o2manyfish 750g Tank, 1500g System "Built" Thread

[Dmorty217]

That's is crazy how quickly the female changed to male! How long have you had that particular harem of females before the one changed? How much bigger was the then female before changing to make compared to the other two? I am about to purchase 3 females in hopes of this happening.

 

[ERivera65]

congrats on the change of the bellus angel! very cool and nice documentation of it.

 

[o2manyfish]

Dmorty, these 2 Bellus I picked up in June of 2014 as tiny tiny fish. Both the now male and the misbar female were less than 3/4" when I got them. I only have the 2 Bellus in this tank at this time. Both fish are very similar to size at about 3.5". The now male is maybe 1/4" longer. Although with the change his body seems to have lengthed a bit very quickly and is less square shaped.

I have always enjoyed keeping Bellus as singles, pairs and trios. If you have the chance to get 3 I wouldn't hesitate to do it. They are really well behaved fish both with fish and corals.

Dave B

 

[Dmorty217]

Thanks for the info Dave, I saw the pictures and thought the misbar and female were two and then the now male. Seems that they will change at a smaller size than most other Angels?

 

[cFloor]

Tank is looking better than ever! Very cool that your bellus turned male. What a stunner.

 

[karm40]

awesome awesome. thanks for sharing Dave!

 

[skinsncanes]

awesome build, builds, rebuilds Im working on rebuilding mine now.

How are you liking your LEDs? They are the gen 3 pros correct?

Do you have the wide angle lens on them? do you need to turn them way down with having 8?

Why did you angle them towards the back of the tank?

Thanks!

 

[o2manyfish]

Skinsncanes,

I am thrilled with my choice of the Radions, I like the colors my corals show, I like the growth I am getting, I like being able to have different intensity over different areas of the tank. And I love that my wife walks over to the tank, pushes a little blue button on the stand, and the tank turns crazy blue and all the corals glow like crazy to really show off the outrageous beauty of the corals.

They are Gens 3 Pros, I am using the standard lens. I have 8 for good coverage over the entire tank. I think for really good all SPS coverage I would try for 10 over an 8' tank, but I like having a little less intensity in the middle of the tank.

I angle the front row towards the back of the tank so that you don't stare into the lights when looking at the tank. I also find that angling the front lights changes the angle that the light hits the coral and you get better colors (I did this with my old halides as well). And finally by aiming the lights to the back of the tank some of the intensity of the lighting is taken off the front panel of the tank slowing down how quickly algae grows on the front panel.

All in All I am happy with the Radions. I have guided several other people to choose the Radions and they are all very happy with the choice. The lights are capable of growing SPS corals that look good, and grow at a fast rate.

Dave B

 

[skinsncanes]

Thanks for the response. Those are great answers.

Do you go all the way up to 100 percent intensity? I heard a lot of people keep it at 20 because the PAR is so high. BRS told me they always use the wide angle kit to diffuse it more since the intensity is so high.

I like your points of angling them. My tank is built in and high so it might be an issue sitting at the bar. My tanks 6'x3' and 2' high. In theory, 2 lights with the TIR wide angle covers my entire footprint. I'm considering having two, and up a little higher for "full" coverage. And have those two on power backups. Then getting three more that perhaps now I'll try angling. Not sure if I'll do the wide angle on them.

Since I'm built in, with only front and right side viewing angle, it makes sense to do the angle. Nothing will be on the front glass and the angle will penetrate what would have otherwise been shadows.

 

[o2manyfish]

Skinscanes,

My lights range in intensity from 50-76%. However, I have a button on the stand and when I push that it ramps the intensity up to 100% for 20 minutes for when I am taking photos of the tank.

