Neptune Aquatics

Darcy's 20g nano

Hey, normally I wouldn't post pics at this messy stage, but because people have been asking, I will, and hopefully in a couple months I'll have some nice progress reports to post to do some before and afters. Pics are a little snotty because I just did a partial water change a couple hours ago.

First off, let me preface and say, I just moved the tank 4 weeks ago (and prior to that it hadn't had a water change in about a year and the tank was more or less FOLR and just shrooms and Kenya for the last 6 years) so it's kind of dirty from the upheaval and having some algae blooms at the moment. For those of you who don't already know me, I have been in the hobby for about 17 years but been on hiatus for about 6 or 7 years and wanting to start up again. :) I am committed to a 100% aquacultured or hobbyist-propagated coral collection. I love LPS for their flowy relaxing qualities, but would like to have a few SPS so I don't have to explain to guests that LPS are not "plants".

I like really simple set-ups that don't rely on lots of equipment and monitors to maintain the system.

Current Equipment:
Tank, I don't recall the brand but it's about 20 gallons, no sump
HOB skimmer
Powerhead (feeling the flow is a little low right now, may add another)
150 15k Kessil LED (just switched over today! they're a lot bluer than the 20k halide I had prior)

Livestock:
2 Ocellaris ( one of which is the offspring of a pair I had ages ago that Robin/Fingerwrinkles raised fry from)
1 lone hermit crab
A sh*tload of Capnella (anyone want some?)
Discosoma shrooms
Rhodactis hairy shrooms
Eagle eye zoas
Montipora setosa (kind of unsure if this is going to do ok, I may have to give that frag a new home, an alkalinity swing kind of upset it, though it's looking better now)
Monti vietnamensis from the swap (already growing fast and encrusting)
Unidentified monti from the swap (started out greenish but has browned out, may need to move it higher up, very large polyp extension and fast encrusting)
Hammer coral from Geneva :) (accidentally broke it in half, so will bring one half to the next swap, it's very plump and I love it)
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea from Aquanut from the swap (already colored up as it was a bit bleached and it's growing FAST)
GSP

Pests: at the moment, my tank is completely free of aiptasia, bryopsis, planaria - YAY! Green algae and cyano bloom at the moment is my current concern.

Goals:
Add deeper sandbed
Swapping out my broken halide fixture for Kessil LEDs (tomorrow!)
Weekly partial water changes to reduce nutrient load
Getting rid of some of those mushrooms and Kenya


Observations:
My new location has huge windows and skylights which are potentially problematic. Really need to keep nutrient levels in check, empty the skimmer regularly, and keep up with turkey-basting the rockwork before water changes. Waiting for coralline to re-grow as my re-arrangement of the rockwork when I moved has buried some of it and left white parts of rock exposed.

Wants:
Would like to add another fish eventually, and scarlet cleaner shrimp (I miss having my cuticles cleaned by "Scampi")
 

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Ok, I just had a thought, for a more aesthetically pleasing look, I decided to move my light fixture to mount it on the side. I'm so much happier with it this way.
 

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Wow your tank looks fantastic! I actually really like the Kenya trees but do not like how fast they spread! You need more zoas lol.
 
I have a couple frags I need to let go if your interested. They aren't the super cool big mane zoas but they are zoas none the less. I would actually be willing to grab a Kenya tree for my brothers tank as he has no coral if you want to sell me a chunk lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for hooking me up Darcy, you are the best! By the way this tank looks amazing in person and Darcy is a wonderful reefer to talk to! Thank you!
 
Thank YOU @swayd for coming by and talking reef with me. :) And thanks for not giving me planaria ;) The frags are already looking great. Forgot how much I loved the reefing community, thank you EVERYONE for welcoming me back to it and being so generous!!
 
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Today @Geneva hooked me up with some more awesome corals! I may have drooled a little on her tank, it's soooo clean and shiny and with so many colorful corals and fish. But I am now the happy caretaker of:

hairy shrooms @Nav I heard you were interested in these, so if you want to come over we can break the rock up. I tried with a hammer and screwdriver and was unsuccessful, so may need a dremel tool...

Hollywood Stunner Chalice - omg I'm sooo excited, hope it does well

Massive Torch colony - will need to frag this out soon as it's quite large

Unidentified Bright Red Montipora - seems to be plating, really bright red, will post pics soon and try to get an ID from you guys

Red and green Caulastrea (aka trumpet coral)

So my tank is filling up fast, thank you for being sooo generous and awesome!!
 
Hey ya'll, finally I got logged in. I kept forgetting my password and then was getting "locked" when I tried all gazillion passwords that I normally use. I'm not very patient that way, so I just never got on. Anyway, my tank is doing ok. I was in Mexico for a month in November and my boyfriend was supposed to be maintaining. Well, I think he fed the fish maybe twice, and never once emptied the skimmer, and let the salinity swing too much. Most of my montis were browned out, and a couple pieces missing, most of my crabs missing too (not sure if that's because of salinity issues or if my Pseudochromis decided to go to town on them), and Kenya overgrowing and overshadowing. So right now I'm in tank-revival mode, doing some manual nutrient export like scraping algae and sucking it out, as well as water changes, and pruning the Kenya (anyone need any?). So at the moment I'm not too happy, but it's looking better every day. Of all the corals, ones I received from other hobbyists are by far the most resilient. Thanks for checking in Swayd, I hope to have updated pics soon. Before I left for Mexico I was really stoked about the coloration and growth of some things, so I was really upset to return to the mess. :( #wewillrebuild
 
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