Breaking up the Turbinaria sp.

The Turbinaria sp. coral (yellow scroll coral) from my old 110 gallon tank setup was finally taken out of the quarantine tank and broken up into pieces. I could see polyps and a little gain in coloration while it sat in the Q tank, so I decided to take a few pieces and super glue (gel) them in my 50 gallon cube tank. There were some larger chunks that I'll try to grow out on the sand bed and offer them for trade later.

After a while, I just used my gloved hands to break more pieces off. Then, I used the wire cutters for trimming. I threw away most of the dead coral and kept the underlying live rock for the refugium. 

I glued 3 small pieces at the same level on one of the live rocks. You can see a green variety of Turbinaria sp. near the recovering yellow scroll coral frags. I'm hoping that the pieces will grow and attach themselves to the the rock before a crab comes buy and dislodges them.

 

Calcium and Alkalinity Dosing

I followed instructions at BulkReefSupply (BRS) to create the Calcium and Alkalinity solutions. Then, I drilled holes on the tops using a 7/32" drill bit and a smaller hole to allow for air. I'll have to find another screw top when it comes time to mix new solutions. The hard-line tubing had a tight fitting, but was easy to slide in through the holes I'd drilled. The BRS peristaltic pumps came with their own mounting and screws. I used smaller wood screws to secure the mounts under the stand next to my 50 gallon reef tank. Now, I'll have to figure how to program my RKE to dose each solution.

 

 

Pink Fromia Sp. Sea Star

I was told that the Fromia sea stars eat only sponges. But, since I'm using well established live rock from my old system, there should be plenty of sponges to choose from as this sea star goes on the hunt for food. This pink variety really adds some color pizzaz to the color of my 50 gallon tank! Note the sponge structures embedded in the live rock near the sea star.

Bon Appetit!

Blonde Naso Tang

I sure am going to miss this guy. Since I'm downgrading from a 110 gallon reef to a 50 gallon cube, I can't transfer him. I hope I can find someone with a large enough tank to keep up with his growth. This guy would fetch you your slippers and morning newspaper if it weren't for that dang thing called "seawater".

Pancake-shaped live rock with Zoanthids

Gotta put this one up for sale in the local reef club.

Aquasculpture of 50 gallon Reef Tank & Radion XR30w Installation

The Radion LED light fixture was installed over the 50 gallon tank. I used 1/4" Molly toggle bolts to install the custom hanging kit to the ceiling. I had to make over-sized, messy holes (I should have read the link and used the nylon toggle anchors, instead) in the ceiling and will have to putty and re-paint it, but the aquarium kinda takes away from you ever noticing the holes above.

I installed the software and programmed the fixture to Natural mode.

Then, I aquascaped using a minimalist approach; I used only 4 large live rocks from my main 110 gallon reef tank. Two of the largest rocks were drilled to accept an acrylic rod between them so that they could support each other with no wobbling. I tried using acrylic rods on several small pieces of live rock, but it just looked too much like Shish Kabobs to me. So, the small pieces went to the refugium for later use.

I had to pluck off dozens of green majano anemones from the rocks. And, with a lot of diligence, I plan to keep up with removing these pests until they're completely eradicated from this tank. It should be easier to access the rocks with this cube tank, but I have a feeling the Aiptasia will move in once the majanos are gone. My main tank kept sprouting majano anemones from areas I could not access, so I just gave up.

Here's a night time pic of the tank in its bare-bottom format. I'm thinking of buying some sugar grain sand to cover the bottom. Then, I'll fill it up with livestock from my main tank. I was trying to avoid the "pile of rocks" look, but it still looks like a pile of rocks! Ha! I'll be sure to separate the pieces when the sand bed gets installed.

The Downgrading

I recently purchased a 50 gallon Starfire glass cube aquarium (born on 29jan2012) with a glass sump and stand from an SDReef user. The tank, stand and accessories were still in their packing boxes as he had decided he'd rather go with a larger setup. Since I've always wanted a glass tank to take better shots of my specimens and I was thinking about downgrading to a smaller tank, I went for the purchase. So far, I've replaced the main pump with a Tunze 1073.40 (still trying to "break in" and waiting for the humming to dissipate).

The 1" bulkhead was not easy to tighten (without over-tightening) and I've got a mini-micro-leaking going on. The rest of the plumbing is working out. I've got more work to do, but at least I can get an "instant reef" from my main 110 gallon reef tank.

I'm now stuck at the "aquascaping" part. I want to go with pillars of rocks rather than a pyramid pile of rocks in the center. More on that, if I'm successful, later.