My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[biggles]

drooling all over my floor..... wow

Thanks mate, appreciate the drool

Here's two shots that show the mess i have going on at the very top of the rock against the overflow, neither color corrected as it's late Sunday night and i can't be stuffed.

The white putty you see is up to 3 months old, the stupid blue stag above the SCC is growing and too lazy to encrust at all in months - zero coralline as i usually get in my tanks so it's no sign as far as i'm concerned that your ready for SPS. Check out how fast the green monster is going after the blue stag, it's already stung crap out of the underside and you can see the massive encrusting it's got going on all over the rock and it's stung the SCC twice despite me chiseling it back half an inch each time. It's not growing up but just getting thicker and bloody greener so i've decided it's going along with the acro that juts out from the same ledge as it's only pretty from above and looks drab and colorless from normal viewing.
The blue polyped white acro is the base of a colony i thought was going to RTN so i cut all the branches off - it didn't lol, need to get rid of this sprouting base as all the bloody branches pulled through too.
Just to the right of that is where i cut a blue stag frag off 2 weeks ago after changing my mind - it wants to keep growing obviously. Behind that is some more horrida that is loving the light up there. The little frag is some of that possible echinata i shoved up there a day ago to see what it does in high light.
Behind all that stuff is the chunk of purple monti i had left over so i shoved it in the crevice between the rock and weir months ago, it's well and truly got a good hold now lol.

So anyway i won't remove anything until i find a few new pieces to replace the empty spots and i'm going to be very picky when looking for the replacements I know i'll damage stuff doing it - i always do

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Omg stop.... Its not fair... You have sooo many sexi corals lol.

 

[echopiece]

Great top downs! Thanks for the play by play action of every coral placement and description. I can't wait to see your new "replacements" and how they acclimate to your tank.

I talked the wife into going to this particular restaurant for lunch today, which by the way is right next to my favorite LFS lol. I hope they have something I want to take home this time. I also wouldn't mind finding a clam, in an ultra blue color

 

[biggles]

Omg stop.... Its not fair... You have sooo many sexi corals lol.

Lol there's a couple of non sexy ones in there too mate.

Great top downs! Thanks for the play by play action of every coral placement and description. I can't wait to see your new "replacements" and how they acclimate to your tank.

I talked the wife into going to this particular restaurant for lunch today, which by the way is right next to my favorite LFS lol. I hope they have something I want to take home this time. I also wouldn't mind finding a clam, in an ultra blue color

Haha nice one mate, you gotta be sneaky in this hobby to get what you want sometimes :thumbsup:

Nice setup!

Thanks my friend


Here's another blue shot showing the two colonies that are going shortly, lots of space for some new scaping once i get rid of the duds. The reddish stag at the back of the raft rock is coming off as well and moving as it doesn't like the flow where it is now, it can have a go on the rock where these two are currently residing i think.

 

[Bello]

Man, that's a bunch of pics biggles

I don't think the saturation is changing much in the pics, the undeited images look just as great :thumbsup:

I don't think the red table is a hyacinthus. Get Jason to ID it . Either way, it looks great. Given that it was a poopy brown when you picked it up.

Looks like you're all set to remove a couple of those acros. Considering the rest of the beauties you've got in there, good choice. Though I'd love to see them in my tank

I really want to see you setting up the second tank biggles ....pretty please with a roo on top :lol:

 

[moze229]

IMO, It's threads like this that really keep this hobby going strong. Someone who is a natural at keeping SPS makes it seem so easy, and is willing to share photos and stories all about it at the same time.

Now all I need is someone in my local area who gives lessons on this and can babysit me along the way. I've been doing this stuff for a long time and I'm still too scared to go to this level. I suppose all that it will take is some money, a deep breath, and just dive for it. This thread has really made me want to.

Thanks biggles, for sharing your photos.

 

[echopiece]

IMO, It's threads like this that really keep this hobby going strong. Someone who is a natural at keeping SPS makes it seem so easy, and is willing to share photos and stories all about it at the same time.

Now all I need is someone in my local area who gives lessons on this and can babysit me along the way. I've been doing this stuff for a long time and I'm still too scared to go to this level. I suppose all that it will take is some money, a deep breath, and just dive for it. This thread has really made me want to.

Thanks biggles, for sharing your photos.

