BUILDING A DREAM....SPS Dominated Tank build

That fish is awesome mate, how did you go about looking after him when you first got him and what was the food he ate before you got him onto the pellets, really hope you have him for years and years. :)
 
Dapg8gt said:
Wow is all I can say=).. Nice tank and awesome thread very informative and great to read.. Def following along..
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Hi Dapg8gt,
Thanks so much for the encouraging words!
All the credit for the information is due to each and everyone who took the time to post and share their knowledge. I thank you all for all the valuable advices and input.
My journey is far from over...so I need all the support and inputs.
 
bobkill said:
thats pretty awesome - can you run down your qt process
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Hi bobkill,
Thanks a lot for the motivation :)
This is how I did it.
I didnt have much hope to begin with bcoz idols as really finicky and though I really wanted to keep them I never had the confidence.
A recent shipment at my LFS I found 3 healthy specimens of idols. I watched them...all 3 were getting along well and schooling...
Interestingly I found all the three constantly picking on a big live rock. I bought all 3 idols and the piece of live rock :D
I set up a separate tank filled it with my DT tank water added a UV filter. A protein skimmer HOB. Started on Reef nutrition tiger pods. All 3 did not eat. I was losing hope but after a week one of the Idols started taking interest in the pods. The other 2 weren't
feeding...I returned the 2 back to my LFS.
I started adding Kent garlic to frozen mysis and fed along with live pods. Then stopped live pods($$$) and only fed frozen mysis with garlic. Almost 2 months. Then pellets with garlic. I tried flakes but he don't eat that. I think it's just 80% luck and 20% persistence on my part :D that did the trick.
 
biggles said:
That fish is awesome mate, how did you go about looking after him when you first got him and what was the food he ate before you got him onto the pellets, really hope you have him for years and years. :)
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Hi biggles,
Thanks bro...Nice to hear from ya and thanks for following.
Hope ya read the previous post I've kinda detailed what I did.
I have a feeling these idols weren't fresh off the sea and may have been conditioned by the supplier before shipping. I took a chance bcoz it's the first time I ever saw idols picking on live rock. I don't know what interested them in that rock so I got that rock :)
I did not add that rock to my DT bcoz i didnt wanna introduce any pests. I returned it to the LFS along with the 2 idols who weren't feeding.
I hope I have long term success with this guy. Keeping fingers crossed. :D
 
MBMAX said:
awesome..... read the whole thing today... great inspiration.
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Hi MBMAX,
Thanks a lot for taking time to read through my journey.
I admire your patience :)
I never believed I was inspiration material...bcoz I myself am inspired and motivated by the many great reefing hobbyists.
I am honored and thankful to you guys for the support and motivation.

Posts like yours add a lot of fuel to "wife acceptance factor"
So whenever she says something negative il open my thread and make her read these posts :D and make her realize I am a part of the community and people actually do respect me.
So thanks again :)
:thumbsup:

adi2003 said:
Great thread....
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Hi adi2003,
Thanks a lot for viewing :)
 
Reef_Noob said:
EE4CDD3C-45B2-49E9-BD7A-852DF3849814-772-000000CCBC5B31B1_zpsa0a0430e.jpg


5B27CF35-B59D-434C-AD3C-C90B9A535A93-772-000000CCC3D2341E_zps360088a0.jpg


974935E8-5755-452A-898E-DFEEAB952B12-772-000000CCC8EAFB5D_zpsdb3b5338.jpg


480FD58E-49B4-4FD2-935D-6A97B66122D9-772-000000CCD5F19CD3_zps82ff9d4b.jpg


0E817BE0-74DC-4BEF-9265-E01F160D6C95-772-000000CCD0F1DCB0_zpsb9e7ca1c.jpg
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These are just incredibly beautiful mate, overall how are all those frags coming along that you carpet bombed the reef with a while back. Any doing cool things or color shifting since hitting your water mate ?
Thanks for the detailed info on how you acclimated that idol. Fish are cool and all but they can't be glued to a rock or chopped up and made into 3-4 fish frags like the SPS so at the end of the day the bloody things just don't cut the mustard......... :rolleyes:
I threw the carbon bag in the sump a few days ago when i upset a lot of acros rearranging the scape as you know, went to pull it out of the sump last night and there's a 1/2" long pistol shrimp that's taken up residence on the bloody bag so i didn't want to disturb him lol. Need to 'iPhone' him before i remove the bag. Anything weird or wacky going on in your system buddy, i like weird and wacky reef stuff :thumbsup:
 
biggles said:
These are just incredibly beautiful mate, overall how are all those frags coming along that you carpet bombed the reef with a while back. Any doing cool things or color shifting since hitting your water mate ?
Thanks for the detailed info on how you acclimated that idol. Fish are cool and all but they can't be glued to a rock or chopped up and made into 3-4 fish frags like the SPS so at the end of the day the bloody things just don't cut the mustard......... :rolleyes:
I threw the carbon bag in the sump a few days ago when i upset a lot of acros rearranging the scape as you know, went to pull it out of the sump last night and there's a 1/2" long pistol shrimp that's taken up residence on the bloody bag so i didn't want to disturb him lol. Need to 'iPhone' him before i remove the bag. Anything weird or wacky going on in your system buddy, i like weird and wacky reef stuff :thumbsup:
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Hi biggles,
Always a pleasure reading your posts :)
Yes the frags are doing fine. And pinks have colour shifted to a maroonish hue. The yellow one at the bottom got paler.
The blue is still blue. I tried taking pics all turning out bluish and dark.
Amoung the last frag additions i lost 2 of them :((RTN)
Growth is average. I think I have to up Ca dosing. But I prefer colour over growth and slow growing corals means I can add more frags :D
I need to master the art of top downs and get a SLR and see the difference. Taking pics under LEDs is a task!
Only weird stuff going on in my tank is me :lol2:

There will be some updates coming soon :)
(In the Dept of Lighting and Automation)
 
I have installed the new Eco-Lamp units.
They are coming with a new "prism" lens which gives a very uniform blending of the light output.

Why the upgrade...?
The main reason is my scape. There are areas in front which aren't receiving much of lighting. And I'm running out of space for more SPS pieces.
I have installed the 3 units angling at 45 degrees blasting the low lit areas and now I have quality light/PAR reaching those areas.

Why 3 units...?
Instead if getting one single unit I went with 3 units because of the flexibility in angling and directing the lights to the areas I wanted.
I am a big fan of Japanese reef scapes and how they light their reefs creating a dramatic growth pattern in their systems.
I have noticed SPS follows the light. Using a single unit will give definitely more spread and uniform lighting...but I do not want that, mainly because the SPS corals grow out and finally create a boulder like single big unit and the scape disappears. I'm trying to control the growth of the SPS corals such that they at least maintain the scape outline to an extent. So going modular/spotlighting leaves some areas of low light and the corals wonts spread to that area.

That's the idea...but im not sure if it will work out only time will tell.

I wanted to upload some pics, but my photos have stopped showing up on the thread :(
Some issue of me using up too much bandwidth on photobucket and says I need to upgrade or else wait till it refreshes in about a week or so. Not sure what it means.
I will give it few more days and see if my pics are showing up...if not then I need to figure out the alternative or pay $$ to photobucket.
Any advice guys?
 
Last edited:
I had a made a video of some frags i had got about 2 months ago...some of them were collected during my trip to Malaysia.
They are light acclimating and awaiting live rock deployment :D
I apologize for the bad quality video...but i wanted to share my addiction with you guys...I think i need to join "SPS anonymous":hmm2:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/D5B9gbJVLu0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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