mattzang's IM 100 EXT

[mattyzang]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf-oZ7LLg6r/?igshid=NDBlY2NjN2I=

I went camping in Ventura and the tank didn’t die so that’s good. That coast is oddly chilly for July and was mostly gray and cold but the sun came out got the last day

no new fish losses so idk what the hell on the flame wrasse and copperband

my blue star leopard is turning male which is kinda cool. I think I like the look of the females more but you get what you get

and my hooded fairy finally went full male too

hard to capture on pics, I maybe have some decent video, but the neon blue outline with black/red/yellow/purple is quite nice

other than that no coral losses, some growing fast some glacial

the fish are a fun group, I’d like to get another butterfly and more fairy wrasses but not super motivated to qt myself or buy Qted online

at rap I’m hoping to pick up a few select things if I can find them. A legit ORA Pearlberry to put in front of the fruity pebbles, and then see what kind of stags and torts I can find. Emphasis on blue. Maybe a hoeksemai if someone has one. And deep water smoothskins although I’m trying to avoid greens

 

[Jimbo327]

I'm digging your rockscape.

 

[mattyzang]

I'm digging your rockscape.

haha thanks, I generally like it. Lots of spots for coral at least

I kinda wish I went lower particularly on the left side, but it works. Green slimer up high might be questionable in a few months too, but I don’t mind fragging it hard and putting it down lower in the back and let it go hard in the paint. I love stag growth

in a perfect world I could hide the powerheads better too, but live and learn

 

[mattyzang]

 

[Dorado]

I'm digging your rockscape.

I agree, the tank is looking great, very lively. Its gonna look amazing when everything fills in.

 

[mattyzang]

I agree, the tank is looking great, very lively. Its gonna look amazing when everything fills in.

thanks man, i definitely need to get the phosphates into a reasonable range or it might be awhile until filled in tank

 

[mattyzang]

a very blurry man, but man nonetheless

 

[Smite]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf-oZ7LLg6r/?igshid=NDBlY2NjN2I=

I went camping in Ventura and the tank didn’t die so that’s good. That coast is oddly chilly for July and was mostly gray and cold but the sun came out got the last day
View attachment 100064
no new fish losses so idk what the hell on the flame wrasse and copperband

my blue star leopard is turning male which is kinda cool. I think I like the look of the females more but you get what you get
View attachment 100065 View attachment 100066
and my hooded fairy finally went full male too
View attachment 100067
hard to capture on pics, I maybe have some decent video, but the neon blue outline with black/red/yellow/purple is quite nice

other than that no coral losses, some growing fast some glacial
View attachment 100068 View attachment 100069 View attachment 100070 View attachment 100071 View attachment 100072 View attachment 100073 View attachment 100074

the fish are a fun group, I’d like to get another butterfly and more fairy wrasses but not super motivated to qt myself or buy Qted online

at rap I’m hoping to pick up a few select things if I can find them. A legit ORA Pearlberry to put in front of the fruity pebbles, and then see what kind of stags and torts I can find. Emphasis on blue. Maybe a hoeksemai if someone has one. And deep water smoothskins although I’m trying to avoid greens

Looking awesome. You're getting great color out of those acros!

I'm heading out to Point Mugu (Thornhill Broome campground) tomorrow with the fam for a few days of beach camping. First time out there so we are really looking forward to it. Trying to teach myself to surf fish so hopefully I'll get some time while there.

 

[mattyzang]

Looking awesome. You're getting great color out of those acros!

I'm heading out to Point Mugu (Thornhill Broome campground) tomorrow with the fam for a few days of beach camping. First time out there so we are really looking forward to it. Trying to teach myself to surf fish so hopefully I'll get some time while there.

oh nice, my sister and her fam have gone there a few times. we drove by when we left because they wanted to show it to me, it looks like a really nice spot. the dry camping is a bit different, but wasn't too bad. pretty remote too, so not too busy

and totally forgot, but iirc thornhill looked like a nice sandy beach. emma woods was fairly rocky, but there was a nice sandy area near the entrance

 

[mattyzang]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgqetHrvpSt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

[mattyzang]

not a ton new in the tank. I did manage to lose my hooded fairy wrasse awhile back. I was doing a water change after lights out and freaked him out apparently, he zoomed around and out of the tank. I figured no worse for the wear and picked him up and tossed him back in the tank, but saw the body the next day in the rocks. Must’ve broke his spine or something. I figured water changes at night would be best to avoid flying fairy wrasse, but this isn’t the first time this happened. Sucks, idk if I’ll do more fairies as they haven’t lasted super long in my tank. The flame and hooded were a couple years, just when they turned male too.

I got me a new kitten and she’s pretty awesome

and I got some frags at rap, Pearlberry is my main holdout one now. I’m pretty out of room, but I have a Pearlberry spot saved

i ran reef flux again for turf algae so nutrients rose high, so gotta get those down. Maybe add some more light and just grow it all in is the general plan

 

[mattyzang]

after losing my flame wrasse i was told one way to figure out if my tank had some latent disease in it was to do one of those aquabiomics tests, so i finally did one a solid month or two later. and the results take forever

plus i casually bought the wrong one LOL, i should've done the eDNA test, but i did the microbiome test which is.. interesting? but pretty sure i could've spent $80 on something else more useful. it does say no fish or coral disease so maybe it'll help me sleep at night

https://aquabiomics.com/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/reports/mattzang/1001298_microbiome.html

the gist

Your sample was less diverse than at least half the tanks we tested. If you’re interested in increasing this score, please

The community in your tank is very similar to that of a mature reef tank.

