A few pics before the move

[Aquattro]

Took a few pics today, just in case I drop the tank during the upcoming move.

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_1.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_2.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_3.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_4.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_5.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_6.jpg

[Aquattro]

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_7.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_8.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_9.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_10.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_11.jpg

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/aug_06_12.jpg

[Murminator]

Holy shat !!! those are awesome http://www.smilieshq.com/smilies/sign0005.gif http://www.smilieshq.com/smilies/char1/character0308.gif

[Beverly]

Lovely colours!

Good luck with the move :)

[marie]

Holy cow... do you need a clutzy person to help move you? I could be available :razz:

[Jason McK]

Looks Great Brad. WOW love the variety

J

[Delphinus]

Drooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[Midknight]

Totalllyyy beautiful.... But where is the full tank pic? :wink:

[Snappy]

Sweet! Good looking stuff.

[Ruth]

Just beautiful! I can only hope for something like that one day - soon.

[Aquattro]

Thanks all. Hopefully the move goes well and the corals don't topple over!

[reeferaddict]

Brad took care of the macro shots but I just stood back in awe... so I was in a better position for full tank shots...:mrgreen:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b38/lord001/IMG_8499.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b38/lord001/IMG_8497.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b38/lord001/IMG_8495.jpg

As you can see... this tank is psychonutz! Simply the most successful SPS show I have ever seen with all due respect to everyone else. Brad's biggest problem is corals shading corals. They've encrusted onto the glass, the overflow, budding on separate rocks, and not one bit of recessed tissue or unhealthy coral in the whole tank. My hat off to you Brad & we'll see ya on the 29th! :biggrin:

[Aquattro]

Simply the most successful SPS show I have ever seen

Thanks Jim, but you need to do a tank tour on the mainland! I can think of more than a few tanks that would put mine to shame!! :)

[Chin_Lee]

hey brad
nice stuff
what are you using for lighting?

[Aquattro]

hey brad
nice stuff
what are you using for lighting?

Thanks Chin Lee. I was using Radiums up until about 3 or 4 weeks ago, when I switched to XM 10k. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with these bulbs, growth has accelerated since adding them. Ultimately I prefer Radiums, but thought I'd boost growth a bit for a year to fill in the tank!

[christyf5]

Dang impressive Brad!!! I love that "windswept" birdsnest. Looks great :cool: One day you'll have to tell me your secret for getting your corals to grow so fast. I'm still stuck in frag mode it feels like.

[Aquattro]

Thanks Christy. Really, no secret. bi-monthly water changes, Ca and Alk at proper levels and low nutrients. Bright lights help, but only so much

[christyf5]

Hmm, I'm doing weekly waterchanges, ca and alk are spot on. Must be that nutrient thing as I seem to be growing algae rather well. No great surprise for me :rolleyes:

[Aquattro]

Christy, do you have a sand bed? I went BB this time, and I can see the difference in growth from older tanks with sand.

[reeferaddict]

Christy - ya it's low nutrients that makes this successful and it's very obvious when you get to see it in person - thanks again Brad! I can relate to feeling like being in "frag mode"... but after having a nice visit with Brad and having a good look at his SIMPLE but spectacular system, I know what I must do to get this kind of growth... the windswept birdsnest is an unreal purple and is very much related to the crazy flow he has going on in there - 2 Tunzes in a 75g tank for all those that want to take notes!

Brad - I DO need to do a mainland tank tour, but you don't have to take a backseat to anybody. That growth in 15 months is staggering! Now if I could get my frags to grow even half that much with those kind of colours and polyp extension I would be very satisfied indeed!

[christyf5]

Christy, do you have a sand bed? I went BB this time, and I can see the difference in growth from older tanks with sand.

No I don't have a sandbed, that was my final resort to get rid of the dinos last year. I have had great success since I got rid of the sandbed last May and will never go back to having one.

Guess I just need to deal with the nutrients issue now. :neutral:

[Aquattro]

How much and how often do you feed the fish? And how many fish?

[christyf5]

jeez, I'm kind of ruining your thread here aren't I? :redface:

I feed the fish a 1cmx1cm chunk of frozen mysis every day. I thaw it out and drain off the liquid before I feed it. I used to feed a 5cmx10cm chunk of nori every day but have since stopped doing that and only feed it about 2x a week now. If everyone ate nori I'd stop with the frozen.

Currently I have a 4" regal tang, 4" scopas tang, 5" tailspot wrasse, 3" bangaii cardinal, 2-1" neon gobies and a 1-1" lined blenny. Mostly the frozen food is for the cardinalfish, he's a picky little bugger.

[Aquattro]

jeez, I'm kind of ruining your thread here aren't I?

nah, just a bunch of silly pictures. I feed a few pellets almost everyday, a good feeding of mysis just before water change day. A small square of nori twice a week for the tang and clowns, and that's it.
I have a yellow tang, a sixline, 2 clowns and a chromis (oh, and a mantis). They're all fat and happy, and my nutrients stay low. NO3 has never been detectable, no algae to speak of, and better colors than I ever had before.

[reeferaddict]

Sorry to hijack... Christy, after looking at Brad's system... I'm thinking OUR nutrient issues are in the rock... Brad has very little comparitavely, NO refugium, ultra clean setup, WAY more flow and really minimizes feeding. I know I feed too much, and with your fish biology background you likely feed more than the corals should be exposed to as well. Brad's rock is very clean while both of ours has different stuff growing on and in it. Also in my case the sandbed... but I am going to get rid of it and add a couple more Tunzes while I'm at it along with 400 watt lights... I already removed the RDSB out of the sump... so my sump is now absolutely bare... I wasn't a BB fan... (Well I LOVE bare bottoms really!), but after seeing Brad's Porites encrust and a Monti filling in another big area that you can't see in the pics, I figured his isn't BB anyways!

[Delphinus]

I'm feeling left out so I'm going to jump in and hijack as well. :lol:

Nah, seriously, here's my question:

square of nori twice a week for the tang and clowns

How big of a square, and.. I'm curious, how fast is it devoured?

[Aquattro]

Tony, probably 2in x 4in, takes a couple of hours to go. The sixline is the only one that doesn't eat it.

[SuperFudge]

Very Nice Brad !

The Desalwii/Plana is insane....aswell as the Hoekesami(?)...i wish i could get that purple to come out on mine like that.

Thats one i could say thats stuck in frag mode for me aswell.

Very nice, and best of luck with your move.

Marc.

[Aquattro]

Thanks Marc! Ya, that purple really jumps out, hopefully it spreads to the rest of the tank :)

[StirCrazy]

what day are we breaking coral... Oh moving again!?

Steve

[Aquattro]

what day are we breaking coral... Oh moving again!?

Steve

29th (Tuesday)

[Doug]

nah, just a bunch of silly pictures. I feed a few pellets almost everyday, a good feeding of mysis just before water change day. A small square of nori twice a week for the tang and clowns, and that's it.
I have a yellow tang, a sixline, 2 clowns and a chromis (oh, and a mantis). They're all fat and happy, and my nutrients stay low. NO3 has never been detectable, no algae to speak of, and better colors than I ever had before.

Brad, first let me say, "WOW". Very nice. Interesting on the feeding

notes. I would guess, as many running similar tanks do, feed more and

run larger skimmers would work also. Many seem to be having a problem

with not enough nutrients to keep the corals happy in a similar system?

And then with others, its the nitrate build up, when they try feed more

to follow that line of thinking. Who knows. :lol: Do you think the yellow

finds other food to graze on? My smaller fish would be fine with a similar

feeding as yours but I know my copperband would not and I have been

wishing to add a smaller tang to my 75g.

[AJ_77]

staying in Victoria?