Lalani Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Pearlberry Acro (left, rear in the first photo) has grown nicely since September: Hornets: Tort: Ricordea: Candy Cane: Acro: GSP: Borealis Acro: Rastas: Wow, its looking great, man! Link to comment
mpsti05 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Nice pics! Tanks is looking great Link to comment
GTi Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 Nice pics! Looking real good. Love the clowns n eggs. Wow, its looking great, man! Nice pics! Tanks is looking great Thanks for the kind words everyone! Everything seems to be doing well growth growthwise but I'd like to get some of the corals to color up a bit more. I think some of them are still slightly bleached. When I dropped the lighting intensity a few months ago, some color came back. I'm currently at 30% and I think I'm going to drop to 25% on each fixture and see what happens! Link to comment
GTi Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 I did my quarterly (yes, I know!) water tests and everything was good except KH which was a bit low (7). I dosed some Reef Builder and will recheck KH, Ca and Mg later. I also dialed the Radions down to 25% (from 30%) natural mode, 12' depth. Hopefully colouration will improve in the coming weeks. I also set the start time an hour later to give a 10 hour photoperiod. The Hogfish has attacked the already shy Hi Fin Goby the last 2 feeding times. He rams him if he sees him going for the food pellets. Not sure if I should try to catch the Hogfish for a timeout in the sump or frag tank or if I should try to catch the Goby and set him up in one of those locations permanently. I think the. Goby will be very hard to catch as he rarely comes out of his rock. Any suggestions? Link to comment
RollaJase Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Great pics, does the hogfish get on well with the firefish? I was considering getting one for my 30G cube to go wit hteh firefish and 2 clowns. Link to comment
GTi Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Great pics, does the hogfish get on well with the firefish? I was considering getting one for my 30G cube to go wit hteh firefish and 2 clowns. Thanks! It's all down to the camera and lens! The Hogfish seems to get on well with the Firefish and Clowns at all times. He acts aggressively towards the Hi Fin Goby and (juvenile) 6 Line Wrasse when he sees them eat. He might have to try a timeout in the sump or get traded in if he doesn't behave better. It's a shame because he's a cool fish. Did a 10 gallon water change yesterday and dosed a little more Reef Builder today. KH was up to 8.4. As I already have Kalk in my top off water, I can't add Reef Builder to the top off water to automate things. Don't really want to get in to regular dosing if I can avoid it. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Thanks! It's all down to the camera and lens! The Hogfish seems to get on well with the Firefish and Clowns at all times. He acts aggressively towards the Hi Fin Goby and (juvenile) 6 Line Wrasse when he sees them eat. He might have to try a timeout in the sump or get traded in if he doesn't behave better. It's a shame because he's a cool fish. Oh that's a shame, I hope it doesn't cause any trouble for you. My LFS has one that I have had my eye on for a while now, stil ldebating whether or not its a worthy purchase. I think I'd rather get the sump sorted before I worry about additional livestock. Link to comment
GTi Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Oh that's a shame, I hope it doesn't cause any trouble for you. My LFS has one that I have had my eye on for a while now, stil ldebating whether or not its a worthy purchase. I think I'd rather get the sump sorted before I worry about additional livestock. He's still being a weeny but as soon as I took the net top off the tank he wouldn't come out of the rocks, even when I fed the tank! I'll be making a bottle trap tomorrow and seeing if that is any good! Other news, I saw Ecotech now offers a 120 degree lens: It is especially useful on tanks with dimensions that result in light coverage where one Radion may be insufficient but two lights are excessive, such as on 36 wide aquariums. Doh! I wish they had this a year ago - this was my exact dilemma so I am running 2 Radions at just 25% intensity! I think I'll weigh up the options these new lenses offer and see if reconfiguring makes sense. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 He's still being a weeny but as soon as I took the net top off the tank he wouldn't come out of the rocks, even when I fed the tank! I'll be making a bottle trap tomorrow and seeing if that is any good! I ended up picking one up on Saturday. The first thing I noticed was that it was very wary of the clowns at first, mainly due to the female being quite large now. It has only shown slight aggression to the male clown when the clown roamed into it's now claimed territory but only then it just chased it out of the area, no nipping or anything. It has shown similar aggression to the firefish also but no where near the extent my old wrasse did. Once it settles in a bit more I'm hoping it will calm down a little more. My firefish constantly hides and only comes out to eat, as long as the hogfish doesn't prevent it from eating or show any more aggression towards my clowns it will stay. Link to comment
GTi Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 I ended up picking one up on Saturday. The first thing I noticed was that it was very wary of the clowns at first, mainly due to the female being quite large now. It has only shown slight aggression to the male clown when the clown roamed into it's now claimed territory but only then it just chased it out of the area, no nipping or anything. It has shown similar aggression to the firefish also but no where near the extent my old wrasse did. Once it settles in a bit more I'm hoping it will calm down a little more. My firefish constantly hides and only comes out to eat, as long as the hogfish doesn't prevent it from eating or show any more aggression towards my clowns it will stay. I hope yours works out! My previous wrasse (McCoskers) got on ok with everyone most of the time but at feeding time he would sometimes circle my Firefish really fast. It didn't stop the Firefish from coming out or eating but now the wrasse is gone, the Firefish is out and about a lot more. Link to comment
Arkayology Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Nice shots of the acros! Link to comment
GTi Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Nice shots of the acros! Thanks! I just need to get some of them to colour up a little more. I guess that's the hard part! Link to comment
Arkayology Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Thanks! I just need to get some of them to colour up a little more. I guess that's the hard part! It always is. Your pearl berry looks nice. It has been my experience that they are super hard to color up. Link to comment
GTi Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 It always is. Your pearl berry looks nice. It has been my experience that they are super hard to color up. Pure luck! It's my nicest looking acro and it was by chance! I still think I don't have my Radions dialled in quite right yet. Close but not quite there. If that doesn't work I will have to look at water chemistry next. Link to comment
evo_2679 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 GTi - Sweet set up !!! Looking good !!! Your rock work is awesome and the growth of the Acros is filling in great... What radion do you have ? I have the G2 and just recently bump up my percentage to 40 from 35 have decent color but seem to have a lot better PE at 40 percent right now. Not really sure if it's from the increase in light or if it's from adding Kalk to top off and keeping the parameters a bit more stable?? Link to comment
GTi Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 GTi - Sweet set up !!! Looking good !!! Your rock work is awesome and the growth of the Acros is filling in great... What radion do you have ? I have the G2 and just recently bump up my percentage to 40 from 35 have decent color but seem to have a lot better PE at 40 percent right now. Not really sure if it's from the increase in light or if it's from adding Kalk to top off and keeping the parameters a bit more stable?? Thanks! I have G2 also. I also dose Kalk through my ATO. I'm not sure what the answer is but I have also noticed that PE varies. The purple tabling coral from a local reefer was the furriest thing when it was in his tank and in mine there is PE but nowhere near as much. He blasted his tank with a lot of LEDs. Link to comment
Zia Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 FTS: Yep, still my favorite scape on here! Those columns are just so unique and eye catching! So bad ass there real and not ceramico type either. Skillz brother skillz Link to comment
GTi Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 Yep, still my favorite scape on here! Those columns are just so unique and eye catching! So bad ass there real and not ceramico type either. Skillz brother skillz Thanks - don't give me too much credit! The tank is quite deep and I had to do something to fill it up! Link to comment
GTi Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 I ordered 2 sets of the wide angle lenses and they have been delivered. Thanks to Jedimasterben and thirdchild for advice and information. I'll post some information once they are installed, probably over the weekend. The wider spread should result in a lower but more uniform intensity. As I am currently at 25% of maximum, I have a bit of room to bump it up! Link to comment
GTi Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 No progress on the lens swap because I built this yesterday based on something I saw on another forum. Bottle traps weren't working with the Hogfish so rather than draining the tank I thought I'd try this. http://s867.photobucket.com/user/markpr/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo2_zpsf752685b.jpg.html'> He's quite smart and probably thinking: http://s867.photobucket.com/user/markpr/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo1_zps19bfe7b2.jpg.html'> Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 That thing is sexy. Link to comment
GTi Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 That thing is sexy. Why thank you! Took me 3 1/2 hours to build (I'm an acrylic newbie). The best bit is that the pipe allows you to drop food in to the trap without disturbing it and raising the fishes' suspicions. I'm going to leave it in and see if I can get my last Chromis out too. GTi 1, Fish 0! Link to comment
GTi Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 The Hammer on the right side of the tank has grown a lot and was up against the glass. I tried to break off a couple of heads and got this - 12 heads! (Polyps are retracted as the lights were on the way down). http://s867.photobucket.com/user/markpr/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo_zpsc6335e90.jpg.html'> On the bright side, I got a quick sale to a local reefer for $60! (That pays for those wide angle Radion lenses that are sitting on the table beside the tank). Link to comment
RollaJase Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Nice work catching the hogfish, mine died thanks to a blended nem and an ammonia spike . Bummer about the hammer, thats a pretty awesome colony in its own right. Link to comment
GTi Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Nice work catching the hogfish, mine died thanks to a blended nem and an ammonia spike . Bummer about the hammer, thats a pretty awesome colony in its own right. Sorry to hear that. Mine went back to the store this evening. I had mixed feelings about seeing him go. My remaining Hammer colony looks ok - there's a bit of a hole but it will fill in in a couple of months or so. I was reading a really long thread on another site about sandbed maintenance and realised I haven't been vacuuming it since I started this tank. With my water change yesterday, I did vac part of the sandbed and got some very cloudy water out. It looks much cleaner! I will be vacuuming a portion of the sand each week from now on. Link to comment
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