Salty's 120/2020

[Salty Cracker]

I just didn't feel like digging for the old thread...

So upgraded lights over the past week, here are before and after photos of the difference. There are 3 other lights that can come on: a white/green section, 2xT5 purples, and a full length Royal Blue strip. This is the regular daytime running lights. Now the corals were growing okay in the old lights, but they certainly seem to be responding to the new ones.
Last pic is cloudy, I had just stirred up a bit of substrate...

I'm hoping this will re-invigorate my interest in the tank, it's been ~20 years with saltwater at this point, it does start to get a wee bit stale lol.

 

[Salty Cracker]

My mated pair of clownfish are still alive. They have been with me for 18 years. The sailfin is 12 years old. In the tank my oldest corals, that simply won't die:

Frogspawn
Candycane
Fire and Ice Prostrata
Red Monti
Meteor shower
Rainbow stylo
Tyree pink Lemonade (suddenly started to explode)
Limeade Nasuta
Red convexa
super grape millie
Red Planet (seriously you just can't kill this).

Most of those are from 2011. Got them when I first did the DIY lights, and they have survived the voltage bomb that went off in there last year. With the new lights I'm considering hacking up some of the bigger colonies so that they can grow with full colour from frags, not sure yet. I think almost all of them grew out since I moved tanks a couple of years ago. I'll likely frag up the colonies and see if I can colour up the frags as well. Winter be coming, and winter be coral time

 

[Salty Cracker]

So far the only thing that really hasn't liked the new lights has been the stylo, and to be honest they aren't my fav coral. Zoos are starting to take over a few rocks, so I've started to vacuum the substrate fairly heavily, because if I have to pull piles of rock the released toxic sludge usually does a number on my duncan colony (ask how I know). I like that I did the separated rockwork, if I decimate one section I still have others that are untouched. Everyone likes the wavy shit though, so it's tough not to have zoos.

 

[Painter Steve]

Looking good, I might just have to grab a Tyree Pink Lemonade when you have a frag available.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Looking good, I might just have to grab a Tyree Pink Lemonade when you have a frag available.

for sure. It's direct from Darryl V so I know it's legit. Shooter got some from me and evidently his is doing incredible so I upped the light and flow and that seemed to do the trick, finally got new growth and PE (and the colours are insane under the RBs)

 

[Salty Cracker]

I mean, I'm nowhere near where I was in 2015, but I do know how to get back there, if I can just keep my interest up

 

[TORX]

Such an amazing come back. Looks like you are well under way. I only dream of going big again. Time will tell.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Just to clarify... the last pic was 5 years ago in the old tank, the second pic from the top is where I'm at now... The last pic was from the Jroovers sessions, man that guy can take a mean photo.

I add it just to give me the incentive to get back to that. Of course, I can't just go in and "clean" the tank, it will take a few weeks, otherwise I risk a crash, which might drive me right out of the hobby if it was bad enough. So basically just going to let the tank fix itself at this point. I bought a TON of GFO and ROX, will swap both out every two weeks, and do a substrate vacuum every 2 or 3 days with water change, and with the new lights I should be back to pristine in a month, month and a half. The tank isn't that old, and not really "too far gone", but definitely showing signs that I let the apex take care of it for a while lol.

 

[Cliff]

Salty. Looking great!! I know what u mean about it getting stale after years. I had what I think is a bacterial infection run through my corals this summer. It’s pretty bad when you’re at the point of not really caring if it crashes LOL I’m finally on the upturn. If you’re fragging out any corals let me know

 

[Salty Cracker]

Salty. Looking great!! I know what u mean about it getting stale after years. I had what I think is a bacterial infection run through my corals this summer. It’s pretty bad when you’re at the point of not really caring if it crashes LOL I’m finally on the upturn. If you’re fragging out any corals let me know

Will do. I'm likely going to be pruning some colonies, and originally was just going to trash bin them as they were very lackluster, but now the PE is going crazy and I'm seeing colour improvement, they may well be worth offering up (once I get them growing on plugs and know they're doing well). I think if I can get back to ULN conditions (PO4 in parts per million), and the new lights and a smattering of reef roids, I think I can get back to my 2015 state. I just plan to be WAY more picky in the sps I grow out this time

 

[Salty Cracker]

So here's a couple of corals that have taken off, when previously they were just sitting and looking very monocolour. The limeade nasuta had been a dark green for quite a while, with 0 new growth tips. Now I'm seeing purple tips, and the awesome blue polyps (which attracted me to this coral in the first place). The Orange passion had been growing, but again just a subdued green, and no PE (which is weird). Now it's getting blue and purple in the tips, and it's actually looking like it will weed out on me if I don't do some trimming, so I definitely might have some of that available soon (original frag came from Bigshow). The red convexa has about 20 new growth tips, which is weird, as it's always been a really slow grower. Even the chalice has a new growth ridge. I soaked the skimmer in vinegar overnight, and put socks back on the overflows since I plan some substrate housekeeping. Sorry for the different tones in the photos, right now there are 3 different lights going. One side is just Royal blue and UV, the middle is the much lighter/green radion, and the right side is blues and whites. I need another driver for the rest of the whites, for some reason the dimmable drivers all flash on the new bulbs, no idea why, but easy enough to order a new driver.

Seems like she just might make a quick recovery.

 

[Matt1997]

I’d take a nice chunk of that first one

 

[Shooter000]

for sure. It's direct from Darryl V so I know it's legit. Shooter got some from me and evidently his is doing incredible so I upped the light and flow and that seemed to do the trick, finally got new growth and PE (and the colours are insane under the RBs)

Ya buddy, she loves the high flow and light, starting to get some pink in the skin aswell

 

[teebone110]

Nice work Salty... glad to see that you're staying the course

Sometimes doing nothing is the best strategy.

Looking forward to watching your tank continue to flourish

 

[Poseidon]

looks awesome man, ill take it all off your hands when you move south

 

[Salty Cracker]

looks awesome man, ill take it all off your hands when you move south

Hopefully by that point I can just run the whole thing with an app

 

[Seasquirt]

Looks very nice, 20 years in eh well keep it up, love the coral. I could only wish. What other fish do you have in the tank? I think it looks awesome!!!!!

 

[Salty Cracker]

heh this one is sort of meh. I am not housekeeping enough, I'm just trying to get colonies to look like natural colonies. I go "ultra low nutrient", but if you neglect at all, you can get a lot of substrate issues. Takes months to fix that because you don't want to do anything all at once, it shocks the system (learned that the hard way too). Slow and steady.

 

[Matt1997]

Your the opposite of me. I have a high nutrient system

 

[Salty Cracker]

Your the opposite of me. I have a high nutrient system

A lot of people run high nutrient setups, mainly because it's easier to do, you more or less just have to keep feeding your fish. You can get really deep rich colours from the coral, and your softies will be happy. But to get translucent coral and florescent colours, you need the sps to need to 'feed' off the lights, so they go as pale as possible. I end up with coral that doesn't resemble the original colony at all. My orange passion was bark green/orange when I got it, with crazy PE, now it's florescent yellow with bright blue tips, and hardly any polyp extension. Totally different looking coral.

They used to talk a lot about "old tank syndrome", which was just a huge buildup of phosphates that would usually lead to huge hair, bubble or slime explosions and tank crashes. So I figure if my phosphates are in parts per billion, kind of hard to build up to critical overload very easily. I also haven't had a full tank crash in 11 years (after having 3 previous).