Mark's 150 gallon
- Thread starter markalot
- Start date
SawCJack00
Professional Mind Reader
That's great that you stopped the STN, hopefully everything will recover nicely for you!
markalot
...
Thanks to both of you. I don't have pics but I'm happy to announce no change whatsoever. STN stopped and as far as i can tell has not progressed. The little frag is starting to encrust some, though at this rate it will be 2020 or so before it fills the plug.
Once again, doing very little but visiting the tank and making sure equipment is working, plus a regular routine, works wonders.
FloformAustria
New member
man i hope your corals will make it!!
at least the RTN stopped...
good luck buddy!!
Cheers
at least the RTN stopped...
good luck buddy!!
Cheers
markalot
...
Ok,
thins look to be stable, no more corals showing any new issues, Alk usage remains stable, growth is good.
I increased flow on the right side fo the tank when one of my MP40 baskets died. The Katropora is losing it's nice shape bending with the flow, but colors are rock solid.
I was worried about the Hawkins but it's not shown any adverse reaction to the tank issues.
The Red *cough brown cough* Robin is the last of my 'red' acros.
FTS
thins look to be stable, no more corals showing any new issues, Alk usage remains stable, growth is good.
I increased flow on the right side fo the tank when one of my MP40 baskets died. The Katropora is losing it's nice shape bending with the flow, but colors are rock solid.
I was worried about the Hawkins but it's not shown any adverse reaction to the tank issues.
The Red *cough brown cough* Robin is the last of my 'red' acros.
FTS
markalot
...
I'm not 100% sure, can anyone be 100% sure? I started dosing NOPOX to drive down nutrients and try to slow the Xenia. I ever so slowly ramped up the dosing but failed to see some acros becoming stressed.
-or-
The SSC and the Lokani were both every near each other at the center of the tank and there was not a lot of flow in that area. I lost over half of the Lokani and all of the SSC. Flow issue?
I've stopped all NOPOX dosing and am working on improving flow by re-arranging and adding more pumps.
markalot
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My slimer grows into the flow, even to the point that half the branch dies due to too much flow. Not sure if it varies coral to coral or not.
My theory is that higher and more turbulent flow may instinctually mean that there's more open space for growth. IE less competition.
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markalot
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Thanks ABz
Thanks Mindy, nice to see you around.
So let's go through an update. The Lokani refuses to die. I fragged off dead pieces and placed it on top of the dead SSC and I swear it 'caught' RTN and lost another 3 branches, then stabilized. Regardless, it's no longer allowed out of the water, even for 15 seconds to trim a branch. It's back in the back, and this is a bad picture.
Let's see, I got some gumption for about 6 hours to work on the tank and got the following done. I really do have fun when messing with the tank, but it's done better without me armpit deep in it.
Removed any dead corals I was not going to use as a base, plus removed 3 rocks covered in Xenia. Such a nice smell.
Hand pulled another bucket worth of Xenia off back wall. Most is being shaded now and some of the stalks were huge and easy to pull off the rocks.
Scooched the scape back to make more room in the front for flow and light to save a few corals I care about that were getting shaded.
Finally hooked the older MP40 back up with the brand new basket. The old noisy motors are much faster than the quiet drives, this thing moves some water and was probably one of the reasons I had flow issues. The giant Tunze produces more flow on paper but not so much when in the water. I moved it to the back and have it alternating on and off to provide some extra turbulence.
Replaced the T5's, same bulb combo, the Big Ed special, 2 coral+, 2 blue+.
PAR was similar, a little higher (bulbs 14 months old) but boy was it visibly brighter. I suspect they lost some of the green spectra. Raised the fixture 2 inches to compensate.
The tank has been overheating a bit (I alarm at 81, tank reaching 81.5 a few times in this hot weather). My sump fan was on but no air that I could feel. Might have been the metric ton of dust collecting in the grills. Cleaned, and decided to run without a front cover since I could not cut my fingers on the plastic blades.
Tanks temp plummeted to the normal 79F in 2 hours. Maintenance, who needs it!I looked at the box containing the new heater I bought a year ago. Nope, maybe this winter. My intent was to install a backup in case the main heater failed.
