2Sunny's 240 Coral Garden Cube

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Yea man I like that you went back to your 2002 aquascape with the twin peaks. Very nice! I really like your corals and your tank and the way it all comes together. Very nice!!! And you also have some great photography skills. I'm enjoying especially all of your progression pics. Thank you for posting them. We should definitely do a trade in the future. Maybe I have a better piece for you to try than the Dragon Skin. I have this one acan that I'm pretty sure will get amazing under mh's. My t5's are not intense enough for the colors on this one to pop. I've been wanting to experiment with it in higher light. I'll cut a piece next week and we'll see what happens.

Please do tell about your maintenance regime and water changes. how big? how often?

 

[2Sunny]

Happy New Year!!!!!
​

If you ever sell a clone please hit me up!

Gottcha on the list :wink:

Stunning tank! What settings are you using on your camera, if you don't mind?

Picked up a lot of info cruising Photography forums in general and here's a synopsis of what I do:

1) Digital SLR with full manual (mines a Canon Rebel T1i)
2) Macro lense 60mm to 100mm (mines a Canon 100mm got it used at half price on eBay!)
3) tripod
4) really, really, really clean the tank and water and run carbon for a day then clean the glass again
5) when possible position the camera perpendicular to the glass
6) best shots will be with an f-stop above 9 like 9,11,13
7) shutter speed will be anywhere from 1/10 to 1/50 with these f-stops
8) ISO-100 or 200
9) photos taken in RAW which requires a special conversion program to read
10) cover all outside light sources or take photos at night with only tank lights
11) Use white balance to correct for actinic dominant lights
12) For moving targets I stop down to 5 at the lowest with 1/100 on the shutter and ISO 400 but these are never quite as crisp for me yet.
13) A "look down box" allows for some added cool photos 'cuz you can put the lense straight above.
14) Use Photoshop Elements or similar to crop, resize, and convert to jpeg.

Please do tell about your maintenance regime and water changes. how big? how often?

Sounds awesome and thanks!





Maintenance:

Daily: clean glass, feed twice (frozen: brine+, mysis, cyclop -eeze, arctic pods, bloodworms, sushi grade fish eggs), check basement, worry about developing algae bloom, top off sump with RO if not right on, check pH monitor for 8.1 and temp for 80, add 200 ml of B-Ionic 2 part if pH is 8.0 or less.

Weekly: 50 gallon water change (Coralife salt), clean skimmer, clean teeth on overflow, clean anti-siphon hole in return line, pull and inspect Stockman drain, mix next weeks water, clean and refill Deltec Kalk stirrer, add 100 ml Kent Tech-I iodine, siphon barebottom of frag tank.

Monthly: siphon sand bed clean, run 2 trays of carbon or 2 combination carbon/phosphate remover filter pads for 2 days or so to uncloud water, test water for Ca (Elos), Mg (Salifert), pH (Pinpoint), salinity (D-D refractometer), kH (Salifert). Make adjustments as necessary to hit 420 ppm Ca, 1250 ppm Mg, kH 8, pH 8.1, salinity 35 ppt.

Quartlery: Take out the 2 Tunzes and replace with clean standbys, then leave the dirty ones to soak in vinegar for a couple days, take out 2 Maxi-jets in frag tank and replace with clean ones then soak old ones in vinegar, remove and clean stockman drain, clean pump intake screens, vacuum sump bottom, rinse live rock in sump with old tank water saved in 40 gallon garbi can, sell frags and make some new frags.

6 Months: change RO/DI carbon block and 0.5 micron pre-filter.

9 Months: Change VHOs and record date on end of tube and in tank journal

Annually: Change MHs, exchange 2 main pumps for clean pumps and disassemble and clean old pumps for next year using Muriatic Acid, change RO/DI DI cartridge and RO cartridge, 300 gallon water change (usually associated with some major event like plumbing change or re-aquascape or, heaven forbid, a pest treatment or just a major sump cleanout.

When Needed: add sand if bottom shows, run phosphate remover, clean scale off heaters, buy cleanup crew to knock back whatever algae bloom hits Mithrax for valonia, nudibrancs for Briopsys, etc; clean and refill calcium reactor, exchange CO2 bottle, replace RO float shutoff switch, trim corals or even remove whole overgrown colonies (this happens once a year atleast and is always a little sad) change Via-Aqua powerhead on bottom of sump (keeps the surface stirred up).

