Guess what! UPGRADE TIME

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Dearth

Definitely have some very drool worthy coral there and you made a great comeback after the move and all the issues associated well done Raied

Thanks for the appreciation

[mrhasan]

So it has been 9 days since I started zeovit and the change that I can see is my skimmer is pulling out lot more skimmate than before. Water looks clearer than before too. Haven't checked on nitrate or phosphate but really don't care about those for now since it was undetectable beforehand.

Alongside, I have added two clownfishes (a platinum and a false perc). I am a bit confused about the false perc because it has flared gills. Its not the typical burnt gill, looks more like deformation. Googled a bit and some fishes are born this way. Alongside, it is not very active too while the platinum keeps on running around. I am keeping an eye on it but no sign of sickness yet. It eats too. Any idea anyone?

Anyway, here's some pictures with some techniques I recently learnt about taking aquarium pictures


DSC_9195 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9193 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9190 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9189 by md. raied, on Flickr

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DSC_9171 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9170 by md. raied, on Flickr

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DSC_9159 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9157 by md. raied, on Flickr

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DSC_9150 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9145 by md. raied, on Flickr

[mrhasan]

DSC_9143 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9140 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9139 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9138 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9137 by md. raied, on Flickr

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DSC_9129 by md. raied, on Flickr

DSC_9123 by md. raied, on Flickr


This red plant RTNed to almost nothing but recovered nicely within 2 weeks.
DSC_9117 by md. raied, on Flickr

[Reef Pilot]

Those are very nice pics indeed. What's your secret?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Those are very nice pics indeed. What's your secret?

Thanks

I took some notes from a two part presentation by Felicia McCaulley, the ex photographer of live aquaria. Basically, she suggested to take fish pics with fast shutter and flash and corals pics at a very slow shutter (I took mine with 2' shutter) and very small aperture (f/20) with tripod. Worked like charm I have a flash gun coming in from amazon and that should produce some better shots

[kien]

great pics! Looks like the new camera is doing well for ya!

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by kien

great pics! Looks like the new camera is doing well for ya!

Thanks Kien. Yah my photography is evolving

[mrhasan]

Just an FTS from a noob reefer


FTS by md. raied, on Flickr

[mrhasan]

Well, its been a while since I updated this thread. Just passing busy days since my degree is coming to an end (defense is on 17th Jan, wish me luck ).

Anyway, a lot has happened, both good and bad, regarding the tank:

1. Velvet outbreak:

Well I had a velvet outbreak which caused the following casualties:
Platinum clown (x1)
False perc clown (x1)
Lined chromis (x3)
Blue throat trigger (x1)

I still have the red hawkfish kicking around; its probably got immune to velvet.

2. Nutrient outbreak!

Since so much death occurred in the tank and I could only pull out one clownfish, the remaining was left in care of CUC. Luckily, I didn't get any sort of algae outbreak other than brown film. Did get the nitrate to some really high level along with phosphate. That's probably the reason I am still fighting cyano. Nitrate is now below 5ppm but phosphate is still around 0.1ppm. Hopefully, the zeo will take care of it. I couldn't start zeofood yet (because of high nutrient) so I am a bit off the road with zeo. I did some massive water changes (which lead to another problem) and sucking up as much cyano as I can. It goes away for few days (thins down) and then comes back with rage. I guess I just need to give it some time. Can't use chemiclean since it got an antibiotic which can throw zeovit to the dark side so don't wanna take the risk.

3. H2ocean bad batch!

Well H2ocean is known for its consistency but apparently, I got a batch whose parameters at 1.026:
Ca: 250ppm
Alk: 7dkh
Mg: 750ppm

Well before you start judging my ability to mix the salt at proper level, I had the salt tested at LFS and they also found the same parameters. Before taking it to the lfs, I contacted H2ocean about this lot and they were like "we are 100% confident that you are making some mistakes" and when I informed them that the lot is actually bad since I reconfirmed the results, they didn't reply back My emails were polite BTW, no blame game.

Basically, I used this batch to change 25 gallon of water in my tank (without testing the salt, thinking its H2ocean after all) so caused my ca to drop to 350 and mg to drop to 900ppm. Luckily it was for few hours and I was able to pick up the parameters. Got a new bucket of h2ocean with proper parameters and did a large WC and things are fine now

4. UM BALLING YO!
Yap, I have resorted to full balling now I wasn't particularly happy with 2 part (used to dose c-balance and I was happy with that but became hard to get). I really don't want to start any debate but since I spend a lot of money on what's in the water, I can spend extra $30 every 2 or 3 months to buy an aquarium grade dosing solution I was a bit surprised on how quickly the powders dissolved than 2 parts (possibly due to being purer). I have put a fish street doser to dose the 3 parts. The best thing I found about TM is that, you have to dose equal amount of each solution (the mixtures are concentrated in such a way that equal volume of the solutions will raise the Ca by 12.5 for every 1.75dkh alk: the ratio of ca and alk consumption). Here's a picture of the setup (nothing fancy but works; and I don't have a wife so don't have to care about how things outside the tank looks :P):


2014-01-11 14.36.34 by md. raied, on Flickr


2014-01-11 17.40.15 by md. raied, on Flickr

5. New LIGHT!

I gifted myself with an ATI 6 bulb dimmable T5HO fixture. Hanged it from the wall today using brackets and butterfly anchor and DAMN! That thing is BRIGHT! The reflectors are WOW :O I broke one bulb while trying to take it out from the old fixture so only one channel (4 bulbs) are working and its putting out more light that the 6 bulbs in the old fixture did. Hell lotta light and the colors are popping insane Here's one picture (I will take more once all the bulbs are lighted):


2014-01-12 16.53.53 by md. raied, on Flickr

6. I WON THE GHL PHOTO COMPETITION!
So GHL held this photo competition and I came 4th place and the only submission from Canada to win I was initially at 6th place but the 1st and the 2nd positions cheated and was eliminated so I was bumped up by 2 positions but the voucher was of same value. I have a GHL supplement LED and the driver coming in (yes LED!!!!) to add some shimmer to the tank They even shipped it for FREE Awesome folks back at GHL I was really happy how they communicated (they even took care of the extra that I was suppose to pay for the order). I got a whole new respect for GHL now

So yah, that's all the updates for today; I will try to get some pictures up ASAP