TheOceanTraveler Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Started my day with your video. Sitting next to my tank. I actually looked from the video to my tank and was almost a little bummed. I quickly became motivated to get the big tank sorted out and set up sooner then later. Decided to go back to the original room divider location. Now to work the logistics. Keep up the great work growing my future frags. It was a great way to start the day. Very Zen music too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Started my day with your video. Sitting next to my tank. I actually looked from the video to my tank and was almost a little bummed. I quickly became motivated to get the big tank sorted out and set up sooner then later. Decided to go back to the original room divider location. Now to work the logistics. Keep up the great work growing my future frags. It was a great way to start the day. Very Zen music too. Just to give you perspective... I very much enjoyed your tank OceanTraveler. This is coming from an SPS guy who likes to strip his tank of nutrients. I very much enjoyed a softie focused tank as yours and the health of the corals is something to speak to. Running a more natural system without all the equipment and allowing nutrients to be a part of the system is refreshing. It's similar to what one previous member's ideology of natural systems were with no skimmer and some macro algae to export nutrients but his methodology and actual execution where just never on par IMO. Yours though, was impressive to say the least, as your corals seemed healthy and vibrant. I hope you kick back up your build thread on your current tank and start posting more pictures and videos. The RBTA in your tank was as healthy as I've ever seen one and I wish mine looked as happy in my tank... he'd probably sell his first born to move to your tank and get out of mine. [emoji23] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Lol Ty be like "it's alright guys, my tank is just awesome because it's so stable and I never change anything. Now watch me make massive changes to my overall bioload in a short period of time while adding a humongous UV sterilizer and also removing the largest ca and alk sucker in the tank. All at once. Best PE ever"I swear you keep a reef log on my tank to bust me when possible! Either that or you're really good at scanning my build thread backwards!Believe it or not, I lowered my CaRX dosing by increasing my pH level up 0.05 to anticipate the lack of uptake from the non-existent clam and my alk started to drop. This leads me to believe that in a system that in a normal mixed reef system, clams, especially giant ones, are usually the most alk/Ca hungry individuals in the tank, but in a dominant SPS tank, it's usage is high but the net usage in comparison to the SPS colonies is not that pronounced in comparison. I have a 14" long, 7" wide colony of warp speed monti that says it'll eat more Ca/alk in a day than my clam could. Be it known though... that the warp speed monti is kind of a jerk. Lol no back log or reverse reading. Just have a stupid good memory for specifics on stuff I'm interested in (ie reefing). I follow a couple tanks on RC just as closely, but those people I haven't actually met personally and bought frags from. Plus you're one of the quicker people to give thorough advice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Helps that you had my cell number too. [emoji14] How's the no skimmer experiment been treating you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I've actually been running no skimmer as well for 3 months now. I know I had been too aggressive on removing nutrients that were not there. My coral all seem very happy at the moment. I don't have fuzzy mustaches growing on my acros the way you do but you can at least tell that they started puberty. I probably won't start using my skimmer for a good while. Not at least until I want to start carbon dosing. I think Jonathan is having similar results. You can see in this picture here that even my acans have started to have polyp extension throughout the entire day and not just at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 That looks great Manny. I'm a big fan of T5 lighting! There's a reason I don't keep acans... they don't do too well in my SPS dominant tank. Do you guys still do water changes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 You know, when things started going downhill I went back to doing water changes and stopped dosing absolutely everything. I am now dosing Kalk again via ATO but have been doing 10 gallon WC every 2 weeks just for the hell of it. Then again, last WC was almost 4 weeks ago.[emoji15] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOceanTraveler Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thanks Ty, I do water changes about every two months. 