Just an update:

I seem to have ****ed off a few of my corals. I lost a frag recently and stressed a few mature corals out. I don't knwo what i have done differently then before but i have stressed a lot of the corals out and stoped the growth. I am going to stop dosing everything except cal/mag/alk and do some water changes which i havent done in a while. Hopefully it will make a difference.

New tank shots taken with my iphone so the quality isnt the best. i have moved a few corals around and fragged up my large bali green slimmer because it started to look like crap after my DKH got uo to 11. As always questions and comments are encouraged.



Full tank shots:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st021.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st024.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st023.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st022.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st014.jpg


Zoanthids growing like grass:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st030.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st029.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st028.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st027.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st025.jpg


Tricolor acro growing from a frag:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...une21st026.jpg

Great color!

can i steal your tank! wow! beautiful!

That's all I have ever used for the last 2 years and have never had an issue... I have 3 tanks and one is a 1.2gallon pico so that's the most finicky.

What a colourfull tank. I love the variety and beauty of it. When and what do you feed. I would like to know what you think makes your zoa's so happy and grow so healthy. Do you see them retract after feeding certain things. Understanding that your parameters, water and lighting are so good are you feeding anything that you feel really makes a difference ? You have amazing growth. Inspiring !!

Hounestly, I have been keeping zoanthids and palys for about 6 years now and i have never in my life seen a zoanthid eat anything. I do notice palys eating when small pellets fall on them and i have feed the large red palys in my tank on occasion. I feed the fish mostly NLS pellets and a green veggie flake. About every second day I will add a very small pinch of coral frenzy into the display tank to feed the sps corals and I guess some of the zoas and palys might absorb some of it. zoanthids in my tank literally grow daily I barely have any rock left uncovered. I think decent water quality and lighting helps but also mounting them in area where they are likely to spread and not touching them helps a lot. I also find mounting them on smooth rock or something that allows them to spread like lava because they bud off of each other.

Thank you to all of the other comments. I have been trying to reduce the number of colonies i have and just let some of them grow into large mature colonies. I saw a tank a while back called "stag forest" and it had 2 or 3 massive acros filling a 100g tank and it looked amazing.

you should keep an acro of every color.

so your best green , best blue, etc. Vary the texture as well.

Tank looks amazing man - well done - I hope my tank looks half as good as yours in the near future.

Can you tell us your exact feeding regime (food and quanity?)

Wow beautiful tank. The colors and coral placement is perfect.

I feed once or twice a day a mix of pellets and veggies flakes. It’s hard to tell in the picture but there are 13 fish in the tank so i am bit overstocked. It could be all of their crap that helps with the sps and zoanthid growth rates.

I use to spot feed the sps corals rotifers and coral frenzy once a week. Now I am a bit lazier and I only feed the corals a small pinch of coral frenzy directly into the display tank every second day. Also every second day i add two drops of KZ coral vitalizer.

I do not do water changes unless something goes wrong in my tank such as corals looking stressed or pale, etc. In the year that the tank has been set up in its new location I might have changed out 20g of water lol. I do have a good skimmer and I use filter floss to mechanically remove dirtrius which I stir up in the display with a turkey baster once or twice a week. I have tried both tap and RO water and I notice no difference with either. If you have any more question feel free to ask i enjoy it.

God I love this tank... I can't wait to see even more pics. Wish you had a macro lense for close up shots of all your sps.

Thanks A lot nebthet. I will see if I can borrow a Dslr with a macro lens again. Its been a while since I used a Dslr and taken some decent quality pictures. If I am correct last time i checked your tank looks like it has cleaned up and went on a growth spurt. Good job with your tank and I look forward to seeing an update on here.

I'm going to have a lot of fish in my little tank but i figure my heavily over-rated skimmer + lots of flow will keep all the crap in the water column for the corals to take advantage of. Going to have 5 shrimp and about 10 fish. I work from home two days a week so i think i'll squeeze in a couple water changes weekly just in case. :biggrin:

wow your tank is stunning!!

Great work man, not sure if it's been asked yet, but what is your dosing regime like? do you run 2 part with a dosing pump?

once your tank gets stable the natural filtration should take care of the high bioload. your tank will tell you when you are feeding to much with algae growth, then just cut back. you could also try using a carbon source to drive bacterial growth if your nutrients become to much to handle.

I make up my own 3 part. In 1 gallon jugs I mix the following:

1gallon 3 once of kent turbo calcium
1gallon 4 once of baked baking soda
1gallon 6 once of mag cholride

I dose the calcium and alk in the mornings in equal parts. I have a very high demand so i go through a lot of it. A one gallon jug of cal or alk last me about a week. At the end of the week I test the levels to make sure they are in line. If they are a bit high then I will cut back a bit and if they are two low I will dose a bit more. I try to keep my alk at 8DKH and my calcium at 420ppm.

