A Splash of Color - My SPS Peninsula Reef

[biggles]

Hey mate, i never have teeth on my overflows just the flat edge of the 3mm acrylic sheet. It's 10mm higher than the 6mm overflow glass it's siliconed to. The top of the acrylic is 20mm below the lowest brace glass. I always let the snails go up and over into the weir section because i run an emergency pipe.
I still have to seal all the edges neatly with black silicone but it already looks super sexy to me lol.

Changed my mind on the lighting layout after standing over the tank. Going to have a 400W radium and 2 x triple 24W T5 units either side of the center brace. It will be extremely tinker friendly with the units being easy to lift out of the way for acro jigsaw puzzle scaping Sahin. :dance:

Now i had to dull this pic down way below the real colors so you can see the nasty ice blue branched thing lower left that has decided not to encrust but rather shoot straight towards its blue polyped neighbour. The attacker had consumed about 15 corallites when i spotted this and i'm pretty sure those bubbles are him burping......... the blue acro above them both is shooting straight towards the pair of them so it's obviously got anger management issues too. :facepalm:

 

[sahin]

You've already confused me with the lighting mate...

So is that 2x 400w halide + 2x 3tube T5 along with some LED's?

 

[biggles]

Like putting two of my current displays end to end so the T5's run down the long sides of the new peninsula. I'll probably get another blue LED bar like i have now and run one on each side between the radiums and the T5 units.


My new wrasse (Larry) sleeps with the scolly's - one of which has been stinging an acro's bum.

 

[sahin]

Ah, understand now mate.

Wrasse is lovely mate. I want one of those. On the lookout for a small one of those.

Wasnt you so anti Wrasse before Biggles? :facepalm: Me and Bello knew you'd like em loads.

 

[glaukos]

Anti Wrasse..Anti green...i guess everything changes sahin

Great pics biggles and nice job with the tank:beer:

 

[martinphillip03]

Biggles, For the main MH lighting, Do you keep spare bulbs and ballasts?

Good Bunnings story. Take Kevin next time to take care of your light work.

Marty

 

[Oldude]

In the lower right corner I see you have pretty much the same coral that I was clearing a branch off the GD to accommodate. Maybe we should start a blue polyp acropora nasuta club. :smokin:

 

[Oldude]

My new wrasse (Larry) sleeps with the scolly's - one of which has been stinging an acro's bum.

Sounds like a line from a fish "mobster movie" -(when you read this you need the godfather voice) If you don't pay up you'll be with Larry - sleeping with the SCOLLY'S

 

[biggles]

Ah, understand now mate.

Wrasse is lovely mate. I want one of those. On the lookout for a small one of those.

Wasnt you so anti Wrasse before Biggles? :facepalm: Me and Bello knew you'd like em loads.

I've done a complete 360 on fish mate, i'm fish mad now and constantly on the lookout for anything colorful and acro friendly.

Anti Wrasse..Anti green...i guess everything changes sahin

Great pics biggles and nice job with the tank:beer:

Thanks Mike, i'm getting soft in my old age mate

Biggles, For the main MH lighting, Do you keep spare bulbs and ballasts?

Good Bunnings story. Take Kevin next time to take care of your light work.

Marty

I have spare radium bulbs but not ballasts Marty.

I'm doing this the way i know my good mate Sahin would like to see it laid out so it's relatively clear

About three weeks ago i had a good talk with Keith at Willy aquarium. Keith supplies the shop with a few acro frags from his home display and the two i've bought are coloring up beautifully. In short i know that Keith knows what he's doing when it comes to SPS keeping so i trust his advice (sort of).
Anyway i asked Keith what he thought may be my problem with keeping nice pink pigments on anything and without a pause he said ######
I stared at him with my usual 'oh what rubbish' look until he said " i bet you also have trouble keeping seri's and monti's."

Now since i kill most monti's and seri's and don't have nice pinks imo i suddenly decided that Keith wasn't in fact talking garbage but may actually be trying to help me. I asked for a test kit to check my ###### levels and guess what " oh we're out of Salifert ###### test kits " - if i was at Bunnings it would have been a manager getting moment can i tell you lol. I instead bought some acros and locked Keith's advice in my brain. Next visit i grabbed a test kit and a bottle of ###### to dose as i was hoping it would read zero as Keith predicted.

The test did read zero so seven days ago i summoned up the courage to dose the display with half the recommended dose of the element in question. I added it to the alk and dripped it over 24 hours.

Day 2: I thought acros looked slightly paler but put it down to my eyes that day. PE was much better that night but i put it down to something spawning and getting the acros excited.

Day 3: Lights came on and now i knew it wasn't my eyes, nearly everything looked brighter in a zeo pastel pale kind of way - not bad but i was still starting to freak out a little bit inside (the omg i better not have killed everything niggle) - many of you will have felt that at one time or another i'm sure lol. PE that night still much better on everything.

Day 4: Tested and just got a reading of the element so i gave another half dose with the alk as suggested on the bottle. Everything looked super happy and brighter than ever before and i noticed little growth tips on quite a few pieces which i thought was interesting. I decided i should test alk and calcium in case there was a drop due to better growth and the alk had dropped to 7.0 from the normal 7.5. Calcium was 390 instead of 410 so i was happy that it confirmed what my eyes had already told me. Increased both and knew the Mg must also be down so i threw a cup of that straight in the sump.

Day 5: Noticed a few acros suddenly stinging stuff next to where they were encrusting which is a good growth indicator, a 'stuff is waking up indicator' if you like. All the acros looked bright and healthy and the daytime PE was better imo. I could see more stuff with new tips so i was a happy camper.

Day 6: Tested alk and calcium - 6.8 and 370 - this put a big smile on my dial so i upped the dosing again. Everything looked beautifully bright and vibrantly colored to my eyes. I tested and the element was now at half the recommended level.

