My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[biggles]

That is one insane looking acro.

I have a couple pieces of the same acros that are completely different from each other now. I'm waiting till they get bigger and if they return to matching colors.

Hey mate, yeah some of the pieces have really had a dramatic pigment color change over recent events. Here's another SSC frag showing the weird purpley colors better, looks horrible and i'm not impressed with the greener tissue either.

Btw, this is exactly what my glow in the dark fluoro aculeus looked like when i bought it so i wanted to show you what to look for if you spy a similar acro when LFS shopping. They look pale and i got the color pretty close to what you see in real life. This aculeus will almost certainly look as crazy fluoro as the other within 4-6 weeks time under the Radium.
Most times you will see no hint of anything fluoro about the tissue and they just look like drab washed out limey green acros. The branches will have an almost pale grey look to them, you can see some branch visible on the left. Over time this tissue along with every other part of the acro tissue will light up.
It's really hard to show you the fluoro colors accurately but this piece is already showing all the right signs of looking the goods - that's why i stuck the blue tipped echi next to it - the contrast will be ridiculous if i don't kill either of them lol.
That piece on the right was a brown out with hints of red/pink so i'm watching it to see what it does, it's beginning to settle and show some signs of nice colors to come i think - i may have forgotten to mention this one too Bello........:smokin:

 

[biggles]

Right, i took this with just the T5's on to show you what i mean about fluoro pigments showing up on your non color corrected phone snaps. You can see the small frag of my glowing blob aculeus is obvious but it's what the new branch looks like along with the base tissue of the SSC frag over it that you should look for in shop tanks. It isn't anywhere as obvious as with my already lit up piece as you can see but it stands out against other non fluoro pigmented acros.

 

[Bello]

You're really getting sneaky aren't you? Just you wait Mr. Biggles, just you wait....

I bought a couple of maris, imagining I'd see hints of red/pink, similar to the piece in the pics above. All I'm getting thus far, is a glorious brown :angryfire:. I've placed most of the browner pieces in high light, hoping that they change up a bit. Foodwise, I'm feeding pretty much what you've listed, except for the mysis cube. Still not seeing enough of a change, but I guess I need to give it some time. Get off the rollercoaster, if you know what I mean . As you said, I don't believe my water is poor quality, maybe its a placement/light issue, or effects from the dipping :reading:. 40% of the corals look great, its just the others .

The big green table in the pic above is what you picked up with the echi right? When it was pretty much bleached eh? It seems to have colored up rather nicely :thumbsup:

What is this "friend" thing? I'm your bloody arch Nemesis :blown:

 

[laureef]

I'm starting to see better PE on things at night slowly so i'm fairly certain that the system is on the road to recovery.

Happy to hear that!
I haven't doubted even for a second :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

You're really getting sneaky aren't you? Just you wait Mr. Biggles, just you wait....

What is this "friend" thing? I'm your bloody arch Nemesis

I had no choice but to resort to such underhanded tactics Bello after you keep doing sneaky stuff in our tank war. :deadhorse1: I know you can't help yourself - case in point, i still don't know what sort of Anthias you bought ! I don't know whether you do it to drive me crazy but it bloody well does. You just mentioned a couple of new mari's you bought - forgot to update us on those when you got them i see - what a bloody surprise.......
We're mates and everything Bello but i trust you about as far as i believe Sahin has ever actually owned a gold fish bowl let alone a bloody reef tank ( keep that remark between us, you know how he gets at the slightest thing ) :rolleye1:

In regards to your acros condition i think they're like mine and will all recover at different rates. I would expect it to take no longer than 2 months tops for everything to have good PE and colors showing to differing degrees. I've made some super goofs that shut down everything a few times - the half cup of kalk powder freshly mixed and bumped into the tank was a beauty, the acros just loved that and thanked me with lots of tissue loss and no growth for about 2 months :facepalm:
I would give anything that looks really grumpy a few weeks just to get used to being left alone in good water again mate. If they have good PE though i'd start putting them back at the heights you think they were doing well at. How big a drop in alk draw have you noticed from the highest before the dipping to what it is now, as you know mine dropped to one third at its worst. Anyway, don't stress just yet about the acros, mine are still recovering at a painfully slow rate. For now i'm happy that nothing new is dying and PE is slowly looking a bit better.
I'm very certain that most see the pics i post and think what is he talking about in regards to things looking bad but if any of you were to stand in front of the tank and have a close look at everything you'd see what i mean. I also need to get rid of the Xmas tree as i want the display to be litter free from now on as it looks nice with just the stuff in there that should be there.

Yes the aculeus was one of 4 pieces in the sale tank all broken off the same colony it appeared. All of them looked pale but they all had some PE so i just picked the right shape having already decided to find a table to have sloping downwards to the sand. I was quite chuffed finding the table piece that fit the bill perfectly - just need it to fluoro up for me in the low spot i put it. The piece on the tip of the raft is getting a similar amount of light and flow so i'm hoping it works out well

I told Kevin about the arch nemesis remark, he spent some time scribbling in his tree and then handed me a sketch of the outfit he wants me to have made for him........ says he's going to fly over and rescue the acros from your tank. Not sure yet if i'll tell him about the cape not giving him the power of flight - he and i like to play tricks on each other as you know, mainly me on him tbh.......

Happy to hear that!
I haven't doubted even for a second :thumbsup:

Thanks very much mate, i really appreciate the kind words

 

[sahin]

Super Koala? I see Kevin pledges allegiance to me...since he has a British flag design on his buckle...or is that another of his tricks?

 

[Fail_sh3d]

Super Koala? I see Kevin pledges allegiance to me...since he has a British flag design on his buckle...or is that another of his tricks?

Rofl!

 

[Bello]

About the anthias, you'll just have to check out my journal eh? They're Pseudanthias Marcia....cheap and look like yours

Will post some pics of the super ugly maris that I bought as well. Didn't think that anybody in their right mind would even wanna look at them. Thanks for the info biggles, I definitely appreciate the 2 month timeline, you already know that I'm an impatient little %$^#$

About the deepwater coral RTN, the alk drop was only 2 dkh, not much, but enough to turn a few pieces to poo. BUT, the deepwater had been dipped at least 6-7 times prior with no ill effects. So I guess, the alk fluctuation coupled with the dip, caused the RTN.

Kevin's looking pretty spiffy in that costume, too bad he is Sahin's now

 

[sahin]

Bello, you and Biggles will be a year ahead of me with your new tanks and sneaky businesses. I cant upgrade till next year at least. With my next upgraded tank, I will be able to keep a whole load more acros and all this new Anthias fish fashion you guys are into...

 

[biggles]

I've been sulking for a few days about killing my mandarin through complete stupidity which is why i've been quiet. A few days ago i noticed he was missing when the lights came on at 7am. He always comes to the front of the tank and feeds when the lights come on so i knew something was up when he was a no show 15 mins later. I searched the whole tank and nothing so the only hope i had was the overflow - yippee he was in the bottom of the overflow happily eating the critters who normally live predator free happy little crittery lives.......... bit like a T-Rex dropping in on a heard of sheep from the critters perspective.
No hope of netting him so i think no probs i'll drain the overflow and send him to the sump. Turned off the skimmer and took it out so it would be easy to net the little guy and then turned off the return. The 2 standpipes leave a good 5" of water in the box which is where he was after the overflow emptied. I thought about trying to net him but the 2 pipes and 2" euro bracing over the overflow made it very awkward and i was worried i might squish him with the net frame against the glass not having good vision of the bottom.
This is where my stupidity came into play resulting in the mandarin dying. I decided to pull the main overflow drain pipe to empty the box and drag the mandarin to the sump. Pulled the pipe and the water started dropping fast so i climb off the chair and watch the sump for the fish........... no fish so i think damn the little bugger is in the last 1.5" of water due to the pipe fitting screwed into the bulkhead that the pipe is pushed into. Get back on the chair and i'm surprised to see water in the overflow still above the pipe fitting and no sign of the mandarin.............. i have the tap controlling the flow through the 1.25" - 32mm drain pipe shut off to about a third of fully open and i knew that's where he was trapped with terrible certainty as i scrambled to get to the tap. I spun it fully open and up with the bubbles floated my mandarin dead. I picked him up in my hand and placed him in the lit section to watch for any signs of life even though i knew he was a goner.......
You all know i'm not as into fish as a lot of guys and gals but when i keep them i get attached to them and i have to say i went to work and spent the day feeling like crap. Mandarins are like the honey eaters of the reef the way they float around whilst hunting and i've always had one in my tanks without a problem.
I only share the whole saga so it might twig something in your memory to remember the tap if you're ever in a similar situation and want to avoid a 'biggles event'.

Think once, think twice, think open the bloody tap fully before trying to drain a fish out of the stinking overflow box.......:deadhorse1:

It's friday night so i can't be stuffed talking about algae, i will on the weekend though if anyone wants to read some stuff that is backed up by numerous imaginary scientific studies i've carried out whilst day dreaming at work. I took a pic from the end 24 hours after cleaning the front glass - i want to see this much algae on the glass after 3-4 days, not 24 bloody hours after a cleaning. There is hardly any algae on the rocks because it's all growing where i want it to - in the sump. I'll take some pics tomorrow to show you the large amount of disgusting green hair algae in the lit section of the sump due to me keeping up feeding quite a lot while the acros are not well and haven't really been growing for a couple of months. The colors are starting to brighten back up a bit but i still see no growth in tips or encrusting on anything. I just put 2 new cups of carbon in the sump and will keep changing it fortnightly. Alk draw is still only 70ml so that sucks as it's been like that for a week or so - the recovery is depressingly slow

 

[Fishy 1]

So sorry for your lose mate. I'll make sure it don't happen to me.

 

[sahin]

Oh man Biggles...sorry about the loss of your fish. Your description of a honey eater of the reef is so fitting for Mandarins...to me they are beautiful and gentle fish, gliding slowly around the tank...

I feel for you mate, I'll admit I've done my own craziness and caused the loss of livestock...I remember I added a Serpent Starfish years ago too early in my tank before it became fully mature...well within a couple of weeks the starfish literally melted in my tank...I felt sick removing the melted parts and felt so bad deep in my stomach because I stupidly added the starfish before my tank could support it. I didnt realise how sensitive they were. Even though I see them in the LFS now that event bothered me enough that I cant get myself to buy another one even though I know my tank can support it now.

Well Biggles, I hope this is the last of "Biggles Moments" for this year. You're not allowed to have any more of these moments...:worried:

The algae buildup on your glass in one day is a lot mate (you know obviously know this). A while back you mentioned that the best timeframe for this 2-3 days and this is where I try to keep my tank. I must say its working out very well for my corals. :beer:

I see the sand is refusing to cooperate with you mate. The bare patch at the front is there yet again. :hmm4: Are you planning to place some large grains like 0.5mm to 1cm chips of rocks? That will keep the sand in place.

Got a couple of Q's for you mate:

1. what are those tiny spike on the base of the rock near that Flouro Aculeus? Are they Vermited Tube Worms?

2. Its probably in the thread somewhere, for the sake of me reading through 1000's of post, can you please tell me how much Liverock/rocks you have in total in the system?

The past couple of months I've been reading/revisiting ideas on: GFO usage, PO4 levels, amount of Liverock use, food/nutrition for corals, water changes etc...The more I look into these areas, the more I see that the good old method of reefkeeping ideals (that of 10 years ago) just works fine...these are the same tanks that have deep/strong SPS colours.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I look forward to the algae/an eye for your reef rant when you feel up to writing it. :thumbsup: I think we should publish these articles in Kevins Journal of Reefology. :lol:

 

[apexkeeper]

You guys have some really fat squirrels...

 

[sahin]

You guys have some really fat squirrels...

I'll have you know, Kevin takes offence to being called a mere squirrel... :uhoh3:

However, there is an animal which looks like a cross between a Koala and a Squirrel...I'm not sure what sort of paranormal activites Kevin has been upto with a female squirrel after a late night drinking, but here is the result: SQUALA

 

[Bello]

Lol, Sahin :lol:

Sorry to hear about the Mandarin, biggles. I know you loved that fish . The tank still looks pretty good though. Have you tried redirecting the wavemakers anymore to prevent the sandbed blowoff?

 

[Fail_sh3d]

Biggles, that's awful. I'm sorry about the loss. I know those feels.

On a lighter note, the tank colors look spectacular.

 

[biggles]

So sorry for your lose mate. I'll make sure it don't happen to me.

Thanks mate, just one of those silly things that can happen but easily avoided in hindsight.

Oh man Biggles...sorry about the loss of your fish. Your description of a honey eater of the reef is so fitting for Mandarins...to me they are beautiful and gentle fish, gliding slowly around the tank...

I feel for you mate, I'll admit I've done my own craziness and caused the loss of livestock...I remember I added a Serpent Starfish years ago too early in my tank before it became fully mature...well within a couple of weeks the starfish literally melted in my tank...I felt sick removing the melted parts and felt so bad deep in my stomach because I stupidly added the starfish before my tank could support it. I didnt realise how sensitive they were. Even though I see them in the LFS now that event bothered me enough that I cant get myself to buy another one even though I know my tank can support it now.

Well Biggles, I hope this is the last of "Biggles Moments" for this year. You're not allowed to have any more of these moments...

The algae buildup on your glass in one day is a lot mate (you know obviously know this). A while back you mentioned that the best timeframe for this 2-3 days and this is where I try to keep my tank. I must say its working out very well for my corals.

I see the sand is refusing to cooperate with you mate. The bare patch at the front is there yet again. :hmm4: Are you planning to place some large grains like 0.5mm to 1cm chips of rocks? That will keep the sand in place.

Got a couple of Q's for you mate:

1. what are those tiny spike on the base of the rock near that Flouro Aculeus? Are they Vermited Tube Worms?

2. Its probably in the thread somewhere, for the sake of me reading through 1000's of post, can you please tell me how much Liverock/rocks you have in total in the system?

The past couple of months I've been reading/revisiting ideas on: GFO usage, PO4 levels, amount of Liverock use, food/nutrition for corals, water changes etc...The more I look into these areas, the more I see that the good old method of reefkeeping ideals (that of 10 years ago) just works fine...these are the same tanks that have deep/strong SPS colours.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I look forward to the algae/an eye for your reef rant when you feel up to writing it. :thumbsup: I think we should publish these articles in Kevins Journal of Reefology. :lol:

Hey Sahin, yep those are worms. I always have those on live rock but they never become a problem in my tanks. I actually like to watch acros encrust over the tubes.

I have 20kg in the display and 5kg in the sump so about 55lbs total. I always hand pick every piece of fresh live rock from the live rock bin at my LFS. I always go for light weight for size pieces as i want the most porous media i can find as long as the structural strength of the piece isn't compromised. You get more bang for your buck in quantity and also better bacterial filtration and colonisation sites. As an example the entire raft rock supporting all those acros weighs 2kg including the base piece. I intend to add more rock to the sump over time but i always see acros so........

The type of reef methodology you practice has a large impact on the growth and colors displayed by your acros, you only have to look at the beautiful pastel colors a full on zeo display takes on - stunning. The Berlin type method i use gives you deep saturated colors on everything even if you don't want it lol. I guess it just depends on what look you're after when it comes to the method you decide to use.

I'll have you know, Kevin takes offence to being called a mere squirrel... :uhoh3:

However, there is an animal which looks like a cross between a Koala and a Squirrel...I'm not sure what sort of paranormal activites Kevin has been upto with a female squirrel after a late night drinking, but here is the result: SQUALA

:lmao: Kevin isn't picky when it comes to girlfriends.........

Lol, Sahin :lol:

Sorry to hear about the Mandarin, biggles. I know you loved that fish . The tank still looks pretty good though. Have you tried redirecting the wavemakers anymore to prevent the sandbed blowoff?

Hi mate, i did that to the sand accidentally when i pulled the power lead and the WP-25 was pointing down at the sand lol. I didn't fix it because i was going to add the WP-40 today and figure i'd wait until i saw what happened.
The WP-40 is now in and looks like a bowling ball ! Might as well shove a bloody Evinrude outboard in there......... I have it on full strength else mode and it's blowing the hell out of everything including the fish lol. I'll see what's what in the morning before i bother fixing the sand.

Biggles, that's awful. I'm sorry about the loss. I know those feels.

On a lighter note, the tank colors look spectacular.

Thanks mate, everything will improve over time i'm sure. Check out how the pigments on the little blue frag are concentrated around the two barnacle entrance holes. The lower you can place an acro and still keep color you want the more saturated the pigments will be in general. I've come to the conclusion that i didn't need rock higher than 6" off the bottom anywhere in the tank in hindsight. The pink frag is as awesome as it looks in the pic and it's in low light close to the bottom.

Edit: I meant to point out the acro top left was trying to eat some detritus stirred up by the WP-40. A polyp spent 5 mins holding that little white thing before giving up - its eyes were bigger than its mouth.......

 

[sahin]

Thanks for the rock photo mate. Most of the rocks that we get these days in the UK are solid lumps of crap.

That pink acro looks very nice. Love the colour on that one. :thumbsup:

 

[Fishy 1]

I'll have you know, Kevin takes offence to being called a mere squirrel... :uhoh3:

However, there is an animal which looks like a cross between a Koala and a Squirrel...I'm not sure what sort of paranormal activites Kevin has been upto with a female squirrel after a late night drinking, but here is the result: SQUALA

Hahahahahahah :thumbup:

 

[Fishy 1]

Talking about losing fish. A month ago I lost my Siamese fighter and man, I mourned the loss of that fish. I taught him tricks gave him tummy rubs and spent hours manicuring the plants in his tank. When I got him he was blue and he changed colour to a pink/red/electric blue combo, he was stunning. And then he went down hill, losing sight in one eye, loss of apatite and then losing control of his ability to swim straight. It was heart breaking watching him in such a sad place, I had to put him out of his misery with a needle to the head. I didn't want to do it but it was not fair for him to suffer. Sorry for going off coarse but I had to get that off my chest. R.I.P Charlie