mechanical filter sponge, mini lighted refulgium, bio and/or chemical media section, and a return pump. But it has no surface skimming so I added the Koralia nano for more flow and to keep the surface scum from getting too bad. And the fuge, and all of the media sections are little lift out trays that make it super easy to clean those. And it has 5 watts/gallon of 10k/actinic PC lighting - a very well lit little tank! I added the coral frags Sunday - pulled from the RSM.

I got an order in today from Reefcleaners, most of which went into the RSM or my refugium. I added 2 large Fuzzy Chitons to the RSM to hopefully help with some hair algae growing on the top back of my rocks. My yellowtail damsel chases away the foxface when he tries to eat the stuff. The big chitons (an inch long. 1/2" across) are supposed to be hair algae destroyers so I set them right on top of it. Time will tell if they do what I want. I also split about a dozen small speckled Cerith snails between the RSM, the fuge, and the 9g tank. Added some ulva algae to the fuge to grow as food for the herbivores, and also small hunk of red gracillaria algae (also good food).

In the 9g Nanowave above I added several pieces of Red Flame Algae (on the top left), and a big hunk of bright red Gracillaria on the right side.

I plan on gluing some of the Red Flame Algae clumps on a small rock and putting some in the RSM. It's a hard calcareous algae that the fish supposedly won't eat, and it doesn't get out of control like Caulerpa can.