Today 7: Tested alk and calcium - 7.2 and 390 - upped the dosing and finally realised that coralline had exploded in growth also which was why i wasn't increasing the dosing correctly. Both acros and coralline are visibly growing much better than i've seen before and the colors are very very pretty in real life.

 

[biggles]

In the lower right corner I see you have pretty much the same coral that I was clearing a branch off the GD to accommodate. Maybe we should start a blue polyp acropora nasuta club. :smokin:

Ha, i thought the exact same thing when i saw your piece Greg lol. Ryan has a yummy one too so we should start a club mate :smokin:

Sounds like a line from a fish "mobster movie" -(when you read this you need the godfather voice) If you don't pay up you'll be with Larry - sleeping with the SCOLLY'S

:lol2: Only us old farts will get the reference mate. I grew up on black and white mobster and cowboy movies on a Sunday afternoon when i was a good boy. Mom didn't let me watch tv if i burned something or injured a sibling during the human test phase of one of my numerous speriments. :blown: :reading:

 

[markalot]

Potassium? Came up all ######## for me!

 

[Benar]

I thought so too. But when he tested 0 I'm guessing the sneaky bugger meant iodide?!

 

[jackson6745]

Biggles, how many hours per day do you run the halides?

 

[biggles]

Potassium? Came up all ######## for me!

Nope but my potassium stays at 400 with my water changes. It's solid so i don't test it anymore.

I thought so too. But when he tested 0 I'm guessing the sneaky bugger meant iodide?!

Bingo lol. Iodide is indeed what i was talking about mate

Biggles, how many hours per day do you run the halides?

I run the 400W radium for 8 hours and the T5's for 12 Richard.


Just siliconed the black acrylic overflow wall.

 

[markalot]

That's interesting. I've had a bottle of Lugols for a while and a couple of weeks ago started dosing 2 drops a day in my 150 to see if I could improve the health of some zoas. First day the skimmer overflowed. After a week I noticed the zoas had stopped melting, so that appeared to work, but I also noticed my Red Robin frag might finally be showing some red.

I'm at 40 nitrates, or worse, so all bets are off what exactly is happening.

 

[mhucasey]

Bingo lol. Iodide is indeed what i was talking about mate

Thats awesome Biggles! I could have told you that By a lot of trial and error, I found that Iodine and Iron are the two elements(other than the standard ca/alk/mg) that get depleted from tank water. Adding them back has a big impact.

Some people get away with lush tanks without dosing but usually they are feeding iodine rich foods like kelp and krill. Since I started adding it, I stopped changing water, I haven't changed any since last April...

By doing this you are seriously upping the game now...we all need to catch up!

 

[biggles]

Hey Mark, i'm not saying it's some wonder dosing additive but from what i've seen so far it appears that maintaining some level of iodide has a very positive effect in my system.
My nitrates are less than 0.2-0.5 going off the Salifert kit. You struggle to see a hint of pink when looking sideways through the vial so it's very low but it is there in the water.
Phos is undetectable using the Hanna but the glass needs cleaning every couple of days at most or every day and a half really as a reference so it's in the water at low levels too.

Normally when i over feed the acros lose their 'pop' or brilliance if you like. I have probably added at least three extra feedings to the system daily because i wanted to fatten up all my new fish, which i have btw. The 2" blue tang is now a little fatty and all the new fish are doing great. The extra food hasn't caused the expected dulling i would normally expect to see while the system adjusts to the heavier nutrient load so i really don't think the lightening and brightening was due to new fish and feedings. I do think the new fish/nutrient load has been 'swallowed' up by the acros using more nutrients due to growth but as with everything in the hobby it's just conjecture.

Thats awesome Biggles! I could have told you that By a lot of trial and error, I found that Iodine and Iron are the two elements(other than the standard ca/alk/mg) that get depleted from tank water. Adding them back has a big impact.

Some people get away with lush tanks without dosing but usually they are feeding iodine rich foods like kelp and krill. Since I started adding it, I stopped changing water, I haven't changed any since last April...

By doing this you are seriously upping the game now...we all need to catch up!

Thanks mate, i'm pretty chuffed at the turn of events lol. I'm going to give Keithy boy a :love1: when i go to Willy next.......

So let me get this right, you could have told me about this but you didn't.............. just how many of my reef buddies could have also told me that iodide is good for your acros........:mad2:
The only game that's up is you guys sneaky element dosing without telling your old mate biggles.......... from now on any of you guys with yummy reefs need to highlight in bold stuff that i need to know, mark it Attention biggles ! :hammer:

 

[mhucasey]

The scary part is that we are all drooling over your reef and its colors, especially Sahin, and it turns out you have been running that thing al less than full strength! Its like that scene in The Princess Bride where the man in black switches sword hands..."I am also not left handed!"

Now, something I haven't told you about...honey and milk dosing...am I joking or serious....hmmmm:dance:

 

[ryanrid]

I hope no harder than a regal plus getting it from jack is always a helping hand

 

[sahin]

You just cant help being sneaky can you. :facepalm: I read so many ##### and ##### and ##### in your earlier post Biggles...its just not right :thumbdown

Anyway; have a gander at this: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1980343

I'd be careful with dosing too much Iodine. One can easily venture into the overdosed state. Whilst I like Salifert K, NO3, Alk, Ca test kits etc, the Iodine isnt so good.

But your reef looks damn good...too damn good if you ask me...

Greg; yes I am drooling over Biggles' reef...its too damn nice for my liking. Not even worth posting my brown acro photos...I mean I do have different shades of brown...there is a light brown acro...a golden brown one...a very dark one too...and about another 25 different shades as well... :angryfire: