Cindy's Red Sea Max

[Reefmack]

Hank - good point on the LEDs. Any idea how they manage to change the light spectrum on the new technology (and high dollar) Solaris LED fixtures? Maybe different types of LEDs than the commonly available ones?

[HankB]

Hank - good point on the LEDs. Any idea how they manage to change the light spectrum on the new technology (and high dollar) Solaris LED fixtures? Maybe different types of LEDs than the commonly available ones?

 

Check out the article on LEDs at Wikipedia. They talk about the technology to produce white light. Apparently the ones with phosphors produce a reasonable spectrum so it would be my guess that is what is used in the Solaris fixtures.

 

But back to our tank. (Yes, it is always about us. )

 

My QT tank is now fully stocked! We went to our dealer this morning with the intent to finish off our package (2 more medium corals and one fish.) We wound up with:

 

A nice looking brain. ("If I only had a brain..." - the tin man. )

A purple monti cap frag about 2 1/2" across.

a rock with maybe a dozen large green palys.

One green striped mushroom (which our dealer removed from a rock because he didn't have any fragged at present.)

a pair of clowns. The clowns exceeded the package so we paid the price difference and all those corals counted as "2 medium corals."

 

They're all in QT right now. Once they're settled in a bit I'll try to get some pictures.

 

The clowns are really neat. After about an hour, they're taking flake food from the surface, so I think they'll adapt just fine.

 

Congratulations on having your corals multiply. My hammer coral is in the process of dividing from 4 heads to 8 and I have a little one that is growing off of the back. I feel your joy.

Thanks, It's great to see that, isn't it.

 

Very nice, I love the leather

Thanks, I'm just amazed at how it looks every time I see it at full extension (and amazed at how small it can get when when it doesn't feel like extending. )

 

-hank

[HankB]

Well... First the bad news. A couple things have not done too well. Our blue palys shrunk up one by one and except for a couple in the QT tank are gone. The pink palys have started to do the same thing. There are another bunch of zoas and palys in the tank that seem unaffected, so it seems to be something not too contagious. I am trying to deal with it on the pink palys by removing any affected polyps at the first symptom.

 

We have also lost some snails, including one of my favorites - an astrea that hitched in with the rock. I don't think it is a predator, but possibly a lack of sufficient food. I have fed some nori with the turbos really like. I'm not sure if any other snails got any. We now have algae in our QT tank so I'm moving some snails over to that.

 

Also since vacation I have not spotted one of our scarlet hermits, so we're down to one of those.

 

Otherwise things seem to be doing fine. We added a pink pulsing xenia which I've located so it hopefully does not get out of hand. Maybe it will grow on the back wall. We have some other stuff in QT and except for a montipora eating nudibranch, it all seems to be doing well.

 

Our frogspawn was looking a little irritated from time to time. Some tentacles were not fully extending. I did some research and one of the comments was that some SPS do not like high calcium. I tested that and found it at 480, which is what RSCP (Red Sea Coral Pro) should mix to at 1.026. So I brought the salinity down to 1.025 and have started using regular Red Sea salt. I'm not sure if that was the issue, but the frogspawn looks better now.

 

I've got the rest of the parts for the rear chamber refugium. I had purchased the 10w submersible bulb from Discount Pumps and found that it shined pretty clearly through the aquarium back. (Incidentally, my initial tests indicated it has a negligible affect on tank temperature - probably less than a degree.) I searched for something to block the light and settled on black plastic file folders which I found at Jeffco I cut them so that one side of the fold lies along the baffle between heater and skimmer chambers and the other slides between the skimmer and false wall. (Dimensions for that are 3 3/8" and 6" respectively.) I tried to fit a piece of egg crate horizontally near the bottom of this chamber, but while fiddling with it, I managed to drop it into the bottom. But the plastic seems to stay in place pretty well anyway. I also have a piece of egg crate blocking the entrance to the heater chamber (to contain the chaeto) and only regret I didn't look for black egg crate when I bought mine. I understand it can be found.

