Who Doesn't Love Peninsulas? 40BR BB Mixed Reef - LED/T5 Hybrid

[ChouDawg]

Looks great! My only other recommendation would be to do your testing at the same time of day. Your numbers will swing throughout the day and night. Enjoy!

I do aim to do my testing at the same time each day but I don't always get enough time to run the full slew of test. I've read some articles that state corals consume more nutrients during the day but it seems to vary from coral to coral.


Parameters Update
Did a 5 gallon water change yesterday and cleaned my return line / check valve, boy was that dirty! My flow was slowing down too causing my overflow box to start running low, churning along nicely now. I let the water change circulate for about an hour and then took the following readings.


pH: 8.3 (+0)
Ca: 415 ppm (+20)
Mg: 1340 ppm (+0)
Alk: 8.1 dKh (-0.7)


Using the reef calculator it looks like at 415 ppm Calcium, I should have a balanced Alkalinity of 7.8 dKh. And at 8.1 dKh Alkalinity, I should have a balanced Calcium level of 418 ppm. With the inherent human error of test kits I would say my Ca/Alk levels are balanced, which makes sense.


Aiming for a target 425 ppm Calcium / 9.2 dKh Alkalinity, I would need 0.61 gallons of saturated Kalk to reach the target Calcium and 0.5 gallon to reach the target Alkalinity. From previous test with the baking soda dosing I found out my tank goes through roughly 0.25 gallon of RO/DI in an 8 hour period. Using this I will make 1 gallon of saturated Kalk and have my ATO feed from it. This should last about 32 hours. I will test my parameters again tonight before hooking up the Kalk solution to get a baseline, then multiple times through the gallon process to make sure my levels don't get too high. If I can maintain my Ca/Alk using Kalk I plan to purcahse a Kalk reactor which will be fed with my ATO to prevent clogging up my Aqualifter with Kalk solution.


Corals are all reacting very well to the now proper nutrient levels and gaining back a lot of color and growth. I am so glad I finally decided to start testing. I never had this issue in my past tank because my regular 2 gallon water changes were enough to keep up with the coral demand in the pico tank.


If anyone else is following along and notices anything off with my regiment plan/calculations please feel free to chime in...I'm going based off of the various knowledge I've been gathering these past few weeks.


Possible photodump update coming tomorrow night...

 

[ChouDawg]

I'm bacccccccccckkkkkkkkk :lol:

The tank is 246 days or just over 8 months old now!

The tank has gone through some big changes since my last update. After the termite fumigation my rock work on the far end was kind of just "thrown together." I told myself I'd fix it later on...well now I think I'm going to leave it. After my move back I also just started placing corals/frags in random places, getting over a bit of my OCD and making more of a "mixed" reef once it all grows out.

Equipment wise nothing has changed, I moved the far end MP10 to the overflow wall so both are facing the far end...so far I haven't noticed any pockets of detritus and it helps me really enjoy the peninsula setup.

Livestock wise I lost the McCosker Wrasse as previously mentioned but will be adding a Cosmetus Wrasse in the next week or so. I plan to make a "sandbox" by epoxying in strips of acrylic to make a pen under my rock arch and then filling in the void with sand. This should allow me to keep the majority of my tank barebottom and still have a proper environment for the wrasse to thrive.

Added and removed a few corals, multi-colored coraline is finally starting to grow on the rock and patches of pink coraline are showing up on the bare bottom...and now the pictures!

MySpace Angles

Left FTS

View From The End

Right FTS

ISO FTS

Best Buds

Shroom Garden

Green Slimey Thing

Toxic/Grape Hammers

Tank Mascot "Ali"

Thanks for visiting!

 

[ChouDawg]

Tank is 254 days old today! Not much has changed, I finally installed my Bluefish LED controller today and had a bunch of fun playing with all the settings and modes. It's nice to finally be able to sit back and adjust my color channels to my liking from my phone.

ISO FTS

So I bought one of these a few days ago...found a deal I couldn't pass up on CL

Naturally, I went crazy and took a ton of macro shots with my new lens, boy its nice to have a real macro lens finally.

