Brooks Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Well, I've got some pictures of my Goniopora that are budding. Currently, there are 4 buds that are getting bigger and bigger! Hopefully, I can sell some of these so I can continue to buy more for my aquarium. I will post pictures later of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 Well, the reef is coming along great! I've added a new Bird's Nest coral, and it's doing excellent. Thank you RCA for the amazing selection of corals. I just did around 7 hours of work at our ranch cutting down Cedar tree's for $8 per hour. So I'm going to be making another stop by Aquatek or RCA VERY soon! Now I'm going to try and find a job at one of the local pet stores. Hopefully one of the good LFS'. The baby Gon's look like they're ready to come off any time now! Let me know if you're interested in one. They're green and you can find a picture of the mother colony around here on some of the forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prof Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Any pictures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 Post some pictures so we can see your progress. I forgot to ask....how long have you had your setup running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted February 28, 2009 Author Share Posted February 28, 2009 Hey everyone I'm not at my computer right now, but when I get home I'll post some pictures. It's been up for 2 years 1 month. -Brooks- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted February 28, 2009 Author Share Posted February 28, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted February 28, 2009 Author Share Posted February 28, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted February 28, 2009 Author Share Posted February 28, 2009 Recently added livestock: Tri-Color Acropora (Courtesy of Mrs. Cindy) Green Bird's Nest (Courtesy of RCA) Added 1 week ago. Orange Plate Coral, I believe that's what it is. (Courtesy of Mrs. Cindy) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ACampbell Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 Hey LR, these last few comments should have been new blogs entries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 2, 2009 Author Share Posted March 2, 2009 Heya, ARC! Alright, so today I added all new lighting. Upon purchasing the bulbs, they gave us 46' instead of 48'. We had to redo the canopy. Also, my dad thought it'd be nice if he added 1 yellow k6,700, however it doesn't look that great with the yellow spectrum. I'm going back to the store tomorrow and getting one more Actinic to bring out the neon colors a little bit more. So I will be going with 2 T5 46' Actinic, and 2 T5 46' k18,000 "Super Bright" bulbs. It seems as though everyone is adjusting to the new lighting well. Within 15 minutes of turning them on, my LTA opened up nearly to full size. It's pretty late right now, so I'll upload some FTS tomorrow afternoon after I acquire the other Actinic. I'm using the API Reef Kit to test my water parameters. I've gotten my Calcium back up to around 400 over the past 24 hours by doing a little drip system. FTS tomorrow!!! Goodnight ARC, ~Brooks~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 Still haven't gotten the last Actinic bulb! It should come in Thursday or Friday. Sorry for the not-so-bright colors... I hate yellow lighting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 Also, looking for some cheap live rock... I'm lacking quite a bit. Need another 20-40 lbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hey Brooks.......is the 3rd picture your sump/refugium? You need some macro algae and more rubble...... I think I got some of both in a tank where we use to house a peacock mantis shrimp. His tank is running still and there's some macro for your sump if you want it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 Woke up this morning to find my anemone laying dead, colorless, guts spilling out. And to my suprise, my tricolor acro fell directly in front of it. Before it died, it seemed to have left quite a nasty mark on the frag.. Hopefully it'll make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 I'd love some if it's available :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 5, 2009 Author Share Posted March 5, 2009 The Tri-Color seems to be doing a little bit better... some of the zooanthellae is being shown again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 8, 2009 Author Share Posted March 8, 2009 So, previously I posted that I had an anemone sting my Tri-color Acropora and my Orange Plate Coral (Montipora I believe.) Well, upon their recovery, I've noticed a nice amount of the zooanthellae coming back into the Acro, and a tiny bit coming back into the Plate. Yesterday, I completed a 15% water change, and my parameters are the following: Nitrate - 5 ppm Nitrite - Undetectable Ammonia - Undetectable Phosphate - Undetectable kH - 12 (214.8) ppm Calcium - 480 ppm Salinity - 1.026 Temperature - 80-82 Recently ran out of Mg test solution, so I'll have that posted ASAP. Today, I added a new Purple Plasma; purchased from River City. (Thanks to them!) A couple of days ago, I re-arranged the rock work in my tank. I found the way they were positioned before didn't really create a good looking or healthy SPS coral environment. Pictures: New Coral ^ P.S. - If you're wondering what the large mesh net is over the Goniopora, it's to keep the clowns out until I get another host anemone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindside Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 its actually a purple plasma. i sold it to you today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 8, 2009 Author Share Posted March 8, 2009 Oh ) I had already forgotten the name. THanks for the update! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 14, 2009 Author Share Posted March 14, 2009 Finally added some blue and purple to my tank! Picked up some Northern Lights, and a Blue Hairy Milli from J_G yesterday! Most helpful guy, beautiful tank, exceeded expectations on what I would receive for what I payed. I got about 6" of each for $25. Granted I was only supposed to receive 3", he was kind enough to spare me a little extra! Pictures are coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 I finally got my metal halide! It's a 250w, and the bulb is a 15,000k XM. The colors are AMAZING! I've never seen such a pretty shade of purple, blue, and white. I've already seen longer polyp extension from every single one of my SPS corals. Though I don't have a fan for them, the temperature seems to stay at 86. If I can figure out how to get the colors accurate on my D70 I'll upload some pictures! Thanks so much to Mr. Dave! (dapettit) :) B) B) B) :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 86 is your tank temp, or bulb temp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 Tank temp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewT Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 86 is way too high i think 82 would be max most reef tanks are bout 78-82 i believe. At about 84 stuff will begin to die Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 You gotta drop that temp! - Get it at least down to 84.. don't let it swing more than 2 degrees/day (high to low) though. But - drop it. 84 for long term is actually going to be unsafe. (things metabolize way too fast at that temp, and an enclosed system will become metabolically unstable). Check out the depths your corals live at in the wild, and then at those depths the Ocean is much cooler than at the very surface, because almost all of the IR (heat) band of solar radiation is filtered out as it passes through the first few feet (before it reaches any depth corals grow at). This is where you get to learn electronics. Build a temp controller. maybe check out OZ REEF's plans under DIY, or get a pre-built one from a commercial entity. But - consider this, if you don't know electronics, now is possibly the greatest time for you to learn. GFI everything you do near that tank! For cooling: Bigger fans run way quieter, turn much slower and move much more air (and cost less to replace) than little ones. A large fan slowly blowing air across the top of the tank water will do much more cooling per dollar electricity than a chiller unit. - And you can hide the fan...you just got to get your carpentry skills up and build the canopy around the fan unit. For instance - you seen those fans we use? They are Lasko 14 dollar window fans you can get at any Lowes/ Home Depot. And they keep our system at a cool 80.5 all the time - even with the 800 watts of Halide and 120 watts T5's running only 11 inches off the water. They are cheap to replace too - 14 dollars when they give out (about once every 1-1/2 yrs is average so far). And so I think even one of these may lower your tank's temp - even on it's slowest setting. (they are 3 speed window fans). The trick is - you got to hook them to some kind of temp controller or else they will run all the time and you don't want that either. So the 1st item is to acquire some kind of temp controller. What you have it control is up to you. If you need help building a canopy to support/hide a fan - I got the tools table saws, drills, etc.. Wood/screws is cheap. --Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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