A Splash of Color

[biggles]

Mmmmmmmmmmm glowy!! :inlove:

Bleached is more like lol, as you saw the other day

That little pink thing is really something! Do you have an id for it? Microclados?

Yes it's A. microclados mate, i think i'm losing the yellow highlights..........

I'd be more worried about that piece of green and orange flubber trying to attack your enchi
Look at the disgusting horrible thing sneaking up behind the poor acro. If your quick Andrew you can :uzi: it and no harm will come to the acro. But you must be quick .

You gotta watch those scollies mate, they wait until the lights are out and then sting the you know what out the acros underside........... scollies are sneaky...

Happy New Year Mate!
Things are looking great my friend, I love your scape and one day will do another shallow tank myself, just love the coral arrangement, the colors contrasting, and the beauty you have created on the Biggles Reef, outstanding as usual Andrew!

Happy New Year to you and the family Perry

Thanks very much for the kind words mate, if i can get my acros to grow like yours do i'll have a good 2017 - otherwise i will be sulky and horrible all year. :hmm3:

Incredible reading Andrew, Not to mention the coral pics. I've learned a lot. Happy Holidays !!!

Thanks a lot John

Tank is looking awesome again Dave.
Do you have a pic of your tank before adding the corals . I like the minimalistic look
and wanted to see the scape.

I transferred everything over from a smaller tank so i didn't start with a typical bare rock scape, things just kinda evolved...........

Linked the tanks for a few days and then transferred everything over

Many hours later.......

My name is Andrew btw, Dave is my LFS guy :wave:

 

[biggles]

I made a video showing the spectrum changes the 400W Radiums go through as they fire up in the morning.

A few screen grabs from the video starting with all the T5's on. Takes a bit over a minute for the bulbs to reach normal operating temperature.

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UeMqe0hPc3Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[M007]

Happy New Year Andrew.......

 

[gregkn73]

I made a video showing the spectrum changes the 400W Radiums go through as they fire up in the morning.

A few screen grabs from the video starting with all the T5's on. Takes a bit over a minute for the bulbs to reach normal operating temperature.

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UeMqe0hPc3Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Happy new year Andrew. I understand why you want to see your acros to grow, but I have seen a lot of reefs with overgrown acros needed trimming , but overall you have the most beautiful over saturated colours , I have seen. So if you have to choose , between growth and healthy acros with extraordinary saturated colours.....personally I prefer the second

PS. I noticed that you have a lot less wavemakers. How Manny and which one, have you replaced with gyre? What is your opinion for gyre and the flow it provide?

 

[Haksar]

Nice video, what height is the tank and lights above it.

 

[biggles]

Happy New Year Andrew.......

Thanks very much Mike, hope you have a good year ahead mate.

Happy new year Andrew. I understand why you want to see your acros to grow, but I have seen a lot of reefs with overgrown acros needed trimming , but overall you have the most beautiful over saturated colours , I have seen. So if you have to choose , between growth and healthy acros with extraordinary saturated colours.....personally I prefer the second

PS. I noticed that you have a lot less wavemakers. How Manny and which one, have you replaced with gyre? What is your opinion for gyre and the flow it provide?

Thanks Greg, the novelty wears off after years of the same thing mate. I am definitely going to get them growing this year even if it kills them...........

I've only had 3 pumps in the display for many months. The one beside the gyre on the overflow is an RW-8 and the one in the middle of the back glass is a Tunze 6095.

I think the gyre is a wonderful pump especially for those of us with displays on the shallower side. It's very important that you yune the pump to you actual reef layout as a couple of seconds either way on the cycle length can have drastic consequences to your sand bed in unexpected places.
A good starting point if you have a rectangular display like most is 50% - 60% power and this is the important bit if you have a sand bed.
Set the time so that the pulse turns off when the flow surge front is about 1ft from the end of your display. If you run the pulse into the end glass it will blow sand everywhere. You want the surge to slow and ease into the end panel as it will billow downwards and then return along the bottom.
For my 5ft display i find 5 secs at 60% power to be perfect. It blows the sand a bit at the end but right now better flow to aid growth is more important to me. If i turn the power up the sand will blow away big time as the surge hits the end glass with too much force. If i leave the power alone and turn the pulse to 7 seconds on/off the end panel sand stops moving completely but now the middle area of the tank between the radiums gets blown away in a 1ft bare bottom patch. I found this out after changing the pulse after lights out - had to dig out some acros from the large sand dunes.......

 

[martinphillip03]

Andrew, hoping you have an uneventful (is that a word?) 2017. Reef is looking great. Hope you get the growth you want this year. I am still amazed at all he fish you have. I think your selection of fish is perfect for your reef tank. The movement is great. The corals are the focal point, the fish ad movement. Nice. Good luck to you this year.

Marty

 

[nemodan]

Hi Andrew

Beautiful tank and acros !!

I know I have not been posting a lot lately, but I have been reading and I want to wish you an excellent 2017.

