My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[Jim Z.]

I re-read some of your threads and am amazed at the nitrate turnover in your reef with all of those fish. You have the microbiology down pat. My tank has been at a nitrate level of 30 with undetectable phosphate which is a common feature of zeovit converted established reef tanks. Phosphate limited reef tanks cannot reduce nitrate levels with bacterial activity. I'm trying NP Bacto Balance to get the bacterial activity increased with this additive. I'll let you know how it goes in a couple of weeks. Congrats on the article and thank you for posting your methodology.................Jim

 

[reefmutt]

Bulent, beautiful fts.
Looking fantastic.
Have you seen significant growth on that finickiest of finicky corals, your ice/fire?

I re-read some of your threads and am amazed at the nitrate turnover in your reef with all of those fish. You have the microbiology down pat. My tank has been at a nitrate level of 30 with undetectable phosphate which is a common feature of zeovit converted established reef tanks. Phosphate limited reef tanks cannot reduce nitrate levels with bacterial activity. I'm trying NP Bacto Balance to get the bacterial activity increased with this additive. I'll let you know how it goes in a couple of weeks. Congrats on the article and thank you for posting your methodology.................Jim

Yes, please post back on your bacto balance and experiences. Curious to see how it works for you.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Love your tank Bulent, those photos are fantastic.

Thank you Josh.

That FTS is looking amazing! Congrats on TOTM, wonderful article. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Thank you for your kind words and praise. I am so glad that you liked my article.

I re-read some of your threads and am amazed at the nitrate turnover in your reef with all of those fish. You have the microbiology down pat. My tank has been at a nitrate level of 30 with undetectable phosphate which is a common feature of zeovit converted established reef tanks. Phosphate limited reef tanks cannot reduce nitrate levels with bacterial activity. I'm trying NP Bacto Balance to get the bacterial activity increased with this additive. I'll let you know how it goes in a couple of weeks. Congrats on the article and thank you for posting your methodology.................Jim

My thread here on RC is much more manageable than the UK one. I nope have 17 fish in my tank (one more than historical high) and am still expecting to get a few more.

Please do let me know how you get on with Bacto-Balance. Reefers who started to use the additive in the UK are generally happy with it. However, if you have always used GFO, it takes a while to change your mindset, so that you manage your phosphates without it. In your case, I would also use some additional organic carbon (such as Tropic Marin Elimi-NP) to speed up nitrate reduction as well as increasing the amount you feed to your fish.

Bulent, beautiful fts.
Looking fantastic.

Have you seen significant growth on that finickiest of finicky corals, your ice/fire?

Yes, please post back on your bacto balance and experiences. Curious to see how it works for you.

Hi Matt,

Thank you once again. I really appreciate your positive encouragement.

Sadly, neither my ice/fire nor red dragon has shown much since I bought them many months ago. If I were a coral farmer, I would lose many on these corals. I have been using TM Bacto-Balance since March 2015. It definitely works for me. I can manipulate both nitrates and phosphates by changing the dosing amount a few ml per day.

Cheers

 

[bobssecrtsn]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:Grats on totm! Hard work pays off good job !

 

[Big E]

Sadly, neither my ice/fire nor red dragon has shown much since I bought them many months ago. If I were a coral farmer, I would lose many on these corals.

It seems you have a great steady state going and now it's just making adjustments for specific corals.

I see the Ice Fire is fairly high up, not sure where the red dragon is, but from my experience they need very little light 200-225. I get good growth on both in this range and they are a good 17" from the lights.

The red dragon should be a deep red on top & sides equally.........if it's more pink on top that would show less zoo.

If they're getting too much light that could very well cause too low of a zoo population, so less aminos produced, ect. The coral spends all night in repair mode instead of growing and the next day the process is repeated over again.

Our nutrient levels are fairly close, so I think you can rule that out.

The only other difference is the spectrum due to our bulb combos.


Setosa-- Is it possible it's getting too much flow as it grows higher up/out and those new reaching tips are getting battered?

 

[JPMagyar]

Bulent,

Spectacular reef!

I love the fact that you have not over filled the reef. It looks so incredibly elegant!

Thanks for sharing.

Joe

 

[DiscusHeckel]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:Grats on totm! Hard work pays off good job !

Thank you. :wave:

It seems you have a great steady state going and now it's just making adjustments for specific corals.

I see the Ice Fire is fairly high up, not sure where the red dragon is, but from my experience they need very little light 200-225. I get good growth on both in this range and they are a good 17" from the lights.

The red dragon should be a deep red on top & sides equally.........if it's more pink on top that would show less zoo.

