Cpllongjk's Red Sea Reefer 170

As requested minor update.

When viewing all these shots keep in mind what's been going on here. I slowly increased the photoperiod of the Giesemann Specta 250w radium from 4 hours daily to 8 hours daily. The Spectra was suspended with the bulb 10" off the water's surface. While going from 4 hours MH to 8 hours MH, which I did over the course of 2-3 months, the colors were great until the 8 hour period. My corals started lightening up and bleaching so slowly I didn't notice until all one day I looked and all my frags were almost stark white. Some had a bit of color but for the most part they were all bleached.

I immediately raised the light a few more inches and backed off the MH schedule to 4 hours in hopes that the corals would recover more quickly. This led to recover and a brown out. The corals are still recovering from "a sunburn" and are getting more color every day.

I saw a local guy posting a 4 bulb ati hybrid fixture at a great price so I decided to try it out while the corals are recovering. So far I am impressed as the ATI hybrid has extended my viewing period by use of the royal blue leds for dusk dawn and moon lighting, something I didn't have before.

So without further ado... a FTS


ProCorals Superman - color still returning but you can see growth on tips


Schizopolis Sunset - Has growth but like all the corals still recovering.


Cali Tort - This was the most unaffected coral from the bleaching because it was in a very low light part of the tank, however it still had some bleaching.


Rainbow in Spain - This one lost a lot of color but has grown a lot since the beginning.


Two weeks ago I added a calcium reactor. I was doing fine with dosing but I am so glad I added it. I really do feel that calcium reactors add so many things besides calcium and alkalinity to the water. I am keeping the reactor at a pH of 6.5-6.6 controlled via a apex and Aquarium Plants Carbon Doser. The reason I got the calcium reactor is that sometime very soon I am expecting a very large shipment from BattleCorals.
 
Ok its almost been a month since I last posted an update. Here is a FTS and some coral shots. The colors have come back and are improving daily. Everything is happy and healthy!

FTS


PC Superman


PC Rainbow


BC Secale


Rainbow in Spain "Spainbow"


Cali Tort


Pearly Cadaver


Crimson Bliss


Shizopolis Sunset


Reef Ready Grape Juice
 
Thanks.

I am very happy that things are recovering. I really cannot believe I was killing my corals with too much light. But after seeing Big_E's posts I was a total believe in less light and it works!
 
I decided to send in a triton test just to verify that my test kits are accurate.

Turns out my magnesium test kits (expired redsea kit and new elos kit) are both reading at 1200 when my magnesium from triton reads 1283.

My calcium test kits (expired red sea and new elos) are reading 440 and 460 while triton says 506.

While it seems my test kits are reading a tad lower than true value everything is doing ok. However, I will be sending triton bi-yearly samples just to verify my test kits and to make sure I have no contamination. I plan on going to a water changeless system so I just want to verify that no build up of contaminants occurs.

 
Well Some Very BAD News!!!!!!

My son said "look what sissy did!"

She had dumped half a small bottle of liquid baby soap in my frag tank. My skimmer has been creating tons of bubbles like a bubble bath. I already lost 2 chromis. Everything in the tank looks stressed but I haven't lost anything else yet.

The corals still have polyps extended slightly but are retracted compared to normal. The fish are out but seem to have a hard time breathing.

I added about 2 cups of activated carbon and plan on doing a 15-20 gallon water change tonight and again tomorrow.

I really hope nothing else dies, especially the corals. This just really sucks because the corals were all growing like crazy and were looking amazingly good!

Pray for me!
 
After multiple 5 gallon water changes and staying up all night removing soap bubbles that the skimmer created I think the tank is doing much better.

I will still keep a close eye on things but last night I lost 3 blue/green reef chromis and 1 helfrichi firefish.

All of the corals still look good and I didn't lose a single one. Only time will tell on long term effects though.

Here is a top-down shot taken from tonight!
 
Some Updated Photos!

FTS


PC SUPERMAN


SHADES OF FALL


ULTIMATE TABLE


PEARLY CADAVER


REEF READY GRAPE JUICE


PC RAINBOW


CRIMSON BLISS?


CALI TORT


RAINBOWS IN SPAIN "SPAINBOW"
 
Update!

