sahin
Ultimate Reefer
OK guys, here is a link to the article.
http://sdrv.ms/1cdOiKi
Apologies to Biggles for messing up your thread with this.
http://sdrv.ms/1cdOiKi
Apologies to Biggles for messing up your thread with this.
My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef
- Thread starter biggles
- Start date
Bello
New member
Looks like I've missed a lot biggles.... should've pulled my head outta the water 
Too bad about the Anthias....but they were still stunning!!!... In any case, I know that in my experience, I've lost at least 3 times more money on fish, than on coral...that's a fact!... I'm pretty much trying to resist temptation as well, focusing more on what I consider utility fish...
Anyways, I'm glad to hear the clowns are doing well...How about a nice pic of them?
Glad to hear that you're stocking up on some quality supplies for the tank :thumbsup:.. Just hope that your Aussie Customs friends don't mistake it for.....I have no idea
So, the blue tenuis looking acro broke? Let me help you with your frag dilemma....send them to me
Too bad about the Anthias....but they were still stunning!!!... In any case, I know that in my experience, I've lost at least 3 times more money on fish, than on coral...that's a fact!... I'm pretty much trying to resist temptation as well, focusing more on what I consider utility fish...
Anyways, I'm glad to hear the clowns are doing well...How about a nice pic of them?
Glad to hear that you're stocking up on some quality supplies for the tank :thumbsup:.. Just hope that your Aussie Customs friends don't mistake it for.....I have no idea
So, the blue tenuis looking acro broke? Let me help you with your frag dilemma....send them to me
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I have just found this article on coral feeding.
biggles
Premium Member
I don't mind the swimming, it's the disappearing overnight crap that's the problem lol.
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!
Thanks for posting that article mate, a friend sent it to me a few months back but i didn't know how to host the pdf lol. Just confirms what many of us already knew about all that bottled like snow etc. The bloody fish and shrimp are all greedy guts and follow me around when i get close trying to con me into feeding them lol.
The new pump and having flow control over the 6095 will sort out all the issues i've been battling, i should have sorted it months ago tbh.
I'm bloody hopeless lol, i'll make a post shortly explaining what i feed and how mate. Well i did have one after i killed the first but it didn't have much of a chance to look anything but missing...........
Don't be silly Sahin, your input is always welcome mate. Thanks for posting the link my friend, hopefully a few people read it and actually take notice.
Looks like I've missed a lot biggles.... should've pulled my head outta the water
Too bad about the Anthias....but they were still stunning!!!... In any case, I know that in my experience, I've lost at least 3 times more money on fish, than on coral...that's a fact!... I'm pretty much trying to resist temptation as well, focusing more on what I consider utility fish...
Anyways, I'm glad to hear the clowns are doing well...How about a nice pic of them?
Glad to hear that you're stocking up on some quality supplies for the tank :thumbsup:.. Just hope that your Aussie Customs friends don't mistake it for.....I have no idea
So, the blue tenuis looking acro broke? Let me help you with your frag dilemma....send them to me
The thing that really p*sses me off about those fish is that they were in the store for 6 weeks so i know they were healthy and doing fine until i decided to take them home and kill them
I just realised that i could have got another shrimp for that money lol.I'll try to get a pic of the sump clowns but the little bastards never stop darting all over the place and hide in the red algae when i try to snap them the little buggers. The acro kinda shattered more than just breaking - at least i didn't have to chase the dog down to get back a piece like in the past lol.
Thanks for the link to that article mate, i hadn't read that one before. :thumbsup:
The tank looks much better without all the clutter i think. Hammers seem happy in the sump so they can stay there for now. The tang and mandarin are probably wondering where everything went lol.
Fail_sh3d
New member
I can only hope when I go big, it looks half as good as this. I have been staring at this pic for 5 minutes now.
I'm going to print it out and tape it facing my corals to motivate them.
martinphillip03
New member
Do you think the big nasty bloody bastard crab ate the Anthias?
Marty
I have a big nasty bastard crab living in the back rock work.
Marty
I have a big nasty bastard crab living in the back rock work.
small_polyp
New member
Just wanted to throw you a :thumbsup: amazing tank looks very healthy.
nice work!
nice work!
biggles
Premium Member
Lol thanks for the kind words mate.
This is off topic but kind of related LOL.
I remember this from my younger days.
Haha nice one mate. Notice biggles is lit up in radium blue letters.......
It probably did after they died Marty, i don't think it killed them - i did that all by myself.
