afernandez
Never Quit!!
Softy?!?!?!?!
Lmao !!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
- Start date
Lmao !!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Well Sunday is here and I made my normal weekly additions of Fauna Marin Color Elements, but I cut the amount in half, to 5mL each of the Blue/Purple and Red/Purple complexes. I also added 1 ml of Kent Iron/Manganese and 6 drops of Zeofood7(since I don't have any other liquid coral foods at the moment). The corals are doing well and recovering from whatever plagued them last week.
I have recently really gotten the Cyano under control, I have figured out a few things about it that may help others:
1) I have a very fine sand bed- about 3/4" to 1.5" depth. Originally it was southdown play sand but I have replaced much of the front sand about a yer ago with reef-eden tonga mini flakes. Its fine but not dusty. Anyhow, I always had Cyano on the sand, especially when nutrients were low. After adding the Gyre, the Cyano disappeared everywhere except the lowest flow portions of the sanded. I'm pretty sure that if I had two Alternating Gyres, the cyan would all have been gone. What I also noticed was that Cyano was limited to the areas where the sand was deeper and where bubbles could be seen under the surface of the sand bed(along the glass). Basically, when the sand gets around an inch and a half deep, it starts to produce nitrogen bubbles because of denitrification. If the flow of water over the sand is not fast enough to flush away this Nitrogen gas, Cyano can use it and start to grow there. I now just adjust the sand from time to time to keep the sand thinner where the flow is slower and thicker where flow is high.
Only the slightest dusting of brown was remaining and I could easily live with that.
But as a bonus, the Metal adsorber and poly-filter I added pulled something out of the water, because the sand is now pure white and completely clear of Cyano or diatoms!
I have recently really gotten the Cyano under control, I have figured out a few things about it that may help others:
1) I have a very fine sand bed- about 3/4" to 1.5" depth. Originally it was southdown play sand but I have replaced much of the front sand about a yer ago with reef-eden tonga mini flakes. Its fine but not dusty. Anyhow, I always had Cyano on the sand, especially when nutrients were low. After adding the Gyre, the Cyano disappeared everywhere except the lowest flow portions of the sanded. I'm pretty sure that if I had two Alternating Gyres, the cyan would all have been gone. What I also noticed was that Cyano was limited to the areas where the sand was deeper and where bubbles could be seen under the surface of the sand bed(along the glass). Basically, when the sand gets around an inch and a half deep, it starts to produce nitrogen bubbles because of denitrification. If the flow of water over the sand is not fast enough to flush away this Nitrogen gas, Cyano can use it and start to grow there. I now just adjust the sand from time to time to keep the sand thinner where the flow is slower and thicker where flow is high.
Only the slightest dusting of brown was remaining and I could easily live with that.
But as a bonus, the Metal adsorber and poly-filter I added pulled something out of the water, because the sand is now pure white and completely clear of Cyano or diatoms!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
More Sunday update:
The fish are swimming freely about again, no more hiding out like they were during the tank issues. And we had an unexpected reward - the Copperband Butterfly that is awesome at eliminating Aiptasia but is a picky eater ate Mysis yesterday!!!. I feed blackworms to the tank partly because that was all the Copperband would eat, but I would prefer to not have to feed them every day. Now the Copperband will have a more varied diet as well.
I tried out a Blue plus bulb in position 1 of the Sunpower and ended up not liking it. It just made the tank look dim and overly blue. I have really changed my preference when it comes to this, I like the tank very bright and very white these days. I ended up with the following bulb lineup, pretty close to the one I've had for a while with the exception of using a second ABS:
Front to back:
Aquablue Azure
ABS
Super Actinic
Fiji Purple
Super Actinic
Actinic Blue
ABS
KZ New Gen
Yep, one true "blue" bulb only. I think when I first started the tank I had 4 or 5 blue bulbs.
The fish are swimming freely about again, no more hiding out like they were during the tank issues. And we had an unexpected reward - the Copperband Butterfly that is awesome at eliminating Aiptasia but is a picky eater ate Mysis yesterday!!!. I feed blackworms to the tank partly because that was all the Copperband would eat, but I would prefer to not have to feed them every day. Now the Copperband will have a more varied diet as well.
I tried out a Blue plus bulb in position 1 of the Sunpower and ended up not liking it. It just made the tank look dim and overly blue. I have really changed my preference when it comes to this, I like the tank very bright and very white these days. I ended up with the following bulb lineup, pretty close to the one I've had for a while with the exception of using a second ABS:
Front to back:
Aquablue Azure
ABS
Super Actinic
Fiji Purple
Super Actinic
Actinic Blue
ABS
KZ New Gen
Yep, one true "blue" bulb only. I think when I first started the tank I had 4 or 5 blue bulbs.
biggles
Premium Member
Looking great buddy, can't believe you're wasting all that space on stupid montis...........
