My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[Eastone]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

I raised the issue in the Zeovit forum. G. Alexander's reply was as follows:

"Coral Snow does contain very small particles which can settle down on surfaces if there is no water movement. From the biological view this should not have a impact."

Although there is no hint of what Coral snow contains, the sentence is reassuring enough. I do not think it was a good idea to pour coral snow mixture directly over my siporax box due to the density of the mixture (I am currently verifying this assumption with G. Alexander), but I will continue to use coral snow providing that I pour it in the main display.





Thank you very much.

Coral snow is a mixture of CaCO3 and water from research someone did at their university lab, so basically just really tightly particle-sized chalk suspension, I read a study once that showed it's ability to adhere to polar simple organisms causes a reduction in viability of the cell - basically it kills things as certain bacteria and causes flocculation in the water which smothers other unwanted pests and allows the skimmer to remove other organics flocs it creates.

I didn't read through your thread in detail but the reason it's so effective when mixed with ZeoBAK and used as a cyano treatment is because the bacteria adheres to individual particles which smother and suffocate the cyano, so I suspect similar could have happened to your siphorax.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by Eastone

Coral snow is a mixture of CaCO3 and water from research someone did at their university lab, so basically just really tightly particle-sized chalk suspension, I read a study once that showed it's ability to adhere to polar simple organisms causes a reduction in viability of the cell - basically it kills things as certain bacteria and causes flocculation in the water which smothers other unwanted pests and allows the skimmer to remove other organics flocs it creates.

I didn't read through your thread in detail but the reason it's so effective when mixed with ZeoBAK and used as a cyano treatment is because the bacteria adheres to individual particles which smother and suffocate the cyano, so I suspect similar could have happened to your siphorax.

Thanks. I really want ZEObak to smother the surfaces of Siporax, so that the bacteria will quickly colonise on the media.

I approached G. Alexander again and asked the following question:

"What I did on one occasion was that I prepared a Coral snow mixture with ZEObak and poured this mixture directly over my siporax media instead of pouring it over an area with strong flow as per the instructions. It took more than ten minutes for the mixture to find its way to the display tank. This worried me because the siporax media was exposed to a lot denser mixture than would normally be the case. Under this circumstance, should I rinse my media and leave it as is?"

His reply was: "I have no experience with the Siporax material but basically I would leave it as it is and continue as usual. CoralSnow does not contain any kind of substances which do harm bacteria or the biology in any way. G.Alexander"

[joshky]

Hey Bulent, glad you got things back under control so quickly. That A. Lokani is looking beautiful. Also congrats on sourcing another G. watanabei female!

[Eastone]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Thanks. I really want ZEObak to smother the surfaces of Siporax, so that the bacteria will quickly colonise on the media.

I approached G. Alexander again and asked the following question:

"What I did on one occasion was that I prepared a Coral snow mixture with ZEObak and poured this mixture directly over my siporax media instead of pouring it over an area with strong flow as per the instructions. It took more than ten minutes for the mixture to find its way to the display tank. This worried me because the siporax media was exposed to a lot denser mixture than would normally be the case. Under this circumstance, should I rinse my media and leave it as is?"

His reply was: "I have no experience with the Siporax material but basically I would leave it as it is and continue as usual. CoralSnow does not contain any kind of substances which do harm bacteria or the biology in any way. G.Alexander"

Personally, I don't think it was the chemical composition of the coral snow, but just that it clogged up the siphorax, probably only temporary though. I'd advise just dosing zeobak straight into the filter next time, with some carbon

[reefmutt]

If coral snow is mainly calcium carbonate, the residue should just dissolve, eventually.... I assume....

[bps619]

Nice. Digging the shallow reef

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by Eastone

I didn't read through your thread in detail but the reason it's so effective when mixed with ZeoBAK and used as a cyano treatment is because the bacteria adheres to individual particles which smother and suffocate the cyano, so I suspect similar could have happened to your siphorax.

Sadly in my case, ZEObak/Cyanoclean and Coral snow mixture did not work to get rid of cyano. This mixture seems to work in some set ups and do not in others.

