Top down shots

[Big E]

Ed,

When you say that soft skin do not need much par, but to have an idea how much par would be their sweet spot? I know we are not to base decisions based in par measurements but just to have an idea of their range.

I just realized that there is some light blockage from the aquascaping I have in my tank. I have an island of rocks in one side and that blocks light in an area of the tank.
Is it posible that you post some pictures of your whole dt, so we can se your aquascaping?
is you aquascaping low in all areas. how have you arranged it to avoid light blocking?

Thanks a lot

200-250 is the range that creates the best colors and growth will be fine. Even up to 300 should be ok.
They can handle higher par but the colors become more pastel and in some cases washed out. I prefer the deeper colors.
These are general guidelines from my experiences.

It's more important to just use your eyes instead of placing a coral at a specific par and expect vivid colors..........it's why I said just to use levels of 2 or 3 sections Each coral species will have different demands.

Some examples of smooth skins at those levels--

caroliniana by Big E 52, on Flickr

Ice fire 110616 by Big E 52, on Flickr

hawkins 051113 by Big E 52, on Flickr

Joker- R032717 by Big E 52, on Flickr

The display has racks at the mid level approx 350 for most of the other corals now so seeing that won't do much for you to see aquascaped corals.

 

[biecacka]

Ed, about where is your hawkins in the tank, and what is the estimated par there?

Corey

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Ed, what's that last coral?
Do you have a top down of it?

 

[eastlake]

Man....... Your corals are just downright amazing

 

[Aslam Abraham]

If you want to go with that combo you may want to use the Geismann Super Actinic as it has higher par values than the ATI actinic.

I'm not sure how much that will change the actual coral colors directly under the actinic bulbs. It will definately change the overall ambient view to your eyes. Remember each bulb only has about a 4" width of actual usable spectrum for the corals.

You could also try 4 blue+ and two coral+. That would add more 400-450nm.
versus just having a large peak of 420nm with actinic. It will make yellow, orange and green pop more. You'll lose some pink, purple and blue pop visually.

For example it will be harder to see the purple polyps of a upscales microclados and blue tips of corals won't look as intense.

These are subtle characteristics that you'll notice when you swap out the bulbs.
Front to back--
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+

I ran this for 6 months on my frag tank as I ran short on coral+ bulbs and decided to experiment.

The frags still have a long way to grow into colonies.
Am I better of sticking with the 3blue+ and 3 coral +.
Also wanted to ask your no3 and p04 values.
As always, thanks for your input.
Much appreciated.

 

[Big E]

Ed, about where is your hawkins in the tank, and what is the estimated par there?
Corey

Approx. 200..........I've seen some Hawkins that were high up in tanks and they had pastel/washed out colors. The growth patterns were also scraggly instead of the tight growth you see in the colony picture.

Man....... Your corals are just downright amazing

Thanks!

The frags still have a long way to grow into colonies.
Am I better of sticking with the 3blue+ and 3 coral +.
Also wanted to ask your no3 and p04 values.
As always, thanks for your input.
Much appreciated.

All I can say is that equal alternating ratio of coral+ & blue+ is what I have used for 5+ years and I'm happy with it.

Adding some extra blue or violet 400-450nm could be nice for supplementation down the road. That is more for ambient viewing type tastes. There's always going to be trade offs in certain colors as I mentioned in the other post.
------------------------------

I like to use P04 at .02-.11 ppm and N03 at .25- 5ppm as ballpark range target. This will keep pest algae at bay and offer good growth and color for a wide range of acro species.

You also want to keep a good ratio between the two. From what I’ve tracked about 100-1 nitrate to phosphate seems common in a lot of successful Sps tanks with long term success. This is just a rough guideline, but does offer another data point for success.

Avoid the skewed levels or reverse readings.

Make your goal to have a “high energy” reef…….plenty of fish food going in and an efficient export system to stay in the range of those numbers.

Also keep in mind it’s not all in the test numbers. For example, a 100g tank with six fish and P04 of .03 will have a higher degree of success than a 100g tank with 3 fish and a Po4 of .03.