Dave

 

[skinsncanes]

I can't wait until some time goes by and we have more data on lights. I'm half tempted to buy the apex par meter just to start collecting data. Mr saltwater did those tests where he was getting so much par he said to never put them above 20 percent. He was getting several hundred par on the Sand bed. Obviously, your corals aren't all bleached out. It's a shame we mostly just have anecdote info right now. People have talked much about it but the apex par meter might go a long way to putting more real data out there. I didn't even consider it before, I viewed it as a bulk replacement monitor and not needed for LEDs. Now I'm thinking it could be fun to see how things grow in different pre of the tank. Move it around. Etc

 

[o2manyfish]

Had the itch for some closeup shots of the corals tonight. Shot with Canon 70D with 100mm lens, handheld no tripod.

Simple bright green acro

Australian Colony Coloring Up

Crazy Monti

Grafted Monti

Purple Pink Jake Adams Milli

Milli With Potential

This has grown into a beautiful colony, but I don't know what kind of coral it is. Its Green with magenta polyps in the middle and then chalkish with the magenta polpys at the edge. Colony is about 6.5" across but only a couple of inches tall. If you recognize the coral please let me know what you think it might be.

Tricolor

A different tricolor

 

[thetedinator]

Corals are looking great.

 

[markalot]

Wonderful thread, glad everything has worked out in the end. Tank and corals look fantastic.

 

[rickztahone]

Dave, I happened to glance at your signature on another thread and decided to check out this thread to see how you got your tank to look so nice. Well, 3hrs later, after reading the whole thing, you have been on quite the roller coaster with this tank!

I'm sorry for all your set backs, but if there is a silver lining, I believe all that happened had to have happened so that you could have reached this point in the tank, because truly, it is outstanding.

A big congrats on your wedding, it must have been an awesome venue to have a ceremony.

Lastly, I do not live that far from you, and if you could ever have me over, I would love to go take some pictures of your tank . I am a hobbyist photographer with some pretty good gear. I am in the Pacoima area.

 

[o2manyfish]

Rickztahone,

Thank you for the compliments.

You are absolutely welcome to come over! Visitors are always welcome. For the last month I have been trying to photograph the tank. Wanted to do some end of the year progress shots. But my photos have turned out just horrible. I can't get a nice Full Tank shot. Shoot me a PM with a cell number and maybe you could come by this weekend.


*************** Tank Update for Everyone Watching **************

The tank has been doing great since my last update. I don't know if I posted but I started dosing the Triton Trace elements in addition to my Calcium Rx with Dastaco media and my Kalk Rx. Coral growth with the added Triton Trace elements has been just amazing to watch. Corals that have been colorful but with minimal growth, and been in the system for over a year, have sprouted all kinds of new branches and tips and just taken off.

Ran into a small issue starting about 8 weeks ago that the salinity in the system was dropping really quickly. I was adding a 50g bag of salt every couple of days. I figured there was a leak somewhere, but with the winter weather there was no way to find the wet spot. A couple of weeks ago I started to log and track the salinity and confirmed I was losing 25+ gallons of water a day. With that much water leaking I figured I should be able to find a major puddle to help locate the leak. But I couldn't.

So this past weekend I got serious and started pulling the equipment from the cabinets outside, and used the pressure washer to clean all the outside equipment to make it easier to spot the leak, or a damp area.

I decided to clean out my Calc Rx. It's been running with the Dastaco media for a little over 6 months and I hadn't touched the RX. With it being outside you can't see into the RX because it is covered in algae.

I was really impressed that I had burned through about 8lbs of media and the Reactor was really clean. There was no sludge or muck in the bottom of the Reactor. There was no sediment mixed amoung the remaining media.

After seeing how clean the media was I discovered that the base of my Calcium Rx had 2 cracks in it. My calcium RX was custom made for me by a local reefer Larry Hawk (HawkDLL on RC) over 13 years ago. It was a great Reactor, and with me beating the crap out of it outside for over 10 years, it finally got a little frail. Also commendable to the calcium rx is that I have been using a Rio Hyperflow 12 pump on the RX for over 10 years and the little pump has been bulletproof.

