Catching Up (this could become pic intensive)
- Thread starter stonynut
- Start date
stonynut
Member
Originally Posted by carshark
that tank looks deathly close to my realistic dream tank(not a 10,000 gallon reef) but a realistic attainable tank, heres the pic. i wonder if it is yours at one point...
i know that tank... it was a pretty high profile tank for a while
my tank is ~225.... 72x26x28
thanks for the nice remarks
that tank looks deathly close to my realistic dream tank(not a 10,000 gallon reef) but a realistic attainable tank, heres the pic. i wonder if it is yours at one point...
i know that tank... it was a pretty high profile tank for a while
my tank is ~225.... 72x26x28
thanks for the nice remarks
stonynut
Member
Originally Posted by carshark
Still wondering what that white tang is....i havent been able to locate any info on one anywhere...lil help i like it A LOT...
its a very delicate and not so common tennenti tang... aka: Leuteniant tang and Vampire Tang ... it is very passive, but is holding its own a little better these days as its growing.
Still wondering what that white tang is....i havent been able to locate any info on one anywhere...lil help i like it A LOT...
its a very delicate and not so common tennenti tang... aka: Leuteniant tang and Vampire Tang ... it is very passive, but is holding its own a little better these days as its growing.
murph145
Active Member
very nice tank...
i just started getting into sps have been successful with softies and LPS for a while now...
any advice or suggestions you can give a new sps keeper....
so far i just have a small blue staghorn and a yellow hurlius acro frag "sp"
i hear mixed comments about keepin softies and sps in a tank together but ive seen it done... what do you think?? and what do you suggest??
ive got a 100 gallon reef tank tryin to slowly cross over and get more into sps ive been weding out some of my overgrowth in the softies ....
i just started getting into sps have been successful with softies and LPS for a while now...
any advice or suggestions you can give a new sps keeper....
so far i just have a small blue staghorn and a yellow hurlius acro frag "sp"
i hear mixed comments about keepin softies and sps in a tank together but ive seen it done... what do you think?? and what do you suggest??
ive got a 100 gallon reef tank tryin to slowly cross over and get more into sps ive been weding out some of my overgrowth in the softies ....
carshark
Active Member
Originally Posted by StonyNut
dont get confused... my little picture thread was invaded by that nice shot of someone else's tank... that last big full tank shot isnt mine.
there was no invasion intended, if you read my post i asked if this picture was yours at one point, they looked very similar.. easy
dont get confused... my little picture thread was invaded by that nice shot of someone else's tank... that last big full tank shot isnt mine.
there was no invasion intended, if you read my post i asked if this picture was yours at one point, they looked very similar.. easy
carshark
Active Member
Originally Posted by StonyNut
its a very delicate and not so common tennenti tang... aka: Leuteniant tang and Vampire Tang ... it is very passive, but is holding its own a little better these days as its growing.
awesome, i think i have requested one at one point but never got anywhere with it, for i heard the exact same thing about the lieutenant tang, but never saw a pic like that about one.....wow
its a very delicate and not so common tennenti tang... aka: Leuteniant tang and Vampire Tang ... it is very passive, but is holding its own a little better these days as its growing.
awesome, i think i have requested one at one point but never got anywhere with it, for i heard the exact same thing about the lieutenant tang, but never saw a pic like that about one.....wow
stonynut
Member
murph... a mixed tank is definitely doable, but you have to overcome the challenges of allelopathy. its not a matter of them being close... its a matter of them just being in the same water. you can get around this with huge water volumes, low ratio of softies to stonies, doing large water changes, and running a fresh chemical filtration.
i chose for this tank to be a stony tank from the beginning... only exception to this are the ricordeas, but only because i like them so much. ... i started a smaller 75g tank in the dining room for other LPS and softies.
advice for a new SPS keeper... be sure you have a healthy grip on water chemistry. nitrate and phosphates are a strict no-no. keeping Ca and dkh up can get you into some money with the devices required to maintain levels for ya (you can manually dose... but you will drive yourself nuts with test kits and chasing numbers all of the time) ... water flow... you need a lot of it and it needs to be indirect/broad and random. lighting... stronger the better. its my opinion that a hobbyist needs a good year's experience before starting with stonies (particularly acros)
i chose for this tank to be a stony tank from the beginning... only exception to this are the ricordeas, but only because i like them so much. ... i started a smaller 75g tank in the dining room for other LPS and softies.
advice for a new SPS keeper... be sure you have a healthy grip on water chemistry. nitrate and phosphates are a strict no-no. keeping Ca and dkh up can get you into some money with the devices required to maintain levels for ya (you can manually dose... but you will drive yourself nuts with test kits and chasing numbers all of the time) ... water flow... you need a lot of it and it needs to be indirect/broad and random. lighting... stronger the better. its my opinion that a hobbyist needs a good year's experience before starting with stonies (particularly acros)
escape2thewater
Active Member
Originally Posted by JayC
Wow!!! Thats got to be one of the most beatiful reef tanks I've ever seen!
Please keep the pics coming!
Me too! Wow, I can only dream of such a beautiful tank! Im in the same boat as murph, Ive had a 120g reef running for a little over 2 years now with softies & lps, ive been slowly weeding them out and trading/replacing them all with sps. What you have is what I dream about for my tank!!! Please show us some more eye candy!!
Escape
Wow!!! Thats got to be one of the most beatiful reef tanks I've ever seen!
Me too! Wow, I can only dream of such a beautiful tank! Im in the same boat as murph, Ive had a 120g reef running for a little over 2 years now with softies & lps, ive been slowly weeding them out and trading/replacing them all with sps. What you have is what I dream about for my tank!!! Please show us some more eye candy!!
Escape
escape2thewater
Active Member
Originally Posted by StonyNut
advice for a new SPS keeper... be sure you have a healthy grip on water chemistry. nitrate and phosphates are a strict no-no. keeping Ca and dkh up can get you into some money with the devices required to maintain levels for ya (you can manually dose... but you will drive yourself nuts with test kits and chasing numbers all of the time)
What type of dosing systems do you use? What systems would you reccomend? What would you do different if you started over again? Sorry for all the questions but im just blown away by your tank!
Escape
:happyfish
advice for a new SPS keeper... be sure you have a healthy grip on water chemistry. nitrate and phosphates are a strict no-no. keeping Ca and dkh up can get you into some money with the devices required to maintain levels for ya (you can manually dose... but you will drive yourself nuts with test kits and chasing numbers all of the time)
What type of dosing systems do you use? What systems would you reccomend? What would you do different if you started over again? Sorry for all the questions but im just blown away by your tank!
Escape
:happyfish
stonynut
Member
planning waterflow is probably the most challenging part of a stony system.... massive amounts of water is swept thru a reef at any given moment and that something tough to replicate in a captive environment without blasting corals that are close to the water source. i have all kinds of ideas in mind for my next tank, but i have to build the next house first 
dosing... kalkwasser is a great place to start... some idiot wrote an article here called dripping kalk 101... that guy got lucky and got some info right... so have a look at that.
next graduation is to an kalk-stirrer or kalkwasser reactor or nilsen reactor combo'd with an auto topoff system
then when that cant keep up.. the next logical progression is a calcium reactor
automation is a beautiful thing... not for laziness (and i have paid my dues), but for stability
stability is the key... being able to look at monitors or read tests that are dead on EVERY time you look at them day-in/day-out leads to great success.
water changes... i dont dose any other elements besides running a k-reactor and a c-reactor... all other elements come from water changes at every 2wks
(i have been known to play with iodine and some amino acids, but that goes beyond the scope of this thread)
i have many devices and gadgets that some folks would think were only for show, but i find them to be a necessary part of my systems for i also believe in backup/redundancy in case of device failure.
i have a 75g softy/lps tank that is waayyyy simpler and easier to take care of than this stony tank. a lot of new folks see stonies as colorful but boring sticks.... its not until you try to keep a tank full of them that you can truly appreciate them.
dosing... kalkwasser is a great place to start... some idiot wrote an article here called dripping kalk 101... that guy got lucky and got some info right... so have a look at that.
next graduation is to an kalk-stirrer or kalkwasser reactor or nilsen reactor combo'd with an auto topoff system
then when that cant keep up.. the next logical progression is a calcium reactor
automation is a beautiful thing... not for laziness (and i have paid my dues), but for stability
stability is the key... being able to look at monitors or read tests that are dead on EVERY time you look at them day-in/day-out leads to great success.
water changes... i dont dose any other elements besides running a k-reactor and a c-reactor... all other elements come from water changes at every 2wks
(i have been known to play with iodine and some amino acids, but that goes beyond the scope of this thread)
i have many devices and gadgets that some folks would think were only for show, but i find them to be a necessary part of my systems for i also believe in backup/redundancy in case of device failure.
i have a 75g softy/lps tank that is waayyyy simpler and easier to take care of than this stony tank. a lot of new folks see stonies as colorful but boring sticks.... its not until you try to keep a tank full of them that you can truly appreciate them.
buzzword
Member
Thanks again for the info Stonynut. I have planned out my tank as an SPS from the start. I do have some LPS and softies in there. I WISH I had the coin for a Ca+ reactor but that is somewhere down the line. And yes I am chasing electrolytes in my tank just as I do at work as a RN. But I find it therapeutic, at this time. I have had good luck so far, I have an A. tenuis that is growing like a weed as well as my m. digitata. My m. caps are flourishing but not at the same pace as my tenuis and milli. Any detailed info would be greatly appreciated by a great many of us. Keep the pics and the knowledge coming! Again thank you for the eye candy and the hopes of what we can accomplish!
stonynut
Member
buzz.... you should see montiporas growing leaps and bounds over an acro.
as far as growth... if lighting is good, Ca/dkh is balanced, and flow is appropriate and you arent getting good growth... then its organics, no3, and po4s. po4s retard calicification in scleractinians. po4 test kits are not always very accurate because you can get false zeros.
there are a few visual tests you can do to figure out how good/bad shape your water is in.
as far as growth... if lighting is good, Ca/dkh is balanced, and flow is appropriate and you arent getting good growth... then its organics, no3, and po4s. po4s retard calicification in scleractinians. po4 test kits are not always very accurate because you can get false zeros.
there are a few visual tests you can do to figure out how good/bad shape your water is in.
