costa_reefer Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Tank looks great, cant wait to see everything grown out. Sorry bout the foxface.. need a new friend for your wrasse now Link to comment
streetsong Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 3 days after the Foxface went MIA and I'm thinking that he jumped out over the canopy and became a meal for one of my 3 dogs. On a different note, I have small patches of brown algae appearing on my sand so I finally did what I should have done a couple of months ago, I ordered a GFO/carbon reactor. Up to this point I have been using bags of Chemipure- too expensive in the long run. My phosphates tested at 0, but adding a reactor will only help. I also slightly increased my kalk dosage since my calcium droped from 440 to 400 in one week. I miss my foxface! Link to comment
Arkayology Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Sorry about the foxface. It is good your dogs didn't get sick from the spikes. They are venomous right? Tank looks good with the frags from vivid. Frags seem to be pretty big. Hopefully they grow well in your tank. Link to comment
streetsong Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 Sorry about the foxface. It is good your dogs didn't get sick from the spikes. They are venomous right? Tank looks good with the frags from vivid. Frags seem to be pretty big. Hopefully they grow well in your tank. I'm glad that my dogs didn't get ill as well. I will be getting another foxface in the future, they are awesome fish. Vivid is awesome. The pieces were large and look exactly the same as pictured on their site. I give them the highest rating! Link to comment
streetsong Posted October 27, 2011 Author Share Posted October 27, 2011 I'm bored, so here are the results of my recent water tests: Temp: 78.5 Salinity: 1.025 pH:8.4 Alk: 9 Nitrates: 0 Phosphates: 0 Calc.: 420 Mag: 1400 I haven't added anything to correct my small brown algae problem on the sand, knowing that the carbon/GFO reactor that I ordered from Bulk Reef Supply will arrive tomorrow. These numbers make me feel better about the issues. Link to comment
streetsong Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 I picked up some new sps pieces from "Key's Island", a really great LFS just south of Denver. They always have a ton of interesting frags and I don't have to spend a butt-load of money. Today I picked up: -5" Idaho Grape Monti Cap- $30 -6" Lime green Monti Cap- $30 -1" Fuzzy green and purple Acro- $20 -3/4" Purple Monti Digitata with neon green polyps- $20 I am not planning on adding any more corals until January (we'll see how much restraint I can show). This will give everything a bit of time to grow out a little. I also ordered a Magnificent Foxface which should arrive on Wednesday. It will sit in quarantine at the LFS for three weeks. Also, I just added a Bulk Reef Supply dual GFO/carbon reactor yesterday. Thats all for now. Here's a new FTS that I took right after adding new corals and a water change: Link to comment
Squared Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 this tank really looks good, i am jealous Link to comment
streetsong Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 Thanks, Squared. I wish I had a camera besides my iphone. I could afford one if only I could stop compulsively buying corals! Link to comment
streetsong Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Just added an eighth fish to this tank- A Yellow Tang, QT'd at the LFS. I picked him up yesterday. He has great color, clear gills and eyes and very active. Gave him a five minute fresh-water dip before he went in the tank. I will try to take some pics this evening! Link to comment
saltwatercoral Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Very nice setup Streetsong! I see you have the AI lights! You should join the Aqua Illumination Club! Just post a pic with your tank and the AI lights and your in! Link to comment
streetsong Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 Very nice setup Streetsong! I see you have the AI lights! You should join the Aqua Illumination Club! Just post a pic with your tank and the AI lights and your in! Thanks for the tip. I have been reading through this thread but, for some reason, I have never thought to join it. Will do! Link to comment
streetsong Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 Here's the Derasa clam that I found at the LFS this weekend. It is about 6" in length. The owner got it from a tank that he was maintaining at a business that had to close it's doors. Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 how important is a calcium reactor for SPS and a reef tank, does it make a big difference, i have a 38 gallon tank with sump what reactor would i want if any? What do they do? Link to comment
streetsong Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 how important is a calcium reactor for SPS and a reef tank, does it make a big difference, i have a 38 gallon tank with sump what reactor would i want if any? What do they do? Great question. There is a ton of info on this site and other reef forums with a variety of opinions pointing one way or the other. This tank has a "Kalkwasser" reactor which creates limewater which is slowly dosed into the tank via auto-top-off. Kalkwasser helps push up pH and maintains (but does not raise) calcium and alk). The big downside is that it precipitates magnesium out of the water so I find myself dosing it regularly. A calcium reactor can be much more expensive but keeps stability in the holy trifecta- calcium, alk, and mag. There are folks on NR who are much more knowledgable than I when it comes to the specifics so you may want to do a search here. If you don't find satisfactory info., start a thread and hopefully some of these folks will chime in. With all of that being said, for the price I paid (Less than $70 on Marine Depot) I am incredibly happy with the results! Link to comment
streetsong Posted December 15, 2011 Author Share Posted December 15, 2011 Haven't updated in a while. Things are good, but not great. All of my sps is alive but not growing and a couple of pieces have browned out. I'm pretty sure that I just found out why. I have been calibrating my refractometer with RO, not calibrating solution. I finally got around to buying a bottle from Bulk Reef Supply and I just discovered that all of my tanks have been sitting at 1.023. Well, no wonder corals aren't growing. I feel stupid and embarrassed! If you use a refractometer and it hasn't been properly calibrated, then you are possibly causing issues in your tank that are easy to fix. Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I thought 1.023-.25 was perfect... I think im going to wait a while b4 getting any kind of reactor, thx a lot for the response (helped greatly) I have plenty of equipment in mind $$$ Can't wait to get my SPS growing... Looking to replace my old HOB Skimmer, as i also am getting a new sump, one of the Reef Octopus's should be great... Link to comment
streetsong Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 Haven't updated in a while! Here are a couple new pics. New coral additions include large chunk of favia and a purple/green trachyphyllia. No changes in fish, everyone gets along marvelously. Link to comment
Deckoz2302 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 did you ever figure out the coral browning issue? im waiting on mine to brown/green out lol as bad as that sounds Link to comment
ScubaEthan Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 This is a really cool tank. Nice rockscape and corals! Link to comment
Chyendra Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Beautiful tank! I bet it looks even better in person, tanks with curved glass are difficult to photograph well. That's a nice sized favia, I wonder how long it will take mine to grow that large Link to comment
streetsong Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 Deckoz- I think that my browning out was caused by use of a kalwasser reactor. An experienced, smart guy I trust at the LFS suggested that I suspend dosing kalk altogether and just continue dosing 2-part. My parameters have not changes that much, although I am keeping a closer eye on my pH. My corals are coloring up again. All of my montiporas looked better within days. If I decide to get my kalk reactor going again, I will be more cautious. I think LED lighting can be tricky with some acros too so maybe that is a contributing factor. Your sps look great in your pics, keep doing what your doing. Chyendra- Thanks for the kind words. I agree that curved tanks are pain to photograph, especially when trying to get an accurate FTS. I think the best way to get that favia to grow is oyster-feast and other small particle foods on a weekly basis, but be careful about overfeeding. ScubaEthan- Thanks for checking out my thread. Encouraging words are alway appreciated! Link to comment
gupebreedr Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Haven't updated in a while! Here are a couple new pics. New coral additions include large chunk of favia and a purple/green trachyphyllia. No changes in fish, everyone gets along marvelously. Brandon, This set up is looking mighty sweet as is your pico. Hopefully, someday my big tank will look half as good and I'll be happy. My 10G is doing good tho. Keep up the great work and post more pics. Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Deckoz- I think that my browning out was caused by use of a kalwasser reactor. An experienced, smart guy I trust at the LFS suggested that I suspend dosing kalk altogether and just continue dosing 2-part. Interesting... Tank looks great, is SPS growing? Link to comment
streetsong Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 Interesting... Tank looks great, is SPS growing? It's weird, I know. My sps is growing, some more than others. My Bali green slimmer has grown an inch in the last four months. A few of my acros are growing slower, some not at all. All of my montis are consistently growing. I'll just keep monitoring. Link to comment
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