Thanks Tony. A pvc substructure is the way to go imho. You can be much more creative using one, not having to rely on the rocks supporting themselves.

Thats what cutters are for:wink: Im not sure this is their final resting place yet. I may try and attach them to the overflows on either side of the tank. Mostly mushrooms and zoas on the bottom, so they may actually benefit from getting some shade.

Fiji purps
 

I picked up a couple KZ fiji purple bulbs for one side of the tank today. MAN what a difference. Its kinda cool to be able to run purple on one side and true blue actinic on the other. I thought it looked good when I had one of each( a purple and a blue) on one side of the tank. Not sure how it will end up but I do like the all purple look.Both sets of pics with 150w aquamedic 10000k bulb.

Before with blue HOT5s.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1884.jpg

After with the fiji purples.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1977.jpg

Damn! That looks great Doug... Major improvement. :biggrin:

Ok I done a bad thing.... I liked the way the fiji purple bulbs looked so much, that I just got back from the store with a new 4x24w aqua-medic T5 light. So now here is what the lighting configuration looks like. 150w mh with aqua-medic 10000k bulb with 2x24w HOT5s (one aqua-medic reef blue and one KZ fiji purple) on the left side. And on the right side is 8x24w HOT5s ( 2 AM blues, 2 KZ fiji purples and 4 AM 10000k). Hope the g/f doesnt notice:twised:. Probably shouldnt have bought the AM light as I will be ordering a 72" MH/HOT5 combo from the shop soon. I am flip flopping on which one to get. I have it narrowed down to either a 3x 150w mh, a 3x 250w mh or go all out and get the 4x250w mh(all three have 4x39w HOT5s). I figure I can use the AM T5s on the QT/hospital tank and the hagen T5s on the fuge, so not a complete waste of money.

And that's a bad thing?....:lol: You can always justify having better lighting for the fuge and QT, copepods and new or sick livestock need love too:mrgreen:

Doug, the reef is looking fantastic! You're right with the Fiji purples they really make it pop..wish I had more than one in my set-up now, will definitely look at more when replacement time comes. It's amazing how quickly your tank is maturing in such a short time, a lot of growth visible from your last set of pics. I'm guessing there may be some xenia frags available soon? :biggrin:

What do you run for flow? Apart from the QO 6000, the Koralia 4? and the other powerhead, do you have anything else and what do you figure is your total? Curious as I'm still not really sure how much I need to add on my own set-up and I would like to follow your success.

Francis

Thanx A-Newb. I have a koralia 1, 2, and 3 in there for 1800gph the sieo 820 at 800gph and the return should be around 600 to 700 gph....so say 3200 gph ish. The koralias (1 and 2) are stashed behind one of the overhangs.

Heres a few random shots under the fiji purple bulbs.

Acropora Humilis (I think...Greg?)

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1996.jpg

Blueberry zoas

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1995.jpg

Crazy red palys

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1994.jpg

Orange and green tonga shrooms

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1993.jpg

Purple ricordia yuma

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1992.jpg

Acropora ?...milli?

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1982.jpg

Was feeling artistic last night and snapped a few pics.

Happy Mille
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2046.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2047.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2050.jpg

Various fiji purp/ aqua blue actinic shots
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2036.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2035.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2039.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2044.jpg

As some of you may or ma not know, RC has had (and still does have) some pretty sweet tonga live rock in. Ive been slowly bringing 10#s ish home a week for the last three weeks. Im swapping some of my jakarta and fiji rock out for the tonga. The "old" rock will in the sump and in the QT tank. Ive already done some swapping in the middle area of the display that was easy to get to, but I need to rid myself of some frags and a couple colonies to free up some space to move things down while I work on the swap. I have a weeks holidays coming up so will try and get the rest of the re-aquascape done then. I got a little lazy with my feeding for a couple weeks(just fed flakes and pellets) and I am paying for it now with a cyano and hair algae bloom. So in lieu of this we ordered in some yellow eyed Kole tangs and have one waiting things out in my QT. He/she looks goooood. I cant wait until it is in the display...but I will.

Looking good buddy. Question for you, where did you get the flexible hose? I'm thinking I will try to plumb up my tank like how you have it. Also where did you get the glass from? I'm thinking of doing some tweaks to the sump that the tank has before I get it wet :P.

