Mark's 40B and 46 bow

[markalot]

Here's the ReefBuilders article on light, flow, and some coral foods. Reef Roids did quite well with increasing SPS growth.

 

http://reefbuilders.com/2012/03/07/coral-farming-science/

 

here's a link to the article that works: http://www.academia.edu/1647139/Coral_farming_effects_of_light_water_motion_and_artificial_foods

[markalot]

Turned this into a thread for both my tanks.

40 breeder

4.5 gallon CPR HOB fuge with crappy skimmer

AC110 running Phosguard and Purigen

MP10, Reef Crest Mode

2 Korelia Nano 450's for flow behind the rockwork

T5HO lighting, front: Coral+, Blue+, Purple+, Blue+ :back ATI bulbs in 2 AquaticLife fixtures married together.

1 Royal Blue stunner strip and 1 Accent LED, light blue.

Shallow medium course sandbed

 

Fish: False P Clown, Flame Hawkfish, Blue/Green Chromis, Rusty Goby

 

Cleanup: Blue Legged, Red Legged, Halloween, Striped Hermits, Nassarius snails, plus a few brave Nerites that haven't been assassinated or crawled out of the tank yet. In addition numerous good hitchhiker snails, including one giant Stomatalla snail with a 2 inch foot.

 

46 bowfront

AC110 running with some Seachem deNitrate rocks (rocks rubble with small holes)

Marineland Biowheel, sans biowheel, with Purigen, Carbon, and Phosguard
2 JBJ 750 GPH pumps on a JBJ wavemaker, set to alternate every 5 seconds.

2 Korelia nano 450's for flow behind rockwork and front sandbed

T5HO lighting on back half of tank, ATI Blue+ and Purple+ in an AquaticLife 2 bulb fixture

24 inch BuildMyLED strip light with Warm White, Royal Blue, Blue, 2 UV, 2 Cyan, and 2 Red LEDs

Ebay submersible Blue LED strip light

Shallow fine sandbed

 

Fish: Purple Firefish, Neon Goby, Rainford Goby, Filamented Flasher Wrasse

 

Cleanup: 3 Trouchus snails, Astraea, Nerite, Cerith, Nassarius snails, and 2 emerald green crabs

 

Spectrapure RODI with dual inline TDS meter and pressure guage

HM Digital TD-3 temperature correcting TDS meter to verify final water quality

 

 

I do at least a 5 gallon water change in each tank every week using a 32 gallon Brute on wheels. Lately I've been upping that to near 10 gallons in each tank. I gravel vac parts of the 40 medium course sandbed every water change, I leave the sandbed in the 46 alone.

 

As of this posting I am 1/4 of the way through my supply of Kent Reef salt. Parameters for this batch of salt have been consistent: 9.5KH, 550Ca, 1350Mg

[markalot]

I added a fish to the 40. I didn't think I would, but the LFS near me had a Midas Blenny, eating pellets and I went for it.

 

He won't come out of his cave when I'm near so I'm sitting across the room watching. Right now he's a dark blue with a yellow tail. He's met the clown and the Chromis but Fred the Hawkfish is keeping a distance.

 

This should make the 40 lot more fun to watch, and help feed the corals.

[metrokat]

I mixed up some reef roids, Kat's magic dust, and some cyclopese and made a complete mess in the tank. Everything seemed to respond well except some zoas, which closed up in fear. Wimps.

Zoas might poop tomorrow. Goopy brown strings. Don't call 911.

 

Here's the ReefBuilders article on light, flow, and some coral foods. Reef Roids did quite well with increasing SPS growth.

 

http://reefbuilders.com/2012/03/07/coral-farming-science/

 

here's a link to the article that works: http://www.academia.edu/1647139/Coral_farming_effects_of_light_water_motion_and_artificial_foods

Reef roids huh, I'm going to have to get some when the other 234 foods finish.

[gena]

I added a fish to the 40. I didn't think I would, but the LFS near me had a Midas Blenny, eating pellets and I went for it.

 

He won't come out of his cave when I'm near so I'm sitting across the room watching. Right now he's a dark blue with a yellow tail. He's met the clown and the Chromis but Fred the Hawkfish is keeping a distance.

 

This should make the 40 lot more fun to watch, and help feed the corals.

Awesome new addition!!!!! Congrats

[markalot]

Picture of the Blenny. He's splotchy with more and more yellow showing up but now a purple sheen to him.

 

[markalot]

And a quick video, just for fun. I'm editing the color so eventually it will have a better white balance.

 

[gena]

He found himself a great little home!!!! Are those cloves on the far left, green?

[markalot]

He found himself a great little home!!!! Are those cloves on the far left, green?

Yep, green striped with a green center. They came on a plug of blue zoas. The very far left back is a big pipe organ, one of my oldest corals.

[markalot]

Disaster apparently avoided ... but here's what I found this morning as I happened to look at the 40 prior to going to my sons 8th grade graduation.

