Imisky's Sticks and Colors Reef (Nov.12,2012 A years worth of growth)

[Kylebeano]

On a more interesting note. my cowries seem to be spawning once every week now for the last 3 weeks. Lots of food for my SPS and feather dusters but I cant figure out why its doing that. Would be nice to know. As I'm typing this my SPS are getting a heck of a feeding out of the cowrie eggs then in a few hours they'll be getting some BBS to finish everything off. What a sunday meal for them haha. Here is another video of the spawning as I find it pretty cool, Its not edited and a raw footage. But just to give you guys an idea, all the white specks in the water column are eggs and only from 1 cowrie. The flow in the tank was off for the shot.

 

Very cool, must be a happy snail

 

bottle it and sell it, imisky's roe

[TristanC]

Absolutely gorgeous tank! What kind of sand are you using?

[lpskeeper]

throw up some more pics your tank is nice!

[imisky]

Cool video imisky....its funny you posted that because i had a similar thing happen to my tank not too long ago. For nearly a month straight every time i did a water change all of the bristleworms in my tank would began to spawn simultaneously it was pretty insane...but my corals enjoyed it.

 

haha thats awesome, I really want to know what is triggering these spawns, they seem to happen randomly, no prior notification, I dont have to do a water change, it for some odd reason just happens every 6-7 days. Though Im not complaining lol, all my corals and fish are getting a heck of a feeding out of this and maybe its the reason they have been looking great lately. Or perhaps its them looking good being a sign of something is going well thats triggering these spawning sessions *shug* I have no idea but I know its pretty awesome.

 

Very cool, must be a happy snail

 

bottle it and sell it, imisky's roe

 

Haha if I bottled this stuff It'd take me a good month or so to get 1 and then I'd get maybe...$10 minus the bottle cost so I'd gain something like $7! Faster to sell BBS extract that'll induce corals feeding response and gain more $$ faster. haha just joking.

 

Absolutely gorgeous tank! What kind of sand are you using?

 

Thanks, the sand is carib sea special grade. works great if you dont want things to be blowing around and have high flow at the same time.

 

throw up some more pics your tank is nice!

 

thanks lpskeeper, I swear I'll get to taking photos soon, or are you trying to tell me that this thread is worthless without pictures *insert sarcasm

[Maeda]

<3 this tank.

 

 

Have you considered putting some of the SPS horizontally?

 

If not, then think you should try it. I You'll like the results I promise.

[TheNordCelt]

That's a lot of eggs. Cool Video.

[imisky]

<3 this tank.

 

 

Have you considered putting some of the SPS horizontally?

 

If not, then think you should try it. I You'll like the results I promise.

 

Ive actually done that with about 80% of the SPS in there, most of them were actually grown out horizontally. Alot of them I couldnt really do it mainly due to the way the spacing worked in this scape but I kind of miss the accelerated growth from growing them on there sides.

 

That's a lot of eggs. Cool Video.

 

haha ya:)

[Maeda]

Ive actually done that with about 80% of the SPS in there, most of them were actually grown out horizontally. Alot of them I couldnt really do it mainly due to the way the spacing worked in this scape but I kind of miss the accelerated growth from growing them on there sides.

 

I need new glasses.

[imisky]

I need new glasses.

 

haha nah, you cant actually tell from the way they are growing now. I was talking about when they were still roughly 1/4"-1/2" big. My trick was to put them on the side, then trim off 1/8" or so every once in a while to give them a growth spurt.

[Maeda]

.. My trick was to put them on the side, then trim off 1/8" or so every once in a while to give them a growth spurt.

 

So you do that too eh? I was wondering if it was just my imagination, but if you can corroborate then it must really work.

[imisky]

So you do that too eh? I was wondering if it was just my imagination, but if you can corroborate then it must really work.

 

ya, I forgot where I read that info, most likely in some paper regarding recovery of corals after a tropical storm. I know theres also a thing online that shows the speed of growth after breakage vs a same sized frag without and the growth of the "broken" frag was much faster then the none touched one.

[imisky]

here's some new photos for all you who look nothing but the photos I put up! (including myself )

 

 

I love this photo, looks like the tank is not sitting on anything haha

 

[Rehype]

Wow thats beautiful imisky! its about time for TOTM....

 

love the tang hiding in the first pic

[imisky]

Wow thats beautiful imisky! its about time for TOTM....

 

love the tang hiding in the first pic

 

Thanks Rehype! I personally still think there could be more growth before It gets put into the category with the TOTM people.

 

The tang doesnt want people to know it lives in a paradise lol, Im kidding, the tang actually doesnt swim much further then what you see there. During feeding he is out and about but other then that It stays pretty much near the big tort at the back right

[smc]

Really cool tank!

 

Just curious what mode do you set for the MP40?

 

I'm planning to set up a 36x18x18, but couldn't make up my mind whether to get 2 MP10WES or 2 MP40WES. Kind of worry that MP40 might blow the sand all over. On the other hand, not sure whether 2 MP10WES are enough. (MIxed SPS, LPS and zoa).

[imisky]

Really cool tank!

 

Just curious what mode do you set for the MP40?

 

I'm planning to set up a 36x18x18, but couldn't make up my mind whether to get 2 MP10WES or 2 MP40WES. Kind of worry that MP40 might blow the sand all over. On the other hand, not sure whether 2 MP10WES are enough. (MIxed SPS, LPS and zoa).

 

Thanks smc,

 

The MP40s are on reefcrest at 40% right now on with anti-sync, and was running 60% a few days ago. Found the more flow I had the less the fish came out in the open.

 

My experience with MP10s is they feel almost like tunzes nanos the 60XX series in terms of flow pattern and when using them you really have to push them at 70-80% in a 36" tank which makes them whirl and loud. Going with the MP40s gave the option to run them slower thus quieter but still deliver the wide flow that's adequate for the corals and fish.

 

on a side note I took these photos last week to show how much BBS can be grabbed by the corals during feeding times. All the BBS in the water column is gone after roughly 30 minutes

 

[Asureef]

Looks great, I have some packs of BBS left from a few years ago that I will try and hatch to feed the tank. And, how long have you been running the Biopellets and what are your n03/n04 testing at?

[imisky]

Looks great, I have some packs of BBS left from a few years ago that I will try and hatch to feed the tank. And, how long have you been running the Biopellets and what are your n03/n04 testing at?

 

Ive been running biopellets since the start of this build and a little bit before I swapped over to this build from my previous 30g system. In my opinion biopellets are not efficient enough at nutrient transportation. It works slowly and when you have high enough bioload they wouldnt be enough IMO. I personally use them as a backup to my ethanol dosing. I now dose 2ml of 95% ethanol to my tank daily once at 12AM another at 12PM used to be 1ml). I no longer test for NO3 as I find its not as relevant and I try and keep by PO4 between 0.02 to 0.04. But now that I upped the dosage to 2ml my PO4 has been at 0 for the last few months on the hanna PO4 checker

[Rehype]

Awesome pics imisky.

 

 

I totally agree with your comments about biopellets. It tested them about 6 months ago and had the same results....they couldnt keep up with my bioload.I find vodka dosing to be much more effective.

[Asureef]

Awesome pics imisky.

 

 

I totally agree with your comments about biopellets. It tested them about 6 months ago and had the same results....they couldnt keep up with my bioload.I find vodka dosing to be much more effective.

 

 

Possible you guys are not using enough pellets?

[imisky]

Possible you guys are not using enough pellets?

 

Ive always used more than enough for my system. The total system is just a little over 35g with sump included and I have roughly 150-200ml of pellets tumbling in the reactor. Rehype and I arent the only 2 who has found pellets to not be very aggressive in nature, I know of at least 5-6 other reefers around town who is dosing vodka on top of BP. Its a great product dont get me wrong, its constantly there to feed the bacteria culture and provide passive export of nutrients. But by itself the rate is just too slow, I had PO4 creeping up to 0.3 with just the pellets running and you'll definitely see the effect of 0.3ppm of PO4 in the water on SPS Keep in mind though I feed my tank 4x a day with pellet food (auto doser) + frozen once I get home so thats alot of food to keep up with for the BPs

[lpskeeper]

i use bp and mb7

if you only feed 1 time a day or even every other you prob be fine.

 

i feed 2 times a day frozen so i get po4 if i dont dose mb7 on top of the bp

been thinking of just taking out the bp and set up some po4 remover media instead

[imisky]

i use bp and mb7

if you only feed 1 time a day or even every other you prob be fine.

 

i feed 2 times a day frozen so i get po4 if i dont dose mb7 on top of the bp

been thinking of just taking out the bp and set up some po4 remover media instead

 

I forgot to mention I also dose zeobak on top of all that dosing but only once a week after my water changes. Yes I feed alot but my fish and corals react positively to the increased feeding. I used to feed ever other day and didnt really like the results, fish were a tad skinny and corals were overall not as vibrant in color, less polyps. Though I could probably get away with less feeding, why change something that's working well with all inhabitants happy, fish or corals.

[Paleoreef103]

Imisky, this tank is an inspiration. One of my favorites on this site. How necessary do you think the T5s are for color. The tank I'm in the process of setting up is running NW and RB LEDs, but I have been thinking about adding a pair of T5s into the mix.

[imisky]

Imisky, this tank is an inspiration. One of my favorites on this site. How necessary do you think the T5s are for color. The tank I'm in the process of setting up is running NW and RB LEDs, but I have been thinking about adding a pair of T5s into the mix.

 

Thanks Paleoreef, Im glad you enjoy the tank The T5s IMO are important in terms of overall color. With LEDs being so narrow in the spectrum they cover I personally think its important to be able to provide a little bit of every spectrum possible out there. With T5s its great, we get the spike we want in the desired spectrum range but we also get little bits of everything in between. I cant prove scientifically that corals need these small doses of all the "other spectrum" we dont put in with LEDs fixtures or DIYs but It would only make sense that they get exposed to that in nature and so it might do something. I know plants use chlorophyll A and B for photosynthesis but I cant say for sure corals use the exact same spectrum for the same task unless a marine biologist can pop in here and chime in and let me know which would be great!

 

In all honesty LEDs are great for providing the PAR numbers to the corals, and they do color up SPS without the need of supplementation from T5s. But if you want to be able to bring out reds and pinks under RB and NW it might be hard