My 120 filled mostly with SPS
- Thread starter jroovers
- Start date
dvanacker
DID I SOUNDS SMRT??
I think most dips dont work against red bugs......
P.S....when are you going to share you tank with us?
Bax
Premium Member
Red bugs were the easiest pest to fix. However, those aefw reared their ugly heads after my interceptor treatment.
DO you think it is a recurrence of a previous infection or new bugs on a new purchase?
Sorry.
But BEAUTIFUL tank!
Yes to all of that!
Your tank i sweet and I'd take RB's over AEFWs any day!!!
sweet ride
New member
nice macro shots!
sorry to hear about the red bugs.
sorry to hear about the red bugs.
Breakbeats2334
New member
Nice coloration do you prefur the led/t5 combination over the mh now that youve had them for alittle while?
jroovers
New member
Thanks. My vet prescribed me interceptor previously, I had to sit down with him and discuss what I wanted it for and I took in some printed information on the treatment, photos of the RB's, etc. and he actually was really into it. So hopefully it isn't difficult to get an additional prescription assuming Interceptor is available again. Shoot me a PM sometime and we can visit each other's tanks.
Thank you, I use Instant Ocean.
My mortality rate in short has been 7/8 have died. When my skimmer crapped out just over a month ago, I really had to reduce my feedings as I was getting an outbreak of cyano and algae. This came at the expense of my threadfins. To make matters worse, the threadfins must have had something, as two of my anthias got sick not long after I introduced them; one anthia then died and was stuck under the rock work and I couldn't get at it, which made matters worse from a nutrient standpoint. My lack of success was due to extenuating circumstances; they were all eating when my skimmer was running, but they preferred to eat when the lights were out and they really only liked cyclopeeze - they were getting out competed for mysis, and they wouldn't eat flakes or pellets. Mistake on my part, next time I'll quarantine them first and get them on the right type of food. I probably won't try again though. I picked mine up at the LFS so I didn't have them shipped directly to me, they came home with me over a 5 minute drive. My recommendation to you would be once you get them in a tank, leave the lights out for 24 hours and let them get comfortable, they really feel much more comfortable that way, and start you feedings in the dark, and work your way up from there.
Thanks Darryl. Good to know re: the dips, I won't bother and try and go straight to interceptor treatment. Looking forward to getting some macros of your system!
Thanks!
Ha Ha so I've heard.
Westreef, I picked up a used Tamron 90mm 2.8 macro lens. My body is a Canon 7D. I shoot in manual mode with my WB set at 10,000k. I then do further white balancing in post with Lightroom 3. With these macros, I used a tripod which allowed me to keep my ISO low (400 and below), and my shutter speed low (roughly between 1/20 to 1/50), while using a decent aperature (roughly 7.1). Lower ISO = less noise. Lower shutter speed = more light for exposure to compensate for lower ISO and smaller relative aperature. Smaller aperature = more working depth of field. This produces a sharp image of a relatively stationary subject. Moving objects (e.g swimming fish) are another story.
Thanks sweet ride, you get some very nice macro shots so I've got some catching up to do... you also have a nice longnose hawk! They are fun to shoot with the macro as they stay stationary for periods of time, unlike other fish.
With just the RB Cree's on, there is more "wow" factor feedback from visitors. A couple of people have commented on how much shimmer there is with just the LED's. The T5's allow tweaking of the overall look of the tank, which I plan on playing with. I'm going to get rid of my fiji purple as the RB's pump out a lot of purple to begin with. In short, I don't miss my MH's, and I don't think my corals do either. My tank temperature this summer has stayed much more stable - it hovers at 79 at the highest, while last summer it was pushing 83 (I have no chiller). I don't think I'll ever go back to MH's.
Tomoko Schum
New member
What do you think made the biggest difference in terms of the coloration of your corals? There seems to be a huge difference in the coloration of corals between the current pictures and the old picture from 2011 that you posted earlier in the thread. Is it the use of biopellets or the different light fixture?
