markalot
...
Thanks Brian!
Mark's 150 (72x18x27)
- Thread starter markalot
- Start date
Thanks Brian!
markalot
...
I rescaped the right side a bit to bring up my maricultured acro with Karl, the acro crab. I hate to use the word scape since really it's just pushing things around until something fits. 
While I was working on the tank I noticed things looked a lot better when I had my LED strip in the middle of the tank rather than in the front aimed back. I decided to try this a while and moved some bulbs in the T5 fixture around so it doesn't block any of the brighter bulbs. Doubled checked with the PAR meter and everything is good. A little above 400 on the topmost corals dropping to 200 on the sandbed, 150 or a little lower in the front corners.
SSC nub
The tank is really in the zone (whatever that is) at the moment. Polyp extension is good and the birdsnests are growing like crazy again.
Bulb combination is now
-front-
Coral+
Coral+
Blue+
LED strip
Blue+
Coral+
Purple+
While I was working on the tank I noticed things looked a lot better when I had my LED strip in the middle of the tank rather than in the front aimed back. I decided to try this a while and moved some bulbs in the T5 fixture around so it doesn't block any of the brighter bulbs. Doubled checked with the PAR meter and everything is good. A little above 400 on the topmost corals dropping to 200 on the sandbed, 150 or a little lower in the front corners.
SSC nub
The tank is really in the zone (whatever that is) at the moment. Polyp extension is good and the birdsnests are growing like crazy again.
Bulb combination is now
-front-
Coral+
Coral+
Blue+
LED strip
Blue+
Coral+
Purple+
aggie13reef
Member
Hows that frag of the green birdsnest coming along?
markalot
...
Howdy!
Doubled in size, but I moved it to my little 29 gallon, which will be a birdsnest test bed for a while. So far I've got 2 rather brown birds, a tiny frag of Ponape that has grown up nicely, and now the green.
Just left of center, up top, in this pic.
Since I'm posting pics, a couple of updated top downs.
My phosphates are < .08, but nitrates are ...
:hmm2:
I've done two water changes since then, the latest a 12 gallon that raised KH from 8.3 to 9.0 KH. :mad2:
Hopefully the acros won't get too upset.
markalot
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Thanks Sahin! Biggles hasn't come down too hard on my brown acros ... yet.
I was out of town for two days and plan to be out of town for almost a week next month so I bought a DropCam and I find it works well, or well enough. My silly skimmer behaved while we were gone but decided to nearly overflow soon after we got back today. Why! I think I may have to invest in a new skimmer at some point.
KH was 8.0 before we left and 7.8 - 7.9 now so dossing seems right on.
Dropcam photo
FTS
markalot
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I moved some Clavularia (daisy polyps) from my 29 into here because they were infested with algae and not doing well. Tangs and Foxface took care of the algae but the polyps were slowly vanishing.
This was on the glass Saturday morning and is now down the drain.
Soft coral eating nudi. Oops.
I tried to feed him a blue clove polyp but no dice. Oh well.
Took a few more topdown shots.
I believe this is Acropora jacquelineae. I'm afraid to remove the dead spot for fear of breaking too much off.
This large "frag" is showing some promise. I don't have anything else this particular shade of brown. :lolspin:
This was on the glass Saturday morning and is now down the drain.
Soft coral eating nudi. Oops.
I tried to feed him a blue clove polyp but no dice. Oh well.
Took a few more topdown shots.
I believe this is Acropora jacquelineae. I'm afraid to remove the dead spot for fear of breaking too much off.
This large "frag" is showing some promise. I don't have anything else this particular shade of brown. :lolspin:
markalot
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As far as nitrates, here is what I've been doing.
I had some Red Sea Blue Bucket salt left over that I had forgotten about, well sealed in a blue bucket (go figure). I mixed that about 50/50 with Reef Crystals and ended up with a KH around 9.5, much better that 13! So far I've done two 15 gallon water changes over 3 days without spiking KH. Nitrates haven't budged but the corals look better.
The second change was 50/50 RSBB + Seachem Reef Salt. This batch mixed to 9KH. Right now my remaining salt inventory is 3 bags of Seachem Reef Salt and 3 bags of Reef Crystals.
I'm also going to try something I read about here in some old thread. Take Instant Ocean, which mixes to 10KH and calcium at 400, and add a teaspoon of Calcium Chloride per 25 gallons, which should drop KH to 8 and raise Calcium to 450. This seems too easy, there must be a catch.
I had some Red Sea Blue Bucket salt left over that I had forgotten about, well sealed in a blue bucket (go figure). I mixed that about 50/50 with Reef Crystals and ended up with a KH around 9.5, much better that 13! So far I've done two 15 gallon water changes over 3 days without spiking KH. Nitrates haven't budged but the corals look better.
The second change was 50/50 RSBB + Seachem Reef Salt. This batch mixed to 9KH. Right now my remaining salt inventory is 3 bags of Seachem Reef Salt and 3 bags of Reef Crystals.
I'm also going to try something I read about here in some old thread. Take Instant Ocean, which mixes to 10KH and calcium at 400, and add a teaspoon of Calcium Chloride per 25 gallons, which should drop KH to 8 and raise Calcium to 450. This seems too easy, there must be a catch.
troubadour11
Member
Wow, things are sure looking good to me. Even though you say it's brown. You could definitely fool me. [emoji7] I'm testing out my new tablet at work on lunch today [emoji4]
How do you not have crazy gha with .08 po4 and 20ish no3?
