12_egg_omelette Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 John none of my texts are working. Did you want me to drop off that trap to you at work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 Brief update. Not a whole lot has changed. I guess this marks the one month mark on my tank being skimmerless. It's funny. I know it hasn't been long, but the walls to the house didn't come crashing down. The sky hasn't fallen. Audrey #2 didn't sprout up from the rocks and start eating people. What HAS happened is my overall health of my Lps has really improved. Zoas that were previously pencil eraser size are now more like dimes. My Lps corals have about doubled in puffiness and feeder tentacle length. And the montipora that remain look better than ever. I have 6 acro frags left that look excellent. Good color and finally have appropriate polyp extension back. Even the Hawkins is getting polyp extension for me. The rest are goners for good though. Growth of these frags has been slower than Christmas though. Probably due to the fact that my radiums are a year old, and we are only at about 1 month of stability now. I'll try to scrape together a couple hundred bucks to do a bulb change (that is hurting. Leds are looking attractive right now). The Asd corals are all doing fine. Only the goniopora won't make it. The toxic splatter goniastrea bleached pretty bad and is almost solid white as opposed to black, but the tissue is all intact and it's in a low flow spot on the sandbed. Just gonna be patient with it. Vu was kind enough to offer me a good sized Christmas favia colony and some la lakers Zoas in trade for some workhorse ballasts I offered for free. They're doing well in the tank. I just noticed apex fusion has a parameter logging icon now so I'm logging params now. I've tested alk once every week or two and it is falling. I'm down to 6.8 now. Each time I test I will increase my dose increment by 10 seconds (24 times a day) in hopes that it will SLOWLY come up to 7.5 or so. Alk swings have been my worst enemy so I'm trying to go very slow with it. I've always experienced the best growth and color with alk under 8.0. Higher than that and I've only had problems. Maybe not true causation but definitely a correlation there. Being that my bulbs are at the end of their life I'm slowly increasing my photoperiod for longer evening viewing on the weekends. I've been increasing the halide burn time by 2 minutes a day and the led intensity by 1% a day. At this rate I should be up to 7 hours daylight and 100% actinic intensity. Keeping my hands out of the tank and being diligent to feed high quality foods have seemed to pay off for me so far. What I'm doing is working right now. That's all I can think of presently. Here's a pic of the Christmas favia. Haven't been taking many photos of the tank lately. Waiting till I can offer up a real noticeable photo album of how it's doing. As of now it looks like I've stepped backwards. Radiums with bml super actinics look really pretty in person but are obnoxiously blue in photos. I tried to adjust the white balance a tad but that seems to just make it more purple. The saturation is actually REDUCED from neutral position in this picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Any chance you were overskimming in the first place Bpb? That's great to hear your corals are much improving! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 (edited) Definitely a possibility of overskimming. I had it set very dry. Just a hair above the lowest setting. Cup size was about 2/3 liter and it would fill with skimmate the color and consistency of black crude oil once a week before the neck would cake so bad it would stop skimming. I actually have just removed the cup and cranked it to full tilt and use it as an air stone. It just overflows constantly and the first chamber traps all the bubbles. It's not oversized for my tank though. Bubble magus curve 5. Pruned a lot of macro last week and actually got 0.04 ppm phosphate reading which is my highest ever. Nitrate still hanging out around 1 ppm. I'm feeding a lot and good stuff Edited April 2, 2015 by Bpb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Oh the day we celebrate phosphate popping back up in our systems... [emoji14]. Hilarious! Perhaps you weren't feeding your tank enough? One thing we have to think about is once we start employing all these great tools for removing nutrients is to then feed the heck out of the tank. I think most would be amazed at how much food actually goes into my tank. Heavy import, heavy export... happy corals. [emoji16] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Well...i don't think I was under feeding, but maybe just not feeding good enough stuff. I was feeding formula one frozen food primarily which I wasn't happy with. I've now resumed target feeding all corals 3 days a week with reef chili only now I also add cyclopeeze which the Lps are truly loving. I'm noticing a definite positive reaction. Also ditched Formula one and have gone back to pe mysis. I feed that probably 4-5 days a week and fill in with the nls algae pellets. I try to feed the fish 3-4 times a day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Can't go wrong with NLS and mysis. Hand feeding the LPS! We'll no wonder your LPS are getting so fat! Lol! I forgot how tiny cyclopeeze is until I fed some the other day. Only two of the smaller fishes even noticed it. I think my SPS and LPS noticed it though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 12, 2015 Author Share Posted April 12, 2015 Sad day in ole Courage Station. When putting my power head on feed mode for a late night coral spot feeding something caught my eye behind the tank on the floor, draped over a wire. After closer inspection I see it is the dried out dust covered body of my beloved leopard wrasse. Favorite fish ever. She was several years old. Ate everything under the sun I put in the tank, and feared nothing. Bummer. Being that my fish are all otherwise super healthy I'm hesitant to run by petco to get a rebound fish. Especially since I don't have a quarantine. I'll hold out for a local with a healthy tank wanting to get rid of a fish. I won't buy another leopard wrasse. Too sensitive of shippers. I just really got lucky with this one. Bummer. It really is true. They will find the smallest gap in the hood to escape from. I think I may get some