another amazing tank!

Thanks David & Robbie. I'm tryin to do the best I can for these guys.

HALF TIME for the Superbowl. I predict Giants will UPSET. Here's my half-time tribute to frogspawn. I started with 2 heads almost 1yr ago (in my BC14). Now it's got over 16 heads! It owns the back of the tank. I've been wanting to grow monticaps in it's place, but I'm not so sure I want to let it go now.

This is my favortie tank on the NR by a longshot! I've ben on this thread many times and realized that I've never commented your tank. This thread is making me consider an ADA

nice halftime update

Wow, gorgeous frogspawn and super gorgeous pics of it! I don't see how you could possibly want to change it out for anything else.

Congrats on calling the game!

--Diane

4 great pics right there!!!
Wow...

I understand, I had to get rid of my frogspawn in my 20g all those years back due to it growing much to fast, and me needing the space for SPS.

I just gave mine to Marte to look after. He still has it, and it has actually become two separate mother colonies now.

what white balance/setting did you use to get that actinic shot for the frogspawn?

My camera doesn't have WB settings, except "sunny, cloudy, fine, & auto." I kept it on fine and adjusted my shutter speed to 1/250. - whatever that means! haha. As you can tell, I'm not a photographer.

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Thank you for all of the nice comments. It doesn't have to be the best tank After almost losing it to a temperature spike the other day, I'm just glad everything's ALIVE!
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Maybe I'll just frag the frogspawn. I'd rather snap off a branch than have to saw through it. Right now, the branches aren't long enough.
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Here's a semi-top-down shot, showing the frogspawn peeking out from the back left. Notice the top of the tank is very bare. It just LOOKS full because I've been moving all of my softies towards the front and lower levels. This tank is only 3.5mos old and has a long long way to go.

Also check out how clear the surface water is. It's all b/c of the additional surface skimmer attached to my MJ600. Otherwise, the water would be dusty and murky. If the upgraded overflow works just as well to keep the surface clean, I'll be very quick to remove it.

Bummer, i wish i know how to set my DSLR to take pictures like that

[/quote]

Maybe I'll just frag the frogspawn. I'd rather snap off a branch than have to saw through it. Right now, the branches aren't long enough.

Randy....I want a piece of that frog when it's ready to be fragged Please ?
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[/quote]


So PURRRTY!!!
It's like ......Dejavu !!!

Patty, take a look at this pic and you'll see that it's ready to be fragged now. I know I can saw it in half pretty easily, but that'll still leave me with 2 BIG pieces. Consider it yours. I'll give you a good chunk of it. Later this month I'm expecting new SPS frags, so I gotta make room very soon!

LEFT SIDE

See the pumps completely covered with coralline. I'm lucky none has started to grow on the glass. Probably has something to do with me sliding my magnet cleaners around almost every time I look at it (which is OFTEN).

Another maintenance supply shipment from Marine Depot.

Check out that bucket of Magnesium! I'm really diggin not having to run to the LFS anymore. Besides, they don't carry these "Costco" sized buckets. I don't agree with MD's $5 extra handling fee for the salt, which is why I only bought 1 bag of it. I've come to find out that Dr Fostor's & Smith does not charge this junk fee, so I'll be ordering SeaChem Reef Salt from them, from now on. I've got one more shipment of vitamins, amino acids, and such coming in next week, then I'm set with supplies for at least a couple of months. Params are very stable now.

I decided to try 2 other SeaChem products, Reef Plus and Reef Trace, for replenishment of vitamins, amino acids, and essential trace elements in between water changes. Since I change water weekly, I'll only add half of the recommended dosage per week.


Today I received my shipment of Korallin Flow Control Valves. These will give me better flow control from my tank to fuge and fuge to sump. Works just as well as I hoped. However, flow will be cut off completely whenever I'm not home or asleep. Can't trust it, so I just ordered a mini heater to maintain water temp in the pico fuge while the flow valves are closed shut. Again, this pico fuge is intended to be a Tigger Pod food source for the main tank - although I have yet to buy the Tiggers. hehe. Had to get it working flawlessly first.

Don't post much, but wanted to say you have an awesome setup! I have a couple ADA tanks, but they look nothing like this.

