# Conix's 75G Reef



## conix67

I'm having a nervous break down and finally decided to start a 75G reef tank. Instead of starting from scratch, I'll be starting with someone's complete setup.. picking it up next saturday..

I have some questions to master reefers here..

Roughly how much LRs would I need? It comes with only 20lb, and I have some in my 12G, and few dead rock pieces standing by. I would like some larger pieces to build up lots of hiding places for fishes.

If I mix base rocks /w live rocks, would it take a while to complete cycling process? Or they should be good enough as long as bio load is low?

Also, I'll be going with all T5s. Not having a good success with MH at the moment on my nano, and I don't really care much about shimmer anymore. This setup has 4 T5s (retro) and it already fills up canopy. It would be tight fit to add two more on this canopy. I'm hoping I could get by with 4 T5s for a while... would this be risky on SPS?

Sump comes with wet/dry filter which uses bio balls. I plan to keep it as is.


----------



## ameekplec.

I think you'd need to go with at least a 6-bulb T5 set up for SPS, and they need to be fan cooled for optimal operation temp.

I'm excited to see this build. I went over my finances coming up for the next 6 months or so...and a tank is definitely not in the budget any time soon


----------



## conix67

Well, if I were you I'd be happy as is  but that's just me. You do have a very nice setup, fully optimized in terms of use of space in both inside and outside of your tank. Things growing like crazy, and your SPS garden is shaping up nicely!

Anyway, the LRs I'll be getting have some green bubble algae. I heard Emerald crab takes care of them. Does anyone have experience with emerald crabs and the bubble algae?

On the way back from Kitchener, I dropped by at Burc's place. Oh my god! Frag tank full of new frags!! I simply couldn't resist and picked up 5 frags... so far so good in my nano..


----------



## ameekplec.

Haha, I know, when I went out there I couldn't resist and came home with way more than I thought I would have.

My reef is nice........but small......really small.....


----------



## lloydj

congrats on the new tank!

cant wait to see some new pics.

I was wondering how long till you upgraded...lol

BEST OF LUCK

lloydj


----------



## conix67

lloydj said:


> congrats on the new tank!
> 
> cant wait to see some new pics.
> 
> I was wondering how long till you upgraded...lol
> 
> BEST OF LUCK
> 
> lloydj


Thanks. I will post the picture of the tank once I have it in place. I need to get a sump reconfigured first. I don't like the way it is currently.


----------



## lloydj

Well if you are in need of a new sump.
I know this guy up the road that builds custom acrylic sumps..... 


L J


----------



## conix67

lloydj said:


> Well if you are in need of a new sump.
> I know this guy up the road that builds custom acrylic sumps.....
> 
> L J


Yes of course. I'm getting a 25G sump in this setup which is currently part of the system. However, I don't like the way things are arranged in this sump, so I may need to reconfigure baffles/dividers.


----------



## tropicalfishlover1220

I have 4 t5s on a 55 and the growth is okay; some as fast as my fingernails and some slower. The colours are great, but I've found that some frags I get 'colour up' to a bit more brownish after a while. They could be bleached to start with, but I don't know..

However, I don't run cooling fans or have single reflectors. If you have them and cooling fans imo it wouldn't hurt to try


----------



## conix67

Picked up the tank today. Here's some pictures of dirty tank.

Tanks being cleaned..










Sump tank before cleaning. A little too much salt deposits.










Most difficult part to clean. Those white stuff is tough to get rid of. The space between two plastic pieces in overflow is impossible to clean. Just rinsed that area with lots of water.










Tank cleaned and moved to inside. T5 retro reflectors sitting on the tank. two more will completely fill up the top of the tank, would it be worth the effort and cost?










I think I also need to redo plumbing. I'd like to obtain additional parts too, in order to add a useable refugium section in the sump.


----------



## PeterJ

*Ops. You are really started..*

I would like to see...


----------



## Doctor T

Yes, thanks for the updates, please keep us posted.


----------



## nraf

Well a couple of things your asking and i'll help as much as i can.

It all really depends on what your going to have in your tank, if your looking for mixed reef, things like coral, and fish. with a ok bioload

I would go about 1 to 1.5 lbs of LR per Gallon of water.

Also you may want to look into a sand bed if you are going to do a deep sand bed finer sand is better.

deep sand beds help alot with the filtration of your tank.

and well with a good ammount of LR and Live sand you should have lots of little pods to feed your fish.

The T5s well they should do ok for now. but really MH are the way to go.

Also make sure you let your tank cycle.

I dont know how you moved it but there are ways to move the tank if it was set up and running, to run right away.

1st thing is you will need about 50-60% of the water that was in there.

2nd is start of slow if your going to add rock add it slowly unless its been live in a clean and good running system, even then i would reallly add it slowly to let the tank adjust to the new load

As for the skimmer you want a good skimmer, trust me  they help a lot

Any other questions i'll try to help.

Rafal,


----------



## cablemike

I have one thing to say about how much live rock a tank should have.. first of all you cant go by weight because the rock i have is very light.. i dig for hours until i find the lightest but fairly large pieces i can find as they are very porous and will be able to sustain 10x the life and bacteria of a dense piece. Also.. If you go out and get 75 pounds of light porous rock your tank will be crammed and then you will run into issues will poor circulation which will eventually lead to a tank crash as waste will build up because no flow will pass through the rock heap. Second is your corals will grow, i made this mistake with my last tank and have made sure to leave plenty of room for my corals to grow because as they grow they will also impede flow in the tank. In my 90 I have about 60 pounds of rock. I took all the rock from my 55 and didnt add any more as it was already enough. Look at my old tank versus my new and tell me which has a better long term survival for growth and flow?

Old 55 gallon ( sure it looked nicer, and more crammed)









90 gallon ( not as full looking but has ability to grow upwards where corals usually head.









this is the 90 when first set up, you get a better idea of how i set up the rock for flow, there is tons of caves.


----------



## conix67

nraf said:


> Well a couple of things your asking and i'll help as much as i can.
> 
> It all really depends on what your going to have in your tank, if your looking for mixed reef, things like coral, and fish. with a ok bioload
> 
> I would go about 1 to 1.5 lbs of LR per Gallon of water.
> 
> Also you may want to look into a sand bed if you are going to do a deep sand bed finer sand is better.
> 
> deep sand beds help alot with the filtration of your tank.
> 
> and well with a good ammount of LR and Live sand you should have lots of little pods to feed your fish.
> 
> The T5s well they should do ok for now. but really MH are the way to go.
> 
> Also make sure you let your tank cycle.
> 
> I dont know how you moved it but there are ways to move the tank if it was set up and running, to run right away.
> 
> 1st thing is you will need about 50-60% of the water that was in there.
> 
> 2nd is start of slow if your going to add rock add it slowly unless its been live in a clean and good running system, even then i would reallly add it slowly to let the tank adjust to the new load
> 
> As for the skimmer you want a good skimmer, trust me  they help a lot
> 
> Any other questions i'll try to help.
> 
> Rafal,


I decided to restart the tank as if it's new, since there weren't much livestock and it was way too far to transport enough tank water. Besides, it was necessary to perform some cleaning to bring the tanks in the shape I'm satisfied with. Sump needed to be reconfigured, and plumbing redone.

I'll be cycling tank before adding livestock. I have the nano still running, and those in there will stay until cycling is completed.

I have Tunze DOC 9010, I hope this is good enough.

I have seen many tanks successfully run with T5HOs. MH is tempting but for heat/color/power consumption T5HO wins.

I have total of ~100lb in rocks, base/dead rocks + live rocks. Should be enough to get started. I'd like to leave some space for fishes to swim.

Thanks for the advices!


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> I have one thing to say about how much live rock a tank should have.. first of all you cant go by weight because the rock i have is very light.. i dig for hours until i find the lightest but fairly large pieces i can find as they are very porous and will be able to sustain 10x the life and bacteria of a dense piece. Also.. If you go out and get 75 pounds of light porous rock your tank will be crammed and then you will run into issues will poor circulation which will eventually lead to a tank crash as waste will build up because no flow will pass through the rock heap. Second is your corals will grow, i made this mistake with my last tank and have made sure to leave plenty of room for my corals to grow because as they grow they will also impede flow in the tank. In my 90 I have about 60 pounds of rock. I took all the rock from my 55 and didnt add any more as it was already enough. Look at my old tank versus my new and tell me which has a better long term survival for growth and flow?


Yes, I would like to leave room for coral growth and fishes but at the same time build enough caves for water circulation and provide hiding place. How did you manage building the caves with those corals in your tank?? Do you have rocks bonded together with putty to keep them in place?


----------



## conix67

*looking for ideas*

I'm closing in on getting sump ready.. here's my plan now

1. try finding a glass shop in my area to get glass panes cut for divider and baffles in my 25G sump. I've read more about using acrylic plates for baffles, but I got scared when some people's tank shattered due to expansion of acrylic plates.

However, if this costs too much and difficult, I'll use acrylic baffles. Does anyone know a good place in Vaughan/thornhill area to get glasses cut?

2. there's only one drain pipe (standard overflow configuration in AGA tank of this size), and according to the seller, the water flows over the overflow. there's a lot of water that drains back to sump when pump is shut off, and I think it's way too much. I want to cut down on flow so that water flows through the slits in overflow, not over it. So I'm thinking of using Findingnemo's approach, to add two T joints to drive water to 1) refugium and 2) phosban reactor. This way I'll cut down on the flow a bit, and be able to support fuge and phosban reactor with just one pump.

I might even just get needed parts from Home Depot or Lowes. I'm assuming any PVC parts are safe for aquarium.

All fittings will be barbed, but not sure if barbed fittings without fasteners will be safe. Can't find plastic fasteners at Lowes (all metal ones - stainlesssteel, will they corrode?).

The current bulk heads on the tank have1 1/2" and 1" holes on one side, but the barbed end appears to be at least one size smaller, something like 1 1/4" and 3/4". Does this make sense?

3. add some pvc pipe structure to open up space under rocks for animals to hide.. and use less rocks. Base rocks from reefsolutions.com arrived, large and heavy pieces. I think I have enough to get started, together with rocks that came with the tank and my nano.


----------



## cablemike

conix67 said:


> Yes, I would like to leave room for coral growth and fishes but at the same time build enough caves for water circulation and provide hiding place. How did you manage building the caves with those corals in your tank?? Do you have rocks bonded together with putty to keep them in place?


yeah i used three tubes of epoxy...


----------



## lloydj

Acrylic Baffels shattering???....never heard of it. Send me an email and I will find my glass guys # and address for you.Also remember that a refug works best when the flow and out is very slow.....


conix67 said:


> I'm closing in on getting sump ready.. here's my plan now
> 
> 1. try finding a glass shop in my area to get glass panes cut for divider and baffles in my 25G sump. I've read more about using acrylic plates for baffles, but I got scared when some people's tank shattered due to expansion of acrylic plates.
> 
> However, if this costs too much and difficult, I'll use acrylic baffles. Does anyone know a good place in Vaughan/thornhill area to get glasses cut?
> 
> 2. there's only one drain pipe (standard overflow configuration in AGA tank of this size), and according to the seller, the water flows over the overflow. there's a lot of water that drains back to sump when pump is shut off, and I think it's way too much. I want to cut down on flow so that water flows through the slits in overflow, not over it. So I'm thinking of using Findingnemo's approach, to add two T joints to drive water to 1) refugium and 2) phosban reactor. This way I'll cut down on the flow a bit, and be able to support fuge and phosban reactor with just one pump.
> 
> I might even just get needed parts from Home Depot or Lowes. I'm assuming any PVC parts are safe for aquarium.
> 
> All fittings will be barbed, but not sure if barbed fittings without fasteners will be safe. Can't find plastic fasteners at Lowes (all metal ones - stainlesssteel, will they corrode?).
> 
> The current bulk heads on the tank have1 1/2" and 1" holes on one side, but the barbed end appears to be at least one size smaller, something like 1 1/4" and 3/4". Does this make sense?
> 
> 3. add some pvc pipe structure to open up space under rocks for animals to hide.. and use less rocks. Base rocks from reefsolutions.com arrived, large and heavy pieces. I think I have enough to get started, together with rocks that came with the tank and my nano.


----------



## lloydj

Actually I have a selection of glass and 3/8 acrylic here if you want some baffles cut
Let me know.


lloydj


----------



## conix67

The story I heard is that the acrylic plate was cut to exact size between two glass walls, and it was thick (1/2"?). According to the story, acrylics expand more at higher temperature and ended up shattering the glass due to expansion. It kinda makes sense though. 

Anyway, I picked up some 1/4" plates from home depot last night, I've cut two baffles and divider already  

I didn't have chance to look for glass shop. As long as I understand what to expect and what not to do, it should be safe.


----------



## ameekplec.

Hmm....I find that story hard to believe- unless that person somehow managed to sandwich in an appreciable amount of silicone between the glass and the acrylic. And then the acrylic expanded A LOT (0.5 - 1 cm). 

Probably more likely is that they damaged the glass, it cracked due to stress at a point in the pane, and then they attributed it to the acrylic.

My sump has acrylic baffles


----------



## conix67

With the foam pad under the sump, plumbing was completed (sort of) and after many hours it was time for leak test. All pumps, skimmer, heater, etc are powered and ran for few minutes.. I have some problems

1. bubbles from drain, not sure if this is expected. I have no LR rubbles or anything to break up the flow. Once I have salt water in, this will cause a lot of salt spray around the area where bubbles break. I'm not sure if this is expected or I've done something wrong. I'll post pictures tonight.

2. noise from return pump - not terribly bad, but I have no experience with return pump. It's a pentair quietone 3000, rated for 800GPH. I plan to take it apart to see if parts are all in good condition.

3. noise from Tunze 9010 - I expected complete silence from this german made unit, but it makes more noise than return pump. The noise appears to come from pump, and this too I plan to take apart and examine carefully. 

4. noise from Tunze nanostream powerhead - some rattles, will have to see what's up with that

Other than the noise, there's no major problem observed, and no leaks occurred so far. I'd like to solve some of the noise issue before I add salt water in. Not sure if this is expected from a system of this size...

It's not bad enough to bother people sleeping in bedrooms, but you can hear/feel it near the tank..


----------



## conix67

OK. Finally everything's in place and running (with tap water). Bubbles from drain make noise but not bad enough, but other power stuff (power heads, return pump, skimmer) makes enough noise that bothers me a little. Hopefully things will get better after SW is in.










Bubbles !!










Lights on


----------



## Landmax

That is a nice setup. Makes me wish that I went the sump route rather than the A-I-O route. Concerning the noise, if your equipment is new, they probably just need breaking in.


----------



## ameekplec.

Looking good Yuri!!!


----------



## Doctor T

Looking good! I hope my setup turns out as clean looking.

I was looking into Tunze units, I thought because they are a bit more expensive, they were supposed to be quiet?

Another dumb question: What is that lining the bottom of your tank?


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Looking good Yuri!!!


Thanks. I know you like empty tanks 

Honestly, this is so much work, in between family and work... on weekdays I get to work on this only after 10:00pm


----------



## conix67

Landmax said:


> That is a nice setup. Makes me wish that I went the sump route rather than the A-I-O route. Concerning the noise, if your equipment is new, they probably just need breaking in.


The equipments are not new, but second hand. However, they were cleaned just before I picked them up. Things sometimes go worse after cleaning, noisewise. I had that experience with EHEIM filters.

I think sumpless has some other advantages - simplicity, and less source of noise... plumbing wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be..


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Looking good! I hope my setup turns out as clean looking.
> 
> I was looking into Tunze units, I thought because they are a bit more expensive, they were supposed to be quiet?
> 
> Another dumb question: What is that lining the bottom of your tank?


That's what I thought, but I cannot judge from what I've seen so far yet, as I haven't really used it to skim anything out of salt water.

Also, I haven't seen a brand new unit in action. The construction of this unit is simple, and pump runs an impellar without a rod for support, and if the impellar is not perfectly balanced, there will be noise.

Everything in this setup that as mechanical rotational movement makes noise and vibration! I didn't think Koralia 3 would make noticeable noise I could hear and feel.

By the way, there are tons of more expensive skimmers available with similar Gallon ratings as my Tunze 9010.


----------



## ameekplec.

I love empty tanks!!! Especailly since my tanks is so full the fish have no where to swim!!!

I love plumbing!! Well, mine was simple enough. Maybe the next time I do it it wont be the same...


----------



## Doctor T

conix67 said:


> Honestly, this is so much work, in between family and work... on weekdays I get to work on this only after 10:00pm


Yep, pretty much in the same boat here.



conix67 said:


> The equipments are not new, but second hand. However, they were cleaned just before I picked them up. Things sometimes go worse after cleaning, noisewise. I had that experience with EHEIM filters.


Hmm, good to know. I've been getting my stuff second hand too, I feel awkward about asking to test the stuff before I buy - but maybe I should. I definitely want to minimize any noise.



conix67 said:


> I think sumpless has some other advantages - simplicity, and less source of noise... plumbing wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be..


What have you found to be the extra sources of noise going w/ the sump setup? (Besides return pump) Dumb question: would putting sound deadening material to line the stand/cabinet help?

Also, what do you have lining the bottom of your tank?


----------



## conix67

I think most good sellers will be willing to show you how it performs.

Sound deadning material would help, but you don't want to seal the sump compartment. However, some people do keep sump inside closet or enclosed place to block all noise.

There's some noise from water drain and skimmer. I have a piece of styrofoam pad under my sump tank. This was added because the bottom of tank was not laying flat, wobbling a bit. At the same time, it's supposed to reduce some vibration.

Regardless, there's a fair amount of noise from two power heads (tunze nanostream and koralia 3).

I think the best approach in reducing noise is to setup a sump in basement, and also use closed loop system for circulation (pump in basement). That way you have almost nothing in display tank that generates noise.


----------



## Doctor T

Basement and closet options do make sense, but I don't seem them as options for me. My plan is to have everything compressed in the stand just like yours - but I have even less space to work with. So I'm just trying to learn and anticipate beforehand where I could reduce noise given those parameters - like for e.g. where to put my drain hole, etc...


----------



## conix67

Spent few hours for several days to complete fill up with SW water and aquascaping. Here's how it looks today.










Left side view










Right side view










Sump section, power bars on the left, skimmer running. Micro bubbles go through the baffles. I'm waiting to see if skimmer will get better after a while. How do you deal with micro bubbles??










Still quite cloudy from sand and aquascaping. All rocks are in except those from existing 12G nano. It appears there's already more than enough rocks. Unfortunately aquascaping just turned into another dominated with rocks. I tried to create as many caves as possible. I'm hoping that I wouldn't have to redo aquascaping for a long time.

I have tunze nanostream and koralia 3 running, and with just these two it still shifts sand around quite a bit (not quite a sandstorm yet).

FTS.


----------



## conix67

Water's clearing up..










With the rocks I have in my nano there should be enough rocks..

Water test result - Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate all reads 0. I'm sure the LRs in the tank are cycled, as the container they were stored in crashed and after moving them to a separate tank with light and power head, that tank's water also reads 0/0/0. I've added some shrimp bits to cycle it further. Now the waiting game begins..

I've got 4 x 54W T5HO with individual reflectors. The bulbs are giesemann actinics+ x 2 and aquablue x 2. Although only 4 bulbs, it looks very bright. However, the colors don't look as good as expected. Thinking of replacing one of the actinics+ with pure actinics.

I've taken a closer look at the baffles and microbubble problem. I think now I understan why baffles are typically designed the way they are (3 dividers) and the importance of height and area of openings.

When the dividers in baffles are too close to each other, relative to return pump flow rate, they push the micro bubbles down all the way, letting them escape from baffles through the next section. If the openings in baffles get enlarged, the water flow rate is reduced and bubles have chance to escape (move against current), and the same works for higher baffle height.

Well, can't change much anymore as the sump is stuck under the tank and I'm not willing to take it apart just for microbubbles.

So, I finally added a ball valve right on the return pump output. By reducing the rate of return, it reduces flow rate in baffles, and the amount of microbubbles is reduced significantly. Unfortuantely, you'd need to turn it down significantly to have any positive effect on the microbubble problem. I currently have it at the rate which still provides sufficient water flow back into display tank, while reducing the microbubbles substantially, although stil cannot elminate it completely...


----------



## Riceburner

nice tank.

I've heard ppl layer the inside of the stand with styrofoam to dampen the noise too.


----------



## Doctor T

Thanks for the update Conix. Curious, did the noise settle down at all a bit, after running a few days w/ the SW and rock?


----------



## conix67

Riceburner said:


> nice tank.
> 
> I've heard ppl layer the inside of the stand with styrofoam to dampen the noise too.


Thanks. I'm thinking about adding some sound proofing stuff on door panels and inside.


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Thanks for the update Conix. Curious, did the noise settle down at all a bit, after running a few days w/ the SW and rock?


I think overall it's a little better, and with return flow rate turned down a bit the drain noise is also minimal.

Here are three major sources of noise at the moment

1. return pump - sitting on rubber feet, low frequency humming noise which gets mostly masked out when doors are closed
2. skimmer - not sure if producing bubbles make noise, or the pump itself is noisy. The impeller unit is supposedly new. The design of impeller is such that it does not have center shaft, and it could be why it's noisy. However, performance appears to be very good, it's skimming well. Good sound proofing will mask out most of noise.
3. Koralia 3 - bought brand new, hoping that this is break-in issue. It makes significantly more low frequency noise than tunze nanostream power head and it bothers me when I'm near the tank. I can feel the vibration originating from koralia on the glass it's mounted on. I'm not sure if this is normal. I had no problems with a couple of koralia nanos, so this isn't expected at all..

Overall, the combined noise can be heard easily in my living room where the tank is located in. It hasn't bothered me while sleeping yet, which is more critical.


----------



## cablemike

the larger the tank and equipment usually result in more noise.. your going from a nano to a 75.. its gonna be louder.. just do what we do.. turn up the tv's volume  and skimmers are usually loud.. mine is the main source of noise from my tank.. then second would be the fans in my lights.


----------



## conix67

*Diatom bloom!*



cablemike said:


> the larger the tank and equipment usually result in more noise.. your going from a nano to a 75.. its gonna be louder.. just do what we do.. turn up the tv's volume  and skimmers are usually loud.. mine is the main source of noise from my tank.. then second would be the fans in my lights.


I don't watch TV  Cut off rogers cable to fund this hobby.

I'm having a major diatom bloom. Tested water after adding a chunk of shrimp meat blended (made long time ago to feed my nano) few days ago, but keeps reading all zeros.. maybe I should add bigger piece..

I have an emerald crab in there hoping to pick on few bubble algae I wasn't able to clean up. He's busy eating things off from rocks. I plan to add few more hermits and snails. Who's the best cleaner for diatoms?


----------



## ameekplec.

Don't worry about the diatoms - they are part of the normal maturation process. I saw them when I first started, as well as when I started up the 20g.


----------



## conix67

*Move from 12G nano!*

Diatom bloom gone, hair algae bloom subsiding and guests coming next week, so I decided to perform early move.. Not as simple as I thought it would be !!

Anyway, here it is. Still hazy from adding substrate and stirring up sand all over the place. Took out some big pieces to remove visible bubble algae..










Everything's opened up, some all the way. RBTA seems bigger in the new tank. Clowns are happy.



















Along with the move, about 10% of water change was performed. Will follow up with another water change tomorrow.

Can't believe all those frags being kept in 12G nano filled up 75G. A lot of live rocks came out of the nano as well.


----------



## Doctor T

Looks awesome! I'm jealous of your two clowns in the anenome!


----------



## Ciddian

Nice!!! Happy to see a great update... Do love the clowns :3


----------



## conix67

Thanks everyone! Yes I love my clowns with RBTA. A lot of fun to watch.. I know there are many fancy and pricey clowns out there, but I think these false perculas are still the best looking!


----------



## conix67

complete water testing performed today

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Ph - 8.2
Alkalinity - 9dkH
Calcium - 420 mg/L
Magnesium - 1260 (forgot the unit)

looks alright, there are still some hair algae but not growing on rocks from my nano, interesting...


----------



## conix67

*pics update - some recent aquisitions*

Blue striped mushroom, about 4 baby ones on a small rock, from a reefer in Richmond hill










Candy cane frag originally very green but bleached under MH, now recovering but not sure if the color will be back










My emerald crab always busy cleaning algaes all over the place. I realized he's missing a leg after taking this photo










My clowns like to pose for photos all the time, new arrangement in their home in 75G. The rock was wedged into the crevice above but fell off recently.










Duncan frag from Ameek. Started with 3 heads, now about 11+ heads. Very hardy and reliable.










Frogspawn, about 6 heads from a reefer in Richmond Hill










SPS frag from Atomikk. Polyps still looking good, back of the main branch is actually dead piece, hoping to see it stay alive and grow



















Orange/brown monti dig from Atomikk. Looking really good so far.










Zoomed in onto the right side of this frag for fun.










Base rock coverd with green hair algae. Note that other rocks are clean. The hair algae appears on base rocks and some older LRs that came with the system only. The rocks from my 12G nano stays clean. Orange Ric is from Lloyd.










Paly and christmas favia frag..










A small rock covered with Rics, from a reefer in Richmond hill










Dendrophylia frag from Ameek. Still doing well, finally have 2 small heads in the back starting up.










My green mandarin goby. Behind is a rock covered with green hair algae(?)










Another small rock from the reefer in Richmond hill, palys and zoas










FTS as of today. Still lots of green hair algae, but doesn't bother me too much yet..


----------



## cablemike

its looking good.. cant wait too see it when all those frags grow up.


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> its looking good.. cant wait too see it when all those frags grow up.


Well, I'm happy to see things showing signs of improvement.

Many corals/frags are showing better polyp extension and *color recoveries*.

Those that have browned out, lost polyps, bleached have gotten better considerably after the move to 75G. This alone makes the whole effort worthwhile.


----------



## conix67

Look at all these frags grew up to colony sizes in just few days!  It's just my wishful thinking, these are from a store in Markham at the price of frags. Awesome deal.























































The large millipora colony shows some signs of tissue necrosis. I'll have to keep an eye on it and possibly frag it if it spreads..

Much of the tank is out of focus, this is how it looks now..


----------



## conix67

*Activated Carbon!*

My 75G has been running with just few things in the sump - skimmer and refugium. I have not begun running activated carbon or phosban yet.

Yesterday I decided to run activated carbon through the phosban reactor I have. In less than 12 hours, the difference in polyp extension on many of the corals I have was simply astonishing (especially so on monti digis)! To some, these would be just normal polyp extensions they might expect in their system, but I've not had this good polyp extensions.

It was already a big step forward in terms of responses from corals when they were moved from nano to 75g (nano was running activated carbon almost full time).

Needless to say I'm impressed by the effect of activated carbon in reef aquarium. I would say this is one thing you need to do to keep things running better, more so than a skimmer.


----------



## Doctor T

Good to know. I'm still a ways from setting my reactor up - How did you set up your phosban reactor? Did you add another pump or connect it to the return?


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Good to know. I'm still a ways from setting my reactor up - How did you set up your phosban reactor? Did you add another pump or connect it to the return?


I wanted to connect it from the return but ended up hooking up a pump which came with it originally. I need to add two more ball valves in order to drive it off from the return, so that flows to all 3 can be controlled independently


----------



## Doctor T

conix67 said:


> I wanted to connect it from the return but ended up hooking up a pump which came with it originally. I need to add two more ball valves in order to drive it off from the return, so that flows to all 3 can be controlled independently


what's the third flow for? Btw, your tank looks even better in person.


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> what's the third flow for? Btw, your tank looks even better in person.


Thanks. It's mostly rocks at the moment. With just rocks mostly it looks full, which means not much room for coral growth. Doh! 

As for plumbing, I realized that you need a valve on every place it branches to, in order to control flow to all branches. There's a branch from main return to the line that connects to both refugium and phosban reactor. I currently have just one valve that controls flow to both, and that's not enough to ensure the flow to refugium and phosban is evenly distributed.

Water test results look good. Nitrate and Phosphates are still zeros. Calcium is at 420ppm, alkalinity at 8dkh. I'm not dosing anything yet, but trying to keep up with a small water change every week.

Green hair algae is mostly gone I think, but there's a bit of cyno attack. I'm hoping this is just part of maturing process.

Here's FTS today...


----------



## PeterJ

Looks great
I wish I had one too.


----------



## conix67

*New members*

Today I went out shopping for few that I was planning to add to 75G. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find ones locally, so I visited NAFB for the first time since I started SW. Good selection and price.

This is also first time - drip acclimating using airline tubing and gang valves. Worked great! Thanks Ameek for ideas.










So these are my part of the new additions. They were drip acclimated for 4 hours. Salinity of their tank water was 1.021, so I had to bring it up to 1.025 through drip acclimation.










The blue tang is about 2 inches long, not too small but not too large. Good size in my opinion.

The copperband butterfly eats frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. Saves me training time and effort. I moved my coco worm to fuge.

Now, another set of frags from frag-a-lot. Hoping to raise them properly. A frag rack was upgraded with railings around to avoid falling off.










Copperband in the tank...










Blue tang in the tank...










Left side view..










Right side view..










Meet new friend. A happy boy.










FTS update.


----------



## ameekplec.

Sweet new additions!! Nice that the copperband eats frozen food already - hopefully you can train him onto prepared too.

I have railings on my frag rack too - all too often a snail + frag = frag being eaten by a colony it fell on, or vice versa.

Tank's looking good


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Sweet new additions!! Nice that the copperband eats frozen food already - hopefully you can train him onto prepared too.
> 
> I have railings on my frag rack too - all too often a snail + frag = frag being eaten by a colony it fell on, or vice versa.
> 
> Tank's looking good


Thanks. I never thought about the prepared food! That would be cool.

I got the idea for rails from your frag rack actually  A good idea, snails keeps knocking them off.

There's a bit of Cyano, but otherwise the tank's doing ok. I hope things get cleaned up soon!


----------



## conix67

*RBTA morphing*

Just few days ago










after feeding small chunk of silversides every other day for few days










few more days later (today)










So, active feeding does matter!


----------



## Doctor T

Wow, what a difference. Great pics btw!


----------



## conix67

*General Update*

It's been a few weeks already since my 75G started running... It's maturing nicely I think, and have gone through several stages typical cycling/maturing steps


Diatom bloom - lasted for about a week
Hair algae bloom - lasted for about two weeks
Cyanobacteria bloom - almost gone, started about a week ago
Green algae on rocks/glass (not sure what this is) and coraline algae started to appear - base rocks are beginning to get covered with both, looking more natural than before

All in all, I do like the rock work better now. Although it lacks open swimming space for fishes, it creates a lot of hiding places for them to feel secure. The look doesn't bother me much anymore, and I enjoy it now.

*Corals*

Generally all corals and frags are doing well, and way better than they were before in 12G nano. Many bleached out corals are regaining colors, polyps look better, I cannot ask for more!

