An addicted reefer chic's 40B franken tank w/ 2 30g display macro tanks...

[Paul B]

Hi Paul...hope all is well with you and the tank. All this time without a wc did not make my little piece of reef happy.

About an hour ago I we got back from the Florida Keys. I heard it was going to snow and Oh well, so we went.

We rented a small boat with friends there and did quite a bit of snorkling in the mangrove forests where there are hundreds of mangrove islands. The water around mangroves is very muddy with all sorts of sediment and I was thinking about all the people that siphon and change water so much. There is so much life in that habitat and if it was very clean like many people keep their tanks, much of that life would be gone.
I really don't like to much new water in my tank as tanks with new water never look great or are very healthy. Those are also the tanks with the most problems and diseases.

Since you mention this...I will give this gorg extra love and attention because I refuse to lose it...I love it too much. Can't stop staring at it. lol

That certainly is a beautiful gorg but I think it needs to be fed as it doesn't look all that photosynthetic, but I may be wrong.
Good luck with it.

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

About an hour ago I we got back from the Florida Keys. I heard it was going to snow and Oh well, so we went.

We rented a small boat with friends there and did quite a bit of snorkling in the mangrove forests where there are hundreds of mangrove islands. The water around mangroves is very muddy with all sorts of sediment and I was thinking about all the people that siphon and change water so much. There is so much life in that habitat and if it was very clean like many people keep their tanks, much of that life would be gone.
I really don't like to much new water in my tank as tanks with new water never look great or are very healthy. Those are also the tanks with the most problems and diseases.



That certainly is a beautiful gorg but I think it needs to be fed as it doesn't look all that photosynthetic, but I may be wrong.
Good luck with it.

Ugh...not you rubbing it in about Florida too. My sister lives in Miami and calls me constantly while poolside to brag. Love warm weather and would love to live there but it's not kid/pit bull friendly and I refuse to give them up. lol Hope you had a blast while we froze and dealt with stupid snow. lol

Well I was only doing 5g weekly water changes before on the whole system and thought that I was actually under doing it. The only reason that I've done 2 large water changes the last two weeks was to try to re-stabilize my parameters. Starting Saturday I will revert back to my weekly 5g water changes. I don't siphon my sand or rocks...never have. When I do my water changes I turn off my return and skimmer and throw a mj1200 w/ 1/2" hose in my skimmer section in my sump and remove water that way. Do you think that 5g weekly is too much considering it's 40B, 2x30g fuges and 30g sump? I'm guessing after sand/rock, etc. I have roughly 100-110g total water volume?

I'm sorry, I may have forgotten to mention...the gorg is definitely non-photosynthetic. I've done quite a bit of reading over the last several months on a "NPS" focused forum that I'm sure I can't mention the name of on here. I've been dying for NPS in the macro tank I love it just as much as display macro's and SPS.

I really can't wait for this system to mature and grow in. From here on out now that my DT is cleared out of things that I don't want in there it will only be filled with my favorite SPS pieces. Thinking of building off of my mini-ric garden and doing a ric carpet/garden with a variety of colors. Scape is completely different. My daughter actually told me out of the blue last night that she loves the change. Went minimalistic because I want to maximize grow-out space considering it's only a 40B.

Ugh...heard that we're due for more snow? I really hope not.

 

[borderreef]

welcome back Greneyes. I can understand being away to focus on your kids. I have three teenagers of my own. Between them, me going back to school, illnesses, etc, etc, it can get damn hectic. Hope everything is going ok, and I'm glad your reef is coming along the way you like. Some very nice new additions! BTW, I understood the auto-feeder was for your coral.

 

[Paul B]

Green Eyes, actually on the Florida Keys are plenty of Pit Bulls and kids. They are all over the place there, probably scare the crocodiles away.

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

Green Eyes, actually on the Florida Keys are plenty of Pit Bulls and kids. They are all over the place there, probably scare the crocodiles away.

Haha...I meant Miami-Dade. Since they so easily passed a ban there...it could easily pass statewide...not worth losing my dog. I'd give up my right arm before I gave him up. You are right about that though...between the kids, dog and cat they probably would scare the gators away. lol

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

New Ora Grube's gorg from Coral Theory...haven't decided it's permanent placement so I just plopped it onto my blue ochtodes for the time being.

Couple other pics...

Purple tabling acro from the swap encrusted onto my overflow...

Rastas

Little island rock...

Continuous feeder setup

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

Setosa

There's like 3 or 4 baby Yuma's on that rock too...

Not even going to bother fragging the Ora Scripps and green and purple Digi's that STN'd from the A.T.O. B.S. there is a lot of polyp extension on them now so I'm just going to let it grow over and let nature take it's course. All of my birdsnests have a lot of new growth.

I've also decided to setup a "2nd system" which will be around 120/125g in my living room sooner than later for a certain reason. I love the deep blue frag tanks but it's just not big enough for what my fish need long term. Already started discussions with a couple of friend's. Everybody is pushing for a 150/180 but I don't know if I'm comfortable taking the risk in a 6th fl apartment. This may be custom because I want shallow, but not too shallow. I also don't want to have to dive into the tank for regular maintenance so a deep tank isn't an option. It will also end up being Mitras lit...most definitely.

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

New goodies from Coral Theory...

One head frag of these ...

This pic is the worst lol...but lights were already turning down for the night...the colors in the above pic are definitely true to life...started glowing as soon as it went into the tank and before it was even fully open. Love it!

and a Blueberry gorg...I am in love with NPS as much as SPS right now...I started getting polyp extension on this within minutes of being in the tank...

Some other pics:

"Continuous feeder makes us happy" lol

Growth on my monti's on the back right corner of the 40...pink and purple grown from 1" frags...

Still loving the feeder/Pappone...

Lavender sponges in my red titan macro's...

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

Help...help...help...pulling my freakin' hair out... :facepalm:

I'm not dosing any two part yet...only upped my Kalk to a saturated (2tsp/g of top-off reservoir) back on Feb. 10th. Was told to do daily testing to see where my params are and what's been used up. My concern is the dramatic difference in the test results between different brands/kits.

I've been having issues with the Red Sea Pro test kits that everyone is raving about after they revamped them. I've been the brunt of quite of few reefer buddies jokes for actually purchasing the Red Sea kit's v.s. going with Elos or Salifert. I've ran the tests to a "T" and so have a couple of reefer buddies. It's showing my params are off the charts. Have 2 of the same kits...one brand new and one that I picked up in Oct. Expiration dates are not until 2014 and 2015 on both boxes.

Ran the tests according to the Red Sea's Youtube tutorial and instruction booklet. Anyone that uses their kits knows that the syringes for the have a little air pocket between the plunger and liquid line to make up for the liquid in the tip. So I put, as instructed, the bottom of the plunger to the 1ml. mark.

My lfs tested with elos kits and they're showing my calcium is at 380, alk is at 8.5 and mag is only 1000. I was told that I'd need like a gallon of mg to bring it up but refuse to dump it in the tank until I know *** is going on. I've ran both kits back to back...several times. I had my lfs test my water back on the 8th and again yesterday. Their elos test showed that my ca, alk and mg were low both times. They said alk was only 6.5 on the 8th...can't remember what ca and mg were.

At reefer's advice I did up the Kalk to a saturated solution of 2tsp per gallon of my ato reservoir after the lfs said my params were low.

I know I'm not supposed to chase ph, however, last night was the first night since I made a saturated kalk solution that the tank hasn't fluctuated from 8.2 at lights on to 8.5 at lights out. It was at 8.38 last night and 8.34 this morning at lights on. Hoping that's a positive sign since I don't know what to believe in the wide range of test results that I'm getting on this system.

My reefer buddy last night suggested pulling out half of my chaeto in which is 3/4 of the way filled in the bottom macro fuge.