Appreciate the thumbs up mate
Sooooooooo i don't know if anyone noticed that i stuck a few bits of my shattered pale blue acro right in the heart of the green monster acro - he's now been stabbed with 2 blue acros but refuses to give in.......... i used some rock rubble to give the bits a chance before the green thing tries to kill them. The acro is in very high light compared to where it was so i'm hoping it doesn't burn to death, i'm only running the radium for 6 hours for a few days so it has a chance to acclimate hopefully. I expect a few tips to go tbh but i think the light blue behind the intensely blue stag might look cool down the track.
biggles
Premium Member
This is what greets me when i walk through the front door each day. I wanted to show the brightness of the tank in a pic and the lighting i'm running and how low i run my bulbs off the water. Only 3 of the T5's have reflectors since i came home to find the very back one in the tank after the plastic clips somehow fell apart a month ago. The other 3 are all rusty so i need to source 4 good quality reflectors in the new year. All the T5's are B+, i removed the KZ purple tube as it didn't do anything for any colors in my tank. I've been running a 26 x 3W LED light bar at the front between the halide and the two T5's for a month now. It has 20 RB's and 6 x 410 bulbs and it has definitely increased the flouro pigment saturation in all my fluoro acros be it skin tissue or polyps. I tried running just RB's months back and saw no changes so i'm convinced the 410 LED's are responsible.
I've given up on the sand until i get the new pump and controller for the 6095 as all hell is going to break loose when i ramp the flow from about 80X to over 100X lol, the more acros grow the more flow you need to push through the branches. I want to remove the 6025 entirely from the left side and swap the 6045 for the second WP-25 i have coming.
Btw, i would use all Tunze if i had the money, the WP loses power if you don't clean the impellar and housing at least every 3-4 weeks unlike the Tunze which just motors on with little output loss even with algae build up. That being said that's the only small issue i have with the WP pumps. For the money they really can't be beaten which is why most reefers are giving in and using them i notice lol.
Remember my fluoro acro that was being overrun by the blue tipped acro on the raft. Two interventions with a sharp chisel has given the fluoro acro the edge and he's now encrusting over the other guys base tissue - i tend to play favorites when it comes to who wins any battle in my tank :thumbsup:
I've given up on the sand until i get the new pump and controller for the 6095 as all hell is going to break loose when i ramp the flow from about 80X to over 100X lol, the more acros grow the more flow you need to push through the branches. I want to remove the 6025 entirely from the left side and swap the 6045 for the second WP-25 i have coming.
Btw, i would use all Tunze if i had the money, the WP loses power if you don't clean the impellar and housing at least every 3-4 weeks unlike the Tunze which just motors on with little output loss even with algae build up. That being said that's the only small issue i have with the WP pumps. For the money they really can't be beaten which is why most reefers are giving in and using them i notice lol.
Remember my fluoro acro that was being overrun by the blue tipped acro on the raft. Two interventions with a sharp chisel has given the fluoro acro the edge and he's now encrusting over the other guys base tissue - i tend to play favorites when it comes to who wins any battle in my tank :thumbsup:
Fail_sh3d
New member
Remember my fluoro acro that was being overrun by the blue tipped acro on the raft. Two interventions with a sharp chisel has given the fluoro acro the edge and he's now encrusting over the other guys base tissue - i tend to play favorites when it comes to who wins any battle in my tank :thumbsup:
That is freaking cool. I will be playing favorites as well. I completely agree. :thumbup:
biggles
Premium Member
Before i talk about food i want you all to know that i'm telling you what i do and why, i'm no expert and this isn't about proving one way works better that any other - it's just me telling you what i do in my tank nothing more.
So this is what i collect every 24 hours with the skimmer. 150ml give or take and it stinks terribly just as any good skimmate should lol. The color is like in the pic, a little lighter when poured into a jar and out in the light but this is what i mean when i say wet skimming and i've always run skimmers this way rather than dryer. I actually feed a finger swipe of goop from the neck 2 or 3 times a week as i figure lots off my coral food gets ripped out before it does any good and the acros appear to react to it just as when i throw in reef roids or cyclop-eeze. I've seen all my skimmers including this one overun the cup contents into the sump many times and if anything i see the corals reaction to be positive rather than negative, the excess is soon ripped out by the skimmer once you clear the venturi intake - that's the cause 9/10 in my experience.
I don't want anyone running out feeding skimmate to their tanks btw, i do it but i can't say it does anything special tbh. I actually like to see particulates in the water so a longways tank shot is slightly cloudy because we tend to overdo the clarity for our own viewing benefit way beyond ocean water which is in no way filter sock pristine.
