A Splash of Color - My SPS Peninsula Reef

[biggles]

I would keep an eye on him for sure & yes he is creepy.

Hey Greg, yeah i know he'll play up sooner or later but he'll be very easy to remove day or night so for now he's keeping me amused

I've never let a blue eyed fuzzy last in my tank. Every time I've ever seen one come in on a colony, there is a big bare patch at the base of the acro..
I guess with a tank full of acros and one little crab, he can't do much damage..

I always remove them when i see them too Matt and i usually notice them by the tissue loss in the middle of a new branch or colony. I'm still waiting to see a sign of damage and i'm actually surprised he hasn't volunteered for javelin catching duties yet......... only a matter of time. :worried:

Here, Biggles, this may be something you've never see before..
It's a shot of one my my Japanese maples encased in ice. We've had freezing rain all day today and sometimes the ice accumulates on the branches... Makes for a lot of downed trees..

Wow Matt, those pics are beautiful mate I love Japanese maples especially the fine branched weeping ones such as yours - you have big tabling acro maples in your yard :thumbsup:

The closest i've been to cold is when i was little and the temps hit just below zero at night during a few weeks of winter. My father would hang the garden hose over the clothes line and have it dripping fast all night and in the morning i would rush out first thing to check out my stalagmite and stalactite before the sun got to them.
My father warned me not to ever disturb the hose until the frozen water inside it had thawed otherwise his good hose would snap. I wanted to see that so a few days later i bet my older brother he couldn't shake the clothes line so the stalactite hit the stalagmite - the hose snapped cleanly in two places which was pretty cool to see and my brother was in big trouble - talk about a win win situation........ good times :thumbsup:

It's a well known fact that Britain destroyed the world's ozone layer Sahin so you have only yourselves to blame for the rain. :reading:

Remember back when i was macro videoing everything that moved lol. Acro mesenterial filaments consuming a monti was a cool one i thought.

 

[sahin]

I watched the video last night Biggles; right after you uploaded it. I am subscribed to your YT channel.

Bello is a mathematics wiz and he informs me that you Biggles have been singly responsible for a major part of the loss of the ozone layer due to the enormous amounts of lighting over your reef. I mean you could simply switch to LED's and light your reef with 50watts..but no, you insist on burning the ozone layer with your 5000watts of metal halides+T5+LED. :eek2:

 

[Fishy 1]

I watched the video last night Biggles; right after you uploaded it. I am subscribed to your YT channel.

Bello is a mathematics wiz and he informs me that you Biggles have been singly responsible for a major part of the loss of the ozone layer due to the enormous amounts of lighting over your reef. I mean you could simply switch to LED's and light your reef with 50watts..but no, you insist on burning the ozone layer with your 5000watts of metal halides+T5+LED. :eek2:

Haha:lol:

 

[martinphillip03]

Kevins gas doesn't help either.

Marty

PS - What does Bello do when he is constipated?
He works it out with a pencil

I watched the video last night Biggles; right after you uploaded it. I am subscribed to your YT channel.

Bello is a mathematics wiz and he informs me that you Biggles have been singly responsible for a major part of the loss of the ozone layer due to the enormous amounts of lighting over your reef. I mean you could simply switch to LED's and light your reef with 50watts..but no, you insist on burning the ozone layer with your 5000watts of metal halides+T5+LED. :eek2:

 

[glaukos]

Great vid biggles:thumbsup:

If i where you,i'd ask kevin to get rid of it(crab)...i'd be really curious to see what he would do:fun5:

Jealus of your new corals:lol2:...am i green enough?:lol:
The one on the left side,near the glass(in the top down shot too)...is it a spathulata?

Oh...happy new year also:celeb3:

 

[joshky]

Biggles you have some of the best acros I've ever seen.

 

[biggles]

Thought you guys might like to see what colors the phone camera sees as the 400W radium warms up to operating temperature. I just resized the pics and nothing else.

This is sorta what my brain tells me it looks like color wise even though i know it's a lot bluer in reality - everyone who visits comments on how blue the lighting is.

I stopped all phos removal stuff 6 weeks back and reduced the carbon to 1/4 cup passive in a mesh bag in the sump baffles - i'm paranoid about shrooms poisoning my acro water and always will be. If you want to see your acros poopy just chuck a sinularia in the display - those things are the kiss of death for acros ime.
The glass needs cleaning daily atm because i'm feeding the fish five times a day - the royal gramma is to blame because i wanted to make sure he was eating lots. The other fish will be on the GBR edition of biggest loser if i keep going this way lol.

I haven't forgotten the question you asked me in the PM Sahin, i was watching that thread on "œTop of the line" non GFO & carbon tanks but i don't want to butt heads with any RC SPS demi gods so i only post in SPS journals in general as you know. Also if one were to post their tank in that journal they are saying their acros are colored up 'top of the line' which in Aus would result in being labelled an up yourself wanker - you Aus guys will know exactly what i mean and will get a 'you wanker' PM from me if i see you posting there...........
Scotty will join in if someone starts a 'who doses food coloring' thread.......... don't know how he does it tbh, my yellow tang turned pink when i tried the red stuff.........

