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Venkman's reef: New FTS


DrVENKMAN

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Last week I broke down and added a Rainbow BTA from LAReefs, the colors are incredible. I have two clowns in the tank, the smaller of the two kept getting kicked out of the green BTA by the more dominant clown, and had to spend most nights swimming above a hammer coral while the other lounged in the BTA. Now they each have one! Thats my excuse for paying 80$. I also added another neon green/ purple birdsnest, a table-top tenius, some rasta zoas, an encrusting photsyntheic gorgonian and a Miami Hurricane chalice. The only coral left on my wish list is a wellso or scoly.

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The beautiful rainbow BTA after spending a week right in the front dead center of the tank decided to move to the back of a rock were I can only appreciate its colors by reflection!

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After seeing Julian Sprung's amazing moving Gorg tank, I now want 30 more gorgs, more flow, and a tank big enough to swim in. Since that tank would likely crash through the floor of my second floor apartment I am going to have to settle with a few gorgs and maybe MOAR flow. To MP10 or not to MP10? That is the question. I have a 425gph Koralia plus 100gph coming from the HOB filter, but there isn't a ton of movement in the tank. I have seen everyone recommend the vortech but rarely see any justification for the cost besides how it looks. Feel free to fill me in on the benefits of this product over a koralia of 1/5 the cost.

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Vortech a offer a built in controller, and various wave modes to mimic real ocean currents, such as pulse, reef crest and lagoon all mode which create turbulent ever changing water movement,

 

Its definetly worth it since the gorges will benefit from having the flow move their polyps in different directions especially since being blasted from one direction will cause polyps to shrink on one side, also nutrient transport mode is when the pump ramps up higher then usual and will stir up ditritus and is great for feeding. Finally they are built to ramp up and down, so unlike buying a regular pump and adding a controller to change the speed vortech pumps will slowly ramp up up up and down again causing less wear and tear then simply on off on off

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  • 3 weeks later...

Gorgonian Woes.

 

I added a encrusting photosynthetic gorg about a month back. I placed it in a highflow corner with moderate light and it has looked great over the last few weeks and grew about a centimeter, it quickly became one of my favorite additions to the tank. Yesterday I noticed two black spots which I suspect was cyano. I decided to intervene and do a fresh water dip and scrub off the affected areas with a peroxide solution. The black film came right off and the gorg looked as good as new when I placed it in the QT. This morning the entire gorg is covered in the black film except for the two spots I treated with peroxide yesterday. I decided to dip the entire gorg in 0.3% solution of peroxide and wipe the entire thing down, black stuff came right off. Again it went back into the Qt looking clean, all tissue intact. Tonight polyps are extended but it is mostly black again. Parameters are good (SG 1.026, PO4 0.025, NO3 1-2, Ca 440, dKa 11, PH 8.4) , flow is high (63% turnover in the tank) All other inhabitants look happy. The only thing I have changed in the last week was adding MOAR flow. I placed a new koralia 240 in the tank on a wave maker in addition to the Koralia 425 for more intermittant flow. I also changed out the aqueon heater for a neo-therm because all the paint was pealing off the aqueon. So far the neo-therm does a much better job at holding the tank stable at 78o.

 

I smeared some of the black film on a slide to ID it at work tomorrow so I know what I am dealing with, whatever it is it grows fast.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A few of my sps that had fadded a bit after adding them are now starting to get colorful again. About a month ago I reduced the intensity of the AI Nano which sits only 10 inches above the faded corals to W16%, B48%, RB 48% from 25, 60, 60, respectively. I attribute the increase in color to this. Still doing 2-3 gallon a week water change, however I have been trying to do less volume more frequently to reduce any shock on the system and because I still enjoy doing tank maintence; it only takes me about 10 minutes to do a water change on the tank, so I have been doing 1-1.5 gallons changes twice a week. This seems to be providing enough nutrient export as I have very little algae growing in the tank; I can go 4-5 days without needing the clean the glass and my gravel stays very clean. One other thing I have changed is I have pretty much stopped checking water parameters besides salinity. The SPS is growing quiet fast, maybe too fast for the size of this tank, and as long as poly extension doesn't suggest a problem I leave the tank alone.

 

I was very skeptical of being able to get SPS to grow in such a small volume of water with no sump or skimmer, so far everything looks great. I now believe it is very possible using only frequent water changes. For small systems I think skimmers may do more harm then good by taking out too many useful organics and organisms out of the water column, larger systems though are a different story. With that said I would still like to have the tank sumped by the summer just for the added security of having a larger volume of water, in the event that something happens when I am not home, the tank wont crash quite so quickly. Also last summer the tank temperature was swinging from 78-82 on some of the hotter days, this could be largley prevented with an increased volume of water, without having to run my AC in that room all day.

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That's great to hear I personally have a edge and they are such awesome tanks, other than if you have big hands. My favourite part is the top down view

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New editions currently acclimating;

 

ORA Birds of Paradise

ORA Neon Green Birdsnest

TUBBS Birdsnest

Tyree Birdsnest

Blood Orange Yuma

Sunset Montipora

blue and red polyp Meteor Shower

Grafted green, blue, white and orange Acans

Blow Pop Zoas

metallic orange and blue Zoas

Watermelon Chalice

 

Maybe its time for a larger tank....

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I also bought 4 tangs but this tank is clearly too small; so I cut the fourth in half.

 

Livestock update:

2 clowns

3 and 1/2 tangs

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Still waiting on the Birdnest collection to ship, it was put on hold until atoms begin moving again in the north east. All week it has been 0 degrees ...KELVIN~! The rest of the frags are sitting on the bottom of the tank getting turned over daily by a belligerent hermit crab; his days are numbered. REDRUM.



Cool tank! Needs more tangs!

Yes it does...... Can you frag a tang? I am sure you could mount one to a plug with enough glue and a roofing nail.

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Maybe a blue whale or a pod of dolphins

 

Right? This tank needs an aquatic mammal.

 

I look at diver's den everyday.... never any whales.

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We should start a marine mammal conservation effort; wrangle up whatever is left and frag them for aquaculture. It would be such a shame if these creatures were lost without ever getting the chance to enter the aquarium hobby.

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First off Lovin that User ID

Second Sweet ass scape. Theres a guy I trade with regularly who has cloumns and it is one of the coolest I've every seen.

Thirdly I think Diver's den has a zebra shark available.

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First off Lovin that User ID

Second Sweet ass scape. Theres a guy I trade with regularly who has cloumns and it is one of the coolest I've every seen.

Thirdly I think Diver's den has a zebra shark available.

 

Thanks man.

 

The columns are balanced and free standing so they lift right out. So when I finally upgrade to a 25 or 30 gallon cube I can just place them right in already encrusted.

 

I think I a zebra shark might eat my tangs... So I am totally getting it.

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