I tried my best to get some Acrylic weld into the cracks and try to close it up, but the water seeping through the cracks had actually grown algae in the acrylic and I couldn't get it out to be able to try to get a clean surface to make a decent fix.

I put the Calcium Rx back together and set it on top of my sump so that as it leaks it leaks back into the sump. And I am happy to say that since last Saturday my Salinity has been stable.

I ordered a new Calcium RX on Monday. It should arrive in a month. It's a beast and built like a tank, so looking forward to getting it online. Will unveil it with photos when it arrives.

I will try to take some photos this weekend and get some visual updates, because all these words are meaningless without seeing all the pretty colors.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dave B

 

[rickztahone]

Rickztahone,

Thank you for the compliments.

You are absolutely welcome to come over! Visitors are always welcome. For the last month I have been trying to photograph the tank. Wanted to do some end of the year progress shots. But my photos have turned out just horrible. I can't get a nice Full Tank shot. Shoot me a PM with a cell number and maybe you could come by this weekend.


*************** Tank Update for Everyone Watching **************

The tank has been doing great since my last update. I don't know if I posted but I started dosing the Triton Trace elements in addition to my Calcium Rx with Dastaco media and my Kalk Rx. Coral growth with the added Triton Trace elements has been just amazing to watch. Corals that have been colorful but with minimal growth, and been in the system for over a year, have sprouted all kinds of new branches and tips and just taken off.

Ran into a small issue starting about 8 weeks ago that the salinity in the system was dropping really quickly. I was adding a 50g bag of salt every couple of days. I figured there was a leak somewhere, but with the winter weather there was no way to find the wet spot. A couple of weeks ago I started to log and track the salinity and confirmed I was losing 25+ gallons of water a day. With that much water leaking I figured I should be able to find a major puddle to help locate the leak. But I couldn't.

So this past weekend I got serious and started pulling the equipment from the cabinets outside, and used the pressure washer to clean all the outside equipment to make it easier to spot the leak, or a damp area.

I decided to clean out my Calc Rx. It's been running with the Dastaco media for a little over 6 months and I hadn't touched the RX. With it being outside you can't see into the RX because it is covered in algae.

I was really impressed that I had burned through about 8lbs of media and the Reactor was really clean. There was no sludge or muck in the bottom of the Reactor. There was no sediment mixed amoung the remaining media.

After seeing how clean the media was I discovered that the base of my Calcium Rx had 2 cracks in it. My calcium RX was custom made for me by a local reefer Larry Hawk (HawkDLL on RC) over 13 years ago. It was a great Reactor, and with me beating the crap out of it outside for over 10 years, it finally got a little frail. Also commendable to the calcium rx is that I have been using a Rio Hyperflow 12 pump on the RX for over 10 years and the little pump has been bulletproof.

I tried my best to get some Acrylic weld into the cracks and try to close it up, but the water seeping through the cracks had actually grown algae in the acrylic and I couldn't get it out to be able to try to get a clean surface to make a decent fix.

I put the Calcium Rx back together and set it on top of my sump so that as it leaks it leaks back into the sump. And I am happy to say that since last Saturday my Salinity has been stable.

I ordered a new Calcium RX on Monday. It should arrive in a month. It's a beast and built like a tank, so looking forward to getting it online. Will unveil it with photos when it arrives.

I will try to take some photos this weekend and get some visual updates, because all these words are meaningless without seeing all the pretty colors.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dave B

It is so awesome that you can track stuff like that. You would never have known otherwise most like, and then it may have been too late.

Pm inbound

 

[biecacka]

Dave, what calcium reactor did you go with?
So glad you found the leak and found a great temporary fix.

Corey

 

[o2manyfish]

Finally an update

Finally an update

Hi Guys,

Been awhile since an update. I have tried at least 6x to get some photos of the tank since Dec and just can't get decent photos. I even had the Tedinator stop by last Friday night and together we couldn't get any real good photos.