I was between .01 and .02 po4 with really low levels of no3 (like 0/trace to 5) and my system is over run in gha still. Working on adding a Kole Tang soon (in qt). I can't seem to shake it & the out of control algae is the only thing I can imagine causing issues for my corals.
All my stuff does fine for 1-5 months until it slowly gets aggravated and shuts down. But they look good and colorful and grow slightly for the first months until they shut down.
I can say, I've rarely tested high no3 in our system. That's what I recently found, no3 is getting handled mostly but po4 was building up and not getting removed. I have that 75 gallon fuge attached to my 90 dt. The fuge has a 4-5 dsb with the same footprint as our dt. I think that and additional rock in the fuge makes a huge impact on no3. When the pump died on the fuge, that's the only time other then initial cycle I've seen greater then 10 no3. Something to consider... I'm buying into the dsb processing ability for no3.
We also basically have a deb in our display too. It's a little shallow of 4 inches all around, but it's close. I've decided with the tall tank on the 90, I'm going to slowly even out the bed to 4 inches even over time. Plenty of tank space with the tall tank.
Also, what type of snails or other algae eaters do you have besides your tang and force? My snails don't seem to do much no matter what, or how many I put in.
Anyway, lunch is over. Your stuff is looking good. Keep up those awesome pics [emoji106]
How do you not have crazy gha with .08 po4 and 20ish no3?
I was between .01 and .02 po4 with really low levels of no3 (like 0/trace to 5) and my system is over run in gha still. Working on adding a Kole Tang soon (in qt). I can't seem to shake it & the out of control algae is the only thing I can imagine causing issues for my corals.
All my stuff does fine for 1-5 months until it slowly gets aggravated and shuts down. But they look good and colorful and grow slightly for the first months until they shut down.
I can say, I've rarely tested high no3 in our system. That's what I recently found, no3 is getting handled mostly but po4 was building up and not getting removed. I have that 75 gallon fuge attached to my 90 dt. The fuge has a 4-5 dsb with the same footprint as our dt. I think that and additional rock in the fuge makes a huge impact on no3. When the pump died on the fuge, that's the only time other then initial cycle I've seen greater then 10 no3. Something to consider... I'm buying into the dsb processing ability for no3.
We also basically have a deb in our display too. It's a little shallow of 4 inches all around, but it's close. I've decided with the tall tank on the 90, I'm going to slowly even out the bed to 4 inches even over time. Plenty of tank space with the tall tank.
Also, what type of snails or other algae eaters do you have besides your tang and force? My snails don't seem to do much no matter what, or how many I put in.
Anyway, lunch is over. Your stuff is looking good. Keep up those awesome pics [emoji106]
markalot
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Thanks for visiting troub. DSB is something to consider for sure.
I have a few snails and I used to have a few hermits, and might still have some, but the tangs and foxface do most of the work. So my nitrates are down after 3 water changes over 4 days.
Better than before, but I would still like to be a little lower. Brown corals still brown but some are showing some signs of improvement. I think it will take at least a week before I know if Nitrates were holding some of the acros back.
Fish pics!
markalot
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Thanks for stopping by Sahin.
I don't trust my skimmer, I don't think it's reliable or big enough for my bioload, so I expect Nitrates are already on the way up. Good advice though, I must be careful. I've made these kinds of mistakes before!
markalot
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Really nice tank Mark, not many sps tanks in our area sadly. Maybe more so for you being closer to cincy though
Thanks! I work in Cincy and there is one shop up close to where I work that has a decent SPS selection, but yea, not much. The slimer is from a tank somewhere north of Lexington, who brings giant pieces in to my local shop twice a year for a few bucks. I'd like to see a picture of his tank because pieces he brings in are huge! I bought a dual branched frag, maybe 6" long a year and a half ago. If only everything grew as well as the slimer does!
Latest FTS. This is with my new 20K BML MC strip on the front, running 75% White and 75% Blue/Violet.
I'm going to have to scrape the back glass if I want these to look better. :thumbdown
markalot
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Thanks! So far so good, we'll see if I can finally color up some of these acropora.
markalot
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Took my weekly topdowns yesterday. Still a lot of brown, but a few are doing quite well.
This smooth skin frag I picked up just a couple of months ago is really doing well.
The slimer is attempting to outgrow the tank again.
The Miami Orchid looks amazing, but is almost impossible to get a good picture of.
What's left of my 'Purple Fuzz' acro is finally looking healthy and encrusting.
Strawberry Shortcake still sitting there.
My turquoise acro might be getting its color back, finally.
There's a thread in the SPS forum bashing pocillopora. My ugly green one does like to spread, I wish this one did. I like Pocis.
Oh, and my bubble algae is doing fantastic, thanks for asking. :fun4:
This smooth skin frag I picked up just a couple of months ago is really doing well.
The slimer is attempting to outgrow the tank again.
The Miami Orchid looks amazing, but is almost impossible to get a good picture of.
What's left of my 'Purple Fuzz' acro is finally looking healthy and encrusting.
Strawberry Shortcake still sitting there.
My turquoise acro might be getting its color back, finally.
There's a thread in the SPS forum bashing pocillopora. My ugly green one does like to spread, I wish this one did. I like Pocis.
Oh, and my bubble algae is doing fantastic, thanks for asking. :fun4:
