Tank is looking great.
I took a razor blade to the starfire glass for the first time today (thank you algae scrubber). If anyone is curious, it’s safe. No damage at all to the starfire.
[quote=“ClownfishSushi, post:322, topic:7613”]
I took a razor blade to the starfire glass for the first time today (thank you algae scrubber). If anyone is curious, it’s safe. No damage at all to the starfire.[/quote]
Pics or it didn’t happen!
Well, it should be no surprise. the only difference between Starfire glass and regular window pane glass is Starfire has much lower Iron content. Higher Iron compounds make regular glass look a little green. so Starfire is clearer, like Acrylic. But, it’s still just as hard as regular glass.
as per this little description.
http://www.spancraft.com/low-iron-glass.shtml
it lets your corals and fish look brighter and truer to color.
[quote=“kaptken, post:324, topic:7613”]
Well, it should be no surprise. the only difference between Starfire glass and regular window pane glass is Starfire has much lower Iron content. Higher Iron compounds make regular glass look a little green. so Starfire is clearer, like Acrylic. But, it’s still just as hard as regular glass.
as per this little description.
http://www.spancraft.com/low-iron-glass.shtml
it lets your corals and fish look brighter and truer to color.[/quote]
When I was first researching Starfire I came across a bunch of threads that indicate the low-iron content actuslly softens the glass and makes it more susceptible to scratches. I was a bit relieved after!
yes, i just did a search on that, and lots of fearful questions about starfire being softer than regular plate glass. but mostly unfounded. of course the sharp corner of the razor might dig in a little. you could also use a scraper with a brass blade. like an ice scraper. that is much softer. but it could also pick up some silica sand and scratch the glass. like all things , just be careful and keep the scraping blade clean.
Jason, any updated pics of the tank or the set up? Would love to see it.
[quote=“reefman66, post:327, topic:7613”]
Jason, any updated pics of the tank or the set up? Would love to see it.[/quote]
I can try to put some pics together. I should have some growth pics.
I tried taking some quick pics with the Halides on and they turned out pretty terrible. I have to admit, I’m having a lot of trouble taking a good full tank shot with this setup. I’m not sure why but it definitely feels like the starfire glass distorts an image whenever you try and take a picture from any angle. This tank is a foot longer than my old one too, I’m sure that has something to do with it. I haven’t played around with the white balance so some of the colors are a little off. Enough excuses, here are some pics.
The first thing you may notice is that I’m struggling with a small green cyano outbreak. It triggered about a week or two after I introduced Metal Halide lighting back into my setup. The cyano is strictly limited to the sandbed where the halides are hitting directly. I’m going to try and lower the MP40’s a little bit but I’m not sure if this will be enough. There isn’t a strand of hair algae in the entire system, I think it’s strictly a low-flow, spectrum induced thing on the sand bed.
I’ve also got the trifecta, bubble algae, flatworms and aptasia in the tank. All are very minor compared to any presence I’ve had in the past. I’d like to get as much of them out while I still can.
Here’s the tank. You might notice I finally got around to painting. I went with Valspar Cornflower Blue and I managed to paint behind the tank without too much of a hassle.
I purchased a few acans back at our first frag swap. They are all still alive. I gave up on target feeding them. Some melted down to almost nothing under the LEDs and I threw them under a shelf off to the side where they are in the shade pretty much 100% of the time. Oddly enough, they all recovered and seem to thrive receiving little-to-no direct light.
I’m going to allow the xenia to take over the entire bottom front shelf. I’ll do my best to keep it contained there. It started out as 3 little colonies a few months ago. Now there are close to 30. On the right side of the picture you can see a rock with a Green Star Polyps frag. You can see that the mat has grown in all sorts of directions and is now quadruple the size of the original frag.
Clam is doing alright. Would like to clean up that sandbed though…
BTA is now hosting the Picasso Clowns. I’m feeding it weekly but I’m thinking about picking up the feeding schedule to encourage it to split a few times. It’s too small to host both clowns simultaneously.
Some Monti I got for $5 from our swap. It’s finally encrusting to the adjacent rocks. Polyps are pretty orange.
I tried so hard to get a good shot of this one. It’s a Jason Fox coral I got at our swap. It was originally just the small triangle on the plug. Now it’s completely overgrown the plug and it spreading to all adjacent rocks.
This was a triangle-shaped frag of montipora I took from my old system. These puppies grew into massive colonies in my old tank. This frag barely survived under the LEDs. It has now fully healed and is finally plating under the Halides.
I got two Gorgonian frags from the swap from Dr. Mac. This one is my favorite. It’s definitely growing. I’d like to add a few more of these in different colors.
All of the zoanthids in my tank have survived. Up until now I wouldn’t say that they have thrived but I haven’t had a single polyp melt which is more than I can say for most of my past experiences. They are finally starting to spread, but it’s been super slow. I think the water may be too clean for them.
That’s pretty much it. I guess we’re about 10 months in now. One thing I will say is that the rockwork is slowly picking up some nice coralline formations. You can see it in a lot of the pics. All of the rockwork was bone white when I first introduced it. I’m looking forward to finally having a purple tank!
Man tank looks pretty good but I got to say get rid of those flat worms while you can or it will be to late. My 90 was overrun with them. but when I swapped to the 180 I dipped everything that went in, and I mean everything. that and the melanurus wrasse but I think for him what helped was not feeding but every couple of days. knock on wood haven’t seen one in couple months, TBH I don’t like to talk about it I’m afraid ill see one the next day. I would have put a smiley at the end of the sentence but they still don’t work for me )
Looking good! Get some flatworm exit!
Tank looks great Jason. Thanks for sharing. I’m sure you have already check the parameter in the tank, but what are the phosphate and nitrate levels? I was able to get rid all of the red slim algae using phosgard from seachem. And of course the nitrate reactor is really doing it job keeping the nitrate level’s down. Once I got those levels down, the tank stays clear. I’m sure you already have plans getting rid of those nuisance alage.
[quote=“reefman66, post:332, topic:7613”]
Tank looks great Jason. Thanks for sharing. I’m sure you have already check the parameter in the tank, but what are the phosphate and nitrate levels? I was able to get rid all of the red slim algae using phosgard from seachem. And of course the nitrate reactor is really doing it job keeping the nitrate level’s down. Once I got those levels down, the tank stays clear. I’m sure you already have plans getting rid of those nuisance alage.[/quote]
I can’t remember if I have phosguard or phosban downstairs. It’s the one you only run briefly, not long-term. I could try running it.
In truth I’ve only been monitoring nitrate, nitrite, calcium, alkalinity, salinity and temperature.
I need to test for phosphate and magnesium.
Sounds good, please keep us up dated.
Your tank and setup looks great. Like Bryant said, get some Exit for the FWs . and some peppermint shrimp for the aptasia. and there’s a fish or two that eats them also. Does anyone remember which type? is it a fox face? i think you can run any phos media all the time. otherwise the green stuff keeps your phosphate levels low.
You have a bunch of nice starter corals and frags there. They are going to grow up looking pretty good!
Aphasia eating file fish, i would do the shrimp way first. I run gfo and carbon 24-7 and change carbon every month or so, the gfo depends on which i get but that gets changed every month to 3 months
Minor xmas miracle… two days ago my rose BTA started wandering. It’s never really moved before. Yesterday it looked deflated and had me a little worried but this morning I have two beautiful new anemones!
Nice!
Sad to report that after 5 years I lost my male lyretail anthias this week. I’m pretty sure it was just old age, he has been in slow decline over the last year. One of the remaining females immeadiately began the transition to male. I’m going to try and take pics every couple of days to monitor the transition.
13 month update video:
5 month progress video:
A few corals have shown some decent growth, others not so much. The tank continues to color up and the green cyano I was fighting is all but eliminated.