My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[reefmutt]

Thanks Matt.

One of the new pieces (A. desalwii) is still on the sand bed. It will remain on the sand bed until I decide what to do with the big staghorn on the right hand side. I think my tank will not be the same without it.

I started to use Koralcolor on 6th February. I am dosing 3 drops per day as opposed 12 drops as recommended.

NP bacto balance dosing has remained the same since 25th January. Recent recorded nutrients readings were as follows:

4th October (fish population has increased to almost what it is now)
4th October: NO3: 0.5-1 ppm; PO4: 0.046-0.092 mg/l (NP BB: 1 ml per day)

28th October: Siporax were placed in sump

7th November: NO3: 2.5 ppm; PO4: 0.046-0.092 mg/l (NP BB- 1 ml per day)
21st November: NO3: ~1.0 ppm; PO4: 0.046 mg/l (NP BB- 1 ml per day)
28th November: NO3: 1.0-2.5 ppm; PO4 not measured (NP BB- 1 ml per day)
13th December: NO3: 2.5-5 ppm; PO4: 0.046 mg/l (NP BB- 1.2 ml per day)
27th December: NO3: ~2.5 ppm; PO4: not measured (NP BB- 1.2 ml per day)
9th January: NO3: 5 ppm; PO4: 0.0046 mg/l (NP BB- 1.2 ml per day)
24th January: NO3: 2.5-5 ppm; PO4: 0.024 mg/l (NP BB- 1.3 ml per day)

6th February: Brightwell Koralcolor dosing began
Yesterday: NO3: 5-10 ppm; PO4: 0.046-0.092 mg/l (NP BB: 1.4 ml per day)

I try to use the same amount of food every day though there can be variations since I cut frozen food from flat packs. Increased feeding could be one explanation. The other explanation is that perhaps my siporax tower is not functioning as well as it should do. My final explanation is that perhaps Brightwell's Koralkolor contains some form of nitrogen and phosphorus to manipulate bichromes. I raised this possibility with Andrew in his tank thread. He seems to think that his nutrient readings had not been affected. I am going to stop using Koralcolor for about ten days while keeping other parameters the same to find out if the nutrients will come down. If they keep rising then perhaps I will need to examine if siporax is becoming a nutrient factory.

Interestingly, coral colours look good. I reduced the light unit in response to increased nutrients to enable corals to utilise them better. I will also clear my pumps to increase the follow further.

Cheers

Ok.. So there are no reading on n and p between 24th Jan and 13 February?
How has growth been over the past few weeks? It seems you've had your hands in the tank a lot lately.. Moving, cutting..
Just wondering if maybe corals have slowed their growth and are not removing as much nutrients..
Although I know nothing about Koral color.. I, just this morning, saw the wacky ingredients. It would seem to me that throwing a nitrogen and phosphate source in that bottle, on top of all the other stuff, may make it explode..
Could your nutrient rise just be from slowing coral growth?

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Your latest FTS looks bloody beautiful btw and you don't seem to be having any probs with colors to me mate

Colours are good. I cannot really complain, except the very slight green tint I am pulling on my A. gomezi. Increased nutrients do not seem to affect the colours overall. As I am not chasing any numbers, I am not too concerned at this point in time, but at the same time I do not want to be complacent either. I will probably never get my nitrates as low as you do due to my very high BFC in a such a small volume of water.

:beer:

Ok.. So there are no reading on n and p between 24th Jan and 13 February?
How has growth been over the past few weeks? It seems you've had your hands in the tank a lot lately.. Moving, cutting..
Just wondering if maybe corals have slowed their growth and are not removing as much nutrients..
Although I know nothing about Koral color.. I, just this morning, saw the wacky ingredients. It would seem to me that throwing a nitrogen and phosphate source in that bottle, on top of all the other stuff, may make it explode..
Could your nutrient rise just be from slowing coral growth?

Sadly there are no readings between the two dates. The growth has slowed down significantly. As you pointed out I have been fragging. I will do one more fragging session next weekend and after that I will keep my hands off water. I noticed the slow down in growth as the alkalinity and calcium demand dropped. I did not pay much attention to this initially because I thought my limewater's potency dropped. However, I can visually see the reduction in new growth tips on my fast growing staghorns. Due to this suspicion I already lowered my light about an inch last night. I will keep all my other dosing and feeding regimen the same during next week. I will then measure the nutrients again to see if the additional coral growth, if it happens, will dent the nutrients.

