Neal's SPS & ZOA/PALY SYSTEM Coral & Livestock pics thread...

[pallobi]

you can see the Pearlberry in the center back row of this pic... again, its bowned out except for the tips, but i have no worries it will become amazng

 

[littlefish09]

i think im gonna come over and steal your tank when your not looking

 

[pallobi]

i think im gonna come over and steal your tank when your not looking

good times

 

[The Ng Thing]

Your sale threads are killing me, I need a bigger tank so I can buy all your zoas.

 

[pallobi]

Your sale threads are killing me, I need a bigger tank so I can buy all your zoas.

sorry bud

 

[pallobi]

Great News!!!

Got some good news

My 180g upgrade will be taking place in the next 3 or 4 weeks to 6 weeks... It will definately be done by thanksgiving!!!

So needless to say, I am stoked, lol...

I will be utilizing the same lighting system as i have now, for the time being, as it should be fine until i can get a 5 foot, t5 fixture to replace it... also, as i plan on using 3 mp40's on this 180g, however at the moment i only have 2, so i will use the 2 i have, and also use the Koralia Magnum 6 i have to help make up for it...

Once the 180g goes up, it will not be finished up and perfect right from the get go... I will need time to get a new light, another mp40, and a proper sump... I will most likely have to put the live rock in the display for the time being as well, until i get said sump upgrade... so it will take some time to get all the equipment jus right, as i am very picky, as well as getting to the part where i will setup my new theme of aquascape, which some of you have heard about previously... im actually glad to get it setup before hand, as this will allow me to eyeball it, and feel it out as i go, in setting up my new aquatic vision and its scaping...

However, right from the start, my corals will finally have more space, and not to mention my beloved purple tang, and his new counter part, my new and second purple tang, will also have ALOT more swimming space, which will greatly benefit them both... I will introduce them at the same time, and hopefully all will be well, and they will get along ok...

I am really excited guys n gals... this is gonna be awesome!!!

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

I am also excited for you! After seeing your stuff in person I can't wait to see what else you end up with in the 180!

 

[jt628]

How's the new purple workin out? IT ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTS ME when people take on more than they can handle!!!! hope she's REALLY "Fat and healthy" now

 

[pallobi]

How's the new purple workin out? IT ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTS ME when people take on more than they can handle!!!! hope she's REALLY "Fat and healthy" now

Hey bud its getting there... fins are filling out nicely, and its fattening up really well... and the head rot is filling in with color and appears to be healing up... my other purple took a couple months before it was gone, so this one may take some time, but like i said, it appears to be well on its way so im very pleased!

 

[pallobi]

My PAR readings...

ok, so I actually posted this on a seperate thread, but jus wanted to log it here as well... if you have already seen it, i apoligize in advance for the redundancy...

**********


I measured my PAR today using an Apogee Par Meter, on my 8 month old, t5 bulbs... the fixture is a 48", 8 bulb Teklight, with (4) ATI aquablue specials, and (4) ATI blue plus'...

the following are my results on my 8 month old bulbs... which i will be changing out in the next month or so...

for the upper level, or third row of corals, at the base of the coral/top of the column, I got a reading of 325 to 350, with around 310 to 320 on the far left and right hand ends of the tank...

for the middle level, or second row of corals, at the base of the coral/top of the column, I got a reading of 280 to 300, with around 260 to 270 on the far left and right hand ends of the tank...

for the lower level, or front row of corals, at the base of the coral top of the column, I got a reading of 235 to 260, with around 190 to 210 on the far left and right hand ends of the tank...

for the bottom glass of the tank, the reading read around 140 to 190, depending where I was taking the measurement exactly and what might have been above it, and perhaps shading the meter a bit...

Overall, im not sure what is good or what is bad, but considering my bulbs are 8 months old, I think I am in pretty good shape... I look forward to rechecking them when i get new bulbs, and again after 3 months with the same new bulbs...

 

[pallobi]

and here is an updated FTS...

 

[pallobi]

 

[sizzle]

Tank is looking good!

 

[pallobi]

Tank is looking good!

thanks bro...

recently had some issues with a small amount of dino's that seemed to have come out of no where, which convused the hell out of me, but i researched, and feel i handled that well... ive changed up my water change regiment becuz of this and now have a new plan as far as that goes... but i threw a beat down on those dino's over a 10 day period, and that makes me happy... lol

 

[The Ng Thing]

A little education and some elbow grease is the real solution to any algae/dino problem.

 

[pallobi]

A little education and some elbow grease is the real solution to any algae/dino problem.

agreed... as well as patience... too many times in this hobby folks dont have the patience it takes to acheive much of anything... that may sound a bit harsh, but its true... they see something, and maybe they hear one thing, one time, and they start freaking out and jumping to conclusions and jumping the gun... this happens in many aspects of this hobby... what folks need to do, is slow it down, read, read, and read some more, and then think things through...

EDUCATION, patience, and diligence are the 3 main aspects of this hobby i feel it takes to succeed... my system could crash tomorrow and i could lose it all, but at least i have upheld those 3 things, so the next system is even better... and i will have the confidence to move on...

the dino's really took me by surpirse, i wasnt expecting that... i didnt even know what they were at first... but i stayed calm, and i didnt jump to conclusions... another thing i didnt do, was run to the boards on the net and start posting like crazy... i mean some peeps know their stuff and know it well, but all too many times when someone does this, you get more ill and misinformed information than you do the correct information... this frustrates the hell out of me jus seeing it... however, i too make mistakes, and most definately more than most

I recently found out also, that i have these very small "hydoids" in my system... which is a surprise to me as i have never seen any hydroids that look like these, they are very small and "string like"... you learn something new all the time it seems with this stuff lol... again, i am not gonna freak out or jump to conclusions and be like "i gotta throw stuff out, OMG, i cant have these, HELP!"... im gonna learn a bit more, and then do a little manual removal, and jus not worry about it at all... one of the benefits of having a setup like mine, is that i can easily remove a whole coral and/or pillar, and give each and every one individual look overs and removals of whatever i feel is necessary... if a pillar/column gets some nasties on it, i jus replace it with a new one that is sterile and clean, and soak the old one in some vinegar water to kill off whatever unwanteds there are...

Folks come over to my place all the time and check out my system... I am really not sure why they do this lol, but its fun to share... after all its a shared enthusiasm... however, its also funny cuz some peeps i swear jus come to pick and see if there is anything wrong with it... they will see the smallest of things, like these stupid little hydroids, or like a couple red planaria, and be like "OMG, thats bad!! thats no good!!"... and i jus laugh, and not invite them back lol... mind you, i treated with enough treatment for 600g's of Salifert FW Exit about 2 months ago on consecutive weekends for the red planria, and have not seen one since... somehow i ended up with a very limited number of asteria stars in my system, and someone actually told me after only seeing ONE, i repeat 1 star, that my zoas were all doomed and i was gonna have to break down and start all over... I mean really, i thought they were joking, but they werent...

by no means is my system "sterile", as no one's is... an entirely clean system is not a healthy system... its how you manage it, and the research and education you give yourself that deals with these things and the numerous variables that pop up from time to time...

3 words...

EDUCATION, PATIENCE, DILIGENCE...

it is the only way anyone will succeed in this hobby...

 

[frank180reef]

great write up, thanks for sharing

what did u do to beat the dinos?

thanks!

 

[pallobi]

great write up, thanks for sharing

what did u do to beat the dinos?

thanks!

thanks bud...

as far as the dino's... i stopped doing my every other day 4.5 gallon water changes, as i have read numerous places where this seems to fuel them... i did bi-daily physical removal through siphon into a filter sock in the sump... i reduced my light cycle by 4 hours, down to 8 hours total, beginning with a 2 full days lights out and complete darkness... i stopped feeding frozen, but rinsed frozen mysis every other day like i had been doing... i raised my magnesium level about 150 ppm...

im not sure every single aspect helped or not, but this is what i decided on through research (AGAIN PEOPLE, RESEARCH, dont be lazy and jus ask with a thread so a couple people can give you an answer or two, so you dont have to do it yourself)... i did all this for 2 weeks with great diligence, and though the dino's werent bad, they are completely gone now...

next up, to take care of some silly little hydroids that are popping up a bit here and there... honestly they dont have a prayer

 

[pallobi]

removed the monti cap tonite, and i am SOOOO happy about it... i really like how much space everything has now... the flow is great! i also needed to mount the orange bam bams and candy apple reds on larger tiles so they could grow out nicer, so i did that today, and as the red hornets and rastas were almost there too, i jus did them all on larger 4x4 tiles made of natural, tumbled rock... i also mounted the large portion of my sunset monti on these too, as well as my miami hurricane chalice...

once the zoas all grow out to the edge of these, they will go one a 6x6 tile... I will not be fragging these zoas ever... my goal is to have the largest colony of rastas i can

 

[pallobi]

also, i have noticed some algae as well as small string like hydroids growing in between alot of my zoas... so today, i went and bought a small pair of tweezers, and a soft tooth brush, and went ahead and literally groomed all the zoas lol... i picked out the hydroids and brushed the brown algae that was growing... and then that is when i mounted all the zoas on the larger tiles... here are a few pics of what they looked like after, all closed up and upset lol, but they will thank me tomorrow lol...

bam bams...

rastas...

red hornets...

and the candy apple reds... all are in the front row now as seen in the post above...

who would have ever thought i would be "grooming" my zoas, lol... but i am glad i did...