Through the Looking Glass
- Thread starter watchguy123
- Start date
watchguy123
New member
watchguy123
New member
Thank you, it's always a work in progress. I find the challenge fascinating. I have around a 100 frags to colonies in my tank. I still find some frags that I can never make happy. They either never grow much or have the coralline algae outcompete them from the base up (not STN). It's like I'm in the high 90's with success which may or may not be good. But never quite understand how I can't find the happy place for those unsuccessful frags. Anyway, this frag is happy:
Z's Wonder
codydemmel4
Active member
very nice tank and nice photo skills!
I love the PE on almost all of your corals.
I love the PE on almost all of your corals.
watchguy123
New member
Thanks guys. Currently tank is happy but a bunch of vacation time is coming up and who knows what that will bring. Always a surprise when you come home from vacation.
Z's Yellow Eyed Jawdropper
watchguy123
New member
Thanks, Matt
I have my siporax in their original bags. I bought the 15mm cylinders and they came in one liter mesh bags (hopefully the mesh does not leak anything detrimental). I think I have four bags in my sump, in the same chamber as my sock so relatively high flow. I then have three bags in my refugium with very slow flow. And I now have to supplement my nitrates with KNO3 powder.
I was gone in November for three weeks and the person feeding my fish either overfed or over supplemented my nitrates because when I returned home, the nitrates were through the roof. I stopped supplementing and my nitrates dropped. They actually dropped too far, almost to zero and now I have them somewhere around 5 ppm. I use Salifert for nitrate but I have a hard time telling whether it is 2, 5 or 10 so I aim for as close to the 5 ppm color as I can. I always have to look at the test through the side glass (plastic) but for me, its always a bit of a guess.
My alkalinity recently dropped which was a surprise. I try to keep it stable at 7.8 dKh or so and it was down to 7.2. I usually aim for testing every two or three days but I got off my schedule with the holidays and visiting family and friends. I was surprised because my calcium reactor seems to keep alk extremely stable. I increased the effluent and have it heading back up. Although I didn't notice any real increase in size of acros, there has been much more bleaching of the coralline algae around the base of frags. I interpret that as more of the base of the acros expanding and encrusting--all good signs. I don't remember the last time I had to adjust my calcium reactor. Oh and I did check, there is CO2 in the tank.
One of my favorite acros, the Jason Fox Flame
Jason Fox Flame under metal halides, radiums 250 watt 20k (Interesting that the tips look green, in the tank they are yellow. I adjusted temp to 20K in lightroom and the exposure. I am always amazed how the camera sometimes captures what I see exactly and sometimes it just seems off. And i am talking about the same camera, same settings, same tank lighting and same lightroom adjustments, just a different day--I need to be a better photographer)
Jason Fox Flame (close up)
Jason Fox Flame (under reefbrites)
watchguy123
New member
Thanks and Happy New Year, guys
More Metal halide only pictures. Sometimes even a green body can look pretty cool particularly when the tips add some exciting additional color.
watchguy123
New member
Pink Lemonade
watchguy123
New member
tdb320reef
Active member
Awesome corals and pictures thanks for sharing!
watchguy123
New member
Thanks guys, always appreciate the feedback
I got my triton results, I do this about once a year or so. Interesting findings. My hanna checker for ULR said my PO4 were about .054 ppm (converted from phosphorous 17 ppm) but triton said almost undetectable. And triton found that Silicate was high and my Iodine low.
biggles
Premium Member
I'd be happy with those results Mark, nothing crazy out of whack like my test showed a few months back. Looking at the rocks and the acros in your awesome pics i think Triton have the phos level correct and you could maybe do with a bit more - just a thought, you know a lot more about SPS than me mate 
Crazy pretty.........
Crazy pretty.........
watchguy123
New member
I'd be happy with those results Mark, nothing crazy out of whack like my test showed a few months back. Looking at the rocks and the acros in your awesome pics i think Triton have the phos level correct and you could maybe do with a bit more - just a thought, you know a lot more about SPS than me mate
Crazy pretty.........
I so much appreciate the comments. I have a couple pictures of it under metal halides only:
Z's Yellow Eyed Jawdropper
Z Yellow Eyed Jawdropper
Its interesting, I test phosphates reasonably regularly so I found it very surprising that Triton found my levels so low. Plus its hard to go by a once a year test versus one that is done once or twice a month. I think the Hanna ULR Phosphorous checker is precise and reasonably accurate but I don't know that for sure. The failing could be mine but I try to follow the directions for its use quite closely.
I am growing chaeto in my refugium fairly well, so I presume nitrates are adequate. I also presume that the lack of algae on my rocks and glass is a result of the chaeto outcompeting other algae. I have small areas of red turf algae (at least that is what I think it is) on my back glass and a small amount of bubble algae on that same area so again I presume nutrients are abundant enough and that perhaps my phosphate numbers are higher than triton suggests. I also have an emerald crab or two, lots of snails and blue legged hermit crabs which also feed on algae on the rockscape keeping it pretty clean. I have lots of Tangs but only a few graze persistently. But I am nonetheless in a quandry about keeping my GFO reactor running. I do find it a an absolute pain and quite time consuming to clean out a GFO reactor and then rinse it to rid it of fines.
metal halide only:
Z's Favorite
close up:
Z's Favorite
Reefbrites:
Z's Favorite
Z Favorite
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