Originally Posted by reefmutt

If coral snow is mainly calcium carbonate, the residue should just dissolve, eventually.... I assume....

I am no longer worried about this issue. If coral snow smothered surfaces, most reef system would have collapsed by now as some people use coral snow daily.

Originally Posted by bps619

Nice. Digging the shallow reef

Cheers.

Originally Posted by joshky

Hey Bulent, glad you got things back under control so quickly. That A. Lokani is looking beautiful. Also congrats on sourcing another G. watanabei female!

Thanks Josh. The new G. watanabei is now in my tank. She received a hostile reception from all the other Genicanthus sp. including the yellow tang. Fortunately, this did not last very long. I am going to set up my tank cover later this morning. There is an awkward corner to negotiate around the return pipe. I could not make the frame before since I did not have enough additional corners for the extended frame. I managed to get four additional corners today to fully cover almost every gap. This has now become even more urgent since I also bought a small silver belly wrasse at the same time. I realised that this was probably a big mistake because I forgot the fact that I have some giant feather dusters and two coco worms in my tank. I hope that it will not touch them. Otherwise, I will have to remove it while sleeping in the sand bed.

Including my eight anthias, I have got 16 fishes altogether now. I think even Andrew (@Biggles) would say that I have too many. His bfc indicator has shot through the roof. Having said that I like the movement in the tank.

[DiscusHeckel]

Update:

I assembled my tank cover yesterday. I think I did a good job in the end after trying different configurations. There are 5 mm gaps between glass and the frame due to cables at each end of the tank, but by leaving extra mesh and rolling it inside the tank I further reduced that gap. Hopefully, I will not need to count my fish every morning or after coming back home from work fearing the worst. The only scenario in which I may lose fish is if they jump on the brace bars and do not manage to jump back into the tank. However, historically I never lost fish under this scenario. The other scenario is if a fish jumps into weir, but this is a manageable scenario.

Moreover, after seeing a nice looking Genicanthus semifasciatus in Scotty's tank thread, I have decided to order one through my lfs. The males look stunning, but I can probably only afford a female. As you can see as my tank has fully matured and I cannot squeeze any more Acroporas. I am keeping myself occupied with fish. Having said that replacing one or more mature colonies with new more colourful frags may be on the cards next year.

Finally, cyanobacteria is almost completely gone. I can see that the nutrient and bacterial balance are shifting towards a direction which does not favour cyanobacteria. An early indication was the appearance of some green algae (and some byropsis) in isolated spots in my overflow box.

Thanks for reading.

Bulent

PS. Note to Matt (@reefmutt): I have read a conversation between you and @mhucasey in his tank thread about Salifert amino acids and Acropower. Adding amino acids will keep cyanobacteria happy in your tank. Just saying. According to Herr Hans-Werner Balling, cyanobacteria appear to have preference for amino acids among all the other the nitrogen sources available to them.

[reefmutt]

Nice cover, Bulent.
The only way a fish is getting out of there is if a secret octopus happens to live in your reef and he organizes a full tank escape!
Nice job!
Thanks for the info on the aminos... Yes.. I know.. But I just don't want to stop doing what I'm doing to make the corals happy..
I'm leaning closer to doing a big siphon of the cyano and then a red slime remover treatment..

[biggles]

The new fish is beautiful Bulent

I have cyano lately but like Matt i don't change things to get rid of cyano when the acros are looking happy with things just the way they are. As you said it's just an imbalance and over time the good bacteria numbers will take care of the cyano.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by biggles

The new fish is beautiful Bulent

I have cyano lately but like Matt i don't change things to get rid of cyano when the acros are looking happy with things just the way they are. As you said it's just an imbalance and over time the good bacteria numbers will take care of the cyano.

Thanks Andrew. My BFC is now 2.46. Ouch .... Siporax had better kick in soon before NO3 is off the charts. I may have to run some phosphate adsorber passively too at some point in the future due to increased feeding, but so far PO4 appears to remain between 0.015-0.03 mg/l.

Regarding cyanobacteria, I do not disagree with you. In fact, I initially thought that having a mild form was a very good thing because every time I siphoned them off, I effectively exported nutrients. However, it becomes a different matter when they start to smother most surfaces and come back a day after they are siphoned off.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by biggles

The new fish is beautiful Bulent

I have cyano lately but like Matt i don't change things to get rid of cyano when the acros are looking happy with things just the way they are. As you said it's just an imbalance and over time the good bacteria numbers will take care of the cyano.

Hm.... I'd like to hear your tune if you were having the cyano Armageddon I am having, Andrew.
I haven't changed anything.. I continue to add a multitude of cyano promoting ingredients, in hopes of it going away.. So far no good..
Odd creature, that cyano..

[DiscusHeckel]

Salifert Trace hard dosing comes to mind. I do not know if Andrew still uses this product, but I still remember warning him about it. My troubles started four years ago when I started to broadcast feed my tank with Reef Nutrition's Oyster Feast. Some tanks are not suited to feeding tank as opposed to feeding fish only due to nutrient export mechanism employed.

[mhucasey]

Bulent, subscribed! I don't spend very much time browsing threads Im not already subscribed to, but I do look up build threads for people I interact with on Reef Central, for some reason your thread slipped through without subscription till now.

The tank looks really good, I love your fish selection and mature colonies Question for you - are you able to access photobucket from where you are? If you post your pictures to Photobucket you can embed them in the thread, which makes viewing a lot easier. Its free to create an account there and really easy to upload pictures to the account.

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for subscribing to my thread.

I have a photobucket account, but I got lazy recently and decided to use RC's file upload tool instead.

I have just uploaded this photo, which I took last night, to photobucket to reengage with that site. Note that red marks on the rocks and glass are not cyano. They are encrusted algae.

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Hi Matt,

Thanks for subscribing to my thread.

I have a photobucket account, but I got lazy recently and decided to use RC's file upload tool instead.

I have just uploaded this photo, which I took last night, to photobucket to reengage with that site. Note that red marks on the rocks and glass are not cyano. They are encrusted algae.

It's looking really good , I think that blue tort is the same variety as one I have in my tank. Does it have green highlights on the inside of its coralites? Thank you for posting the photos on photobucket, it makes it much easier to view especially on mobile devices.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

It's looking really good , I think that blue tort is the same variety as one I have in my tank. Does it have green highlights on the inside of its coralites? Thank you for posting the photos on photobucket, it makes it much easier to view especially on mobile devices.

Thanks.

The blue coral in that picture is not Acropora tortuosa. It is a wild Acropora gomezi. It is solid blue with blue/dark purple polyps.

[joshky]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Hi Matt,

Thanks for subscribing to my thread.

I have a photobucket account, but I got lazy recently and decided to use RC's file upload tool instead.

I have just uploaded this photo, which I took last night, to photobucket to reengage with that site. Note that red marks on the rocks and glass are not cyano. They are encrusted algae.

That's a really beautiful photo, I love the purple monti weaving around the acros. Or did you place those acros on top of the monti? Either way it looks really cool.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by joshky

That's a really beautiful photo, I love the purple monti weaving around the acros. Or did you place those acros on top of the monti? Either way it looks really cool.

Thank you Josh.

The two big colonies, Acropora gomezi and Acropora nasuta, and the montipora monaseriata were placed on the same rock away from each other. In April 2014, I placed the montipora and A. gomezi together and then added Acropora nasuta to the group in December 2014. Finally, I slotted an Acropora Tenuis frag into a hole in the rock a few days ago (refer to the original photo in my previous post). The montipora is a vigorous grower and was fragged on many occasions as a result, which allowed me to raise funds to satisfy my reef hoarder urges.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Hi Matt,

Thanks for subscribing to my thread.

I have a photobucket account, but I got lazy recently and decided to use RC's file upload tool instead.

I have just uploaded this photo, which I took last night, to photobucket to reengage with that site. Note that red marks on the rocks and glass are not cyano. They are encrusted algae.

I really like this shot as well.. It's very cool how the monti is growing amongst the acros..
Liking really nice, Bulent.

[DiscusHeckel]

Thank you Matt.

Here is an FTS, which I have just taken. The glass could have been cleaner.



To get a proper digital DSLR camera with a proper macro lens, how much am I expected to spend? I probably cannot afford the top of the range ones...

Thanks

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Thank you Matt.

Here is an FTS, which I have just taken. The glass could have been cleaner.



To get a proper digital DSLR camera with a proper macro lens, how much am I expected to spend? I probably cannot afford the top of the range ones...

Thanks

Looking very good! You sir, were not lying about your clean sand. I am envious for sure. Those green stags are growing like weeds - if only the blue or red stags grew as fast. Keep up the good work and thanks for the FTS!

[reefmutt]

looking really good, Bulent! Some of those colonies are dense!
your setosa is also a monster.
I love those anthias.. great colour.
I'm a canon guy.. the standard 100ml macro by canon is about $600, I think, and a mid level camera body is probably pretty close to that as well..
usually they sell lens/body kits which don't include a macro, however, so it will probably be extra..
this isn't so bad since a macro lens is not ideal for general photography..

[joshky]

After I get my tank further along I want to upgrade to a Nikon 5200, since I already have a few Nikon lenses. I've also been putting off a macro lens purchase for far too long, but things keep getting in the way. Hopefully I can buy one for Christmas. I'm planning on stealing Sahin's lens, the Tamron 90mm, which you can get for around $200-250 on eBay for virtually any camera body, just be sure to buy the right one.

Nice looking FTS update by the way!! Things sure have changed since that flashback photo with the clams and checkerboard wrasse up there!

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

looking really good, Bulent! Some of those colonies are dense!
your setosa is also a monster.
I love those anthias.. great colour.
I'm a canon guy.. the standard 100ml macro by canon is about $600, I think, and a mid level camera body is probably pretty close to that as well..
usually they sell lens/body kits which don't include a macro, however, so it will probably be extra..
this isn't so bad since a macro lens is not ideal for general photography..

Thanks Matt, do you mind telling me which Canon model you own? Someone who takes stunning photos on a UK forum uses Nikon D750 with Tamron 90mm macro lens. I have just checked the Nikon's price, which seems to be more than what my fish tank cost me (over £1200). However, the Tamron lens seems much more affordable (£~280). I may have to go for a second hand camera.

Originally Posted by joshky

After I get my tank further along I want to upgrade to a Nikon 5200, since I already have a few Nikon lenses. I've also been putting off a macro lens purchase for far too long, but things keep getting in the way. Hopefully I can buy one for Christmas. I'm planning on stealing Sahin's lens, the Tamron 90mm, which you can get for around $200-250 on eBay for virtually any camera body, just be sure to buy the right one.

Nice looking FTS update by the way!! Things sure have changed since that flashback photo with the clams and checkerboard wrasse up there!

Nikon D5200 seems a lot more affordable (sigh of relief). I am not a photographer, but there must be a big difference between D750 and D5200. I will read reviews on D5200.

Josh, what do you mean by "just be sure to buy the right one". Are camera bodies and lenses not standard?

Thanks for your compliments gentlemen about my corals.

Matt, I am letting my setosa spread to adjacent rocks. I have even attached one branch to an existing green Montipora digitata colony. I would rather look at an orange Montipora than a green one. As you say some corals are really dense. I cannot reach certain sections of glass for cleaning. Acropora gomezi is also under partial shade because of Acropora aspera on the left hand side. I was going to fragment this coral very heavily in the new year. But I had to bring this forward after receiving an email from my lfs this morning. My lfs notified me that a fish (Genicanthus semifasciatus), which I ordered just under a month ago, had arrived and had been reserved for me:



All being well, I am going to collect her in two weeks time. It is going to be the most expensive fish in my collection. Hence, I am going to have to take some chunky frags (e.g. 5" X 4") to my lfs to offset the purchase cost, hence changing the timetable for fragging.