Davie118's 2015 CGOC Thread

[Davie118]

Just setting up for tomorrow. Pregame warm ups. :)

[Davie118]

Day 1: I received my yellow radion acropora, fancy convict chalice, and yellow mamba people eater palythoa. The paly had opened up in the car on the way home but appears to not like it when I put it in the tank. I decided to not put the frags on my mag rocks since crabs are having a field day eating algae off of them right now. The Rock mags are new and growing diatoms (I think) or cyanobacteria on them. I had not drilled them yet anyway so that the frag plugs would sit flush. I pent a great al of time trying to get good pictures but I am no photographer. I will post pictures when the paly decides to open. Right now the acro is mounted about half way up the tank, the paly towards the bottom and the chalice is on the bottom in the sand. I measured the acropra and it is about an inch in height (I have a pic). All of my frags are under my ecotech radion G2 light, which is on a 4 week acclimation period to 65%. Pictures will come soon if my paly decides to show its self again.

[Davie118]

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/silentknightgp/DSC00009.jpg (http://s288.photobucket.com/user/silentknightgp/media/DSC00009.jpg.html)

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/silentknightgp/DSC00014.jpg (http://s288.photobucket.com/user/silentknightgp/media/DSC00014.jpg.html)

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/silentknightgp/DSC00012.jpg (http://s288.photobucket.com/user/silentknightgp/media/DSC00012.jpg.html)

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/silentknightgp/DSC00024.jpg (http://s288.photobucket.com/user/silentknightgp/media/DSC00024.jpg.html)

Obviously I need to wok on photograpy.

[12_Egg_Omelette]

Looking good, I like the emerald crab photobomb.

[Davie118]

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/silentknightgp/DSC00029.jpg (http://s288.photobucket.com/user/silentknightgp/media/DSC00029.jpg.html)

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll180/silentknightgp/DSC00008_1.jpg (http://s288.photobucket.com/user/silentknightgp/media/DSC00008_1.jpg.html)

Here is a better picture of the Paly and another picture of my emerald crab (from yesterday) trying to steal the show.

[12_Egg_Omelette]

Favorite show stealing right there.


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[Davie118]

I just picked up some reef roids and i will start feeding my coral that starting this evening. Reef roids was suggested by my lfs and i asked if there was any other suggestions and they said no. I guess i will see since i have never kept sps or lps before. I have a frogspawn that has been in my tank only a couple weeks so its all new to me. I started a kalk drip a few days ago. I started with 3 tbsp per 5 gallons but i do not have amazing equipment to see what its doing. My calcium was at 400 before i started using the drip. I have a cheap device that measures temp,ph, and tds but idk how accurate it is. So anyways....reef roids here we go.

[quicksilverz]

Are you supplementing Calcium and Magnesium? it takes 8 teaspoon per 5 gallon of KALK to saturate it fully. I use KALK just make sure you check magnesium because it will fall fast in with a good bit of corals.

[Davie118]

My load is really light. No im not testing magnesium. Thats why i am not super saturating the kalk. I can only watch my tank and see what happens. I do not have the money to buy every test kit out there lol. I keep being told by my lfs that if you do frequent water changes and appropriate salt then you should not need to supplement except trace elements.

I have the little api tests for ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and i have a calcium test. I can fit all my coral in a corner of my tank and there are no fish in the tank due to some parasite. They are in quarantine and i lost 3 fish from the outbreak moving the fish into this tank from my other tanks.

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[Davie118]

So yeah i cant post all my phosphate, magnesium, and whatever because i dont know.

[Davie118]

I have a 125 gallon tank with 2 koralia pumps, uv sterilizer, sump, protein skimmer, biomedia reactor, refugium, and small canister filter. I am running a ecotech radion on one side and a 100w reeftorch on the other side. I use rodi water and instant ocean reef salt (water changes). Im going to try and do water changes 1 a week.

[quicksilverz]

Bring your water by i will test it for u fir free. I dint mind helping

[Davie118]

I thought i was spot feeding far enough away but now my frogspawn has all these threads coming off it. Guess i need to be more careful. I thought i was being gentle enough.

[Davie118]

My rock from my 20 gallon finished curing so i put it in the tank. I should be done for rock in the tank now. Cant wait to put my fish back in the tank.

[Davie118]

ok so I guess my magn is 1360, calcium 360 (low), and dkh is 9 based on this red sea test kit. First time using this type of test kit and the colors are a little wonky compared to the reference chart. The magnesium color comes out exact but the calcium and alk do not. I tried adding a little more solution but the colors stayed the same. So I retested those once I found what color to watch for. phosphates are undetectable and nitrates are .2 (salifert). Using Api test kit I confirmed the nitrate and I confirmed the alk with a salifert test kit. Ph is 8.1 (I think)

[Davie118]

I have a 3rd polyp appearing on my paly now. I need to put the acro on a frag rack now because it keeps getting knocked over and now is off the plug. I have one but have not put it in the tank yet. No polyp extension on the acro yet. Not sure my system was ready for sps yet but I wanted to try.

