Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

mhucasey said:
Uh, yeah. I agree with Andrew. I've seen a lot of close-ups of your corals and they are nice but seeing the shapes of the colonies is a whole other level of amazing:eek1:. The way you have arranged your reef dimensionally makes FTS look like the tank is way shallower than it is - I have the same issue in my tank.

There are so many awesome layers of gorgeous corals! I didn't realize how balanced your color palette was and how much some of your corals have grown. I would really love to see the same kind of video with an amber filter over the lens to strip away the blue and show off all the awesome reds in there.

The polyp extension is off the charts as well. Has it always been that way or has there been more since dosing NP Pro? What are your impressions of the NP Pro?

Fantastic, scrumptious, stunning Acros:inlove:. Bravo!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks, Matt! I've been moving some things and trying to get rid of some green and insert better colours in bland areas..
I have also been using small bits of dry rock or branches to insert new frags into negative spaces.. It's the only way I can continue to add pieces.. Well I think I have a few more negative spaces to fill and then the tank will REALLY be full..

As for the np pro, I have been dosing it along with nitrate in an attempt to pull down my po4 which is sitting at .16 without any p removers being used. With 6 drops of np pro and n additions, p still will not budge. I am going to go up to 8 drops np pro and increase n to keep n at around 2ppm and see if this pulls p down a bit. I am getting really frustrated with my po4..
I quests I could go back to po4 removers.. I might. Using bacteria just seems to make more sense- so much more efficient..
Anyways as for pe, I would say that in general, it jade been pretty much the same. The only coral that I saw increase pe was my red dragon. I've never had significant pe on my red dragons, but in the evenings, now, it has very nice pe.
This little np pro/no3 experiment may not last.. I'll give it a few more weeks but I don't want to start loading tons of np pro and nitrate into the tank...
 
What a stunning video Matt. After watching it twice, I really appreciated your aquascape, coral placement, the dimensions of your tank. Not having a soundtrack was a good idea. I now have an idea about what your fish can hear in your tank.

Every nook and cranny is full of frags. I am not sure if you can get anymore Matt. Every single coral in the video is so healthy. I would struggle to remove any of the greens. They would be upset and feel discriminated (if I empathise with the them).

I like the idea of using a water proof iPhone case. What a good idea. Have you got a picture of it please, so that I can order the same one (mine is an old iPhone 4).

Cheers

Bulent

PS. One of the fish that caught my attention most is the dark purple/red fire fish. It is very unusual. I saw it in my lsf last week. It was not cheap.
 
Really awesome video, just echoing what everyone else has said. I think we need more distant top downs, even if YOU don't like them. :)
 
DiscusHeckel said:
What a stunning video Matt. After watching it twice, I really appreciated your aquascape, coral placement, the dimensions of your tank. Not having a soundtrack was a good idea. I now have an idea about what your fish can hear in your tank.

Every nook and cranny is full of frags. I am not sure if you can get anymore Matt. Every single coral in the video is so healthy. I would struggle to remove any of the greens. They would be upset and feel discriminated (if I empathise with the them).

I like the idea of using a water proof iPhone case. What a good idea. Have you got a picture of it please, so that I can order the same one (mine is an old iPhone 4).

Cheers

Bulent

PS. One of the fish that caught my attention most is the dark purple/red fire fish. It is very unusual. I saw it in my lsf last week. It was not cheap.
Click to expand...
Bulent, thanks! I really wanted to have as much 'open' space as possible..
You can really hear the gyres in the video.. I'm going to get better at this video thing..
Bulent, here's a secret: there is ALWAYS a space for a new frag. :) I'm having trouble deciding which frags to remove especially considering I have frags that have done nothing for 6-8 months and then just exploded.. There a few that will go...
The iPhone case, I searched on amazon and pretty much picked the first one I saw... It's not great quality and won't last. Not sure I would recommend it.. Pretty cheap but does keep the water out. If I dropped it, I'd be worried about using it in water again..
I think the fish you ere referring to, although, I don't remember seeing it in the video is my gold Angel.. Centropyge aurantia.. My all time favorite fish..

markalot said:
Really awesome video, just echoing what everyone else has said. I think we need more distant top downs, even if YOU don't like them. :)
Click to expand...

Hey Mark.. Thanks! Ok well, being one who has quite a difficult time of saying no to a pic request.. I will see what I can do. :)

In the mean time here's a couple from last night... I kept a few.. :)
Colours:

My other red dragon. Near the front. Makes for nice closes ups

My orangeish passion

OT and fiji fruit bowl..
 
milsaltnewbie07 said:
Wow Matt i didnt know your tank looked that bad a.. wow.
Click to expand...
Thanks, man. I'm bad a..ing it as much as I can!
DiscusHeckel said:
MAtyt,

The fire fish I referred to is the fish in the static image of your video clip(;)):

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24426366&postcount=1235

Also, "there is ALWAYS a space for a new frag" is now my new motto in reef keeping. Thanks for that.
Click to expand...