10 gal. Have a little bag of carbon and do not dose anything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Helps that you had my cell number too. [emoji14] How's the no skimmer experiment been treating you? It's been just fine. I'm still thinking my acro trouble is somehow contamination related and not just simply excess or nutrient deficiency. There are some acros that are doing fine and have good color but no growth, and others are still dying as we speak. Certain locations on the rocks seem to be harder to keep populated as well. Maybe it was a bad batch of fresh shellfish, maybe it is the swollen and cracked magnets I keep getting (vortech first, now a probe holder). I kept my bio pellet reactor, sold the gfo and carbon reactor, but still have 1.5 gallons of both gfo and carbon left over as well as a full bag of unopened bio pellets in case I need these items again. I am doing 5% weekly water changes, and 10% at the first of the month (every 4th wc essentially). My radiums are now 1 yr old. I read such conflicting advice on bulb change schedule and even using a par meter won't measure spectral shift so I don't know. Some people claim that they're toast at 9 months and others claim they're still at 90% strength at the 18 month mark. I know it's near time to replace mine but I hate using the most expensive bulbs when I'm fairly short on sps. I don't want to switch to plusrites though because I'm worried that these 3.0 amp pulse start ballasts will cause them to explode. My xm bulbs would misfire regularly. Seems like really only DE bulbs, radiums, and aquaconnects are reliable on m80 ballasts. I hate to go drop several hundred bucks on new ballasts, or reflectors and muck up light stability even further. I digress though. This isn't my build thread lol You've got unreal polyp extension on some of those. What is that tiny frag with what looks like 1" of polyp extension? I see no skin or skeleton. Pure polyp fuzz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Way to bust out a patented Bpb reef tank soliloquy all over my build thread man! [emoji23] That pure polyp fuzz ball... believe it or not... is this mille I got from AquaSD. The one on the right. The one on the left has a bright pink base and translucent green polyps now. It's at the 4:05 mark on the video though the video is not the best with capturing the true colors of the coral. I can adjust white balance on pictures but with a video like that, I'm stuck with my initial white balance so the first shot basically sets it for the rest of the video. That's why some colors look crummy in some and great in others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I figured as much on the color. Sorry about the soap box. I tend to be long winded. Lol. That likely won't change. Folks will either accept and love it, or have me thrown out of the forum lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 If they threw people out for long-windedness... I'd be right behind you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Nice PE ty, that's the dream of every SPS keeper. Is it me, or is it getting a little hot in here watching that video? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Nice PE ty, that's the dream of every SPS keeper. Is it me, or is it getting a little hot in here watching that video? Is it the 400-watt MHs? A chiller helps a lot Gig'em! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 psssshhhh, I'm only under LEDs over here. No chiller needed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 psssshhhh, I'm only under LEDs over here. No chiller needed What is this LED business people keep talking about? I'm going home now and watch my favorite VHS tape, ET and then play some Pitfall on my Atari while wearing my slap bracelet and listening to MC Hammer. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 She's purdy! I picked up this frag 7 months ago when I was last in Houston and just stuck it to my frag rack and walked away. Nice little surprise there... she's turning into a real beauty. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 I swear if Ty ever switches to leds it will be the end of the earth. It's more likely he will get out of coral and run a fowlr first. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 "Hi, my name is Ty, and not only is my aquarium so much better than yours that everything is spawning all the time with great PE, but I discard random frags in my sump and they not only survive, but turn into gorgeous designer coral colonies! Weeeeheeeeheeeehehehe!" 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 8, 2015 Author Share Posted April 8, 2015 "Hi, my name is Ty, and not only is my aquarium so much better than yours that everything is spawning all the time with great PE, but I discard random frags in my sump and they not only survive, but turn into gorgeous designer coral colonies! Weeeeheeeeheeeehehehe!" Hit me in the soft spot man. Now I'll have to reprogram my automatic skimmer neck cleaner to wipe the tears off my face... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Not only do I preach stability I also change major parts so quick it'll make your head spin. Remove all my fish. Fire up then shut down then fire up my bio pellet reactor, add a uv sterilizer that I "borrowed" off a commercial water treatment plant, add all my fish again, remove a giant clam, mess with reactors again, hold corals up with chopsticks. It would crash any mere mortals tanks but not mine. My coral grow like weeds and have more color than roses. Can you keep up with me this week Weeeeeeeheeeeeheeeehehehe!!!!!!!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 I'm loving this lol. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 8, 2015 Author Share Posted April 8, 2015 Hmmm... I'm guessing this would be a bad time to bring up this guy, wouldn't it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Oh and I forgot, I also change return pumps from a reeflo to a sicce and cut my turnover in half, remove a 20lb turkey size mass of cheato and accidentally leave my lights on my easy bake oven on all night trying to burn my coral and the color and pe just gets better. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 8, 2015 Author Share Posted April 8, 2015 Jeez, if I was to ever produce cliff notes to my build thread, I should probably consult you guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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