jlehigh's 280 Pic Blowout!!

[reedman]

Ooooooo....I want one of those and one of those and one of those....

Tank looks great John. Definitely approching the leave it alone and watch it grow stage. On target to be one of the top tanks in the area when it grows in a little (and you quit dinking with things )

 

[jlehigh]

(and you quit dinking with things )

Quit dinking!!?? NNNOOOOOOoooooooo......._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

It is pretty sad when every picture you take of your tank shows 60% of the corals have been moved... I need an invisible fence over my tank.. I'll have to make the collar fashionable somehow :|

 

[reedman]

One of those invisible fences for dogs should do the trick

 

[szidls]

lol no Gabby, He doesnt own Dixie's.. That guy busts me up.. I can't believe he is still pushing his sauce on the neive I'll have to head over there for some BBQ soon.

Hey John,
Sounds like we need a reefer chow down at Dixies. I havn't made it there yet but have heard the rumor-horror stories of the staff. Seinfeld soup nazi of BBQ.....LOL.
Scott

 

[spongebob lover]

Hey John,
Sounds like we need a reefer chow down at Dixies. I havn't made it there yet but have heard the rumor-horror stories of the staff. Seinfeld soup nazi of BBQ.....LOL.
Scott

ohhh his hot sauce is really really something, it's like a bathroom call

 

[jlehigh]

I know I've been posting allot of pics lately but I had to share this one.. This coral has been brown in my tank for over 5 months, then in the past week it was all the sudden Blueberry season

 

[reedman]

Oh Yeah!!!! That's what I'm talkin' about....watchout...super tank coming

 

[big t]

Must be that mysterious calcium reactor... Nice progress

 

[tamarindthai]

looking great,,,can't wait to see in person with the pair of plier ,,just kidding .,,still want to see it with ,,no plier

 

[jlehigh]

Thanks guys. I hope things continue to improve.. I'm still working on the skimmer. I made the neck forming jig and now just need an oven bigger than mine to bake it in. I also started the air-stone manifolds but need to modify the PVC fittings to fit all of the stones in the skimmer.. I will be pushing 4-9" stones with an Alita 80, and 4 6" stones with an Alita 40.


Yea Tom that reactor is works in mysterious ways.

Heck Dang you'd just be taking a bunch of stuff you already have back to the Restraunt!

 

[Krish]

Your tank really looks nice man...How much gph of flow do you have in there? Good luck on the skimmer project. So far so good

 

[jlehigh]

Thanks Krish

Not a whole lot of GPH as many SPS tanks this size.. Right now I have an Ampmaster 4600? pushing an Oceanmotions wavemaker so I figure about 3800 GPH through that after figuring head loss. Then another 950 GPH through my lil mag12 return.

I recently bought an Iwaki70 to replace the mag12 and it will be pushing two Penductors (Penductors due to arrive tomorrow). That will up the flow a few thousand GPH.

The Oceansmotions wavemaker allows most areas of the tank to recieve flow with pretty high efficiency...

 

[Krish]

That's cool...Thanks and I'll be looking out for your progress on the skimmer

 

[reedman]

you need a bigger skimmer

 

[jlehigh]

you need a bigger skimmer

Only if you want to come back over and help me cut the longer half of the 16" pipe plum lol

 

[big t]

Send it my way and I will cut it for ya!

Hey on a note about your plywood acrylic sandwich, how thick is that acrylic in the middle? It looks pretty thick.

 

[jlehigh]

Send it my way and I will cut it for ya!

Hey on a note about your plywood acrylic sandwich, how thick is that acrylic in the middle? It looks pretty thick.

Careful what you ask for BigTom

That acrylic sheet is 1/4". I also have another piece of 1/8th but I really hope the 1/4" forms nicely. I would be nervous to stack a few feet of tube on top of 1/8"..

 

[big t]

Hey if you want, I can cut it for ya, it will only take a couple mins.

 

[Katchupoy]

So what changed in your system, why you have sudden change in your brown coral?

 

[jlehigh]

I think the zoox algae saw the skimmer being built and jumped ship lol

I have made a number of changes in my husbandry, aquascape, flow, and water levels so I can't give you a silver bullet but i will say this:

1) Aquascape: Any Live Rock in your tank which is not recieving enough flow to blow detritus off of nor can be consistently blown off with a baster or power-head should be removed. The 1lb of LR per gallon of tank water seems to me to be another rule of thumb farse just as the Watts per gallon or turnover rate rules.

I removed about 100lbs of LR from the display and revealed several detritus traps. After removing EVEN 100lbs their was nothing but good effects on the tank. I started to see new colors in my corals after I made this change.

2) Water Chemistry: Even if PO4 is not detected anywhere in your tank, you still have it, and chances are lots of it.. Keeping your CA level up above 350 IME does more to precipitate PO4 than any PO4 stripping media.

I had been running Rowaphos consistently for months. I stopped for lazy reasons but then elevated CA levels above 350 (they were between 310&320) and again I saw noticeable color improvements.

3) Filtration: After adding filter socks and changing them out every 5 days again I noticed color improvements. I assume this is due to water clarity improvement.

4) Water Changes: After changing 70gal of water bi-weekly there were noticeable improvements in coloration.

5) FLOW: Although we all know flow is important I recently did some testing on specific browned corals which didnt have problems with trapped detritus in the base but were still in lower flow areas of my tank. After moving the "BlueBerry" above as well as a Table coral into HIGH flow areas, their colors began emerging noticeably after only a few days. A recent article talks about Zoox algae types, where they are most densly populated ect ect. I believe the cooling involved with high amounts of flow over particular SPS corals impacts the Zoox type and population helping and maybe in some cases hindering coral pigments..

Soon I hope to finish the new skimmer and reduce the frequency or need for filter socks and move to monthll water changes. We'll see how that goes..