Mark's 150 gallon

[plyle02]

Hey Mark,
Your tank is looking amazing man, great come back indeed! The colors you are pulling look awesome Outstanding Mark!!!

[markalot]

Originally Posted by plyle02

Hey Mark,
Your tank is looking amazing man, great come back indeed! The colors you are pulling look awesome Outstanding Mark!!!

Thanks Perry.

I made a few moves this weekend. I had to move my Goniopora back to this tank due to the beast outgrowing my smaller tank and since I was in there I decided to give my pink acro more room to grow, demoting the iffy milli down near the sandbed.



I take a bunch of macros just to see how things are doing up close. Here's some of the better ones.

This is a branch of the milli I moved down. Will have to see what it does at 275 PAR vs 350 that it was getting. I am very tempted to make some space for it high up ... but where.



Cousin It.

[reefmutt]

Love it, mark!
Those macros show good healthy vibrant acro flesh.
Extremely nice turnaround!
You are my current inspiration.
Slow steady and calculated.
Really nice job!!

[markalot]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Love it, mark!
Those macros show good healthy vibrant acro flesh.
Extremely nice turnaround!
You are my current inspiration.
Slow steady and calculated.
Really nice job!!

Thanks Matt, we've all been there and back again, right? I sure appreciate the compliment, I know you can turn it around as well.

So I measured PO4, NO3, and KH today. KH 6.7, NO3 1 to 2, PO4 .06

Hmmm.

I may increase PhosphateRx from 3 to 4 drops a day, or a may stick with 3 and re-test next weekend.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by markalot

This is lovely Mark. What camera are you using?

[Wrangy]

Holy smokes Mark the acro's are looking absolutely gorgeous mate!! Tank is pumping

[sahin]

Lovely macro shots.

[markalot]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

This is lovely Mark. What camera are you using?

It's a Nikon D3100 with a cheap macro lens (90mm Tamron). I'm not a big fan of the camera but I don't have anything to compare it too and won't be buying another.

Originally Posted by Wrangy

Holy smokes Mark the acro's are looking absolutely gorgeous mate!! Tank is pumping

Thanks Dom.

Originally Posted by sahin

Lovely macro shots.

Thanks Sahin.

[markalot]

Slimer is hitting it's stride now. I always forget how fast this thing can grow.

18 days!


Pinky is more pink but perhaps faded a bit. I had increased PhosphateRx to 4 drops a day but
cutting back to 3 for a while, will test today or tomorrow, or I will
be too lazy and not test. KH continues to hold at 6.7.



The Lokani browned a little and then recovered but I believe it's due to me bumping it pretty hard with my hand
while moving a few rocks around. It did not break, delicate flower this is not.


Next on my watch list is this little guy. Was on the side not getting enough light, moved up under a lot of light and
it has responded well. Infested with some kind of filter feeder but starting to add new branches from the base.
This is another survivor from the crash and has taken a while to recover.

[reefmutt]

The most amazing thing about that 18 day progression gif is the little pink coral at the base of the green stag.. crazy growth!!
Mark, I've been dosing kalk for several weeks from a static mixture that I make every other day, however, I just found a kalk mixer in my collection of reef detritus in the closet. I'm going to set it up. Should allow me to go longer than two bloody days..
Anyways, how are you dosing kalk, right now?

[markalot]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

The most amazing thing about that 18 day progression gif is the little pink coral at the base of the green stag.. crazy growth!!
Mark, I've been dosing kalk for several weeks from a static mixture that I make every other day, however, I just found a kalk mixer in my collection of reef detritus in the closet. I'm going to set it up. Should allow me to go longer than two bloody days..
Anyways, how are you dosing kalk, right now?

Hi Matt,

I have a tall rubbermaid garbage can that can hold 15 gallons of topoff. I mix Kalk in to this, full saturation at the moment, and dose it with my timed topoff ... 55 seconds every 15 minutes. Because I use lids evaporation is relatively low compared to most tanks, but I will occasionally have to run a fan overnight to increase evap, or topoff manually if it gets a little low. I tend to have to make a small correction every other week.

This is the can, https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail...Q&gclsrc=aw.ds

Apparently it comes with accessories? It gets some bow to it but someone else here has been using one for years without a failure.

Woah, I can put wheels on it. Not that I need wheels on it.
https://www.uline.com/BL_8792/Slim-Jim-Accessories

[reefmutt]

Need??!? We ALL need an accessorized Slim Jim, Mark!
How long does that 15 gallons last? Do you think it degrades at all over time?

[markalot]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Need??!? We ALL need an accessorized Slim Jim, Mark!
How long does that 15 gallons last? Do you think it degrades at all over time?

I only evaporate a little over 1 gallon a day and the longest I've gone is 10 days with 15 gallons of water. I don't think it degrades at all with Kalk in it but I might worry if it was just RODI.

[kevlow]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

The most amazing thing about that 18 day progression gif is the little pink coral at the base of the green stag.. crazy growth!!

Matt is right. That is an awesome looking pink coral. In the midst of the throbbing and contracting photo it appears to be blossoming.

Any update on Cousin It?

[markalot]

Originally Posted by kevlow

Matt is right. That is an awesome looking pink coral. In the midst of the throbbing and contracting photo it appears to be blossoming.

Any update on Cousin It?

Not sure about Cousin It. Polyp extension is not as good and color has faded in some areas. I lowered PO4 and it's way up under 400+ PAR so perhaps a little bleached. I installed two Tunze 6095 wide flow pumps today which really increases the flow up to so perhaps this will help.





At the same time the lower PO4 help Pinky in a huge way. I was gobsmacked when I saw these.




For comparison, in the middle is a frag of the same coral under lower light.


And again, at the same time, the Red Robin lost a little color. The tips were blood red, now brownish. You can't keep em all happy!


Rounding out the reds / purples


Here is the one in front of the slimer. It occasionally looks like Red Planet, and it could be since I found this piece in the sandbed, but it has a hard time holding any red.

[markalot]

The blue stag is a tease. Ever so slowly, tiny dot by tiny dot, it's regaining blue.



The tiny blue'ish frag I have hopes for.


Palmers Blue milli, still not blue and appears to have suffered a little recession at some point.


Kentucky Bluegrass


Still refusing to color up.


Lokani


FTS

[cFloor]

Wow Mark! The tank is looking incredible. Pinky is looking beautiful. Well done bud!

[joshky]

Grinning with jealousy, your tank is looking so good and your growth seems amazing. Keep it up man!

[reefmutt]

Mark, you have no idea how much I want a Pinky, lokani threesome.
Really nice shots!
The fts is really looking good again.

[deaclauderdale]

Things are looking good Mark, I like how 'Cousin It' has exploded with growth.

Reef keeping is life!

[milsaltnewbie07]

Dang mark loving it

[Pife]

Your tank is looking great!

[Wrangy]

Just blown away Mark, the reef looks absolutely spectacular

[Big E]

Corals look colorful and healthy.......great work Mark

You've got some real beauties in there.

[markalot]

Originally Posted by cFloor

Wow Mark! The tank is looking incredible. Pinky is looking beautiful. Well done bud!

Originally Posted by joshky

Grinning with jealousy, your tank is looking so good and your growth seems amazing. Keep it up man!

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Mark, you have no idea how much I want a Pinky, lokani threesome.
Really nice shots!
The fts is really looking good again.

Originally Posted by deaclauderdale

Things are looking good Mark, I like how 'Cousin It' has exploded with growth.

Reef keeping is life!

Originally Posted by milsaltnewbie07

Dang mark loving it

Originally Posted by Pife

Your tank is looking great!

Originally Posted by Wrangy

Just blown away Mark, the reef looks absolutely spectacular

Originally Posted by Big E

Corals look colorful and healthy.......great work Mark

You've got some real beauties in there.

Wow, I missed some replies. Thank you all for the kind words!

I forgot I had a bottle of AcroPower (cyano in a bottle ) so I started dosing small amounts daily and colors have ticked up a notch. The brown maricultured piece is a richer ... brown.

Bottles!


I could only convince the wife she needed 4 of them, I hav eno idea what I'm going to do with 8. First up is AcroPower, so I can dose drops daily.

Finally tested PO4 ... 17 or .05 so the 4 drops a day of PhosphateRx did manage to either keep it steady or drop it by .01 (well within the error range of the meter).

KH down to 6.4ish, manually dosed to bring it up just a tad. AcroPower might have increased usage, or just a measurement error.