Last time I checked,
Frag tank—Po4- .07 No3- 2.5ppm
Display-- P04-.07 No3- 5ppm

Growth in the display tank is much more explosive and I doubt it’s the slight difference in the nitrate numbers and more to the fact I feed the display more food and have a lot more fish.

This goes back to what I mentioned about the 100g system phosphate example and trying to have a high energy system.

Basically I'm saying to stay in the "ballpark", have a reasonable number of fish, keep them fat and a happy and the corals will be the same.

 

[Big E]

Hey Ed, what's that last coral?
Do you have a top down of it?

That's Battle Corals The Joker--

Since all previous shots are gone I'll do a growth/update sequence of pics.

Joker R 032013 by Big E 52, on Flickr

Joker R 081613 by Big E 52, on Flickr

Joker R 092414 by Big E 52, on Flickr

Joker R 120115 by Big E 52, on Flickr

Joker R 032717 by Big E 52, on Flickr

The last pic is from March I'll try to take a new one. It has taken off in the last year or so, which is common once corals become some type of legit colony. I think it's about 3.5" in diameter now. it's not the fastet grower but I also remember some rough patches of slow growth when it was small.

 

[reefmutt]

Cool! Thanks, Ed. Love the dark purple body with bright green tips.

 

[sensei]

Approx. 200..........I've seen some Hawkins that were high up in tanks and they had pastel/washed out colors. The growth patterns were also scraggly instead of the tight growth you see in the colony picture.



Thanks!



All I can say is that equal alternating ratio of coral+ & blue+ is what I have used for 5+ years and I'm happy with it.

Adding some extra blue or violet 400-450nm could be nice for supplementation down the road. That is more for ambient viewing type tastes. There's always going to be trade offs in certain colors as I mentioned in the other post.
------------------------------

I like to use P04 at .02-.11 ppm and N03 at .25- 5ppm as ballpark range target. This will keep pest algae at bay and offer good growth and color for a wide range of acro species.

You also want to keep a good ratio between the two. From what I've tracked about 100-1 nitrate to phosphate seems common in a lot of successful Sps tanks with long term success. This is just a rough guideline, but does offer another data point for success.

Avoid the skewed levels or reverse readings.

Make your goal to have a "œhigh energy" reef"¦"¦.plenty of fish food going in and an efficient export system to stay in the range of those numbers.

Also keep in mind it's not all in the test numbers. For example, a 100g tank with six fish and P04 of .03 will have a higher degree of success than a 100g tank with 3 fish and a Po4 of .03.

Last time I checked,
Frag tank"”Po4- .07 No3- 2.5ppm
Display-- P04-.07 No3- 5ppm

Growth in the display tank is much more explosive and I doubt it's the slight difference in the nitrate numbers and more to the fact I feed the display more food and have a lot more fish.

This goes back to what I mentioned about the 100g system phosphate example and trying to have a high energy system.

Basically I'm saying to stay in the "ballpark", have a reasonable number of fish, keep them fat and a happy and the corals will be the same.

Ed,
how many times per day are you feeding the fish in your dt?
mostly frozen food?

if PO4 is lower than 0.02, would you say that the idea would be to feed more until you are in that ballpark range?

 

[Big E]

Jorge,

Per our offline talks, zero with your Hannah 713 is likely actually around .07-.08ppm. If you're getting algae on the window every 3-4 days and the corals look good your P04 isn't zero.

Most of the time I feed frozen natural foods........raw scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels, Hikari ocean plankton, PE mysis. Occasionally Ocean nutrition frozen formulas 1 & 2.........flakes and pellets(NLS)

I throw the food in 3-4 times a day.

 

[sensei]

Thanks Ed,

a couple of days each month I have seen my tank water cloudy, one of the days I spotted a snail sprawing. Is this good or bad for the tank?