My entire ideology with the tank nutrients is simply to encourage as much natural food production in the system as possible. I feed the tank rather than the corals really and i use foods that i have personally macro tested to witness the reaction of both coral polyps and critters to ensure they are effective.
This is the filtration section of the sump and you can see i let any filter feeders such as sponges and worms do their thing on my sump walls. The small section with LR is my rock DSB with minimal water flow except across the top 1/2". You can see the critters don't like it below half way down unlike on the other side of the glass where they go to the bottom. I figure it's probably anaerobic and the rock down low will be entirely populated by nitrate munching bacteria rather than just the inner low water movement areas normally associated with such bacteria. I feed a lot and nitrates are never an issue unlike phos so i do believe it serves a purpose and i intend a much larger version in the sump of the new tank. At the least it's simply more LR for natural water filtration so it's a good thing either way in my eyes.
The water goes over the baffle and i run 4 tablespoons of Rowaphos in each mesh bag, 2 bags just blocks the baffle more so the water has to go through the bags and media. I intend to run this amount and change it out every 2 months, GFO is very potent stuff so i can't see myself ever needing to run it in a reactor. It allows me to feed so heavily and keep phos down very low, pure and simple. I can't stress enough to be careful and start with bugger all GFO and build it up if needed - to do the opposite can and will likely see you lose the tips on a lot of acros when the phos bottoms out in your water.
This is where the small Eheim pump sends water over into the frag section which then spills back over the wall and into the return pump. The manual ATO float will be going as soon as the electric one arrives. I have a tiny little $7- pump blowing the water where i drip the alk over 24 hours straight towards the return pump. The suction cups stopped working on the heater long ago and i can't see the light - i should have replaced it and will after i finish this post. The light bleed from the sump LED unit is a pain as you can see so i need to hang a piece of something down to block the light reaching the rest of the sump too. I use a $20- indoor/outdoor temp probe from the hardware shop to monitor the temp, it records min and max and humidty as well and the outdoor probe is lsealed and on a long wire that ih have hanging in the area where the water enters from the display. You can see the white wire in the first sump pic.
I turkey baste the sump bottom twice a week and anything you see on the bottom is clean sand, there's stuff all filth in the sump but lots of life. Mysis and pods are throughout my system including the display along with heaps of brittle stars, sponges and all manner of filter feeding worms etc. All the rock was good quality porous pieces hand picked at LFS's so it was serious filtration media right from day one. I throw left over bits into the sump wherever they fit as long as they are not too small, small rubble is no better than putting bioballs into the sump imo and won't contain the anaerobic bacteria you want with too much flow going through it.
There's a bit of algae and cyano in the pics as i took them a while back when i went overboard with the food lol - it's better in the sump than the display so let it grow there if you're having probs, less that will show in your display.
I'll go into detail about the food i'm using in the next post as i'm pooped from this one lol. If i don't cover anything anyone wants to know or it's unclear just yell and i'll explain it better. There's no need to know the scientific names of everything but you should know what's in your reef and what it can do for you if you treat it well. :beer:
So this is what i collect every 24 hours with the skimmer. 150ml give or take and it stinks terribly just as any good skimmate should lol. The color is like in the pic, a little lighter when poured into a jar and out in the light but this is what i mean when i say wet skimming and i've always run skimmers this way rather than dryer. I actually feed a finger swipe of goop from the neck 2 or 3 times a week as i figure lots off my coral food gets ripped out before it does any good and the acros appear to react to it just as when i throw in reef roids or cyclop-eeze. I've seen all my skimmers including this one overun the cup contents into the sump many times and if anything i see the corals reaction to be positive rather than negative, the excess is soon ripped out by the skimmer once you clear the venturi intake - that's the cause 9/10 in my experience.
I don't want anyone running out feeding skimmate to their tanks btw, i do it but i can't say it does anything special tbh. I actually like to see particulates in the water so a longways tank shot is slightly cloudy because we tend to overdo the clarity for our own viewing benefit way beyond ocean water which is in no way filter sock pristine.
My entire ideology with the tank nutrients is simply to encourage as much natural food production in the system as possible. I feed the tank rather than the corals really and i use foods that i have personally macro tested to witness the reaction of both coral polyps and critters to ensure they are effective.
