My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[Benar]

Hey biggles, so what powerheads are you running on the tank now. I'm ditching vortech's as the direction is non existant. Things are looking good by the way, better than my meltdown.
My latest pic, trying to sniff out any flesh left

 

[martinphillip03]

Bigs, Sorry to hear about your mandarin. It really sucks.

Marty

 

[ormet]

I have been away on vacation for 2 weeks, first thing i did when returning to my computer was reading this thread. It has a big entertainment value

Sorry about the loss of the mandarin, they are beutiful creatures to be sure

If any of you want to pick your toughest acro crab out and bring it around we'll drop it in the horrida and watch my boy kick the carapace out of it. His name is KONG :strooper:

Not only do i have crabs, i have a very big one too........... that is all i have to say about crabs.

I have one of those! He has some huge claws! I bought two of them, Trapezia sp., and the one flourishes and the other got evicted from my stylo/pocci island by the first to live a life of misery. He had at one point a leaf of algea growing on his carapace the size of 3cm diameter. Then he died, god rests his soul.

My Trapezia has, as i said, an island of bigger pocci/stylos/seriatopora where he can hide and he travels the island frequently. Very amusing!
You can se him in the rainbow pocci here:
http://glasscage.orm.nu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/left_side.jpg

 

[troubadour11]

Oh Mr. Biggles... I'm so sorry to hear about the Mandarin loss! That's got to be a tough one. I just had close to a similar situation. I've been looking for my pistol shrimp for a couple days and hadn't seen it out and around since I saw it exploring the surface one morning.

Leading to this past weekend when my wife and I were sitting glued to the thank....and WHOOOOOSH!!! Out comes the dead body of a pistol shrimp from the return!!!! I knew the little S.O.B. was trying to get through the top of the overflow! I had been checking the sump for it ever since I saw it swimming around that morning. I never saw it in there though.

I think this picture kind of says it all...

- My wife and I were upset over the loss to begin with. Then we witness the above seen...

- First, harsh cannibalistic meal by the cleaner shrimp. I mean, he's only hanging out right above the cave opening for the Goby and taunting the meal in his face.
- While Hannibal Cleaner was going to town and his early morning snack, we had to watch the Goby staring in disappointment thinking "If I had only paired up, this little pistol would still be alive! Instead I get to watch it get eaten..."
- I'm guessing the Firefish is thinkg "Well, at least it ain't me they're eating!"
- Then when Hannibal decided he was done, he tossed the leftovers.
- Seconds after hitting the sand, these leftovers became a bulging pile of Nassarius snails.
- Fast forward to me fiddling in the tank later this weekend when sneaking some additions... the only thing I see left is the pistol claw when placing a new small piece of rock into the tank :sad2:​

So I feel the pain of your loss Biggles.

Here's a question for you to ramble some thoughts on. If you feel like it anyway How is it you go about maintaining your Ca and Alk levels again? I know it wasn't water changes, because I remember you didn't do them much until your recent filter issue. Figuring out how to keep my Ca and Alk up closer to ideal levels is my next big water challenge.

- My Alk always is a little on the low side. Usually tests between 6 and 7. Which isn't completely horrible for the tank since I don't have a huge coral draw on it yet. But it could be better for the couple pieces I do have.​

- And same with Ca. I really have trouble getting that up. Even after a 20 gallon water change, I can barely test close to 400. Not really ever getting above 400. Then it drops to mid/low 300's between water changes.​

I'm guessing the Ca is getting depleted so quickly because of a heavy draw from corraline algae. With only 4 corals in the whole system, that's the only thing I could think of. We get spells of purple algae growth, then it slowly shrinks back some.

I think the next time I have to order salt, I might try the Red Sea Coral Pro and not the Regular Red Sea. That mixes to a slightly higher Alk level. And it doesn't seem like my Alk is dropping as rapidly as Ca. So maybe giving that a shot might help. I think it's important that I "listen to what they system is telling me" and respond with slow calculated adjustments to balance the young system. I bet with all the experience here, I can learn and get my system balanced out and maintaining nicely.

