Klarion's Tongan Scape

[divecj5]

Very nice job with the HDR image. I always found it difficult to keep an HDR image looking natural and I think you've done a very good job with it. I've been meaning to start working on these again....I worked on some a long time ago of some buildings and that was about it.

[klarion]

Very nice job with the HDR image. I always found it difficult to keep an HDR image looking natural and I think you've done a very good job with it. I've been meaning to start working on these again....I worked on some a long time ago of some buildings and that was about it.

 

Thanks Dive. I didn't go the full HDR route with the FTS and instead chose to combine 3 pictures using "highlights&shadows" in Photomatrix Pro because the other way, my images were way too coarse.

 

I'll keep experimenting, but it looks like there is potential here.

[Nick's Reef]

I've never looked at your thread before and i must say that your scape is amazing! I love all the nooks and crannies and is very unique!

[Weetabix7]

HDR pic looks awesome.

I was just wondering, do you have difficulty aquascaping cause of unique tall shape of your aquarium?

I think my 16g is somewhat similar to yours in that regard, and I have difficulty with that.

[klarion]

I've never looked at your thread before and i must say that your scape is amazing! I love all the nooks and crannies and is very unique!

 

Thanks Nick, It's nice to have you stop by.

I hope you went back and saw when my scape was even more crazy. Now it's rather tame (though there are a lot of caves, like you mentioned-it's almost hollow inside), but I'm getting better flow on the sides and in the back, and less yucky algae in the back because of it.

 

HDR pic looks awesome.

I was just wondering, do you have difficulty aquascaping cause of unique tall shape of your aquarium?

I think my 16g is somewhat similar to yours in that regard, and I have difficulty with that.

 

Thanks Weetie,

 

I do have some difficulty with 'scaping because there is no room to grow sideways-only up. And, I had to remove some rocks because of flow issues, including those really tall ones. I'm hoping that as I get more corals, it will move the 'scape upwards and utilize my tank better.

[Weetabix7]

Thanks Weetie,

 

I do have some difficulty with 'scaping because there is no room to grow sideways-only up. And, I had to remove some rocks because of flow issues, including those really tall ones. I'm hoping that as I get more corals, it will move the 'scape upwards and utilize my tank better.

 

I know EXACTLY what you mean!

I'm getting ready to totally reconfigure my 16g rockscape in attempt to improve the flow in there.

[klarion]

Click, Click .........Guess who?

 

I didn't want to be mentioning this earlier because I wasn't sure about it, but I have been hearing faint clicking for some time now in my tank. I thought it could be the water making the noise going down to the sump, but just now I spotted a shed exo-sceleton that looks suspiciously like a pistol shrimp. You be the judge.

 

 

 

 

 

What's my next step? It's pretty small. Less than half an inch.

[klarion]

Man, I guess news of a hitch-hiker Pistol shrimp isn't as exciting as I thought.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed for a mantis or something like that .

 

Weetie, I'll be watching your aquascaping efforts--good luck! And may the flow be with you.....

 

I just can't help myself sometimes when I'm in a good mood.

[Weetabix7]

Man, I guess news of a hitch-hiker Pistol shrimp isn't as exciting as I thought.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed for a mantis or something like that .

 

Weetie, I'll be watching your aquascaping efforts--good luck! And may the flow be with you.....

 

I just can't help myself sometimes when I'm in a good mood.

 

[Needreefunds]

CLICK CLICK guess who??

 

Sorry B, I just thought that was you and your new camera again.....

 

We are following along to find out what the mystery critter turns out to be.

 

( we are always watching! )

[klarion]

CLICK CLICK guess who??

 

Sorry B, I just thought that was you and your new camera again.....

 

We are following along to find out what the mystery critter turns out to be.

 

( we are always watching! )

 

I think it's a pistol shrimp because I hear clicking noises and because that exosceleton looks like a pistol shrimp with the big claw and all. I doubt that I will get to see it any time soon. I mean, I've been hearing those sounds for a long while, just didn't think it could be a pistol shrimp.

[klarion]

Some Observations.

 

Instant Ocean Salt,

 

I ran out of my salt mix- Marine Enterprises Crystal Bioassay Laboratory Formula Salt Mix, and went out and bought a small box of Instant Ocean Salt mix to make a mandatory water change. I followed all the standard procedures, and after every water change, my Xenia got really sick-looking. At first i thought it was because I moved many things around my tank recently, but even after the tank was stable for a week, the Xenia really hated the water change, something that never happened before.

 

I based my salt choices on a study done here The Toxicity of Some Freshly Mixed........

 

I will stick to Crystal Bioassay formula from now on.

 

 

Better Skimming:

 

My Rapids Pro mod seems to be working really well. I'm getting some unreal extension from my softies and there is almost no perceptible growth from gha, bryopsis and other nuisance species. Also, I did add some Iron and Magnesium to the system recently. So that may be helping. Refer here for Iron supplementation: Iron Supplementation in Aquariums

[Needreefunds]

Boris, a quick question if I may.

 

As for the Rapids skimmer "mod", are you still using the stock wooded air stones along with your new, stronger, air pump?

And please refresh my memory here, what pump did you go with again?

 

TIA.

 

And for what its worth, it has always seemed to me that any switch in salt mix, be it a "better" mix or not, seems to make the reef "unhappy" for a while.

I have even noticed this when switching between buckets of the same brand salt mix. Just another observation.

[klarion]

Boris, a quick question if I may.

 

As for the Rapids skimmer "mod", are you still using the stock wooded air stones along with your new, stronger, air pump?

And please refresh my memory here, what pump did you go with again?

 

I did replace the original wood airstone with a Lime-wood airstone. I'm not sure if that's really that different since original ones could have been Lime-wood.

 

I also removed the longer air tube with the valve. The airpump I got is the Coralife "Luft Pump" with an adjustible rheostat. I have it cranked to full. It's not a resistance adjuster, but a voltage adjuster, which can be turned down to use less electricity (and less air).

[davidncbrown]

I followed all the standard procedures, and after every water change, my Xenia got really sick-looking. At first i thought it was because I moved many things around my tank recently, but even after the tank was stable for a week, the Xenia really hated the water change, something that never happened before.

 

I used to have problems with my xenia for days after doing a water change. I change 4gal a week in my 24gal nano cube. Ever since I started putting a drop of lugol's in the new water my xenia acts like nothing happened. Might be worth a shot to try if you ever end up having to use Instant Ocean for an emergency change again. In my experience soft corals seem to like higher levels of iodine.

[Needreefunds]

I did replace the original wood airstone with a Lime-wood airstone. I'm not sure if that's really that different since original ones could have been Lime-wood.

 

I also removed the longer air tube with the valve. The airpump I got is the Coralife "Luft Pump" with an adjustible rheostat. I have it cranked to full. It's not a resistance adjuster, but a voltage adjuster, which can be turned down to use less electricity (and less air).

Thank You Sir!

 

[klarion]

I used to have problems with my xenia for days after doing a water change. I change 4gal a week in my 24gal nano cube. Ever since I started putting a drop of lugol's in the new water my xenia acts like nothing happened. Might be worth a shot to try if you ever end up having to use Instant Ocean for an emergency change again. In my experience soft corals seem to like higher levels of iodine.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up. I was planning to get Iodine solution for dosing, but I think either I screwed up my order or the supplier got mixed up and they sent me 2 bottles of Iron concentrate instead of one........ I did get a test kit and I'll do some measuring soon.

[davidncbrown]

Thanks for the heads up. I was planning to get Iodine solution for dosing, but I think either I screwed up my order or the supplier got mixed up and they sent me 2 bottles of Iron concentrate instead of one........ I did get a test kit and I'll do some measuring soon.

 

No problem. My xenia use to melt after a water change... It was a hard thing to watch for the first couple months before I heard about supplementing iodine. To tell you the truth I don't even measure the iodine in my tank. I add a drop with my 4gal of water I change and then a drop every 3rd day. I usually change water on thurs morning so I add a drop thurs, sunday, and wed. On a side note are you dosing iron in a planted tank? My planted tank uses up so much iron and it still doesn't look all that great.

[klarion]

No problem. My xenia use to melt after a water change... It was a hard thing to watch for the first couple months before I heard about supplementing iodine. To tell you the truth I don't even measure the iodine in my tank. I add a drop with my 4gal of water I change and then a drop every 3rd day. I usually change water on thurs morning so I add a drop thurs, sunday, and wed. On a side note are you dosing iron in a planted tank? My planted tank uses up so much iron and it still doesn't look all that great.

 

I'm dosing a tiny bit of Iron at this point to help out my macros out-compete nuisance algae as per This Article

 

So far, the results are decreased nuisance algae since starting Iron supplementation. Hopefully it will last. There are other factors to consider since my tank is more mature now and I stopped rinsing my equipment in anything other than RO/Di water. Sounds kind of wasteful, but I don't need that much water to do this.

[divecj5]

Hey Boris. Hope that you had a great 4th of July. Just wanted to check and see how things are going with your tank. I know that you said you were going to be traveling a lot this month. Did you find someone to take care of your tank?

 

Hope all is well.

[klarion]

Hey Boris. Hope that you had a great 4th of July. Just wanted to check and see how things are going with your tank. I know that you said you were going to be traveling a lot this month. Did you find someone to take care of your tank?

 

Hope all is well.

 

Thanks, and you too!

 

I'm chilling in Greece, on an island of Syros. It's a great place. Very chill, a paradise in the Aegean.

 

My sister is taking care of the fish tank and I have not spoken with her for a week. I hope everything is well with the tank. I'll post some picture updates when I come back at the end of July!

[klarion]

So, I'm back and the tank is ok. No one died but some corals were moved around by the Urchins. Of course there are patches of algae I will have to take out when I do my major maintenance tomorrow.

 

How's everybody?

[divecj5]

Glad to hear you are back Boris. I was just thinking the other day that it had been a while since hearing from you.

 

Everything is good on my end....check my thread for some changes in lighting and other stuff.

[H20]

Updates?

[klarion]

Updates?

 

Busy times for me and I'm not getting notifications about posts to my thread....

 

Well, the Luftpump failed after 3 months of continuous operation. Most GHA is completely gone after I started dosing Iron. and Corals are doing OK. I definitely have a pistol shrimp in the tank, the GSP is on the move....

 

I'll work on further updates as I get more free time soon.