35 hex @ 1 month - and beyond

[Anonymous]

the saga continues from this thread
http://nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1609

OK 1 month update:
New Equipment:
- Aqua C remora with MJ1200 - awesome unit, plug and play, started collecting skimate in about 3 days. Also installed the surface skimmer/bubble collector. Had to rearrange the rock to fit it in (PITA) but worth it. Rock is now a free standing bommie and doesn't touch the glass on any side, very nice for flow issues. Microbubbles are still a problem if you don't use the sponge, and the water level has to be kept pretty tight about 2 quarts between too full and not full enough. Also had to glue the box in , I didn't like the screw attachment method they recommend.
- 2 more seio 620's. Total flow now somewhere around 2775 gal/hour almost 80X. Very nice pumps, low watt, low pressure, do not have to worry about blowing things around in the tank highly recommend them.
- Icecap variable speed fan installed in pendent - temp went from about 82 to 78, nice clean look and quiet.

Water tests:
Ca - 420, DKH 14, NO3 <10, pH 8.2/3, Sal 1.024/5

Animals:
All corals doing well and starting to show growth. Color depends on the frag some have better color then when I placed them and some have lost color and turned brown. I expect that after I start getting more growth on the axial tips they will color up again. Added one A. millipora (blue) and realized that one of the "acros" I got at the frag swap is actually a Pocillipora so I have 7 Acros, 8 Montis (accidentally fraged one when cleaning the glass), and 1 Pocilla. T maxima was doing very poorly so I removed it and placed it in my big tank - I feel I will lose it
Coraline algae beginning to grow. Found 3 free corals, a small growth of encrusting Monti, some clove polyps, and an unknown solitary polyp.

OK a few pics - I need a better camera!!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

tank views

 

[Anonymous]

a couple more, sorry no macros - maybe next time?????????

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Nice looking tank. What ahve you got in there for a clean-up crew. A couple of turbos would rid the LR of that green film algae.

 

[Anonymous]

- yea its getting pretty green looking - but actually most of that green hue that shows up in those pics is that green calcarious algae that often precedes the pink and red coralines on "fresh" rock. I do have some macros (red,green,and brown) coming in and I don't like that much because I didn't want to put any fish in there - hopefully the remora will keep them in check till the coralines come in better. I don't have any turbos, but I have about 50 Stomatellas in there, but of course they don't touch the macros.

 

[Anonymous]

well I got a couple of new ones a few weeks back but haven't had a chance to take any pics till now. Drs F+S is way too close, they are running some real deals on some beauties but luckily I've been so busy I can't get up there. Cross country ends in a week though, so watch out checkbook!

 

[Anonymous]

I'm going to wait to the 6 month mark to do a full update but I snapped a couple pics anyway. No real changes to report, I did add one new frag, 56W of PC and eggcrate to the pendent but thats about all. Still playing with baking soda and kalc trying to keep good parameters but havent got it mastered yet

 

[dragon79]

wow, lookin' good at 1 month. Congrats!

 

[Anonymous]

added a new coral yesterday (my christmas present ), its an ORA frag similar in color to my avitar acro but this thing is "hairy" - the most and largest polyps I've ever seen on an acro. the tips in the pics look purple but they are really a pretty baby blue in person. the last pic is a few of the frags I've been working on.

 

[Anonymous]

i fragged my cap last week some time so i could fit my hand inbetween it and the glass (compare to pic above) also added a new tank view - 5 months old now

 

[sadielynn]

John your tank is comming along love them frags :mrgreen:

 

[Anonymous]

thanks sadie - i wish i could take better pics - after changing my pc's to actinics the colors of some of my sps's are just awesome but i can't seem to capture that on film????? everything just looks brown and green in the pics but really the blue tips, oranges, and even some reds on my pink milli and my burgandy tipped acro are just starting to glow. - gotta love actinic lighting! and yea i'll have frags ready soon my goal is to offer a superior frags to others. there are many out there that just buy large colonies break em up and sell them as captive grown frags but i want to be able to offer something that is completely grown in my tank - hopefully second generation - all new growth.

 

[sadielynn]

i wish i could take better pics

I know what you mean I cant take a picture either , I believ you when you say awsome colors :mrgreen:

after changing my pc's to actinics

but you have a metal hilide in there to ? I noticed that I went with the 2 50/50 and alot of my stuff was unhappy so I went back to the original , I thought that with 72 watts pc lighting I should be able to keep anything was I wrong?

 

[Anonymous]

yea i have a 175W 14K MH bulb i supliment that with 64W of PC. Because the MH was a 14K i thought that i should go with 50/50's but i just didn't like the color and i missed the dusk/dawn effect so i bought 2 new PC bulbs (dual actinic) a week or so ago and put them on. I remember we talked about this same sit with your tank a couple months back and you were going to try a bluer look??? but i take it you switched back??? 72W is quite a bit of light for your tank but it would be border line for keeping SPS's - maybe some lower light ones like a monti cap would do well in there. Also it takes weeks sometimes more for corals to acclimate fully to a new light source. Frags of the exact same coral in my 125 under 10K MH are different colored then the ones in the 35 under the 14K??

 

[sadielynn]

I am having difficulties with the zoas mushrooms seem to do ok but the anenome that I have is doing great :shock: I think that I lost too much par witht the 2 50/50 lights but will look in to a happier balance for the corals and my eyes :mrgreen:
as for corals it is mostly shrooms , zoas , and a couple of candy canes, and some green star polyp. Nothing seems to grow to awfully fast in the tank either , our lfs is ordering me a master test kit on friday need to take the name of the kit with me so they can order it , this way I can see if I need to increase the ammount of h20 changes or dose

 

[Anonymous]

sadie
well i conducted a little experiment with some zoas over the last month. I moved 4 colors of frags into my 20 at school which has 130W of PC lighting (1 - 10K and 1actinic) so it would be similar light to your situation. They are doing OK but the most obvious thing is they lost color - definitly not as pretty as in my big tank with more light - specifically more actinic light. They open fine and are showing some growth though........your zoa problem really has me perplexed, they grow like weeds for me in my big tank...... they should be an easy addition for you....... sorry can't help more but will continue to experiment.

 

[sadielynn]

John
Thank you for doing that . I have some zoas that I have in the tank (just frags 4-6 polyps on each)one is up at the top one is down more on the bottom (both frags are of the same zoas) they seem to be opening up after 2 weeks closed both the uper and lower seem to be doing just ok .No recession on the tissue is noted either that I can tell , I have been watching to see if there is something eating them and see nothing in the day or night that I could tell. I put the lights back to the almost all actinic and they all seem ok. Its like you have said it takes awhile to see if they will make it on a rougher note the 1st one that was dark green that I ask about awhile ago did not survive , I have also had problems in the 2 gallon tank as well so I do not know I think that we may be getting poor stock (?).But I am still at a loss as to why they do not spread . I will be looking into maybe 1-2 more frags to see if it was just poor luck for me I will keep you posted and agin thank you for trying to help me understand what is happening to ours :mrgreen:

 

[skipm]

I have some friends with a couple of tanks and the zoos they have look better in the tank with PC lighting but they reproduce alot better under the MH in the other tank but loose alot of color. They have moved some of the zoos back to the PCs and they colored back up but slowed on reproduction again. I thought this was kind of interesting.

 

[Sea_Dawg]

I have some friends with a couple of tanks and the zoos they have look better in the tank with PC lighting but they reproduce alot better under the MH in the other tank but loose alot of color. They have moved some of the zoos back to the PCs and they colored back up but slowed on reproduction again. I thought this was kind of interesting.

I was thinking about this and came up with this, tell me what you all think...

The reason the the zoos lose more color under the brighter light is because they do not need lots of zooexilyn (I know I spelt it wrong). Also because they do not need to focus lots of energy on the zooexilyn they reproduce faster. It is then the opposite under lower lighting.

Like I said its just a theory, so feel free to tell me why I am wrong. :lol:

 

[skipm]

I think that is part of it so IMO you are on the right track. Another factor that could be contributing is the MH has more light available in a needed spectrum. Another factor that has been previously mentioned that also helps is target feeding, this also ties in with your theory.