Scopus' 65gal Reef Diary

[scopus tang]

17th of April, I received my first shipment of corals from a fellow hobbiest. After the headache with the previous company, wasn't ever going to order online again, but after seeing this guys stock I just couldn't resist. Ordered some ricordia's from flricordia! Way nice, I'd order from him again in a heartbeat (oh wait, I already did

)! I highly recommend Mike to anyone ~ he does a great job of packing and shipping and has awesome ricordias!
Here is what they looked like upon arrival (made the mistake of shipping 2-day express USPS; of course it took 3 days to get them; then they got misplaced when they arrived, so I didn't find them to 6:30pm that night ~ water smelled bad, so dumped and transfered instantly to tank water. Found out later this is "proper" form of acclimation for these ~ thank goodness!)

And here is what they looked like four hours later

 

[scopus tang]

On the 22nd of April, I placed and glued several of the new ricordias onto my rock. Also took some new shots of old corals. While cleaning the tank to get some pictures, I bumped the cornation coral and knocked off one of the polyps

~ decided to glue it to LR also. Enjoy!
Glued Ricordia

Close-up of purple ricordia

This one shows a couple other mushrooms (red and purple bullseye) that I placed as well

This one shows the carnation coral again

Here is the carnation coral I glued to the LR (notice original ricordia in background beginning to split)

Here is the toadstool, epoxyed in

Update on the Armor of God zoas with the red gonipora in the background.

And finally, a close-up of the red gonipora

Tried some full tank shots, but they didn't turn out well ~ light was wrong.

 

[scopus tang]

spanko (Henry) had requested a shot of the halimeda, so on the 23rd I attempted some full tank shots again. Didn't turn out too bad. Tank is finally starting to look pretty good.
Here is the left side

Middle

And Right side

A full tank shot

Detail of a couple more; What I think is a green hairy mushroom

GSP

Nice detail on the bottom of the left side

the right side

Green Yuma w/palys I got from Dennis210

And finally, the zoas at the base of the purple ribbon gorgonian (also beginning of Aptasia problem from pieces taken from tank tear down). Anyone know if these zoas are Dragoneyes?

 

[fats71]

Well, i figured out why I do not have as much coraline I forgot I just bought the 8 bulb tek last month. I am so slow sometimes.

 

[spanko]

Tank is looking good. Have you seen growth in the Halimeda? Did you get it from another tank and plant it there? Looks good in that corner. Tank is coming along nicely will be following along to see how it develops and matures. Thank you for the pics.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by Fats71
http:///forum/post/2618632
Well, i figured out why I do not have as much coraline I forgot I just bought the 8 bulb tek last month. I am so slow sometimes.
I don't know much about the T-5s and how they affect coralline growth. What light did you have before you added the Tek? I'm seeing much better coralline growth under the PCs than under the Metal Halide.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/2618712
Tank is looking good. Have you seen growth in the Halimeda? Did you get it from another tank and plant it there? Looks good in that corner. Tank is coming along nicely will be following along to see how it develops and matures. Thank you for the pics.
Thank you Henry. Halimeda is growing like crazy. Its easily two or three times bigger now than when I got it. It is indeed out of another tank, and I simply planted it in the sandbed. Started showing some decline here last week, lots of the leaves turning white ~ but I finally got my iodine and strontium test kits, and iodine was at zero in the tank. Started dosing iodine, and this morning its making a great comeback. Also noticed that a lot of my zoas picked up after two days of dosing both strontium and iodine. I also am looking forward to seeing this one mature

. Anytime my friend, anytime!

 

[nemo_66]

you should put your Super skimmer on dry skim, that way it wont really overflow and will get some dark thick gunk out. thats how i have mine on my 58 gallon and it has never overflowed, but came close. i dont like wet skimming.

 

[morval]

nice tank scopus !

can u post/PM ur dimensions/cut list for the canopy? i also have a 65g a was looking at building one. how often are you feeding the carnation coral ? ive heard there a little finicky.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by Nemo_66
http:///forum/post/2620129
you should put your Super skimmer on dry skim, that way it wont really overflow and will get some dark thick gunk out. thats how i have mine on my 58 gallon and it has never overflowed, but came close. i dont like wet skimming.
I assume that by dry skimming you mean to turn the skimmer all the way down, so you get the dark thick gunk

? I've had it all the way down every since I bought it, and I can tell you that it can indeed overflow, if the pump starts sucking air

. Now, since I've moved it, and it doesn't run out of air, I've never had an issue with it overflowing.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by morval
http:///forum/post/2620456
nice tank scopus !

can u post/PM ur dimensions/cut list for the canopy? i also have a 65g a was looking at building one. how often are you feeding the carnation coral ? ive heard there a little finicky.
thanks morval. I will indeed send you dimmensions for the canopy (I'll measure tonight). As for the carnation, I've been spot feeding daily, but seems to be going downhill. I saw in Perfectdarks nano thread that he was taking his out and feeding it in a container. I may start trying that on the carnation rock, but obviously not going to be able to do that with the one I glued in. Also read that they don't like a lot light, and since I cut my xenia, they are pretty exposed, may be part of the issue, I don't know

.

