My 65G Shallow Reef Tank
- Thread starter DiscusHeckel
- Start date
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Thats a lot of stock. I can only hoard frags...if I started hoarding kalk and the like...I'd be thrown out...
I will come over to hoard your corals soon. It only costs me under £10 to travel down south with National Express even though I will probably pay more for the tube.
You had better get your acts together to make sure that your miniature colourful sticks start to grow, so that they can spread their wings up north...
I expect a well documented growth report every month or else ...
:beer:
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
ONLY £10??? I spent over £50 driving upto my friends place in Warrington on the weekend... :sad2:
My sticks are generally looking ok. The usual brown turds are still that.
You can have frags of the brown ones. :lol:
I dont want to resort to the Zeospur (poison) like Biggles does...seriously, I dont know what else to do with the remaining 15% of corals that refuse to bloody colour up! Any ideas on getting them coloured up?
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I am not qualified to give you advice on coral coloration Sahin. That is your domain, but if you want advice on coral growth you are in the right place.
Having said that please consider the following pointers as food for thought:
As for your "usual brown turds", I would perhaps try to establish if there is a pattern, e.g. are they located in the same spot, did they come from the same place, did they come from a wild colony?, are they exposed to sun light in your tank?, What about water flow? (the more light a coral receives the more flow it will need), etc.
If there is no pattern, then you have a tough task. I assume that your corals are no longer infested with pests. Have you considered experimenting with metal/trace element dosing, e.g. FM colour elements or Grotech A B C. It is quite possible that your tank water lacks some elements that your turds perhaps require in some quantity.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
Bulent overall, you have more of your corals coloured up in your tank than I do.
But as to your pointers...there is no pattern. I moved some of the pieces to experiment with extra flow and light. Most are mariculture though.
I already dose the Fauna Marin traces with the balling. I have the colour elements too. I tried it all. Cannot get those brown ones to colour up. :headwallblue:
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I am surprised about your statement because your reef tank looks very colourful to my eyes. I am wondering if you suffer from OCD. :hmm4:
I tend to keep away from maricultured corals due to my fear of AEFW. I do not believe that they are exposed to natural AEFW predators while they are kept inn their holding "stations"/pools. I am probably wrong as I often am. Furthermore, when I had them in the past, they did not do well in my tank (they either had STN or they did not grow satisfactorily with good coloration). I therefore buy very small frags from wild colonies, or frags from Reefworks (or from fellow reefers' tank as long as frags are small enough for me to inspect them with a magnifying glass).
Have you got close-up pictures of those "brown turds", so that we (I and others who read this thread) can try to figure out/guess what kind of habitat they must have been collected from providing that we can correctly identify them. It would also be useful if photos show your corals without their polyps extended.
I have some more questions:
How long have you had them for?
What is your alkalinity and salinity?
How do you measure your salinity and how do you verify your reading?
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sahin
Ultimate Reefer
LOL. Maybe OCD. :lolspin: But seriously, I have at least 7 acros of different size which are brown. They affect the overall look of the tank.
Some I've had for 1year plus. Others slightly less.
Alk is always around 7.3-7.5dKH. It is rock solid stable within that range.
SG= 1.026. I checked the SG with TWO calibrated refractometers with 35ppt calibration fluid. The calibration fluid was tested by my friend on his Milwakee (spelling?) electronic unit that came with its own calibration fluid.
I've pretty much done my homework with respect to making sure I've covered the basics.
With regards to mari stuff, yeah they turn up with pests. Which is why I dip, QT and then treat with Interceptor for redbugs before any frags make it to my system.
I spoke with Clayton when I last visited him and he confirmed that depending on location some mariculture stuff turn up with lots of AEFW. But he said he selects suppliers with less AEFW issues. But that some still can get through.
It is quite apparent that the colourful acros in my display are those that I've had for a number of years and ones that were aquacultured.
But why are maricultured acros usually so hard to colour up usually??? Biggles's tank is full of wild bits and extremely colourful.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
My explanation is that once a wild coral is fragmented and moved to another spot even in the same geographical discourse, it is likely to lose its mojo because of one or more of the following:
- different flow;
- different neighbours;
- different illumination;
- etc.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
There are two updates.
First, I started to replace my tubes two weeks ago. PAR readings started to increase as opposed to decrease and growth started to slow down markedly. I concluded that there was a spectrum shift (possibly towards red from blue), which explains increase in PAR readings and decrease in growth. The tubes lasted almost 11 months. I cannot complain...
