Mark's 150 gallon
- Thread starter markalot
- Start date
lanshark
It's Landshark, aka SNL
Always interesting to hear reefers speaking of coloring up.
Almost like turning a switch? I only wish..
In your specific tank for example, is there a nitrate level that must not be exceeded or brown SPS stay brown or go brown?
Phosphate level same question?
Do you tweak light height and duration very often?
When you personally use term color up, do you mean I place frags in my tank and hope they color up?
Almost like turning a switch? I only wish..
In your specific tank for example, is there a nitrate level that must not be exceeded or brown SPS stay brown or go brown?
Phosphate level same question?
Do you tweak light height and duration very often?
When you personally use term color up, do you mean I place frags in my tank and hope they color up?
markalot
...
Ha, I don't know about that, but I do love big corals and crowded tanks. Thanks Daniel.
Thanks Greg!
I almost never tweak the lighting. I sometimes dose Nitrate because otherwise it's 0, and I regularly use PhosphateRx, 1 drop per day, most days.
Let's take the Red Robin as an example. I've had it for aprox 900 days, my best guess. Out of those 900 days it's been a good red probably ... 15 days, maybe?
When it's red it's stunning, but it needs more stability or something that I don't regularly provide.The green and purple acro I call Katropora loves nitrates. At 20 nitrates it's stunning, with purple on the tips that match the purple on the test kit. At 20 nitrates some of the other acros will lose color, not much, but not as bright. The Red Robin was brown.
Ever single acro is different in my experience, you just get used to the tank and learn how they behave. My blue stag acro has NEVER regained a nice blue since my crash almost 2 years ago. It's brown with bluish tops and bluish polyps. No clue why.
watchguy123
New member
I so enjoy your thoughts. It is fascinating as well as frustrating to see how different parameters enhance or diminish colors. Your experiences with some corals enjoying and others not at varying nitrate levels is really informative. Plus I have had similar experiences where some awesome coral has a sweet spot that I am only able to achieve rarely and inconsistently like your Red Robin. Thanks for always sharing. Your thread continually provides insight
lanshark
It's Landshark, aka SNL
+1 What he said.... I learn something new every day ...
So, it's not always take a browned out acro and place in your tank or someone's ULN tank and they just color up, may take months of trying various flows and placement before their happy.... Thanks for feedback!
So, it's not always take a browned out acro and place in your tank or someone's ULN tank and they just color up, may take months of trying various flows and placement before their happy.... Thanks for feedback!
markalot
...
Thanks for the very nice comment. Hopefully it helps someone, but I'm not sure I have ever accurately identified any specific issue, other than instability caused by me mucking with something. :lmao:
Thanks lanshark.
markalot
...
None.
My understanding is that to get the best blue you have to run a lot of daylight bulbs. The best Oregon tort I've ever seen ran under 6700K halide bulbs.
lanshark
It's Landshark, aka SNL
Mark's 150 gallon
Mark,
I am just getting started reading you full thread... You have progressed quickly both with SPS keeping and also Photography!!! So painful to see all the bad pics posted on forums, that includes mine [emoji20]
I have Eos t3i canon DSLR and don't know how to take reef pics and get blue out, blah blah [emoji20] ... Do use orange filters? Have you shared your camera exposure setup process? Shoot in RAW, post edit? Or, can you recommend any threads that helped you get this good at it? I have the white or gray cards that I can tape to acrylic rod and place in water and focus camera on to set WB?
I was surprised reading your flirting with 6.xx -7.xx DKH as in beginning you were targeting what many do of 8-8.5 dkh range? Could you share you current mindset and approach to Alkalinity?
Cheers, Matthew.
Mark,
I am just getting started reading you full thread... You have progressed quickly both with SPS keeping and also Photography!!! So painful to see all the bad pics posted on forums, that includes mine [emoji20]
I have Eos t3i canon DSLR and don't know how to take reef pics and get blue out, blah blah [emoji20] ... Do use orange filters? Have you shared your camera exposure setup process? Shoot in RAW, post edit? Or, can you recommend any threads that helped you get this good at it? I have the white or gray cards that I can tape to acrylic rod and place in water and focus camera on to set WB?
I was surprised reading your flirting with 6.xx -7.xx DKH as in beginning you were targeting what many do of 8-8.5 dkh range? Could you share you current mindset and approach to Alkalinity?
Cheers, Matthew.
markalot
...
Hi lanshark,
I shoot in RAW and use the Adobe Photoshop RAW editor to change the white balance.
The tank settled in at 6.5 KH and since I was scared of Alk spikes I changed everything very slowly, which was good for the acros so they used more, which kept me under 7KH constantly. This is when I discovered a lot of acros will do ok when Alk is too low, as long as you are dosing. I suspect they pause when Alk drops too low, the doser raises it back up, they un-pause. Repeat. Who really knows though, all I know is they lived.
These days I'm scared to even trim because cutting down the big slimer, which needs to be done, is going to drop Alk usage significantly. Fun times.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
You need to trim your bali slimer ruthlessly, Mark. It must be blocking a lot of flow and light.
markalot
...
There's a pump trapped behind it blowing directing into it. Some branches missing skin on the pump side but the damn thing is adapting and slowly overcoming the flow. lol. It will be trimmed, already warned the LFS they are about to receive a slimer offering.
Darth_Tater
Member
These days I'm scared to even trim because cutting down the big slimer, which needs to be done, is going to drop Alk usage significantly. Fun times.
I have similar concerns with a giant Monti Cap that's taking over my little 40 gallon. I have a hard enough time in this small tank just keeping paramaters stable enough the acros will grow. Some day I'll decide the disruption in flow and light is more critical than my concerns... Guess you just have to do what needs to be done!
Your tank looks awesome by the way. I also need to read through your thread.
markalot
...
Thanks DT.
So the deed is done, I will never let it grow that much again, but unfortunately one does not just get rid of a slimer. The base is everywhere, it will be back.
Had to glue hairy horrida back together in a few spots but all in all no big problems. EXCEPT THE SMELL AND THE SLIME, GOOD GRIEF. :hmm4:
Dropped the doser by 100ml both parts, that should prevent a spike. KH 6.4 to start, running low again and everything loving it. Water in the sump dropped over an inch after the slimer was removed.
Darth_Tater
Member
Wow! That's impressive. The tank doesn't quite have the "pop" without the bright green, but looks a lot less crowded. I think the change looks good.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I think the tank is looking far better now. My eyes are drawn to different corals, whereas before they focussed on the slimer.
I may be going through the same motion by removing my A. gomezi colony, which is looking huge in proportion to the size of my display.
I may be going through the same motion by removing my A. gomezi colony, which is looking huge in proportion to the size of my display.
Piper27
I love bengals
Beautiful stuff man! I am a huge stag fan and have a solid blue stag that stays solid blue in any conditions, as well as a red one. Both are true staghorns as well, the red grows so slow though. I am very sad to see no one appreciates these corals anymore. I would love to see how they grow in a tank like yours.
I love how you let the slimer grow out so nice and large, tank looks just as good without it too. Seeing tanks that have such nice staghorns really makes me want to keep a tank going right now just for staghorns. Like that one cube tank that was a stag forest on here years back. I wish I could remember the thread.
Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
I love how you let the slimer grow out so nice and large, tank looks just as good without it too
. Seeing tanks that have such nice staghorns really makes me want to keep a tank going right now just for staghorns. Like that one cube tank that was a stag forest on here years back. I wish I could remember the thread.Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