Imagine how much algae must be generated daily to sustain a turbo snail population of at least 500 in a tank my size Sahin. The algae they consume contains bound phos but who knows what form it's in after they poop it out. I would imagine a very large population of snails would add up to a significant amount of snail poop. If you were to kill every single herbivore on the GBR what do you think it would look like after a couple of months with algae allowed to grow rampant.
So to answer your question Sahin, lots of fish fed lots of food will make lots of fish poo which feeds the algae not the acros. The algae sustains the large snail population who in turn make acro food from the algae - snail poo is what makes your acros look extremely vibrant and saturated with color.

Of course i'll expect a few 'you wanker' PM's now from Scotty, Rodney and Rory too probably........... :thumbsup:

There might be the odd undeclared acro or five in those pics Sahin.........:beer:

 

[biggles]

I watched the video last night Biggles; right after you uploaded it. I am subscribed to your YT channel.

Bello is a mathematics wiz and he informs me that you Biggles have been singly responsible for a major part of the loss of the ozone layer due to the enormous amounts of lighting over your reef. I mean you could simply switch to LED's and light your reef with 50watts..but no, you insist on burning the ozone layer with your 5000watts of metal halides+T5+LED.

I feel YT violated................

Bello is as crazy as a sh#thouse rat since he's gone bush - you do realise his 'calculator' is actually a coconut with numbers scratched on it.........:wildone:

Haha:lol:

Don't encourage him Rory.......

Kevins gas doesn't help either.

Marty

PS - What does Bello do when he is constipated?
He works it out with a pencil

Kevin is not amused Marty.

Great vid biggles:thumbsup:

If i where you,i'd ask kevin to get rid of it(crab)...i'd be really curious to see what he would do

Jealus of your new corals...am i green enough?:lol:
The one on the left side,near the glass(in the top down shot too)...is it a spathulata?

Oh...happy new year also

Thanks Mike, hope you and the family have a great new year too mate

I'm going to tell Kevin to terminate the services of creepy Dave, i'll lock the nail gun away first.
Not really sure what that acro is tbh mate, it might just be a milli.

Biggles you have some of the best acros I've ever seen.

Thanks Josh, they're a pretty happy bunch lately

 

[martinphillip03]

Ow yar goin Biggles! Hooly dooly your acros are fine. Stop playing sillybuggers with those ratbag SPS blokes. There usually pigs bum, and they have tickets on themselves. Bloody oath it is.
I'm nackered, so G'Day

Marty

 

[biggles]

Ow yar goin Biggles! Hooly dooly your acros are fine. Stop playing sillybuggers with those ratbag SPS blokes. There usually pigs bum, and they have tickets on themselves. Bloody oath it is.
I'm nackered, so G'Day

Marty

Lol that is without doubt the worst attempt at writing in Aus Marty....... :spin3:

I was only stirring a few tall poppies - we cut those down the minute they poke their heads up over here lol.

I don't even know if snails have bums let alone poo........ but to be serious for one moment (rare).
I have no visible hair algae or cyano etc whatsoever on the rocks, sand or anywhere else even though i feed the tank a great deal more food for the water volume than most would. If i nuked my huge turbo snail population with a treatment i would have a massive algae bloom within a couple of weeks i'm sure. The skimmer pulls a lot each day, i use LR and a small amount of carbon with weekly 10% water changes (25L) - that's all there is. I run NSW parameters because my acros were in that same range less than a week before i buy them usually so it makes sense to put them back in the same water asap to hopefully 'trick' them into thinking they're back on the GBR.
Nearly all my lighting is 450nm or below, 400W for 8 hrs and about 360W for 12 hrs every day over a 40x24x18" tank is a lot of intense blue light which drives the brown zoa out and allows the pigments to shine with no zoa masking their brilliance i believe. I have always thought the water being spot on is what allows for the production of the actual pigments but it's the lighting which controls the saturation level of those pigments and the zoa levels present on the acro. I don't think the colors i see on my acros is how they looked when they were on the GBR, some would be better, some worse and some entirely different altogether.
I never have fast growth, good growth rates is as good as i have ever seen and nothing like some of the growth rates i see a few guys here have. I might be trading off some growth for saturation i think but who knows.

I went to Willy and saw Jack today, he was trying to drive away before i got there i think but i caught him in the car park. The new peninsula tank should be ready to pick up in about two weeks.
Keith bullied me into buying a couple of newly arrived acros............. the 'purple' milli which looked purple under your stupid radion trickery lights looks awfully BLUE in my tank Keith............ya got me again..........:headwally:

 

[Scotty freddy]

Wow biggles you tank is looking awesome! I see where all the nice SPS go when they arrive to Jack :lol: it's good they are going to a good tank, then you perform your magic SPS trickery and turn them into something even more beautiful!!! :inlove:

 

[sahin]

Tank is looking great as usual Biggles. I wont even try writing that Aussie style...the fear of public humiliation is too great. :lol:

Biggles I have the same Trochus snails in my tank. They breed very regularly...I started with some like 5...which turned into 13...now there is like 30 in my display...the rest are tiny babies inside the sump/skimmer etc. Once they are large enough to hold I transfer them to the display.

