Phischy's Quest: Pt IV

[Phischy]

Ok, latest round of major upgrades: from 110w to 220w of PC lighting. Thus with the latest hardware I figure it's time for a new thread and the difference I encounter from here on out. The last piece of hardware I want at this time is a 'fuge, but maybe in a month or two.

Old lights:

New Lights:

I have pared on each side an atinic and a 10k, the atinics are both set to the same ballast with one switch, so they come on first. The 10ks are on a 2nd ballast with 2 switches so the 1st comes on 30mins after the atinics and the 2nd comes on 30mins there after so I have the dawn/dusk effect.

I hope my bloody corals like it, busted one lamp trying to cram it into the old black ABS hood before I realized you cannot put 10lbs of crap in a 5lb bag. Doh!

As for my moonlights, I'm using 1watt Newtek lights. DO NOT USE these, they are crap. But I CANNOT locate the company to complain, it's not even listed on the packaging. Go with coralife, I'm betting it's a higher quality product.

Next hardware upgrades: fans (for summer) and 'fuge for nutrient control.

 

[dragon79]

Lookin' good man, lookin' good. My friend Adrian aka NEMESIS has upgraded his lighting too, I'll have to have him post so he can state more.....as the setups look similar.

 

[Phischy]

New Friends

This weekend I"ll be adding a Coral Beauty, a Cleaner Shrimp and pulsing Xenia! The fish ($12, usually 30) and Shrimp ($12, usually 20) are coming from a guy who's moving and is liqudating his reef and the xenia is a frag from the same guy who I bought my lights from.

I should also be getting some cool orange shrooms shortly but they guy hasn't gotten back to me yet on when he's fragging them.

I would say this is a score!

 

[Phischy]

Deal was too good to be true, seller never got back to me. Dammit!

Oh well, this weekend I"ll be picking up a colt coral and pulsing xenia, so I figure that should satisfy me for the short term.

And then I'll be brewing beer! This month is a Honey Ale and if Rob talks me into it, possibly a 2nd batch as well. We shall see.

 

[Phischy]

Can't remember exactly what I posted here last, added some silver strand pulsing xenia and it seems to have lost it's pulse, I'm keeping an eye on it. Also picked up a small green yuma and it seems to be doing ok and I also got a colt frag.

Plus...as an added bonus: Flatworms!!! Oh boy!

So, I took a sample with me to my LFS and had it positive ID'd. The guy said common causes for flatworm growth are not enough flow (picked up a new Max-Jet 1200 putting my around 700gph in my 40gal and Flatworm exit. Which i'm running right now with carbon and the skimmer on full bore. Man, you should have seen those little bastards curl up and die. woo hoo, that was kinda fun. Plus I picked up a bunch more snails for my cleanup crew, plus two more pepermint shirmps (since my previous one packed his bags for Jamacia) and another brittle star, this one is a bubbletip to go along with my bright orange one. And ten more assorted snails.

So, I hope this works, everything else seems to be goign ok, I'm goign to feed less for awhile until things are back under control. And that is an update.

 

[Phischy]

Still dealing with flatworms, they're pretty much knocked out, but I'll probably dose a 3rd time this weekend and then maybe get a six line wrasse. I should also be picking up these bright orange shrooms from a local guy. Otherwise, I'm trying not to spend much on the tank at the moment. Yeah, good luck!

As for the beer, the Honey Ale turned out really damn tastey and at 5.5% alcohol, nice kick to it as well. This one will be re-brewed.

Fermenting right now, at a nice mad pace, is a Porter. Should be really good in the 7% range. Two weeks to ferment left.

Ah, fishes and beer!

 

[Phischy]

My tank has been up for 5 months now, everything seems to be going well. I've got it moderately stocked and no real desire to change anything on it other than to watch things grown. One interesting thing, I can't keep LPS. Both of my Candy Canes were receeding so I sold one off (with full disclosure) and the other is rehabilitating in another tank out here. I have an open green brain that's doing super well, but CCs didn't fare too well. Now I"m starting to notice some recedeing on the stalk of some new green frog spawn. So I'm keeping an eye on it to see what's up. Otherwise my shrooms and zoas are doing excellent, growing and propping quickly. Not sure what's up with everything else.

 

[dragon79]

My tank has been up for 5 months now, everything seems to be going well. I've got it moderately stocked and no real desire to change anything on it other than to watch things grown. One interesting thing, I can't keep LPS. Both of my Candy Canes were receeding so I sold one off (with full disclosure) and the other is rehabilitating in another tank out here. I have an open green brain that's doing super well, but CCs didn't fare too well. Now I"m starting to notice some recedeing on the stalk of some new green frog spawn. So I'm keeping an eye on it to see what's up. Otherwise my shrooms and zoas are doing excellent, growing and propping quickly. Not sure what's up with everything else.

thats odd, have you tried moving them closer to the lights? Or if they were too close did you try a place where it had a bit less? Either one or the other is the problem I imagine. Hopefully more people can shed more light on that.

 

[incysor]

I'd essentially suggest the same things, shift it to lower/higher light areas, if there isn't any improvement, maybe lower/higher flow areas.

Even doing this you may not have any luck. I've tried 3 small favia brains now, and they've all just sorta withered away. I've moved them all over the tank, shady, med light, high light, strong flow, low flow, med flow. They just don't seem to do well in my tank. I have a friend that can't keep a torch or frogspawn alive in his tank for anything, even though he's got lots of other very healthy corals.

B

 

[Phischy]

I'll move him tonight and see what happens, it's only been in my tank 2 or so weeks so more observation is warranted. Just really strange that my zoas and shrooms are propigating like mad and yet I can't keep a candy cane alive. My colt and xenia are doing well as with everything else, just not lps.

I think my yellow clown is dead, he's been mia. I still have this suspiscion I've got a mantis shrimp alive in there but I can't verify it though.

 

[Phischy]

Well, the yellow clown is alive, he moved downstairs and was chillin' in the sump, I bet the ride down the rabbit hole was fun. He hasn't done it again. I also got a new fish, be dammed if I know what it is though, some sort of blenny. He's white with brown tiger stripes and has decided he likes to chill upside down on the back of some of my live rock. I have seen him once in the 3 or 4 weeks he's been in my tank. Just wonderfull.

I'm still having problems with LPS. They will not stay healthy in my tank. Shrooms/zoas/colts/xenia are fine, candy canes and green frog spawn not so good. But my open green brain seems to be doing well.

My question now is how often to feed? I've scaled back to 1x per week with the phyto and to feed the fish. This may not be enough though. pH, temp, AK calc are all on the mark with no ammonia/nitrites/trates. The only theory we have is that my tank hasn't matured enough.

I'm just stumped.

 

[Phischy]

I finally got around to adding a 160mm Ice Cap fan for my hood and it makes a huge difference! Temps are now solid at 80d. I'm hoping this is the issue I've been having with LPS that the tank has just been getting too warm for them. The only one I have left is my open green brain who was receeding and not eating, so I'll watch it to see if it comes back or not. I hope I hope I hope! I want candy canes, green frog spawn and all the other cool lps' out there!

 

[dragon79]

Poor Phischy, temperature could have been much to do with it.

Example:

In Sandra's tank (nanoangel) I found that on the hotter days, when we came back from work, we'd see her temperature up, and it would cause the GSP to retract a lot, almost not come out until the temps are down. (around 86) The rest of the corals in there respond differently, some dont care at all, and even bloom more, others like mushrooms will have that "scriveled look" like they are uncomfortable. With keeping a fan on and keeping windows open in the apt while we are at work, I notice even on hot days, the temp only goes up to like 82 max. The tank then looks normal, so I guess in your case if there are temp swings that go high or stay consistenly hot, that may be hurting them. I am not entirely sure though, and you seem to have everything else in check. New lights, no levels of ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite, and your supplements seem to be up. How's the salinity these days? Is it within range? I hope things look up for your tank.

 

[Phischy]

Ok, was doing something on the tank today when I noticed the water in my sump was warm. Not good. I reached back and found the thermostat on my heater was set to 90 degrees!!!! Not quite sure how that happened but it sure would explain the high temps I've been getting lately.

Actually, I think this must have just happened b/c I don't remember my sump water ever being warm, so I must have bumped it somehow today when doing a water change. At any rate, my temps are solid again at 80 and I'm still curious as to why LPS just don't do well in my tank. My rics look to be splitting again and my zoas are growing, abiet slowly. I have noticed some of my shrooms haven't been so hot, so let's hope it's a temp thing.
e

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Updates Phischy? Pics would be great.

 

[djconn]

Where did phischy go? We need more pics and a good update now!

Don't make me mad...hehehe.. :shock:

 

[Phischy]

Sorry, I haven't done much to my tank in a long while. Everything is sort of just growing out at it's incredibly slow pace. The thing that sucks is the battery in my canon digicam expanded and I haven't been able to get a replacement to see if it's just a bad battery or if the camera is fried.

My coraline algea took off and I haven't even seen old pics of my tank in awhile to see how well things are growing. I've got a colt that has to be pruned htis weekend, it's ugly and it needs a new home. Otherwise, my tank is just keepin' on keepin' on.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

'bout time phischy! How about some updated pics?

 

[Phischy]

My camera is down right now. So no pics. I'm working on getting that issue resolved. Right now I've got to deal with coraline algea growing all over my acrylic in the front. The magnet scrubber doesn't do squat. I need an acrylic safe scraper.

I may be moving into cheaper digs shortly, and when that happens I plan to re-aquascape the rock, right now I'm losing way too much real estate behind the rock as it's setup. No good. So maybe in a month or so I'll be able to get some before/after pics setup.

And no, I'm NOT looking forward to moving my tank!

 

[djconn]

Ahh moving tanks...my speciality! :mrgreen: