rigleautomotive's Tank Pics Thread

[rigleautomotive]

Just finished this whole thread! Absolutly an inspiration. I have been keeping a few sps for a while with decent luck so far. After reading all of this you have giving me so much new knowledge for keeping these beautiful sticks. And reasured me I'm actualy doing some things right. I hope my small tank can thrive as your has. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with others so we can hope to be half as successful as you are.

Thank you,very nice thing to say .I am speechless.well almost,lol

The hobby turned obsession has given me enjoyment in many ways thru the years.In ways I never imagined and separate from the aquarium.This teaching others and bringing the captive grown message to so many with the society and the great forums (like RC) is another hidden source of fulfillment.The long term dedication in growing a coral reef of your own is the most apparent and common allure but I have learned this is only a part of the whole picture.Thank you

Dan what do you use to raise phosphate? I see some dicussion but no ones says what they are using. Your tank and frags are amazing.
Mike

Thanks Mike,
It is not so much what I do to raise PO4 but what I do not do to control it.I do not use any bacteria and rarely use GFO as means of control as these historically have driven the numbers too low or out of balance enough to produce negative responses in stoney corals IME

I use water changes and macro algae to lower nutrients as this seems to be gentler on the more sensitive corals

 

[aandfsoccr04]

I'd love to see an updated full tank shot.

 

[rigleautomotive]

Thank you,very nice thing to say .I am speechless.well almost,lol

The hobby turned obsession has given me enjoyment in many ways thru the years.In ways I never imagined and separate from the aquarium.This teaching others and bringing the captive grown message to so many with the society and the great forums (like RC) is another hidden source of fulfillment.The long term dedication in growing a coral reef of your own is the most apparent and common allure but I have learned this is only a part of the whole picture.Thank you




Thanks Mike,
It is not so much what I do to raise PO4 but what I do not do to control it.I do not use any bacteria and rarely use GFO as means of control as these historically have driven the numbers too low or out of balance enough to produce negative responses in stoney corals IME

I use water changes and macro algae to lower nutrients as this seems to be gentler on the more sensitive corals

Sorry, I forgot to say,I feed heavily when trying to raise nutrients ,ie frozen brine,mysis.cyclopeeze,oyster feast,nori etc... up to 5 or more times per day
Having the proper population of fish to help facilitate this is also a plus.

 

[SPotter]

Dan,
As a proud owner of some of frags and they happy to say that they are flourishing in my system. I was wondering if you could share what levels you target with the main 3 parameters (alk, ca and mg) and do you add/dose anything else to your tank? If this has been asked previously I apologize and if you could point me to that response I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[rigleautomotive]

Dan,
As a proud owner of some of frags and they happy to say that they are flourishing in my system. I was wondering if you could share what levels you target with the main 3 parameters (alk, ca and mg) and do you add/dose anything else to your tank? If this has been asked previously I apologize and if you could point me to that response I would greatly appreciate it!

Hi

Alk is kept at 8.3dkh +/- .5 dkh with limewater and Randys Two part,
Cal is kept at 380ppm to 450 ppm again with lime water and Randy's
and Magnesium concentrations are maintained @ 1350 - 1500ppm with dosing MgCl (Mag Flake)

I do not want to recommend this yet but it should be mentioned that I have played with K (potassium) for the last year(with mixed results) and I finally almost feel intelligent enough about its addition to form an opinion .I just do not want to recommend any process until I am fully aware of its positive or negative effects.A few more months of observing and testing will hopefully get me to this point.

 

[SPotter]

thanks Dan! so it sounds like you keep it simple and dont get caught up with all of the other supplements that some people are adding like various coral foods.

I too have recently started dosing K and while its too soon to tell a difference in my sps, I have noticed marked improvement in the amount of growth I get on my Algae Turf Scrubber. I will say that the blues in my tank are more vibrant.

 

[rigleautomotive]

 

[Acronic]

nice halequin.. Ive always wanted a pair but I love my stars too much. I see you're working on a chalice collection

 

[jroovers]

Amazing, especially love the last three shots.

 

[psusocr]

Awesome shots!!!

 

[rigleautomotive]

nice halequin.. Ive always wanted a pair but I love my stars too much. I see you're working on a chalice collection

Thanks,I put it in to control the Asterina stars.He does not bother the large brittle yet(been in tanks a couple years)but the Asterina are getting pretty thin at the present.

Yes on the chalices,I caught the bug a couple years back and have grown a few from tiny frags.I really like some, but I still crave the structure and colors acroporas produce.

 

[SPotter]

Hey Dan, did you come to any conclusions with the K dosing that you had been doing?

