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FarmerTy's 215 gallon - No Water Changes SPS Tank


FarmerTy

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So that its not just macro shots of frags all day. There is a real display that those frags sit in. [emoji16]

Oh, and a picture of the Colorado Sunburst because it was looking mighty special last night.e708af7f897250bc8ba694c426b624f4.jpga83559f5008459a2322466995e91f3b4.jpg8ef00fe63dc786c32d3efccab41d4537.jpg

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Okay, that wasn't a long reprieve from the macro shots!

These are all actinic shots, how I see them in my frag tank, which is impossible to take a picture of until I got the new camera setup and filter.

Nikon D5300 with Tamron 90mm macro, Avast Marine look down tube with an orange filter all under full actinics.

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Is #8 the ORA Bellina?  Either way, that's a super nice acro!

Yes it is! That's your baby under actinics! Pretty fun to play with the filter and show others what the frags look like under actinics.

 

Just for those shopping frags these days online, keep in mind there is this whole sect of blue light only r eefers that look at their tanks 90% of the time under heavily blue light. So when you see photos like the ones above from a vendor, he may be trying to sell to those guys so don't expect these same colors in your tank if you view your tank under what I call, normal light, 12k to 14k light. This applies to like 99% of the rainbow tenuises you see these days that are so popular.

 

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Some frags that are stewing away in the frag tank. I was testing out the polarizing filter on the camera lens... Works pretty well to get rid of all that glare. It won't get rid of the LED diode reflections because they are too intense and single point but did a good job on just general glare.

I think I'm really liking this associative hobby of photography.
3b8f9b23183ffa7728191797275c5a35.jpg

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Really can't wait til I get colors like those...and photos looking good! My buddy who has a 180g is a photographer on the side and I really want to get into it one day...but dang some of his equipment cost more than my tank. Not sure how many hobbies the wife will let me have... 

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Really can't wait til I get colors like those...and photos looking good! My buddy who has a 180g is a photographer on the side and I really want to get into it one day...but dang some of his equipment cost more than my tank. Not sure how many hobbies the wife will let me have... 
Thanks bud! Are you still running the modified black box fixtures? I had great success with my Ocean Revive ones over the years. That'll at least take care of the lighting part of it... The rest is in the stability and enough nutrients (but not too much) to have them nicely colored up.

Yeah, photography is expensive! Luckily, I got a used camera, used macro lenses, and used standard lenses for a reasonable price.

Now its just free to snap and edit photos all day... At least I tell myself that.
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10 hours ago, FarmerTy said:

Thanks bud! Are you still running the modified black box fixtures? I had great success with my Ocean Revive ones over the years. That'll at least take care of the lighting part of it... The rest is in the stability and enough nutrients (but not too much) to have them nicely colored up.

No I think they were my main problem. I'm going your route and doing T5s... with maybe a reef brite or something similar down the road to supplement and get a little more of that ripple effect. Did a 4 bulb ati retrofit kit from BRS (actinic, 2 blue plus, 1 coral plus). Only 2 bulbs running so far cuz of a bulb casualty during shipment... but I'm already liking it a lot.

Saw they had led t5 bulbs... any experience with those? 

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No I think they were my main problem. I'm going your route and doing T5s... with maybe a reef brite or something similar down the road to supplement and get a little more of that ripple effect. Did a 4 bulb ati retrofit kit from BRS (actinic, 2 blue plus, 1 coral plus). Only 2 bulbs running so far cuz of a bulb casualty during shipment... but I'm already liking it a lot.
Saw they had led t5 bulbs... any experience with those? 


Nice! Look into the SBREEF actinic bars for ripple effect, much cheaper and honestly, the fixture itself looks much better while still punching out decent color and par as a supplement.

I like the bulb combo you are running, I'd do the same if it was my tank.

I never used the LED T5s but the consensus I found online was skip over them. Things may have changed since I researched them a couple years ago but I didnt even bother with them.
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Haven't made an update video in a long time. It seemed like the perfect time to do one since its been about a year since I upgraded houses and had to move my established SPS tank.

There were ups and downs during the first year, dinos, cyano enough to blanket everything in a maroon wonderland, red flatworms so dense it looked like cyano, red turf algae, a weird November where I saw unending STN and lost some stuff, marine velvet episode that killed 2/3rd of my fish population... This time from a dipped frag of all things... And so I say with much relief, that after a long first year... Made longer because I had my first kid at roughly the same time we moved so I was introduced to parenthood and sleepless nights... That I'm happy the tank has made it to where it has today.

A lot of thanks goes to local friends that helped a sleep deprived guy who didn't even know which way was up or down move. Continued thanks to friends that helped me cut a hole in the wall for me to build an in-wall setup and frame up cabinet doors and add a bar to it.

Even those that couldn't physically help, the support given in the forums was amazing and pushed me to carry forward through the lack of sleep and exhaustion after taking care of a newborn and moving houses in the same month. It seems ridiculous looking back that it took 4 months to aquascape and only really 3 months ago did I really start to glue down corals permanently. I'm actually still working on the right of the scape as I still need to glue corals on that side of the rock. You'll see in the video the area I quickly glossed over as its just bare rock... Think of it as an blank canvas. [emoji16]

Anyways, I'll wrap it up. Thanks all for your support through the first year of my new tank at the new house with the new baby. I couldn't have done it without you! Here's the video!

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Haven't made an update video in a long time. It seemed like the perfect time to do one since its been about a year since I upgraded houses and had to move my established SPS tank.

There were ups and downs during the first year, dinos, cyano enough to blanket everything in a maroon wonderland, red flatworms so dense it looked like cyano, red turf algae, a weird November where I saw unending STN and lost some stuff, marine velvet episode that killed 2/3rd of my fish population... This time from a dipped frag of all things... And so I say with much relief, that after a long first year... Made longer because I had my first kid at roughly the same time we moved so I was introduced to parenthood and sleepless nights... That I'm happy the tank has made it to where it has today.

A lot of thanks goes to local friends that helped a sleep deprived guy who didn't even know which way was up or down move. Continued thanks to friends that helped me cut a hole in the wall for me to build an in-wall setup and frame up cabinet doors and add a bar to it.

Even those that couldn't physically help, the support given in the forums was amazing and pushed me to carry forward through the lack of sleep and exhaustion after taking care of a newborn and moving houses in the same month. It seems ridiculous looking back that it took 4 months to aquascape and only really 3 months ago did I really start to glue down corals permanently. I'm actually still working on the right of the scape as I still need to glue corals on that side of the rock. You'll see in the video the area I quickly glossed over as its just bare rock... Think of it as an blank canvas. [emoji16]

Anyways, I'll wrap it up. Thanks all for your support through the first year of my new tank at the new house with the new baby. I couldn't have done it without you! Here's the video!


Man. Tanks beautiful.

I thought I was through the new tank ooglies, but just got the blanket of red/green cyano on my sand bed and rocks. It seems like my tank went from diatoms to white bacteria bloom to cyano now ha.

Did you just ride it out? My no3 is now at 5ppm and po4 is 0, keeping GFO new and fresh every 2-3 wks. I can blast it off with a baster easily, but when I try to siphon the sand the mats are so heavy most gets pushed under substrate.


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Man. Tanks beautiful.

I thought I was through the new tank ooglies, but just got the blanket of red/green cyano on my sand bed and rocks. It seems like my tank went from diatoms to white bacteria bloom to cyano now ha.

Did you just ride it out? My no3 is now at 5ppm and po4 is 0, keeping GFO new and fresh every 2-3 wks. I can blast it off with a baster easily, but when I try to siphon the sand the mats are so heavy most gets pushed under substrate.




Thanks Marc! I tried riding it out for a long time but with my spotty husbandry these days with the kiddo, I gave up on that after 2 months and blasted it with chemiclean. Usually cyano and most algaes will resolve themselves after the tank is stable and good husbandry practices are kept (including manual removal when possible) but I shortcutted it with the chemiclean and got what I deserved when dinos sprouted in its place, which is way worse!

Check out this flashback video of the cyano party in my tank!

This was 2 months after moving!

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Thanks Marc! I tried riding it out for a long time but with my spotty husbandry these days with the kiddo, I gave up on that after 2 months and blasted it with chemiclean. Usually cyano and most algaes will resolve themselves after the tank is stable and good husbandry practices are kept (including manual removal when possible) but I shortcutted it with the chemiclean and got what I deserved when dinos sprouted in its place, which is way worse!

Check out this flashback video of the cyano party in my tank!

This was 2 months after moving!

Haha thats pretty much what mines looking like except its dark green.

Im pondering using chemiclean or not. I think ill try and wait it out and mechanically filter out what I can for at least a few weeks.

Its just so **** ugly.
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Haha thats pretty much what mines looking like except its dark green.

Im pondering using chemiclean or not. I think ill try and wait it out and mechanically filter out what I can for at least a few weeks.

Its just so **** ugly.
I here ya! Maybe you will have more patience than me and not run chemiclean and curse yourself with dinos!

Reefing should have a 2nd rule of reefing... 1st rule is of course don't talk about how much you paid for things with your significant other, but the 2nd rule of reefing should be nothing in your first year counts. The awesomeness ticker only starts at year 2. [emoji41]
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I here ya! Maybe you will have more patience than me and not run chemiclean and curse yourself with dinos!

Reefing should have a 2nd rule of reefing... 1st rule is of course don't talk about how much you paid for things with your significant other, but the 2nd rule of reefing should be nothing in your first year counts. The awesomeness ticker only starts at year 2. [emoji41]
Guess the follow up question is... how did you get rid of the dinos lol? How long did that take?

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Guess the follow up question is... how did you get rid of the dinos lol? How long did that take?

Oh jeez... Dinos are the devil... Off/on about 2-3 months via all sorts of different methods. Hydrogen peroxide dosing, running my giant UV 24/7, skimming wet, fed even more, and adding an oxydater. I'm sure it was a combo of all things but it finally went away about 3 weeks ago. Hallelujah!
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