Mark's 150 gallon SPS heavy reef

[markalot]

I added an acro. I know! First new acro in a year, 25% Bayer dip for 15 minutes, 5 rinses, scraped with a scalpel and superglued part of the base I didn't like. edit: This is not 100% safe, only QT is really safe. Regardless of how much work I did pests can still come in through the dip or on the frag plug.

It's a Cali tort, I had one a long time back and have wanted another for a while. The slimer helped pay for this one. Another funky stag.

I'm also giving brownie another chance. This is a maricultured piece that I had trouble keeping alive. Saved two small frags, both settled in and grew rapidly but never colored up. I put the largest piece in the sump under a cheap LED and let it sulk down there for a year. I cut a frag of it and brought it back up. Can I color it up this time? I doubt it. lol

The larger frag of my beloved Lokani

#Katropora frags #2 and #3 under 100 to 125 PAR and while straggly still looking really good.

If one is to have shrooms, these should be it. Finally reproducing.

So when my calcium started to get too low this Acan (micromussa) suffered the most, losing all but half a head. I didn't do anything because, well, it's not an SPS. I suspect now this is a good one to watch for water quality issues as it started to die before my yellow and red acro showed any stress.

 

[bubbaque]

It’s always exciting getting new frags.

How often are you having corals grow into each other?

 

[markalot]

It’s always exciting getting new frags.

How often are you having corals grow into each other?

Thanks Bubba. I have very few that are't growing into each other, unfortunately. I keep the Lokani and the Hawkins echi away from everyone because they suffer pretty extreme damage when they touch another acro, everything else is on it's own.

 

[maroun.c]

Epic Build thread!
its amazing to see all the corals growing and shaping up after months of growth. love how the tank matured with very minimal losses as many corals were there still as frags and that you have shared good news as well as bad news that will serve as lessons for others.

 

[najer]

Great pics.

 

[DSC reef]

This is one amazing tank, well done!

 

[markalot]

This is one amazing tank, well done!

Thanks!

Epic Build thread!
its amazing to see all the corals growing and shaping up after months of growth. love how the tank matured with very minimal losses as many corals were there still as frags and that you have shared good news as well as bad news that will serve as lessons for others.

Thanks, hopefully this thread is a good example of one way to run a tank.

Great pics.

Thanks.


So my 2 year old brown Palmer's blue ... I made a frag, put it in much lower light on the frag rack ... dang thing is turning a nice blue. lol I'll declare victory if it continues to color up. I estimate it moved from 350 PAR to 200 PAR.

 

[markalot]

Ordered a Vivid Rainbow delight from @Cultivated Reef along with an orange passion. I've seen larger OP's and I like the look. My luck with new acros is bad, really bad, so fingers crossed and two new Alk kits ready to roll. I was looking back through my older orders with CR ... I got the Red Robin from them and then I noticed the October 8th 2012 order of one Green Bali Slimer Coral - Acropora Yongei × 1

lol, so it's all their fault!

A big slow rescape has begun, trimming a lot of acros that have never been trimmed, removing duplicates, going to more of a classic shelf layout so I can fit more acros in this annoyingly narrow tank.

 

[Cultivated Reef]

so it's all their fault!

LOL!

 

[markalot]

Look, I'm updating as things happen. This is one of those in the middle updates, colors looked good so I took some pics. I'm in the middle of a big cut down which will take most of the Christmas break to finish. Don't ask me why everything looks so good, I have no clue. After the first trim Alk spiked to a little over 7.5 so I cut the doser and lowered the dose. Yesterday it had dropped to 6.1 so I dosed enough to raise it to 6.5. Today it was 6.5 again so yay, dialed in for a few minutes.

I scraped the side so I could take some pics. This shows the extent of the problem in this narrow tank. I remember when this was mostly barren, now Acros everywhere. Good problem to have, no doubt, but there's not much room left at the local store to hold anymore frags.

I love the head on shots of the Kole and Foxface.

For those of you with a Miami Orchid, you know how hard it is to capture the cool purple of the tips. For whatever reason these side shots do a great job, I just wish it was closer.

So the plan is to cut down acros and use the stubs as a base for more rock. I've done it before, it works well. I will be removing the right half of the Miami Orchid (lower down, not the main part) and placing another flat rock here to extend the base, then cutting back the Purple Stylo beast to make some additional room.

Didn't I get rid of this?

Here's the "maybe" Pink Lemonade. You can kind of see some yellow through the tan.

Brownie is still brown, but teasing some color already.

I need to get another top down of this one, it's turning a really nice red, red polyps, and the base is bluish. Now that it has some room this might turn into something special.

The blue stag has woken up. Was it the removal of the slimer, or something else? It's not blue yet, but it has a nice glow to the skin now, plus this new growth. (Horrida on left, blue stag center and right) They say damsels are mean to other fish. This little punk never bothers any other fish, but tries to kill me.

I thought this was a table like but as it gets bigger so do the branches.

 

[bubbaque]

Looks great, Mark! I'm liking the frequent updates.

 

[najer]

Very nice.

 

[fabutahoun]

Amazing reef !!!

 

[Bronc]

Your tank looks incredible!!

 

[YHSublime]

How did you scrape the glass without knocking everything over in the tank!? The 150's are narrow, but was one of my favorite tanks!

 

[markalot]

How did you scrape the glass without knocking everything over in the tank!? The 150's are narrow, but was one of my favorite tanks!

I use a heavy duty flipper which is pretty narrow ... but I still hit corals.

 

[markalot]

The acros arrived from @Cultivated Reef this morning, good temperature, great shape.

Vivid's Rainbow Delight

Orange Passion

Orange Passion looks like a tenuis. They never survive this tank so we'll see.

 

[BoSalman]

The acros arrived from @Cultivated Reef this morning, good temperature, great shape.

Vivid's Rainbow Delight

Orange Passion

Orange Passion looks like a tenuis. They never survive this tank so we'll see.

Interesring update and additions. I'm following your build since the start and you sir have done a great job (hats off).

Can't wait to see their growth

 

[markalot]

The older frags are doing well.

Red Planet has started to encrust the frag rack.

The possible Pink Lemonade is also starting to color up. The tips scared me, I don't have any other acro with tips this white. Showing some quick growth already.

The Cali tort is also growing quickly, color is meh.

 

[markalot]

Interesring update and additions. I'm following your build since the start and you sir have done a great job (hats off).

Can't wait to see their growth

Thanks! I usually wait to get a fancy named coral until I see larger colonies. Hopefully I can keep these healthy and get them large.