SaltyTank's 40G Mixed Reef

[DNR88]

It seems like you're infected with the same passion just like me. I think the Japanese and Chinese artists from the past really created awesome art with Bonsai, Penjing, Scholar's Rock and so on.

 

Please post some more diving pictures from the rockstructures if you have it, I can't seem to find that much bommie-style and rock structures on the sandy bottoms of the ocean. 😉

 

And by the way, your tank looks great as well! 😅👍

[SaltyTanks]

8 hours ago, DutchNanoReefer88 said:

It seems like you're infected with the same passion just like me. I think the Japanese and Chinese artists from the past really created awesome art with Bonsai, Penjing, Scholar's Rock and so on.

 

Please post some more diving pictures from the rockstructures if you have it, I can't seem to find that much bommie-style and rock structures on the sandy bottoms of the ocean. 😉

 

And by the way, your tank looks great as well! 😅👍

Thanks for the comment Dutchnanoreefer88! I had never heard of Penjing & Scholar’s Rock - a new rabbit hole for me to explore! 

 

Here’s some pics of a memorable snorkel session in Fiji, which had some great formations in the shallows. Though with all the stag horns, plating acros, leathers, etc, in the vicinity, I must say that Mother Nature really missed out on the opportunity of aquascaping this first pic with letting the encrusted hog all the prime real estate. Though the placement of that huge circular maze brain is very inspiring - been seriously thinking about dropping one in the middle foreground of my scape:)

 

I’ll find some more bommie-style pics & post soon.

 

Is there a thread dedicated to inspirational pics (non-aquarium) for aquascaping yet?  

 

[SaltyTanks]

On 11/26/2019 at 4:51 PM, mitten_reef said:

That’s an epic write-up!  Didn’t read it all, but definitely will come back at some point. Shoot might even copy and paste to google docs next time I’m on a laptop, 🤷🏻‍♂️  

Thanks so much mitten_reef!

[SaltyTanks]

14 hours ago, Matteo said:

Yesssss I love this shot. 

 

I was debating adding a tacky Christmas tree ornament from petco to my reef for the season but idk 😂

Haha, I say go for it - deck the tank with boughs of holly (& tacky Petco ornaments)!!

[SaltyTanks]

SPS on top of the pillar is getting some great growth lately.  Curious to see how the green birdsnest will grow out near the surface now that its reached the peak.  I had to trim a branch that grew into the return nozzle, but going to let this highest branch roam free.

 

[mitten_reef]

On 12/8/2019 at 4:24 PM, SaltyTanks said:

Thanks for the comment Dutchnanoreefer88! I had never heard of Penjing & Scholar’s Rock - a new rabbit hole for me to explore! 

 

Here’s some pics of a memorable snorkel session in Fiji, which had some great formations in the shallows. Though with all the stag horns, plating acros, leathers, etc, in the vicinity, I must say that Mother Nature really missed out on the opportunity of aquascaping this first pic with letting the encrusted hog all the prime real estate. Though the placement of that huge circular maze brain is very inspiring - been seriously thinking about dropping one in the middle foreground of my scape:)

 

I’ll find some more bommie-style pics & post soon.

 

Is there a thread dedicated to inspirational pics (non-aquarium) for aquascaping yet?  

 

WOW, just WOW....I've been contemplating the "realistic-ness" of a reef tank.  Started following more accounts on instagram that belongs more to divers (look up martentagaeus), rather than various reef tank "celebrities" or vendors.  

 

It became increasingly clear to me that due to shear scale of nature, it'd be very hard to accomplish any "realistic" aquascape with 3 dozens coral species in a 3-foot tank.  Our tank is nothing but a box of collectibles.  Sorry, that was such a downer statement.

 

But I'd LOVE it if there is a thread dedicated for inspirational photos like your diving trip in Fiji here on NR.  It really puts into perspective of what a colony of coral looks like.  

