I just started using those NP Biopellets couple days ago. Gotta wait atleast a couple weeks, they say, to start seeing results. My nitrates and phosphates read zero on my test kits but I still see quite a bit of algae on the glass after a couple days and have some gha and bubble algae on some corals. I also feed quite heavily. We shall see if it helps.

I'm having the same issues with my 34g Solana, nitrates and phosphates reading, from what I can tell with the API kit to be near or around 0, but get the dust algae on the glass after a few days, not much gha, but more bubble algae than I'd like to see, and some other viney kind of algae too. I need to quit feeding every day and cut back to every two or three days, but my fish just love to eat...

I need to get a bigger tank, I'm jealous of all these 100+ gallon tanks around here!

That's pretty much what I have, minus the viney kind of algae. I have more bubble than gha as well. My emerald crabs are useless. Good thing the bubble algae is on frags that I can pull out and remove manually. I will give my emarald crabs a couple more days before I start plucking them out. I feed my fish twice a day and my sun corals three times a week. I don't really want to cut down and I'm sure my anthias don't want me too either. So hopefully the NP Biopellets work.

The problem with this hobby is that your tank is never big enough. I just got the 120g last year and right now I'm feeling it is still too small. Lol. I would actually like a few smaller tanks since there are so many livestock I would like to keep but I always run into compatibility issues. BTW, I wish I had a 34g Solana instead of my 28g Nanocube. =)

I'm glad I don't have any bubble or hair algae =) I've been really careful with introducing any algae to the tank. Starting this from dry rock has been awesome.

Here's the surprise:



Finally the timing was right, and I found a small 2" female Genicanthus Bellus off Diver's Den. Nobody swooped her up because juvi's usually don't have the pronounced red / orange of the older ones. I love raising fish small.

She started eating frozen, flake, and pellet! My other fish have pigged out with the incredible amounts of feedings I've been doing to fatten her up. I've had her for 3 days now. She's less shy and swims out a lot more often. No signs of swim bladder damage.

I did get a scare when I first netted her into the tank. She got sucked right into the grill of the vortech. *sigh*. I thought she was a goner. Anyway, turned the vortechs off for a few hours and she was fine.

Now she's learned to stay away from those things.

Swims strong, I'm hoping she lasts a long time and didn't bring any pests, because I didn't QT =P I QT'd my last bellus for 3 weeks, and I still got Marine Velvet, it's inevitable.

Nice! Great shot too, of her, she's beautiful.

PS, I love my ATI Powermodule T5 lights, but your tank has sold me on the Giesemann Infinity lights.
So my next tank will have these instead, where did you purchase yours from?

Giesemann Infinity looks great, and is absolutely silent (no fans). When they turn off, you sometimes get the sounds of the metal cooling off, so it pings a bit but isn't often.

I ordered mine through a LFS. Custom painted polar white from Giesemann =) Took a long long time to get.

Which model did you get?

1200mm 2x250 mh de, 4x54 t5

Cool thanks, just trying to gauge what size I'd need for my future tank.
I think it will be close to your 120 ELOS...might be an ELSO or AGE.

I wanted to ask you, and in general why do people go with Bare Bottom tanks?
Is it easier to maintain, or is there less "gunk" etc? Whats the reasoning?

my next is an AGE. getting my new house remodel done and then going to order it.

48" x 32" x 24"
4 sides low-iron
White PVC bottom

costs less than my current ELOS 120 did.

hey art, i have the tunze all setup in my tank now, works great, but kind of hard to dial, day by day

neways your new fish looks great, im glad you finally found one

Glad it's working for ya. Skimmers are always finicky, one week they're great, next they totally overflow. I have that problem with my current BubbleKing. I'm trying to figure out what exactly makes it explode all of a sudden.

But yeah, here's the old fish I had:



This is the new again:



The old one I had was more like 3.5", and already developed some orange/reds. Otherwise they look pretty similar. The 2" still has a lot more juvi traits and hasn't developed as well.

I think this one is going to do great! No marine velvet pleeeeeeease!

she looks healthy, if all goes right she will stay that way and you will have her for a long time

I hope you document it well, I will want to follow it!
Please be very detailed, so I can learn.



I've read other people who are ATI owners complain or worry about Giesemann's T5 fixtures with no fans, do you have any issues with no fans; besides the NOT having any sound which you like, but like heat issues?

