My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[biggles]

Can you please share your pm with the rest of us so that we can benefit too.

Cheers

Sorry mate, i didn't mean it to sound like it does when i wrote it lol - i was worried that i might get some guys into trouble with their reefs if they thought all they had to do was feed lots of the right foods. I don't want anyone having major algae issues because one of the major things that will contribute to how saturated your colors are is how close you sail to the wind in regards to keeping a very nutrient/food rich water 24/7, not just for an hour when you feed the tank. It's Berlin, very simple requiring little equipment but the idea is to encourage as much micro life to happily exist and reproduce constantly that the water is much closer to real food rich ocean water all the time. The fish you can keep are limited for obvious reasons, anything that eats pods or mysis is out for starters. I have a small mandarin simply because i always have and none of them have ever been able to get on top of the pod population. I've watched them for hours and in my tanks the last day before cleaning when the glass has a slight algae haze to it the mandarin spends hours picking at and eating critters on the glass algae that are too small to see, i might try to see what he's eating with the macro lens next time he's snacking there.
Anyway i'll happily share the details of what i feed and why but you need to get used to seeing small amounts of brown algae here and there, i clean the glass every 2 days atm but like many i like 3 days to be in the sweet spot. Your eyes play a big role and you don't need years of experience to see important signs, you just need to know what the bloody signs actually are lol. There's a lot of great SPS journals on RC and all the guys casually mention small observations routinely that to them are nothing because they react to them quickly and without stressing and don't even think to point out what it was that actually first alerted them to a problem. All of us forget at times that new reefers probably read some our stuff and scratch their heads, everyone who reads my stuff scratches their heads at times i'm sure lol. A lot of valuable information gets lost in this hobby and in particular in the SPS keepers fraternity due to pride and bullsh*t envy or whatever. Lots of methods work such as zeo so rather than get into bullsh*t p*ssing matches with each other everyone should be happy to pick the look they want and follow the methodology that will likely achieve it. I don't have the money to run a zeo tank but that doesn't mean i don't want to, the method is so opposite to my thinking that i'd like to try it and i like the paler look on many of the zeo SPS, some of mine would look better with paler colors i think.
Anyway i'll explain my food tomorrow as it's late - sorry for the long winded reply but i ramble at 2am on a Sat morning

 

[Fail_sh3d]

Sorry mate, i didn't mean it to sound like it does when i wrote it lol - i was worried that i might get some guys into trouble with their reefs if they thought all they had to do was feed lots of the right foods. I don't want anyone having major algae issues because one of the major things that will contribute to how saturated your colors are is how close you sail to the wind in regards to keeping a very nutrient/food rich water 24/7, not just for an hour when you feed the tank. It's Berlin, very simple requiring little equipment but the idea is to encourage as much micro life to happily exist and reproduce constantly that the water is much closer to real food rich ocean water all the time. The fish you can keep are limited for obvious reasons, anything that eats pods or mysis is out for starters. I have a small mandarin simply because i always have and none of them have ever been able to get on top of the pod population. I've watched them for hours and in my tanks the last day before cleaning when the glass has a slight algae haze to it the mandarin spends hours picking at and eating critters on the glass algae that are too small to see, i might try to see what he's eating with the macro lens next time he's snacking there.
Anyway i'll happily share the details of what i feed and why but you need to get used to seeing small amounts of brown algae here and there, i clean the glass every 2 days atm but like many i like 3 days to be in the sweet spot. Your eyes play a big role and you don't need years of experience to see important signs, you just need to know what the bloody signs actually are lol. There's a lot of great SPS journals on RC and all the guys casually mention small observations routinely that to them are nothing because they react to them quickly and without stressing and don't even think to point out what it was that actually first alerted them to a problem. All of us forget at times that new reefers probably read some our stuff and scratch their heads, everyone who reads my stuff scratches their heads at times i'm sure lol. A lot of valuable information gets lost in this hobby and in particular in the SPS keepers fraternity due to pride and bullsh*t envy or whatever. Lots of methods work such as zeo so rather than get into bullsh*t p*ssing matches with each other everyone should be happy to pick the look they want and follow the methodology that will likely achieve it. I don't have the money to run a zeo tank but that doesn't mean i don't want to, the method is so opposite to my thinking that i'd like to try it and i like the paler look on many of the zeo SPS, some of mine would look better with paler colors i think.
Anyway i'll explain my food tomorrow as it's late - sorry for the long winded reply but i ramble at 2am on a Sat morning

My views exactly. Thanks for this. And thank you for keeping such an awesome tank. Though I am slightly envious. Lol

 

[sahin]

This is becoming some sort of Fish thread...

This is becoming some sort of Fish thread...

I am getting worried about you Biggles...Every time I look into this thread I see another smelly :fish1:

Its all Bello's fault. All his fishy talk is turning you into the dark side...or smelly fishy side. :eek1:

The last 8 photos (not the smelly fishy photos) are just amazing and IMO are some of the most colourful SPS I've come across in a long time.

Oh by the way, dont even think about going Zeovit. I dislike the pale Zeovit colours. The deep strong colours you have now is what I dream about.

And dont go Bello crazy over fish either...or you might go the opposite of Zeovit and have all the corals go poo brown from all those fishy additions.

Seriously mate, I am not sure if you will break this tank down when you upgrade, but this tank is TOTM worthy, so I wished you would stick with it and get the TOTM recognition. :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Highly pornographic SPS images are going to follow - this is me stalking the acros, you gotta sneak up on them otherwise they get spooked and hide their colors..........

- :eek2: - :eek2: -:eek2: - AWESOME PICTURE!!! I love it!!! :thumbsup:

It really shows off all the thought and effort you put in to the placement and color layout of the corals! I like it, I like it

I also really dug the shot of your king parrot friend! That was off topic, but it was still cool to see. Just a couple things. 1.) I bet it's colors would look drab, dull, and lifeless under water compared to the rest of your reef. :lol2: Oh and 2.) I bet it doesn't taste as good as my off topic BBQ "Shelf Rock" pictures. ;-)

Uh-oh Biggles... I'm seeing lots and lots of "DLP's" showing up in your tank. :fun5: :thumbsup: I know it's all about SPS, but I don't think you can go wrong with a few floating poop machines in there.

Seriously mate, I am not sure if you will break this tank down when you upgrade, but this tank is TOTM worthy, so I wished you would stick with it and get the TOTM recognition. :thumbsup:

- +1 ... I vote "The Great Biggles Reef" for TOTM!!!

Well, I better get back to it for now. I don't want them all coming back from lunch to find me drooling over reef porn at work :strooper:

Enjoy sneaking around being up to your reefy tricks this weekend!

 

[martinphillip03]

Sahin, Bad news. Biggles is going fish crazy. Just read this on another thread.
Bigs said,
"I have to show you my new Lori's Anthias, i could only get the 2 they had but i decided to order 3 more about 30 seconds after seeing them in my tank lol - i now understand why people like them"
Way to go Bello.

Marty

I am getting worried about you Biggles...Every time I look into this thread I see another smelly :fish1:

Its all Bello's fault. All his fishy talk is turning you into the dark side...or smelly fishy side. :eek1:

The last 8 photos (not the smelly fishy photos) are just amazing and IMO are some of the most colourful SPS I've come across in a long time.

Oh by the way, dont even think about going Zeovit. I dislike the pale Zeovit colours. The deep strong colours you have now is what I dream about.

And dont go Bello crazy over fish either...or you might go the opposite of Zeovit and have all the corals go poo brown from all those fishy additions.

Seriously mate, I am not sure if you will break this tank down when you upgrade, but this tank is TOTM worthy, so I wished you would stick with it and get the TOTM recognition. :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

Before i go on i just want to say that i got up this morning to find the larger anthias missing I've scoured outside and inside the tank, sump, overflow and he's gone. He was swimming happily with the other fish when i turned the lights out and today - poof ! bloody gone. the little female is still happily swimming so i don't understand it. I cancelled the order with the store for the others until i work out what happened. That was the prettiest fish i ever owned and i'm absolutely spewing mad and sad about it dying :mad2:

Many times i see reefers lose fish and try to blame other circumstances instead of manning up and taking responsibility for the loss - in this case it's pretty obvious that one person is to blame so i'm putting my hand up............ and pointing a finger directly at - Bello ! The whole stupid fish buying fiasco is down to you making me jealous so i think you have some bloody explaining to do, not to mention the $65- you now owe me for that fish.

This is the survivor, doesn't have anywhere as much orange with the red stripes that the other one did.

My views exactly. Thanks for this. And thank you for keeping such an awesome tank. Though I am slightly envious. Lol

Hi mate, thanks for the kind words. I've lost count of how many other reefers tanks i'm envious of lol.

I am getting worried about you Biggles...Every time I look into this thread I see another smelly :fish1:

Its all Bello's fault. All his fishy talk is turning you into the dark side...or smelly fishy side. :eek1:

The last 8 photos (not the smelly fishy photos) are just amazing and IMO are some of the most colourful SPS I've come across in a long time.

Oh by the way, dont even think about going Zeovit. I dislike the pale Zeovit colours. The deep strong colours you have now is what I dream about.

And dont go Bello crazy over fish either...or you might go the opposite of Zeovit and have all the corals go poo brown from all those fishy additions.

Seriously mate, I am not sure if you will break this tank down when you upgrade, but this tank is TOTM worthy, so I wished you would stick with it and get the TOTM recognition. :thumbsup:

Hi mate, damn right this is Bello's fault lol. I won't be going zeo any time soon but a few pale acros amongst the darker ones would still look cool i think with regards to adding more contrast. I already decided that i'm going to run 2 tanks entirely separate from each other so i can use one to experiment a bit with LED lighting in the future. I might have colorful acros but it's got a long way to go before it looks finished. It's 1 year old on Xmas eve so it's just a baby reef, things will look a lot better over the next twelve months as everything grows enough to start branch biffing with neighbors lol, i really appreciate the sentiments though my friend

Put this little blue acro frag up very high on the ugly overflow monti about 2 weeks back - the base has STN'd slowly until today due to way too much light - about 12" from the 400W bulb. I pried it off and it's now on the sand bed with polyps out so i'll leave it alone for now and see what it does. I'm now deciding which of the stags is going to donate a branch tomorrow to replace the nuked frag on the monti roasting rack........ i want to put some of that insanely blue stag up there but i'm having a hard time forcing myself to hack into that acro lol. That hairy green blob is the branch tip of one of the green stags which has a fluoro mop top of new tips sprouting everywhere. That stupid little nub of SSC just encrusts and does nothing else, it stings the monti regularly but doesn't grow over the dead tissue, as soon as the monti starts trying to encrust again it cops another hiding lol.

 

[biggles]

- -:eek2: - AWESOME PICTURE!!! I love it!!! :thumbsup:

It really shows off all the thought and effort you put in to the placement and color layout of the corals! I like it, I like it

I also really dug the shot of your king parrot friend! That was off topic, but it was still cool to see. Just a couple things. 1.) I bet it's colors would look drab, dull, and lifeless under water compared to the rest of your reef. :lol2: Oh and 2.) I bet it doesn't taste as good as my off topic BBQ "Shelf Rock" pictures. ;-)

Uh-oh Biggles... I'm seeing lots and lots of "DLP's" showing up in your tank. :fun5: :thumbsup: I know it's all about SPS, but I don't think you can go wrong with a few floating poop machines in there.


- +1 ... I vote "The Great Biggles Reef" for TOTM!!!

Well, I better get back to it for now. I don't want them all coming back from lunch to find me drooling over reef porn at work :strooper:

Enjoy sneaking around being up to your reefy tricks this weekend!

Hey Troub, thanks for the compliments mate That parrot is one of the 5 mated pairs that daily visit a retired and elderly friends backyard every morning and evening for food. If you leave the back door open they fly into his kitchen and land on the table chirping at him until he gets them some food. If a cockatoo tries to steal their seed they tap on his window and chirp madly until he goes out and chases it away. It's the funniest stuff to watch but he talks to them like their children and feeds them jam (jelly) biscuits while he sits out back having a coffee. You have never seen anything quite like a wild king parrot with raspberry jam on top of his beak, i cracked up when it let him wipe it off with his finger - these are wild birds lol.

Sahin, Bad news. Biggles is going fish crazy. Just read this on another thread.
Bigs said,
"I have to show you my new Lori's Anthias, i could only get the 2 they had but i decided to order 3 more about 30 seconds after seeing them in my tank lol - i now understand why people like them"
Way to go Bello.

Marty

Lol it's all good Marty. Since i killed one already the fish craze has kinda dimmed......... :deadhorse1: I think i should just stick to what i know in future, i'm no good with fish and flubber. The hydno has stopped dying but i hate it now so it's going into the sump with the clowns. The smaller of the two drab hammers is stinging the sh*t out of a stylo with long sweepers so he's going elsewhere too. I'll get a few before and after shots of the small re-scape to that rock with the red shrooms on it. It's going to require the big grinder as i want to attach the rock with the upside down acro on it to that rock as an upward pointing pinnacle reaching the acro into medium light which is all it needs for the white branch electric blue polyps look i like.
I will get into the nitty gritty of my methods but i'm hopeless so next time lol.
I'm going to stick a frag of the blue tipped acro in this pic on the new rock too as it needs lower light to hold the rich blue and fluoro polyps. It looks ridiculous under RB LED's

 

[martinphillip03]

Maybe your dog or a wombat ate it.

