Mark's 40B and 46 bow

[gena]

I love the hint of green in that bird!

[andi.rahl]

I'm looking to get some montis and so on, but I'm not sure if my lights will be good enough. I love your pics and corals. <3

[Chadf]

Strawberry colored acro

 

You may have a pink lemonade there.

[markalot]

More Magnesium issues. I received my order of 1 gallon of Tech M yesterday, measured Mag and got 1000. Yea, 1000. Reviewed the instructions to make sure I did not screw up the test, still close to 1000. I'm raising it back up now, so obviously I will have to dose Mag on a regular basis.

 

This morning I put my cap full of Alk in and instead of clouding the area where I add it for 30 seconds there was very little 'smoke'. I'm not sure if I have an unusual usage of Mg going on here or I was just dumb in thinking the 2 part, with Magnesium in part 1, would keep up.

[andi.rahl]

my brain just broke trying to read your post after my day so far. I have no idea what's going on with your tank but good luck with fixing it.

[markalot]

my brain just broke trying to read your post after my day so far. I have no idea what's going on with your tank but good luck with fixing it.

 

Thanks for the support. It's not too bad, really, everything is alive, just problems determining how much to dose a day to keep parameters stable and increase growth and color.

[Chadf]

More Magnesium issues. I received my order of 1 gallon of Tech M yesterday, measured Mag and got 1000. Yea, 1000. Reviewed the instructions to make sure I did not screw up the test, still close to 1000. I'm raising it back up now, so obviously I will have to dose Mag on a regular basis.

 

This morning I put my cap full of Alk in and instead of clouding the area where I add it for 30 seconds there was very little 'smoke'. I'm not sure if I have an unusual usage of Mg going on here or I was just dumb in thinking the 2 part, with Magnesium in part 1, would keep up.

 

Once you get the mg up you should only have to dose once or twice a week. Raising about 100ppm per day would be fine, this could take at least 5 capfuls (guesstimate).

[NanoTopia]

What Chad said

 

 

 

 

Christine

[markalot]

I raised Mg to I think 1500, and I've got some corals that look a lot better, and some that looked bleached.

 

My so called purple stylophora, which had a brownish skin and medium purple polyps, is now hot pink. Just shows up overexposed in the picture below. Cousin IT (organ Pipe coral) is now a very bright neon green with a light purple skeleton.

 

SG 1.026

Alk 9.2,

Ca 450

Mg 1500ish

 

Latest overexposed FTS. I only cleaned the front glass, and not that well.

 

 

Oh, and my nearby LFS got in some large stems of Bali Green Slimer. Hopefully I won't kill this one.

[jball1125]

Looking good! I love 40b's!

[markalot]

This tank is not fun. I don't like the scape and I don't know why, and worse I'm not sure how to fix it. The bottom line might be I'm not a big fan of Acroporas, either because I can't keep pristine enough conditions for super color, or I simply like the larger LPS corals. It could also be I'm too impatient.

 

Fun = I sit a chair in front of the tank and have fun looking at it.

 

I've started using Kent Reef Salt. Measured Alk 9.5 - 10, Ca 550, Mg 1300-1400ish

 

I'm dosing two part once in the morning which maintains Alk between 9 and 10.

 

Besides some minor bleaching when I rapidly increased Mg everything is growing well and appears somewhat happy. Some Acros are showing good polyp extension and decent color, others not so much. My Forest Fire Montipora digitata has looked very well, but the Superman to the right of it closed up polyps for 4 days and now is a bright purple base with all green polyps.

 

I added a new rock on the left side to give me some more shade, plus I removed a GSP rock from the top middle, near my monties, and replaced it with something for the monties to grow on. I mounted my Idaho Grape monti on top of this rock. It's already started to color up and show better polyp extension.

 

 

 

Here's a closer view of that new rock.

 

 

I moved Cousin It (Pipe Organ) further back and moved my once one head frag of Duncans up closer to the front. I also moved a Purple hairy mushroom that has done nothing in my other tank into this one, plus a small frag of Zoas that were lost in the 46.

 

The rock blocks a straight on view of a few corals behind it, yet these are easily viewable to the eye when you walk by the tank. This is something I'm still pondering. I really like this rock combination ... I used the super glue sandwich outside of the tank to stick these rocks together, then strengthened it by super gluing more of that putty stuff to areas where the rocks touched. After a day of drying I could not break them apart. This gives me a space on top, some small shelves on the side, and a shaded area below the rock since it leans forward.

 

Always a work in progress .....

[markalot]

Looking at the previous FTS there may be a way to move the not so green ORA Green Stylo up and shift the rocks around to better create a nice shelving arrangement. Space will still be open in the back for flow and the damn happy Kenya Tree to keep expanding. But where will that Green Slimer go .....

 

[markalot]

Hands in the tank most of the evening, but I think I've got it, and no losses. Added a blue polyp ORA Montipora Digitata to boot. Can't resist any ORA frag for $25.

 

All these pictures are hand held with the stock lens, I didn't feel like getting the tripod out.

 

 

One original base rock removed, and everything pushed back. I may move Cousin It around a bit but overall I'm happy with this.

 

The Zoa garden under the new overhang.

 

 

The new digitata (picture is a tad too purple)

 

 

These purple trumpets (or related) always like to feed when I make a mess in the tank.

 

 

Next is the front center where I have the Forest Fire digitata and Superman (maybe) monti. I glued some rocks around the frag plugs so they will grow up and over to break up the obvious circular shape. On the left side you can see some Zoa/Paly polyps ... these are some of the very first corals I introduced when the tank was just months old. Who knows how they got here. In addition, near the upper left, you can see the two corals I saved from my dual tank disasters. The pink birdsnest from this tank and the orange cap monti from my 20. That's all I have left of both, but they are finally starting to put on decent growth.

 

 

My tiny Idaho Grap monti frag, with the plug chopped up so it's not so obvious ... hopefully.

 

 

Happy Duncans. It's funny, it used to be I would move these and they would close up for days. Now move them and boom, wide open within minutes.

 

[gena]

But where will that Green Slimer go .....

You can send that beauty to me!!!!! I LOVE those and yours is gorgeous!!!!!

 

I would stick it center left. That's my plan when I get one in my 45g cube upgrade! The way they grow, they definitely need to be more centered so they have lots of space to spread out. I think so anyways.

[gena]

 

 

This picture finally loaded for me. I would move the green slimer where that big pink acro is, right near the center at the top.

[markalot]

This picture finally loaded for me. I would move the green slimer where that big pink acro is, right near the center at the top.

Thanks for the idea. Right now I've mounted it half way up near the center rear where it has plenty of room to grow up. I'm thinking it will make a nice backdrop ... but time will tell.

 

If the pics are loading slow maybe I need to switch image hosts?

[markalot]

Another pic dump. My colors are ho hum. I can't decide if it's a tank issue or an aquascaping issue. I have a lot of bare space and many of my SPS pieces are less than brilliant, which makes for a pretty dull look.

 

Good news is there is a frag swap tomorrow, this will be my first one. 49 year old man walks into a room and starts jumping up and down yelling gimmie! Hopefully I can make it out with some dignity left.

 

 

Two FTS shots, first one is less corrected than the second, but the second looks more like it does to my eye.

 

 

 

My color issues are varied. Some corals look quite good, others way too brown.

 

My saved birdsnest piece is very very pink.

 

 

and my purple polyp birdsnest is not brilliant, but slowly showing more yellow and pink.

 

 

My green stylophora is anything but green. Tips are greenish but most polyps are white or bluish.

 

 

My purple stylophora lightened rapidly when I bumped up Mg and is how showing some purple but mostly pink.

 

 

Finally, here's a shot of my so called "test" acro I purchased right after my crash. Growth is steady and color is decent, but is this the best it can do?

 

 

 

I re-added my reefbright blue/white LED strip on the back, angled forward, which gives a cool sunlight/shimmer effect and does brighten some of the colors. I also killed my skimmer. Damn thing noisier than ever, dumping micro bubbles into the tank, who knows why, and 1/4 cup all week. Useless. Will probably go back to growing chaeto in the HOB fuge.

 

 

 

-front-

 

blue+

purple+

royal blue stunner strip

blue+

purple+

reefbright blue/white LED

 

-back-

[Felicia]

I honestly think it looks very nice overall. I think a lot of the color issue may just be that things need to fill in since there is so much bare space. I know my tank looked pretty bland when I first started it. It looks much more vibrant now that its filled in. Most of the corals look good, but some of them do look a bit faded. I think maybe Randi's suggestions about dosing may help.

 

Also, part of the color issue could be that you have mostly pink/purple corals. I'd throw some more neon green and blue in there to brighten things up.

 

That's exciting that you get to go to your first swap! I love going to swaps. I hope you get some great goodies!

[Chadf]

I've found heavier doses of phyto give my sps better color. How old are your t5s? Persoanlly I'd swap out one of the purple+ for a coral+ or another blue+ if you like a more blue look. The purple+ kind of lacks intestity as a primary bulb and I think two of them on a 4 bulb fixture is hurting you.

[metrokat]

Mark, you might be rather low on nutrients, that is why your SPs are this pale. Do you feed the corals? Do you run GFO?

[markalot]

I've found heavier doses of phyto give my sps better color. How old are your t5s? Persoanlly I'd swap out one of the purple+ for a coral+ or another blue+ if you like a more blue look. The purple+ kind of lacks intestity as a primary bulb and I think two of them on a 4 bulb fixture is hurting you.

Less than 4 months, some just weeks. I have every color API bulb ... Just tried coral+ and switched back ... I like the purple. I also tried a 6000 K bulb ... no good. I do not feed the corals, so that's one idea. I put in some Kent snake oil of some sort, sparingly, over the last few days ... I might be doing too many changes.

 

Mark, you might be rather low on nutrients, that is why your SPs are this pale. Do you feed the corals? Do you run GFO?

Hi Kat. I run Phosguard and I have hair algae growing on the filter output and some on the rocks, though it doesn't grow very fast. Feeding the corals is an idea ... I'll see what I can come up with. That Kent lquid I used has caused cyano in the past, whic has been gone for over a month now. Things were more colorful when I had some cyano on the andbed. :|

 

Damn tablet keyboard dropping letter. Decoder ring required to read post.

[Chadf]

I'd feed them, green that water up a little. Like kat said, they need some nutrients.

[markalot]

I honestly think it looks very nice overall. I think a lot of the color issue may just be that things need to fill in since there is so much bare space. I know my tank looked pretty bland when I first started it. It looks much more vibrant now that its filled in. Most of the corals look good, but some of them do look a bit faded. I think maybe Randi's suggestions about dosing may help.

 

Also, part of the color issue could be that you have mostly pink/purple corals. I'd throw some more neon green and blue in there to brighten things up.

 

That's exciting that you get to go to your first swap! I love going to swaps. I hope you get some great goodies!

 

Thanks for looking. Going to focus on getting only insanely bright corals ... zoas, montis, maybe another birdsnest.

[metrokat]

Order some coral foods, 5 micron golden pearls, reef coral smoothie, rotifers, phyto, and hatch some BBS. Your system is far too clean. Your phosguard may be too much for your tank too. I feed my corals daily, they grow and stay vibrant. I feed actual foods, not liquids although in your case soaking the foods in coral amino will help. You can also try zeovit phols xtra. Although only small amounts.

Thanks for looking. Going to focus on getting only insanely bright corals ... zoas, montis, maybe another birdsnest.

Without amping up the nutrients in the system, you're looking at those paling out as well. Start feeding corals and monitor color progress with pictures.

[NanoTopia]

I have to agree here, start with small additions of quality food and slowly increase, this way your biology has the ability to keep up. I have dosed phytoplankton, and Zeovit Coral Vitalizer and Sponge Power (among others) with good results on colour.

 

 

Christine