fishes2889
In Memoriam
NANO of the month......wait of the YEAR!!
thumbs up for louist!
Steve
thumbs up for louist!
Steve
Louis' Cubic Adventure
- Thread starter louist
- Start date
MarineGirl411
New member
I can't believe this tank is even real. It's beauty is remarkable. Will your acropora's and clam eventually outgrow your tank? This is the most beautiful nano. Sheesh. I really cannot believe it's beauty! You must have spent a fortune. If only mine could look that good in the future. Wow. Was this your first nano?
louist
New member
MarineGirl, you are too generous with your words!Acropora, no. They will be fragged if they shade the ones lower down, and I'll use them as frags in trades, or just give them away to budding reefers. I give my zoanthids away all the time.
The clam on the other hand will outgrow the tank. It serves me 3 purposes: 1 it looks good while it's at the right size. 2 it supposedly consumed nitrate in the water. 3. When it gets too big, I'll sell it and buy an even more colorful one
I don't exact keep a log book, but one must keep in mind that corals are cheap in Australia. We really need to work hard to get nice pieces, but here in Syd, no one in their right mind would fork out more than USD$40 for a colorful fist-sized colony. We are just not used to expensive corals. I do a lot of trading with fellow reefers, but I also have the advantage of being able to offer some tank photography in return for a few nice frags. I guess I have been "brought up" by the people with mature tanks and are generous with frags and thus I tend to give overflows away too. No big deal.
This is my first nano, first fish tank ever in fact.
Very impressive for a first effort. I assume computational biology doesn’t involve a lot of husbandry.
How happy are you with the top mount of the thermoelectric chiller. I just got one myself and assumed I would drill for it. Does that last half inch at the base get cold?
How happy are you with the top mount of the thermoelectric chiller. I just got one myself and assumed I would drill for it. Does that last half inch at the base get cold?
louist
New member
I do a 30% WC every weekend. I dose the equivalent of 15ppm of calcium + almost 60mg/L of carbonate per day. This maintains the Ca at 420ppm and kH at 120ppm. This will soon to switched over to kalk because dosing 2 separate things is just a pain, and was a lot of hassle to find the balancing point. I expect the kalk to provide further stability, but I will start when I get a replacement kH and Ca test kit.
I am also a medical microbiologist and immunologist. Thank god I am not looking after any mammalian cells lines at the moment, the research assistants do that I got mine off Ebay without the controller for something like USD$45 so I say it is $45-worth-it, but if I had to pay retail, then I would say don't bother, just add another fan. The advantage of the IceProbe is the chiling effect without evaporation. I use it in combination with a 80mm fan and they do a good job. I do leave the lights off during mid day if the weather man predicts a mid 30's C.
IMHo, people stress too much about temperature. My tank has hit 30.5C on many occassions without any issue. None of the SPS even appeared stressed, the tank just carried on with their daily business as per usual. I think I got more aggitated than they did!
Have any of you seen one of the latest research on SPS bleaching mechanisms? Temperature isn't actually the direct cause of bleaching. Higher temperature causes particular strains of Vibrio sp to express virulence factors, and thus infecting the coral tissue, leading to bleaching. If you have a SPS colony without these strains of pathogens, even at 31-32C there's no bleaching event. If you look at the ocean temperature distribution around the Indo Pacific, you will see that during summer, the water reaches around 30 even down to 10m. I'll post back when I find the citation for that research paper.
That would be awesome. I admit to having a psychotic aversion to temp fluctuations. I have a closed loop pump that does nothing but heat the water and am getting the chiller to allow me to run it (hopefully) full time. OK, it also does +900 gph into a 20g display in addition to the 500 gph main pump. I have not let it run full time to see where it would max out. I have it turn off at ±0.1C. Currently I let it run 6min on / 24min off. I have been hung up on temp without any good reason/study. I guess it’s that I am sure there is something out there that we don’t know about that is less than ideal and stresses the inhabitants. If there is a parameter I can control then why not? Temp is relatively easy.
Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but even if the host isn’t directly affected by temp fluctuations and secondary organisms become pathogenic, isn’t that the same thing? I definitely subscribe to the theory that pathogens are always in situ and over stressing hosts allows them to express.
I do have auto top off to keep salinity steady and like the idea of keeping evaporation minimized. That way the 5 gallon bucket could last 4 weeks rather than 2.
Not looking to go at it with you, glad you like the probe and are comfortable with big swings. Does the entire length of the probe get cold? I can always just plug mine in and see, but figured you might know. Plus, serious props on the tank.
Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but even if the host isn’t directly affected by temp fluctuations and secondary organisms become pathogenic, isn’t that the same thing? I definitely subscribe to the theory that pathogens are always in situ and over stressing hosts allows them to express.
I do have auto top off to keep salinity steady and like the idea of keeping evaporation minimized. That way the 5 gallon bucket could last 4 weeks rather than 2.
Not looking to go at it with you, glad you like the probe and are comfortable with big swings. Does the entire length of the probe get cold? I can always just plug mine in and see, but figured you might know. Plus, serious props on the tank.
louist
New member
Wayne, sure, it's your tank and people should just do whatever they feel comfortable with (with animals ethics and all in mind etc). If it works for you, then it works for yo.
Personally, because of my training and being a cynic, I only do things if I can justify it with some scientific/logical sense. I.e. I have not yet seen an "addictive" that convinces me to buy it (i.e. Prodibio, Zeovit etc).
I have discussed this issue with a marine biologist (and very successful reefer) regarding this issue and he also feels it is overrated.
The entire length of the probe goes cold, in fact it does quite cold. I suspect the AC70 might be moving water too fast for it to be operating at its max efficiency. Perhaps a slower moving HOB would be more suitable.
Lgoins: Yes I still have it. It's growing well, and it's a dark olive green from above, but violet color from the side. The coloration varies very wildly, there's brown, gold, blue and fluro green. It's actually hard to say what color it is.
Personally, because of my training and being a cynic, I only do things if I can justify it with some scientific/logical sense. I.e. I have not yet seen an "addictive" that convinces me to buy it (i.e. Prodibio, Zeovit etc).
Actually no, that's not the same thing. Pathogens are not always in situ. My previous point being that if there isn't a pathogenic strain, increased temperature doesn't neccessarily cause bleaching events. The GBR reaches 30C during mid day in summer, and anyone who goes diving will also tell you the large variations in water temperature.
I have discussed this issue with a marine biologist (and very successful reefer) regarding this issue and he also feels it is overrated.
The entire length of the probe goes cold, in fact it does quite cold. I suspect the AC70 might be moving water too fast for it to be operating at its max efficiency. Perhaps a slower moving HOB would be more suitable.
Lgoins: Yes I still have it. It's growing well, and it's a dark olive green from above, but violet color from the side. The coloration varies very wildly, there's brown, gold, blue and fluro green. It's actually hard to say what color it is.
louist
New member
Nick, thanks for that! I am still working out the right mixing and dosing methodologies. The kalkwasser I was mixing wasn't saturated and thus I began to add vinegar to the bottle. I am going to give it a few runs, I am sure all the little problems will be ironed out soon. It's so expensive on the test kits though, I might burn through another set of Ca and kH test kit before the end of this 
These were all taken after lights out.
Focusing the was the main issue, but you get by :thumbsup:
These were all taken after lights out.
Focusing the was the main issue, but you get by :thumbsup:
louist
New member
Anyhow, I went down to Kim's yesterday since they got a nice shipment of corals. I picked up two pieces:
1x Acropora millepora (tentatively), lilac tips with tan body. No idea what the final color will be.
2x Montipora sp., dark brown body, white polyps and a purple growth edge. This one is a plating Montipora, but mine is growing around the dead skeleton of a staghorn.. :nut: It was the smallest one they had. Perhaps I should frag it down the center.
Anyhow, that's all talks, here are some photos:
#1: the new montipora
#2: new millepora
#3: new millepora, in situ
#4: new millepora top down
#5: Dallas warren frag showing its characteristic fluro green
#6: nice looking little frag
#7: my bi-color Stylopora that didn't like the MH. It's since been moved downwards and is recovering.
#8: Tri-color special.
1x Acropora millepora (tentatively), lilac tips with tan body. No idea what the final color will be.
2x Montipora sp., dark brown body, white polyps and a purple growth edge. This one is a plating Montipora, but mine is growing around the dead skeleton of a staghorn.. :nut: It was the smallest one they had. Perhaps I should frag it down the center.
Anyhow, that's all talks, here are some photos:
#1: the new montipora
#2: new millepora
#3: new millepora, in situ
#4: new millepora top down
#5: Dallas warren frag showing its characteristic fluro green
#6: nice looking little frag
#7: my bi-color Stylopora that didn't like the MH. It's since been moved downwards and is recovering.
#8: Tri-color special.
louist
New member
Oh, and vote for me in the nano tank of the month if you feel I deserve the vote 
The voting thread is here, check out some of the other excellent entries too:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=964254
The voting thread is here, check out some of the other excellent entries too:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=964254
Cosmo^Kramer
New member
Got my vote Louis.beautiful tank.Keep up the great work
Similar threads
