Bpb Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 6/16/2014 1/1/2015 As always. iPhone pics. Nothing fancy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Cool. There it is. Aside from the zone or coral group pictures, I tried to only duplicate the original pics I took on setup of the stuff I still have that has shown progress. Some things haven't done much, died, sold, ect. I have a dozen or so Acropora I took "starting" close up pics of today that I'll update with similar comparison shots in 6 months. So all in all...not bad growth for a 6 month old tank that started essentially brand new with bleach white rock, new lighting, and went through a massive die off at the one month mark. Thanks for following! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 You sure got a clean sand bed lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 (edited) Thanks. It's mostly a result of frequent sand picking by the tang and foxface. They do a fantastic job of turning the sandbed over regularly. Can't figure out why. I don't understand that to be normal behavior for those fish but they really act like sand sifting gobies. And my leopard wrasse causes daily sand storms in the burrowing process. Shallow bed and frequent agitation by the fish. And 50 or so nassarius snails don't hurt either Edited January 2, 2015 by Bpb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 My sand sifting goby won't even sift the sand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share Posted January 6, 2015 Already vented to manny about this and he was a hater lol. I don't don't what the beep is going on. Leopard wrasse just been in destruction mode lately. Won't stick to her one burrow. She's been making messy sand storms and mountains all over the tank. Long shift at work today and I come home to a disaster of sorts in my tank. Wife tells me the foxface and tang have been going at it, and she witnessed them knock the frag rack over, as well as my montipora undata off of the rocks. I had rainbow monti frags laying on my frogspawn, undata upside down on an acro below it, acro frags upside down in the sand, some laying on chalices. And the real kicker. The wrasse managed to fully bury every zoa on the sandbed. I had my tongs digging around trying to find entire colony's completely under the sand. What a disaster. Spent the better part of an hour with goofball sized pieces of rubble trying to plug up all the burrow spots she created, re glue corals to the rocks, and make rubble stands to get the zoas elevated off of the sand. So irritating. It literally did take over an hour to dig everything up and put it all back together. First world problems 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Time to invest in a fish trap lol? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Can you explain to me exactly what a goofball is sir? Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 (edited) Day 1 of feeding pappone. I stayed true to the original recipe as best as I could. As a finely tuned ex-food-service professional I had no problem shucking the shellfish, even though it was my first time doing so. Something real rewarding about getting to see and smell fresh shellfish. The clams were enormous. Baseball sized. They definitely make up the bulk of the food mass. The only two deviations I made from the original "Blue-coral recipe" was that I substituted HGH for elos amino acids. I also did not blend up the aminos into the pappone and freeze. Without doing any research on the matter, I wasn't sure the blending and freezing would damage the molecular structure of the amino acids, rendering them non-useable to the corals. I could be totally off. But I do know that HGH simply denatures in saltwater into similar amino acids that we purchase for our tanks anyways, so that would be essentially a really expensive and illegal TLF acro power basically Second deviation is I also added reef chili to the mix. I know originally the pioneers of this feedin method used cyclopeeze, but their operation is recovering from a colony crash, and as I have enjoyed reef chili so far, I felt it appropriate to go ahead and add it. I ended up with about 700 mL total. Going to start with 2x a week feedings at 11pm whenever blackout starts every night. About 1/2 a cube initially and I'll increase from there. Edited January 13, 2015 by Bpb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 How does one acquire HGH? I'm asking for a friend. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Careful Victoly your going to end up like meatloaf in fight club..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Might require you to visit a rougher neighborhood than you're comfortable with. Another note...I'm also not runnin 12 dKH, 500 ppm calcium and 1500 ppm magnesium. So I guess I'm not running the blue method at all. Just trying out pappone. Results on night one were good. Well recieved by the inhabitants. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Careful Victoly your going to end up like meatloaf in fight club..... untitled.png Oh I would do anything for HGH. I would do anything for HGH! I would do anything for HGH....But I won't do that.... NOOOOOOOOOUH. I WONT DO THAT. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 I'm gonna go inside and I'm gonna get a shovel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Careful Victoly your going to end up like meatloaf in fight club..... untitled.png Oh I would do anything for HGH. I would do anything for HGH! I would do anything for HGH....But I won't do that.... NOOOOOOOOOUH. I WONT DO THAT. Ah thanks... that's what I needed in my head right before a listing appointment! [emoji20] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I'm gonna go inside and I'm gonna get a shovel You're gonna need a bigger shovel for meatloaf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrEnuf Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Tank is looking goood! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Sufficiently sps drunk thanks to SAMs generosity. I really have no idea where to put all these. Some of my old stuff may soon be evicted. I'll try to take pics later today if I can get them on the frag rack 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Some are a little browned out from the trip. Others look great. Here's the inventory 1. Rainbow Nebula microclados 2. Purple Tonic Prostrata 3. Yellow Lantana montipora 4. Red Robin Stag 5. PC Rainbow (the good side is facing backward what is in the pic was previously the underside) 6. Blue Planet Tenuis 7. Long Beard Lagoon echinata 8. Pink branching Cyphastrea 9. Rainbow galaxy prostrata (or is it a milie)? They're gonna hang out on the sandbed for a few weeks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 On another note. I have noticed that 20 out of 37 different sps corals I have come from Sam either directly or indirectly (came from someone who got it from Sam). I promise I am not trying to copy you man LOL! Or maybe I am a little Small update on the tank overall. I have been feeding pappone and dosing nitrates now for a couple of weeks. while I have seen some spectacular response from some things, other things are not looking too happy. I broke the cardinal rule to never change it more than one thing at a time. I also had to refill my two part dosing containers at the same time. And I have noticed a fairly significant alkalinity spike. I have some burned tips on several acros, a touch of STN on a few, and most of my montipora have lost up to 50% of their color over the last week. The zoas and LPS all look better than ever. Sums it was that have done nothing for months have grown over a dozen new polyps in the last week alone. All is not lost and this is nowhere near as bad as the mass RTN episode I had several months ago. I will be doing a water change today, and monitoring alkalinity to let it sort of stay where it is, or fall naturally. I don't want to have a knee-jerk reaction and make things worse than they are. I will stop dosing nitrates for now and keep feeding heavily. I also have placed two layers of window screaming back over the tank to ease up on the light a bit. I actually like the color so much better with the attenuated halides that allows the LEDs to shine through, I plan to keep it like this indefinitely. While I have not checked with a meter, I do not expect I am running any shortage of par, even with the screening. I think that is it for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAM Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Some are a little browned out from the trip. Others look great. Here's the inventory 1. Rainbow Nebula microclados 2. Purple Tonic Prostrata 3. Yellow Lantana montipora 4. Red Robin Stag 5. PC Rainbow (the good side is facing backward what is in the pic was previously the underside) 6. Blue Planet Tenuis 7. Long Beard Lagoon echinata 8. Pink branching Cyphastrea 9. Rainbow galaxy prostrata (or is it a milie)? They're gonna hang out on the sandbed for a few weeks The last one is a Aussie Spathulata according to Pacific East Aquaculture. [emoji6] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Sweet thanks for the correction. I have a hard time telling the difference between those three so it was a wild guess. That one was my whole reason for making the trip but the others are just as awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Awesome! That yellow lantana monti is a sweet one! Interested to see what shape yours takes when it grows. Everyone's I've seen is different lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 It really is nice looking! I agree on them all looking different. In SAMs tank it looked like a mix of plating and encrusting. Some online pics I've seen it looks like a branching monti. I had told myself I was done collecting montipora because they require such massive amounts of real estate and being that my tank is only 90 gallons, space is a concern but I'll find a place for it. I can always stick it to the overflow. My alk issue is still concerning me. I tested again this morning and I'm up to 10.5 which is an indicator that growth has halted and I'm just saturating the water. The higher it goes the more a problem it'll be I think. My alk dose time on the apex is 2:20 once an hour. I backed it down to 1:40 to see if that slows the trend and gradually reverses it. I'm not opposed to running high alk as a fundamental principle, but it does make things more of a challenge than I care to undertake, being that I have to work hard to keep the food/nutrient content in the water way up, or suffer bleaching and burned tips. I don't want to cut the doser entirely and risk a sharp drop in alk just to reach an ideal number. The good news is that this was a 2.0 dKH increase but spread out gradually over a couple weeks. Much easier to correct than a co2 dump or pump stuck on and this amount of all added all in one sitting. It's actually within the recommended timeframe to intentionally raise alk by that amount. My stuff just is obviously not happy with it that high.... OR....something else is going on that made all the sps real angry, bleached them, causing them to stop growing, which could have RESULTED in the previously appropriate dose, being now...too much. Hmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I vote for scenario 2. I think something has ticked your SPS off and their growth has stopped... also halting the uptake of alk/Ca causing your concentration to start increasing as your dosing levels have stayed the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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