Juston's 100 Gallon Tank

They seem to be tough little corals. The "green destruction" on the base of the main colony has stopped altogether. There is a very definite line between the healthy tissue and the dead tissue, and that line is holding. The fractured surfaces from my multiple frags have started to turn purple. The flat, encrusting base is growing rather aggressively. I wonder if at some point new branches will begin to grow out of that encrusting base?

The three frags are all quite healthy and are already encrusting over the epoxy putty that holds them to the rock. I don't know what stopped the progression, but I have a feeling the base simply wasn't getting enough light and, because of the overall water quality issues that seem to be present in the tank (see my NO3O4-x thread), it was probably weak to begin with.

 

Happy to hear that they're doing well. Assuming good water quality and lighting, they will encrust and branch off, along with the old colony.

 

It's been a little while since I posted an update . . .

The blue tenuis frag I introduced a few months back has wonderful color and polyp extension and is starting to encrust. Right beside it, a frogspawn colony is beginning to grow. My cousin tells me this tank had frogspawn a few years ago. I thought I found a polyp of it and moved it to the current location. A few months later, a colony is growing!



Although part of the base of my purple lokani turned green and died inexplicably, after taking this colony for a goner and fragging it, it's starting to really take off. Flesh is beginning to grow over the spots that died. The base is encrusting very rapidly and new branches are sprouting up in multiple locations. New growth has covered up all the bare skeleton from multiple fraggings. This lokani seems very hardy. Unfortunately, the blue tip echinata to the right seems to be bleaching somewhat on the right branch. It had been a very deep color with great polyp extension, but it started to regress for some reason. I'm hoping it will recover.



The Hawkins on the right had briefly turned green for a while but is now brown again. It seems quite finicky. The "candlelight" acro has been pretty hardy since the beginning and is only now starting to encrust. It's always had great polyp extension. The green tipped smooth acro in the far back seems to be growing very slowly, but no encrusting yet. There are always vermetid snails forming around its base. The blue lokani is growing very slowly but remains healthy. No encrusting yet. The green guy in the front is quite well encrusted and is rapidly branching out. It took a long time to get this coral from brown to green, but I finally did it.



This "starry night" acro has been pretty well behaved since the beginning. It's really starting to encrust now, and there are branches extending out the front and back (hard to tell without a side profile).



The kelly green isn't growing very quickly, but it always has nice color. The efflo has been well behaved since the beginning as well. It's trying to encrust, but I had it up on a frag plug, so I recently created a little platform from epoxy putty for it to grow on. Hopefully, it will be well covered in no short order.



You can see two of the fragged purple lokanis to the left and right. Both are starting to encrust and are very healthy with a deep purple coloration. The frag in the middle was an unknown freebie. It's starting to encrust and really let its polyps show. It's a cool looking orange.



One of my two stylophora forests. No matter what happens in my tank, these things always seem to thrive and grow. I had 5 BTAs at one point, but I took 3 of them to the LFS because of overcrowding. They seem to have reproduced as I found a little green anemone hiding in the rock work.



Another of my stylo-forests. You can barely see my blue tips aussie frag at the bottom of the photo. It's always had nice coloration (light purple) and polyp extension. It shouldn't be too long before it encrusts.



A little acan garden. The big orange one on the left was transplanted from another part of the tank. The green/black one in the foreground was a freebie barely bigger than my thumbnail when I got it. The tie-dye acan in the background has lost some of its green color over time, but it's healthy and happy. All are growing new polyps.



Another transplanted acan that seems to be thriving, along with the scolymia that I managed to bring back from the dead. There's also a small monti on the far left which was a freebie. It's been slowly turning green over time and is just now starting to hint that it will encrust.



Two of my cleaner shrimp buddies. They like to clean my hands when I put them in the tank.



The Loch Ness brittle star always comes out at night.



My scoly during feeding time. Without the coke bottle, every creature in the tank tries to get a free meal. The scoly has really responded well to weekly feeding. I think that's mainly what helped bring it back from the brink.

 

Well, after 11 months in one location in my office, the thank had to be moved. The move went very well, with no spikes in ammonia/nitrite, and with all the fish and corals seeming happy. To celebrate the occasion, I did a completely new rock scape. I got rid of some mushroom infested rocks and will now be much more diligent about mushroom eradication.

I also bought a beautiful naso tang who pretty much immediately buddied up with my aggressive blue tang. So cool! I'm hoping some of these acro frags which I've nurtured into teenager-dom can now start to aggressively encrust and grow.

The local saltwater tank expert, Hector, partway through the move.



My new naso tang!



Some rocks laid out for the evening. Ready for rockscaping the next day.



Brick all background. Not bad.





My acro efflorescence, which has grown into a nice little shelver. Ready to be inserted in the new rock work. The psammacora next to it was fragged off and moved to another part of the tank where it would have a little more "breathing room."

 

More shots tomorrow of the completed rock scape. Acros and stylophora on top, acan garden, scolymia, and anemones on bottom.

 

I'm digging this...

 

Yeah, that's probably my favorite of the bunch. And it's growing pretty fast now!

 

So I just finished the rock scape from the move. I moved a few frags around to make things less crowded - especially those that weren't growing well in the old setup. Now we'll wait to see what kind of collateral damage will be suffered from the move.

A view of the left side of the tank.



Right side of the tank.



This was a freebie from Aqua SD 9 months ago or so. It started as a tiny not-sure-what-it-is. Now I'm fairly certain it's a montipora digitata. Regardless, I love how it looks and it's growing quite quickly now.



Not sure what kind of acro this is, but I'm hoping it will really start to take off with some more space, free from mushrooms, and with a bit more light than its previous location. The ragged brown frag to the right is what's left of a Hawkins that was attacked by a mushroom and probably sub-standard water conditions. It's there temporarily to see if it will recover. We'll see.



This deep blue acro is probably my favorite of the whole bunch. It's displayed prominently in the new setup.



The "dragon queen" acro has been really slow to grow. Glacially slow. But it's remained healthy. I've given it plenty of space compared to its previous location.



Here's another shot of that monti.



This is not a great shot of my "candlelight" acro (the name it was sold to me under). It's still sliming a bit from all the moving around. This is one of the little frags that has really taken off.



Here's a wider shot of the acros.



Another view of the left side of the tank with scolymia in its new home.



Acropora efflorescens is branching out nicely. A little piece was fragged in the process of moving, so I installed that one as well. Before the move, this stuff was growing like wildfire.



My acan garden.



A wider shot of all the acros and acans. And wrasse, anthia, blue tang, anemones, and clowns.