DGee's Box O sticks V2

[WDKegge]

Any updates on this beast? I just ordered a bunch of tonga shelf rock to try and mimic your aquascape.

 

[Aslam Abraham]

Beautiful reef, and thank you for sharing your knowledge.

 

[Preme]

any updates?

 

[NautilusQ]

Quick fix

 

[Aslam Abraham]

I feed the corals every week a mixture of 7ml Seachem Fuel, 5ml of Oyster Feast and 10ml each of Red Sea Reef Energy A & B

How many times a week do you feed.

 

[DGee]

Whew, it's been a while!

As a few of you who've kept in touch with me on Facebook or through email already know, I decided to tear the tank down at then end of last summer.

Long story short, when we returned from Fiji I noticed an outbreak of Dinoflagellates, in 20 some odd years of being in the hobby this was only my second encounter with them. The first time was simple, lights out for a week and done, dino's were gone and never returned.

Sadly this would be nothing short of what I would later call "super dino's" nothing would kill them and they took over quickly, I threw peroxide and every magic potion known to man to try and get a handle on them but in the end I was thoroughly frustrated and decided there was no winning, it was time to throw in the towel. I pulled the corals, the rock and threw it all in the trash. I considered re-homing the corals but I was too concerned with passing along the pests that had gotten me to the point of no return.

I emptied the tank and filled with with fresh water from the hose with all the equipment running and dumped in 3 gallons of bleach to clean everything up... Amazingly enough the dino's that were still on the glass and parts of the tank took almost 2 days to actually die in the freshwater / bleach solution. Afterwards I cleaned everything spotless and that was that.

Fast forward about a month and a half later my wife and son said "we miss the tank, fix it" Honestly I kinda missed it too...

So here we are, almost 3 months into the restart and things are moving along well. Corals are growing fast and basing out nicely and nothing out of the ordinary. Thankfully I had kept some backup pieces of some of my favorite one off corals at my buddies shop so I had frags to get re-started from as well as a lot of new pieces.

Everything is pretty much the same as before setup wise except I decided to change the lights. I'm not a fan of LED's and I really missed the look of the Radiums I ran back in the day so I decided to pick up a Giesemann Spectra fixture that houses two single ended 250w radiums and four T5's.

Anyways, enough jabber!

 

[EastSideBAy]

Great to hear you're back!!! Going through a similar thing myself as well and in the process of restarting my tank. GL to you mate.

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Whew, it's been a while!

As a few of you who've kept in touch with me on Facebook or through email already know, I decided to tear the tank down at then end of last summer.

Long story short, when we returned from Fiji I noticed an outbreak of Dinoflagellates, in 20 some odd years of being in the hobby this was only my second encounter with them. The first time was simple, lights out for a week and done, dino's were gone and never returned.

Sadly this would be nothing short of what I would later call "super dino's" nothing would kill them and they took over quickly, I threw peroxide and every magic potion known to man to try and get a handle on them but in the end I was thoroughly frustrated and decided there was no winning, it was time to throw in the towel. I pulled the corals, the rock and threw it all in the trash. I considered re-homing the corals but I was too concerned with passing along the pests that had gotten me to the point of no return.

I emptied the tank and filled with with fresh water from the hose with all the equipment running and dumped in 3 gallons of bleach to clean everything up... Amazingly enough the dino's that were still on the glass and parts of the tank took almost 2 days to actually die in the freshwater / bleach solution. Afterwards I cleaned everything spotless and that was that.

Fast forward about a month and a half later my wife and son said "we miss the tank, fix it" Honestly I kinda missed it too...

So here we are, almost 3 months into the restart and things are moving along well. Corals are growing fast and basing out nicely and nothing out of the ordinary. Thankfully I had kept some backup pieces of some of my favorite one off corals at my buddies shop so I had frags to get re-started from as well as a lot of new pieces.

Everything is pretty much the same as before setup wise except I decided to change the lights. I'm not a fan of LED's and I really missed the look of the Radiums I ran back in the day so I decided to pick up a Giesemann Spectra fixture that houses two single ended 250w radiums and four T5's.

Anyways, enough jabber!

I'm sure you'll find success again, so sorry to hear you trashed so many beautiful colonies that took countless hours of time and dedication to grow. The Radiums and T5HO makes me happy, I do all my prop under T5 but for customers who want the full on most realistic look possible with no concern for power costs etc then Halide and actinic T5 has no equal IMO.

