My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[sahin]

Hey Biggles, I bet you are going to let some kind of encrusting montipora cover than xmas tree? Or even the encrusting Cyphastrea? That would look awesome.

Discus: I see that you are saying about the Potassium. But without changing anything else I do, as soon as I brought up my Potassium my corals looked much better. Also, the past few weeks I've noticed like Biggles that my SPS growth has really taken off!

I accept that in hindsight, it could have been an indirect effect...who knows. The Zeovit guys always talk about the effect; as much as lots of people knock the Zeovit system, it works.

 

[Bello]

Can't wait to see what madness you come up with this time around

I'm seriously surprised to still see Lefty in there, think it's time he met the business end of a needle ..... you're not going soft now are you?

I'll be keeping Pot at 390-400, not that I've noticed any real difference in growth/color yet, but since the aim is to replicate NSW values as much as possible, may as well .

BTW, I'd better not see an ANGELfish stuck atop that tree

 

[Rogerh]

Amazing coral color, and collection. Great reading and very good pictures, following this

 

[Rossreefer]

Hi Biggles, I have just managed to swop my 2 x 6095s this weekend for 2 x 6105s wideflow with a guy who said the 6105s were too strong for his tank. I also bought a 7096 controller. so now I have 2 x 6105s and a WP25 in my tank. Hope this will be enough flow 85 x water turn over per hour. I am not getting good PE on my SPS all parameters are right, as well as lighting is good, must be just a case of them needing to get used to the flow

 

[troubadour11]

Wow Biggles, I'm sorry to hear about all the family troubles. Hang in there and here's hoping things right themselves soon for you all!

I've been super busy on a job lately, so I've been in here lurking around mostly when I have a spare minute or two. Thanks for sharing all the good thoughts on the powerheads and flow! :thumbsup: I know I appreciate it. I'm working on dealing with some diatom/algae growing pains in my tank right now, and I've been trying to see if my flow is one of the issues.

As it's been mentioned, despite being busy elsewhere the tank is looking mighty Reef Sexy!!! :spin2:

I can't wait to see what holiday cheer you bring to the tank with that little acrylic tree :celeb1:

It does look like it's time to break out the butter and garlic for Lefty though. Wouldn't it just be wrong to grind him up and feed him? "Dinner for 2 corals please with a side of crab cannibalism on reef roids for a holiday treat" ... (hehe - you know, because Lefty is eating the corals, then you'll grind 'em up in his belly and feed it back to them )

-- OK, ok -- ^^^ Maybe that was a better joke in my head then when I typed it out. I'm not so sure it translated into keyboard speak. ^^^ -- If only you could have heard it in my head. Trust me, you would have thought it hilarious! :headwally: LOL Maybe I've been working to much lately. :wave:

Really interesting thoughts on all of your potassium experiences. I am no where near ready to start playing with that yet, but it's great to hear the thoughts and keep it in mind for later on down the road. I'm still working on just getting my tank established and stable at the "proper levels." I can't wait to get more experience and maybe be able to pay back all the good experience and knowledge I've picked up from you all here on RC. :beer:

 

[biggles]

Hey guys, finally have a day to myself tomorrow so i'll give you an update on what's going on in the tank including:

some funky green algae/cyano that appeared after i raised the potassium 100 pts in 3 days - Reef Noob failed to warn me in time........... obviously i now have to fix his stuff up :facepalm:

The traumatic removal of that bastard ric i stupidly bought months back resulting in much acro carnage - despite the damage i got the little stinker but whilst inspecting the repaired rock today i noticed a baby ric :headwally:

The Xmas tree turned out pretty good i think, everything is just starting to encrust at present.

 

[sahin]

Hey mate, the Xmas tree looks awesome! Very cool.

When I increased my K+ with the Potassium Chloride (not Passion Fluid), I had no issues. I increased very fast as well about a week.

I knew you shouldnt have trusted that Brightwell bottled Passion Fluid. :lmao: You got ripped off...and now you have to deal with consequences of too much fish sex due to Brightwell Liquid Passion. :spin3:

I suggest you increase your water changes...and be careful not to drink any of this highly charged tank water when you start the siphone...I fear the effects of Liquid Passion will be too dangerous for you. :lmao:

 

[gb530]

HAHAHA! Thats pretty freaking awesome! ... After Christmas, feel free to ship it out to California! :bounce3:

 

[biggles]

I present to you Ricordia Flubbastardadus, quite an uncommon addition to SPS tanks due to their habit of hiding upside down on ledges out of view and stinging acros and stylos despite costing $50- bloody dollars ! :furious:
Those blue ones you have Bello are safe so i think you should stick them next to the yellow acro for color contrast, i'm sure they won't do anything naughty............

