Top down shots

[ECreefer]

I had originally been carbon dosing ,with a someone small amount of bio pellets (probably half the recommended dosage) when I had my previous skimmer (Bubble Magus Curve 5, rated for around 120g)

I wasn't actually having any algae problems then, and I had about 8 fish. Two of which being tangs. Then I upgraded the skimmer and added a few more fish, 1 extra tang and 2 wrasses. Been having a little bit of brownish hair algae and some odd green cyano, along with some red in spots. I have recently been brushing and blowing off the rocks and that has helped. But coralline growth has completely stopped for a few months now and it seems the growth on the sps has slowed a lot too. Any thoughts on this? Or maybe how to get things going back in the right direction?

 

[Big E]

That brownish algae and cyanos are temporary when there are changes or shifts. There could be a lot of different causes for everything though.

Most people start to chase this with chemicals or more changes and they end up going down a messy road.

Most of the time, things can be fixed by not overreacting and being patient.........if you want, you can send me a pm and I can help you work through it.

 

[sahin]

Ed, please post more eye candy when convenient. Love the quality of the shots and the colours on the acros. :beer:

 

[Wspangler]

ed, please post more eye candy when convenient. Love the quality of the shots and the colours on the acros. [emoji481]

+1

 

[vetdog]

What type of vinegar? White vinegar?

 

[Big E]

I stopped using vinegar two years ago, but it was regular white vinegar, 5% acidity.


I'll post some new pictures soon for those interested.

 

[mhucasey]

Your corals and results are amazing Ed! I'll be following along

 

[Big E]

Your corals and results are amazing Ed! I'll be following along

Thanks!

I guess I should update with some new pictures. I wanted to wait till I got the whole aquascape worked out but I got a bit sidetracked with other things...............here's a shot of the left side of the tank.

I tried a few cups of rubble for looks and I really liked the look but it trapped too much detritus causing cyano after about 6 weeks, so I took it out. I'm going to revisit ths down the road for some sort of substrate look.

I'm okay with a coralline coated bottom but everytime I get it looking good I get an explosion of those asternia starfish and they decimate the whole thing.......really irritating. I bought a linkia multiflora as linkias will eat the asternias. I'm not 100% sure if the multiflora will eat them but they are much hardier. So far I haven't seen him eat one, but he's only visible half the time during the day.

I've gone the harlequin shrimp route before but I didn't want to deal with feeding it long term.

Since that pic of the left side I have had to separate the colonies more as they got too big, so this left side of the tank has changed some. I'll update with a new picture soon.

 

[Big E]

Here's some recent branch type shots............my favorite type of pictures.

Hoeki

Red Planet

Caroliniana

Wild Rasberry

Aussie Ice Fire

Paletta

Purple Monster

Shortcake

 

[007Bond]

Hi Ed,...beautiful! What is the coral in the front tank shot (first pic),...far left against the wall,...in the pic it looks pink with blue tips. Thanks,---Rick

 

[mhucasey]

The Reds you are getting are totally amazing. That's one thing T5s seem to do better than all the other lighting types. That Paletta is amazing as well, I need to add that to my must find list!

 

[kc350twin]

Big E

Your corals never fail to impress me. Looking great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After looking back at some of my old photos and this thread I really think I want T5's again for sure. I PM'd you a bundle of questions and would like to get your thoughts if you have the time.

 

[markalot]

Thanks for the update, any time you want to post MORE is good. Brigning these to the new page.

Here's some recent branch type shots............my favorite type of pictures.

Hoeki

Red Planet

Caroliniana

Wild Rasberry

Aussie Ice Fire

Paletta

Purple Monster

Shortcake

 

[Big E]

The Reds you are getting are totally amazing. That's one thing T5s seem to do better than all the other lighting types. That Paletta is amazing as well, I need to add that to my must find list!

Thanks Matt.........the Coral+ bulb is what brings these bright pink and reds out, that's the spectrum part, but there's more to it............

There's a fine line between using 400-450 to make corals pop.....when there's too much it makes the tank look dark.

Overbearing blue that darkens the tank can effect in subduing what we see with our eyes. When the tank is bright you can see all the bright colors better......when the tank is darker we can only see with the rods and the rods only perceive grays & shadows. The cones in our eyes see the color. Greens yellow, orange can still be seen okay because the cone sare more highly sensitive to these colors.

The graph below shows our eye's sensitivity to color. You can see how much easier we see the green /yellow than say purple or red on the two extremes.
When your tank isn't brightly lit you can't see the colors or they are very muted. When you look at the graph don't think about the blue tank as much as it being dark or bright.

Eye light sensitivity graph by Big E 52, on Flickr


Anther part is the par and duration that we talked about in your tank thread. Long durations and too much par will lighten the reds to a washed out pink. Durations of more than 8 hours at peak levels can bleach or damage the coral

The last point which most serious Sps keepers are on board with, is you need some nutrients in the tank to achieve the deeper vivid colors.............or you're going to have to dump a whole lot of supplements back in to replenish what is stripped out by some of these turbo boosted export systems.

 

[Big E]

Hi Ed,...beautiful! What is the coral in the front tank shot (first pic),...far left against the wall,...in the pic it looks pink with blue tips. Thanks,---Rick

Hi Rick & thanks...........that's the Rainbow loripes/granulosa

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks Matt.........the Coral+ bulb is what brings these bright pink and reds out, that's the spectrum part, but there's more to it............

There's a fine line between using 400-450 to make corals pop.....when there's too much it makes the tank look dark.

Overbearing blue that darkens the tank can effect in subduing what we see with our eyes. When the tank is bright you can see all the bright colors better......when the tank is darker we can only see with the rods and the rods only perceive grays & shadows. The cones in our eyes see the color. Greens yellow, orange can still be seen okay because the rods are more highly sensitive to these colors.

The graph below shows our eye's sensitivity to color. You can see how much easier we see the green /yellow than say purple or red on the two extremes.
When your tank isn't brightly lit you can't see the colors or they are very muted. When you look at the graph don't think about the blue tank as much as it being dark or bright.

Anther part is the par and duration that we talked about in your tank thread. Long durations and too much par will lighten the reds to a washed out pink. Durations of more than 8 hours at peak levels can bleach or damage the coral

The last point which most serious Sps keepers are on board with, is you need some nutrients in the tank to achieve the deeper vivid colors.............or you're going to have to dump a whole lot of supplements back in to replenish what is stripped out by some of these turbo boosted export systems.

I'm with you on those points, I can't believe how many people think you have to have zero Nitrates in an SPS tank. I would love to know what happens to the spectrum of the Blue Plus and Coral Plus bulbs as they are overdriven, I know it makes them a bit whiter. Using a regular HO ballast a 1:1 C+ to B+ ratio is very blue. The mix of bulbs I am using right now have a spectrum that would be similar to the 1:1 C+ to B+ ratio if you turned up the brightness.

I get good reds, the info you gave is helpful for fine tuning. This is an un-retouched pic from last night of my red planet, using a light amber photo filter only:

 

[Big E]

kc350twi,

Thanks, pm'd you back........youre on the right track.

Thank you Mark........here's a few more.

Orange passion

Red Gecko

Cherry coral Rainbow table--

One of my mini projects..........Original Oregon Tort mounted on my Orange Turgescens colony. I'm looking forward to seeing this combo grow out.

 

[Big E]

A couple of progression shots---

Took over 1 1/2 years of cooking this wild table......this is when it started to look a little better.

to now.........Big E Superman Table

CC Highlighters on the left-- 01/11

Now, I think there's about 10-11 heads

Picked up this Fathead Dendro a few weeks back. It's easy to feed and the orange and yellow on it are insane

 

[mhucasey]

That Superman table is gorgeous! Was it just waiting that did the trick to get the blue tips, or did you change its placement or anything?

 

[Big E]

That Superman table is gorgeous! Was it just waiting that did the trick to get the blue tips, or did you change its placement or anything?

The blue tips are just new growth & yes, mostly waiting. The first pic is what I call "mild shutdown mode" in an acro. Total shutdown, I can't really see the polyps and the skin gets pale, which can lead to RTN eventually over night.

I did have to saw the bottom of that coral twice because it was doing the slow rtn from the bottom.

This happens with most wild corals I've gotten......sometimes they do good for a while ,encrust and then over months slowly shut down. They almost always brown out or change color.

I don't remember doing anything specific with it............just started doing better. It's been in my frag tank the whole time which is plumbed separately from my display.Other times I do move the frags around to try to promote some growth or polyp extension. Sometimes I'll dip them to see if that helps.

Here's another piece, I'm shocked, it's been one month shy of two years. I posted the vendors pic on 1/15/14 post#203.

It was bleached when I first got it in then to this-
3/12/14

6/1/15 moved it to display to higher level and new rock structure I was putting in. You can see it encrusted some but has been shutdown for months.

06/26/15- drastic color change in three weeks.

As of today it's encrusted a bit more but that's about it. I had to move it as I changed the structure. I'll try to post a current pic later today. Most of these type of frags I'll get on sale or cheap, which I don't mind experimenting with or waiting. Any that make it are a bonus.