With regard to resetting a tank completely when it comes to dino infestation - you may want to mentally prepare for managing a tank of dino in the future without a tear down. I have come across numerous tanks infested with the absolute worst dinos imaginable, and while they're stubborn, they all break in the end (sometimes it takes a month or more). Once I got through beating them a couple of times I haven't lost any SPS while treating infested tank. Your old system seemed extremely clean and looked it too with regard to having almost zero algae or anything really save for gorgeous corals. Once your dino got hold any treatment that involved killing them, 'cleaning', or nutrient reduction would have only made it worse. They strip the water so quickly of any available nitrate and phosphate you have to double or nearly triple food/nutrient input just to supply your corals with enough energy to prevent bleaching while the dinos bloom. This excess food also eventually allows for turf algae and other microfauna to take hold. Rest assured you will probably get dinos again if you add fish or coral from various sources with any regularity. I can tell you from being at the primary importing wholesalers for the US on an almost weekly basis that they come in these days with shocking frequency compared to years past. Not sure why but the past couple years dinos have become so much more commonplace, but they're here and likely here to stay in the US reef scene. I now design and retrofit all new/current customer systems to be 'dino proof' (more like dino resistant). Basically every tank is set up and maintained to sustain the necessary nutrient profile and diversity of algal and microfauna to prevent dinos from ever getting any real foothold in the system. It's unfortunately almost necessary to operate under the assumption that your tank has or definitely will have dinos at some point. UV sterilizers are a very helpful tool at stopping any microscopic input of dino from becoming a huge bloom. Not a cure full stop but can really give you the chance to correct any imbalances if they're presence is detected.

Best of luck with the new tank. You obviously have a wet thumb when it comes to growing beautiful sps. Looking forward to seeing another stunning reef garden in the near future.

 

[MRodrigues1991]

Glad to hear you are back! Definitely an insirpiration on my build so I am excited to see how it turns out

 

[reeferfoxx]

Glad you are back! Cant wait to see this grow out.

Future reference, not allowing N or P bottom out keeps dinos away. UV sterilizer and dosing N and P helps cure a dino outbreak.

 

[drawman]

Glad to hear you're up and running! Also you got some sizeable acros already nice work. I had the same thing happen with dinos and they quickly took out my acros. I went nuclear with bleach as well and can thankfully enjoy my tank again.

 

[tsav87]

How do you keep up with you alk and ca demands?

 

[echopiece]

Glad to have you back! The restart looks great! How long are the halides on and how long are the T5's on?

 

[revhtree]

Whew, it's been a while!

As a few of you who've kept in touch with me on Facebook or through email already know, I decided to tear the tank down at then end of last summer.

Long story short, when we returned from Fiji I noticed an outbreak of Dinoflagellates, in 20 some odd years of being in the hobby this was only my second encounter with them. The first time was simple, lights out for a week and done, dino's were gone and never returned.

Sadly this would be nothing short of what I would later call "super dino's" nothing would kill them and they took over quickly, I threw peroxide and every magic potion known to man to try and get a handle on them but in the end I was thoroughly frustrated and decided there was no winning, it was time to throw in the towel. I pulled the corals, the rock and threw it all in the trash. I considered re-homing the corals but I was too concerned with passing along the pests that had gotten me to the point of no return.

I emptied the tank and filled with with fresh water from the hose with all the equipment running and dumped in 3 gallons of bleach to clean everything up... Amazingly enough the dino's that were still on the glass and parts of the tank took almost 2 days to actually die in the freshwater / bleach solution. Afterwards I cleaned everything spotless and that was that.

Fast forward about a month and a half later my wife and son said "we miss the tank, fix it" Honestly I kinda missed it too...

So here we are, almost 3 months into the restart and things are moving along well. Corals are growing fast and basing out nicely and nothing out of the ordinary. Thankfully I had kept some backup pieces of some of my favorite one off corals at my buddies shop so I had frags to get re-started from as well as a lot of new pieces.

Everything is pretty much the same as before setup wise except I decided to change the lights. I'm not a fan of LED's and I really missed the look of the Radiums I ran back in the day so I decided to pick up a Giesemann Spectra fixture that houses two single ended 250w radiums and four T5's.

Anyways, enough jabber!

Beautiful restart! Also hate to hear about the Dino issue! I too have been battling them off and on now foe many months. I recently tore out all of my rock and replaced it with Fiji rock.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

@DGee
Truly an amazing aquarium even the restart shows great promise. Next time you want to make a reset call me I would take the dinos and coral colonies in a heart beat.
Also nice to see some of Travis's customers tanks. I have known Travis at Upscales Fish and Reptile since his father ran the store. One of my best customers back in the day and a truly great aquarium store. I just loved to stop in and stare at the display tank. I even remember the large clam that needed it's own tank! Upscales is still one of my favorite aquarium stores in the Northwest!
Thanks for the information on how you care for your tank. There is some great advice in you post's Looking forward to seeing the tank mature!
You have some serious acrylic skills as well. I spent a few years making a living with acrylic aquariums, filters, stands and related items. I now fabricate Granite, Quartz, and Corian counters for residences and businesses. I have all the equipment but very little time to fabricate acrylic aquariums anymore.