If they're getting too much light that could very well cause too low of a zoo population, so less aminos produced, ect. The coral spends all night in repair mode instead of growing and the next day the process is repeated over again.

Our nutrient levels are fairly close, so I think you can rule that out.

The only other difference is the spectrum due to our bulb combos.


Setosa-- Is it possible it's getting too much flow as it grows higher up/out and those new reaching tips are getting battered?

Hi Ed,

Thanks for helping me out on this. The red dragon is just behind the ice/fire and is getting slightly less exposure to light. Its colouration is far from deep red. It is more like pink. So, I removed this coral from its current place and will place it else where, so that it will be exposed to lower light intensity. As for the ice/fire, its present location is the only place I can accommodate this coral. When it was in a less bright position, its body looked cream/brown just like when I first purchased it. What you said makes perfect sense to me as both corals must live fairly deep (or shady) locations in the wild. I think I prefer blue tips against white body even if this means that this coral will not grow as rapidly as I hoped it would.

Setosa is not really getting too much flow. It seems to be producing very thin growth tips as opposed to solid thick ones as it normally does. It is very puzzling. I will be keeping an eye on it.

Bulent,

Spectacular reef!

I love the fact that you have not over filled the reef. It looks so incredibly elegant!

Thanks for sharing.

Joe

Thank you for your positive feedback Joe. I appreciate it. I have so far avoided overcrowding my live rocks with Acropora. Despite a major deforestation exercise I carried out seven months ago, some of my colonies have started to grow into each other again. I started to remove (or severely chopped) some colonies selectively two days ago to enable my favourite colonies to spread even more. The sand bed is looking like a junk yard at the moment with coral fragments. There are three casualties so far: purple and green plating Montipora corals and Acropora nasuta.

Top-down views like these may be confined to history if I manage to stop plating Montis from spreading.

Another Monti, which is the oldest stock in my tank, has started to grow on my Acropora yongei. I am not tolerating this sort of invasion. The next step is to remove it completely and remove last remnants of it with a chisel.

Cheers

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I have recently purchased a special lens that filters out blue light when taking photos with my iPhone. It arrived yesterday. I have created a note in my Facebook page to register my early impressions. To avoid duplicating effort, I have decided to provide the link to the relevant page on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/trout/magic-crystal-lens-for-my-iphone-se/1032940443498371

 

[biodegraded]

It's a sign that one has arrived at the Big Boy game when monti caps are weeds that need eradicating.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Good to hear everything is going nicely! Also they were giving these out to people at reefapalooza ! Great work man. Keep it up!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

It's a sign that one has arrived at the Big Boy game when monti caps are weeds that need eradicating.

I am not sure about the big boy game, but I had to do something with the purple montipora. I did not realise that it would start to kill my ice/fire. I always thought that Acropora would win against a Montipora in coral warfare. I was wrong.

My ice/fire is now on the sand bed in front of the tank. After reading Ed's comments, I decided to move it to a less bright position. It is still showing some good colours though it is not as good as it used to be.

I also moved my red dragon Acropora to a less bright position. It has already started to show some signs of regaining its colour. Its growth is yet to gain momentum.

Finally, I have completely removed my green Montipora digitata because similar to purple Monti, it made advances towards my A. yongei and started to grow on it. Its demise was swift despite it was my first ever sps coral, which I bought eight years ago. I did not show any mercy. May God forgive me.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Good to hear everything is going nicely! Also they were giving these out to people at reefapalooza ! Great work man. Keep it up!

Thank you for sharing your magazine's front page.

I wish I had been able to attend that meeting. The UK is simply too quiet as far as reef gatherings are concerned.

Here are a few top-down photos I took earlier this evening. Some colours have been affected by my latest coral gardening interventions.

 

[ryanrid]

absolutely love this tank, looks so much bigger than 65G also.

 

[seachange]

Hi Bulent,

The 3rd picture is that a lokani?

Riz.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[kevlow]

[QUOTE

Finally, I have completely removed my green Montipora digitata because similar to purple Monti, it made advances towards my A. yongei and started to grow on it. Its demise was swift despite it was my first ever sps coral, which I bought eight years ago. I did not show any mercy. May God forgive me.

[/QUOTE]


Wow! This before/after pic is awesome, in a medieval sort of way. You certainly did not show mercy. lol.

Your tank remains one of my favorites to view and to learn from. Beautiful, colors, growth, and layout. It is hard to believe that is all in a 65.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

absolutely love this tank, looks so much bigger than 65G also.

Thanks. I love your tank too and follow it though I have not made a contribution to your thread yet.

Hi Bulent,

The 3rd picture is that a lokani?

Riz.

Hi Riz,

Yes, I believe that it is. It was like this in my dealer's tank when I got it:

Wow! This before/after pic is awesome, in a medieval sort of way. You certainly did not show mercy. lol.

Your tank remains one of my favorites to view and to learn from. Beautiful, colors, growth, and layout. It is hard to believe that is all in a 65.

lol. The tools I used reminded me of the tortune scene shown in the dying moments of the movie, "Brave Heart".

As you say the space is so tight that I have to be "creative" and realistic in what I can achieve, hence frequent tinkering with corals.

 

[Myka]

Hi Mindy,

Thank you for your compliment. I have read your article and enjoyed it very much. I also noticed that you wrote another article in the previous edition. You must be a regular contributor.

When I submitted my article, I had no idea that it would be featured in the front page. It came as a nice surprise.

Yes, I have many fish in my tank and fortunately they all seem to live together without territorial disputes. However, I am conscious of the fact that sooner or later I will need a bigger tank, which will mean that I will get even more fish :wildone:. Having got large fish in a small tank is not without its problems. I tried to have a female Genicanthus watanabei last year. The first one jumped out because it was mildly harassed. She was not particularly small compared to other fish. My experience suggests that size matters when introducing a new fish to an established tank, i.e. get as small a fish as possible. My second attempt also failed because the second female, which was also fairly large, also jumped out, but this time into the outflow box (weir) where it was stung by aiptasia and thus had no chance of survival. I have been waiting for a small specimen for over a year without success. Furthermore, my much prized Genicanthus semifasciatus, which featured in my recent videos, has recently died of deep cuts on her body. I suspect that she must have been spooked and scratched her body on a sharp Acropora skeleton. The cut was so severe that she did not survive for more than a day. I am at work right now, but will post her picture later today. I got very upset when I took her out of the water.

My Acros handle a lot of light. Evidence from light experts (e.g. Dana Riddle) suggests that Acroporidae do not need very intense light, but I am a contrarian. Having said that I can reduce the photoperiod, but this would not help with maintaining high pH levels as I can only dose so much limewater in a day. When so many Acroporidae start to give out CO2, pH start to sink very rapidly.

Hi Bülent,

Sorry for my tardy response! It's been a crazy month!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Yes, I think I wrote 5 or 6 articles for RHM in the past 3 years. I enjoy writing for them, plus it looks good for my clients when I give them copies of the magazines.

I didn't realize you weren't planning to keep the Genicanthus in this reef. There is a tiny 1.5" Watanabei at the LFS here. Cute little thing that I've been considering taking home after seeing yours, but it does seem like a lot of fish for a 36" tank. Sorry to hear about your semifasciatus. :sad2:

Have you considered adding a CO2 scrubber to your tank? I use one in the winter. A 44lb tote of Sofnolime costs about CAD$200, and lasts me a couple years or so. It works well for me. I have it hooked up to my skimmer intake.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Bülent,

Sorry for my tardy response! It's been a crazy month!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Yes, I think I wrote 5 or 6 articles for RHM in the past 3 years. I enjoy writing for them, plus it looks good for my clients when I give them copies of the magazines.

I didn't realize you weren't planning to keep the Genicanthus in this reef. There is a tiny 1.5" Watanabei at the LFS here. Cute little thing that I've been considering taking home after seeing yours, but it does seem like a lot of fish for a 36" tank. Sorry to hear about your semifasciatus. :sad2:

Have you considered adding a CO2 scrubber to your tank? I use one in the winter. A 44lb tote of Sofnolime costs about CAD$200, and lasts me a couple years or so. It works well for me. I have it hooked up to my skimmer intake.

Hi Mindy,

Thank you for your response. I have never seen a 1.5-in watanabei in the UK so far. Dealers always bring at least 3-in females. But I am a patient person. I will keep on waiting.

I have never heard CO2 scrubber before. I will follow your reference. Despite the fact that my fish room's window is open 24/7, pH dips shortly after I turn off lights. I guess the large population of fish and corals (or their zooxanthellae) do not help. Thank for the tip.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I was looking at my Facebook page to compare photos I uploaded at different dates and noticed the growth rate since April 2016. I am astonished to say to least. Here are two photos for comparison:

18th April 2016

20th November 2016

My dosing salts and calcium hydroxide are clearly not going to waste.

 

[kevlow]

Bulent, That is stunning! I would say that is a banner 7 month period.

Your Setosa is encroaching on your acros. I must ask. Will it too, meet a Brave Heart ending?

If so I cannot watch. lol