Leonardo's BB ShallowCube

[thekid55]

great tank its my background for my cpu. on ? though isnt the whole point of a BB tank is to have alot of flow. isnt that bad for your plate.

[Leonardo's Reef]

Thanx Little luey.

Kid, I don't understand your question fully I think, but I'll try to answer. I do have a lot of flow, but my plate coral is placed between the rocks (as you can see) and have less flow then the rest of the tank. He is expanding its polyps so I think he's happy

Also 2 pictures of the other frags. (encrusting and branching Montipora)

BTW, I have replaced the FTS for a better, sharper picture (also made it 1024x768 res.)

Leonardo

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Leonardo's Reef

My starboads keeps getting covered with algae (brown film, short green hair) Is this a matter of time (new tank), or do I have to keep it clean? Do any of you guys need to clean the starboard?

Leonardo

Part of the manufacturing process of most plastics (including PVC) involves plastisizers, these contain phosphate and for a little while will grow algae as they come off. This is normal, it took a month or so for the Algae on my starboard to disapear.

Great pics, and great corals!

Whiskey

[Sprayin70]

Really nice aquarium!

[Leonardo's Reef]

Thanks sprayin70!

Wiskey, I hope that this is the stored phosphate is the problem... I will wait for a couple of weeks to see how it develops.

Maybe I have to purchase a silicate-filter and hook it up to my RO/DI...

Yesterday I've bought a beautiful acropora-colony. I will make some pics later.
Next project will be installing a Phosban reactor (btw already using it in the sump) an a large UV-unit. I'm also thinking about using micron socks. Any thoughts?

Leonardo

[Leonardo's Reef]

This is the acro colony that I bought. In the middle of the colony you can see a peace of purple Porites.

I also found another coral on this rock. Because I saw it was attacking my acropora colony I fragged it of. I's also a stony coral, but I have no idea what it is. Do any of you have an idea?

Leonardo

[Leonardo's Reef]

Don't anyone have an idea what kind of coral this is?

I'm finally happy with the rockwork. Also have added many frags. I think I'm done with the frags, because when they gonna grow the tank will be filled.

Pics soon!

Leonardo

[three90s&125sump]

The one on the right looks like Galaxea.

[Leonardo's Reef]

okay, thanx for clearing that up!

New FTS added... Sorry for the poor quality, but I have to make the file smaller than 300 Kb.

Leonardo

[Viv]

That looks really nice! I really like your rockwork and placement of corals!

[Leonardo's Reef]

Thank you for the compliment Viv.

Today I noticed some RTN on the bottom of some frags. I immediately tested my water parameters.

Calcium: 420
Magnesium:1150 (Low, but not critical. Will work on that)
Alkalinity: 5 (!!!!)
pH: 8,0
Phosphate: Not measurable
Nitrate: Not measurable

My Alkalinity dropped 2 dH in one week... I think that causes the tissue recession. I added some Ca-Alk supplement (Bio Calcium by Tropic Marine), and started to drip Kalkwasser.
I hope the recession will stop that way. In the future I will add more Kalkwasser (1,5 gallon every night) and regulary add Bio Calcium.

The strange thing is, that my calcium is okay, but my Alkalinity is too low. I always thought that there's a balance between it (if you add balanced stuff, like Bio Calcium and Kalkwasser)
The Alk intake is therefore higher than my Calcium intake (b/c Ca remained stable) ... Any thoughts on that?

leonardo

[Weatherman]

Things like kalk are called "balanced additives" because they add calcium and alkalinity in, generally, the same proportion they are removed from the water through biological and abiotic processes.

However, alkalinity is removed much faster than calcium. For each 20 ppm of calcium, about 2.8 dKH of alk is removed. So, if you start out with 420 ppm calcium and 8.0 dKH alk, then a drop in calcium to 400 ppm would result in a drop in alk to 5.2 dKH. In fact, because 420 ppm and 400 ppm are pretty much within the noise of test kit measurements, it can seem like alk is falling fast, while calcium is not falling at all.

[Leonardo's Reef]

Thanx Weatherman for clearing that up. I now understand it!

Leonardo

[Leonardo's Reef]

I'm thinking of using UV... What are your thoughts about it? Wil it be beneficial for my tank? And what should be the wattage for a 92 Gallon tank?

Leonardo

[Weatherman]

I think if you have a tank where animals are frequently swapped in and out (like at a commercial operation) it’s a good idea. It cuts down on the spread of disease.

Otherwise I find it difficult to justify the cost to buy, run and maintain it.