 

This plastic seems to do a pretty good job of blocking the light and was easy to fit. Tonight I will see if this blocks enough of the light to allow a reverse lighting cycle.

 

I have mostly not been running the protein skimmer. I turned it on after vacation (about 3 weeks off) and it skimmed for about half a day. Perhaps with two fish, we just don't have enough bioload to produce much skimmate. We will soon be adding a pair of clowns (doing great in QT) and a skunk cleaner shrimp, so things may change. I haven't committed to removing the skimmer, but if it doesn't produce skimmate once we are fully stocked, I might give that a try. Or we could try a Tunze 9002. If I decided I didn't want it, it could probably be easily resold.

 

No new pix yet. Things mostly look the same.

 

thanks,

hank

[hollow]

Hank how goes the acan lord? How much grow are you seeing on it under the RSM lighting? I just bought a really nice colony was trying to figure out placement. I wanted to place it on rock and let it encrust over. I was thinking about halfway up/low in the tank since acans don't really like a lot of light.

[HankB]

Hank how goes the acan lord? How much grow are you seeing on it under the RSM lighting? I just bought a really nice colony was trying to figure out placement. I wanted to place it on rock and let it encrust over. I was thinking about halfway up/low in the tank since acans don't really like a lot of light.

 

It's a couple inches above the bottom. It started with 3 large and 2 small polyps. The 2 small polyps are nearly as large as the original 3 and there are about 6 small (1/4") polyps now showing. It seems to be doing well. We feed it Mysis once or twice a week.

 

-hank

[HankB]

Time for an update! We now have the clowns and cleaner in the DT and they've settled in. I think the cleaner may be eating stomatellas, but so far it is only the small ones . He left the Aiptasia I found alone. Yesterday when I did a water change, I squirted it with some lemon juice and I haven't seen it since. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

 

We're making room for the brain on the bottom and we'll move that over when I have a chance to dip it. No desire to transfer over the flatworms that have appeared in the QT. And the monti cap remains free of nudis so that will also be moved over.

 

No more soap dish! Chaeto seems to be growing well in the rear chamber between the now unused skimmer and heater chamber. I harvested some yesterday. I have also returned to putting floss under the rear chamber inlet. I thought it would not fit due to the sensors for the ATO, but it does. It pulls lots of detritus out of the water column so it seems like a good thing to do.

 

Our Fiji yellow went through a phase. For several days it remained shrunk up and mottled green color:

 

 

But it came back bigger and better than ever:

 

 

 

Time for a new FTS:

 

 

thanks for looking,

hank

[simdo]

hey guys, your tanks looking great, definately look into the tunze tho, I filled StevieT's cup in a week and a bit, 1000% better then the original! Whats goin on with the easter island statue? has it been shunned to laying down on the side of the tank??

 

Keep up the good work!

[HankB]

... Whats goin on with the easter island statue? has it been shunned to laying down on the side of the tank??

 

It had to move to make room for the brain. That thing swells up to about 6" across so it's going to use pretty much all of that space in the middle on the sand.

 

thanks,

hank

[HankB]

The brain, Green striped mushroom and monti cap went into the RSM last night. I'm really like the way that brain looks under the RSM lighting. It looked pretty pale under the 50/50 light in the QT tank, even though it has the same specification as the RSM bulbs. my camera really doesn't seem to capture the fluorescent coloration that well, but it is fairly intense and you get a hint of it here:

 

thanks,

hank

[jerrinehart]

Absolutely stunning tank! RSM's are amazing all in ones, i can't wait to get mine.

[Lizzie1324]

That brain is pretty sweet....

[RAG415]

I've got the rest of the parts for the rear chamber refugium. I had purchased the 10w submersible bulb from Discount Pumps and found that it shined pretty clearly through the aquarium back. (Incidentally, my initial tests indicated it has a negligible affect on tank temperature - probably less than a degree.) I searched for something to block the light and settled on black plastic file folders which I found at Jeffco I cut them so that one side of the fold lies along the baffle between heater and skimmer chambers and the other slides between the skimmer and false wall. (Dimensions for that are 3 3/8" and 6" respectively.) I tried to fit a piece of egg crate horizontally near the bottom of this chamber, but while fiddling with it, I managed to drop it into the bottom. But the plastic seems to stay in place pretty well anyway. I also have a piece of egg crate blocking the entrance to the heater chamber (to contain the chaeto) and only regret I didn't look for black egg crate when I bought mine. I understand it can be found.

 

 

HAnk- the tank looks great! Can you post a couple of pics of the fuge you made in the skimmer area?

[bdare]

Hank,

 

I love the tank man! I can't believe its taken me this long to check out your thread. Just wanted to state I always enjoy your input in other threads. You are very knowlegeable and a true asset to this site.

 

Ben

[HankB]

Absolutely stunning tank! RSM's are amazing all in ones, i can't wait to get mine.

Thanks - I'm still happy with our choice of the RSM.

 

That brain is pretty sweet....

Thanks - fun to feed too - kind of like the trumpets. Drop some food on it and you don't really see any movement, but in a few minutes the feeders are out and cavities (mouths) open for more.

 

HAnk- the tank looks great! Can you post a couple of pics of the fuge you made in the skimmer area?

I didn't so much make a fuge as stuff some chaeto and a light into an open space between the skimmer and heater baffle. I stuck a piece of egg crate in there to keep it out of the pumps. I also slipped a piece of black plastic file folder in there to keep the light (mostly ) out of the tank. Here's what it looks like:

 

Hank,

 

I love the tank man! I can't believe its taken me this long to check out your thread. Just wanted to state I always enjoy your input in other threads. You are very knowlegeable and a true asset to this site.

 

Ben

 

Thanks! I pretty much learned it all here, reading the posts and figuring out what made the most sense.

 

thanks all for looking,

hank

[lilredneckman]

that new brain is sweet!

[HankB]

Well... Been nearly a month so I suppose I should post an update. We've been in maintenance mode - not really adding anything to the tank. There are some problems to deal with. They include:

 

- dieing snails. Both of our Mexican turbos have died. I don't know why. In the case of one, the operculum remained in the shell so I don't think that anything killed and ate it. Water quality remained at 0/0/0. We've also lost some smaller snails (astreas, trochus and maybe some nassarius) too and I don't think that is normal. I'm running some carbon (for other reasons) and thinking about running some poly-pads on the chance that there is some contamination that is killing the snails. In the mean time, algae is building on the back glass.

 

- The pink palys continued to decline. One by one the polyps get a funny shape and shrink away. I tried dosing Vitamin C to help with that, but it resulted in cloudy water and two pissed leathers. (That's what the carbon was for.) The spaghetti leather even shed which is a first for us. I stopped dosing VC. There remain three small polyps so maybe the problem (STN?) has passed. The frag of zoas and palys that we added some time ago seem unaffected. Once things look good, we have a bunch more palys and zoas to put in the tank.

 

- The single green bubble algae is now about the size of a small pea. I think it could make a hungry Mexican turbo happy for a little while.

 

- The Aiptasia grew back bigger and stronger following the lemon juice treatment. I also had some in my 10g tank, but the peppermint shrimp seems to be keeping them under control. Now I just need to decide if I want to share the shrimp between two tanks or get another for Cindy's tank.

 

In other news...

 

- Our clowns look like they're going to host our brain. It's been looking a little irritated the last couple days and they're almost always hovering over it. I've also seen the female forcing herself under it from the back side. Otherwise the brain looks great! I squirted some Rod's food at it earlier today and then left the room to rinse my hands before putting them in the tank. By the time I got back - less than a minute later - the brain had opened so I could see its mouths and it clearly wanted more!

 

- Our green stripe mushroom, seems to be settling in and has three babies. The large purple mushroom - our first coral - released and left behind a half dozen babies that are up to an inch across already. A week or so later we spotted the AWOL mushie behind the rocks and I stole it for my 10g tank (where it looks absolutely miserable. )

 

- We glued the purple monti cap down and there is obvious growth there. I can't wait to see what shape it takes.

 

- The green trumpets aren't splitting much, but the polyps are growing. They also like Rod's food which I feed alternately with Mysis.

 

- The Aussie Acan Lords are getting bigger and their babies are getting bigger too. These seem to be our fastest growing corals

 

- The pink Xenia is doing well and a piece of it has attached to the rear wall. I have it growing on a separate rock that I can remove and easily trim when it looks like it is going to get out of hand.

 

Yes... I know - need up to date pictures. I don't have any ready at the moment but I didn't want to hold up this update. They'll follow when I get a chance. I promise!

 

thanks for looking,

hank

[StevieT]

It is really good to see the chaeto working with the stock skimmer!

 

I actually asked that question when I first started with the RSM, but the owners at that time felt that it would impeed flow and starve the pumps. Thinking back and knowing the tank more, I dont' see how it would since the flow in that area is down near the skimmer in the channel it rests on.

 

Shows how much they knew

 

nice updates

[HankB]

Time for some pictures!

 

Our skunk - he's just pissed off our palys and zoas and now he's checking our monti cap

 

And a better shot of the monti

 

Green trumpets. I remember when I was excited because two polyps grew big enough to touch. Here from the side,

 

then the front.

 

A little bit of morningstar monti I fragged from the one I bought for my 10g tank - gotta share.

 

Frogspawn

 

Palys and zoas that seem to be doing well

 

Our first coral was a purple mushroom (two actually) that came on our LR. This one recently let go of the rock and drifted off, but noe before leaving some descendants

 

I think our fastest growing and multiplying coral is this Aussie acan lord

 

Here's another recent introduction. At our last trip to our dealer, we asked about some green striped mushrooms in their tanks. They didn't have any on plugs to sell, so he reached into a tank, popped one off and put it in a bag for us. I got it to attach to some rubble and glued that here. It already has a couple babies!

 

I like closeups. I can see more in the pictures than I can see looking at the tank!

 

spaghetti leather

 

pink pulsing xenia

 

Trachyphyllia (Cindy's brain )

 

Acan lord

 

 

Not one, not two, but three, yes THREE Full Tank Shots.

 

First from the left.

 

Then the right. Our purple firefish' new dart hole is the inside of the Tiki so he hangs here.

 

And the front. The female clown has started to hang out over the brain. When she wants to hide, she pushes under it from the back. Unfortunately that leaves her with no place to hide after dark when it shrinks

 

Thank you for looking,

 

-hank

[davidr2340]

My man Hank... Your guys' tank is looking amazing!!! Great pictures as well!!!

 

Be very proud of it!!!

[bdare]

Way to go man looking good.

 

The only input I have is that I was reading THE vitamin C thread over at RC today and pufferpink said that cloudy water came from upping the dosage too fast or starting with too much. I haven't tried it yet, but I hope that helps....

[HankB]

My man Hank... Your guys' tank is looking amazing!!! Great pictures as well!!!

 

Be very proud of it!!!

Thanks!

 

And there's a frag swap today about 10 minutes from home. :D

 

Way to go man looking good.

 

The only input I have is that I was reading THE vitamin C thread over at RC today and pufferpink said that cloudy water came from upping the dosage too fast or starting with too much. I haven't tried it yet, but I hope that helps....

Thanks.

 

Yes, and the recommendation was for a starting dKH of 10 or 11 and our tank runs about 6 normally. pH started dropping when the tank clouded up. Everything else looked happy but the two leathers. I decided at that point that I'd rather keep the leathers happy than save the palys. However, it does look like the STN was halted on the palys even though I never got to the full dose of Vitamin C.

 

thanks,

hank

[Normandy]

Hank, the tank is looking great.

[patrick1234]

Nice looking tank to bad about the lights.