Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[reefmutt]

Thanks, Mark!
It's absolutely the vinegar. It is a very effective carbon source.
Not to mention the potential p reducing effects of the kalk..
Kalk make up using vinegar is a good all around combo for cal/alk/n/p control..
Maybe you'll have to start adding some nitrate..
Or another fish..

 

[biggles]

I meant to ask you Matt, what type of blenny is this awesome little guy and is there any reason i can't keep one. Super cool photo mate

 

[vinhle00]

Woah that first coral. what a gem.

 

[Scotty freddy]

Things are looking awesome Matt! Good to see mate

 

[reefmutt]

I meant to ask you Matt, what type of blenny is this awesome little guy and is there any reason i can't keep one. Super cool photo mate

Hey Andrew. Thanks! He shows up in a lot of the shots because he always wants to know what's going on.
Red Spot Blenny.
These are a favorite of mine. They are sneaky little algea eaters that like to find tight little spots to make their home in. Before they do this, they can be a bit skittish but once they settle in, they are curious and active.
My tangs will not pass up a chance to chase him ruthlessly around the rocks but he is a torpedo that can out maneuver the bigger fish.
Mine took a good month to eat foods being added to the tank but that may be because I have so much (much!) algea growing in the tank.
The only concern in an algea desert waste land like the pristine waters of Biggles reef would be keeping him fed..

Woah that first coral. what a gem.

Thanks! I'm really loving this coral. Fantastic colour and decent growth.

 

[joshky]

Stunning acros, the one you originally forgot to post is my favorite. Great update!

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks, Josh. Yeah, I'm really hoping it grows out. It has started to encrust but looking back, I don't think it has started to grow at all.. But it's got great pe and colour.. It is 2 inches off the bottom of my tank..

So I'm sitting on a train with my younger daughter heading to Ottawa for a hockey tournament (my older daughter's) and I'm scouring my phone for pics I haven't posted yet..
Nothing better to do!
Here's my orange passion. It's been growing nicely lately..


This is a little guy that Fragbox calls Habanero. It's just starting to encrust. It is down low. It gets intense yellow and apparently a light blue body... We'll see.. Absolutely no clue what type of Acro it is..

Here's what I assume is a tort... Amazing yellow green body and purple tips. Great contrast. It's in a hard to shoot spot. If it hold these shades, it'll be a really eye catching coral..

My nicest of 3 ssc frags I have have(this one from Raja).. Just starting to grow.. Has really nice red polyps.. The other two I have, have the typical red rims on the corralites but the polyps aren't nearly as red..
This one will be spectacular..

 

[plyle02]

WOW that last acro is insane, and the orange passion is sweet too, wow your colors and tank are really taking off bro!!!!!!!!

 

[joshky]

WOW that last acro is insane, and the orange passion is sweet too, wow your colors and tank are really taking off bro!!!!!!!!

+1 I agree wholeheartedly. Great update!

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks, guys!
Certain corals have really started to grow and others are still doing squat!
The older corals are doing less than the newer ones. I guess that makes sense..
The newer ones have not been through as many changes in the system , whereas the older ones have had to adapt to changing conditions for so long and are having more trouble..
Not even sure that is true.. I have a couple oldies that are growing as well..
I guess it's just that individual corals each take their own sweet time to do their thing..
Like I've said... Acro are such prima donnas!!

 

[glaukos]

I love that saying buddy..."acros are such prima donnas":beer:
I also love that spectacular SSC:inlove:

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks, Josh. Yeah, I'm really hoping it grows out. It has started to encrust but looking back, I don't think it has started to grow at all.. But it's got great pe and colour.. It is 2 inches off the bottom of my tank..

So I'm sitting on a train with my younger daughter heading to Ottawa for a hockey tournament (my older daughter's) and I'm scouring my phone for pics I haven't posted yet..
Nothing better to do!
Here's my orange passion. It's been growing nicely lately..


This is a little guy that Fragbox calls Habanero. It's just starting to encrust. It is down low. It gets intense yellow and apparently a light blue body... We'll see.. Absolutely no clue what type of Acro it is..

Here's what I assume is a tort... Amazing yellow green body and purple tips. Great contrast. It's in a hard to shoot spot. If it hold these shades, it'll be a really eye catching coral..

My nicest of 3 ssc frags I have have(this one from Raja).. Just starting to grow.. Has really nice red polyps.. The other two I have, have the typical red rims on the corralites but the polyps aren't nearly as red..
This one will be spectacular..

Um Yeah. I have to get some of that shortcake:inlove:

And why do they call that coral "orange Passion" I've seen tons of pics of it and I don't ever think Ive seen any orange

 

[reefmutt]

I love that saying buddy..."acros are such prima donnas":beer:
I also love that spectacular SSC:inlove:

Yep.. Acros are sensitive and self important prima donnas..

Um Yeah. I have to get some of that shortcake:inlove:

And why do they call that coral "orange Passion" I've seen tons of pics of it and I don't ever think Ive seen any orange

Yeah, it's way nicer than my other sscs ..
There a million rediculous photos out there of every coral but even the orange passion I have had true orange/yellow polyps when I first got it.. Maybe it needs really low nutrients to get the pale orangey polyps but then the body also gets pale. With higher nutrients, I think the whole coral darkens a bit..
I think I'll start a thread asking for photos of people's orange passion. I'm curious to see what other people are getting..

 

[nemodan]

Matt.... I started to feel pain chest when I saw those corals pictures. I was at the border of a heart attach. You want to kill me...... :fun5: :headwalls:

I know that you like the fuge idea and the benefits of growing Macro. Have you seen these ?

