BPB'S 90 GALLON SPS DOMINANT

[Manny]

You should show a picture update. And i still think they are true Hawaiian red people eaters.

[Bpb]

You should show a picture update. And i still think they are true Hawaiian red people eaters.

[Bpb]

First new Acro since the death wave of 2014. It's appropriate too because it is the base of my first Acro ever from my original tank. Looks nothing like I remember. It's seen about every type of lighting there is and been passed from tank to tank. It's not currently STN'ing like it appears. That's very old death it's growing back onto. I'll be excited to see what kind of colors I get with it this time around. It used to be pastel blue. Now it's got a dark almost cobalt blue/gray base and metallic green tips.

Tough to focus where I wanted. But a good sign none the less. Last bits left of purple meridiana looking healthy and actually encrusting now. Hard to see but definitely starting to cover the super glue.

Same deal here. Healthy portion of tricolor Valida I clipped a week ago. Encrusting over the glue rather quickly. Safe to say that STN is no longer systemic as based on these frags

Also acquired some very large fire and ice zoas. They're easily dime sized polyps which is huge for zoas. In the back are some fairy dust plays as well that are new. Common easy stuff but looks killer under actinics. Super bright.

Foxface is oozing with confidence now. Easily backs down the tang with threats of stab wounds and venom.

Parameters as of last test.

1.025 salinity

400 ppm calcium (Red Sea pro)

9.5 dkh (red sea pro)

1550 ppm mg (Red Sea pro)

Nitrate < 1 ppm (undetectable) (Elos)

Phosphate 0.015 ppm (5 ppb Hanna Ulr ppb meter)

78.8 degrees F (apex right this second)

8.16 ph (apex right this second)

I'm guessing 4-6 months without gfo now, one month without activated carbon, 2-3 months without bio pellets, skimmer set to lowest setting (zero skimmate production for 2 weeks), no water changes for one month.

Edited October 19, 2014 by Bpb

[Dustin Pedretti]

Lol I was wondering if you should re-name this thread...glad the acros are coming back

[Bpb]

Tell you what this thread was becoming misleading with all the bare rocks and softies. Hasn't been much of an sps dominated affair as advertised. Not for lack of trying

[Bpb]

Happy to follow up the previous report that things are indeed improving still. I've been steadily increasing my led intensity by 5% a week and will get to 100% eventually. I don't know that they're helping much with growth but I do like the blue illumination of shadows and they really give vibrancy to the softies and Lps. The effect is more pronounced at higher intensity as well. As in even during dawn/dusk ramp up and ramp down, the colors of fluorescence are more impressive at higher intensity.

I may or may not have posted this bit of lighting modification as well, but as we know, window screening has been a staple in metal halide par control and acclimation. I had intended to build some window. Screen panels that fit the tank rim to use for bulb changing and what not, but after moving a mind trick montipora frag up too high too fast and bleaching it, I went ahead and got that going a month or two ago. At Home Depot they had prefabricated window screens that fit my tank rim perfectly, so I purchased two and stacked them both for a month, then removed one. The look of the tank got significantly dimmer and the montipora as well as other species started to darken their colors a good amount.

As of last weekend the mind trick which I had presumed as dead, turned a corner and has developed a bold deep lavender color and the polyps are darkening to their ideal red. When the LEDs alone are on, the center starts to glow green so it's definitely on the mend. I removed the final screen so the lights are at full intensity. Noticeable growth spurt of sps in the last week.

Next step is to buy some S hooks and start lowering the halides closer to the water. I'm trying to get everything slowly acclimated to higher par levels because my next immediate goal is a bulb change.

Some of you may know, most probably don't, but my wife and I are expecting a baby girl this December. Won't be long now. That's important because I know I will be very very busy to say the least. I have two jobs, we have one son who is in high school, my wife is in nursing school and not working, so with all that plus a newborn, my funds and ability to do a lot of tank playing are about to be cut dramatically.

My goal now is to grow the tank out as quickly as I can. To do that, I'm honestly willing to sacrifice the "Radium look" in order to speed up growth. My growth is decent, but frankly I want better. I've decided to give XM10K bulbs a try and I'll be using my m80 ballasts. They're gonna over drive the bulbs heavily, putting upwards of 380 watts through each bulb and over 180 ppfd. This bulb/ballast combo is the second highest par combination of the 250 watt class, second only to the iwasaki 6500k, and only by a hair. After lots of advice on reef central, and thinking it over, I'm gonna give it a go. I expect probably 6-9 months of useable life from the bulbs but all other parameters the same, the consensus I'm getting is that they'll smoke the radiums on growing power and I should be surprised at how well they work for that. I'll switch back to a more 20k look eventually after I get some growth filled in

I have a lot of nice acros coming my way in the next two weeks courtesy of manny/Sam and some friends on marsh-reef in Houston. Enough that I'll need to sell some birdsnest colonies and digis to make room. Ideally I'd like to have a comfy stock of pretty new sticks and new lights burning by December, because after that, tank purchases will be on hold for the next 6 months to a year.