I totally agree with you! This thread has given me that spark and motivation to make my SPS tank as beautiful as his! He sure does make it sound so easy. I'm trying to pick up as many tips and tricks as I can for the success of my tank. Keep it up Biggles and thanks for inspiring us!

 

[biggles]

Hey Bello (sneaky acro hoarding bastard) I'll have to seek Jason's help with the red table as obviously i have no idea lol. I'll also be keeping an eye on that bloody forum in case you try sneaking any more beauties past me - case in point that cool hyacinthus you scored......... I'm warning you now mate if you do it again i'm gonna offer the LFS $200 to get me a colony of SSC and plaster it all over your journal........
I don't think i'll have the cash to get the second tank until xmas so that's when i'll prob order it mate - i think you'll like what i have planned for the current tanks big brother, peninsula all the way baby and the 250W radium's 400W brothers are coming to the 16" deep party - i might get new sunglasses for inside while i'm at it :thumbsup:

IMO, It's threads like this that really keep this hobby going strong. Someone who is a natural at keeping SPS makes it seem so easy, and is willing to share photos and stories all about it at the same time.

Now all I need is someone in my local area who gives lessons on this and can babysit me along the way. I've been doing this stuff for a long time and I'm still too scared to go to this level. I suppose all that it will take is some money, a deep breath, and just dive for it. This thread has really made me want to.

Thanks biggles, for sharing your photos.

Thanks very much for the kind words mate, really appreciate you taking the time to say hello
I don't think i'm a natural or anything special, there's quite a few SPS reefers here that have displays i look at with great envy and even those who are starting again from a previous successful display all share one thing in common i think - none of them worry about killing stuff when they buy it, they only worry about how pretty it's going to be in their tank so considering you already know what your doing with salt water you just need to get your head and confidence in the right place when you come to your senses and dump all the flubber and other crap for real corals. Btw a 'real' coral can survive being smashed on a tile floor, then chewed by a golden retriever, wrenched from clenched jaws and returned to a tank covered in dog spit - try doing that with a flubbercan. I rest my case......... :reading:

I'm only a PM away if you ever want a hand mate :thumbsup:

I totally agree with you! This thread has given me that spark and motivation to make my SPS tank as beautiful as his! He sure does make it sound so easy. I'm trying to pick up as many tips and tricks as I can for the success of my tank. Keep it up Biggles and thanks for inspiring us!

Hey buddy, always nice to hear from you This one's for you:

SPS Tip of the day - always put the dog outside if you intend fragging an acro because sometimes they explode when the cutters go crunch and dogs love the smell of acros in the morning.........:smokin:


Soooooooo, the pink milli or prostrata frag on the left just above the blue stag has sat there for months looking all pretty but zero new growth and it's encrusted stuff all. You see this sometimes and especially with full colonies that have no interruption to their outer base tissue from collection, they can go into a weird 'dormant' state where they display their colors fine but basically stop growing for ages. The easiest way to wake the coral up is to reboot the encrusting urge so i simply chisel the base tissue off an acro colony or in this case i chopped 3/4 of the frag off and stuck it on a monti in different flow and similar light as i don't want the color to change. The 1/2" stump i left behind for two reasons. 1. I get another frag which won't happen if i just move the entire thing, and two it's the damage that will spur some action so making two frags from one leaves damage on both. If your frag is too small to chop just move it and when you have it securely in it's new place give the very edge of the base tissue a tickle with a chisel to ensure it knows things have changed.
I don't want anyone running out attacking their acros madly, just letting you know what works for me in case you come across the same thing and you will if you buy enough wild SPS.

Here he is on his new home, the monti took one for the team See the couple of strange colored spots on the frag, that's where i had super glue on my fingers when i picked it up to glue it in place lol. I damaged the base of the stump i left behind and stuck a small blob of epoxy on the wound and then quartered that with a knife and splayed the four corners out - why ask it to regrow one tip when you can get it to grow up to four with a little luck.

 

[biggles]

Took some macros at night with a torch for illumination and the trusty old iPhone macro lens lol - can't leave that bloody thing alone :hmm2:
Cropped and resized but nothing else done, i love the funky colors you see with a flash or torch at night.

Crappy iPhone shots have nothing at all to do with the phone........

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Do not be hard on yourself. The shots are not crappy at all. They are in fact stunning. Are you perfectionist?

Cheers

DH

PS. Can you recommend me a macro lens for the iPhone?

 

[troubadour11]

YAY to the macro shots! :cheers: Fun stuff!

Wow biggles. You're tank is sure looking good. It will be interesting to see how you start cleaning house and replacing things with your "choice" pieces. Because it already looks wonderful and I most would be proud to just have a healthy, thriving reef.

I can't wait to put up my dukes and drop my first coral in :strooper: I'm sure I'll take a quite a beating for a long time. But at least I'll be in the game then! Although I'm sure I'll get an earful of attitude over greenies and flubbers. LOL

Keep up the great picks and SPS tips of the day! So far they all seem like little golden nuggets to keep in mind for when I finally start picking pieces out. All good info and great to hear :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

Do not be hard on yourself. The shots are not crappy at all. They are in fact stunning. Are you perfectionist?

Cheers

DH

PS. Can you recommend me a macro lens for the iPhone?

Hi mate, i actually meant there's nothing wrong with using an iPhone to capture reef pics as you can still capture decent images without a high end DSLR. Every pic i've posted has been taken with my iPhone 4S so no one should be blaming their camera for poor quality pics, just take the time to learn how to get the best from what you have.
I put a link to the type of macro lens i use in this thread buddy, works a treat as you can see so grab one and have a go. :thumbsup:

Macro lens for iPhone

YAY to the macro shots! :cheers: Fun stuff!

Wow biggles. You're tank is sure looking good. It will be interesting to see how you start cleaning house and replacing things with your "choice" pieces. Because it already looks wonderful and I most would be proud to just have a healthy, thriving reef.

I can't wait to put up my dukes and drop my first coral in :strooper: I'm sure I'll take a quite a beating for a long time. But at least I'll be in the game then! Although I'm sure I'll get an earful of attitude over greenies and flubbers. LOL

Keep up the great picks and SPS tips of the day! So far they all seem like little golden nuggets to keep in mind for when I finally start picking pieces out. All good info and great to hear :thumbsup:

Hey Troubster You need to remember that many of the pieces i've placed in the tank have been chopped up and placed in 2-4 diff spots so i have multiple acros of the same color all over the place. Now all i do is slowly replace some of the duplicates with new pieces if and when i see something that grabs my eye. Drab non performers better start shaking in their corallites from this point on.........
I can't wait for you to add some corals to your system mate, i'll try to stop Bello from slagging your flubber but it won't be easy - did you see the sneaky stuff he's been up to hoarding SPS and hiding them from us until now...... cunning little bastard is that one lol. :beer:

 

[ormet]

Hello biggles and thank you for an immensly entertaining and informative thread!

I have a question if i may. In your mh/t5 lit DT, your corals look stunning. In your LED lit frag tank, the corals are brown(ish). As you yourself put it "The blue/white 120W LED unit is a piece of garbage for lighting SPS."

The question is when you place a brown LED-frag into your DT, does it immediatly look as good as the rest of the coral, i.e is it the mh/t5 combo that reflects amazing colors or will it take awhile for it to color up?

 

[biggles]

Hello biggles and thank you for an immensly entertaining and informative thread!

I have a question if i may. In your mh/t5 lit DT, your corals look stunning. In your LED lit frag tank, the corals are brown(ish). As you yourself put it "The blue/white 120W LED unit is a piece of garbage for lighting SPS."

The question is when you place a brown LED-frag into your DT, does it immediatly look as good as the rest of the coral, i.e is it the mh/t5 combo that reflects amazing colors or will it take awhile for it to color up?

Hi mate, thanks for saying hello - hopefully you found something useful after wading through all my waffle lol. The color differences are not simply due to viewing or photographing the corals under different illumination. There is an actual and distinct lack of many pigments showing on the frags in the LED sump tank. If i place a frag from the sump into the display it will develop colors and saturation not forthcoming under the LED, usually within 2-4 weeks depending on the coral. Tomorrow is Saturday so if you like i can throw a few frags from the sump into the display next to their counterparts up top and take a few pics for you so you can see the difference under the same lighting.

 

[ormet]

Thanks for your answer, i had a suspicion that it would be so

I would very much like to see a side by side comparison!

