40 breeder reef

[xlzerolx]

I changed the intake of the overflow to this:

I used a 'T' pvc fitting to allow more air in. This fixed the gurgling noise problem when i had the vortech on short pulse and making waves. It used to gurgle a lot when the pump was in this mode. I figured it needed an air escape while draining, and it seems to have worked. The intake part (i.e 'T' fitting or 90 elbow whichever you choose to use) does not need to be cemented onto the rest of the pvc overflow. It's easy to switch around and experiment with.

[xlzerolx]

Been slacking on updates.
Moved the corals into the tank:
This is when they were first moved over

Front/main view:


side view


back view


angled top view:



Keep in mind this is a peninsula style tank

3 days ago the dosing timer for alk f***ed up and got stuck on for half an hour. my alk level's went from 3.7 to 4.75 meq/L. Luckily the corals didn't mind the sharp change at all. Did a water change as soon a i saw the tank go milky white. Later I learned it was not necessary. A few hours later the tank water was clear. But it looked like it just snowed everywhere in the tank.



Right now I'm just dosing calcium until the alk levels come down naturally. The white precipitate on the bare bottom is slowly disappearing. It actually looked pretty nice lol. Maybe i'll change the black paper underneath the the glass bottom to white

The birds nests are showing white tips already... they really are super fast growers O.o. Didn't even grow this fast in the 10 gallon

[xlzerolx]

Not much to report except i've been dosing just the calcium part of the 2 part until the container it's in reaches the same level as the alk one that overdosed.
I guess a few closeups of the corals.
***Warning*** they are in bad shape from the move and the holding tank they were in before putting them in here. If you are offended by baldness, bleaching and browning in corals do not look any further :P They are slowly recovering! *crosses fingers*

Green monti cap browning now... but has some crazy growth (whitish tips):


Birdsnests which seem to be coming back with a vengeance:


The second one is supposed to be hot pink Right now it's orange.

Purple polyped green monti. Another one making a comeback. It's base was completely white. It's getting green again. Hopefully it'll be bright green soon. Yellow stag on top.


Green slimer.It's got those crazy long polyps at the tips and is very hairy... reminds me of a millipora. It started STN'n at the base so i had to frag it before putting it in. this piece here is the worst one. I decided to leave the dead part of it in to see if it would recover.


Candy cane and encrusting montipora.


A chalice in bad shape


Rics


purple tip brown polyp monti.


This one came as a bonus frag when I ordered sps for my 10 gallon. It's supposed to be a "sky blue" stag..... we'll see


And the backside-front view, looks askew cos of the angle


Most of these corals were hit hard when I went on vacation for a week and asked my roomate to take care of the 10 gallon a few months ago.... the light timer got stuck on for at least 30 hours.... the ATO was all screwed up... and then there was the move..... I'm lucky that some of these corals are still here

[xlzerolx]

All caught up! Now everything is up to date

[the marine apprentice]

wow thats looking pretty nice. i like the way you did your rock work. and that light looks as though it pounds pretty good too

[xlzerolx]

Well I decided to move my light fixture 2-3inches lower than it was and had it there for the past 2 weeks

DEATH



DECAY
So anyway... after seeing this the light is now 12 inches above the water line.


ENCRUSTING
This is the tri-colour i had in my 10 gallon that started dying off i fragged the remaining tips and glued them to the highest platform. the bases have encrusted which was quite a surprise to me.



Some of the monti caps continue to encrust.. Here's one of them:


GROWTH



FTS


So this is approximately a 1 month update. I have been dosing vodka. (0.5 ml) every day, and one capful of MB7 every week. The red slime algae has completely dissappeared. I can only attribute that to the MB7. It just dissappeared on the third day of using it. I didin't have a lot but it was forming long strands and was getting quite annoying to look at.
The purple polyped monti and green slimer were doing great until about a week ago. I'm pretty sure it was because i moved the light a few inches lower . The greem monti cap on the top has shown no signs of colouring up either. So now the light is now 12 inches above the surface and hoping that the slimer will bounce back.
I was struggling to keep my calcium levels up. It's been at 380 since I setup the tank. Which led me to believe i was low on magnesium. I have been using Instant ocean salt (not reef crystals.)... and it has to be the crappiest salt out there to use for a reef. Every time I mixed it I'd get brown hard residue and stuff on the side of my bucket that looked and felt like hard brown algae. I just got fed up of this a week ago and ordered a magnesium test kit and seachem reef salt which was delivered today. I tested my water for mag and it was at 1200. This was also after I dosed epsom salts do bring mag levels up. I didn't measure what it was before i just dosed according to what other people were saying their mag readings were at by looking at various forum threads of people complaining about instant ocean salt. I dosed approximately enough to bring it up by 300 ppm. The seachem is now mixing in a bucket and the next water change will be done using the new salt. Hopefully I will have my parameters up to good levels by the end of the month.

[xlzerolx]

So I ended up using all six bulbs in the ATI again and dropping the fixture about 6 inches from the surface ofthe water. I think the result is quite good so far. I was afraid of bleaching the corals, but moving the fixture lower seems to have improved things. I did some moving of stuff around in the tank. Stopped dosing calcium for now.
Added a sixline wrasse a 3 weeks ago (?) and a elegance (was an impulse buy) and it was in bad shape when i bought it, let's see how it does in the tank. THe birds nest has really pinked up

Anyway here are some shots