That Pectina is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen. I don't know why people bother with SPS when stuff like that is available :mrgreen:

Mine's usually puffier. It's been mad since I fragged it (again). Yours grows faster though - I think you said you feed yours? I don't feed mine.

:lol: That's why it gets to stay in my SPS tank. ;)

I feed mine pretty regularly. NE LPS pellets and PE mysis & brine shrimp.

Goes to show it works! :D I fed mine a few times when it was just a little frag, but not since.

I rearranged the rock a bit to make it more appealing until the corals grow in. The frags on the sand on the right won't be there long. I found a nice shady spot for the Trachy, and it's very happy. The anemone was migrating, so I peeled it off, and banned it to an island. It took the dummy Clowns a full 24 hours to find it even though it was only moved 10". You can see them in the pics hovering around where the anemone was. :lol:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2034.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2030.jpg


I even found a shady spot for the Zoas.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2031.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2032.jpg


Here's the new Desalwii frag.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...030%202015.jpg


The unknown piece (which is probably a second Desalwii, oops)
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%204.jpg


Echinata
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%202.jpg


Lokani (didn't make it)
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%203.jpg

EDIT: Wow, just because I type at 72 wpm doesn't mean I should write a dang novel! Sorry guys! :o

Today it's cold and raining outside. I wanted to get the stand panels cut, but hubby doesn't want to move his old truck out in the rain to make room to do the woodworking. So I decided to tackle the right side rock structure that's been driving me nuts. I spent an hour messing with it and I'm still not content. I think the tallest point of it is too tall and that the right structure looks too much like the left structure. Ugh... :doh: While I was doing that I epoxied 5 frags/mini colonies to the rocks (Hawkins "Echinata", A desalwii, A sarmentosa, A lokani, A insignis) and now I don't think I'll sleep tonight as I worry about Epoxy Tank Brown Freak Out (herein referred to as ETBFO) Episode 2.

I bought a couple of 5' pieces of 1/2" aluminum tube and a tube bender to make a couple light brackets. I bent the first one and it went smooth. I bent the second one and it broke. So I drove halfway across the city to go get another length cut. I bent that one, and broke it too! :frusty: They are closed now until Tuesday, so no light hanger this weekend.

The tank is really starting to color up now, though a few pieces are still struggling. There is noticeable weekly growth too. I started taking photos of every piece on the 1st (or close to) of each month. So I will have some pretty cool growth sequence photos in a year. :D

I picked up a Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker, and my tank reads 0 ppb. :neutral: I've been feeding the fish 3x a day, and lots too. I added a Cleaner Shrimp to help clean up the mess I'm making. I've been allowing my filter pads to sit in the sump for 2 weeks without cleaning. I've been dosing a homemade Sodium nitrate solution to supplement NO3 and the tank has been going through about 0.25 ppm per week. Is the tank "using" the nitrate or is it "processing" the nitrate? I don't know.

The sand bed is driving me nuts. It is Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade, and it's so uniform that it looks fake to me. I have a small bag of Caribsea Super Reef sitting on the table beside the tank right now, and I'm humming and hawing about adding it. What to do? What do you guys think?

The other thing that's driving me nuts is the salt mix I'm using - H2Ocean. As the years roll by it seems the alkalinity slowly gets higher and higher. I tested today's new bucket:

Cal 415 ppm (Salifert)
Alk 9.6 dKH (Salifert)
Mg 1230 ppm (Salifert)

Unfortunately, only Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals, and H2Ocean are available locally. We had Tropic Marin Pro Reef for one batch, but my LFS didn't bring it back in. I tried to convince him to order a pallet of Reefer's Best when it was on sale this summer, but I couldn't pre-sell enough to convince him. So I bought a bottle of Muriatic Acid, and I'm going to lower the H2Ocean's alkalinity. I like to do 50-75% water changes 3-4 times per year, and I can't do that with 9.6 dKH when my tank is 7.0 dKH and full of SPS. :twitch:

Cool new screen! I have a buddy that has a 3D printer and I got him to print me up some custom round screen frame corners to fit into my one-piece eurobrace. I notched a hole in the two back corners to accept the wires for the powerheads. The corners are sweet! These are V1.0, and he's working on improving the design a bit. If anyone else wants some made, send me a PM!

