Chris' 50G SPS and Zoanthid Dominated Reef.. NEW PICS NOV 15th - Page 7

chris88 · #61 03-27-2011, 10:53 PM

Thanks! Yeah just plain ol tap water lol. If i had an ro unit set up in my house i would use it for top off but i am way to lazy to truck back in forth filling up water from the grocery store.

Carrera75 · #62 03-28-2011, 02:13 AM

Super awesome looking tank man and the growth in there is amazing. When was the last time you did a water change? I was doing water changes every 6 months or so but I now do them once a month just to mix things up a bit. My corals do very well and there is great growth too.

I used to use tap water for a few years too but have been getting water from Safeway for the last couple of years. Everything did well but there used to be some diatoms on the sand. They went away as soon as I started using water from Safeway. By the way, I have the same size tank but don't run a skimmer and I use MH+T5 combo instead of just T5s.

Cheers

chris88 · #63 03-28-2011, 03:03 AM

I used to do water changes every two weeks on my reef. As time went on i tried to reduce it and found it didnt have any effect on the corals growth or the tanks health. If you look back on the thread you will see my tank before i moved it and the sps corals in there are different then the ones i have now. When i moved the tank it crashed and i lost everything except the two lps corals i have and half my zoas. this tank has been set up since august and there hasnt been a water change on it yet. The skimmer and the filter pads in my sump remove the bulk of the excess nutrients which always me to feed the corals a bit more to help with growth. I do add trace elements and lots of iron, iodine, and potassium. Also i have to dose a ton of calcium, alk, and mag to keep up with the corals demands. Dont get me wrong i am not saying i will never do a water change i am just saying i dont see a need yet. Maybe for spring i will do a big 20% change just to be safe and to replenish some of what i cant test for.

Carrera75 · #64 03-28-2011, 04:05 AM

One more question. Are you happy with the AquaticLife T5 HO Light Fixture? I have been thinking about getting rid of my HQI fixture and replace it with T5s. I looked at the Tek Elite but it does not have fans or moonlights.

chris88 · #65 03-28-2011, 01:13 PM

The aquaticlife fixture is well built and produces a lot of light, but the only advantage it has over a tek is the built in timer, leds, and fans. The tek elite dose have fans i think but its missing the other features. the regular tek dose not have fans or anything else for that matter. If i hounestly had to pick again from the tek elite or the aquaticlife it would be a toss up. Not because i am not happy with the aquaticlife, but instead because i have heard that the tek elite produces more par then the aquaticlife. The only other downside to the tek is you are going to have to buy the legs, splash shield, and bulbs seperatly. If you have a few extra bucks i would go with the lower end ATI fixture.

azulikit · #66 03-28-2011, 05:56 PM

Nice work! Although '"nice" doesn't even begin to describe how wicked it is.

Dez · #67 03-28-2011, 09:06 PM

Your reef is growing in really nicely. I dig it. Thanks for sharing.

chris88 · #68 03-28-2011, 09:49 PM

Thanks for the great compliments. Its definetly growing in well. I have a question for some of you with mature tanks. Do you let the corasl just grow or do you have to constantly frag. I keep getting corals that grow into each other and fight. fragging takes a bit of work and i dont have many people to give the frags to up here.

Nebthet · #69 03-28-2011, 09:53 PM

Wow.. very nice growth going on there... I have been wondering how your tank has been doing the last couple of months.

Dez · #70 03-28-2011, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris88

Thanks for the great compliments. Its definetly growing in well. I have a question for some of you with mature tanks. Do you let the corasl just grow or do you have to constantly frag. I keep getting corals that grow into each other and fight. fragging takes a bit of work and i dont have many people to give the frags to up here.

I wouldn't consider my tank too mature yet, but I definitely have a problem with overgrowth. I used to frag the coral I liked less if they were going to touch each other, but now I've just given up. Like you have said, fragging is a lot of work and it's interesting to see what nature does. Sometimes corals will fight and one will win, then the other coral that has died off will strengthen up and fight back stronger. I have had corals merge and fight and then in the middle create a new species or something like that. I have an orange cap and a green cap that were fighting, and now where they were fighting is a new cap that is green with orange polyps and rim. Interesting indeed. I have been slowly removing whole colonies to allow some colonies to grow extra big. I have a colony that is almost 18" accross now.