skeletor Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 I spent about 4 or 5 hours last saturday night moving rocks and corals around. when I finished I snapped a few pics and just today realized that it's been a bit over 12 months since I started keeping SPS corals in my 20. Things have changed a lot in that time, what was 4 or 5 PH's is now a 3MDQX-SC return pump putting about 900gph back into the tank (through a SCWD), a 5 gal sump and a 5gal refugium. I dose about 1 gal of kalk/vinegar mix per day to match evap, it took some time to work out the mix but now that I have everything stays mostly stable (Alk: 12, Ca: 420). I dose a bit of baking soda/washing soda every week to keep the Alk up tho. I have been fighting algae for a year but I finally think I'm winning. :-) lighting is 175w 20K XM w/ 2 x 55w Actinic PC's. First, a pic from last year: The xenia and zoos were recently moved to a 10gal w/ 70w MH (in my bedroom), the 20 is in my home office. and now: The orange cap on the left in the top pic is the one top left, the one on the right is now down near the overflow. I have a some more pics here: http://crayfish.nu/gallery -skeletor- Link to comment
coral reef Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 can you give us a pic from the front of the tank? Link to comment
trmiv Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 whoa, i think it might be time to do some fragging! Link to comment
SaltCreep Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 The difference would be more obvious if i was looking at a before and after picture of the same shot(front view). Link to comment
MrKrispy Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 is that a green digi or a off yellow? Tank looks great, need to frag the biggies and put some more acros in there! Link to comment
skeletor Posted July 10, 2004 Author Share Posted July 10, 2004 There are two digi's, an orange polyp with green skin, and a purple one. that big green thing is acropora yongi (green bali slimer). here is a close up: The shot from the front looks bad, lots of coraline on glass and algae on the rocks :-( I just treated last night for red bugs, 40% WC at 7:30am today and so far so good... and here is a front shot from before the rescaping: -skeletor- Link to comment
skeletor Posted July 10, 2004 Author Share Posted July 10, 2004 another pic of the yongi, this guy grew into the glass, then turned around and shot out 8 ot so branches from the glass. -skeletor- Link to comment
MrKrispy Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 I can't wait to see how it looks after the Interceptor treatment! (i'm in the same boat) Link to comment
just dave Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 Very cool. That's the thing about many of the SPS corals,give 'em half a chance and the grow like weeds. Link to comment
skeletor Posted July 13, 2004 Author Share Posted July 13, 2004 I cleaned the class and sucked out some of that hideous red algae... -skeletor- Link to comment
ninhsavestheday Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 hahaha so many green slimers! dud that macro shot is sexulant! Link to comment
OxInYourBox Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 Looking good skeletor!! Have you thought about running some chemiclean? I dosed my 29G with it (ran it skimmerless and lightless for 3 days then a 50% WC plus carbon) and it made quite a difference. Too bad I'm fighting hair algae now. Time for a new MH bulb. Link to comment
coral reef Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 very nice tank there keep up the good work Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 wow, how long did it take for those monti caps to get that big? i was thinking about getting one, but that growth is out of control. Link to comment
skeletor Posted July 14, 2004 Author Share Posted July 14, 2004 I just replaced the bulb (yesterday), was running a 20k XM but I switched to a 10K XM, not anywhere near as nice a color :-( but a lot brighter. hopefully the new bulb will help with the algae. I run carbon and a bit of phosban at the moment, not sure if chemiclean will help with the red hair as it's supposed to work on red slime algae. those caps have around 14 months of growth, the one on the left started as a 2" x 1" frag and the one on the right was two 1" x 1" frags. I originally mounted them almost vertically and I think that had something to do with the rapid growth. -skeletor- Link to comment
OxInYourBox Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 Doh. Should have read closer. Thought you said red slime not red hair. I think you're right on the mounting of the caps. I have one that I mounted horizontally and it grew. I change the orientation of it to have it at an angle and it took off. Too bad I accidentally fragged it a few weeks ago. How long did you run your XM for? I've been thinking that the color shift may have occured after 9 months and that could be the cause my of lovely outbreak of algae. Link to comment
skeletor Posted July 15, 2004 Author Share Posted July 15, 2004 The 20K XM was over 12 months old when I finally changed it. the new bulb (10K) is way brighter. the frogspawn and candy cane have a mild case of sunburn but the polyps on my purple cap have gone a nice bright purple color so it's not all bad. the bali slimer used to look really green, now it kind of looks yellow :-( I think the 20K is much nicer looking bulb but I'm going to let the 10K burn in and see if I get used to it. -skeletor- Link to comment
birdman204 Posted July 17, 2004 Share Posted July 17, 2004 All I gotta say is the growth in this tank is AWESWOME. The fact that you allowed it to do what it wants, is AWESOME! Is that a fuschia stylophora? NICE! I had a terrebellid worm begin to infest my mini colony, and it eventually over grew the coral Also is that a galaxea at the bottom? How long haev you noticed it's sweepers extend? Link to comment
skeletor Posted July 17, 2004 Author Share Posted July 17, 2004 thanks bird.. I try to keep my hands out and let nature take it's course as much as possible, although, I also believe a little bit of chaos every now and again is a good thing. the galaxea looking thing is a frogspawn, it was in the bottom left corner and the cap over grew it and blocked all it's light. I had just moved it out the day before so its still adjusting. he has since been moved off to the back right bottom corner where he's much happier. I've has that frogspawn for about 4 years now, it's not grown much due to all the abuse it gets, and it's been living in shade for about the last 10 months.. SPS get preferential treatement, LPS are second class citizens in my ocean :-) I was to believe that little pink nub is a pocillapora, but it does kind of look stylophora-ish... here is a picture of it's mommy (at the Birch Aquarium): -skeletor- Link to comment
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