greg's 150 build

revhtree · Feb 19, 2012

Looks great man!

greg0385 · Feb 20, 2012

Thanks rev

greg0385 · May 15, 2012

3 months old

After 3 months since i started this tank, im getting more confidence in having a successful reef tank. Here is a few pics of it and the 3 frags i got last month at the swap. I wish i would have taken pics the day i got the frags as the milli is growing crazy fast. I havent added anything as i wanted to keep things stabke and recovering from diatoms and cyno. Soon i hope to get a few more sps frags and maybe some other corals too.

The honeydoo milli is on the left(thanks jay) it has 90% cover the disk and put lots of small branches off the disk with the largest almost 1/4" growth.

The frag in the middle is Pink Lemonade (thanks bill) it hasnt grew alot, i guess because it fell and broke a small tip off about two weeks ago. It still has great color and all its polyps.

The frag on the right is a Rasberry Stag (thanks bill) in the last week it has started to show signs of branching.

Everything has kept its color and have great polyps so i hope to continue to have these results.

Sorry for the bad pics, everything looks way better in person
Thanks
Greg

revhtree · May 15, 2012

Looking good bro and way to take your time and do it right!

gmoney243 · May 15, 2012

Cool glad things are going well now

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

greg0385 · May 16, 2012

thanks REV!! Im trying to do this right so in hopes one day have Tank of the Month

greg0385 · Nov 1, 2012

Big update on the 150

its been awhile since i have post any updates, warning serveral pictures.
im going to show a old pic vs new

full tank shot feb 14, 2012

full tank shot sep 12, 2012

full tank shot oct 31, 2012

pink lemonade june 23,2012

pink lemonade oct 31, 2012

raspberry stag june 23,2012

raspberry stag oct 31, 2012

more pictures....

greg0385 · Nov 1, 2012

WT red planet aug 17, 2012

WT red planet oct 31,2012

WT blue stag aug 17, 2012

WT blue stag oct 31, 2012

honeydoo milli (about 3 months ago) it almost died

honeydoo milli oct 31,2012

now for just some pictures to add

acan oct31,2012. was a 4 head acan about 3 months ago

red milli oct 31,2012

more pictures coming...

greg0385 · Nov 1, 2012

oh yeah forgot about this one
aqua delight sep 3, 2012

aqua delight oct 31, 2012

this is a sps frag pack i got from dwilliams

right side of frag pack

middle of frag pack

left side of frag pack

i got a sexycoral sps pack coming in the near future as well! (oregon tort, terra del feugo, strawberry shortcake, red planet, garf bonsai)

so this is my current stock list
livestock: yellow tang, diamond goby, neon goby, 9 green chromis, yellow coris wrasse, cleaner shrimp, emerable crab, turbo snails

corals:
8-10 head acan, pink lemonade, raspberry stag, honeydoo milli, wt blue stag, wt redplanet, red milli, aqua delight, strawberry shortcake.
dwilliams sps frag pack:
bubblegum milli, rainbow sherbert milli, lime in the sky(died apon arrival) pink tip sarmentosa, deep blue tort, bali echinata(icefire variant), blue hoeusemai, blue tip green table, hot pink acro, rommels watermelon, exquisitor acro, ORA ice tort, chaos cyphastria, rainbow nasuta, dragonskin acro, ORA verde, toxic green tort, rainbow pocci, mettalic blue milli.

well with all this said above, i am having a coloring problem. most of my acros are fading to a bland color. the only thing i can think of is the Metal Halide bulbs are older then i think they are. so i plan on changing them out within the next 30days.
my params check with hannah checkers ( thanks dwilliams)
20-30 gallon water change every 2wks
salinity 1.025-1.026
ph 7.8
alk 7.7
cal 380-400
phos .03
2-250 watt 14k phoenix
4 t5 icecapp 600 ati bulbs blue+, purple+, coral+, blue +
so i dont think my params are off unless they arent stable which i plan on getting some hannah checkers of my own soon to check the params daily.
i know par is around 250-300 on the top of rock work so this may be the problem, but maybe after changing the bulbs that will increase some and the color spectrum will be back where it needs to be.

thank to any help you can offer, as long as i able to keep polyps out then i still have a fighting chance to get them to color up to their full potential.

thanks again greg

Dowtish · Nov 1, 2012

You definitely scored big on that pack from dwilliams. I was somewhat upset when he told me you were getting everything. :) Any reason you havent mounted them to the rock?

I would definitely get your new bulbs, but if colors are fading that usually means the corals are starving. You need to start feeding a little heavier. Feed your fish heavy, and try some reef nutrition's oyster feast spot fed to your frags once a week.

schooleyosis · Nov 1, 2012

Tank is looking awesome man! Love how open you left it and really dig the two rock piles! I'm not sure on why the coral won't color up as I new to corals but I'm sure these guys will chime in soon and help ya out!

greg0385 · Nov 1, 2012

Dowtish said:
You definitely scored big on that pack from dwilliams. I was somewhat upset when he told me you were getting everything. :) Any reason you havent mounted them to the rock?

I would definitely get your new bulbs, but if colors are fading that usually means the corals are starving. You need to start feeding a little heavier. Feed your fish heavy, and try some reef nutrition's oyster feast spot fed to your frags once a week.

i have a auto fish feeder, feeding twice a day. sunday and wednesday i feed, one block of roti, reef chili, and oyster feast.

i may be wrong but when corals fade to a browish color then its either lack of light or high phosphats or starving corals.
well high phosphate isnt the problem, i do have a small bioload right now, and lights could be stronger and brighter with new bulbs.
so i will continue to work on adding more fish and new bulbs.

before i go mounting all those frag i want to make sure they stay healthy and adjust to my lights, were leds and now MH/t5 and waiting on the SC sps pack

Dowtish · Nov 1, 2012

That's a good feeding regiment for sure. Is it more browning of corals? or colors just faded?

I am assuming you are not dosing any 2 part, and you are just doing WC's to keep your alk and cal up?

greg0385 · Nov 1, 2012

well its hard to say, they just dont seem to have that color pop that i see in other tanks. when i got that dwilliams sps pack the colors were just bright and awesome and they just seem to go bland as the days go by.

something else... that wt red planet is about 1/3 down on the rockscrape (approx 20 inches deep) 180-200 par and its still red with a small green base. from what i have read it will stay red under high lights and change to green with lower light. so if thats the case then the rest of my acro are higher up and arent as colorful as if there not getting enough light. that rose milli i got from you is just brown looking, but when i first got it was just as red as could be. so i don't know if it too much light or what.

im not dosing anything yet just doing 20-30 gallon water changer every other sunday using salinity salt

Dowtish · Nov 1, 2012

I am thinking this is just going to take some time. I didnt add any acros to my tank for at least the first 12 months. the one I did turned totally brown. I did however add birdsnest, pocillipora and montipora, which all seemed to do pretty well early on.

Given your demand is not really there yet, I would guess your paramters are staying fairly solid, and not swinging too much. But if you alk and cal levels are dropping throughout the week, and then you do the big WC, there is a swing there, and that might be some of your issue too. I honestly would say, just keep doing what you have been, and just give it time. Small frags seem to take awhile, and then Boom, they are growing really fast and coloring up.

greg0385 · Nov 1, 2012

i do agree, that pink lemonade hasnt done much since april and all of sudden it started to encrust and now shooting up new little branches and the new growth has great color. those params i posted above were from 2wk old water and so when i do a water change with salinity salt there levels are spot on with my params so thats why i use there salt as to keep swings at a minium. rome wasnt built in a day and so far im happy with the progress im getting and if i could ever get better color then i would be just icing on the cake. im amazed at the progress pictures i have so far. that raspberry stag has done well. that aqua delight although not great color has grown well since i got it too.