 

MP10 is off. Oh crap, I forgot to turn it back on ... no, I never turned it off. Hmmm, power cable is missing. I had velcroed the power converter to the tank stand because the line from it to where I put my controller is not long enough. The heavy duty velcro did not fail, but the sticky did. It fell and unplugged the unit, who knows when.

 

Ever since I crashed my 20 I've been flow paranoid so not only to a have a 450GPH aimed behind the rocks but I had just installed another on the opposite side blowing up, to add a little turbulence. I think that paranoia saved my tank, otherwise there would have been no flow.

 

I added 4 cap fulls of Seachem Stability and turned my skimmer back on. I had the damn thing off for 2 days because it wasn't skimming anything for 5 days straight. I don't trust the piece of junk so I raised the cup higher than normal, since I mainly wanted it do help add oxygen to the water. I just got home and checked it ... cup was overflowing with foam, and full of medium brown water. Did I mention how much I hate this skimmer?

 

Dumped the cup, raised it a bit more, and right now everything looks normal. I still have to figure out where to re-mount the MP10 power supply and controller so this never happens again.

[markalot]

I can't help but think I may have made an ASSumptions that I need to re-think.

 

Was the skimmer not working, or was it a sign my tank water was too damn clean and the heavy feedings I've done in the last two days have resulted in the skimmer working normally?

[markalot]

The Midas was sleeping on top of a rock last night and in the front corner this morning. He dug a home, I thought, in that cave but apparently not good enough. I'm guessing he may want something higher up so buying more dry rock and rubble today to try and fashion something he might like to hide in.

 

 

[markalot]

So I was trying to remember some of the initial articles I read about 40 breeders with little extra equipment. I found two of them.

 

40 breeder all HOB equipment, including the same skimmer I have: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/totm/

 

 

A very early TOTM from 2001 via the wayback machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20060212214136/http://www.reefcentral.com/totm/2001-10/index.php

 

This used a rubbermade garbage can for a refugium.

[Felicia]

You got a midas?! Yay! They're pretty much my favorite fish. Once yours gets settled in he'll probably pick a spot or two that he really likes and pretty much always perch in the same place. Mine always sits in one spot and then will pop out of his home in the rocks to swim around for a bit, and then he goes back to his home.

 

I'm glad the MP10 unplugging didn't cause a major disaster! I'm glad you explained how it happened, because I'm getting an MP10 next week and my plan was to use command strips to attach the control box to the wall behind the tank. Hopefully that won't happen to mine. Although, I have my heater controller and the control box for the JBJ ATO system attached to the wall with command strips and they've been staying stuck just fine. You may want to switch from that velcro stuff to some command strips, since they seem to stick a lot more strongly.

[markalot]

You got a midas?! Yay! They're pretty much my favorite fish. Once yours gets settled in he'll probably pick a spot or two that he really likes and pretty much always perch in the same place. Mine always sits in one spot and then will pop out of his home in the rocks to swim around for a bit, and then he goes back to his home.

 

I'm glad the MP10 unplugging didn't cause a major disaster! I'm glad you explained how it happened, because I'm getting an MP10 next week and my plan was to use command strips to attach the control box to the wall behind the tank. Hopefully that won't happen to mine. Although, I have my heater controller and the control box for the JBJ ATO system attached to the wall with command strips and they've been staying stuck just fine. You may want to switch from that velcro stuff to some command strips, since they seem to stick a lot more strongly.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into that. I have it hanging on a tripod at the moment, so it won't fall down.

 

So I moved my rapidly growing pink purple pocillopora frag from the 46 to the 40, on top of the white mountain. Next move will be my Montipora Undata, positioned on the edge of the rock where the white circle is.

 

I really lucked out on the pocillopora. It was a frag that had broken off and fallen to the back of the LFS display tank. Recovered and moved to their frag tank but was experiencing STN so they let me have it. Superglue and 2 part, plus a lot of flow, brought it back quickly.

[markalot]

So here's the problem with the 46. Bowfront tanks look great to the eye, from a reasonable distance, and as long as you don't want to focus on something small. The visual distortion created by the bow makes for blurry pictures and, at least for my eyes, I can't focus on small details.

 

A prime example is my Montipora Undata. In the 46 it looked bluish with white polyps. Now in the 40 it's blue. some green, with purple edges and greenish white polyps. It looks fantastic, but all the details are very fine and apparently just blurred together behind the bowfront glass.

 

I'm not going to abandon the 46, and I'm not going to buy a new tank, so the trick will be to stock it with corals that are big and bold, or don't need to be viewed up close to be appreciated. The big green slimer certainly qualifies as a good coral, as well as the green tipped birdsnest. Frogspawn and hammers look good, but montipora tend to blur out. Really I think this tank is screaming softie and LPS, but I'm not a huge softie fan.

 

No new pics yet, but I did the following last night.

