stoneroller Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 The tank is getting reefed out! Looking great Kim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austx Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Looks great and I really enjoyed getting to see the progression of the tank, you're doing a great job! Sorry to hear about the oldest seahorse too thats a bummer.. When I would leave on trips before my brothers got into reefing I was just as paranoid having them check and feed the tank! Looking through this thread I wish I had time to stop and check it out, maybe next time though! Thanks again for the frag and I know I keep saying I'll have more detailed photos up soon and I will! Finished dealing with the vet this morning, my dog had all three of his staples taken out so I should have "some" free time now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+C Lo Slice Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 How are things looking, Kim? Has the tank bounced back without any more casualties since you went out of town? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted September 29, 2011 Author Share Posted September 29, 2011 Thanks for the compliment bchap! It was great to meet you and I'm glad your puppy is healing up. I'm looking forward to an update on your tanks. Things are looking okay but I'm still battling algae. A bright green smothering kind. What a pain. I blow it off everything every day or so. I would rather suction it out but it doesn't come off any other way except blowing it off. Lately I did several large water changes that really perked things up so I'm going to try and continue that. I think that'll help a lot. Using the feeding dish has helped and hurt. It helps by keeping the food contained in one area and it all gets eaten by the fish so it's nice and clean. It also hurts in the sense that nothing else gets the food besides the fish. So I feel like I'm having to chose between the NPS corals and the algae problem. I'm target feeding but I still don't know how I'm going to get on top of the problem without sacrificing the coral. It's hard to find that balance I had before my trip. I borrowed a par meter again a few weeks ago, and wow! This AI Sol puts out incredible par. With my T5 fixture I was getting 75 just under the water surface, and at the sandbed I barely pushed 25. Well with my new light at 100% I have 600 under the surface and 130 at the sand! I run it just under 50% and get 80 on the sandbed. I always figured I'd have to run it around 100% to get good light penetration using only 1 fixture, but that's certainly not the case. I'm really really happy with this light fixture. Not to mention the shimmer and pop I get from the LED's. Here's an updated FTS so you can see all the algae. I don't know why the light looks like that down the middle. I couldn't get that to go away, and also I woke up the tank so that's why a lot of corals aren't out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Looks great, Kim! Glad to see my babies doing so well. PS, I'm stalking this thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Kim, you might want to try Vodka/sugar dosing or biopellets to get rid of the algae. i see alot of NPS tanks that are using some type of carbon dosing and a powerful skimmer to keep nutrients down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Looks great, Kim! Glad to see my babies doing so well. PS, I'm stalking this thread Hey Brooks! Glad to see you around. Lol, the miniature adult male has been flirting like crazy with one of my females. Haha, not sure what he thinks he's going to do - he's so tiny! Kim, you might want to try Vodka/sugar dosing or biopellets to get rid of the algae. i see alot of NPS tanks that are using some type of carbon dosing and a powerful skimmer to keep nutrients down Hmmm, that's a good idea, I'll have to look into it. I don't have a sump though and my skimmer is a hob remora. I wonder if that'll be good enough. Do you have your tank set up with the AI fixture? If so, what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I do, and i like it. The only thing i have noticed is that reds are not as expressed as they were under my MH's. i have had great growth out of both my lps and sps. I feel that if AI included acouple of neutral whites or warm whites in the mix it may help bring out the red colors (or put red in the mix like Ecotech did) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Also, how hard does your skimmer work already? you could try carbon dosing for a little while to see if it causing any problems. Or get a more powerful skimmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roll Tide Reef Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 wow your tank looks incredible kim! i bet that fox coral musta definitely been worth the wait! haha has it opened up more?? but i saw the toadstool earlier in your pictures and finally figured out where my brother, bchap, got his! that is a crazy frag you gave him and i cant wait till he hooks me up with it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan7 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Your tank just keeps looking better (and I liked it the first time). Duncan7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Looks great, Kim! Glad to see my babies doing so well. PS, I'm stalking this thread Hey Brooks! Glad to see you around. Lol, the miniature adult male has been flirting like crazy with one of my females. Haha, not sure what he thinks he's going to do - he's so tiny! I am SO glad that he is doing well! I want to get back into it so badly, but unfortunately I have no time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 I just realized it's been so long since I updated this thread. Mostly because I ended up frustrated and discouraged with the problems resulting from my trip way back in August. It's hard to imagine 2 weeks away could upset a system for this long. Of course with the discouragement and busy holiday season I didn't exactly keep on top of things like I should've. So for about the past 2 months my tank had very few water changes due to some complications I had making my own water. It went waaaay too long without a cleaning of the algae, and especially the algae on the koralia's. That's something I'll never let slip again. I bet there was hardly any flow in my tank for who knows how long Well I have done several thorough cleanings on the tank in the past month and things are starting to look better. Two months ago I started dosing Sanolife MIC-F. It's a probiotic designed for fish hatcheries that has been getting rave