The size of each bar indicates the relative abundance of each microbial family, coded by color. For clarity, only the families accounting for at least 1% of either community are shown here.

Cyanobacteria
Group Your Frequency Typical Range Total00 - 2e-04Acaryochloridaceae00 - 2e-04Chlorarachniophyceae00 - 0Cyanobacteriaceae00 - 0Nostocaceae00 - 0Oscillatoriaceae00 - 0Phormidiaceae00 - 0Prochloraceae00 - 0Pseudanabaenaceae00 - 0Rivulariaceae00 - 0Spirulinaceae00 - 0Schizotrichaceae00 - 0Scytonemataceae00 - 0Synechococcaceae00 - 0Xenococcaceae00 - 0

Fish Pathogens
None of the DNA sequences from this sample matched known fish pathogens.
View the full table


Coral Pathogens
None of the DNA sequences from this sample matched known coral pathogens.
View the full table


None of the DNA sequences from this sample matched suspected coral pathogens.

 

[mattyzang]

so idk, i'd like my tank more diverse, but i already did a lot of the stuff they suggest to make it diverse

i suppose the left half of my rocks are like.. a year and a half old now and they were dry rock, so maybe that didn't help, but the other half is live af. i added live rock when i went fallow, not much but a few pieces. i added live sand from IPSF, i even added the aquabiomics reef rubble stuff at some point. so idk what else i can really add. plus the tank is running generally well so i don't think i want to mess with it much

no fish or coral diseases is pleasing to the soul, although the mind boggles what the hell happened to my copperband

i don't know anything about bacterias other than vibrionacaea is bad news bears, but it seems under control and i think is everywhere

 

[BST310]

I’m no expert but your tank looks great. Looks like it’s really hit it’s stride I don’t think I’d go changing much.

 

[mattyzang]

I’m no expert but your tank looks great. Looks like it’s really hit it’s stride I don’t think I’d go changing much.

yeah i'm not really planning on it, although i do want to lower phosphate

and add some more light

if anything i'm just a bit on the disappointed side that it's not super diverse. i feel like i went all out diversifying it haha

i do wonder if running reef flux multiple times maybe did a number on the diversity score, who really knows i guess

 

[Smite]

not a ton new in the tank. I did manage to lose my hooded fairy wrasse awhile back. I was doing a water change after lights out and freaked him out apparently, he zoomed around and out of the tank. I figured no worse for the wear and picked him up and tossed him back in the tank, but saw the body the next day in the rocks. Must’ve broke his spine or something. I figured water changes at night would be best to avoid flying fairy wrasse, but this isn’t the first time this happened. Sucks, idk if I’ll do more fairies as they haven’t lasted super long in my tank. The flame and hooded were a couple years, just when they turned male too.

I got me a new kitten and she’s pretty awesome
View attachment 101083
View attachment 101097
View attachment 101098 and I got some frags at rap, Pearlberry is my main holdout one now. I’m pretty out of room, but I have a Pearlberry spot saved
View attachment 101084 View attachment 101085 View attachment 101086 View attachment 101087 View attachment 101088 View attachment 101089 View attachment 101090
View attachment 101091 View attachment 101092 View attachment 101093 View attachment 101094
View attachment 101095 View attachment 101096
i ran reef flux again for turf algae so nutrients rose high, so gotta get those down. Maybe add some more light and just grow it all in is the general plan

whats the red piece below your pink caddy? Looks awesome

 

[joseserrano]

Getting nice colors on your acros

 

[Jimbo327]

Haha, I think you are overthinking it. It's pretty good on diversity. When my tank is up, give me a cup of your sand so I can add diversity too.

 

[mattyzang]

thanks dudes i'm pretty happy with my colors despite my nutrients being non-ideal. i'm hoping to decrease po4 and add some light and that will hopefully get growth up a bit. i was doing some kalkwasser, but it's a pain and i hesitate to automate it since it's the cause of so many tank crashes

my only color complaints are i turned rr firecracker green, hopefully it'll go back to a hot pink as it grows. and greg carroll's acroberry is a greenish turquoise, i've read that needs high par for specific colors, but maybe it just needs to grow too

and i'd be happy to throw you a cup of sand jimbo. hopefully scmas will start having meetings in person soon so i should be down in that area with some regularity

whats the red piece below your pink caddy? Looks awesome

that's garrett's acropolis muppets, really cool pink/white/red table. iirc it had really nice PE and pretty polyps when i got it from steve, not so much in my tank it has been growing pretty fast for me, i'm definitely a fan

 

[mattyzang]

firecracker seems to be getting more pink

Pearlscale thinks bubblebath unicorn looks delicious