Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[ReefSalt]

Hey Matt,
Just came back from Vaca and Im truly sorry to hear about your Dad my condolences to you and the family.

You have some nice pics of your corals, you have to come over and give me some tips on how to setup my camera to take nice pics like that with my macro lens.

 

[renevilleneuve]

My sympathies for your dad. Be sad and with time it will get easier. As I mentioned been through it last year. Still have my moments. Can only thank him for contributing to making me the the person I like the most on this planet. Xxx hope it's the same for you all.

 

[renevilleneuve]

With regards to territorial fish u have read in an article to use a mirror in the tank. It works surprisingly well. The fish competes with himself and ignores the newby.

 

[renevilleneuve]

I have read!

 

[madkeenreefer]

Thanks and welcome! I used to know 3 or 4 guys with stupid nice tanks in Montreal.. Unfortunately, they all went through relationship issues and moved or shut down their tanks.... I'd love to see some nice sps reefs around here. I know there are some out there but I don't know them.. Except for 74killer but he been a little scarce, lately..
Do you have a build thread? I'd love to check out your system!

Quebec city also has a few nice reef tanks and i know of a few great ones ive yet had the chance to visit.
I have never seen killers (Eric) Aquarium but have had the pleasure to meet and sold him some coral.
I dont have a build thread but am actualy in the middle of a build. I guess I should probly find the time to do one.
At the moment I share a collection with one of my top mates here in Quebec..150+/- different Acros.. my new build will serve as a back up to this monsterous culture lol...

 

[cugly]

Sahin, cugley, Andrew, Mark, Nathan. Thank you for your kind words. I'll miss him.

Mark, I have somewhere between 750 ml and a liter of pellets and quite a high flow rate, now going through the pellets. I would guess I have about 300 gob going through the pellets.. Clearly, I have a LOT of bound po4 in my old rock because I am running the pellets very hard and adding significant amounts of cano3 and kno3 to keep n at around 1ppm.. I also have a very large ball of cheato about the size of a basketball.
Even with magnesium at 1700 and dropping now, I'm not seeing a total shutdown of growth.


Interesting black polyps on this one:

Can't wait for this guy to start growing out instead of just encrusting..

Beautiful pics bud i like the black polyp one.

 

[Cyberdude]

Quebec city also has a few nice reef tanks and i know of a few great ones ive yet had the chance to visit.

I have never seen killers (Eric) Aquarium but have had the pleasure to meet and sold him some coral.

I dont have a build thread but am actualy in the middle of a build. I guess I should probly find the time to do one.

At the moment I share a collection with one of my top mates here in Quebec..150+/- different Acros.. my new build will serve as a back up to this monsterous culture lol...

Ever make your way in to Montreal?

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Matt,
Just came back from Vaca and Im truly sorry to hear about your Dad my condolences to you and the family.

You have some nice pics of your corals, you have to come over and give me some tips on how to setup my camera to take nice pics like that with my macro lens.

My sympathies for your dad. Be sad and with time it will get easier. As I mentioned been through it last year. Still have my moments. Can only thank him for contributing to making me the the person I like the most on this planet. Xxx hope it's the same for you all.

Rene, thank you for saying that. I am also grateful to have had such a great father.
Thanks, Rob!
I allways found it difficult to shoot under LEDs. They have a pulse which messes with the sensor.. I would ramp my whites up to full blast to get a better color rendering of the corals. Would be good to see your tank.. Time, time.. Not enough. We'll have to work on that.

Rene, I have heard that the mirror trick is very effective. I recently added a yellow tang, pyramid bfly and a copperband bfly. My purple tang went crazy and savaged the yellow tang and ignored the two bflys. On day 3, the purple has calmed down and is allowing the yellow to graze a bit. It should be fine. It is a captive bred yellow tang, it seems tough.

 

[reefmutt]

I don't think it can hurt. Going from 1 to 5ppm on your NO3, should have any real change, might make the coral a little more colorful though.

That stinks you can't get the KNO3 in powered form, it costs $3 for a pound of it here and it lasts a long time.

Since I just added 3 new fish and will have to feed a bit more, I will watch for a week or two to see if nutrients change while keeping nitrate additions the same. If I don't see much change, I will begin adding more nitrate.
Since my nutrients went down, I have been getting spots of red and green cyano here and there. I remember reading Matt saying something along the lines that low n promotes cyano... Or that adding more n will help beneficial bacteria outcompete the cyano.. Another good reason to try raising them a bit..

 

[reefmutt]

Yes, thank you.

