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Thanks everyone!

 

Reefoholic, nope I had a lifereef external 4' but switched to a sro internal. Happy with it so far!

 

Steve #1 I am running both kalk and a geo 618

 

Steve #2, yea I lowered the right side of the "rock wall" which is actually two rock mountains really. I think it looks a little better, but I like doing that style of aquascaping because I can use fittings under the rocks for fish tunnels. The fish seem really happy too.

 

Here is an update...

fts-2.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yup pretty much, the two stags in the middle I got with a couple branches on them. Really everything started growing once the new tank settled in and once I did my last dip for the aefw's. I think this setup will be 9 months old soon!

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(edited)

But this tank was combined from a 150 and a 100 which had corals growing in them, which got moved to this tank so the red pocci and the green millie and a few others had time to grow in thoes tanks. So thoes corals will be over two years old. The pinapple brain (I think thats what it is) she had in the original 29 gallon tank.As well as the bubble coral, which almost died and she grew it back from a single eraser sized bubble to what it is now.

Edited by Piper27
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  • 4 weeks later...

Updated fts pic, finally got a decent shot (for my camera skills at least). Also a couple coral pics. I am still having trouble keeping alk stable... Even with the reactor dripping almost a stream the alk drops about .2 every day. Its killing me, I am hoping once I can save money for a new pump on the geo it will help but I am kinda worried it won't.

 

fts-3.jpg

 

strawberry shortcake

 

ssc-2.jpg

 

some wierd pink polyped acro

 

pinktip-1.jpg

 

a red polyped green acro

 

christmas-1.jpg

 

A wierd suprise I got from a browned out piece, the new growth is awesome colored.

 

dw.jpg

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks man!

 

I am kinda regretting switching skimmers now. Not that the RO is a bad skimmer, in fact its skimming really well and I am very happy with it so far. But to put it in the sump I took the cheato and threw it in the drain section of the sump hoping it would do okay but it stopped growing and cyano is popping up. Its not really bad but the rocks have spots of it in multiple spots and its got me thinking if I should find a spot to put a tank for a refuge for it. Normally it has gone away own but I am wondering if its going to get worse. I will probly give it a few weeks and put my halides on for 4.5 or 5 hours a day instead of 5.5. We added some anthias and some other fish so I think that the heavier bioload isn't helping any. Thoes are the only two changes I made to the tank so I guess time will tell.

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Yea I certainly didn't think the corals would grow so well, now I have no room and stuff is fighting and getting stung. There are a couple pieces I just need out. And the frag tank is packed with somebody elses addiction and I have no where to put anything! I have basically been tossing any acros that get broke because I have no where to put them and I don't like explaining the whole "I had aefw" in the tank last year deal. They just go back to the reactor so I guess it's not a waste.

 

Calcium 420

Alk 9

Mag 1450

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Do your acros feel brittle and break easily? I'm asking because of the unexpected fast growth you mentioned. If they grow fast and feel brittle it could be from a lack of strontium if you're not dosing it.

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Nope none are brittle and they don't break easy either. I have a test kit for it and cant ever get it to read anything though. I figured weekly water changes and using the calcium reactor was doing it. Would you suggest dosing strontium? I am kinda also wondering how a lack of strontium would cause fast growth. And the growth wasn't un expected, it was more be not believing I could deal with the flatworms and end up having a successful looking reef.

 

Some of the acros are so hard I have to cut them with a dremol tool. Of course I am "new" to keeping corals so I have nothing to go by. I also tried dosing strontium for a little while and couldn't get the test kit to read, it's a saliferts and it's really a long testing process. So I have tons of strontium sitting but haven't been using it.

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It looks incredible, I'm still trying to get my husbandry up to par...but you guys have a true beauty! Congrats on kicking those flat worms out!

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Thanks Josh, and when anyone asks I tell them I haven't seen them (and yes i HAVE looked) so that makes me think they are gone. I am never going to be sure they are gone since there is no way of knowing for sure. Plus the day I tell someone they are gone I feel like that will be the day they will come back.

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Why the test kit worked, I was probly doing it wrong when I tried last.

 

Strontium is at 10 I did a waterchange 5 days ago so I assume it's been stable throughout the time the new tank has been up.

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(edited)

 

Even with the reactor dripping almost a stream the alk drops about .2 every day. Its killing me,

 

 

Be careful of cranking that reactor up to far. I ran into the same problem with a really successful SPS tank once and ended up melting my media and clogging up my reactor. It made a real mess and a big Alk Swing.

 

You might want to start supplementing your reactor with BRS 2 part. Just a thought.

 

Congrats on the tank, it is really coming together nicely.

Edited by OldReefer
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Be careful of cranking that reactor up to far. I ran into the same problem with a really successful SPS tank once and ended up melting my media and clogging up my reactor. It made a real mess and a big Alk Swing.

 

You might want to start supplementing your reactor with BRS 2 part. Just a thought.

 

Congrats on the tank, it is really coming together nicely.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up but I already had it start to clog up on me. Alk has been messy for a while but at least I got it back so it doesn't drop any during the day. I switched to a larger media, hopefully I can afford a better reactor soon or find a cheap pump to put on the one I have.

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So bradens kindness wore off on me, I need some room and have no where to put anything I clip so if you want to swing by pm me. Most of the stuff is nice and also read the whole thread so you can understand what I have been through so I don't have to explain it to you. THEN pm me please :). Otherwise it's going to be recycled.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I finally put a new recirculation pump on the reactor, so far I can tell the ph stays more constant and isn't turning on and off the co2 constantly. I have to get it dialed in because I got rid of some huge colonies and forgot to turn down the drip and the alk went up to 12 in 3 days. Hopefully I won't see any effects from it later. I have one week to get it dialed in before I leave for vacation. When I get back I am putting up a fuge that will be under the frag tank, water will drain from the frag tank to the five to the sump. I think I need to get a bigger return pump also, the turnover on the display is way less now that it feeds the frag tank and the reactors. I may have to save some money up to get a wahoo or marlin or something. That is assuming everything survives us being gone!

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