Oldude's Little Reef on the Prairie
- Thread starter Oldude
- Start date
A_CoupleClowns
New member
Amazing as usual!
Thanks very much.
Here's a couple of lower light pix of a couple of crazy pieces that have done some interesting morphing lately - I can't capture these two acro's under regular settings without glare coming off the corals. They are seriously bright and the color on the granulosa gets me pretty excited.
overexposed
Acroholic
Gorgeous as always! Do you know what these two are?
stunning! :thumbsup:
Thanks Elliott - just trying to keep up with you.
Thanks very much.
Not 100% sure of the species on the first one (I call it Fiji Cobalt) but I believe the 2nd one is a variety of A.hyacinthus. I shot the picture right after I bumped it so the polyps are retracted more than usual.
Thanks. Sharing our reefs is all part of the fun so thanks for looking.
Oldude's Little Reef on the Prairie
Hi Greg, beyond impressive, congrats! As we all learn by failures, but then a break through to the next plateau occurs. We all know to change things slowly in this hobby, therefore, can you share a few of your early break through experiences with SPS? For example, struggles getting corals to color up? Was it lower phosphates? Dosing expensive trace elements? I just read your TOM thread and noticed your lighting schedule is quite long. Can you give me your thoughts on what you have or would see if your MH's were on only say 5 hours per day and all rest of your lighting is a 10 hour period? Would your SPS brown out? Have you experimented and found a threshold? Thanks for sharing your awesome reef with us ....
Hi Greg, beyond impressive, congrats! As we all learn by failures, but then a break through to the next plateau occurs. We all know to change things slowly in this hobby, therefore, can you share a few of your early break through experiences with SPS? For example, struggles getting corals to color up? Was it lower phosphates? Dosing expensive trace elements? I just read your TOM thread and noticed your lighting schedule is quite long. Can you give me your thoughts on what you have or would see if your MH's were on only say 5 hours per day and all rest of your lighting is a 10 hour period? Would your SPS brown out? Have you experimented and found a threshold? Thanks for sharing your awesome reef with us ....
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Thanks for your kind words. I have had more than my fair share of failures so I don't know where to start in response to your questions. Not sure I have any special formula as to what I do - my set up is very basic & old school. In my opinion keeping the nitrates & phosphates down necessary but is still a balance, they need to be low but in my experience to get deep color you need some although to be honest I never test for them so I can't say where my reef sits on a scale. I know they're there since I have a pretty big bioload and I am not running ULNS and don't carbon dose. About 6 weeks ago I started running a "Chaeto" chamber in my sump on a 24 hour light cycle and I believe it is helping to reduce phosphates - it has to be since the algae is growing very fast and the coral colors seem to be improving. I have the refugium set up in egg crate running the full width of the sump so all water passes through it before getting to the return pumps.
Regarding trace elements I use the Fauna Marin balling solutions in my calcium & Alk dosing and top up once a week with their "Color Elements" straight into the overflow and I think it is making a difference.
As far as the light period, I view it simply as this - since the livestock in my reef comes from tropical regions where they have an average of 12 hours of daylight all year round why would I want to cut back to 5 hours a day of MH lighting? I know the intense sunlight isn't the full 12 hours and there are cloudy days etc. but it has been my experience that I see the best results when I try and mirror as close to nature as possible. I have experimented with lower lighting schedules in my prop system, usually in the summer to keep the heat down and was still able to maintain reasonable color however when it comes right down to it I keep my reefs for the enjoyment & entertainment I get from it so if push comes to shove, I keep it lit longer so I can enjoy it longer.
I hope that at least sort of answers your questions. I appreciate your interest and comments/questions so please don't hesitate if you have others.
Thanks,
Twilight on the reef
Twilight on the reef
My twilight lighting is a mix of Fiji Purple & Blue plus T5 bulbs along with LED moon lights - this makes for an interesting display of colors so below are a few different angles & focus points from the RH side viewing pane.
Sorry that there are light spots from the LED's in the 130 gal in the fish room bleeding into the picture background.
Twilight on the reef
My twilight lighting is a mix of Fiji Purple & Blue plus T5 bulbs along with LED moon lights - this makes for an interesting display of colors so below are a few different angles & focus points from the RH side viewing pane.
Sorry that there are light spots from the LED's in the 130 gal in the fish room bleeding into the picture background.
One more
One more
Here is a shot from the front with my chromis school. Not real big on trying to photograph with actinic lighting but I thought this looked cool the way some fish are & some aren't - most of the fish were directly under the LED moonlights for the shot.
One more
Here is a shot from the front with my chromis school. Not real big on trying to photograph with actinic lighting but I thought this looked cool the way some fish are & some aren't - most of the fish were directly under the LED moonlights for the shot.
artisson62
New member
hello you have a very beautiful corals. what are your additions and your fish population ?
best regards
best regards
Thank you.
Regarding the fish population I have about 50 in the main display.
I am not sure what you mean by "what are your additions"??
Fish are fed with an auto-feeder 3 times daily. Corals are mostly fed by the fish but I usually dose sponge power once or twice a week. I also on occasion stir up the detritus in my sump after lights out which is carried back to the display via the return pump and I find the corals respond pretty well to it.