I don't have any issues at all. I wonder if there are long term issues where bulbs might have a shorter lifespan, but I'm ok with replacing bulbs more often if it means it's silent while running.

Yeah, thats a good point. Did you consult other owners before you bought the fixture?
I don't recall exactly your early threads, but didn't you start off with a different fixture and move to this one?
I'm sure if there were real issues, somewhere we'd of read/heard about them?

I talked to about twenty people who owned them. The issues range from poor electrical problems that are hard to get support for since Giesemann is in Germany to the fact that they wanted more PAR and went with some T5 fixture.

Nothing really busted about the no-fans issue, and the problems are comparable if not less than a lot of other problems fixtures have.

So no, nothing in particular is that bad.

I've had other fixtures, all with fans, all way too noisy.

I like that there is MH and T5 built into the one fixture, not the only fixture to do this, but one of the more "sexy" ones...

Hey Arthur,

On your light fixture, where is the power cable? I don't see it in your pics?

Absolutely beautiful specimen Kinetic. They have to be some of the more unique and special reef fish in my opinion. Always liked their general shape, coloration, and the movement that they add to a tank. I hope that it does fantastic for you and that you have it for years and years to come.

-Adam

Gorgeous angel! Hopefully this one will stay healthy.

That new angel is just plain gorgeous. Nothing else needs to be said about it. Love the tank.

You're easily my favorite photographer on the site. I love how you manage to blow out all the highlights and shadows but still retain all the detail and vibrant colors of the subject. Unreal.

Amen to this, +100,000,000

So true. I want him to teach me his ways, but of course a magician never reveals his tricks!

I don't have any tricks =) You keep saying I do! haha. If you come to San Francisco, I'll be happy to show you whatever I do when I take pictures =)

I will be close next week, Vegas baby! We should do an iChat on the Mac where I can watch you in action, then I'll see these "tricks"...hahahaha...

Do you purposefully over expose pictures when you take them or is everything done in post?

Sometimes both. I really don't spend any time worrying about exposure in terms of over or under, just whatever looks best I guess. Sometimes I do it by accident on the camera, but I shoot RAW so I can tweak it like crazy later in post processing.

sweet, my black photons finally kicked out the porcelain crab and took over the anemone!

pictures tomorrow.

Alive or dead?

Hows the tank doing?

-Dave

Alive and well. Updated pictures of the clowns:


ocean wonder by -kinetic, on Flickr

Some photos of the bartlett anthias:


Fish Duhn by -kinetic, on Flickr


_DSC7938 by -kinetic, on Flickr


Excuse all the dots in the water. I just did some super heavy maintenance, so a bunch of crap is kicking up everywhere.

No big changes, all my fish are still alive and growing. I may be giving away all my chromis, and donating my black photons (news on where they're going comes later).

I'm thinking of adding a few anthias to replace the chromis and maybe a pair of helfrichi (gonna brave the open top)... or just leave the tank with just a bellus and two anthias with a scattering of those small gobies I got from the Caribbean.

FTS next week

Glad to see and hear that all is well. Can't wait to see some updated shots of all of your cherry coral.

-Adam

Love the tank Kinetic.

Your aquascaping is great! I really like it.

You are an incredible photographer, awesome!!

Thanks guys. Actually my corals were all given away. I was about to move so I started taking all the corals out and giving them out before the move. The move actually didn't happen so my tank is without corals! I'm in this limbo state of trying to finish up a house remodel that I'm moving into. It's taking forever, so nothing yet.

I'm thinking of just restocking soon in the meantime since I'm bored with just fish. I do have the clam and one acro left.

K two things:

First, really exciting to see, my clownfish laid their first eggs! i've never had a pair lay eggs before. This is awesome. These are my black photon's eggs:


_DSC8951 by artchang, on Flickr

Here's a link to the video:
http://flickr.com/gp/kinetic/12QhTt

Second, I think I got a bad sunburn on my upper lip from the halides. Is this normal? I was only under there for like 5 minutes. The glass on my fixture is in place. It's a DE so it requires the tempered glass, but I totally got burnt. I usually can't even get burned out in the sun without sunscreen (I do wear it when I go outside tho). The lighting is a giesemann infiniti, 2x250watt HQI 4x50watt T5.

Hey man. Happy Thanksgiving!! I didn't realize that you gave away most of your coral...I recently did that with my 20h when I moved to m current rimless and although it was tough, it was nice giving them to reefers that i knew could care for all of them. It's also fun starting from scratch and trying to new combinations and species. Can't wait to see what you get.