 

[rigleautomotive]

Hey Dan, did you come to any conclusions with the K dosing that you had been doing?

Not a conclusion yet but some strong evidence that lends to a opinion.
Best advise I can give at the present is :

Do not go by the test kits as the only indicator of low K.(noise make them historically inaccurate)
Back it up with a lab like AWT or similar and if the levels are low in both instances,say < 300ppm,then dosing seems to show positive results in both color and PE on acropora and montipora species.I will say that overdosing and raising the value to somewhere around 500 or 600 ppm will have negative effects on coral color and growth.Therefore going at it blindly or with a very hard to read kit is not recommended.

 

[jroovers]

Dan, what is your approach to post-processing of your shots? Can you share how you went about the processing (generally of course) of those last couple shots in your last posted set?

 

[rigleautomotive]

Dan, what is your approach to post-processing of your shots? Can you share how you went about the processing (generally of course) of those last couple shots in your last posted set?

Yes,sure.

I shoot in raw with no enhancement being done in the camera.Depending on the image there are some variables in these settings but a general idea of what I move to get rid of the obstacles when shooting reef tanks will be covered.

I use CS 4 as this is the newest version I own.
I first open the raw image and slide the temperature to the right until the image comes to look like what the eye perceives when looking at the DT
I then look at exposure and remove any over exposed spots that may be offending.
I then look at brightness and if the subject is too dark I try to lighten.
I then move the black slider to make the subject be the most appealing and make the background less obtrusive.
I then move the clarify slider to the right until the image has good detail but not too digital looking
I then move the vibrancy and saturation until the color starts to be as intense as seen by the naked eye while looking at the actual coral in the display.
I save it in JPEG

Thats it.lol.Now some of you can appreciate how much effort goes into posting updates for you guys
Hope that helps.practice helps and talking to guys like Gary Parr will not hurt.He has taught me a few tricks but I am a novice compared to many RC members.
I also use Ken Rockwells site early on to get a feel for Nikon and its quirks.GL

 

[Acronic]

Thanks,I put it in to control the Asterina stars.He does not bother the large brittle yet

Do you think that has something to do with it being a single and not a pair maybe?

 

[SPotter]

Not a conclusion yet but some strong evidence that lends to a opinion.
Best advise I can give at the present is :

Do not go by the test kits as the only indicator of low K.(noise make them historically inaccurate)
Back it up with a lab like AWT or similar and if the levels are low in both instances,say < 300ppm,then dosing seems to show positive results in both color and PE on acropora and montipora species.I will say that overdosing and raising the value to somewhere around 500 or 600 ppm will have negative effects on coral color and growth.Therefore going at it blindly or with a very hard to read kit is not recommended.

What kit are you using to test k and do you know of any other water testing places besides AWT?

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[rigleautomotive]

Do you think that has something to do with it being a single and not a pair maybe?

I think it is more that there are still aterenia about for him to eat.If they go away,I presume the brittle(huge at 16 inches or more and 10 years old)will get picked on

What kit are you using to test k and do you know of any other water testing places besides AWT?

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/korallen-zucht-potassium-test-kit.html

The KZ kit is the one I played with.I found it to be only precise enough to decipher approx. 100 ppm somewhat accurately.Not good enough for me to dose or not to dose as a sole indicator.AWT came up with a similar reading at least as far as I could estimate.Dosing 5 times the recommended weekly dosage with BW K powdered form got me in the ball park after a month or so.I did notice some anecdotal observations initially with better pigmentation and PE . a few times of not dosing and then dosing again (over several months)will give me a feel if this is true or placebo.This will take me some time to be more certain and possibly 6 months down the road I may feel a bit more confident to speak of its advantages more intelligently.

I know of no other lab that will do this for a small fee such as AWT.The higher end labs get 400 or more to do a analysis which tends to be a bit more extensive then required for our purposes.Bad press on AWT means nothing to me as I do not drive my systems solely on there results so if a crazy # is reported I ignore it.Errors can occur very easily when measuring a fraction of a part per million.On the other hand,using them to back up your results is a big plus for me.I record my test results when I pull my sample to be sent to AWT and compare the results of Alk,Mg.Cal,K,NO3,and PO4 especially,and they tend to be very close in every instance to AWT #s

Boomer may be able to suggest some others or possible highland reefer or Randy.

 

[Big E]

Brittle stars are too fast & strong for Harlequins. They can also bury themsevles inside the rockwork. Mine never bothered them......not even the small tiny brittle stars.

 

[rigleautomotive]

Good to know Ed,I did not know that.I guess my big ugly brittle will carry on.