45 Galllon Cube. My dream tank...only smaller!

[chrishayes]

This is the worst of them, but its got really thick new growth that is more like when I got it as a maricultured piece. Its also turned back yellow no from being green in my temp tank earlier.

Here you can see the christmas favia that I just got as well as the Birdnest.

This one is getting really nice color to it since its in more par.

And the new Lps, acan and blasto

 

[chrishayes]

And some random FTS

All my fish in one picture!

Cool sun ray shot

 

[chrishayes]

Forgot the pokerstar, its much nicer in person and its growing like a weed.

 

[Reef_Noob]

Hope ya dint take my post in a negative way.
Actually I was saying vacuuming sand bed was a good practice coz you are already having a successful refugium.
I use one of those long plastic gloves from Tunze when I go hands on in the tank.
Great pics and a lot of happy corals.
Very beautiful blasto you got there.

 

[chrishayes]

I picked up a trio of blue eyed cardinals. They have been at the lfs for 5 weeks and are eating and healthy. Their eyes are off the charts with the radium bulb! Its eery even. Ill try to get some pictures soon, but they are schooling tightly still and not venturing out much. Theyve got chunks of tail missing from scruffs with someone or another, im guessin mama clown.

 

[jbanks]

Nice work Chris! Love your attention to detail and they clean design.. This tank is shining already!

 

[chrishayes]

Hope ya dint take my post in a negative way.
Actually I was saying vacuuming sand bed was a good practice coz you are already having a successful refugium.
I use one of those long plastic gloves from Tunze when I go hands on in the tank.
Great pics and a lot of happy corals.
Very beautiful blasto you got there.

Nope, no offense taken. Its hard to offend me anyhow unless you try to squash my freedom of speech or call me an idiot! lol

I agree that vaccing the sandbed is good practice in a shallow coarse bed. I dont care if it is a filter or not, thats not why its there, ya know? Its just there for the look. I have added about 5 cups of CC reccently, too. It stinks though, of course you cant rinse that stuff well enough not to cause a spike. My phos went from a steady 0 to .02 this week. Not sure if it was caused by the sand addition or that I started feeding rods food. That stuff has a lot of tiny particles in it that dont get eaten which isnt good since frozen is fed 2xday. Too much waste. Should only feed this stuff once a week at night so the corals will filter it out better.

I really like the way cc looks after its matured in the tank. Looks terrible in pictures but the corraline of misc colors looks neat in person.

I gotta get one of those aquagloves, im in the tank too much. I scrub my hands and arms in antibacterial soap and burning hot water before they go in at least. No exceptions. I know my tank would do better if I could stop getting in there all together but the tanks still new so there are things that need tweaked, plus Its my hobby so I like to play a bit:inlove:

 

[chrishayes]

Nice work Chris! Love your attention to detail and they clean design.. This tank is shining already!

Hey, thanks for checkin out my thread! Its been good talkin to ya lately! But hey, you owe me, hope you didnt skim through my thread cause I read every post of your 29 pages! lol

 

[jbanks]

Thanks for the welcome and glad to be aboard!

No skimming here Buddy! LOL. I had nothing but time these last few days.. I was off on Thursday and Friday... So I definitley got my reading in.. Seeing how tanks develop and hicups along the way is where the fun is for me! More to come :lol:

 

[chrishayes]

I was just messin with ya anyways but thanks for reading all the way through! Im the same way, I hate replying to someones thread unless ive read all the way through it cause you dont have a good feel for what is goin on nor do you get a read on the person themselves...thanks for joining along! Glad to have you. Really.

 

[chrishayes]

So, I told you about the cardinals. here they are.

They are eating well and busy adjusting and creating a new pecking order in the tank. Im happy that the lfs had them so long so I didnt have to feel like I was taking a chance on them since they ship so poorly. They were in a barren 125 with 2 other small cardinals so my cramped tank with boisterous fish is a little different speed to them.

Also, I am done wiping the rim of my tank. I fixed the sand blowing issues I was having with crushed coral so I was able to turn the vortech up where I wanted it, however, it splashes water like crazy when going over the calfo. It causes saltcreep everywhere and has even rusted a switch cover plate nearby.

So I ordered a piece of the same 1/4" smoked glass I used for the calfo to put over the overflow. Itll keep the splashing inside the tank and hopefully keep some of the noise down too. Now I just gotta figure out how im gonna get my air line for the open channel pipe to work with the glass cover. Ill figure something out.

 

[chrishayes]

I placed an email to GEO to build me a topoff storage tank to go in this spot.

Im gonna make it as big as possible to hopefully buy me a weeks worth of water so I dont have to worry about that when on vacation. I think im gonna pick up a small frag rack too for when things need trimmed. Im gonna see if hell build me a dual probe holder with two 1/4" slots for my dosing lines all in the same unit. Right now im using suction cups. Just dont trust them longterm and I want them all in the same spot just to clean it all up.

And a FTS since I had the camera out. It sucks.

 

[chrishayes]

Here this shows that I bit the bullet and started my first two doses of vodka over the last two days. Its amazing how quickly the stuff goes to work. PE is crazy and color returned nearly instantly to the growth tips. My teal stag is nearly teal again already! Couldnt get the color right in the pics since I didnt have time to adjust things. Its more blue than it looks in the pics and is bright in color not dull like it was pre dosing. Anyone think itll be an issue that my alk is at 8-8.3?

I also raised my light about 2" cause I was bleaching coral on the sandbed for some reason...

 

[chrishayes]

Got my glass late yesterday. Here it is now.

Its working, hopefully I dont have to wipe everything down all the time now.

 

[jbanks]

I placed an email to GEO to build me a topoff storage tank to go in this spot.
Im gonna see if hell build me a dual probe holder with two 1/4" slots for my dosing lines all in the same unit. Right now im using suction cups. Just dont trust them longterm and I want them all in the same spot just to clean it all up.

I need to have something similar built to hold my ATO float solenoids... Although I've not had a problem, I don't have too much faith in the suction cups that hold them either. Good idea you have there for the dosing lines and GEO is the Man! My CR and my Aqua silencers are from him. GREAT Stuff! I didnt know that he builds customized "doo-hickeys" like that... Nice!

 

[chrishayes]

Ohhe will build anything . all you have to do is ask !

 

[chrishayes]

Jbanks, this is the best I could do to get a close up of the coral that really makes me think that theres a pest in my tank. This coral used to be very bushy night and day, now it shows no PE during the day and the skin is pale and veined. It used to look like a highlighter with no skeleton visible where its now transparent. What do you think?

 

[chrishayes]

Heres some neat shots I took today under actinic light.

My serpant star.

Ive moved all the lps under overhangs since theyve become bleached for some reason. THey were doing fine then I upped the photoperiod by an hour over a weeks time and this is the result...

Now I read in Jbanks thread to use a coffee filter as a white balance reference. So, I tried it. It got real close but still too warm.

This is what the tank really looks like after tweaking with a photo editor.

And this is what the camera came up with using the filter.

Found out the largest cardinal is the one taking chunks out of the other two's fins...jerk

 

[Reef_Noob]

Hiya Chris,
Is the bleaching happening due to the increase in lighting hours?
Keep a close watch on temperature too. Maybe raise the fixture bit more higher. Hope that helps.
LPS bleaching is common when underfed on increased light. Since ur feeding more often IMHO it must be lighting.

Welcome to the carbon dosing club!! Its gonna be beneficial for ya system coz since you are feeding them corals and fishes often and dosing will definitely keep hold in the nutrients.
Alk can fluctuate a bit when dosing, iv noticed it. So keep track of that.
Good luck on your surgery bro. I'm glad ya have ur smart phone now, so no excuses from not replying to me or commenting on my thread!!!!

 

[chrishayes]

Hiya Chris,
Is the bleaching happening due to the increase in lighting hours?
Keep a close watch on temperature too. Maybe raise the fixture bit more higher. Hope that helps.
LPS bleaching is common when underfed on increased light. Since ur feeding more often IMHO it must be lighting.

Welcome to the carbon dosing club!! Its gonna be beneficial for ya system coz since you are feeding them corals and fishes often and dosing will definitely keep hold in the nutrients.
Alk can fluctuate a bit when dosing, iv noticed it. So keep track of that.
Good luck on your surgery bro. I'm glad ya have ur smart phone now, so no excuses from not replying to me or commenting on my thread!!!!

Im thinking you may be on to something. I certainly am feeding more heavily in this tank but not directly feeding the lps...My attempts to keep nutrients down may be the cause of the bleaching. I upped the light only a max of 1 1/4 hours so that alone shouldnt cause this bad of bleaching I dont think. I bet that with that in conjunction with reduced nutrients is whats doing it. I think Ill try to feed them some mysis today directly. Boy is my cleaner shrimp gonna love that!

Thanks for the heads up on alk swings. I plan to do another round of tests today since its been 3 days of carbon dosing. Im gonna have trouble gauging when to cut the dose because im using an api nitrate test. Its 0 or 5ppm. So when i started it was a clear 5ppm, do I wait til its a clear 0ppm or just a change in color? Ill know my PO4 for sure though with the hanna kit. My alk is always a rock steady 8.3 so Ill know if thats changed.

I have noticed my ph increase slightly. Nothing to write home about but it has increased...should be seeing the opposite right? If it goes any lower ill have to start worrying. I feel a 7.8 at night is as low as I wanna go seeing that im running a reverse photoperiod on the fuge. Right now im seeing 7.95 at night and 8.05 day. Then again, ive always had low ph, but ive never had overwhelming color or growth either so they may be related. Id love to be able to use kalk but that introduces more maintenence and risk at this point so ill hold off til im recovered from the surgery when I can monitor it better.

Thanks again Noob!