Pete's 110 build

[psteeleb]

Neat stuff!

ya gotta just love this hobby

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N03 still holding at 1-2 ppm so I slowed the flow down some more. It would be nice to find a minimum through put that holds the No3 level at something under 5

 

[Taqpol]

That picture of the emerald crab babies kinda gives me the willies....

Also, I need to start reading your text before I take a look at your awesome pictures. I was trying to find an acro crab in that chips acro for a good minute before I looked at the text above it.

 

[drummereef]

That picture of the emerald crab babies kinda gives me the willies....

Also, I need to start reading your text before I take a look at your awesome pictures. I was trying to find an acro crab in that chips acro for a good minute before I looked at the text above it.

Hahahahahaha! I did the exact same thing. I thought I was playing Where's Waldo in those last 2 pics. Glad I read your post, I probably would have been looking for the little crab for hours. :lol:

 

[psteeleb]

how funny - after I posted the chips pictures and reviewed it, I was thinking people are going to be thinking I'm playing where's Waldo with them, so I went back and added the "no crabs" - honestly :lol:

 

[drummereef]

how funny - after I posted the chips pictures and reviewed it, I was thinking people are going to be thinking I'm playing where's Waldo with them, so I went back and added the "no crabs" - honestly :lol:

:lol: I think you were just playing with us. haha!

 

[lanshark]

Pete,

On post 836 where you share your lighting schedule, you refer to two hour dim on/off? For example, your 3w blue on 7:30am to 12:30am, does that two hour dim process add to that time frame? Such as, 6:30am dim up by 7:30am full power? Thx!

 

[psteeleb]

Pete,

On post 836 where you share your lighting schedule, you refer to two hour dim on/off? For example, your 3w blue on 7:30am to 12:30am, does that two hour dim process add to that time frame? Such as, 6:30am dim up by 7:30am full power? Thx!

The cycle starts at 7:30, so it's like this

7:30 to 9:30 dim from 10% to 100% over 120 minutes. (the lights don't come on until it's about 10% power)

9:30am to 10:30pm they run full power

10:30 to 12:30 they dim down from 100% to 10%

12:30am to 7:30am = off

 

[drummereef]

The cycle starts at 7:30, so it's like this

7:30 to 9:30 dim from 10% to 100% over 120 minutes. (the lights don't come on until it's about 10% power)

9:30am to 10:30pm they run full power

10:30 to 12:30 they dim down from 100% to 10%

12:30am to 7:30am = off

Wow, is this fairly typical you can run LED's for that many hours without bleaching etc? Obviously you are doing it with great success. I'm running my MH bulbs only 6 hours from sunrise to sunset. Kinda wish I could run my tank lights on for that many hours without issues...

 

[lanshark]

Your corals appreciate the extended daylight savings program. :spin1:

Pete,

A teaching moment if you'd be so kind. If you were to wake up tomorrow and find several SPS with half the normal polyp extension that we see on those beauties, what would be your routine to resolve? Your clearly in the ZONE with your reef and Grasshopper here needs to improve. What's the ZONE look like to you? Is it your tried and true food regimen? If you were to stop feeding phyto, cylopeze, pearls for example, would your SPS not get what they need from the fish? Could you share the water chemistry parm values that you cannot let your reef fall or rise to?

Thanks Myagi. :reading:

 

[psteeleb]

Wow, is this fairly typical you can run LED's for that many hours without bleaching etc? Obviously you are doing it with great success. I'm running my MH bulbs only 6 hours from sunrise to sunset. Kinda wish I could run my tank lights on for that many hours without issues...

the tank only gets about 4 hours of full lights, the blues are on a long time but don't flood the sytem with much spectrum

here's a diagram showing each light sections schedule (time of day on far left in 24 hour clock) with pictures showing about mid morning (10:30) and late afternoon (17:30)

 

[drummereef]

Gotcha, that makes more sense now that I can see it. Thanks!

 

[psteeleb]

Gotcha, that makes more sense now that I can see it. Thanks!

anytime Brett
---------------------------------
when doing a water I usually syphon water from the weirs and the walls off my sump. I always end up with a couple rescues, tonight I pulled out a small chiton and limpet.

chiton

another one in the sump

limpet

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some random color shots from the weekend

mille in the morning

water melon zoas

unknown acropora

another unknown acropora from Ryan (AKA Servo)

a very colorful reverse susnet montepora

Candy Apple Red (CAR) zoa

 

[psteeleb]

some more colorful pictures

a chalice I'll call rainbow - I don't have a clue what it's common name is

Water Melon Chalice

Ricordia

Mummy Eye chalice

Armor of God

Hollywood Stunner

 

[faisal629]

some more colorful pictures

a chalice I'll call rainbow - I don't have a clue what it's common name is

Water Melon Chalice

Ricordia

Mummy Eye chalice

Armor of God

Hollywood Stunner

beautiful!
if you dont mind me asking, where do you buy your corals from?
specially these?

 

[psteeleb]

Your corals appreciate the extended daylight savings program. :spin1:

Pete,

A teaching moment if you'd be so kind. If you were to wake up tomorrow and find several SPS with half the normal polyp extension that we see on those beauties, what would be your routine to resolve? Your clearly in the ZONE with your reef and Grasshopper here needs to improve. What's the ZONE look like to you? Is it your tried and true food regimen? If you were to stop feeding phyto, cylopeze, pearls for example, would your SPS not get what they need from the fish? Could you share the water chemistry parm values that you cannot let your reef fall or rise to?

Thanks Myagi. :reading:

I want to put together a good answer to this and need to give it some thought. I did want to let you know it's a great set of questions and that I'm not ignoring ithem.

 

[psteeleb]

beautiful!
if you dont mind me asking, where do you buy your corals from?
specially these?

chalice (rainbow) - from a local fish store that has a great selection of corals (fish2morrow), several of my recent addition SPS are from them. I've known the owner since before he opened the store. Every time I go there I look at the 500g aquarium in the back and remember the day wwe moved it in.

chalice (water melon) - got from a local club member that I traded or bought from several times

ricordia - an online vendor who I get most of my clean up crew from (ccritters)

chalice (mummy eye) - another local club member

paly (AOG) - online vendor (reefs2go) I ordered several zoas, cleanup crew and pods from them when they had a sale

chalice (hollywood stunner) - the same local club member I got the water melon chalice from

thanks

 

[Taqpol]

the tank only gets about 4 hours of full lights, the blues are on a long time but don't flood the sytem with much spectrum

here's a diagram showing each light sections schedule (time of day on far left in 24 hour clock) with pictures showing about mid morning (10:30) and late afternoon (17:30)

That is such a cool diagram, did you use a specific program to make that?

 

[psteeleb]

Your corals appreciate the extended daylight savings program. :spin1:

Pete,

A teaching moment if you'd be so kind. If you were to wake up tomorrow and find several SPS with half the normal polyp extension that we see on those beauties, what would be your routine to resolve? Your clearly in the ZONE with your reef and Grasshopper here needs to improve. What's the ZONE look like to you? Is it your tried and true food regimen? If you were to stop feeding phyto, cylopeze, pearls for example, would your SPS not get what they need from the fish? Could you share the water chemistry parm values that you cannot let your reef fall or rise to?

Thanks Myagi. :reading:

If you were to wake up tomorrow and find several SPS with half the normal polyp extension that we see on those beauties, what would be your routine to resolve?

First off I’d have to confirm I didn’t introduce something different in the past 12-24 hours, like a water change, or maybe a new coral, light change out etc. For half the corals to adversely react to something over night something significant changed and if it wasn’t something I consciously did I’d start checking in order:

1) First off a quick check of the monitored parameters; pH, temp and ORP will tell you a lot about the system. A drop in ORP may indicate something dies or maybe an overnight power failure dropping the O2 levels. A sudden pH swing up or down could also give you some indication that the ORP reading did but may also indicate an upset condition with either the Ca or Kalc reactors.
2) Check for leaks and/or a over use of top off water potentially reducing salinity
3) Third would be a check of the mechanical systems – by inspecting the pumps, reactors CO2 bottle to make sure they were all operating correctly. An upset condition and sudden release of GFO or GAC for example or a surge from the CO2 bottle reducing
4) Forth electrical – looking for stray voltage
5) Fifth Chemical – test kit stuff starting with and in order Alk, Ca, Mg, No3, Po4, Ammonia, No2, Iodine then double checking.
My course of action would vary depending on the findings; it may be fixing something to finding a dead fish and often would probably lead to a water change and carbon filtration change.

What's the ZONE look like to you?

Excellent question and the perfect answer is; “observe normality”. There are several observations made without giving much thought; while I’m appreciating them I’m also looking for the livestock to tell me things are normal. For example; do the more sensitive corals like gorgonia have PE? Do the acroporas and monteporas have PE? If not is there something bothering them like a hermit crab crawling over them, etc, if not I’ll make a mental note and look again in an hour or so. If the condition doesn’t go back to normal I may start looking into it further. Fish behavior is also a good indicator.

Is it your tried and true food regimen? If you were to stop feeding phyto, cylopeze, pearls for example, would your SPS not get what they need from the fish?

The SPS would probably do fine without the feeding. I could probably add a fish or two to support their demand but even if I didn’t the SPS can adjust just fine to low feeding habits. The question then becomes will they drop PE or will coloration change if they become more dependent on light source for a higher percentage of their nutrition needs? The Duncan’s, Dendro’s, Sun Coral, and Gorgs would require some target feeding, the other softies and LPS would do fine without.

Could you share the water chemistry parm values that you cannot let your reef fall or rise to?

I’m pretty standard here;
pH = 7.95 to 8.2 in a normal 24 hour period, more interested in the swing then total
temp = 79.5 – 80.5
Salinity 1.026 – I try to keep it here or between 1.025 and 1.026
Alk 8-9.5 but has been 10
Ca 450 ish, I don’t see much difference if this drops to 350 or is up around 500
Mg 1350 – 1450, lower and my Monteporas start to fad
Po4 – undetectable to less then 0.03
N03 - I use to say undetectable but have learned to live with 1-2pmm

 

[hobbby3]

Following along this is a great thread. I want my 90 gallon to be this successful!

 

[psteeleb]

Following along this is a great thread. I want my 90 gallon to be this successful!

thanks and welcome to RC

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here are a few more from tonight

this reverse sunset must have been trampled by a hermit as about half the polyps were pulled in revealing more colors underneath (kind of like my sunset does)
un retouched - other then resized. The white ballance was set to a white paper napkin on the other side of the tank, the purple edge is more a baby blue in real life

sunset

meteor shower with royal blue LEDS only

meteor shower with royal blue and some cool white

leng sy

pink chalice

red/purple chalice