My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[GQuinn]

biggles,
This is my daily "must read" thread. I want to thank you for the information and humor you and others have posted in this thread. You post the highs and the lows of running a reef tank, something we all have experienced.

 

[biggles]

Cool, thanks for the reply. Reason I asked is because my cube has been up and running for a year and a half without sand and I'm planning on adding some reef flakes, i just didnt know how fast I should add it. I too will make it as shallow as possible.

I'm looking forward to seeing your reef after you do this

To avoid making a bloody mess with sand all over the rocks and corals i get a bucket of salt water and fill a plastic 1 liter jug with sand and then submerge it in the bucket so the air comes out. Then i lower the saturated jug of sand gently under the display water and tip it where i want down low.
I tried gently submerging the jug of dry sand in the display but the sand gets blown out as the air comes out of the sand so i wet it in a bucket now.

Turn your display pumps off while you add sand - sounds obvious but i'm allowing for those as hopeless as me at planning things lol.

Trying to use a pipe to pour it in is just asking for lots and lots of smashed acro tips..........

biggles,
This is my daily "must read" thread. I want to thank you for the information and humor you and others have posted in this thread. You post the highs and the lows of running a reef tank, something we all have experienced.

Hi mate, glad you're enjoying the journal, it's a bumpy ride in this hobby sometimes but when things are going well nothing compares to the beauty of a colorful reef display imo. :beer:


Righto, i captured the colors on this acro i replaced my poor old blue stag branch with that was residing on the raft. You can see the polyps are blue and in the 1o days or so i've had it it has developed fluoro rings on the top of the axial corallites

 

[martinphillip03]

Why wouldn't you use your NASA Hubble Telescope scraper?

Marty

I want it as shallow as possible to minimize detritus building up in it and stir it around weekly with a fork or something similar.

 

[laureef]

Hi mate
One of the best threads I've ever read. Your corals are from another world
I also started to feed my tank heavily following your recipe and the colors are getting better but my sand started to look brown, any thoughts on that?
I'm in a phase of changing the sump so could you please explain one more time how your sump works? I found it already in the thread but everything is not clear to me.
greets from Croatia :beer:

 

[dallasg]

that coral pic is awesome...
this has become my read with coffee thread

 

[Fishy 1]

Thanks mate, it looks like it has set nice and firm I have not kept corals before but am hoping to turn the new tank into a reef any suggestions on an easy coral. I've heard mushrooms are easy, what lighting do they need? keep up the great work Dallasg :thumbup:

 

[Bello]

Man, the aculeus vid was depressing to watch . That's an awesome piece, I hope at least a frag is saved. Does Bryce have a back up?

The echinata looks absolutely stunning!! Better than their FB pics! It's definitely gonna be a stunner!! How's the water change schedule coming along? I did a couple largish (50% mixed in bucket with salt for 6 hours) water changes when I had a similar problem, it helped a lot.

For anyone who's missed out on biggles's comedic genius all over RC, here's a repost..... hope you don't mind biggles

Apparently, biggles wanted to steal some of Acronic's acros, but since Acronic (Kevin) has some crazy security, biggles sent in his secret Ninja

 

[dallasg]

thats funny

 

[sahin]

Bello, I better receive that coffee mug you said you would be sending...or Kevin the Ninja koala is coming over to your place next...:angryfire:

I bet you are hiding some nice acros from us...well not to worry, Kevin has been trained very well...:wavehand:

 

[Fishy 1]

Haha funny :thumbup:

 

[troubadour11]

Hey there Biggles :wave:

I hope things are on the mend for you now that you're getting to these water changes. It was painful to see that video of the tissue peeling away. :worried: But as always, nice of you to share both the ups and downs. :thumbsup:

Here's a request for you. Since you've been sharing so much of the tough side of things lately... How about a good shot or two of what you feel is going the best right now. (despite the troubles and roller coaster ride of late) I'm sure you have a few more things in there that are worthy of some close-up praise right now. :celeb3: It never hurts to follow up the bad with something good :-D

Or how about a new FTS ... it's been almost 2 pages of updates since the last... :smokin: or have those been outlawed by master Sahin? :headwally: Hehehe ;-) :spin3: :deadhorse1:

OH and one last thing! Starting immediately, my dog is being thoroughly trained in AKRP!! My watchdog and tank will all be updated and outfitted with the latest and greatest security under the new Anti-Koala Reefing Procedures... :uzi: I gotta do all I can to keep Kevin's paws outta my tank. It'd be horrible if he walked off with my 1st SPS after I bring it home! :headwalls: LOL

 

[biggles]

Why wouldn't you use your NASA Hubble Telescope scraper?

Marty

Because Marty if i was to bump my scraper on the bottom the bloody lenses would go out of alignment and the thing would be useless. Considering the rest of you own crappy lamo scrapers i'll excuse your ignorance of high tech reef equipment.