So I tried something different, put the hood on the lens and took some top down shots that turned out pretty nice.

If you want a FTS log onto the webcam and take a look, but for now, here is what things are looking like from above.

Here is one of my favorite colonies, still have no idea what it is, but it's just getting bigger and bigger

Here is a little Aussie piece I picked up about a month ago. Wasn't anything crazy but it caught my eye and thought it had potential. Of course I placed it all the way at the bottom of the tank, so not really giving it a fair shot to see what it can do, but I still think it might do something.

Originally thought this was the Jason Fox Beach Bum, but have since been told it's actually the WWC Kung Pao Monti. This is also sitting on the bottom of the tank and and seems to be really happy. Scroll back to the photos in Nov and look how much this beauty has grown in the past few months.

This is the left side of the island.

Here is another show of the first colony with some of the stags behind it that are starting to grow over the top

Picked this one up awhile ago, also sitting on the bottom of the tank.

The Grafted Cap is getting big

Here is the Purple Pink Milli that Jake Adams collected last year. Its grown a nice sold encrusted base and the colony is atop a long single stalk of coral. The colony head is really starting to grow. As pretty as this piece is I gave a piece to Chefzilla. His piece has outgrown mine and his has much better color.

There are some photos of these millies from a few months back. The bigger one doesn't look like much from the front view, but top down it's kicking. The little one is sprouting more and more branches and the orange color is showing up more and more

 

[o2manyfish]

How crazy has this millie turned out... This isn't shot under blue leds either, this is with Radions set to almost 14k at 100% (just for shooting the photos)

Another nice milli

This is another milli, Oregon tort at the top of the photo. Take a peak at the acro to the right of the milli in the center.That 'colony' was a 1.5" 2 branch frag about 5.5 months ago. Since I started dosing the Triton Base elements some of my corals have just started growing like weeds. And this piece in particular. I don't think I have had a monti digi grow as fast as this acro has. It's really amazing 5.5 months

These are some Orange Rhodactis. And they just love the back bottom of the tank.... This is what gets thrown to the back of the tank lol....

Pink Lemonade Colony - This has been growing well, but strangely all the new growth on this colony is growing from the underside forward. It's actually growing from the shade under the colony out. Silly corals don't always make sense

So this is my Red Planet colony. This has grown from small 2 branch frag to this colony in about 18 months. The way it grew out, it grew out from the rock and upward at an angle. So the front dark edge of the coral was blocking the view of the pretty part of the coral and the colony was actually hidden from view by itself. Well it kept growing and growing and grew right up to the acrylic. So last weekend I go in with my clippers to trim it back an inch. Of course as soon as I go to cut my first piece the entire colony pops off the rock it was mounted to. So I pull the colony and trim in back an inch and a half. You can see how dense the growth is. So as I trim the coral it is coming apart in such small frags that I would be embarrassed to give them to a friend because they are so fricking tiny. But being a coral addict of course I took the time to mount these stupid little nubs and put them in the outdoor frag tank. Then I go to put the colony back in the tank, and it won't go back and mount the way it was originally. So to get it to epoxy to the rockwork, I have to turn the coral 90 degrees. So the good part is I now have a nice pretty view of my Red Planet colony. The bad news is, there was no reason to trim the darn thing back.

My strawberry shortcake. Got this piece from a Wild Aussie shipment. Started out with some color, immediately lost all color, and now months later is finally starting to color up.

And a tort

Well that's it for the photos for the time being. I promise to try to get some front photos soon.

For those of you struggling to lower your phosphates, so your corals will be pretty.....

On February 8th the phosphates in the tank were .32...... not a typo.... not .03 not .02 but .32

My Hanna colorimeter read .34 and my Triton ICP came back with the ,32


I got news my new Calcium Reactor finished being built and was tested and shipped this week. So next week I should have some new equipment pics to share.


My tank is happy.... I hope yours is too!

Dave B