Ultimate Desktop 4.9 (April FTS + )

I enjoyed reading this build thread !!! I can not wait to see this tank once it has matured

 

Thanks man, me too. I've been spending the morning watching them now that they have relaxed, which was within an hour of getting the Dottyback out. I've also been trying to find mating info on them so I know what to watch for. Not much luck with that though.

Thank you! I sold a bunch of frags at a local club swap and ordered a NET module for my RKL. It will be here tomorrow. I'm pretty stoked about getting it set up and being able to view parameters from my phone.
Things are moving along slowly, only the digi's are showing any growth. I lost the tort frag to RTN which really didn't surprise me. But even my monti caps are struggling, the red cap is showing signs of STN. Parameters are decent and relatively stable. I don't test everyday but am thinking I should. Alk may be swinging to wildly for the SPS.
I've reduced my lighting to 50% on the high noon (whites/blues) and 75% on the blues/violets because I thought I had to much PAR indicated by poor PE. This really hasn't helped with the PE on much of the SPS. So I am going to replace two blues on the high noon string with one deep red and one green. The issue may be PUR not PAR. I wish a spectrometer wasn't 3-5 grand.
I also need to get of my duff and get some kalk going. I want it to control pH but it will do well with the alk issue as well, if there is one.

 

Here is a pic of the pair. Sorry it is blurry. I shut the mp-10 down to help with auto focusing and they thought it was feeding time so were moving a lot.


Heres a couple good pics of the larger one. I'd turned the pump back on and the fish went to rest instead of fighting the current. Unfortunately the smaller one chose to cling on the underside of a rock in the back.



I have no idea which is male or female.

 

So far this young system has done an excellent job of sustaining soft and LPS corals. Most SPS, even plating caps have been a challenge. I say most because there are a couple spp. that are actually doing well for the most part.
For instance a Red Planet frag has adapted and is actually encrusting the putty which attaches it to the rock. One cutting of ORA purple pocillipora does excellent with good PE daily, a newer one is slowly losing tissue and receding....
It's frustrating because it is important to me that this be a SPS dominant pico tank.

At first I thought the problem was to much PAR so I reduced the intensity and raised the lighting. When that didn't help I figured the problem was in big pH swings. I tried kalk controlled by dosing via my RKL which worked great for flattening out the pH but drove the Ca through the roof and leaving the dkh in middle ground. Abandoned that method pretty quick. Instead I began dosing soda ash via the same method of being controlled by pH. This seems to work better seeing that the pH stabilizes at 8.4-8.5 and dKH stays right in the 12 range but the RKL is in a constant state of alarm since the only way to shut off the channel once it starts is via alarm set points. Raising the set point on the alarm would surely over dose the tank.

Coralline growth is happening already and I'm even seeing some bright pinks and oranges. IME those colors only appear when the light is on the bluer side of the spectrum. This led me back to believing it is my lighting that is hampering my SPS. I decided to change the spectrum and raise the light even higher, from 10" above the water to a solid 14".

The old lay out looked like this:


I've changed out two of the blues on the "daylight" string (the inside eight) and now it looks like this:


The diodes are still without secondary optics but I'm sure that is not the problem. My MQ-200 tells me that the new layout is putting out 375 PAR average on the surface and right around 95 on the bottom at the corners. It's less by some in the centers down low.

I hope to get this figured out soon. I'm baffled as to why some thrive and others stn to nothing.

 

Good luck on the lighting issue Mike.

 

looking good man, gotta love those cool little neon gobies.

 

Thanks John. It's particularly frustrating because a few of the frags have come from under 100% LED.
It's how this hobby goes I guess, just when you think you know it all you find yourself re-learning.

Thanks. I hope they will spawn.

 

I've added a couple things, removed some others....

 

Very nice additions Mike, tank looks great

 

Thanks. I won the clam at a club function. It's been in there a couple weeks now.
I'm still having issues with some SPS as you may have noticed. Digis seem to do fine as does a small RP frag so I don't know what the problem is.