I could eventually run dosers through my reef angel. But I feel that's a bit of a big step right now for my system. And I'd rather put some $$ into starting my corals first :jester: Since my system is young and I don't have a HUGE demand, I've been heavily thinking about dripping lime water with my gravity fed ATO. That seems like a proven way that is less expensive immediately. So I was thinking about trying that route until the evaporation rate couldn't keep up with the demand. But I was curious what everyone has tried in here and would recommend. If possible, I'd like to get a set up semi-automated (like the ATO or dosers) over needing to pour a 1/2 capful per night in or something.

Anyway, since I got these up:

^^^I followed your wiring diagram you provided me... it worked perfectly!^^^

Now I want to add some better corals to the tank :uzi: It's time to get in this game a little bit. So getting the Ca and Alk leveled off is of high importance now. :clown:

 

[bogdanek]

@ troubadour
Are you confident that it was a whole pistol shrimp and not just his cuticula left after molting? Pistol shrimps usually don't explore the upper parts (like overflow) of the tank.
On the other note I use the kalkwasser for my ATO and it keeps my Ca at 420. For alkalinity I use sodium carbonate dosed via peristaltic pump under Reef Angel control.
loyal reader of biggles's thread.

 

[troubadour11]

@ troubadour
Are you confident that it was a whole pistol shrimp and not just his cuticula left after molting? Pistol shrimps usually don't explore the upper parts (like overflow) of the tank.
On the other note I use the kalkwasser for my ATO and it keeps my Ca at 420. For alkalinity I use sodium carbonate dosed via peristaltic pump under Reef Angel control.
loyal reader of biggles's thread.

Well, anything is possible. The pistol shrimp was a fairly new acquisition and I haven't seen it molt yet. So I can't say I know from experience what it looks like. But I have seen the Cleaner Shrimp molt... and lots of freshwater shrimp/crabs molt. I'm fairly confident it was the little bugger.

It DEFINITELY was the living version swimming around that morning. No doubt about that. I watched it for a bit because I thought it was odd and it concerned me. As for what came out of the return line.... again, pretty sure it was a dead carcass. I've never seen Nassarius snails turn into a bulging pile of snail orgy on top of the cleaner shrimp molts before. Typically the only thing interested in the cleaner molts are the bristle worms. And the Nassarius only like meat. They're little zombies! :fun2:

But it is possible. Maybe it'll pop back out of the rock work. But if I was into betting... I'd bet it's in the bellies of the cleaner and snails from what I saw.

Thanks for the tips on the kalkwasser and such. I was hoping I could keep my levels in line without needing to add equipment on right now. That's why I was looking into those solutions. So I'll check it out a little bit more. But good to know it sounds like a viable solution to get me started as the system "grows into it's own shoes." :beer: I may have to look into your world a bit more... a fellow Reef Angel user. I've just been busting my head on coding my new LEDs through the RA lately.

But I'll avoid anymore of that here for now... I think biggles hates christmas lights (leds) as much as green corals LOL :smokin: ;-)

I'm going to go now before I get Kevin sent after me. :lol2::strooper:

 

[biggles]

Hey guys, sorry i've been away for a few days but i'll reply to everyone once i check out your journals. Here's a big FTS that shows just how stupidly big the WP-40 is on the right compared to the WP-25 under it....... only have a small bald patch in the front left corner of the sand now despite blowing the hell out of everything with the WP-40 on else mode at 100%. The fish now spend a lot more time swimming to hold any spot they want in the water column

 

[biggles]

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:

Hey buddy, most of the rock i see here is branchy and light weight being quite porous so we're spoiled in Aus. Here's the 2 bits i puttied and glued together to form the front rock arch way back at the start. Both pieces are very 'holey' and light in weight like most of my rock. If i stick a turkey baster in a hole and squirt i see stuff fly out of ten other holes - that's the sign of good rock lol. :beer:

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

Sorry to hear that mate, really sucks to see a fish suffering. Are you going to replace him.

Hey biggles, so what powerheads are you running on the tank now. I'm ditching vortech's as the direction is non existant. Things are looking good by the way, better than my meltdown.
My latest pic, trying to sniff out any flesh left

Bloody Kiwi's lol ........ hey mate, you can see in the latest FTS that i have a Tunze 6095 on the left ranping up and down to 100%. High on the right pointed at the opposite end wall is the WP-40 at 100% on Else mode. Below it and more towards the front is the WP-25 blowing along the front glass. The one thing that ruled out Vortech's for me from the start was the non directional flow and noise issues. If i could afford it i would go all Tunze as they go for months without cleaning. The WP's need a clean every 3 weeks or so otherwise the output drops away.

Bigs, Sorry to hear about your mandarin. It really sucks.

Marty[/QUOTE

Thanks Marty, yes it really does suck big time mate.

I have been away on vacation for 2 weeks, first thing i did when returning to my computer was reading this thread. It has a big entertainment value

Sorry about the loss of the mandarin, they are beutiful creatures to be sure


I have one of those! He has some huge claws! I bought two of them, Trapezia sp., and the one flourishes and the other got evicted from my stylo/pocci island by the first to live a life of misery. He had at one point a leaf of algea growing on his carapace the size of 3cm diameter. Then he died, god rests his soul.

My Trapezia has, as i said, an island of bigger pocci/stylos/seriatopora where he can hide and he travels the island frequently. Very amusing!
You can se him in the rainbow pocci here:
http://glasscage.orm.nu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/left_side.jpg

Hey ormet
I'm glad to find another SPS crab lover who appreciates the funny little lives they lead in the reef. I can see the guy you're talking about but i bet most won't lol. I need to get some pics of some of my acro crabs doing their thing in the acros.

You can see how close to the bottom some of the acros are now the sand is back in. Colors are still weird and off but the small frags i put on the rock tip have exploded with tip growth recently. The base tissue is as disgusting colored as it looks in the pic, dirty olive brown. The white with blue polyp acro is grey with blue polyps but getting whiter slowly. The purpley blue and fluoro polyped thing is pooey looking but growing again, at the top of the encrusting area you can see where it stung the coralline algae last night by the stark white death ring at the acro's edge. I can only have 1/2" of sand around it or i'll bury tissue, it grows down and loves very low light.

 

[Dashylock]

Looking good Biggles - color seems to have finally come back!

 

[biggles]

Well, anything is possible. The pistol shrimp was a fairly new acquisition and I haven't seen it molt yet. So I can't say I know from experience what it looks like. But I have seen the Cleaner Shrimp molt... and lots of freshwater shrimp/crabs molt. I'm fairly confident it was the little bugger.

It DEFINITELY was the living version swimming around that morning. No doubt about that. I watched it for a bit because I thought it was odd and it concerned me. As for what came out of the return line.... again, pretty sure it was a dead carcass. I've never seen Nassarius snails turn into a bulging pile of snail orgy on top of the cleaner shrimp molts before. Typically the only thing interested in the cleaner molts are the bristle worms. And the Nassarius only like meat. They're little zombies!

But it is possible. Maybe it'll pop back out of the rock work. But if I was into betting... I'd bet it's in the bellies of the cleaner and snails from what I saw.

Thanks for the tips on the kalkwasser and such. I was hoping I could keep my levels in line without needing to add equipment on right now. That's why I was looking into those solutions. So I'll check it out a little bit more. But good to know it sounds like a viable solution to get me started as the system "grows into it's own shoes." :beer: I may have to look into your world a bit more... a fellow Reef Angel user. I've just been busting my head on coding my new LEDs through the RA lately.

But I'll avoid anymore of that here for now... I think biggles hates christmas lights (leds) as much as green corals LOL :smokin: ;-)

I'm going to go now before I get Kevin sent after me. :lol2::strooper:

I'm starting to think Kevin was right when he referred to you as the Charles Manson of the shrimp keeping world Troub........... shrimp shells are made of proteins and calcium mate so letting your calcium levels bottom out between water changes probably isn't helping, no idea how much impact it might be having but keeping your calcium above 400 at all times won't hurt.
Water changes are useless for maintaining alk etc mate, you need stable levels day to day not once a week massive shifts with a water change. To put it simply it's no different to thinking that it's ok to eat nothing all week and once a week eat 7 days worth of food..........