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[leliataylor]

Congratulations on your paly!

[Davie118]

Honestly there was always a nub of another head there but it just now is actually growing. So if that doesnt count for the competition then I guess that is fine. I would rather be honest. I just now can see a little color. It was just a tiny brown nub with no colorful head on it.

[leliataylor]

I noticed a nub on mine a couple of days ago and thought no way. After you posted I took out a pen light and sure enough it has color on it. The nub could have been there all week before I noticed it. I am just happy they are still alive and if they grow (even if it is slowly) I will be thrilled.

I hope your acro settles in and extends its polyps.

[Davie118]

2713227133[ATTACH]27134[ATTACH=CONFIG]27136[/ATTACH

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[leliataylor]

Your is bigger than mine. Very nice. How is your acro doing? It looks like you have the base in a hole on a rock.

[Davie118]

Just shoved it there. It kept falling down and then fell off the plug.

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[Davie118]

Reglued my acro to the plug and moved to my biocube. My clean up crew wont stop knocking it over.

[quicksilverz]

Lol cause i paid them off....

[Davie118]

Lol I did not need help in order to not win. Lol. I was doing fine without ........wait ......what did you pay them in or with?

[quicksilverz]

Algae!! Only currency the accept

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/24/aa3b4cbd003b15ee4c9a530c7697ff71.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/24/bc99ac11f3117e0a5da316c561a820bb.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/24/71179853187ba5b7750a3741736fac86.jpg

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[Davie118]

So I tested my rodi water after it hadnt been producing for awhile and my tds is crazy high. I guess I should have been testing that. I had changed everything but the di resin about a month ago and it still didnt produce much. I had ready that you change the resin when the color of it gets lighter or something. Long story short I have a new (to me) rodi with a tds meter and 3 tanks with horrible tds water in them :(.

[leliataylor]

Are you on a private well? I am and when we get heavy rains my TDS (prior to the filters) is crazy bad. Normally when a RO/DI unit has bad production it is due to either a clogged sediment filter or a old Filtec membrane. Have you replaced the lines that feed your Ro/DI unit? They can also accumulate resin from the water and reduce your flow. I regularly run vinegar through my unit to help it stay clean. Just trying to help, S. Texas has some nasty water.

[Davie118]

No its city water with 500 ppm lol. It tests positive for ammonia (chloramines cause this too). The rodi was only 6 months old....maybe 8.

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[Davie118]

Within a month of replacing the prefilters the micron filter is super yellow. The fist day I had it was the only time it produced a bunch. After that it just kept going down.

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[quicksilverz]

I replace all mine every 6 months

[Davie118]

The lines and everything?

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[Davie118]

Anyways my new rodi has a tds meter so ill know when I need to replace filters earlier.

I had bought the wrong di resin anyways so that was why i had not changed the di cartridge. There wasnt any waste coming out of the membrane and only slow drops out of the clean line.

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[Davie118]

Performed a water change today. I have 3 pollups on the paly and good coloration on the chalice and acro but no change in growth or acro pollup extension.

[Davie118]

27210272112721227213

[Davie118]

I noticed that my overflow was capturing alot of air and the box had very little water in it. After a couple days of trying to get my overflow tube to syphon right, I figured out that my return pump was barely putting out pressure. I took the pump out and diassembled it (first time) and found out that it had a filter (who knew). I have never cleaned this pump since thanksgiving of last year when I set up my 65. I did not know they had prefilters on them. Anyways, I am sure that junk was not good for my tank. I am fighting to keep my glass clean at this point. Im sure a lot of my problems stem from bad rodi water that I had been using.

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/05/80cc1339cd220f31e04e6074215824ae.jpg

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[leliataylor]

Hang in there buddy. Are you using a carbon block on your RO/DI filter? Here is a link. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/

[Davie118]

Well i got 0 tds water now. My tank is looking really bad even with me cleaning the glass every day. I think i need to do several large water changes to get a lot of that water out.

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[leliataylor]

Do a 10-20% water change each day for the next 3 days and let us know how it is working. Too much change can have negative effects. It is a gradual process to bring your tank back on line. I am sorry you are encountering this problem.

[Davie118]

Performed water change (~13 gallons)

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/11/eb1b03f9b2542ec61493fda007611382.jpg



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[Davie118]

Performed a water change last night

[Davie118]

Well I found a fourth paly head
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/16/a1aeae10d656f7fda397292d1b69e745.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/16/5405262dfc57ba1cc414c6884d2d31ef.jpg

~Greg

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/16/5aecf06f770c0782e623994aaf5539ce.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/16/7809fbb47853766ae61a86bd76f970b0.jpg
It looks like my acro has grown more around the base since the first day and my chalice has grown around the second mouth.

~Greg

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/c0d1d8b933a8bce5cd157634f24f5dd7.jpg
A better picture of my fourth paly head

~Greg

[quicksilverz]

Mine has some.green algae suffocating it

[Davie118]

My crabs went to town on all my contest frags the first day i introduced them. Im just worried that the bryopsis that cheryl is fighting might be on your frag too.
At least i thought she got her outbreak from the frag but idk.
~Greg

[Davie118]

Its so hard to just leave coral where they are. If I do not see the results I want, I want to change something but I know that the coral will take time to acclimate to the new place. My point being that the biocube sps I just accumulated are super happy and the pollups look great. The contest acro rarely ever has pollup extension, but it does have really bright coloring from the symbiotic algae. It also is encrusting the frag, which is growth but not the kind we want for the competition. Anyways just thinking via forum talk.

~Greg

[klwheat]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/19/c0d1d8b933a8bce5cd157634f24f5dd7.jpg
A better picture of my fourth paly head

~Greg
Very jealous...I still only have the two :(

[leliataylor]

I am also jealous. Mine are growing but no where near as fast as your. Great job.

[Davie118]

Thanks. Its really my first time trying to propagate coral. New equipment and tank so it is just an experiment that seems to be working out alright. Mostly my lights would probably be the contributing factor. Radion at high growth mode. My water isnt great and I am scrubbing the glass every other day pulling a lot of algae off it.

~Greg

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/22/7da5e3cf857aa6f493b769e5bb83e9f7.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/22/23d90200460a611262ee06c086ea4189.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/22/92b33993c085a0a81314795f825196ab.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/22/680879a7596e8002baaa3597d86340c4.jpg

~Greg

[Davie118]

Performed water change ~13 gallons.

~Greg

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/24/bb76ea5ceaad7d9f2c7ad0d5d1e8bf69.jpg

Anybody know what that brown thing is next to my frag. I have been watching it grow ever since I got the rock. I know its a bad picture but i can not get the camera 90 ° to the glass and catch it. It hid when I first installed the radion but now it is back and growing. I figured I would find out eventually when it grew out far enough. It had stripes on the edge when i barely could see it. Now it appears to be brown with a hint of color that I can barely see at the bottom.

~Greg

[Davie118]

I am switching off using kents phytomax and reef roids every once in awhile. I am not on a schedule of doing it anymore just due to my life getting busy.

~Greg

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/26/a1355272a4536f08df38881426b8b179.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/26/ef5382d4d2e8829482a308791e6660bc.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/26/023b40f20c6c8d84b19c0712f41dec05.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/26/f1a6975fd5f63355f349f947914a61d5.jpg

~Greg

[Davie118]

Im kinda slacking on last weeks water change but I will do it tonight. Im sure these corals would do better in my biocube, since everything I have been putting in it has been doing fantastic. I dont want to change anything up now though. My biocube is becoming my frag tank and it has more coral than my 125 now.

~Greg

[Davie118]

Going to do a water change and feed reef roids today. Still 4 paly heads, good PE on the acro, and the chalice is growing slowly.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/07/e0a8d7da35a063da4913e726ba4d8b1b.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/07/4961f635d53d367006d4db065f9ea409.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/07/234442bbe4759be4962aeab94a40c296.jpg

~Greg

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/16/703b54d49034d687a483c335c684a7b7.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/16/3ee878fcd52704b38fffec9407d6fe80.jpg

My paly still has 4 heads but the first baby has stayed small and hasnt opened this morning. The 2nd head that sprouted is getting big.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/16/d40b96bd52f8e394f8ba300c8dcb9e7b.jpg

The chalice is just doing its thing. I have not seen its feeder tentacles in awhile but definite growth since I got it.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/16/9db9ac2439da69c774975aa963497945.jpg

The acro is just working on encrusting the plug and has its polyps extended a lot of the time.

~Greg

[klwheat]

very nice!

[Davie118]

very nice!
Thanks :)

~Greg

[Reefnub]

Looking good! Better growth than I'm getting for sure.


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[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/27/e4c19f713a25ec831ed8d66533674ad6.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/27/585f97df02eb156d204ab774602a8162.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/27/4c62aad2855ea393ebfe325c6b894085.jpg

Still 4 paly heads. I just moved the palys up higher. The acro is still encrusting and the chalice has grown quite a bit since I got it.

~Greg

[Troy Valentine]

You can really see the growth of that acro and chalice. You getting some beautiful coloration.

[Davie118]

Performed a water change.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/03/200938c180f0d2afcf146ee40aaf7ac9.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/03/a2dbb9cc304c984a8d537636f00aa9d8.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/03/c3c2c2167bf8c88b2720d9b875a56fcb.jpg

~Greg

[Davie118]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/06/36ea977491cfefbf684cb70b337f831f.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/06/c14243d4713c98b5cbd088d2dbd1c745.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/06/a5b8885c40cc3958c86ab6c62abec77f.jpg

~Greg

[Davie118]

Quick update: i see a 3rd mouth on my chalice (so 1 new mouth since i got it)(its at the top right)http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/09/1b9e3ac54ed5440e1ddd9c52129cda41.jpg

~Greg