3 month SPS growth

[ryanjiang]

wow! ryan what coral is that?

ORA Roscoe.

 

[rtbm]

They were lost with just about everything else when my 300g tank seam and eurobrace failed

Out of curiosity, Who made the tank?

 

[psteeleb]

Love the HD vid!! Congrats on your successful growth so far! :beer:

holy cow - that is one big old fish you have in your avatar :eek1:

wow..sucks to hear about the 300g.....it looks like it was a real beauty. You definately got that blue thumb.

thanks

Awesome corals and sweet video. I wish there were more folks shooting hi res macro videos like that. I could watch them all day

thanks and I agree, I can see more detail in these hi res videos then with my eyes (even with reading glasses). I even noticed in the video a little critter running across the base of the Turaki (right before the manadrin comes crusing by). It looked to fast to be a red bug and I haven't had any issues with any of my SPS but I will be taking a close look just in case, heck I may even do a close up video of all my SPS's including the bases, for the specifc reason doing a health check.

 

[psteeleb]

Gee, the 300G was a sweet tank and lot of beautiful animals! But hope you enjoy the new tank as much as the 300G.

Not only your SPS grow very fast, the coloration & clarity is amazing. Can you let us know about the nutrient level you are trying to keep & methods of nutrient export. WC, skimming, refugium, carbon/GFO, bacteria and carbon source dosing etc... what ever you are using. Thanks!

thanks
nutrient levels this is a tough one as I am not aware of any way to measure other then observations and keeping an balance between biodiversity and health of corals. I’ve seen people that feed practically nothing and have absolutely pristine tanks with great looking SPS and if SPS are all that you are interested in that may be a preferred method of husbandry.

I use to feed the 300 pretty heavy and had good growth but the SPS corals weren’t giving me the colors I wanted so I cut back on the amount of feeding. But about the same time I also made significant changes to my lighting and got the results I was looking for in SPS coloration; but I have no way to gauge how much was due to reduced tank feeding versus the lighting change (either way I never did have nitrate or phosphate issue). Or, it could have just been the tank maturing. For the most part tend to believe it was the lighting upgrade but no way of knowing for sure.

Nutrient export:
Water Changes – on the 300 I was doing about 30-40 gallons every 3-4 weeks (10-15%). On the 100 gallon I try to do 15% every 2-3 weeks

Skimming – on the 300 gallon I was using an undersized Precision Marine Bullet 2 with an over sized pump (Mag 24). I was also running ozone to increase skimmer effectiveness and with the fish load I had I was very pleased with the results.
The 100 gallon is using an Aqua Medic 1000, a middle of the road skimmer that I’m very pleased with. I may eventually hook up my ozone unit and direct connect the drain piping to increase its effectiveness as this tank is still fairly new and I may be getting build ups that are not registering yet

Refugium – yes, on both tanks, and I’m a firm believer in them for nutrient export using macro algae and as a pod hatchery

Carbon/GFO – Carbon 24/7 and a firm believer in it since my first salt tanks back in 1975. I am also of the opinion carbon not only helps with chemical warfare but helps keep household pollutants at bay. As for GFO, I ran it on and off in the 300 gallon but never had a detectable phosphate issue. Currently I’m not running it in the 100 gallon but I am set up for it with an empty reactor. I had it hooked up the first 3 months of tank start up in the event I got some leaching from the old live rock.

Bacteria and carbon source dosing – I don’t do this nor do I endorse this approach as a preferred method. I’d rather tackle the trate cycles with an over abundant biodiversity by overstocking live rock or a DSB. That said, I can understand the approach as a secondary means of dealing with trates if the first approach is not achievable or desirable, but to me it’s just something else to maintain and has the potential for something that can go wrong. Bottom line I see it as an unnatural method to overstock bacteria, kind of like steroids.

I'll add cleanup crew I monitor this and replenish on a "as needed" basis. If I see some aglea bloom or cyno I'll add snails and hermits. I like the little blue legs as they are cheap and can get into the little nooks and crannies but they are "self destructing tank fodder"

 

[frank88]

I had mojanos and AEFW's in my 300g but the live rock sat for 6 months in a big tub with only a skimmer and some top off (no lights no heater).

no heater? rocks + cold salwater + skimmer.???
and life forms of the rocks did not die this way?

 

[psteeleb]

Great video very nice!

thanks

Out of curiosity, Who made the tank?

I don't recall - I bought it used in 2006 and it had a sticker on the bottom from the maker that had a 2002 date. The 300g tank had a 1/2' PVC and 3/4" bottom, the bottom was also eurobraced with 3/4" sides and a double 1/2" overlappeing Eurobrace on top. I don't blame the maker, rather I'd say I may have cut into a seal/seam while cleaning (the front seams were covered so I coulnd't see) or had some floor settlement that put excess stress in the upper corner.

 

[psteeleb]

no heater? rocks + cold salwater + skimmer.???
and life forms of the rocks did not die this way?

let me expand a little

the 300g failed in Aug 2009. I pulled the live rock and put it in a 100g tub with only the skimmer and some power heads. I never did a water change but would add RO/DI about once evry 2 weeks to maintain the original water level. The skimmer was put in the tub to deal with die off as I know I would loose most of the macro life including worms, snails sponges coraline etc.

The tank fuge was kept in place but only had a power head and a light on it (no skimmer or other cirulation or heat control)

Both the 100g tub and the fuge should have stayed at house temperature or maybe cooler as they were on the floor, over the winter we keep the house around 65-67 so I suspect water temperature was in the lower 60's. We did have a power failure in the dead of winter and the house temperature dropped to the lower 50's and suspect the water in the tub and fuge followed close behind.

About 6 or 7 months later I set up my 100g tank, so I pulled the contents of the old refugium, it had some sorry looking macro algea and a couple pieces of live rock (or semi live). I also used some of my live rock I had in the 100g tub and sold the rest.

here are a couple pictures of the refugium a few weeks later. I did add a clean up crew and that mangrove but the cheato, caulurpa and dusters are from the old system, I even found a couple of snail species and asterina stars

 

[preef]

That's awesome growth. Are sure that wasn't a year and 3 months?

I'm amazed with the polyp extension you're getting. I also noticed the flow was quite intense as evident by the particles floating in the water and the polyp movement. Were you feeding at the time or was that sand kicking up? What are you using for flow?

 

[Gyr]

Amazing videos, obvious awesome reef-keeping skill. Quick question. I see you have kept mandarins in your tanks and the vids show plenty of micro-life for them to browse on. I can also see you have pretty strong (and nicely random) currents in your tank. I have heard the mandarins don't do well with strong currents, so I have not added one to my system. Do your mandarins tolerate the flow well? I've always wanted one.

Thanks

 

[psteeleb]

That's awesome growth. Are sure that wasn't a year and 3 months?

I'm amazed with the polyp extension you're getting. I also noticed the flow was quite intense as evident by the particles floating in the water and the polyp movement. Were you feeding at the time or was that sand kicking up? What are you using for flow?

thanks - I don't think I was feeding at the time so it's probably detritus, as for the flow it fairly intense around the outside edges but I need to work on getting more in the center, over the top and far end.

I run a Mag9.5 return pump that splits into two returns, each with flow accelrators on them. I also have 2 maxijet 900's with the shure flow mods. unfortunatly everything is on one end of the tank. I'm considering adding a wavebox and may bite the bullet here shortly.

 

[psteeleb]

Amazing videos, obvious awesome reef-keeping skill. Quick question. I see you have kept mandarins in your tanks and the vids show plenty of micro-life for them to browse on. I can also see you have pretty strong (and nicely random) currents in your tank. I have heard the mandarins don't do well with strong currents, so I have not added one to my system. Do your mandarins tolerate the flow well? I've always wanted one.

Thanks

thank you
There have been no issues with the mandarins, I've have seen them struggle a little around the modded Maxijets. They know the flow is high there and fight their way into the area looking for pods, then they will just let it blow them away and they go about their business

now on my 300g I had a closed loop that would toss any of the fish around if they swam into the direct flow. I had the biggest fattest mandarin I've ever seen and he was a hoot when he got in the flow, he'd look p'oed for a couple seconds then just go about his business looking for another morsel to eat.

here's a picture of the big ol pig - he was always following me around the tank hoping I'd turn over a rock exposing a big fat pod

 

[Gyr]

There have been no issues with the mandarins

Good to know. Your mandarins definitely look healthy. I had worried about it (with two vortechs set at reef crest mode the currents in my tank can get pretty wild), but now I'll keep an eye out for a fat and happy mandarin at my LFS's and make the purchase when I find one.

Thanks for your help.

 

[ryshark]

One of the coolest things about the video vs still pics is you can see how random your flow is....very nice. It looks like the Pearlberry is getting less flow than some of the others, is this correct? What is your placement with light intensity and flow for the Pearlberry?

 

[preef]

What brand salt are you using?

 

[psteeleb]

Good to know. Your mandarins definitely look healthy. I had worried about it (with two vortechs set at reef crest mode the currents in my tank can get pretty wild), but now I'll keep an eye out for a fat and happy mandarin at my LFS's and make the purchase when I find one.

Thanks for your help.

Anytime

If you do pick up a. Mandarin from a LFS ask them to feed it some blood worms to see if it will eat frozen

 

[reefkeeps]

wonderful! Thank you for sharing!

 

[psteeleb]

One of the coolest things about the video vs still pics is you can see how random your flow is....very nice. It looks like the Pearlberry is getting less flow than some of the others, is this correct? What is your placement with light intensity and flow for the Pearlberry?

Thanks - and the Pearlberry is in the top center section of the tank that gets a lot of light but suffers from a lower flow then the outside edges of the tank. I need to work on getting some flow in that area and considering 3 options.

1) increase my return flow rate and add a 3rd return that point's over the center.

2) add a nano wavebox to the system

3) or some sort of closed loop

 

[psteeleb]

What brand salt are you using?

I'm currently using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals

wonderful! Thank you for sharing!

thanks

 

[Fishingpcola]

Pete, just getting around to seeing the video. It is awesome!