2Sunny's 240 Coral Garden Cube

[Jcr's Reef]

Everything looks beautiful Joe! Lots of pictures are now need to make up for the long absence lol

 

[Acropora52]

Wow! Amazing tank! Can't believe I just came across this. Love that ritteri...been looking for one like that forever.

 

[soccerbag]

Ca 450 ppt
Mg 1450 ppm
Alk 8.0 dKH
pH 8.3
I above NSW
NO3 0.25 ppm
PO4 0.00 ppm


That says to me that the PO4x4 stuff works incredibly well. I still can't believe that a mere 250 ml treats a 700 gallon system with no trouble.

Love the tank. Have been looking at the PO4x4. I'm assuming that you have this in a reactor and am curious as to how you started with it? Did you ramp up to the 250ml or did you throw all 250ml in and let it go? I have tried other bio-pellets but was not impressed. Can you share a bit more about your experience with the product? Thanks, in advance!

 

[2Sunny]

13 days later . . .

Thanks! I get Coral magazine and saw the ad for PO4x4, and then went and Googled it and fournd the Krystof Tryc from Poland was using the stuff and given that I feel his tank has the most colorful coral in the world I figured it was worth a try. My PO4 was already reasonably low at less than 1ppm so I wasn't too concerned about adding 250 ml all at once plus the flow rate is only about 2L per minute through the reactor meaning any change in phosphate was going to be controlled by the rate rather than the amount, but none the less it brought my phosphates down in a slow and steady progression. Since focusing on keeping phosphate and nitrate low I have seen a dramatic change in nuisance algae.


Joe

 

[2Sunny]

And another of my favorite shots . . .

 

[2Sunny]

So if you're the type that enjoys "SchadenFreude" then you'll love this . . . my favorite coral of all time, the Oregon Tort, has gotten sick. Call it "white tip disease" or just slow death it wasn't happy so I took the chance and broke it out of the tank to dip it in Coral Revive and frag it into as many pieces as I could. Much of the frags are pale and so I think sick, but the piece I put back is still dark navy, but only time will tell if this will work or not. Hopefully at least a couple of the frags will live. The silver lining, if there is one, is that I have lots more room to add the ORA Pearlberry and Ice Fire Echinata in premium position now. I'm including a couple crappy photos just so everyone can see what I'm talking about. Funny thing is all the other corals are looking superb . . . .

Ahh well "C'est la vie."

​

​

 

[revhtree]

Wow sorry to hear. That was such a beauty of a piece.

May I ask you if you remember your camera settings and your gear for the macro clown shot a couple post up?

 

[2Sunny]

Thanks for the kind words! Hopefully the remaining pieces will make it, and it'll be big and strong again someday.

Here's the photo info . . . I had always thought the best macros came with a low ISO, but this one was good even with an ISO of 400 . . . .

File Name Photo Contest.JPG
Camera Model Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Firmware Firmware Version 1.0.9
Shooting Date/Time 1/13/2012 12:20:19 PM
Owner's Name
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/60
Av( Aperture Value ) 9.0
Metering Mode Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed 400
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Focal Length 100.0mm
Image Size 1080x720
Image Quality Fine
Flash Off
FE lock OFF
White Balance Mode Auto
White balance compensation B9, 0
AF Mode One-Shot AF
Picture Style Landscape
Sharpness 4
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Color tone 0
Color Space sRGB v1.31 (Canon)
Long exposure noise reduction 0:Off
High ISO speed noise reduction 0:Standard
Highlight tone priority 0isable
Auto Lighting Optimizer 0:Standard
Peripheral illumination correction Disable
File Size 484KB
Drive Mode Continuous shooting
Live View Shooting OFF
Date/Time(UTC)
Latitude
Longitude
Altitude
Geographic coordinate system
Camera Body No. 0370124612
Comment

 

[revhtree]

We pretty much have the same camera and we have the exact same lens. Did you use a tripod?

 

[Mike&Terry]

Wow, sorry to hear about the Oregon Tort and hope you are able to save some of it.

M&T

 

[Aquaph8]

That Tort was massive Joe, hope you can save some pieces. The pearl berry and ice fire should fit nicely in your beautiful tank.

 

[2Sunny]

Big change today . . . new lights. Sfiligoi fixtures with a total of 4 x 150 watt Radium HQI + 16 x 54 watt T5s including 8 ATI Blue Plus, 4 KZ Fiji Purple, and 4 KZ Coral Light IIs. We'll see what happens :tongue:

 

[ritter6788]

Amazing tank! Good luck with the new lights. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Mike&Terry]

Beautiful tank! Hope all goes well with the lights...

-M&T

 

[uall8up]

Awesome tank. Lights look great. More pics please?

 

[revhtree]

Awesome buddy!

 

[Aquaph8]

Joe those Sfiligoi fixtures are awesome, I know you'll love them!

 

[skinz78]

Stunning as usual!

 

[2Sunny]

Thanks guys . . .

I know I haven't been around as much as I'd like, but I noticed something very interesting today. RC had 134 members online when R2R had over 400! Kudos to Rev!!!!! This site rocks, and you guys are the best!

Here's a little self aggrandizement that I hope is allowed, but has anyone here heard of ReefHobbyistMagazine.com? I have two articles in there now and this quarter my photo is featured on the cover. Anyways, thanks for all the kind words. I'm gonna cruise the forum in the coming days and see what if anything I can add plus I'll try to grab some better photos in the coming weeks so I can better compare the changes from the lighting. I noticed right away that the change makes an enormous difference in how the corals look to my eye. So hard to quantify, but my O.T. looks paler while my pink birds nest simply pops and my blue polyp, green with purple rim monti cap looks way better as well. So many differences; 99% for the better. I was a real T5 naysayer initially because it's exactly the same technology as a T12 and you end up spending more on bulbs, but the availability of colors and the density one can create (I have 16 lamps for heaven's sake!!!!) plus the better reflectors designed for T5s versus T12s all add up to an unbeatable combo. I could have gone pure T5 like Krystof Tryc, but I still like the shimmer of MH and the 4 x 150 watt HQIs provide just the right addition plus plus the spread of light over the tank is WAAAAY more even and thorough. I really think this setup is gonna take my coral colors to a whole new level, but we'll have to wait and see!

Thanks again everyone for the kind words,


Joe

 

[M&M]

One of the best tanks I've ever seen. Great new lights.Keep us updated.