Bpb Posted July 10, 2013 Author Share Posted July 10, 2013 LOL looking at those pictures side by side that new rock is WHITE!! looks like I have a spotlight over it. Nope. I just have my 48" 4 bulb T5HO fixture and thats it. Hopefully the rocks darken up a bit soon. That looks funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 LOL looking at those pictures side by side that new rock is WHITE!! looks like I have a spotlight over it. Nope. I just have my 48" 4 bulb T5HO fixture and thats it. Hopefully the rocks darken up a bit soon. That looks funny. i like it to. it's interesting with a lot of nooks and crannies. i can't argue with the WHITE, though. i'm not sure about the coloring up. there's a lot of rock in there to seed it. also, as you add coral it should help. just cover it up . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobR Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Looks good. 55's are very tough to aquascape just cause you don't have a whole lot of room front to back to work with. I like the new look! Those whiterocks will color up in no time, although it is pretty bright right now But hey you could always look at it as an excuse to add more corals..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted July 10, 2013 Author Share Posted July 10, 2013 I went ahead and put some sps here an there around the new rocks. They slimed up like mad when I was moving them around but hopefully the colors get a bit better over the next weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted July 12, 2013 Author Share Posted July 12, 2013 New hot pink acans. Thanks Dustin! They're a tad bit bleached from being fragged and moved between three tanks in the last week, but I think they'll perk up in no time. They're absolutely beautiful. Even bleached lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted September 4, 2013 Author Share Posted September 4, 2013 Been a while since I've updated. Not much has changed in the way of gear on the tank. Only news is that I'm at full kalk saturation and it's just keeping up with demand. Those little acros sure do eat alot of calcium and alkalinity! I'll likely super saturate it with some vinegar and that will hold me off until I have to upgrade. Looks like 2 part dosing is in my future, but that means buying a multi channel dosing pump. yuck. Oh well. Whatever it takes to keep the tank looking good. Really haven't had any algae issues to speak of. Tiny amounts of bubble algae here and there but as one spot disappears it'll pop up elsewhere. Seems to be at a balance. Nutrients not quite poor enough to eradicate it totally, but I'm staying on top of it enough to keep it from becoming a nuisance. It seems to stick to the dark areas of the tank. Must have come in on a frag plug at some point. No cyano though, and just a bit of hair algae here and there. You gotta really look for it though. Anyway. Tough for me to notice growth until I look back at previous pictures. That bleached white new rock is nice and purple now. Don't know why the pictures have such a purple hue to them. Tank has more of a 20k crisp blue look. Sorry some of them are a little blurry. Iphone pics non edited. Don't know where the wife's dslr camera is. Enjoy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted September 4, 2013 Author Share Posted September 4, 2013 LOL and just for funsies. Here's some pics of the tank the day after I set it up. Sure has come a long way. This picture is from May 2012. Right when I got it. So from these pics, to the ones above, thats...15 or so months in the hobby. Time flies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 What an appropriate spot to update this post since the last post was from the day I set the tank up. Yikes! Looking back at those old pictures. Yuck. Look how bleached that favia is. It's almost white! Anyhow, Here is what has happened since September. I fragged ALOT of my SPS. They probably weren't ready to be fragged as they were all pretty tiny at the time, but I did anyway. I wanted to make some costly upgrades, and didn't want to spend work money on them. And...as you can all see my wife is NOT a member of ARC, so you can see where her priorities DON'T lie LOL. So, I like to use livestock sales to pay for tank upgrades. Probably not a unique move on my part, as that seems to be the norm for us folks who have bills to pay and mouths to feed. No big deal. Since fragging my sps, I made enough money to purchase a 1st generation APEX Aquacontroller used, with probes (and more other extras than I care to remember). Was a fantastic deal overall. Also, my calcium and alkalinity consumption went WAY down when I removed half my stony coral load. As some of you may have been following, my apex sat in the closet for a good many months, as I was too intimidated to hook it up. I also modified a TLF Phosban 150 reactor and began running biopellets as well. I had a bit of nuisance algae, which doesn't bother me incredibly, but had pale corals, so I really wanted to increase my feeding to get better colors and growth, but i didn't want to increase my nuisance algae at the same time. Biopellets have been the perfect solution. I'm getting faster growth, and better color than I've yet had. I know organic carbon dosing is called "snake oil" by alot of people, and people have crashed tanks doing it, but it gets two thumbs up from me. I am not testing phosphate or nitrate, which I understand to be a no no, but instead I just feed feed feed, and then I feed some more. It's worked real well so far. I've also now got my apex controller hooked up. I'm still dosing full saturated kalkwasser, but am also depleting about 0.4 dKH a day, so just this very day I've brought on my two part dosing. I've been monitoring the relay outlets on the apex for 4 days now and the program works perfectly as it should. I slightly modified it today after watching my PH swing more than I would like. I'm going from about 7.6 during the dark hours, to 8.4 during the light hours, which is a LITTLE more than I'd like to swing, so I'll be limiting my 2-part dosing to my 15 hour dark cycle ONLY, and I'll see if that helps. I'm running calcium and alkalinity for one minute, every hour, 30 minutes apart of each other. You'll love my ghetto DIY dose line holder. It works though and it was free. I've also increased my fish load significantly. I have performed 3 no-nos that I'm sure some of you will jump on me about, but I expected that. I added 3 fish, which are in all caps, just to differentiate from the last update. Here's my current stock in order of addition Azure Damsel Clarkii Clown Pajama Cardinal Royal Gramma ORA SPOTTED/TARGET MANDARIN TOMINI TANG LEOPARD WRASSE It's a cozy stock but everyone has their "cave." nobody fights at all. Everyone eats. Nobody acts neurotic or paces frantically, and best of all, the leopard wrasse readily accepts prepared foods which I feed 