Neal's SPS & ZOA/PALY SYSTEM Coral & Livestock pics thread...

[pallobi]

so im kinda bored, lol, and since i removed some of my sps tonite, i figured i would make a quick stocklist... i also put a couple more zoas, and even the miami hurricane chalice on larger 6x6" tiles...

i now have only 9 sps mounted on my columns... all acros...

ora cali blue tort
tyree pink lemonade
atl limeade
ora red planet
ora pearlberry
green slimer
purple lokani
icefire echinata
strawberry shortcake

i also have a couple nice ora joe the coral and green highlighter small colonies, on my frag rack, i fragged off the larger colonies i had previously grown out... these will be my first "2nd generation" peices sorta speak, that i will grow...

the following are my zoas and paly's... the first group are all growing and doing very well, regardless of number of polyps, whether there is only 1, or over 250...

rastas
red hornets
purple hornets
orange bam bams
candy apple reds
my clementines
purple people eaters
red people eaters
rose nebulas
tubbs blues
sunny d's
captain america

the following are still coloring and/or shaping up, and coming along, but in my opinion, they jus are not to their potential...

xmen
pink elephants
darth mauls
whammin watermelons


and i also have the two chalices... miami hurricane and a tyree red watermelon...

with my downsized yet again sps collection, i now have 6 free spots amongst my 33 designated platforms... they will be used for a couple more zoas, couple more chalices, and a couple favias as i would like to give them a shot too...

im pretty excited to have some more room... i went from over 30 sps peices, to less than 10, and im actually quite pleased about that decision... i think the ones i chose to keep, are quite nice, and starting over with a few, will allow them to grow out nice again i think... going with more zoas and a couple more encrusting lps is gonna take a little time to fill out, but its gonna look real good i think, and with good balance...

also, now with less sps, i am gonna drop my daily dosing of two part to about 5 mLs for alk, and test daily, and pin point my usage after a couple more weeks before i hook up my dosers... i wana know how much im using when things settle down, before i start an automated dosing system...

 

[pallobi]

I would also like to note here, that as of today (or whenever it gets here i should say) i am trying Red Sea Pro Coral salt... i will no longer be using regular Instant Ocean...

this salt will slowly be worked in as i will keep my current water change regiment at 4.5 gallons per week... i did miss this week as i used the last of the fresh IO water in my rock curing effort, so next week, when i get the salt, the first water change will be 9 gallons... which is 10% of my total water volume at this time...

i am interested to see if there are anything i feel improved in any way, either livestock or water quality wise, in a few months down the road...

my current dosing regiment... it used to be alot higher usage, but i have less than half the sps i had 6 months ago... and less water volume as well, about 50g's less than before my "upgrade"...

*****

1 drop of lugols daily
5 drops of elos amino acids
7 mL of BRS calcium
6 mL of BRS alkalinity
5 mL of BRS magnesium

 

[pallobi]

so i havent posted in a couple weeks... i have reduced my sps and changed things around a little bit... i finally have my alk under control, and along with the reduction of sps numbers, my alk usage and calcium usage are very low once again... the issue with my alk wasnt the swings so much from daily dosing all at once, its because i got lax on my alk testing and it climbed to around 12... anyhow, i have it down to the high 7's once again... i no longer have any of the more grown in peices i had except the ATL limeade...

i currently still have the following... i am only keeping acros for now... (i know i have the one above, but this is a bit more updated)

ora cali blue
atl limeade
tyree pink lemonade (has never really grown well for me, jus based out)
aussie strawberry shortcake (has never really grown well for me, jus based out)
tyree icefire
purple lokani
ora joe the coral (taken from original colony i had)
ora red planet
ora pearlberry
karl's candlelight
green slimer (taken from the original colony i had)

i plan on adding 4 or 5 more nice sps peices... and adding a few more zoa/paly species...

i also plan on removing my sixline wrasse and adding a mystery wrasse, and perhaps another small and nicely colored fish... that would give me a total of 5 fish...

i got the materials to make my own mesh tops today as well, so any new addition wont happen until the sixline is gone, and these covers are made...

i also replumbed some things and moved my carbon reactors to a much more convenient and accesible spot... i also have stopped using Instant Ocean Salt, and I am now using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt...

