Peter's Garage Tank

[Coral reefer]

Not all blues are the same. Some people love t5s with a reefbrite (royal blue leds) strip to add the fluorescence and shimmer.

 

[scuzy]

Ati bulbs been the go to bulbs on most forums


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[Coral reefer]

Ati are good, I think there are like 3 different blue bulbs tho.

 

[daddio]

I ran out and picked up 3 of these:

Giesmann Aquablue+

A special 60/40 combination of 6000K and 22000K (approx) phosphor blend.

It is specifically designed for reef aquariums mimicking sea water to a depth of one to twenty meters. It can be used for growing SPS corals up to 80cm in the aquarium.

This lamp is ideally suited to be used as a standalone, or when used in a 2:1 or 3:1 fashion with blue or actinic supplementary lamps.

And I got 1 - Giesmann PowerChrome Pure Actinic

Still need to order 2 more bulbs. Thinking of 2 of these:
Giesmann Midday tubes
The D-D Midday 6000 T5 bulbs have full a 5 point colour spectrum and 6000K colour temperature which exactly recreates natural sunlight.

Suitable for salt water and fresh water. Midday is a 6000 Kelvin tube with a 5 point spectrum which recreates sunlight. It is suitable for salt water, fresh water, and reef planted or fish only aquariums.

This lamp is ideally suited to full spectrum use for growth of SPS and also works great when used in a 1:1 ratio with either the Actinic, or Blue supplementary lamps.
Cheers! Mark

 

[daddio]

A couple of pics with the new bulbs. First is blue light second is all lights. Pics. really dont show the actual that well. Blue is not so blue and the corals "pop" a bit and the daylight is way brighter than the picture. i am happy! The light coverage is much more even across the reef and alot brighter - Thanks @xcaret Mario! and Thanks to @DEATH BY SNU SNU for his great guidance!!

 

[daddio]

Ordered the last 2 bulbs today (2 more actinic) so I will be running 3 actinic and 3 aquablue+. Night time in the tank should look like a psychedelic Haight Ashbury summer of love party. It should be plenty bright and have some "pop" in the daytime. The tank is so bright that I also ordered a new 300 watt Mars led grow light for the chaeto. I really want to pump up the chaeto growth so I dont have algae problems . The chaeto seems to be very dark green and growth has slowed a bit. There is also a couple of different algaes in the sump competing with/growing on the chaeto.
Cheers!

 

[Wlachnit]

Tanks are looking great!


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[daddio]

Well it looks like the flame back angel found himself a tasty treat today.

Moved the coral into Peter smaller tank to see if we can get it to recover – I don't know? Also added a little bit more rock into the display tank from the cryptic tank so that I can spread the corals out a bit. And, the Red Sea energy came today. The dosing chart calls for about 6 mL of each of the two compounds into our garage tank, I'm going to start with half of that and see how the tank looks in a couple of weeks

 

[daddio]

@Coral reefer was kind enough to give us a frag of Jack o' Lantern Lepto about 3 months ago. We took the small frag, cut it in half and both halves are thriving. This is from the garage tank, the one in Peter's tank is twice as big. Thanks Mike!

 

[daddio]

So last night I told Peter that we should not get anymore livestock for a couple weeks while the tank settles into all of the changes we made. Well that lasted about 12 hours This morning I get a message from Joey ( @SouthSko ) here in Redwood City that he is looking for a new home for his Hectors Goby. Long story short, we now have a little Goby to churn up our sand. Thanks Joey!!
And...my wife was right when she said we couldn't make it a couple weeks without adding something

 

[daddio]

The tanks seem to be chugging along nicely. I thought it was time to write down the lighting & what I add to each tank daily so that I can keep track of it all.
Light cycles:
- Cryptic - No lights
- Sump Chaeto - 6am-10pm Changed to 8:30pm - 9:30am = 13 hours
- Peters 29g - running nocturnal - daylight 2:30pm-10pm = 9 1/2 hours
- Blue Reefbrights 2pm-7am = 17 hours
- Garage DT - Actinic 7am - 10pm = 15 hours
- Daylight 10am - 8pm = 10 hours

Morning feeding 6am:
- 29g - cup of strained pods and pod detritus + 1.5ml RG Complete
- Cryptic - cup of strained pods and pod detritus + 1/8tsp TDO + 5 3ml RG Complete
- 55g Pod culture - 10 6ml RG Complete
- 65g DT - Cup of strained pods and pod detritus
6 ml each alk/calcium
3ml each Red Sea Energy A&B

Afternoon:
29g and 65g each get 1/3 cube frozen Marine Delight or TDO (alternating days)

Evening Feeding 6pm:
- 29g - cup of strained pods and pod detritus + 1.5 1ml RG Complete
- Cryptic - cup of strained pods and pod detritus + 10 3ml RG Complete
- 55g Pod culture - 10 6ml RG Complete
- 65g DT - Cup of strained pods and pod detritus

Additional doses on Sat. mornings
- 3ml iodide
- 3ml strontium
- 3ml mag.

I think that covers it. As I look at it, we are adding a lot to our tanks. Nitrates are in check and although I wouldn't say our tanks are "clean" we are currently not having algae problems.

 

[ashburn2k]

That. Is. A lot of work man.


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[daddio]

That. Is. A lot of work man.


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Not that bad. It only takes me about 10 minutes to feed the reefs and both of the freshwater tanks. I am up early and there is not much else to do at 6am. Drink mass quanities of coffee and play "mad scientist"

 

[JVU]

Conventional wisdom would be to light the chaeto more or less opposite of the display tank to help with pH swings.


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[daddio]

Conventional wisdom would be to light the chaeto more or less opposite of the display tank to help with pH swings.


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Good catch! I had it that way when I first set up the sump and I dont remember when/why I changed it?? Starting today the sump goes nocturnal. Thanks!

 

[MolaMola]

Lookng good! That IS a lot of stuff going on! I have not been following your pod culture - sounds awesome. What do you do if you go out of town?

 

[daddio]

Lookng good! That IS a lot of stuff going on! I have not been following your pod culture - sounds awesome. What do you do if you go out of town?

Thanks! Last time we left town for a week, I just let the tank be unattended. I dont think anything will starve in a week!
BTW, the Hollywood Stunner Chalice you gave us is thriving - Thank You!

 

[ashburn2k]

Thanks! Last time we left town for a week, I just let the tank be unattended. I dont think anything will starve in a week!
BTW, the Hollywood Stunner Chalice you gave us is thriving - Thank You!

Has it greened up or still looking brownish?


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[daddio]

Has it greened up or still looking brownish?


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Edges are healed and growing whitish, eyes are bright green and body is light brown/blue/green

 

[daddio]

Ok, sump is on alternating schedule and after looking at how much we are feeding decided to remove 13ml of phyto a day from the menu. This includes cutting back food for the culture which will slow down production and decrease the number of pods/rotifers.