I got the flex hose from PPE, laguna is the brand. We can get whatever size glass you need. I used an old scratched up 20g tank for the baffles in my sump and I had ***** @********* cut the glass for the overflow.:lol:

My week off was way to short and I didnt get near as much done as I thought I would. I made sure the re-model on the tank got done though.:biggrin:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2157.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2158.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2161.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2164.jpg

The kole tang seemed really timid and wasnt eating much while in the qt tank (It may have picked at some seaweed). Every time I entered the room it would wedge itself under one of the rocks and hide for the next hour. I left it in the qt for a week and a half with no signs of it really eating and figured I would roll the dice and put it in the display. It hid for the rest of the evening it was introduced, but the next day it was like a completely different fish. It was out and about, checking things out and picking at the rock, albeit nervously. Im wondering if the 33g qt tank was to small to try and qt a tang? The kole is only about 4", so I thought the qt would be big enough, but the tang sure seemed to feel uneasy. This was my first time qt ing a fish. I had always just released new additions into the display, until my last addition and the series of events that followed prompted me to set up a qt. Im not sure that qt ing is the way to go.It just seemed to add another stress into the fishes life. I will however continue to qt the one or two last fish I plan on adding.Hopefully I will leave the next one in the qt for longer than I did with the kole. I have a small 3-4" regal tang in qt now and Im thinking either a mystery wrasse, bluespot jawfish or a magnificent foxface that A-newb(Francis) got me thinking about. So in the tank now is a pair of ocellaris clowns, a royal gramma, a flame angel, a bi-color angel, a talbots damsel, a hectors goby( I think) and the kole tang. That should pretty much stuff the tank. Speaking of stuffing the tank, I brought home three new acro colonies and a nice orange acan from the shop the other day.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2156.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2135.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2125.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2129.jpg

Everything always takes more time than you expect...
Your tank is looking great Doug, I really like the open rock work.

Your aquascaping looks alot different than the last time I saw your tank Doug. Looks good.

Love the new aquascape! Fantastic!
To QT or Not to QT? That is a GREAT question?????:question::wink:

Ya like typing out that last post....took me forever:biggrin: Thanks Mr. Hairy.

Thanks Josh. Yup its all ready for that pro-fessional photo shoot:wink:

Thanks there girly. Was gonna use your experience as an example but but didnt want to bring up any bad memories. How goes the shopin?

I thought I would share a few pics that I think turned out pretty good.

Part of my zoa collection. Im hoping they will eventually cover the whole slab.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2175.jpg

Between the corals and the coraline I have a rainbow ROYGBIV
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2188.jpg

The sps shelf. Patiently awaiting a more even dispersal throughout the tank(waiting for new light).
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2165.jpg


Doug.

Did you ever pick up those 2 Tangs from my buddy?

doug those zoa colonies are amazing

I give it about 6-8 weeks before that shelf will be covered in zoos.

Tank looks nice, Doug. What new light are you considering? (sorry if this is answered in an earlier post)

I will confess that these zoas are the nicest ones I have so far.

6-8 weeks??? They must grow faster for you.
Im thinking the Maristar 2x250w MH(ushio 10000ks on the outside 20000k in the middle) with 4x39w HOT5s(fiji purples). Galaxy ballasts.

Doug.

That would be a nice light combo. :)

Maybe 6-8 weeks is a little "overstated". What I've found with zoanthids though is that they reach a point of "critical mass" where all of a sudden they ramp up the sprawling rate. It seemed like you had larger colonies (as opposed to the little 6-7 polyps each frags that I always seem to start at :lol: ) so I thought maybe you were close. Could be more like a couple months though. At some point though you'll notice it, I'm sure. I find that what happens is of course they all grow at different rates and of course the really nice ones grow the slowest, and they wind up getting swallowed and they disappear. So something to watch out for if you happen to have any favourites.

Here's an interesting observation though, speaking of frag sizes. About 4 months ago or so I picked up a rock covered in blue zoanthids. There must have been close to 100 polyps on it. They did really well for about a month, then started dwindling away. Not real noticeable at first but eventually I was thinking, hey, didn't this rock have more polyps? I found a little clump of 2 polyps floating loose and I glued those to a frag disk. Starting from a frag size of 2 polyps is a pretty meek starting point, but that little frag is now about 10 polyps or so. Meanwhile though, the colony rock is now just a rock. For some reason the colony crashed. I have no idea why - if it's a predation or disease or just generic failure-to-thrive. But the little frag is doing well. It's like they need to be "borne" in your tank to be super hardy - otherwise it's a crapshoot.

Of course this stuff only happens to the nice ones. My reddest zoos crashed earlier this summer too, I have yet to find more of the same variety. Got a couple others "close" to the same degree of bright red but of course it's never quite the same. 30 or so other varieties in this tank and they all spread like weeds (although most were very slow to start), so I don't really think it's a environmental issue, .. just some adapt better or worse than others...

Ive had the same things happen. Some seem to take off and do well, some seem to take off then wither away and one just didnt do well from the get go. Wonder if it is related in any way to RTN in sps?

I lost these RPEs slowly over about three months Didnt seem yo do well right from the start. Tried them everywhere in the tank.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP0559.jpg

These two both started off well, then quickly crashed.:cry:
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP0556.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP0604.jpg


One thing I noticed with a couple of my colonies. For about a week or so they would look bad and I would think, aw crap not another one crashin, but then they would open back up and I could swear that the polyps multiplied. Ever see that? Or is it just my imagination?

Doug.

.

I didnt end up with the scopas but the regal is in my qt right now. Wish I had more cash when I went to see him but my truck just swallowed $1400 so money was kinda tight. The regal looks to be in fantastic shape ,ate the same night I brought it home and didnt get ichy. Will probably give it another week in the qt. I know some may say that two weeks isnt a long enough qt period, but I think its hard on fish like tangs to be in a small tank for any length of time. It is showing the same signs that the kole tang did when it was in qt; very skittish and and nervous. At least the regal is eating, not like the kole.


Doug.

I was going through the some 900 pics I have in my photo bucket account and thought I would do another round of growth pics.

orange digitata
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP0488.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP0926.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1360.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1447.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2155.jpg
green digitata
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP0862.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o.../IMGP0925a.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1450.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1558.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2039.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2208.jpg

and more

hydnophora rigata
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP0573.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1201.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1878.jpg
green cap
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1333.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2133.jpg
tri colour acro
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1833.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP1842.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2064.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2065.jpg

I decided that the ugly, power sucking, non adjustable seio power head had to go. So I replaced it with another koralia 4. So in the tank now are; 2- K4s @1200gph each, 1- K3 @850gph, 1- K2 @600gph and a conservative 700gph from the return. Thats a total of 4550gph for 43.5 Xs turnover. Hold on fishies!!!

Big ugly and bulky for sure, but I thought Seio's were otherwise fairly low wattage? Or is it just you get better gph per watt out of the Koralia's?

Looks great! Now I want to head back up north to get more SPS!

The growth photos look really great. What is the time lapse between them?

Tony, the seio is rated @ 820gph @18w. The koralia 4 is rated 1200gph @12w. So the choice was easy, plus there is the whole mounting option thing.


Caterine, the digitatas sequence is over about 10 months. Might be more impressive if I could manage to stop accidentally fragging it:redface:. Still having PE issues with it. Great color, good growth but no PE(like in the first couple pics). The cap is about 5 months growth and the tri colour I just got at the last frag swap, what three months ago? The tri color shocked me a little, you dont notice until you start looking through old pics. I notice the change in colour but the growth surprised me.

The regal tang I had in qt went into the display a few days ago and seems to have settled in nicely. There was no issues at all between the resident kole and the newbie. I also lucked out and got a big arse black crab out of the tank when I removed a rock to frag some green monti cap for a fellow canreefer. Sounds silly but I was giddy about it for the rest of the day. Another thing I am giddy about is the new "ultra man" monti I got from Drew( Thanks again).

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2289.jpg

Actinic
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2292.jpg

I know how you feel! Yesterday I found my pistol shrimp had taken out a hitchhiker crab and was desperately trying to drag it's carcass back into his rock. Put me in a good mood all day:mrgreen:

The monti looks awesome! How long has it been in your tank?

The monti just went in on saturday. Drew says it crazy orange so I expect once it settles in it will be pretty nice.

I did a water change a couple days ago and things were looking pretty happy, so I snaped a few pics just before lights out.

Acan
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2294.jpg
Blasto
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2295.jpg
Candycane
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2298.jpg
Mille & company
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2299.jpg

so after reading a couple recent threads, I have re-thought my lighting decision. The threads about solar lighting and the new LED light link have got me worried about the cost of running three 250w mhs and the cost to run a chiller for the tank( the tank hit 87at one point this summer with its present lighting). I have decided to go with two tek 36" 6x39w T5s up front and my two hagen 24" 2x24w in the back. Of course now Im worried that my sps will suffer because of this. Soooooo I figured I would add a couple more sps colonies( good logic eh?)and the infamous blue zoas.I put them beside the green ones for a color reference.I also added a wee small tuxedo urchin. He is about the size of a cherry tomato now.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2312.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2313.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2314.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2315.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2310.jpg

I'll try and make it over one night this week Doug... Try and get some photos for you. :)

Wow those blues and green (zoos) look really sharp on their own, never mind the wicked contrast putting them side by side like that. Me like!!