KH right at 7.0, a rarity for this tank.
NO3 is 5, down from 10. My CaNO3 mixture is a bit strong so I've stopped dosing until I get near 0 NO3 again.
Pictures next post.
markalot
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FTS before I scraped the algae from the top. I hadn't cleaned the glass for 2 weeks! Hard core neglect! Please excuse these photos, they are mostly for documenting things and some are not very sharp.
The bright white skeleton is my old Purple Stylo that I lost most of in the first tank crash years ago. My wife, who dislikes my smelly tank, grabbed it and washed it from my bucket of dead corals sitting outside. It makes a nice place to hold a few corals.
This was on a rock in front of the slimer and surrounded by Xenia and daisy polyps. Let's see if I can get a good red from it.
This one used to be red but lost color and seemed to suffer from some melting during my stupid carbon dosing experiment. Has polyp extension during the day and more at night but has a long way to go. I made 2 frags, one died and one looks like crap but is hanging on.
This little Acan is in bad bad shape and was getting shaded. Not sure I can save it but it's got light now, maybe too much.
I have never shown respect for my blueberry capitata. It's green and I have a lot of green, but I think it deserves a spot. On the sandbed, horrible shaded, broken, and every damn piece has grown like crazy.
A lot of green. And again, the Miami Orchid looks best when not taking a picture of the Miami Orchid. Tough beast of a staghorn type acro.
A couple more SPS unshaded. Undata and Bird of Paradise.
Two weeds I like down on the bottom left. Mystic Sunset and spongodes.
The bright white skeleton is my old Purple Stylo that I lost most of in the first tank crash years ago. My wife, who dislikes my smelly tank, grabbed it and washed it from my bucket of dead corals sitting outside. It makes a nice place to hold a few corals.
This was on a rock in front of the slimer and surrounded by Xenia and daisy polyps. Let's see if I can get a good red from it.
This one used to be red but lost color and seemed to suffer from some melting during my stupid carbon dosing experiment. Has polyp extension during the day and more at night but has a long way to go. I made 2 frags, one died and one looks like crap but is hanging on.
This little Acan is in bad bad shape and was getting shaded. Not sure I can save it but it's got light now, maybe too much.
I have never shown respect for my blueberry capitata. It's green and I have a lot of green, but I think it deserves a spot. On the sandbed, horrible shaded, broken, and every damn piece has grown like crazy.
A lot of green. And again, the Miami Orchid looks best when not taking a picture of the Miami Orchid. Tough beast of a staghorn type acro.
A couple more SPS unshaded. Undata and Bird of Paradise.
Two weeds I like down on the bottom left. Mystic Sunset and spongodes.
markalot
...
I do not understand the horrida. Here it is growing into the dark of the left side of the tank and looking as happy as can be. Does it like lower light? It certainly likes a lot of flow.
And the blue stag, which has never recovered from the first crash. You can see hints of the light blue but it never gets there, yet still grows. It seems to hate competition while the horrida, note small nub on left and in back left, thrives on it.
Red Robin, always looks better from the top but this will have to do. It's listed as more of a staghorn growth form but so far it only wants to grow sideways for me. It gets my respect because this acro has shown it can survive my mistakes.
The rest here are blue LED pics for fun.
Look at the glow of the horrida polyps on the left.
To my eyes the pink milli has a pink glow and the big valida polyps are invisible. The camera sees it differently.
Left to right. Green polyp valids, Pink milli, big valida, sarmentosa (in back), Palmer's blue milli.
And the blue stag, which has never recovered from the first crash. You can see hints of the light blue but it never gets there, yet still grows. It seems to hate competition while the horrida, note small nub on left and in back left, thrives on it.
Red Robin, always looks better from the top but this will have to do. It's listed as more of a staghorn growth form but so far it only wants to grow sideways for me. It gets my respect because this acro has shown it can survive my mistakes.
The rest here are blue LED pics for fun.
Look at the glow of the horrida polyps on the left.
To my eyes the pink milli has a pink glow and the big valida polyps are invisible. The camera sees it differently.
Left to right. Green polyp valids, Pink milli, big valida, sarmentosa (in back), Palmer's blue milli.
