Mark's 150 gallon

[joshky]

Yeah I agree, it's looking great Mark!

 

[stevenc1187]

Nice setup and beautiful pics

 

[sahin]

Tank is looking great Mark. :beer: That's very strange that the corals browned out with the increased white light...how long did the brown out take?

 

[Wazzel]

tank looks really nice Mark.

 

[markalot]

Thanks everyone for the replies, much appreciated!

Tank is looking great Mark. :beer: That's very strange that the corals browned out with the increased white light...how long did the brown out take?

About 2 weeks, and while I've been monitoring water quality I'm not 100% convinced it was the LED's, but I've seen this before so I need to bite the bullet and run with no whites for a while to see if things really do improve.

Alk usage has been steadily increasing the entire time, so I assume growth is increasing.

 

[Wrangy]

Looking fantastic mate, LOVING stag city in the middle there though :inlove:

 

[markalot]

Looking fantastic mate, LOVING stag city in the middle there though :inlove:

Thanks Dom!

I might take back what I said about the lighting. I took some top downs today and had terrible issues with glare, but good enough to show some nice colors except for one browned out acro. Interestingly enough I can draw a straight line from a monti that suffered dieback when I covered some pallys, to part of the red cap that lost skin, to a war coral that has a big dead patch, and then to this acro. Effing pallys. :headwally:

Ignoring some of the glare, this is what the top downs showed.

First the acro that lost color. This was really looking good before it darkened considerably.

No complaints about the teal stag.

Stupid 2 year old SSC frag is teasing colors again, maybe it will finally grow!

Red Robin showing a green metallic base but still lacks a good red.

Nasuta left, Jacquelineae right.

Had a scare with the Horrida. It was showing dieback on the base and what could have been, the thing that will not be named. I cut and inspected the dead areas, nothing, then gave it a good long dip in Bayer, also nothing. It's brown, but very healthy looking now. I think it was a flow issue, this thing is only happy when I devote an RW15 aimed directly at it.

This is not helping my temptations to buy unknown frags. This milli is glowing orange under blue lights.

My slimer can beat up your slimer.

 

[markalot]

3 of the 4 new frags are doing well. I lost the blue caroliniana. It started to RTN so I tried the superglue trick and that slowed it down for a couple of days, and now gone. :sad2:

Red Planet, Hawkins Echinata, and Palmers Blue milli doing well and starting to encrust.

No, you cannot clean the topdown box.

On the rack of shame one browned out frag of a maricultured piece I had to cut up is showing some color (lower left).

 

[markalot]

One more, my big block acro, still can't decide what color it will be. It's had the one bright green splotch on it for months, but the rest of the coral sometimes teases blue, sometimes red, sometimes not.

 

[Wrangy]

Those top down's are awesome what are you talking about! And that teal stag.. oh my gawd :eek2:

No, you cannot clean the topdown box.

This, this is the one I really hate you for!! What a stunner that and the Jacquelineae because we can't get anything of these species Love it mate!

 

[sahin]

Great pics. :beer:

Is that Hawkins green in person or blue??? I swear I see half of you guys post pics of the hawkins that looks green and half you post pics where the Hawkins look metallic blue. Is there two versions of it or what?

I'm very jealous of your Palmers Blue Milli.

 

[glaukos]

Awesome pics and amazing colors mark:thumbsup:
Like the FTS too
Where do you keep your parameters?no3,etc?

 

[biggles]

Reef is looking awesome Mark, lots more info and details now needed.

The only thing you need to know about the Hawkins is that you don't have any Sahin........ you may be a know it all ROTM now like your mate Matt but it didn't get you a Hawkins like Mark's did it.............

 

[glaukos]

lol,you guys never rest:lmao::lmao:

 

[markalot]

Great pics. :beer:

Is that Hawkins green in person or blue??? I swear I see half of you guys post pics of the hawkins that looks green and half you post pics where the Hawkins look metallic blue. Is there two versions of it or what?

I'm very jealous of your Palmers Blue Milli.

Thanks Sahin. Hawkins is mostly green at the moment, with some bluish tips. It's still the color I bought it as, grown under Radiums, so I expect it will change when all is said and done.

I have high hopes for the Palmers Blue, I have wanted one forever and it was discovered right here on RC years ago ... can't find the thread link. I doubt I can reproduce that color, but the potential.....

 

[markalot]

Awesome pics and amazing colors mark:thumbsup:
Like the FTS too
Where do you keep your parameters?no3,etc?

Thanks Mike!