Oh! That fish! That's just a purple filefish.. There are two. One dominant one and one poor skinny one that lives up in the corner of my tank.. I thought they would pair up like regular firefish.. Sadly no...
It is not the stunningly beautiful helfrichi firefish. I've never kept them as I've actually never had long term succes with firefish until these ones.. Not to mention their very high cost..
Bulent, I'm very happy that you like that motto! Words to live by!! :)
Speaking of frags.....


The fijifruitbowl..

Some contrast.

Little yellow guy.. Since I moved this one, it has stopped growing but I think it'll pick up again very soon

Setosa makes such a nice background.

The Acro pixi:

And finally a wider shot..

Ok wide top downs later this weekend.. I hope.
 
That picture with the fish is AMAZING! !!!

Nice colors !!!

Matt can you avoid me the work of search in your thread your water parameter. Last time you measured it they where...... ???

Thanks !
Daniel
 
nemodan said:
That picture with the fish is AMAZING! !!!

Nice colors !!!

Matt can you avoid me the work of search in your thread your water parameter. Last time you measured it they where...... ???

Thanks !
Daniel
Click to expand...

Thanks, Daniel! my n and p were quite stable for quite some time at n:4 p:.07
But then n started to creep down over a few months to below 1 ppm.. At this point i was using some po4 remover.
I decided to try to pull P down naturally... or bacterially, by starting to dose some nitrate and aqua forest's carbon source, np pro..
To do this, i removed the po4 remover so that i would be able to see the effect of the nitrate and carbon dosing..
For the past 2-3 weeks, n has been around 2 and p has climbed up to .16.
I have noticed a very significant color improvement on a couple of deep water corals from the increased nutrients...... as well as an increase in nuisance algae.. Which I was trying to reduce by doing this!
I have just increased the amount of np pro and nitrate to try to get the p to start dropping.... we'll see how that goes....
I am actually thinking about going back the aio pellets because they are easier to use.... but i'm not there yet..
So, to answer your question... at the moment N: 1.5 and P: .16


vinhle00 said:
Now i want me some Blue Streak Cardinal !!
Click to expand...

They are great fish! They school very nicely at dusk, they are fairly peaceful (only aggressive towards each other when breeding, which they do a lot when fed well) and very hearty.
I've mine for many years.. I think I started with 13 and now have 8 or 9..
 
Thank you Matt for such nice and extended answer. Your corals looks great and the movie shows how well your tank is doing.

Well done !!!

Daniel
 
Wait, you're not happy with your photos? Thats crazy! Tank looks fantastic. Great color and polyp extension! Can't wait to see more.
 
Just joining the chorus here Matt :) I agree with what everyone has already said, just stunning mate and that scape of yours just gets better and better with the acro's all growing in :inlove:
 
nemodan said:
Thank you Matt for such nice and extended answer. Your corals looks great and the movie shows how well your tank is doing.

Well done !!!

Daniel
Click to expand...
No problem and thank you, Daniel!

SkullV said:
Wait, you're not happy with your photos? Thats crazy! Tank looks fantastic. Great color and polyp extension! Can't wait to see more.
Click to expand...
Hey Ted, I'm not unhappy with my shots, in general. I just get less happy with them as they get wider out because that corresponds with a drop in clarity.
Thanks you very much! I'll try to post (gotta take them first) some wider top downs today or tomorrow n
las said:
Following
Click to expand...
Welcome, las!
Acronic said:
Matt. What can I say... Your tank is smick.

Sign me up for a piece of that Fiji fruit bowl
Click to expand...
Thanks, Kevin, having my tank called smick by you or schmick by Dom is high praise.
The way that Fiji is growing since I chopped it down, it won't be long!
Wrangy said:
Just joining the chorus here Matt :) I agree with what everyone has already said, just stunning mate and that scape of yours just gets better and better with the acro's all growing in :inlove:
Click to expand...
Thanks, Dom! I am really appreciating my scape as the corals grow out. :)

Ok.. Here's a non sps shot..


More wide spa tops downs to follow. Hopefully.
 
Thanks Bulent. You are generously appreciative!
Ok.. As promised, I have some new shots.. Some from very far and some close as well.. I can't resist.
Here's a fts to start..

And a fish eye, bird's eye view..

I'll post more in a bit..
 
Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

I have come across the term "negative space" for the first time in your thread Matt. I have read up on it. I hope you keep some negative space in your tank and resist the temptation to fill it up with more rocks and stuff. I can see this space in the front eroding already. Just saying.
 
:) I hear ya! Ultimately, it should be the growth that fills the space but.... Like I've said before... There's always room...
Couple fish shots..
Pyramid butterfly.

My evansi anthias:

Centre section:
 
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