I used kalk and it works very well in a low to moderate draw coral system. Kalk will deliver both alk and calcium at the correct ratio to each other. You need to have some alk and calcium supplements as well so you can fix things if and when they get out of whack with each other. Say you have alk at 8.0 and calcium at 400 and you drip kalk each day to hold those levels. After a few weeks you might see alk is holding 8.0 but calcium has slowly dropped to 380 so you want to lift it back up to 400. Adding more kalk daily will do this but it will also lift the alk because the ratio being delivered is fixed. To adjust the calcium you need to add just calcium - not alk via increasing kalk.

Add enough kalk to a gallon of RO to saturate the solution, seeing excess undissolved kalk powder on the container bottom despite repeated stirring lets you know the solution is saturated. Make yourself a drip container with airline tubing and a small tap valve to control flow and drip a measured amount of your pre made kalk solution into high flow after lights out. Kalk will lift your pH so dosing at night when the pH usually dips a bit is prudent.
Say you need 50ml of saturated kalk a day right now. To drip 50 ml slowly over 4-5 hours isn't easy with a simple airline setup but it is if you make the dripping vessel large enough to hold say 1/2 a gallon of RO because you just add your kalk dose to that RO and it's much easier to drip the larger volume over a longer period. Just a few ideas for you to consider mate :beer:

Looking good Biggles - color seems to have finally come back!

Thanks mate, colors are getting better slowly thank goodness.

Red Mushroom Removal

If anyone has problems getting rid of mushroom corals just follow my simple guide and you'll never look back. Remember i had a rock with 6 red mushrooms on it. I took it out and used a chisel to scrape every trace of them off the rock, i really gouged the rock where the mushrooms were attached and left no trace.
I chucked that rock in the sump next to the skimmer in darkness for 2 weeks and then threw it in the illuminated section facing away from view for a further 2 weeks. Today i turned it around whilst cleaning out the algae buildup in that section and as you can clearly see there's no trace of the mushrooms.............. there does appear to be 14-15 red things sprouting out of the rock but they must be some new fancy type of coralline algae i've discovered because there were only 6 red mushrooms before. :reading:

This is why i decided to clean the sump dump section btw.

 

[Bello]

Been a sneaky bastard again, eh Biggles? :blown:

Looks like you've been to the bloody LFS on the sly, as usual. I'm supposed to be the sneaky one, not you . So you went for the Brown bombers? Good deal? The one in front looks like a spathulata, is it? What are your predictions for possible color outcomes? What lights on the fuge? Disco or Radium 250w?

The tank looks like its recovering from all the bigglesness :thumbsup:. PE looks excellent, and your damn SSC also seems to be doing well AND growing :furious:

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.

+1
Some of my SPS looked excellent under ULNS, while some like the SSC and with intense light, turned a pale crap blue. Purples didn't hold very well either. On the bright side with the simple berlin and AEFW dipping, I've now got a few acros in a deep saturated poo brown :facepalm:

 

[biggles]

Me sneaky ? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black lol - you should start a bloody business teaching reef sneakiness Bello, you'd make a fortune :lol2: Btw i'm starting to suspect that Sahin is your disciple........ he's up to no bloody good lately with all his questions and made up display.......:debi:
I'm watching you guys................ :strooper:

That ugly thing front left is the only new piece, the other one behind it is the crazy purple piece i had at the front ages ago, see what it looks like under disco lights lol. I moved it months back and then accidentally knocked it off the rock it was on months back and since then it's been laying on the sand or thrown in the sump depending on my mood lol. I can't find a spot to put it and tbh it looked twice as colorful top down as it was front on so that's why it's neglected in the sump. I'm surprised no one ever asked where it went tbh lol. The other acro is the one i glued upside down to see what happens ages ago.

I want to run 2ft T5's over the 20x20" frag section so i can have lower lighting mornings and evenings, the 250 Radium will be full on bright so i've decided mellow T5's will work best. I was thinking either 2 x double light fixtures or a single six tube fixture, what do you think. The water is only 10" deep and bare in mind that there's a 99.99% chance i will turn it into a crazy full blown SPS nano so i'm leaning towards six tubes.
The opening the fixture/s will have to fit through is 20" or 50cm wide so i might be able to fit 3 double units side by side as they will be sticking out the cabinet side being 3-4" longer than the actual 20x20x10" frag section.

The acros are slowly recovering, growth is still almost non existent but the pigments are brightening up well from the drab hue most had for the last 6-8 weeks. I'm running the 400W Radium for 8 hours now and the T5's and LED's for 12 hours each day.

A few friends commented on how blue the tank and room was when visiting, to me it looks white when all the lights are on but that's just my brain making auto color adjustments to make things look more 'normal' to me lol. I went outside and looked in at the tank and this is how blue the tank and room really are in reality - i see normal room lighting with a slight hint of blue on the wall near the display when i'm sitting on the couch. The painted brick walls on the outside are pale baby blue btw - no idea why anyone would paint a bloody house that color but that's what it is. The white ute is the salt water picker upperer vehicle

I finally did what i've been wanting to do for ages, i removed the red table from the arch top as it was way too big to go up there and it was blocking a big chunk of the acros at the back from view. The new WP-40 blows a lot more water and the spread is wider than the WP-25 so the flow was taking tissue off the tables edge corallites as i simply could fit the flow between the rock valley anymore so something had to give and my crazy amount of flow wasn't going to be it. It's in the sump now having a major 'what the' moment lol. I replaced the big bald spot with a SSC frag....... well actually i put 6 SSC frags there but whose counting.....
Took a pic under just the T5's and LED's of the post red table removal so be prepared for a gratuitous FTS. I removed as much blue as possible and desaturated the colors until the yellow tang's color was under saturated btw, it's pretty hard to color adjust B+ T5's and a blue LED light bar illuminating a display. :rolleye1: In real life you can see about 5-6 more acros in detail when looking at the display from the couch now and that's my main viewing angle since i have my bum planted there almost permanently :lol2:

 

[Fishy 1]

Thanks Biggles. Yeh I'll replace him, probably with a black crown betta. I just love them

 

[troubadour11]

Wow, the tank looks like it's starting to settle back down after the latest rollercoaster ride! It's looking pretty good to me at least :thumbsup:

And thanks for all the info and tips on the kalk/supplements. I won't go into details here, I'll save that pollution from hitting your thread and all those reading it. ;-) But I've grabbed some Brightwell Equatics supplements when I was at the store yesterday and have some food grade pickling lime on it's way. Time to get these levels in line as quickly as safely possible... because, ummm... well... as of yesterday, there's lots more stuff that needs it now :eek2:

OH! I have a photo request for you when you have the time. My Mrs. and I were talking about encrusting montipora and acros yesterday. Do you have any good and interesting spots right now showing how acros can and do encrust some? But not really to the level of an encrusting monti. Obviously google can show us a monti, but I could use a good example of acros encrusting some.

I know there was that one, a while back that you shared, with the "war zone wall." I can dig that up later, but I bet you have another SCC encrusting gem or something in there :smokin: that you'd like to share. :beer:

My lights are just kicking on now.... time to go watch the sunrise over my new stuff :spin3:

 

[Fail_sh3d]

Me sneaky ? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black lol - you should start a bloody business teaching reef sneakiness Bello, you'd make a fortune :lol2: Btw i'm starting to suspect that Sahin is your disciple........ he's up to no bloody good lately with all his questions and made up display.......:debi:
I'm watching you guys................ :strooper:

That ugly thing front left is the only new piece, the other one behind it is the crazy purple piece i had at the front ages ago, see what it looks like under disco lights lol. I moved it months back and then accidentally knocked it off the rock it was on months back and since then it's been laying on the sand or thrown in the sump depending on my mood lol. I can't find a spot to put it and tbh it looked twice as colorful top down as it was front on so that's why it's neglected in the sump. I'm surprised no one ever asked where it went tbh lol. The other acro is the one i glued upside down to see what happens ages ago.

I want to run 2ft T5's over the 20x20" frag section so i can have lower lighting mornings and evenings, the 250 Radium will be full on bright so i've decided mellow T5's will work best. I was thinking either 2 x double light fixtures or a single six tube fixture, what do you think. The water is only 10" deep and bare in mind that there's a 99.99% chance i will turn it into a crazy full blown SPS nano so i'm leaning towards six tubes.
The opening the fixture/s will have to fit through is 20" or 50cm wide so i might be able to fit 3 double units side by side as they will be sticking out the cabinet side being 3-4" longer than the actual 20x20x10" frag section.

The acros are slowly recovering, growth is still almost non existent but the pigments are brightening up well from the drab hue most had for the last 6-8 weeks. I'm running the 400W Radium for 8 hours now and the T5's and LED's for 12 hours each day.

A few friends commented on how blue the tank and room was when visiting, to me it looks white when all the lights are on but that's just my brain making auto color adjustments to make things look more 'normal' to me lol. I went outside and looked in at the tank and this is how blue the tank and room really are in reality - i see normal room lighting with a slight hint of blue on the wall near the display when i'm sitting on the couch. The painted brick walls on the outside are pale baby blue btw - no idea why anyone would paint a bloody house that color but that's what it is. The white ute is the salt water picker upperer vehicle

I finally did what i've been wanting to do for ages, i removed the red table from the arch top as it was way too big to go up there and it was blocking a big chunk of the acros at the back from view. The new WP-40 blows a lot more water and the spread is wider than the WP-25 so the flow was taking tissue off the tables edge corallites as i simply could fit the flow between the rock valley anymore so something had to give and my crazy amount of flow wasn't going to be it. It's in the sump now having a major 'what the' moment lol. I replaced the big bald spot with a SSC frag....... well actually i put 6 SSC frags there but whose counting.....
Took a pic under just the T5's and LED's of the post red table removal so be prepared for a gratuitous FTS. I removed as much blue as possible and desaturated the colors until the yellow tang's color was under saturated btw, it's pretty hard to color adjust B+ T5's and a blue LED light bar illuminating a display. :rolleye1: In real life you can see about 5-6 more acros in detail when looking at the display from the couch now and that's my main viewing angle since i have my bum planted there almost permanently :lol2:

Looking very good, Biggles. The sps nano frag sounds like me. Its going to end up a second tank. Worth it, but a complete lie from what I told the girlfriend.
Me: "Babe, I'm building a tank for when the corals start growing and I need to trim them..."
GF: "Sure as long as it's just for what you grow..."
Me: "What? Sorry, I was looking at these corals online. Yeah babe, only for what I grow out in the biocube..."

The best intentions... Right?

 

[biggles]

Thanks Biggles. Yeh I'll replace him, probably with a black crown betta. I just love them

Sounds good mate, show us a pic of the new guy once he's settled in

Wow, the tank looks like it's starting to settle back down after the latest rollercoaster ride! It's looking pretty good to me at least :thumbsup:

And thanks for all the info and tips on the kalk/supplements. I won't go into details here, I'll save that pollution from hitting your thread and all those reading it. ;-) But I've grabbed some Brightwell Equatics supplements when I was at the store yesterday and have some food grade pickling lime on it's way. Time to get these levels in line as quickly as safely possible... because, ummm... well... as of yesterday, there's lots more stuff that needs it now :eek2:

OH! I have a photo request for you when you have the time. My Mrs. and I were talking about encrusting montipora and acros yesterday. Do you have any good and interesting spots right now showing how acros can and do encrust some? But not really to the level of an encrusting monti. Obviously google can show us a monti, but I could use a good example of acros encrusting some.

I know there was that one, a while back that you shared, with the "war zone wall." I can dig that up later, but I bet you have another SCC encrusting gem or something in there :smokin: that you'd like to share. :beer:

My lights are just kicking on now.... time to go watch the sunrise over my new stuff :spin3:

Hey Troub, i'll reply to your journal regarding your levels as i just had a quick look and saw you two scored some nice corals. I'm off work on Wednesday so i'll take a few top downs of acros encrusting and what happens when they run into something in their way so you have an idea what to expect.
The most common mistake made by those new to SPS is thinking that the corals will encrust upwards towards light when they are considering frag placement - not the case at all.