reviews over on the seahorse forums. I decided it was the least I could do since my tank is a seahorse tank first and I didn't want to lose any horses while I tried to find the time to fix the tank. Within a week or two I started seeing a difference in the seahorses. They were out and about more, the coloration is better, and they are eating more. The most striking difference for me is the improvement in color. I'm really excited about this stuff and the difference it's made in the apparent health of the seahorses. I've sure enjoyed seeing them dancing around at the front of the tank. I hope it's been beneficial for the other fish as well, although I never saw a problem in them. It has also resulted in a need to empty the skimmer every couple of days. I've had that skimmer hooked up to my tank for years and just barely ever got any skimmate. Now that I'm dosing this probiotic, I get quite a bit of really yucky gunk in there that I'm happy to pull out of the tank. I imagine that's a good result too. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that it's less than 20 bucks for a years worth So that's the good news. The bad news is I've lost almost all of my sps, and a couple of lps. Some coral are doing great though like the gorgonians especially, and especially the nps one. After racking my brain the past several weeks, I'm narrowing it down to a phosphate problem. For a while I was worried it was the Sanolife, but no one else seems to think it could harm coral. The timing for starting to dose the Sanolife and starting to see a decline in coral is right on but that might just be a coincidence. For around 3 years I never had a phosphate problem. It has really creeped up since my trip in August so I'm still figuring out the best way to lower it and I need to figure out something fast. I don't have a sump and there is nowhere to put a powerhead for a reactor. I will decide between hooking up a canister filter again to run some resin, adding a bag of resin to the existing hob filter I use to run carbon, or carbon dosing. My nitrates stay really low so I think the carbon dosing is out. FTS to come.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migs Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Awesome tank! I am having a problem with phosphates but I think I am getting under control. Let me know if you ever want to try the sps again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 Well, after months of debate back and forth with myself, I've decided to shut down this tank. It's been a tough decision. There are a few reasons, I'm ready to try something other than seahorses since that's all I've ever kept in saltwater, I would really like a corner tank or at least something bigger with room for a sump, and the large bottom rock on my rock stack is quickly getting covered in gsp (I only have 3 rocks in my whole rockscape). Very frustrating!! So it boils down to tearing it up now or tearing it up later, or having a tank full of just gsp since it's crowding out all of my other corals So, I'll be keeping my favorite corals in the other 2 nano tanks I have running and selling or giving away the rest, meanwhile scoping out a corner tank. Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice on this tank, I learned a bunch with it, and the next tank will be even better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michae52 Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Kim I have just reread your tank build. You are designer of aquascaping, you do have talent so I am very sure that anything you decide will come out perfect in all ways. Just one question, did your seahorses ever have babies I never ran into anything mentioning that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 Thank you It took a while to get the aquascaping how I wanted it, but I was sure happy with how it turned out. I haven't had seahorse fry in a few years because I kept only females recently until I got this male from brooks. He's small and dances with the females but hasn't ever produced any fry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Kim, How big are you wanting to go? I know you are wanting a corner, but you could also do a cube and put it in a corner. either a 24x24x24 or a 36x36x36 would be a really cool tank. Also i highly reccomend using mostly dry rock (and aquacaping it very agressivly, as i know you can do). But thats just my two cents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 That's funny you mention a cube, I just thought of that today! That would probably work well too. I'm not sure on size, my constraint is a window on one of the walls. I need to measure the space and go from there. I can't imagine a 36x36x36. That's one heck of a deep tank! I'd have to grow longer arms. I can barely touch the sandbed with the tips of my fingers in this tank at 28 or so inches deep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 i think they also make a 36x36x(18,20,24) wich would also be cool tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+brian.srock Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Your right that you don't want anything too deep because it's so hard to get stuff off the sandbed even with my long arms. I think a bowfront corner would look awesome in your space. My vote is on a 92 gallon. It would fill out that corner perfectly and be viewable from the entire living room or 52 if your on more of a budget Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoneroller Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Sorry to hear about your 47 but on to bigger and better and I think I warned you about the GSP. If not, watch out it can take over! JK. I have a 72 bowfront and won't have another for a reef. Freshwater ok but cleaning coralline from a curved glass surface only leads to scratches... PS. One dimension of a cube needs to fit through a door! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grog Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 PS. One dimension of a cube needs to fit through a door! And the same goes for refrigerators. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaarrrggg Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Sorry to see this unique tank go, but in the long run I think you'll be much happier with a bigger tank + sump. So much easier to manage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonJones Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Kim, best of luck with the change. Looking forward to seeing the direction you tank. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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