This is a dirty filthy tank. PO4 is hanging around .05, NO3 varies 5 to 10, depending on how long ago I added CaNO3 pellets. I've got a biopellet reactor that is apparently on holiday at the moment, supplementing with 10ml of RedSea NOPOX daily. Under this regime I have to dose 1/4 tsp of the CaNO3 pellets every other day. I've got to automate this, I have 6 doser outlets available, but just so lazy ... so very lazy. There's also math involved in producing a liquid Nitrate solution for daily dosing. :lmao:

Salinity 35ppt almost exactly
KH 7.2
Calcium was 420 a couple of weeks ago
Mg 1400

Most of my cyano vanished when I wasn't looking, not sure why. I did try reef snow mixed with Microbacter7 a few weeks back but it didn't seem to work. It's possible, I suppose, that as I continue to maintain a fairly low PO4 the rocks leaching PO4 are starting to run out (my grammar skills are impeccable). I never had red cyano on the sandbed, only the rocks. I have a green cyano area on part of the lower left sandbed due to low flow (perhaps) but I've been working on that by aiming a powerhead down into the general area.

Flow in this tank is an ongoing concern. I've steadily been eliminating LPS from the lower portions that seemed to be irritated by increased flow. My beautiful gold torch is now living very happily in my 40 gallon tank, along with a hammer coral. As my wife tells me, one by one I am getting rid of all the corals she likes from this tank ... except for that big blue sticky thing, that's pretty, why can't all the sticks look like that. :strange:

 

[markalot]

Reef is looking awesome Mark, lots more info and details now needed.

Thanks Andrew, hopefully I added enough info that folks can see what NOT to do. :jester:

Ah, lighting.

Front to back (this is hardly consistent!)
Blue/Violet BML strip (whites off)
Giesemann Aquablue Coral (very similar to Coral+)
Giesemann Actinic Blue (blue+ with a little less green)
Giesemann Actinic Blue
Giesemann Super Purple (a little less red than Purple+)
Giesemann Actinic Blue
Giesemann Aquablue Coral
Blue/Violet BML strip (whites off)

PAR is 550 at the top of the slimer, 400 at the mid point of most smaller acros, 260 on the sandbed.

Blue LED on at 11AM, full at noon
2 T5 blues on at 12:30PM
Remaining (4) T5's on at 2PM
4 T5's off at 8PM
All T5's off at 8:30PM
Blue LED starts to ramp down ad 9PM and off at 10PM

Total light cycle is 11 hours, with full lighting for 6 hours. I believe my reduction in light cycle hours, I was up around 14 hours, is a big contributor to the health of the acros.

As for the T5 combination, I tried all blue and 2 purples for a while and I liked it, but yet I switched back to a combination I keep returning too. I've also tried Big E's 3 blue, 3 coral combo and while I like it I need a little more red in the mix. He doesn't use blue LED's and I do, which might be the reason I feel like I need more red, to balance it out. I've also tried mixing in Aquablue Special (YUK!) and Giesemann AquaBlue Azure (better, less yellow).

 

[markalot]

Things are going well enough. I believe I have AEFW in the tank, but I've suspected it for a while and yet the big rapid damage I've seen in the past has never shown up. I've fragged a few pieces, dipped a few pieces, basted a few pieces, and found nothing.

A month ago I noticed recession on one of my bigger pieces and found this.

I assumed AEFW yet this isn't the egg clusters I've seen before and not in the numbers of seen before. Regardless I cut the base off, dipped, double dipped, basted, rinsed, replaced. I discarded the entire rock it was mounted on as well. This is one rugged acro, already encrusting and coloring up from the Bayer dip a month ago.

Latest suspect spot is the Lokani.

Can't see this under blue or tank lighting, but with a flashlight you can see the skin loss. This is pretty small, I'm zoomed in with a macro, but worrisome. I turned off all the pumps and basted but nothing came off.

Few more top downs.

Nasuta loves me and I love it.

Red Planet still maintaining color, a first for me. The last two I tried would be half dead at this point in time.

 

[sahin]

Sorry buddy. But that is AEFW as far as I know. Its very difficult to detect them by basting corals in the water. Those eggs give it away for me.

If you detach a few suspected corals and dip them I think you will see the AEFW detach.

I was in a similar position to you a year ago...I basted a coral or two and nothing came off. As soon as I placed my pink millepora into a solution of tank water and Revive large AEFW's jumped off.

Perhaps there is a few species of AEFW's going around, and one may be a lot more prolific than the others, but if you found those eggs before and see the new bite marks, despite your earlier intervention, I think they are in your system. :sad1:

 

[sahin]

Just wanted to add: the first time I encountered AEFW was in my nano tank. The tank was very established and healthy I would say. I used to notice the bitemarks come and go. I doubted I had AEFW's. I didnt see real damage until many many months later when the AEFW's were all over the corals.

Not trying to be all negative, but letting you know my encounters with these barstewards.