Serbusfish's 75 Gallon Sumpless progress thead

[serbusfish]

Originally Posted by jkdsr78

Great tank!

Thanks, I have moved a few things around, and I think my Montipora Digitata's have started getting bigger (not sure if I am imagining it or not!). i'll try and get some pics up tomorrow.

[Jay_R]

Originally Posted by serbusfish

Thanks, I have moved a few things around, and I think my Montipora Digitata's have started getting bigger (not sure if I am imagining it or not!). i'll try and get some pics up tomorrow.

Good sign.. how's your polyp extension on the digitata's?

Also consider the growing space between the two.. they look very close.. the smaller one looks like a forest fire, which may spread out before heading up

[serbusfish]

The polyp extensions are good on both, though I dont know if one is a forest fire, LFS guy just said it was a Digi. He also told me if I put them close they would grow away from each other? If not im gonna have to figure something out as I have epoxied them in place.

Anyway, here is an updated full tank shot (which reminds me I need to clean the Coraline off the back wall again!):

[mmittlesteadt]

Beautiful tank!!! I love the placement of the top two large corals.

I have two Ocellaris, a Firefish and two Banghaii Cardinals too.

[jml1149]

Originally Posted by serbusfish

They look so ugly though! I want to show off my corals, but the backdrop of yellow ruins the aesthetics

Well I was planning on setting up a quarantine tank, but decided against it as I am unable to provide one that I would consider comparable to a display tank. The most I could do is a 10 gallon, which I dont consider big enough, and I want to limit stress on my fish as much as possible, and dont consider a small unfiltered 10 gallon tank with no decorations or rocks to be a stress-free environment.

My LFS dont use copper in their systems, and their salinity is kept at 1.026, as long as the fish seem healthy, swim normally and are eating I feel reasonably safe buying them. Stress is what causes fish to get sick, so I am aiming to avoid as much stress as possible.

Any fish that will be happy in a 75g tank will also be happy in a 10g tank for a couple of weeks of QT. I bought one of those AIO 10g starter sets from one of the national chains near me, a couple of pieces of plastic and I usually throw in some chaeto from my sump because why not.

I have had ich in the DT and holy heck. I don't ever want to do that again.

[serbusfish]

I have moved the Birdsnest forwards as it seems to be growing very fast and could soon collide with the Monti. I have also added my first Acropora sp, I am not expecting them to do good with my lights but if I dont try I wont know. I added a green Florida frag and a blue/white Tenius frag, although I think the Tenius was pretty much dead to begin with as the shipping bag water smelled horrible and was really cloudy. It only has a tiny bit of blue to it, the rest looks white/dead.

Here are pics of the two Acros:





And my Birdsnest + other coral closeups:

[serbusfish]

I cleaned the coraline off the back wall yesterday, and a few corals have been moved/removed. I am planning to upgrade my lighting to LED so I can keep more SPS, but for now here is an up to date tank shot:

[vokuro]

Beautiful tank, awesome seeing the progression!

[serbusfish]

A lot has changed recently, I dont have any tank shots atm but suffice to say I have added more rock, more corals, and ditched the T5's for this bad boy...





Pictures and a full review of the light unit will follow soon.

[Jay_R]

Lol 'and he's off' ha ha! I dumped my LED aquaray's and replaced them with an AI Hydra.. so hopefully my SPS respond. I wonder how long it'll be until you ditch the 2 large soft corals at the top and replace with SPS

How you liking the Razor?

[serbusfish]

Originally Posted by Jay_R

Lol 'and he's off' ha ha! I dumped my LED aquaray's and replaced them with an AI Hydra.. so hopefully my SPS respond. I wonder how long it'll be until you ditch the 2 large soft corals at the top and replace with SPS

How you liking the Razor?

Haha :P I'll be honest the main reason I upgraded was because one of my T5 units was dodgy (it kept flickering on and off) so rather than replace it I thought I would get something better, and I wanted to keep more SPS anyway so win/win.

The Colt coral is annoying me actually, I have to keep cutting bits off it as it keeps shading my other corals. I want to slice it off the rock and sell it but others in my family quite like it

I like the Razor so far, the glare from it is a little annoying but nowhere near as bad as suspended T5's would be. Im having trouble photographing with it though, the pictures come out either too blue or very bland. Then again im only running it 30% white/60% blue to acclimate my corals so it is more blue looking than I will eventually run it at. I will try to get some half decent ones up soon.

[serbusfish]

I have had a real hard time getting the correct colours with my camera, but here is an up to date tank shot. It is less 'pink' in real life. I think once I have upped my white channel percentage a little more my camera will be able to take pictures a little better.

[Jay_R]

Looking good mate.. The colours are a pain to get right but you'll get there. Don't forget to acclimate your corals with reduced intensity for a while just to be safe. If they start bleaching then lower the intensity.

Not sure what colours the Razor lets you adjust, but be careful with the Red and Green's, I don't' have these over 12% as they are linked to algae growth.

Some nice florescence on the corals though..

[serbusfish]

Originally Posted by Jay_R

Looking good mate.. The colours are a pain to get right but you'll get there. Don't forget to acclimate your corals with reduced intensity for a while just to be safe. If they start bleaching then lower the intensity.

Not sure what colours the Razor lets you adjust, but be careful with the Red and Green's, I don't' have these over 12% as they are linked to algae growth.

Some nice florescence on the corals though..

I am only running at 40% white 70% blue at the moment, gradually increasing it. I guess blue will end up at 90% and white could be anywhere from 50 - 65% depending on my tastes/coral growth.

Unfortunately the Razor only has 2 channels, whites and blues. The white LED's have red and green spectrum in them, and I believe Maxspect have arranged the LED's in a such a way as to provide the corals the light they need without promoting algae growth.

[Jay_R]

Looks good mate.. how's the tank maturing? Noticed any nasties creeping in?

[Pigpen17]

How good is the dawn/dusk ramp up and down on that razor? I was back and forth between them and reefbreeders.

[serbusfish]

Originally Posted by Jay_R

Looks good mate.. how's the tank maturing? Noticed any nasties creeping in?

Only thing im not happy about is bubble algae, I had a small cluster when I started, I should have removed them then as now there are various patches around the tank, although I am getting on top of them. I also have a couple of bristleworms, im not sure how to feel about them to be honest.

Originally Posted by Pigpen17

How good is the dawn/dusk ramp up and down on that razor? I was back and forth between them and reefbreeders.

Its OK, but if you stare at the tank you will see the brightness bump up/down, it isnt a smooth unnoticeable transition. Personally I dont mind as I was just as happy with my T5's coming straight on or off. The main reason for the light upgrade was the increase in colour + intensity, the ramp up/down is just a bonus feature