I decided to have the aquascape redone. Many thanks to JesterSix, for coming over and rebuilding my scape! I am very happy with the scape compared to before. I originally wanted to do a bonsai scape but I honestly am not very artistic so it didn't happen.

All the corals were moved to the frag tank until I can remove all of the sand. I decided to go bare bottom and will be removing 5 gallons of water/sand at a time until it is all gone. All sand should be gone by the end of this month.



Along a different note... I decided to remove the overflow in my spare reefer 170 display. Can you guess what I am planning to do with it?

 
Here is some progress on the tank upgrade.

This picture is of some 1/4" starboard installed and siliconed in place to raise the bottom to meet the bulkhead assembly. I only did so there wasn't any flex with the starboard from back to front. I wanted a flat surface. Anything could have been used but starboard is cheap so I went with that.


This is a picture of what it will look like before I install the ghost overflow. I am still waiting for the black silicon which is due tomorrow. My plan is to use a nice bead of black silicon along all the edges and on the 3 bulkhead openings where the teeth are as well as on the bottom piece of starboard to glue it in place. In theory placing a nice bead of silicon along the all edges and then placing the starboard down will create a nice seal and then I will just clean it up with my finger or something small. I will show you a finished product within a few days.

I plan on water testing it probably after a week or two of curing, even though that long really isn't needed.
 
10/25/16 Update

Spainbow


PC Superman


TCK Fusion


SC Orange Passion


Copps 24K Milli


Frag Farmer's Red Robin


Cali Tort
 
Another Update about the 2nd Reefer170.

I was working on it this past weekend and moved it to a table and must of left it unstable. I woke up to a broken tank on the cement below the table I had it on.

Anyways it really sucks but life goes on. Totally my fault btw.

Jared
 
FTS 10/25/16

After the rockscape was redone and almost all the sand is removed. Over the next few weeks I will remove it all.
 
Great build. Love you spa collection. Definitely had to add a couple to my wish list. Lol the spainbow and pc superman have grown very well for ya. New aquascape looks great and can't wait to see how the tank does bare bottom. Wish you were on the other coast cause I'm going to be looking for a Giesemann spectra once I save up enough.
 
Lilmatty5dimes said:
Great build. Love you spa collection. Definitely had to add a couple to my wish list. Lol the spainbow and pc superman have grown very well for ya. New aquascape looks great and can't wait to see how the tank does bare bottom. Wish you were on the other coast cause I'm going to be looking for a Giesemann spectra once I save up enough.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I took the shots unaltered then used Lightroom to change the color to match exactly what I see. The spainbow, PC super man, and PC rainbow are amazing.

After getting the par meter and testing both my display and frag tank, I realized my frag tank was 100-150 par on average below my display. I lowered the lights over the frag tank to be closer to the display.

One thing about sps... no matter who you get them from, expect a color shift. Many of my corals from Battlecorals have completely changed from when I ran MH bulbs. Some are so ugly now I put them in frag tank permanently. Over the next few months I am going to add and remove corals to and from the display to get the colors I want. Everything I don't want will go in the frag tank as growout.

Once the corals in display get big I'll frag those too and it's my plan to keep doubles of all my display corals.

I loved the spectra but I didn't like the heat, energy, evaporation, and photoperiod. My daily amps doesn't exceed 1.9 amps according to my apex. The display and frag tank are on reverse lighting. Before I bleached my corals with the spectra the most viewing time was 7 hours under full lighting. I'm getting 8 under full and 10-12 under actinic now.
 
So I ordered a few things from BattleCorals the other day. I got them in today and will slowly post pictures as I get some good ones.
The frags I got in are: Aquaman-Table, Hyperberry, Mr. Pac Man, BubbleBath Unicorn, Sniper's BubbleGum Milli, and Pink Flamingo

Playing with the macro settings and trying to free-hand shoot the corals and manual focus everything. It feels like shooting in the service again; pausing my breath while taking the photo. LOL!


Aquatic Man Table


BubbleBath Unicorn


Hyperberry 1


Hyperberry 2




The rest will come after I take some good shots. Sometimes it takes 10-15 times to get a good one when I do it free-hand.

Some oldies but goodies:

PC Rainbow


Crimson Bliss
 
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