I have replaced five tubes so far. In the next two weeks the tube replacement will be complete. As I wrote before, I will be using exactly the same tube combination as Scotty. ABS and actinic tubes are already in the mix and I like what I see. Purples in particular look really vivid whereas they looked slightly washed out under blues. I will have to wait another two weeks before I put the new purple +.
Second, my BFC increased significantly this afternoon. I received a phone call from my lfs last Thursday and was informed that a smallish female Genicanthus watanabei was finally sourced by them. I travelled to their shop today and bought this fish and four other fishes (Pseudanthias pulcherrimus aka Resplendent Anthias). I reckon that this almost completed my fish population (except that I asked them to source me a small male G. watanabei). Here is the complete list of my fishes:
Genicanthus watanabei
Genicanthus bellus
Genicanthus lamarck
Genicanthus melanospilos
Yellow tang
File fish
Royal Gramma
Respeldents anthias X 4
In other words, BFC of my tank is now 1.69. I think Mr Biggles will like this.
Finally, here are the photos of the new arrivals:
First, I started to replace my tubes two weeks ago. PAR readings started to increase as opposed to decrease and growth started to slow down markedly. I concluded that there was a spectrum shift (possibly towards red from blue), which explains increase in PAR readings and decrease in growth. The tubes lasted almost 11 months. I cannot complain...
I have replaced five tubes so far. In the next two weeks the tube replacement will be complete. As I wrote before, I will be using exactly the same tube combination as Scotty. ABS and actinic tubes are already in the mix and I like what I see. Purples in particular look really vivid whereas they looked slightly washed out under blues. I will have to wait another two weeks before I put the new purple +.
Second, my BFC increased significantly this afternoon. I received a phone call from my lfs last Thursday and was informed that a smallish female Genicanthus watanabei was finally sourced by them. I travelled to their shop today and bought this fish and four other fishes (Pseudanthias pulcherrimus aka Resplendent Anthias). I reckon that this almost completed my fish population (except that I asked them to source me a small male G. watanabei). Here is the complete list of my fishes:
Genicanthus watanabei
Genicanthus bellus
Genicanthus lamarck
Genicanthus melanospilos
Yellow tang
File fish
Royal Gramma
Respeldents anthias X 4
In other words, BFC of my tank is now 1.69. I think Mr Biggles will like this.
Finally, here are the photos of the new arrivals:
Attachments
biggles
Premium Member
I now want some resplendent anthias Bulent, yours are beautiful - i bet they're expensive here :hammer:
I'm interested to see if the lighting change brings about any pigment changes once the acros acclimate to the spectrum changes. I believe way too much importance is placed on PAR levels now days rather than the actual spectrum being delivered.
I'm interested to see if the lighting change brings about any pigment changes once the acros acclimate to the spectrum changes. I believe way too much importance is placed on PAR levels now days rather than the actual spectrum being delivered.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Thank you Matt. Forming a harem is an interesting idea though it is probably not practical in my tank due to its size. I seem to be a sucker for Genicanthus sp. Please do not put ideas in my head :twitch: in case I get tempted.
Thank you Sahin. I was initially thinking of getting some female lyretails, but was advised to get this subspecies of Pseudoanthias instead. They look fairly similar to another anthias genus I used to keep in terms of coloration (Pseudanthias bimaculatus), but resplendent anthias do not grow as big as P bimaculatus, which is ideal for my tank. I have a poor record of keeping anthias as I mentioned before, but I want to try again to reverse my past misfortunes.
I now want some resplendent anthias Bulent, yours are beautiful - i bet they're expensive here :hammer:
I'm interested to see if the lighting change brings about any pigment changes once the acros acclimate to the spectrum changes. I believe way too much importance is placed on PAR levels now days rather than the actual spectrum being delivered.
Thank you Andrew. They were not particularly expensive individually, but G. watanabei cost me a lot of money. I will need to sell some frags soon to recover my financial position before yesterday's fish purchases. The new arrivals have settled quite quickly and have started to eat frozen food (I never feed flake food).
On a different matter, I know that you are interested in blue bottles. I thought I should let you know that I started to use KZ coral vitalizer (1 ml per 100 l twice a week) and KZ bio-mate (1 ml per 100 l twice a week) last night. I am hoping that the bio-mate will clear my rocks and help me get rid of the last remnants of cyano, which still linger on some sections of my live rock. The sand bed is now completely free from cyano.