:beer:

EDIT: Matt, the ingredients you referred are not the ingredients of KoralColor. They belong to another Brightwell product called Replenish. As for the ingredients of KoralColor, this is what has been revealed by the company:

"Ingredients
Purified water, proprietary blend of major, minor, and trace elements known to be incorporated into biological pigments (biochromes). " Not very impressive is it? Anyway, this is a challenge, which presents a learning opportunity. I have found an article written by Dana Riddle as shown below. It gives some hints about what this product may target. It is a very heavy reading though ...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/4/aafeature

I have not come across the term "bichromes" in the article by the way. May be it is the wrong article...

 

[bps619]

Beautiful

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Beautiful

:beer:

 

[reefmutt]

Colours are good. I cannot really complain, except the very slight green tint I am pulling on my A. gomezi. Increased nutrients do not seem to affect the colours overall. As I am not chasing any numbers, I am not too concerned at this point in time, but at the same time I do not want to be complacent either. I will probably never get my nitrates as low as you do due to my very high BFC in a such a small volume of water.

:beer:



Sadly there are no readings between the two dates. The growth has slowed down significantly. As you pointed out I have been fragging. I will do one more fragging session next weekend and after that I will keep my hands off water. I noticed the slow down in growth as the alkalinity and calcium demand dropped. I did not pay much attention to this initially because I thought my limewater's potency dropped. However, I can visually see the reduction in new growth tips on my fast growing staghorns. Due to this suspicion I already lowered my light about an inch last night. I will keep all my other dosing and feeding regimen the same during next week. I will then measure the nutrients again to see if the additional coral growth, if it happens, will dent the nutrients.

:beer:

EDIT: Matt, the ingredients you referred are not the ingredients of KoralColor. They belong to another Brightwell product called Replenish. As for the ingredients of KoralColor, this is what has been revealed by the company:

"Ingredients
Purified water, proprietary blend of major, minor, and trace elements known to be incorporated into biological pigments (biochromes). " Not very impressive is it? Anyway, this is a challenge, which presents a learning opportunity. I have found an article written by Dana Riddle as shown below. It gives some hints about what this product may target. It is a very heavy reading though ...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/4/aafeature

I have not come across the term "bichromes" in the article by the way. May be it is the wrong article...

Yes... Not particularly informative, that...
Thanks for the link. And thank you for clarifying which product that ingredients list that belongs to!
I will read up!

 

[Wrangy]

I have to say Bulent, I've finally had a chance to read through your thread and wowwee you have a gorgeous tank mate :inlove: The latest FTS is stunning too, you should be proud of the tank you have

 

[markalot]

PAR readings Bulent.

Things looking mighty fine to me!

 

[plyle02]

I have lowered my light unit slightly just to experiment with the pigmentation on corals. The unit is now 7.25" above the water surface. I will provide PAR readings soon.

Nutrients have increased recently. NO3 = 5-10 ppm and PO4 = 0.046-0.092 mg/l.

Below is the latest FTS I took last night:

Thanks Bulent for that FTS Stunning, it really shows those color contrasts, and also the size of your corals, the tank really looks a lot bigger than it is, great scape, and coral placement does wonders

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I have to say Bulent, I've finally had a chance to read through your thread and wowwee you have a gorgeous tank mate :inlove: The latest FTS is stunning too, you should be proud of the tank you have

Thank you Dom. Yes, I am very pleased with my tank.

Thanks Bulent for that FTS Stunning, it really shows those color contrasts, and also the size of your corals, the tank really looks a lot bigger than it is, great scape, and coral placement does wonders

Yes, Perry, the picture misleads viewers about its actual size. Thanks for your compliment.

Here is the latest FTS, which I took a few minutes ago. I am positing it now before ruining it with PAR readings as requested by Mark. I have decided to halve the size of the large staghorn on the left hand side. My anthias are thriving and are holding their colours. I now have two males and six females. There is still no aggression among them. Males keep apart from each other. Yippee.

 

[markalot]

Don't break anything just for me! Unfortunately I usually break something when using my PAR meter as well.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Don't break anything just for me! Unfortunately I usually break something when using my PAR meter as well.

He he. What I meant was that when I add PAR readings to the photo, it will be spoilt. I will not harm my corals. Thanks for your concern.

 

[mhucasey]

Thank you Dom. Yes, I am very pleased with my tank.



Yes, Perry, the picture misleads viewers about its actual size. Thanks for your compliment.

Here is the latest FTS, which I took a few minutes ago. I am positing it now before ruining it with PAR readings as requested by Mark. I have decided to halve the size of the large staghorn on the left hand side. My anthias are thriving and are holding their colours. I now have two males and six females. There is still no aggression among them. Males keep apart from each other. Yippee.

