Sexy Shrimp Posted May 18, 2008 Author Share Posted May 18, 2008 Just done my weekly W/C and have dosed both alk and Mg. I have got my Mg up to 1470 and unfortunately my KH to 14 eeek. I am not too worried about it as my pH seems OK at 8.2 and it hasn't made my Ca level change. Is it low alk where Ca precipitates? Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 Colt coral £20 Cocoworm £25 MH £120 Will total it up later - too depressing! On a good note - my mithrax crab has decided it likes GHA! Shame the GHA is on the way out anyway now Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted June 28, 2008 Author Share Posted June 28, 2008 Well after suckering half of my hammer during a water change it is getting more and more back to normal by the day. Thank goodness! Originally After a day (T5s) After 5 days (MH 10,000) After nearly 2 weeks (MH 20,000) Oh did I mention I am now topless with a 150w 20,000k MH? Lavin it! So that's another £120 to add on the total later... Nasty 10,000k 20,000k (Excuse the GHA - having issues). The sarc and larger colt are listed on ebay as are too big. Fragged them and selling the original Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted June 28, 2008 Author Share Posted June 28, 2008 Forgot to post this. My turbo having fun by himself. Mrs turbo passed away so its all futile Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 Updated pics. Healing hammer Ric having a baby More rics Rics and mushies Look how this mother has grown! Hard now to believe it was on its way out... This guy is growing slower But my orange monti is just amazing. You can see on the underneath shot the little darker are of how big it was when I got it. And its starting to grow up the rockwork And start growing another plate RHS LHS FTS FTS closer Thankyou for looking - sorry there were so many pics! Link to comment
Timanator Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 That is a cool Clip on light, I think JBJ makes one with a built in fan as well. I think you need an RBTA and some red mushrooms. Too bad you dont live here, the local guys give the red shrooms away all the time and sell RBTA's for 40-50. What is the JAD skimmer and how does it work? I have the Sappire on mine and it's easy to setup and picks up tons of stuff. Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 Hi Timinator and thanks The JAD is an internal skimmer. It's not great and only pulls watery brown skimmate but it also means I don't over skim. It serves its purpose and is hidden in the back chambers. As for the RBTA - my tank is too small. I also have too many powerheads dotted around in the rockwork. The clowns host the hammerhead and at least that is stationary I wish I was nearer to someone who would frag swap. I would love to go coral shopping with someone and then frag them in half when we get home and then have double the amount of corals... Link to comment
Coryd55 Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Great looking stuff going on! LHS is the best photo. Link to comment
Ocho Cinco Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Sweet looking tank. I like the aquascape! Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 9, 2008 Author Share Posted July 9, 2008 Thanks guys! I'm going to have to do something about my hammer! I've sucked some up again in a WC. It's just getting too big! Frag advice for a wall hammer anyone? Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 17, 2008 Author Share Posted July 17, 2008 Hammer is looking more healed now. Just got to wait until payday to buy a dremel Here he is with one of my clowns My YWG female looks like its carrying eggs again Compare the belly on the left to the fat belly on the right My green ric is sprouting a baby! And finally - I originally IDed this as Hydnophora. It doesn't put out sweeper tentacles though so I am starting to doubt my ID Can anyone help? Link to comment
Reefmack Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Hi. Wow - a lot of pages but I made it through them all. Your tank has changed a lot from the start! It's always nice to see the progression. I was going to mention that what you were calling a stag was really a Hydnophora, but here at the end I see you realize that. It looks like mine. I don't recall reading that they put out sweepers, but maybe they do? I've seen sweepers on my Euphyllia types (frogspawn, torch, hammer, etc.) but never on my Hydnophora. The Hydnophora are however considered at least semi-aggressive, but I think they need to have physical contact with another coral to attack it (or be attacked). Mine glows like a neon light under my actinics and moonlights - very pretty corals. Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 19, 2008 Author Share Posted July 19, 2008 Hi Reefmack. I can't believe you read through all the pages! Mind you I did the same to yours, both here and on RC! Your tank is truely beautiful and one of the nicest I have seen. Hopefully one day mine will look as nice as yours. Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 19, 2008 Author Share Posted July 19, 2008 Just dosed with epsom salts to bring my Mg up (its fallen to 960!!! flaming corals growing). I used this http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html to calculate the amount I need and have added it to my top up water (which also contains baking soda). I'm going top up over the next couple of days several times a day instead of in one big lump so as not to shock anything. I'll then do a 30% w/c to bring the chloride down and hopefully after that I will only need to do mini doses. Link to comment
spanko Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Your tank is beautiful. I love that the clown has decided to pic the hammer as it's host. How are the sexies doing? Do you see them much. Oh yeah the hydno is amazing!!! Link to comment
Reefmack Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Thanks L34NN3. I think your tank looks awesome also! I may have to eat my words on the Hydnophora. I did some searching after my post yesterday, and found some articles saying that some of the Hydnophora needed to contact another coral to attack it, some saying they had short sweepers, and then found one with a picture of very long ones. Read down on this page and you'll see what I mean: Hydno Sweepers I think what's in the picture are actually called mesenterial filaments, rather than sweepers, but the can have the same effect. I'm not sure if I've posted a picture on N-R of the mesenterial filaments put out by a purple acan I had, attacking my brain coral, but here it is. I eventually gave the acan and a big frogspawn away that were attacking other corals. I still have one torch left that is pretty well segregated from other corals for the time being, and my green Hydno is pretty far away from other things (now I'm wondering if it's far enough away after seeing the picture in the page linked above!). It's tough to have only "peaceful" corals, and still have a variety. And it seems like even those considered peaceful aren't always that way. Weekly "tank day" here - water tests, water change, mix a new batch of SW for next Saturday, fill up RO/DI jugs for top off, replace my HQI lamp, and try out a new Aqua Medic coralline scraper that was recommended as much better than the Kent scraper I've been using. Busy day ahead. Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 19, 2008 Author Share Posted July 19, 2008 Your tank is beautiful. I love that the clown has decided to pic the hammer as it's host. How are the sexies doing? Do you see them much. Oh yeah the hydno is amazing!!! The sexies are out all the time! They alternate between sitting on my mushrooms at the bottom and my Hydno at the top - sunbathing then sitting in the shade? Thanks L34NN3. I think your tank looks awesome also! I may have to eat my words on the Hydnophora. I did some searching after my post yesterday, and found some articles saying that some of the Hydnophora needed to contact another coral to attack it, some saying they had short sweepers, and then found one with a picture of very long ones. Read down on this page and you'll see what I mean: Hydno Sweepers I think what's in the picture are actually called mesenterial filaments, rather than sweepers, but the can have the same effect. I'm not sure if I've posted a picture on N-R of the mesenterial filaments put out by a purple acan I had, attacking my brain coral, but here it is. I eventually gave the acan and a big frogspawn away that were attacking other corals. I still have one torch left that is pretty well segregated from other corals for the time being, and my green Hydno is pretty far away from other things (now I'm wondering if it's far enough away after seeing the picture in the page linked above!). It's tough to have only "peaceful" corals, and still have a variety. And it seems like even those considered peaceful aren't always that way. OMG I've just seen that pic - that is one mean SOB!! I think I get it now - not sweepers in the traditional sense of the word Weekly "tank day" here - water tests, water change, mix a new batch of SW for next Saturday, fill up RO/DI jugs for top off, replace my HQI lamp, and try out a new Aqua Medic coralline scraper that was recommended as much better than the Kent scraper I've been using. Busy day ahead. I use a tetratec scraper for my coraline and it works great - flexible blade that really gets underneath. Not seen the Aquamedic yet - let me know how it goes. Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Just dosed Mg - don't think 940 that I tested at is great eh lol. Got it up to 1340 over 2 days (using epsom salts) and got my KH to 10 (using baking soda) and my calcium is still hovering between 420-440. Just done a 30% water change to remove some of the sulphate from the epsom salts after giving it 2 days to "bed in" from the initial dose. Will test again in 3 days to see how much has been used up Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 23, 2008 Author Share Posted July 23, 2008 Well I have had a coraline spurt over the past 3 days - whacking the Mg up really had an effect! Levels before and after: Mg 1360 - 1220 KH 10 - 6.25 Ca 440 - 380 My calcium is always really stable - it must be because the Mg was too low for the corals to utilise much of it. The Calcium is now starting to get used - woo hoo! So in 3 days my levels have dropped by Mg - 140 KH - 3.75 Ca - 60 Going to do a water change and test again to see how much a water change brings the levels up and will calculate my daily dosage from there... Back in a short while (gonna have my tea first). Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 23, 2008 Author Share Posted July 23, 2008 God job the oven is still on - think I need to bake my baking soda to get my pH up again slowly grrrr (do you really have to do it for an hour?) Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 23, 2008 Author Share Posted July 23, 2008 After water change Before - 3d - Water change Mg 1360 - 1200 - 1180 KH 10 - 6 - 7 Ca 440 - 380 - 420 So basically every water change I was doing previous I was proportionally depleting my Mg in relation to my calcium. From this I have calculated my daily dosage to be 1tsp CaCl2, 1/4 tsp baked baking soda (or 1/3 tsp baked - depending on the pH) and 24g Epsom salts (which seems quite a lot!). I have made one batch to top up the current levels based on parameters after the water change and have also made up enough top up water with the above in to last for 3 days (of top ups and dosing). I will test again and see how it has worked. Now for a question: I have Added enough of the initial dosage to bring the pH up from 8.0 - 8.2. Should I have made some up with unbaked too or will I be able to continue adding the baked without changing the pH too much? Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 30, 2008 Author Share Posted July 30, 2008 Well it's payday today so I went out spending!! Previous total: £1257.83!! I bought a 2nd hand ATO - £53 Branching hammer, duncan, purple mushrooms with a blue sheen and brown mushrooms with green stripes - £161 Grand total £1471.83!!! Why did I start my tank upStil again?? Still having some issues with red slime and a bit of GHA (bizarrely only in on spot...) so the pics aren't as nice as they might be Duncans - £8 per head and 8 heads. Got it home and actually 12. Mark from Abyss said he only charges by large head. Hammerhead. This one is gorgeous!!! It's green with purple tips! Shame my camera doesn't do it justice. This one is a branching one (traded in my big penis shaped one at Abyss). Brown mushies with green stripes Blue/purple mushies Will need to rearrange the bottom area when the leather and colt goes (sold on ebay and 3w later and the buyer still hasn't collected! Hopefully saturday, which takes it to 4 weeks!) I am going to move the mushrooms into the cave in the middle with the rics towards the front (and move the rics down off the LHS). I will them put the duncan where the mushies are on the right and the zoas on the bottom left. The hammer is staying where is is as a centrepiece. I will then keep the top strictly for SPS. Might get rid of the top two boulders of rock and put in some smaller pieces. I'm starting to feel like I have too much rock Link to comment
Reefmack Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Nice purchases L34NN3! I'm amazed at how quicly the Duncans grow. I had pieces with 3 heads and 2 heads, and each piece has 5-6 new small heads growing out after less than a month. Everything is looking great! Link to comment
Sexy Shrimp Posted July 31, 2008 Author Share Posted July 31, 2008 Thanks Reefmack - I always feel satisfied to get nice comments from you with your tank being such a gorgeous stonker! I'm getting excited at the thought of rejigging everything around... Link to comment
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