markalot Posted October 9, 2014 Author Share Posted October 9, 2014 Looks awesome! Trying to catch up on your threads I miss a big tank. It is good to know that the Razors can cover this size tank. Looking good sir, Looking Reeeeal good. Thanks, and thanks for visiting! Is it wrong I have 3 acros sitting on my shelf here at work. Cheap tiny frags from a local store. 4 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 10, 2014 Author Share Posted October 10, 2014 Finally had a use for my frag rock, now that the thin stripes are out of this tank. Here are the 3 random frags I picked up this afternoon. All these are pre-cut frag packs from Quality Marine, so one of these: http://www.qualitymarine.com/Products/Invertebrates/Aquacultured/Corals,-SPS/Acropora Narrows it down. I was pleased how colorful these were. This was about an hour after a 10 minute Bayer dip and then placing in the tank. You might have noticed a new fish in yesterdays FTS. I didn't want to say anything until he survived at least a day. Red Head Solon Fairy Wrasse I have a sixline, and even though he's missing a lip he's still aggressive, so I'm using the mirror trick which seems to be working quite well. These two love themselves. I also noticed my green monti cap has turned a rich green, probably the best green I've even managed to get it, and it's being attacked by MEN so I got a bur up my but, took a dental tool, and murdered 15 or 20 nudibranchs, plus used my fingers to try and squish or knock eggs loose. You can see the damage to the spongodes on the right, and if you look closely you can see the MEN all lined up neat the top left edge. All these nudibranchs and it's still taking days, weeks even, to finish off this coral. They are much slower than I expected, so now I want to see how well I can control them by weekly smashings. One last shot. This was with mostly blue lights on and complete luck. Unfortunately raising the lights means I get a reflection off my shirt ... guess I'll have to start wearing all black to photo the tank. Taking a vacation day tomorrow for some tank work. I've got another EB8 (8 outlet expansion) for the Apex arriving which I will use for the 29, so my Apex will automate both tanks. I am going to setup a times Kalc topoff on the 29 and hopefully it will take care of most of the dosing needs. If I can get it stable I'll turn it into a mixed reef for my softies and montis. I'm also due a water change on both tanks this weekend. 8 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 I love this last shot! 1 Quote Link to comment
4x5 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Thank looks great man, love the wrasse. 1 Quote Link to comment
slowngreen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Fox face bother anything Mark? 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 10, 2014 Author Share Posted October 10, 2014 Fox face bother anything Mark? Not a thing so far. Quote Link to comment
Dramad1 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 I love this last shot! Agreed, last shot shows lots of depth. Looks amazing. Better and better every month that goes by. 1 Quote Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Good shot of the 6 line- his little deformity is cool- makes him unique- hasn't slowed him down at all from the sound of it Nice new frags 1 Quote Link to comment
latteslave Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 the six line and chevron staring themselves down... Good stuff. Love the last shot. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Dang Mark! This has got to be one of my favorite tanks. Your corals look so healthy, your fish have great natural behavior (love that goby cleaning station!), and your aquascape is so clean! I know TOTM's are prefered below 40 gallons, but I had to nominate this one. BTW, congrats on that Joe the Coral from UC. I nearly pulled the trigger on that one the other day. Glad you got it! 2 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 Dang Mark! This has got to be one of my favorite tanks. Your corals look so healthy, your fish have great natural behavior (love that goby cleaning station!), and your aquascape is so clean! I know TOTM's are prefered below 40 gallons, but I had to nominate this one. BTW, congrats on that Joe the Coral from UC. I nearly pulled the trigger on that one the other day. Glad you got it! Well thanks Mr M, but yea, too big for this place. My goal is big colorful acros, which I have not succeeded in doing yet ... except for that slimer. So after the small bleaching incident a week or so ago I raised up the main lights, made sure no acro got above 300 PAR on the par meter (uncorrected), and now I've settled on a combination I am going to run with for a while. Razor is peaking at 70W, 95B BuildMyLED strip peaks at 75% On the back of the tank I removed the BML strip and replaced it with my old 2 bulb T5HO fixtures, one on each side. Placed on the very back of the tank one bulb is over the plastic strip that connects to the glass, and the other is over the glass. Running a crappy AquaticLife purple and ATI Coral+ bulb combination. Amazingly this not only provides +100 PAR to the SPS up in the back but also +25 par all the way down in the sandbed in front. Imagine what a quality T5 fixture can do. I was