 

[skinz78]

WOW what a great list of maintenance, everyone should take note because you are definitely doing it right!

 

[tater11]

what a beautiful tank.

 

[TomToro]

I agree. What a great maintenance program. I follow many of these practices and I have mostly the same equipment, but mine don't look like yours. Not even close.

One question: I notice you add 100ml of Iodine per week. What Iodine level are you keeping your system?

Seriously the healthiest most colorful array of corals I've seen. The trick (which you've mastered) is to keep extremely deep colors in your sps and yet appearing very natural. I've seen colorful sps before, but they usually look fake.

 

[clowns101]

Sorry for teh camera question,but I also have the Canon T1i(500D) and I cant figure out cuostom WB on it?Where did you find that setting,and how did you set it?

 

[2Sunny]

what a beautiful tank.

Thank-you as always!

One question: I notice you add 100ml of Iodine per week. What Iodine level are you keeping your system?

I don't believe I have found an iodine test kit that I liked so I basically am taking a SWAG based on the manufacturers recommended dose. I may end up killing everything with an excess build up of iodine but I do believe it plays a role in coloration and maybe even with natural things like shrimp molts so I guess I'm o.k. with dosing without knowing in this case.


on another note . . .

One slightly different ascpect in my system is the air intake on the skimmer venturi. Years ago I found that my basement has high CO2 levels (air tight modern home with lots of people and dogs :neutral so I drilled a hole in the side of the house and stuck a hose outside and put the other end on the skimmer. Prior to doing so my pH was never higher than 7.9 and now its stable 8.0 to 8.2.

 

[GOW]

I have to say that you have one of the nicest tanks that I have seen. It is the whole package, the aquascaping, the corals (size, colors), even the size of the tank. It is as though someone took a small piece of the ocean and put it in you house. I really appreciate the level of dedication that you have to keep and maintain your system, it says alot about a person. Thanks also for the background, maintence, etc. Love the growth of the Oregon tort, always been real slow for me.

 

[2Sunny]

Played around with video today . . .:bigsmile: only for those really bored or seriously addicted to aquariums.





[video=youtube;uIBzflicnh0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIBzflicnh0&hd=1[/video]

 

[underwaterfirefighter]

Nice video! Love to see schooling fish like that. Tank looks amazing.

 

[skinz78]

Awesome vid!

 

[salmonshutters]

i'm speechless!!!

 

[MarvinsReef]

really enjoyed the video. thanks for sharing. hope we can see more vids. maybe a little closer or maybe a vid on each island.

 

[2Sunny]

Thanks guys!

I'll definitely work on a video with different closeups. Glad you liked it!

Today's project was a quick first run at a website. Looking into running a live webcam, partially for me when I'm away, but also just 'cuz it'd be fun. Plus I'd like to get an Aquacontroller and have the basics constantly monitored live as well. If anybody reading this knows something or someone connected with setting up live feeds I'd love to hear from you even if it's about a fee for service company.

Anyways, here's the start of a new website I hope to build on . . .

[URL="http://thecoralgardner.com"]TheCoralGardner
[/URL]

 

[MarvinsReef]

Thanks guys!

I'll definitely work on a video with different closeups. Glad you liked it!

Today's project was a quick first run at a website. Looking into running a live webcam, partially for me when I'm away, but also just 'cuz it'd be fun. Plus I'd like to get an Aquacontroller and have the basics constantly monitored live as well. If anybody reading this knows something or someone connected with setting up live feeds I'd love to hear from you even if it's about a fee for service company.

Anyways, here's the start of a new website I hope to build on . . .


The Coral Gardner

very nice. pm sent on some things that aren't working correctly on the new site.

 

[2Sunny]

Thanks for the tip off!

Corrected and now running on an independent server instead of .Mac so new address is simply thecoralgardner.com :smile:

 

[spspirate]

Great site Joe!!!

 

[Oiseau Reefer]

Wow-zaa Beautiful man absolutely what I think a tank should look like I love the attention you pay to your maintenance!
A question how often does you mag nem split and pm me if I can ever get a clone!

 

[secretreefer]

man my tank looks like poo compared to that..geez@! beautiful tank!!!

 

[ricwilli]

Just STUNNING....... I think I'm going to get more chromis's for my tank. lol