jolt Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 What is it? Looks good. +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 ASD cotton candy. It's ready for the rocks I just can't decide where I want it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Did a full on water test this morning while I was in water quality mode. Alk: 8.4 dKH ( red sea pro) (this is super exciting becuase it marks the one month point where my alk has not budged and tests exactly the same every time. That would probably explain why this month it appears my acropora troubles are turning around, and I'm even getting re-growth over areas that were STN'ing) Ca: 430 ppm (red sea pro) Mg: 1440 ppm (red sea pro) PO4: 0.02 ppm (Hanna ULR phosphorous ppb meter) NO3: undetectable (red sea pro) I suspect my undetectable nitrate reading is just due to algal interference. I honestly thingky PO4 and NO3 readings are a touch higher than they appear for two reasons...I have plenty of macro algae and micro algae growth. Not to where it's ruining the tank or needing direct intervention, but enough to know that there are some inorganic nutrients present, which is skewing the tests to low/undetectable due to rapid algae consumption. And second...I have no bleaching of stony corals. My acropora are all showing excellent colors, with a perfect balance of color pop, reflection, and depth. No browning, but definitely no bleaching. This would tend to point to a small amount of inorganic nutrients present, low levels but not truely zero. I'm a big fan of livestock telling the story much better than a test does, but I like to at least have numerical references to track Got two new acropora from a local today. A yellow Milie and another which I already forgot the name of. Its very fair complected so it'll start on the sandbed so it can darken up some. I also lowered the halide pendants a bit as well and am at a 9" operating height above the water, down from 13". I don't think I'm suffering from low light levels, but I'm trying to boost them up a bit in anticipation of the bulb change. When I place the new bulbs in Ill raise them back up and toss up a window screen for a couple weeks. Nothing reduces light intensity better than distance does. Gotta love the inverse square law. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Glad to see you're back in action with SPS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Yes you sirs I'm back and ready to play. I said I was gonna give up, but I just flat out never fell in love with LPS like I am with acros. Patience, stability, and water changes have been my ticket back into the club. Time for me to start selling off and moving out alot of these montipora. Much as I'd love to keep them, The real estate they claim is really cramping my style. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 6, 2015 Author Share Posted June 6, 2015 Couple new ones. ASD overstock yellow Millie and ASD candy fuzz. The candy fuzz came in alive but bleach white. I mean solid white like printer paper but good polyps. I don't worry about bleaching so I stuck it low to allow it to start getting pigment. Tips are beginning to get some color and it will be just fine. The mother colony on the site looked super pastel/pale like a zeovit grown acro so I don't expect it'll have super dark color anyway. Also happy to report my stag has now branched at the tips along with the good ole tricolor valida. Nice easy starter acros but they're doing good. For about 6 months now my a. Hyacinthus has only encrusted and the branch done nothing. Hopefully it starts going vertical when I change the bulbs out. Hawkins is hanging in there as well. CC pastel shortcake final has PE for the first time in 6 months and grown back over areas of stn at the base as well as my Miami orchid. Good news all around. Sorry bout the sideways pic. Does that sometimes Also. Anyone know who wins between rainbow montipora and red planet acro. We are soon going to have a collision. I know purple stylo easily defeats rainbow monti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Got my money on the red planet! I dare say most of AquaSDs acros are pastel not from zeo, but from the fact that they are fresh from the mariculture facility. Unless its one of their pieces that they've had a mother colony for awhile, the final color is as good of a guess to anyone. They just name based on the color they colored up with within the first few weeks in their system and begin to chop it up. There are gems to be found out there though. None of my acros look anything like they did when I ordered their mille pack but there's a couple that colored up wonderfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 6, 2015 Author Share Posted June 6, 2015 That's good to have verified. I know ASD, battle corals, and pretty much all of the "new" designer coral sellers are just getting bulk shipments of maricultures and making up cute names on their own. I'm totally ok with a tank full of random mariculture acros at any rate. I'm not too brand conscious. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Yeah, I've actually enjoyed the batches of maricultures coming in. It's a new aspect of SPS that I'm quite enjoying. Finding the buried treasure amongst the sea of maricultures. I do find offense from the retailers naming them and selling them before they color up to their final color but it's up to the customers to demand better. For now, I like my gambling to be with full colonies and with no promises if they'll be duds or awesome... instead of someone showing me photos to make me think it's going to be awesome when the final colors and form... nobody has a clue on yet. My joy now is mixing up the mariculture treasures with old school favorites, like the oregon tort, hawkins echinata, pink lemonade... etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Picked up this behemoth today. Size comparison next to a 5# tank I had laying around. It's far too big to fit under my reef tank stand...but it sure fits under the planted tank stand. So that tank will get the 20# canister to hopefully last over a year between refills, and the 10# tank will move on over to the reef when I get a calcium reactor going. Hopefully a 10# tank will also last a year or more as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 Well...Yesterday was the tank's 1 year old birthday. Since I can't edit my original post. I'll do this here. Three progression shots. My growth from months 6-12 was fairly abysmal. I'm mostly happy with my colors. I think the tank crash of Feb '15 (I'm calling it a crash officially) is what has contributed to that, as it took me months to recover. That and my bulbs are 15 months old so that's not helping. I have a new set of Radiums in the mail right now so things are on their way. Today I cut a couple acros that weren't looking so hot. It's not a systemic issue It's just a couple individuals. My Acropora Hyacinthus fell from it's spot and rested on my prism favia for about 8 hours before I caught it, so 6 months of slow growth is toast. I fragged off about 1/2" of it, and dipped it along with a few others in bayer and put them on fresh plugs on the rack to try and revive them. Otherwise all the other acros are looking pretty solid. Nice bright vivid colors with ok polyp extension. Not FarmerTy polyp extension but we are making progress. Next phase of this tank is to move over from 2-part dosing/kalkwasser to a calcium reactor. I'm thinking either a brand new Geo612, or something used if I can find a cheap one, along with a nice high end dual stage regulator and 10 pound co2 tank to top it off. I'll run these new radiums for a year and at that point I'll decide if I want to stick with them, or go LEDs. $150 a bulb change is not fun. LEDs arent money saving for me, as it would take a couple years or more to break even, but I do hate how there is so much ebb and flow of halide growth. Bulbs burn in and everything rocks for a few months, then things slow down and deteriorate as bulbs age. I have no interest in 6 month bulb change schedule, and I hate how stalled out things get after the year mark so perhaps LED's would give more stable lighting. Who knows. Heres some progression pics Setup day: 6 months: 1 yr today I had someone offer to do a professional tank photo shoot for me, but I'm not proud enough of it to go showing off anything beyond basic phone pics so I declined and I'll wait until I have something I'm proud of. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 I have to say the color between 6 months and 1 year is sooooooooooooooo improved! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Looking good buddy! Did you change out your lighting from 6 months to 1 year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 Ah yes. Forgot to mention. 6 month pic was under XM10k bulbs and the other two are with Radiums. Massive color difference lol. And some may say "hey, why not just use plusrite bulbs, swap them every 6 months and they're always fresh and you still only pay $80 a year vs $150". I have thought of that. But that means new ballasts. I wouldn't try to run plusrite bulbs on m80 ballasts no sir. I can see my house burning down lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 What people are you talking about? I'm an LED man these days! You got fantastic growth it looks like on those montis and purple stylo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 It looks great man! Night and day from 6 months to one year in growth and color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 That's really cool to see the progress. It's looking very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 22, 2015 Author Share Posted June 22, 2015 Thanks fellas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 22, 2015 Author Share Posted June 22, 2015 (edited) disappointing update. So my new bulbs came in the mail today and one of them is a dud. I can't explain how frustrating it is to pay $80 per bulb and have one of them not work. I'm certain it's not my ballast because I have the old bulbin there until I can get this one replaced. I have already been thinking about LEDs and this pretty much seals the deal for me. I'll be saving up to replace my halides with some ocean revives as soon as possible Edited June 22, 2015 by Bpb 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted July 11, 2015 Author Share Posted July 11, 2015 The mailman cometh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12_egg_omelette Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Did the mailman taketh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 All these mh guys goin to LEDs! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Haven't been taking as many pics. I seem to be doing well with montipora. Some of the smaller but more colorful ones are coming around. Happy to report the neon polyp undata is almost back to where i was before the February tank crash. It necrosed down to what I imagine being a single polyp. Let's just say I was so convinced it was dead I nearly removed it but was too busy. Here's a few shots of today My Hawkins has stalled out and looks unusually dense. Maybe too much light. I dunno. It has done almost nothing in like 6 months Successful surgery on one of my stags that was stn Candy fuzz and valida doing ok. Slow growth though. Wonder why. And an fts Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited July 31, 2015 by Bpb 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Tank looks good! What's the word on the lighting? You switch yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 Negative haven't switched yet. My plan was to keep some ads up online but haven't expected any takers. I was gonna go ahead and use up these brand new radiums so they don't go to waste, but have an interested local just starting up in the hobby. So I may sell the halides in the next few weeks at some point. Kinda have to do that before I can hang the LEDs...my boss isn't aware I purchased them so it'll be an easier explanation if I sell the existing lights first. I may not have mentioned I bought the LEDs lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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