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Cultivated Reef

SaltyTanks

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  • 1 month later...

Update photo dump time!  I feel like enough time has passed from my TOTM month that it's now acceptable for me to start posting, right?  Like how long does a guy have to wait to call a girl after getting her digits?  I'm married and everybody just does texts anyway so I shouldn't even care, but here we are now Feb8 and I should have just photo dumped Jan2🤣

 

Jokes aside I'd like to take a moment to say how much I appreciate @Christopher Marks.  Until I went through the TOTM experience, I didn't realize how much effort he personally puts into this platform.  Not only that, but I truly appreciate the timing that he recognized the maturity of my tank - when I thought my tank still had a long way to go.  The timing part became evident to me just this week as many of my corals are now at the precipice of colliding and being shaded out.  This update here might be the last time this tank looks the way it does since I need to start pruning and moving things around to avoid casualties.  Seriously, every time I scrape the front glass I'm nearly breaking off the entire red dragon or pectina which would be the end of me.   So thank you, Chris, for everything that you do and also for recognizing my tank before I had a chance to crash it.

 

Check out the tips of the red dragon reaching out to the pillar.  This is the last pic that shows intentional separation without me chopping off a chunk of the dragon.

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I was doing a water change to get the level down low enough for this reflection pic...

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This one too.  TOTM went to my head and now I'm just so sappy with self-reflective coral pics...

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I rented a macro lens when I found out about the TOTM.  So pretty much all my macro shots you'll see from me are going to be old stockpiled pics from late December.  My wife wants to be a homeowner, I just want to be a macro lens owner.

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I'll admit that I wasn't super excited to bring home PJ from the fish store when my daughter made her decision.  But this frumpy faced fish has really grown on me.  Never realized how much color it has on its ventral (pelvic?) fins.

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Christopher Marks

Thanks for the kind words @SaltyTanks! 🙂

 

You really have built an incredible mixed reef, it's a joy to watch it grow out. I'm so glad we could capture it in a good moment of time too, for they are ever changing.

 

I have had macro lens ambitions as well, but alas, at least we can rent them from time to time 😄 

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3 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Thanks for the kind words @SaltyTanks! 🙂

 

You really have built an incredible mixed reef, it's a joy to watch it grow out. I'm so glad we could capture it in a good moment of time too, for they are ever changing.

 

I have had macro lens ambitions as well, but alas, at least we can rent them from time to time 😄 

You can always reverse mount in the meantime

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On 2/9/2021 at 10:50 AM, A.m.P said:

You can always reverse mount in the meantime

The reverse mount concept looks really interesting and totally new to me.  In fact, this idea is blowing my mind right now.  I'm going to try it.  Thanks for the suggestion!  

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1 hour ago, SaltyTanks said:

The reverse mount concept looks really interesting and totally new to me.  In fact, this idea is blowing my mind right now.  I'm going to try it.  Thanks for the suggestion!  

Just be careful not to scratch anything, glad I could help otherwise.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/11/2021 at 2:55 PM, Reeferadicto13 said:

Beautiful tank! Where in SoCal do u live? Do u have frags of your zoas by any chance 

Thanks @Reeferadicto13! I'm in the LA area, how about you?  I don't have any zoa frags, but need to snip some of the red dragon if you want some.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Here's the latest since my last post - it's been a while!
 
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NEW FISH & INVERT ADD:
I hereby introduce to y'all, "Goby" (yellow watchman goby) and "Pete" (pistol shrimp).  Goby and Pete are an amusing pair that have claimed their new home in the sand under the tall pillar.  Unfortunately, a decent pic of them together has eluded me.  And there was a scare on day 2 of the add (I've had them now for a few months) when Goby went missing.  I had heard about these gobies hiding for long periods, but I became worried when 3+ weeks went by without a trace.  He turned up at the bottom of the all-in-one rear sump chamber underneath the IM custom caddy & filter media.  They've both settled in since then and have been accepted by the rest of the gang.
 
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GYRE FLOW CHANGE:
Several months ago I relocated the gyre pump to the top right.  I really wish I would have tried it out on this side in the beginning because the corals are so much happier now.  I always thought the weaker colored corals on the left side (i.e. space invador with its loss of yellow color, blasto without washed out red/orange, and pagoda cup less fluffy) were impacted by elevated phosphates and/or PAR issues. But I was wrong. I now believe the left half of the tank was being suffocated by lack of flow with the old gyre position on the top left given the tall pillar was an obstruction and the spin stream returns nozzles weren't picking up enough slack.  Over the past 3 years, this single change to flow has had by far the most positively noticeable impact on the tank than any other improvement intended changes I've ever made.  Switching my dosing program from Red Sea to ATI Essentials had the 2nd most positive impact.
 
