Through the Looking Glass

[gatf4]

Mark,
Thanks for taking the time to post so many great photos of your incredible Reef. I just spent a good part of the weekend going through your entire thread and it's really amazing.

I had a fresh water Cichlid tank for almost 10 years. I found that the less I messed with things the better it did. When I switched over to a reef set up I tried a similar approach and had some quick success mostly by accident I think.

At the two year mark I crashed my tank by leaving my RO system trickle feeding the tank after a water change and slowly brought the salinity way down. I pretty much killed everything in the tank. Some Zoa's, Leather's and Star polyps survived but I eventually lost all my fish too.

I've tried a lot of different things to get back to a low Nutrient system and after about 10months of trial and error Carbon dosing I think I finally have Po4 consistently low enough to See some new growth on some SPS frags and Monti's.

I think I had ALK to high and PO4 to high so that whenever I cranked up my Radions all I could grow was Algea. Then I had the lights turned down so low that even after getting nutrients lower I still could kill an SPS frag in 3 weeks.

Now almost by accident I cranked up the Radions and like a miracle everything has taken off. I was so worried about burning SPS and growing algea I had the lights way to dark and the photo period to short.

In Short (lol not really) Your tank and corals has giving me some inspiration and I think I'm going to add a refugium to try to wean down the carbon dosing.

Thanks againfor the great photos and info.

Tim

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by gatf4

Mark,
Thanks for taking the time to post so many great photos of your incredible Reef. I just spent a good part of the weekend going through your entire thread and it's really amazing.

I had a fresh water Cichlid tank for almost 10 years. I found that the less I messed with things the better it did. When I switched over to a reef set up I tried a similar approach and had some quick success mostly by accident I think.

At the two year mark I crashed my tank by leaving my RO system trickle feeding the tank after a water change and slowly brought the salinity way down. I pretty much killed everything in the tank. Some Zoa's, Leather's and Star polyps survived but I eventually lost all my fish too.

I've tried a lot of different things to get back to a low Nutrient system and after about 10months of trial and error Carbon dosing I think I finally have Po4 consistently low enough to See some new growth on some SPS frags and Monti's.

I think I had ALK to high and PO4 to high so that whenever I cranked up my Radions all I could grow was Algea. Then I had the lights turned down so low that even after getting nutrients lower I still could kill an SPS frag in 3 weeks.

Now almost by accident I cranked up the Radions and like a miracle everything has taken off. I was so worried about burning SPS and growing algea I had the lights way to dark and the photo period to short.

In Short (lol not really) Your tank and corals has giving me some inspiration and I think I'm going to add a refugium to try to wean down the carbon dosing.

Thanks againfor the great photos and info.

Tim

Hey Tim, I am so appreciative for your positive comments. On many levels this can be such a frustrating hobby with all the potential pitfalls. I know that many coral reefers were so very inspirational for me by simply sharing their coral pictures. It both inspired and motivated me to see if I could mirror some of their results. I guess that is the point of sharing. Photos can be manipulated so every picture needs to be taken with a grain of salt but there are some incredibly beautiful corals with amazing colors in reefer's tanks. I look through these threads frequently to see what others have posted. I continue to be motivated by others' successes.

I dont know what everyone else does, but my photographs are all handheld shots. I don't use a tripod. I would love to use a tripod but I take top down shots so I climb up a ladder and peer into the tank hopeful that I won't drop my wonderful camera into the tank. I am sure there must be some apparatus that extends a tripod for this purpose, but I guess I have a reasonably steady hand and and at this point prefer the ease and maneuverability of hand held shots.

Reef Raft USA Pink Floyd

[watchguy123]

Here is a little bit further cropping to the picture above, the polyps look pretty cool.



And a new tiny frag that looks like it may have some potential

[reefmutt]

I’d say amazing potential.
That Pink Floyd is so good!!
Mark you are the Coral Whisperer!

[watchguy123]

Well that pretty blue frag with the red polyps in the last picture above, RTN'd on me. I got a frag from the colony and the colony was RTN'ing but I thought my frag was so far removed from that area that it would make it. It looked perfect for exactly one week and then overnight--gone. Ouch.

My top down camera tube is being repaired so this is with my old one.

[watchguy123]

Well, I am seemingly always taking another photo or two. I both enjoy documenting the growth but I also simply like taking pictures. Plus it is really nice to get a comment or two occasionally. The colony in the middle is my JF Flame, its about 5 or 6 inches across.

My tank has gotten into a pleasant routine. I keep it pretty simple. Feed the fish a couple times a day usually. Add some nitrate to the tank daily as well. Test nitrates and alkalinity once or twice a week. Empty the protein skimmer cup once a week. Do a 20-25% water change every two weeks. Trim the chaeto every three or four weeks. Change out the CO2 tank about twice a year. Just completed my annual bulb change, three 250 watt radium 20k bulbs, and four t5 80 watt ati blue plus bulbs. Tank is pretty happy. I recently added some new chalice frags but no one seems to be interested in those plus they really are small little frags. I enjoy the contrast of chalices to sps.

[Nanook]

Beautiful pictures!! Is your display tank 180 gallons? Refugium 20 gallons?

[Ucantwin]

Your corals are some of the best out there! I want to ask a few questions if you don't mind.
Why not just stop growing chaeto if you are having to dose nitrates?
Do you think since your chaeto is growing that you might not even need to dose nitrates?
What does your ph currently run at?

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by Nanook

Beautiful pictures!! Is your display tank 180 gallons? Refugium 20 gallons?

Thank you and you are correct 180 gallon tank and 20 gallon refugium, I also have a 30 gallon or so sump

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

Your corals are some of the best out there! I want to ask a few questions if you don't mind.
Why not just stop growing chaeto if you are having to dose nitrates?
Do you think since your chaeto is growing that you might not even need to dose nitrates?
What does your ph currently run at?

Thanks.

I like chaeto because I think it’s a great breeding ground for pods of all sorts. TRITON and BRS seem to advocate it for its profound nutrient reduction. I think it may additionally provide its own set of nutrients to the tank, certainly some literature suggests that. Plus it does seem to minimize other algaes in the display via competition. I’m not really sure about it’s role in oxygenation and pH as well but believe it may be helpful—I run it opposite the display lighting schedule. And lastly, I use to run gfo and I no longer do. I think by feeding nitrate, I am allowing the various nitrate reduction schemes to run vigorously and as a result lowering phosphate levels as a result. I think it’s easier spooning in some KNO3 powder daily with feeding than running and maintaining a gfo reactor.

Although I have an apex, I have never bothered to recalibrate my pH monitor so I don’t know what my pH is

[reefmutt]

Stunning. Is that jf flame?
I’m a fan of cheato as well.. I think I’ll remove my filter sock coming from my cheato fuge. I haven’t tried that, for some reason I find very odd after reading your post above... thanks for the idea.
I definitely think it helps outcompete other macro algae.

[Oldude]

Awesome stuff!!

[ReefKeeper64]

I bought a few frags from watchguy123 in Dec. They arrived healthy, packaged professionally and are of top quality.

[roni]

Originally Posted by watchguy123

Thank you and you are correct 180 gallon tank and 20 gallon refugium, I also have a 30 gallon or so sump


Thanks.

I like chaeto because I think it’s a great breeding ground for pods of all sorts. TRITON and BRS seem to advocate it for its profound nutrient reduction. I think it may additionally provide its own set of nutrients to the tank, certainly some literature suggests that. Plus it does seem to minimize other algaes in the display via competition. I’m not really sure about it’s role in oxygenation and pH as well but believe it may be helpful—I run it opposite the display lighting schedule. And lastly, I use to run gfo and I no longer do. I think by feeding nitrate, I am allowing the various nitrate reduction schemes to run vigorously and as a result lowering phosphate levels as a result. I think it’s easier spooning in some KNO3 powder daily with feeding than running and maintaining a gfo reactor.

Although I have an apex, I have never bothered to recalibrate my pH monitor so I don’t know what my pH is

Fantastic growth and pics! If I may ask, how much kno3 are you adding daily and what's your nitrate? Are you using stump remover for kno3

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by roni

Fantastic growth and pics! If I may ask, how much kno3 are you adding daily and what's your nitrate? Are you using stump remover for kno3

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I add nitrate daily but I don't use stump remover. I use a powdered KNO3 and I use the little red spoon from Salifert nitrate test and i add 10 scoopfuls daily. I experimented a little bit to find what worked.

My nitrates vary around 1-5 ppm. I use the Salifert nitrate test and I find it challenging to be any more accurate than that. Once in a blue moon, it may rise closer to 10 ppm but usually that happens when I am away on a trip and the person feeding the tank overfeeds a bit. I just tested my phosphates via hanna ultra phos and my phosphates calculate out to about .07 ppm. I am not using any gfo. I think between the nitrate dosing and my other biological filtration methods, that the phosphate is staying in a decent range.

Here is a pretty unusual colored granulosa frag just beginning to spread its wings. (Lighting is t5 ATI's blue plus and reefbrites) My rock work is so completely covered in coralline algae

[watchguy123]

It is March already and so.....

I took these this morning, reefbrites only, it is so fun to see the extraordinary colors under blue leds. Whether you are a fan of blue leds or not, they make for some crazy pictures. For the first years this lighting was around, it reminded me of my college days and black lights, and I just did not like them. But through the years, I have learned to appreciate them for what they are and have actually come to enjoy them. Certainly, every coral show that I have visited in the last few years, vendors only have all blue leds on their tanks. For good or bad, they are here. I prefer to enjoy them rather than rally against them.

WWC little Red Ferrari




A blurry picture of Z's Favorite. I just could not bring myself to erase it even though the focus is crummy. There is a very large colony of JF Flame right above this and blocking the light quite dramatically. As a result there is quite a bit of greenish color in the shaded areas. I need to take the bone cutters to the offending JF Flame colony but somehow I can't.

Z's Favorite





There has been an explosion of beautiful colored tenuis. I have had this colony for a while. It looks just ok under metal halides, fine under t5's but it absolutely glows under reefbrites.

Z's Pink Cotton Candy





It is pretty under any lighting scheme, but pretty darn cool under reefbrites

RR USA Pink Floyd





The following coral just doesn't look real under reefbrites, the colors are just so rich and deep.

Z's Prize

[reefmutt]

Amazing Mark!
Growth is also amazing.
That red Ferrari, is it in the dragon family?
That granulosa is sublime!!
I can NOT wait to see that in a few months.

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by roni

Fantastic growth and pics! If I may ask, how much kno3 are you adding daily and what's your nitrate? Are you using stump remover for kno3

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Amazing Mark!
Growth is also amazing.
That red Ferrari, is it in the dragon family?
That granulosa is sublime!!
I can NOT wait to see that in a few months.

Thank you. The WWC Red Ferrari is definitely in the dragon family. The granulosa looks purplish but hopefully it turns reddish, just have to wait and see.

Some more pictures from yesterday,

Z's Superman



Z's Yellow Eyed Jaw Dropper



Z's Paradise


Reef Raft Canada Wolverine


Z's Disguise


Z's Blue Floyd


Z's Eye Candy

[watchguy123]

TGC Red Diablo



TGC Ray’s Rainbow



Metal halide picture: Z’s Yellow Eyed Jawdropper



And just for fun a pretty favia, JF Dayglow

[SchnitzelReef]

Amazing pieces!!

[fishguy597]

Wow,I've read this thread off and on for the last few years. Earlier this week I started from the beginning. I feel I should get a gold star.

I would love a little more info on your fuge. I would assume it is separate from your sump. What kind of turnover do you have in there? Is there sand in it? Do you have the cheato rolling? Any other type of macro algea? What size is the area of it? I know you don't add anything to the tank but do you add iodine to keep the cheato going?
Thanks

[shih87]

I envy you living in southern California, so many wonderful coral. Of course, first thing need to be able to keep them in tank as you are ;-)

Beautiful corals and photos.

Cheers,

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by fishguy597

Wow,I've read this thread off and on for the last few years. Earlier this week I started from the beginning. I feel I should get a gold star.

I would love a little more info on your fuge. I would assume it is separate from your sump. What kind of turnover do you have in there? Is there sand in it? Do you have the cheato rolling? Any other type of macro algea? What size is the area of it? I know you don't add anything to the tank but do you add iodine to keep the cheato going?
Thanks

I have a separate 20 gallon or so refugium and a 30 gallon or so sump. The refugium has miracle mud that is probably 6 or 7 years old and would be too messy to clean out so it stays. I only grow chaeto in the refugium with very slow flow and no tumbling but with a Kessil H350 and it grows chaeto like crazy. I haven't added iron, I assumed (always a stupid thing to do) that my Sea Veggie flake food must have lots of iron in it. But I have been thinking lately about possibly adding iron but I don't want to really supplement anything besides good ol' fish food. I have almost no visible algae in my display so my chaeto very well may be limiting available iron for other types of micro algae. I clean my glass every couple weeks or so. I grow coralline algae like crazy though in the display. My rock work is solid coralline algae as well as my back glass.

Originally Posted by shih87

I envy you living in southern California, so many wonderful coral. Of course, first thing need to be able to keep them in tank as you are ;-)

Beautiful corals and photos.

Cheers,

Thanks. Yours is one of my many favorite tanks to follow and observe. Your tank is meticulous, I wish I could say the same for mine.

Only one picture to share today, a quick metal halide picture of Reef Raft Canada Shazam. It is overgrowing onto my Z's Blue Floyd space so I need to trim both. If i could trim them as wanted it would be great but taking bone cutters to a colony always has its risks. Chunks sometimes break when you don't want them too. I get excited about being able to visually see growth by the overlap but I always get a bit uneasy about trimming. Plus the Shazam is so closely branched, its hard to cut it where you want exactly.

[Bolo Tran]

Subscribed!

[Zweebe]

Hello Watchguy,

I didn't got the time until now to find it but I have a question about your reefbrite lighting, is it the reefbrite 3W Led bar? Or only the LED stripe? :-)

Thanks !

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by Zweebe

Hello Watchguy,

I didn't got the time until now to find it but I have a question about your reefbrite lighting, is it the reefbrite 3W Led bar? Or only the LED stripe? :-)

Thanks !

They are "Reef Brite XHO Blue LED Strip".