My 120 filled mostly with SPS

[sbreefer]

very nice tank.

 

[jroovers]

I dont know what your doing up on the roof but its working

Thanks Kevin.

Beautiful shots and thanks for the info on the fish :thumbsup:

You're lucky to have a good fish supplier. I do believe, that their size matters a lot. The smaller, usually the better. I'm happy to hear your experience of the Regal, that while it didn't eat much initially, it made it and now looks well settled.

Hopefully I'll find one soon. The FTS looks great :thumbsup:

Yes, that has been my experience as well, the smaller the better. Both power blue tangs I've had I also got small, and both have done really well.

Absolutley great photo's! I have the same bulb combo without the royal blues and i'm getting insane purples and some great greens, but reds are not so red anymore. Have you noticed any "range" of colors that are not doing as good as others? How much do you think the royal blues add to the spectrum and growth? Thanks for sharing the tank.

Yes please tell us more.

You mean you find the reds aren't really popping as reds? The lighting may be definitely part of it. I have a red planet, which is pictured above, that appears more pink than red, but it does have a nice green base. My guess is that it is the coral though, and not the lighting that makes it more pink than red. I also have a red convexa, and it is pretty red, although it doesn't scream red. But it is definitely redder than I've seen in other tanks (exact same coral lineage), under different lighting (both MH and LED and LED/T5). I would say all the coral colours are pretty good, but I do notice that the royal blues really kick out a lot of purple and magenta in addition to the blue. You can definitely notice it even in the pics I posted. That is why I've tried to go really white with my lighting, even then you still see the magenta influence from the royal blues. I don't run my T5s for that long really, so the RBs definitely contribute to the overall PAR, but colour wise and wavelength wise it is in the very blue to magenta spectrum.

wow!!! beautiful pics..im jealous

Tank is looking fantastic Jordan! same with the photography.

Sick tank! Love everything about it.

Fantastic shots as usual. Very clean and great looking tank, Jordan.:beer:

Wow awesome

Thanks guys :beer:

Very impressive indeed. I love your tank, and the pictures and video. What kind of camera for the pictures and video?

thanks

I use a Canon 7D. The photos and video were both a combination of the Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens, and my 18-135 kit lens (the close-ups are the macro lens, the wider shots are with the 18-135).

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

beautiful!!!

Amazing corals,amazing photos!!

Does your regal,nip at any coral?

very nice tank.

Thanks guys. Glaukos, I haven't really caught the Regal nipping at SPS. He did start eating my acans, as well as my elegance coral, so unfortunately I had to move them out to other reefers. He took a run at the only chalice I have as well, but quickly laid off it thankfully. Pretty much any and all LPS though, with the exception of my hammer, have been on the menu potentially.

 

[sahin]

What is it with Canadian Reefkeepers? You guys are so good at reefkeeping! You, Daryl and Dwayne (Flagswipe) are awesome SPS keepers.

Your latest shots look superb! :thumbsup:

 

[tdb320reef]

Wow great pictures!

 

[nycoral1]

Your tank is amazing. Do you think flow is the key when it comes to big sps colonies

 

[Led reef]

What kind of camera u used?

 

[jroovers]

What is it with Canadian Reefkeepers? You guys are so good at reefkeeping! You, Daryl and Dwayne (Flagswipe) are awesome SPS keepers.

Your latest shots look superb! :thumbsup:

Thanks Sahin. Darryl definitely knows his stuff, that is for sure, his is without a doubt the nicest tank I've ever seen. Mine is no where near as nice as his. There are quite a few beautiful tanks here in SW Ontario, it seems like a lot of guys have the SPS bug and are getting terrific results.

Wow great pictures!

Your tank is amazing. Do you think flow is the key when it comes to big sps colonies

Thanks guys. Flow is important. That biggest coral, the fire and ice prostrata, is on its way out - it is so big now that it is either going to break off, or die from the bottom up or centre out. I think I have more than enough with my two Tunze's in this 120. In my next system I'd like to have a wavemaker, in this current tank it would just take up two much space and the tunzes provide great random and variable flow.

What kind of camera u used?

Canon 7D and those latest pics are with a Canon 100 mm macro, and Canon 18-135 mm zoom kit lens.

 

[dowtish]

Those bubble tip pics are really cool! Love the detail you can see in each tip.

 

[tripdad]

Thanks for the detailed answer. Have a good holiday season.

 

[reefmutt]

Those bubble tip pics are really cool! Love the detail you can see in each tip.

Agreed.. How big are those anemones?

 

[blackchicken]

Excelent job man. Great photos, aquascaping, fish selection and ofcourse SPS and colours. Soooo nice.

 

[Jfannin]

Great thread. Its been fun reading all 20 pages over the last two days. For sure in line for TOTM.

I as well have a 120g like your selfz and have a few questions. You think you said that you tryed just LEDs but it didn't work , s.o you added the T5's . would you care to tell me what you didn't like about just using LED,s? Myself I started with T5's then went to MH and know pure LED's (Cree) but I don't have any corals under my LEDs yet. So you got me wondering.

I was also wondering how high you have your T5's above the water and what reflectors you are using on them?


Another question and to me a major one. You've posted several times that you use IO salt mix and I'm pretty sure you mean its not the Reef crystals, am I correct? If so doesnt your Alk, Ca, and posable Mag drop really bad when you do a WC? Are you possibly dosing your salt mix before doing a WC or anything or is the IO numbers in a good range. I always thought they ran low with IO.


A big thinks for the input and I hope you tank continues to do well. Its a great one for sure.

 

[jackson6745]

This has grown in soooooooo nicely! Beautiful.

 

[Jfannin]

Oh yah I almost forgot. A very good way to help secure your rockwork is with Gel Super Glue. It is 100% no toxic to a reef and you can do it under water if you need to. I duh the packs of 4 tubes for just a $1 or $2 all the time. Best advice I can give for you rock issue.
The more the glue the better. Just squart it as deep as you can I to the cracks and holes and then smush it around a little with your finger to help work it in and cause it to activate the drying process. It is the only thing I have ever used when glueing frags or rock work. Just go heavy with it and give it time to dry.

I was also wondering how you are fighting your Cyano or byops Algae problem? Forgot what one you have lol

My rock work when i first started all to the tank a few years ago. The rocks are still holding up strong.
Best of luck my friend
<a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/684/img1868vc.jpg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/684/img1868vc.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" border="0"/></a>

 

[jroovers]

Those bubble tip pics are really cool! Love the detail you can see in each tip.

Yes, they are pretty neat really close up. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the detailed answer. Have a good holiday season.

You too! :beer:

Agreed.. How big are those anemones?

Not very big... that flame BTA is only about 3" in diameter. Growing quite a bit though over the short time I've had it.

Excelent job man. Great photos, aquascaping, fish selection and ofcourse SPS and colours. Soooo nice.

Thanks! :beer:

Great thread. Its been fun reading all 20 pages over the last two days. For sure in line for TOTM.

I as well have a 120g like your selfz and have a few questions. You think you said that you tryed just LEDs but it didn't work , s.o you added the T5's . would you care to tell me what you didn't like about just using LED,s? Myself I started with T5's then went to MH and know pure LED's (Cree) but I don't have any corals under my LEDs yet. So you got me wondering.

I was also wondering how high you have your T5's above the water and what reflectors you are using on them?


Another question and to me a major one. You've posted several times that you use IO salt mix and I'm pretty sure you mean its not the Reef crystals, am I correct? If so doesnt your Alk, Ca, and posable Mag drop really bad when you do a WC? Are you possibly dosing your salt mix before doing a WC or anything or is the IO numbers in a good range. I always thought they ran low with IO.


A big thinks for the input and I hope you tank continues to do well. Its a great one for sure.

Thanks for the compliments. On my 55 I had T5 only, then on this tank, I initially had MH/T5. I then switched out the MHs in favour of the Royal Blue LEDs. So I've always had the T5s. They are just DIY Sylvania Quicktronic ballasts with end caps and standoffs, wired myself (if I can do it anyone can lol), and I just have those individual reflectors that clip on directly to the bulb (four total, one for each bulb). I've never tried all LED, wouldn't do so, but obviously people are having success with that approach. So can't help you really with the all LED lighting, although I do like the T5/LED combo, best of both worlds IMO. My T5s are about 10-12 inches off the water, I can take a more precise measurement for you like though and get back to you.

In terms of IO, I do use just the regular IO, not the reef crystals. I don't test each batch of IO for alk or ca, so I'm not sure where each bucket sits, but I do try and keep my tank at no more than 8 dkh and no less than 7 dkh, and my Ca at 400 to 420. I have BRS dosers and run them each twice per day (so my tank is dosed Alk, Ca, Alk, Ca every 6 hours). I test my water periodically and adjust my Ca and Alk up when needed - I'm usually bang on with Alk and my Ca starts to get low with time, so I usually have to give that a bump from time to time. I change 10% water, ideally once a week, once every 10 days or two weeks when really busy, and otherwise don't worry about when I do the change. Sometimes one of my dosers is running when doing the water change and the sump gets a bit cloudy, but I've never worried about it and haven't seen any harmful effects of restarting the main pump with a whackload of alk snow floating around.

This has grown in soooooooo nicely! Beautiful.

Thanks, it has taken a long time to fill in, and it is getting there, but there is certainly lots more room for coral to fill in.

Oh yah I almost forgot. A very good way to help secure your rockwork is with Gel Super Glue. It is 100% no toxic to a reef and you can do it under water if you need to. I duh the packs of 4 tubes for just a $1 or $2 all the time. Best advice I can give for you rock issue.
The more the glue the better. Just squart it as deep as you can I to the cracks and holes and then smush it around a little with your finger to help work it in and cause it to activate the drying process. It is the only thing I have ever used when glueing frags or rock work. Just go heavy with it and give it time to dry.

I was also wondering how you are fighting your Cyano or byops Algae problem? Forgot what one you have lol

My rock work when i first started all to the tank a few years ago. The rocks are still holding up strong.
Best of luck my friend
<a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/684/img1868vc.jpg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/684/img1868vc.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" border="0"/></a>

I like the scape! Similar to mine but more minimalist. I use the dollar store gel glue too for frags, never used it for rockwork though. In the future, I would definitely consider using a glue and epoxy combo though, much better than that hydraulic cement.

For cyano and bubble algae, I try and baste the rocks and coral a couple of times a week, which helps keep it down. When it starts to pop up here and there, I've upped my GFO (or put it back online) to help get it under control, and I use a type of pick or awl to free it. Then it usually just gets sucked to the side of one of my tunzes and I simply siphon it off. Lately though, the bubble algae hasn't been too much of a problem. I think consistent basting, and keeping your phosphates down, helps keep it in check. You can never completely eradicate that stuff though unless you have a tang or something that likes to eat it. I find I need to have some small amount of nutrient in there for the coral, which also is conducive to some growth of problem algae. The price one has to pay I guess to have nice coral colours. HTH.

 

[sahin]

Jordan, can you please share details on what you feed the fishes and the SPS corals?

Many thanks and Happy Xmas to you!

 

[jroovers]

Jordan, can you please share details on what you feed the fishes and the SPS corals?

Many thanks and Happy Xmas to you!

Merry Christmas to you also!

I haven't been feeding anything other than mysis, NLS pellets, nori, and some of this frozen angel formula that is sponge and krill based. Lately I think I've been feeding too much (two to three times daily) and I don't feed the tank anything else or feed my coral specifically. I'm going to feed no more than NLS pellets once daily, and a frozen food (e.g. mysis or the angel food) no more than once daily (and reduce the amount somewhat). I've also been soaking all of my food in selcon (pellets and frozen food).

 

[small_polyp]

Fantastic tank! Healthy looking, when the water sparkles like that u know everything is doing what it should. Years ago, before we had the equip and knowledge we do now, i remember seeing the first tank i ever saw with that look of perfect water quality..ure's reminds me of that tank.

One quick question. I have always used metal halides wth actinics..first was VHO then PC now T5 but you guys almost have me convinced to go all T5, my question is what bulb combo and brand do you use.
Thanks much in advance, and keep up he great work!

 

[jroovers]

Fantastic tank! Healthy looking, when the water sparkles like that u know everything is doing what it should. Years ago, before we had the equip and knowledge we do now, i remember seeing the first tank i ever saw with that look of perfect water quality..ure's reminds me of that tank.

One quick question. I have always used metal halides wth actinics..first was VHO then PC now T5 but you guys almost have me convinced to go all T5, my question is what bulb combo and brand do you use.
Thanks much in advance, and keep up he great work!

Thanks SP, I use ATI bulbs, currently two coral plus and two aqua blue special. But I supplement with royal blue LEDs. If you are going all T5, you'll want to incorporate some ATI blue pluses, and some actinic as well. How many bulbs are you going to have (6, 8)?

 

[rsaha]

Thanks guys. Flow is important. That biggest coral, the fire and ice prostrata, is on its way out - it is so big now that it is either going to break off, or die from the bottom up or centre out. I think I have more than enough with my two Tunze's in this 120. In my next system I'd like to have a wavemaker, in this current tank it would just take up two much space and the tunzes provide great random and variable flow.

Your tank continues to be an inspiration to me (we must not quite have the same water in Ottawa as you guys do in Toronto:hmm3. Can you share what you have your 6105s set at these days - including jumper voltage if you don't mind.