 

[scopus tang]

Taking shots on the 23rd, I noticed that I was finally starting to see some additional life on my LR (5 months) ~ snapped a couple pictures of small feather dusters on the underside of the LR.

Very rarely I see a pod or two, but just not as many as I think there should be by now.

 

[scopus tang]

On April 29th, I got a few new things to add to the tank; two small hot pink feather duster worms (one immediately fell prey to nassarius and hermits ~ must have had some issues), a green open brain which was seriously receeding (figured I would try to save it ~ LFS owner said if it died, he would replace it ~ kept getting buried in sand cause a powerhead kept falling), and some pink/purple palys. I'd passed the brain up several times previously cause it wasn't looking good, but when he offered to replace it if it died, figured what the heck.
Pink Feather Duster worm

Green Open Brain

Pink/Purple palys

Also updated a few shots of the other corals
Carnation coral

And Orange-blue ricordia which is obviously splitting

Also decided it was time to lose the diamond watchmen as he kept my sandbed so clean I wasn't seeing any microfauna. Based on threads I'd seen on this site, I built a DIY fishtrap, baited it with some LS from another tank, and within an hour, had myself a fish.
Watchmen in fishtrap

 

[scopus tang]

Since it was after the MH had shut off when I finally had the diamond watchmen, I decided to go ahead and take a few shots under the actinics.
Here is the brain again

The GSP

The "Electric Green" Zoas

My Trumpet coral

And a not very clear shot of my neon red mushroom

And finally, that brings me to May!

 

[scopus tang]

On the 1st of May, I got some zoas I'd ordered online, based on a post by SpiderWoman in here 75gallon reef build thread
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/313219/spideys-75g-rr-build/20
The color under actinic was so awesome I had to have some of my own. Also ended up ordering some additional pink palys, some spaghetti chaeto and some LS activator (hoping to get some sand microfauna going now that the Diamond goby is gone (gave him to a fellow reefer who needed one).
Here is pictures of what they looked like on arrival (temp. aclimated, then right into tank water in cooler, then into tank ~ so strange to do that).

Better pics onced they opened up, but it took several days.

 

[scopus tang]

On May 3rd, I helped Dennis210 frag a bunch of his mushroom corals. In return, I came home with a few new corals frags of my own.
A new gorgorian (Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata)

A purple hairy mushroom

Some purple zoas with a brown, dark green or gray skirt

and some Zoas that were later IDed as Bam Bams (so a genetic variation on what I'd already ordered online)

Some very nice additions

. Thanks Dennis
Also got a little better picture of one of the Golden-coral banded shrimp

 

[scopus tang]

May 07, the green open brain has receded to the point of no return, despite several futile attempts to feed (brine, mysis, krill, cyclopeeze) and protect it.

I was

that I was unable to save this one, especially after seeing how neon green it was under the actinics, but thrilled by the arrival of my new red-green open brain at the LFS. Having learned from my previous experiences, I didn't even allow the owner to release it into his tank - took it straight home and into mine it went.

Also added a new yellow Feather duster

Additionally, some of the zoas I'd gotten on-line finally had opened up, so I was able to snap some pics of them as well.
Orange zoas (later IDed as Bam Bams)

Some that I think are supposed to be pink palys, but they don't have much color under my lighting.

 

[scopus tang]

Additionally, on the 7th, I was able to snap several updated shots of corals and inverts both.
Red Gonipora (still doing well)

My purple ricordia

My pink feather duster

My green toadstool leather

And messing in the tank caused the trumpet coral to polyp up as well, so snapped a pic of it.

Opps! Zoas in the last picture, were sold to me as "blue spots" from LFS, and were added on April 29th. They are some of the smallest Zoas I've ever seen, about the size of the clicker button on a bic pen.

 

[gatorwpb]

Nice pics! That poor brain didnt have a chance
Youve got all these frags, now you just need to let them grooooowww!!

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by GatorWPB
http:///forum/post/2624211
Nice pics! That poor brain didnt have a chance
Youve got all these frags, now you just need to let them grooooowww!!

Thanks. Yeah, didn't figure I could save the brain, but had to try.
Thats what my wife says too ~ stop ordering more and just let them groooow, and add some fish! So ordered fish yesterday. Hopefully be here tomorrow. Then the tank gets all summer to grow and mature. Yeah