EvolutionZ's Floating Reef

[daveyy]

Aquamarin has spiny star astrea. I've purchased from them on several occasions.

Nice, thanks!

[lalala00]

Fabulous scape

[Evolutionz]

Hey fellas,its been quite sometime since i last updated on my tank. Mostly because my tank was in a great mess, of course, due to me serving my country. i wasn't there to maintain the tank and had to rely on my dad to dose my zeovit and FM additives and its pretty complicated and at times he dose certain stuff wrongly. Things went really bad to a point SPS started to die one by one and algae were taking over the tank at a rate that i cannot imagine. I was at the verge of giving up this hobby and had thoughts of selling everything away and only to start again after my NS. My dad adviced me to quit SPS and why not just maintain a simple FOWLR, mentioning he enjoy feeding my fishes and wished i'd keep the tank.

At that point of time, i noticed for the past couple years i've been in this hobby. i seldom or almost do not keep any LPS and soft corals(execpt for duncans, i love duncans) at all! so i decided to try out something new, a LPS dominated tank with some soft corals and zoas.

sadly, i did not take any photo of my tank at its worst peak, but hair algae, diatoms and cyano was almost literally everywhere on the rocks. to a point that i cannot see the coralline on the rocks. After selling all of my SPS away, i did a major scrubbing on the rocks and changed out 30% of my water. siphoned the sand's top layer, washed and dried them. i then determined that the reason for the amount of algae was probably due to the rocks releasing phosphates and combining with the fact that i had only ~12kg of LR in the system (50% of which are tonga, and tongas are not porous at all). Probably there was too much nutrients and too little biological area to build up bacteria(i do have 10 cubes of marine pure blocks and 300g of biohome plus which i thought was enough).

After the massive clean up, i went to purchase small live rocks from ah beng (too small to have pest i believe) that were probably cured and full of good bacteria. over a couple of weeks, i bought a total of 7-8kg and added them into my sump. i also added cheato to my system for nutrients export. This picture was taken 1-2 weeks after the massive clean up. things were getting better and i continue to diligently do 10% WC weekly and scrub every spot of the rock possible. i also started to stock up on cheap LPS to test them out.

Then things got better after adding the Live rocks and chaeto, Hair algae stopped growing almost entirely, a strand like brown algae stopped plagueing my whole tank and started to infest the chaeto. But blue-green, red and brown cyano continues to thrive. i also started running Fauna Marine Ultra phos in a bubble magus reactor. At this point of time, nitrate was tested to be 2ppm. For the entire 6 months or so since i started this tank, after cycling, i've never seen any color at all in my salifert test result (meaning its 0ppm). and finally for the first time, im seeing slight pink! which probably brings more balance and stability to the system.

And today, about a month after the massive clean up. Things were looking good. i started to dose Microbe-lift Special blend as a counter for cyano (almost result to using chemiclean cyano cleaner). Hopefully it'll work like how it worked for many.

i've also stocked up on more LPS (mainly hammers) and currently too much green in my tank! LPS can be really expensive if you're look for special colors..

Here's some LPS pictures taken moments ago

hammer

baby hammer

im guessing lobo?

purple tip elegance, apparently this fella dosn't expand as big as it's pink-tip cousins, and maintains its striking green even after expanding!

golden torch!

my first ever soft coral, a green toadstool coral. and a couple yumas

duncans

brain and red lobo, will be slowly filling up the sand bed with more lobo and brain corals!

my lovely clam

a really nice RBTA bought from a reefer, but decided to split into 2 one week later

My sump was infested by nasty thick algae and currently, looks way cleaner and better despite having 7-8 kg of rocks (mostly in the return pump compartment), im also seeing lots of pods growing and mushrooms and xenia poping out of the small rocks i bought from ah beng! i also added 300g of Sera Siphora Mini today.

Don't be fooled by the clean sand bed thinking im algae-free now. im still fighting brown strand-like cyano and blue-green cyano (red are gone now). i siphoned the top layer of cyano away and replaced with clean dry sand for this photo shoot today.

FTS, will be filling up the front portion of the scape with zoas and acans

Thats all for now, and i'll be updating the fight against cyano with the help of special blend, wish me luck!

Thanks for viewing!

[dinGdinG]

Hey bro~! 2 years will pass sooner than u know it!

Your lps are looking great too

[Mellow]

I feel for you too in the battle against algae. Still looking good with the lps though. Don't give up the fight bro against algae/cyano.

Actually lps and soft corals also add to some texture and colours to the tank too.

[ReDDeviLs]

Hi bro,

its really tough to juggle the time at this moment.

seems like LPS is a new challenge to you. i believe it would be as good as your sps tank.

[skinbone]

a floating reef with LPS will be awesome. I havent seen anyone dont it like yours. Keep up with the updates!