Tomoko Schum
New member
Sorry for the double post.
jroovers
New member
Hi Tomoko, thanks for your question, one difference is a better camera/lenses and better photography skills. That is a small part.
I think "knowing" the system and the balance of nutrients, is another part of it. Biopellets are obviously a part of that - I think they have definitely helped in reducing the overall nutrient load and allow me a greater range of possible nutrient levels (super low to relatively high for SPS) to operate in when feeding my fish and corals. Last year I couldn't find the sweet spot of too many or too few nutrients. Also, I'm thinking the maturity of the system, being just over two years old now, has also helped. So in short, I think basic SPS husbandry practices (stable parameters), combined with trial and error and system experience in finding the nutrient "sweet spot", is the cause of better success. A little luck never hurts either. I think the lighting type is secondary - it doesn't matter MH or T5 supplemented with LED - if you don't have the nutrient and water parameters sorted out, you aren't going to have better growth and colours regardless. HTH.
Reefer1225
New member
Best macro pics I've seen... subscribed!
Regarding scaping, I am going to need to adjust mine a bit! The rock on top of one of my pillars is splitting; it is gong to take some adjustment. I guess that is what happens when you drill a hole through rock and wait long enough.
I'd thought I'd try and get some shots with just my Cree RB's on... not that easy, but some worked out:
Beautiful tank!
What kind of chalice is that?
jroovers
New member
I feed Oysterfeast once or twice a week, but other than that just fish food (mysis, cyclopeeze and mostly NLS pellets). I haven't put in oysterfeast in a while though as I was concerned about too much nutrients.
Thanks!
Not sure, it is a wild chalice that came in a Bali shipment, I don't know if it has a name or is similar to a named one.
jroovers
New member
Been awhile since an update. Things have mostly been not great, my SRO skimmer, short for "Super Reef Overflower", has been an incredible PITA. I've had it off more than on, which has led to an increase in phosphates, some lost colour on corals, and some cyano. I think things are heading back in the right direction after some skimmer mods, but it is still overflowing periodically and I think I'm going to replace it once I have enough time. I just treated for redbugs today with Interceptor and did a water change/carbon afterwards - so far so good. Thanks to the generosity of a fellow reefer on this site, I didn't have to go to my vet and ask for some of the med - thank you!
I added a regal angel on a whim, and my PBT did not take to him - by some grace of goodness, I was able to catch the PBT and sold him to a fellow reefer nearby - sounds like he is in good hands! The regal is a beauty and is eating mysis like a little piggy. Hopefully that keeps up. Here she is:
This one is overcooked in post but I liked the effect and colour:
I liked this pic of one of my chalices:
This pic of my blue sided fairy wrasse might be my favorite fish pic that I have ever taken:
I added a regal angel on a whim, and my PBT did not take to him - by some grace of goodness, I was able to catch the PBT and sold him to a fellow reefer nearby - sounds like he is in good hands! The regal is a beauty and is eating mysis like a little piggy. Hopefully that keeps up. Here she is:
This one is overcooked in post but I liked the effect and colour:
I liked this pic of one of my chalices:
This pic of my blue sided fairy wrasse might be my favorite fish pic that I have ever taken:
jroovers
New member
The skimmer is in 5.75" of water as recommended by CoralVue. I had added the durso type drain mod on the skimmer initially. The riser pipe on the output after some reading is apparently higher on the new stock models and is above the water level - i cut the riser pipe down so the output is pretty much right at the level of the water in the skimmer section of the sump, similar to how you described. I also added a 3/8" John Guest valve on air intake just below the silencer to turn it down a bit and have the pump pull less air. It is helping for sure, but I had an overflow again the other day for no apparent reason.
Man that is a really cool pic. ^^^
Thanks, it is a difficult fish to photograph as it doesn't stay still and is in constant motion.
jroovers
New member
Its clean. One of the most common answers for the overflow is salt creep at the junction of the air intake with the venturi, based on what I've read anyhow. Mine has been clean each time I've looked, and i just rinsed it out this past week to be certain and test again. I'll be taking it out again and having another look, but I've never seen anything in there to explain the overflowing.
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