All the best !!
Daniel.

 

[drawman]

Love the video Andrew everything is nice, open, and clean. Looks like the whitetail tang earns his keep!

 

[Acro86]

Do you know who Christian supplys in the uk pal if I can find that out I'd put the thumb screws on the owner to get more hits in .

You guys need to visit or get in contact with BLUETANG :lmao:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DWqvZD3V-qI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Acro86]

 

[slavetonet]

Interesting video.
So much light over the 5ft tank. How many total watts are they?

 

[biggles]

Nice video, what height is the tank and lights above it.

Thanks Haksar, tank is 18" and the radiums are 10" off the water. The T5's are 5-6" off the water.

Andrew, hoping you have an uneventful (is that a word?) 2017. Reef is looking great. Hope you get the growth you want this year. I am still amazed at all he fish you have. I think your selection of fish is perfect for your reef tank. The movement is great. The corals are the focal point, the fish ad movement. Nice. Good luck to you this year.

Marty

Thanks a lot Marty, i appreciate your input mate - i'm going to get more small fish this year......... lots more

Hi Andrew

Beautiful tank and acros !!

I know I have not been posting a lot lately, but I have been reading and I want to wish you an excellent 2017.

All the best !!
Daniel.

Hey Daniel, it's great to hear from you buddy, i hope 2017 is a great year for you too my friend

Love the video Andrew everything is nice, open, and clean. Looks like the whitetail tang earns his keep!

Thanks a lot Tim, yes the tang grazes every waking moment mate. He keeps blowing up with ich and then everything blows up - if i can get him healthy i'm still going to trap him and give him back to Dave to treat. I'm going to get three yellow tangs instead......... i don't care if that makes me a horrible reefer i miss the big yellow flash of my yellow tang terribly and i can easily catch tangs since they're greedy pigs for nori.
I need to catch those two silver whales as well, they are 4" long already. :spin3:

How much is the average retail price of one of Christian's pieces over there in the UK mate. I expect they're pretty pricey since they're bloody stolen from bloody Australia ! :furious:

Interesting video.
So much light over the 5ft tank. How many total watts are they?

No it wasn't interesting at all Kevin.......

I have:

2 x 400W Radiums
5 x 39W T5's
6 x 24W T5's
1 x 81W LED bar

So about 1000W's give or take a few. :reading:

 

[biggles]

I took this flash pic tonight to confirm what i suspected. Check out the sleeping anthias eyes. The right one is blue like the blue acro on the right and the left one is red like the red acro on the left.......... that's right - anthias steal acro pigments !

Look how it's rubbing color onto it's fin - need to trap him too........

This is why i don't have algae problems even though i feed a lot of food every day.

Lots and lots of hungry baby snails infesting every part of the system

 

[maxwell]

Hi Andrew
Happy New Year to you, the Uk shipment had a selection of frags which needed to rest after the journey I will post a pic up later of the selection I purchased 5 frags and a peach coloured spath colony also from another supplier the purple spath with green polyps also from sustainable reefs which has arrived today.The weather here was heavy frosts so the coral frags have taken a set back I am hoping they come back with good colour saying that I have already lost one. Price wise they compare with any other aust shipment over here .
Bill

ps- my xmas pressie to myself lol

 

[maxwell]

Andrew

 

[Pife]

:rollface:Can you ask Dave what type of snails you have? I really would like something small like you have. My anthias do the same thing. It's crazy how they can brown out an acro so fast. Be careful with them.:blown:

 

[biggles]

Hi Andrew
Happy New Year to you, the Uk shipment had a selection of frags which needed to rest after the journey I will post a pic up later of the selection I purchased 5 frags and a peach coloured spath colony also from another supplier the purple spath with green polyps also from sustainable reefs which has arrived today.The weather here was heavy frosts so the coral frags have taken a set back I am hoping they come back with good colour saying that I have already lost one. Price wise they compare with any other aust shipment over here .
Bill

ps- my xmas pressie to myself lol

Andrew

Hey Bill, lots and lots of goodies there mate

I'm sure you'll get them colored back up in no time. Peach spath sounds very nice, the spath bottom row second from the left is a peach spath from Chrisitian.

:rollface:Can you ask Dave what type of snails you have? I really would like something small like you have. My anthias do the same thing. It's crazy how they can brown out an acro so fast. Be careful with them.:blown:

I didn't buy the snails mate, i was given twenty babies from another reefer a month after i started the 65gal, about 4 years ago. We always give each other snails when starting a new reef in Aus - it's like a right of passage when you join the hobby.

I will happily give snails to anyone starting a new reef, i have a ridiculous population lol. They stand out on putty........

 

[reefmutt]

I always called those little guys 'snurtles' because they seemed like a cross between a snail and a turtle.
They can reproduce like crazy when happy and never get too big. I wish I had a million like you do.

 

[Pife]

Figures. You aussies hoard all the good reef stuff.