blange3's 180 upgrade

[Jcurry@wesketch]

Yeah I ran the same configurations and wasn't crazy about the lighting with the Aquasun. It seems to wash out the colors of the corals. I ended up running a stright split of 3x03 Actinics and 3x 50/50 Actinic White.
I would think the increased growth of cyano has more to do with the increased intensity of the light rather than spectrum. But it might make an interesting experiment to adjust the spectrum to more blue than red and see if it has effect on cyano growth before adding the other cuke. It's been so long I can't remember which I did first (change the spectrum or add the cukes) to recall if there was any correlation to one or the other.

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

The peppermints are great hiders. I had 6 in my 125 and thought the had died a few years ago since I never saw them. When I broke down the tank and sold the rock I found them in bottom of the plastic tote as we loaded the rock into the guys car. Don't under estimate their ability to survive long term.
I'm not sure about the compatibility of blood shrimp and pepermints, but I know fiest hand that Bloods and Skunk cleaners do not get along.

 

[blange3]

Good feedback Jeff.

I thought it might be intensity as well so if I try 2 50/50's and the cyano increases, I'll bring the third super actinic back online and have the same mix that you had.

Funny about the skunk and the blood. I have both and so far no problems.

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

Funny about the skunk and the blood. I have both and so far no problems.

In my tank the Bloods stayed at one end and the Skunks at the other. The middle was no man's land and they would fight it out during feeding time.

 

[JerseyWendy]

.... Mine has the short and stubby look. (Boy there is a setup if ever there was one!)

LOLOLOL I'm gonna be a good girl here and bite my tentacle, ...I mean lip. ;D

 

[blange3]

One more picture, I neglected the right side of the tank.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Hey Bill I have a question.  I see your hammer on this last pic is darn close to the caps up on top there, since they are in easy reach of sweeper tenacles do they often get stung?  I tried to sort of aquascape similarly to you and if my corals ever grow up like yours I guess I could end up in the same position.



Thanks

 

[blange3]

I've not observed any in the current setup.

In the 75 they were much close and the stinging only seemed to affect the edges of the cap. I could see some minor burning, but they continued to grow.

 

[blange3]

So the Blue Linkia experiment is a failure.

I don't know if he died, but he hasn't been seen in over a week. I wanted to add some WOW to the tank without a lot of bioload. But if you can't see something, it doesn't make anyone go wow!

I may add one more centerpiece fish, but does anyone have any ideas for something different, flashy and reef conscientious?

 

[Hawkeye]

not a failure - just a set back. Murphy's law - it hides when you are viewing the tank!

 

[blange3]

not a failure - just a set back. Murphy's law - it hides when you are viewing the tank!

If it's still alive and hiding somewhere I agree with you Phil.

But if it went on to the Great Reef, then I'm wondering what's wrong that i can't keep a linkia alive for more than a few days.

 

[Baxreefs]

Sea stars in general are hard to keep, and we have no idea how they've been collected and shipped. I've had one or two last well over a year each and others seem to be doing great and then just wither. One thing for sure, you need a well established tank to keep them. But I think a lot depends upon how they were handled before you ever see them in the LFS.

Your tank looks great BTW!!!

 

[blange3]

Sea stars in general are hard to keep, and we have no idea how they've been collected and shipped. I've had one or two last well over a year each and others seem to be doing great and then just wither. One thing for sure, you need a well established tank to keep them. But I think a lot depends upon how they were handled before you ever see them in the LFS.

Your tank looks great BTW!!!

Thanks Bax!

I think I made a mistake in considering my tank as being established enough.

The tank was filled with saltwater in November and established rock that had been cooking was added then.

The mass migration from the 75 happened in January from an established system that was 3 years old at the time.

So is it a 4 month system, a 6 month system or a 3 year system?

From different aspects its all of the above.

 

[blange3]

Here are a few more shots.

 

[blange3]

So the great Reef Disaster Chain Reaction is drawing to a happy conclusion; mostly because I belong to a great club with great members and sponsors!

Ed was kind enough to meet me for lunch and get my 660 so he could drop it off at Ice Cap.

I was having trouble finding packing tape and a post office. (Because you actually have to get off your butt to go buy packing tape and find a post office!)

Chris from Ice Cap looked at it the day he got it and fixed it no charge! It's on it's way home and I should have it tomorrow.

Thanks so much to Ed, Chris and all the great people who make NJRC a great place to be.

 

[Edwardw771]

No problem Bill It was nice catching up with you and thanks again for lunch. I'll have to stop in for sure and see the tank.

 

[blange3]

Well I got back in the saddle today.

Took the canopy off, went into the tank and did some work. I also changed 50+ gallons of water while I cleaned out the sump.

Added some more rock in the sump, some new zoas to the tank and so far no disasters!

 

[harryk]

love the display, awesome the way everything is put together.. love the mixture of corals

 

[blange3]

Thanks Harry. How's the 75 coming?

I can't check out the pictures where I am at the momnet, they block a lot of the photo hosting sites.

 

[blange3]

So the great Reef Disaster Chain Reaction is drawing to a happy conclusion; ............

Ahhhh! NOT SO FAST! Said with an incredibly evil snarl! 8)

You may remember that I still have an outlet on the DC8 controller that fried in the on position when the ballast blew.

When the repaired ballast returned I needed to move it to another outlet. No problem; outlet number 8 has the Korallias that are always on. I'll move them to outlet 2 that is stuck in the on state and I'll plug the IceCap660 ballast into outlet 8.


Did he say outlet 8? OMG!

Doesn't he remember that outlet 8 on the newer DC8's is relay controlled and cannot be used with IceCap ballasts per Neptune's instructions on the last page of the DC8 user guide??
:

Of course I don't remember! My two kids walk around the house with name tags these days so I'll recognize them! ;D

The DC8 score Bad ports 1 2 - good ports 7 6.

Oh well! The tank sure looks pretty though!