Addition of some bright SPS frags for change
 

Thanks everyone for positive comments! I'm really enjoying this forum since I joined.

Update today -

Although I've been resisting temptation of getting more SPS frags, as the colonies look a lot better, I decided to try another batch, mostly very light colored ones, and easy to keep ones mostly (millies, montis).

New frags ready to be drip acclimatized..

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._FRAGS_SPS.jpg

after a few hours, all of them were glued in position in my 75G.. FTS update

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._FTS_SEP_6.jpg

side view, my RBTA split is almost brushing against other SPS frags.. this guy needs to find a new home soon!

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._FROM_SIDE.jpg

These are the frags, photos taken after they are added to the 75G. Very bright colors! I sure wish I could keep them that way! Crossing my fingers...

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._NEW_FRAGS.jpg

Now that's that way to have a reef tank growning them from frags. I hate when people will buy colonies and then post "look at my tank, look how much it has grown". When you gr9own from frags you see results and you see how much remand CAL and ALK and MAG you are using and you get use to dosing and measuring for your tank. When you have huge colonies you can say look how much they have grown , because mother nautre grew them for you.

any ways well done on the tank .loos great. love the color's just remember if you have some thing that is yellow and you put it under 12k,14,20 k your going to get another color like green. so it may not be you its just the light that you have in your tank.

Yeah I realized the lighting itself has a lot to do with actual coloration of SPS corals, not just how it looks under certain lighting. I sure hope my frags stay healthy and grow. Here's current readings of water condition in my tank -

PH - 8.0
Alkalinity - 6dkh
Calcium - 480ppm
Phosphate - 0
Magnesium - 1290ppm

For some reason Alkalinity is way too low. I just started dosing 2 part from bulk reef supply. I will use the online calculator now to adjust dosing amount.

I've been wanting to add few more fishes, and purchased few and kept them in QT. Unfortunately the little 20G wasn't large enough to support 6 fishes in short time, so I gave up on QT and moved all fishes being QTed to DT.

Among them are a pair of Twinspot gobies, but these nasty guys are constantly stirring up sand and causing haze in my tank... however all corals and fishes don't seem to mind it, so I'm just going to let them be until they cause real problems.. hopefully not, as these cute little guys are a lot of fun to watch

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...ING_SAND-1.jpg

So, the new fishes are - Power brown tang, Scopas tang, sixline wrasse, the pair of twinspot gobies

Here's current FTS..

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...FTS_SEP_10.jpg

nice setup

Nicely done....you will likely hate your gobies for the first two or three weeks while they sift through the fine stuff....dont worry the haze will eventually settle....

Wow! Very nice :mrgreen:

Thanks again.

That will be nice. As a matter of fact, the little guys dug a dungeon and they seem to have settled in there. At least while they are inside, they are not causing the sandstorm..

RBTA in a basket
 

FTS-less update today.

A picture of my hippo tang asleep, taken early in the morning under room lighting.. he likes to lie down flat while sleeping.. very cute

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...EPING_DORY.jpg

My twinspot gobies won't stop. They are digging dungeons everywhere. I'm worried that some rocks that are not sitting on the eggcrate floor may tip over and cause rock slide! So far, that hasn't occurred, but these guys are very cute! Everyone loves them (most are fooled by the false eyes).

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...B_TWINSPOT.jpg

Now, I had to let go my RBTA split, as it was brushing against several acro frags and causing some damage. The anemone was already sold before I had a chance to place a for-sale ad. However, I had to keep it for few days, and had some issues with it moving over to unwanted place. Finally I decided to make the floating basket, similar to what's used by LFS to keep them in a place. Picked up $1 basket and attached styrofoams.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p.../PB_BASKET.jpg

Attached to a string to let it float in the middle of water surface, RBTA settled in nicely and now I know how to get the bubbles back! Look at this picture, the tentacles are becoming nice and bubbly!

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._IN_BASKET.jpg

That's all for now.. there were some minor rearrangements done in the tank, will post FTS soon.

Lighting upgrade..
 

Although my tank's been doing fine so far, some SPS species some colors I liked. Out of many parameters, I decided to try upgrading the lighting system first, as I'm still running 4 T5HOs in this system. I've made a purchase from AP on used stuff, but were missing endcaps. Just days ago I obtained the endcaps via trade, and finally I had chance to complete the lighting system upgrade..

Old look -

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...GHT_BEFORE.jpg

First problem - can't fit 5 retro mounts on the lid, ended up with a small piece of aluminum plate to extend the mount.

2 pieces were prepared.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...PB_AL_PART.jpg

Mounted with a screw.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._INSTALLED.jpg

Endcap mount installed.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...L_MOUNTING.jpg

Another view.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._MOUNTING2.jpg

Wirings and others all complete. Took much longer than expected :(

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...B_COMPLETE.jpg

all lights on! Glad it worked at first try!

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._LIGHTS_ON.jpg

With reflectors. Notice missing a reflector, and a short one. Need to order some now...

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...LECTORS_ON.jpg

New FTS. Color level auto adjusted as there's stronger actinics and messes up camera's view. Looks like a little more pop to color due to 2xactinics+ added now.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p..._NEW_LIGHT.jpg