Leonardo's BB ShallowCube

[Viv]

More beautiful pics! That Pappone is the AA? How are you feeding it? All looks great! Got another question also, if you don't mind....you had cleaned out the sump and tank..did you do both at the same time? I'm curious about if you noticed by cleaning everything at once if you noticed a change in the corals/tank due to maybe a decrease in bacteria. I want to do a cleanup of the sump but I'm a little concerned about stripping too much bacteria at once...

[Leonardo's Reef]

Viv, once a month I clean all the walls extra well, clean the overflow, and take the sump out to the shower and give it a good clean (my parents love me)
At the same time I replace the water in the sump, so I do a waterchange too.
The PE on the corals is a bit less that day and the day after, but that's it. I don't measure elevated ammonia/nitrate etc. after doing this.
Another story it would be if my sump is covered in sponges, featherdusters and/or detritus, then you could create a rapid change too fast I think. But my sump is not that dirty, so I think it's not a problem because of that

The pappone is a kind of blender mush+carbon source, and besides that I'm experimenting with the AA powder The pappone is fed at night, every other day. The Amino Acid Powder in the morning, every day.

btw, it's nice to recieve questions, I'm glad if I can help out with something

Leonardo

[Viv]

Good news to hear on the cleanup, I have been afraid to do too much at once...
When you do the every other day feedings are they opposite one another. What I mean is, are you feeding both on the same day, every other day or one day the pappone the next AA, every other day-curious!
If ever you want you could always drop my son a clue-he doesn't clean anything ever!! Yes, you and your parents have a lot to be proud of,

[Leonardo's Reef]

Haha, I forgot to mention that I'm so busy with the tank at that moment, I forget to clean up the shower

The Pappone is fed every other day, in the evening.
The Amino Acid powder every day, in the morning.

The evening I don't feed pappone, I feed Coral Food+Amino Acids from Salifert.

I know, it is a lot, but it's skimmed out pretty quick... If feels safer for me to skim it out fast, then to feed les and let it break down in the tank for a while.

btw, maye if you save the water from the sump in a box while cleaning the sump, you make the cleanup less drastic. You can always do a water change a few days later...

Leonardo

[Viv]

Are you making your own Pappone (Blendermush) or is it a store bought blend? I find with the blender mush I make I have to turn down the skimmer for a few hours otherwise it'll froth and foam all over the place..

And I thought-hmmmm, this guy is very clean-maybe I should mention my daughters', but yuck, sure glad I don't have to use your shower!! Just kidding of course I think we all get caught up in our tanks!

[Leonardo's Reef]

I'm clean Haha, I do clean it up after all, but only when my tank is up and running again

I make the pappone myself. I feed it together with adding Biocalcium, and somehow this stuff make my skimmer go flat for a few hours.
So the pappone can do it's work, and then it's skimmed of later that night. And yes, it's a bit of a mess in the collection cup in the morning

Leonardo

[Mike O'Brien]

Are you using sugar?

Makes sense that it would help darken the corals up a bit. Randy Holmes Farley commented that his corals turned brown when he tried dosing sugar. I think that is why alcohol is more popular. But you can't argue with results. You tank is amazing !

[Leonardo's Reef]

The strange thing is, sugar is used to fuel bacteria, that lower nitrates and phosphates. So the corals should lighten because of that.

The Italians use sugar in the Pappone, and they use it for over 10 years. I just carefully copied the directions, don't want to take risks.

The darkening can be caused because of the Pappone (oysters, clams etc), and the amino's. Maybe, like R Holmes Farley describes, sugar can darken up corals because the sugar directly feed the Zoöxanthellae? (just a guess)

Another strange thing is, the A. Millepora clearly darkend up, but the A. Formosa's for instance, didn't... Btw, I think the corals are still a bit to light for my taste, so I don't mind the darken up

Leonardo

[Leonardo's Reef]

Ok, just a few more pics. I made them together with the other ones, but I thought it would be too many if I posted them all at once.

I think it´s a A. Humilis (ID someone?) It's finally colouring up. Slow grower.




The New Stag-Island I created last week. All the stags are on one Bali-plug


Leonardo

[King-Kong]

I dont think that's humilis. Humilis are normally more stubby/rounded at the end of the branches... but what do i know :P

[Leonardo's Reef]

Originally Posted by gwaco

as far as your tank and the t.o.t.m. , it doesn't have to do with whom knows whom , or the right people , its just their are so many tanks , it makes it hard to choose . but i'm pushin for ya !

Pff Gary, I feel so stupid. I obviously was mentioning RC, I just found out TRT has a TOTM contest too.... I feel really stupid.

leo

[Leonardo's Reef]

Originally Posted by King-Kong

I dont think that's humilis. Humilis are normally more stubby/rounded at the end of the branches... but what do i know :P

Thanks King-Kong, then I'll continue my search for ID

[Viv]

Are those two different blue tip? Maybe just the way the light is hitting them. Very pretty, love the color!

[Leonardo's Reef]

Thanks. Yes those two are different blue tips It's an aquacultured Acropora I bought, but I don't know what kind it is...
It was brown, but its now colouring up to turqoise/green with blue tips. Also it produced some new growth tips as you can see.

In the side FTS, it's in the front-middle.

Leonardo

[gwaco]

man ! that tank is blah , blah ,blah .
leonardo , this is more of what humulis looks like . oh and if you haven't been over to the sps forum lately , the pic thread has had a lot of new pics added .