Here's one example. It was a purple body, dark purple polyp monti digi frag. Lost polyps and color, looks dead.










After few weeks in 75G /w T5HO, at least it regained polyps and body color. The polyp color is not back yet, but it looks a lot better now.










All acros are doing well. Poylps are well extended, looking happy. This alone makes me feel all the effort to move up to 75G was well worth it.

*Fishes*

Here's the complete list of all fishes I have today

2 x Ocellaris clown
1 x Blenny (not sure what kind, a funny fish)
1 x Blue Mandarin Goby
4 x Blue green chromis (bought 7 but 3 died in 3 days)
1 x Blue tang (about 2 inches)
1 x Copperband butterfly

Lucky for me, I didn't have to train the mandarin goby or copperband. They are both eating frozen food very well. Mandarin is eating both bloodworms and brine shrimp, and copperband is eating brine shrimp.

Everyone seems to get along very well, none are fighting. There was a big conflict between clowns and chromis school, but they are always together now. Blue tang and copperband are not showing any aggression toward any tankmates.


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow, stark difference. Good to hear that all is well now.

Where'd you score that purple digi? I've been looking for a purple polyp/purple digi for a while


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Wow, stark difference. Good to hear that all is well now.
> 
> Where'd you score that purple digi? I've been looking for a purple polyp/purple digi for a while


From a reefer near York Univ. His ID on AP is picoreef. He sells a frag pack once a month or so, it came with one of his frag pack.

It started to grow, so in a year or so I might be able to frag it


----------



## Doctor T

Good update - glad to hear the base rocks are looking better too.  Also nice to hear the clowns are playing nice now. I never used to think they could be bullies - but I know better now.

Btw, I did have better shots w/ my 17-55mm, mainly because of the inherit deeper DoF, but then not as as up close as I'd like. Will play around w/ my 100mm macro, when I actually have more interesting things to shoot . Good point about the 35mm, mine's been gathering dust lately. I forgot it can get pretty close too.

FTS soon? I'd like to see the improvement on the base rocks.


----------



## conix67

They will try to defend their hosting Anemone with their life, so they don't like anyone else getting near it. Blue green chromis and others get pretty close to it now but clowns rarely chase them out. 

However, my blenny used to headbutt anything that comes close to its old home - large empty featherduster shell. One day one of the hermits was sitting at the opening of this featherduster shell, and my blenny headbutted him so hard the hermit flew almost a feet off the ground.

I don't really have a good picture to compare the state of base rocks earlier, but I'll try to find some. FTS may not show the difference yet.


----------



## Ciddian

wow what a difference... nice update


----------



## conix67

Thanks! Here's another update. I'm done with livestock purchases (minus small frag purchases time to time) including fishes.

I'll probably get flamed on this but I picked up a nice powder brown tang today, at very good price (couldn't resist).

Problem - the blue tang shows some ick. Mandarin gobies had ick before, so it could be that they've been in the system all along. I'm hoping that cleaner shrimp and wrasse can deal with it, along with garlic in food. Otherwise, I have no way to cope with it the way things are. This could be a real bad thing as the powder brown tang is considered ick magnet as well. Anyway, as it stands they all look happy, and fishes are getting along very well.

Having two frag racks really cuts into swimming space for fishes, and just not looking good at all. So I spent some time today gluing down most of the frags I have.

One of the rocks is covered with all kinds of macro algae.

Some bubble algae is showing up, but only on the rocks/corals from the system with bubble algae before..

FTS update ..


----------



## ameekplec.

Ahhhhh! PBT! I <3 PBTs!!

Try feeding a lot. Apparently a lot of people have had success with just keeping their fish well fed - the thinking is that it helps them fight off the ick.

Although, the best way would be if you could qt everything, but I know that's not an option for you now.


----------



## Abner

Thanx for allowing me to come in see your tank...looks great in the pic but better in person i just put the coco worm in, is out and waving in the breeze lol.good luck with the ick treatment


----------



## conix67

Honestly I don't know who brought in the ick. I think the tank it was in were already medicated, at least for a short time he was in it. 

It could have been that ick was in the system all along, or could have been introduced by some recent additions.

I'm totally confused about this by the way. Ick needs a host to survive, but can it survive without affecting fish - I mean if the fishes in a tank were ick free for months, the only way for new fish to get infected is by bringing it in with it? Or even if the ick doesn't affect fishes, it stays in the system as long as there is at least one fish in the system?

I'll try keeping the fishes well fed, but I'll be feeding them mostly once a day though...


----------



## conix67

Abner said:


> Thanx for allowing me to come in see your tank...looks great in the pic but better in person i just put the coco worm in, is out and waving in the breeze lol.good luck with the ick treatment


No problem Abner! It was a pleasure to meet you. I'm glad you enjoyed the visit.


----------



## Doctor T

Tank looks good. I hope the Ick thing gets sorted out soon.


----------



## conix67

I've been doing some search on Marine Ick, here's some conclusions

1. Marine Ick is different from Freshwater Ich, temperature doesn't help
2. the only way to be certain your tank is free of Marine Ick is by *QTing EVERY livestock you bring in* and for fish also treating for Ick during QTing period, and they should be QTed for minimum 8 weeks.

There's no way I can follow this protocol, and most people won't be able to do this.. however, I could be paying the price for it..


----------



## KnaveTO

conix67 said:


> I've been doing some search on Marine Ick, here's some conclusions
> 
> 1. Marine Ick is different from Freshwater Ich, temperature doesn't help
> 2. the only way to be certain your tank is free of Marine Ick is by *QTing EVERY livestock you bring in* and for fish also treating for Ick during QTing period, and they should be QTed for minimum 8 weeks.
> 
> There's no way I can follow this protocol, and most people won't be able to do this.. however, I could be paying the price for it..


Yes but freshwater dips also help remove it. Where as FW ick is subceptable to salt, marine is subceptable to fresh water.

Good luck there and hope this works out.


----------



## Doctor T

conix67 said:


> I've been doing some search on Marine Ick, here's some conclusions
> 
> 1. Marine Ick is different from Freshwater Ich, temperature doesn't help
> 2. the only way to be certain your tank is free of Marine Ick is by *QTing EVERY livestock you bring in* and for fish also treating for Ick during QTing period, and they should be QTed for minimum 8 weeks.
> 
> There's no way I can follow this protocol, and most people won't be able to do this.. however, I could be paying the price for it..


Yeah, that sucks.  Such QT protocol would take some of the enjoyment out of the hobby I would think. Hope you get through this ok.

What about FW dip on future fish? Does that help knock out Ick instead of such lengthy QT time?
(edit: oops, just saw KnaveTO's post)


----------



## KnaveTO

Beat you to the answer.


----------



## Doctor T

KnaveTO said:


> Beat you to the answer.


More accurately, you answered my question before I even asked it.


----------



## KnaveTO

I think I just read an article in FAMA about that issue, thus the knowledge. Conix knows how new to SW I am so can't fool him with my vast wisdom


----------



## conix67

The problem is, FW dip is not guaranteed to get rid of ick, which is present in gills. Also, this is a terribly stressful method for a fish. Here's a good read on Marine Ick, presented by a person who did academic research on it, and able to keep his tank ick free since 1970...

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23132-marine-ich-myths-facts.html

If things get worse, I might have to prepare for full QTing of all fishes.


----------



## ameekplec.

The FW dips won't do antyhing for the ick inside the fish - it might do something for the cysts on the outside.

Apparently FW dips are pretty good - stressful but good.


----------



## conix67

Ross, I'm just as newbie as you are.

Anyway, here's some pics of the little guy today. I can see one spot where it looks somewhat like ich, so it's definitely not an outbreak.



















You be the judge of his condition.

Now the pretty little fish, his face looks almost look like a horse's


----------



## Doctor T

Beautiful fish! Esp. the new powder brown tang. Damn, makes me wish I had a bigger tank.


----------



## KnaveTO

Doctor T said:


> Beautiful fish! Esp. the new powder brown tang. Damn, makes me wish I had a bigger tank.


Me too! Ah well even my 65 when it is set up will be too small for them. Guess I am going to have to live vicarously through all of you guys that have the larger tanks


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Beautiful fish! Esp. the new powder brown tang. Damn, makes me wish I had a bigger tank.


PBT is very nice.. I thought 4ft would be long enough for him, but now I understand better. He looks like a horse trapped in a cage. I kept much larger fishes in smaller tank before, but PBT swims a lot and very fast.

Honestly, he looks like any size tank wouldn't be large enough for him.. maybe at least 8ft long..


----------



## conix67

*General update and Coral Growth - Milliepora*

I spent a week looking for a good solution to my Marine Ich problem in the tank, currently showing on blue tang and now powder brown tang (both of which are known to contract MI easily).

A lot of online resources describe these tangs being susceptible to MI, and they get it typically when they are weak or stressed. What they fail to mention is that it only occurs if your system already has MI. If your system is free of MI and your new fish is also free of MI, there's a zero chance you'll have MI ever.

I was a fool to be fooled by many of these online descriptions (or even books). It is clear now why QT is a must in marine aquarium hobby, unless you're willing to deal with it in your display tank.

Well, after doing some research the choice came down to two - take them out and treat them with hyposalinity method or try in-tank method. I'm currently trying out garlic method, feeding them at least twice a day (but half the fishes are not up in the morning). Actually I see signs of improvement, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that garlic works for me just as well as it did for many others. In about two weeks if there's no significant improvement I'll be tearing down my tank 

Anyway, fishes aside, the tank is doing well in general. All SPS corals/frags are showing clear sign of growth, which means they are all happy. Here's one example -

July 7th










July 17th










This is not a particularly pretty coral but I like it since it's doing well in my tank 

If it keeps up this growth rate (2-3mm in 10 days), it will become quite large after a year..

I'm not dosing anything yet, except a small dose of reef complete everyday. I need to order the 2 part kit soon. I should also check current calcium level.


----------



## Doctor T

Hey Conix, thanks for the update.

If Marine Ich is already in your system, how will using a QT help? And how can you get it out of your system?


----------



## conix67

I'll have to QT all fishes. Leave DT fishless for 8 weeks and MI will disappear (complete life cycles and without hosts they cannot reproduce and survive)

In the mean time the QTed fishes will have to be treated. First freshwater dip, then move to QT tank for hyposalinity treatment. Since I do not have a refractometer, finally ordered one.

I'm hoping that I do not have to go that far. People have had good success with Garlic, and I'm hoping it will do just that in my tank too.

My fishes will not be happy in a 20G tank (my biggest spare tank..) ..


----------



## Doctor T

Ahh, ok. Hope the garlic works - good luck.


----------



## ameekplec.

Any chance you can pick up a cheap 55 or something? I feel like the tangs will both be extremely stressed in a 20.

IMO, you'd be better off just feeding religiously in the DT - the combined stress of being caught and being in a cramped tank will probably not be favorable for them.


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Any chance you can pick up a cheap 55 or something? I feel like the tangs will both be extremely stressed in a 20.
> 
> IMO, you'd be better off just feeding religiously in the DT - the combined stress of being caught and being in a cramped tank will probably not be favorable for them.


That's another thing I'm worried about...

I was also thinking of a cheap 55 or any 4ft tank, but I need a space for it (and a stand) too. I could put it in my basement, but I don't go there often at all.

Anyway, what that also means is that if you're going to have a tang and QT it prior to adding to DT, you'll need a tank just as good as your DT for QT 

I think I really need to build a fish room in my basement...


----------



## BKTruong

Update Pics Yuri!!


----------



## conix67

OK. I didn't feel like posting update until the fish situation got better, but here it goes.

Powder Blue Anthelia from Ameek - half of a small frag already grew this much. This is the fastest growing coral in my tank, even faster than GSP or Pulsing Xenia.










FTS today. Not much changed from this view. Corals are generally doing fine, everything seems to be growing well. Macro algaes are also doing well, but I had to trim some to keep them from invading into path of corals.










However, the fishes are different story. Marine Ich is bad! Initially I started using Garlic Guard hoping to hold off on further development of the MI, but wasn't effective at all. Later I purchased Garlic Xtreme and started to use it on food but that hasn't helped much either. In the mean time, I'm cycling my 20G and it's ready now. However, I can't catch any fishes at all, without moving rocks... I simply don't have time for that these days, so in tank treatment is what I need to try.

I ordered this product - http://polyplab.com/medic.html - looks like a product out of research at U of T. Not cheap but I need to avoid further loss of fishes.

Yes, I lost fishes and I believe all due to this parasite.  I suspect they might have come with blue green chromis fishes. The chromises died one after another, everyday right from the first day. The sick ones were breathing heavily which is another sign of MI. I lost all those fishes adored so much - copperband, powder brown tang, blenny, green mandarin... 

If the polyplab product doesn't work, I'm taking a day off and move all remaining fishes to QT tank... I'm hoping that wouldn't be necessary.


----------



## ameekplec.

Sorry to hear of all the losses - hopefully it serves as a lesson to all to dip and QT before making additions to our tanks.

I hope your treatment regimen goes well!! tank is looking great otherwise, BTW


----------



## Doctor T

Damn, I'm so sorry to hear about the losses.  I was really hoping they'd make it. Good luck with the rest. I'm following this thread and crossing my fingers. If anything, I learned to take QT seriously and not take anything for granted - sheesh.


----------



## conix67

Some vendors, such as reef aquatica, sells fishes quarantined at slightly higher price. The way I see it, that price difference is well worth it.

I think Marine Ich is common, but you do have a good chance of not getting it. However, you don't want to take chances..

I was a little surprised to see how quickly the infection becomes fatal, to some fishes. Some don't show symptoms at all externally (no white speckles) but they show heavy breathing symptom. Some looks healthy and eats well (my powder brown) but as soon as covered with the white speckles, it only took few days before he died. He was showing no signs of health problems other than the white speckles. 

Now it comes to my mind, the stories of some I met who kept marine fishes before, all quit after getting a severe case of marine ich, which wiped out entire tank, some pretty darn expensive ones..


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Sorry to hear of all the losses - hopefully it serves as a lesson to all to dip and QT before making additions to our tanks.
> 
> I hope your treatment regimen goes well!! tank is looking great otherwise, BTW


Do you dip everything (coral, fishes, others) in freshwater and QT them? That takes a lot of discipline.

After this is over, my 20G will stay as QT permanently, and there won't be new fishes until after previous one is out of QT.

I will need a good enough lighting if I were to QT new corals...

My tank still has some red/green slime algae.. but otherwise it's doing fine


----------



## ameekplec.

I dip all corals in an iodine dip and throughly inspect them for pests and other things. I also discard the bases that corals come on as they typically harbour things. I don't QT them, but I probably should.

For my last addition (hawkfish), I qt'd for a few days, and treated with prazipro for internal parasites and did a 10 min pH adjusted FW dip, then released him into the DT.

For the future, I intend to set up a cycled QT to add any fishes into the system.


----------



## conix67

Spent two days at someone's cottage by the lake near Parry Sound. We went fishing, I didn't catch any 

However, I got something over the weekend.










Yes, my RBTA splitted. Both quite large now, but very stringy. Although I stopped feeding it for a while, feeding silversides make it grow really quickly!

Here's my Algae garden, a lot of people like it for some reason, so I'm just going to trim it time to time..










Still waiting for the Polyplab Medic for MI. Meanwhile the remaining fishes are doing quite well..


----------



## Abner

congratulations!! can't wait to be able to have a BTA in my tank...yep i like the look of that algae.hope things keep getting better in your tank glad to hear the remaining fish are doing good. Keep up the good work! lol


----------



## conix67

*Macro Algae*

Abner, I can only appreciate your patience with your own tank. I think your tank is ready for just about anything now.

Anyway, I received the polyplab Medic the other day and started dosing it. However, most fishes appear to be doing just fine already, but will be dosing it for 10 days as per instruction and keep adding garlic to food.

In the mean time, I took pictures of macro algaes growing furiously in my tank. They look kinda interesting. Here are some pics.

2 different types fully covering this rock.










sending runners all over the place..










looks like edible seaweed










very curious looking, two different kinds behind the millipore










there's a little hairy crab in the green acro on the left. He's been there ever since I brought the acro in, looks like no harm done to acros - should I consider this a safe crab?










Some pictures from above, colors are much better from the top. Looking through the front glass certain colors get washed out - is this why people prefer starphire glasses for tanks??

Remaining frags on my little frag rack. A single polyp of blue anthelia grew to a nice size frag.










Monti-digi garden. Waiting for the frags to grow.










Crocea clam. Never looks this good through the glass, all those blue sparkles disappear..


----------



## Ciddian

Ooooo I always wanted that grape algae!


----------



## ameekplec.

conix67 said:


> 2 different types fully covering this rock.


Looks like grape caulerpa (bubble one), and halimeda



conix67 said:


> sending runners all over the place..


Looks like another mini caulerpa - if you don't want it to spread out of control, you should clip them back. Once the runners get established in the rock, it'll be next to impossible to get rid of. I had this pop up in my system in a coral skeleton and the only way I got rid of it was to remove it all every time I saw it and eventually (after about 3 months) it stopped growing back (I started GFO and got an emerald crab too, so that might also contribute to it's lack of regrowth).



conix67 said:


> looks like edible seaweed


Looks like an Ulva species. You can eat them 



conix67 said:


> very curious looking, two different kinds behind the millipore


forget what both of those are called. the wavy one will establish itself and be impossible to remove if you let it keep spreading.

Overll everything is looking great Conix! Are you happy with your upgrade?


----------



## Doctor T

Glad to hear your remaining fishes are doing ok!

Great update and pics as always.


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Are you happy with your upgrade?


Are you kidding? Of course I am. Everything is doing much better in 75G, and it has been somewhat rewarding to see things doing well, I couldn't be happier, well, except for the little problem I have with marine ick.

However, I wish I had a bigger tank already  but I know the size I want can't be had in the house until my basement is finished... I'll probably be happy with this 75G for years to come.

I need to get a decent ATO working (at 2 weeks reserve, I'm topping off every 3 days currently).



Doctor T. said:


> Glad to hear your remaining fishes are doing ok!
> 
> Great update and pics as always.


Glad you liked it! looking forward to your tank shots.


----------



## Mr Fishies

Wow...a 75G is too small. I remember that day not so long ago, you looking at a little Biocube saying maybe someday a little SW tank would be nice.

I see pics of your little frag farming operation and can see how the addiction to plants pales in comparison, no pun intended.

Must look... away...


----------



## KnaveTO

Nice looking tank there Conix. Know the Parry sound area fairly well as my family is from Rosseau and have a cottage up there. Beautiful area, hope you enjoyed yourself.


----------



## Abner

*thanx*

After the first 20 gallon and losing the first angel i bought( yes i shed a tear) i really started to take it seriously plus with two kids i can't just spend money like crazy so i didn't want to keep replenishing livestock....i get really attached to to my fishes....after reading that article that was posting in jano's thread i can admit to everyone that i haven't tested for anything in over 6 months i just sit and watch my tank for hours and i just do everything according to how i feel when i look at my tank. I pretty much know when a water change is needed, when i need to add additives( uh yeah i use purple up too like once a week) man i spend sooo much time in front of that tank it is not funny....it's cuz i miss home and snorkeling around the reef..gonna get my dad to send me a pic of the view from my house down there so you guys can see. But i digress conix i really like your tank man u are doing a really good job and i am gonna need to get a piece of that caulerpa from you cuz i remember it from back home although the ones i saw were brown....please let us know what livestock you have left too..


----------



## conix67

*New additions!*



Mr Fishies said:


> Wow...a 75G is too small. I remember that day not so long ago, you looking at a little Biocube saying maybe someday a little SW tank would be nice.
> 
> I see pics of your little frag farming operation and can see how the addiction to plants pales in comparison, no pun intended.
> 
> Must look... away...


I thought 75G was humongous. My nano worked well for fishes, but not for corals. Yeah, I was very happy that I could keep a nano.

I still love well planted freshwater tanks. Mine's just not very well planted (hard to keep it low tech and looking good like those high tech ones, but then things become very tricky to keep in balance)



> Nice looking tank there Conix. Know the Parry sound area fairly well as my family is from Rosseau and have a cottage up there. Beautiful area, hope you enjoyed yourself.


Yeah, my first trip to a real ontario cottage. Very nice place, very nice cottage, nice view, nice lake... except for the drive to Barrie on 400 on saturday morning - took me 3 hours and Barrie's only 70Km away from our place. We liked the cottage trip, but we know we cannot have a cottage for many reasons...

Abner, I'd love to see that photo. One of these days I should make a trip down to that area and try it myself - snorkeling in reef area!

I have both of my clowns, two blue green chromis, blue hippo tang, all very healthy and doing well.

You can have the caulerpa anytime you wish. It seems to grow rapidly.

Anyway, today I made a trip to Caledon for a frag hunting. I saw a green staghorn I always wanted, so I thought it would be worth the long trip. Ended up with few more frags, nothing rare or too special, but special enough for me.

Some pics -

Green staghorn (I think..), very tall frag, not so green yet in my tank










Pink milliepora frag, hope I can keep it at the same color with current lighting..










Green polyp pink milliepora frag










Purple tipped branching acro










FTS today... no big changes since last time, but few frags have been moved around, frogspawn remounted (fell off yesterday)..


----------



## cablemike

your tank is looking really nice.. I wish i was so lucky.. ever since i upgraded to my 90 my tank has been unstable.. it has been going through a cycle  .. now im at the cyano stage.. but my corals look great .. glad to see your upgrade went so well..


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> your tank is looking really nice.. I wish i was so lucky.. ever since i upgraded to my 90 my tank has been unstable.. it has been going through a cycle  .. now im at the cyano stage.. but my corals look great .. glad to see your upgrade went so well..


Thanks. Haven't heard from you for a long time, Mike!

I still have a bit of cyano going around and hair algae is still around. So as long as corals doing fine, I'm sure your tank will come around soon. Looking forward to your tank updates.


----------



## Ciddian

> Green polyp pink milliepora frag


That looks insane!


----------



## Doctor T

That last FTS is stunning conix. I'm jealous - LOL.

I suppose you can't tell if the polylab medic did the trick since your fish were already on the mend. Oh well, hope you never have to use it again anyway. Glad to hear they're doing alright - especially your clowns which you've had for a while.


----------



## conix67

I have been dosing the Medic for 4 days now, but I have not stopped using Garlic either. Fishes are doing very well, and everyone looks healthy and clean. We'll see in few weeks how things go. 

Last weekend I met a reefer who has 180G display tank. Amazingly clean, SPS dominated tank with several Tangs. Not sure how long ago but he said he had an outbreak of Marine Ick as well, but was all cured with use of Garlic only after a month. Since then MI never came back, and he's not using QT tank.

So it's obvious many (even experienced) reefers would rather take the risk than going through troubles of QT'ing all new additions.


----------



## Doctor T

I was telling my wife about what happened to your tank and the need for a QT - and she was like 'no way are we getting another tank!' - LOL Then she said "Let's just get all the fish in one shot - no more additions". At first I dismissed the notion because conventional FW wisdom says to increase bioload slowly. But then I was thinking we are only planning to have 5-6 small fish, e.g. 2 clowns, blenny, fireangel, goby, etc... No Tangs or bigger fish. With SW cured live rock maybe it's a different ballgame(?) Do you think stocking my tank all at once w/ the 6 small fish a crazy idea - or not so crazy?


----------



## ameekplec.

Bad idea for the same reasons as FW - it's too much for the system to fully load it at once. It's asking for a crash.

A lot of things aren't QT'd too - I've been reading up on angelfish for example, and a lot of experienced keepers seem to advise not to qt for too long or at all. 

Good to hear everything is looking good!


----------



## Doctor T

Yeah, I thought it was crazy talk. Thanks.


----------



## shaneo

beautiful setup!! if you don't mind my asking, roughly how much is a setup like that?


----------



## conix67

shaneo said:


> beautiful setup!! if you don't mind my asking, roughly how much is a setup like that?


I must admit it's not cheap, but not terribly expensive either if you keep the cost under control, and look for good used gears in classifieds often.


----------



## conix67

*Purple tipped acro frag*

OK. It's been almost two weeks since last update. Things are generally looking good in my tank, no signs of Marine Ick for a few weeks but still dosing Medic. I need to stop that now... All fishes are healthy and active, blue tang is really getting fat (for a thin bodied fish), maybe I'm feeding too much.

One thing I haven't figured out is if the performance of my skimmer is acceptable. People talk about very dark gunk their skimmer is pulling out but mine doesn't seem to generate that sort of skimmate. It's a Tunze 9010 and makes some noise, my concern is if the performance is not where it should be, and possibly the noise explains it.

Anyway, for this update I'd like to post pics of one of my latest frags from local reefer - Aug 10th










14 days later










The color change is very obvious, it shows nice deep purple in upper half of each branch. Tips seem to show some growth starting as well. This is a little different from other acros I have, where they tend to lose color a little (a bit of fading, but not bleaching). I suspect it might be caused by lack of useful light, and adding two more actinics is planned (currently have 4 T5HOs).

Very little change, but here's current FTS


----------



## Abner

I am sooojealous of your tank...it looks awesome can't wait to have mine filled up with coral although i'm not and SPS fan what you have in there looks great. My list of coral that i want to get now is BTA, hammer, candy cane, pulsing xenia, sun coral and of course tons of zoas..after looking at different peoples tanks i think when i get a a bigger tank i'll be more focused on the corals.I'm even thinking of losing some of the fish. Again man you are doing a great job with this tank


----------



## conix67

Abner said:


> I am sooojealous of your tank...it looks awesome can't wait to have mine filled up with coral although i'm not and SPS fan what you have in there looks great. My list of coral that i want to get now is BTA, hammer, candy cane, pulsing xenia, sun coral and of course tons of zoas..after looking at different peoples tanks i think when i get a a bigger tank i'll be more focused on the corals.I'm even thinking of losing some of the fish. Again man you are doing a great job with this tank


Thanks Abner! I was not an SPS fan either when I started, but seeing those beautiful tanks filled with SPS slowly got me into SPS more.

I still love soft corals like zoos, rics and xenia. I also like hammer, frogspawn, candy canes.

I started my tank to keep marine fishes, but shortly after it became coral focused.


----------



## KnaveTO

I never thought I would start getting into them as well, and then got a birdsnest... hooked.


----------



## conix67

*A surprise hitchiker!*

While doing some maintenance, I came across the most surprising hitchhiker to date...










It looks like some sort of urchin. Never saw this guy until today, it's not that small, about an inch in diameter. Do these guys grow quickly?

Another interesting examples of ups and downs of a little acro frag...

December last year in my nano..










Was doing fine for a while, but after switching the lighting system everything went downhill for this guy.. look at this, no polyps, tip burns, faded color, I thought it was dead...

April this year










After the move to 75G, many frags did better and this one wasn't an exception. Color, size, polyps all look way better.

Today


----------



## Sunstar

cute l ittle urchin!


----------



## shaneo

I can't say enough that it looks AMAZING! You have your own little piece of the ocean!


----------



## UnderTheSea

Nice looking FTS. Cute little urchin.


----------



## conix67

UnderTheSea said:


> Nice looking FTS. Cute little urchin.


Thanks. But that FTS changed today. I've always felt that there were too much rock, and very little open space for fishes. Basically I tried to make use of all the rocks I had, and it turned out to be a little too much.

So today I bit the bullet and took all buckets out to rearrange part of rockwork. Actually it didn't take too long, and it was done in under two hours 

I like the new look a lot better.. you be the judge.

Side view










FTS










I brought in two new fishes over the weekend, but they are sitting in my 20G QT. They will stay there for 4 weeks.. a powder brown and a scopas.


----------



## ameekplec.

Looks great - definitely like the more open scape.

That dendro looks huge! Feeding it lots?


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Looks great - definitely like the more open scape.
> 
> That dendro looks huge! Feeding it lots?


Thanks! Good to hear someone agreeing with me 

I have not target fed Dendro for weeks. I think it's trying to reach for food. It's doing well and so are the two new heads are growing as well, definitely one of my favorites!


----------



## conix67

*Addition of some bright SPS frags for change*

Although I've been resisting temptation of getting more SPS frags, as the colonies look a lot better, I decided to try another batch, mostly very light colored ones, and easy to keep ones mostly (millies, montis).

New frags ready to be drip acclimatized..










after a few hours, all of them were glued in position in my 75G.. FTS update










side view, my RBTA split is almost brushing against other SPS frags.. this guy needs to find a new home soon!










These are the frags, photos taken after they are added to the 75G. Very bright colors! I sure wish I could keep them that way! Crossing my fingers...


----------



## Sunstar

I am in love with the purples.

With what and how do you glue them in?


----------



## conix67

Sunstar said:


> I am in love with the purples.
> 
> With what and how do you glue them in?


I'll keep that in mind. I use Ameek's sandwich method - superglue gel > epoxy putty > superglue gel.


----------



## Sunstar

probably something he learned in warhammer. We do a blend of supreblue and epoxy to get a bond.


----------



## ameekplec.

Sunstar said:


> probably something he learned in warhammer


  Warhmmer? whats that? <slips codex under table out of sight>

Haven't done any in years, but that's where I learned it.


----------



## conix67

*New fishes*

I've been wanting to add few more fishes, and purchased few and kept them in QT. Unfortunately the little 20G wasn't large enough to support 6 fishes in short time, so I gave up on QT and moved all fishes being QTed to DT.

Among them are a pair of Twinspot gobies, but these nasty guys are constantly stirring up sand and causing haze in my tank... however all corals and fishes don't seem to mind it, so I'm just going to let them be until they cause real problems.. hopefully not, as these cute little guys are a lot of fun to watch










So, the new fishes are - Power brown tang, Scopas tang, sixline wrasse, the pair of twinspot gobies

Here's current FTS..


----------



## Sunstar

*steals the tank*


----------



## ameekplec.

Those frags you posted are looking great!

Wow, that's a lot of tangs for a small tank....upgrading soon?


----------



## conix67

I guess 3 tangs in 75G too much, but everyone has reason for being there . At least the tank is 4ft long.. 

They are getting along well, seem to be happy. The tangs' face look a lot like some other animal, and I love the look.

Not getting a bigger tank for a long time, if tangs need more space, I'll have to make more space (by removing rocks, etc).


----------



## ameekplec.

I'll help you sneak another tank into your basement.....


----------



## Riceburner

The tank looks even more amazing in real life.


----------



## Doctor T

Your tank looked great before, but the new rescape looks MUCH better to me, with the more open space - great job!!


----------



## conix67

> I'll help you sneak another tank into your basement.....


Thanks! Actually this won't be so difficult, as I have a 8 feet wide door to my basement. The challenge is 1) finish the basement 2) find a place for tank. Most spaces are already reserved by someone...



> The tank looks even more amazing in real life.


Thank you! A little exaggerated IMO though 



> Your tank looked great before, but the new rescape looks MUCH better to me, with the more open space - great job!!


Doctor T is back! Thanks for kind words. I'm happy that everyone likes new scape better, and fishes look happier..


