My 65G Shallow Reef Tank
- Thread starter DiscusHeckel
- Start date
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Thanks Brandon. I think water flow and the amount of organic nutrients (including bacteria) available to corals in the water column are the two main contributors to good polyp extension.
Cheers
glaukos
New member
Love every pic in that post bulent:inlove::inlove:
Nothing can compare with mature & healthy colonies!liked the fts too
What are your plans with that green Monti? Every single time
I made the mistake of placing them close to other corals
they did their best to make me think that they are pests
Nothing can compare with mature & healthy colonies!liked the fts too
What are your plans with that green Monti? Every single time
I made the mistake of placing them close to other corals
they did their best to make me think that they are pests
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Love every pic in that post bulent:inlove::inlove:
Nothing can compare with mature & healthy colonies!liked the fts too
What are your plans with that green Monti? Every single time
I made the mistake of placing them close to other corals
they did their best to make me think that they are pests
Thanks for your kind words, Mike.
I have advertised some frags from the green M. capricornis, but no-one seems interested. I may have to offer some free frags to find out who the cheapskates are in my locality, so that I can put them on my blacklist for future frag sales.
I agree that some Montiporids grow very vigorously. I used to keep both my green Montipora and its purple cousin on a live rock on which my A. gomezi is based. They shaded its base and prevented water flow and as a result the base of the coral receded permanently. They also killed my ice fire echinata. I had to take the whole rock out of the water to scrape every molecule of these corals from the rock. That said, I really like the vivid colouration of these corals. This is why I never get rid of them completely.
Patrick Cox
Active member
Hi,
Beautiful tank! Question on your GoPro. Do you use it for stills as well as video or just video? If stills, do you have a remote or do you use a timer?
Thanks!
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Hi, thanks.
I use it just for video. I never tried to take still pictures while the camera was submerged in water. I never thought about it to be honest, but I will try. That said, when I took still pictures when the camera was outside the tank, I was not very impressed with the pictures when I place the camera close to objects. I got a concave-looking images. It is possible that I did not use the right settings.
Patrick Cox
Active member
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3 digital camera, which can take up to 5 megapixel pictures and has a macro function. For top-down photos, I use an acrylic coral viewer and use the macro setting of the camera.
My next top-down pictures will be taken underwater with the GoPro.
Alex Costa
Member
My daughter's cam (Xiaomi 4K) has two modes, and one of them is "wide".
In this mode the lens works like a wide angle lens giving the concave aspect that you mentioned.
When I started recording with it I used sometimes and only after search a little in the options I found a way to change it to a "regular" mode (don't remember how it is called) with a narrow view.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Thanks Alex. This is a useful information. I will play with my camera's settings.
reefmutt
Active member
Update:
It is a confession time. I am not very good at keeping anthias alive. One of the three red saddleback anthias (P. flavoguttatus) I purchased recently died a few hours ago. Its stomach was badly emaciated. This is very puzzling to me because it ate very eagerly and even more eagerly than the evansi anthias, which I purchased at the same time. And yet the evansi anthias are still alive and kicking. This knocks my confidence in keeping anthias in general and deep water ones in particular.
On a more cheerful note, PO4 has finally blinked and has come down just under 0.14 mg/L. I carried out four water changes this week (4 X 12%). I am still using FM Ultra Phos (75 gram per 250L). NO3 is steady at 2.5 ppm. I have recently decided to reset my tank in the sense that I am taking it back to the state it was in before I had replaced my previous protein skimmer, Deltec SC 1350, with an oversize skimmer, Deltec SC 1455 last August. The first step I have taken is to decommission the Deltec SC 1455 and restart using my old Deltec SC 1350. I have never been happy with the former because I could not get consistent foam head even though it produced good skimmate. The second step I have taken is to start to dose the same amount of Bacto-Balance I was dosing last August. Finally, I have stopped overfeeding my fish and gone back to my 3-frozen-cube of food-a-day routine despite having more fish than I did last August. I will eventually increase the amount of food once PO4 is under control and corals' colours go back to what they were last August.
The corals keep going even though their colours have suffered quite a bit. However, I am generally content with them.
Finally, here are a few recent photos. The first five were taken last week and the last three were taken a few hours ago:
P1110502
P1110510
P1110516
P1110523
P1110542
P1110554
P1110560
P1110564
Suffering colors?!? Bulent, your tank is looking fantastic. Those top downs are just gorgeous.
It's funny how we always have to tinker, even when things seem pretty darn good.
Your fts also looks so mature and grown in.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Thanks for your encouraging feedback, Matt.
I have finally arrested the rampant PO4. It is now a matter of fine tuning it to ensure that it is balanced with NO3 and that colours look a littler sharper and deeper. FM UltraPhos coupled with NP-Bacto-Balance have started to produce results. My aim is to stop using Ultra Phos in long term. I aim to reduce PO4 down to 0.046 mg/L over the next month and will then decide whether or not this level can be sustained without the use of UltraPhos.
