Mark's 150 gallon

[markalot]

The new aquascape is looking great! What a pain that must have been. Is there enough room to just mount all your frags and remove the frag racks?

Thanks, I'm trying to forget the pain. I will have to get rid of some frags, unfortunately, but I tend to hang onto under performers for too long anyway. I do want to hang onto some a little longer to see if they improve without all the polyps and chemical warfare that was going on.

Mark, the new aquascape looks great!! Hopefully you can get the tank on autopilot and enjoy it instead of having to put out fires.

Thanks Henry, me too!

What is your secret for getting so much purple haha I only ever get it on the tips!!

That was under blue light and is false coloring. I get the same thing, deep purple except for the tips.

I have to say that given all the work you've done in the last couple of weeks, the tank rescape has turned out really well mate!! The valley between the two structures looks amazing and if you get some nice tabling pieces growing across it will look even cooler! :dance:

I do love the stag island off the left though, your paint rendition of the tank is a very nice plan for it :thumbsup: Are you finding all the acro's are settling in well again after all the work?

Thanks Dom, I'm happy to hear people like it. I swear I have no artistic talents whatsoever. :lol2:

 

[Oldude]

Ok, I think I am done, for once I am happy with this pile of boulders, the trench, and the general look of it. I broke the blue stag, it could have been a lot worse ... but I am SO done with this crap. I will worry about coral placement later.

I like the new look.

 

[reefmutt]

Trying to picture this in the future. If nothing else this is good for laughs, especially my version of the Strawberry Shortcake. :lmao:

Mark!!!! Wha... Amazing colour and growth!!! It's out of his world!! You must be using Aquaforest or something because the vibrant colours and explosive growth are incredible!!
Actually looks more like Zeovit. The new pieces have that slightly pastel look... It's almost fake looking but ........ Not....

 

[Wrangy]

:lolspin::lolspin::lolspin:

 

[markalot]

Mark!!!! Wha... Amazing colour and growth!!! It's out of his world!! You must be using Aquaforest or something because the vibrant colours and explosive growth are incredible!!
Actually looks more like Zeovit. The new pieces have that slightly pastel look... It's almost fake looking but ........ Not....

It's the new Crayola system Matt. You have to sharpen the crayons in one of those big boxes then sprinkle the crayon bits into the tank. Genius! :lolspin:

I put that green polyp purple acro on a frag mag and stuck it to the back wall. Seemed perfect for it and I really wanted to get it somewhere besides laying around on a rock.

Inspecting my acros with a flashlight, all those scratch marks and other funny business are gone, simply gone. A week ago I dosed 1/4 dose of ZeoSpur 2 to try and combat some browning. I used a lower dose a few months ago and nothing changed, this time I did see a few results. This acro which had gone full brown except for a blue growth edge rapidly gained green.

You can see skin loss on the bottom, that pointy projection. It grew another one of those on the backside. I wonder if this is a tabling acro?

The Blue Stag was showing some browning as well but that stopped and now it's probably the best blue I've ever had in here.

A few maricultured frags lightened up but have since returned to brown.

No change to the Funsip Tenuis, and yea, it's still alive. Any day now ...

The Lokani is coloring back up, no rapid changes just steady improvements.

Other than that no noticeable changes, which is fine by me.

Hanna ULR gave me 15, 5, 3 for the latest results so I'm calling it .03 PO4 (running 1 cup of BRS HC GFO). NO3 remains about 5 via 20ml of vinegar a day.

 

[rburns24]

-
Whenever that Funsip Tenuis gets around to it, I think I will grow really fast. From the
looks of the base, it justs looks like it is storing energy and waiting for what it perceives
as the right time.
-

 

[markalot]

-
Whenever that Funsip Tenuis gets around to it, I think I will grow really fast. From the
looks of the base, it justs looks like it is storing energy and waiting for what it perceives
as the right time.
-

I hope so, but to be fair I haven't had it that long. I believe it's just now making it off the frag plug. I haven't had much success with tenuis. Thanks for stopping by. :beer:

In tank news ....

I believe I'm back to where I was before taking the biopellets offline. PO4 is .02 (Hanna and Elos), NO3 is about 3 (Salifert) and I had to move another trumpet colony that was receding into my 40 gallon. At least now the GFO is in the reactor and not all over the sump.

I've dropped vinegar dosing from 20ml to 15ml daily since nitrates are low and not rising. The tank is going through a small algae and cyano outbreak at the moment, most likely due to me stirring everything up last month.

Acro colors continue to improve.

The poor UC Strawberry Shortcake doesn't look too bad considering it was ripped off a rock using a rusty paint can opener. Polyp extension increasing daily but I expect this to take months to regain color.

At the same time Cousin It was also ripped off a rock with the same rusty tool. No color loss and already encrusting.

The front of the Valida, a small frag of sarmentosa, and a pink milli all turned brown and are slowly recovering. All located in the same general area so this must have been poisoning from me covering the button polyps. Hopefully those days are now over.

I continue to snap pics of the tenuis, and it's still looking good.

... and the nasuta is coloring back up, finally.

The 10+ peppermint shrimp in the display have eliminated all the aptasia, but the this 8" scary monster is living in the right overflow. :uhoh3:

 

[mhucasey]

Glad to see everything settling in- the scape looks good! That Aiptasia is super crazy!!!!

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Mark get a filefish. Ill ship you mine lol, dude is an aiptasia vacumm cleaner. Tank is looking great man.


Jorge

 

[aggie13reef]

Mark,
Loving the new scape! Hopefully that tenuis keeps growing I have had my eye on a mini-colony at my LFS just cant seem to pull the trigger!

 

[bobssecrtsn]

I love the new look mark, a few hours a day to clean the back and your corals will pop even more! Only preference though some like it with coralline growing !

 

[reefmutt]

Looking good Mark..
The filefish I added, didn't care much for aptasia but loved to eat the polyps off of about 5 sps in my tank...
Luckily I caught him and banished him to the fuge.
Throw a single pep shrimp in the overflow..

 

[deaclauderdale]

This thread has been a emotional Rollercoaster for me as I began reading last night about 10pm PST and just finished up. I commend your commitment and dedication to your livestock, and I'm glad to see things turning around for you. I would like to ask if that is a goni (flowerpot) I see in some of the pics, and how did it fair during all of these transitions?

 

[markalot]

This thread has been a emotional Rollercoaster for me as I began reading last night about 10pm PST and just finished up. I commend your commitment and dedication to your livestock, and I'm glad to see things turning around for you. I would like to ask if that is a goni (flowerpot) I see in some of the pics, and how did it fair during all of these transitions?

Howdy, thanks for reading. Hopefully the future will show a much improved tank now that those polyps are gone.

The goni never seems to get upset much, and is always out full within a day of me working on the tank. In the two years I've owned it there has never been any recession so either it's resistant to most of my mistakes or just lucky.

It was an un-named frag bought over 2 years ago. The seller claimed it was from an ORA colony but I can't trust that.

 

[drawman]

Hope those peps can take out the aiptasia in the overflow...either that or get some berghias :uzi:

 

[biggles]

That's a huge aiptasia Mark ! I just found three on one of my bloody rocks :hammer:

 

[markalot]

Hope those peps can take out the aiptasia in the overflow...either that or get some berghias :uzi:

That's a huge aiptasia Mark ! I just found three on one of my bloody rocks :hammer:

They can stay in the overflow for now, I'll call it part of the 'natural' filtration. The peppermints took a few weeks to do anything but then after a month I noticed the complete lack of aptasia anywhere.

 

[nemodan]

They can stay in the overflow for now, I'll call it part of the 'natural' filtration. The peppermints took a few weeks to do anything but then after a month I noticed the complete lack of aptasia anywhere.

Yes....if you can't reach tha Aptasía in the overflow I will not worry at all. Just keep an eye on the tank and use Aptasia X to kill it. From time to time I have too. 2 weeks ago I found 2 in the DT tank and 2 big like yours in my cage full of macros. The Aptasia X did the job !!!!!


Nice pictures those of the corals Mark. Nice to see that tank is settle down after you did a lot of changes !!!

Daniel

 

[markalot]

Yes....if you can't reach tha Aptasía in the overflow I will not worry at all. Just keep an eye on the tank and use Aptasia X to kill it. From time to time I have too. 2 weeks ago I found 2 in the DT tank and 2 big like yours in my cage full of macros. The Aptasia X did the job !!!!!


Nice pictures those of the corals Mark. Nice to see that tank is settle down after you did a lot of changes !!!

Daniel

Thanks Daniel, I will just avoid looking in that overflow for a while, too scary. :lol:

PO4 remains too low, below the .02 color swatch on the elos and bouncing between 5 and 11 on the hanna. I need to get a new balance with feeding and export.

NO3 remains at ~3 (salifert). Vinegar dosing now at 10ml a day. With the way this tank is behaving you would think I wasn't feeding anything.

 

[markalot]

Took a bunch of topdowns, first since the rescape. I think this one of the big Valida best shows the recovery. The front was badly damaged and one top was dying. Now you can just barely see that the front branch is lighter than the rest. That crab is trying to take all the credit.

Unfortunately I think the Fundip tenuis is showing the first signs of trouble, which comes as no surprise to me. Yesterday is started to display mesenterial filaments and it appears to be the tops are starting to discolor. Hrmph. I fed some Reef Roids twice this weekend in case it was hungry.