[Evolutionz]

Hey bro~! 2 years will pass sooner than u know it!

Your lps are looking great too

you're right man! Thanks!

I feel for you too in the battle against algae. Still looking good with the lps though. Don't give up the fight bro against algae/cyano.

Actually lps and soft corals also add to some texture and colours to the tank too.

Thanks man! indeed! Didn't know LPS and soft coral can be so fun too!

Hi bro,

its really tough to juggle the time at this moment.

seems like LPS is a new challenge to you. i believe it would be as good as your sps tank.

Thanks bro!

a floating reef with LPS will be awesome. I havent seen anyone dont it like yours. Keep up with the updates!

thanks!

[Evolutionz]

Just after a single dose of special blend, i came back from this weekend to a shocking view. There was almost no new algae growth! The tank remained how it looked like when i left the week before. Corals are opening up much better too! Amazing..

Hammers are opening bigger den before

this soft coral i bought from ah beng main tank 2 weeks ago was closed all the way, till i added the special blend

golden cloves from a stable reefer tank remained closed for 1 week too, now its fully opened

RBTA opened beautifully too

This discarded Lobo are turning more orange! so glad i decided to take it even though its almost colorless

Now, on the previous update i didn't show any zoas as they were still recovering from a very bad green slime algae attack, every single frag was hit real bad.. most other melted away unfortunately.. They were starting to open slowly after i did the mess clean up. However, after last week's special blend dose, i came home to a shocking view.. most of the polyps are opened! colors of the frags were bad because they were closed for months!

new clam!

feeding my lps..

the only SPS in my tank currently..

top view.. i cant believe my sand bed remained white!

Thats all for now!

[SubzeroLT]

Your multi colored open brain is very unique.

Tank looking good!

[Admiraltian]

Nice looking trachy!!

[Evolutionz]

Your multi colored open brain is very unique.

Tank looking good!

Thanks bro!

Nice looking trachy!!

Thanks!!!

[Evolutionz]

update :

Tank's been doing very well for the past few weeks. skipped one week of Microbe-lift Special blend and see some comeback of algae..

Tank's nitrate is stable at 10ppm.. hope to keep it this way!

Tank is also officially not just a LPS tank! friend of mine gave me some digi and birdnest to try out in my tank! They've been doing great for almost 2 weeks with good PE

My RBTA keeps on splitting! From 1 till now there's 3..

Also bought this beautiful pink cauliflower softie a week ago. doing great.

i also created a smaller island on the right.. yes it defeats the purpose of the floating reef. but the floating reef really restricts the placement of LPS.. this right island will be mainly for Acans!

[SubzeroLT]

Were you using other brands of bacteria on a regular basis before Microbe-lift Special blend?

I just wanted to figure out if a blend of various types of bacteria helps boost the ability to fight cyano.

[Evolutionz]

The only thing I was dosing was zeovit additives. Zeobak will be the bacteria.

[tofubox]

No way u can stay away from sps la bro! Muhahaha!

[Admiraltian]

Getting really colorful. I'm impressed.

[badsector]

impressive tank. love the scape.

[sulpherx]

May I know where you bought the Microbe-lift Special blend? I am currently using MB7.....thought of trying this special blend to compare

[Damianiac]

bro... now with majority of lps... wat mode and level r u using for ur gyre?

[Evolutionz]

No way u can stay away from sps la bro! Muhahaha!

You're right man! haahaha

Getting really colorful. I'm impressed.

Thanks bro! 

impressive tank. love the scape.

Thanks!!

May I know where you bought the Microbe-lift Special blend? I am currently using MB7.....thought of trying this special blend to compare

I bought it from Seaview aquarium, should be the cheapest!

bro... now with majority of lps... wat mode and level r u using for ur gyre?

using pulse mode at 50% power.

[Evolutionz]

Its been about 2 months since i changed to mainly LPS set up, things are going great so far!

When i bought this lobo, it was discarded at one corner just plain colorless.. a week later, i starts to see orange within it.. im glad i decided to buy it despite being unhealthy!

Now here's what it looks like! lovely bright orange with green rim!

many monthsg ago, bought this 3 headed duncan.. as i was keeping SPS and did not fed this guy at all, it wasn't healthy.. 

Right now, more than 10 heads and growing, all thanks to mysis feeding twice a week!

pretty red gonio i just bought couple weeks ago

Clams family with my rainbow brain

top view

 

finally some acans!

zoas garden with a lovely tiny hammer

 

the green corner, added a really beautiful blueberry seafan! the last time i kept one was in a sps tank and managed to kept it alive for months! hope this does better since i feed heavily now.

 

FTS

Thanks for viewing!

[Evolutionz]

this is the acans photo

[ahchris]

Everything is looking great! 

[inwear]

Thumps upz for your impressive lps tank