----------



## ameekplec.

conix67 said:


> Thanks! Actually this won't be so difficult, as I have a 8 feet wide door to my basement. The challenge is 1) finish the basement 2) find a place for tank. Most spaces are already reserved by someone...


8 foot door? Holy jeez Yuri, get a tank in there already...hmmm, 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, 6 feet tall.....might have to build it on the spot...


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> 8 foot door? Holy jeez Yuri, get a tank in there already...hmmm, 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, 6 feet tall.....might have to build it on the spot...


I will, when I retire...


----------



## conix67

*RBTA in a basket*

FTS-less update today.

A picture of my hippo tang asleep, taken early in the morning under room lighting.. he likes to lie down flat while sleeping.. very cute










My twinspot gobies won't stop. They are digging dungeons everywhere. I'm worried that some rocks that are not sitting on the eggcrate floor may tip over and cause rock slide! So far, that hasn't occurred, but these guys are very cute! Everyone loves them (most are fooled by the false eyes).










Now, I had to let go my RBTA split, as it was brushing against several acro frags and causing some damage. The anemone was already sold before I had a chance to place a for-sale ad. However, I had to keep it for few days, and had some issues with it moving over to unwanted place. Finally I decided to make the floating basket, similar to what's used by LFS to keep them in a place. Picked up $1 basket and attached styrofoams.










Attached to a string to let it float in the middle of water surface, RBTA settled in nicely and now I know how to get the bubbles back! Look at this picture, the tentacles are becoming nice and bubbly!










That's all for now.. there were some minor rearrangements done in the tank, will post FTS soon.


----------



## Ciddian

aweeee.. I love the bubbletip! Those gobies are fantastic!


----------



## conix67

*Lighting upgrade.*

Although my tank's been doing fine so far, some SPS species some colors I liked. Out of many parameters, I decided to try upgrading the lighting system first, as I'm still running 4 T5HOs in this system. I've made a purchase from AP on used stuff, but were missing endcaps. Just days ago I obtained the endcaps via trade, and finally I had chance to complete the lighting system upgrade..

Old look -










First problem - can't fit 5 retro mounts on the lid, ended up with a small piece of aluminum plate to extend the mount.

2 pieces were prepared.










Mounted with a screw.










Endcap mount installed.










Another view.










Wirings and others all complete. Took much longer than expected 










all lights on! Glad it worked at first try!










With reflectors. Notice missing a reflector, and a short one. Need to order some now...










New FTS. Color level auto adjusted as there's stronger actinics and messes up camera's view. Looks like a little more pop to color due to 2xactinics+ added now.


----------



## Ciddian

You smarty! Wow that makes the tank look very nice!


----------



## Sunstar

Conix, I have been meaning to ask. that T5 I got from you, what brand is it and where could I find another like it?


----------



## conix67

Ciddian said:


> You smarty! Wow that makes the tank look very nice!


Thanks Ciddian. Yeah, it seemed to work as expected!



> Conix, I have been meaning to ask. that T5 I got from you, what brand is it and where could I find another like it?


It's this one - http://www.bigalsonline.ca/StoreCat...uery=nova+extreme&queryType=0&hits=12&offset=

it now includes the leg and uses 20W bulbs instead.


----------



## Sunstar

Okay...the one I have cannot use 20 watt bulbs, just the 18's? 

I like the legs...


----------



## conix67

Sunstar said:


> Okay...the one I have cannot use 20 watt bulbs, just the 18's?
> 
> I like the legs...


You could probably use the 20w bulbs. 2W difference shouldn't be significant though, although the legs will compensate for it in the end (will be mounted higher with the leg).


----------



## Sunstar

I am considering a second one....I like light


----------



## BKTruong

Man Yuri Seriously GOOD JOB!! Running all T5s, you're pro! haha


----------



## ameekplec.

Sunstar said:


> Okay...the one I have cannot use 20 watt bulbs, just the 18's?
> 
> I like the legs...


It's actually a 18w bulb - I don't know why but both the 20 and 18w numbers are floating around, probably because 20 is a round number, but as far as I know those are 18w bulbs.

And yes, they're great little units aren't they?


----------



## conix67

*automation*

There are still many things that needs to be done to complete my setup. I have recently thought of some automation, and decided to fix the temperature monitoring and control problem first. The thermometers are hard to read, and digital ones are waste of money. The thermostats on all my heaters suck, they are never even close to being accurate.

I have ordered a reef keeper lite basic system, which will be my first automation controller and will be used as a temperature controller/monitor. It comes with 4 outlets, and I'm planning to use the remaining 3 for - skimmer/return pump for feeding cycle, 2 part dosing timer through aqualifter pump... we'll see soon


----------



## conix67

*RKL mini review*

Well, RKL finally arrived. This is actually a little exciting moment, as it could be the beginning of automation of this tank. For now, I'll be using it as temperature control and for some timer functions. Here's what came in the package











power module with 4 outlets (8A 3A 3A 8A), status lights
temperature probe (connects to the power module directly)
head unit (2 line backlit LCD display and 5 buttons)
USB module, cables for firmware upgrade
users guide, etc

Paid ~$95US (plus shipping, tax, etc) at bulk reef supply, and this is supposed to be very inexpensive considering what it offers - capability of a dual stage temperature controller, digital timer, wave maker, etc.

You can do things like controlling your main lights with temperature monitor such that it would shut off the light if temperature's too hight, etc. However, advanced programming is not possible.

I have it setup to control heaters, and skimmer/return pump in standby mode, which is really a neat feature and let you delay start skimmer/return pump while feeding the fishes/tank.

Here's the pic with the head unit visible (lower left corner) and actinics on.










It was very hot today, and I had my air conditioner turned off. I did not realize my tank's temperature shoot up to 84F !!!  Fortunately, everything seemed to be ok.

I realized this only after RKL was installed. Good thing the temperature is now clearly visible all the time, and never thought the effortless temperature monitoring can bring this much relief!

Anyway, I'm very happy with RKL so far. I do plan to add at least PH monitoring in the near future, and possibly moon light control... and maybe replace all timers with another power module.. we'll see


----------



## BKTruong

Wow the RKL looks awesome!! I love the skimmer and pump pause function so you could feed your fishes that's simply genius, can't wait to get something off you one day so I could see it in person lol


----------



## conix67

BKTroung, you should get one for yourself. The standby function cannot be provided by a simple timer..

Anyway, I've noticed substantial growth from my birdnest frag.. it is known to be a fast grower, but the growth rate is amazing regardless!

Original frag mounted on a plug.. it was a tiny piece, about an inch tall...










2 1/2 months later










Notice the green frag on the left side, it's the frag of a frag (to save it from other parts suffering from some sort of tissue recession) grown from a tiny frag also.. definitely not as fast as the birdnest, but growth is visible










and here's my purple millie colony










about 3 months after










Showing good growth, but the growth is not very even . You can see clearly the left edge shows substantial growth, but the rest isn't showing much of the growth at all. I wonder if this is related to flow...

Anyway, last update of today.. seeded few frags just days ago, will let them heal and grow for a while..


----------



## ameekplec.

wow, everything looks great Conix!

That's some impressive growth you've got out of those SPS. And the colurs on everything looks pretty nice!

Soon I'll be going over to you to get frags


----------



## tropicalfishlover1220

hey!! I remember that birdsnest frag.. glad it's doing really well!!

I lost the main colony a week ago to brown jelly =( my guess is from a hermit who got stuck and died/rotted on it.. so watch out for those little buggers!!


----------



## conix67

> wow, everything looks great Conix!
> 
> That's some impressive growth you've got out of those SPS. And the colurs on everything looks pretty nice!
> 
> Soon I'll be going over to you to get frags


Thanks. Most corals are doing well, except for few acro frags that I simply cannot make them to color up fully. My collection does not include any rare species at all, but of course if there's any that interests you, I'll surely prepare frags when they grow up.



> hey!! I remember that birdsnest frag.. glad it's doing really well!!
> 
> I lost the main colony a week ago to brown jelly =( my guess is from a hermit who got stuck and died/rotted on it.. so watch out for those little buggers!!


Sorry to hear that! I've never heard of the brown jelly infection, it sounds like a pretty nasty problem. I thought RTN/STN were bad.. are you sure the hermit got stuck? I see my hermits routinely make themselves at home in my monti caps/digis, and often I see them molt in there. I've not seen any hermits dead yet, certainly I should watch out for those getting stuck in bird nest...


----------



## Doctor T

Nice job with the lights and thanks for the detail shots. Damn, that tank keeps looking better!


----------



## conix67

I had a very difficult time last weekend. One of the major salt water aquarium store had a big sale, and had to resist temptation, very hard. However, still ended up with two more SPS corals. One I'm very happy with, another I'm not too sure...

Deep purple-blue Acro










Yellow-neon green body, purple tipped, brown polyp acro /w acro crab










Finally added two more 48" reflectors, so the lighting hardware is now complete @ 6 bulbs.

Some of my tiny frags aren't doing well, but SPS frags have been doing well. Multi color frags on a single frag plug.










Finally added ATO system, using a container outside. Looks ghetto but Ameek told me to do it this way 










Next up is a matching stand to house the 15G tall tank for ATO..


----------



## ameekplec.

What's wrong with a bucket beside your stand? 

Nice looking corals Conix! I'm jealous of all you guys and your big tanks!

Nice pickups too - the second one looks like it has promise if all the corallites colour up like the tips.

I need to come see your tank someday soon.

edit: 3500!! Anyways, is it just me or does that Monti look blue? If it does - sign me up for that frag


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> What's wrong with a bucket beside your stand?


The biggest problem is that it looks very much like someone else's setup 



ameekplec. said:


> Nice looking corals Conix! I'm jealous of all you guys and your big tanks!


I'm sure when you finally get your big tank done, you'll make everyone else jealous.



ameekplec. said:


> Nice pickups too - the second one looks like it has promise if all the corallites colour up like the tips.


I sure hope so.. I'm also hoping to see better results when I finally change all bulbs.



ameekplec. said:


> I need to come see your tank someday soon.
> 
> edit: 3500!! Anyways, is it just me or does that Monti look blue? If it does - sign me up for that frag


Yeah, maybe when I have all new bulbs in hand, so you can measure PAR values before and after changing the bulbs..

I have 4 different monti digis, and the one pointed out is not deep blue, but more of teal colored. I think that frag originally had very dark teal polyps, but now have very light colored polyps. Sure if you'd like I can frag it for you.

Monti digis are very special to me. They are hardy, relatively easy (flow/light), grows fast, branching creates interesting shapes, and very colorful.


----------



## Doctor T

Hey conix,

Can you give details on your ATO? Did you integrate it with your RKL? (LOL, I'm learning new acronyms)

Edit: I just saw your post in the ATO thread, but still wondering if you integrated it w/ the RKL at all or if there was any value in doing so.


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Hey conix,
> 
> Can you give details on your ATO? Did you integrate it with your RKL? (LOL, I'm learning new acronyms)
> 
> Edit: I just saw your post in the ATO thread, but still wondering if you integrated it w/ the RKL at all or if there was any value in doing so.


You can operate ATO with your RKL, by adding float switches to SL1 and driving a pump with assigned outlet.

My ATO is stand alone, has two float switches (redundancy, if one fails the other backs it up) driving AC outlet which is connected to an aqualifter pump (cheap, works, no siphon worries).

I do plan to upgrade to Tunze osmolator when I can..

I think ATO is one area you don't want to take a chance with..


----------



## Doctor T

Yeah, I'm thinking of the Tunze osmolator as well. But I'll hold off until I really need it. In the meantime I'll do it manually. The only value I can see for hooking it up to the RKL is to be able to put it in 'standby mode' with all the pumps so it doesn't kick in while doing maintenance or water changes.


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Yeah, I'm thinking of the Tunze osmolator as well. But I'll hold off until I really need it. In the meantime I'll do it manually. The only value I can see for hooking it up to the RKL is to be able to put it in 'standby mode' with all the pumps so it doesn't kick in while doing maintenance or water changes.


actually RKL can do a little more. It is an ATO system but missing sensors and a pump. It can be configured to monitor float switches and operate the pump based on these inputs.

Regradless, if you plan on getting the osmolator better not waste fund on something that will be obsoleted soon.


----------



## ameekplec.

The Tunze osmolator is great - it's really hard to beat it (IR sensor and float switch back up for under $220), and a great investment.


----------



## conix67

*Hidden ATO water container*

As the "Reef Crystals" bucket doesn't really fit in my living room, I'd been looking into ways to build a small stand to hide it under. I was thinking of complete DIY stand with similar look and color as the tank stand.

I found something that comes very close to it, without much of DIY from Ikea and decided to use it instead.



















It's supposed to be black-brown, but looks quite brown under certain lighting condition. Anyway, it blends in well, and hides my ATO container.

With more hidden space available, next step is to add larger water container for ATO, 15G high will fit nicely inside, and I already have a glass lid for it. Also, a decent size containers (slim and tall) for 2-part solution would be needed.

Anyway, today I found a mystery creature on my green monti digi. looks like either a snail or nudibranch.. what could it be?? Crossing my fingers hoping it's not something bad..


----------



## BKTruong

Wow Conix although I can't really classify that new creature but I can comment on your living room! That's one fine place! Interior designer? lol


----------



## Doctor T

I was thinking that Ikea would have something that would work. That looks good and fits in. 

For your RKL, how did you hide the cable to the control panel? Did you flush mount it to your stand, or drilled a hole for the cable? 
(Btw, I finally saw your RKL review page, dunno how I totally missed that page - LOL)


----------



## conix67

BKTruong said:


> Wow Conix although I can't really classify that new creature but I can comment on your living room! That's one fine place! Interior designer? lol


Thanks, but I'm not even close to being an interior designer . It's just my tank, ATO cabinet, digital piano side by side, nothing else.



> For your RKL, how did you hide the cable to the control panel? Did you flush mount it to your stand, or drilled a hole for the cable?
> (Btw, I finally saw your RKL review page, dunno how I totally missed that page - LOL)


I was thinking of drilling a hole for it, but I ended up routing the cable under the trim around the tank. It's just held there without glue, tape or anything and not visible. The cable is fairly long and was able to reach the connector of power module which is right behind the control panel.


----------



## conix67

Long time no update. Work kept me busy, and my son keeps me busy during weekends. Also, I've been enjoying playing a bit of Wii games such as rockband lately at friends place. I'm thinking of getting a real electronic drum set for rockband...

Anyway, finally managed to grab few T5 bulbs (from MOPS) to replace some aging bulbs I had. Also picked up a couple of aqualifters to complete my dosing pump configuration for 2 part dosing.

Two 1G containers from WalMart










Aqualifter pumps for 2-part dosing and auto top-off










The plan was to use remaining two outlets from RKL to control the aqualifters for dosing. Well, I hit a bit of problem with this plan.

For some strange reason (I need to ask Digital Aquatics), outlet 2 and 3 which are driven with solid state components (no relay) keeps the aqualifter running after the power is cut off. RKL display clearly shows the power is cut off but the pumps are keep running! 

Eventually decided to swap them with outlet 1 and 4 which are driven with relays and the problem went away.

While doing this, I found a neat feature I did not realize (or documented) in RKL. The outlet 2 and 3 have "power consumption monitor" feature - RKL displays actual power draw in Ampheres.

Anyway, it's running. Finally free from dosing 2-part manually which has been very difficult lately.

Otherwise, the tank is pretty much the same as before. Changes over last month or so

- Lost the bright green acro frag I liked so much to "RTN". It occurred after heavy trimming of macro algaes. Not sure if the two events are related, but there were no other changes otherwise. All other corals are doing just fine. 
- Growth is pretty good on some SPS corals. I had to rearrange few to allow some space, as some frags began to make contacts to each other.
- Nuisance corals and macro algaes are becoming a bit of an issue. Anthelia species and xenias poping up everywhere and growing fast. Any suggestions on methods to control these (also mushrooms)?

FTS today..


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow, tank looks great! I bet you're relieved not to be dosing by hand anymore - expect your SPS to really start taking off now that your 2-part is completely automated. My SPS are growing way better now that I'm dosing automatically.

That millie in the back looks huge!


----------



## Doctor T

Awesome FTS. 

I did read about that thing with the RKL and power outlets, but I never ran into the issue with what I've got plugged into mine. Nice to see your dosing setup. It's actually quite similar to mine, mainly because I bought the same Ikea BESTA piece after seeing how well it worked it for you to conceal the bucket. 

Sorry to hear about the green acro, but good to hear the rest is doing OK.

Can't picture playing Rockband without the proper drumset.


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Awesome FTS.
> 
> I did read about that thing with the RKL and power outlets, but I never ran into the issue with what I've got plugged into mine. Nice to see your dosing setup. It's actually quite similar to mine, mainly because I bought the same Ikea BESTA piece after seeing how well it worked it for you to conceal the bucket.
> 
> Sorry to hear about the green acro, but good to hear the rest is doing OK.
> 
> Can't picture playing Rockband without the proper drumset.


I have not contacted DA for the power outlet issue. I should do so soon before too late.

So are you satisfied with the BESTA unit? I know I am, it fits well where it is.

Just picked up Rock Band 2 special edition for Wii (Wii version is hard to find for some reason) for my son's Christmas present (actually I'm more eager to try it out than he is). What is the "proper drumset" you're referring to?

Anyway, some updates with close ups. Not much changes from last FTS, but will provide some more details hard to pick up from FTS.

Left side view










The red monti cap is still growing (I guess corals never stop growing), and forming a nice shape. Next to it is the green monti cap also doing well, except one side of it is constantly getting stung by the brown mushroom. Above it are two frags, pink mille which is slowly growing and the purple acro which is nicely encrusted and growing as well. Right behind is the crocea clam, which falls into the crevice behind it time to time. To the right is the green slimer staghorn(?), growing slowly. Above it are the green millie and purple monti cap. Both doing fine.

Behind the Corcea clam to the left are pokerstar monti, the fast growing teal birdnest, green /w purple rim monti cap, purple monti digi, and unknown green acro, and unknown millie frag. Also there's a large group of watermelon zoas visible.

Middle section










Monti digi garden! Green, teal, orange, purple are there together. Below are another pokerstar monti frag, hitchhiker polyps, deep water zoa frag.

The little birdnest is a tiny one from local reefer, tyree birdnest or something. Currently very bright with pink tips. It would look very nice once it grows larger while keeping the color as is.

Another birdnest behind it is visible, and unknown acro which is coloring up to more green/teal. Also visible is green/pink Charlice frag, and small purple polyps. The dark brown mille is doing well, even though the base of it had developed STN before I had it in my tank.

Right side










SPS colony garden - from left to right - pink birdnest, pink paly, yellow millie, pink monti cap, green staghorn, purple/blue acro, purple body hairy acro, unknown acro frags, pink mouth plating chalice, bright green monti cap, pink millie, blue stag, green acro, yellow/green acro, hydnophora, brown acro, teal acro, green/pink acro, light purple millie, green tip acro, etc.

All doing fine, but some lost polyp size a little.

So, other than the green acro frag lost due to RTN, other corals are still doing fine. Definitely would like to keep it that way. Tank is already getting too crowded, but there are still a lot of bare spots visible.

With automatic dosing of 2-part, very little maintenance is required. Finally lets me enjoy without too much labor... I'd like to keep it this way for a while.


----------



## Doctor T

conix67 said:


> I have not contacted DA for the power outlet issue. I should do so soon before too late.


Actually, I believe it's documented somewhere in the manual and all of them are like that. (i.e. plugs 1 and 4 are required for certain devices, can't recall the details) So yours is working as per specs. I don't have the issue, because the devices I have connected don't fall into that sensitive voltage category (or whatever) such as your dosers. 


conix67 said:


> So are you satisfied with the BESTA unit? I know I am, it fits well where it is.


It's great, and I love how customizable it is. Too bad it didn't come in black, otherwise, it's exactly what I was looking for.


conix67 said:


> Just picked up Rock Band 2 special edition for Wii (Wii version is hard to find for some reason) for my son's Christmas present (actually I'm more eager to try it out than he is). What is the "proper drumset" you're referring to?


LOL, my wife limits me to one current generation console at any time (I've got a 360). I've been thinking of buying my 4 year old son a PS3.  "It's a blu-ray player honey!"



conix67 said:


> Anyway, some updates with close ups. Not much changes from last FTS, but will provide some more details hard to pick up from FTS.


Nice shots. How big is your crocea now?


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow Conix, tanks and corals and everything are looking great! I wish my acros would colour up like that!


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Actually, I believe it's documented somewhere in the manual and all of them are like that. (i.e. plugs 1 and 4 are required for certain devices, can't recall the details) So yours is working as per specs. I don't have the issue, because the devices I have connected don't fall into that sensitive voltage category (or whatever) such as your dosers.
> 
> It's great, and I love how customizable it is. Too bad it didn't come in black, otherwise, it's exactly what I was looking for.
> 
> LOL, my wife limits me to one current generation console at any time (I've got a 360). I've been thinking of buying my 4 year old son a PS3.  "It's a blu-ray player honey!"
> 
> Nice shots. How big is your crocea now?


I think my Crocea is about 4" long.

My RKL manual doesn't actually describe anything about power bar. Outlet 1 and 4 have higher current rating, as they are switched on/off by a relay. 2 and 3 have solid state switching, and lower power rating.

PS3 makes sense these days, especially with the blue ray player capability. Besides, rock badn 2 for PS3 is a lot cheaper and easier to find. So go get it!


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Wow Conix, tanks and corals and everything are looking great! I wish my acros would colour up like that!


Thanks Ameek! Also, you are being honored by having my 1000th post in this forum.


----------



## AquaNeko

Conix67,

Wow!    I love the setup and all the colors. Not sure but do you have any star fish in there? I finally got to check out Ken's place 2 fridays ago. Amazing setup that guy has as well.


----------



## conix67

*Tales of corals - purple montipora digitata*



AquaNeko said:


> Conix67,
> 
> Wow!    I love the setup and all the colors. Not sure but do you have any star fish in there? I finally got to check out Ken's place 2 fridays ago. Amazing setup that guy has as well.


Thanks AquaNeko. I don't have any starfishes in there at the moment. I had one in Nano before, but it disappeared. However, there are a lot of brittlestars, mostly small ones.

Anyway, I'd like to share stories of some of my corals. Here's my purple monti digi I purchased from local reefer, it had nice deep purple when I got it, but turned into what looked like a dead frag after lighting system changes in my 12G nano before










after moving it to 75G, things look 100 times better already, polyps are out, color began to change










So eventually it was mounted to one of the live rock. Notice the presence of hair algae everywhere.










Some time later, hair algae is gone mostly, but taken over by caulerpa macro algae instead. The purple monti digi frag shows healthy growth.










Unfortunately, the frag came off the live rock, so it was remounted at different orientation. A lot bigger now.










An accident caused it to lose part of its skin. The green slimer visible on top fell off and landed on the purple monti digi frag. The section that made physical contact died off, but the green slimer is fine.










So the dead part was cut off and thrown away. However, it lost another branch, while cleaning the front glass it was accidentally knocked off. The piece is sitting on the crevice of LR next to the purple monti digi.










The purple monti digi as of yesterday. The colors look drastically different, I think it's due to either the new light bulbs which now includes *pure actinics*, or just that not all bulbs were warmed up. The picture was taken few minutes after lights went out, so some corals show no polyp extension.

Anyway, the growth appears to be picking up in speed, after automatic dosing setup is complete.


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow Conix, you have to frag me a piece of that Monti  The colour looks great!

I found that my digis really took off after I started dosing too. I think I was getting close to 1" of growth on them every month with the dosing and having them higher up. Now they're lower and slower growers, but nice nonetheless.


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Wow Conix, you have to frag me a piece of that Monti  The colour looks great!
> 
> I found that my digis really took off after I started dosing too. I think I was getting close to 1" of growth on them every month with the dosing and having them higher up. Now they're lower and slower growers, but nice nonetheless.


Well, you don't need a frag from me.

A monti digi frag from Ameek.










A little later, shows good growth.. you can see the other purple monti digi










The same frag today.










So I'm quite certain that they are the same species.


----------



## Ciddian

Your tank just blows me away....I showed bob the colours of your tank today and we couldn't believe the way it looks. You are doing an amazing job :3


----------



## ameekplec.

I'll be - mine is just the brown with slightly purple tips. My lighting is pretty weak - I don't get a lot of the colours I wish I did.


----------



## conix67

Ciddian said:


> Your tank just blows me away....I showed bob the colours of your tank today and we couldn't believe the way it looks. You are doing an amazing job :3


Thanks! Although I try my best within my limits, I'm sure it's a lot to do with luck.



> I'll be - mine is just the brown with slightly purple tips. My lighting is pretty weak - I don't get a lot of the colours I wish I did.


I can definitely frag it, that's not a problem. I think 6 T5HO should give you enough lights.

I've made some changes in my lighting system progressively (4bulb -> 6bulb -> reflectors -> bulb change), and that may be contributing to some better colors than before. Also, the color changes are more noticeable in photos than in real life. You can see the last photos look a lot more saturated, although I have not changed anything in my camera settings.


----------



## conix67

*Youtube!*

Just got a pocket digital video camera. Tried it out on my 75G tank and it looked decent, so uploaded my first Youtube video.  Take a look -


----------



## Abner

i liked the music!! tank looks awesome!


----------



## conix67

Abner said:


> i liked the music!! tank looks awesome!


Thanks Abner!


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow Conix, I must say, every time I see your tank, it makes me want to just grab the first bigger tank I see and get with it already!

I'm going to have to come over soon to see this beauty  Great video too!


----------



## Brian

Wow... just, wow...


----------



## conix67

Thanks everyone for encouragements! I'm actually surprised by some excessively positive comments. Thank you.

Unfortunately I had to change the music. I threw in something I had but Youtube immediately recognized the copyright ownership (wow they scan the musical content automatically) and I swapped out the audio with one of the prepared ones.


----------



## Big Ray

Nice tank, ure tank actually made me change my mind about my 20G, I'm gonna turn my 65G ray tank into reef this weekend, just need live rock and lighting (the most expensive parts ) but much more room to play with and well alot more water. Nice job


----------



## Ciddian

Your tank video makes me soooo happy! LOL

I loved seeing the clowns and that awesome clam.. Holy heck, everything is so healthy in there.


----------



## conix67

Ciddian said:


> Your tank video makes me soooo happy! LOL
> 
> I loved seeing the clowns and that awesome clam.. Holy heck, everything is so healthy in there.


If you're happy, I'm happy too. I'll focus on the clowns more next time.


----------



## conix67

*FTS update*

Here's my tank update in a long time.

Although things haven't changed much, I did add few things over the holidays.

- few frags from reefer at Guelph and frag-a-lot
- some bright SPS colonies on boxing day sale at SUM
- mandarin, coral beauty, and a rainbow(?) wrasse which died in few days after being attacked by the sixline  . However, the sixline doesn't bother other two.

Current FTS. Things have been moved around to make some room for new corals, absolutely no space for more corals or frags. I have a bunch of frags now, and plan to sell off many of soft corals too. Many frags were made accidentally while cleaning glass.










I think the huge colony of pulsing Xenia finally made my RBTA mad (not enough light) and had the RBTA move to the crevis behind the large milliepora (not visible in FTS).

Just before it occurred, I took a video of my RBTA and clowns. Enjoy!


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow Conix, your tank has really really grown in nicely! All the colours!!

Yes, the softies have to go...then the LPS......


----------



## Doctor T

Yeah, those colours are great. After seeing this, I realize I need to find more bright yellow and orange SPS...

Sorry to hear about your rainbow wrasse. I'm beginning to wonder if I can add any more fish now that I got my six-line. But she(?) seems to be an angel so far.

Nice vid too!


----------



## Big Ray

looks amazing man
Ure tank has inspired me to upgrade  

have u glued or connected ure rocks together ? or are they just stacked on top ?


----------



## conix67

Softies have to go because they begun to damage my SPS. Large hariy mushrooms are all goners soon.

I will keep the LPS for a while. However, small Chalice frags are causing a bit of problem as well, they have very loooong tentacles!

I love my hammer coral, which was tiny tiny single head one when I started my nano, but now have grown into many headed colony size..

My family thinks sixline looks mean. He sort of has the "angry" look in his eyes. I think the main problem with sixline is other wrasse specieis. Both fairy wrasse and rainbow(?) wrasse were harrased the same way. Within few minutes their fins were all nipped off, although I tried to let them recover by rescuing from the main tank, they died few days after...

Anyway, this means no more wrasse in my tank. Mandarin and Coral Beauty are getting along just fine, althought the coral beauty was harrased by the powder brown tank for few days. I thought it was going to die as well.

New additions are mostly bright colored ones. It will be a challenge to keep them the way they were at the store, but for some reason I began to like those mild colored corals (after seeing Ameek's tank). Yellow ones are nice too, can't wait till they grow up..

Most rocks are just stacked, but smaller ones are glued together. I suggest you look for a nice shaped LARGE piece as a center piece. The smaller ones get knocked around and it's difficult to deal with when the rocks are covered with corals.

Thanks everyone for kind words!


----------



## Doctor T

hey conix, congrats on the new Mandarin! Did you have to train it to eat anything? Does it have to compete w/ the six-line for food?


----------



## conix67

honestly, I don't know what sixline is after. I'm hoping that with my tank mature enough, there's enough pods to go around for both sixline and mandarin. I do feed bloodworms time to time, and I've had success with my previous mandarin on the bloodworms. 

No, my mandarin isn't specifically trained for frozen food.


----------



## cablemike

tank is looking great, i cant believe the growth of your sps.. my tank was so much ahead of yours and now your caught up in like 6 months.. i must be doing something wrong.


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> tank is looking great, i cant believe the growth of your sps.. my tank was so much ahead of yours and now your caught up in like 6 months.. i must be doing something wrong.


Hey Mike. Your tank inspired me to upgrade to a larger one and gave me a confidence that corals can grown in home aquariums. I added a few SPS colonies and that might make it look like the growth caught up yours  I don't think you're doing anything wrong, your tank always look great and coral growth is amazing in it.

How's your new configuration working so far? Post some update plz!


----------



## conix67

*Ph stability and SPS*

Yesterday I noticed obvious signs of stress on some acros in my tank. A couple of acro colonies show "tip-burn" like symptom. Haven't checked water parameters for a while (last check was in Nov), so checked everything out.

Most parameters are in line with previous measurements, except Cal and Ph. Cal is a little below 400ppm, but Ph is way off, it measures 8.8 but it could be out of scale. It seems that the two part dosing could be an issue, where the Alkalinity solution is being consumed at a faster rate.

Anyway, did a small water change and adjusted dosing rate of both. I was supposed to check more often and adjust as necessary, but I've been very busy lately and haven't had chance to invest more time in my reef tank.

However, all other corals are doing just fine.