Unlike the stylo with a flubber growth attached, this one likes to nuke his neighbour the monti - the xmas tree worm came out to watch the fun............

 

[sahin]

Well I aint going to repeat your mistake! I was thinking of adding one of two of these to my tank...

Do they move around or they stay where you put them?

 

[sahin]

Nice video BTW. What other Brightwell hanky panky stuff do you dose your tank? Those Polyp Extension is crazzzy!

 

[biggles]

Hey Sahin, those stinking things move around so don't get any unless you can keep them on their own little island rock mate. I'm not using that stupid sex elixir anymore and i don't dose any other additives, just food and my alk, cal & Mg.
I thought i'd see what happened when i placed some SSC under very high light for a week - he's recovering down lower now after becoming a tad washed out and light stressed lol.........

 

[sahin]

Hey Sahin, those stinking things move around so don't get any unless you can keep them on their own little island rock mate. I'm not using that stupid sex elixir anymore and i don't dose any other additives, just food and my alk, cal & Mg.
I thought i'd see what happened when i placed some SSC under very high light for a week - he's recovering down lower now after becoming a tad washed out and light stressed lol.........

Thanks for the headsup on those stupid things. Whilst they look nice, I am not falling for their good looks and buying them.

Just kidding with you re the Brightwell stuff... :lol:

But seriously you have some wicked PE on those SPS. :thumbsup:

And did I tell you how amazing your coral colours are? Yeah mate, I am looking past the SSC and see some awesomely coloured SPS in the background. Oh I wish you had a better camera mate, you could have really shown off the colours of your SPS. :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

Lol it's just a bot being run to auto spam mate, reported the account for termination by staff

My yellow tang is getting a bit lippy lately, he doesn't know i can read fish lips.............

 

[sahin]

:lol:

 

[biggles]

The Fedex man just delivered the 400W precious.............. talk about bullet proof halide bulb packaging - will order more from him for sure

 

[sahin]

The Fedex man just delivered the 400W precious.............. talk about bullet proof halide bulb packaging - will order more from him for sure

I can see why they thought..."large box...Some kind of Radium Isotope Radioactive material disclosed on packing declaration...this looks suspect"! :lol:

 

[FastUno]

Awesome tank & corals man!

How often do you do water changes & how much do you take out?


Also, is that still 70 pounds of live rock in your DT...it looks a lot less?

 

[troubadour11]

So your Yellow Tang looks pretty ticked off about you baking the SCC! lol

Your stories of the Ric hiding under the ledge encouraged me to reposition mine to a new spot in the tank before they overpopulated the area. I slid them down onto their own little island rock. It's close to one of my towers though, but hopefully just far enough out of reach. They don't typically cross sand areas, right?

I see you got your "nuclear" bulb from customs finally. :facepalm: Are you upgrading your lighting power with the 400W bulb, or just replacing a spent bulb? I've never used halide lighting, and probably won't since I'm in the process still of building my disco light set. Are there light acclimation issues at all when you swap out bulbs with halides? Or is it just something simple like putting some screen or netting type material between the bulb and water for a few days when you swap in a new bulb?

Those are some cool shots of the stylo-wars going on right now. Especially the one with the Christmas Tree Worm. My wife has been badgering me about having Christmas Tree Worms in our tank. I told her we can deal with it later when the tank is still more established. But I'm sure it's coming at some point.

Looking good though and I can't wait to see what your crazy good colors look like under your new nuke :blown: :inlove:

 

[biggles]

Yeah customs cut the box open and resealed it after making sure i wasn't a terrorist :facepalm: it was a large box though for a small light bulb so maybe that made them have a wanker moment..........
The 250W radium is going over the sump frag tank so i can finally throw that stupid piece of crap blue/white LED unit to the sh*thouse and actually grow out colorful frags.

Thanks FastUno I've only done 2 x 10% and 1 x 50% water change in 11 months but i do have a 25L drum of NSW on hand at all times in case i actually work up to doing another 10% one at some point lol. Water changes are a good thing most likely to replace trace elements we don't test but i get pretty good results without regular changes so i don't bother. They won't hurt unless you're throwing out your parameters each time you do one, if that's happening you're better off not doing them at all tbh.

Top down showing 2 different pink acros i'm growing next to each other. The acro behind the pink one really is that ugly btw - it began turning that horrible color right after i stuck the rock on top of it to place the pink acro on lol - i don't think he's impressed with my coral scaping but someone had to take one for the team..........

And totally off topic but since Troub is always posting pics of his bloody BBQ i'm posting a pic of me hand feeding a wild King parrot out the back - i'm thinking about gluing one to the rocks for the reds but not sure how long parrots can hold their breath..............