owenspackmans 180 Reef upgrade build.

[Sonicboom]

Fantastic As usual. Do you set your hydras to anything special for pictures?

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

looks great. can't wait to see those wwc pieces.

 

[owenspackman]

absolutely amazing Owen!!!!

Thanks Steve, gotta get you over my side of town to see it!

Fantastic As usual. Do you set your hydras to anything special for pictures?

The Vegas are over the display, I turn the all the Blues and Whites up to 100%, turn off greens and reds. I use manual mode on my Nikon and increase the shutter speed to not let too much light in. Even with the whites on full the tank still appears very blue and dark. I can never capture the wonderful colors the human eyes captures, it's frustrating.

Then I use aperture to adjust slightly to more natural colors.

looks great. can't wait to see those wwc pieces.

Hey LilMatty! They should be arriving on Tuesday, I actually also purchased a 5 piece random frag pack from them also, it contains a collection of their frags from the sale, they will pick. Worked out at $18 each, so figured I could really get my moneys worth if they put in a couple of nice pieces. So i have a total of 15 pieces coming!

I will take some photos!

 

[djnelson00]

I have just taken the time to read your whole thread. Absolutely amazing. I am in the process of planning a 270 (72x36x24). Your setup is great and hopefully mine, once I get it together, will look half as nice as yours. Can't wait to see what experiences you have next.

 

[big_rich]

Clean setup

 

[reeftanknewbie]

Love the open rock work. How is the red sea color program working out since you restarted it after the HA problem?

 

[owenspackman]

I have just taken the time to read your whole thread. Absolutely amazing. I am in the process of planning a 270 (72x36x24). Your setup is great and hopefully mine, once I get it together, will look half as nice as yours. Can't wait to see what experiences you have next.

Thanks so much DJ! Glad you enjoyed the read and happy to have you along for the ride. I love the dimensions of your build, sounds fantastic, i'm going to search for your build thread, i'm guessing you have one?

Clean setup

thanks Rich, appreciate it!

 

[owenspackman]

Love the open rock work. How is the red sea color program working out since you restarted it after the HA problem?

hey reeftanknewbie,

I got the HA under controller pretty quickly, a good water change with a tooth brush cleaning the affected areas and the introduction of a Algae Turf Scrubber worked wonders.

My Algae Blenny also moved out of quarantine around that time, so i;m sure that has helped also!

I started back on Reef Colors and shortly after Reef Energy and i'm happy with it. It's not the same colors as some Zeovit tanks, but i'm happy. I'm still a rookie with SPS so with that taken under consideration i'm happy!

 

[djnelson00]

I don't have one yet. I am still in the planning stages of the setup.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

So are you on a full dose or building up to a full dose?

 

[owenspackman]

So are you on a full dose or building up to a full dose?

For Reef Colors? I am using the almost the full dosage on the instructions, based off my calcium consumption. Although i haven't calculated it since i've added the new corals. I always like to be a little cautious and dose a little under the recommended.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Smart move. I follow the same thinking.

 

[zerreissen]

Just finished reading through this thread. This tank is amazing, Owen!

What settings are you using on the Vegas during normal use?

 

[owenspackman]

Just finished reading through this thread. This tank is amazing, Owen!

What settings are you using on the Vegas during normal use?

thank you very much zerreissen, I really appreciate that. Hope you enjoyed the read!

The Vegas run with Blues at 75%-80%, whites around %40 and green and red at 35%. The Hydra over the frag tank is the same, UV and Violet at the same as blues at %75-80%.

I have the sun rise start around 6.30am and starts to set at about 6pm. I keep the blues ramp down much slower than the whites. Everything goes to 0% at night besides the dark blue that stays at 15%.

here is a visual
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/11333484984/" title="Screen Shot 2013-12-11 at 10.56.12 PM by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7455/11333484984_4884ccb3b1_c.jpg" width="800" height="268" alt="Screen Shot 2013-12-11 at 10.56.12 PM"></a>

 

[owenspackman]

Back in August & October I adopted some rescue corals from a local reefer who had become so busy with home life some of his corals couldn't get the attention they deserved. Here are a couple of the success / almost success stories.

Here is an Acro colony, wasn't in the worst state, very, very brown and was showing signs of STN from the base. I received this in August.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/11487040905/" title="DSC_0025 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5503/11487040905_87f7628580_z.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="DSC_0025"></a>

Here it is as of October/November. No longer looks brown, even under whites and has lovely purple tips.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/11261445324/" title="DSC_0109 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7407/11261445324_3b48f46281_z.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="DSC_0109"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/10129155573/" title="DSC_0077 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5456/10129155573_6297191d21_z.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="DSC_0077"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/10129097666/" title="DSC_0107 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7378/10129097666_46987fb846_z.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="DSC_0107"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/9884095405/" title="DSC_0180 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3703/9884095405_fb50d66936_z.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="DSC_0180"></a>


This Birds of Paradise Birdnest was in a bad way. I received this early October.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/11487019726/" title="DSC_0054 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/11487019726_74f5337787_z.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="DSC_0054"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/11486941094/" title="DSC_0069 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/11486941094_fda49c9321_z.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="DSC_0069"></a>


This was taken today, 2 1/2 months on. There are many now dead branches, but there are also very, very healthy parts showing new growth and growth over the previous skeleton. Sorry for the poor quality, this was a iPhone shot!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29441159@N03/11487037493/" title="IMG_0753 by owenspackman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7316/11487037493_36bbc925a9_z.jpg" width="400" height="640" alt="IMG_0753"></a>

 

[SPotter]

excellent job owen!!!!

 

[owenspackman]

excellent job owen!!!!

Steve, i'm right in thinking that as the birdsnest continues to recover it zoothanthellae will form over the dead skeleton right? I'm certain it has been already"¦.but, i'm not an SPS expert"¦.!

 

[SPotter]

Im not sure Owen. Anytime I've had something like that I usually just cut the thriving pieces off and remount on a new frag to create a new cluster. Definitely let it go a few more months and see what happens.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

That is some great improvement shots on that acro.

 

[TheReefKeeper]

Steve, i'm right in thinking that as the birdsnest continues to recover it zoothanthellae will form over the dead skeleton right? I'm certain it has been already"¦.but, i'm not an SPS expert"¦.!

Yea I would clip off all the good stuff and put it all on one plug.