divecj5 Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 Glad to hear that things continue to improve with the condition of your Acans. After switching from T5s to full on LEDs, I've had to do my fair share of "move here, see how it does" in the tank. Any reason why you stopped with Vodka dosing? Looking to simplify dosing, etc? Looking forward to the updated pics. -Adam Link to comment
beeker Posted December 6, 2010 Author Share Posted December 6, 2010 honestly i stopped because i started to notice the acan's skeletons starting to show, this to me meant my nutrients were getting too low, not too low for sps but my lps didn't seem to be liking the parameters as much, also the skeleton could be showing because of the bleaching but now that i've stopped the dosing all my acans seem to be doing better as well as the other lps in the tank i run my skimmer 24/7 still, something i never used to do in my 29g i always used to turn my skimmer off at night because i slept in the room, but thats too much of a hassle to do on my 200g so i let it run 24/7, this coupled with the Vodka and the fact that i only feed my fish 1 time a day (i feed heavy but only 1 time a day) leads me to believe i was starving some things With my 29g BC i'd only run the skimmer from when i woke up until i went to sleep so this allowed for more nutrients to be in the water I'm also not used to having a 200 gallon water volume so i'm also not used to feeding a tank with that much water and knowing how much is too much, in my 29g i fed a ton even with the low water volume in my 200g i feed the same as i did my 29g so i know the nutrient level has to be a ton lower, as well as my skimmer being on 24/7 i have 4 tangs 5 chromis 1 copperband butterfly and a spotted hawkfish, i offer nori all day, but i keep my frozen food to 1 large dose a day because i've always noticed better results from not overfeeding but still keeping the fish well fed i use a MSX 160 skimmer with a Valute upgrade and a red demon pinwheel, i pull a full dark cup of skim everyweek, although the tangs are 90% of that cup just from nori poo, lol i might start to turn off my skimmer for a week and then on for a week and alternate but i'll have to try that out once things get stable again Link to comment
rrcg50 Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 With my 29g BC i'd only run the skimmer from when i woke up until i went to sleep so this allowed for more nutrients to be in the water I'm also not used to having a 200 gallon water volume so i'm also not used to feeding a tank with that much water and knowing how much is too much, in my 29g i fed a ton even with the low water volume in my 200g i feed the same as i did my 29g so i know the nutrient level has to be a ton lower, as well as my skimmer being on 24/7 i use a MSX 160 skimmer with a Valute upgrade and a red demon pinwheel, i pull a full dark cup of skim everyweek, although the tangs are 90% of that cup just from nori poo, lol i might start to turn off my skimmer for a week and then on for a week and alternate but i'll have to try that out once things get stable again i have always run muy skimmers 24 7 and never had any problems. on my new setup i have a external skimmer and its a lil noisier than i would like it to be so i now shut the needle wheel off and keep the feed pump on all the time. tank has not skipped a beat in doing this and i still get real nasty nog. Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Love the tank Beeker! You have quite the collection of corals. What's your fish list? Link to comment
beeker Posted December 15, 2010 Author Share Posted December 15, 2010 Fish stock list: 2 yellow tangs 1 purple tang 1 powder blue tang 5 blue/green chromis 1 spotted hawkfish thinking i'll add 1 more yellow tang and maybe some anthias, or just the anthias themselves..i've kindof been wanting some smaller fish to fill in the larger open space of the tank, but haven't seen too many that i've liked Link to comment
fiction101 Posted December 15, 2010 Share Posted December 15, 2010 My acans did horribly under the par38 20k bulb. I decided to sell them off, and of course they are doing great under his lighting. Link to comment
beeker Posted December 20, 2010 Author Share Posted December 20, 2010 it's funny out of the 6 acanlords i have 3 that look good and 3 that look bleached, the bleached ones have been under the same lighting conditions for over a month with no color change or improvement, i'm honestly thinking of just throwing them under my red cap where there is no light to see if they will even come back or just die off all the way i have some sps that are thriving where i have no light so i'm thinking that is probably the best route to go at this point to get them back but really i'm more of an sps guy than an acan guy, so think just steers me more towards that direction i should have new pics up by wednesday i have to do a water change tonight and clean up the tank but i should be able to get some quality pics up by then, stay tunned Link to comment
spanko Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 So still bare bottom I see. What are your thoughts here so far? Link to comment
beeker Posted December 21, 2010 Author Share Posted December 21, 2010 I will always be bare bottom, sand just covers up way too much waste, everytime i clean my tank i'm only able to get about 75% or so of the waste out, using pumps with hose's attached so i can place them behind my rockwork and blow the detrius into the front section so i can siphon it out if i had sand in the tank that wouldn't be possible and after awhile i'm afraid i'd end up with the same problem i had in my first tank where the sand soaked up all the nitrate and started leaching it back into the water because i am not able to clean the waste out of the sand as well as i can now and i don't want to go through that again, lol My thoughs are this led's do work and do perform, but you will always be striving to offer the most spectrums of color available so that every type and color of coral can be brought out in the right way out of all my sps 98% of them look perfect but i do still have some brown pieces and IMO these pieces would be brown under MH or T5 lighting as well considering how much i've moved them into lower and higher light, into areas that are lit with my cool blue than royal blue and vice versa From what i've seen in my own tank the only corals that don't see to love leds are Acanlords, i don't know if this is because the amount of PAR i have available in my tank, becuase i can't seem to keep from bleaching them or turning them pale, i also think my parameters and stability could be better, and i think after my tank is over a year old acanlords will probably do better out of the 6 colonies i have 3 have pretty much bleached even though all 6 were in the same lighting spot, the other 3 are red variations of acanlords and seem to be growing and doing well under a Royal blue/cool white blend, then other acans didn't like this blend so i moved them under more cool blue/neutral white in hopes that the 60 optics would lower the PAR enough to keep them from bleaching but still allow them to color back up and grow All in all i'm happy with my setup if i was to do it over again i'd use less cool white leds as i think these lead to more brown or dull colors in the tank the perfect led bulb would be 1 cool blue, 2 royal blue 1 cool white and 1 neutral white. eventually when i resend my bulbs in i will most likely have all my bulbs done this way, with the color leds using 60 optics and the white leds using 40 optics this IMO would blend perfect and allow you to get every spectrum needed over any corals placed under the bulb PAR38's are more than powerful enough, i can keep sps at the very bottom of my tank no problem and because of this i raised the lights another ince to 34 inches, i run a split photoperiod as well, my lights are on from 1pm till 5 pm and off from 5-6pm and then back on from 6pm till 10 8 hours of light is more than enough on my tank, i'm always on the fence about upping it though, 10 hours would be my ideal photoperiod but i didn't want to bleach/brown or dull anything out and feel that too much light leads to all of these things Link to comment
ghurlag Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 The progression of this project is phenomenal. I really love the lighting you are using over the tank. It really seems you are enjoying the adventure, and being sure to learn along the way. Link to comment
beeker Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Well sorry i have not posted pics up as of late...it's because my green duncans are still looking like poo, 3 week of the heads not being 100% extended has me confused as my other duncans look just fine but i promise to get pics up by next wednesday, i bought 3 gorganians and have no idea if they are photosynthic or not yet so i've upped my particulate food a ton So far i've gone crazy with my tank...not that i wasnt crazy before but i have gone crazy now i read up about some additives and decide to give some a try i am currently dosing Phol's Xtra- 2 ml a day Elo's aminos- 2 drops a day Elo's Pro skimmer- 6 drops a day Skyy Vodka- 8 drops 3 days a week, Sunday, wednesday and friday Right now i'm loving the results of this system, my coral colors are looking better and i'm feeding heavier, so far i'm only 2 days into the Pro skimmer and Pohl's xtra The phols xtra smells like a mix of Vinegar and aminos and this is honestly what i believe it is, though with the Aminos and Vodka i already dose it does look like it's having an effect which is good, i'll keep an eye on my results I'm planning on getting 2 cool whites removed from all of my 12k PAR38s and having 1 royal blue and 1 neutral white put in their place, its not going to happen overnigh as i can only send 2 bulbs in at a time without taking away too much light from the sps, but eventually i will have all the bulbs switched over, i'll be taking new pics before i start sending out the bulbs stay tunned i will have pics up by wednesday i plan to take them monday or tuesday next week Link to comment
d9hp Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Wow..... Beautiful tank. Thanks for such a great update! Link to comment
doppelganger Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 OMG... absolutely stunning!!! Link to comment
beeker Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 so the pics do show up? lol cause they removed image hosting from my work so i can't see if they uploaded correctly at all I will be taking more pics tonight as well, i didnt get all the macro/close ups that i wanted last night since i only had an hour to take pics Thanks for all the compliments guys i'm always working to capture the true beauty of my reef, i sure hope i can continue to keep the 3 gorgs happy as well they sure do add a lot of depth/color to the tank Link to comment
doppelganger Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 so the pics do show up? lol cause they removed image hosting from my work so i can't see if they uploaded correctly yep. they take a while to load for me but it was worth it! =P Link to comment
beeker Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 yep. they take a while to load for me but it was worth it! =P Thanks for letting me know man, i'm glad to hear they showed up and are really there (cause i can't see them here at work, hahaha) Link to comment
Genj Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Great pics beeker! Could you Id the blue and the yellow in this picture? Link to comment
beeker Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 Great pics beeker! Could you Id the blue and the yellow in this picture? They are both Gorgania's and since the local stores around me rarely have anything that beautiful i couldn't pass them up i have no idea if they are Non pyhtosynthic or not, so i've been feeding both of them heavy and by heavy this is what i mean this is all dosed daily when the gorgs feeders are out, usually i dose the 3 different H20 products about an hour a apart to make sure the gorgs get around 3-4 feedings 2 cap fulls of kent chromaplex 12 drops of Elo's pro skimmer 2 Blocks of H20 life Rotifers 2 Blocks of H20 life Coral food 2 Blocks of H20 life oyster eggs Then i feed PE mysis, flakes to the chromis/tangs and nori 24/7 I plan on getting some DT's pythoplankton and oyster eggs this weekend as well, and need to find some Zooplankton food So far the gorgs have all stayed healthy in the 2 weeks of having them but you usually cant tell if it's going to live until after a month or two of keeping one, they are not an easy coral to care for but i've always wanted some so i've upped my feedings a lot to maintain them and hope in the next 2 months they are still with me Link to comment
Genj Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Well beeker, they are amazing and I applaud you for what you have in that tank! Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 You have an amazing reef Beeker! Link to comment
jerzsky Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: absolutely amazing!!! Link to comment
beeker Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 i took a little more patience with these pics i hope they look better Joe the Coral Blue tenius ORA Tri-Color Palmers blue milli ORA Red Planet My favorite Trio Link to comment
divecj5 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Absolutely stunning Beeker!! You should be incredibly proud of what you've created. Such diversity and color. I think what really makes it extra special is your use of gorgs and other softies to break up the sharp, angular shapes of the SPS colonies and frags. Any chance you could snag a short video sometime? It's awesome to see what you've been able to achieve with LEDs. Makes me incredibly excited to start stocking my tank now that I have the LED pendant I'm going to use. -Adam Link to comment
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