kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[kien]

[Argentiner]

wow, Kien. Just saw your thread. So sorry to hear about the SPS losses. Your tank has always been one of my favorites, even though I've never seen it in person. On a plus side, wow I love the fish you have. Those anthias are awesome. Glad your trekking on with it.

I left for a weekend and lost a football sized colony of blue polyped pink birdsnest a while back for no apparent reason as well. Broke off a few frags before it totally died and the frags have been doing well for me. The colony was about a year and a half old.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sorry to hear about your losses, but for many of the SPS fanatics locally in the Lower Mainland, last year was a brutal year for SPS.

On the plus side, both your tanks still look spectacular as usual, even if less full of corals. Keep up the good fight. Looking forward to seeing more beautiful pics of these gorgeous tanks.

Anthony

[Rbacchiega]

Fox Coral has always been one of my faves....goregous tanks!

[ElGuappo]

sorry to hear about all the issues.. i am a little behind apparently.. also you mentioned one reef and one fowlr tank, can i see some pics of the fowlr tank ??? this looks more like two reefs to me.... yes see triggers and large angels in there but its hardly a FOWLR!

edit:: um just read the title and never mind....

Originally Posted by kien

As you can see the Reef is still here, the FOWLR is still here and we're back on track.





So what the heck happened? Who the heck knows. Maybe SPS chemical warfare that reached a critical mass, maybe some sort of pathogen like a virus or protozoan. All I know is, whatever it was, it helped to clear much needed reef real estate for me to buy more corals

[kien]

Originally Posted by Argentiner

On a plus side, wow I love the fish you have. Those anthias are awesome.

Thanks! My fish definitely helped get through the tough times. When everything else was looking like crap they just kept on swimming :-D

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

On the plus side, both your tanks still look spectacular as usual, even if less full of corals. Keep up the good fight. Looking forward to seeing more beautiful pics of these gorgeous tanks.

thanks!! Ya the past year has been tough on a few tanks around here.. like I said, the "Event" has cleared up a lot of space that I'm starting to fill in now which is a lot of fun. In it to win it!

Originally Posted by Rbacchiega

Fox Coral has always been one of my faves....goregous tanks!

The Fox Coral was the first coral I ever got for my first saltwater tank eons ago. Sadly it did not do too well but for the time that it was in that tank it helped to solidify my love of the hobby

Originally Posted by ElGuappo

this looks more like two reefs to me.... yes see triggers and large angels in there but its hardly a FOWLR!

edit:: um just read the title and never mind....

You are right though, I need to stop kidding myself as that ain't no FOWLR. I intended for it to be a FOWLR so I always refer to it as the "FOWLR". However, corals somehow manged to creep in there

[kien]

In early July I ordered one of them fancy schmancy new Hanna phosphate checkers. I ended up using it quite a but during the "event" that ripped through the tank as I frantically checked all my parameters pretty much every other day. I have to say it is pretty slick. I wish ALL test kits were like this!





This is what you get in the box..



The checker itself, two test tubes, a stack of 4 (maybe 5 - i forget exactly) regents, AA battery. NOTE: The blue box to the left was an extra box of regent that I purchased. It does not come with it!

It is quite simple to use. First you fill both tubes with tank water. You then empty one packet of regent into one of the tubes and gently stir/mix.



The instructions say to wait 3 minutes before checking the tube with the regent in it. At about the 2.5 minute mark I turn on the checker by pressing the button. It'll display "Add Press C.1" once it is ready for you to insert the tube that only contains the tank water.



Once the tube is inserted press the button. The Phosphate Checker uses this sample as sort of a zero calibration. Once it is ready it will display "Add Press C.2".



This is when you take out the water only tube and insert the tube that has the regent in it. Then press the button again. In a pretty short amount of time (like a few seconds), it gives you a reading. voila!



Nice and simple. I do have two gripes about it though. 1. I find the openning of the test tube small and tricky to get all the regent out of the packet and into the tube. There may have been some spillage so I had to do a couple of tests 2. The display only stays on for a few seconds. After that it completely shuts off. If you press the button again it starts from scratch which means it expects you to put the water-only tube back in for calibration. Mildly annoying when you're trying to line it up for a photo shoot.

[Zoaelite]

Kien your photos are too good, the quality is actully burning my retnias and making me feel inadiquite in all of my posts !!

Tanks are looking wonderful as always buddy!

[kien]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

Kien your photos are too good, the quality is actully burning my retnias and making me feel inadiquite in all of my posts !!

Tanks are looking wonderful as always buddy!

What's that? You want to see more pictures? Okay!

Nori time is a great time to see ALL the fish at once. No one can resist Nori on a stick!










Sadly this does not work in the 131g aggressive tank since most of the fish in there have sworn off Nori for some reason. A scallop or clam on a stick maybe. I'll have to try that.

[kien]

Hopefully I don't jinx myself.. but I think the "event" is behind me now. Corals are all looking good, growth is back on track and colours are returning.

This is a "skyberry" stag which is normally a baby blue that had completely browned out during the event. As you can see it has regained much of its colour.



I've also put in some new frags to see how they faired and they have all done well.