T.Rob's 8g BC. noob tank

[trob]

My halimeda plant almost doubled in size over the weekend. I also think my sea urchin decided to move a few frags around over the weekend.

Here is an updated shot, sorry about the webcam quality.

[trob]

1/23 - 1.5G water change using reef crystals.

Water Test:
8.15pH, 0.0, 0.01, 0.01, 1.025sg, 3.80 Alk, 350 Ca

My zoanthids in the middle are excreating some brown stringy stuff???

[trob]

1/31 - another 1.5g reef crystals water change

2/01 - water test
8.15pH, 0.0, 0.0, 0.2, 1.025sg, 3.43 Alk, 410 Ca

I dosed some Purple-Up for a couple of days to get my calcium up to a respectable level. All my test look good now but I would like to get a mag., iodine, and phosphate test kit sometime in the near future.

I fragged the small GSP rock I had laying in the tank and also separated another red mushroom. Because of the extreme growth this week I also had to swap my halimeda plants. I'll probably toss the big one in my girlfriends 40g tank and see if the small one grows.

[trob]

Sorry, but I moved the hammer coral again. It looked like it was doing so well there in the front but my urchin kept knocking it over. I also needed more room to clean the glass. I added another mushroom to the cluster and moved the purple polyps to my gf's tank for now.

[abigtroutt]

Everything looks great very impressive !!! Keep the updates coming and the pics are awesome!!

[fish.freak]

what type of urchin and anemone do you have?

[trob]

thanks, abigtroutt

fish.freak, my urchin is a short spine. it is very strong and can move anything in the tank that is not firmly mounted. one day i saw it wedge itself and two snails between the wall and hydorflo causing it to stop rotating. this week after seing it redecorate my rockwork i've finally got some epoxy stick on the way.

the anemone, i'm not totally sure. i think its a sabre.

on another note, i had an aiptasia hidding in the back. i juiced it and after about 15 minutes i saw my shrimp digging in that area. maybe he was cleaning up any leftovers.

my gsp frags are doing very well and i mounted a small group of purple polys i had left from the move. also i've moved my christmas tree worm upfront and i've managed to get some better pictures of it. i'll try to update them later today.

[trob]

new pics.

1-feeding time
2-new gsp frags
3-purple polyp frag
4-stinger
5-christmas tree worm

[Wiskey]

Great pictures! Your tank is looking really nice

Whiskey

[trob]

Originally Posted by Wiskey

Great pictures! Your tank is looking really nice

Whiskey

Thanks, Whiskey.

I've added a 50/50 18W bulb to the hood however I haven't had time to upgrade the fans yet. I'll monitor the temp and see how it does and soon as I get some more time, I'll swap out the fans.

As far as livestock, I've fragged another red mushroom from the big one, mounted another green mushroom, and mounted some small polyps I received in a trade with a local hobbiest. The GSPs are filling in rather quickly and they are looking great.

Here is my recent water test.
temp - 80
pH - 8.3
sg - 1.026
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate - 0.0, 0.0, 0.02
calcium - 435
alk - 3.14
mag - 1200
phosphates - 0
iodine - 0.04

I'm only going to do two water changes this month since it is a short month and I'll try to add some pics showing off the new lighting in the next day or two.

[trob]

Here are some pics of some newly added polyps and mushroom.

[Chris86]

Very impressive. Keep up the good work.

[VWD]

Really Nice looking Tank!

[trob]

Thanks Chris86 and VMD.

Tank water parms 02/28.
temp - 80
pH - 8.2
sg - 1.026
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate - 0.0, 0.0, 0.0
calcium - 425
alk - 2.86

1.5 gal. water change using Reef Chem/IO 50/50 mix.

Sorry, not many new pics late. I'll try to get some more soon. Here is what I have for now.

1 - some more polyps I added
2 - you can see how my GSPs are growing in.

[trob]

Update:
The tank is looking good. My GSP are spreading very well, hopefully in a couple of weeks the full rock surface will be covered. I've fragged a couple more red mushrooms. The halimeda is growing fast again and my xenias have recovered from looking rough for a few weeks. I'm planning on stopping by the LFS this weekend to see if they have a small fish for the tank and I wish I could find a little red starfish too.

My urchin keeps going on rock rampages moving anything it can get its tentacles on. I've got some putty to fix that problem but I want to make sure I've got all the frags mounted first. It's a pain trying to mount frags in the water however thats the method I try to use about 75% of the time.

Tank water parms 03/09.
temp - 80
pH - 8.10
sg - 1.025
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate - 0.0, 0.01, 0.0
calcium - 425
alk - 3.31