Mark's 150 gallon

[reefmutt]

Mark, you have reef fingers of the gods right now! Your even handed stewardship is quite impressive and admirable.
Your fts has such nice balance and colou, it's awesome. It's so crazy to think where you've brought this tank back from.
Nice job!
The evenness of your growth is great. In 6 months you will have fragging issues and a simply superb looking reef.
You may need to take a shot of your boring lokani soon.

 

[ryanrid]

Tank is looking sweet

 

[Oldude]

Nicely done Mark, things are looking great!

 

[Wrangy]

Just lovely Mark! The tank is looking tops mate!

 

[codydemmel4]

very nice. how often do you dose reef roids and reef chilli and how much do you dose?

Target or broadcast?

 

[cFloor]

Looking incredible!

 

[booyaa138]

Mark, Are you still running the BML Led's and T5's?
I have 2 of the 20k MC fixtures and looking to supplement some T5's
Thinking of adding 2 T5's(don't know what color yet.)

 

[markalot]

very nice. how often do you dose reef roids and reef chilli and how much do you dose?

Target or broadcast?

Thanks. I broadcast about 1/2 tsp every other day.

Looking incredible!

Thanks

Mark, Are you still running the BML Led's and T5's?
I have 2 of the 20k MC fixtures and looking to supplement some T5's
Thinking of adding 2 T5's(don't know what color yet.)

I have two of the 20K MC fixtures front and back with the T5 hybrid in the middle. I have to say every time I get the blue channel on these above 50% I see a degradation in colors so I keep them running below 50%. I'm not sure if they are brighter than I measure or what but I've tried 3 times now to run brighter and each time I get the same general result.

---

In other news, it looks like I will lose the Pinky acro. It's wild caught so I knew there was a risk but I thought I was over the hump. I had made a frag which was growing and healthy just like the parent. About 30 or so days ago both lost color and bleached. The parent under 380 PAR, the frag in just 100 PAR. Since then some color came back but the tips of some lower branches and then the base started to die. I decided to do nothing other than back off PhosphateRx dosing a bit to bring PO4 back up just a bit.

The only other issue is some base recession on the Lokani on the heavily shaded side of the base.

The tank looks too good to make any major adjustments.

 

[booyaa138]

thanks Mark.

What Bulb combo are you running on the T5's?

 

[markalot]

thanks Mark.

What Bulb combo are you running on the T5's?

2 Blue+, 2 Coral+. Ed (BigE) recommended combo.

 

[booyaa138]

Thanks

 

[markalot]

Had a little time to take some top downs. The tank seems to be in a really good place at the moment with things growing well except for a few duds. A month ago I reverted all dosing to my original levels when my pink coral started to go downhill.

Daily Drops
2 PhosphateRx
2 Kalum
2 MicroE
2 SpongePower

~ 1/4 tsp coral food daily (Reef Roids, Coral Frenzy, Reef Chili, AquaForest)

Let's go from bad to good here.

I don't know what happened but the main colony and a small well encrusted frag on the other side of the tank suffered the same fate. Not holding out much hope, and not touching it.

The brown beast is still brown and still growing at an extremely rapid rate. I had moved it down to the bottom of the tank months ago where it continued to grow fast. 2 weeks ago I moved it into a nook in the rocks temporarily while cleaning and moving some things. I forgot, and now it's well, and I mean well encrusted to the rock.

I do seem to be having issues with blue acros, with both the blue stag and Palmers Blue milli lacking good color.

/shrug

So on the the rest of the corals which tell a completely different story.

The unknown milli that has iffy color seems to like the top spot where it replaced Cousin It. Edges are a good pink but I think it will take a few months to really settle in.

The horrida confuses me. It goes through dieback, then re-encrusts rapidly over the dead spots. Tip growth is very good, color is scattered good. Looks happy. This is a wild caught coral, unfortunately.

The sarmentosa, another mari or wild caught. What a trooper, coming back from nearly dead, re-encrusting over most fo the dead areas now and showing decent tip growth.

Another old coral with unknown origins. Located in the back of the tank on one of my magnetic frag plugs. When I had the rear BML strip blue/violet channel running at 60% this lost a lot of good color. Since backing off to 40% color has returned. This has happened twice now and is either a coincidence with some kind of water quality issue or something to due with the light spectrum from the BML strip.

This is still a hopeful, heavily infested with those snail bastards that I attack every few weeks.

Finally, for this post, look who woke up after a year of brown. *fingers crossed*

 

[markalot]

Ok, on with the good now.

I would say the Katropora is back to 95% (requires 10 nitrates for home run) full sexy.

Original Colony with surviving nub in the middle.

The 'smaller' frag

Lokani base had some issues but overall health is good.

This one, wow.

A closeup of the new front branch. This knocks my eyes out it's so glowy.

Peach dragon

Hawkins

Whatever this is showing a really good red. Outgrowing a snail infestation.

