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Journal 300

Courtneybst said:
Could you elaborate on this Geoffrey? I'm aware of this to a tiny degree but not sure what the impacts are.
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It’s as @Nick potts stated @Courtneybst :

Nick potts said:
Windows open in the summer means less CO2 in the room, which means less of a PH drop which isn't good in a reef tank.
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Did request the family all stop breathing so much as it’s hindering the tank… unbelievably got a cold reception with that idea. So selfish!

Winter tank pH fluctuates between 8.0 to 8.2 over 24 hours. Windows open this week been achieving 8.3 steady over 24 hours and an uptick in growth. Just a seasonal feature rather than a bug. It’s more that pH is steady which appeals.

Murdering the science here, but you preferentially want calcium combining with carbonate rather than calcium bicarbonate formation. Calcium bicarbonate will leave an H+ to get rid of. Locally, this additional H+ may leave fluid in the coral more acidic and make it harder/impossible to calcify. Outside, pH in part affects this outcome:

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There’s also the balance of carbonates/bicarbonates in the water to consider depending on how you dose over time. Water changes are a great equaliser.

Using calcium formate as a means of calcium input helps preserve this balance. Also, unlike calcium acetate, calcium formate won’t pillage your o2. All For Reef is a pretty smart product if you think about it. Won’t carry you all the way with larger Ca/Mg/Alk demands bit it’s a great start as base dosing.

Anyway, gone off topic @Courtneybst , but that’s an elaboration as currently understood.
 
seedoubleyou said:
All looking really healthy and heading in the right direction. Is that a carpet nem on the right hand side?
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It was sold as a lobo @seedoubleyou , but struggled to place it as a specific lobophyllidae sp.

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It fits the genus. Has large, flabellate corallites that break into cones that reach the centre of the colony. Thick, fatty tissue, spiky septal teeth.

But yeah, still doesn’t seem to fit somehow. Looks pretty mean when feeding:

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Tissue is uniform:

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Nick potts said:
you lot have made me buy another reef setup still a few months away from setup but planning an SPS dominant nano :eek:
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Nice 😎 🪸 🐠
 
Oh wow look at that, the polyps on it are crazy. I’d be intrigued to know what it actually is. I’ve not seen “meaty” LPS with polyp extensions like that. Hence the confusion.
 
My coral naming skills are a bit archaic with all the recent changes but those lobo's always used to be described as lobophyllia flabelliformis, whether they actually are I don't know.

From one of the better Id sites

Lobophyllia flabelliformis stony coral

and a closer example to yours

reefbuilders.com

This is why Lobophyllia flabelliformis is Called ‘Carpet Lobo’ | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

While 'coral-ing' in North Bali, we came upon an insane colony of Lobophyllia flabelliformis we couldn't resist to photograph and share with you. But we came across while foraging for coral…
reefbuilders.com
 
Nick potts said:
Windows open in the summer means less CO2 in the room, which means less of a PH drop which isn't good in a reef tank.

Tank is looking great, and you lot have made me buy another reef setup still a few months away from setup but planning an SPS dominant nano :eek:
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Never knew this was a thing, you learn something new every day!

Loving the tank @Geoffrey Rea it’s really starting to mature. Better not show the boss otherwise she’ll want my freshwater fish gone.
 
Legend @mort 🙏🏽

seedoubleyou said:
I’d be intrigued to know what it actually is.
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No one who’s seen that coral at a glance has thought it is a Lobophyllia either, seems to throw a lot of folks off.

mort said:
My coral naming skills are a bit archaic with all the recent changes but those lobo's always used to be described as lobophyllia flabelliformis, whether they actually are I don't know.
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Currently working on coral taxonomy as been left running a marine section @mort . Finding it more challenging compared with plants...

First up, they keep reclassifying everything, drives you up the wall. Second, remembering Latin doesn’t come easy and making the names you have remembered redundant is just cruel 😂

Conort2 said:
Loving the tank @Geoffrey Rea it’s really starting to mature. Better not show the boss otherwise she’ll want my freshwater fish gone.
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Cheers @Conort2 it’s heading in the right direction. Will be glad to have the first year under the belt.

Hey, if the boss is happy to fund it why not do both 😉
 
Took a pic of this today to get a definitive ID for a customer, they thought it may have been hairy mushrooms but I was nope definitely not, I was semi sure it’s a Lobo.

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Doesn’t look as happy as yours with the polyp extension in this pic (I had just moved it) but as I found out the above is not a Lobo it’s a Symphillia. Yours may be the same also.

:)
 
X3NiTH said:
but as I found out the above is not a Lobo it’s a Symphillia. Yours may be the same also.
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I'm a bit out of the game but symphyllia and lobo's were always confused because they looked so similar at a small size. I think it is still current but a few years ago they were classified together as lobo's, so symphyllia's are no more.

This article is from the time when the major shakeup was going on

reefbuilders.com

What Happened to the Symphyllia? | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Recently in Australia, a good friend asked us to check some of his very nice rainbow Symphyllia he's got. We didn't recall seeing any in Australia yet, so we were very intrigued.
reefbuilders.com

Many suppliers never embraced the new nomenclature
 
Gone over 10 months. Overdue a proper update soon.

Quick top down Tuesday photo mid water change:

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10 months:

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It’s gone fast and at a stage where there’s no fuss or drama, just pleasant viewing and a tank full of characters.

Reef gets dosed with 42ml of All For Reef daily, water changes as and when, scrub glass twice a week, testing gets done fortnightly to check for any adjustments going forwards.

Biggest achievement has been getting to this point pest free, with the exception of Asterina starfish which a harlequin shrimp manages:

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Reef is fully stocked and growth is mostly slow and steady which suits just fine.

Goniopora’s are all doing well:

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Clowns still hosting the red one at the back:

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Acropora growing too:

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This should be purple with lime green tips… suffice to say this colour adjustment with the orange filter on the camera don’t work 😂

The other acropora pieces are all growing too but are only just pooling off the frag plugs after a couple of months:

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Hammers just doing their thing and dotted down the centre:

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Frogspawn, Duncan and Trumpet corals from the last setup trucking along. Green Torch keeps growing heads and throwing heads, learned to just let it do its thing:

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Seriatopora gets pruned to stop it going bonkers:

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Pocillopora and Hystrix easier customers growth wise:

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Rest is just cracking on slowly:

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See what the setup looks like at the one year mark soon enough. Looking forward to celebrating its first birthday 🥳
 
When you run out of Asterina for the Harlequin (and this will happen in short order) I would avoid buying Black tipped Orange Linkia as replacement food, my Harlequin was able to tip one upside down to feed on it that was the size of my hand (took about 12hrs first time to tip over but once he got the knack then it was down to 10mins), the reason to avoid is that I was watching him tip the star upside down and go to feed like normal (been doing this for a few weeks), gets his stabby feeding arms poked into the flesh and chows down (was watching the whole time) when suddenly he freezes motionless and extracted both knives at the same time sat motionless for a second or two with knives up like a begging dog then staggered backwards behind the rocks, that was the last I ever saw of him, I can only surmise that the Starfish ‘poisoned the waterhole’. The starfish survived and grew back his legs but slowly shrank from hand sized to thumbnail sized over time (over a year since the shrimp karked it) because whatever it fed on wasn’t present in my tank.

:)
 
Taken nearly 4 months to get settled, but the Red Mangrove tree has finally decided to start growing:

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