Cali Kid Corals

Denzil's 10 Gallon (Temporary) Nano Tank

Well it's good to know it's not that big of an issue.

I didn't mean it to come across as strong as a 'fear type post'. Are there any issues with cyano covering corals and blocking light? In your opinion, should it be siphoned out or ????

And I learned a new word!

Phycology, the scientific study of algae!!
 
denzil said:
ReefLove said:
Where are the pictures ??
Click to expand...
It's in my original post, in my SmugMug: http://denzil.smugmug.com/Pets/Aquariums/10g/27705691_NcsbwD
Click to expand...

Cool, I love the coral pic-8 I'm gonna need a frag when it grows. I will try to find it but usually it's hard.
 
aqua-nut said:
Do you shoot in RAW? Might be easier to tweak in post if you do. A trick - put something pure white or pure grey in the tank for test shot. Makes it easy to balance in PhotoShop. A PVC part, sch 40 or 80 would do the trick. Once you get the correction you could apply it to all the pics taken under the same light.

Tank looks great! Do you notice it brighter or with less spill over after the lenses were installed? Any 'disco ball' effect before/after?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a lot brighter and more focused, which at the same time concerns me, LoL. I know my water params aren't ideal yet but I think my chalice is bleaching out or losing color slightly. I'm actually interested in finding the PAR numbers on this tank. I'm pretty content with the height so if necessary, I think I'll just dim it down.

Anyone have a PAR meter I could borrow/rent? :)

ReefLove said:
denzil said:
ReefLove said:
Where are the pictures ??
Click to expand...
It's in my original post, in my SmugMug: http://denzil.smugmug.com/Pets/Aquariums/10g/27705691_NcsbwD
Click to expand...

Cool, I love the coral pic-8 I'm gonna need a frag when it grows. I will try to find it but usually it's hard.
Click to expand...

Hey Nish, I think this frag may be one of many. I think I have a few others that are the same that are in Brandie's tank. Will you be coming to the club's next meeting on Feb. 9? If I have more than one of these, I'd be happy to give you one. You're talking about the zoa, right?
 
denzil said:
aqua-nut said:
Do you shoot in RAW? Might be easier to tweak in post if you do. A trick - put something pure white or pure grey in the tank for test shot. Makes it easy to balance in PhotoShop. A PVC part, sch 40 or 80 would do the trick. Once you get the correction you could apply it to all the pics taken under the same light.

Tank looks great! Do you notice it brighter or with less spill over after the lenses were installed? Any 'disco ball' effect before/after?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a lot brighter and more focused, which at the same time concerns me, LoL. I know my water params aren't ideal yet but I think my chalice is bleaching out or losing color slightly. I'm actually interested in finding the PAR numbers on this tank. I'm pretty content with the height so if necessary, I think I'll just dim it down.

Anyone have a PAR meter I could borrow/rent? :)

ReefLove said:
denzil said:
ReefLove said:
Where are the pictures ??
Click to expand...
It's in my original post, in my SmugMug: http://denzil.smugmug.com/Pets/Aquariums/10g/27705691_NcsbwD
Click to expand...

Cool, I love the coral pic-8 I'm gonna need a frag when it grows. I will try to find it but usually it's hard.
Click to expand...

Hey Nish, I think this frag may be one of many. I think I have a few others that are the same that are in Brandie's tank. Will you be coming to the club's next meeting on Feb. 9? If I have more than one of these, I'd be happy to give you one. You're talking about the zoa, right?
Click to expand...

Yep, Zoa... I think I'm gonna love these Zoas and mostly green ones. I know enough to stay away from brown ones :) and also will be using them as fillers and for the contrast in colors. :)

Well, I won't have a tank set up for the corals so not sure what I'm going to do with the frag. But I would appreciate if you could keep one for me for now or frag one when my tank is ready.

For now my first priority is to get the QT going. The aqua scape and then start the tank. Long way to go. ;)
 
Just did a 25% WC today and my alkalinity is now 9.1 dKH. Two days ago, 1/24, I dosed some Continuumm Aquatics Reef Basis KH Buffer which brought my KH to 8.7, IIRC, after visiting Robert at Neptune Aquatics.

I think my tank's in much better shape now but I think I want to shoot for a KH of 10 so that I can account for human error and test kit variability.
 
What type of salt do you use? If you have a good quality salt, then you don't have to worry as much about ionic additives or buffers. If you use salt that has lower than standard seawater ions, than you will just spend money on additives instead of just the salt. Which means you have to test parameters more often to make sure you did not add too much or too little additive.
 
We both use Salinity, but there are more factors to take into account besides just the salt we use. Skimming lowers Alk, so does detritus, other fish waste if he's not skimming, etc. You have to find out how much your ecosystem absorbs it, so I respectfully disagree with you. :)

So many different factors can cause alk to fluctuate, and dosing the buffer just helps keep in up despite other factors in tank eating it up.
 
zeroinverse said:
What type of salt do you use? If you have a good quality salt, then you don't have to worry as much about ionic additives or buffers. If you use salt that has lower than standard seawater ions, than you will just spend money on additives instead of just the salt. Which means you have to test parameters more often to make sure you did not add too much or too little additive.
Click to expand...
Like Brandie said, we're using Salinity. I really don't think it's the salt that's the issue but rather the series of events that I've done with the 10g. I'm just taking steps to get the parameters straight since I didn't really measure them before with the exception of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates to get the tank cycled. I'll just have to keep testing and monitoring to understand the parameter fluctuations/consumption. A large part of the issue is the fact that I tried doing monthly water changes off the bat since I got the tank set up and cycled in November. The LR is also, I don't think, not mature enough to handle the current load of livestock, to which I think is still adjusting.

I just added Chemi-Pure Elite to help with my phosphate problem. I used the Salifert test kit and from the looks of the solution, I was measuring between .5 and 1 ppm. I replaced the middle one of the three sponges in my AC30. I'm curious as to how much that will help moving forward... we'll see.
 
aqua-nut said:
Do you shoot in RAW? Might be easier to tweak in post if you do. A trick - put something pure white or pure grey in the tank for test shot. Makes it easy to balance in PhotoShop. A PVC part, sch 40 or 80 would do the trick. Once you get the correction you could apply it to all the pics taken under the same light.

Tank looks great! Do you notice it brighter or with less spill over after the lenses were installed? Any 'disco ball' effect before/after?
Click to expand...
I realize I didn't answer the first part of your question but no, I don't currently shoot in RAW. I typically just shoot in the highest res .JPG's. I'll try some of those tricks you suggested when I get a chance to. Thanks!
 
Maybe sometime we should do a 'color correction for reef pictures' demo. Of course many will not be willing to purchase Photoshop just to make pretty pics!

And more power to you if you can follow those 'instructions'. I really meant it as a tease! :)
 
The software to use is Adobe Lightroom. I have been using it for years with great success.
 
denzil said:
Test parameters for 01/24/13
Specific Gravity - 1.023
Temperature - 80.5* F
Ca - 420 ppm
KH - 7.8 dKH
Mg - 1460 ppm

So while my Ca is seemingly fine, I have a KH and Mg issue. I'm only .2 dKH outside of the accepted range and 110 ppm outside of the accepted range for Mg. Any suggestions on how to fix for such a small tank with no ATO set up?

Acceptable range according to LiveAquaria:
Click to expand...

Hey Denzil- I came across a very good read. It describe how all these things are related and why adding stuff might not fix the problems. May be you have already read this one but I found it very interesting.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php
 
ReefLove said:
denzil said:
Test parameters for 01/24/13
Specific Gravity - 1.023
Temperature - 80.5* F
Ca - 420 ppm
KH - 7.8 dKH
Mg - 1460 ppm

So while my Ca is seemingly fine, I have a KH and Mg issue. I'm only .2 dKH outside of the accepted range and 110 ppm outside of the accepted range for Mg. Any suggestions on how to fix for such a small tank with no ATO set up?

Acceptable range according to LiveAquaria:
Click to expand...

Hey Denzil- I came across a very good read. It describe how all these things are related and why adding stuff might not fix the problems. May be you have already read this one but I found it very interesting.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll check it out!

KH - 9.1 dKH
PO4 - between .5 and 1 ppm
 
Did a 50% WC last night and measured the PO4 just now which is measuring between the .25 and .5 range. I swear, that Salifert PO4 test kit can be tricky in terms of knowing what range I'm in since they're vary levels of blue.

Just measured alkalinity and I'm sitting at 9.1 dKH.
 
Did another 50% WC last night and the PO4 is measuring about the same (between .25 and .5 ppm). I hope in the next few water changes I'll notice a larger decrease in PO4.
 
I got Bam Bam's and an unnamed zoa from Jess yesterday. I also picked up an Emerald crab who at the time I took these pictures was being shy. I also took two pictures of my scoly and my RBTA. All of these shots were taken with the acrylic camera box.

The original photos can be seen here: http://denzil.smugmug.com/Pets/Aquariums/10g/27705691_NcsbwD

Attached files /attachments/sites/default/files/IMG_1817.JPG /attachments/sites/default/files/IMG_1818.JPG /attachments/sites/default/files/IMG_1826.JPG /attachments/sites/default/files/IMG_1830_0.JPG
 
FWIW Bam Bams are one of many zoas named by BAR members that are "named corals" now :) Dan left the hobby quite some time ago though.
 
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