I have just tested my tank water. Both NO3 and PO4 seem in good balance (10:1). The other water parameters seem fine too, but I will nevertheless increase both KH and Ca a tad higher to ensure that coral growth will not stall.
KH = 6.4 dKH
C = 385 ppm
Mg = 1360 ppm
K = 440 ppm
NO3 = ~ 1 ppm
PO4 = ~0.092 mg/L
PS. I may have committed a cardinal sin yesterday by buying a bird of paradise seriatopora frag from a fellow reefer. I will not attach the frag to live rock until I assess its growth rate and colouration. I always thought Seriatopora and Stylophora are weeds of the SPS world, but I wanted a change from Acroporids.
Last edited:
Alex Costa
Member
You're right....they are.....:lmao::lmao::lmao:
I can't resist them too...I have both Seri and Stylo pink in my tank.
I like very much the colour and the formation....and the plus: they give the tank some variety...
Patrick Cox
Active member
Hi,
I just tried my GoPro in my tank and the video is very blue. Do you use a red filter on yours? If so, which one do you suggest? Or some other technique. I have a Hero4 Silver and I don't think I can adjust the white balance.
Thanks.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Hi,
I do not use any filter nor do I adjust or edit image quality before or after recording. For what it is worth, I have T5s over my tank. The only two things I adjust are "stabilise shaky video" and "fix rolling shutter". I use iMovie on my iMac.
You need to make sure that your hands do not block any lights during recording. In other words, the back of your camera should receive lights.
Next time I use my camera, I will try to create those conditions that cause objects to be recorded blue, so that you can avoid them. My camera is with its rightful owner, my son, at the moment. He is in the Alps, but will be back home next week.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Update:
Latest test results
SG = 35 ppt
NO3 = 2.5 ppm
PO4 = 0.092 mg/L
KH = 6.4 dKH
Ca = 425 ppm
Mg = 1345 ppm
K = 410 ppm
Dosing regimen (daily):
NP-Bacto-Balance = 1.8 ml
K+ = 0.7 ml
A- = 2.5 ml
KZ Sponge Power = 2 drops
Other dosing regimen:
TM Pro-iodine = 3 times a week
TM Reef Actif = 1/2+ of recommended dose once a week
AF Reef Vitality = 1 drop every other day (I started yesterday)
I do not think KZ sponge power and AF Reef Vitality are necessary to dose, but I do not want them to go to waste. I paid for them. I may as well use them.
I am now using FM Ultra Phos on a permanent basis in a reactor. I use 100 grams at a time and replace once every ten days. The fact that Ultra Phos adsorbs organics means that I no longer use GAC.
I have removed two large Acropora colonies recently to allow my favourite Acropora colonies to grow even larger. I have recently considered upgrading my tank and have even chosen what tank I am going to get, but a sudden change in my personal circumstances means that this is not going to happen for a foreseeable future, if at all. I ordered new ATI tubes from Germany, which means that I will be sticking with my present tank for at least another year.
Moreover, I was away for two-weeks and came back a few days ago. My neighbour could not look after my tank. So, the fish had to go through a crash course to learn to eat flakes. I set up my Eheim Auto-feeder for them. When I came back last Thursday, both corals and fish were as good as I left them. Yippee.
Finally, here are a few photos I took last night and today:
P1110700
P1110705
P1110710
P1110713
P1110717
P1110776
P1110779
P1110781
P1110782
P1110783
Latest test results
SG = 35 ppt
NO3 = 2.5 ppm
PO4 = 0.092 mg/L
KH = 6.4 dKH
Ca = 425 ppm
Mg = 1345 ppm
K = 410 ppm
Dosing regimen (daily):
NP-Bacto-Balance = 1.8 ml
K+ = 0.7 ml
A- = 2.5 ml
KZ Sponge Power = 2 drops
Other dosing regimen:
TM Pro-iodine = 3 times a week
TM Reef Actif = 1/2+ of recommended dose once a week
AF Reef Vitality = 1 drop every other day (I started yesterday)
I do not think KZ sponge power and AF Reef Vitality are necessary to dose, but I do not want them to go to waste. I paid for them. I may as well use them.
I am now using FM Ultra Phos on a permanent basis in a reactor. I use 100 grams at a time and replace once every ten days. The fact that Ultra Phos adsorbs organics means that I no longer use GAC.
I have removed two large Acropora colonies recently to allow my favourite Acropora colonies to grow even larger. I have recently considered upgrading my tank and have even chosen what tank I am going to get, but a sudden change in my personal circumstances means that this is not going to happen for a foreseeable future, if at all. I ordered new ATI tubes from Germany, which means that I will be sticking with my present tank for at least another year.
Moreover, I was away for two-weeks and came back a few days ago. My neighbour could not look after my tank. So, the fish had to go through a crash course to learn to eat flakes. I set up my Eheim Auto-feeder for them. When I came back last Thursday, both corals and fish were as good as I left them. Yippee.
Finally, here are a few photos I took last night and today:
P1110700P1110705P1110710P1110713P1110717P1110776P1110779 P1110781P1110782P1110783
watchguy123
New member
Spectacular colors