Absolutely beautiful!. Two of my 4 initial Resplendent Anthias are gone, one was a jumper and one disappeared. The other two are going strong. Its an issue with the supply I think, as my LFS has lost 4 of them before I even got the fish.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Absolutely beautiful!. Two of my 4 initial Resplendent Anthias are gone, one was a jumper and one disappeared. The other two are going strong. Its an issue with the supply I think, as my LFS has lost 4 of them before I even got the fish.

This is very unlucky. In his tank thread, @copps said that these fish are jumpers. I did not experience it even before I had bought my tank cover. My fish did not used to eat mysis, but seem to slowly get used to it. When I bought them they were really thin and less colourful. They transformed since they have been with me. I spoil them .

PAR readings Bulent.

Things looking mighty fine to me!

Thanks Mark. As requested, here are some PAR readings, which I have just measured. The light unit is hung 7" over the water surface. For information, the purple A. digitifera, which is on the right hand side at the back, is about 2" below the water surface, whereas A. millepora in the front is about 10.5" below the water surface. The height of the tank is 18". I took the measurements while the pumps were running. The true PAR readings are likely to be more due to the single actinic lamp. One final thing to note is that I use a tank cover. I measured the PAR loss when it is over the tank. I lose about 10%, which is consistent with the manufacturer's specification.

 

[markalot]

Thanks Bulent for taking the time to do the readings! I've got a taller tank but the readings are bout the same from my 60" 6 bulb, no actinic. Seems these PAR numbers or maybe a little lower are right in the sweet spot.

 

[reefmutt]

Wow, Bulent, you have way too much yellow in that tank!!
Your tank is looking great.. Definitely looks way bigger than it is with all the mature growth in there.
If I am not mistaken, it looks like your granulosa is getting a par of about 400???
For the life of me, I can NOT keep granulosa happy.. I have a few different pieces and they just sit there and do nothing. Turn dark green or just sit there..
I am extremely jealous of your super healthy granulosa!!
I don't know why mine don't do well.. I've always thought that it was a lower light coral but perhaps it is not...
Thoughts?

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thanks Bulent for taking the time to do the readings! I've got a taller tank but the readings are bout the same from my 60" 6 bulb, no actinic. Seems these PAR numbers or maybe a little lower are right in the sweet spot.

You're welcome. Happy reefing.

Wow, Bulent, you have way too much yellow in that tank!!
Your tank is looking great.. Definitely looks way bigger than it is with all the mature growth in there.
If I am not mistaken, it looks like your granulosa is getting a par of about 400???
For the life of me, I can NOT keep granulosa happy.. I have a few different pieces and they just sit there and do nothing. Turn dark green or just sit there..
I am extremely jealous of your super healthy granulosa!!
I don't know why mine don't do well.. I've always thought that it was a lower light coral but perhaps it is not...
Thoughts?

Hi Matt,

I had to make the PAR readings stand out, hence the yellow colour.

Yes, you are right. The A. granulosa gets 400 mmol/m2/sec (-10% due to the tank cover). According to Veron this coral can be collected at different depths and hence show different colouration depending on the light it receives. I am very certain that the green colouration of your coral is due to lack of light. Since I lowered my light unit last week, the green sheen on my coral started to look less green. I am confident that this coral can handle in excess of 500 mmol/m2/sec, but sadly I cannot provide that sort of intensity of light without compromising my other corals. FWIW, my coral came from a wild-collected colony as shown below:

My coral has almost no resemblance to its mother colony now.

 

[reefmutt]

Wow!!!!
That's amazing. I can't believe that's the mother colony. Just goes to show you just how different a coral can become in conditions different from where it was collected.
Your piece looks way nicer.
Thanks for that info. I will play with moving them around to brighter spots.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Wow!!!!
That's amazing. I can't believe that's the mother colony. Just goes to show you just how different a coral can become in conditions different from where it was collected.
Your piece looks way nicer.
Thanks for that info. I will play with moving them around to brighter spots.

What about this one Matt? When I bought a frag from this wild-collected Acropora lokani it looked like below:

Now it is looking like this:

 

[reefmutt]

lol! that is crazy..
I would swear up and down that those two corals were completely different species..
I do, however, covet them both!!!!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

After a very long waiting in suspense, I have finally found an online retailer and ordered my Salifert Potassium test kit this afternoon. Sigh of relief.... It will be isnteresting to find out the potassium level in my tank as I have been dosing without measuring.

BTW, here are two photos I took last night under full light: