Mark's 150 (72x18x27)

[markalot]

Things are going quite well. The bio-pellet reactor is crap, but fairly stable. I have been dosing CaNO3 about every 3 days to keep Nitrates around 3. PO4 has remained below .06 and for the last week or so has been .03 or less. I'm seeing some rapidly improving colors, my teal stag is starting to lose the brown, an 8 month long journey with that one.

I took a bunch of pics, posting the better ones.

This stylo was on a reefgen plug, I believe it's an Orchid stylo.

I'd like to know what the odd growth on the back of this frag is.

Purple Fuzz is really starting to take off.

 

[markalot]

There's that sneaky tang again.

The near impossible to photo Miami Orchid.

 

[mhucasey]

Things are going quite well. The bio-pellet reactor is crap, but fairly stable. I have been dosing CaNO3 about every 3 days to keep Nitrates around 3. PO4 has remained below .06 and for the last week or so has been .03 or less. I'm seeing some rapidly improving colors, my teal stag is starting to lose the brown, an 8 month long journey with that one.

I took a bunch of pics, posting the better ones.

This stylo was on a reefgen plug, I believe it's an Orchid stylo.

I'd like to know what the odd growth on the back of this frag is.

Purple Fuzz is really starting to take off.

Woot! So glad to hear that things are looking up!!

 

[aggie13reef]

Mark things are looking great. I have got to get myself a legit camera after Christmas this year... Awesome pics, what is that piece above the Miami orchid picture?

 

[markalot]

Woot! So glad to hear that things are looking up!!

Thanks Matt!

Mark things are looking great. I have got to get myself a legit camera after Christmas this year... Awesome pics, what is that piece above the Miami orchid picture?

Some random frag I bought a year ago. I'm calling it Kentucky Blue Grass because every acro needs an annoying name, right? It's a rugged piece in a bad spot. I cut a frag of it that encrusted a frag plug quickly, debating where to "plant" so I can better enjoy how it looks.

So I wanted to add a few bits about why I think the tank is improving.

First, steady PO4 and NO3.

Second, IMO, is the lighting. Big E and I exchanged a number of PM's and he, plus a few articles he linked too, convinced me I needed to change up the lighting a bit. First, make sure my top end PAR is 400 or close, which I did by raising the T5 fixture way way up. The 60 inch ATI Sunpowers are beasts for PAR.

Third was to reduce the light cycle and ramp times. I was running low level blues from 6am until 10 when my ramp up started. I believe this was stressing the corals so now I'm dark until 10AM.

Fourth was to reduce the LED intensity. I am keeping the blue and violet channel at 100% but I've reduced the white channel to 50% in front, 30% in back. This sacrifices some shimmer but I think the acros have responded well. These are BML fixtures which are not as bright as a DIY 3 watt LED strip would be.

In the fine tradition of a newbie reefer I changed too many things at once to really know what worked, but I'll take the results. :jester: I did make a similar change in my little LED lit 29 gallon and that tank has improved colors as well so I think lighting may have been a big part of it.

To combat cyano I started a weekly heavy dosing of Microbacter7 and that seemed to put a big dent in it. I really like how clear the water gets after dosing. Did this snake oil help with coral color or health? I dosed MB7 in the 29 as well.

It was time to change bulbs and I've gone all Giesemann this time around.

-front-
BML 20K strip 50W/100B
G Actinic Blue
G Aquablue Coral or AquaBlue Azure (haven't decided which I like better)
G Actinic Blue
G Super Actinic
G Super Purple
G Super Actinic
BML 20K strip 30W/100B
-back-

This gives me 375 PAR at the base of my highest acro, 320 mid tank, and 240 on the sandbed.

 

[aggie13reef]

Thanks Matt!



Some random frag I bought a year ago. I'm calling it Kentucky Blue Grass because every acro needs an annoying name, right? It's a rugged piece in a bad spot. I cut a frag of it that encrusted a frag plug quickly, debating where to "plant" so I can better enjoy how it looks.

So I wanted to add a few bits about why I think the tank is improving.

First, steady PO4 and NO3.

Second, IMO, is the lighting. Big E and I exchanged a number of PM's and he, plus a few articles he linked too, convinced me I needed to change up the lighting a bit. First, make sure my top end PAR is 400 or close, which I did by raising the T5 fixture way way up. The 60 inch ATI Sunpowers are beasts for PAR.

Third was to reduce the light cycle and ramp times. I was running low level blues from 6am until 10 when my ramp up started. I believe this was stressing the corals so now I'm dark until 10AM.