This is the filtration section of the sump and you can see i let any filter feeders such as sponges and worms do their thing on my sump walls. The small section with LR is my rock DSB with minimal water flow except across the top 1/2". You can see the critters don't like it below half way down unlike on the other side of the glass where they go to the bottom. I figure it's probably anaerobic and the rock down low will be entirely populated by nitrate munching bacteria rather than just the inner low water movement areas normally associated with such bacteria. I feed a lot and nitrates are never an issue unlike phos so i do believe it serves a purpose and i intend a much larger version in the sump of the new tank. At the least it's simply more LR for natural water filtration so it's a good thing either way in my eyes.
The water goes over the baffle and i run 4 tablespoons of Rowaphos in each mesh bag, 2 bags just blocks the baffle more so the water has to go through the bags and media. I intend to run this amount and change it out every 2 months, GFO is very potent stuff so i can't see myself ever needing to run it in a reactor. It allows me to feed so heavily and keep phos down very low, pure and simple. I can't stress enough to be careful and start with bugger all GFO and build it up if needed - to do the opposite can and will likely see you lose the tips on a lot of acros when the phos bottoms out in your water.
This is where the small Eheim pump sends water over into the frag section which then spills back over the wall and into the return pump. The manual ATO float will be going as soon as the electric one arrives. I have a tiny little $7- pump blowing the water where i drip the alk over 24 hours straight towards the return pump. The suction cups stopped working on the heater long ago and i can't see the light - i should have replaced it and will after i finish this post. The light bleed from the sump LED unit is a pain as you can see so i need to hang a piece of something down to block the light reaching the rest of the sump too. I use a $20- indoor/outdoor temp probe from the hardware shop to monitor the temp, it records min and max and humidty as well and the outdoor probe is lsealed and on a long wire that ih have hanging in the area where the water enters from the display. You can see the white wire in the first sump pic.
I turkey baste the sump bottom twice a week and anything you see on the bottom is clean sand, there's stuff all filth in the sump but lots of life. Mysis and pods are throughout my system including the display along with heaps of brittle stars, sponges and all manner of filter feeding worms etc. All the rock was good quality porous pieces hand picked at LFS's so it was serious filtration media right from day one. I throw left over bits into the sump wherever they fit as long as they are not too small, small rubble is no better than putting bioballs into the sump imo and won't contain the anaerobic bacteria you want with too much flow going through it.
There's a bit of algae and cyano in the pics as i took them a while back when i went overboard with the food lol - it's better in the sump than the display so let it grow there if you're having probs, less that will show in your display.
I'll go into detail about the food i'm using in the next post as i'm pooped from this one lol. If i don't cover anything anyone wants to know or it's unclear just yell and i'll explain it better. There's no need to know the scientific names of everything but you should know what's in your reef and what it can do for you if you treat it well. :beer:
Bello
New member
Thanks for the awesome update, biggles :thumbsup:, especially the part about the skimmer and the simple workings behind the system
While, I've ripped off most your workings, I've yet to put it into practice as well as you have, but if nothing else, this serves as reassurance that I'm on the right path :thumbsup:
When looking at your side tank shot, I just realized that you've deliberately not placed any pumps on that wall. For the view?
I wish the anthias did better, just stumped about those....doesn't make sense .
Man, the green acro has gone through soo much, and it's still kicking. I'm betting a top down shot of those 3, with the green acro as the base color is going to look nuts!
Glad to see that fluoro green acro is doing so well. I know you love that acro, despite it being green
And damn!!! that's a lot of light!!! what like 400 mh + 100 t5? + 75 led?
While, I've ripped off most your workings, I've yet to put it into practice as well as you have, but if nothing else, this serves as reassurance that I'm on the right path :thumbsup:
When looking at your side tank shot, I just realized that you've deliberately not placed any pumps on that wall. For the view?
I wish the anthias did better
, just stumped about those....doesn't make sense .Man, the green acro has gone through soo much
, and it's still kicking. I'm betting a top down shot of those 3, with the green acro as the base color is going to look nuts!Glad to see that fluoro green acro is doing so well. I know you love that acro, despite it being green
And damn!!! that's a lot of light!!! what like 400 mh + 100 t5? + 75 led?
biggles
Premium Member
Thanks for the awesome update, biggles :thumbsup:, especially the part about the skimmer and the simple workings behind the system
While, I've ripped off most your workings, I've yet to put it into practice as well as you have, but if nothing else, this serves as reassurance that I'm on the right path :thumbsup:
When looking at your side tank shot, I just realized that you've deliberately not placed any pumps on that wall. For the view?
