Mark's 150 (NanoBox Retro)

[metrokat]

Yes that is the John Deere. Corals are looking healthy and happy. Very nice.

[markalot]

Updated FTS on the first page. It's been over a year, a LOT has changed. Most of my stags are still lacking the color I had before the big downturn, especially the blue stag.

 

September 2015

[Mariaface]

Looks like a whole different tank, but still looks 100% amazing.

 

[vlangel]

I knew this tank had improved but did not know how much til I compare the 2 photos. Your scape and negative space is golden and your colors are amazing!

[Chris!]

Personally Mark I'm liking the looks of the new scape over the old. Just looks more visually appealing and more thought out yet natural if that makes any sense lol Looks to be coloring up pretty good as well

[evan127]

The new aquascape looks excellent Mark!

[Dramad1]

Agreed looks amazing. Always enjoys this thread ?

[markalot]

Looks like a whole different tank, but still looks 100% amazing.

 

 

 

I knew this tank had improved but did not know how much til I compare the 2 photos. Your scape and negative space is golden and your colors are amazing!

 

 

Personally Mark I'm liking the looks of the new scape over the old. Just looks more visually appealing and more thought out yet natural if that makes any sense lol Looks to be coloring up pretty good as well

 

 

The new aquascape looks excellent Mark!

 

 

Agreed looks amazing. Always enjoys this thread

 

 

Thank you all very much, I appreciate the compliments!

 

Took of a quick 5 day vacation with the family, fed the tank with an auto feeder and thankfully parameters held steady and things look good to possibly better than when I left. Doing a single drop of PhosphateRx for a while since the tank went 5 days without and will measure PO4 in a few days, or weeks, or never.

 

Scraped the glass yesterday and had to scrape again today so that's different from the normal every 3 days scrape.

 

Let's start with the various reds.

 

 

Red Robin

 

Cousin It is definitely pink and it's starting to show.

 

The "red milli" is not very red or pink. I took this to show how red the red acro show sup in the background. This one is about to get the boot so big red has some room to grow out. I'll give it another month, maybe. It's an odd color ... I see some purpleish, some bluish, maybe a few spots of brighter red ... but overall just meh.

 

SSC

 

Peach growing like crazy.

 

Birdsnests as well ... the tiny frag of Ponape is now bigger than the large frag I mounted in the rocks.

 

I have to throw in a pic of the horrida. It's growing but the color is an odd one. Tips are very light green while the rest of the growing buds are purplish. Older branches range from blue to turquoise while tips of the non growing branches are bright green. If you can see beneath the polyps that is. I'm blasting it with flow.

 

Mmmm mmmm Lokani

 

One branch of the Blue Stag has started to grow.

 

Orchid Stylo with the top of the Katropora in the foreground.

 

Bird of Paradise has taken a while to settle in.

 

My monti cap experiment is working well. I was thinking I would have to remount the little frag of red cap but it knocked the crap out of a section of purple and now is growing up and over it. Exactly what I was hoping for because the purple is a WEED. The rocks I placed on the purple cap are now strongly attached. I bumped one hard as I was pulling Xenia and moved the entire structure. Purple cap is stronger than super glue.

 

[teenyreef]

Welcome back! The red cap growing over the purple looks really good. The ssc and lokani are some of my favorites

[vlangel]

Glad to hear that the tank did fine during the family vacation. THat is always a relief.

[markalot]

Playing around under blue LED again. Some pics better than others, the goal was to show what I see.

 

 

Most of my red corals do have some glow under blue LED.

 

 

Color not quite right but I'm trying to show Cousin It and the edge of each coralite which has a bright red/orange glow.

 

 

 

Slimer wins the blue light battle. Also note the green skin of the purple stylo. In all the years I've grown this I've never seen the green skin. Low PO4 perhaps?

 

[markalot]

I've started to use the dreaded AquaBlue Special bulb to try and color up the millis. It doesn't look as bad as usual, perhaps because everything is more colorful? I can't deny that having a greener bulb really brings out more detail, along with more brown. The millis have already started to show more pink so maybe it's working.

 

One obvious benefit is the FTS needs very little adjustments to make it look like my eye sees it. The fish also color up a lot better under this bulb.

 

Bulb combo is, front to back, Purple+, ABS, Blue+, Coral+.

 

 

 

Happy accident.

 

Cousin It

 

I pulled some Xenia near both of these and i believe they both browned a bit ... the Kat is definitely more brown than the larger piece well to the right of this one.

 

I can't get over how good the little frag of Miami Orchid looks. I am very tempted to move this and the smaller Katropora to my 40.

 

 

 

[jedimasterben]

You could have just turned up the white channel a bit lol

[markalot]

You could have just turned up the white channel a bit lol

 

Not the same. The ABS bulb is damn bright.

[metrokat]

I like it

[Dramad1]

Colors are amazing.

[jedimasterben]

Not the same. The ABS bulb is damn bright.

If you're looking for brightness, then that is green light and you'd want to turn up lime. If you're missing reds, you'd want more amber/red which the warm white LEDs have.

[markalot]

If you're looking for brightness, then that is green light and you'd want to turn up lime. If you're missing reds, you'd want more amber/red which the warm white LEDs have.

 

No, I don't think so. The purple plus adds all the red I want, the corals do the rest. A red acro is red, red under a flashlight, not just red when blue light shines on it. That's the beauty of acros, they look best under daylight. Any yahoo can sell a pretty acro under blue lights and make it look fantastic, my millis look better under blue light, but the real test is under white light.

 

You know how I feel about white LED's. I can't feed enough to support those light levels, but I can trick my eyes with the thin sharp peaks of a t5. You should see the crap I'm throwing in my 40 just to keep one easy acro somewhat green.

[gus6464]

Mark what's the cano3 product you use?

[markalot]

Mark what's the cano3 product you use?

 

Something off of amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Calcium-Nitrate-Fertilizer-15-5-0-0-2lb/dp/B00DVWG7MY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1478573702&sr=8-2&keywords=calcium+nitrate

 

Purity seems good enough that I don't see any negative effects when dosing.

[gus6464]

 

Something off of amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Calcium-Nitrate-Fertilizer-15-5-0-0-2lb/dp/B00DVWG7MY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1478573702&sr=8-2&keywords=calcium+nitrate

 

Purity seems good enough that I don't see any negative effects when dosing.

 

So you make a stock solution? What's your ratio?

[markalot]

 

So you make a stock solution? What's your ratio?

 

I put 1 tsp in the sump, first chamber, and let it dissolve. Usually this puts enough pink in the nitrate test the next day that I know I have some, .5 or so. I raised it to nearly 2 a couple of weeks ago and have since let it fall. My Matrix reactor can apparently drop it pretty fast and I'm afraid to take it offline for fear it would take months to get it working again if I ended up needing it. I should probably experiment by limiting the flow and seeing if I can get any NO3 movement.

[markalot]

Happy to report that top downs all showing a lot of improvement. I wish I knew why.

 

Increased all UV channels by 20%.

Dosed CaNO3 4 days ago.

Resumed PhosphateRx post vacation.

 

I failed to tolerate the ABS bulb, replaced with a coral+ so now running LED and 3 C+, 1 B+.

 

Topdown Dump

 

 

 

 

Cousin It

 

The other Milli ... Rouge maybe. Pink, purple, blue/green.

 

 

 

 

Red Robin continues to steadily improve.

 

Hairy Horrida

 

Valida

 

This will look good for a few days, then fade back to brown. Maybe requires more nitrates, just not sure.

 

 

 

 

So finally, after almost a year, the blue stag(s) is starting to show hints of bluing back up.

 

 

For the stag, Nitrates or increased UV (violet channel)? If I can get the blue back I will feel like I'm finally done with the recovery.

[Arce]

Wow mark your pinks/reds are insane. Everything is looking awesome. Whatever your doing keep it up.

[monosyth]

Love this tank. Great work!