Marty

Before i go on i just want to say that i got up this morning to find the larger anthias missing I've scoured outside and inside the tank, sump, overflow and he's gone. He was swimming happily with the other fish when i turned the lights out and today - poof ! bloody gone. the little female is still happily swimming so i don't understand it. I cancelled the order with the store for the others until i work out what happened. That was the prettiest fish i ever owned and i'm absolutely spewing mad and sad about it dying :mad2:

Many times i see reefers lose fish and try to blame other circumstances instead of manning up and taking responsibility for the loss - in this case it's pretty obvious that one person is to blame so i'm putting my hand up............ and pointing a finger directly at - Bello ! The whole stupid fish buying fiasco is down to you making me jealous so i think you have some bloody explaining to do, not to mention the $65- you now owe me for that fish.

This is the survivor, doesn't have anywhere as much orange with the red stripes that the other one did.

 

[martinphillip03]

Bello has fish, you get fish. Bello has two tanks, you want two tanks. Bello has LED lights, you want LED lights. Man Bigs, you have a big bloody case of Bello envy.
Now you mention you want two tanks, does that mean the big tank idea is gone. If Bello got a big tank, would that change your mind?

Marty

Hi mate, damn right this is Bello's fault lol. I won't be going zeo any time soon but a few pale acros amongst the darker ones would still look cool i think with regards to adding more contrast. I already decided that i'm going to run 2 tanks entirely separate from each other so i can use one to experiment a bit with LED lighting in the future. I might have colorful acros but it's got a long way to go before it looks finished.

 

[sahin]

the fish craze has kinda dimmed......... :deadhorse1: I think i should just stick to what i know in future, i'm no good with fish and flubber.

Well its good that you are seeing things properly now...instead of seeing things the Bellofish way.

Talking of Bellofish where is that guy? He last posted two days ago...He's probably gone buying more fishes :headwally:

That blue tip looks very cool. Kind of looks like that one they call Garf Bonsai...except this one has much better colours.

 

[Bello]

Hmmm......... all i gotta say is.....



Bit busy biggles, my little guy is running me ragged .....Plus I may be doing something sneaky ...... as usual ...... I'll update later :thumbsup:

 

[prop-frags]

"A dingo ate my baby Lori!!"

 

[biggles]

Maybe your dog or a wombat ate it.

Marty

I'm leaning towards a wild king parrot at this point mate.........

Bello has fish, you get fish. Bello has two tanks, you want two tanks. Bello has LED lights, you want LED lights. Man Bigs, you have a big bloody case of Bello envy.
Now you mention you want two tanks, does that mean the big tank idea is gone. If Bello got a big tank, would that change your mind?

Marty

Definitely getting a second bigger tank and thanks for the reminder Marty, need to PM Bello and find out what color socks he's wearing tomorrow..........

Well its good that you are seeing things properly now...instead of seeing things the Bellofish way.

Talking of Bellofish where is that guy? He last posted two days ago...He's probably gone buying more fishes

That blue tip looks very cool. Kind of looks like that one they call Garf Bonsai...except this one has much better colours.

Check this out mate for a color difference under tank lights compared to in a tub on the kitchen bench. I got this from Bryce a few months back - thanks buddy :beer:

Hmmm......... all i gotta say is.....

Bit busy biggles, my little guy is running me ragged .....Plus I may be doing something sneaky ...... as usual ...... I'll update later :thumbsup:

I bloody knew it, every time you go quiet you're up to no good lol - hurry up and update your journal with the latest stuff so i can copy it

"A dingo ate my baby Lori!!"

Well he didn't eat these frags..........

They went here.........

The great tank clean up is over in preparation for the 1 year FTS on the 24th - sand bed is clear but for the Xmas tree and i have to say it's looking pretty spiffy with just the scape and no clutter. It took 3 hours to find spots for those frags and sort out the right hand end. Much less clutter up that end now. The fish received an entire mysis cube tonight for putting up with all my messing about - they put up with a lot tbh

 

[biggles]

Just a quick heads up to everyone - the other anthias disappeared now so i'm super impressed with dropping $130- on a pair of Houdini Anthias. I have to point out that even if the both of them appeared out of the rocks in a week and looked great i'd net them just so i could punch both their lights out and throw them out the back door.

And no i'm not cold and heartless and i'm not only considering the financial loss, there's also the waste - $130- is 2 or 3 acros which i'd like to point out DON'T detach from the rocks and warp to another dimension far far away..........

If those bloody clowns in the sump disappear i'm really going to cut loose with a fish tirade the likes of which has never been seen on RC..........

Fish starts with an ' F ' and so does ' F ' lubber......... the pattern is obvious when you look at it from my perspective. :reading:

 

[Fail_sh3d]

Dude, that sucks... BUT you still have very awesome sps that love you enough to stick around.