Rainbowlicious Shrooms

Every 12 Days Like Clockwork

Stubborn Orange Mauls

Jolly Green Slimer

Those Eyelashes!

Chong Bongs

Jedi Mindtrick Monti

Hammertime!

Gary The Hermit Janitor

Red Planet Milli

Thanks for visiting!

 

[revhtree]

Wow bro! The tank is super and the photos are stellar! Don't be gone so long!

 

[ChouDawg]

Wow bro! The tank is super and the photos are stellar! Don't be gone so long!

Thanks for the kind words, I was gone for awhile and almost tore it down but made it over the various reef road bumps. Finally getting my parameters in check and aiming for those stable, optimal parameters to promote maximal growth and color.

 

[clownfitch]

Very nice 40 breeder! You set the bar high there my friend!

 

[ChouDawg]

Very nice 40 breeder! You set the bar high there my friend!

I aim to please, my next tank in the works will hopefully be just as awesome.

 

[Scubafrog]

Great looking tank and awesome pictures! I love the picture of Gary.

 

[ChouDawg]

Great looking tank and awesome pictures! I love the picture of Gary.

Me too! He is quite the character...its amazing how quickly he mobilizes when I drop pellets in for the clowns. I've had him for almost 2 years now and he's gone through 2 shell changes, this one came from a big nerite snail that either died or Gary wanted the shell really badly lol

 

[ChouDawg]

Tank is 267 days old today! Added a few corals, took a new FTS and some more macros shot. This weekend I will be able to determine how much Calc/Alk/Mg consumption my tank is at and beginning dosing ESV B-Ionic 2-Part, my Mag levels seem to be high with regular water changes. Still trying to get my hands on a healthy Cosmetus Wrasse and now a Sunburst Anthias which should finish off my fish stocking. Been slowly stockpiling parts for my new build and will begin sump/stand build this weekend.

Now onto the pictures!

ISO FTS

Chong Bong Palys

Sunset Millipora (Under Construction)

Some Kind of Digi

Rainbow Trip

Rastas

Tri-Color Birdsnest

Miyagi Tort

Finally Learning The Ways of the Force

I Think I <3 Milliporas

Thanks for visiting!

 

[ChouDawg]

Seems you guys forgot about me so here are some updates...

Tank is 276 days old today! I added a Cosmetus Wrassse and a Sunburst Anthias last week, unfortunately the Sunburst I couldn't get to eat and lost it over the weekend. The Cosmetus is an ADD tank constantly darting around the tank, eats everything, even pellets off the surface. I do plan to get another Sunburst after I get over losing this one, they really are beautiful fish.

After a bit more trial and error I was finally able to shoot under just LEDs to show off the flourescence after the T5s go out...the last two pictures in this set are LED only.

Anyways, the real reason you guys check-in, pictures!

ISO FTS

Left FTS

View From The End

Right FTS

Birds Eye Reef

Cosmetus Wrasse

New Blastos Mini Colony & Bonus PE

LED FTS

Glow-In-The-Dark Shrooms

 

[danangelo]

Nice looking pics..I need a macro lense..

 

[ChouDawg]

Nice looking pics..I need a macro lense..

Thanks..I got lucky and scored mine for cheap on Craigslist..this last photo set were all shot with my Sigma 17-50 F2.8 though.

 

[bboyvital]

tank looks to be coming along great. thanks for sharing.

 

[footballdude2k3]

Looks fantastic, great work

 

[ChouDawg]

Hm..how about a macro coral update...

"Fist Punch" Digi

Caps

Purple Queens

Return of the Jedi

Millimadness

"Blue Acro" (Survived AEFW)

Bi-Color Hammers

"Color Up Faster"

Random Freebie SPS - Branching Monti of Some Sort?

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Awesome tank. Following along.

 

[ChouDawg]

Awesome tank. Following along.

Welcome, thanks for following along!

 

[revhtree]

Is this beauty still going?