Reese's Rimless 14g

[blizzardscout2]

Gosh I am horrible about taking pics, new ones today I swear! After placing my Duncans where I want them they have puffed up 3x there normal size. It was pretty cool to see them go from lemon size, to soft ball size.

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Good lord I suck. Pictures coming tonight. I need to show my new additions I add a few days ago. Lots of new SPS including Green Paint Brush Acro, Roscoes, Elephant ear, Green and Pink Birdsnest, Purple rimmed Monti, Pink Milli, and a few others. Plus I glued most of them down, I believe it looks pretty good. Only a few more to glue down. Now I just have to maintain and watch them grow!

 

[blizzardscout2]

So my tank is basically algae free since the heat crash of last year. My corals are recovering nicely and have had tremendous growth over the last year. I have made a few changes in aquascaping, as well as moving things around. I tried my hand at SPS and found I should just stay away from them, although my green Pavona coral is loving my tank, so I might try to find the pink variety. I changed my bulb just yesterday in my 70w Sunpod from a 10k to a 20k. Wow, what a big difference that makes. The color of the corals are much brighter than before, although the tank takes on a bluish color, but I am sure I will get used to it. I have a few new fish including a bicolor dottyback and a green goby.

 

It is a lot of fun watching the dottyback because it figured out that there is a little cave that goes through the rock that it now likes to hide in and poke it's head out of. The clowns love to hide underneath a green mushroom that has grown very large. All in all I am pretty happy to see my tank make such a good recovery from the awful state it was in this time last year. I will put up some pictures when I get back from Nebraska (a buddy's wedding ).

 

Reese

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I am back from a fun weekend in Omaha and my buddy's wedding. So here is a new FTS of my tank (sorry for the Iphone pic) compared to this time last year after my heat crash.

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I think the amazing part about the recovery is most of the coral currently in my aquarium were in there during the crash and have made a great comeback. It is truly amazing how resilient coral can be, even when stressed to the max.

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Now that I have had the new 20k Ushio for almost 2 weeks, I really do not notice how blue it seemed at first. I like it much better than the 10k. It increases the intensity of the colors of the corals, and it seems a little more true to what it might look like while viewing corals while diving at 70-80 ft.

[DeMartini]

I love the updated FTS! Very beautiful!

[blizzardscout2]

I love the updated FTS! Very beautiful!

 

Thanks! It is a work in progress. A little has changed since July. My Flower nem moved and beat up my leather on the lower left corner, so I moved the leather. Unfortunately only a small piece of the leather made it. Other than that, most everything else looks the same. I am working up the courage to frag my Zoa and Paly colonies, and maybe even my Acans, so wish me luck.

[blizzardscout2]

So I glanced into my tank this AM, and to my surprise where there was one mini maxi, now there are 3!

 

I had no idea it was about to split? Cool, I guess I will give all THREE a hefty meal tonight.

[Ezsharkman]

Looking great! A+

3 maxis in one night! Awesome!

[blizzardscout2]

Looking great! A+

3 maxis in one night! Awesome!

 

Thanks man. Unfortunately I had a power surge about 6 months ago. It was three days after when I found out my heater reset to 81 F when I normally keep it at 77. Wiped out almost everything minus the mushrooms, anemones, the watermelon Paly's, Leathers and last but not least, the Fox coral of all things. Oh and my Ironclad Perc clowns made it through it too . I am trying to slowly build back, but I took a hiatus to allow the tank to go through the circle of life called Algae. Getting closer though.

[CONSTANTNE]

Looks great!

[blizzardscout2]

I guess I should update this since it has been a while. I successfully moved my aquarium to its new home. It still needs some time for the algae to clear, but it has improved significantly. It still needs lots of work which is hard to find time for while in school. I will take a few pictures with the new members of my aquarium when I get a chance.

[blizzardscout2]

A lot of changes in the last 2 years for me. New house, paramedic school, and a few heat issues with a Finnex LED controller heater that resets to 82 if any power surge happens at all. So, now I am going to spend a little time on getting my reef back on track by the request of my wife so I guess I have approval for whatever!

 

I am looking at an upgrade of my 70w Sunpod as I am in need of a new bulb, and the Kessil A150 has had my eye for quite awhile and it seems a lot of fellow reefers really like it too. Although I am open to suggestions. I would rather not spend more than $400, but it would depend I suppose. Anyone?

 

Reese

 

Oh and yes I did replace the heater with the Finnex HPS that is fantastic by the way. Plus it makes no VERY LOUD clicking noise every 5 seconds like the Finnex HMD heater did and it resets to the same set temp post power failure.

[blizzardscout2]

Blue Tuna Kessil A350 is on its way. And wife approved! Maybe a few new corals tomorrow night. We shall see.

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I also placed an order for a new Vortech MP10 and pull my Koralias as I have a ton of detritus that collects around the edges of my rocks and despite positioning them in different spots they just didn't get the job done without manually moving them about my tank when I performed WCs.

 

I also just ordered a new pump for my SWC Mini Hot Skimmer as the my pump quite working last year. Hopefully this guy will last a lot longer.

[blizzardscout2]

I just re-positioned stuff in my tank, plus I removed the (2) Koralias in anticipation of receiving my MP10. I think it looks pretty good. There is a big sale at one of my LFS coming up and I would like to get a few things. Probably some Hammer Coral, Zoas, Acans, and maybe something else. We will see. I will get a new photo up tonight of the new mushrooms I purchased the other night; green hairy and blue mushrooms.

[blizzardscout2]

New from my phone:

 

Leather is irritated from moving:

 

 

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A new package arrived!

 

 

 

And a little special something from StevieT

 

 

 

But unfortunately the screws that hold the mounting plate onto the light were too short , so I have to wait to grab some machine screws from Home Depot tomorrow am before work and I wont be back until Saturday am.

 

But I did plug it in and hold it above my tank and it looked awesome! The colors look soooo much different and having the ability to change the spectrum to whatever you like is excellent. I am already excited despite the setback. More pictures to follow on Saturday plus with my Vortech MP10 that arrives tomorrow.

[blizzardscout2]

After picking up the packaging from the light, I noticed a little plastic package that contained, what do you know, (2) machine screws that were 1/4" longer. Go figure.

 

A few minutes later I had this!

 

 

 

 

 

Granted my phone takes crappy pictures but it looks amazing. After only 10 minutes on, I noticed my anemones were full and happy. Much greater extension with everything really, except the leather. Plus the light just changes the look of the tank and enables me to look down into the tank. The shimmer of this light is even better than my Sunpod 70w. Cant wait to get home from work Saturday to see it in action again with my MP10 that should arrive today.

[blizzardscout2]

I just added the IM Skimmer desktop version and this is only the first 4 days of use. Not bad. My algae issues have been pretty horendous and this has made some headway already.

 

[lilopop11]

Hi,what do you think about kessil A350 ??Do you like it ??Do you think its enough for keep sps color, and make them grow ??I use ecoray now, just thinking to switch to kessil or radion .. thx

[blizzardscout2]

Hi,what do you think about kessil A350 ??Do you like it ??Do you think its enough for keep sps color, and make them grow ??I use ecoray now, just thinking to switch to kessil or radion .. thx

 

It was the best upgrade for my aquarium that I could have made. I did a ton of research about all the led options out there, and this had the best reviews for growth plus adjustability. It would be an excellent choice for SPS, you wont be disappointed. I would definitely get the A350 over the 150 because you can dim the light on a smaller setup. If you upgrade to a larger one later, you have the ability to use the same light. If you are ever considering using a controller such as the Neptune Apex, go with the new A360 as it has the ability to program a sunrise and sunset setting. I would have bought this, but it was just released. I have heard good things about the Radion as well, so I guess it is all about the look you are going for. The Kessil does come in a wide version in case you have a wide tank.

[blizzardscout2]

So I just realized lately that I have had a reef that I do not truly care for. I have never been very good about water changes, testing my parameters, and when an issue presents itself I do not swiftly deal with it until it is too late. Hmmm... Time for a change.

 

So for now on I will perform a WC religiously and if I have to do one early to keep that than so be it. I will test my parameters weekly, and I will monitor it daily even while at work (2011 Neptune Apex Jr on its way as well as a wireless bridge).

 

So today is day 3 of a total blackout to rid my tank of hair algae (again ), I used some hydrogen peroxide directly on the algae I could get to during a WC a few days ago. It was amazing how broken down it was today. I will see how it looks tomorrow.

[blizzardscout2]

Just tested my Mg with the Elos Kit for the first time. I don't know what it would have been like when I wasn't sleep deprived (thanks son), but what a pain in the butt. Anyways, it tested perfect at 1350. My alkalinity has been off which I found out about 2 weeks ago and who knows how long it has been that way.

 

I then slowly raised it up to 8.5 dkH from 6dkH so I figured that maybe my Mag was off. It may have been, but I did not test a few weeks ago as I just found my unused Elos kit so I guess I will never know. I tested alk yesterday and it was 7.5, so I will dose part B of my C-Balance to help raise it again. I tested Calcium 2 weeks ago, it was between 1450 and 1500, and was the same several days ago. I will test to make sure it is still there after adding part B.

 

Hopefully my Neptune Apex Jr comes soon, maybe today?