Reefkeeping in America's Heartland - OzarksReef Rimless Cube

[OzarksReef]

Wow, excellent photos! Looks like colours are holding out well under the LED. Be interesting to see what happens with the Red Planet over the next couple of months. Keep up the good work and keep the photos coming.

Thanks Sahin - the RP is a pretty large colony and it's always a gamble when moving a coral that's fully encrusted. This colony had encrusted onto the rock and the back glass. I've got some interesting looking frags that resemble a RP encrusting monti :lmao: I've kept the frags under T5 lighting which is what they were under before and am keeping a close eye on the colony under my LEDs. Things look pretty good so far - perhaps being established in aquarium conditions for three years prepared it for these conditions.

Tank looks awesome! i am coming up on the 6th month mark and im excited to finally see some large growth taking place. your colors are amazing as well keep up the good work!

Thanks - there does seem to be something magical about the 6-month mark in a reef aquarium. I'm hoping that the accelerated growth I'm seeing will continue and I'll have a full aquarium in another 6 months!

 

[janey]

WOW , Love the colors. What salt are you using ? and what maintenance
do you do ? and what additives are you using ?

 

[OzarksReef]

WOW , Love the colors. What salt are you using ? and what maintenance
do you do ? and what additives are you using ?

Hi Janey - nothing special to report there. Reef crystals for years now and dosing BRS 2-part solution using a LM3. No additives, but dosing vodka for the last four weeks. Hoping to export some of the nutrients from all the fish!

 

[aqua80]

nice to see another marineland 93g ;-)
no always easy to light and to get good flow...
you feel 1 mitras is enough to cover the tank ?

beautiful pics and corals !
thx for sharing...

 

[OzarksReef]

nice to see another marineland 93g ;-)
no always easy to light and to get good flow...
you feel 1 mitras is enough to cover the tank ?

beautiful pics and corals !
thx for sharing...

This light is known for it's wide spread and it does a good job covering the 30"x30" footprint. Some fall off on the edges, but works out well for the LPS. I'm already switching out again though - gonna try two radions with the soon to be released Fusion to sync the pumps and lights. I really think the overall PAR from two fixtures will be comparable to what I'm getting from the Mitras.

 

[glaukos]

Amazing photos and coral collection!:beer:
Beautiful tank!

 

[diciple]

great job tank looks great

 

[moga]

Wow nice ..I am going to get Octopus Super Reef XP1000S skimmer..
I have the same tank as yours..

 

[sahin]

Would love to hear how the Red Planet is doing. Did you get rid of the Mitras, and go another LED? Not sure if you went Maxspect or Ecotech Radions... Why the change?

 

[moray23]

Beautiful pics! Keep them coming!

 

[mr9iron]

Ozark,
Your corals and photography skills are amazing. If you ever decided to do some fragging let me know. I live in Clinton, Mo. just to the north of you.

 

[OzarksReef]

Would love to hear how the Red Planet is doing. Did you get rid of the Mitras, and go another LED? Not sure if you went Maxspect or Ecotech Radions... Why the change?

That's where the story gets bad, Sahin. I hung two Radion G1's over the cube in early February. It was a busy time for me, and I failed to keep a close eye on things for around a week. By the time I tuned in, most of my SPS had either bleached or were suffering from various levels of light shock. This caused a chain of problems to take place - alkalinity went on a roller coaster ride, I presume because of the stunted growth in the tank. In the end, I lost nearly 100% of my SPS and a few LPS colonies. Spent around two weeks pulling dead corals out of the system.

I teetered on getting out altogether...only for a moment though! Instead, I'm planning to upgrade in the next month. If I'm going to start over, it may as well be in style! Stay tuned...

great job tank looks great

Amazing photos and coral collection!:beer:

Beautiful tank!

Wow nice ..I am going to get Octopus Super Reef XP1000S skimmer..

I have the same tank as yours..

Beautiful pics! Keep them coming!

Ozark,
Your corals and photography skills are amazing. If you ever decided to do some fragging let me know. I live in Clinton, Mo. just to the north of you.

Thanks all - sure appreciate the kind words. Will update the thread soon with pics of the survivors and the build progress on my new 190-gallon display!

 

[glaukos]

Really sad for the losses but happy for your persistence-love for the hobby and the upcoming upgrade:beer:

Will stay tuned for sure:thumbsup:

 

[sahin]

Sorry about the coral loss...thats a real shame. Your setup was looking in top conditions...such a shame thats happened.

 

[andrew9]

I'm so sorry to hear that. Your tank was beautiful...I'm going to be setting up that same size tank here soon...if you get a chance can you snap and post a couple pics of the sump and all the stuff under the tank? I'm looking for ideas on how to run all that. Again im sorry to her about your loss...you had a really nice looking set up...also how many fish did you have in there?

 

[OzarksReef]

Thanks all - new tank is supposed to arrive in the next couple of weeks. Things have stabilized and are beginning to turn around in my cube. Looking forward to getting back on track soon.

Andrew - will try to get a shot of the sump up soon. It's a little tight under the stand, but everything fits and has a place. I've got the Marineland Monterey stand - it's nice having the side doors, but would like to have a little more height for the skimmer and plumbing.

 

[andrew9]

Did you go with a custom sump?

 

[Bill Nye]

Excellent tank really love the colors you are getting!

I am wondering what you keep your parameters at? I use reef crystals as well and a fresh batch typically tests around 10 kH. I have been seeing a lot of people with really awesome tanks such as yourself keep their kH far lower (~8). I am guessing you must keep your kH fairly high since you use Reef Crystals but am interested in seeing what your tank tests out to.

Thanks

 

[OzarksReef]

Andrew - on this setup, I'm running a standard Reef Octopus sump - 24" long. I'm upgrading to a Trigger Systems Ruby 36e on my new setup.


Bill - thanks so much. Unfortunately I lost nearly all of my SPS last month when I changed lighting systems. As it happens, I think that the die off caused a fairly significant ALK swing in my system which only accelerated the mayhem. Will be starting over with a bigger system (and hopefully better results) later this month.


I've never run an ALK test on a fresh batch of Reef Crystals - that's good to know. My tank does run lower - usually between 8.5 and 9. Generally I do 10% water changes, so I'm not sure that would impact things too much for me.

 

[reefmutt]

Ozarks that SUCKS the light/losses!
Sorry to hear...
I'm glad you're starting over because it would be a shame to loose a talented reef keeper and photographer, like you! The system was looking fantastic.
I'm running 6200s on my tank and am about 80% happy with them..
What are you planning for the bigger build? I've seen pretty decent results with radion pros..
I'll be interested to watch your next set up.
Your photos have that expert look to them: crisp with perfect light and colour.. What post production software do you use?
I have a red planet that loves LEDs and always keeps it's deep burgundy red but other sps don't seem to keep either the intense colouration nor the subtle variances in tone that t5/mh can produce...