 

[markalot]

Red Robin is growing ... I'm not sure I can get a better red out of it than this. Joe Peck tells me he had trouble pulling good color from this one under Radiums ... I don't think I stand a chance here.

What can I say about the slimer.

The last time it was doing this well I commented how it tended to curve branches and aim at other corals, even branching in low light to attack. Just a fun coincidence, except it's doing it again. :lol:

It doesn't always win the war. Seems to be a stalemate with the Maimi Orchid, the MO possibly gaining ground.

Others ...

Interesting cap, sometimes gets a nice greenish sheen to it.

Super invasive Mystic Sunset. It has plated to try and cover up some Zoas which I moved. Sheesh.

Back right corner.

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Mark, awesome shots!
What's looking good is looking fan f ing tastic.
Some amazing growth in some.
I have a couple corals that look exactly like your dud in the first pic. No clue what bothers them. I tried a dip to look for aefws but found nothing. Very odd and frustrating.
Nutrients not moving?

 

[nemodan]

Hi Mark

This is a tank !!! It is trillion times better than mine.

Great job !!
Daniel

 

[kainic]

Hi Mark

This is a tank !!! It is trillion times better than mine.

Great job !!
Daniel

And zillions than mine :lolspin:

Incredible tank and vivid colors. Congratulations Mark, I'd be very proud of the tank if it were mine, like posting pictures everywhere all the time and telling everybody what I'm doing (so don't forget to post more pictures *cough* *cough*)

 

[kevlow]

That was a photo dump of awesomeness.
The issues in your first pic is minimized by the overwhelming beauty of the rest of the reef.
Good show!

I followed your lead with the Phosphate RX. I will agree that it is very potent and not to be underestimated.
I have posted several weeks of P at .019. My system has 75 gallons. The first day I dosed two drops. The following three days I dosed one drop per day. I tested at 0. That was Sun and I have not dosed again. Several acros have had a lightening of the skin color near the tips. I noticed that bubble algae becomes transparent and breaks away easily.
Matrix and Pro Bio S has kept my N low but I always seemed to struggle with P running a little high.

I will retest again this coming Sun at see where it has risen to. Clearly, Phosphate RX is strong and fast acting. I am happy to have found this and have it available to use as needed. Thank you for sharing the info.

 

[Big E]

Hi Mark,

That Katropora looks sweet!

Just thinking out loud, but are you catching all the precipitate from the Lanthium chloride?

I know long term users like Gary Majchrzak are adamant about making sure you don't let any get into the display.

This is a good read for anyone interested---

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1474839&page=55

If any is, it could be the reason some random acros aren't doing well. It's possible it can get into the calcium matrix and slow growth or cause tissue loss over time.

 

[markalot]

Hey Mark, awesome shots!
What's looking good is looking fan f ing tastic.
Some amazing growth in some.
I have a couple corals that look exactly like your dud in the first pic. No clue what bothers them. I tried a dip to look for aefws but found nothing. Very odd and frustrating.
Nutrients not moving?

THanks Matt. After dropping P a little too low a few weeks ago it's settled out at .06 or so, where I usually run. Nitrate barely detectable.

Hi Mark

This is a tank !!! It is trillion times better than mine.

Great job !!
Daniel

Oh stop! I really like how your tank looks Dan, grass is always greener on the other side of the ... glass?

And zillions than mine :lolspin:

Incredible tank and vivid colors. Congratulations Mark, I'd be very proud of the tank if it were mine, like posting pictures everywhere all the time and telling everybody what I'm doing (so don't forget to post more pictures *cough* *cough*)

Thanks man, much appreciated. Careful, I can easily over post pictures given enough time.

That was a photo dump of awesomeness.
The issues in your first pic is minimized by the overwhelming beauty of the rest of the reef.
Good show!

I followed your lead with the Phosphate RX. I will agree that it is very potent and not to be underestimated.
I have posted several weeks of P at .019. My system has 75 gallons. The first day I dosed two drops. The following three days I dosed one drop per day. I tested at 0. That was Sun and I have not dosed again. Several acros have had a lightening of the skin color near the tips. I noticed that bubble algae becomes transparent and breaks away easily.
Matrix and Pro Bio S has kept my N low but I always seemed to struggle with P running a little high.

I will retest again this coming Sun at see where it has risen to. Clearly, Phosphate RX is strong and fast acting. I am happy to have found this and have it available to use as needed. Thank you for sharing the info.

I Kev, glad to hear it's working but also note Ed's concern below as I am not doing anything to capture the precipitate.

Hi Mark,

That Katropora looks sweet!

Just thinking out loud, but are you catching all the precipitate from the Lanthium chloride?

I know long term users like Gary Majchrzak are adamant about making sure you don't let any get into the display.

This is a good read for anyone interested---

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1474839&page=55

If any is, it could be the reason some random acros aren't doing well. It's possible it can get into the calcium matrix and slow growth or cause tissue loss over time.

Hi Ed, thanks for dropping by. I do not capture it and I understand the risks. It could very well be a symptom, I just don't know.