STN of my acros has officially stopped entirely. What died, died, but what remains has began growing. Under the blue LEDs I can see where coral tissue starts to kill the red turf algae as it grows, because the red turf will fluoresce bright orange for a couple days as it dies and the coral encrusting spreads. I've been witnessing this with all species and much to my pleasant surprise I saw this happening near the Hawkins frag which is a positive sign that it's starting to grow again. Woohoo!

As mentioned I've taken this as my tanks open invitation to go acro crazy and do this thread the justice I promised so many months ago.

Next issue is this...I purchased an avast marine kalkwasser stirrer months ago. Never used it. Just go a gallon of kalk in the mail. Hmmm. So now that the tank is finally doing well, I'm debating on using it. My plan was to stop 2 part, run the kalkwasser reactor until it wasn't enough, then bring two part back online as needed. With a 90 gallon that ought to be sufficient. I could go calcium reactor but with my water volume, even a packed acro dominant tank should be manageable through 2 part.

Problem is...I have no way of knowing if 1 gallon a day of fully saturated kalk will be more or less ca/alk supplementation that the 50ml or so I'm dosing a day on ca and alk via 2 part. I don't want to put the kalk rx online and have an alk spike or drop and totally muck up all the good fortune I've recently had with tank health.

Ideas? Try it and hope it will be similar to what I'm supplying already? Sell it and just keep with two part alone? Sell the two part and kalk rx and buy a carx instead with the profits? Please let me know what you sps types think

[Bpb]

Couple pics for fun. Palau nepthelia is growing astoundingly well. This was a 1" 2-3 branch nub when I set the tank up in June. I may sell the whole colony though as to reduce leather toxin issues.

Any ID on this chalice? Looks best completely shaded where only the LEDs and light reflected from the glass hit it. The daylights are fully shaded by my purple cap.

Green montipora stellata is growing super well but it's at the apex height of the tank. Wonder what kinda par it's getting. I really think it's impossible to bleach it. The more light I give it, the better it looks.

And lastly an led alone pic from a distance. Love the way it looks. Phone can't do it justice. These BML strips are so bright for how little wattage they use.

[Manny]

Good news Jonathan. Always nice to see pictures on your build thread. I feel your confusion about the kalk stirrer and two part. Thinking about your tank has sparked that question over and over in my head a few times. I have been debating lately whether to go the route of a kalk reactor myself. I would prefer a stirrer but only see reactors go for sale on reef central. I'm sure you will figure it out. Your knowledge of the science behind the hobby is sufficient to allow you to grasp anything thrown your way. Hopefully someone will point you in the right direction.

I am glad to hear about your acro devastation coming to a halt. I don't think anyone from ARC has seen your tank (prior transfer) except for me and I must tell you other ARC members that his tank looked spectacular. The health and color of his coral looked amazing. Its hard to argue with the statement that T5s give the best coral color when you see tanks like his prior one was and see they achieve those colors with T5s.

I'm excited to see how well your new coral with color up and see how they will start growing once they get to your tank. You better act quick though, the undata I brought for you is already starting to grow and has taken route down the side of the plug.

About the bulbs, I say run them and watch growth go crazy. After all, we all look forward to having colonies of nice coral in our tanks not just frags and we should be more concerned about the color of the colonies over the frags. So to have your frags look good now vs to have them grow into massive colonies to which later you will focus on the color seems like an easy question to figure out. I just hope you don't damage your ballasts in the process. I'm sure they'll be OK though.

If you keep up these lengthy updates then you will force me to blow the dust off of my build thread and start updating it as well.

All in all it sounds like your tank is in a pretty happy state. Can't wait to see it again after things really start taking off.

[Bpb]

Saw full polyp extension on my Hawkins yesterday for the first time ever. Very exciting. That is all

[Bpb]

First clam. Purchased from petco of all places. Was opened a lot wider in their tank, real confidence booster! Granted it went from a single 24" t8 tube to a metal halide. 45 min temp and salinity acclimation, never hit air. Cradled in rubble on the sand. Opened about 1/2" for a few hours but closed back up. Gonna take it a while to photo acclimate? Watching it like a hawk. Hope it makes it

First fungia. Recovering. 4 visible mouths on this one piece but they're all connected. Very pretty. Stole the role of brightest coral in the tank. Previous title holders were kryptonite candy cane and montipora setosa. This fungia is wicked bright

Trying my hand at blastos again. Had bad luck with them previously but ready to try again. Not sure where to put them yet. Tank is getting crowded.

Several new additions over the past week. 5 acros from Sam, plus a nice undata. Those aren't real photogenic yet, but they've been glued to their forever homes. I'm officially in "frag and sell to make room for other stuff" mode

[FarmerTy]

Great pics bud! Thoughts from a fungia farmer, if you cut the fungia plates apart now and split them according to their mouths, they will more than likely grow just fine separately. They can only round themselves out very subtly so try to make the cuts as even and round as you can.

[Bpb]

Who's pumped about the Black Friday sale through BRS? This guy

[Manny]

Who's pumped about the Black Friday sale through BRS? This guy

Gee I wonder why.

[Manny]

Dammit Jonathan, I forgot to use the $10 coupon. . .

[Bpb]

Been a few weeks since a real update. Busy busy busy. First and foremost, not so much of a tank update, more of a life update: wife just gave birth on the 26th to our baby girl. Going to change things pretty significantly. Other "child" in the house is 17 years old so that's quite a gap. What an adjustment. The lack of sleep is definitely a thing, but...it's not so bad. I've battled true insomnia for most of my adult life, often going 4-5 days without so much as a wink of sleep so this is nothing new. I've come down with the flu though and had to leave the hospital early and have to stay at a safe distance from the baby so it sucks washing my hands every 5 minutes and dousing the house in Lysol wipes all day. Wish I could help more but hopefully it passes soon.

Onto the tank. Bulk reef supply Black Friday order came in. They did pretty good. Only messed up two things out of the 45 pieces in the order. No big deal.

I've decided to switch my bulbs per a lot of research and advice on the SPS forum on reef central. Installed two XM 10k bulbs this morning. Double layer of window screen should help the acclimation. Trying to goose the growth a bit and from eveththing I've been told...it won't be as pretty as radiums, but apparently they'll smoke them in growth. Everyone said to strap myself in if I thought my growth was good before. I understand that a lot of people have run these on m80 ballasts which I will be doing. It overdrives them to 380 watts a piece at 180+ ppfd which is double what my radiums were producing, and most of it is loaded on the 430 nm area which is perfect. I'm sure you guys already knew that.

I've also decided that I want to start running my kalkwasser reactor. I need to get to about double the 2 part consumption I'm currently running in order to make the supplementation amounts equal but I decided to stock up on on more 2 part as well.

Also picked up a couple years worth of RODI crap to replace everything. It's been 2.5 years on the same membrane and di resin but couldn't hurt to replace them despite the 0 tds reading.

I've picked up various corals and a maxima clam as well since my last update. Health in general is good but I seem to be losing entire zoa colonies one at a time. No sign of nudis. It's frustrating but nothing I can do. Dips don't help. Just let it run it's course. If they die they die. I will say this...since increasing to daily reef chili and amino acid dosing my colors have improved noticeably.

That is all for now. I'll try to snap some pics with the new lights on today

[Manny]

I didn't want to say anything on your thread until you did but CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! Welcome back to {baby} fatherhood. That's all.

[FarmerTy]

Congrats bud on the new baby!

[Dustin Pedretti]

Congratulations Jonathan...I had no idea she was so close

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

[Bpb]

Thanks fellas! Though no technically a premie, she delivered a few weeks early. Scheduled induction based on several factors for delivery day, however my wife went into active labor all on her own in the middle of the night the day prior

Edited November 29, 2014 by Bpb

[RobR]

Congrats on the new addition!!! Tank is looking great too btw!!!!

[Bpb]

Quick pic. No close ups yet. Maybe do a big bunch of them 1/1/15. Seems an appropriate starting point

9/24/2014 - Radiums and BML super actinic 100% intensity

11/29/2014 - XM10K and BML super actinic at 50% with two layers of window screen

Edited November 30, 2014 by Bpb

[Dustin Pedretti]

I like it

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

[+bigsby]

Congratulations on the new baby!

Tank is looking good!

[Bpb]

Thanks guys! A note on the color...some Acropora actually look a lot better under the 10k spectrum, as well as a few montipora. Though...I do admit I prefer the overall color of the radiums which I will be switching back to after these bulbs have reached the end of their useable life.

It's funny you don't really notice growth seeing the tank day to day, but just two short months of time, I can see tremendous growth in the pics. Specifically from the purple montipora, green montipora stellata at the top in the middle, and the spongodes just to the right of the overflow. Wow...that looks like a good 30% increase in size. I see frequent pruning in my future to save room for slower growing Acropora frags. Free purple cap, stellata, and spongodes people! Who's up for a 2 hour drive!

[Bpb]

Congrats on the new addition!!! Tank is looking great too btw!!!!

Hey man how's your tank upgrade gone? I know you went a little bigger than me but I Rememeber our old tanks being pretty dang similar and upgrade timeline being close to the same. Haven't seen an update on your thread in a while