 

Added a LOT of rock to the back of the 40. I still have good flow down near the sand level. helped out by two nano pumps, but the overall look is more of a typical rock wall up the back. Not as artistic, but when I look at tanks I'm always drawn to this look over the more minimalist designs.

 

The Midas Blenny is turning more yellow and now sleeps in his hole ... spied on him last night, hours after lights off. Feeding him morning and twice in the evenings to make sure he gets nice and fat. I haven't found a food he doesn't like. I've always done this when adding new fish and so far have never had a new fish come down with any disease.

 

I moved the Montipora undata to a prominent location in the 40. Very cool looking coral.

 

I moved my Sunset Monti frag to the 40.

 

I moved my bi-color frogspawn to the 40 and the light green with purple tips frogspawn to the 46.

 

I freed a hermit from some superglue. He didn't even thank me.

 

I moved my small frag of green polyp leather to the 40 (gasp!) and added a small bag of carbon.

 

I moved my yellow polyps to the 40, up near the back wall where I'm hoping they take hold. I always liked tanks with yellow polyps on the back wall.

 

I freed myself from some superglue.

 

I noted that bubble algae does have it's uses. In the 46 my recovering Xenia is being slowed by bubble algae. It's making progress, but not taking off like it did when I had the 20. I expect soon I will see it popping up in various unexpected places. Xenia is another good coral for a bowfront.

 

I'm really happy with all the various species of coral that I have. I still want to try and grow frags of:

 

Porites - glennr has some: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/309047-my-sps-40-breeder-v-20/page-5#entry4342262 See videos a few posts up.

Blue Ridge (softie/ish)

Merulina (I've seen some fantastic larger specimens of this, but I think rather difficult to grow)

Pavona

 

 

If I eradicated AEFW's then I might try a few more colorful acros. I'm slowly collecting a list of species that tend to survive in less than ideal conditions.

 

Oh, and yesterday I ordered :PSK-100H Eshopps Hang-on Protein Skimmer w/pump: which I'll install this weekend on the 46. I've read a lot of good things about this skimmer. If it works well I'll be tempted to put it on the 40 and move the skimmer/fuge to the 46, or just dump that thing and by another PSK-100H.

[markalot]

I just discovered this free mag: http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/downloads/index.html

 

or maybe I just forgot about it, but fun reading for a Friday.

[Felicia]

I freed a hermit from some superglue. He didn't even thank me.

 

I freed myself from some superglue.

I'm glad I read that entire post to catch your humorous comments mixed in there.

 

That's interesting to hear about the bowfront tank. I knew they were a pain for macro photos, but I didn't think about how much they're distort the small details when you were just viewing the tank. I guess that makes perfect sense! Sounds like a good plan to rearrange the corals, so things that don't need fine detail to be appreciated are in the bowfront.

[metrokat]

Porites looks like rocks unless viewed close up to see the polyps. I have porites.

[markalot]

Porites looks like rocks unless viewed close up to see the polyps. I have porites.

 

Good to know. I'll put it at the bottom of the list.

 

 

Updated pics with the additional rock.

 

 

Here's the undata, which was just a blur in the 46.

 

 

This next acro has lost a lot of color. So far I can't find any AEFW damage and I've blown it off twice with a baster.

 

 

I mounted the sunset monti up high in the back. Lots of flow, lots of light. Some Sunsets are reported to grow well in these conditions, others not so much.

 

 

Here's that damn Chalice. Indestructible, I've had it for about 8 months, maybe more, and almost no growth. It's survived at least one crash.

 

 

My pocillapora piece. Still has some algae on a dead spot in back, but slowly recovering.

 

 

 

[markalot]

So I picked up a new big Montipora, one of my mot expensive pickups so far ... but not that expensive.

 

The contest for this morning was to do all editing and posting on my android tablet. It was about as much fun as a trip to the dentist.

 

The new Flikr failed. First it refused to recognize I had a keyboard and flipped itself sideways. Once I got signed in and uploaded the image there was no way to get the image like. But I could tweet it! jackasses.

 

Next up was imageshack, which I normally use. They have an app called skypath, because that's a good name? It crashed, then froze, then gave me 25GB of new space just for using it, then crashed. I re-entered my user information and that seemed to fix it. So I uploaded it, copied the link to the clipboard, and now to see if it actually worked .... drum roll ....

 

[markalot]

It worked. I'm stunned.

 

From what I can tell this is Montipora verrucosa. It is a huge piece and it came with it's own bad crab, which I was lucky enough to spot. I had to break an edge to remove the crab, so now I have the big piece and 3 small frags. I have a picture of the crab but it will take me about 15 minutes to fix and upload.

[markalot]

Crabby

[markalot]

New FTS with Monti rock in place at the top, center. I also moved the Rusty Goby rock in from since he's moved somewhere else. This has blue and pink Anthelia on it plus some kind of brain coral that's grown from a spec to almost 2 inches in diameter.

 

[markalot]

One more, this a closeup of that brain coral.