2-3 times a day. All fish are disease free, calm, recognize me, get along, and are maintaining or gaining weight. I understand with such a small tank and ample supply of pod eaters, I have to supplement REGARDELSS of the fact that they eat prepared foods. I'm ok with that. I add a pod supplement at least once a month. Cheap? No, but it costs less than I spend in cat food (I've got about 50 pounds worth of cat in my house), and it allows me to keep the species I want to, so I'm ok with it. Ive also replaced most of my sandbed. It's now a mixture of Special grade, and Fiji Pink. It all holds still and doesnt blow around. Looks so much nicer than the crushed coral did. You can see I still have a small section of crushed coral to address, but I'll get to it, It's been a 2 month process going bit by bit, in order to not deplete my pods and bristleworms, and give them a chance to repopulate the new sand before taking more old out. Overall the entire sandbed was replaced in about 6 sessions over 3 months once it's all said and done. This sand is also new enough that I don't feel I'll need to rinse it significantly when I change tanks over in the next couple months so I consider that a good thing. Other misc upgrades, may not have mentioned I upgraded to a bubble magus curve5 skimmer. Love it. Though it hates epoxy and will overflow on the lowest setting for 4 days any time epoxy touches the water. That was a scary thing to discover. Also have a manifold running my reactors and return with a Sicce Syncra 3.0. I should have gotten a 4.0, and will likely do so very soon. Anyhow, at this point growth is inhibiting tank maintenance. I can't reach the sandbed in most spots now without breaking an acro or getting a little sting on my wrist from an anemone. So...I'm in the market for two things: A bigger tank (75 or 90 gallon), and LEDs (Kessils, or Reef Breeders, cant decide which yet). Tank parameters as of this morning are: Salinity 1.026 Temperature 77.1 pH 7.81 Alkalinity 6.7 dKH Calcium 400 ppm Magnesium 1250 ppm Without further adieu, here are some pics. They're unedited iphone pics so bear with me, the colors may not be accurate. I run 3 Blue + 1 Coral + as my combo. For the pics I am only using one Blue+ and the Coral+. It looks ALOT whiter and more natural in person. Some of you will notice that the majority of my tank is stocked from ARC member frags, so If you've sold me frags, there's your stuff! Fish are so hard to capture, especially ones as active as a leopard wrasse. I chase him down and will take 30 pictures to get ONE that isn't a complete blur. She's not frantic or stressed, just very active. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 looking nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Thanks! SPS growth is alot like losing weight. You don't really notice it happening until you look at older pictures. Makes me debate if I should switch to LEDs or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 there are plenty of people who have switched to LEDs for SPS and had good results. I wouldn't let that drive your decision. but, it is your decision . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Looking good bud! I may recognize one or two corals in those pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Nice! Is that red thing your rbta? I covet your corals. When you come to see my new lights can you bring some frags? Even one polyp of whatever I don't have. I'll pay or trade if you see any zoas you like here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 By corals I meant zoas only of course lol. Though, I did buy a Ca+ test and I'm thinking of getting an rodi depending on the readings. My pink coraline algae came back when I dosed kent state coralvite. Can't wait for it to take over the purple and red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 Couple new snapshots. My favorite pictures are always end to end pics. This one really shows how little sandbed I have and how closely things are approaching the front glass. It's time to upgrade! Dustin and Manny upgraded. I'm jealous. I'll copy soon. Also came home to some bad news yesterday. My beautiful red digi had all of its polyps pulled in and was totally white. It's never done that before and I haven't added anything new. 4 theories. Damsel has taken up residence among its branches. Perhaps it's getting irritated. Next...increased photoperiod by one hour. Bigger heater. Temp now stays between 80-80.5 24/7, instead of fluctuating from 76 to 81 every day. I fail to see how that's a bad thing. Lastly. Perhaps the blue stag and red Millie are now close enough to have begun warfare. Some spots are within 1cm of touching. Today it looked a LITTLE better, but not how it's looked for the past year, with such good PE you can't even see any skeleton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Is pic 2 superman monti ? I've never seen a growth pattern like that ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Pedretti Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Ahhh...there's all my pretty acans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 Vic. Nope it's a plain orange/red digi. It's just the blue+ bulbs you see casting a blue hue on the white skeleton which the camera is picking up. I wish it were superman monti with digi growth. Dustin...cycle your tank first punk. Was hoping these would have grown enough to manage a single little frag from each. No luck but you'll definitely be happy to have them back. Sadly two of them actually look worse for the wear and I have no idea why. I need to decide if I'm gonna hunt down more acans, fill the space with zoas, leave it be, or maybe get a clam or two Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Pedretti Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Get a clam... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Really glad the digi is bouncing back. And yes! Get on with the upgrade bud. You are the more experienced reefer of the 3 of us and have the smallest tank:) either way I can't wait to see what you will have by the end of 2014. I predict something awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Its like we are ancient samurais and Dustin and I your pupils. He and I have the finest swords of the land to train with but you are using a hotdog instead of a sword to train us. Get er done sensai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Pedretti Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Haha!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 Lol I'm a lot more of a noob than you guys realize but thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 In other news, the digi has recovered fully. I wonder what would cause a two day long entire systemic polyp retraction like that., with nothing else affected Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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