High Tide Aquatics

Mike and Ashley's 150g reef tank (our first)

I do, and thank you for it. It is growing, but it is a dark reddish brown (more brown than red). Would love to see it turn more red. Would also love to see the leng sy monti and red monti look like they are happy as right now they are very very dull. The purple and green monti’s are colorful and growing. The purple is even turning purple!


That said, I have lots of room in the tank and could use more colors or more than likely I just need some retail therapy and I stare at the tank a lot so it gets my focus
 
Maybe a nice "Red Finger"?
RedFingerGorgonian10.jpg

or an Orange Tree
OrangeTreeGorgonian13.jpg
 
OK, phosphates back to zero, but that is probably because the green hair algae is consuming it. Having some GHA show up on the sand bed, various rocks, and one power head. Also in the refugium, where I can access it and clean it out weekly. Chaeto has all died off. Been running carbon and GFO since the initial depletion of ammonia.

Going to cut back on feeding the fish a bit and probably get more snails this weekend.

Thoughts/suggestions? Thanks!

As a side note, my branching hammer has like 4 or 5 what look like little tiny (1 mm) polyps growing sideways out of the sides right near the bottom of the base. Assuming this is new growth, but I thought the heads generally split. I'm just happy it seems to be happy.

Best regards,
Mike
 
You actually want to feed more if you want your chaeto to grow. Its currently starving cause no nutrient to take up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited:
5 1/2 week update. Been exciting (including the latest brown spot on the digitata). Thought I would post some pictures of the progress/growth.

Thanks everyone who graciously donated, provided advice, assistance, etc. Wouldn't be here without this group.

First picture is when the first corals went in 5 1/2 weeks ago (thanks Vhuang168) followed by the latest anemone addition (thanks Newjack) with a current picture.

First corals left rocks.jpg
Left side 06 Oct 2017 low res 2.jpg
First corals right rocks.jpg
Right side 06 Oct 2017 low res 2.jpg
 
Doing well, thanks. The Tricolor is really taking off as are the grape monti, green monti, and German blue. I added a red planet and thought it is pretty much just dark red, it is starting to spread at the base and cover the plug nicely with lots of open polyps there. It had much more green when I bought it. I really need to get a PAR meter over here and see what my output is. Been keeping the algae in check with what seems to be an ongoing slight green tint to the rocks.The anemone hasn't moved and really likes small pieces of shrimp (1/4" or so). The branching hammer on the right side of the tank (photo above) is a little lighter in color than when I bought it, not sure if it is too much light or not enough (same question on the red planet). The newer orange setosa has grown a fraction. The Green Pocillopora I was recently given by Snu Snu seems happy. Clowns are happy and eat like I never feed them. One has clearly taken up dominance and tends to keep the other sequestered along the back wall and is super aggressive keeping the other pinned in a corner during feeding. Neither has tried out the anemone yet.

Parameters are pretty stable now with getting close to having the Apex DOS set appropriately. Been generously feeding the corals mysis shrimp just to try and get some nutrients into the tank, as Phosphate is still 0.00 and Nitrates are 0.5.

Still struggling to get my powerheads positioned so I am not blowing sand around. Running about 40-45 turnovers per hour and the sand isn't flying, but you can watch it being pushed around and after about 3 days,it leaves bare spots where I have high interaction/turbulence between the two WAV pumps or one pump and the glass.

Having a great time. Hard not to stop and look at things in the tank each time I walk through the room. Granted, I seem to have avoided any major issues at this point which is likely biasing my opinion, but so glad I did this and have really enjoyed meeting a lot of club members and except for three pieces (red planet, orange setosa, branching hammer with purple tips), all the corals have been generously donated by club members. How awesome is that! Thanks everyone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JVU
Here is a lousy cell phone pic. I guess I need to get the tripod out and try something with a real camera.

So I woke up today to find out my Apex was off and had been for 5 hours (no powerheads, dosing, etc). No idea why it turned itself off. I have my return pump running separately so I still had some flow. It wouldn't reboot after multiple tries, so I wound up having to unplug the units from power and then reboot everything. It then came back to life.
20171030_133244.jpg
 
Back
Top