Thanks! Curious to see what your ADA tanks look like if you wouldn't mind sending me some pics. I did some major cleaning and re-org today, so the tank looks sparkly clear. I removed one of the Tonga branches and some generic zoas/palys from the rear to make room for another clam, some rare zoa frags (from Patty), and some SPS coming in (from Bluebastion) sometime next week - I hope. Tank looks a little different now, but I think it's for the better. I'll post updated pics when the new stuff arrives.

tank is a beauty!

I would, but definitely not ready for pics. Maybe in a few months.

I'll be sure to make a thread when it's ready.

Randy, Thanks for stopping by today...i know you'll get them zoas growing in no time at all
i'm counting on you

wow purpleup! the tank is really coming along great! Are you going to attend the MARS fragswap on march 1? I think I may be there but not too sure yet...should be some good stuff there!

*Wipes drool off face*

Nice tank.

Hey Purple that macro looks like Dichtoya to me, I have several colors of it. Mine grows really slow as long as I dont let the nitrates get too high. Tank is looks FANTASTIC, I wont even tell you what happened to mine

Morning Patty. ALL of them are opening up nicely EXCEPT your favorite ones that were mounted on the disk. Not sure about those ones. They were/ARE some of the most beautiful zoas I've ever seen I freshwater dipped them in Lugol's Iodine last night and re-mounted them on a nice piece of coralline covered rock. I'll snap off some pics later today, once the rest are wide open.



Thanks SLO! Where's the MARS fragswap? I'm interested. Haven't gone to a swap yet.



Funny Helfrich, I was looking through your Ultimate ID thread to find out what this macro might be. Dichtoya? Can't find any pics of it online. Thanks for the ID support! I do miss seeing photo updates of your tank online. Have you set your tank up again yet? Last I read, you were buying like 50 rics for xmas.

Thanks for the kind words. I hope it stays "nice." As with any tank, things can change for the worse at any time!

Patty, the Red People Eaters (is that what you call them?) look very sexy. I dig the double skirts.




I'll snap pics of the Purple Deaths once they decide to come out and play. Unfortunately, the favorites still don't show any sign of recovery...

yeah that's exactly what they are called "red people eaters" and they look so Pretty!! give the others time to recover, i know that in your tank they surely will. Thanks for posting the pics!!

FINALLY, my male clown has decided to host the frogspawn. I've always thought if I were a clown that would be my favorite spot. It took him almost a full year to agree with me.




Thanks for the Purple Deaths, Patty. These are gonna work out nicely. I can already tell. Their name is appropriate b/c they look Deathly SICK!


Coral Chili only hangs out for a fews days every couple of weeks for some reason, and that's more frequently than before. Otherwise, it plays dead. Had it for almost a year too.


You can't stop 'em. Shrooms multiply fast. I'm wondering how I can stunt their reproduction just a little.

YUMMAH YUMMAH YUMMMMMAHHHHH !!!

Hey Purple... FYI, the Lakers OWN the Warriors!

Ahhh, now that you guys got Pau Gasol you think you got a shot at the title? Just remember what happened to Dallas last year. 2008 is ripe for another upset!

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My CUC reinforcements arrived today from ReefScavengers.com.

Nassarius Snail x7, Stocky Cerith Snail x5, Limpet x2, Sand Sifting Crab x2. The crabs look alien-like so I'll post pics of them later sometime...

Your tank is truly inspirational!!! I would have bought something for my tank this valentines day but I know the GF would not appreciate me spending more on my corals then her today.

Thanks Knight! Hope it worked out for you yesterday. My wife and I had a 7 course Valentine's Day meal at a new Sushi joint that opened up in our town.

I've been feeling that my existing clean up crew was inadequate since I feed everyday, so I beefed it up a bit more with a fresh crew from ReefScavengers. These guys arrived yesterday afternoon and i haven't seen most of them since I acclimated them to the tank.



Nassarius Snail x7


Stocky Cerith Snail x5


Limpet x2 which I didn't add to this tank. I think I read something about them snacking on SPS. not sure.


Sand Sifting Crab x2 Trippy looking creatures. Never seen em before and still haven't seen em since they burrowed into the sand.

we dig for them( sand crabs ) where i live . great bait for striped bass .

Haha. No wonder they only cost $1! So I finally found him after I fed half a cube of cyclops to the tank.

Dive!


Dive!


DIVE!


