Through the Looking Glass

[dodgerblew]

Mark, I so enjoy reading your commentaries and I have a great deal of respect of your knowledge and humility. I really consider it a pleasure to have met you personally and speak with you one on one. I have nothing but confidence that you'll be as successful or more so this this than you were last time.

 

[sahin]

I've followed your SPS adventures for a while; I have no doubt, you will get this tank looking great. Reefkeeping is a wild beast. Doesnt always go the way we want. Keep the updates coming.

 

[CedzAquAddictio]

Been watching this build for a while. Hope you don't mind me sharing one of your pics...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2536678

 

[reefmutt]

Mark, thanks for that frank update.
I, too, have been humbled by this hobby after having kept freshwater fish for 40+ years and reefs for 20..
The past 3 years have been like learning a totally new way of reef keeping that has, in the end, brought me right back to where I started: like you, cheato fuge, strong skimming, calcium reactor, gac, solid flow, mh/t5 lighting etc... Good old fashioned basics..
I remember being blown away by the fish eye lens shots that open this thread and being continuously blown away by your shots over the past years..
I have absolutely no doubt that over the next year, your shots will become progressively wider until they reveal a crazy full blown reef once again..
Keep'em coming!

 

[maroun.c]

No shame in being humbled by ones tank as reefkeeping is far from an exact science... It's good to see many people stating their experience and what they tried to flip things. Looking forward to seeing this tank full of mature colonies.

 

[Bcrowe2012]

Phew spent a few days going through this from the beginning. Your tank has progressed amazingly! My 75 crashed about 4 years ago. I lost a lot of coral and ended up walking away. Now I have a 40b and I'm doing everything I can to ensure it doesn't happen again. Your story and take are inspirational and actually what I would like to achieve on a smaller scale of course lol. Great thread though!

 

[watchguy123]

Well.. That is shazamaliscious!!!

It is indeed, lol

I've followed your SPS adventures for a while; I have no doubt, you will get this tank looking great. Reefkeeping is a wild beast. Doesnt always go the way we want. Keep the updates coming.

Thanks, planning on lots of updates

Been watching this build for a while. Hope you don't mind me sharing one of your pics...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2536678

Glad you liked it and glad you shared it, scary picture

Mark, thanks for that frank update.
I, too, have been humbled by this hobby after having kept freshwater fish for 40+ years and reefs for 20..
The past 3 years have been like learning a totally new way of reef keeping that has, in the end, brought me right back to where I started: like you, cheato fuge, strong skimming, calcium reactor, gac, solid flow, mh/t5 lighting etc... Good old fashioned basics..
I remember being blown away by the fish eye lens shots that open this thread and being continuously blown away by your shots over the past years..
I have absolutely no doubt that over the next year, your shots will become progressively wider until they reveal a crazy full blown reef once again..
Keep'em coming!

working on more coming

No shame in being humbled by ones tank as reefkeeping is far from an exact science... It's good to see many people stating their experience and what they tried to flip things. Looking forward to seeing this tank full of mature colonies.

Thanks, they are growing out slowly

Phew spent a few days going through this from the beginning. Your tank has progressed amazingly! My 75 crashed about 4 years ago. I lost a lot of coral and ended up walking away. Now I have a 40b and I'm doing everything I can to ensure it doesn't happen again. Your story and take are inspirational and actually what I would like to achieve on a smaller scale of course lol. Great thread though!

Thank you,

A couple more pictures





Love blue polyps

 

[watchguy123]

Some pink lemonade are just so sweet

 

[watchguy123]

Sweet looking Millie too

 

[reefmutt]

These pieces all look great.
Nice colour, pe, very well encrusted.
I still can get over how damn clean the corraline algea surrounding each frags is!
Thank goodness, there a little something beside the milli!
It looks like an acid trip milli..

 

[tdb320reef]

Looking great Mark - I am glad the system is back in order!.

 

[watchguy123]

Looking great Mark - I am glad the system is back in order!.

Thank you, and I like to think that everything is back in order but then these are coral and anything can happen at anytime it seems. Fun watching these guys grow out and color up

 

[reefmutt]

That's crazy, too!
Red body and yellow polyps..
Not to mention the blue and green highlights..
Awesome.
What is this one?

 

[reefmutt]

Very curious to see how your corals react to the kno3 additions..

 

[watchguy123]

That's crazy, too!
Red body and yellow polyps..
Not to mention the blue and green highlights..
Awesome.
What is this one?

Well you can tell the reef geeks by how carefully they pick up on colors of acros. I think this one is going to turn out pretty cool. Cant wait for it to get bigger and fuller.

Very curious to see how your corals react to the kno3 additions..

Brought nitrates up from .05 ppm on red sea pro test to about 4 ppm. Interesting, as i added KNO3, polyps came out just like a feeding response. Just trying to determine if nitrates will stay up on their own if I need to continue to supplement. I continue to feed 3 to four times a day heavily with the following: New Life Spectrum pellets, Ocean Nutrtion Forumula two pellets, Julian sprung sea veggie flakes, and LRS Fish Frenzy frozen (frozen about 3-4 times a week). Phosphates remain around .08 ppm via red sea test kit, I need to double check it with hanna ULR phosphorous tester.


Interesting color on the frag pictured below, the base not so much but the branches are a cool bluish/purple with light yellow corallite edges.

 

[watchguy123]

Another frag to share

 

[watchguy123]

Smallest frag I ever received. Had it about two months now

 

[acesq]

Mark, I read your comment about believing that chloramines may have been the cause of your issues. I don't know who your water supplier is but mine is Las Virgenes and they put a ton of chloramine in the water. Just last year, LADPW started putting chloramines in its water supply so if you are in that district, you are dealing with a problem you didn't have before.

Like you, I've concluded that chloramines mean death to SPS, especially in low nutrient systems. After trying without much success to keep them in check by changing out the BRS carbon blocks every couple of months, I decided to brute force the issue by adding a BRS chloramines monster in addition to three other carbon blocks and three di chambers. The chloramines monster is rated for 10-20,000 gallons of water so it should last at least a year. Next week I'm going to change out my ro membranes because they get damaged by chloramine breakthough and add a booster pump to maximize the efficiency of the system. I'm also dosing a little potassium nitrate to raise the NO3 and PO4 a bit. My corals are starting to come back around after a rapid decline, but I've been through this twice in the last two years and it seems that the ones who get hit the hardest never seem to recover. Luckily this time I caught it fairly early and only a few look horrible.

This hobby can make you sick at times. I'm glad to see you have everything back under control and are growing some beautiful sticks. Looking forward to more pictures!

 

[msaba]

Mark--so pleased your tank is up and running again! Your tank and thoughtful commentary has been a big motivation for me to go into reefing. In fact, most of your frags still make up the basis for much of my reef...

Mark

 

[westreef]

Hi Mark, you have such a thick layer of coralline algae covering your rocks. How did you achieve that? Have you been asked about this? Have you mentioned this somewhere and I have missed it?

Btw, your corals are gorgeous.