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Chyendra's 45 Gallon Cube


Chyendra

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redkneecoral

i have to say, you made lots of good changes since i was last on here. Awesome and i love it.

I always loving the acan pix and i think your candy garden is just great to look at

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Thanks! I'm trying to keep things more organized, otherwise I end up with frags all over my sand bed.

 

I love my candy cane forest too! I have 3 colors right now, bright lime green, teal, and a blue/lavende. The blue and teal one aren't the brightest right now, they've been nicer in the past. I'm going to up grade my lights soon, and I think that will make a difference.

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I have a 250w retrofit kit. It's hellolights brand reflector and an ARO ballast.

http://hellolights.com/250whlmhretrofitkithqi.aspx

 

I have some used 20K bulbs I'll try at first, but I don't think I like that deep washed out blue color. I kind of like the color of my 12k reeflux bulb right now. It's crisp white. If the 20k doesn't suit me, I'll probably get a Ushio 14k or XM 15k.

 

I'm hopeing to get a custom canopy from Jelly's dad Kevin on MARS, Which I'll put the retro fit kit into. But I'm really want to get the stronger light going sooner if possible, so... I guess I'll see what I can rig up in the meantime.

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I'm so excited!!!

 

I found my purple hornets!! They were growing on an old snail shell but the urchins picked them up and lost them. I pulled every old snail shell out of the sand looking for them but alas... they were gone... :(

 

But today I found them!!! They had fallen into a crevice! and luckily they fell right side up and still got light! so they've been growing! This is awesome!

 

I feel like the dad in the story of the prodigal son... "My son (zoa) was lost! But now he's found!" Yay!!

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Found one of these crawling across my live rock :(

DSC_0556.jpg

 

So I set-up one of these

Quartantinetank.jpg

And moved all my zoas into it :(

 

Yes that's a green coris wrasse... He's so cute! It was sort of an impluse buy because I knew they ate nudibranches, but I was thinking that they stayed as small as the yellow coris wrasse does... but they don't. One guy reported his growing from 1.5" to 7" in less than a year. So... I'm sad that he won't be going into my tank because I really wanted a green fish. But he will be a happy fish eating all my nudibranches in my quarantine tank until I find him a new home :)

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on a happier note... Here's some pics of corals that are doing great! I've had them both for quite a while

Warhead Lobo

Copyof01_14_11-3.jpg

 

Cynaria

Copyof01_14_11-1.jpg

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I really want to grow some SPS colonies, and I had a rough go at it in my 30 gallon tank. They just never thrived. The few SPS that I've added to this new tank browned out on me, and just look... sad.

It seems odd, that in my first 5 gallon pico, when I didn't know anything, I was able to grow my pink birdsnest into a little mini colony and it was bright bright pink. What am I doing differently? This is the question...

 

My research over the years has led me to a few important principles for keeping SPS.

Quality water --> Nitrates <5 (preferably 0), Phosphates should be as close to 0 as possible.

High Lighting --> t5s, MH or LED, with better coloring seen in the 14k-20k spectrum

Good flow --> strong random flow is best

Stability --> There should minimal changes in SG, pH and Temp throughout the day, with Ca, Alk & Mg being maintained at balanced, stable levels some where within these ranges Mg - 1250-1300ppm, Ca 420-460ppm, Alk 7-10 dKh

Feeding --> SPS in ultra low nutrient systems suffer if they are not supplemented with additional feedings (more fish food, amino acids, ect.)

 

 

So here's how I've been trying make changes in the direction of healthier SPS

 

Water --> Added GFO reactor to bring Phos down to indetectable levels, I already have a skimmer, added a fuge with Chaeto, rehauled my water change system to include more detris removal. It took several 50% WCs to get my nitrates less than 5ppm. I decided since I don't have time for a 50% WC once a week on a 50 gallon system (plus the money for all that salt), that I would start carbon dosing, to bring my nitrates down, and still do a 25% WC every 2 weeks. So far this is going well, and I may outline that system in another post.

 

Lighting --> upgraded my 150w oddysea (probably not actually putting out 150w of light) to a 250w retrofit kit. Once its in my hood I'll be able remove my glass top which will increase the actual PAR to my corals. I'm using some random 20K right now with the intention of switching to a Phoenix 14k or an XM 20k.

 

Good Flow --> I redirrected the output of my SCWD to give more dirrect flow to my SPS. It switches about every 10 seconds. So far, It doesn't seem to be too much flow.

 

Stability --> this is hard. I don't have any controlers, so I do manual dosing and testing. I top off everyday, and I don't notice any change in my SG before and after top-off, so that's good. My temp fluxuates from 78.2 - 79.8 each day, which I feel like is too much fluxuation. pH is hard for my to monitor, but I think it goes between 7.7-8.2. I put my fuge on a reverse light schedule to help with this. I hand dose BRS Ca, Alk, and Mg. Mg is about 1350 (trying to bring it down from being really high), Ca is about 560, and I'm trying to keep Alk around 8 dKh.