I wish the anthias did better
Man, the green acro has gone through soo much
Glad to see that fluoro green acro is doing so well. I know you love that acro, despite it being green
And damn!!! that's a lot of light!!! what like 400 mh + 100 t5? + 75 led?
Hi mate, the way i do things is nothing new and more of a trip back in time than anything else. I think GFO is great stuff when used in the right manner and it's certainly allowed me to feed more than in previous tanks when i didn't even test for phos.
I don't place pumps on any wall i consider as a viewing side which is why i have flow probs. It's very easy to get a good all around flow coverage when you place them at opposite ends but i'm going to place the 6095 where the WP-25 is now high on the right and place a WP-25 beside it blowing down the front glass, that will fix the front raft flow issue. The other WP-25 will go where the 6095 is now pointing the same way to hit the 6095 flow - basically a straight swap of where they are now. I'll remove both the small Tunze pumps and put one in the sump with the other 6025.
Those fish must have stressed out from something i did wrong but i'm stuffed if i know what the cause was
As you know i seem to have no probs keeping green stuff really bloody green :lol: I actually need to take a few top downs at some point so i can see where that bloody thing has encrusted to up high and slow it down, it's seriously going to drive me nuts forever i already know but i can't bear the thought of the damage i'd cause to everything near it if i tried to remove it.
The lighting is actually 400W MH, 156W T5's and 78W LED's. 9-10 hours halide and all the rest are on for 12 hours. the Radium bulb is 5" off the water and the rest are 3" off - it's bloody bright when you stand in front of it
That end shot is actually awfully close to what you really see in person, about 90% accurate in colors and brightness. It also shows you what i mean by keeping my water slightly off from crystal clear as the pics gets slightly cloudy at the far end.. if you want to take some clear long shots you just use a sock for 24 hours and some carbon will also help, then just remove them and go back to how you normally keep your water.You can still a lot of colors in this night shot with the phone camera flash. I don't think the clown was impressed lol.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
Awesome information!
The camera flash only lighting shot really shows off how good ones SPS colours are...I think I will do a few more of these in a couple of months.
That shot clearly shows how bright your colours are and how what you see must be some of the best SPS colours out there.
The camera flash only lighting shot really shows off how good ones SPS colours are...I think I will do a few more of these in a couple of months.
That shot clearly shows how bright your colours are and how what you see must be some of the best SPS colours out there.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Mate,
You are a massive credit to this forum. Information you provide has made a massive positive impact on the well being of my corals.
I would like to thank you for that.
You are a massive credit to this forum. Information you provide has made a massive positive impact on the well being of my corals.
I would like to thank you for that.
martinphillip03
New member
I second Sahin!
Marty
Marty
Awesome information!
The camera flash only lighting shot really shows off how good ones SPS colours are...I think I will do a few more of these in a couple of months.
That shot clearly shows how bright your colours are and how what you see must be some of the best SPS colours out there.
biggles
Premium Member
Thanks very much for the kind words guys, i'm going to bore everyone to death with info on all the stuff we take for granted but newer reefers must scratch their heads over not being 100% sure what is being described so bare with me lol. Lots of pics of algae on pumps and videos of feedings and the amounts will follow soon. Descriptions such as 'a pinch' are not good enough because foods such as reef roids etc are very potent so i want everyone have a real indicator of how much i use so overdoing things is less likely.
Received the 6095 controller today and it's already ramping the pump up and down so the water flow is looking a bit better but won't be good until i get the 2nd WP-25 going. Also got the carbon and the crab trap. It has these little swingy door bits that are supposed to let the crab in like a one way door but i fail to see any deadly aspects to the device............. i'm presently nutting out a mod so the crab goes in, stands on the metal plate and when he reaches up for the food attached to the other metal probe - WHAMMO !
Obviously it's a work a progress but i think my version craps all over the 'boring' crab trap, the water/electricity aspect is presenting a few problems but i'm sure i'll get around that somehow............
Received the 6095 controller today and it's already ramping the pump up and down so the water flow is looking a bit better but won't be good until i get the 2nd WP-25 going. Also got the carbon and the crab trap. It has these little swingy door bits that are supposed to let the crab in like a one way door but i fail to see any deadly aspects to the device............. i'm presently nutting out a mod so the crab goes in, stands on the metal plate and when he reaches up for the food attached to the other metal probe - WHAMMO !
Obviously it's a work a progress but i think my version craps all over the 'boring' crab trap, the water/electricity aspect is presenting a few problems but i'm sure i'll get around that somehow............
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