Fourth was to reduce the LED intensity. I am keeping the blue and violet channel at 100% but I've reduced the white channel to 50% in front, 30% in back. This sacrifices some shimmer but I think the acros have responded well. These are BML fixtures which are not as bright as a DIY 3 watt LED strip would be.

In the fine tradition of a newbie reefer I changed too many things at once to really know what worked, but I'll take the results. :jester: I did make a similar change in my little LED lit 29 gallon and that tank has improved colors as well so I think lighting may have been a big part of it.

To combat cyano I started a weekly heavy dosing of Microbacter7 and that seemed to put a big dent in it. I really like how clear the water gets after dosing. Did this snake oil help with coral color or health? I dosed MB7 in the 29 as well.

It was time to change bulbs and I've gone all Giesemann this time around.

-front-
BML 20K strip 50W/100B
G Actinic Blue
G Aquablue Coral or AquaBlue Azure (haven't decided which I like better)
G Actinic Blue
G Super Actinic
G Super Purple
G Super Actinic
BML 20K strip 30W/100B
-back-

This gives me 375 PAR at the base of my highest acro, 320 mid tank, and 240 on the sandbed.

Interesting about the lighting change. I keep my LEDS at 75% blue and 45% white. I have been ramping up every Sunday, however my colors are great and growth is steady so I am scared to change too much. How high did you raise the ATI?

 

[markalot]

Interesting about the lighting change. I keep my LEDS at 75% blue and 45% white. I have been ramping up every Sunday, however my colors are great and growth is steady so I am scared to change too much. How high did you raise the ATI?

It's 12 inches above glass tops, 14 inches from the water line.

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks Matt!



Some random frag I bought a year ago. I'm calling it Kentucky Blue Grass because every acro needs an annoying name, right? It's a rugged piece in a bad spot. I cut a frag of it that encrusted a frag plug quickly, debating where to "plant" so I can better enjoy how it looks.

So I wanted to add a few bits about why I think the tank is improving.

First, steady PO4 and NO3.

Second, IMO, is the lighting. Big E and I exchanged a number of PM's and he, plus a few articles he linked too, convinced me I needed to change up the lighting a bit. First, make sure my top end PAR is 400 or close, which I did by raising the T5 fixture way way up. The 60 inch ATI Sunpowers are beasts for PAR.

Third was to reduce the light cycle and ramp times. I was running low level blues from 6am until 10 when my ramp up started. I believe this was stressing the corals so now I'm dark until 10AM.

Fourth was to reduce the LED intensity. I am keeping the blue and violet channel at 100% but I've reduced the white channel to 50% in front, 30% in back. This sacrifices some shimmer but I think the acros have responded well. These are BML fixtures which are not as bright as a DIY 3 watt LED strip would be.

In the fine tradition of a newbie reefer I changed too many things at once to really know what worked, but I'll take the results. :jester: I did make a similar change in my little LED lit 29 gallon and that tank has improved colors as well so I think lighting may have been a big part of it.

To combat cyano I started a weekly heavy dosing of Microbacter7 and that seemed to put a big dent in it. I really like how clear the water gets after dosing. Did this snake oil help with coral color or health? I dosed MB7 in the 29 as well.

It was time to change bulbs and I've gone all Giesemann this time around.

-front-
BML 20K strip 50W/100B
G Actinic Blue
G Aquablue Coral or AquaBlue Azure (haven't decided which I like better)
G Actinic Blue
G Super Actinic
G Super Purple
G Super Actinic
BML 20K strip 30W/100B
-back-

This gives me 375 PAR at the base of my highest acro, 320 mid tank, and 240 on the sandbed.

This I find very fascinating. I would love to hear more details about what you learned from Big E, as I have been thinking along similar lines as of late. I think that we have been inadvertently over-lighting our tanks with the amazing T5 fixtures we have to work with...

 

[markalot]

This I find very fascinating. I would love to hear more details about what you learned from Big E, as I have been thinking along similar lines as of late. I think that we have been inadvertently over-lighting our tanks with the amazing T5 fixtures we have to work with...

Hi Matt,

This is the primary article he linked too:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature

I am not following this exactly but I think a lot of the information is valuable. Ed uses only overdriven blue+ and coral+ and has fantastic results. I like more variety. The article is mainly for building an LED fixture but it covers a lot of important topics about amount of light, spectrum, and the daylight cycle.

 

[mhucasey]

Hi Matt,

This is the primary article he linked too:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature

I am not following this exactly but I think a lot of the information is valuable. Ed uses only overdriven blue+ and coral+ and has fantastic results. I like more variety. The article is mainly for building an LED fixture but it covers a lot of important topics about amount of light, spectrum, and the daylight cycle.

Yeah that nugget is buried there under a large pile of horse manure...The section on cost savings was my favorite- you can replace 900 watts of T5 with 300 watts of LED and in ten years your savings will be almost $9000 dollars!!! Now, what to do with that $9000? Hmmm, Maybe buy corals to replace the ones you kill with your LED rig:lolspin:

 

[markalot]

Yeah that nugget is buried there under a large pile of horse manure...The section on cost savings was my favorite- you can replace 900 watts of T5 with 300 watts of LED and in ten years your savings will be almost $9000 dollars!!! Now, what to do with that $9000? Hmmm, Maybe buy corals to replace the ones you kill with your LED rig:lolspin:

Yea ... I started this tank all LED and while I killed a lot of corals being stupid the lights did not help. The very idea of a single row of spotlights looking good ... what was I thinking?

I do plan, before next summer, to rewire this ATI beast so that the 4 bulbs on the outside are on one circuit and two in the middle are on another. Once that's done I'll put my 72" Custom BML strip up in the middle and run with 3 BML strips and as much T5 supplement as I need to maintain looks. I do miss the shimmer of LED, I never ran MH, but I won't sacrifice coral color if I can't make it work.

I posted this in the ID forum, might as well post it here. This is that Kentucky Blue Grass coral and I have no idea what species it is.

2 month old frag encrusted quickly and then started to grow branches.

 

[markalot]

Cut another hour from my lighting cycle. The first change was to cut moonlight in the early morning, this final change drops an hour in the evening and changes the LED ramps from 60 minutes to 30 minutes.

10:00AM LED blue ramps up from 0 to 100 over 90 minutes.
11:30AM LED white ramps up from 0 to 50 over 30 minutes
12:00PM T5 4 bulbs on, 2 blue, 2 actinic
01:00PM T5 2 bulbs on, Azure and Purple
08:00PM T5 2 bulbs off
09:00PM T5 4 bulbs off, LED white ramps down to 0 over 30 minutes
09:30PM LED blue ramps down to 0 over 30 minutes
10:00PM DARK

I really think I can cut the T5's one more hour but I'll leave it at this for a month or so and see how things react.

 

[koral_lover]

I love that deep color and growth pattern on the kentucky blue grass...very nice!

 

[markalot]

I love that deep color and growth pattern on the kentucky blue grass...very nice!

Thanks. That's just a silly name I gave it, in case you're looking around for it. I'd really like to know what it is but the lineage has been lost due to the store it was at changing hands. Good for me, because it was cheap, but I don't even know the species.

One guess by someone on another forum is granulosa.

 

[markalot]

The lighting change has upset the beast and the anemone is on the move, up. I blocked it's progress with rocks, and if he jumps on the rocks I can move or remove him.

Put all the pumps in wave mode and less than full power since I understand this helps avoid anemones getting sucked in. Gah

 

[aggie13reef]

I love that deep color and growth pattern on the kentucky blue grass...very nice!

Its catching on!

 

[mhucasey]

Yea ... I started this tank all LED and while I killed a lot of corals being stupid the lights did not help. The very idea of a single row of spotlights looking good ... what was I thinking?

I do plan, before next summer, to rewire this ATI beast so that the 4 bulbs on the outside are on one circuit and two in the middle are on another. Once that's done I'll put my 72" Custom BML strip up in the middle and run with 3 BML strips and as much T5 supplement as I need to maintain looks. I do miss the shimmer of LED, I never ran MH, but I won't sacrifice coral color if I can't make it work.

I posted this in the ID forum, might as well post it here. This is that Kentucky Blue Grass coral and I have no idea what species it is.

2 month old frag encrusted quickly and then started to grow branches.

I love the smooth Skinned Acros, this one is pretty spectacular

 

[mhucasey]

The lighting change has upset the beast and the anemone is on the move, up. I blocked it's progress with rocks, and if he jumps on the rocks I can move or remove him.

Put all the pumps in wave mode and less than full power since I understand this helps avoid anemones getting sucked in. Gah

Yikes! Hopefully he will settle down...until he does, keep a careful eye on him, anemone in powerhead is a very bad thing, from firsthand experience.:uhoh2:

 

[markalot]

Yikes! Hopefully he will settle down...until he does, keep a careful eye on him, anemone in powerhead is a very bad thing, from firsthand experience.:uhoh2:

Thanks. I may be staying up late, he's moving straight up and onto a rock I placed earlier this evening ... just keep moving!

If he cooperates I can move him into the sump and then think about what the heck I'm going to do with him.

 

[rovster]

Looks great. Look into acropora multiacuta. Had one similar once that was ID'd as possibly that. HTH,