Nick's 345G Build

[this is me]

The tank is coming along and looks great! I’m blown away by the size of the gigs also. How are the sps?

The SPS are doing it. I can't complain. They just need some marinating time.

 

[this is me]

I recently discovered something very important to getting vibrant colors on my fish especially smaller fish like Anthias.
I’ve been feeding my fish homemade clams, nori, mysis, and spirulina brine. On Rare occasions they get some goodies like LRS reef Frenzy but I really don’t want to spend $25 for a bag that last about a week.
I’ve always noticed the Lyretail Anthias when I first put in the tank were very vibrant. But after a couple months, the colors fade and they dull looking. I knew this is likely due to their diet but I always thought this was the difference between the abundance of food in the ocean and what we feed in the tank.
While that maybe obvious to some, I recently purchased a bag of PE Calanus along with Ocean Plankton when LA had the 20% off on food during the holidays. I started adding a little 0.25” cube of Calanus mix with the usual food. The Anthias and small fish love the Calanus. After about a couple weeks. I notice the colors on the Anthias and other fish are very bright. This is what I’ve been missing all along.
The Royal Gramma now glows lol.

 

[this is me]

The Blue Hypnea Macro is growing really well. I left a small piece on the rock of the anemone tank and it has exploded and covering that rock. I was thinking of placing a piece in the display because I think it looks pretty cool but wanted to test to see how aggressive it can get.

However, I don’t think any macro can survive in the display.

 

[Wen]

Time for an update...what’s the latest with your system?

 

[this is me]

Nothing really to report. Tank is progressing well. I haven’t changed anything in the setup. Just enjoying the growth of the sps frags and the growth of the macros and feeding the fish. I’ll take some pictures this weekend.
Not to sound cocky or anything but I’m feeling good about the tank. My biggest concern was using solely the Radions G5 for lighting. But I can say they are working and I’m using a total of 300W and getting adequate growth and colors out of the corals. My MH/T5 combo on the old talk was 320W on the T5s alone.

 

[RJKain-777]

Nothing really to report. Tank is progressing well. I haven’t changed anything in the setup. Just enjoying the growth of the sps frags and the growth of the macros and feeding the fish. I’ll take some pictures this weekend.
Not to sound cocky or anything but I’m feeling good about the tank. My biggest concern was using solely the Radions G5 for lighting. But I can say they are working and I’m using a total of 300W and getting adequate growth and colors out of the corals. My MH/T5 combo on the old talk was 320W on the T5s alone.

How many radions do you have over your tank?

 

[this is me]

I have 5 mounted in vertical about 14” off the water at 45% in AB+ mode.
I set it and forget it.

 

[RJKain-777]

I have 5 mounted in vertical about 14” off the water at 45% in AB+ mode.
I set it and forget it.

That’s what I figured! The amount! Maybe I should’ve done more investigation before ordering orphek lol

 

[this is me]

I’ve seen plenty of spectacular tanks with Orphek. These spectacular tanks don’t happen overnight. Stay with it.
My concern was if the Radions didn’t work out, I would have to fall back on what I trust which is MH/T5 and the amount of power they need. So far, I think the Radions are doing the job.

 

[this is me]

Here’s a couple of quick growth shots. I understand these are easier corals and faster growing corals but growth is growth and that’s the first step. Well, the first step is really to keep them alive. Colors will come when parameters are stabilized.

 

[RJKain-777]

I’ve seen plenty of spectacular tanks with Orphek. These spectacular tanks don’t happen overnight. Stay with it.
My concern was if the Radions didn’t work out, I would have to fall back on what I trust which is MH/T5 and the amount of power they need. So far, I think the Radions are doing the job.

Yeah. I was tossing up between radions (10 xr15 pros) , 5 orphek, or 4 250 halides with LED bars.
Orphek ended up winning , for the amazing tanks I’ve seen with them. The GHLs I have now aren’t cutting it for me

 

[chizerbunoi]

Quick video of giganteas this morning.

Picked up the bad boy green gigantea today. These guys have been with me since 2015 but were in my friends tank last year when I broke down the old tank. The green was wreaking havoc in his tank.
This is about an hour into the tank. The size should double that when it’s all settled.

Your new tank is looking great Nick. Glad you got your two originals back and that they are in a dedicated system. I hope you don’t mind that I bring some anemone gigaholics over to drool along?

@OrionN @Taylor t @gig 'em @lemonade

 

[Lloydxmas22]

Do you have a sand bed maintenance schedule? If so what do you do?

 

[this is me]

Do you have a sand bed maintenance schedule? If so what do you do?

I don't have a schedule for the sandbed. But I do have 12 conches.

 

[this is me]

Here's some photo update. I didn't really want to post any pictures since the tank is quite young and the frags are barely recognizable.
Some frags need more marinating time.

 

[this is me]

 

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[this is me]

September 2, 2020.

Feburary 27, 2021.
It's starting to look like a reef tank with full coraline covering rocks. Frags will need to get working for the next 6 months. Hopefully, you'll be able to see them the next time I post a FTS.

 

[this is me]

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been completely independent of using dried nori(sushi seaweed) and feed the tangs on macros that are grown in the fuge. I’ve also stopped using GFO completely. After 2 weeks of testing PO4 daily with and without GFO, I didn’t feel the need to use it. PO4 is sitting between 0.07 to 0.1ppm.

I have 6 varieties of macro in the fuge and rotate between them on harvesting and feeding to the tangs

Harvested last week

This weeks harvest. Half a gallon container full last about a week. And I do feed them heavily.

Some stomatella snails came along.