First post

REEF-DADDY · 01-03-2006, 06:19 PM

Looking for a new place to hang out.

You may know me as SteveDohoney on other boards. My wife and I just upgraded our 125 DSB to a 280 BB. After loosing about 30% of our corals to bleaching because of the clearer water and closer light I think we are finally getting somewhere. Just wanted to say HI.

Steve

Loverotties · 01-03-2006, 06:24 PM

Hi Steve and Welcome to TRT!

ChrisPrusha · 01-03-2006, 06:25 PM

Hey Steve! Welcome to TRT!!! Glad to have you aboard!! w0000000000000000000t!!!

A 280 BB, huh? Sweeeeet!!!! We loooove pics here!! Do you have any????

Casey · 01-03-2006, 06:29 PM

Hi Steve welcome to TRT.

ski1297 · 01-03-2006, 06:32 PM

Welcome to TRT!!!

gwen_o_lyn · 01-03-2006, 07:36 PM

I'd love to see pics too!!

REEF-DADDY · 01-03-2006, 07:40 PM

Thank you! Here are some pics, remember its a baby and we lost about 30% of our corals and browned out the rest.
right

left

room

If fish could laugh

gwen_o_lyn · 01-03-2006, 07:46 PM

Wow looks VERY NICE!! Looks like a future TOTM to me!! I love the cat too!!

Can you explain how the clearer water bleached your corals? I thought SPS liked clear water... or when u say clear.. I think nutrient poor or extra clean

wharyat · 01-03-2006, 07:56 PM

Welcome to TRT!

Tank looks great, hope those corals color back up for you.

REEF-DADDY · 01-03-2006, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gwen_o_lyn

Wow looks VERY NICE!! Looks like a future TOTM to me!! I love the cat too!!

Can you explain how the clearer water bleached your corals? I thought SPS liked clear water... or when u say clear.. I think nutrient poor or extra clean

It's a chain of events really. I pulled my temp probe out the night before change over and the water got to 87-88 degrees. The water in my 125 was shall we say less than clear. The lights were about 9" over the tank. The new BB tank has crystal clear water and the light is about 6" over the tank. Corals were dying like mad, and of course I changed everything except the lights. I've dropped the photo period to 5 hours and I am feeding 4 cubes per day and the corals are looking better. I am leaning towards going with a staghorn tank, but no new corals until things look good for a few months!

ChrisPrusha · 01-03-2006, 09:08 PM

I love the "shelf" look of the rocks!

Doug1 · 01-03-2006, 09:28 PM

Dayum, that looks sweet, nothing finer than a humungous in wall tank

REEF-DADDY · 01-04-2006, 12:14 PM

Thank you all. In mid Feb I am going to place a large coral order, mostly stags. I'll post more pics then.

P.S. Like see thru fish room look?

tdwyatt · 01-04-2006, 01:56 PM

Welcome to TRT!

Although it may take longer for your system to rech your expectations, you will do much better using frags of staghorns (not to mention saving a ton of money) for your specimen curation. The frags will morph to their optimum growth form as they grow, matching your current conditions and lighting for the system . If the Ca and alk are well-supplemented, photoperiod adequate, husbandry maintained, and the water remains conservatively proportional, you'll have a tank full of stonies that have made maximal use of real estate within your system, something you can't do by buying full sized colonies.

jm2c, and again, Welcome to TRT

NICE tank!

REEF-DADDY · 01-04-2006, 02:10 PM

Thanks

I did not think of that, it really makes sense. Do you see that rock in the upper left corner? Can you reccomend a coral that would like the high light of that area? It's about 6" from the surface. The rock is actually 12" across.

tdwyatt · 01-04-2006, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REEF-DADDY

Thanks

I did not think of that, it really makes sense. Do you see that rock in the upper left corner? Can you reccomend a coral that would like the high light of that area? It's about 6" from the surface. The rock is actually 12" across.

Any number of stony corals will do well in that location, just make sure that they are reeftop species of stonies, and that there is sufficient strong current (think Tunze Stream) to match for this location. General good R-O-T for specimen morphology would be frags from thick-branched specimens that normally would be accustomed to these conditions. Specimens with thin or fragile branched morphologies usually come from lower light, lower-intensity current conditions, and would be less likely to have come from a reeftop location originally. The IDEAL would be that frags and specimens would come in with some type of indexing that would identify their original depth, lighting, and current intensity, but we unfortunately are limited to rule-of-thumb guestimations for most of the specimens we as hobbyists receive.

HTH

skeety · 01-06-2006, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisPrusha

I love the "shelf" look of the rocks!

Ditto! That's just COOOL!

Doing something like this myself, in the year to come (in-wall picture frame tank). I like the way you made the display a bar as well! If you don't mind, I think I'll copy that!

AWESOME tank. Hang in there, and I'm sure the corals you have left will come back twice as strong!!!

Also a BIG fan of Tom's advice. I like getting frags WAY more than buying larger pieces. Easier to place, I like watching them grow, cheaper, and in MY experience, they tend to do better (higher survival rate).

Welcome to TRT (VERY glad to have you), and for the love of god, MORE PICS!!!!

First post/another disaster