 

 

 

[SaltyTanks]

 

UPDATE #3:  Questions About Color Loss

 

Overall, corals continue to grow, but I’m not happy with colors on several LPS and SPS…

• Mycedium at mid-bottom should have vibrant baby blue base
• Stag at top-left should be green
• Acan at mid-left should be more vibrant blue with purple contrast
• JF Sector 001 favites (not shown in pic) should be more vibrant magenta/pink and green
• Goni - red color looks okay, but won't open up fully

 

All corals mentioned above slowly lost color over time.  Except for the Stag, I’ve recently moved the corals to these locations thinking that it’s a lighting/PAR thing.  At one point a couple months ago the stag had colored up nicely, so not so sure it's a lighting thing there.  Though I’d appreciate any feedback/critique of my reef-keeping described below, so please let me know if anything looks off to you…

 

Parameters:

425 CA

8.5 Alk

1260 Mag

0.09 P04 (not sure where NO3 is at right now, but should be proportionate)

1.025 Salt

79 Temp

 

Questions:  My phosphates typically range between 0.06 – 0.11, and can ‘swing’ between those values in a matter of days.  If phosphates increases from 0.06 to 0.11 (nearly doubling) in just 1-2 days, would that negatively impact corals like an Alk swing?

 

Food:

1 drop of Polyp Lab Booster

¼ teaspoon Reef Roids twice weekly

Mysis & brine shrimp

 

Dosing:

Red Sea, manually dosing twice daily (morning and evening when lights are off), total daily amounts…

2.0 ml Ca

7.6 ml Alk

1.0 ml Mag

0.2 ml Trace Elements (A-D)

15% water change weekly

 

Lighting:

Radion Gen 4 single puck w/diffuser; AB+ on 60% intensity for 8 hours, plus 1 hr blues for sunrise and sunset (10 hrs total light), mounted with the Radion fixed arm (I think 8-10” off the H20).  I went into an LFS (Vivid Aquariums) and came out thinking that my light intensity needs to be increased or that I should move up corals for higher PAR exposure (which is what I did as a 1^st attempt at solving the color issue).

 

[DNR88]

I like it, very nice! 😄

[SaltyTanks]

UPDATE #4:  Lesson Learned about Water Source Quality (TDS meter readings:  5-10 ppm bad / 0 ppm good)

 

In January I started using RODI water from a local grocery store, Lazy Acres.  It's a fairly nice / fancy organic store with a super nice looking RODI setup, and seemed easier & more environmentally conscious for me to fill a 5 gallon reusable jug instead of 1-2 gallon distilled disposables (which I had previously been doing).  In February through March I started noticing this terrible looking algae on the sand bed and portions of rock.  In an effort to get rid of it I would gravel vac daily, water change more frequently (natural seawater as I always have done), increased magnesium, increased flow, increased carbon filter, reduced phosphates (typically I'm around 0.06 - 0.12, brought it down to 0.05), but the algae would alway come back the next day.  I'm a slow learner, so it took me awhile to consider my fresh water top-off source.  Picked up a TDS meter and tested Lazy Acres' RODI @ 5-10 ppm.  Didn't seem like a big deal at that level, but switched back to distilled bottled water @ 0 PPM just in case.  11 days after switching, and I'm now algae free!  I believe this was the cause, but maybe not?  Does anybody have algae free success with water TDS testing at 5-10 ppm?

[SaltyTanks]

Made a big move lowering the space invader this week.  It's taking me some time here to wrap my head around the compositional change, but it really needed to be done.  Up high it was growing like a flat pancake and lost its yellow coloring.  And as much as I love the form of the stag, I'm sad to say that I don't think it's a coral that will thrive in this tank.  Expecting to make some more changes soon.

[mitten_reef]

On 12/8/2019 at 4:24 PM, SaltyTanks said:

Is there a thread dedicated to inspirational pics (non-aquarium) for aquascaping yet?  

I'd love to see more.  good timing, I've just been thinking about where I saw this specific post.  You should really start one - there already is a subforum for aquascaping.  Forums > Systems Setup > Aquascaping...   

[Matteo]

Digging your 40

[SaltyTanks]

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

I'd love to see more.  good timing, I've just been thinking about where I saw this specific post.  You should really start one - there already is a subforum for aquascaping.  Forums > Systems Setup > Aquascaping...   

Okay, I'm in.  I'll get something going this week, and I'll expect you to be the first to contribute:)  

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, SaltyTanks said:

Okay, I'm in.  I'll get something going this week, and I'll expect you to be the first to contribute:)  

I won’t have any cool first-hand photos like yours. I had snorkeling trip in Thailand wayyyyyy back, almost two decades now. Suffice to say that was before I found this hobby. but the clam I just added definitely reminds me of that trip.  Just remember seeing small clams and Christmas tree worms encased (embedded?) in large boulders of old coral skeletons. 

[SaltyTanks]

22 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

I won’t have any cool first-hand photos like yours. I had snorkeling trip in Thailand wayyyyyy back, almost two decades now. Suffice to say that was before I found this hobby. but the clam I just added definitely reminds me of that trip.  Just remember seeing small clams and Christmas tree worms encased (embedded?) in large boulders of old coral skeletons. 