Biggles, just how high is your Phosphate at the moment? I'd like to get an idea of what the level is compared to the colours you are pulling out your acros. If you've thrown the PO4 test kit in the bin then dont worry...we shall not require you to fish it out. :crazy1:

As to your YT channel: I even had one person PM me and ask what it is...Your subscriber number just went up. :thumbsup:

 

[reefmutt]

I'll have to find that yt channel, myself..
Somebody should try to help Marty get off the Aussie hooch before it kills him!
I have about a billion snails in my dt and the amount of poop they produce is amazing. Now that I added some sand, you don't see it accumulate but I had quite a layer of it before the sand went in. Inhave a small snail- about 1-3 mm in diameter- very rounded and red/white striated that reproduces in the system. They just stay small and cliff things up..
I wouldn't be surprised if snails were a major contributing factor in releasing bound p and n back into a system..

 

[martinphillip03]

Subscribed to Biggles reef!

Marty

 

[markalot]

First round didn't go so well. Maybe Kevin needs some training first?

 

[sahin]

Subscribed to Biggles reef!

Marty

Are you sure its the right channel. :lol: You know how sneaky Biggles is...

 

[reefmutt]

Poor Kevin doesn't look so hot in that photo... Unless he's sleeping through his mani/pedi..
I pity the person doing his Brazilian wax...

 

[martinphillip03]

sahin, Now that you mention it, I saw alot of green SPS with an overabundence of fish. The colors looked photoshopped

Marty

Are you sure its the right channel. :lol: You know how sneaky Biggles is...

 

[biggles]

Wow biggles you tank is looking awesome! I see where all the nice SPS go when they arrive to Jack :lol: it's good they are going to a good tank, then you perform your magic SPS trickery and turn them into something even more beautiful!!! :inlove:

Thanks Scotty, Jack gets amazing acros in on a regular basis and keeps them under radions and kessils so most have good PE in the shop tanks when i buy them and they usually settle in very quickly for me.

Tank is looking great as usual Biggles. I wont even try writing that Aussie style...the fear of public humiliation is too great.

Biggles I have the same Trochus snails in my tank. They breed very regularly...I started with some like 5...which turned into 13...now there is like 30 in my display...the rest are tiny babies inside the sump/skimmer etc. Once they are large enough to hold I transfer them to the display.

Biggles, just how high is your Phosphate at the moment? I'd like to get an idea of what the level is compared to the colours you are pulling out your acros. If you've thrown the PO4 test kit in the bin then dont worry...we shall not require you to fish it out.

As to your YT channel: I even had one person PM me and ask what it is...Your subscriber number just went up. :thumbsup:

Hi mate, the snails i'm talking about are the same type Matt has although i have a few different species some of which grow to about 1/2" dia. When i really look there are probably thousands because there's heaps of tiny little 1/16" - 1/8" baby snails covering every rock surface. The trochus get way too big once you have dense acro coverage and they can't fit in the gaps to get every bit of algae. I think they're great for the initial algae cycles but once your tank is established i'd seed with the smaller 'turbo' round shell types.

Three Hanna tests today: 0.09 - 0.09 - 0.11 Nitrates are undetectable on Salifert.

Salinity - 1.0260
Alk - 7.5
Cal - 410
Mg - 1300

I'll have to find that yt channel, myself..
Somebody should try to help Marty get off the Aussie hooch before it kills him!
I have about a billion snails in my dt and the amount of poop they produce is amazing. Now that I added some sand, you don't see it accumulate but I had quite a layer of it before the sand went in. Inhave a small snail- about 1-3 mm in diameter- very rounded and red/white striated that reproduces in the system. They just stay small and cliff things up..
I wouldn't be surprised if snails were a major contributing factor in releasing bound p and n back into a system..

Hey Matt, due to the sheer volume of algae required to sustain our snail populations i'm quite certain they can have more positives for your system than just manual algae removal. Here's another thing to ponder, they all come out at night and do their grazing so lights out is when the water would be it's 'richest' in whatever is in their poop - just when the acros have their polyps out to feed.........

Subscribed to Biggles reef!

Marty

You're starting to creep me out Marty......... bloody stalker........

First round didn't go so well. Maybe Kevin needs some training first?

Well he didn't listen when i warned him not to touch the nail gun, he hung there for hours until i got home from work and found him......... little bugger wouldn't turn around for a pic - Kevin is not a RC team player.

 

[biggles]

Are you sure its the right channel. :lol: You know how sneaky Biggles is...

I am super sneaky when it comes to acros...... there, i said it ! :smokin:

Poor Kevin doesn't look so hot in that photo... Unless he's sleeping through his mani/pedi..
I pity the person doing his Brazilian wax...

Waxing a koala....... gross Matt lol.

sahin, Now that you mention it, I saw alot of green SPS with an overabundence of fish. The colors looked photoshopped

Marty

Most of my stuff is green but i soak them in food coloring once a month - that's also why i have no bugs etc, they don't like food coloring........