2.-when you have a frag or a colony that does not recieve light in the lower parts because of other branches blocking the light, would this cause some of the parts of the coral to die?

thanks again

 

[sensei]

Ed, another question,

I believe you dose two part 7 times per day with your dosing pump.
is not better to dose more times in lower doses?
since it is an automatic dosing pump you can dose 20 times per day and forget about it, so I just want to know if there is a reason why 7 times per day and not more?

 

[Pife]

Man I really hate Photobucket!

 

[Big E]

RC created an edit function to add back the photos, so I'll try to do that with what I can remember from my past posts to fix the thread as best possible.

 

[Big E]

Thanks Ed,

a couple of days each month I have seen my tank water cloudy, one of the days I spotted a snail sprawing. Is this good or bad for the tank?

2.-when you have a frag or a colony that does not recieve light in the lower parts because of other branches blocking the light, would this cause some of the parts of the coral to die?

thanks again

Snail spawns are harmless and probably a food source short term.

2. From my experiences I've had dead spots underneath due to flow being blocked more than no light. No light usually shows up pale or light brown but the skin is still intact.
-------------------------------------

Dosing--- My doser has set up options for 4,6,8,12 times per day so I just choose the one that fits at least 10mls for each dose for dosing pump accuracy.

When I was hand dosing alk I did up to 25mls per dose without issue.

 

[sensei]

Ed,

with ALk the 10ml dose minimum works well, how about Ca??
how many ml do you dose? how do you have your dosing pump adjusted for Ca dosing (how many times per day)?

which two part brand do you use?

how do you interpret the ORP value in your tanks?

What are the ORP values in your qt and dt?

I changed the way I prepare and store salt water about 1 months ago. now I use freshly prepared salt water, I just store for 2 days the most and my ORP values have gone up everytime I make my WC; before I used to have salt water prepared for 3 weeks.

thanks again

 

[JonezNReef]

When I was hand dosing alk I did up to 25mls per dose without issue.

This is what I do at the moment. I dose about 25ml Cal in the morning and about 25ml Alk at night. I precisely measure with my turkey baster and add each dose all at once.

 

[juano908]

Jorge,



Per our offline talks, zero with your Hannah 713 is likely actually around .07-.08ppm. If you're getting algae on the window every 3-4 days and the corals look good your P04 isn't zero.



Most of the time I feed frozen natural foods........raw scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels, Hikari ocean plankton, PE mysis. Occasionally Ocean nutrition frozen formulas 1 & 2.........flakes and pellets(NLS)



I throw the food in 3-4 times a day.

Hi Ed,
First of all congrats on the good work you are doing, you have an amazing tank.

I'm having the same problem in my tank with the Hanna Po4 checker reading 0 but I have hair algae on my rocks and have to clean the DT glass around every 3 days.

Which Po4 test kit do you recommend or because of the algae I won't be able to get a reading not matter what test kit I use?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Big E]

Ed,

with ALk the 10ml dose minimum works well, how about Ca??
how many ml do you dose? how do you have your dosing pump adjusted for Ca dosing (how many times per day)?

I set the dosing levels the same for both.


which two part brand do you use?

Randy's two part--- I use baking soda (alk) and dow flake or Peladow (calc). If you want a more pure form of calcium chloride you can use BRS.


how do you interpret the ORP value in your tanks?

What are the ORP values in your qt and dt?

I don't pay attention to ORP levels

 

[Big E]

Hi Ed,
First of all congrats on the good work you are doing, you have an amazing tank.

I'm having the same problem in my tank with the Hanna Po4 checker reading 0 but I have hair algae on my rocks and have to clean the DT glass around every 3 days.

Which Po4 test kit do you recommend or because of the algae I won't be able to get a reading not matter what test kit I use?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, the Hannah 736 is the most accurate for reading low levels.

Nitrate levels also have an impact on algae growth, probably more so than PO4.

If the algae is something a clean up crew will eat, then get an army of snails.
Astreas, Trochus and Mexican turbos work well for me. They generally won't eat long strands..........you have to manually scrub those down. It's best to pull the rock for manual scrubbing.

Once the rock is cleaned up and a good clean up crew is in place, try to baste the rocks occasionally to keep the detritus from building up and fueling algae.