[charlie]

Gene, I haven't looked at the pics yet, just got home from WORK....
Is it possible that you existing lites were too close?

[FireEater]

Those SPS's are coloring up great it looks like.

I have noticed a tremendous improvement over all mine when I went with the Hamilton 14k's earlier this year. Plus I replaced the 4 T-5's around the same time frame.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by charlie

Gene, I haven't looked at the pics yet, just got home from WORK....
Is it possible that you existing lites were too close?

Charlie,

I don't believe the distance from water surface was the problem. In fact the distance haven;t change in a few years and in that time the tank went from overgrown with sps to the tank of death...as you very well know...

On a side note, I'm glad to hear you were able to return to work and I suppose that means your back is feeling better. Yes?

Mark, the corals look their best actually ever since I changed reflectors and bulbs just before that. I don;t think Kelvin number has alot to do with it but I could be wrong, of course. I had great looking stonies that grew like weed with the 10K bulbs in all this time, I was just unlucky to have set of bulbs that shifted spectrum after about 3-4 month and I haven't noticed that untill I took some pictures.
We shall see how things are in the long run but so far I'm happy with the Giesemanns and Lumenarcs.

[charlie]

Charlie,

I don't believe the distance from water surface was the problem. In fact the distance haven;t change in a few years and in that time the tank went from overgrown with sps to the tank of death...as you very well know...

I thought you said you raised them when you put the lumenarcs on????? Huh, must be the combination of gettin' older, or ...........................

On a side note, I'm glad to hear you were able to return to work and I suppose that means your back is feeling better. Yes?

Yeah, Gene, the doc says it is good enuf, I have a pretty good range of motion, compared to like 3 weeks ago. It was actually kind of sad, I didn't forget anything, or have to be retrained.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by charlie

I thought you said you raised them when you put the lumenarcs on????? Huh, must be the combination of gettin' older, or ...........................

Yes, I did raise them a bit for acclimation purposes but since lowered them back as I haven;t noticed anything negative going on. My next project is to somehow fit in the T5's instead of VHO's in that canopy and get an additional moon lights from Lebos.
Unfortunately all of this will have to wait because I will be spending most of the summer down the shore...

[charlie]

Oh, I didn't know you went and lowered them again!!!!:slap::slap:

If and when you get the T5 lites, are you going to get individual reflectors for them. Are they gonna be actinic?

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by charlie

If and when you get the T5 lites, are you going to get individual reflectors for them. Are they gonna be actinic?

I have to be honest with you, Charlie, the space in the hood is so limited that it will be really a chore to get those reflectors in. Existing VHO's went in there but with a good dose of vaseline...
Having 18" front to back tank really sucks in more ways than I care to describe...

[zhenya]

Took couple of actinic shots last night, hope you like them.

[charlie]

Originally Posted by zhenya

I have to be honest with you, Charlie, the space in the hood is so limited that it will be really a chore to get those reflectors in. Existing VHO's went in there but with a good dose of vaseline...
Having 18" front to back tank really sucks in more ways than I care to describe...

Gene, I don't think we need to know any more about vaseline dosage!!!!!!

I know what you mean about the 18" issue, my 80 is like that also.

Great pics again!!! Sorry I was late to respond, but the lawn needed some TLC

[zhenya]

Thanks Charlie!

Well, I need to update this thread with couple of pictures showing some disturbing changes in one of the colonies since the new reflectors been installed.
It appears that this deep water acros is bleaching and I put some shading cloth over it to help reduce some of the intensity. Apperently my eyesight isn't great if i didn't noticed it earlier looking at it everyday...
Here's the image.


Hopefully it will recover soon enough.

All other corals doing beautifully and actually coloring up and continue to grow. My half dead A.tortuosa is recovering nicely and begun to grow again.


And so does this A.abrolhosensis and I can finally see some blue tips on the branches when I thought I would never see them again just a few weeks ago. I hope you can see it in this picture as I do not have a macro shot of it yet.

[charlie]

Is that deep water acro in a position where you could move it a little? Probably not a real good time right now, tho.

I can see the blue tips.
Nothing like a growth tip to add a little color to a tank.

[zhenya]

Well, it's been about a month since the last update so I snapped some shots last week when I went home to visit my tanks...
So far it looks like everything is surviving and my daughter had been doing a good job keeping everything going well. I had a little scare couple of days ago when severe thunderstorms pass through at night knocking out power for about 4-5 hours. It happened about 4:30 am and thankfully I had a back up battery to power a smaller Tunze power head that moved water for the duration of power outage. Everything survived, although every coral looked stressed when power came back on.
Well, without further adue here are some pictures that I took.
Full tank shot for this month.


And some random images of stuff.




It looks like this frag of A.tortuosa made complete recovery and I see a new branch growing. Yay!


And I see that even stuff that are on the sand bed is coloring up.

[charlie]

As per usual, great stuff Gene. That tort looks really good

[Reefland]

Your tank looks fantastic Gene! Looks like it is coming back to it's old glory.

[zhenya]

Thanks guys!

I finally can see some light at the end of the tunnel.
I couldn't snap too many pix because I was babysitting, there are quite a few other corals that deserve attention as they grew to be something special. Hopefully next time I go home I can make a top down session.

PS. For some unexplained reason I can't spot any of the red bugs that I could see before. Which makes me wonder if it is a seasonal thing or the populations flactuate for some other reason. I mean the same corals are there but the bugs are gone?

[zhenya]

Here's couple more shots that show a bit closer center of the tank. Both tangs are looking great and the rabbitfish is almost five inches long right now. Pretty soon I will need to look for a new home for this guy.

[charlie]

Never heard of red bugs being seasonal, from all I have heard, once they are around, you got em. Would there be anything in there that is eating them?

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by charlie

Never heard of red bugs being seasonal, from all I have heard, once they are around, you got em. Would there be anything in there that is eating them?

Charlie,
The seasonal part was poor atempt at the sarcasm on my part.
As far as something eating them.., it is possible but I'm not sure who could be doing it. I wonder if comensal crabs could do it because they been migrating from one colony to another. There is one particular crab that is pink in color that I been following, he's in a different colony every other week...
I have one wrasse(solar), couple of gobies and couple of angelfishes that are always in and out of the coral colonies, especially the pigmey angel. But I never really seen any of them eating the bugs, at least I couldn't pinpoint with my eyesight what exactly they are pecking at.

[Poseidon]

Tank is looking good Gene! On my monitor these look rather HOT though, especially your full tank shot. Did you overexpose on purpose?

[salt-rookie]

SWEET ACROS and Macros! Is your Scopas as big of a BUTT HEAD as mine is???