I have also begun using Elos amino acids conservatively... as well as Elos fish vitamens with the fish food a few times a week...

another change i am making is that i will start using RODI water... i have only ever used RO water (well water)... i checked my TDS in and out of the RO unit last week... its about 97 going in, and 92 coming out... i jus need to replumb in the whole DI portion of the filtration and add the DI resin and stuff i got today... im curious how low adding the DI will bring the TDS level, and how many gallons made, it will hold it at that level...

anyhow, jus wanted to jot some notes and changes...

happy reefing people

 

[pallobi]

and a crappy new video taken with my iphone4... there are two zoas in the front row that are gonna be moved to the frag rack cuz they are not doing well... some whammin watermelons, and some others that are supposed to be darth mauls, but they havent opened up enough for me to really be able to tell... they are multiplying and growing, they jus stay very tight... so im thinken they are not liking the flow or the light... so i will give them a little relief and put them on the rack... if they dont do well there, then they ship out lol...

 

[pallobi]

i also have quit my trial period with the actinic and purple plus bulbs... i now have gone back to (2) aquablue specials and (6) blue plus'...

some dont like jus using these two types of bulbs, but for me, i really like it all around...

 

[RadReefer]

Nice, you are the Zoa whisperer dude. Nice variety and awesome growth!

 

[beckbrass]

Why is the ro only a 5 Tds drop in and out. How old are the filters? Mine is about 75 in and 0-5 out. Then after di it's 0.

 

[SeaWolf229]

Awsome set up!

 

[pallobi]

Why is the ro only a 5 Tds drop in and out. How old are the filters? Mine is about 75 in and 0-5 out. Then after di it's 0.

honestly i dont know... i never really paid to much attention to that part of my husbandry... everything has always done well, so i never questioned it... now i jus wana hone in my system all around a little bit... but clearly i have some troubleshooting to do... as you the 4th or 5th person to mention this... i jus didnt know too much of anything about tds readings cuz i have never checked it... i have new RO filters i will put in and see if it makes a difference... and go from there... someone told me, that my pressure needs to be between 40 to 60 to work the RO properly... i think im jus below the low on that... but looks like i have some research to do...that i probably should have done years ago, lol...

but ill get it all figured out

 

[pallobi]

Nice, you are the Zoa whisperer dude. Nice variety and awesome growth!

thank you Rad... i am definately goin more towards zoas/palys and chalices now... and perhaps some favias that have caught my eye... i will still keep sps, and my parameters catered to them, as well as the flow/light... but i will only be keeping about a dozen at the most, as opposed to the two dozen at least i have kept at any time the last couple years of my first venture into sps keeping... right now i have 10 sps mounted, and would like to add 2 to 3 more...

but again, i am expanding my zoa collection and re-acquiring some types i used to have in the beginning of this thread, that i have gotten rid of...

i jus added more tubbs blues for example, and i am picking up some fire and ice soon too...

 

[pallobi]

Awsome set up!

thank you friend

 

[pallobi]

a little video of my sunny d's in some flow... and a couple appearances of my fish

a short 1 min video for fun...

 

[pallobi]

also have some good news concerning my RO... and the DI i havent started using yet... I figured out my RO, and i now have a incoming TDS of around 80... and an exiting TDS after the membrane of 1... and i have yet to hook up the DI, which im gonna do in jus a few minutes...

REALLY glad i got this figured out... Patrick prompted me to consider some things, which helped get the ball rolling and get me thinken about troubleshooting the issues... so im thankful for that...

to think, for 2 years i have been using water that was around 100 TDS... as i never even had my RO membrane in use... yea, im dumb... i know... i was only running water through the 3 canisters... and that is it... i would imagine the TDS is built up in my system pretty substantially... but now i have it figured out, so all top off and water change water from here on out, will be monitered, and have a proper TDS... over time, i thinking i should definately see some improvements... which would be cool, cuz most everything looks pretty good now...

anyhow, one less thing, and another aspect of husbandry learned

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

If you are looking to get into some favias you should check out the prism favia and babys breath favia. They are both awesome favias.

 

[pallobi]

Rastas...

Large Image Link (300 kB)

 

[beelezebubba]

aka, retirement fund zoas

 

[pallobi]

Ok, so this is a little aggravating... The photo posting aspect seems to have changed (not sure why, old way worked great, new site format or something??) and I can no longer post my pics directly and now I have to resize them? Never had to do this before... I have a ton of new and good pics I'd love to post, but I'm not gonna go through and resize each one

Any advice? Not that I expect the help...

 

[pallobi]

Miami hurricane...

 

[pallobi]

Rastas...

 

[pallobi]

Fruit loops...