Big congrats on the photons laying eggs. Thats amazing. I've seen mating behavior from my. Two clowns before but never seen eggs. Are you going to keep them or just let them be food

Never heard of getting a sunburn from a halide...pretty crazy. Seems odd that you would get that kind of UV burn when it has the glass shields in place. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Adam

Good to hear from you Adam.

The eggs have mostly become food now, there's a few more hanging in there, but I can't raise them right now. I may put in a piece of tile there and transfer them when they hatch to a local clownfish breeder.

I don't think I got a burn from the halides afterall. Not sure why it felt like it =/ I don't think I'll work on the tank under the halides again just in case. I'll make sure only the t5's or none of the lights are on.

I'm currently running my automatic water changer pumps and plumbing through some vinegar water solution. I think the problems I'm having might have to do with buildup of some kind.

It's been over a year since I've updated anything!

My tank is having a really messed up time. nothing is working out. I think it's all because of my auto water change... it doesn't really work. It's constantly changing salinity, changing the dynamics of the tank which makes the skimmer go crazy. So totally rethinking it.

I also moved into a new house... leaving my old tank at my parents house. I'm ready to take it over to the new place, so it's going to be quite a hassle.

I might cut back on fish, and just have a bellus and the black photon pair.

More soon as I plan the move.

Welcome back & thanks for the update.

So glad to see you coming back. I still stalk your flickr account!
-Dave

News:

- Ordered new ELOS Cabinet. The new version is 3" taller, apparently more solid, more water resistant, amongst other things. Will have bright matte white with white gloss doors, silver interior.

- Looking into replacing my Liter Meter III with a genesis systems RENEW for auto water changes. Also thinking of getting the STORM as well to replace the ELOS auto topoff so it works directly with my RODI. Less crap to deal with.

The reason for all my troubles really comes back to my Auto water exchange with the LM3. It's very inaccurate and hard to get just perfect. I like the Genesis one because it is made specifically for water changes.

The cabinet comes in late January, which is when I'll start setting up the system over at the new house slowly. I'll house all my critters in a 40G breeder in the meantime.

Maybe your alergic to light?Sounds crazy but theres people out there like that.

what? what light? why am I allergic to it?

welcome back!

thank you =)

So a quick update on the plans, kind of boring probably but why not:

Instead of just a move of all the old stuff, I'm going to be doing a restart. New dry rock seeded with some "Real Reef" live rock from liveaquaria: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...amp;pcatid=3122

I'll let that cure for a few months just in case, and maintain the critters in a 40 gallon breeder until I'm sure it's cycled nicely. Nice and slow.

I'm only going to use about 30 lbs of rock for a minimalistic view.

Reason for the restart is, I found some bubble algae. BOO.

Just got my new ELOS cabinet from Jesse. This is the newest gen of stands, it's way heavier and much more solid. The doors are kind of a matte white, I think I'm going to repaint them a glossier white to match the rest of my furniture.

Here's my rough plan for the move (if you care to read):

- Cut 2x4's and crawl under the house to support the tank
- Crawl into the attic to make sure I can hang the lighting fixture
- Clean all my pumps and sump, move it (display tank will still run with pumps)
- Setup sump in the new cabinet
- Clean the main tank, pull rocks out, move fish into 40G breeder
- Move display tank, fill with a few gallons of old water, then fill with all new mix
- Add rocks from old tank
- Move RO/DI system
- Move the auto water exchange reservoir (brute 50g bin)
- Buy and setup Genesis Reef Renew PRO and Storm PRO systems
- Kick back and relax

I'm going mostly fishless, and will be dosing with coral food. I am traveling so much these days, I can't feed the fish and I can't depend on an auto feeder all the time. The only real animals will be the trochus snails, whatever gobies I can't get off the rocks, a few nassarius, my clam, and tuxedo urchin. After that I'll have to get my SPS back from the various places I've spread them out to... or just buy a nice healthy frag pack from someone =)

Namely going for pearlberry, hawkins echinata, silver dollar, and red planet. That's it! nice and simple.

sounds like you have everything planned out. cant wait to see how this turns out

one thing i would change it use as much the old water as possible. too much water change might upset the cycle/shock the corals

thanks! yeah I'll try to use as much old water as i can, though a lot of my corals are either lost or given away at this point...

cant wait to see how it goes.