Hi mate
One of the best threads I've ever read. Your corals are from another world
I also started to feed my tank heavily following your recipe and the colors are getting better but my sand started to look brown, any thoughts on that?
I'm in a phase of changing the sump so could you please explain one more time how your sump works? I found it already in the thread but everything is not clear to me.
greets from Croatia :beer:

Thanks mate. The brown sand sounds like the bio filtration hasn't caught up to your increased feeding. Lower flow areas typically on the sand bottom so you don't blow everything to hell are perfect for algae and or cyano. I've had both in small amounts and kept feeding levels the same until the system had a chance to adjust, 2-3 weeks.
I only use the skimmer and live rock for my main filtration along with anything that grows on the sump walls etc. I have no GFO running but i am using carbon due to the contaminated RO i've been using for months. What parts of my sump did you want to know more about as i'll happily clear it up for you.

that coral pic is awesome...
this has become my read with coffee thread

Thanks mate, double black no sugar please..........

Thanks mate, it looks like it has set nice and firm I have not kept corals before but am hoping to turn the new tank into a reef any suggestions on an easy coral. I've heard mushrooms are easy, what lighting do they need? keep up the great work Dallasg :thumbup:

Get some mushrooms as they'd live in the toilet if you put a light over the bowl....... knowing what you are thinking i'd suggest a 4 bulb T5 unit with a RB LED strip at the front angled back. That would cover all your lighting needs until you go mad and keep an SPS dominant display and pop the colors.

Man, the aculeus vid was depressing to watch . That's an awesome piece, I hope at least a frag is saved. Does Bryce have a back up?

The echinata looks absolutely stunning!! Better than their FB pics! It's definitely gonna be a stunner!! How's the water change schedule coming along? I did a couple largish (50% mixed in bucket with salt for 6 hours) water changes when I had a similar problem, it helped a lot.

For anyone who's missed out on biggles's comedic genius all over RC, here's a repost..... hope you don't mind biggles

Apparently, biggles wanted to steal some of Acronic's acros, but since Acronic (Kevin) has some crazy security, biggles sent in his secret Ninja

I'm pretty certain i've lost the entire piece now along with 3 frags elsewhere in the tank - the blue stag and the aculeus were the only two acros to really take things badly. The bits of blue stag are still alive in the sump and there's still 2 bits of the aculeus not completely dead.

I cut that echinata up into four bits and stuck them around the rocks to cover my arse as usual Bello lol. I didn't realise how tiny the tubular corallites were in diameter. So far all the bits appear to be doing fine after a couple of weeks. All the new acros i added in the last two weeks are doing as good or better than all my acros subjected to long term polluted water. I think it's going to take a month or two before most of my acros return to health.

Doing 15-20% changes every 4-5 days and will keep that up for another 3 or 4 weeks. I plan to do 20% changes every 2 weeks to keep the trace elements up long term.

The only problem using Kevin to steal acros for me is his habit of staying up the tree and refusing to come down with his prize after a night raid. The garden hose usually blasts him from the tree and also serves as a fresh water dip for the newly aquired acro.

thats funny

Walk under Kevin's gum tree at night and we'll see how funny you think a Ninja koala is mate......

Bello, I better receive that coffee mug you said you would be sending...or Kevin the Ninja koala is coming over to your place next...:angryfire:

I bet you are hiding some nice acros from us...well not to worry, Kevin has been trained very well...:wavehand:

Actually Sahin i came in from the yard today to find Kevin reading the last few pages of your journal, he growls a lot while he reads your journal unlike most of the others he follows. He left a scrawled note on the keyboard so i'm assuming he wants me to post it in your journal........... Kevin is a koala of few words and even fewer spelling skills but he does get his point across........:reading:

 

[Bello]

Bello, I better receive that coffee mug you said you would be sending...or Kevin the Ninja koala is coming over to your place next...:angryfire:

I bet you are hiding some nice acros from us...well not to worry, Kevin has been trained very well...:wavehand:

I'm not too worried about Kevin . I'd imagine that if biggles would ever send him over, he'd probably go "*** Biggles, What ya want me to steal these poo acros for?"

The mug should be arriving exactly at 10:16am tomorrow. If your postman fails to deliver it, consider conducting a lie-detector polygraph test on him! Those "Tease" mugs are in great demand I hear :smokin:

I'm pretty certain i've lost the entire piece now along with 3 frags elsewhere in the tank - the blue stag and the aculeus were the only two acros to really take things badly. The bits of blue stag are still alive in the sump and there's still 2 bits of the aculeus not completely dead.

I cut that echinata up into four bits and stuck them around the rocks to cover my arse as usual Bello lol. I didn't realise how tiny the tubular corallites were in diameter. So far all the bits appear to be doing fine after a couple of weeks. All the new acros i added in the last two weeks are doing as good or better than all my acros subjected to long term polluted water. I think it's going to take a month or two before most of my acros return to health.

Doing 15-20% changes every 4-5 days and will keep that up for another 3 or 4 weeks. I plan to do 20% changes every 2 weeks to keep the trace elements up long term.

The only problem using Kevin to steal acros for me is his habit of staying up the tree and refusing to come down with his prize after a night raid. The garden hose usually blasts him from the tree and also serves as a fresh water dip for the newly aquired acro.

Hahahahahaha!!! The blue stag and aculeus plus the horrida were my favourites biggles . Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, you'll snag some later.

The Echinata is easy to frag, especially when you have NO INTENTION of fragging it!! The bloody things break in seconds. I'm guessing all the Echi bits are at various light and flow levels as usual. Would be interested in hearing your observations on their colors and growth, once settled. Mine seem to showing slight STN at the base. Guessing more flow is in order.

Glad to see that the new ones are healthy :thumbsup:. Waiting for things to come back to normal, and get back to their stunning selves!! :thumbsup:

 

[sahin]

Biggles, I got the note from Kevin...:angryfire:

However, local Aussie Intel have passed this shot to me which explains how Kevin came to write such a silly note.

 

[biggles]

Hahahahahaha!!! The blue stag and aculeus plus the horrida were my favourites biggles . Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, you'll snag some later.

The Echinata is easy to frag, especially when you have NO INTENTION of fragging it!! The bloody things break in seconds. I'm guessing all the Echi bits are at various light and flow levels as usual. Would be interested in hearing your observations on their colors and growth, once settled. Mine seem to showing slight STN at the base. Guessing more flow is in order.

Glad to see that the new ones are healthy :thumbsup:. Waiting for things to come back to normal, and get back to their stunning selves!! :thumbsup:

If you mean the big horrida piece that was front right i just moved that to the tip of the back ledge. All the horrida pieces have looked ok just no growth. The new branch i placed front right is the same acro but they don't always light up as crazily as the one i'm bloody killing. A month from now i'll have a good idea if it's pretty enough to hold such a prominent position. Blue echinata is right behind it so the color contrast if the aculeus colors up fluoro will be a tad extreme lol. Color contrasts play a big part in making your display pop imo.
Yep the echi is in a few different light and flow spots so i can see what position in the tank is best. As long as all of them grow and look good i'll leave them where they are. the one i posted the pic of is in low light and flow and seems to be going well so far.

Biggles, I got the note from Kevin...:angryfire:

However, local Aussie Intel have passed this shot to me which explains how Kevin came to write such a silly note.

Yes that's the unfortunate result of a greenpeace demonstration down the street that's been going on for a month. Kevin started hanging out with the tree hugger hippies chained in the tree tops and he's picked up a few bad habits.

 

[FastUno]

Biggles, with a 400W Radium bulb how much coverage do you think you will get if placed center in a 48" tank? At least 40" from center, 20" on either side? Do you think that is a reasonable estimate?

How high is your MH fixture?

 

[Fishy 1]

Keep up the awesome work, you are a legend in my eyes Biggles :thumbup:

 

[biggles]

Biggles, with a 400W Radium bulb how much coverage do you think you will get if placed center in a 48" tank? At least 40" from center, 20" on either side? Do you think that is a reasonable estimate?

How high is your MH fixture?

My tank is 40" wide by 24" front to back and i ran a single 250W Radium and 4x39W T5's for the first 12 months at 5" off the water. I have the 400W bulb at 8" off the water and it easily covers the full length of the tank with useable SPS light. I'm only using a cheap rectangular reflector.

Keep up the awesome work, you are a legend in my eyes Biggles :thumbup:

Thanks mate, legendary screw up is what i am lately lol.


Okay i received the bag of sand i ordered and here it is beside the stuff i took out. What do you guys think because i'm not sure it's big enough and i don't want to try it if it's going to do the same thing. Do you think the larger size is enough to make a big difference. Btw i just ordered a WP-40 to replace one of the WP-25's with. The spare 25 can go in the sump tank.

Since the fluoro aculeus on the tip of the raft has been very sick (dying) the bloody acro that it was holding at bay in the encrusting war has taken the opportunity to over grow its base - no mercy in acro wars....... You can see how bad things are with my glow in the dark blob coral

The smallest anthias who gets put in his place by the middle sized one every now and then hangs out in the raft acro branches when things get too stressful. Most of the time they all hang together so he's not being beaten up or anything bad just reminded he's bottom of the ladder. He sleeps right there alongside the yellow tang at night btw.

 

[Bello]

Cool pics, biggles . Scenes of small anthia/chromis/cardinals hiding among large acro stags are by far my favourite view of the reef. Too bad, I have neither .

I was looking at the grain sizes, I dunno biggles, it seems that the porosity/weight of the grains would be more relevant, as to how much they move with the pumps. As much as I hate seeing your bare bottom, it's gonna be a tough one to call. Have you considered placing a white starboard/acrylic sheet to create a fake bottom? Probably with coral gravel bits, permanently stuck in there? Just a thought.......

WP-40? So that makes it 2 x 6095, 1 x WP-25 and a WP-40??? That's INSANE FLOW!! :thumbsup:

 

[Bello]

BTW Sahin, you're getting pretty good with Koala pics