Can I buy a frag of this Purple Rain from someone? I think yours is too small to be asking (yet haha). That is a great name - though not how I would picture a coral with this name to look like.

I'm pretty sure Raja doesn't have any of it left. Mine has just started to grow after months of hibernation. Don't worry, I'll keep a close eye on it!

 

[reefmutt]

Ever make your way in to Montreal?

It would be pretty cool to organize some sort of frag trade/sale/swap thing around here..
We've never had anything like that.. Maybe this isn't the right place for that.. But it would be cool in the future..

 

[madkeenreefer]

It would be pretty cool to organize some sort of frag trade/sale/swap thing around here..
We've never had anything like that.. Maybe this isn't the right place for that.. But it would be cool in the future..

A Quebec forum has had some members organize some frag meets over the years they keep getting bigger and bigger. But yea...another place maybe .

 

[biggles]

Since I just added 3 new fish and will have to feed a bit more, I will watch for a week or two to see if nutrients change while keeping nitrate additions the same. If I don't see much change, I will begin adding more nitrate.
Since my nutrients went down, I have been getting spots of red and green cyano here and there. I remember reading Matt saying something along the lines that low n promotes cyano... Or that adding more n will help beneficial bacteria outcompete the cyano.. Another good reason to try raising them a bit..

I find that low to unmeasurable nitrates with higher than desirable phos results in diatom/cyano issues for me. The effect on pigments is not too bad when this is happening but it is if the levels of the two are reversed.

 

[reefmutt]

Well... Photo bomb time.
I have to say, it's has been three long years trying to get this tank right.. I couldn't believe what time and energy I was putting into my tank when it was doing badly. But now that it's doing so well, it was all worth it.
It's pretty crazy how a true reef addict, like me, can have his (or her) day be great or suck depending on how the reef is doing.. There has been 3 years of SUCK but lately, it's been great.. Personal life aside..
Ok first, a question asked with photo back up..
I find that lately, more than ever, my corals spew out their mesenterial filaments after I've added food to the tank:

Top down of same Fiji colony:

And here's a top down of the smaller frag to the upper left of the bigger colony:

And another shot of a coral with its filaments out:

I can only speculate, because I have no idea for sure, that the coral is hungry.. It smells food and it's not catching enough with its polyps so it's sending out a longer reach..
I don't know..
My nutrients are certainly lower than they have ever been.. Is there a correlation?
Thoughts?

 

[reefmutt]

I find that low to unmeasurable nitrates with higher than desirable phos results in diatom/cyano issues for me. The effect on pigments is not too bad when this is happening but it is if the levels of the two are reversed.

I've tweaked things a bit more and now have my n back up around 4ppm and p seems to be closer to .04 but the green (mostly) and some red cyano are hanging around..
I'll give it more time..
Andrew, here's a couple artsy fartsy shots for you since you are the reigning scape artist.. Best I can do is take a couple of photos..

Here's a couple on perspective:

 

[reefmutt]

Those last two shots are of a new Fiji colony I just got. I LIKE it:
Top downs:


And the awesome blue one behind is my Oregon Tort which is sprouting a leg.. It's behind the coral so I can't see it from the front, only when I'm over the tank looking at the back of the coral. The tort is really getting rich in colour:

Slightly different focus:

 

[reefmutt]

Ok what else???
Another new Fiji colony:


Here's a frag I'm having trouble photographing because it's standing straight up. Hard to get the depth of field right..

And here's my orange passion.. Still not so orange but growing and still cool..

You can see the bubbles in the cyano here..

 

[reefmutt]

Deep water:

Interesting piece, I'm waiting to start doing something:

One from the matrix family..

A blue polyped yellow tort looking more green.. I can't keep yellow very well..

A new yellow frag which I'm hoping to keep yellow..

 

[biggles]

Holy cow Matt, the pics and more importantly the colors are looking crazy beautiful mate :dance: Really pleased you finally pulled your finger out and got serious about creating a crackalackin SPS display :celeb1:
I hardly ever see filaments if at all in response to any feeding whether during the day or night Matt so i have no real idea what is up when it happens. It's a bit like when you shine a torch one night and everything has crazy over the top PE and other nights much less even though the daily food etc hasn't changed. I think such PE must be in response to a natural food stimulant being in the water, perhaps critters spawning after lights out but who knows.

Good topic to discuss imo :thumbsup:

 

[reefmutt]

High hopes for this new one..

Another new addition:

And another new one..

And yet another! I can't stop..