Here's a better pic of that bluey purple with fluoro polyps acro i mentioned the other day, you can see how it's really waking up now and the stark white coralline around the edges shows you how an acro may first 'nuke' competitors prior to placing new tissue on the spot. Any acro with high contrast between the polyps and the tissue pigments looks cool so always look for this trait when hunting for acros btw.

Looking very good, Biggles. The sps nano frag sounds like me. Its going to end up a second tank. Worth it, but a complete lie from what I told the girlfriend.
Me: "Babe, I'm building a tank for when the corals start growing and I need to trim them..."
GF: "Sure as long as it's just for what you grow..."
Me: "What? Sorry, I was looking at these corals online. Yeah babe, only for what I grow out in the biocube..."

The best intentions... Right?

Thanks Jon, most stuff is looking a bit happier than a few weeks back so i'm sure everything will be back on track over the next month or two. You're not lying about what's going to happen mate, you'll put little corals in the tank and they'll grow.......... you need to watch out though, if you put a new acro in the second tank that isn't also in the main display she might realise something is up - reefing with a partner is tricky stuff at times lol.


Took a few pics after lights out a few nights back and i'd forgotten about the spot where i tore that stupid ric off under one of the rock ledges - i can see at least three of the little buggers hiding under the acro now :mad2:

 

[Bello]

Me sneaky ? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black lol - you should start a bloody business teaching reef sneakiness Bello, you'd make a fortune. Btw i'm starting to suspect that Sahin is your disciple........ he's up to no bloody good lately with all his questions and made up display.......:debi:
I'm watching you guys................ :strooper:

Haven't you heard of double standards biggles? . Sahin's the master of sneakiness BTW, his tank is still a mystery :lol:

I want to run 2ft T5's over the 20x20" frag section so i can have lower lighting mornings and evenings, the 250 Radium will be full on bright so i've decided mellow T5's will work best. I was thinking either 2 x double light fixtures or a single six tube fixture, what do you think. The water is only 10" deep and bare in mind that there's a 99.99% chance i will turn it into a crazy full blown SPS nano so i'm leaning towards six tubes.
The opening the fixture/s will have to fit through is 20" or 50cm wide so i might be able to fit 3 double units side by side as they will be sticking out the cabinet side being 3-4" longer than the actual 20x20x10" frag section.

I wish I knew something about MH/T5's to actually have some input here . Still stuck in the 70's with the disco lights I'm afraid. I think a 6 tube T5 might be cool, but are you running the 250w alongwith them? I'd think a 6 tube t5 only experiment might be more interesting.

Took a pic under just the T5's and LED's of the post red table removal so be prepared for a gratuitous FTS. I removed as much blue as possible and desaturated the colors until the yellow tang's color was under saturated btw, it's pretty hard to color adjust B+ T5's and a blue LED light bar illuminating a display. In real life you can see about 5-6 more acros in detail when looking at the display from the couch now and that's my main viewing angle since i have my bum planted there almost permanently

That's a pretty impressive pic with the phone under t5/led. Things seem to be coming along nicely, and admittedly I'm getting more comfortable running the tank with berlin plus chaeto as well.

I'd really like to see you get a DSLR though. Would love to see you work your magic with that. Aren't there any used photo equipment sites around?

I thought that Ric was done for lol , glad to see it's split :thumbsup:

 

[Fishy 1]

Yip will do.:thumbup: still a couple of weeks from getting him as I'm still saving up for some fish for my 60gal

 

[FastUno]

Biggles, would you ever trust Portland White Cement #1 in YOUR tank when scaping rock & mending them together?

Would you trust making rocks or reef discs out of them, given enough curing time?

 

[sahin]

Haven't you heard of double standards biggles? . Sahin's the master of sneakiness BTW, his tank is still a mystery :lol:

:mad2: Here is my tank FTS: