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Thanks Terry! Im really pleased with them.
I think so yes, but no blue/pink left. It was the only one. They have quite a few chalices in right now, some really nice pieces. Defintely worth checking out.
Duckhams 40G Reef Build - Rimless/Synergy Overflow
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Working on colouration and growth - update.
The downsize to the 40 gallon has been a good move for the most part, but I have faced a couple challenges in the process. I kept all of my fish from the 75 gallon (not a mistake in itself) but as I dont test for nitrates they were slowly rising, they read 12ppm when I check a few weeks ago. So I pulled the 3 fish out of the tank and gave them a better home in a 65 gallon. Unfortunately, I had an alk swing in january and bleached/burnt a couple of my acros. As they were recovering I started noticing the underside of a few of my acros looked like it was being eaten away. After some research I found that Ostreobium (green coral boring algae) loves high nitrates and was likely the cause. It's done some damage to the underside of my acros, but they continue to grow and colour up. Im hoping the reduction in nitrates and some super glue over the affected areas will stop it.
My chalices took the worst hit in the alk swing, but are coming back nicely. The mummy eye chalice below is on my frag rack now and is deeper and bright in colour than ever. Im slowly dialling the radions up, trying to improve growth, and seeing some great improvements in colouration on my acros too. Growth has improved but I think this is more because of my alk stability and low P04. I've noticed that slow increases in my white LED's has the best effect on colouration in both my LPS and SPS.
Just added this milli yesterday.
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A red plant from Albert, encrusting like a beast.
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I love the little flower polyps on this acro.
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Reeftech Starburst (also from Albert) has gone red in my system.
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Meteor shower cyphastrea growing nicely.
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Mummy eye chalice recovering from alk swing and heavy fragging. Thought id lost it.
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My fav purple hammer. Got it as a sad little frag, now it's grown into 2 beautiful colonies.
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A few zoa pics:
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The downsize to the 40 gallon has been a good move for the most part, but I have faced a couple challenges in the process. I kept all of my fish from the 75 gallon (not a mistake in itself) but as I dont test for nitrates they were slowly rising, they read 12ppm when I check a few weeks ago. So I pulled the 3 fish out of the tank and gave them a better home in a 65 gallon. Unfortunately, I had an alk swing in january and bleached/burnt a couple of my acros. As they were recovering I started noticing the underside of a few of my acros looked like it was being eaten away. After some research I found that Ostreobium (green coral boring algae) loves high nitrates and was likely the cause. It's done some damage to the underside of my acros, but they continue to grow and colour up. Im hoping the reduction in nitrates and some super glue over the affected areas will stop it.
My chalices took the worst hit in the alk swing, but are coming back nicely. The mummy eye chalice below is on my frag rack now and is deeper and bright in colour than ever. Im slowly dialling the radions up, trying to improve growth, and seeing some great improvements in colouration on my acros too. Growth has improved but I think this is more because of my alk stability and low P04. I've noticed that slow increases in my white LED's has the best effect on colouration in both my LPS and SPS.
Just added this milli yesterday.
A red plant from Albert, encrusting like a beast.
I love the little flower polyps on this acro.
Reeftech Starburst (also from Albert) has gone red in my system.
Meteor shower cyphastrea growing nicely.
Mummy eye chalice recovering from alk swing and heavy fragging. Thought id lost it.
My fav purple hammer. Got it as a sad little frag, now it's grown into 2 beautiful colonies.
A few zoa pics:
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224 Posts
Ps. I am also battling some nitrate issues because I love my wrasses! Hit 10 ppm last month and sps browned Super quick. Trying a bigger skimmer, siporax and daily small water changes to help. Also sold 1 of 3 ornates leopards to slightly reduce bioload in the reefer 250
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Im not sure the nitrates would be the cause for browning SPS, mine have been at 12ppm + for the past few months and my colouration has steadily improved despite the nitrates. You likely have high nutrient levels causing the brown out. What's your P04 like? and what sort of lighting/alkalinity are you running? High nutrient systems operate quite differently from low nutrient systems when it comes to lighting and alkalinity uptake for SPS. I have high nutrients, feed 3 times a day, higher alk and strong lighting, SPS look great. Skimming likely won't sort your nitrate issue. More water changes, less fish and smaller feedings of pellets (no flakes) would help though.
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I have 3 x XR15 Pro's Gen3's on my 40 gallon. I run them under 30% intensity and custom set the channels based on preference. I deliberately ran them at a lower intensity when I put them on the 40 so as not to bleach my corals, and im gradually dialling them up until I get to colours/growth im happy with. Im getting close.
Check this out and decide whats best for your tank :http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ecotech_CoralLab_WP1.pdf
ReefWholesale are here in Toronto, they've tested the Radion's for over a year. The growth and colouration of their SPS is amazing with the Radions. Just remember that it's likely going to be your white/red LED's that do the most bleaching/damage if set too high.
Check this out and decide whats best for your tank :http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ecotech_CoralLab_WP1.pdf
ReefWholesale are here in Toronto, they've tested the Radion's for over a year. The growth and colouration of their SPS is amazing with the Radions. Just remember that it's likely going to be your white/red LED's that do the most bleaching/damage if set too high.
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224 Posts
Hi E! good job on Reefed - been following developments on the website. last time i cruised the site, i noticed a review of seaside aquatics' fish trap... i wanted to ask a question about that (was initially going to do so on the website, but alas, i don't have a facebook account... i know... i am stuck in the early 1990's)
so, the question is, do you think it would double as an acclimation box? (to introduce new fish). I was thinking of ordering an acclimation box, but i also think it is good to have a fish trap on hand. then i thought that a fish trap can double as an acclimation box (with the trap door closed). my only concern is that there isn't enough holes to permit gas exchange...
thoughts ?
thanks!
so, the question is, do you think it would double as an acclimation box? (to introduce new fish). I was thinking of ordering an acclimation box, but i also think it is good to have a fish trap on hand. then i thought that a fish trap can double as an acclimation box (with the trap door closed). my only concern is that there isn't enough holes to permit gas exchange...
thoughts ?
thanks!
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1,333 Posts
Thank you! I had exactly the same thought when I got it. It's not ideal as an acclimation box, but it would do the job in a pinch. You would either have to remove the brackets (which is easy) and place it face up on the sand bed so that you can add the fish from the top through the trap door. Or, if you had in the normal trap position with the brackets hanging on the tank, you would have to carefully put the fish inside the trap through the door with a net. I think both would work.
You could probably also build it without the top panel and have an open top, which would be much easier actually. That would work, but not for jumpers.
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224 Posts
Hmm... yes adding a fish in would be tricky... i am mostly adding sand-sleeping wrasses, so adding a little dish of sand + fish with the side door would be tricky indeed...
Great looking tank!
I'm also thinking of a tank in similar size... perhaps 20" tall instead. What's the process to (customer) order the tank & stand and getting it drilled from Miracles? Do they have idea of the overflow box holes needed? How long did you wait?
Do you find have the 3 Radions a bit overkill? Since you're not even close to running them at full power, right? I guess you get a more even spread...
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1,333 Posts
Hey! Sorry for the late reply. If you give Derek a call at Miracles, he's very helpful. You just need to supply them with a sketch of what you want, list the specifics like glass thickness (he can give you some guidance on this), hole locations etc. If you need a hand laying things out, let me know, i've built a few over the years.
The 3 x XR15Pro's is a bit over kill but the coverage is awesome and I get a much more even spread throughout the tank with the standard lens. It's more preference than practicality to be honest.
![[KRAFTIG]](/d3/avatars/m/45/45417.jpg?1614066624){kind=avatar}
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Thanks! I got most of the part from BRS as they have everything, but you could buy the parts local from Canada Water Warehouse and JJ downs. I'll PM you the links to the parts I used.
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1,333 Posts
As photobucket have locked all images on their site trying to get users to pay heavy membership fees, I've uploaded my images to imgur.com and relinked almost every image on this thread from the very beginning. Unfortunately I did lose a few images, but i've uploaded lots of new images and filled the thread in as I went, so it should look better than ever!
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1,333 Posts
Choati Wrasse & Other Pics
I picked up a beautiful choati wrasse from Coral Reef Shop a couple months ago! They are very difficult to feed and I wasn't sure she would take to frozen/prepared foods. So far she's only eating frozen blood worms, and pigs out on them! She'll occasionally chomp on a mysis shrimp, by accident I think, but so far i've had no luck getting her to eat pellets or flakes. So for now, it's frozen blood worms twice a day.
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A few other shots just for fun:
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I picked up a beautiful choati wrasse from Coral Reef Shop a couple months ago! They are very difficult to feed and I wasn't sure she would take to frozen/prepared foods. So far she's only eating frozen blood worms, and pigs out on them! She'll occasionally chomp on a mysis shrimp, by accident I think, but so far i've had no luck getting her to eat pellets or flakes. So for now, it's frozen blood worms twice a day.
A few other shots just for fun:
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1,333 Posts
Really well! The only male wrasse I have is the Melanurus, the three leopards are all females and that seems to be the winning combo. He got a bit aggressive when I first added the Choati, but it was just intimidation, no out right attacks. They've been very peaceful and get on well. I feed twice a day with an auto feeder and regular supplemental feedings of frozen foods, which definitely limits aggression.
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1,333 Posts
Choati wrasse feeding update
It seems that worms are the key to fussy wrasses. My choati is readily eating freeze dried blood worms and frozen blood worms. Im wondering if a worm shaped pellet food might be accepted, if there was such a thing.
Although the freeze dried worms just float on the surface, my wrasse sort of lunge at them to get them. The choati does the same, maybe a learned behavior? Its a step in the right direction, next step, flakes!
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It seems that worms are the key to fussy wrasses. My choati is readily eating freeze dried blood worms and frozen blood worms. Im wondering if a worm shaped pellet food might be accepted, if there was such a thing.
Although the freeze dried worms just float on the surface, my wrasse sort of lunge at them to get them. The choati does the same, maybe a learned behavior? Its a step in the right direction, next step, flakes!
Joined
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1,333 Posts
Royal Gramma
This little guy has been extremely hard to photograph. He mainly sticks close to the rock work, sometimes swimming even upside down, and adds an interesting dynamic to the tank. He's a good reminder that the price of a fish is not what makes it special.
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This little guy has been extremely hard to photograph. He mainly sticks close to the rock work, sometimes swimming even upside down, and adds an interesting dynamic to the tank. He's a good reminder that the price of a fish is not what makes it special.
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