 

Feeding --> starting doseing the cheapest brand of amino acids i could find (seachem), and feeding my tank a little more... the fish are loving it. I'm happy with where my nitrates are despite the increased feedings.

 

In the future, I want to add an auto-top-off, and a controler for my heater and fans to have better control over my temp. maybe a pH probe. But these are things that aren't in the budget for now.

 

 

SO... only time will tell if these changes will help my SPS population, but I've seen 1 of my acros start to get it's blue tips back and 1 of my montis start to get subtle green tips again.. its hard to photograph but I will try.

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With these changes, I've seen some improvement in my SPS colors. My blue tip acro is getting some blue back and my green monti has a little green on the tips again. It's really hard to notice in the photos I took, but here's a shot.

Copyof01_14_11_02.jpg

Copyof01_14_11.jpg

Copyof01_14_11-2.jpg

I know my green monti has some tissue loss at the base, it got stung by my anemone and is recovering.

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I finally got my nitrates down to 0 a few days ago, so I cut my vodka dose in half. I'm now doseing .2ml a day (.1ml in the morning and .1 in the evening). Some people suggest doseing every 2-3 days, but I like the 2x a day schedule (seems more stable to me), so I'm going to continue that for now.

 

I'm trying to figure out how much Alk supplement I need to dose each day, and I'm aiming for 7.7 dkh. Right now I'm dosing 1ml a day in the morning, about 6 hours before my lights come on, but I'm going to have to bump that up a little bit because my dkh dropped slightly. I wish I had a pH probe so I could monitor my pH swings a little better. I also which I had a phosphate meter so that I could know when to change my GFO... :( All well, I can make due for now

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Thanks! Things are getting better, and much more stable :)

I'm so excited to finally see my SPS frags coloring up a bit. I'm getting some more next week, so it feels good knowing I can keep them colorful now.

 

I think having a very specific dosing and cleaning schedule is helping alot because then I know what changes to make (if any) because I know what I'm already doing.

 

In my mind, everything is looking much better than 2 months ago.

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Midas Blenny, He's a pig, and the boss of the tank... I love him :)

 

These guys are really active! I saw one in another persons tank who was SUPER skinny, I think he didn't realize how much food they need compared to other fish.

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Wow, your tank is super nice. Lots of color! I was reading through your thread and was really encouraged about your algae solution. We are setting up our sump tonight and adding the filter sock, so hopefully I will have the same outcome as you. I think our issue is the same, detrius build-up in rock and sand.

 

Great job with your tank, and great documentation. I might tag along for a bit of advice here and there :)

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I added a porcelain anemone crab a few days ago, but It will be hard to get a pic of him. He lives underneath my RBTA.

 

I'm trying to find a pair of neon gobies and a pair of green banded gobies, but nobody in town seems to carry them :(

 

I found one store that wanted $40 each for their neon gobies!! I couldn't believe it, I think I paid $10 for one when I had my first pico 6 years ago. I guess I'll have to order them online, at least then I could get tank-bred ones for only $24. Any advice on good places to order fish? I've been looking into Live Aquaria, saltwaterfish.com, and blue zoo aquatics.

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nice build. love this tanks foot[rint. Nice setup too. Can you tell me if you have noticed any negatives from the vodka dosing? Also, that is one nice midas blenny! Keep up with the water changes and the sps will come around, not to mention it seems that you dont have high enough rock height for sps to be gettin good suntans! I mean, mine do best like an inch from the surface with hurricane force mp-10 action-slightly exagerating of course but not really. try using a frag rack just to test it out. Your frags look small but if you have one that you can take a cutting from temporaroly move it up on a rack to a high flow/light area to see if they just arent getting what they need. Ive seen far more overstocked and under cared for tanks sporting sps galore but they all have flow/placement in common.

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I've had better luck with the vodka dosing on this tank, than with my previous one.

 

So far I haven't had any issues other people have dealt with like cyano outbreaks or anything but it's only been 2 months. I'm keeping an eye on everything. IMO people are dosing too much vodka or uping their dose too fast. My entire system is probably 40 gallons total, and my maintence dose is only .2ml a day. This keeps my nitrates between 0-1ppm and my phosphates are undetectable on my salifet kit (I wish I had a hanna meter) I also run GFO to keep my phosphates in check. The other issue with carbon dosing and keeping SPS is that you have to feed them extra. I see people who have ULNS and can't figure out why their SPS are bleaching. I dose the cheapest brand of amino acids (seachem) a couple times a week, and feed my corals extra.

 

and I agree, it's still important to do water changes when dosing vodka. I couldn't get my nitrates down low enough with just WCs however, so the combo is working the best.

 

As far as placement, I'm pretty happy with where things are at. I want my SPS to have room to grow and fill the top half of my tank. That's why I think having the 250w MH will give me better light penetration than my 150w did.

 

Oh... and I wish I had an MP-10... not in the budget right now, but I think my SCWD combined with a mag9.5 return is a major step in the right dirrection. The frags are getting plenty of flow, it's just not as ossilating as they would probably prefer

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