I found the following article.. I will need a Ph probe soon, and checkout the Ph drift as well as constant Ph level

http://www.reef-eden.net/chasing_ph.htm

It says the following levels are recommended to minimize Ph swing.. something everyone might want to aim for

1350ppm Mg, 420ppm Ca and 8.0 DkH


----------



## Doctor T

Yes, I found the PH probe very useful to get a general idea if my water params are stable. PH level I keep on the main display of my RKL. (Mine is between 8.1 and 8.23.) 

On a side note re: RKL, I'm trying to find a local dealer for a replacement temp probe. I just found out that any dealer who carries Sunlight Supply can also order DA stuff through their SS rep - even if they weren't aware of it.


----------



## Big Ray

conix67 said:


> Yesterday I noticed obvious signs of stress on some acros in my tank. A couple of acro colonies show "tip-burn" like symptom. Haven't checked water parameters for a while (last check was in Nov), so checked everything out.
> 
> Most parameters are in line with previous measurements, except Cal and Ph. Cal is a little below 400ppm, but Ph is way off, it measures 8.8 but it could be out of scale. It seems that the two part dosing could be an issue, where the Alkalinity solution is being consumed at a faster rate.
> 
> Anyway, did a small water change and adjusted dosing rate of both. I was supposed to check more often and adjust as necessary, but I've been very busy lately and haven't had chance to invest more time in my reef tank.
> 
> However, all other corals are doing just fine.
> 
> I found the following article.. I will need a Ph probe soon, and checkout the Ph drift as well as constant Ph level
> 
> http://www.reef-eden.net/chasing_ph.htm
> 
> It says the following levels are recommended to minimize Ph swing.. something everyone might want to aim for
> 
> 1350ppm Mg, 420ppm Ca and 8.0 DkH


do you have light over ure Fuge ? in my small tank I never turn off the light over the fuge and PH is between 8.1 and 8.3 worst case, I was hoping in the new tank since the fuge is bigger Id get less swing but not sure if that will work ! 
also what do you dose ? calcium and DKH ?


----------



## ameekplec.

Any pH probe will work, as they all use the same connector.


----------



## Tabatha

conix67 said:


> Softies have to go because they begun to damage my SPS. Large hariy mushrooms are all goners soon.


Wow Conix, your tank is outstanding!!! I can't believe how beautifully it's matured and the colours are fantastic! 

I am looking for a toadstool and other leathers, please pm or email me with ones you want to evict from your tank. 

Cheers,

Tabatha


----------



## conix67

Tabatha said:


> Wow Conix, your tank is outstanding!!! I can't believe how beautifully it's matured and the colours are fantastic!
> 
> I am looking for a toadstool and other leathers, please pm or email me with ones you want to evict from your tank.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Tabatha


Thanks Tabatha! Unfortunately, I have *zero* leather corals. For some reason I didn't get attracted to the leather corals, although I do see some impressive ones like the one in your tank.

My plan is to keep Zoas, some Palys, SPS, LPS (including Euphyillia), some mushrooms (ricordeas, blue striped ones, tongan) and pulsing Xenia.


----------



## conix67

*Vacation*

I'm back from my 3 week vacation. It was a challenge to keep my reef tank healthy during my absence, and I had worked slowly to make as many things automated as possible before leaving for vacation. In the end, the only thing that needed to be done was to refill top-off water reservoir. I had a friend come in every week and fill up the water container with the RO/DI filtered water I had prepared in several 5G buckets.

Anyway, the tank survived but not without problems. One of my frag rack fell off, and some SPS frags were lost as they landed on/around GSP colony. The glass was very filthy as well, but the snails had a lot to munch on.










After some cleaning, things looked a lot better.










I'm happy to report that other than the frag rack, there seem to be no other major incident over the 3 week period. All fishes are healthy as well.

Many, if not most, SPS frags (now colonies) began to touch each other. Some have to go and many needs to be fragged further. At the same time, all corals appear to have colored back up again, especially those that lost most its color during flatworm treatment. The flatworms are nowhere to be seen, so I assume they've been taken care of completely.

Here are some random shots


----------



## Tabatha

Wow, your tank looks amazing Conix, especially after 3 WEEKS away!!!


----------



## ameekplec.

Tank looks amazing Conix! I like the little digi forest going on there!


----------



## cablemike

dude, your tank is just sick.. its the only tank here that im truly envious of.. though my wife keeps saying your look like ours i just dont see it.. its a beauty.. so now im gonna have to out do you as i have a big ego and cant handle being outdone  

awsome tank..


----------



## teemee

*conix's tank*

I will have to second everyone else, dude. your tank is gorgeous!
Good to see that the world doesn't end if you go away for a while!


----------



## aln

omg i love your acro garden  looks amazing


----------



## conix67

Thanks everyone for kind words!


----------



## conix67

*Clowns have spawned!*

After having been together for 1 1/2+ years, my clown pair have spawned!

The sad part is that I won't be able to do much to save the frys


----------



## aln

congrads on the spawn! love the picture  my GBR just spawned too! so i'm kinda excited about that  but there is alot of prep!!

good luck with yours tho!


----------



## conix67

Big Ray said:


> WOW ! awesome !
> the colors on the SPS colonies are just amazing man ! I was thinking of adding more light, but well looking at your tank, light is not my problem hahah .
> 
> do you feed your corals anything ? or just feed the fish and they get some as well ?
> 
> like cablemike said, I compare my tank to yours all the time haha, still have a long way to go.
> 
> another question since I have to leave for 4 days next month, how did you go about feeding the fish while on vacation ? auto feeders ?


I don't feed corals actively. Every week or two I feed reef chillies though. I don't think it's really necessary.

Yeah, I used an autofeeder to feed my fishes while on vacation.


----------



## conix67

*coral growth*

The clown's eggs hatched, but the babie are nowhere to be found 

although as expected, sad to see them disappear like that..

Anyway, I found my pink millie actually a lot bigger than it appears in FTS, when viewed from above

The pink millie frag 6 months ago, from frag-a-lot










the same frag today, decent growth, I think..


----------



## ameekplec.

wow, very impressive growth Conix....every time I see your updates it makes me want to really get on that "upgrade" I allegedly have planned...


----------



## aln

i second that! crazy growth!  and great colours too


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> wow, very impressive growth Conix....every time I see your updates it makes me want to really get on that "upgrade" I allegedly have planned...


Yeah, where's your new tank now? Too busy with new job or slowly making progress? I'm curious how you deal with coral growth in your current tank...


----------



## conix67

*coral growth*

here's the largest SPS coral in my tank.

Light purple millie 9 months ago










the purple millie now










and it's still growing. It's about to take over half of my tank..

This coral simply proves that for SPS's growth, lighting and water flow are the keys. I may try to swap out this coral with something else I'd like to see grow quickly as an experiment.


----------



## aln

FTS anytime soon?


----------



## ameekplec.

conix67 said:


> Yeah, where's your new tank now? Too busy with new job or slowly making progress? I'm curious how you deal with coral growth in your current tank...


Extremely slowly making process. . .now it's seriously just the tank stand left. Except nobody seems to want to follow up on quotes and such 

That and no time too 

How do I deal with growth? Frag! And move stuff around here and there - you should see the frag racks. All full! And the glass? Covered in frag-mags!


----------



## conix67

*Skimmer!*

My Tunze 9010 stopped skimming the other day. The pump was working fine as it was spewing out water like crazy, but the bubbles won't rise.

So on saturday, I decided to take it apart for a good cleaning. Turns out, the flexible hose which is part of the venturi system had been clogged up with salt creep, I think this is similar to the problem Ameek had.

After the cleaning, it began to produce a good amount of wet skimmate. I suspect it is possible that the part's been clogged up all along. I'll find out in few days..

Also reduced photoperiod by 2 hours to reduce the amount of algae that appears on glass and frag racks (mostly).

Not much else happening in the tank. Clowns spawned again..


----------



## conix67

Big Ray said:


> ohhh I have to clean mine at least once a week or it gets clogged !!!! I have no idea why ahah
> 
> but was thinking of getting a longer hose, so I can have it somewhere else instead of under the cabinet, as I think clean air would allow it to not get clogged ?
> havent had the time to actually try it but should solve the Issue, plus, if the room is not well ventilated you can run it all the way to the outside.


If it clogs up that fast, something is wrong. Definitely you should not need to clean the hose that frequently.

I've heard of suggestion to route ventru air intake to outside for several reasons, and one big reason is that the air quality in enclosed sump area is not ideal (oxygen, ozone content?).


----------



## conix67

*Update..*

OK. Haven't had updates for a while, since not much has happened since the last update. Today I spent few hours rearranging stuff while fixing others (my orange monti cap finally came off), not exactly planned activity but had to deal with it.

- My lovely purple tipped Tyree birdnest RTN'd overnight few weeks ago! This was one of the worst things that happened in this tank so far. 
- Some SPS corals began to lose color. Two of the 1+ year old Giesemann Actinic+ have been replaced with a brand new Actini+ and a Korallen Zucht super blue.
- Decided to use BRS carbon/phosban reactor for carbon only. TLF phosban reactor has been shutdown.
- Every time I move a acro frag from one location to another, they seem to go downhill these days. I don't know exactly why. Some STN'd after move.
- Thoroughly cleaned both power heads, flow has been restored to proper level, but some didn't like it much (taking the flow directly, from a distance).
- trying to keep just two frag racks, some frags fight each other (thanks to snails and urchin knocking things over) and some casulaties occur.
- My Tunze 9010 continue to disappoint. I wonder if there's a detail set of instructions/suggestions on how to tune Tunze 9010 better.

One of the SPS that were STN'ing had an acro crab, I almost forgot about it. Fortunately I found him just seconds before the container was to be filled with freshwater for cleaning.










Current FTS. Change not very obvious from this photo.


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow Conix, your tank continues to impress! Very nice colours and great growth!

I hear you on the frustration on issues here and there. If you're looking for another frag of the ponape birdsnest, let me know as I have a frag growing out.


----------



## teemee

*fts*

Looking amazing! Its only been a few months since i saw your tank, and the growth is pretty crazy. I didn't remember the way you have the sand level rising towards the back... I wish I'd taken a better look before setting my tank up, I might have done the same! the pink milli is gorgeous - I got the same one from Burc, so fingers crossed it will look just as good in months to come. Its definitely doing the best of all the sps corals I got from him - luckily, I didn't get too many! Unplugged a powerhead by accident, and... bleaching pretty much all around. Except for the milli... learning curve! Where are all of your cute fish? camera shy??
Let me know when you have some frags you want to get rid of...


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Wow Conix, your tank continues to impress! Very nice colours and great growth!
> 
> I hear you on the frustration on issues here and there. If you're looking for another frag of the ponape birdsnest, let me know as I have a frag growing out.


Thanks Ameek for encouragement. Can't complain about growth, but I'd like to see more growth from the slow growers. All my montis and birdnest are growing fast, and some millies, but most other acro frags are really slow..

As for color, I think they can be better. I suspect the lighting isn't still optimal for all corals.

Anyway, my plan is at least keep things the way it is, and maybe upgrade skimmer first. Big problem with that is most skimmers require way more foot print than my current one, and my sump was designed for it, leaving 4x4 1/2.

It's good to know there's someone with corals I like. I'd definitely be looking for another Tyree birdnest once I have some rooms available. Everything should be planned now..



> Looking amazing! Its only been a few months since i saw your tank, and the growth is pretty crazy. I didn't remember the way you have the sand level rising towards the back... I wish I'd taken a better look before setting my tank up, I might have done the same! the pink milli is gorgeous - I got the same one from Burc, so fingers crossed it will look just as good in months to come. Its definitely doing the best of all the sps corals I got from him - luckily, I didn't get too many! Unplugged a powerhead by accident, and... bleaching pretty much all around. Except for the milli... learning curve! Where are all of your cute fish? camera shy??
> Let me know when you have some frags you want to get rid of...


Thanks. I think it's been a couple of months?

I think I did try to level the sand that way, but it may look more so now because of the flow..

how long did you leave your tank without water circulation? If the water stands still for too long, it could spell disaster... if only some bleaching occurred, it's not so bad.

Definitely start off with a few until you feel confident. I made a mistake of buying too many frags, when i didn't have a suitable tank for them way back.

There are two of my fishes on this photo, blue and powder brown tang. Others are still there somewhere. My clowns never show themselves until feeding time, as my RBTA is sitting behind the large purple millie colony.

Speaking of clowns, they spawn every two weeks now. Poor guys never get to see the babies..

My both frag racks are full, and half of them are for sale. I should post a for sale ad soon.


----------



## teemee

*fts*



conix67 said:


> Thanks Ameek for encouragement. Can't complain about growth, but I'd like to see more growth from the slow growers. All my montis and birdnest are growing fast, and some millies, but most other acro frags are really slow..
> 
> As for color, I think they can be better. I suspect the lighting isn't still optimal for all corals.
> 
> Anyway, my plan is at least keep things the way it is, and maybe upgrade skimmer first. Big problem with that is most skimmers require way more foot print than my current one, and my sump was designed for it, leaving 4x4 1/2.
> 
> It's good to know there's someone with corals I like. I'd definitely be looking for another Tyree birdnest once I have some rooms available. Everything should be planned now..
> 
> Thanks. I think it's been a couple of months?
> 
> I think I did try to level the sand that way, but it may look more so now because of the flow..
> 
> how long did you leave your tank without water circulation? If the water stands still for too long, it could spell disaster... if only some bleaching occurred, it's not so bad.
> 
> Definitely start off with a few until you feel confident. I made a mistake of buying too many frags, when i didn't have a suitable tank for them way back.
> 
> There are two of my fishes on this photo, blue and powder brown tang. Others are still there somewhere. My clowns never show themselves until feeding time, as my RBTA is sitting behind the large purple millie colony.
> 
> Speaking of clowns, they spawn every two weeks now. Poor guys never get to see the babies..
> 
> My both frag racks are full, and half of them are for sale. I should post a for sale ad soon.


Well, luckily it was only one powerhead... the other one was still on...
really love the sloping reef... 
will keep my fingers crossed you get to see some baby clowns at some point... mine are getting it on all the time, but have yet to see any eggs.
let me know about the frags...


----------



## Doctor T

Sorry for some of your losses, but your tank looks fantastic as always. Nice update!


----------



## conix67

Doctor T said:


> Sorry for some of your losses, but your tank looks fantastic as always. Nice update!


Wow. You're alive 

Thanks. How's your tank?!! Update with photos coming up soon?


----------



## conix67

Some Pics..

My RBTA has crawled up near the top of the tank, now brushing against my large purple millie colony 

But I can now see my clowns !!










I need someone to help me ID this coral. It's sitting in the corner of my tank, growing well, this is a frag of it I brought up front. Color is normally brighter green than this. It's some sort of monti? SPS definitely.










On a different note, I'm seriously looking into getting SWX 120 or 160. 160 would be too large for my sump though, but I'd like to be able to seriously upgrade the skimmer capacity from current Tunze 9010.


----------



## derekc85

Hey Conix67, sorry to hijack your thread, dont know if you know this, i had to dig 'news' up from 2008. They imported protected wildlife species from Indo without a permit, and faced charges from the government.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=714D9AAE-1&news=01BCAA43-4E8F-46EA-B640-C045DC876E8D

As a result I personally wouldnt buy a SWC. On a side note, I have a octupus recirculating skimmer (I was told it is the same factory in china), and couldnt be happier. Pumps are fine, those sicce pumps sometimes wouldnt start. But 99% of the time it does. I personally would prefer an Ehiem pump, which I believe the bubble magus has already =)










This is what I have, build quality is excellent.


----------



## conix67

Yeah, someone else posted the link to the same article. I really do not know them personally, and what this article really means. They imported corals without permit, basically that's what this boils down to. Do you know what happened after these charges were laid?

I was looking into Bubble Magus as well, but I'm somewhat sold on the "cone" skimmers. Sure, I don't want to buy from criminals, I'll need to dig up more.

Your reef octopus looks impressive. Must be pretty large, with dual pump!

By the way, those entry level Bubble Magus use ATMAN pumps, so does SWC. I guess the ATMANs are EHEIM knock offs, but I hear they start every time no problem.


----------



## hojimoe

conix67 said:


> Yeah, someone else posted the link to the same article. I really do not know them personally, and what this article really means. They imported corals without permit, basically that's what this boils down to. Do you know what happened after these charges were laid?
> 
> I was looking into Bubble Magus as well, but I'm somewhat sold on the "cone" skimmers. Sure, I don't want to buy from criminals, I'll need to dig up more.
> 
> Your reef octopus looks impressive. Must be pretty large, with dual pump!
> 
> By the way, those entry level Bubble Magus use ATMAN pumps, so does SWC. I guess the ATMANs are EHEIM knock offs, but I hear they start every time no problem.


you can upgrade the SWC pumps to sicce or something higher, Askoll, which I hear is a superb pump, but expensive....I dont think you can "upgrade' just the pump on the website, but calling them should help figure out costs


----------



## Doctor T

conix67 said:


> Wow. You're alive
> 
> Thanks. How's your tank?!! Update with photos coming up soon?


Heh, yeah - been crazy busy lately... I got lots of catching up to do here.
Not much to update, I haven't added any new livestock and they're doing fine except for some of my SPS which STN'd - not sure why. Still raising the little bangais...

Seeing your tank again definitely is inspiring me to get off my ass and do some improvements to mine.


----------



## cablemike

what bulbs are you running conix? my colours dont pop like that at all.. im running two 150w 14k reefoptics, two 10k aquaticlife, two geisman actinic+, one powerglo 18k and one marineglo actinic . which specific bulbs in your setup make your corals glo so nicely?


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> what bulbs are you running conix? my colours dont pop like that at all.. im running two 150w 14k reefoptics, two 10k aquaticlife, two geisman actinic+, one powerglo 18k and one marineglo actinic . which specific bulbs in your setup make your corals glo so nicely?


I have the followings

Giesemann Actinic+
UVL aquasun
KZ super blue(?)
UVL midday
UVL pure actinic
Giesemann Actinic+

Basically more blues than I had 4 bulbs. There's a difference between what your eye sees and what Camera sees. You see more blue with Camera.


----------



## cablemike

i wish my camera lied ;-) unfortunately its dead on with the colour. i guess i should be happy.. i used to photoshop to make the colours acurate but nikon made a new firmware and fixed that problem. ok so what spectrum are those bulbs though?


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> i wish my camera lied ;-) unfortunately its dead on with the colour. i guess i should be happy.. i used to photoshop to make the colours acurate but nikon made a new firmware and fixed that problem. ok so what spectrum are those bulbs though?


Here's what I found,.

actinic+ = 22000K (peak at 450nm) x 2
UVL aquasun = 10000K
UVL 75/25 = 14000K
UVL super actinic = 420nm (no color temperature rating)
KZ super blue = 20000K


----------



## cablemike

oh, i see why it looks so blue. all but one bulb is a blue spectrum. im gonna be buy a couple phoenix 14k bulbs soon which are super blue so i hope i get the same effect.


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> oh, i see why it looks so blue. all but one bulb is a blue spectrum. im gonna be buy a couple phoenix 14k bulbs soon which are super blue so i hope i get the same effect.


That's not quite true. I actually have less blue than before, since the whites I had were 14000K (blue+). Most *white* bulbs in T5 setup are actually 14000Ks.

For growth, apparently you want something like 6700K, but color (not just look but their actual color) won't be very good.


----------



## cablemike

i used to run a combo of 6700k, 10000k, and actinic back on my 55 gallon and thats where i had the monster toadstool. and i remeber the iwasaki 15k bulb i used to run after that. it was very yellow for 15k but did the corals ever thrive.. its hard to choose whats best for corals over whats best for my eyes.


----------



## conix67

Many reefers I met, who are using MH only, typically just use 20000K only. What you choose is between growth and color. This is just my opinion, but having too much 6700K will cause the zooxanthellae to overtake, making everything more brown. So I think high color temperature is fine with corals, and look good too.

I first thought having 14K or 20Ks simply make corals look different (colorwise), but I learned that their colors are actually different.

By the way, the sun lights corals get, beyond certain depth, is highly concentrated in blue spectrum, so having much blue can't be bad for corals. I throw in whites just for growth and brightness (to human eyes).

I'm thinking about taking down aquasun and putting in another superblue.

I see that acros closer to surface actually have less vibrant color in my tank..


----------



## cablemike

ever tried a fiji purple? ive noticed all the real crazy coloured tanks have one in their hood. its supposed to bring out other colours that blue and white bulbs dont enhance.


----------



## conix67

Maybe that's what I should do. Replace one of the aging actinic+ with super blue, and aquasun with Fiji Purple.


----------



## cablemike

if you do be sure to post an update with your thoughts on colour enhancement.


----------



## explor3r

Your tank is out of this world, beautiful..............
I cant wait to start my 75g as well by the end of july. 
How old is your system now.


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Your tank is out of this world, beautiful..............
> I cant wait to start my 75g as well by the end of july.
> How old is your system now.


Thanks. If you follow this tank journal, it's not difficult find out how old it is 

I moved from 12G nano to 75G last May, so it's a little over a year old now. No major problems in between, but I recommend those who start a new tank, especially something on the larger side, to prepare an equivalent size QT tank, and QT all livestocks.

Also, be selective in what you introduce. I introduced GSP, and other Xenia species, and they spread fast unnecessarily. Also, mushrooms are pain in the butt too, they just pop up everywhere and difficult to get rid of.


----------



## conix67

*light bulbs*

OK. Cablemike convinced me to get a FIJI purple for a change. So, I replaced the following two bulbs

old:
UVL 75/25
Giesemann Actinic+ (old)

new:
KZ FIJI purple
KZ superblue

Rest of the bulbs are the same. The effect is not obvious, but red/purple are enhanced without putting red cast on everything. Here's some random shots, taken with my D50/35mm lens, some taken with a magnifying glass in front (macro effect).

Hairy Acro










Monti digi garden










Close up of Styropora










Close up of green Tongan mushroom










Close up of orange rics










Close up of pulsing Xenia










Close up of frogspawn










What used to be long and stringly powder blue anthelia. What a transformation! These tiny polyps don't look anywhere near what it used to be like.










OK. Finally, FTS from an angle.


----------



## cablemike

comparing to your toher pics i see a big difference.. im gonna get a fiji purple soon..


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> comparing to your toher pics i see a big difference.. im gonna get a fiji purple soon..


It's not obvious but it's there. Red/Orange/Purple do pop more, I can tell from the rim of green/blue monti cap, which now shows obvious purple hue.

Since I removed 75/25, the lights are not blindingly bright to human eyes, so it's a plus as well. I have just one "white" bulb now.


----------



## conix67

Those who are not aware, I have posted a forsale ad of my monti/sps frags. Many are gone but I still have plenty of montis.

frags for sale


----------



## cablemike

ide love some but i simply see no more space in my tank. thinking of turning my fuge into a 10g nano tank, heh.


----------



## vladfragdit

conix67 said:


> OK. Cablemike convinced me to get a FIJI purple for a change. So, I replaced the following two bulbs
> 
> old:
> UVL 75/25
> Giesemann Actinic+ (old)
> 
> new:
> KZ FIJI purple
> KZ superblue
> 
> Rest of the bulbs are the same. The effect is not obvious, but red/purple are enhanced without putting red cast on everything. Here's some random shots, taken with my D50/35mm lens, some taken with a magnifying glass in front (macro effect).


Those pics are great! Glad to see everything is doing great!

Vlad.


----------



## conix67

Here's live cam of my tank

http://ustream.tv/channel/conix67

Not very high quality but it's realtime . Not sure how long this will be on but have a look!


----------



## PACMAN

awesome channel! Your fish are attention whores lol. they keep on showing offto the camera!

gonna watch this at work!


----------



## conix67

*Tank cam update*

Trying out something - new camera but my internet upload speed sucks (Sympatico)

Currently pointing at clown eggs, about to hatch... enjoy..

http://ustream.tv/channel/conix67


----------



## Ciddian

aweee love those clowns.. :3


----------



## conix67

Ciddian said:


> aweee love those clowns.. :3


Thanks for watching! Now the lights are off, can't see a thing 

The eggs might disappear tonight, check back tomorrow..


----------



## conix67

*Bta*

My RBTA began to develop some bubble tips. It's been many months since I saw these bubble tips. I have no idea why all of sudden they began to appear.










It's not like all tentacles are bubbly, but as you can see at least some are.

I also decided to try SWC 160 cone skimmer, to replace Tunze 9010. I'm sorry to those who opposed of purchasing SWC product, but after reading some user reviews I couldn't resist. It should be arriving in a week or so. Still not sure if it would fit in my sump though. The written spec definitely exceeds current dimensions my sump provides, but other users have said actual size is slightly smaller.


----------



## ajdelosr

I've spent the last 4 hours at work reading your nano log and now your 75 gallon log and I just love watching the evolution of a tank. Hopefully no one's monitoring my internet use. Hope to turn my 29 gallon into half of what your nano tank looked like. Thanks for keeping the blogs, learned a lot, almost makes me want to start my own


----------



## conix67

ajdelosr said:


> I've spent the last 4 hours at work reading your nano log and now your 75 gallon log and I just love watching the evolution of a tank. Hopefully no one's monitoring my internet use. Hope to turn my 29 gallon into half of what your nano tank looked like. Thanks for keeping the blogs, learned a lot, almost makes me want to start my own


Well, I'm glad someone read my blog  I sure hope my journal ends up telling more good stories than bad ones.

My weekly water change has been increased to ~8G from ~4G, in the hopes to improve water quality. Hopefully new skimmer, when it arrives, proves to be the solution to that.

Last night I caught my clown pair spawning. I'll post the video of it soon. It's not like you can't find one on Youtube, but when it takes place before your eyes, that's something special.


----------



## Byronicle

hey conix, I was wondering, my light fixture has 1 10000k, 1 actinic, 1 fiji purple and 1 6700k bulb. I really want what you got, what would you suggest I switch to make it look like yours? the rbta colour looks crazy


----------



## conix67

*New Skimmer and Clown spawning*

I'd go with another 14000K or 20000K instead of 6700K. Your current setup should bring out color of RBTA already.

So today a new toy(?) arrived - SWC mini cone 160. It actually looks pretty good, just like all others other owners said. Here's the picture of mine










Right after setting it up. Skimming already!










I like being able to see the bubbles. There are some micro bubbles but my baffles are doing a good job.

It was not easy to get this thing in my sump. I got rid of mini wall that was keeping the drain hose outlet to minimize turbulence, because this new skimmer is much larger than Tunze 9010 it replaces. Even without the collection cup, it was a big challenge to get this thing inside the sump.

The water level is easily adjusted with outlet valve, and air intake amount can be fully adjusted. Tunze 9010 has ability to adjust air only.

I feel that the potential of skimming capacity is much greater than the Tunze 9010. The amount of bubbles this thing creates is many times greater. Also added filter sock, and I may keep it permanently. It also reduces bubbles and water turbulence, making the skimmer perform better.

Here's youtube video of it in action






Finally, here's the video of my clown spawning. These guys are laying eggs almost every 2 weeks. Quite something to watch them spawn.. very cute..


----------



## derekc85

Hey,

I guess in a month or so, can you post some changes pre-SWC and post SWC. Would be interested in what the changes are. 

When my skimmer broke down, I changed from a Octupos Recirc to an aquamedic turbofloator  , i noticed batches of algae growth and more algae on glass. But going to a good skimmer you should see better results.


----------



## conix67

derekc85 said:


> Hey,
> 
> I guess in a month or so, can you post some changes pre-SWC and post SWC. Would be interested in what the changes are.
> 
> When my skimmer broke down, I changed from a Octupos Recirc to an aquamedic turbofloator  , i noticed batches of algae growth and more algae on glass. But going to a good skimmer you should see better results.


Skimmer is doing well so far. It's a little different from Tunze 9010, I like the fact that I can adjust it to really skim wet. I'm still not getting coffee dark thick skimmate, maybe my biodload isn't very high anyway.

My tank cam is pointing at the main view again (from side). Please take a look (use link in my signature).


----------



## conix67

*SWC skimmer update*

Here's picture of skimmate about 4 days worth. Definitely generating more consistent skimmate than Tunze 9010. It looks dark, but it's skill wet skimmate. However, the smell is unbearable!


----------



## derekc85

That is some nice stuff. BTW you should get the sludge on the neck of the cone out in the collection cup by tuning it slightly, so you dont have to clean the cone every time. Also w/ that much skim mate I would clean it regularly.


----------



## conix67

I clean my skimmer every 4-5 days, but with predictable amount of skimmate, I could still get away with weekly cleaning. 

The sludge on the neck was produced before I was able to tune the water level. It should not spread, so I should clean it next time the collection cup is cleaned and monitor it. I hope it doesn't appear again.

I cannot observe any changes in display tank yet. No negative impact definitely, but no noticeable improvements either.


----------



## marblerye

conix67 said:


> My RBTA began to develop some bubble tips. It's been many months since I saw these bubble tips. I have no idea why all of sudden they began to appear.


i have multiple bta in my tank; 2 RBTA and 2 GBTA (started off with one each but they both split). the rbta typically bubbles up almost all the time because of its location and the right amount of flow so that it can take in nutrients from the water. The bubbles are more apparent after feedings for a few days and when they start to fade i know when they are getting hungry. my rbta never really lose the bubbles.. they are always bubbly but it's less apparent when they get hungry, and fortunately i never had any color issues with my rbta becauase they have always been a magnificent red color. the gbta are usually brown looking tentacles under 10000K/actinic T5 mix but lately I've been feeding scallops and shrimp soaked in selcon and maybe some fomula 1 flakes and they get all bubbly and GREEN! it looks beautiful in the morning so I think i can assume it's happy with its new mixed diet. currently don't have clowns in the tank either..

that's my experience with bta.. i usually feed them every 2-3 days. i know different bta have different tendencies.. some are natural bubblers like my rbta.. while i know a few people who have a different rbta species from different locations that hardly EVER bubble but typically my rbta looks like your picture a few posts up when they are hungry. while i have noticed that my gbta when i didn't feed them directly for a whole week one time it got all tentacle-like and thin like worms..


----------



## conix67

Yeah, I did notice RBTA bubbling up when fed, but I stopped feeding because it began to split after frequent feeding. I just wanted to keep one RBTA in the system.

After I stopping feeding, it moved to the top of the rock where there's more light, and the bubbles appeared on tentacles that are getting strong flow. So your experience does coincide with mine, and I'm still learning about them.

The "no feeding" actually did not help much. My RBTA has grown significantly after moving to top of the rock near the light.


----------



## conix67

*Near disaster..*

A couple of days ago, finally received RKL SL1 module and BRS Ph probe. Had all modules/head unit firmware upgraded, hooked up Ph probe, calibrated and let it run.

My low Ph (before lights on) is 8.00 and high Ph is 8.4 (before lights out). I guess the levels are ok.

