And a bunch of random shots for the heck of it.
Halmus' 120 Reef Tank
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Looking over those pictures, there are a few where darker colonies are contrasted against the bright pink montripora setosa. It looks like the picture has been photoshopped or something you would see filmed on a green screen in old hollywood movies. It hasn't been doctored, but I was shooting through my IPhone using my sunglasses as a UV filter with only actinic lighting on. It makes a pretty dramatic effect on the pictures. None of those recent pictures were taken with all of the lighting on. The MH were turned off. They look good in person, but not through my current camera.
dailydriven911
sps addict
Very Nice! Love all the nice mature colonies!
1guydude
Well-known member
That last pic with ur fish is prob my fav yet bro. Nice lil piece of reef u got their hehe. Do ur candycanes/trumpets split as they grow? I dont see tissue on the bottoms of em? kinda like duncans i guess
Thanks. It took about two years for things to fill in. I went crazy the first year buying livestock, and they've just filled in from there. A majority of them came from frags and small colonies.
I got those at the Bob Moore this year. The guy with the booth next to me was selling his corals at a ridiculously generous price. He had some nice stuff! He also had some problems with zoanthids crowding out the base of some of the corals. When I got those candycanes, they had zooanthids growing up and into the base of everything killing the coral. I QT'd them for a while, and systematically picked out the zoanthids and/or coated them entirely with a coat of superglue to seal them in a cocoon. The tissue is now slowly growing back and filling in over the glued areas.
1guydude
Well-known member
kool, that sounds like a long process though lol... i think i remember seeing u buying coral from the guy next to you... i was thinking "hes supposed to b selling" lol.
Here are some updated pictures of the refugium where I'm trying to grow sponges and tube-worms. It's debatable how effective this will be at natural filtration of the water, but it's adding a little more biodiversity.
And an update picture of the frag section. It's filling up. A fish knocked off a 2-3" piece of the orange digitata the other day, so it's become a frag.
And an update picture of the frag section. It's filling up. A fish knocked off a 2-3" piece of the orange digitata the other day, so it's become a frag.
A big thank you to EWW!!!
My Ph has been consistently lower than I would like for a long time. I got a new Calcium Reactor which helped a little to maintain Ca, Mg, and Ph. Then I read about EWW's idea to add a CO2 absorbant inline with the air line to their Protein Skimmer. Maybe this idea has been around for a while, but it was the first time I had heard of it. I decided to give it a try. First I ordered the media from BRS:
I didn't want to invest a lot of time into making a container before I knew that this would work in my system, so I grabbed a small length of hose and an old phosban media canister I had sitting around. Drilled one hole in the bottom to fit tight to the hose, and some breather holes around the top near the lid.
I added some velcro to the lid, which easily sticks in place to the roof of my sump area directly above the Skimmer for easy access.
This minimizes the length of hose the skimmer has to suck through. I noticed no difference in the air flow to the skimmer.
Inside the container, I placed a bed of loose cotton wadding we used to use as filters in the old trickle filter systems. The media was just poured on top of this. Inevitably, the air has to get sucked by at least some of the media.
My Ph has been consistently lower than I would like for a long time. I got a new Calcium Reactor which helped a little to maintain Ca, Mg, and Ph. Then I read about EWW's idea to add a CO2 absorbant inline with the air line to their Protein Skimmer. Maybe this idea has been around for a while, but it was the first time I had heard of it. I decided to give it a try. First I ordered the media from BRS:
I didn't want to invest a lot of time into making a container before I knew that this would work in my system, so I grabbed a small length of hose and an old phosban media canister I had sitting around. Drilled one hole in the bottom to fit tight to the hose, and some breather holes around the top near the lid.
I added some velcro to the lid, which easily sticks in place to the roof of my sump area directly above the Skimmer for easy access.
This minimizes the length of hose the skimmer has to suck through. I noticed no difference in the air flow to the skimmer.
Inside the container, I placed a bed of loose cotton wadding we used to use as filters in the old trickle filter systems. The media was just poured on top of this. Inevitably, the air has to get sucked by at least some of the media.
Now for my attempt at the science portion. For those of you who don't know, CO2 is the stuff we exhale when we breath. In air-tight houses, or houses where the windows aren't open often, CO2 levels are actually noticeably higher. This actually effects our systems! I had no idea how much until I hooked up my Apex which reads Ph data every 10 mins. I can visually tell by the Ph graph when the windows have been left open. It's also dramatically clear when the lights are on and when they're off. We've all probably noticed that. So, decrease the CO2 getting into our water, increase the Oxygen. CO2 drives down the Ph.