able to get decent colors with the lights lower and much brighter, but all I had to do was slow down my coral feeding for a few days and bam, bleaching. No thanks. All of the corals are showing new color, but most the camera (or my lack of skill) can't pick up yet. The most noticeable is the purple fuzzy acro which has regained dark purple tips and a cool pastel light brownish color. This has colored up in just the last week. You can also see the bonsai or similar coral on the left is starting to regain some color. It should be dark purple. SSC is on the far left ... still bleh. Playing around with blue pics again, only one good one. FTS ...the T5s, just those 2 fixtures, really bring out some colors I could not get in previous photos. You can also see my blue acro has browned out. Still has blue polyps and some blue around the coralites, but the rest of the skin is the typical Mark's tank brown. 6 Quote Link to comment
Cameron6796 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 The purple coral to the sliders right is my favourite 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 14, 2014 Author Share Posted October 14, 2014 This thread already has too many FTS but holy crap. I went ahead and bought the lightroom monthly subscription and it's like I bought a new camera. The detail in this FTS is simply amazing compared to what I was able to do before. I do notice some colors are off ... the daisy polyps have blue centers here and there, but for the most part this is darn accurate. I do need to learn how to use Lightroom, of course. Birdsnest pic was at 200 ISO and when I would edit this in the free Raw Therapee it was full of grainy nastiness. 3 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 14, 2014 Author Share Posted October 14, 2014 My Fraggle Rock. The tripod helps sharpness here, but the color detail is way beyond what the other editor could do. 2 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 14, 2014 Author Share Posted October 14, 2014 Using an example of an older picture with lots of grain issues. Lightroom is applying low sharpening, and so is Raw Therapee, but either the algorithm in Lightroom is superior or it's simply better able to grab detail from the raw files. Lightroom Raw Therapee 4 Quote Link to comment
latteslave Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 interesting seeing the same picture through two different programs. Either way you cut it... nice job! 1 Quote Link to comment
Jstn Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 How are the foxface and yellow tang getting along? When I move to my 90 I really want to get a foxface also.. 2 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 How are the foxface and yellow tang getting along? When I move to my 90 I really want to get a foxface also.. He gets along fine with both tangs. The tangs quickly learned they could not bully him. 1 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 He gets along fine with both tangs. The tangs quickly learned they could not bully him. Did you name him Pokey? 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 Did you name him Pokey? Lol, it's funny, he greys out when cleaning the pumps at the top of the tank and I thought it was to avoid the tangs but it appears it's the female Clown he's worried about. She does not like anyone up there where she and her man hang out. 3 Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Tank is looking really good, Mark. Especially like that shot you processed in both image editors 1 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Lol, it's funny, he greys out when cleaning the pumps at the top of the tank and I thought it was to avoid the tangs but it appears it's the female Clown he's worried about. She does not like anyone up there where she and her man hang out. Female clowns are so hormonal! 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 So many fish! The cardinals only count as one fish, IMO. But yea, I think I'm done. The sixline wrasse is still chasing the ruby headed but now the ruby headed will just stop and the sixline doesn't know what to do. Sometimes they even swim together. Odd couple, but maybe because the sixline is missing part of its mouth? I really do think having the mirror on one end of the tank for 3 days straight helped, though the tangs are still fighting on a regular basis. I took a few pictures the other day but never posted them ... The new frags from Cultivated Reef arrived in great condition. I upgraded to the bigger fraggle rock to hold them all for now. Red Robin stag on top. I think the Katropora is at full color, I can see the intense green from the top but not so much from this angle. I bleached the hell out of the Plum Crazy but it's coming back pretty quickly. (bleached -> brown -> purple) Purple Fuz is starting to look much better as well. This is now the second biggest acro in the tank. SSC maybe coloring up? It looks better from the top as well. The clove polyps are very healthy too. 4 Quote Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Everything is looking really good Mark- how much Alk are you dosing in a 24hr. period and what do you try to keep it at. Also what are you running your Mg. value at? Quote Link to comment
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