Tank of the Month - August 2007

[Zoom]

Originally posted by fishcraze2002
i'm sure that will make it split just fine.. but it may be upset and starts moving around- which is the last thing i would do to this RBTA since it has stayed on the same location I first put it in my tank 3 yrs ago!

How big is that RBTA ?

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by Zoom
How big is that RBTA ?

it's around 7-8" when fully expanded.

[dbui]

Hi Hoang,

Congrat! on your TOTM! I have some questions which you had mention about on your forums.
mysterious RTNs, crazy algae blooms, stubbornly browned-out SPS, if you have any solution to these problem can you send it to me dungbui1@yahoo.com. I think I have these problem in my tank specially the crazy red algae blooms and Stubbornly browned-out.

Thanks

[theROYSKIE]

wow, that is a kick *** setup, congrats!
i was wondering, what is the concoction of different foods you use to feed your diverse population of coral?

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by dbui
Hi Hoang,

Congrat! on your TOTM! I have some questions which you had mention about on your forums.
mysterious RTNs, crazy algae blooms, stubbornly browned-out SPS, if you have any solution to these problem can you send it to me dungbui1@yahoo.com. I think I have these problem in my tank specially the crazy red algae blooms and Stubbornly browned-out.

Thanks

dbui,
honestly, when facing with those problems, I often tried a bunches of things to try to resolve them... And many times i don't have the patient to try one 'solution' at a time; so when the problems were fixed I wasn't really sure which one fixed it.. could be one of the changes, or a combination of them, or just lucky, or sometimes the problems just disappear themselves that I had no clue why
However, I'll try to give you some of my 2cents on some potential 'solution' or causes of those problems:
1/ Red algea blooms: may be due to high nutrient or feeding in your tank. However I once time had a wierd red algea from the Bali culture that would grow like crazy even when i cut way back on feeding and do lot of water changes.. In this case, I found the best solution is to find the right grazers for that algea. The best grazers are the tangs.
- In my experience, purple tang and yellow tang are good for those red algea, turf green algea, brown algea...
- Naso tang: is excellent for a weird type of algea that no other tangs would eat like dictyota and another type of brown algea that grow like waffles that i don't rememeber the name.
- sailfin tang is good for hair algea.
- and Mexican turbo snails are good the most of the above algea!

So you may want to try a combination of these grazers to keep your algea in check (and you may have to do trial and error to find out the right grazer for specific algea)

2/ Stuborn brown SPS: as the name said - this a really stuborn problem However, I found that when the tank is still new (less than 1 year), the biological system of the tank is not stable so it's hard to get the more delicate sps to color up. But once your tank mature and the tank parameters are stable, most of the SPS will color up. There willl be some really stuborn ones that may never color up in your tank .. In this case, the solution may be just get rid of it
IMO, first requirement for SPS tank is nitrate level to be zero (non detectable) and low phosphate. (When you tank is mature, these two parameters are pretty much taken care of - not much effort needed to keep them in check)
Next is to make sure the other tank parameters (mainly dKH, Calc and Mg) stable by regular dosing (manually or by calc rxtr, kalk rxtr).
Then, frequent water change (preferred weekly) is another helpful practice to export the extra nutrient and replenish the trace elements for the tank.

Again, these are just suggestions based on my experience. you will find lots of different methods from other people that will also work. Hope this help

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by theROYSKIE
wow, that is a kick *** setup, congrats!
i was wondering, what is the concoction of different foods you use to feed your diverse population of coral?

Currently, I feed the fishes frozen mysis and dry flakes everday and I guess the corals also get some of those food.

Every other day I add (to the fish food above) some special food for the corals: either cyclopeze, or golden pearl or oyster eggs. I noticed that corals seem to repond most to the oystereggs since i see most of the coral in the tank will have crazy polyp extension when i feed oyster eggs.

[dbui]

Thank for your info Hoang it will be great help! Awsome tank!

[patej]

wow,,, hope one day mines looks as good

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by patej
wow,,, hope one day mines looks as good

it will.. just need a little time and patient - believe me

[perc]

wow. now that is a true masterpiece.

[kev apsley]

Beautiful tank! awesome Mystery Wrasse!

[McLovin]

Congrat! on your TOTM!

[fishcraze2002]

perc, kev apsley, McLovin - thanks for the nice words.

Kev apsley, the mystery wrasse is my favorite wrasse now. It was small when I got it 9-10 months ago and the color was just a little pink. However, when it gets bigger, the pink color has brighten up and the marks on its head become more vivid - love that fish!

[kev apsley]

Originally posted by fishcraze2002
perc, kev apsley, McLovin - thanks for the nice words.

Kev apsley, the mystery wrasse is my favorite wrasse now. It was small when I got it 9-10 months ago and the color was just a little pink. However, when it gets bigger, the pink color has brighten up and the marks on its head become more vivid - love that fish!

Awesome! I'm getting one next week...what is yours eating? Have you seen him eat any flatworms?

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by kev apsley
Awesome! I'm getting one next week...what is yours eating? Have you seen him eat any flatworms?

He'll eat anything - meat, dry food.. if i have flatworms he may not get a chance to eat them since i have 2 sixline wrasses and a yellow wrasse that are very active

[fishcraze2002]

I got a little scare this morning... I just woke up and looked at my tank parameter trends on the AquaNote that's always on on my desktop. and the main tank pH show 7.43!! Then I saw a bunches of email alarms (from AquaNotes) showing pH 7.2- 7.6! But the pH trend on the frag tank (which is connected to my maintank) looked normal ~ 8.1.. So I ran downstair to check out the tank and everything looks normal. The pH readout for the main tk on the AquaController ProIII showed 8.15 (same as on the frag tk). So I went back up to check the readout on the AquaNotes again, and it showed 8.15, and the pH trend on the graph never showed the dips to below 8.0 I thought may be it was because I was still asleep when I looked at it earlier.. But I checked the email alarms (5 of them!) and they was sent to me around that time.. and I just got another email alarms 10 mins ago! If I didn't get the email alarms as proof, Id had thought there was a ghost in my room
I'm going to post this question in the Neptune forum to findout what's going on.. maybe the pH probe is bad and need replacement. but I bought this brandnew 9 months ago (normally they would run well at least 15 months or 2 yrs..)

[kev apsley]

maybe time to recalibrate that probe??

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by kev apsley
maybe time to recalibrate that probe??

i actually replaced it with a new one and it works ok now.. still have some issues w/ the AC3P that i'll need to contact Curt for help.

[ExoticReefer99]

To solve the temp and bug problem you could build a small sheetrock
room around the tank with enough access for you to walk around.
Then put an window unit a/c on the small sheetrocked in room. Just a thought if you have enough room. I live in Houston too and know about the temp problems even on a tank with pc's indoors with a closed top.


BTW.... sick tank and congrats

[jtesdall]

I dream to one day have a tank as beautiful as yours! WOW! Congratulations!

You mention a nitrate reactor. I know you said you don't need it anymore, but what kind is it and did it work well when you did need it?

[NanoCube-boy]

The tank is outstandly clean look inside the house. Con graduation being TOTM. Your name sounds like Vietnamese, are you?

Anyways I have some question, it's probably some noob questions, but hey, at least I ask.
What is a close loop?
What do you mean by RTN?

Why did you need to tide the frag tank down?
How do you trim the zoanthids on your tank wall?

I heard you on temp. control. I experience the same thing on my nano, my two fan blew off, but my tank never been running on a heater, they tank constantly at 84s-86s degree.

[Oldude]

Congratulations, that is a sweet reef! Looks great, very nicely done.

[josephatmbibank]

That is an impressive tank and glad a fellow vietname reef addict doing it big!

-Joseph Le

[fishcraze2002]

Thanks for all the nice compliments guys. Glad you like my tank

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by ExoticReefer99
To solve the temp and bug problem you could build a small sheetrock
room around the tank with enough access for you to walk around.
Then put an window unit a/c on the small sheetrocked in room. Just a thought if you have enough room. I live in Houston too and know about the temp problems even on a tank with pc's indoors with a closed top.


BTW.... sick tank and congrats

I would have done that if there is enough room around the tank to do that. however, there are only ~2" clearance b/t my garage door and top of my hood (which is not very high either). thanks for the idea though.