I am not as strict with magnesium, I dose it randomly and a rarely test it. The corals are not as sensitive to magnesium levels. I aim for 1300ppm but anywhere from 1100-1500ppm will keep them happy.

tank looks awesome man!

Simply stunning sir! Those red plays are wicked looking, have any macro shots with the day lights on?

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

Alright, you ask and you shall receive. I borrowed a DSLR and a few different lenses and took a bunch of pictures. I don’t have much camera skills but these are some of the better ones. I should have used a tripod for the macro lens. The pictures were coming out blurring because I couldn’t stay still lol. I think a few of them turned out amazing so i hope you enjoy.

Full tank shots:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/127.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/128.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/154.jpg

Sps coral shots:

This is my favourite pictures and it makes and amazing desktop background, just try it and see.
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...henz/062-1.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/116.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...henz/061-1.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/037.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/036.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...henz/059-1.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...henz/111-1.png
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/114.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/120.jpg

Zoanthid / Palythoa and Hammer corals:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/068.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/041.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/028.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/109.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/111.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/112.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/222.png

I could not get a good picture becuase of the placement of some of my nicest zoanthids, including my orange colony with green skirts and two different pink colonies.

Nice shots.. thanks... Those digis are looking really good now. How many different colors of them do you have? three?

Time to move that sponge away from those zoas though if it is bugging them.

Keep up the great work.

and yes.. my tank had been growing, but it slowed down a lot the last few months as a bulb change was nearing, and I had to fix water conditions because the tank didn't take well to using zeovit food.

Neb,

I have 5 digis. Dark green, light green, red, reddish orange, and purple which is more like brown. Most of them are hiding in behind corals or against the back wall.

There sure is a whole lot of AWESOME going on in that there little tank :-D

Chris you have a looking tank there

Here is an update with my reef. I sold 3 colonies and multiple frags to make room for more growth and a slight coral rearrangement. I like the layout of it better already but I think I may have to sell a few more to make room for some more vibrant pieces. I am really trying to reduce the amount of colonies I have and aim for a more mature reef with a few contrasting colors. Let me know what you think of the pictures.

Full tanks shots:

Before!!!
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/154.jpg

After!!!
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/077.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/076.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/078.jpg


Coral shots:

Fastest growing coral I have now, I grew this from a lighter sized frag 7 months ago

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...z/IMG_0203.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...z/IMG_0207.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...z/IMG_0206.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...z/IMG_0202.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...z/IMG_0199.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/079.jpg

With flash!!!

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...z/IMG_0200.jpg

looks great......

tank is looking beautiful man soon time for an upgrade to something bigger eh theyll be growing over the top in no time lol stunning!!:)

Here are a few new shots of my reef. I sold another Mille and a few other frags. I have been removing so many corals but the tank still is crowded. I am thinking of getting rid of the big stag in the top middle left of the tank. It has browned a bit and only the tips are blue.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...ishenz/001.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g002.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g003.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g004.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g005.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g006.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g007.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g008.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g009.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g010.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g011.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...shenz/g012.jpg

Awesome looking tank. You need to upgrade :mrgreen:

Great looking tank!:biggrin:

Thanks! I am actually looking now for a larger tank. Its a lot of work because if i upgrade the tank i will need to upgrade the stand, sump, lights, skimmer, etc. I am thinking 90g will suite my needs but i wont it to be only 20 inches deep max.

Looking good Chris!! Let me know if you're getting rid of anything else. My upgrade is up and running (check out my tank journal in my sig)... but it's looking pretty bare. I could use a few pieces. As well, I have a bunch of frags that you may or may not be interested in. Shoot me a message and maybe we can find a time to meet up.

BTW... 90g is too small!! It won't be long after that you're thinking bigger again... and we all know what wives have to say about that kind of thing!! lol You're right though... it's a ton of work! I'm so glad to be in the home stretch.

I upgraded to a 90g (had to sell due to a move and new house not being ready, I'm currently homeless) and all I could think was that 18" wasn't wide enough and 4 feet wasn't long enough. My new tank will be 24" wide minimum and as close to 6 feet as my space allocated will allow. The width was what really bothered me though.

Love the tank, looks awesome everytime I see an update

Simply photo quality tank.
I love it :thumb:

Replacing some of those koralias with vortechs might give him a few more inches/months in the tank LOL. Really unique look and super sweet colonies I dig!

I recently upgraded the flow. I had one koralia 3 and and one k2, plus the flow from my returns. I got rid of the K2 and upgraded to 2 k3's. I havent noticed anything in regards to increase growth or color and its been about 2 months i think. I only upgraded because as the corals grew in the flow is restricted. The only time i really notice ioncreased growth rates is when i spot feed which i havent done in months but used to do all of the time.

i am worried the mp's would cause a sand storm or have to much flow for corals directly in its path.

Lol... I think he's implying that the mp's are significantly smaller!

My bad i took it the wrong way. i thought you meant if i increased the flow more i would have even betetr growth. yeah the K's do shade a large area.