I did my monthly water test today. The results are

Nitrate : 0ppm
Phosphate: 0ppm
Ca : 220 mg/L !!!!!!!!  
Alk: 12 dkh !!!!!!! 

Turns out my 2 part container, the Ca part, was still full! It took me a while to figure out what went wrong, it was because the lid was shut and completely sealed the container, and the poor aqualifter pump could not suck the liquid out.

I took out a drill and made a small hole in the middle of lid on both containers..

Nothing really were obvious in the tank, but I noticed RBTA moved down a bit and found it strange for days..

I think I avoided (crossing my fingers) a near disaster


----------



## PACMAN

whew, close call!



conix67 said:


> A couple of days ago, finally received RKL SL1 module and BRS Ph probe. Had all modules/head unit firmware upgraded, hooked up Ph probe, calibrated and let it run.
> 
> My low Ph (before lights on) is 8.00 and high Ph is 8.4 (before lights out). I guess the levels are ok.
> 
> I did my monthly water test today. The results are
> 
> Nitrate : 0ppm
> Phosphate: 0ppm
> Ca : 220 mg/L !!!!!!!!
> Alk: 12 dkh !!!!!!!
> 
> Turns out my 2 part container, the Ca part, was still full! It took me a while to figure out what went wrong, it was because the lid was shut and completely sealed the container, and the poor aqualifter pump could not suck the liquid out.
> 
> I took out a drill and made a small hole in the middle of lid on both containers..
> 
> Nothing really were obvious in the tank, but I noticed RBTA moved down a bit and found it strange for days..
> 
> I think I avoided (crossing my fingers) a near disaster


----------



## conix67

*side view on ustream*

check out my tank view from side on ustream (use link in my signature)...

things are doing fine, I plan to do another water test tonight..


----------



## Ciddian

Looking beautiful Conix!  That cam is sucha good idea.


----------



## conix67

Ciddian said:


> Looking beautiful Conix!  That cam is sucha good idea.


Thanks!

I recently switched my ISP from Sympatico to Teksavvy. It appears the upload speed has increased since the video is smoother. They both use the same Bell line, so this was a pleasant surprise.


----------



## conix67

*biopellets!!*

Ordered some biopellets from reefsolutions. I'm going to give a try to the SWC brand, as I've been quite happy with their skimmer.

I will post my progress, whether or not this will succeed.

My plan is to use maxijet 1200 + TLF 150, about 400ml to get started.


----------



## conix67

*Please ID this coral.*

Here's one of the corals I have no idea what it is. It's definitely some sort of montipora species, but can't find a reference of the same coral anywhere.










two of the same frags on the frag rack. One is growing more or less flat, but not plating.










On the skimmer side, my new SWC 160 cone has been consistently pulling out more than 3x amount Tunze 9010 was pulling out, I'm definitely happy about that.

However, it's very sensitive to water level and condition, and if not adjusted correctly, it easily overflows. That's about the only downside so far.

Most SPS corals appear to have a better polyp extension. This acro frag looks better than before...


----------



## teemee

conix67 said:


> Here's one of the corals I have no idea what it is. It's definitely some sort of montipora species, but can't find a reference of the same coral anywhere.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> two of the same frags on the frag rack. One is growing more or less flat, but not plating.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On the skimmer side, my new SWC 160 cone has been consistently pulling out more than 3x amount Tunze 9010 was pulling out, I'm definitely happy about that.
> 
> However, it's very sensitive to water level and condition, and if not adjusted correctly, it easily overflows. That's about the only downside so far.
> 
> Most SPS corals appear to have a better polyp extension. This acro frag looks better than before...


OMG - please, please can i have a frag of the teal whatever on earth it is? so, so pretty! and so are the fluorescent green zoas? I am just going to want one of everything LOL Your corals are looking amazing... how about a full tank shot??


----------



## ameekplec.

It's a nice montipora hirsuta  And I'll take a frag when it's ready, as I'll have a big tank to fill soon!


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> It's a nice montipora hirsuta  And I'll take a frag when it's ready, as I'll have a big tank to fill soon!


Thanks! I think you got it. "Elk Horn" coral.

I got it way back from a local reefer to test if I could keep an SPS coral. It was ugly brown funny looking coral back then.

Sure, I'll make sure at least two (as in the picture) frags are available. The poor guy is sitting at the corner of my tank, shadowed by monti cap now, and keep losing branches when I clean glass. The frags came from the lost branches.


----------



## Doctor T

Guess you passed the test  That monti coloured up very nicely.


conix67 said:


> Thanks! I think you got it. "Elk Horn" coral.
> 
> I got it way back from a local reefer to test if I could keep an SPS coral. It was ugly brown funny looking coral back then.
> 
> Sure, I'll make sure at least two (as in the picture) frags are available. The poor guy is sitting at the corner of my tank, shadowed by monti cap now, and keep losing branches when I clean glass. The frags came from the lost branches.


----------



## conix67

*SWC biopellets day 2*



Doctor T said:


> Guess you passed the test  That monti coloured up very nicely.


Thanks!

I started SWC biopellets two days ago. As per instruction, pellets were submerged in RO/DI water for 24 hours before being placed in TLF 150 reactor /w Maxijet 400. At half the dosage level (per instruction), there's gentle tumbling, so I'll keep it with Maxijet400 for a while. Got Maxijet1200 to tumble the pellets at full dosage level, so I'm ready.

For 2 days, there's no change at all. No additional skimmate, no couldy water, no positive or negative changes. We'll see how things go in the coming weeks.


----------



## ameekplec.

OOh, I'm excited to see your results with these - I've wanted to give them a try to replace my vodka dosing.


----------



## Tabatha

We just removed our reactor, our gigantic toadstool bleached out because of them and there have been other reports of this.


----------



## conix67

*Near disaster #2*



Tabatha said:


> We just removed our reactor, our gigantic toadstool bleached out because of them and there have been other reports of this.


Oh. Tabatha! Haven't seen you for ages  Nice to hear from you!

Yes, I was very hesitent to try this, but read enough success stories vs failures, so decided to give it a try. Given the situation, I don't really have a good way to enhance nutrient issues, enough to cause algae issues. I wanted to feed my fishes a little more!

Anyway, during last couple of days I ran into few problems, some near disasters!!

*Skimmer!*

As you know, I've had this new skimmer for few weeks. It's been running great! However, this morning I noticed it wasn't skimming at all. The bubbles were weak.. first I thought the pump was running slow.. so I took it out, gave it a good clean, inside and out, and put it back. When I tested it out of tank, the pump was running very strong, but after putting it back in, it produced a little more bubbles than before. So I thought something changed in the water, like the biopellet reactor producing something..

Came home and observed the condition, it was the same.. I got really concerned. While checking things out around the skimmer, I felt the skimmer body unreasonably warm! The pump was definitely getting overworked! Then I realize I had done something real stupid! 

The intake of skimmer was facing back, I couldn't see it well. When I setup this skimmer, I also began using a filter sock. There were no problems until today, but finally part of the filter sock got sucked into skimmer intake, making the pump overworked and skimmer not skimming...

Well, better late than never, it could have been a disaster if I kept it running like that, since the pump might have eventually failed and possibly leak current and cause all kinds of trouble!

*Ph!*

Side effect of the skimmer problem, was the Ph! Since the skimmer stopped pumping oxygen into water, Ph dropped dramatically overnight! It read 7.4 this morning!!!  Bad thing can happen if Ph wanders too far off the normal range of 7.8 to 8.3..

*Temperature!*

While I was dealing with these issues, I left two fans behind the canopy disconnected from power. Well, it wasn't very cool inside the house today, and tank temperature creeped up to 83F !! 

Anyway, nothing terrible happened yet, and things are more or less under control.

On the side note, the biopellets began to produce mulm. This actually caused a problem too! I modified TLF 150 by removing top foam and replacing it with window mesh. I left the bottom on in since that's where the fresh water comes in through. However, the mulm creeped downwards, blocking passage of water through the foam. The foam got pushed up, squishing up all biopellets along the way. The biopellets couldn't tumble around, which is a bad thing.

I had to take it apart, add the same mesh material at the bottom in place of the foam. Now it appears to work normally.

Besides the mulms, I noticed tank water getting a little hazy, which is what others also experienced. So the biopellets must be doing something.

On corals, I haven't noticed anything much except my alien eye(?) zoa now has really bright green center..

Anyway, stay tuned.. hopefully nothing bad will happen anymore....


----------



## ameekplec.

Good to hear all the disasters avoided!

It'll be interesting to see your expereinces with the Biopellets. I've been convinced to give them a go, but just haven't had the time. Many of the nicest tanks run them nowadays - Krzysztof Tryc's tank is a superb example of a Reef tank. If its good enough for him....


----------



## conix67

*Cleaning powerhead - big headache*



ameekplec. said:


> Good to hear all the disasters avoided!
> 
> It'll be interesting to see your expereinces with the Biopellets. I've been convinced to give them a go, but just haven't had the time. Many of the nicest tanks run them nowadays - Krzysztof Tryc's tank is a superb example of a Reef tank. If its good enough for him....


Yes, Krzysztof's tank is simply amazing. He managed to let that birdnest grow to that size.

However he's still using zeovit products together. Not sure how much difference that would make, but I'll stick to biopellets for now and see how things change first.

Anyway, the pellets aren't tumbling well, so replaced Maxijet 400 with something a little more powerful today. I'll probably need a Maxijet 1200 eventually when more mulms are produced.

The tank isn't very hazy, not much changes observed, but I can see skimmer definitely pulling more skimmate (not too dark though). I'll probably have to empty the cup every two days now (as oppose to once a week).

Also, spent another 2+ hours in the tank... this time with the pump change for biopellet reactor, I noticed more cyano on left side (driven by koralia 3), so decided to clean my power heads.

What a pain! Koralia 3 gets really dirty inside, I need to pull it out of the system (handling power chord isn't simple /w canopy on) and give it a good scrubbing with all kinds of tools to get it cleaned. GPH after cleaning is like night and day. I think GPH was less than half of what it's supposed to be just before cleaning.

The same story repeats for Tunze nanostream 6025. While it's much easier than Koralia, it's still stuffed with stuff everywhere..

Cleaning both powerheads restored water flow in the tank. Unfortunately this will have some positive effect as far as algae and cyno is concerned, so I may not be able to observe the effect of biopellets alone accurately.

Anyway, I am beginning to think the sticker shock of Vortech MP40 is worth it. It's a 2 part system and never have to deal with power chord or wiring for cleaning. It's got various reef settings that will likely help corals stay healthier. It will provide far more flow than Koralia 3. In the long run, this thing will (hopefully) make things easier to maintain, and make everything in it happier. Sounds very tempting.

Not sure yet, but I'm leaning toward it. Any opinions on this is welcome!


----------



## conix67

Just got back from 4 day trip. My tank used up all 5G of RO/DI ATO water in 4 days!!! I guess after cleaning both powerheads thoroughly, the water movement on surface increased dramatically, causing water to evaporate more quickly..

Anyway, nothing much happened in the tank. I had water level lowered to avoid potential overflow in skimmer, so the skimmate level was low, very dark.

TLF 150 was running fine, and pellets seemed better fluidized, but there are still some small group that are not tumbling. I definitely do need a little more powerful pump.

Inside the display tank, I noticed some "brown stringy" stuff on random places. Don't know what they are, but must be caused by biopellets.

On the positive side, my large purple millie's polyp extension has improved. It's like the polyp extension during night time. Some other acros/millies do show better polyp extension as well.

On the negative side, the colors aren't any better, or slightly worse on some corals.. most noticeable on my pink millie, where the pink tone is mostly washed out at the moment.


----------



## ameekplec.

Good to hear your 4 day trip went off without much of a hitch - I can't wait tosee what's happened to my reef in the 3 weeks I've been away! My tank sitter (my wonderful gf) hasn't reported anything too negative, so all is good.

I'd opt for the MP-40ws if you can get them, although they are an expensive investment for the tank. Almost everyone who has them will rave about how great they are - I love them on my tank as the ease of cleaning itself it a great advantage, as well as all the modes and controllability of the pumps themselves. The only downside to them that I can think of for myself is that they can't be directed (they have to sit flat against the glass), but the breadth of the stream they create really makes up for the lack of directionality.

If you're looking just to get the MP-40ws, you can usually find a pretty good deal for them now that the ES units are out. Although, I do think that the ES units have some pretty cool features to them.


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Good to hear your 4 day trip went off without much of a hitch - I can't wait tosee what's happened to my reef in the 3 weeks I've been away! My tank sitter (my wonderful gf) hasn't reported anything too negative, so all is good.
> 
> I'd opt for the MP-40ws if you can get them, although they are an expensive investment for the tank. Almost everyone who has them will rave about how great they are - I love them on my tank as the ease of cleaning itself it a great advantage, as well as all the modes and controllability of the pumps themselves. The only downside to them that I can think of for myself is that they can't be directed (they have to sit flat against the glass), but the breadth of the stream they create really makes up for the lack of directionality.
> 
> If you're looking just to get the MP-40ws, you can usually find a pretty good deal for them now that the ES units are out. Although, I do think that the ES units have some pretty cool features to them.


Oh, you're away for 3 weeks? You must be worried about your tank 

I'm definitely going for MP40w ES. Should be good enough .. although I heard MP60w is coming out soon..

Got Maxijet1200 hooked up to TLF 150 /w SWC biopellets. It's must better fluidized, so hoping for better results soon. My skimmer is definitely pulling out more skimmate than before...

Nothing bad/good is happening in the tank, other than slight loss in color of some corals.. but I know it's not in ideal condition, as my Ph has been very low last few days.

One error I caught few days ago, is that I have 2 part dosing schedule set for "day time". I adjusted timing for alk dosing to night, hoping for Ph boost at night, but now it's low all the time! (was 7.7 - 8.3 before, now 7.6 - 7.9 )

Anyway, here's current FTS, not much changed since last FTS


----------



## ameekplec.

Yuri, tank looks great as usual. I can't wait to get the big tank set up and grown in like yours 

You'll like the MP-40wES units - the extra modes on them are really great, and the controller itself is a lot easier to use now.

Do you think the colour loss is due to the pellets or the low pH? I've also read that the increase in bacterial biomass could decrease your pH as there's more CO2 being produced by all the extra bacteria - maybe that's your culprit?


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Yuri, tank looks great as usual. I can't wait to get the big tank set up and grown in like yours
> 
> You'll like the MP-40wES units - the extra modes on them are really great, and the controller itself is a lot easier to use now.
> 
> Do you think the colour loss is due to the pellets or the low pH? I've also read that the increase in bacterial biomass could decrease your pH as there's more CO2 being produced by all the extra bacteria - maybe that's your culprit?


I don't know exactly what it is, but recently I had few problems and changes - clogged hose on Ca part of 2-part dosing, new skimmer and more feeding of fishes (lots of nori, everyday vs once a week), biopellet reactor, reversal of alk dosing schedule..

My water parameters are still a little off - Alk at 7.6dKH, Ca at 360ppm, Mag at 1290ppm and they are being raised slowly..

I did experience sudden color change immediately after adding biopellets, but it's hard to tell if it was direct cause. I'm going to observe things for at least a couple of months before making other changes..

If the lowered Ph was caused by added bacteria, that's interesting. I was hoping that low Ph was just because of lack of Alk, or lack of Oxygen inside house... we'll see


----------



## ameekplec.

FYI - Apparently Big Al's online store in Canada has the MP-40wES units in stock - with the 20% off, you can get one for $400 until today!! Now, that's a deal.


----------



## Big Ray

Hey all 

Still looking amazingly nice conix !

when I first started with ZEovit, my system went through a huge nutrition reduction phase, and corals looked more PAil and whiter, and it was a matter of time before the SPS got used to the new food source (bacteria and mulm) and also other Zeovit coral food additives, and got the nice color back. so it could be just a shock on SPS, their usuall food source of N and P is all of a sudden reduced.

another note to consider is that Amino Acids are used by bacteria for reproduction and more, and amino acids enhance the work of bacteria, so it could be possible that the amino acids, which are responsible for forming polymers on SPS tissues, are being used up by the bacteria and removed via the new skimmer  for my system, Amino acid dosing just changes alot of things.

SPS using amino acids, and bacteria uptaking amino acids from water are not Opinions no more, its Science ! links below (you can tell I had enough of ppl calling me pseudo science  ) haha

just some stuff that helped me with Zeovit and bacterioplanktonic systems.

Amino Acids being used by corals : http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:11607567 (so the old tale of amino acids will just break down into ammonia in seawater is false) 
another link : http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...01101)287:6<401::AID-JEZ1>3.0.CO;2-4/abstract
Amino acid uptake by marine bacteria planktons :http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/1/184


----------



## conix67

Thanks BigRay. I'm hoping all that is just part of break-in with biopellets. Some acros actually are STN'ing so I hope this doesn't last too long.

Amino acids.. from outer space!!!


----------



## Big Ray

conix67 said:


> Thanks BigRay. I'm hoping all that is just part of break-in with biopellets. Some acros actually are STN'ing so I hope this doesn't last too long.
> 
> Amino acids.. from outer space!!!


Ohh! Id lower the flow in the reactor or even reduce amount of pellets !

they are STNing from bottom up right ?

some argue its due to too much carbon source giving raise to bacteria which will grow on the tissue of corals, and the parts that get less flow (base) will die from getting no Oxygen, and others say its due to too much nutritions removed. but both think once it starts, it should be corrected or it wont stop !

I went through the same (when I added enzymes to put bacteria on steroids lol ) and stopped it by adding food sources for the SPS, again, type of Amino acids, but longer chains.

I see you dont believe in Amino acids though


----------



## conix67

Yes, from bottom up..

This is happening on corals on the left side of the tank, where the flow is not as strong as the right side. All corals on the right side appears to be fine, including my massive purple millie.

Amino acids in life forms on earth is from outer space, that's what I meant.. all life forms on earth originated from space, not on earth... that's what I believe


----------



## Big Ray

conix67 said:


> Yes, from bottom up..
> 
> This is happening on corals on the left side of the tank, where the flow is not as strong as the right side. All corals on the right side appears to be fine, including my massive purple millie.
> 
> Amino acids in life forms on earth is from outer space, that's what I meant.. all life forms on earth originated from space, not on earth... that's what I believe


yea, I went through the same, an MP40 would solve that as Turbulent flow takes 30-40% more nutritions transport than laminar flow, let me know if you want link to the papers.

oh I got what you mean about Amino acids, and well, you are probably right according to the recent studies  Im with u on that one lol


----------



## conix67

*Mp40*

So, I got my MP40w ES finally.

Here's my own review so far

*PROS*

large capacity for a small size (wetside)
No heat added from the motor
Well designed controller, with various settings which are customizable
Nice wave action, even with one powerhead
Easy to clean (didn't have to yet)

*CONS*

Expensive
Not simple to align perfectly
Noisy (70% at short pulse setting, well aligned, the noise can be heard easily)
Cord clutter
Potential reliability issue (hope mine won't run into the issue)

but overall, the performance is good and corals seem to like it better. I do like the wave action a lot, instead of constant stream of water flow blowing things, there's nice water movement back and forth, like real reef.

However, I can't figure out how to make it remember the short pulse setting.. when I cycle through other settings and come back to pulse, it loses everything


----------



## Big Ray

conix67 said:


> So, I got my MP40w ES finally.
> 
> Here's my own review so far
> 
> *PROS*
> 
> large capacity for a small size (wetside)
> No heat added from the motor
> Well designed controller, with various settings which are customizable
> Nice wave action, even with one powerhead
> Easy to clean (didn't have to yet)
> 
> *CONS*
> 
> Expensive
> Not simple to align perfectly
> Noisy (70% at short pulse setting, well aligned, the noise can be heard easily)
> Cord clutter
> Potential reliability issue (hope mine won't run into the issue)
> 
> but overall, the performance is good and corals seem to like it better. I do like the wave action a lot, instead of constant stream of water flow blowing things, there's nice water movement back and forth, like real reef.
> 
> However, I can't figure out how to make it remember the short pulse setting.. when I cycle through other settings and come back to pulse, it loses everything


nice, congrats 

have you tried the NTM mode ? works for me, takes everything out of rock work and pushes it to overflow 

although the extra wave makes a splashing noise around my overflow. hope that's not the case with you since your tank is 4 feet long


----------



## aquanutt

cablemike said:


> I have one thing to say about how much live rock a tank should have.. first of all you cant go by weight because the rock i have is very light.. i dig for hours until i find the lightest but fairly large pieces i can find as they are very porous and will be able to sustain 10x the life and bacteria of a dense piece. Also.. If you go out and get 75 pounds of light porous rock your tank will be crammed and then you will run into issues will poor circulation which will eventually lead to a tank crash as waste will build up because no flow will pass through the rock heap. Second is your corals will grow, i made this mistake with my last tank and have made sure to leave plenty of room for my corals to grow because as they grow they will also impede flow in the tank. In my 90 I have about 60 pounds of rock. I took all the rock from my 55 and didnt add any more as it was already enough. Look at my old tank versus my new and tell me which has a better long term survival for growth and flow?
> 
> Old 55 gallon ( sure it looked nicer, and more crammed)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 90 gallon ( not as full looking but has ability to grow upwards where corals usually head.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> this is the 90 when first set up, you get a better idea of how i set up the rock for flow, there is tons of caves.


I like your old tank, it looked awesome!
How many years you had it for?

cheers


----------



## aquanutt

conix67 said:


> Oh, you're away for 3 weeks? You must be worried about your tank
> 
> I'm definitely going for MP40w ES. Should be good enough .. although I heard MP60w is coming out soon..
> 
> Got Maxijet1200 hooked up to TLF 150 /w SWC biopellets. It's must better fluidized, so hoping for better results soon. My skimmer is definitely pulling out more skimmate than before...
> 
> Nothing bad/good is happening in the tank, other than slight loss in color of some corals.. but I know it's not in ideal condition, as my Ph has been very low last few days.
> 
> One error I caught few days ago, is that I have 2 part dosing schedule set for "day time". I adjusted timing for alk dosing to night, hoping for Ph boost at night, but now it's low all the time! (was 7.7 - 8.3 before, now 7.6 - 7.9 )
> 
> Anyway, here's current FTS, not much changed since last FTS


Okay I didn't see this picture before i saw your 55g, the old tank.
Man! This is one of the most awesome tanks I have seen... 
You have a talent at this!

cheers
sly


----------



## gucci17

aquanutt said:


> Okay I didn't see this picture before i saw your 55g, the old tank.
> Man! This is one of the most awesome tanks I have seen...
> You have a talent at this!
> 
> cheers
> sly


The 55gal belonged to cablemike I believe.

Both beautiful tanks


----------



## aquanutt

gucci17 said:


> The 55gal belonged to cablemike I believe.
> 
> Both beautiful tanks


Sorry guys I thought both tanks belonged to one person.
Anyways I like both of them as well.

Sly


----------



## conix67

*My BTA was hungry?*

My BTA disappeared out of my sight tonight. I thought it was odd, as it has grown to about 10 inches when open and always seen when lights are on.

Its body bulging and tentacles all retracted, looked like having a meal. Think that's a possibility, I began to look for all fishes. They were all there, but then I realized I can't find my sixline! I looked for it next five minutes, then came back in about half an hour to see if it's around somewhere. Still couldn't find it!

I will have to wait until tomorrow to confirm, but if he is truly gone, I couldn't be happier. My mandarin can have the whole tank for himself and his fins will finally have chance to heal, and I should be able to add other small fishes now.. just crossing my fingers..


----------



## ameekplec.

lol. Too bad your sixline was a bully - so far mine has been really well behaved!


----------



## Ciddian

Ohh it got eaten?! D: lol... Geeze... 

I am so jealous of you guys.. Makin me want a nano again. S:


----------



## Big Ray

this is funny loll (I too sometimes wish that, just cause we cant really catch the fish with all the rocks  ) 
have you guys experienced sixline eating polyp of SPS ? mine is :S not cool


----------



## teemee

has it shown up, or is it gone for good?
I know a few times I have suspected things have gone the way of the anemone, and then miraculously (or not) reappeared...


----------



## ameekplec.

Big Ray said:


> this is funny loll (I too sometimes wish that, just cause we cant really catch the fish with all the rocks  )
> have you guys experienced sixline eating polyp of SPS ? mine is :S not cool


Mine doesn't, but the Potter's Angelfish certainly makes up for it. It likes the really fat polyps on a few select acros


----------



## gucci17

Conix, how are the SWC biopellets doing?


----------



## conix67

teemee said:


> has it shown up, or is it gone for good?
> I know a few times I have suspected things have gone the way of the anemone, and then miraculously (or not) reappeared...


No, unfortunately it reappeared the following day 

My plan to build a trap has been put on hold until I have some free time.


----------



## conix67

gucci17 said:


> Conix, how are the SWC biopellets doing?


The pellets are doing fine. Getting tumbled over 24/7 

I think the break-in period is over, and I don't see new issues in SPS frags (base STN). However, green slimer frag that has been growing well is going through some issues. One of the branches lost tissues underneath, it's not a form of STN though. Need to frag away the troubled branch.

Overall, the tank is doing ok, but there's nothing I can point out as a obvious visible sign of improvement yet.


----------



## conix67

*Tank Update*

It's been over 2 months since I started solid carbon dosing. Few things went wrong and there was a period of time that color of corals faded as well. Now most of them are back to normal (I think), and nothing's having serious issues (except few minor). Here's the FTS










Monti Digi garden is still doing well, keeps on growing. You can see some damaged spots underneath one of the branches off green slimer on the left side of the picture.










The SWC biopellets did cause disaster, but it appeared to create some (STN off base on some SPS). Overall, I cannot tell if there's obvious positive effect. I have more hair algae around baffles in overflow, frag racks, etc.

However, the colors seem to be a little better, but it's hard to tell.


----------



## teemee

Hey Yuri,
I almost didn't recognize your tank - everything looks like its grown - a lot!
I know nothing about dosing obviously, and since you told me to stop, my tank is looking so - so - so much better (btw, that 'brown' montipora digitata is hot pink again - I didn't see any in your pictures - do you want some?)
I'm amazed to see the rbta right in front of the powerhead - at least its not hiding - but do your clowns have any trouble living so close to all that flow? 
Have they spawned again? 
I love the plate growing up the back wall, and what is that triangular shaped coral on the top right side of the tank?


----------



## conix67

teemee said:


> Hey Yuri,
> I almost didn't recognize your tank - everything looks like its grown - a lot!
> I know nothing about dosing obviously, and since you told me to stop, my tank is looking so - so - so much better (btw, that 'brown' montipora digitata is hot pink again - I didn't see any in your pictures - do you want some?)
> I'm amazed to see the rbta right in front of the powerhead - at least its not hiding - but do your clowns have any trouble living so close to all that flow?
> Have they spawned again?
> I love the plate growing up the back wall, and what is that triangular shaped coral on the top right side of the tank?


It's good to hear your tank is doing better! I think the pink monti digi is orange in my tank (lower right side in the monti digi garden picture). So, it's coloring up even better in your tank!

My RBTA is actually not too close to the powerhead, it just looks very close on this picture. However, right above would be in the path of the flow from powerhead, and clowns don't mind. They still spawn regularly.

The monti cap in the back wall is the dark green monti cap. It spread to the wall and took off the main plate a while ago, but the rest is still growing. It should give a better color with more intense lighting.


----------



## Big Ray

looking nice as always man 

a question for you, have you noticed any difference between population of pods and other small creatures after switching from Tunze skimmer to SWC ?!


----------



## conix67

Big Ray said:


> looking nice as always man
> 
> a question for you, have you noticed any difference between population of pods and other small creatures after switching from Tunze skimmer to SWC ?!


Thanks.

No I have not noticed differences in pod population. My display tank has a sixline, which decimates of all pods rather quickly.


----------



## Big Ray

conix67 said:


> Thanks.
> 
> No I have not noticed differences in pod population. My display tank has a sixline, which decimates of all pods rather quickly.


I See thanks. so tunze isnt really plankton friendly after all ehh.


----------



## PACMAN

Conix, how deep is your sandbed?


----------



## conix67

PACMAN said:


> Conix, how deep is your sandbed?


About an inch or two. Some areas are shallower because of flow.


----------



## PACMAN

conix67 said:


> About an inch or two. Some areas are shallower because of flow.


cool, thank you very much for the quick response!


----------



## conix67

*Photo update!*

I think my tank is stabilizing. The color seems to be back to normal, growth of SPS has resumed. However, unfortunately other things grow well as well, such as unwanted mushrooms, purple polyps, some xenia species (non-pulsing). Also, flatworms reappeared as well .

I spent a lot of time today cleaning up my frag racks. They were covered with green hair algae, which did not really appear much at all before adding biopellets, and since the biopellets were supposed to reduce these things, it's been a little surprise. I'm still not sure if the biopellets are causing it, but other than that things are just fine. The color seems to be better overall, slightly. I'll be keep running it..

The consumption of Calcium increased, and it's easy to see from growth of SPS corals. The green monti cap remains on the wall has begun to send out plates.










and here's a growth shot of my hammer coral, which was my first coral purchased from a store (single head frag in 2008).

August 2008










Today










Some random shots and close ups today

My favorite acro frag, growth was stunted for a while but resumed recently










Dendro frag. Not as big as it used to be, but baby heads are growing.










My mandarin. Eats prepared food well, he's cornered to right side of tank by sixline, but able to survive.










Crocea clam and zoos, etc.










Brought down some corals covered with hair algae that were sitting on the frag rack. Expecting clean up from hermits.










Yellow acro colony. Didn't think it would survive, but it has. Not growing fast, but doing well.










Some top-down-view.

Here's the other answer to Teemee. This is the biggest SPS in my tank, purple milliepora which looks trangular-ish from front. It's been growing well ever since I had it in my tank.










The purple milliepora gets stung by RBTA all the time, but other than the dead part the rest is doing just fine.










Top down views... monti caps looks best from top!





































OK. Here's one coral that I cannot keep anymore - pulsing Xenia. It used to grow all over the place, but one day it decided my tank is not suitable for it. As a matter of fact, I lost them all and this one in the picture is a frag purchased from another reefer. Unfortunately, this one isn't doing well either. Can't figure out what it is, it seems all other corals are doing just fine... you can also see the purple polyps that seems to have taken over the tank as well..










current FTS from an angle


----------



## Sunstar

Shoot me some of your unwanted stuff, any thing purple and I'll love you to bits :3. your tank is looking amazing.


----------



## Kweli

That is one awesome tank


----------



## teemee

Looking good, Yuri


----------



## explor3r

Wow conix that looks like paradise to me, beautiful colors


----------



## marblerye

WOWWWW that hammer coral's growth in over 2 years..... 

i started out with 2 branches with single heads just like yours and now it's grown into 3 heads and the other is 4 heads. it's only been 5 months so progress seems little but now i know what to look forward to in another year and a half! 

beautiful tank! so many colors it's a amazing!


----------



## conix67

Sunstar said:


> Shoot me some of your unwanted stuff, any thing purple and I'll love you to bits :3. your tank is looking amazing.


Most of the purple polyps are spreading over LRs, but there's a tiny frag with some of them on too. Don't blame me if it happens to take over your tank 

Thanks everyone for kind words! It helps to hear those, as weekly water changes are becoming a little difficult these days 

However, I believe it helps to perform water changes frequently.


----------



## Sunstar

Well everything else is trying to take over my tank.... And I will be getting a larger tank in the near future. Very near.


----------



## conix67

*CRAP! I have a CRAB in my tank!*

Recently I noticed substrate around LR being excavated. I thought it was due to stronger flow from MP40. Yesterday, I discovered this






He's about two inches wide, definitely not the Emerald Crab that disappeared in my tank.

So far nothing in my tank has been harmed. I know crabs are usually bad in reef, should I worry about this one?

Funny thing is, along with my urchin, I never introduced this guy myself. I never added new rocks since I setup my tank, so I can only assume he's been there even before.


----------



## Big Ray

Ohh man its gorilla crab lol

take it out ASAP man, I started with 2, couldnt catch them, now my tank is FULL of them !!!! and they eat SPS !!!

those crabs are doing more harm in my tank than the red bugs !! lol


----------



## conix67

Big Ray said:


> Ohh man its gorilla crab lol
> 
> take it out ASAP man, I started with 2, couldnt catch them, now my tank is FULL of them !!!! and they eat SPS !!!
> 
> those crabs are doing more harm in my tank than the red bugs !! lol


Gorilla crab.. it has not harmed my SPS yet, and it's always been there in my tank.. I guess i'll have to watch out for any sign of trouble coming from this guy.

Do yours sift through substrate like mine?


----------



## Big Ray

yea does the same thing on the sand, but the ones in my tank have hairy legs(greyish hair), looking back at your video, I dont see hairy legs, so might not be the same species? lets hope so


----------



## conix67

Big Ray said:


> yea does the same thing on the sand, but the ones in my tank have hairy legs(greyish hair), looking back at your video, I dont see hairy legs, so might not be the same species? lets hope so


Mines doesn't have hairy leg/body, at least that's how I see it. However, I know for fact that any crab is potentially a trouble in a reef tank. Since it's been there for over a year and hasn't done any harm yet, I suspect it's an immediate threat to my tank but I'll have to find a way to get it out to be safe.


----------



## conix67

*Problems...*

My 75G is about 1 1/2 year old now. The routine maintenance costs about 1-2 hours every weekend, but it makes it feel each week is really short! Besides water change and glass cleaning, I observe things carefully and think of long term plans to improve things.

This tank has many problems. The biggest being overcrowded. Today upon returning home I discovered a near disaster.










Many of you have seen this purple millie before. It was much smaller, but had more evenly distributed branches 1 1/2 years ago.










However, due to my RBTA stinging the right side, its growth to right side has been stopped altogether.

I would really like to move the millie to the other side of tank, in a lowered position so that it wouldn't block so much light as it does now, and leave the right side open for RBTA..

However, I need to clean up all these other corals growing too fast. I've been keep trimming down my birdnests. They damage my other SPS corals when they come into a contact with them.

In the below picture, areas circle green are damages caused by the two tone birdnest seen in the top-middle.










My hydnopora grew larger as well, and the dark green Monti cap piece that was growing on back wall fell off, and part of it is eaten by the Hydnopora. You can see the white string like guts released by Hydnopora.










All the circled ones need to be removed from this tank. Otherwise, I'll need much larger tank to support them all. Hammer coral created itself a large frag (about 40 heads) when my glass cleaner touched them. The same happened to green/purple frogspawn, creating a nice 3 large head frag.

RBTA split into two large RBTAs. One has to go!

All the frags must go too! Montis are nice, but some grow too fast!










Now, the below picture shows left side of the tank. All those circled in green must go! Those circled in pink needs to be placed where they can grow a little faster.

This is going to take weeks to get all these done. Reef tank brings related work almost non-stop. It's fun, but can't deny that it takes time to maintain one.










My previous project is not complete yet - building a trap to catch the sixline. Flatworms are back in my tank, and I would like a natural predator to keep flatworm population in check. In order to do that, I need to remove the useless sixline first!

Expect to see most of those in green circles in classifieds soon.


----------



## teemee

Happy New Year Conix!
pic of the hydnophora consuming the monti cap is INSANE!
thanks for posting!


----------



## Sunstar

wow... I want your corals.... Frag it, just give me your tanks :3 they are looking lovely.


----------



## conix67

teemee said:


> Happy New Year Conix!
> pic of the hydnophora consuming the monti cap is INSANE!
> thanks for posting!


Thanks. Yes, I've seen something like that before on video, pretty cool to see it in person, but it's happening everywhere in my tank. Too much competition.



> wow... I want your corals.... Frag it, just give me your tanks :3 they are looking lovely


I'm sure I'll have frags for you Sunstar.

My tank is due for overhaul. I know I'm not upgrading for a while, so the only way to make it better are
- reduce number of corals
- trim off excess
- reduce number of fishes
- lessen the bio load
- open up more space for fishes..

any other suggestions?


----------



## ameekplec.

Bring me coral. joking!

No, seriously. I wouldn't mind som of that two-colour birdsnest and that green cap, if you're getting rid of them. Sending you a PM.

Tank looks great as usual Yuri - the growth on that acro is nuts. Give it another year, and I'm sure it could fill your whole tank!

Which fish are you looking to downsize? Are you going to switch to smaller fish, or just less fish in general?


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Bring me coral. joking!
> 
> No, seriously. I wouldn't mind som of that two-colour birdsnest and that green cap, if you're getting rid of them. Sending you a PM.
> 
> Tank looks great as usual Yuri - the growth on that acro is nuts. Give it another year, and I'm sure it could fill your whole tank!
> 
> Which fish are you looking to downsize? Are you going to switch to smaller fish, or just less fish in general?


If I let go one of the tangs, and successfully remove sixline, I might look for a few smaller fishes. With corals the way they are, there aren't a lot of swimming spaces for larger fishes.

Problem is, I like all 3 tangs I have currently, but if I must choose, I'll probably give up on blue tang (Dory)..


----------



## Fish_Man

conix67 said:


> If I let go one of the tangs, and successfully remove sixline, I might look for a few smaller fishes. With corals the way they are, there aren't a lot of swimming spaces for larger fishes.
> 
> Problem is, I like all 3 tangs I have currently, but if I must choose, I'll probably give up on blue tang (Dory)..


Start another tank?


----------



## conix67

*Alkalinity and Ph troubles*



Fish_Man said:


> Start another tank?


I always dream about this, someday. Definitely in my basement.. but I wish I had gone larger.

Recently I ordered wrong Alk part of 2-part ingredient from Bulk Reef Supply. Instead of Soda Ash, I ordered Sodium Bicarbonate by accident. If I'm not mistaken, this is just baking soda.

It is used for recipe 2 to lower Ph, instead of boosting. Since I ran out of Alk supplement, I decided to give it a try although my Ph could be affected. It wasn't good at all, and this thing does not dissolve in water very well.

BRS gave me an instruction to *cook* the sodium bicarbonate into Soda Ash, so I gave it a try. Things didn't work any better, but I think the problem was that i tried to cook the whole 1Gallon jug all at once. Just last week I took just enough sodium bicarbonate for 1Gallon Alk supplement liquid, and cooked it again. This time it worked well, and I got the Soda Ash I needed.

So, before the proper Alk supplement was added back, both Alk level and Ph went nuts. Alk dropped to 4dKh, Ph was below 7.8 at night time (down to 7.6 occasionally). As a side effect, Ca level kept going up (off the chart, 500+ppm) and so did Mg. Anyway, things are slowly getting back to normal now, Ph never dropping below 7.8.

On a side note, RBTA split has been successfully captured and placed in a basket and healing in there. Anyone interested let me know. It is about medium size (6-8 inches when open).


----------



## Kweli

I am very interested.. been sitting on my hands for over a month waiting for a good anemone to come on sale..

Can you PM me a pic?


----------



## conix67

It's been a while, sold off a few frags and some large pieces of LPS corals, removed a few rocks infested with brown mushrooms, moved the large milliepora, freeing up some space for a new SPS coral, but still there's not much room available.










ALK doser isn't working well, so keeps on getting ALK level on a wrong scale. Need to fix that.

Few other things need to be done, will try to post photo update more regularly.


----------



## Tabatha

Wow, phenomenal!


----------



## teemee

Tabatha said:


> Wow, phenomenal!


+1. As always, your tank looks amazing, Conix!


----------



## explor3r

Conix your tank is just fantastic and the best tank I ever seen in person
Keep the pictures coming


----------



## Fish_Man

Very nice!


----------



## J_T

conix67 said:


> I always dream about this, someday. Definitely in my basement.. but I wish I had gone larger.


Well, in about a month, or so, I know where you can get a 6 foot, by 18" wide, by 24 tall for a good price... Might get a return pump, and a large (40ish/50ish breeder) sump with no baffles.... Just need to build a stand (the one I have will not fit out the door now, nor will it come apart with anything less than my saw!

As for your tank... Awesome. The lay out is great, nice big corals, not just a bunch of frags. Can't wait for my new tank to get here, and be setup. Then I can start looking for frags! Your tank is now on my shopping list


----------



## conix67

Thanks everyone for positive comments! I'm glad my tank still looks good enough for you. I will invest a little more time and make sure I fix those problems some day (beginning with sixline).



J_T said:


> Well, in about a month, or so, I know where you can get a 6 foot, by 18" wide, by 24 tall for a good price... Might get a return pump, and a large (40ish/50ish breeder) sump with no baffles.... Just need to build a stand (the one I have will not fit out the door now, nor will it come apart with anything less than my saw!
> 
> As for your tank... Awesome. The lay out is great, nice big corals, not just a bunch of frags. Can't wait for my new tank to get here, and be setup. Then I can start looking for frags! Your tank is now on my shopping list


Thanks for the tip! When I get a larger tank, that will be 240+ gallons for sure. Luckly, I have a large door from my walk out basement, so it won't be an issue to bring in a large tank into my basement. The problem is, I have no plans to finish my basement anytime soon..


----------



## conix67

I tested water parameters yesterday, and things are still not back to normal.

Ca - 500+ppm (off the scale)
Alk - 6.4Kdh (a little low, but better than before)
Ph - 8.1 (just before lights off, so a little low)

so my short term plans have changed from removal of sixline to stabilizing these water parameters. 

1. bring Ca down to 420-450ppm, Alk up above 7.5Kdh, Ph to 7.9 to 8.3 range via two-part dosing timer control, frequent water change (2-3 times a week, 5G each)

2. retrofit LED lighting in place of 2 T5HO fixtures (this will give 4 T5HO + LED lighting). The LED lighting will be DIY project.

Tested for Phosphates, and still can't figure out if the reading is 0 or 0.5ppm. It looks like 0, so there's no nutrient problems, but reducing feeding to see if some hair algae and cyno problem can be controlled with feeding.

Since there's one space for SPS coral now, went to Sea-U-Marine to pick up one. Ended up with two so one is sitting on the sandbed for now. My goal is to ensure these guys stay healthy, maintain the original color, and grow.


----------



## conix67

*Video update!*

Ph is stablizing, lowest reading is 8.1! Used to dip below 7.8 at night, so it's a big improvement. I can see my digis really open up polyps, a noticeable difference. I hope all other SPS does better now..

I cannot emphasize enough that *you should have a Ph monitor *if you don't have one already. Any serious reefer should have one. Ph fluctuates and needs to be monitored continuously, and the test kit simply won't cut it.

Now, here's the link to video update -

Conix67's 75G video update


----------



## explor3r

Im glad your ph is stabilizing and the video look s great!!!!!
Your fish like to be on cam is funny when the tang just show up
keep it up


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> I tested water parameters yesterday, and things are still not back to normal.
> 
> Ca - 500+ppm (off the scale)
> Alk - 6.4Kdh (a little low, but better than before)
> Ph - 8.1 (just before lights off, so a little low)
> 
> *so my short term plans have changed from removal of sixline to stabilizing these water parameters.
> *
> .


Why to remove sixline?

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> Why to remove sixline?


Because he's the bad boy in my tank. I have not been able to add any small fishes since sixline was added, and killed all others that were there before, except my Mandarin. Also, he's not doing his job.


----------



## sig

I see, but how you were planning to catch it. It is almost impossible

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## J_T

Pop bottle trap 

Youtube/google it! Totally worth knowing how to make one, and use it!


----------



## sig

J_T said:


> Pop bottle trap
> 
> Youtube/google it! Totally worth knowing how to make one, and use it!


good idea, but any guaranty that other fishes will not get in?

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

I tried pop bottle trap already.

I spent last year or so thinking of the trap design.


----------



## ameekplec.

Hook and bait? No kidding, this works.


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Hook and bait? No kidding, this works.


Yes, but I'll need to bait 5 time before I get to the sixline.

Do you have a suggestion on special bait that will attract just him?


----------



## conix67

Bump for the video update. Changed sound track to something lighter.

Conix67's 75G video update


----------



## J_T

sig said:


> good idea, but any guaranty that other fishes will not get in?


Nope, but they won't get harmed, and you can just let them out. Hopefully they learn to stay out, and the fish your after goes in.

Some times it is a royal pain.

Sometimes if you can learn their habits, you can use that to your advantage. Strategic placement of a net in a known "dash path"


----------



## sig

last time to get fishes out I took LR out and it much easier and took just 1H

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> last time to get fishes out I took LR out and it much easier and took just 1H


If I have just rocks, yes that might be the easiest way. If I were to do that now, I'll need several large containers, lots of salt water, lots of glue and expoxy, and lots of time.


----------



## conix67

conix67 said:


> Ca - 500+ppm (off the scale)
> Alk - 6.4Kdh (a little low, but better than before)
> Ph - 8.1 (just before lights off, so a little low)


Tested water parameters.. new results

Ca - 440ppm
Alk - 11Kdh
Ph - 8.3
Mg - 1200ppm

so what I have done for a few weeks is to stop dosing Ca, nothing else. It brought Mg level down (too low, now supplementing), Ca level to where it should be (need to begin dosing again), and Ph is up and more steady (ranges from 8.1 to 8.3 throughout a day).

The effect on SPS is quite obvious - polyp extensions are awesome now!

I'm getting a dedicated doser to replace aqualifters soon. Hopefully it will make things easier to manage.


----------



## explor3r

Thats great, how did u manage to bing the alklinity from 6 to 11 kdh


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Thats great, how did u manage to bing the alklinity from 6 to 11 kdh


The problem with low alkalinity occurred because one of the pumps (one for the Alk) were clogged, so I stopped dosing Ca and used the working pump to dose Alk only - slowly.


----------



## sig

Just finished to see video. Very nice and I am jealous (in good meaning)
Did you read a comment that somebody left there?

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> Just finished to see video. Very nice and I am jealous (in good meaning)
> Did you read a comment that somebody left there?


Yeah, and I plan to open up some space for my poor fishes. Can't upgrade yet. Thanks for watching!


----------



## conix67

My doser arrived today. I got it off Ebay, at a fair price. It's supposed to be a bubble magus knock-off, and it looks at least functional but somewhat cheap.










Here's view to internals. Not much to it, just 3 motors and a controller board, which seems to have a small microcontroller and a relay to feed power to the motors.










Photo of pump head unit. It detaches easily, for easy servicing.










The pump head taken apart. Manual says the tubing must be replaced every 6-9 months.










Nothing fancy here. The controller allows rather simple programming. You can set dosing amount in ml, and time interval in units of hours. So, I cannot set it up to dose certain things within certain time period during the day, all needs to be dosed continuously throughout the day, which limits fine control over dosing schedule. So far, that's the only major downside of this cheap unit.

It's been installed and configured to dose Ca and Alk. Will see how it performs.


----------



## explor3r

Great keep us update on the performance....I have to get one of this in the future.


----------



## bioload

conix67 said:


> It's been a while, sold off a few frags and some large pieces of LPS corals, removed a few rocks infested with brown mushrooms, moved the large milliepora, freeing up some space for a new SPS coral, but still there's not much room available.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ALK doser isn't working well, so keeps on getting ALK level on a wrong scale. Need to fix that.
> 
> Few other things need to be done, will try to post photo update more regularly.


Very Nice!....One of the best 75's I've seen....I'm jealous


----------



## derekc85

hey keep us updated on your doser...


----------



## Chris S

Great tank conix, your patience and dedication shows


----------



## conix67

Thanks everyone!

It's been a while since the last photo update. I promise I'll put some pictures up next few days.

Things are ok but cyno and algae problems have gotten worse. Finally I decided the best way to get things back in order is better water quality via water changes.

I've been changing about 5G per week, and it worked for 2 years. It could be the reduction in amount of LRs (I took several pieces out over last few months) also contributing to it, but I'm not certain.

Anyway, the problem with larger water change is that I'm using 5G bucket. It's almost double the mount of work to make two buckets of SW. So, I went looking for something at homedepot and came out with the GREEN BIN, which happens to be around 12G in capacity, so I can perform at least 10G water change each week instead of 5G. This container is tall (doesn't take up much space), strong and has a wheel (not too useful but comes in handy).


----------



## conix67

OK, here's my latest FTS after selling off some larger corals. As you can see, there are no large monti digi colonies in the middle, which should give my fishes some breathing room.










Some closeups. There's a new fish in my tank, from fellow reefer on this forum. This new fish (Anthias) is getting along well with the nasty sixline so far.

The blue mushrooms continues to spread, smothering my favorite bright neon green Monti Cap.










Middle section of my tank. There are several softies that are spreading like wildfire, and you can see the not-so-good-looking Palys and blue polyps on this one.










Pink monti digi and pink monti cap together.










Both hammer and frogspawn are growing back quickly, and stinging the teal birdnest in the middle.










I've been keeping up with ~10G water change every 4-5 days now. Took off TLF150 reactor for biopellets, as it wasn't turning very well at all anymore. The algae/cyano issue is still there, hoping for some improvemens especially with more frequent and larger water changes.

On a side note, one of the acros purchased few months ago was STNing. I noticed that my salinity level went beyond 1.026 because I wasn't watching it carefully during water changes, and brought it down to 1.025 with last couple of water changes. I intend to keep salinity at 1.025 from now on to make it safer. I felt that the STN was caused by the salinity level..


----------



## ameekplec.

Wow! Your tank looks great! I'm so jealous. My colours are crappy (probably due to all the neglect!).

Your frogspawn is doing awesome - it's getting bigger and bigger every day! I love how froggy it is!

What's your lighting schedule like right now?


----------



## sig

This is magnificent

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## freddymp

Very nice!


----------



## derekc85

monticap and digi in one coral is has a very interesting shape =)


----------



## conix67

Thanks everyone!

Photos look somewhat better because lights to camera is limited showing better contrast and color. 

Eric, good to hear the frogspawn is doing well. Did you by any chance found a sexy shrimp in it? Please update your journal!


----------



## TypeZERO

that pink monticap is... *droool*


----------



## conix67

Looks like several people like that pink monti cap. It grew from a 2 inch frag, almost 2 years old now. Couple of small frags were taken so far, so it is a relatively slow grower but that's ok.

Today my RBTA decided to be a little bubbly.


----------



## sig

you got fishes? Good sing 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## PACMAN

Hey Conix, what temp do you keep your tank at?


----------



## conix67

PACMAN said:


> Hey Conix, what temp do you keep your tank at?


It's set to 80F, but on hot days it may reach up to 82F.


----------



## sig

I found out eventually that by reducing temp, I got less problems with cayno bacteria.
In average I have now 78 in the tank and cyano almost gone

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## PACMAN

hah, I've always had my temp set to 77-78. so I got worried when my AC broke as the temp was reading 80-81. (Sig, I recently had a bad cyano outbreak at 78, so temp didnt do too much to help the cause )


----------



## sig

what can I say

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

I believe temperature of up to 85F is OK, but for aquariums the targe should be much lower, and I've read somewhere recommended range is 76-83F. 

It would be cool if lowered temperature can control cyano bloom, but it will be very difficult for me without a chiller.


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> I believe temperature of up to 85F is OK, but for aquariums the targe should be much lower, and I've read somewhere recommended range is 76-83F.
> 
> It would be cool if lowered temperature can control cyano bloom, but it will be very difficult for me without a chiller.


The sump in the basement somehow helps to control temp during these hot days. I am playing with cold flow there to control

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> The sump in the basement somehow helps to control temp during these hot days. I am playing with cold flow there to control


It also helps to have an external pump.


----------



## teemee

Hi Conix,
How about an update???!
Will you have any frags for sale soon?
Hope you're okay!


----------



## j3tang

count me in for some frags too if you decide to do so .. those are really awesome pieces you've got! the tank looks great!


----------



## conix67

Hi Teemee and everyone, all is well with my tank and myself. Thanks for asking and sorry for not updating my journal.

The problems are still there though, so trying to switch back to old routine - thinking that I do what used to work, and see what happens. I still have green hair algae bloom that is somewhat under control after all these, but not gone.

You may notice some changes. Here's how it looks today










All fishes are doing well, my Mandarin is still eating well but not sure if he's eating enough..










I tried Microbacter to control cyno issue. I think it did work to some degree, but still not conclusive of its effectiveness. Anyway, plan to do more frequent small water changes.. I have taken off all other supplemental equipment except Ca/Alk dosing - no activated carbon, no solid carbon...


----------



## 50seven

Thanks for the pics... I miss my mandarin


----------



## sig

Nice to hear it 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## teemee

Welcome back!
Thinks look pretty good, all things considered 
Are those your pesky blue cloves growing up your overflow - that's pretty awesome!


----------



## explor3r

Hey Conix nice to hear from you again and great you share some new shots, your tank looks amazing but for some reason seems to me you had more color before maybe more red...anyways your tank rocks and I have some of the blue cloves in the overflow that Marg is talking about covering a rock.


----------



## ameekplec.

Hey Conix!  Tank is looking good as always.

Have you checked your Mg levels? I find in my reef if my Mg is below ~1250, there's a patch of hair algae that just won't go away. If I can keep it above 1250, then it usually recedes.


----------



## conix67

Yeah, pesky blue cloves. they are everywhere!!

Ameek, yes I should check Mg level, as I don't dose Mg, only supplement it during water change.

No one mentioned it yet so I'm going mention it now. just last week I decided to take out the biggest SPS I have. yes it's dead now as it is out of water except few frags I kept.

---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.819991,-79.400618


----------



## conix67

Here's a video of my refugium.. what's those little critters swimming around??

Little critters in my refugium


----------



## PACMAN

conix67 said:


> Here's a video of my refugium.. what's those little critters swimming around??
> 
> Little critters in my refugium


some guy posted saying he thinks they were shrimp larvae (not sure if you read his post on youtube)

I like how the magnifying glass creeps up on hte camera.


----------



## Tristan

They look like tiny mysis on the right (only saying that because of the swimming), and two meaty amphipod's on the left.


----------



## ameekplec.

They're probably mysid shrimp (mysis bahia). They're tough to culture, but they're used to feed picky eaters and predatory fish.

Cool little guys to watch for sure


----------



## 50seven

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchpods.html


----------



## acropora1981

Tristan said:


> They look like tiny mysis on the right (only saying that because of the swimming), and two meaty amphipod's on the left.


They are mysid shrimp, similar to mysis shrimp, but mysis live in freshwater, and mysid live in saltwater 

edit: sorry someone already said that... my bad.


----------



## explor3r

Thats pretty cool Conix, keep us update of your beautiful reef, we want pics


----------



## acropora1981

trying to find that doser on ebay... an hints on keywords beyond dosing pump?


----------



## Tristan

Thank you for the correction! I always get the two mixed up...


----------



## conix67

Thanks for the info/links. I took another video, definitely some sort of shrimp larvae.

Critters in the refugium - part 2


----------



## sig

nice to see you back.

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## TypeZERO

Holy copepods batman!!!
welcome back yuri!!


----------



## conix67

acropora1981 said:


> trying to find that doser on ebay... an hints on keywords beyond dosing pump?


I believe this doser is not made anymore, the closest I can find is Kamoer Dosing Pump at aquastyleonline.com. It is better one than what I have, because the controller/timer is more flexible (allows programmable delay between pumps)


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> nice to see you back.


I was never away 

How can I leave this place ???


----------



## conix67

*Tank update - Photos.*

OK, finally took some pictures to show the current status of my reef. Not much has changed in terms of stocking. All the same familiar faces in the tank.

Took out most of the equipment as I reported earlier - BioPellets gone, Carbon reactor gone, to simplify what's in it. Alk/Ca dosing is still on, Protein Skimmer and Refugium are on.

Good news is that green hair algae seems to be slowly going away. Cyano is still there, but that's not bothering corals much. Here's FTS.










Mandarin strolling around GSP field.










Several frags now occupy top of rocks on the right side. Teal milliepora revived from smaller frag, superman(?) monti - orange polyps with green tips, darker green monti digi. Hammer keeps on growing, and so does frogspawn.










Not very good top view of left side of my tank. Green pocilipora, green slimer, millie are shown. These guys are doing fine.










Light green monti digi struggling to survive. Pink monti cap has taken over the center part of my tank.










Several zoanthids species from Explorer on the front, spreading on the sandbed.










Frags, various monti digis, caps. Their base used to be covered with hair algae. The crocea clam was moved from sandbed. Not getting lights due to pink cap and kept falling over.










The light green monti digi in the center, and to the left is teal (well more pale in this spot) monti digi.










Close up of green slimer. Re-grown from frag, which was taken from a damaged frag.










Frag rack on the right side. Some acro/millie frags saved from damaged colonies.










Frag rack in the back of the tank. Monti Hirsuta shows intersting growth formation.










Purple monti digi regained color (rightside-back). RBTA is still growing, it's not happy there now - perhaps not getting enough lights?










Thanks for watching!


----------



## explor3r

Thanks for sharing Conix, I love all the pics specially the one from the top where you can see the huge red monti.
Good idea in having frags of every SPS in case something happens to any mother colony. Your fish look so healthy and colorfull..thanks


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Thanks for sharing Conix, I love all the pics specially the one from the top where you can see the huge red monti.
> Good idea in having frags of every SPS in case something happens to any mother colony. Your fish look so healthy and colorfull..thanks


Thanks Alex. Soon or later I need to see your tank(s) again!


----------



## 50seven

Nice pics, thanks for posting!

Monti cap in centre is nice, I hope mine will grow out like that. Digitatas look nice too; all makes me envious...can't wait for my own tank to be ready for corals


----------



## acropora1981

conix67 said:


> I believe this doser is not made anymore, the closest I can find is Kamoer Dosing Pump at aquastyleonline.com. It is better one than what I have, because the controller/timer is more flexible (allows programmable delay between pumps)


thank for the link.

Do you have enough of that teal/steal blue colored M. digitata to frag me a bit? I've been looking for that one for 2 years.

I would also like to get a frag of that blue mini clove stuff, despite it being a bit of a weed. I have purple cespitularia to trade if you are interested.


----------



## conix67

50seven said:


> Nice pics, thanks for posting!
> 
> Monti cap in centre is nice, I hope mine will grow out like that. Digitatas look nice too; all makes me envious...can't wait for my own tank to be ready for corals


I'm sure yours will grow out soon enough and give you headache like mine


----------



## conix67

acropora1981 said:


> thank for the link.
> 
> Do you have enough of that teal/steal blue colored M. digitata to frag me a bit? I've been looking for that one for 2 years.
> 
> I would also like to get a frag of that blue mini clove stuff, despite it being a bit of a weed. I have purple cespitularia to trade if you are interested.


Yes most monti digis/caps on my frag racks can go. The teal M. digi will depend a lot on environment for its coloration. Too much light, it will turn pale so it doesn't like brightest spot for best color, and it could look green/teal/whatever depending on condition. All I know is these ones i have are very hardy and grows well.

Unfortunately I can't take Xenia species for trade, as they seem to melt away in my tank (I had a large colony in the beginning, doing well).


----------



## sig

Looks nice and I see even wrasse is alive 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> Looks nice and I see even wrasse is alive


Would you like a free wrasse? It's free for anyone who can trap it. I haven't built the trap yet.


----------



## teemee

conix - your tank is blue clove heaven


----------



## explor3r

conix67 said:


> Thanks Alex. Soon or later I need to see your tank(s) again!


Anytime Yuri, some of the SPS I got from you have grown so much I had fragged them few times specially the green monti cap and the digitatas.
The red digitata it was so nice and one day I dont know what happened and some part white out so I fragged it all and rescue 2 frags which are doing great now and developed yellow tips, looks so nice..Thanks again
Not the best picture but you have an idea, sorry for posting pics in your tread


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Anytime Yuri, some of the SPS I got from you have grown so much I had fragged them few times specially the green monti cap and the digitatas.
> The red digitata it was so nice and one day I dont know what happened and some part white out so I fragged it all and rescue 2 frags which are doing great now and developed yellow tips, looks so nice..Thanks again
> Not the best picture but you have an idea, sorry for posting pics in your tread


Well if some other coral is stinging it parts can die and become white. Monti digi loses to almost every other SPS corals.

I'd love to get mine color up like yours. You had the whole body in green before, and it looked unreal! Imagine this at full colony size with all that color, that would be awesome.


----------



## conix67

teemee said:


> conix - your tank is blue clove heaven


Yes, they are everywhere 

I don't know why they decided to spread to every corner of the tank all of sudden. At the same time, my tank can't keep any Xenias.


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> I'd love to get mine color up like yours. You had the whole body in green before, and it looked unreal! Imagine this at full colony size with all that color, that would be awesome.


New tank and LED 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

*Problem!*

Something is wrong with my tank. I noticed my blood shrimp is out in the open, which I thought was very strange (he usually hides in the back of the tank, been that way for over 2 years). Today I noticed he lost both antennas and one of his legs. Something must be in the tank harassing him.

Could it be the crab I saw months ago? I don't think it's any of the fishes.

Also noticed there aren't any hermits anymore...

Soft corals aren't doing well either but SPS corals are fine.. Ph is a little higher than before (8.4-8.6). Purple polyps all vanished as well... which were spreading to everything in the tank (could be just collapse?).


----------



## teemee

Oh no!
You don't have a serpent star, do you?
I was told all but the green ones are safe, but I believe mine has eaten through my prized colony of pederson anemone shrimp.
Hope things look up for you soon


----------



## 50seven

conix67 said:


> Something is wrong with my tank. I noticed my blood shrimp is out in the open, which I thought was very strange (he usually hides in the back of the tank, been that way for over 2 years). Today I noticed he lost both antennas and one of his legs. Something must be in the tank harassing him.
> 
> Could it be the crab I saw months ago? I don't think it's any of the fishes.
> 
> Also noticed there aren't any hermits anymore...
> 
> Soft corals aren't doing well either but SPS corals are fine.. Ph is a little higher than before (8.4-8.6). Purple polyps all vanished as well... which were spreading to everything in the tank (could be just collapse?).


Sorry to hear... hope you get it figured out.


----------



## acropora1981

Do water changes. That usually helps no matter what the problem is.


----------



## conix67

teemee said:


> Oh no!
> You don't have a serpent star, do you?
> I was told all but the green ones are safe, but I believe mine has eaten through my prized colony of pederson anemone shrimp.
> Hope things look up for you soon


No serpent star in my tank. At least not one I put in there.

The inhabitant in my tank haven't changed for 2 years, except the fairy..

I'm almost certain that crab is the culprit, but I haven't seen it for ages so I thought it was gone... I should find a crab trap..


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> Something is wrong with my tank. I noticed my blood shrimp is out in the open, which I thought was very strange (he usually hides in the back of the tank, been that way for over 2 years). Today I noticed he lost both antennas and one of his legs. Something must be in the tank harassing him.
> 
> Could it be the crab I saw months ago? I don't think it's any of the fishes.
> 
> Also noticed there aren't any hermits anymore...
> 
> Soft corals aren't doing well either but SPS corals are fine.. Ph is a little higher than before (8.4-8.6). Purple polyps all vanished as well... which were spreading to everything in the tank (could be just collapse?).


I got problem with the softies, since started to used Kalk. Xenia is dying and Frogspawn does not do well also, but SPS growing like hell. Looks like every time I come to the tank they get bigger.
One guy told me that zoas do not like low alkalinity and my dead zoas are coming back to life, but they are also softies. 
Probably, there is no way to keep mixed reef with particular dosing 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> I got problem with the softies, since started to used Kalk. Xenia is dying and Frogspawn does not do well also, but SPS growing like hell. Looks like every time I come to the tank they get bigger.
> One guy told me that zoas do not like low alkalinity and my dead zoas are coming back to life, but they are also softies.
> Probably, there is no way to keep mixed reef with particular dosing


I heard it's not easy to make all type of corals happy in a tank.

I had pulsing xenia thrive in my tank in early days. One day, they decided to vanish altogether, and I cannot keep pulsing xenia in my tank anymore. At the time, and now, most other softies were doing just fine, including non-pulsing xenias.

Right now, purple polyps suddenly disappeared, blue mushrooms don't open up all the way, and even GSP is not opening. However, other types of mushrooms and LPS, SPS are all doing fine.

But that appears to be separate problem from disappearing hermits and shrimps. The blood shrimp is dead now, found half of it floating around (was cut in half by someone, can't be anything else but crab...)


----------



## explor3r

Yuri I hope you find whats causing all this, is there any chance that a fish is turning wild and having this behavior?..I am just trying to think of something.


----------



## TypeZERO

Big inverted bottle with a small piece of shrimp left inside? maybe keep it inside the tank throughout the night? I accidentally caught my pom pom crab with mysis leaving a small trap overnight.


----------



## sig

explor3r said:


> Yuri I hope you find whats causing all this, is there any chance that a fish is turning wild and having this behavior?..I am just trying to think of something.


I do not think it somehow related to aggression. My 4 shrimps were dead few months ago and I have no clue why. they bodies were ripped apart, but I had no fishes which could do it and just one small emerald crab.
yesterday, I found second crab dead in two weeks and of course it is ripped apart, but I think this is from decomposition and snails

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## sig

explor3r said:


> Yuri I hope you find whats causing all this, is there any chance that a fish is turning wild and having this behavior?..I am just trying to think of something.


it is like one guy was complaining after beating his wife, that it was not him. Ghosts did it

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

I don't think it's any of the fishes. It must be something with claws, most likely a crab. 

I'm going to get a tall glass cup, some sites suggest it as a crab trap, and place its opening next to LR and place a piece of shrimp inside. If crab gets in there to grab the shrimp, it won't be able to climb out.


----------



## explor3r

conix67 said:


> I don't think it's any of the fishes. It must be something with claws, most likely a crab.
> 
> I'm going to get a tall glass cup, some sites suggest it as a crab trap, and place its opening next to LR and place a piece of shrimp inside. If crab gets in there to grab the shrimp, it won't be able to climb out.


If I had a crab doing that I would not be able to sleep..lol. 
I had one few weeks ago I spotted during a night check up and he was always on top of the same acro, I finally catched him after 3 tryies that night then I went to sleep in peace 4am
Good luck Yuri!!!!!!!!!!!!!!get that bastard


----------



## conix67

*Small update*

Actually, it's a significant update. A week ago, my sixline disappeared. I searched thinking that it might have been killed or died but couldn't find any sign of it, so I thought it was strange.

Just days ago, I found it dead in the back of the tank. It jumped! I do have canopy but there's a small opening to the back, and it somehow managed to sneak through it.

Anyway, sorry for the little guy but my Mandarin goby couldn't be happier. No more nipped fins, or confined into the corner of the tank.

On the side note, the purple polyps are coming back, and generally things are better in the tank. I don't know what triggered the previous die-offs, but during that process a couple of acros received damaged tips (just few). Things are looking good otherwise.

Frag racks are full again..


----------



## ameekplec.

Congrats Conix! I know that thing was a little terror for you.


----------



## explor3r

Im gald that everything is going back to normal, let us know when you have some frags for sale  your frags are my favorite


----------



## TypeZERO

explor3r said:


> Im gald that everything is going back to normal, let us know when you have some frags for sale  your frags are my favorite


Mee too


----------



## darthvictor

TypeZERO said:


> Mee too


 add me to the list, i am actually live very near you


----------



## 50seven

conix67 said:


> Frag racks are full again..


Do you have any of those blue cloves that were rampaging up your back wall?


----------



## conix67

50seven said:


> Do you have any of those blue cloves that were rampaging up your back wall?


I thought they all died but they are coming back, right now they aren't really blue as they used to be.

Anyhow, I don't know if you want them. I originally bought the frag, and once took off, it covered almost everything in the tank. Problem with these type of corals that take off like that, is that at some point the die off will occur, and could negatively affect other inhabitants, based on my experience.

That's why I generally like SPS these days, they are easier to control and more predictable.


----------



## 50seven

conix67 said:


> I thought they all died but they are coming back, right now they aren't really blue as they used to be.
> 
> Anyhow, I don't know if you want them. I originally bought the frag, and once took off, it covered almost everything in the tank. Problem with these type of corals that take off like that, is that at some point the die off will occur, and could negatively affect other inhabitants, based on my experience.
> 
> That's why I generally like SPS these days, they are easier to control and more predictable.


OK thanks, just thought to ask, they look like nice ground cover, plus the mighty Aphrodite loves blue things in the tank, so I gotta find some more.


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Congrats Conix! I know that thing was a little terror for you.


Thanks. More for the poor little guys than myself. It killed in total 5-6 little ones, and the Mandarin was the lone survivor. Now I don't have to think of plans to build efficient fish trap anymore..


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> Actually, it's a significant update. A week ago, my sixline disappeared. I searched thinking that it might have been killed or died but couldn't find any sign of it, so I thought it was strange.
> 
> Just days ago, I found it dead in the back of the tank. It jumped! I do have canopy but there's a small opening to the back, and it somehow managed to sneak through it.
> ..


you made her life miserable and she committed suicide

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## cablemike

conix67 said:


> OK, finally took some pictures to show the current status of my reef. Not much has changed in terms of stocking. All the same familiar faces in the tank.
> 
> Took out most of the equipment as I reported earlier - BioPellets gone, Carbon reactor gone, to simplify what's in it. Alk/Ca dosing is still on, Protein Skimmer and Refugium are on.
> 
> Good news is that green hair algae seems to be slowly going away. Cyano is still there, but that's not bothering corals much. Here's FTS.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mandarin strolling around GSP field.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Several frags now occupy top of rocks on the right side. Teal milliepora revived from smaller frag, superman(?) monti - orange polyps with green tips, darker green monti digi. Hammer keeps on growing, and so does frogspawn.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Not very good top view of left side of my tank. Green pocilipora, green slimer, millie are shown. These guys are doing fine.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Light green monti digi struggling to survive. Pink monti cap has taken over the center part of my tank.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Several zoanthids species from Explorer on the front, spreading on the sandbed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Frags, various monti digis, caps. Their base used to be covered with hair algae. The crocea clam was moved from sandbed. Not getting lights due to pink cap and kept falling over.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The light green monti digi in the center, and to the left is teal (well more pale in this spot) monti digi.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Close up of green slimer. Re-grown from frag, which was taken from a damaged frag.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Frag rack on the right side. Some acro/millie frags saved from damaged colonies.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Frag rack in the back of the tank. Monti Hirsuta shows intersting growth formation.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Purple monti digi regained color (rightside-back). RBTA is still growing, it's not happy there now - perhaps not getting enough lights?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for watching!


Hey buddy I'm back, been along time. Your tank is stunning. I've started a small 20 gallon just to get my feet wet again. I'm sure in a few months when the tank stabilizes I will be commingle to you for frags. I'm glad to be home, I missed this place sooo much. And my buddies too.


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> Hey buddy I'm back, been along time. Your tank is stunning. I've started a small 20 gallon just to get my feet wet again. I'm sure in a few months when the tank stabilizes I will be commingle to you for frags. I'm glad to be home, I missed this place sooo much. And my buddies too.


Welcome back! We missed you (and your tank) very much. We have lots of new friends on this forum now. Hope all is well for you, and your family. How's your son doing?


----------



## cablemike

conix67 said:


> Welcome back! We missed you (and your tank) very much. We have lots of new friends on this forum now. Hope all is well for you, and your family. How's your son doing?


Well things are better now hence the financial ability to start a new tank, and the boy is still a hand full but were getting along better these days. I miss my tank so much man, I have been is a deep depression since I had to sell it and I feel much happier every time I go into the basement and look at the 20 cycling. I got the whole system as used items from kijiji and so far I've dropped only 175.00 . I got the dual 65watt coralife fixture for 40.00 and its like new, I see a lot of strange algae growing on the live rock, I hope its not the bad stuff. Anyways, that tank is big enough for now. The small tanks are just simpler and less time consuming.


----------



## cablemike

Need an update with pics so I can drool.


----------



## cablemike

Is everything OK bud, we haven't seen you around in ages.


----------



## conix67

cablemike said:


> Is everything OK bud, we haven't seen you around in ages.


Sorry Mike, and other members on this forum! It's been a busy year and looks like it's going to be that way for a while. Anyway, I'm posting some pics finally.

My cheapo Babyfish doser stopped working, so I decided to give this a try.










It appears to be similar design to Bubble Magus brand, but definitely a step or two above Babyfish brand. Programming is flexible and simple, and performance so far has been quite satisfactory. Purchased from AquastyleOnline.com. No shipping or tax were added.



















Now, here's latest FTS. The GSP carpet has spread over to the front glass now. Frogspawn is getting bigger, and invasive not-so-pretty Palys are all over the place, more so than little blue polyps.










Haven't added any new inhabitants for over a year I believe. Most corals appear to be doing ok, although there were no dosing of ALK/Ca for more than 2 months. I'm using just IO salt (switched from ReefCrystals) without any supplements.

Here's close up of hammer vs pink monti digi. They have finally found each other, which means something bad can happen in the near future. Need to trim off both pink monti cap and digi. I can't clean front glass as the monti cap is almost touching the front glass now.










Top right side is where a huge purple millie used to be (which was taken out and killed a few months ago). It's getting crowded there again. You can also see the RBTA in the further back of the tank along with the clown pair.










Frags are overgrown and I need to move them out... will need help soon (actually I can use some help now). The little purple digi frag sitting on yellow acro is not my work. Someone inside the tank did it...










Anyway, that's it for now!


----------



## teemee

Hi Conix!
Its been a long time!
The tank looks amazing... I thought I heard that you were upgrading...?!
I'd love a 1 frag of each colour of M. digitata. 
Will have to figure out how to get to you, as am carless. 
But I'll figure it out, somehow.
Happy to see that your rbta has a happy home  Last time I was at your house, it had taken to wandering lol
Let me know whenever....


----------



## conix67

teemee said:


> Hi Conix!
> Its been a long time!
> The tank looks amazing... I thought I heard that you were upgrading...?!
> I'd love a 1 frag of each colour of M. digitata.
> Will have to figure out how to get to you, as am carless.
> But I'll figure it out, somehow.
> Happy to see that your rbta has a happy home  Last time I was at your house, it had taken to wandering lol
> Let me know whenever....


Hi Teemee, it was more of a "wish", rather than a "plan". Of course, if I could upgrade to a newer tank, I wouldn't be too worried about growth of corals. Unfortunately for the lovely fishes (I owe them so much for staying healthy while I'm doing minimal maintenance to the tank), they are running out of room and the blue tang is getting harassed by the powder brown again... I will reserve those frags for you of course!


----------



## explor3r

Conix your tank always look amazing and your fish always so healty, let us know how it goes with the doser I would like to get one in the near future.
Thanks for the update is alwais a delight to see your tank even in pictures.


----------



## 50seven

Thanks for taking the time to post your pictures! Your tank is beautiful and healthy, and is an inspiration to us all.  Maybe when I get back in town we'll meet up and I can take some frags off your hands


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Conix your tank always look amazing and your fish always so healty, let us know how it goes with the doser I would like to get one in the near future.
> Thanks for the update is alwais a delight to see your tank even in pictures.


Sure thing. It's working as expected, no surprises yet and seems relatively quiet. Thanks for compliments but my tank hardly compares to yours, even my corals do better in your tank!


----------



## conix67

50seven said:


> Thanks for taking the time to post your pictures! Your tank is beautiful and healthy, and is an inspiration to us all.  Maybe when I get back in town we'll meet up and I can take some frags off your hands


Thanks, but there are so many nicer tanks on this forum today! It surely is good to see the trend, and lots of people sharing their "work" with others. I recall this place had hardly any saltwater people years back!


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> Thanks, but there are so many nicer tanks on this forum today! It surely is good to see the trend, and lots of people sharing their "work" with others. I recall this place had hardly any saltwater people years back!


did you finish basement 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

sig said:


> did you finish basement


Nope.. If I had finished my basement I would not be talking about 75G anymore


----------



## ameekplec.

Hey Conix! Great to hear from you again!! I'm glad to see everything in your tank is going fine. Looks like everything is thriving


----------



## conix67

ameekplec. said:


> Hey Conix! Great to hear from you again!! I'm glad to see everything in your tank is going fine. Looks like everything is thriving


Thanks. Everything that survived is thriving. But you know for some reason those that you don't want are usually the ones that really thrive... but I gave up controlling things in my tank a while ago, I'm trying to let them sort things out themselves..

However, time to time I do need to intervene, like yesterday the blue acro that has been growing well for over a year fell off the rock (as it got heavier I guess), and 1/3 of branches are dead from RBTA sting. Time to frag this guy...


----------



## conix67

Couple of photos of my fishes


----------



## Ciddian

beautiful!


----------



## conix67

Ciddian said:


> beautiful!


Thanks Cid! When are you getting back to SW?


----------



## zk4444

I just watched the 8-min video clip of your beautiful 75g reef -- I'm mesmerized.

I showed my wife the clip and when it got to the part with the mandarin skipping across the front of the tank, she says "he has a frog in there?!?" lol.


----------



## Ciddian

Not Anytime soon.. :/ The hubby wont even let me do the nano thing. Heh. We have some goals.. But when I do SW again it is going to be nice!

I am just going to keep getting my SW fill through you guys. <3


----------



## 50seven

Love the shot of the mandarin on the monti cap. If it were any higher resolution, I'd add it to my screensaver!


----------



## conix67

zk4444 said:


> I just watched the 8-min video clip of your beautiful 75g reef -- I'm mesmerized.
> 
> I showed my wife the clip and when it got to the part with the mandarin skipping across the front of the tank, she says "he has a frog in there?!?" lol.


Thanks for watching the video! Glad you liked it!


----------



## conix67

Ciddian said:


> Not Anytime soon.. :/ The hubby wont even let me do the nano thing. Heh. We have some goals.. But when I do SW again it is going to be nice!
> 
> I am just going to keep getting my SW fill through you guys. <3


Keep the hopes up! Although there are better tanks out there on this forum, I'll keep posting photos from my tank for you.


----------



## conix67

50seven said:


> Love the shot of the mandarin on the monti cap. If it were any higher resolution, I'd add it to my screensaver!


Thanks. I'll try to take a higher resolution photo next time


----------



## conix67

*Strawberry Conch*

Not really a tank update, not much to report there but I plan to take some pictures and videos soon.

Recently added a couple of strawberry conches with help of Sig and Explorer. I didn't know what to expect out of these guys but they are really cool!


----------



## conix67

*Crocea clam spawning*

Caught my Crocea clam spawning yesterday. The tank water was so hazy I thought something went wrong - dry ATO reservoir, skimmer problem, etc - but found nothing  and the tank was full of what looks like tiny air bubbles. Then there I saw the clam doing this thing, over and over, and continued for a while (~30 min).






Everything appears to be back to normal today, but found the skimmer was overflowing...


----------



## cablemike

That's really cool man, never seen that before. Thanks for sharing, my tank has been nothing but a battle. I'm glad your tank is doing well.


----------



## conix67

FTS from my cellphone cam. Time to do some house cleaning again...










Hey Mike, how are things on your side?


----------



## sig

Beautiful tank.

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## aln

oo my. i love your monti caps! great FTS


----------



## explor3r

It was about time for an upgrade looking great as usual


----------



## conix67

Thanks guys. I think the upgrade will be my retirement project. Now we have a puppy that's taking up even more time than my reef tank.


----------



## Bayinaung

conix67 said:


> FTS from my cellphone cam. Time to do some house cleaning again...
> 
> Hey Mike, how are things on your side?


wow that's a FULL tank. how long did it take to get that full. what do you do when you do house cleaning - are you going to frag?


----------



## Bayinaung

thanks for my lunch time coral porn. Current tank looks awesome. I personally like the coral arrangement you had back in 2011 slightly better as per this shot below. It's got a lot of interest for the eyes, lots of height.










Can you tell me what the big SPS you had in the corner was? I'm guessing you sold it off. sorry couldn't read through all the posts. Also what's the big SPS in the center?


----------



## conix67

Bayinaung said:


> thanks for my lunch time coral porn. Current tank looks awesome. I personally like the coral arrangement you had back in 2011 slightly better as per this shot below. It's got a lot of interest for the eyes, lots of height.
> 
> Can you tell me what the big SPS you had in the corner was? I'm guessing you sold it off. sorry couldn't read through all the posts. Also what's the big SPS in the center?


Well, the tank has been usually full since since it was 1 year old. I pick few large ones, sell the colony and keep a frag, and repeat. Different "unwanted" corals bloom now and then, forcing me to rearrange few. Thanks for the compliments!

The large one on the left corner of the tank was purple millie. It got too large, and sucked up too much of everything leaving not much for others. So I just pulled it out to make a room for other corals. I didn't think there would be a buyer because it was over a foot long and I was busy...


----------



## conix67

A bit of clean up has been done after sending off many corals from the tank. I have fragged off all hairy mushrooms after the clean up, and will try to grow a couple of SPS frags in that area.

Bright green mouth zoas, used to sit on the substrate.










Emerald crab (doesn't look so much like one anymore). Always lurking around in that area.










Pocillopora. Growing fast as expected.










Green and purple..










Green slimer frag growing back..










Frogspawn, this guy needs to be fragged, touching the glass now










One of my favorite zoas, been growing slowly but steadily..










Hermit and Chalice










Some Acan and watermelon favia.. anemone in the background










Various zoa, paly and ricordea (not growing)










Hammer.. went from 3 heads to this in few months again










Hydnopora in the center. Very unique SPS. Hardy but aggressive, will kill anything in close proximity.










Acro and Millie, top view of the tank on the left side. Can't get rid of reflections..










Orange digi and monti cap, looks much more red from the top..


----------



## Bayinaung

conix67 said:


> Acro and Millie, top view of the tank on the left side. Can't get rid of reflections..


hey dude try using a polarizer filter. it's not expensive. what lens and camera setup are you using for your pics? they look really good.


----------



## fesso clown

The tank looks fantastic!


----------



## conix67

Bayinaung said:


> hey dude try using a polarizer filter. it's not expensive. what lens and camera setup are you using for your pics? they look really good.


Right, the circular polarizer can help I guess. I should look for a reasonably priced one then. The camera is D7000 and the lens is Sigma 18-70mm I think. Glad you like the photos!


----------



## conix67

fesso clown said:


> The tank looks fantastic!


Glad you liked it. I would really like to make it better as I see many other really good tanks on this forum and around the world, but I should be satisfied with the result I got with minimum maintenance effort I put in.


----------



## Bayinaung

conix67 said:


> Right, the circular polarizer can help I guess. I should look for a reasonably priced one then. The camera is D7000 and the lens is Sigma 18-70mm I think. Glad you like the photos!


I got the same camera. Didn't know you are using a zoom. I thought you have a macro lens. I am using the nikon 16-85mm but it isn't macro capable so takes crappy shots of corals. I think yours might be the sigma 17-50mm 2.8 which is macro capable, and at 1.5x factor would go to 75mm equivalent on full frame. just get the filter and you are set to go. I might just got for a sigma macro lens for coral shots when I have the budget.

I was just looking up at the 17-50mm review and it looks like it's got a very high resolution at center and borders so it works great coral photography.


----------



## conix67

Bayinaung said:


> I got the same camera. Didn't know you are using a zoom. I thought you have a macro lens. I am using the nikon 16-85mm but it isn't macro capable so takes crappy shots of corals. I think yours might be the sigma 17-50mm 2.8 which is macro capable, and at 1.5x factor would go to 75mm equivalent on full frame. just get the filter and you are set to go. I might just got for a sigma macro lens for coral shots when I have the budget.
> 
> I was just looking up at the 17-50mm review and it looks like it's got a very high resolution at center and borders so it works great coral photography.


What I have is this - Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC macro. It's not the constant aperture one, and f2.8 is available only at 17mm I believe. That said, it's reasonably priced and performs to my expectation, and the macro capability is useful, although it's not true macro.


----------



## Bayinaung

are your pics shot hand held or did you use a tripod?

I'm going to be looking for some ultra cheap option for macro as I basically have 4 good lenses that covers the whole range from 11mm to 500mm. the 16-85 takes great portraits so I don't even need a portrait lens. I could go manual... I don't want to spend $400 just so I could post pics here LOL.


----------



## conix67

Bayinaung said:


> are your pics shot hand held or did you use a tripod?
> 
> I'm going to be looking for some ultra cheap option for macro as I basically have 4 good lenses that covers the whole range from 11mm to 500mm. the 16-85 takes great portraits so I don't even need a portrait lens. I could go manual... I don't want to spend $400 just so I could post pics here LOL.


I think for reef macro shots those cheap magnifying glasses that stacks onto existing lens works ok when the subject is very close. I had better results with those than friend's Nikon macro lens on my nano tank I had before.


----------



## conix67

*When the tank gets old enough*

some unexpected things begin to occur. Although already few weeks passed, I can talk about my experience with couple of important parts of my system - mainly the pumps.

*SWC Xtreme 160 cone skimmer*

As you all know, this is the skimmer I've had for several years now. It has worked really well, but it began to develop a problem since few months ago. Especially when it's stopped, it would not restart again. I've read some known problems with this model and starting up the pump, but it didn't seem like those were issues. Thoroughly cleaning up parts inside the pump seemed to work for a bit, but it wasn't a cure. I thought I needed to replace the pump, but after carefully examining inner parts I decided to give it a vinegar bath. After that, it began to run like new! Unbelievable! It appears the layer of calcium deposits are formed in many unsuspecting areas, causing the pump to start up properly. Regardless, I think it's due for impeller replacement.

*Return pump - QuietOne 3000*

This is much more powerful pump than the Atman inside my skimmer, and even this one failed to start altogether eventually. Because I had *bad* plumbing job done around this one, I could not take out the pump for cleaning, which means the pump was not cleaned for more than 4 years. I dismantled the plumbing work, and found the magnetic core and its chamber were all clogged up with calcium deposits badly and I was surprised that it worked at all! Gave it a through cleaning with vinegar and some vinegar bath took care of it.

It was a lot of work but the end result was worth it.

*Coral troubles*

Now, recently several corals either began to touch the front glass or getting close to it. This gets very annoying as you cannot clean the glass easily, and causes strong currents under it blowing the sand of out the area. Finally I set aside some time to frag two most problematic ones - Frogspawn on the right side of the tank and green stylophora. Spent almost 3+ hours to get this done. Frogspawn is fragile while stylophora is rock hard.. compared to montis, these guys were very tricky to work with. I have posted them under classifieds.

Here's FTS as of today. Nothing spectacular but the tank is doing OK and fishes have a bit more open space now. I'd really like to work on the lighting next, but I'll talk about my experience on Auto Top-off system next.


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> Here's FTS as of today. Nothing spectacular but the


you are wrong my friend - The tank is spectacular.

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## kamal

sig said:


> you are wrong my friend - The tank is spectacular.


+1 that is a really beautiful tank and one that seems a long long way off for me right now.  Well done on progress to date.


----------



## conix67

> you are wrong my friend - The tank is spectacular.


I hope you mean it! I do miss your old (larger) tank.



> +1 that is a really beautiful tank and one that seems a long long way off for me right now. Well done on progress to date.


Thanks. You guys keep me up with at least some effort to maintain my tank. Take your time and anyone can have a tank better than what I have now..


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> I hope you mean it! I do miss your old (larger) tank.


I always say what I mean.Otherwise, I would not comment 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

*Ledzeal Malibu S300*

Well, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered the "Chinese brand" LED fixture two weeks ago, and it arrived yesterday. I've been looking forward to *improving* the lighting system I have, and considered all options. There's still a lot of uncertainty in terms of performance of LED lights and certain types of corals, so this was a risky move.

Look at this, isn't this ugly? The bulbs and reflectors are heavily covered with salt, and without of doubt it has severe impact in performance. 5 wires coming off of it is also big hassle whenever I had to take the canopy off for maintenance or cleaning.










Based on experiences of other people, I felt that you don't get what you pay for in LED systems, so I didn't bother with so called high-end systems, although the ultra-premium systems may work better, my budget is limited so those were out of question. For a while I was considering a full DIY, then finally decided to go with a half-DIY and ordered Malibu S300 from Ledzeal in China with custom LED layout - www.ledzeal.com.

The reasons I chose this unit are:

Form factor - full length to cover my tank, low profile and light
Sufficient number of LEDs, enough to provide more light than existing system without running at 100%
Price, still important
Custom layout - the reason I considered DIY, I can't say I have the working formula but wanted to give it a try
Smart controller, multi channel - 4 channels are better than 2, the controller has features I needed

So here it is. Took 5 T5HOs off the canopy, and lid removed, all LED channels running at 35% intensity, and a single T5HO still running in the back. I plan to run the single bulb T5HO (superblue) for next 6 months while I bring the LEDs up to 80% intensity level (I plan to keep it at 80% max).










View from the top. The wire on top of the fixture feeds power, which is coming off of a separate power supply box. Next to it is a connector with a wire to the smart controller. The T5HO light under the canopy is visible.










This is what each module looks like, with the splash cover off.










Picture of the tank with each channel at 100%.

Channel 1 - 12000K white










Channel 2 - Royal Blue










Channel 3 - green + UV (1:2). Didn't expect the greens to be this strong, I may consider replacing them in the future. UVs don't generate much visible spectrum.










Channel 4 - blue. Running these at 1% is almost good enough for a moonlight.










During sunset, no T5, LEDs only (all channels at less than 18%)










for comparison, here's more recent picture with 6 T5s.










Anyway, so far so good, all corals appear to respond well to the new light.

Next few months will be interesting, I'll be monitoring all corals closely while slowly increasing the light intensity every week. I will keep everyone posted if interested!


----------



## Bayinaung

I LOVE the way your tank looks under the LEDs. It really pops now even in the camera. Must be much better in person. Let's hope the leds will keep the corals going. By the way why are you starting it out at 35%? any particular reason?


----------



## explor3r

Finally you decide to go LEDs I dont think you would regret it and Im looking forward to see how they corals turn out
Keep us post with pictures so we can see the change or difference!!
Good to see that you post it too


----------



## conix67

Bayinaung said:


> I LOVE the way your tank looks under the LEDs. It really pops now even in the camera. Must be much better in person. Let's hope the leds will keep the corals going. By the way why are you starting it out at 35%? any particular reason?


It's around 50% of max intensity I want to run in the end. There's still one T5HO running, so I figured this would be slightly less than the overall light intensity from 6 T5HOs /w damaged reflectors and salt coatings on the bulbs. In other words, it's a guess work, there's no science behind my decision. I had to start somewhere 

If the corals say there's not enough light, I will add more to all channels. As of today, it seems all corals appear to respond to it well, so I'll just start here.


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Finally you decide to go LEDs I dont think you would regret it and Im looking forward to see how they corals turn out
> Keep us post with pictures so we can see the change or difference!!
> Good to see that you post it too


I promise I will provide periodic updates, good or bad. Your experiences also helped me decide on this as well.


----------



## Bayinaung

conix67 said:


> It's around 50% of max intensity I want to run in the end. There's still one T5HO running, so I figured this would be slightly less than the overall light intensity from 6 T5HOs /w damaged reflectors and salt coatings on the bulbs. In other words, it's a guess work, there's no science behind my decision. I had to start somewhere
> 
> If the corals say there's not enough light, I will add more to all channels. As of today, it seems all corals appear to respond to it well, so I'll just start here.


Awesome! Also, looks like no disco effect. Am I seeing it correctly - this light doesn't come with fans, so it's completely silent? and you went with the 120* lens correct?

I'm thinking of ordering the very same lights. As soon as I figure out my rockscape layout. Following along.

btw, the green LEDs - are they just green or are they closer to turquoise?

thanks!


----------



## conix67

Bayinaung said:


> Awesome! Also, looks like no disco effect. Am I seeing it correctly - this light doesn't come with fans, so it's completely silent? and you went with the 120* lens correct?
> 
> I'm thinking of ordering the very same lights. As soon as I figure out my rockscape layout. Following along.
> 
> btw, the green LEDs - are they just green or are they closer to turquoise?
> 
> thanks!


There's no red or yellow, so there's no disco effect. The light fixture does have 4 fans that run at full speed when you have all channels at 100%, and the noise gets obvious. There's also a small fan on the power supply, but I'm yet to see it run.

At current intensity level it does run completely silent. I did get 120deg lens but as suspected, it doesn't spread the light evenly at 120deg, but it's just right for my setup.

The greens are very green, not close to turquoise (or cyan?). I got them to cover the upper light spectrum above 500nm but I don't like it, although not obvious when all channels are on. I might try having them replaced with UV + Cyan instead, and not bother with additional sources above 500nm.

As for the cost, this fixture is still lower cost than DIY kit from rapidled.com. Although you may get better LEDs from rapidled.com, you get a slick fixture that you cannot duplicate with DIY kits.


----------



## someguy

Your tank looks amazing man! I just have a few questions if you don't mind.

I can't find the price on the website you mentioned, how much was the new LED fixture and how much was shipping on top of it?

I think it was you that had an aquastyle LED on another tank, how do you feel the new fixture compares to the aquastyle? brighter/better colouration? anything worse?

You also got the smart controller for the malibu right? how does it compare to other controllers on the market?

Any other reasons you picked this fixture over the other LEDs? I know it's cheaper than rapidled you said but what about those d120 ebay fixtures/buildmyled/reefbreeders etc etc.

Also the latest video in your signature is from 2011, any chance of an update? 

I'm in the planning stages for my own 75g reef so your input means a huge deal as I slowly collect my equipment and supplies. I've been researching many LED fixtures recently so I'm excited to see how yours fares and what input you have on them. Thanks!


----------



## lloydj

Looks great with the new light. Your tank has come a long way... Good to see you are still into it.


----------



## conix67

someguy said:


> Your tank looks amazing man! I just have a few questions if you don't mind.
> 
> I can't find the price on the website you mentioned, how much was the new LED fixture and how much was shipping on top of it?


Thanks! I will answer any questions I can. You can find the price directly from the vendor's contact person. I found this originally from just googling (was looking for evergrow LED) then accidentally found this, then later on I found a thread on Reef Central as well. Shipping is not cheap (Fedex) but altogether the cost is equivalent to the dimmable DIY kit from rapidled.



> I think it was you that had an aquastyle LED on another tank, how do you feel the new fixture compares to the aquastyle? brighter/better colouration? anything worse?


I have two DIY fixtures I made using parts from aquastyle - one for FW and another for a SW frag tank. LEDs are all non-Cree, sourced from various vendors but the colors are similar for blue/whites which are all I had from aquastyle. Can't say what's better for each LED as it's difficult to compare, but overall this new fixture is definitely better.



> You also got the smart controller for the malibu right? how does it compare to other controllers on the market?


I think they are similar. There are several modes built in, but I use just DIY mode which allows you to configure 8 points (time/intensity in %) in a day for each channel which is more than enough for my use.



> Any other reasons you picked this fixture over the other LEDs? I know it's cheaper than rapidled you said but what about those d120 ebay fixtures/buildmyled/reefbreeders etc etc.


The main reason I was attracted to this was the form factor and design. It fits just right using metal wire brackets, sitting above the tank (canopy). It's low profile, light, and for the price it does look good. Unlike others I've seen (ie. Evergrow), there's no extra cabinet. The whole fixture is a single piece aluminum which doubles as a heat sink, and there's a spash guard over the LEDs, and top cover above electronics and fans. Simple and attractive.

Most of these vendors allow you to state exact LED configuration you want at no extra cost.



> Also the latest video in your signature is from 2011, any chance of an update?


Perhaps when things settle down and the intensity is above 60% I will do another video.



> I'm in the planning stages for my own 75g reef so your input means a huge deal as I slowly collect my equipment and supplies. I've been researching many LED fixtures recently so I'm excited to see how yours fares and what input you have on them. Thanks!


Yes, hopefully I can help you make a better decision. There's another thread discussing effectiveness of LED fixtures started by Sig that you might find interesting. I can say that if you start off with a T5HO fixture, you can't go wrong. There's still more risk going with LED, without knowing exactly what the right formula is. I will definitely share anything I find in the future.


----------



## conix67

lloydj said:


> Looks great with the new light. Your tank has come a long way... Good to see you are still into it.


Thanks Lloyd! It's been a very long time! How are things? How many tanks do you have now?? Hope all is well.


----------



## someguy

Thanks for all the answers and quick reply. I have read through the halide/T5/LED debates on this and other forums, the general consensus being T5's are generally better for SPS growth but since this is my first tank LEDs should be great for softies, beginner corals and the like.

I saw your posts on the fw and sw aquastyle fixtures and many others have had great success with them also, I realize it's hard to compare since the fixture is new but it gives me an idea which is better at least.

I also like the clean look of it, built in fans and splash guard is nice. Seems the price of DIY kits and fully assembled fixtures is pretty damn close anyway. Also the modular feature is cool, as I may start with a 35g and then add another unit for switching to the 75g and have the 35 as a quarantine.

Good heads up on the RC post too I'm going through it now, if anyone else is interested here's the link
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2338097

Thanks again for all the info it'l definitely help steer my decision process!


----------



## noy

really nice setup!


----------



## rickcasa

Still loving your T5 fts better (wooww!) but I am partial to the warmer tones and vibrant yellows. Ahhh, miss my T5s. I really like your idea of keeping the T5 strip though. 

And that fixture is wicked, never heard of it but looks amazing on your tank. Just read up on it and it's as full featured as any brand names out there!


----------



## conix67

I love T5s too, especially the ATI fixture I saw over at Alex's place, and it made the body of my orange digi turn dark green which was really cool. I could have gone with something similar, but I wanted something smaller /w less maintenance.


----------



## Bayinaung

conix67 said:


> I love T5s too, especially the ATI fixture I saw over at Alex's place, and it made the body of my orange digi turn dark green which was really cool. I could have gone with something similar, but I wanted something smaller /w less maintenance.


you made the right decision. you'll need the 8 bulb ATI fixture for SPS, as 6 will be barely adequate. and to maintain SPS colour, you'll need 8 ATI bulbs changed out at 6 months, not one year like some are doing. 8 48" ATI bulbs are NOT cheap - that's 8x $20 (@ BRS before shipping, tax) = $160 ~ $200 all in for each change. If we are cheap, we'll do it once a year, if we want optimal we'll do it 2x a year. over four years, that'll be 800-1600 dollars in bulbs. ATI 48" 8bulb fixture is $600+ at BRS.

I'm a finance wizard, but even without any present value calculations here, it's very clear, $500 to spend upfront ONCE and get the colours you're getting now vs. the ATI T5 which will like have very little to NO residual value at the end of its life (say five years), is a no brainer.

I think you have the best lighting solution in the current set up - getting the UV A&B from the T5 plus most of the other spectrum from the LEDs.

cheers for conix!


----------



## conix67

Well, that was one of the reasons for choosing LED over T5. It was not a easy one, as T5 guarantees the success. I know it's a big risk, but I had to try this.


----------



## kamal

How are the led's working out? I am trying to decide between an evergrow d120 and the s300/s200......I would appreciate your experiences to date


----------



## conix67

kamal said:


> How are the led's working out? I am trying to decide between an evergrow d120 and the s300/s200......I would appreciate your experiences to date


At this point, nothing negative I can add, although the greens without red seems stronger than I wanted, so you may want to change those greens to cyan or more UVs.

The corals are all doing fine up to this point, but it's only been a week. You won't get meaningful results until after 6 months or so.

To me the form factor/design was important and S300 fits my need much better than evergrow fixtures. The 4 channel programmable controller works well too.


----------



## matti2uude

How are you liking the light so far?


----------



## conix67

matti2uude said:


> How are you liking the light so far?


So far, so good. Corals are responding well but can't tell much about growth yet. Max. intensity is still at 50% and I plan to increase it to 60% over the weekend.

Also, the green LEDs will be replaced with the near-UV LEDs to reduce the green cast, so it will soon have just white, blue, royal blue, UV LEDs in 1:1:1:1 ratio.


----------



## conix67

*Mods!*

The LED fixture is doing well, but I still did not like the green cast coming from channel 3, which includes 8 green LEDs. Ordered some replacement LEDs and tried to balance the greens with reds, but I couldn't avoid the "disco" effect on this fixture.

In the end, I decided to avoid reds and greens altogether, and focus on 400nm-500nm spectrum range which means UVs in place of red/greens, in order to have all channels with individual spectrum and control. Now the fixture has 24 whites, 24 blues, 24 royal blues, and 24 UVs. The UVs are not true UVs, it's more like actinic UV or near UV, with its spectrum peaking at 410nm supposedly.

Anyway, I was able to observe effect on corals (florescence on the UV LEDs) since the entire channel was UV only. Here's a couple of photos that would help illustrate what I observed.

CH4, blue at 50%.










CH3, UV at 50%










Half the corals did not emit any visible lights but the other half did, and it was very striking and the colors all looked the same (green/cyan). The florescence is very strong, but my camera wasn't able to capture that well.

Both photos were taken using the same manual settings (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance).


----------



## Bayinaung

Glad to hear they are doing great! how is the coloration of SPS? growth? can you show us a pic of the tank under full lighting?


----------



## conix67

I can't comment on growth yet as the corals are still acclimating to the new lights but definitely check it out a month or two from now. Currently the maximum intensity was brought up to 60% couple of days ago, from 50%. 

I tried mixing reds with greens but still didn't like it, thus the reason replacing all with UVs. Actually, I like the color better now, than before. With red/green/orange florescence and white LEDs there's enough of those colors in the tank. Don't see a need for extra greens/reds.

I will post the pictures when I get a chance, will try to use the same settings as before.


----------



## conix67

Here's FTS /w LEDs only, currently at 60% for white and blues. Not the greatest shot as it was taken during the day and there's reflection all over the glass, but you get the idea. It doesn't look all that bad with LEDs only, although it is quite different from the look it had with T5s only.










and I decided to take some pictures of my fishes, these are taken with all channels at 100%.

Mandarin goby.. very glad he's still doing well after 5 years



















Clown goby.. this little guy is doing great!










More shots of the clown goby. The pocillopora behind him needs to go, if anyone is interested let me know.



















RBTA and clowns










Favias










With the LED fixtures, I was able to take top down shots that look ok. RBTA opens up really big under LED, and it has killed half of my bright neon green monti cap.. 










Various frags on the frag rack..










This teal millie has unlikely florescence on UV light.. not obvious here










need to frag that green monti-whatever, fell off of a rock while cleaning the glass. Here you see all 4 colors form LEDs - white, blue, royal blue, UV. The difference is obvious from the reflections.










Another attempt at FTS /w UVs only, at 100% and camera settings adjusted to show the reflection of the violet color off of any surface without florescence pigments










right side of the tank under UV lighting only. Various florescence is visible - hammer, hydnopora, sunset monti, hairy millie, strawberry millie, favia..










So far, I'm very happy with the new LED lights, and I am not too worried about SPS corals under it, at least those that I've had. All seem to be doing fine, but the growth is not something I can conclude yet.


----------



## Bayinaung

Nice nice pics! and thank you for taking the pics. man that's one huge ponci you got there. I myself have a small colony. The stars from this shoot are your fishes. Mandarin looks amazing. and even the goby looks great. These fishes look awesome once they settle in the aquarium don't they.


----------



## sig

As I was saying before theory that LED kills SPS is mostly a total BS. It all depends on the IQ level of the hobbyist.

P.S. I see nice frags there and wondering why they are not for sale yet 

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

Yes, it was a gamble on the Mandarin, especially when I had the sixline wrasse harrasing him for years. Now the sixline's gone, Mandarin's been happily roaming around looking for prey all around the aquarium and he looks good.

I think LEDs killing SPS is over exaggerated. As I said before, I will compare my T5 vs new LED 6 months after (5 months to go now). At least for now, there's no negative signs from any of the SPS corals I have.


----------



## sig

conix67 said:


> Yes, it was a gamble on the Mandarin, especially when I had the sixline wrasse harrasing him for years. Now the sixline's gone, Mandarin's been happily roaming around looking for prey all around the aquarium and he looks good.
> 
> I think LEDs killing SPS is over exaggerated. As I said before, I will compare my T5 vs new LED 6 months after (5 months to go now). At least for now, there's no negative signs from any of the SPS corals I have.


for now I do not see negative effect also and visiting people said that Setosa, Birdnest and another SPS are growing like crazy

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

It's been a couple of months already, and I have taken off the single T5 bulb that was still running along with LedZeal. Everything appears to be doing well, and here's latest FTS. I included light fixture to show the color of LEDs.










All montis are growing well, and LPS growth I think is better - thus the reason that I had to put the largest coral for sale (green hammer). It has begun to smother and kill the lovely orange/green encrusting monti..

The color of large fat acro isn't so good, not sure what's going on there. I had a water quality issue a while back, and also discovered my refugium wasn't getting tank water - pipes were all clogged up after 5 years of operation without maintenance - and I suspect this was the cause for Chaeto not growing, and stunting growth of SPS since Alk/Ca dosing enters refugium first.


----------



## explor3r

Yuri overall your tanks looks beautiful I like how your colonies shape the reef, are you happy so far with the change?
I know is very hard to judge from a picture vs seeing the tank in person I hope I can come to visit one day no t too far away


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Yuri overall your tanks looks beautiful I like how your colonies shape the reef, are you happy so far with the change?
> I know is very hard to judge from a picture vs seeing the tank in person I hope I can come to visit one day no t too far away


Thanks Alex! I'm happy with the change so far. Overall, the performance is satisfactory, up to my expectations. I wonder if the fat acro is getting too much light, I may lower the intensity by 20% and keep it there for a while.


----------



## Bayinaung

so, after two months. how's the SPS doing now with refugium cleaned and stuff.


----------



## conix67

Bayinaung said:


> so, after two months. how's the SPS doing now with refugium cleaned and stuff.


In short, there's no adverse effect on the lighting change (good or bad) - most SPS continues to do well under LED, except one - fat yellow acro - which is still alive but mostly browned out (top left of the FTS).










Refugium is getting better, finally macro algae's are growing in it. There are still some hair algae found in main tank, but much less than before.

*Overflow bubble trap
*

I came across this the other day, exactly what I've been looking for years!










Unfortunately, this is not available for purchase in Canada, and I have no patience to build one myself using acrylic plates. So, I decided to give it a try with something made of off the shelf products. Found one that would fit in my sump at Walmart - made by lock and lock.

Here's the photo of it along with other pieces.



















While it does not eliminate bubbles entirely, there's very little escaping this box now, and I was able to remove filter sock which is also used to trap the bubbles.










Also, SWX 160 has been replaced with CadLights PLS-100 skimmer. Although rated for up to 120G, the new skimmer has a collection cup whose size is less than 1/4 of SWX 160's. I can't comment on its performance yet but it is tiny!

There are other changes coming. My MP40W requires big maintenance on its wetside, or entirely a new one. I'm thinking of trying out Jebao units instead of purchasing the new wetside of MP40.


----------



## explor3r

Tank looks great Yuri, I love the idea of the container to trap the bubbles I might copy that from you......
In regards to the MP40 wet side I was in the same situation 2 weeks ago someone gave me 2 mp40s with not wet part and I was trying to decide if to buy the wet part or try the jebo...ummm let me tell you Im loving this Jebo powerbeads they are powerful, small and easy to use plus you then can communicate wireless to work together......I would highly recommend you to try them out,,ohhh and not even comment about the price you can get 3 jebos with what you get just 1 mp40


----------



## Bayinaung

I can see the growth & changes in corals from comparing the two photos. that's awesome. Nice bubble trap by the way.


----------



## noy

I would be interested in the performance you get from the PLS-100. I was running that on a 60 gallon system with a heavy load and I have to say I was not impressed at all. It may be just the load was too much for it.


----------



## conix67

noy said:


> I would be interested in the performance you get from the PLS-100. I was running that on a 60 gallon system with a heavy load and I have to say I was not impressed at all. It may be just the load was too much for it.


I must say I wasn't impressed in the beginning, but it seems to be doing the job now. It was very tricky to get it dialed in, and my water level was too high for it. Now, it generates consistent skimmate (still rather wet skimmates but I don't want to fiddle with it any more).










So, I was thinking of getting another skimmer first couple of days but looks like I can live with it for now. There aren't many skimmers that will fit in my sump without making heavy modifications to it (it was designed for my original skimmer, Tunze 9010, which has the x10 size of the collection cup of PLS-100).

I don't know why the skimmer looks so big on this picture, it's actually very small.

The old and new skimmers side by side.


----------



## conix67

explor3r said:


> Tank looks great Yuri, I love the idea of the container to trap the bubbles I might copy that from you......
> In regards to the MP40 wet side I was in the same situation 2 weeks ago someone gave me 2 mp40s with not wet part and I was trying to decide if to buy the wet part or try the jebo...ummm let me tell you Im loving this Jebo powerbeads they are powerful, small and easy to use plus you then can communicate wireless to work together......I would highly recommend you to try them out,,ohhh and not even comment about the price you can get 3 jebos with what you get just 1 mp40


Got two RW-8s, wirelessly linked to each other. While I can't say each are as powerful as MP40s, overall this product is a good value for money. I wasn't able to utilize all the fancy features of MP40, and the Jebao units provide just enough features that work, and it's very quiet compared to MP40s. Guess this MP40 will head to classified section soon.



> I can see the growth & changes in corals from comparing the two photos. that's awesome. Nice bubble trap by the way.


The growth is definitely there, and colors from most SPS are good, so overall I'm happy with it so far. Before purchasing this fixture, I read so many stories about LEDs and SPS corals, and I was a little concerned too even though 
there were equally many success stories.

The bubble trap does a good job for me. It makes the sump much quieter, and eliminates all the issues associate with overflow drain very well, and I can live without the filter sock, which I believe is helping with my refugium situation as well, which is now full of critters and other life forms and macro algaes flourishing and stays bright green. Anyone with similar overflow drain issues please give it a try.

By the way, my LED lighting is definitely promoting strong green florescence. Some of my blue tort frags has turned almost bright neon green.


----------



## conix67

*Problems!*

I was away for a month during Christmas. I thought I had it all figured out and automate all necessary steps to keep this system running for a month but as usual something happened - Tunze ATO pump failed and this was discovered too late, and happened when I was still 2 weeks away from returning home from the trip.

I had a friend perform emergency top-off and other fixes to make it running until I got back. When I got back, I found most of the delicate corals gone, and my favorite fish - Mandarin Goby. 

I got Tunze ATO to replace aqualifter + double floater switch ATO setup, thinking that the Tunze would be more reliable for long trips like this.  I do like Tunze products but this was totally unexpected, and very disappointed of course.

Due to ATO not working, there wasn't enough water in the system to allow the return pump to send water back up from the sump, and this caused temperature issue as well since all my heaters are in the sump. Salinity shift to well beyond 1.26 + cold water, followed by sudden correction of the salinity level probably shocked many inhabitants of the tank, and also lost the Crocea Clam..

After constant water changes (5G at a time) things are looking better for those that are still alive (most larger colonies survived) and slowly making a come back now. Hair algae is still everywhere though. I'll post some pics next few days...


----------



## teemee

oh no!
I hope you let Tunze know how their product failed you...
That's really too bad about the mandarins - you used to talk about them a lot when I would go out to your place to pick up frags - and that was a very, very long time ago.


----------



## Marz

That is very unfortunate. I also have to travel and need my system to "take care of itself" for a couple of weeks at a time.

I hope you have better luck with Tunze than I have.


----------



## explor3r

Ohh Yuri hope everything comes back sorry to heard that and thanks for sharing so it can be use as an example of many of us that are away from our systems to try to prevent this things..
You know if you need something or anything just shot a pm...


----------



## Bayinaung

wow I got an email this morning informing me of this. Sorry to hear about the ato system failure. I am glad it isn't a complete loss. It's a good thing your friend helped out with the tank while you were away. Hope things recover fast!


----------



## conix67

Thanks everyone for kind words. It is sad but things happen. It would have been devastating if it had happened a lot earlier but I'm not too disappointed by this event somehow. Once things settle down /w hair algae gone, I'll start looking for new inhabitants but the tank is hardly empty at the moment. Lots of shrooms and larger colonies are still taking up much of the space. 

Oh, by the way, RBTA made it through and so did yellow clown goby. Most of what's lost are frags, pretty much all of them are wiped out.


----------



## Norco

Sorry to hear the news Yuri! It seems like you're in good spirit and handling it well though. 

Maybe it's time for that giant tank you had in mind.


----------



## sig

Did you finish the basement?

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## conix67

No, basement is not finished yet. However, I finished building a 3D printer. Looking for a good use for it on my aquarium.


----------



## conix67

Can't believe it's been well over a year since the last update! I've been busy with other stuff for a while, including the basement (but no new tank there) and my 75G has been neglected for a while. It has maintained itself without incidents, that is until just few days ago.

I got a nice setosa frag from a fellow reefer on this forum, wanted to do some good to my tank. Decided to clean up the nuisance corals (ugly palys and brown mushrooms) which were all over the tank. The tool used was a simple tweezer and knife (for mushrooms). The process took almost 3+ hours and a lot of them were removed.

What I had forgotten is that something like this has to be done little by little, with water changes afterwards. Most of LPS/SPS corals in my tank show obvious signs of stress, and some are losing tissues. 

Anyway, fingers crossed and with some water changes and patience, hopefully things will get back to normal and will post some pics afterwards.


----------



## conix67

OK, last few weeks I decided to fix few things in my tank, trying to get it back to where it was, or at least make some attempt. Here's the list of what I've done


Water changes. I use 5G bucket, so it takes 15 water changes (actually more) to add 75G of new salt water. I've been doing water changes at least every other day.
Restart 2-part doser. I had stopped dosing for a while because of few reasons, but biggest being the 2-part dosing clogging things up in my sump and cause the return pump to stop eventually. This was happening repeatedly and silly thing is that I did not even think of dosing directly to the display tank. Also, the alk lines were getting clogged up with solid paritcles after years of use.
Removal of unwated corals - mainly ugly brown mushrooms and palys, which were covering much of the live rocks and back of the tank. Unfortuantely, this caused nutrient spike and small cycle into the tank (diatoms).
New corals. Acquired number of frags from fellow reefers on this forum to reseed mostly the left side of the tank.

Here's the FTS as of today.










Top view of the left side










Top view of the right side










This is what my tank looked like 6 years ago.. many of the corals are still there today


----------



## explor3r

Thanks for the update is been a while since you last did, how are you liking the Leds? Glad to know you still in the hobby...


----------



## conix67

Thanks for dropping by, Alex. No, it's not easy to quit this hobby and I have no intention to quit . Finished basement too but there's no space for a new tank. Sig would be very mad if he's still around. I miss him very much 

Because changes come in a bunch, I cannot make a conclusion on my LED lights. It's close to a DIY unit than commercial, with cheaper LEDs all around. However, it does the job. I have introduced some frags recently to see how things go and will monitor it for next few months before adding other changes to it.

Even while the tank was not well maintained last 2 years, most SPS grew fairly well, not to mention LPS and softies. The growth rate wasn't as good as under T5s I had for a long time but that's not such a bad thing that it's somewhat easier to maintain.

I met few reefers recently, with AI Hydra or Ecotech XR15 LED fixtures. Their tanks had amazing SPS growth and color. I have no doubt LEDs work just as well as T5s or MHs.

One thing I like about Hydra units over mine is added controllability (7 channels vs 4 on mine) and noise (mine gets loud on near full power). These two factors could be enough for me to consider a switch, but Hydra units are very pricey.


----------



## talon

*You wake me up too*

We are in same boat, I didnt take care my tank more than a year. I'd try to pick up my passion after see you update your forums.


----------



## conix67

Video update of my tank. Sorry the tank isn't very clean (lots of brown stringly goo visible).


----------



## conix67

Received Hanna ULR phosphorus kit today. Lol I did not really need ULR version but it will help in the future. I was using API kit before, it said 0.5ppm (0.5ppm is the resolution of the kit). The Hanna tester gave me a reading of 107ppb which is translated to 0.328ppm, which is more than 10x of the acceptable phosphate level. All that hair algae issue is explained now.

Well, unfortunately refugium /w Macro algae alone cannot handle the phosphates. I started GFO reactor today, will see how things go.


----------



## Rookie2013

conix67 said:


> Received Hanna ULR phosphorus kit today. Lol I did not really need ULR version but it will help in the future. I was using API kit before, it said 0.5ppm (0.5ppm is the resolution of the kit). The Hanna tester gave me a reading of 107ppb which is translated to 0.328ppm, which is more than 10x of the acceptable phosphate level. All that hair algae issue is explained now.
> 
> Well, unfortunately refugium /w Macro algae alone cannot handle the phosphates. I started GFO reactor today, will see how things go.


Hi Conix
Just wondering how do you convert ppb into ppm. The online conversion shows inorder to convert you take your ppb and divide it by 1000. So in your case it 107ppb/1000 comes to 0.107ppm. I maybe wrong but I googled this as I am trying to get that myself using ULR test kit.


----------



## conix67

Rookie2013 said:


> Hi Conix
> Just wondering how do you convert ppb into ppm. The online conversion shows inorder to convert you take your ppb and divide it by 1000. So in your case it 107ppb/1000 comes to 0.107ppm. I maybe wrong but I googled this as I am trying to get that myself using ULR test kit.


It's something like ppb x 3.066 / 1000


----------



## Rookie2013

conix67 said:


> It's something like ppb x 3.066 / 1000


Thts weird google shows ppb/1000 = ppm...
so which one is the correct one because they give two different values...reefing is not simple haha


----------



## Rookie2013

conix67 said:


> It's something like ppb x 3.066 / 1000


ok never mind my earlier comment. You are right with the above conversion formula as you have to use 3.066 to convert the phosphorus into phosphate and than divide by 1000.


----------



## conix67

No prob. Now I realize ppb is just parts per billion, thus ppb/1000 = ppm (parts per million). 

Anyway, has anyone experienced issues because of the phosphate levels being this high? I see the typical symptoms of high phosphate level issues is browning out corals, STN/RTN, etc. I have none of these issues right now, just hair algae issues.


----------



## conix67

*Very interesting!*

OK, after the testing showed that I have a huge problem with Phosphates, I restarted BRS GFO reactor (was running ROX carbon in it before) /w 90G worth of BRS GFO yesterday evening.

After 24 hours, I tested for the Phosphates again and now the reading is 0.078ppm (was 0.328ppm before)! That's a huge drop in just 24 hours, I thought it would take weeks to drop by that much! Is this how it works? I'm impressed.


----------



## notclear

My GFO has never done that magic for me so quick. I have to use Lanthanum Chloride to speed up the process.


----------



## conix67

If it's too good to be true, it's probably not true?

Anyway, I took only one measurement last night. Besides the readings, I can tell that the color of the water after reagent has been mixed in stayed almost clear, which is consistent with the reading.

I will take another measurement tonight, after 48hours.


----------



## conix67

Took another reading of PO4 level today (48hrs since restarting GFO reactor) - it shows 0.055ppm. The drop is not as drastic as yesterday but it really is dropping a lot more quickly than anticipated.


----------



## conix67

Reading from today is 0.039ppm. Keeps going down!


----------



## conix67

*Phosphate control*

I've been measuring it every 2-3 days. After hitting the bottom at 0.039ppm, it is hovering around 0.05ppm, up and down but never close to 0. I'm trying out Rowaphos now, which seems to work slightly better so far (for the amount of material, works better than BRS GFO for sure). I'm going to continuously monitor the phosphate level, probably just output from the GFO reactor only. All I can do is to ensure to replace GFO/RowaPhos when its capacity is reach by monitoring Phosphate level continuously (probably move to weekly at some point).

*FTS*

Left side is full of frags acquired mostly from other reefers recently. White balancing under my LED light is quite a challenge, the photo never really comes out the way it looks to my eyes. All frags are doing well, nothing has bleached/died or lost tissues yet.










I'm happy to see the growth of green slimer frag, which is known to be a fast grower but it means the tank conditions are good for SPS in general.










Right side has more mature corals than left side. Sunset millie is also growing again and gaining the red/orange body color back.










Other changes in the tank include minor rescape - removed a rock in the center, opened up large space for fishes. This means I had to tear apart orange monticap and its pieces are sitting on the sandbed now. I plan to put these up for sale along with others that are occupying sandbed space and frag racks soon.

Also added reef sand to cover mainly the right side of the tank with some sand, as all the sand got blown away over time. I had sugar size sand only.. should have never used the fine sand in the first place!

2 weeks ago I added a teddy bear conch. The following day I see this large hermit wearing the teddy bear conch shell. Does anyone recognize this guy? It's been in my tank for more than 2 years I think, hasn't killed any corals but seems getting bigger. This guy should be reef safe, anyone have any experience with it?


----------



## Abner

conix67 said:


> *Phosphate control*
> 
> I've been measuring it every 2-3 days. After hitting the bottom at 0.039ppm, it is hovering around 0.05ppm, up and down but never close to 0. I'm trying out Rowaphos now, which seems to work slightly better so far (for the amount of material, works better than BRS GFO for sure). I'm going to continuously monitor the phosphate level, probably just output from the GFO reactor only. All I can do is to ensure to replace GFO/RowaPhos when its capacity is reach by monitoring Phosphate level continuously (probably move to weekly at some point).
> 
> *FTS*
> 
> Left side is full of frags acquired mostly from other reefers recently. White balancing under my LED light is quite a challenge, the photo never really comes out the way it looks to my eyes. All frags are doing well, nothing has bleached/died or lost tissues yet.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm happy to see the growth of green slimer frag, which is known to be a fast grower but it means the tank conditions are good for SPS in general.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Right side has more mature corals than left side. Sunset millie is also growing again and gaining the red/orange body color back.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Other changes in the tank include minor rescape - removed a rock in the center, opened up large space for fishes. This means I had to tear apart orange monticap and its pieces are sitting on the sandbed now. I plan to put these up for sale along with others that are occupying sandbed space and frag racks soon.
> 
> Also added reef sand to cover mainly the right side of the tank with some sand, as all the sand got blown away over time. I had sugar size sand only.. should have never used the fine sand in the first place!
> 
> 2 weeks ago I added a teddy bear conch. The following day I see this large hermit wearing the teddy bear conch shell. Does anyone recognize this guy? It's been in my tank for more than 2 years I think, hasn't killed any corals but seems getting bigger. This guy should be reef safe, anyone have any experience with it?


Man your tank looks as awesome as ever. There is a snake in my 30 gallon now but i have a 60 setting up. Post more pics so i get more inspiration

Sent from my SM-G928W8 using Tapatalk


----------



## conix67

Abner said:


> Man your tank looks as awesome as ever. There is a snake in my 30 gallon now but i have a 60 setting up. Post more pics so i get more inspiration
> 
> Sent from my SM-G928W8 using Tapatalk


Thanks, man. Lol it's been over a year already.. How's your 60G coming along?


----------



## Abner

conix67 said:


> Thanks, man. Lol it's been over a year already.. How's your 60G coming along?


Not bad....slowly but surely. Battling bryopsis and hair algae but I think it will be under control soon. Check out my starting over thread.

Sent from my SM-G955W using Tapatalk


----------



## conix67

*Conix67's 75G reset*

Recently got lights upgraded to 2 x Hydra 64HD. My LedZeal was growing things fine but I wanted better light spectrum overall along with controllability, noise reduction and power consumption. I think PAR/watt for Hydar 64HD is better than LedZeal.

Removed several large colonies (hammer, bird of paradise, huge acro, etc) and rearranged right side. Hoping to grow things out in a year or two and fill up the space...


----------