I've done water changes in between with no real changes in the Red Sea test results. Trying to get some sailfert tests asap instead of waiting for shipping.

I've been doing 15-20g water changes weekly v.s. my normal 5g weekly w/c to try to see if that helps.

Also, figured I should mention what salt that I'm using. I'm trying to use up the last of a 200g box of I.O. (1.5 bags left) and will be switching to Reef Crystals...

Examples of crazy test results from Red Sea v.s. Elos testing done at the lfs.

From Feb. 12th

Salinity 1.026
PH 8.3

Newer Red Sea Pro kit expires 01/15:

Ca 490
Alk 10.6
Mg 1440

Older Red Sea Kit expires 07/14

Ca 480
Alk 10.4
Mg 1400

Feb. 13th

Salinity 1.026
PH 8.3

Newer kit:

Ca 450
Alk 9.5
Mg 1520

Older kit:

Ca 450
Alk 11.2
Mg 1520

Feb 18th (before w/c)


Salinity 1.026
PH 8.2

Ca 450
Alk 11.2
Mg 1480

Old kit:

Ca 470
Alk 10.5
Mg 1600

Feb. 19 (day after w/c):

Salinity 1.026
PH 8.1

New kit:

Ca 465
Alk 11.2
Mg 1480

Old Kit:

Ca 490
Alk 9.8
Mg 1600

I even ran through the Mg tests...both of them a second time last night with a reefer friend...they still came out between 1480 and 1600. Who's tests do I believe? I'm definitely going to get some sailfert kits asap. I'm going out of my effin' mind over here being that Elos and Red Sea results are showing drastically different. The only thing that's looked ****ed off in any part of my system was my green poccilliopora, but this morning it was showing PE again...though not as great as I would like it to.

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

Yay! Check the PE on it...right before lights out. **happy dance**

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

Blueberry gorg last night...

I know it's only been in the tank a few days...it had not shown polyp extension at all at the lfs since arriving in a shipment and the shipper had exposed the tips to air so there was some tissue recession about a 1/4" on some of the tips. I'm very happy with it and the results that I'm getting from the continuous feeder. So if in the end I have saved it's life and am able to make it happy long term I'm doing the happy dance b/c it's sorta a big deal to me.

Sorry the pics are extra blurry...had a killer migraine to the point I was nauseous so didn't feel like really trying to get focused pic but wanted to keep up with my attempt at documenting polyp extension...

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

 

[Kawi9_cf]

Wow! That is one of the coolest setups I have seen!
There is so much contrast and color it looks sweet!

What are you using to take pics?

 

[kga943]

looking good greeneyes

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

Wow! That is one of the coolest setups I have seen!
There is so much contrast and color it looks sweet!

What are you using to take pics?

Thank you...this system is my baby.

Pics are just taken with my cell phone Evo 4G...I have a few reefer buddies that are going to come over and take some real pics of the whole system within the next couple of weeks...

looking good greeneyes

Thank you!

 

[Kawi9_cf]

You take great care if your baby

I don't know anything about photography but I have a few friends that just got macro lens kits for their phones and have been able to take some sweet pictures with their phones. I don't know which ones are the best but a friend recommended these cheap ones from amazon. I am about start testing them out.

Just figured its something you may be interested in

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007VI3S1M

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

You take great care if your baby

I don't know anything about photography but I have a few friends that just got macro lens kits for their phones and have been able to take some sweet pictures with their phones. I don't know which ones are the best but a friend recommended these cheap ones from amazon. I am about start testing them out.

Just figured its something you may be interested in

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007VI3S1M

Thanks.

That's pretty cool...may have to try one out. I wonder how they are attached to the phone to take pics or if you're just supposed to hold it in place.

 

[Kawi9_cf]

There are a few different types but the ones I have seen there is a piece that sticks onto the phone or is glued on then you hook the lens on whenever you want to take pictures.

 

[rocking]

can one of you help me with setting up a Majano Wands