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%202.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%203.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%205.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%204.jpg

Nice job on the screen cover! Looks great!

How is the deswalli colouring up. I was eyeing them up at the lfs you got it from but thought I'd wait to see what yours does.

Thanks!

The Desalwii completely browned out after a few Bayer dips, but is starting to show some color now. All I see is green tips right now - Desalwii shouldn't have green tips. I think it just needs some time to figure out what it's supposed to do. Crazy PE on it though.

On the brighter side, I got the panels for the stand cut, glued, and trimmed up. I just need to fill and sand, and then I can paint them next weekend. It was cold and wet all weekend here, and next weekend is supposed to be nicer - will be warm enough for painting. :) I'm attaching all the panels to the stand with magnets. Hubby wasn't keen on the walnut beer ledge, so for now it will just be gloss dark gray to match the kitchen cabinet bottoms.


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%202.jpg


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...207%202015.jpg

Pretty cool Minder, and looking good. What do you think you should do in regards to the substrate?

Nice work on the skin.
I admire people who can cut straight, something I can't do in wood.

I have a part bag of Super Reef sitting beside the tank - I might add that. It's really chunky. For now I'm just observing and see if I get used to it.

Haha! Two clamps, a 4' level, and a circular saw with a new blade. :)

Ahh
must b the new blade

And expertise

No Red Seal here (but enough work hours to challenge it haha)!

Look who showed up to the party! I heard some clicking, but thought it was one of the Tunzes that needs a new bushing/disc (after about 8 or 9 years I think I can deal with changing a $3 part on it). I didn't normally hear the Tunze clicking unless it was on the controller and it wasn't on the controller. Since adding the sand to the tank I haven't seen any digging in it, so I was sure Mr Clicks was a goner. I looked in the back compartment, but didn't see him (or anything really it's so dark back there). So a couple days ago the clicking was driving me bonkers so I was staring at the Tunze and the "click" sounded and the Tunze didn't do it. So I turn off the return, get my flashlight out, and low and behold there is Mr Clicks! It took me a good 30 minutes to catch him out of the back, but he's now happily digging away in the tank. :D

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...013%202015.jpg



I got some work done on the stand panels. I got distracted doing some painting in the house, and decided I hated the grey color that the designer picked out. So it took me a few days and a few tries, and then I ended up going with the first grey anyway. :rolleyes:

I got 4 coats of paint rolled onto the panels. My work space wasn't big enough to get the corners done too, so that is annoying. The panels should be cured enough by the weekend that I can use a power sander to buff the paint out and then spray a clear coat on it for a nice smooth finish. Hubby said he doesn't want a beer ledge on the stand - he just wants it to have a clean look.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...014%202015.jpg

I finally got a reading on the Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker! 6 ppb (0.006 ppm)! Yay. :lol:

That actually translates to 0.018

The conversion from phosphorus to phosphate for that ULR checker is

3.066 x 6 divided by 1000 = 0.018

Jess is right and faster than my splendid abacus

Well that's what I thought too, but RHF recently said that the checkers actually both check phosphate, and that Hanna just calls the ULR "phosphorus" to make it easier to differentiate. I'm going to have to go find that comment from him...oh boy this might take awhile.

Ok, actually that ended up being really simple...however, I didn't really continue reading beyond that part where he goes into the math of it. Thanks for the correction guys! It looks like I am right around the accuracy level of the checker, so I still just have a tiny "sniff", but at least I have something!

+1 - I have some mad envy going on right now.

I had some fun taking macros this morning. :)

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%206.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%207.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2013.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2010.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2016.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2025.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2029.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2032.jpg

Here are a few that might be fun for you guys to try to identify! :D

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2023.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2031.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02015%2049.jpg

Sick photos Myka! Some of the best I've ever seen!

+1 amazing macros...makes me want to go buy a real macro lens...

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

Looking good :)

Space Invader
Ricordea?
Xenia?

Thanks guys! Scott, your first two guesses are right. Third one is not Xenia.

It's a $200 point and shoot, then I cropped the photos. :)

3rd: green nepthea coral ?

No.

Last one is a green Clove polyp?

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

No.

For all you guys interested in some Space Invaders Pectina...I made some frags. Stay tuned!!! :D

:eek:

3rd pic Kenya tree?

Not a Kenya Tree.

I like this game!

3rd pic gorg?

So close! Be more specific. :)

Diodogorgia Nodulifera?

Or

Corky finger

Nope. It's a tricky pic because of the way it's growing.

Trouble in paradise...

Sept 18th:
Cal 425 ppm (S)
Alk 7.9 dKH (H)
NO3 0.25 ppm (RS)
PO4 7 ppb, 0.21 ppm (H)

The rest of September I'm focusing on NO3 and PO4 trying to get nutrients up. I have been pouring food into the tank trying to raise nutrients with no effect. I've been adding 4 spoons Coral Frenzy + 5 mL Fauna Marin Ultra Organic one day then the next I add 3 mL Pohl's Xtra + 1/4 tsp Oyster Feast + 5 mL AcroPower. Plus I've been feeding the fish 2-3 times per day as much as they will forcefully eat.

I took all those macro shots on Sept 25th (on pg 14), and during that time I noticed the fans in the ATI fixture weren't working and the fixture was auto-dimming, so I lay a room fan on it to keep it cool. Two days later many of the corals were quite bleached and I realize that the fixture must have been auto-dimming a lot for quite some time (maybe day one??). I turn off all the whites and have been running only the two blues at 80% ever since.

I noticed some burned/receding tips at the end of September and figure it was because I burned the corals with the suddenly brighter lighting, but I want to double check alkalinity so I check parameters.

Sept 29:
Cal 420
Alk 7.5
NO3 1 ppm (from NaNO3 dosing)

Oct 5th the burned tips are getting worse, so I check again and alk is 9.75, I check twice with two different kits. I stop the kalk doser. I had started adding vinegar back into the kalk (which makes it more saturated) which must be the cause of the spike, but I started the vinegar Sept 21 and the burned tips showed up around Sept 25th and the alk spike wasn't until after the 29th testing.

So I'm scratching my head here. Was it the vinegar?? Works out to about 11 mL per day I was dosing into about 80 gallons volume. I was dosing kalk+vinegar from day one, and stopped the vinegar Aug 14th, then re-started Sept 21.

Oct 7th I check alk again and it's still at 9.75 despite removing the kalk doser, so the tank had completely stopped using alk. I also note that pH is 7.4 without the kalk dosing, and I couldn't raise it by providing outside air. At this point I have about 25% of the SPS affected with burned tips.

Over Oct 7-9th I add 15 mL muriatic acid to the sump over 3 doses. This has no further affect on the pH, but does bring alk back down to 7.8. Currently, kalk doser has been offline since Oct 5th, and I haven't dosed any alk in the whole month.

All the corals showing the burned tips around the end of Sept progressed into complete loss from the tips down. I pulled out about a dozen pieces. The STN has spread to more and more corals since - I have about 80% of the SPS affected by mid-October. My clam started gaping mid-October and perished 2 days later. I was worried that I may be looking at a total loss. My rainbow Trachy, anemone, and all softies were unaffected.

October 17th and 18th I did 17-gallon water changes, put a bag of carbon in, and promptly left the city for 10 days. :D I came back to one more piece gone, but the rest look on the mend. Today I did another 17-gallon water change. My favorite pieces made it, but I ended up with about 50% loss all because of the perfect storm. :twised: