Mark's 150 (72x18x27)

[markalot]

The wife could not stand how bright the T5 fixture was so I had to make a shield. We had an extra black board the same width as the tank so I hung it from the ceiling like so ...

I'd really like to get some back behind the tank as well, that cheesy fake wood wallboard really reflects the light! I run the BML fixture in front at 60% brightness which is just enough to give me some shimmer. I also ramp it up and down before and after the Blue T5's come on to simulate sunrise/sunset.

I took some before pictures of some of my frags so I can see how they color up under these new lights.

Cultivated Reef Rainbow Acro

UC Rainbow Milli

Red Robin

Unique Corals "original" Strawberry Shortcake

My 29 gallon now with the smaller Razor overhead.

 

[hart24601]

Do you have BML strips yet? I really wish I had one more strip to help light the front of the tank. I really think the secret to LED lights is to use them more like T5 and less like Halides, with multiple strips lighting the corals on all sides.

Couldn't agree more! Full coverage and angle them!

 

[markalot]

Alk over the last 3 days.

8.9
8.7
8.5
8.1 and very close to 8. Yay.

Topoff consists of 1 tsp Kalk per gallon of water. Dosers are set to 20ml (.2 KH a day) but not turned on yet. I'm debating increasing the Kalk strength first and then dosing, or dosing and then increasing Kalk if I'm still falling.

The Reef Calculator http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html says

I need around .5 gallons of saturated (2 tsp / gallon) Kalk daily for a daily usage of .4KH
I need around 43ml of TLF C-Balance for the same thing.

I did a fully saturated mixture last night to fill up my topoff container and today Alk remains at 8.1. I think this means that when I top off the topoff again I should go 1/2 saturation. Regardless, once I get to a fully saturated Kalk mixture (2tsp / gallon) I will start making up the difference with the doser and two part.

 

[markalot]

"rescaped" a bit to make room for some of my acro frags. I have never been one to go with less is more, so while I'm trying to keep open space most of my reefs end up being a wall of corals.

The tank has lost a LOT of color since the Alk spike, some acros more than others, some not at all. Some have stopped growing, some have not, some seem to be growing faster. The Red monti cap on the left is not under attack by the MEN yet and has put on a dramatic growth spurt ever since spike. I find that odd. The slimer has continued to grow at the same rapid steady pace throughout the entire time, which is not odd.



Crappy blue light pic of the slimer and the 'used to be blue but still growing fast' stag in front of it.

STN has stopped on all corals as far as I can tell. This is a huge relief and hopefully I'm in full recovery mode now.

 

[troubadour11]

Well, you could fool me on it all. You say you're having these issues and I think it's looking great from my point of view. :dance: I'm glad to read things seem to be stabilizing and reaching the levels you are looking for.

I've been using 1/2 tsp per gallon of water in my ATO for kalk lately. My Alk had spiked from about 8.3 up to almost 10. I think it happened when we had a couple things die off while we were still working on updating the lighting. But since that swing, which happened over 2 or 3 weeks, we added a few new pieces in, it's been sitting around 9.0.

Fortunately, we've eliminated big swings and any fluctuation happens very slowly over a month or so. I'm hoping I can really keep it dialed in. I had been sitting at 8.2-8.4 for a few months before that little rise.

I'm thinking a Bali Green Slimer could be a near future pick up for me. Love the look of yours and the fact it keeps going despite the others reactions. It could be a good addition soon... seems to be a bit hardier the others?

How are you liking the T5 updates? Are you missing anything from your previous light set up?

Things seem to be pretty happy in there right now it looks like. Those SPS close-ups look great! I'm wishing I had that type of PE on my pieces. I get some, but only the Stylo and Pocci extend anything like what you have in those shots. :bounce3:

 

[markalot]

Thanks Troub. I've been there before too. Age and general stability gets you growth and polyp extension, rock solid stability and the right balance of feeding and exports gets the color. I'm still working on the latter.

I love the T5s plus the single BML led strip to get some shimmer and ramping up and down. I love the color and color options with T5s.

 

[markalot]

So here's a little story about two small frags I have in my tank that may or may not be decent looking acros.

A new fish store opened up in Cincinnati around two years ago, lets call it NewAquatics. They had a really nice selection of corals, I mean really nice. Nothing like it was available in the Cincy area with the possible exception of one store that was only open on the weekends.

After about a year I was browsing one day and one of the co-owners, let's call him Bill, was complaining about the other owner buying ridiculously expensive corals off Reef 2 Reef and Ebay and trying to grow them out rather than sell them. Too damn risky or something like that but he liked to rant so I only half paid attention.

A month or so later I'm in the store with the other owner present, let's call him Ted, and eyeing a few cool little frags. he tells me these are "elite" pieces and not for sale. Too bad, it was really looking for a nice milli. It's a Rainbow milli and he's telling me Bill is mad as hell he bought it so he guesses he can let me buy it for $70.

I still count this as one of the dumbest purchases I've ever made. It's grown about ... nothing ... since I got it, but it's lived through AEFW dips and scrubbing and breaking and re-mounting so it's damn rugged. If it turns out to be a beauty then of course it's my keen eye and reefer intelligence that allowed me to make such an excellent decision. Right?

So the other coral that he would not sell was this curious looking acro with an odd shape and color. Not brown, not green, not turquoise, but something in between.

Fast forward a few months, I go to the store to pick up some test kits and it's CLOSED. I surf around and discover lots of reefer drama and Ted, Mr. Elite Coral, apparently sold his stake and somehow executed a clause that forced Bill to sell his as well. How about that. The store was purchased by a reputable Reef Specialist outfit and this was to be their first real storefront location. Interesting.

Fast forward a few more months and the new store is open and I'm looking at their SPS tank and there it is, that odd looking coral. I ask about it and tell the new owner the "elite" frag story. She is convinced Ted was a great guy but had no common sense and she's selling all their old frags for $20. So I buy it.

This was the top down taken October 18th before the Alk spike.

Here is a top down from 2 days ago.

Might be a nice acro. It's certainly done better than some other acros that have completely browned and not recovered yet.

I'm still not at the point where I can buy large pieces and have confidence I won't kill them. The thing is, for $70 I could buy a large maricultured piece instead of some little fuzzy nub that may or may not ever look good in my tank. :headwally:

 

[markalot]

For this pic dump, since I'm waiting for my SPS to color back up, I figured I'd cover most of my LPS. I never give these guys credit but they provide a lot of color to the tank.

I got this brain in trade for a large Green Birdsnest that I grew in my old 46 gallon. Was turquoise at the store, of course it turned green in my tank.

I've been lucky with my cheap Leptastrea purchases. My original is very orange with a green skin you can't see unless it's unhappy.

This next one was a small unknown fraglet for dirt cheap ($10 IIRC). It lived in my nano tank for a while where I noticed it had white in between the polyps instead of green, so I moved it in here to see what happened.

This is a Jason Fox 'John Deere' and while I can see the green most of the time I have not been overly impressed. Fortunately I got this from another reefer for a good price.

Bought a half dead brown and green fraglet that looked like a war coral. More good luck.

My Red Goniopora is doing quite well in high flow and fairly bright light.

Gold Torch

My purple Duncan tree, now two years old. They do love high flow and bright light.

Check out this thread where someone bought multiple varieties of duncans. I would like some of those pink ones. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2457538

I bought this a few weeks ago to go on the dead skeletons of my montis. Looks like Meteor Shower but it was a cheap unnamed frag.

I'll end this post with some Blastos. Yet another half dead fraglet bought for cheap that ended up being something quite nice.

 

[markalot]

A long time ago Troub asked for some of my favorite angles when looking at the tank. Better late than never.

I don't really aquascape, instead I make platforms for corals and then no matter how open I want it I end up filling spaces with more platforms for corals. I'm keeping the big open bridges my big rock pieces make, and for the most part the back is still mostly open for circulation, but a lot of the tank is turning into the typical wall-o-corals and I'm ok with that. :beachbum:

This is the left side of the tank where I've ramps the rock work up to the first shelf rock. I've always liked this side best.

You can see my mean ole wall frogspawn at the very left in back where he can live but not kill anything ... yet. In my 46 gallon he reached up 6 inches and killed the head of an acan. He will also kill branching frogspawn.

On the right is my huge Pipe Organ coral and this is becoming an issue. I saved it from near death when it was infested with Aptasia back in my first tank. Just 4 heads/polyps and it's come back to this. I'm not sure how to frag it without doing serious harm. :reading:

This is the right side of the tank with the growing RBTA. You can also see my big green torch, relegated to the area behind the rockwork ever since reaching up and stinging a Poci. Seems I have a problem giving corals away.

Toxic Hammer, frogspawn, and a couple of Acans on this side as well. Look at all my browned SPS. :facepalm: You can also see the skeleton of my big spongdes that was consumed by Montipora Eating Nudibranchs.

I saved, dipped, and scrubbed a frag of my favorite Montis to live in my 29 gallon. I'm happy to say all are doing well under a Maxspect Razor, including the Spongodes.

My chair, looking up at the tank. The board I hung to help block the light from shining in peoples eyes looks pretty good, another happy accident. I even hung an old Royal Blue stunner strip back there for some nice blue morning/evening light.

 

[markalot]

Small update.

To review ...

My phosphates had climbed to .2 at some point either before the KH rise or after. It could have been the cause of the KH rise as corals stopped growing but I had made too many changes to really know how it happened. Changed from LED to T5 + LED, starting using a more concentrated Kalk mix, allowed KH to rise from 8 to 10 over a week before correcting.