screening before getting another fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAM Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Sad day in ole Courage Station. When putting my power head on feed mode for a late night coral spot feeding something caught my eye behind the tank on the floor, draped over a wire. After closer inspection I see it is the dried out dust covered body of my beloved leopard wrasse. Favorite fish ever. She was several years old. Ate everything under the sun I put in the tank, and feared nothing. Bummer. Being that my fish are all otherwise super healthy I'm hesitant to run by petco to get a rebound fish. Especially since I don't have a quarantine. I'll hold out for a local with a healthy tank wanting to get rid of a fish. I won't buy another leopard wrasse. Too sensitive of shippers. I just really got lucky with this one. Bummer. It really is true. They will find the smallest gap in the hood to escape from. I think I may get some screening before getting another fish. totally feel your pain, it happened to my yellow coris wrasse about 5yrs ago....ended up coughing up the money and redo the whole canopy to move the empty open space from the back to the top instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 Random fts from today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Wow! Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Do I spy a hawkins echinata? Looks good man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 Thanks guys. Ty the Hawkins has just hit a growth spurt and formed several new branches. If I lose every other acro in the tank I gotta have that Hawkins live lol. The mkntipora are all really cooking. Too much green in the mix right now though I need to seek out more reds and oranges 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 That's awesome man! Glad the SPS are starting to play nicer now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Some sps. Wondering if I have some sort of Acro pest or infection. This week rtn claimed my rainbow nebula, pink loripres, pink Millie, and blue prostrata. All fine at bedtime, all dead in the morning. Not all in the same night. Just happened one at a time. Down to 5 acros left. Despite the dosed tubing issue alk has been stable at 7.0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 (edited) Duplicate Edited April 25, 2015 by Bpb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Some sps. Wondering if I have some sort of Acro pest or infection. This week rtn claimed my rainbow nebula, pink loripres, pink Millie, and blue prostrata. All fine at bedtime, all dead in the morning. Not all in the same night. Just happened one at a time. Down to 5 acros left. Despite the dosed tubing issue alk has been stable at 7.0. That's a shame! Can you just remove all the acros and bayer dip a couple of times just in case? The Bayer isn't really harsh so I figure just do it just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 I was under the impression Hawkins couldn't tolerate Bayer dips. Everything else I suppose I could Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Mine go through it no problem... and I don't even measure... just dump it in until it's cloudy white... like milk. I've forgotten it once in there for 20 mins... no issues. The one you have to watch for is surhasoni... they no likey the bayer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Most important part of the bayer dip is to shake the heck out of the coral in the water to dislodge the pests and also triple rinse afterwards to make sure none get into the system and nuke your tank of pods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted May 2, 2015 Author Share Posted May 2, 2015 May 1. Skimmer cup went back on, Ty. Also reduced my led peak photoperiod % by 50%. And lowered the halide pendants 2" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 May 1. Skimmer cup went back on, Ty. Also reduced my led peak photoperiod % by 50%. And lowered the halide pendants 2"Woohoo! [emoji322] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted May 3, 2015 Author Share Posted May 3, 2015 Woohoo! Nothing more exciting than new stuff. More pics to come. Love this guy. Super happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Deresas are so awesome! And they grow plenty fast too! You'll have a showpiece clam in no time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 Should be in order here. Order of upload anyway. First I believe is a big lobo. It's kinda come and gone here and there in mannys tank over the last year or so. We will see what it does for me. It's a good size, definitely not frag status. I can see hints of rainbow colors in it. Time will tell. Next is a goniopora. The specimen I got from ASD didn't make it. This one already shows more signs of life but hasn't really bloomed yet. I'm avoiding green, matter of fact trying to purge it from the tank, but this one looks like a hi lighter. Very bright Next is old stuber stag I've re acquired for the 4th time. Had a volleyball sized colony before. This is a piece from that original. Not much PE but the color is terrific Coming in 4th is the cotton candy acro (I believe). Very dark right now from high nutrients and tank change, but the PE is great. Should turn bright pink 5 & 6 are two angles of mint julep (left) and bottlebrush (right). A little bleaching (from laying on its side) and greening from high nutrients and light change. They look ok so far. Good PE 7 is rainbow poccilopora. Just beautiful. Cannot wait for it to grow up. Don't usually get excited about poccilopora but this one is great Next is a sad sickly looking rainbow stylo. Hope it comes around Then we have my next attempt at mind trick montipora. Another sad specimen that should grow up just fine This next one is the biggest question mark. A lovely purple torch. No idea where to put it. Having a hard time parting with anything. It's in the back corner. Anywhere else I put it, it will fight and likely win. Decisions decisions. I gotta keep it though. Lastly, just a shot of clams and Lps in the right front corner. This corner of the tank has been boring and it's finally coming around and looking good Had to give it another go at some sps. The price was right and I can't give up. That's all for now 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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