SLP's Reef

I figure that I would get a thread started, I'm always reluctant of uploading pics of the tank because I can't capture the tank the way it looks in person, I'm not the best picture taker (I can't use the word photographer)

When we moved here from Wyoming we had the tank packed and shipped in Jan 2010. It took us quite some time to find a house and get our furniture delivered to us. It wasn't until June 2010 that we got settled and I finally got water in the tank and started cycling. Since then I have been slowly packing the tank with corals and fish.

Here are some pictures of my 125 that were taken last month (Sept 2011)


First a couple FTS:




















And my 2 clowns in the torch coral

FInally!

Looks good.

Looks nice. Is the tank really tha blue or just the potographer?

I like the openess. Will look nice and full when everything grows in in a few years.

how is that copperband doing?

Crusty Old Shellback wrote:Looks nice. Is the tank really tha blue or just the potographer?

I like the openess. Will look nice and full when everything grows in in a few years.

All the pictures are pretty accurate to what the tank looks like, except the last 2, they were taken when just the actinics were on and that light does something to the camera to make it look purplish. Other than that it’s that blue.

Well I ran a battery of tests yesterday, and found out that both my alkalinity and calcium were a bit on the low side.I try to keep my alkalinity at 7.4 dkH but yesterday it was almost a full point down at 6.4. Then my calcium was at 400 to were I like to keep it in between 450 and 500.

I quickly did a few calculations and upped my settings on the bubble magus dosing pump, and I will test again next week to see if I need to adjust the settings.

In a way, I look at this as a good thing because it goes to show that my corals are now consuming more and that means they are growing more.

Looking at the tank there wasn't a sign of anything being off, but I figured that since I just added a couple more SPS in there that things may get out of balance, and sure enough...

Why do you keep your alk so low? and your cal on the high side?

Oh and just out of curiosity where did you get most of your corals from?

Because I dose a carbon source I keep nitrate and phosphates to or close to 0. I try to maintain a ULNS (ultra low nutrient system) which doesn't require high alkalinity levels like most thanks that shoot for 9-11 dkH. I test about every 2 weeks and it always sits at 7.4 (with the salifert kit)

As for the calcium I use the red sea test kit and it only allows for a graduation of 50 ppm per drop, so the color starts to change at 9 drops and completely changes at 10. It's not the most accurate way to read the test but I say that it's in between 450-500 ppm.

shortbus wrote:Oh and just out of curiosity where did you get most of your corals from?

About 90% of my corals I got from fantastic frags, they offer great corals at great prices. all the others I picked up from frag swaps and other local places like vivid. But Paul at Fantastic Frags is where I go first to get my fix...

Hey I use carbon so does that mean I need to lower my alkalinity as well?

No he is carbon dosing which means hes adding bacteria to eat the phosphate. What ur talking about is activated carbon that just captures small impurities and makes the water clearrer

yeah, I was talking about a carbon source like vinegar, sugar or vodka. Totally different than granulated activated carbon.

actually, he will be giving a briefing on carbon dosing in the meeting monday!!

I can't wait to hear that briefing. It will be interesting.

Was it a good briefing?

it was a SLP briefing, which means a lot of good information... but I dozed off a bit...lol JK SLP! It was def a good briefing!

I can't see how he'd put anyone to sleep. he's very informative, that's for sure.

so is the dictionary, but that isn't exactly entertaining to read....lol

I put together a clip on my tank.

Looks good SLP. How is the Foxface doing?

Wow, that is a clean looking tank, What are the fish that you have in there? I don't see the copper band or the yellow sailfin.

SLP, what are the dimensions of your tank? what type of fish is in your tank?

From what i remember, 6X2X2, 4 anthis, 1 mandarin goby, 2 diamond back goby, 2 clonfish, a fire red shrimp, that huge tang(cant remember which type) xhromis and a mystery wrasse

close dw. the tank is a 125 gallon (72x18x22). this fish are the powderblue tang, dragonette, diamond goby, sixline, checkerboard wrasse, 2 false percs, 4 lyretail anthias and 7 blue green chromis.

wow, almost the same dimensions of my tank just 2" shorter. I wanted 24" deep tank but couldn't find one at the time. here is alot of room for your corals to grow. Looks liket the PBT is the king of the tank!

yeah unfortunately he is. everytime I try to add a medium size fish he torments the he'll out of him. I have came up with unique ways to introduce a new fish to the tank.

So what is your unique way?

shortbus wrote:Wow, that is a clean looking tank, What are the fish that you have in there? I don't see the copper band or the yellow sailfin.

copper band has died. I have had bad luck with cbb's. I really want one in the tank to control aiptasia but they are so timid and picky that it's hard to get a good one. I have went through 5 so far. some don't make it through the quarantine process a couple made it into the tank but didn't last long because of the pbt or a picky diet. one day right before we have to move, we will finally get a good one.

the yellow tang did something to himself, it appeared that he broke his tail because it was facing about 45 degrees down and he wasn't using it to swim. he eventually laid on the sand and I pulled him out and tossed him in the sump. he was getting better after about a week he was swimming again but he stopped eating and eventually died. sucks because he was with up from the beginning.

reefer87 wrote:So what is your unique way?

after about 4 weeks in the qt they get acclimated and put in a small acrylic container in the middle of the display tank so that the pbt can try to get him but hits his nose instead. a couple days of this allows the pbt to get used to him and I release the fish from the container and after an hour of chasing the new dish around everyone tends to leave the newcomer alone.

Jimmy, I noticed your tank data is up on Reeftronics! Is your pH always below 8?

no, I need to recalibrate it. I need to get some cal fluid. im just lazy.

Any updates? how about some pictures.

someone asked for some side shots of my tank so here they are.

Hey I was looking on reeftronic and it shows a big flux inwater temp is your probe working correctly?

What are you the reeftronics police? mine then his....lol
His house was a little cold and his heaters couldn't keep up(my opinion) so his tank dipped.

ohh haha I know right! I was just bored and looking at everyones reeftronic page and both of yours had odd readings so I was concerned

coryg wrote:Hey I was looking on reeftronic and it shows a big flux inwater temp is your probe working correctly?

good looking out. I was getting text messages from my ACIII all night into the late morning. the bad thing is that i'm on vacation and had to wait until lunch time before I could get dw there.

thanks for the help dw.

No worries! we will see tonight if it dips.

Glad to hear you guys got it under control I would definitely want someone to be available to check out my tank if something were going on.

its good you finally back on reeftronics its been awhile since I could see your tank parameters!

yeah I quietly reappeared a couple weeks ago

So I got a pair of MP60's in yesterday (to replace the 40's) and right away I had to put one of them in next to the 40 for comparison and boy are they HUGE!

the dry side sticks out soo far, Luke commented that it looked like a big coffee cup.







Here's a full tank shot:


These pumps have lots of flow, when I first put the MP60 in I had it turned all the way down and when it was sitting next to the MP40 the 60 was pushing far more water than the 40 was turned about 75% full.

After putting both of the 60s in and syncing them up on reef crest mode it didn't take long for the water in the tank to stir up all kinds of trapped detritus... I ended up replacing two clogged filter sock in the last 24 hours.

I have settled with dialing the pumps down to about 40-45% on reef crest and may eventually turn them down even further later on.

In retrospect I should have heeded Paul's warnings that the 60s are too big, they are definitely unnecessary for a 120 gallon... one may be alright but 2 is way overboard. However one thing I notice right away was that I don't hear the noise that the 40s inherently have when decelerating, that was replaced with an entire new humming sound which is far less noticeable than the 40. next thing to do is get that modded maxijet and K2 out of the back of the tank.

super nice! Do they make much noise?

nevermind just read the whole post lol

when its zoomed in it looks huge, but the tank shot makes them look right at home!

agreed they look nice and to scale to me not to big not to small, also if your looking to sell the 40s I am kinda in the market for one

sisterlimonpot wrote: After putting both of the 60s in and syncing them up on reef crest mode it didn't take long for the water in the tank to stir up all kinds of trapped detritus... I ended up replacing two clogged filter sock in the last 24 hours.

Wow, that's amazing how big of a difference it makes to have that additional flow. I saw the same thing when I added that tunze to my 65. Every tank needs a hurricane every once in awhile.

Yeah no kidding, DW reminded me today that their minimum GPH is 3500, as the 40's maximum is 3000 GPH

As you can see they are turned to about half way,