 

[sahin]

Just a quick heads up to everyone - the other anthias disappeared now so i'm super impressed with dropping $130- on a pair of Houdini Anthias. I have to point out that even if the both of them appeared out of the rocks in a week and looked great i'd net them just so i could punch both their lights out and throw them out the back door.

And no i'm not cold and heartless and i'm not only considering the financial loss, there's also the waste - $130- is 2 or 3 acros which i'd like to point out DON'T detach from the rocks and warp to another dimension far far away..........

If those bloody clowns in the sump disappear i'm really going to cut loose with a fish tirade the likes of which has never been seen on RC..........

Fish starts with an ' F ' and so does ' F ' lubber......... the pattern is obvious when you look at it from my perspective. :reading:

Forget these fishes mate. They just give you that look...beg you to feed them...make you feed them...and then poop all over your nice SPS tank...

Imagine 3 large nice Acropora colonies...stupid fishes! :blown:

 

[biggles]

Dude, that sucks... BUT you still have very awesome sps that love you enough to stick around.

Thanks mate, yep my acros never nick off when i'm not watching

Forget these fishes mate. They just give you that look...beg you to feed them...make you feed them...and then poop all over your nice SPS tank...

Imagine 3 large nice Acropora colonies...stupid fishes! :blown:

Lol Sahin, sound advice that i'm following for the foreseeable future, my sump clowns eat from my fingers now so they're in my good books and will be spoiled rotten for not bailing on me :lmao:

The flow around the front section of the raft rock is very poor and i can't fix it with the pumps i currently use. The blue acro at the front has been losing tips here and there over the last month despite all my efforts to correct the flow patterns. I finally relented and removed it from where it was, you can see a few small dead spots on 4-5 tips that just don't heal. I know it's flow btw because i see how little there is around that spot and every other acro is happy with good PE and my water is fine in all aspects. You can see the little pink acro crab that lives in the branches if you look close.

So i decided to take it out and cut the damaged branches away before placing it back on the front bottom to recover for a few weeks while i wait for another pump to arrive - big mistake as it turned out because i sat it on a towel on the kitchen bench and then grabbed a small rock from the sump to temp mount it on. I turn around and grab the towel to wipe my arm............. &#$%#$@ !!!!!!!!!! The acro goes over the edge and hits the tiled floor with a sound i've heard a few times before It's now 6 bits of blue acro in the sump until i decide what do with the mess lol. Hasn't been a good week all things considered.

I decided to get the reef squared away properly before i start the second tank and buying reef gear always makes me feel better lol so i went online and ordered another WP-25, a controller for the 6095, an electronic ATO to replace the gravity float top up, a 3 channel dosing unit, a long handle scraper for the front glass bottom edge so i don't keep smashing the tips on the front acros & 1000ml of Rowacarbon just in case i do something stupid (inevitable) and need to run some temporarily - ran out months back. Lots of new goodies coming in the new year :dance:

 

[1000_smiles]

Just a quick heads up to everyone - the other anthias disappeared now so i'm super impressed with dropping $130- on a pair of Houdini Anthias. I have to point out that even if the both of them appeared out of the rocks in a week and looked great i'd net them just so i could punch both their lights out and throw them out the back door.

And no i'm not cold and heartless and i'm not only considering the financial loss, there's also the waste - $130- is 2 or 3 acros which i'd like to point out DON'T detach from the rocks and warp to another dimension far far away..........

If those bloody clowns in the sump disappear i'm really going to cut loose with a fish tirade the likes of which has never been seen on RC..........

Fish starts with an ' F ' and so does ' F ' lubber......... the pattern is obvious when you look at it from my perspective. :reading:

Maybe if you glue them to the rocks it will cut down on all that pesky swimming around and tomfoolery j/k:lol2:

 

[sahin]

Hey mate. Tried to upload a Coral Feeding article, but it exceeds the 100K RC upload limit. Damn!

Basically the article showed evidence that feeding Reef-Roids and Reef Chilli does increase SPS coral growth (at least it did with the Montipora and Pocci they tested on). It also showed that feeding other stuff like Marine Snow does a BIG ZERO!

Not sure where to host it. I think its a useful article and makes for some nice reading over the xmas break...thats if you guys are not drunk! :lolspin:

PS Have you trained Potatohead and your fishes to pose for photos? Look at the Yellow Tang putting his face into the photo!

I think he is saying: Yeah, Biggles mate, you need to up the flow on that acro!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thanks Sahin. This reminds me that Biggles was going to share his feeding strategy with us :spin1:

FWIW, I keep a single fat head anthias in my tank. It looks great on its own.

Cheers