I got the phosphates down via numerous small water changes, adding Phosguard back to the sump, and then using PO4-MINUS per directions at the minimum dose, twice. The first dose created some clouding in the display but the yellow tangs shows no change in behavior or rapid breathing (except when they are trying to kill each other). Second dose the next day produced no visible effects. In both cases the skimmer increased output. I added in the first chamber of the sump, right above a circulation pump. No filter socks used. I dosed all at once, I did not drip or even bother to add slowly. I want to add, IMO, if you are using lanthanum chloride on the cheap via pool supply stores I think you must be overly concerned about concentration and dilution. I believe the pre-made products are already diluted and dosing instructions intended to force a very slow addition to the tank. They recommend dosing over 5 days to reduce phosphates, I dosed until I saw a drop (either via this or the Phosguard) and stopped.

PO4 dropped over 2 days down to .05 using the Salifert test, double sample size and reagents to increase the resolution. Nitrates remain elevated at 10 but I'm hoping that slowly increasing the amount of vinegar / gallon of topoff+Kalk will help.

Speaking of the skimmer, I vacc'ed out the middle chamber of the sump where the skimmer sits, removing a lot of detritus. I raised the skimmer 2 more inches and then refilled with new water. I was having some skimmer overflow issues, especially when turning it on after a water change, and so far this has seemed to solve that problem.

I am skimming wet with the goal of having to change the collection cup almost daily until my nitrates are around 5.

 

[Palting]

Lovely tank, lovely views.

Any thoughts on a refugium? That's what solved the phosphate/nitrate headache for me.

 

[markalot]

Lovely tank, lovely views.

Any thoughts on a refugium? That's what solved the phosphate/nitrate headache for me.

Yea, I've been thinking about it but haven't decided yet. I would rather run a dark sump to avoid the algae mess but I may have no choice.

 

[markalot]

Experiencing my first prolonged power failure, and it shouldn't be that long but I'd rather be at home now.

MP40 on the right side of the tank and the MP10 on my 29 should be running on battery backup right now. I have put off programming the Apex to delay the skimmer start so that should make for a nice mess when the sump turns back on. ETA is unknown but not expected to be more than an hour or so.

 

[Fishy 1]

Hey Mark:wave:. Which is the more active thread, this one or the other one? Anyways I'll be a nuisance on this one as well:lmao:. Got to read through the thread still but look forward to that tomorrow

 

[markalot]

Hey Mark:wave:. Which is the more active thread, this one or the other one? Anyways I'll be a nuisance on this one as well:lmao:. Got to read through the thread still but look forward to that tomorrow

Hi Rory,

This one is. That SPS thread was bad luck, I browned everything soon after posting the pics! Instant Karma. Thanks for following along!

Power failure lasted 1.5 hours, all tanks ok, Vortech backup battery powering one MP40 on this tank and an MP10 on my smaller tank worked flawlessly. Temperature fell 2F in this tank, 3F in the smaller tank, and no apparent issues.

To top it all off, soon after the power came on some sap hit a telephone pole and knocked out internet for most of the night and power for a lot of other people for the entire night, but ours stayed on. So 2 unrelated power outages and a cable outage.

I own a generator large enough to keep a pump and heater going but have never tested it. Checked to make sure our gas can was full this morning, just in case.

 

[markalot]

I added a GFO reactor yesterday with just a little GFO (pellets) mixed with some carbon. This is the first reactor I've ever had on any system. I've owned two TLF Phosban 150's for over a year, just never used them.

I believe my phosphates are higher than this Salifert test is reading. Colors are drab and acros are brown. I've had pale in the past but this is not pale, it's brown.

The other interesting thing is my PH. It's not bad in any way, but I'd like to know why it's been slowly rising. Is this a symptom of high and now dropping phosphates? Is it an indication that carbon dosing is starting to work?

:bigeyes:

 

[markalot]

Phosphates down to nearly undetectable using the Salifert kit. I've upped my feeding a bit to avoid going pale from lack of nutrients. Nitrate is still elevated at 15.

 

[Palting]

Not to be a nag.....but.......refugium. Heh-heh

Sorry. Just could NOT resist the itch.

 

[markalot]

Not to be a nag.....but.......refugium. Heh-heh

Sorry, just could NOT resist.

LOL, I hear ya! See, I planned for the middle chamber to be a refugium but the skimmer I bought would not fit in the first chamber. Oops.

 

[markalot]

Color is starting to come back ever so slowly. I have a green encrusting monti that browned months ago, I thought due to MEN but after adding the GFO reactor the green is coming back. Phosphates must have been elevated for a while.

Even though I added GFO and see better colors my KH is starting to rise again. Now up to 8.4 from 7.9 just 4 days ago. Filled the topoff with straight RO/DI to dilute the Kalk yet again. I believe the mistake this time is not filling my 2.5 gallon mixing jug consistently each time, so apparently I've made some stronger solutions of Kalk a few times in a row, which is all it takes. I've drawn a fill line now and will start with 3 tsp rather than 4, which should be aprox 1.5 tsp / gallon of RO/DI. :uhoh2:

It's not a big swing, but I want perfection.