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TANK MATURITY:
This tank is about to hit its 3-year anniversary and I've noticed much more stability in the past 4-5 months than ever before.  Water parameters are staying within range even as I've gone down from dosing manually twice daily to once daily, nutrients haven't been an issue with the added bioload of Goby and Pete, and the corals seem to know their place in the system.  6 months ago my primary concerns were obsessively stabilizing alk and reducing phosphates.  Now things seem to be on auto-pilot and my only real concern is scrapping the front display glass without breaking the red dragon or knocking off the space invader both of which are now very close to the glass.  This tank is in its prime, and I'm really really enjoying it!  Wait a minute, can't forget that dumb browned-out favia down on the lower left drives me insane.  One day I'll get that stubborn SOB to color up and it will be my greatest reef-keeping achievement EVER.
 
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ANOTHER HOBBY:
With tank maturity and rolling on auto-pilot mode through summer solstice hours, I have more time on my hands (literally my hands are not always in the tank like before).   So, I'm happy to report that I've taken up a secondary hobby - backyard gardening.  It's interesting how many similarities there are between reef keeping and gardening.  Like dragon fruit fanatics with collections of various clipping strains lined up along their backyard parameter fence like frag collectors and their magnetic racks.  There's even such a thing as beneficial soil bacteria (news to me - mind blown)!  And I just came across a youtube video about aquaponics.  Is it possible to build a 1,000+ gallon backyard reef tank connecting into a veggie garden to form the most awesome symbiotic system ever?  What would that aqua-landscape look like?!?!?  Please God let me win the lottery so I can satisfy my impulses.
 
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Lastly, if you haven't yet glanced through the latest Reef Hobbyist Magazine, check out page 14 🙂  I obsessed way too much on prepping the tank, taking the pics, and writing the article back in Feb, which is a big part of the reason why I've been on hiatus from my beloved roots here at NR.  Sorry guys.
 
 
 
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On 5/29/2021 at 12:33 PM, Zer0 said:

Any updates? This tank is gorgeous! 

Thanks so much, and yes, as a matter of fact I do have an update! 

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Three years old! Incredible! 🎉 The tank looks absolutely stunning, and your garden is splendid as well. I love the Heliotrope! That one is my favorite.

 

I have to say, recently I've been seriously considering upgrading from my IM 40, but after seeing yours at the three year mark I am like "Well... maybe it's worth waiting to see how it turns out..." 😂

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  • 5 months later...
On 6/23/2021 at 8:36 PM, SaltyTanks said:

I always thought the weaker colored corals on the left side (i.e. space invador with its loss of yellow color, blasto without washed out red/orange, and pagoda cup less fluffy) were impacted by elevated phosphates and/or PAR issues. But I was wrong.

Good to see this stated out loud for newbs to see.  (Your whole write up was great from this angle.  Well done!)

 

It's typical to blame those scapegoats of light and nutrients first (everyone seems to).  But upon closer inspection:  phosphates are a nutrient, not a problem per se (tons of research supports this)....and light is something corals have vast adaptive powers to deal with as long as conditions are favorable (again lots of research supports this), so again not usually a problem.

 

But if low flow is the problem....all a stony coral can do is try to make the thinnest boundary layer they can...this is limited and there isn't much else they can do to adapt to inadequate flow.  (Link1.  Link2.)

 

If you like the Gyre pump, for more complete flow I would consider running two instead of one – one pump on each side.  If you think your corals appreciated the recent switch you made, wait till you see them with a real alternating flow pattern a la the tides changing.  Not talking about some cheesy "random wave" mode....I mean alternating laminar currents every few hours along with the random flow inherent to propellor pumps.  Like the ocean!  🙂 

 

You also mentioned light movers in your writeup (the main reason for posting...I don't usually comment on TOTM thread)....I wanted to let you know these have been on the market since the 1980's and to check them out:  https://www.lightrail3.com.

 

Highly recommended IMO.  I'm not using any now, but I've used them a lot in the past – your hypotheses around using one are correct.  

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