Apparently, he sticks his antenna feeders out from the sand as shown and feeds on plankton. He's my new best friend. Still don't know where the other one disappeared to. Hopefully it's stirring up sand inside the cave. That's one spot my siphon will never reach.

Tank looks awesome, i got some sand sifting crabs also you'll see them once in awhile

hey PurpleUp i sent you a pm lemme know if you got it

Got it gzaa. Replied to your PM. Hope that helps!


This should be interesting. I sent water samples to be tested professionally by AWT. Sometime next week, I should get results back on the following params, which I'll record here later:

- Ammonia
- Nitrite
- Nitrate
- Phosphate
- Silica
- Alkalinity
- Calcium
- Potassium
- Magnesium
- Strontium
- Molybdenum
- Iodine
- Copper
- Boron

For comparison purposes my own test returned the following results at a density of 34.5 and salinity of 1.025.5:

- Ammonia: (API) Undedectable
- Nitrite: (API) Undedectable
- Nitrate: (API) Undedectable
- Phosphate : (API) Undedectable
- Silica
- Alkalinity: (API) 8dKH
- Calcium: (API) 460ppm
- Potassium
- Magnesium:* (Elos Kit #1 w/ 100 per drop) 1300ppm; (Elos Kit #2 w/ 75 per drop) 1350ppm
- Strontium
- Molybdenum
- Iodine
- Copper
- Boron

*Elos kits have not been giving reliable results, so the company is refunding/replacing one of the boxes. They attributed it to high heat exposure or not properly shaking the reagent first.

Who knows skimmers? Will my RapidsPro get better performance if I feed air to its skimmer chamber with this Rio 800 instead of using the airstone? Params have been in check without consistent skimmer performance, but I want to start feeding my SPS more without blow-ups of phosphate.

Ah screw it! I'm just gonna go with something like this and buy a REAL skimmer instead.

PurpleUp - PM me if you want to do the shipment this week. Thanks

Blue, I'm ready whenever you are. Tomorrow sounds good to me if that works for you. I'll PM you later to get shipping cost info and such. Question: Do you think any of the frags will require acclimation to the brighter light?

Man, I haven't seen anything sexier than SPS corals. Progress pics...


This purple tip looks much improved. Although I'll be much happier once the entire body is as bright as its tips.


Top down of Roscoe's Blue Green Acro. I know this has the potential of showing brilliant blues ALL OVER. I'd like to feed it more but I worry about my skimmer's ability to thoroughly pull out the nutrients. I might try feeding Cyclopeez and DT's oyster eggs soon.


Check out the lower polyps. They're reaching out to the light or the cyclops - not sure which. From what I remember, these polyps should be a deep green. Someday...


This milli doesn't look too special, but it's one of my first SPS pieces that I'm trying to nurse back to health. It's finally acclimated itself to the intense light, and hopefully it'll start to color up again. The white rims are actually tinted blue, which doesn't come out so easily on camera.


Top Down California Blue Tort. When I bought it from YourReef, Steve cut it right off the mother colony and superglued it straight to rubble. This 1.25" frag has FINALLY taken strong hold at its base. The colors on it are blue, purple and crazy florescent green. It's my fav of the bunch.


Side view of Blue Tort. You can see that a branch is ready to bust out of its right side.

I expect 6 more SPS frags by the end of the week. I'll post "before" pics on Friday.

Sweet sps, I really wish i went mh as my lfs has a beautiful royal blue monti

It's never too late! Go MH and be happy

My results from AWT are in!

Water Test Summary
Ammonia (NH3-4) ........................Good ......................................... 0.003
Nitrite (NO2)................................Good ......................................... 0.003
Nitrate (NO3)...............................Good .............................................0.5
Phosphate (PO4) ..........................Good ........................................... 0.11
Silica (SiO2-3) ............................. High..............................................1.2
Potassium (K) ...............................Low............................................. 260
Calcium (Ca).................................Low........................................ 256
Boron .................................... High............................................ 12.4
Molybdenum (Mo)......................... High..............................................0.3
Strontium (Sr) .............................Good .............................................9.1
Magnesium (Mg) ..........................Good .......................................... 1163
Iodine (I¯)...................................Good ........................................... 0.04
Copper (Cu++) ............................Good ........................................... 0.00
Alkalinity (meq/L).........................Good ........................................... 2.88

An important thing to note from these results are AWT's LOW calcium readings compared to my HIGH results @ 460ppm from the same water sample. This is what they say about Boron as related to calcium:

"Boron
Natural Seawater Value: 4.6 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 3.0 – 6.0 mg/L
Tested: 12.4 mg/L

(HIGH) Your boron level is too high. We recommend the suspension of any buffer
containing borate salts until levels stabilize. You may also wish to perform a partial water
change. Borate is an important part of the water buffering system, and it helps keep
calcium levels stable. An overabundance of borate can cause dangerous fluctuations in
alkalinity and pH, as well as causing inaccurate calcium test readings."

Could this mean that due to my extremely high Boron levels, I've been getting erroneously high readings from my own API calcium tests? If so, could it cause it to be off by that much? AWT tested Ca at 256 mg/L, where NSW has a value of 400 mg/L. I tested at 460ppm, where NSW has a value of 380ppm. Weird.

Now I wonder, which of my additives contains high Boron? I've heard from someone on NR that SeaChem Reef Salt contains high boron. Hmmm. Can I get a little help?

I have also heard in a couple of different places that Seachem has a high level of Borate salts.
Is Seachem salt what you are using?

The following is copied straight from my Seachem Alk test kit:
"Natural seawater has a total alkalinity of about 2.5 meq/L, of which about 0.1-0.2 meq/L is from borate. In an aquarium, it is advantageous for both PH control and improved calcium stability to have a higher borate content. This, however, should not be at the expense of carbonate. It is useful, then, to maintain a total alkalinity of about 4-5 meq/L with a borate component of about 1.5-2.0 meq/L."

I'm also curious about a comment you made earlier, that you can tell when your zoas skirts seize up and your torch is unhappy that you've dosed too much Alk.
How were you able to figure that out, and at what Alk reading do they do that?

Hey Weet. I'll definitely have to investigate my borate issue a bit further. Thanks for the info as it relates to Alk. Actually when I mentioned my zoas "freezing," I was referring to overdosing calcium or what I thought was calcium. Happened to me on several occasions using kalkwasser, which maintains BOTH Ca and Alk. And more recently when I mistakenly used a calcium MAINTENANCE solution instead of a calcium RAISING solution to bring my calcium levels higher, it happened again. Mostly everything that would normally free flow in the current turned rigid and stiff. Scary things like that are hard not to notice.
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Just tested my Ca and as expected it's well within my acceptable range. 440ppm, which would be considered HIGH by most. Who's results should I go by? I'll have to take the AWT results like a grain of salt and stick with my gut on this. My params as far as Ca, Alk, and Mg are concerned should be FINE. It's reefing as usual until I send in another water sample next month. I may look into the borate issue to see how I can cut back on it. Bigger water changes might be in order. Overall, I'm pleased with the results and glad I subscribed to their service.

Hey Purple - I cannot remember from reading the thread previously, but are you running this tank open-top?

Oh yeah, I've been reefing topless for the longest time now. It's tough to keep the tank cool with 400W in MHs and a lid on. FYI, I've got a purple firefish who skims the top and bounces his head above water when I drop floating food in the tank, but he hasn't jumped for over a year now. My male clown has though. Go figure.

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I picked up some Roti-Feast for my SPS and some Tigger Pods for my pico fuge today. Hope the tiggers live long and prosper.

Have you been feeding Roti-Feast to your sps before this or is this a new thing you're trying?
I won some Roti-Feast, as well as some Phyto-Feast, Arcti-Pods and Tigger Pods at the recent frag swap I attended and have wanted to feed Roti-Feast to my sps, but have been afraid it would throw my prop tank off more than it already is right now.
I've also never fed sps before, so I'm a little nervous about it.

Hey Weet. I've been more aggressively feeding my SPS cyclops for the past week only. Prior to that I've relied on photosynthesis and fish doo doo for the most part, but it hasn't given me the brilliant results I've been hoping for. Regular feeding of cyclops has shown some nice response in SPSpolyp extension, but cyclops morsels seem a bit large for my SPS to swallow. These rotis look more "bite size." I'll probably add cyclopeez once I integrate my new skimmer. Once that happens, I'lll probably start feeding even more heavily than now.

Purple - Other than male clown, who else has jumped? I'm in the process of deciding whether I want the glass top, net, or just going completely open top.

once you integrate your new skimmer? i might have mised it, but what are you planning.