2 year full tank growth pics! (EXTREMELY IMAGE INTENSIVE)

[concept3]

Just wanted to share a few pics I dug up tonight and resized.


Original tank was a 55 gallon with an AquaC Urchin skimmer. Lights were 2 X 250 watt XM 10K w/ 220W VHO actinics, no reactor, but topped off daily with kalkwasser.



APRIL 2004 (tank was setup in February 2004)

OCTOBER 2004

JANUARY 2005

MARCH 2005 (just recently transferred from the 55 gallon to the current 75 Reef ready) Thread is over here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=535632

JUNE 2005

AUGUST 2005 (new secret weapon: Tunze streams w/ 7095)

SEPTEMBER 2005 (new secret weapon: Calcium reactor :lmao: )

 

[concept3]

OCTOBER 2005

NOVEMBER 2005

DECEMBER 2005

JANUARY 2006

FEBRUARY 2006

 

[concept3]

APRIL 2006 (new secret weapon: Deltec AP600)

Some parameters:

Salinity: 1.026
Temperature: 77 to 81 F
Calcium: I guess it's over 400?!?! (sorry, I gave up on testing )
Alkalinity:
Photoperiod: 6 hours halides (10K XM 250w on Icecaps), 9 hours VHO actinics (220W actinic 03 on ARO ballast)
Phosphate: ?
Magnesium: ?
Ammo/trites/trates: 0

Fish load:
1 Regal
1 Hippo tang
2 anthias
2 chromis
1 PJ cardinal
1 royal gramma
1 six line
1 nemo, I mean clownfish, LOL

fed every day with my own concoction, all naturelle

 

[concept3]

some of the original corals:


Montipora cap purchased in February 2004

Brown acro w/ teal tips (the BIG HUGE one in the middle of the tank now), February 2004

Pink Millepora, February 2004

 

[steve68]

Cool shots one thing i love about cable is how fast everything loads
could u imagine if u had another secret weapon
O
Z
O
N
E

 

[concept3]

OzOnE

OzOnE

maybe Steve, maybe.


look at this thread :lmao:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=823911



maybe when i get a bigger tank. Paul's tank is OK now.

 

[steve68]

Yipes way way way 2 much ozone Merv.
i have an 100ml ozotech that i just hooked up & i run it at 25% total water volume over 500 gallons i set my orp to 370.
i used to have an Enaly unit but i dint have a check valve on it & water backed up all the way to the unit & now it does not work.
i also run the ozone through an ozone reactor it just works much better then through a skimmer & u dont have to guess whats going on with the skimmer if it's not working right.

 

[scarletknight06]

congrats on the incredible progress Merv, and on the new uber cool skimmer. Hope I get to see your tank in person one day.

 

[blstravler]

Merv-

I'm thinking about going with 10k XM's. What do you like about them the most? What did you use before and what was the biggest difference?

I am guessing you use the blue VHO actinics for supplementation ?

Thanks again.
Keith

 

[concept3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7223939#post7223939 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by blstravler
Merv-

I'm thinking about going with 10k XM's. What do you like about them the most? What did you use before and what was the biggest difference?

I am guessing you use the blue VHO actinics for supplementation ?

Thanks again.
Keith

I like the cool white/slight blue tint on them and inexpensive cost

I used to use AqualineBuschke's (had 13000K on the box) @ upwards of $79/each, it wasn't cheap.

I use the VHO's only for a total of 6 hours, 3 hours and 3 hours (dusk/dawn)

I've cut down on halides to 7 hours, will bring down to 6 1/2 in the summer to save heat and electricity.

BUT:
This time, I'm gonna try the 6500K's to see if I could hold the colors up and speed the growth of these babies, a little challenge for me and to prove to myself that yellow is good

 

[blstravler]

Merv-

So if I understand you, you don't have your VHO on when the MH is on right?

 

[concept3]

not 100% of the time, no. there is a 2 hour period when they are off.

 

[blstravler]

So about half way through of your MH time period you don't run VHO for 2 hours?

I just recently changes my VHO so they are on for sun up and sun down. Inbetween that there are 2 time periods of MH only one for 4 hours and the other for 3 hours, in between those only the VHO's are on for about 2 hours.

I've been doing a lot of reaserch lately and one of the reasons I feel that some of people have had very good SPS growth with shorter MH times periods is that in the wild SPS really only get intense sun for about 6 hours max. Event then there are always periods of clouds and passing showers. If I could only figure out how to re-create that in my tank.......