A bright fluoro lime acro would be an eye catcher with your colors if you were thinking about adding something new. Ignore Sahin about the green acros being no good, he's only kept ones the color of a toads bum so he's biased. :rolleye1:
A bright fluoro lime acro would be an eye catcher with your colors if you were thinking about adding something new. Ignore Sahin about the green acros being no good, he's only kept ones the color of a toads bum so he's biased. :rolleye1:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
The Orange monti is grown all over the overflow but i let the Acros kill it back if it extends too far from there. I find it less and less interesting as time passes though.
Fluorescent Lime? Biggles, you are taking too many pain pills. There is plenty of green in here:
Fluorescent Lime? Biggles, you are taking too many pain pills. There is plenty of green in here:
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
The President of the Green Acro Club wants you to have more greens in your tank...I mean after all, he is the president of the greens....
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
All in good fun Biggles
As much as I want to balance the color in the tank its undeniably hard to pass by a fluorescent lime Acro, so Ill keep it in mind. I really want some big blue beauties in there but Acros take time to grow...The flubbery thing is an Acan Echinata I got at the very beginning of the tank that was a couple of polyps, now its spread all over that rock. Its dangerous - it eats SPS corals that are too close to it so I have to kill it back with Kalk paste from time to time. I don't know if it will be in a future tank. In fact I may restrict the livestock for the future tank to SPS and anemones only. If I do Ill Mail the flubber to Sahin
The fish is a green wrasse. Thats the name they give it, its not very imaginative
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Tank is rolling along well after the little bump in the road last week, I may or may not have made another bulb change.:crazy1:
Honestly these all in one pellets make running the tank kind of boring:loll:
P.E. is ridiculous once again. I did split my 1X10mL per week dose of the color elements into a 5mL dose on Sunday and another on Wednesday to even them out. I'm trying to slowly raise the Magnesium level but Im waiting on more Magnesium chloride.
Parameters last I checked(yesterday): Mg:1410, Salinity 34ppt, NO3:2.5, K:400
Looks like Potassium is being used up a bit, I may need to start dosing some if it drops below 400.
Some Pics of fuzzy acros:
Honestly these all in one pellets make running the tank kind of boring:loll:
P.E. is ridiculous once again. I did split my 1X10mL per week dose of the color elements into a 5mL dose on Sunday and another on Wednesday to even them out. I'm trying to slowly raise the Magnesium level but Im waiting on more Magnesium chloride.
Parameters last I checked(yesterday): Mg:1410, Salinity 34ppt, NO3:2.5, K:400
Looks like Potassium is being used up a bit, I may need to start dosing some if it drops below 400.
Some Pics of fuzzy acros:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks! I have tried four total pellet types in both flow through and recirculating configurations, dosed Vodka, Vinegar, and tried Zeovit. I can confidently say the All-In-One pellets are the best carbon dosing scheme I've tried.
markalot
...
Good to hear. Do you have a favorite reactor brand?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
No, mine is DIY'd from a Vertex Pellet reactor, I will be DIYing a larger reactor from a Nextreef XL media reactor when I upgrade to a larger tank. The Reef Dynamics reactors are well made but the flow through speed is a bit restricted by his choice in plumbing.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Not too much to report but a small update. Corals are continuing to improve and are going through a little growth spurt lately with new growth tips evident. I continue to prune and move as needed to eek out every last inch of available space for the current tank. Some clipped branches are being put on frag plugs or random places in the tank to grow out a bit - hopefully I will be able to give them a bigger tank to live in soon.
Full Tank:
The new Pink acro with blue tips and Hoeki. This picture was adjusted like crazy to try to dial down the color. Its a little less saturated to the eye in real life but a really nice color:
Full Tank:
The new Pink acro with blue tips and Hoeki. This picture was adjusted like crazy to try to dial down the color. Its a little less saturated to the eye in real life but a really nice color:
Electrobes
Montipora type guy
Lawdy, Lawdy that's a great looking full tank!
afernandez
Never Quit!!
tank is looking great !
don't you just hate it when your tank is on cruise control! :sad1:
i cant wait to be bored
pink piece is looking really sweet !
don't you just hate it when your tank is on cruise control! :sad1:
i cant wait to be bored
pink piece is looking really sweet !
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