Mark's 150 gallon
- Thread starter markalot
- Start date
joshky
Acros & Wrasses
I love this one! Stunning!
Things are looking up, you're doing a good job coloring everything back up. Welcome back to the SPS forums! :beer:
markalot
...
Thanks Josh,
another week goes by and my reds still stink. I have reduced the white LED's on my BML strips to just 20% on the front to help simulate sunrise, blues still at 100% in front and 75% in back. I adjusted the T5 fixture down a little to maintain ~400 PAR at the base of the highest acros.
Blue LED ramps up starting at 11AM and off at 10PM.
4 T5 bulbs 1:30PM -> 8:30PM (7 hours)
2 T5 bulbs 2:00PM -> 8:00PM (6 hours)
Blues, greens, and the pik milli have improved since I reduced the light cycle.
Here is the pink milli. You can see the pink, but it's not very bright. The new growth should help, I hope.
Tiny Red Dragon is growing at a steady rate.
I'm getting another Red Planet this week, so far I'm 0 for 2 but I do think it was GFO and PO4 swings that killed it so I should have better luck this time. I haven't killed an acro since getting rid of GFO and switching to bio-pellets with nitrate dosing to help keep PO4 low.
Speaking of which ...
My biopellets are frustrating me. They can hold nitrates steady and every so slowly drop them but that's it and I've gone back to helping them out using RedSea NOPOX. I let the biopellet reactor ingest the NOPOX this time so maybe that will move things along, and I also lowered output flow thinking maybe I was moving too much water too fast through the reactor.
Did I mention how good NOPOX smells? Probably should avoid drinking it ....
FTS. Note brown red robin to the left of the blue stag. How good would this look if all three stags were at full color? :angryfire:
ksicard
New member
If you are having trouble keeping po4 down with the biopellets I would recommend checking out All in one biopellets. There designed to drop nitrates AND PHOSPHATES. Normal bio pellets are not the best when it comes to lowering po4. You will not need to run anything additional with the all in one bio pellets to drop po4.
markalot
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Hi ksicard,
Thanks for the tip! I guess I neglected to mention it in this thread. I am using all-in-one but have since decided I prefer nitrate dosing to hold PO4 down rather than the allinone. I've got a background source of PO4, probably in old rocks, that is apparently too much for allinone to handle. With nitrate dosing and using NOPOX I was able to slowly, and gently, bring down PO4 to around .03 (Hanna ULR, Elos pro PO4 kit). Right now I'm running 500ml allinone and 500ml regular bio pellets but they need to kick in so I can stop dosing NOPOX.
It is really making me doubt my decision to go biopellets rather than carbon dosing, but I am sticking with it for a while longer to see if I can get it to work.The key, for me, is that since stopping GFO usage everything has been healthier, even if I'm still having coloration issues.
markalot
...
What are you complaining about! You've got a stunning tank Mark! :inlove: Looking really sweet mate
Thanks Dom, much appreciated. I need that fire engine smooth skin you have, to see if I could turn that brown as well. :lol:
Wrangy
Acrotrooper
Tank speaks for itself mate
Really love those stags up the back too! I'm sure you'd be able to keep it red This thing is virtually indestructible lol
markalot
...
New stuff. Trying to only buy known 'named' frags or frags from colonies in captivity for a while.
New frags before mounting. These were all grown under 20K Radiums.
Day after arrival.
Red Planet attempt #3, in the middle, Palmer blue milli below and left.
Hawkins echinata, the milli, and a light blue caroliniana.
I try and mount each acro on it's own rock in case it needs to be removed, dipped, etc) for some reason.
Red Planet
Palmers blue milli (I've wanted one forever!)
Hawkins
Caroliniana
I've moved more LPS into the sand bed ready to make the trip over to my 40B. I'm not 100% happy with the scape and I purchased some branch rocks to see if I can come up with something more open. Need to wear sunglasses due to the new white rocks.
New frags before mounting. These were all grown under 20K Radiums.
Day after arrival.
Red Planet attempt #3, in the middle, Palmer blue milli below and left.
Hawkins echinata, the milli, and a light blue caroliniana.
I try and mount each acro on it's own rock in case it needs to be removed, dipped, etc) for some reason.
Red Planet
Palmers blue milli (I've wanted one forever!)
Hawkins
Caroliniana
I've moved more LPS into the sand bed ready to make the trip over to my 40B. I'm not 100% happy with the scape and I purchased some branch rocks to see if I can come up with something more open. Need to wear sunglasses due to the new white rocks.
biggles
Premium Member
The colors you're pulling on your acros is stunning Mark. The one josh quoted just blows my mind mate, i would be all over a frag of that if i lived in lala land too. :beer:
Those recent frags have Radium stamped all over their saturated pigments, judging by your other acros i don't think you'll have any probs at all holding those colors buddy - look forward to watching them grow. :beer:
Those recent frags have Radium stamped all over their saturated pigments, judging by your other acros i don't think you'll have any probs at all holding those colors buddy - look forward to watching them grow. :beer:
markalot
...
Thanks Andrew!
I finished setting up my 40B again, tearing down my little 20 ... but no, damn anemone starts to walk, so now he's by himself in the 29 until I can sell him.
Just a FTS
It's all LED with Maxspect Razor for the main light and BML 20K in back, aimed forward and a custom BML strip with less cool white in the front, aimed back. I've moved a few acro frags over and plan to move a few more so I can compare how they color up under the different lighting.
Of course the chemistry won't be identical so this is far from a perfect test, but I'm still curious. This was also the first time I dosed Phosphorus (Seachem) and Nitrate when starting up a tank, which seemed to help everything acclimate very quickly.
So enough of that. In the big tank, the slimer is telling me it does not want to be moved.
It's extremely bright green during the daylight cycle but it's becoming yellow under blue lights, which is a first. Not sure what is up with that.
I finished setting up my 40B again, tearing down my little 20 ... but no, damn anemone starts to walk, so now he's by himself in the 29 until I can sell him.
Just a FTS
It's all LED with Maxspect Razor for the main light and BML 20K in back, aimed forward and a custom BML strip with less cool white in the front, aimed back. I've moved a few acro frags over and plan to move a few more so I can compare how they color up under the different lighting.
Of course the chemistry won't be identical so this is far from a perfect test, but I'm still curious.
This was also the first time I dosed Phosphorus (Seachem) and Nitrate when starting up a tank, which seemed to help everything acclimate very quickly. So enough of that. In the big tank, the slimer is telling me it does not want to be moved.
It's extremely bright green during the daylight cycle but it's becoming yellow under blue lights, which is a first. Not sure what is up with that.
nemodan
New member
Mark.... First time I read your thread. It is amazing the improvement. The tank is big and has a lot of real state for corals. Very nice !!!
The 40 breeder could be an excellent refugium full of Macros for your tank !!
Definitely the slimer is well attached to his place... LOL
Well done !
Daniel
The 40 breeder could be an excellent refugium full of Macros for your tank !!
Definitely the slimer is well attached to his place... LOL
Well done !
Daniel
stevenc1187
New member
Beautiful pic's
markalot
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Thanks Daniel!
Thanks, appreciate the comment.
Everything is going well enough. I tried to bump up my white LED's to get some shimmer and while the slimer loved it a few corals got darker and browned, so the white LED's are off again. My Red Robin is still not red. :lol:
