The Interim Tank

[The Reef Dork]

I did some growth comparison shots a while ago but they were poop so i've done them again. This shows the growth much better - up to 6 months in some cases.

Utter Chaos 28 Sept 17


6 months later



Mohawk 22 Oct 17


5 months later



Speckled Rainbow 19 Nov 17


5 months later




AAV 26 Nov 17


4 months later



Rasta 31 Dec 17


3 months later :mad:



Super Saiyan 25 Sept 17


6 months later ;Facepalm



Scrambled egg 2 Oct 17


5 months later



GSP 28 Jan 18

2 months later




I've managed to do some proper T5 work this weekend too - testing and photos! PAR is up from 246 to 353 at the clam (front and centre). Light spread is also much better and the tank looks slightly brighter as a result. It gives a slightly different colour (bluer surprisingly ) which I like.

When you look really closely, it can look a little washed out but that just tells me I need 4 tubes, not 2 which would enable me to play with colour rather than just having blue+. Crucially, it doesn't really dampen the shimmer much ;Woot Basically, it's brilliant and if done properly (unlike this install), it'd be the perfect solution for me

Here are some comparison shots. The difference is slightly more stark in the flesh but this gives a reasonable indication.

1st photos are LED only;
2nd photos are LED & T5.
















Parameters
I've had another ICP test through - here are a select few results...

Phosphate 0.10 (down from 0.43)
Nitrate 16.61 (up from 6.64)

Here are the metals from this month



And here are the metals from last month


So vanadium and tin have gone down but copper and zinc have gone up which is not ideal. I've no idea what the source is! I've checked EVERY bit of metal in there - I thought i'd found the culprit last time out being a rusty pump but apparently not ;Facepalm So i'm doing 2x 50L water changes (which is about 40% to 50% each). And i've taken the opportunity to experiment with a new salt!

I love the idea of ATI Absolute Ocean and when I asked if they sell it in my LFS they said no but Triton do the same thing! So i'm mixing this stuff up as we speak. I'm expecting coral growth to double immediately, coral health to quadruple and the fish to start laughing uncontrollably with delight ;Smuggrin

 

[The Reef Dork]

I accidentally fragged my double headed scrambled egg zoa the other day. On the plus side, it's doing well and looks pretty cool on its own!

Quick top down shot from last night - my acro is doing much better than I thought it would

 

[The Reef Dork]

Stop! Camera time ;Snaphappy

Hello micro polyp extension

 

[The Reef Dork]

From the lid of my skimmer cup. Must empty more often

 

[Nachoman]

That looks shi&!!

 

[The Reef Dork]

That looks shi&!!

Smells good though ;Yuck

 

[The Reef Dork]

Mini re-scape this weekend. I've rotated the clam 90 degrees so it's now front on instead of side on. That means I can see the mantle now (the whole point of having a clam ) and it doesn't obstruct the view of what's behind it now

Should have been like this from the start to be fair...

 

[The Reef Dork]

ISIS have set up a sleeper cell in my sump. Their current tactic is to send suicide bombers to block up my skimmer intake. So sad to see a young snail giving his life just to cause me bother

I've just put a new slide in my Seneye to see how big a PH swing i'm getting and to see if I need to increase it to maximise growth. Turns out it's rather stable. Which is annoying cos I wanted to tinker

Daytime

Nighttime

It's so stable and high that it makes me suspicious about the Seneye ;Bored

 

[The Reef Dork]

Accidentally ordered some SPS frags today

These are photos from the seller - should arrive tomorrow. I was only after a small frag of sunset monti but I got carried away ;Woot

 

[The Reef Dork]

Tidied up my LED/T5 hybrid today. I've taken away the Kessil gooseneck and attached the a360 to the T5 hood. Much prettier

Before

After

This was all mocked up really quickly and it definitely looks amateur (certainly up close) but its given me confidence that I could do a really proper job on my upgrade if I plan, research and take my time.

I'm thinking better quality T5s (4, maybe 6 tubes) and a Kessil ap700. Fixed to the tank with a bracket that is screwed into the back of the cabinet rather than the ceiling. I think that could be spectacular! ;Woot

 

[The Reef Dork]

New corals arrived today ;Woot



Then I saw a flatworm on the bubble wrap that was with one of the frags :mad:


Dipped them all to within an inch of their lives and nothing came off so maybe it was a line wolf

Strawberry shortcake




Sunset monti ;Smuggrin




No idea what this is called but it's purdy


Ditto this smooth-sklinned beaut


And some randoms while i'm at it












Mirror, mirror on the wall

 

[The Reef Dork]

My clown has decided one of my zoas will do as a nem ;Woot

This has only come about because I don't give this zoa enough light (it's half shaded and almost in the sand bed) so they've had to stretch. Sorry zoas but this is cool





Hello algae ;Facepalm

 

[The Reef Dork]

The plan with the sunset monti is to make it look like a branching acropora. I'll frag it into lots of small bits and glue them to this bit of rock...


I've wanted to do this for ages - encrusting montis look best on contours when you can see the base as well as the polyps


Here are a few more shots of the nubes













And a few others just because ;Snaphappy I've changed my SW-8 to 'else' mode which is more random - it's given a much more natural shape to my torch which previously just stayed all together in kind of an upside down raindrop shape.








DEFINITE tinges of pink in my 'pink dragon' acan

 

[The Reef Dork]

I'm now moving house next week so will have to transfer this lot. I've set aside a full day to do it and it's only a little tank but it'll be a massive pain in the ****! It'll give me a chance to clean that dang algae off the back though :mad:







I'll also need to calibrate my doser - these were the same level about 1L ago...


On the plus side... house move means upgrade!! ;Woot

Gonna have a think about what tank, location etc when i'm settled in but I hope to be ordering the tank after about 2 weeks. There's a Reefer 425xl in the classifieds at the moment that looks pretty nice mind...

 

[The Reef Dork]

Cool panning timelapse

 

[The Reef Dork]

Moved house now and have relocated the tank. Total nightmare! Compounded by the fact I moved house on Friday and the place is upside down.

No sand for now but I've taken the opportunity to put the powerheads at the bottom and blast off any detritus from the move.

Still lots of work to do but no casualties so I'll be happy with it when I've recovered from the stress!

 

[The Reef Dork]

I've discovered why you should always run a magnet through new sand...

 

[The Reef Dork]

Touched the tank for the first time since the move tonight. Clam had jumped off the rock :mad: so I put it back. Better stay put this time.

More importantly, I started Project Full Monti. I fragged about 12 small bits off my sunset monti and glued them to a nice shape rock. So when it grows out, it'll look like an acropora in sunset colours





Now all I have to do is wait. About 2 years... ;Bored

 

[The Reef Dork]

Some interesting news tonight! This happened yesterday ;Woot

500 litre upgrade arriving May 25th

 

[The Reef Dork]

We're entering the last month of Interim goodness. So here are some DSLR shots ;Snaphappy

DSC_0090 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

DSC_0091 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

DSC_0079 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

DSC_0089 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

DSC_0088 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

DSC_0083 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

20180525_122554 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

DSC_0101 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr
20180525_122529 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

20180525_122512 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

This camera is wasted on a nano