fort's 57 gallon Rimless Reef Build

[Convict2161]

Originally Posted by fort384

Thanks Dino, and thanks for the help. I took your advice on the 2 part, and the difference has been dramatic to say the least.

Your welcome! Glad I was able to help! Things are looking AMAZING!!

[Andrew McFadden]

Originally Posted by fort384

Picked up a couple new frags:

Acan... always looking for food. This guy is a pig:

New torch... has been in for about a week, and doing great.

These zoas have been in the tank for awhile, but were all but dead. They are starting to get healthy again:

My newest birdsnest has a ton of new growth on it already:

And the hammer continues to do well. I liked this shot:

Frogspawn has expanded probably 20% in the last month or so:

All man those are nice

[fort384]

Here are some updated pics/comparison pics to show the ridiculous growth in just the last 2 weeks.


Birdsnest on 10/10


Birdsnest today:


Zoas on 10/10:


Zoas today (several new polyps):


Acan on 10/10:


Acan today (several new heads near the bottom)

[fort384]

And some additional photos from around the tank today:

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Lovin it!

[Qube]

Looking great!! I'm glad things have turned around!!

[fort384]

Me too!

Might be time for some new frags this weekend.

[Hondatek]

Glad to see everything is growing for you after all that mess . Looks great fort

[fort384]

New additions to the tank today:





And the latest FTS:

[Wy Renegade]

Very nice! Glad to see you appear to have the issues ironed out, and things are improving. You be cussing the coralline growth here in no time, when you have to start scrapping it off the tank in order to see in.

[fort384]

Thanks Randy. I am pretty OCD when it comes to stuff on the glass. I scrape coralline about twice a week

[Wy Renegade]

Originally Posted by fort384

Thanks Randy. I am pretty OCD when it comes to stuff on the glass. I scrape coralline about twice a week

Yeah, its too bad that something that looks so nice when it covers the rockwork is such a pain on the aquarium itself. The different color variations you can end up with has always fascinated me. I've had one tank where the coralline was always a light pink, and another where it was always a dark purple. In the my home tank under MH, I'd get the purple, pink and green. Pretty cool stuff all in all.

[fort384]

Wish I had some of the green stuff.


I am hoping my new sps continues the trend of the last month. It is exciting to see this stuff finally growing! Retested the tank tonight and all params are looking great. 0 nitrate and 0.00 phosphate even though I started feeding reef chili. The chaeto and skimmer really work their magic. Ca and Alk are holding steady at 420ppm and 10.0 dKH with the autodosers.

[Wy Renegade]

Originally Posted by fort384

Wish I had some of the green stuff.


I am hoping my new sps continues the trend of the last month. It is exciting to see this stuff finally growing! Retested the tank tonight and all params are looking great. 0 nitrate and 0.00 phosphate even though I started feeding reef chili. The chaeto and skimmer really work their magic. Ca and Alk are holding steady at 420ppm and 10.0 dKH with the autodosers.

I generally find the green on the underside of rock under MH. It seems to require higher lighting to show up, but MH appears to be a bit too high. Sounds like that autodoser is doing the trick, might be something I have to check into at some point.

[fort384]

I wonder if it has something to do with the spectrum of light being more complex with a MH? On straight PAR my LEDs are as much or more than 500W MH's.

[Wy Renegade]

Originally Posted by fort384

I wonder if it has something to do with the spectrum of light being more complex with a MH? On straight PAR my LEDs are as much or more than 500W MH's.

Could be, I really can't say for sure. I've never run the LEDs yet, so I really don't know much about them. Since I've kind of drifted out of the saltwater scene, I don't get involved with it much any more.

[fort384]

Got some new frags yesterday, and a new toy today - a 60mm f2.0 Macro. lens for the SLR.

Here are the new frags:


I believe this is a branched Monti? Help on the SPS!


A really cool color morph of fauvia. I killed the last one. This will be a good test to see if I really have this tank figured out:


A very psychedelic shroom:


A new ric... here are a couple of gratuitous macros:

[fort384]

And some shots of some of the older stuff with the new lens. Some are better than others, and I am still learning. I got a tripod and a remote shutter control which seems to help, but still it is tough some times to get it right. I shot most of these in aperture priority:

[fort384]

And a few more:





And the FTS:

[fort384]

Tank is doing great. Tested params this morning and Ca and Alk have held exactly steady for the past 3 weeks now. I think the autodosers are dialed in for now.

Getting better with this macro lens. Here are a few more shots from around the tank today: