Tom's 11.4 Reef Build

[CaptainRon]

Come take a look at my Maxspect light Tom. Corals are coloring up nicely under them

 

Your tank is looking great too. Your going to have to prune and trim like made when thing start growing into each other!

[tpallas]

Thanks Ron! Are you liking it much better than the Sol?

[CaptainRon]

Yes Tom, I am. I know my ORA Red Plannet looked mostly brown under the Sol Blues. You could see hints of a deep red/maroon in it, but it certainly looked mostly brown. Within a couple weeks of adding the Maxspects, it started to color up a lot - turned much more red and got the green highlights as well. I got a small frag of Copps' blueberry miagi tort and it wasn't colored up at all when I got it (not a knock on Copps, he told me it wasn't going to be colored up). I left it off to the side for a week or two to acclimate to the new lights then placed it top center of the tank and it too colored up very nicely in two weeks or so.

 

So overall I'm very happy with them. They even similate passing clouds lol

Edited April 20, 2012 by CaptainRon

[tpallas]

Thanks for your input Ron! I'll need to come down one of these days, I've got some frags - Tyree stag, blue table, ponape birdsnest, bottle brush and bubble gum mille that will be ready in a month or two if you're up or trading!

 

Here's some pics of the tank in my new apartment:

 

 

 

 

I've got my Sol fixed, so I think I'll give it at least another six months or so before swapping out for something better. I've noticed my corals are a bit on the pale side so I've cut back on the intensity, but I have noticed growth from my slimer and caps. The acros should start posting good growth again soon.

 

Cheers

[Dr.eclipse]

dual mp10 in a 11 gallon tank, nice

sps looks great man.

[smallreef]

Looks AWESOME!!! you need to make a box to cover your bucket... just needs that little bit of camouflage...

[tandldel]

Looking good Tom.

[tpallas]

Thanks guys! Got a nice piece of red dragon from Copps today....looking great!

[surf&turf]

Congrats, looks great!!

[tandldel]

Red dragon ---I'm jealous for sure on that! Very nice need some close up tank shots when you get time.

[tpallas]

Thanks Ted....I did make a rookie mistake. I had switched out my light with a 250W MH while I was fixing my Sol. The fan wasn't working so I had the blues down to 60% or so....once I got it fixed I brought it up to 100%. OOPS. Man did I bleach some stuff. I knocked everything down to 50%. Now we'll see how long the recovery takes. Two steps forward, three steps back! Red dragon looks good though, it was spared from the light surge.

[CaptainRon]

I have a chunk of Red Dragon too - that one seems to grow pretty quickly! Delicate as can be though!

[tpallas]

Hey Ron - I hope it grows fast for me too - I'll be on my way to early retirement! Meant to catch up with you too....maybe next time.

[tpallas]

Couple of quick pics:

 

 

[smallreef]

::drool:: Looking good! love the clam

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Holy Moses what are you going to do when the acros start growing!?

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Great setup with such a small tank by the way!

[tpallas]

Man, did I take a hit. I only had the power out for 24 hours but in a tank this small that's tough. Ironically I had ordered the Vortech backup unit on a hunch but it hasn't arrived yet. I lost my 6-line (good friend of 3 years), cleaner shrimp, and about 30% of my corals. Watching them RTN now....I'm wondering if I should do a water change, or if that would be even more of a shock. Fortunately my two prize pieces, purple monster and red dragon, look fine.

[smallreef]

AWW Im very sad to hear that... hopefully some of the stuff you think is gone may come back??? Very sad losing a fish youve had for that long, hopefully your backup gets here and the next time the tragedies can be avoided.. I too have a small tank but no corals yet and the temp went 4 degrees down when the power had been out for 16 hours..

[tpallas]

Thanks for the words....looks like the outage resulted in a alk drop down to 7 which triggered the RTN. Doing some alk dosing/water changes to see if it helps.....

[surf&turf]

Sorry to hear!! I lost my six-line as well, along with 2 Anthias. SPS look good so far. Wonder why you lose the small fish first?

[tpallas]

I'm not sure, my 2 clowns were fine. I had plans to move the 6-line to my 33g system when it got set up, too bad. Fortunately, I brought the alk up and it halted the RTN.

[tpallas]

Look at what arrived, just in time!!!

 

 

At least I got the second MP10 up on the wireless module. Just need to set one up in slave mode:

 

 

I was gone from Wednesday AM until today....unfortunately we can add my large Maxima to the death toll from the storm. It didn't smell bad so it must have died recently, but belatedly from the power outage. Fueled a bit of an algae outbreak though. I'm up on a 7-day Prodibio dosing schedule to increase bacterial growth and reduce PO4. Unfortunately since I moved this tank in March it's been one blow after another. My plan is to just let things sit, do water changes, dose Prodibio, and try to keep it as stable as possible....

[tpallas]

This tank is making a comeback! My girlfriend told me she wanted to set up her own aquarium (she likes soft corals and my dropoff is for SPS). We went out this weekend, picked up some liverock, cleaned the tank and equipment, did a nice aquascape....and the tank leaked. So I let lose some solid profanity, then tore the tank back down. Drove to Home Depot, got some silicone. Sealed it up. Waiting for it to cure now to do some leak tests.

 

I'll be taking the Sol blue from my larger tank and putting it back over this one. Definitely just doing soft corals and LPS, the 33g SPS tank gives me enough headaches! Nice to have the GF get the bug, def makes it a lot more fun.

[roni]

one piece of advice...do all the work on the tank and make sure it looks good.  From my experience, my wife viewed the idea of "her" tank as the tank I maintain for her to pick corals for, instead of the tank that she occasionally worked on