My SPS Reef

[Outdrsyguy1]

Duke,
Thanks so much for taking the time to post pictures and answer questions. I really appreciate it!
I have a couple for you!
What do you do to get your picture colors so great? Ever since I switched to LED's my tank looks insane blue in the pictures. I have a very similar DIY led setup to you.
Do you broadcast feed the reef chili or do you spot feed the corals?

Thanks!

 

[Dukester]

Duke,
Thanks so much for taking the time to post pictures and answer questions. I really appreciate it!
I have a couple for you!
What do you do to get your picture colors so great? Ever since I switched to LED's my tank looks insane blue in the pictures. I have a very similar DIY led setup to you.
Do you broadcast feed the reef chili or do you spot feed the corals?

Thanks!

I broadcast feed the whole tank but i had been spot feeding at one time in the tanks life but i find its not needed, everything does just as well with a full tank feeding for me.

the photos under LED will never look right if you dont white balance in your camera to compensate for all that blue, normal white balance settings wont work for our tanks color temperatures. im shooting a Canon so this below is basically the same as what i do to get it done except i use a tupperware lid as its all i could find that looked like a white balance filter.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2319811

hope that helps a bit, thanks.

 

[Dukester]

That shot of your sump and of the wave are pretty cool. You have some skills!

Nice colors. ..well done

Nice wave in there!

Thanks tdb, i dont run the wave like that very often, its a bit loud having all that water crashing around in there, the fish and coral seem to love it tho.

Love it! Colours and growth are crazy

Thanks

Amazing as always Duke. Keep up the great work. This tank is heading for TOTM.

Sahin, Thanks very much for your compliments.

 

[sahin]

Duke, any new photos for us to drool over? The last batch of frags you added, how are they doing?

 

[bigbpro916]

great tank!!

 

[Dukester]

Duke, any new photos for us to drool over? The last batch of frags you added, how are they doing?

well i did make some signifigant changes recently, i picked up some eco reefer rock rubble and built 2 bonsai like structures and moved some stuff around, time will tell how it works out, I also added a second wp-40 to the tank to keep things really moving around and added a new wrasse on sunday also.

i got my hands on a little peice of the RR Orange Passion so ill get one of that up soon, the A. Plana from the previous page is doing good, not much to show growth wise yet, but its holding its color well and PE has increased even more.

ill just jump right in with the FTS, do you notice the new rock and a few corals moved around? hopefully this all goes well, this photo is from 11/29/13

added a red dragon frag from a local friend (traded a branching cyphastrea) not sure on the actual ID tho, looks very similar to my Purple Dragon and its still a very nice piece. this one was shot on 11/23/13

and of course my new fish, Ornate Leopard Wrasse

 

[corndog1212]

your tank looks so great. The frags you get your hands on are beautiful. I wish my 75gal looked like this.:thumbsup:

 

[sahin]

The new rock addition looks pretty cool! That wrasse has a crazy design on him. :beer:

Would love to see shot or two of the RR Orange Passion. Be interesting to see how its doing in an LED tank.

 

[Dukester]

heres the RR Orange Passion as promised, not overly spectacular so far but its a nice light green with blue tip and greenish yellow polyps so far. time will tell if i can grow it into a show piece like the photos you see floating around.

here it is next to my cyphastrea for size comparison.

 

[sahin]

It is a small frag, but it will be amazing if it comes close to looking like the photos hanging around the net. Jealous of it. LOL

 

[GRTTSOU]

Your coral collection is perfect, along with your skills to keep them with such beautiful colours is just a perfect combination.

 

[theresearcher]

Amazing looking tank!

 

[blackchicken]

Nice tank, Leopard is beautiful. I must have some in my tank hehe.

 

[Dukester]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and compliments, it's much appreciated.

Just a quick video update. Fixed up by sahin !!

 

[sahin]

 

[sahin]

Fixed the links for you Your tank is my FAVORITE LED tank on ANY forum! Going to watch the videos now whilst I eat my food.

 

[Dukester]

Thanks, I'm on my mobile today and couldn't tell if it worked or not. Videos are short and sweet but shows some of the movement.

 

[aqua80]

Thanks, I'm on my mobile today and couldn't tell if it worked or not. Videos are short and sweet but shows some of the movement.

yes they work and are great !

 

[sahin]

Duke, I am so amazed by your tank. If anyone has doubts as to whether LED's work or not to colour up SPS corals...your tank is absolute proof that they work.

That leads us to the next question: what is it about your tank that is causing the SPS corals to colour up?

I think the answer lies in the FOODS that you feed your fishes and SPS.

Can you therefore provide a full and detailed breakdown of the weekly food that goes into your tank to feed the fishes and SPS corals?

Many thanks, and keep up the great work. You are doing an amazing job here where so many others cant quite manage.

 

[Dukester]

Fixed the links for you Your tank is my FAVORITE LED tank on ANY forum! Going to watch the videos now whilst I eat my food.

Its an honor to be held in such high regard when in comes to led tanks, Big thanks there!!!

yes they work and are great !

Aqua80, i love your photography work and always look forward to seeing your photos when you post them!!

Duke, I am so amazed by your tank. If anyone has doubts as to whether LED's work or not to colour up SPS corals...your tank is absolute proof that they work.

That leads us to the next question: what is it about your tank that is causing the SPS corals to colour up?

I think the answer lies in the FOODS that you feed your fishes and SPS.

Can you therefore provide a full and detailed breakdown of the weekly food that goes into your tank to feed the fishes and SPS corals?

Many thanks, and keep up the great work. You are doing an amazing job here where so many others cant quite manage.

IMO the lighting is only one piece of the puzzle and while its important, its probably less important than stuff like stability and nutrient import/export.

I think your right about food, i feed nothing special but do try and feed alot, i run bio pellets, gfo, skim heavy and have a full refugium with sand bed, rock, and macro algae so nutrient export isnt a worry, in fact i probably over do it on the export side, but that just means i can feed alot more without worrying about things like p04.

So daily(at least 4-5 or more times a week) i try and get brs reef chili in tank, around 1/4 tsp. worth, the little scoop they give you is too small for me. i shut my returns down but leave my power heads running and give it 20 minutes before i start my return up again. my fish get flakes daily(nls) probably 1 tsp worth. and i try and feed frozen mysis a few times a week in the evening, all my feedings i leave the power heads running but the returns off.

the other thought i've always had is some food must be generated by my refugium because there are so many micro pods and organisms in there that they must get into the tank and get eaten up by corals..