 

[erk]

Beautiful new aquascape. Love the low rock formation allowing for more head room/SPS growth space. I don't see many fish in the new FTS. Will you be restocking with your original fish or new fish?

Also, I looked through your thread and saw you use 55mm and 40mm Nikon micro lenses. Could you share some info on how you shoot your coral macro images? They are so detailed and sharp. Could stare at them for hours. I personally use an old, fully manual Vivitar 55mm macro lens on my D810 and shoot at around f5.6. I limit the iso to 1600 max, but I probably could push it higher. I usually add an old Nikon 1.4x teleconverter for extra reach.

 

[DGee]

Glad you are back! Cant wait to see this grow out.

Future reference, not allowing N or P bottom out keeps dinos away. UV sterilizer and dosing N and P helps cure a dino outbreak.

Thanks! I've actually never let my nutrients get too low, I've always kept my tanks around .05-.08 p04 and around 5-10 on the Nitrates. I had a friend who had success recently with the addition of a UV and Dino's. Definitely something I'll be considering as things move on.

How do you keep up with you alk and ca demands?

I run an Aquamaxx S2 calcium reactor, been using it on this tank since I originally set it up. I've been really happy with the quality of it as well.

Glad to have you back! The restart looks great! How long are the halides on and how long are the T5's on?

Thanks! The T5's come on at 9am and turn off at 9pm the halides run from 10:00am - 7:30pm

Beautiful restart! Also hate to hear about the Dino issue! I too have been battling them off and on now foe many months. I recently tore out all of my rock and replaced it with Fiji rock.

Thanks bud, it's good to be back. I missed having the tank and it really made the house seem oddly dark without it lol.

Dino's are awful, I had heard many stories of people tearing down and giving up because of them, I guess I've just been lucky all these years and only had the one minor encounter. But as Rockskimmerflow mentioned above it does seem like they've become much more prevalent in recent time. Hopefully you'll get a handle on them, they're hands down the most frustrating pest I've ever dealt with. I would of been happier with aefw's!

@DGee
Truly an amazing aquarium even the restart shows great promise. Next time you want to make a reset call me I would take the dinos and coral colonies in a heart beat.
Also nice to see some of Travis's customers tanks. I have known Travis at Upscales Fish and Reptile since his father ran the store. One of my best customers back in the day and a truly great aquarium store. I just loved to stop in and stare at the display tank. I even remember the large clam that needed it's own tank! Upscales is still one of my favorite aquarium stores in the Northwest!
Thanks for the information on how you care for your tank. There is some great advice in you post's Looking forward to seeing the tank mature!
You have some serious acrylic skills as well. I spent a few years making a living with acrylic aquariums, filters, stands and related items. I now fabricate Granite, Quartz, and Corian counters for residences and businesses. I have all the equipment but very little time to fabricate acrylic aquariums anymore.

Thank you, it's a small world out there but Upscales is one of the few that's actually made it past the 20 year mark and is definitely known for still having the biggest and best coral selection around. Travis and I became good friends a long time ago and have remained so even outside of the hobby. We both have a passion for killing fish on the river, maybe even more so than keeping them in little boxes.

The old cube display was pretty famous, I miss seeing it around and I think even Travis does sometimes as well. The new Red Sea display is nice and easier to maintain though. We're actually getting ready to strip a lot of the corals out of the display and re-scape the tank and add from the stockpile that's accumulated in one of the back frag tanks where he's been hoarding lots of high end pieces, thankfully I had quite a few pieces of my own there to restart from. We all miss the big Gigas, if you know anything about Travis he loves his clams.

We're actually in the process of doing some adding to the shop as well, I convinced Travis he needed more corals so we're getting ready to install a 12' x 3' raceway tank that'll be solid sps! We should have it up and running in the next month.

I enjoy acrylic fab although I don't think it's something I'd ever want to do a for a living, I'm sure you're doing a lot better with granite and Corian than aquariums! I owned a composites fabrication company for many years so picking up acrylic was easy and I had most of the tooling already in my shop. It doesn't hurt that I've had a long relationship with James from Envision and could pick his brain for all his little tricks and secrets!

Beautiful new aquascape. Love the low rock formation allowing for more head room/SPS growth space. I don't see many fish in the new FTS. Will you be restocking with your original fish or new fish?

Also, I looked through your thread and saw you use 55mm and 40mm Nikon micro lenses. Could you share some info on how you shoot your coral macro images? They are so detailed and sharp. Could stare at them for hours. I personally use an old, fully manual Vivitar 55mm macro lens on my D810 and shoot at around f5.6. I limit the iso to 1600 max, but I probably could push it higher. I usually add an old Nikon 1.4x teleconverter for extra reach.

Thank you very much, the aquascape wasn't exactly what I was going for but it's close. My original plan was very low and only 2 large pieces of rock in the tank, but finding the right pieces I had pictured in my head was becoming too difficult. Thankfully a local reefer knew I was looking for large rock and had some stashed away so I had to settle for one large piece and three smaller ones.

I knew that I didn't want to do anything like the last scape or I'd spend forever comparing this version to the old one and I'd never be satisfied. More headroom was a must, one of the biggest problems I had with the old tank was flow, even with the four mp40s, it was still a challenge to get good flow through the large colonies, even more so as they got so closer to the top of the water. I like the new look, I'll like it a lot more when those corals get to 10+ inches lol.

All of the fish were sold with the exception of the blue hippo and the big Vlamingi, both reside at my buddies shop now where they have more room. I think the hardest part of tearing the tank down was letting go of the Vlamingi, we had him since he was about 2" and he was truly like the family dog. I'm still tempted to bring him back home from time to time, I just know he needs more space. As for now there's about 10 small fish in the tank, most were hiding when I took the photo because I had kicked the lights back on after dark to take the photo.

As for my macro shots, I still prefer the old manual Japanese glass Nikon 55mm 2.8, I think it takes sharper photos. I got the new 40mm mainly just for ease of use. It's still a nice piece of glass but it still doesn't compare to the old Japan glass.

I have an acrylic tube I built, I think there's a picture of it back a few pages. My camera settings on my D300 pretty similar for most all my shots inside the tank. Lights are always all on and I only shoot in camera RAW (makes for easy white balance in Photoshop) ISO locked at 200, aperture 5.6 and adjust shutter speed as necessary. For me I've found that as long as my focus is good and photos aren't blown out you can make all the necessary white balance and exposure adjustments etc. in Shop. I've learned how to see past the ugly blue mess that appears on the back LCD to know what I like and what I don't if that makes sense lol. I try to get my photos as close to what you'd see if you were in my living room looking at the tank, I can't stand the over saturated fake look.

How do you like the 810? I've considered upgrading my digital body but to be honest, if it's not fish tank or quick pictures of the kid I'm much more likely to pick up the old F5 and shoot some film.

 

[DGee]

This is a good example of why I love that old 55mm Micro, this was shot through the front panel of the tank using an old 6.7mp Nikon D70!

 

[Tek]

I just finished your thread from start to finish. Absolutely beautiful tank! Your setup is similar to how mine is run. Simple is better and I spend more time enjoying the tank than making adjustments.

My tank was also restarted 3 months ago. Cheers to not giving up!

 

[erk]

The 810 has become my go to camera for most everything. It is amazing in all light situations. The built in AWB is much more precise. My images still come out blue, but not over saturated as they were in the 7100 or 5200. It is my first full frame and I'm happy I went with it. I love the amount of options and adjustable parameters. Compared to my previous Nikons, they are almost like point and shoots compared to this thing. It is very large and heavy, but I don't mind. I've even enjoyed shooting video with it and I rarely shoot video. I posted a short macro vid on my build that was shot completely with the 810 and 55mm macro.
I still have my 7100, but that has been relegated to wildlife photography. That is my primary photography passion. I posted some images in my build thread from a recent trip.
I made a lens tube for photographing top down shots, but it is nothing compared to the one you made. I really need to make something like you have. Would make top down shots much easier.
I'm glad to see that my shooting parameters are not much different. I just need to keep practicing. Both at the macro photography and photoshop. I tend to do everything in Camera Raw, but I could probably produce better images if I learned to mask and adjust background and foreground objects separately. The images you took of your fish and coral with the macro lens are nothing short of amazing. I can't imagine the patience you need to get the perfect shot. Gives me something to practice and aspire towards.
Did you take a class on Photoshop or are you self taught? I'm seriously thinking of taking an online class to improve my abilities and would appreciate your input.

I recently purchased a Nikon 200mm f/4 micro, but had to send it in for repair. The M/A ring cracked and wouldn't allow me to focus the lens correctly. That's what I get for trying to get an expensive lens for cheap on eBay, lol. My plan is to use this lens primarily for flowers and insects, but I'll probably try it on my tank as well.