JHendu's 115 tall

[jhendu]

On the right there are a handful of zip ties used plus a very small amount of epoxy putty in one little spot. On the left and in front of the overflow the rocks are just stacked. More pics coming soon.

[jhendu]

So it's less than 24 hours since completion and everything is doing GREAT! The water is crystal clear and everything is opened up and happy looking. The water was only about 50% new so maybe that has helped. I cleaned the collection cup on the skimmer real well before bed last night but we are still getting that funky odor. More investigation will occur this evening. I'm going to test all the params here soon and make any adjustments needed. So far so good. now onto the pics:

[ZOAKEEPER]

Looks great, good job. The height of the rockwork is excellant. Keep that cheato light on 24/7 for some good growth.

[cerreta]

You have some nice coral in there. Go easy on the light cycle for the first month, or you will get a nasty algae bloom about week three.

I always struggled to observe this step myself, because everything looks good in the begining and I lack patience. So with that I say . . . good luck!

[jhendu]

Define "easy". I have the halides on about 8 hrs and the PCs about 10. To much???

[cerreta]

yes, too much. Read around RC to get a better feel for current reccomendations. I would suggest for 4 hours of halides and 6 hours of PCs, for a week. Then increase 1 hour per week until you reach the desired levels.

This is very hard to do, because you want to enjoy the tank, but well worth the discipline. If you notice algae blooms, cut back on the lighting and do some manual trimming right away to keep things under control.

Matt is the only person I know that has a tank that has never really gone through an algae bloom. He blasts his lights too, so I can only attribute it to his massive flows.

David, how about your tank? You have massive flow too, did you guys have an algae bloom after the aquascaping? What was your photoperiod during that time?
Cheers,
Scott

[McCrary]

That is a good looking acropora, maybe a green slimer? If that does well in your tank then you have excellent water quality.

Scott is right about the algae bloom, you will see one if you don't reduce your lights and let the tank do its thing. I am very impatient as well and don't like to wait for the algae cycle to be completed, but I am very lucky in never having algae problems. Take your time, it can be frustrating and expensive to fix problems that are caused by impatience. Watch that acro closely it will be a better measure of the well being of the tank than test kits and such. If it starts to look poor than you know you have a problem that needs to be fixed.

[jhendu]

Yeah that slimer has been doing great lately. He had a bit of a growth spurt recently. I'll keep a good eye on him.

[McCrary]

I'm hoping mine will come around, I picked it up from phoenix from a guy who supposedly got his from Scott, but this has more yellow than mine old one from scott. Maybe we could trade some frags when they grow out.

[rppvt]

I recommend keeping the chaeto light on a reverse cycle from your lights- it needs darkness.

[jhendu]

The chaeto is on exactly the opposite cycle right now. Timer goes off for the PCs and sump light comes on.

[jhendu]

Matt, trading sounds good. Not sure how long it's going to take to have it grow out that much though.

I just bought a frag pack off of eBay today that has 8 frags in it including a killer colored Purple Haze Montipora.. I can't wait to get that thing in the tank. There was some Green Apple Monti as well and 6 other frags that I am not entirely sure of. I may not keep them all and if not they will be offered to the local community, old and new alike.

[McCrary]

Gorgeous coral man, they look spectacular, looks like your off to a great start . I would love to get some of that green apple monti, I have Idaho Grape and X-factor monti (both plating) if you are looking to trade when they grow a little.

[jhendu]

Matt, there will certainly be a trade in our future. I t kind of looks like there may be three small pieces of the green apple on the plug. If that's the case we can trade right away. I'll let you know once it arrives.

[cerreta]

Jason, I used to have that color morph back when I had the 110tall. I would like to be in line for a frag as well. I have plenty of choice corals to swap, LMK.
Cheers

[jhendu]

That frag looks to be in three seperate pieces. If that's the case I'll keep one and trade the other two to you guys once they get here. I'll let you know.

[cerreta]

Very cool, cheers!

[jhendu]

Tomorrow will be the 1 week mark and so far so good. No algae issues, water seems great and nothing has died so that's good. My durso did decide to start "flushing" a few times but it corrected itself and is fine right now. Still trying to get the skimmer dialed in but I think that I'm close on it. Currently evaporating a gallon or 2 a day it seems. With everything running in this configuration I'm able to see the evap better than I ever did with the last tank. Here's a few new pics. I just picked up the green brain at Rob's yesterday. I needed something down low in the tank with some good color.

[McCrary]

Dude, hows the koran doing with all the yummy coral? Has he tried to munch anything yet? The brain looks great, I really like the color of it.

[jhendu]

The Koran has only nipped a couple of times at the new brain. Other than that I ahven't seen him go after anything else. I failed to do my homework on him prior to the purchase, I was to captivated by its beauty. I know that I will probably have to get rid of him as he gets bigger . Anyone want to buy him???? or trade????

[McCrary]

Yea, I have tried to keep angels in my reef, but have always had to get rid of them with the exception of the regal angel. But those can be touchy and are hard to get eating. Hopefully yours will learn not to eat your coral and you can let him get big before you are forced to get rid of him.

[cerreta]

Lookin good. If you can make it past week three without the onset of an algae bloom, then you should be ok. If you control the lighting, that should be easy to do.
Cheers

[jhendu]

I've been cutting back on the lighting cycle. I've been to lazy to adjust the timers so I've just been turning things on/off manually to cut back. So far so good.

[jhendu]

Well the results from last nights water test are in......
KH=179ppm
Nitrate=10
Phosphate=0
Calc=380

SG= 1.022

PH= 7.8-8 using a dip strip

Clearly not perfect. All the top 4 tests were done using an API Reef Master Test Kit. So far the main tank is looking good but I am getting some brown stuff growing on the sand in the fuge. Doesn't look like my chaeto is growing either but I may look at it to often to notice. I think that I'll do a 10%-20% water change this weekend and see if that helps the nitrates come down a bit. I'm also going to be more strict with my calcium supps to get that number up into the high 400s. The one negative thing in the main tank is that the new brain is not looking so hot. It is mostly retracted right now and I'm praying that it's jsut a bit stressed and that it will turn around soon.

[jhendu]

As soon as I finished hitting send on the last post, there was a knock upon the door. It was my friendly neghborhood mailperson with my box of new coral frags under her arm. The frags look pretty good considering they were jsut shipped overnight. They were packed well and the only cause for concern was the hitch hiking bristle worm in one of the frags. I fresh water dipped them all to make sure there were'nt any other undesirables and they are drip acclimating right now. The green apple is in two pieces so Matt, the smaller one is available whenever you want or we can wait and let it grow out a little bit. It's kind of small (about 3/4 in X 1/2 in) LMK.