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?149954-Pax-Bellum-ARID-Chaetomorpha-filters


Cheers
Daniel

So... What was the result of your Daughter 's hokey game ?

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Dan.. I'm trying not to hurt anybody, I swear!
I have seen the ARID reactor. It is very cool!
JBNY uses one and he seems to like it very much.
I have considered getting one but since I have a sump sitting there and I don't have the $600-$1000 for the pax bellum, I decided to just run a traditional cheato sump.

Well, unfortunately, my daughter's team is not doing very well. The Ontario teams are much stronger. They lost both games, today and we anticipate that they will loose both games tomorrow.
It's ok, my daughter gets to hang out with her teammates and stay up late in a hotel and I get to take my younger daughter to the Museum of Natural History tomorrow..
It'll be fun for everybody and my daughter's team gets some good on ice practice against superior teams..
And my mom feeds the fish at home!

 

[blackgate]

Thought I would chime in on the chemiclean. I went to this as a last resort after dealing with cyano covering my tank for nearly 8 months. By then most of my acros were stn'ing at the bases or bleached all together due to me trying constantly to alter the nutrient levels in my tank in the hopes that I would rid myself of the cyano. I wish I would have just used this stuff from the beginning and saved myself A LOT of time and money. I dosed at half the recommended dosage and siphoned out as much as I could before and during the treatment. Worked like a charm and after 48 hours it was gone and yet to return. That was about 3 months ago, now my bubble algae on the other hand is really coming in nicely! Honestly, I really don't give a $%@# about the bubble algae as my acros are growing nicely as well. I have kept several sps and nem tanks over the years and this latest one has been the biggest challenge so far. I firmly believe it is because of chasing numbers constantly which I really didn't do in years past. Very frustrating...this obsession. I wish you the best of luck and I just wanted to chime in on my experience with chemiclean.

 

[M007]

Some real stunners you posted, the green skinned red polyp piece is a beauty. Orange passion is a tricky one, I've seen it baking under 400w Radiums and 8x54w ATI B+. Both shallow water tanks sharing the same water. Under Radium it looked perfect, under B+ a little dull but still had the orange. I think the heavy tilt to the blue combined with the right water chemistry that brings out the orange.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

I just read your thread Matt, very nice come back on your sps, and sorry for your loss, prior to returning and testing K what salt brand are you using now? I'm using Red Sea blue bucket and I didn't know they have low K,

I should test for it after the move, I will possibly be removing my gfo and possibly run something else.

 

[reefmutt]

Thought I would chime in on the chemiclean. I went to this as a last resort after dealing with cyano covering my tank for nearly 8 months. By then most of my acros were stn'ing at the bases or bleached all together due to me trying constantly to alter the nutrient levels in my tank in the hopes that I would rid myself of the cyano. I wish I would have just used this stuff from the beginning and saved myself A LOT of time and money. I dosed at half the recommended dosage and siphoned out as much as I could before and during the treatment. Worked like a charm and after 48 hours it was gone and yet to return. That was about 3 months ago, now my bubble algae on the other hand is really coming in nicely! Honestly, I really don't give a $%@# about the bubble algae as my acros are growing nicely as well. I have kept several sps and nem tanks over the years and this latest one has been the biggest challenge so far. I firmly believe it is because of chasing numbers constantly which I really didn't do in years past. Very frustrating...this obsession. I wish you the best of luck and I just wanted to chime in on my experience with chemiclean.

Hey Blackgate, thanks for the input. I agree 100% and if I had had this cyano problem 2 years ago, I would have tried every nutrient sucking method possible to get rid of it- one after another, until my corals were all dead as well..
But his time I have changed nothing. Corals are happy but the tank looks like.. Rhymes with wrasse..
But I think as soon as I have time, I will be doing what you and Matt have suggested; a good siphoning and then a RSR treatment. I'm sick of it..

Some real stunners you posted, the green skinned red polyp piece is a beauty. Orange passion is a tricky one, I've seen it baking under 400w Radiums and 8x54w ATI B+. Both shallow water tanks sharing the same water. Under Radium it looked perfect, under B+ a little dull but still had the orange. I think the heavy tilt to the blue combined with the right water chemistry that brings out the orange.

Thanks, Mike... It is Mike, right? The green skinned red polyped is the strawberry shortcake.. Yeah.. Orange passion is eluding me, so far. I suspect it's because my n and p are too high.. But I'm not going to be changing anything just for that one coral.. Still nice colour.

I just read your thread Matt, very nice come back on your sps, and sorry for your loss, prior to returning and testing K what salt brand are you using now? I'm using Red Sea blue bucket and I didn't know they have low K,

I should test for it after the move, I will possibly be removing my gfo and possibly run something else.

Hey Bob! Thank you and thank you.
I've been using instan ocean for quite some time, now. May have played with a bag or two of reef crystals and h2ocean but lately, just plain IO.
I don't test for k regularly because I don't really have a decent test kit for it. I recently got a Zeovit k test kit but I haven't opened it yet..
There is a bit of k in the FM color elements I use and in the past week, I have been dosing some kno3 again because my n has been falling a bit..
Good luck with the move. If you can get your tank off gfo, it will probably thank you for doing so..

 

[MichaelW]

Matt, corals are looking really good. I,tense color on that shortcake. You mentioned you use coral colors... Do you use all 3 bottles and if so how much? Also do you dose all at once or broken up small amounts during the week.