 

[biggles]

I'll do it for you tomorrow my friend. Btw i have made some good friends on RC in the short time i've been here and some of them use full spectrum LED's with great results so i'm not an LED basher. The unit i have is just cool whites and one type of blue i believe so it simply cannot supply the spectrum that some pigments require to form.
It can however keep all SPS alive as nothing has died due to the lacking spectrum but with no feeding the situation might have been worse, don't really know tbh.

 

[Bello]

Hey Bello (sneaky acro hoarding bastard) I'll have to seek Jason's help with the red table as obviously i have no idea lol. I'll also be keeping an eye on that bloody forum in case you try sneaking any more beauties past me - case in point that cool hyacinthus you scored......... I'm warning you now mate if you do it again i'm gonna offer the LFS $200 to get me a colony of SSC and plaster it all over your journal........
I don't think i'll have the cash to get the second tank until xmas so that's when i'll prob order it mate - i think you'll like what i have planned for the current tanks big brother, peninsula all the way baby and the 250W radium's 400W brothers are coming to the 16" deep party - i might get new sunglasses for inside while i'm at it

I can't wait for you to add some corals to your system mate, i'll try to stop Bello from slagging your flubber but it won't be easy - did you see the sneaky stuff he's been up to hoarding SPS and hiding them from us until now...... cunning little bastard is that one lol. :beer:

Sneaky Acro Hoarding Bastard reporting for duty, sir :strooper:

My internet connections been really buggy, and I hate replying via Tapatalk. I'm really hoping that you get that second tank up and running, wish I could help..... I did mention that I have family in your neck of the woods, but in all honesty, if I were to visit, you'd have trouble throwing me out

Check out copps old for sale thread... http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2279127, there's a blue stag here, which is the only other acro I'm looking for . He mentions, that its aussie, ever seen that? BTW, I did get an SSC frag (this is the last bit of sneaky crap, I swear), but it's looking super poopy, and I don't have high hopes for it.

The thought of a shallow peninsula is just making me drool, what with the dual radiums..... what can I do to get you moving? . I'll be keeping an eye on your LFS's page

A excellent macro shots. Its amazing how they light up with the yellowish white flash. Still saving up for a macro lens, but I think I still need to learn a lot more about photography.

Troub, I like flubber, pinky swear .....no, not really, fed up of them

 

[biggles]

So here's what happened. I went to move some frags up to take comparison shots for you ormet and i suddenly had a chisel in my hand and next thing i know it's on for young and old in the display...........:spin2:

I've pried the acro colony off its perch at the tip of the back rock ledge and here's a tip - make sure you have a spot clear to put the bloody thing as i'm pretty sure the little bastard scratched my glass as payback when i first dropped him on the sand........ wasn't my fault it's always the acros

Half way through the process but i'm about to chop the red macro, add 4-5 big cups sand to back right corner to build up a slope against the overflow wall, stick the stupid drab seri down where the acro was and finally stick that chalicey thing to something and see if it kicks on. I tried to move the green monster but it's stuck fast to the rocks and the whole lot moved when i tried to shift the fat blob. Will have to go to plan B and attack the mutant green thing with a sharp chisel to drive it way back from where it's encrusted now.

So far i've smashed about 10 acro tips so the collateral damage is going to mount up as i boldly go where others aren't silly enough to tread........:facepalm: Just want to point out that this is stressful stuff but might as well get it over with in one go lol. No frags on the sand bed anymore is another goal.

Check out the white milky look to the water from all the acros i molested sliming from their smashed tips........ think i'll chuck the carbon in the sump and turn up the skimmer a tad.

I will take the comparison shots for you mate as soon as i get all this done and the tank settles down for a couple of days.
Bello, just so you know i've made a start on the cabinet for the peninsula.
I'll post a pic once all this is over, the corals have just gotta suck it up and grit their polyps.........:strooper:

 

[biggles]

Got everything done, moved the raft back and now have a large area of clear sand on the left front side - that's already got me thinking lol. What do you guys think, better or worse. Looks a bit better with all that junk removed from the bed. I bought a small magnetic frag rack that i'll use until i have more radiums burning over water

 

[Bello]

Pardon my french, biggles, but that's f:#_## awesome!

Much cleaner, I hate the piddly frags all over just as much as you do

Also love the 2 little rafts on the rights side!

Glad to see that the peninsula is on the way :thumbsup:

Was wondering if you could post pics of corals when you got them and how they are now?

Ok going back to drool now