I only use those blue bottles which reportedly do not contain any nitrogen/phosphate source and trace elements (e.g. amino acids, Pohl's extra) as I do not want them to interfere with the good work of Tropic Marin NP bacto balance though some interference is inevitable. I already stopped using three different blue bottles (i.e. KZ ZEOzym, KZ Poh's Xtra and KZ A-balance) for this reason.
Finally, as for the new lights, I am very curious as to how the new spectrum will impact on the coral coloration as well as the coral growth. 5 X Blue + and 3 X Coral+ were an outstanding coral growing combination.
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DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Thank you sir for your kind words.
I am already considering getting some more anthias to be honest. There were only four left yesterday. Otherwise, I would have bought two or three more.
My staghorns keep me on my toes due to their rapid growth rate. I love them too. At one point I was going to have all staghorns with small fishes (like blue eyed cardinals, but then changed my mind and wanted nicer and bigger fishes instead, hence the placement of slow growing sps species, such as Acropora lokani and granulosa, in the middle to give these fishes some free room to roam around.
I have four staghorns. Here is their brief history:
Acropora aspera (My very good friend Andy gave it to me as a small frag in April 2012).
Acropora copiosa (Again Andy gave it to me as a small frag in February 2013).
Acropora yongei (I cannot remember how I got this coral, but the earliest picture I can find was recorded in October 2011). This coral suffered from STN on many occasions. It was usually the first coral that exhibited STN symptoms. As a result, its growth has been badly affected. Fortunately, it has not had any STN for more than 20 months.
The youngest member of the staghorn family is Acropora gomezi. I bought it as a wild colony from my lfs in December 2013.
Sadly, it had STN in April 2014. I saved a small frag from the mother colony, which has been growing ever since.
You can see how much my other staghorns grew when the above was taken in April 2014.
As for KZ B-balance, I never used it. However, my readings on the Zeovit forum suggest that this product contains specific trace elements and heavy metals. It is comparable to Zeospur2 in that it has the ability to expel some zooxanthellate from corals as people reported that their corals looked slight "lighter" in coloration. G Alexander (ZEOadmin) on the zeovit forum says that "Both [B-balance and zeospur2) have a[n] impact to zoox reduction in a nutrient poor environment. B-Balance is doing this slowly over the time while Spur2 is doing this within several hours.". I hope this helps.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I saw this frag's picture in your thread this morning. I am quite certain that it is a A. gomezi. Given strong indirect flow, it should develop very thick branches. It is not particularly fast grower though.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
It is update time. There are three developments:
I went to my lfs this morning. I bought three more resplended anthias. I now have seven of them. They school nicely and swim together against the water current. They also congregate among the thick and dense branches of Acropora aspera. They eat eagerly. However, they seem to eat more eagerly if food offered is small, e.g. red plankton and cyclopeeze.
I also purchased 1 kg of Siporax (15 mm) and a fairly large sheet of egg create to build a box. 1 kg of Siporax equates to roughly 3 litres.
Finally, this afternoon a courier company delivered a package containing three Acropora frags, A. nana, A. bali shortcake and A. secale. As soon as I attach them to rocks, I will take some pictures. I did not actually see any picture of A. scale before purchasing it nor did I see it in person before ordering it. Its purchase is nothing more than a punt. On the other hand, A. bali shortcake is supposed to be nice. A. nana is an old timer, which should do well in my tank.
Cheers
I went to my lfs this morning. I bought three more resplended anthias. I now have seven of them. They school nicely and swim together against the water current. They also congregate among the thick and dense branches of Acropora aspera. They eat eagerly. However, they seem to eat more eagerly if food offered is small, e.g. red plankton and cyclopeeze.
I also purchased 1 kg of Siporax (15 mm) and a fairly large sheet of egg create to build a box. 1 kg of Siporax equates to roughly 3 litres.
Finally, this afternoon a courier company delivered a package containing three Acropora frags, A. nana, A. bali shortcake and A. secale. As soon as I attach them to rocks, I will take some pictures. I did not actually see any picture of A. scale before purchasing it nor did I see it in person before ordering it. Its purchase is nothing more than a punt. On the other hand, A. bali shortcake is supposed to be nice. A. nana is an old timer, which should do well in my tank.
Cheers