I was also in Thailand almost 2 decades ago (2002) underwater, before I found this hobby, and I also remember the clams!  Giant 3+ foot clams off of Ko Tao.  And I think the blue spotted ray was the most vibrant amazingly colored natural thing in the world I had ever seen in my life.  Had a few of the full moon mushroom shakes though, so my memory might not be reality.  Wish I would have had a camera back then.  And wish I could dig a hole in my backyard and drop in a giant clam / blue spotted ray swim through tank.  Anyway, I'm envisioning the inspirational non-aquarium aquascape forum to encourage the community to post any pics that we come across & find inspirational, so we can keep a steady flow of solid pics.  Even better if the pics are originals, but let's just be open to see what's out there right?  Need some help here.  I'm more of a sheep than a shepherd with this sort of thing.

[mitten_reef]

15 minutes ago, SaltyTanks said:

I was also in Thailand almost 2 decades ago (2002) underwater, before I found this hobby, and I also remember the clams!  Giant 3+ foot clams off of Ko Tao.  And I think the blue spotted ray was the most vibrant amazingly colored natural thing in the world I had ever seen in my life.  Had a few of the full moon mushroom shakes though, so my memory might not be reality.  Wish I would have had a camera back then.  And wish I could dig a hole in my backyard and drop in a giant clam / blue spotted ray swim through tank.  Anyway, I'm envisioning the inspirational non-aquarium aquascape forum to encourage the community to post any pics that we come across & find inspirational, so we can keep a steady flow of solid pics.  Even better if the pics are originals, but let's just be open to see what's out there right?  Need some help here.  I'm more of a sheep than a shepherd with this sort of thing.

I’ll start a thread. I got a few people I think I can tag, including you. 

[SaltyTanks]

Jack-o-Lantern was looking especially bright last night when the sunset blues kicked in.  It's so bright that it illuminates the underside of the red dragon.  One of my favorites.  Just wish it would encrust a bit faster.  I appreciate the achieving results with patience in this hobby, but this coral is seriously testing my limits.  Started with a little dime sized nub 1.5 years ago at the tip of the rock structure.  Maybe another year before it crusts down onto the rock finger at the bottom?  God I hope not.

[SaltyTanks]

Highlight of these days are when the lights start kicking on.  Thinking about ramping up to a 18 hour photoperiod...

 

[DreC80]

Just read through your journal.  Love all the thought that went into aquascaping/coral placement.  Great stuff, following.

[billygoat]

On 4/14/2020 at 11:12 AM, SaltyTanks said:

Highlight of these days are when the lights start kicking on.  Thinking about ramping up to a 18 hour photoperiod...

I feel this... I'm sitting there in the morning with my cup of coffee, watching my tank as I wait impatiently for 8:00 when the lights turn on and wondering if maybe an extra hour or two in the photoperiod wouldn't be the end of the world... 😄 

 

Lovely photo of the Jack-O-Lantern. Really exceptional fluorescence in that particular specimen.

 

[mitten_reef]

On 4/14/2020 at 2:12 PM, SaltyTanks said:

Thinking about ramping up to a 18 hour photoperiod...

18. ?!!!!???

how many hours are you running now?

 

[SaltyTanks]

Interesting to see how bright direct sunlight is compared to my Radion XR15 Gen 4 @ 60% (AB+).  This time of year there's a 7 minute period in the afternoon when the sun lines up through the living room window to directly hit the tank.  Makes me wish someone out there would invent a Radion Sundial Arm that would move my single puck Radion over the tank like the sun.  Something like a timelapse slider for fish tanks.  This way I could reduce shadow death without having to blanket my tank with a ton of diffused light from all directions.  And I could get tank pics with more variety depending on the time of day.  Just sayin'. 

[DNR88]

Great picture! 😁👍

[SaltyTanks]

On 4/25/2020 at 7:50 PM, DreC80 said:

Just read through your journal.  Love all the thought that went into aquascaping/coral placement.  Great stuff, following.

Thanks so much @DreC80! 

[SaltyTanks]

Miraculously the green stag is coloring back up slowly.  Had to move the raja rampage chalice to the back corner since apparently it was punishing the blasto late night with super long sweepers.  Moved some other pieces around and feeling like space is now very limited.  And unfortunately, the cyano is back, so looking like I'll need to try Chemiclean.