So, I collected a little data before the switch (this is the blue line on the graph)
The data for the day of the switch (the red line on the graph)
The data for a few days later (the green line on the graph)
Maybe it doesn't look all that dramatic, but before, my Ph would dip down to 7.88 at night with the lights off. It would spike in the morning with the simple addition of lighting over my small frag tank. It would dip for a bit when that went off, and then spike again higher during the day and normal lighting hours. So far, the Ph isn't getting up to 8.3 like the ideal system, but the lows at night aren't as significant. The corals are going to love the more stable parameters.
So, I collected a little data before the switch (this is the blue line on the graph)
The data for the day of the switch (the red line on the graph)
The data for a few days later (the green line on the graph)
Maybe it doesn't look all that dramatic, but before, my Ph would dip down to 7.88 at night with the lights off. It would spike in the morning with the simple addition of lighting over my small frag tank. It would dip for a bit when that went off, and then spike again higher during the day and normal lighting hours. So far, the Ph isn't getting up to 8.3 like the ideal system, but the lows at night aren't as significant. The corals are going to love the more stable parameters.
So if you've been following the thread you might remember back when I picked this up.
I finally got some time to start tearing it apart. I cut it straight down the middle into two halves. The original tank was 16" x 24" and 33" deep. Imagine splitting an apple down the middle letting the two halves fall apart. That's what I did with the aquarium. What use to make up the side of the tall aquarium now make up the bottoms. The two halves that are left over are 8" in depth, 24" wide, 33" long.
I cut one up smaller. It's now about 7" deep, and 24" x 20". I'll have to post pictures of what I have planned for that. It's going to become part of my display system. Here it is ready to be plumbed in to the display.
The leftover material from that half went into repairing the second half. It's going to be a frag tank that I can take along to frag swaps and general applications like that. It's a pretty handy size. 8" deep and 24" x 33". I threw a filter on it that is handy for filtration for short periods of time just to give it some perspective for size.
I cut one up smaller. It's now about 7" deep, and 24" x 20". I'll have to post pictures of what I have planned for that. It's going to become part of my display system. Here it is ready to be plumbed in to the display.
The leftover material from that half went into repairing the second half. It's going to be a frag tank that I can take along to frag swaps and general applications like that. It's a pretty handy size. 8" deep and 24" x 33". I threw a filter on it that is handy for filtration for short periods of time just to give it some perspective for size.
I'm doing a little research on cleaning up the acrylic. I'm pretty good at working with the material to make a container that holds water, but I'm no good at doing it without glue runs and blemishes. The videos make it appear like buffing out the scratches isn't that hard. I already have a lot of the tools, I'll keep you all up to date if I find any miracle cures.
I finally got around to posting some pictures of the latest project. I added an additional frag tank or reservoir for holding corals/algea? After adding it, I realized I don't necessarily have a real use for it. 
It's an acrylic box about 8" deep and 24" square.
The new tank is towards the top left of the closet area. The black screen is just to prevent daylight from growing unwanted algae in the existing frag tank.
A little closer
The lighting is just screw-in type with 5K bulbs for now. I'm currently using this to grow out some algeas (gracialara sp? and red dragon). This set-up can be easily adjusted to PAR screw-in bulbs to grow out some corals. The flow is perfect, and the box is easy to isolate and clean.
It's an acrylic box about 8" deep and 24" square.The new tank is towards the top left of the closet area. The black screen is just to prevent daylight from growing unwanted algae in the existing frag tank.
A little closer
The lighting is just screw-in type with 5K bulbs for now. I'm currently using this to grow out some algeas (gracialara sp? and red dragon). This set-up can be easily adjusted to PAR screw-in bulbs to grow out some corals. The flow is perfect, and the box is easy to isolate and clean.
I finally got around to updating the newest frag tank. The tank above with macros was cleaned out. I was waiting for the funds to buy lights for a coral grow-out section. I bought four Rapid LED 12 LED screw-in bulbs. I normally do DIY, but I just don't have time to dedicate like I did before getting more involved with PSAS.
Most of these are doing really well. I've added quite a few more. I'll try to get more pictures soon. I'm looking at buying a Canon EOS Rebel Ti3. Anyone have any input on the camera?
Most of these are doing really well. I've added quite a few more. I'll try to get more pictures soon. I'm looking at buying a Canon EOS Rebel Ti3. Anyone have any input on the camera?
My wife just got me a Canon T4i DSLR. I've been looking at the T3i for a while now. She got some advice from people that know a lot more about me about photography. The touch-screen display is going to be really nice. I have been too busy to really start learning how to use it. I know there are a lot of incredible things it can do, and I haven't started messing with the different aperture, white balance, or F settings. I don't even have the lens I really want yet, but here are a few updates on the tank.
IPisces
Well-known member
Oh, your going to have fun. And MILLIONS of pictures loaded on your computer before you know it.
E
eww
Guest
Very nice shots. Well done for the first posts.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Yep, I'm finally able to begin capturing the true color of some of the pieces I'm most proud of, but never could get right.
