Brett. Yes, those 2. I didn't think I ever fragged smooth blue. You probably have the only ones I've fragged then. Sweet that you still have em.

The blue is really awesome in the growth tips. I never had any until recently! And yeah I was oogling the coral and you just reached in and popped a piece off for me =)

I found a newer shot but still from before it started growing:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/97/easter32.jpg

It was attached to the long green 'stache' coral from Kien that never branched. I unmounted their shared rock from my scape, sheared the rock in half to isolate them and both are exploding in growth now on the sandbed?!

I definitly would like a frag of each of them dez, very shinny:biggrin:

Save me some cool stuff please!!! I bagged up some negative space for you... I'll bring it down in trade! HAHAHA!!

We'll be coming through Edmonton on the way to vacation land next weekend, and then back through on the 20th... Hopefully that will work for you and we can swing in for a stop off!

There are lots to go around Johnny :). Hopefully I'll be around on the 20th. My yard work is keeping me in town these days. See you soon.

Just a picture of my skimmer goo.....yuck. When I empty my remote skimmer waste collector in the basement, my wife can smell it upstairs. Although in a twisted kind of way, I find it quite satisfying scooping that skimmer poo with my bare hands.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1312086155

I'm been forbidden from cleaning the skimmer while my wife is home!

When I take the collection cup off, I get to clean it in the kitchen sink and I garburate the stuff :biggrin:

Just add a little bit of diced smoked ham to this simmering split pea and VOILA green slit pea and smoked ham soup YUM:biggrin:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1312086155[/quote]

that looks finger lickin' good :)

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

thats disgusting Dez...........but I like it!!!:mrgreen:

Thats alot of poo. Gross. LOL.

Same here, did both of my skimmers today when the wife went to the store.


Again only when the boss is gone & have to make sure the sink is spotless when she returns.

That has to be one of the nastiest nogShots I've ever seen. That's obviously a compliment =)

looks like the guacamole I made last night.

I'll trade you any day Kien.

Wow!!!
 

I finally read each and every update since day 1 of Dez's build, and I was left speechless. It only took about a week and a half to catch up to the present time, and I feel like Marty McFly (Back to the Future). This has been an amazing journey from the get-go, I am very envious of your tank Dez! I am only allowed to keep a BC29, as I live in a condo in Vancouver. Although I convinced my wife to let me get a Skimz Ibox for my 3 year old daughter, like most people, it all started with Finding Nemo, haha! My wife said something very aspiring yesterday at the Vancouver Aquarium, she said I could have a bigger tank if we had a house, the first thing that came to mind was YOUR tank! I am trying to follow in your footsteps with the Zeo dosing, I've learned a LOT from reading this whole build! However, I'm on a tiny tiny scale compared to your tank, haha! I only dream of growth like you've experienced! I have a LONG way to go before my little nano BC29 see's any major growth. I switched to LED's about 2 months after getting the BC29, and have been experimenting with SPS, so far I'm experiencing good growth with a blue tipped acro, pink birdsnest, green birdsnest. I've been on a clam obsession lately though, 2 crocea's, 2 derasa's, and now 1 ultra blue maxima (bought 3, however only 1 made it). Anyways, back to your tank, please keep updating, and I'll keep aspiring to follow in your footsteps!

im actually kind of jealous... wish i got skim like that

reminds me of a night of hard drinking

The skimmer didn't fall 8 feet onto concrete though :razz:.

Your skimmate photo certainly didn't help my hang over this morning Dez... Tanks looking amazing as usual!

Thanks for the encouraging comments. It was through other people's tank journals that I've learned. Key thing is to be patient in this hobby. I am experiencing problems now because of my lack of patience at the beginning and getting too many frags. Now I have to remove large colonies and it's quite difficult at times. Find a system that suits your lifestyle and stick with it, only change it if it isn't working. It took me 4-5 years to plan this tank before I even started building it....be patient and start planning your big tank now :).

Hey Dez... I (and I'm sure many others) are curious as to what's going on with your tank buddy. How's it going? You get everything all figured out?

Yeah, I'm still here. I've been fighting cyan0 for a while now. I had it really bad , plus all summer I was working on my backyard and neglecting the tank. I have over the last 6 months or so have been selling off colonies. It was too much of a forest in there and the stuff underneath the forest wasn't getting light and losing colour. My flow was definitely impeded probably triggering the cyano. Out of the dozen colonies that I sold off, most of them barely fit into a 5 gallon pail. It was hard for me to sell them off and bring them to the lfs, but it was needed for my tank to have a future. Up until a couple of months ago, there were a few colonies that were about an 1" or 2" away from the surface of the water. I have since lowered them and rearranged so that they have room to grow. The corals are continuing to colour up again now that they can see the light and for some reasons my monti's are growing like mad compared to the other corals. Here's a FTS from 5 mins ago, you can see that ugly cyano, but it was way worse before. I've also had to sell of 3 clams as they were touching the glass and corals were growing into them.

Warning - CRAPPY CELL PHONE PICS

Office side (That Green Stag on the left was at the water surface 2 weeks ago, I got rid of some coral to make room and lower/trimmed it a bit)
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_3088.jpg

Living room side
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_3087.jpg

Hey Dez your corals still look great! Are you still running those LEDs? Since I put up mine I too have been getting some algae on the sandbed. I think it's due to the lights. But after reading what you posted about the flow that might also be a factor. Alot of my corals have grown alot and I dont really seem to get the undertow anymore on the sandbed. Is this hijacking? Sorry if it is.

I couldn't stand the fan noise of those LEDs so I sold them and DIY'ed some of my own and am running 3 AI sols. Have been running the Sols since July. Found a couple used ones and bought one new one. I've been slowly doing weekly siphons and it seems to help. I shouldn't have ignored the cyano that long, but had to get outside work done while it was warm outside.

Here's a couple of shots from 5 mins ago. Man, this is the first time I've tried to take top down pics with LEDs and it is darn near impossible. It fools the camera into thinking everything is blue, so these are all with flash.

Snappy's Super grape Mili grown from a 3/4" frag. To the left of it is my Saltynuts acro. I sold the entire colony which barely fit in a 5 gal pail and it's growing back now. I snapped it off at the base when I sold the colony, it was almost at the water's surface.
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PB140021.jpg

Pink Pocci and Green Mili
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PB140022.jpg

Frost polyps acro (originally from Lobsterboy), that purple one was a tiny brown frag, and the teal one is a grow back of a colony that I sold as well.
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PB140024.jpg

Montipora Spongides from Snappy (grown from a 1.5" frag)
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PB140026.jpg

One of my original corals - humilus (slow grower)
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PB140028.jpg

I wish my tank would look half as nice as your tank when it's "crappy" like this! :p

Very jealous man. Nice colonies and great colours and good overall health of the corals themselves. I'm sure in time things will bounce back up too, esp. now that it's winter and we'll all (presumably) spending more time indoors and stuff..

I've been battling with a cyano problem with a month now and have finally found a way to get rid of it. Put a filter sock on the drain and scrub everything while having all power heads on full. And cleaning sock every 30 min.
Also used a power head to blow off all buildup on rocks.

No cyano for 3 days now

supergrape looks awesome man. I mounted all my corals so close together and unfortunately the supergrape I got from you has been light-starved for ages. Just has to survive a little longer and then I'll be happy to colour it up half that nice.

Besides the fans... did you feel the 1w LEDs were cutting it?

You're describing my current rock-curing regimen to a T =) I am using a very fine mesh bag and it requires a cleaning several times a day but it's paying off. I also use a long hose with an mj1200 on the end of it... stuffed right into the sock so you can calmly vacuum as long as you want. Be good for cyano removal too.

So how many leds would u say u are running equivalent to 5 ai sol fixtures? What spectrum are you running the leds on?

She still looks really good Dez!! Must be nice to have a green thumb with this stuff!!

Thanks Johnny, it definitely isn't the same as it's "glory" days. Soon the cyano will be gone and I'll like it again. Now that winter is here, I'll probably look at it more - meaning I'll take better care of it.

I have 360 watts total now (I used to run 1178 watts - when I was running halides/T5s). I basically got rid of my T5's and diy-ed 5ft leds. I have no idea what spectrum I'm running them at. I personally find the SOLs way too blue, so I think my whites are at 65% and the blues are at 35%. And on my Diys I have a 1:1 ratio of cool whites/royal blue (no reflectors).

So you bought the ai sol super blues then, I have been on the fence on switching over. Was thinking 3 blues and 2 white modules. Finally got around to ordering a par meter so i am going to be doing some of my own tests on a few fixtures.

Yeah found 2 of them used and bought one new (before the price drop *"!%$^). I've been on LEDs since March 1, so not quite a year but everything is still growing. My frag tank is lit with LEDs as well and frags still encrust and get new growth tips so LEDs will definitely do the trick. Now I just have to figure out how to cut down my 1.5 hp of pumps on my pond....ha ha. I save on the aquarium but then double or triple or quadruple the power to run my pond. Oh well, that's what hobbies are for though, throwing your money at it.

What's your plan for the Cyano Dez? Chemi clean? Or some less effective, non-cheating route?

I too ordered up Sol Blues... going to be running 4 on my tank, and I can't wait. I sure wish that I would have made the choice before I JUST bought my t5s. lol... oh well, money grows on trees, right??? I just need to find that damn tree!

It's been better lately, last 2 water changes I've been plain old siphoning it out. So if I keep that up it should go away. I replaced my RO/DI filters too. I tried GFO - won't ever do that again. Bleached all the tips of my coral (1/2 lb in a mesh bag in the sump passively).

Wow... I run gfo actively all the time. Have been since way back when when my corals were all brown and wouldn't grow. I've never had burnt or bleached corals. I actually just started using more last month and no bad effects... And that's with full zeo. It's good to hear that things are looking up for you. I half expected your next update to be all softies from the way that you were selling colonies.

Still running zeo? Running gfo with zeovit is one of the worst things you can do. I wonder if the leds have anything to do i have heard from a few people with the leds that they are getting cayno.

steve runs gfo with zeo