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[Sahin]

Heres a few pics of my tank as it is currently.

First up is my tank pic. Not at all as good looking as it used to be. I got rid of many corals etc. Slowly making room for acro's and soon to have in-tank ref built.
Heres a pic taken today:
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/Tank.jpg

Here is my new Goby. I havent ID'd him so far, so if anyone knows, please let me know.
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/GGoby.jpg

Here's my cleaner shrimp:
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/Shrimp.jpg

Here's a TINY feather duster. My camera managed to get a good shot.
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/Misc.jpg

Heres a closeup pic of my pipe-organ coral. Now this was a TINY frag bought for £1. Now its getting huge.
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/Pipe.jpg

Heres my pretty Green Goby. Now he was very underfed when I got him from the LFS. Now he's doing pretty well. These are known to be quite fussy eaters, and said to only eat food when it literaly passed over thier face--well, mine has learnt to eat food floating on the surface-just like my clowns. http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/Goby.jpg

Here is my maxima clam. I have had it almost a year now. I got this at a bargain price of £20 when I introduced a friend to my LFS. Its been growing nicely.
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/Clam.jpg

And finaly a small Acro frag. I bought this piece for £10. Its growing very nicely. It was a drab brown all over at the LFS. Its now got pink growing tips and the polpys are an awesome flourecent green (which doesnt show up well in the pic).
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/o/aoqr15/sahin/Acro.jpg

Hope you enjoyed the pics. I am sorry that the pics are too large for dial-up users.

I am planning to install T5 lights again, but this time I have found proper T5 tubes, made by Arcadia for Reef use, and am not going to use generic ones made for commercial lighting use, so that should be good. I also plan to install an intank ref. as well.

[Jawfish]

Sahin,

Great pics ! That green goby is :o WOW. Is it a Ribbled coral goby (Gobiodon rivulatus) or another similar species ???

Mark

[Sahin]

The green goby one VERY small and I love it!
I will check out the ID of the other fish, Thanks.

[KD]

Hi Sahin

Really beautiful pictures and tank :D

I can't belive what you have managed to cram into what i think is a small tank.

What are the full specs of your tank again? Sorry if this is posted elsewhere.

What was the problem you had with the T5's?

Cheers

KD

[Sahin]

Thanks. The tank is a 24G (36inches long) and very shallow. Thus making it suitable for use with No flouro tubes. I use a 3inch fine sand DSB and have a Prizm skimmer (which isnt too bad once you know its limits).
Currently I am running 3x25watt No tubes. 1xActinic, 1xDaylight(6.5K) and 1x Marine white (9.5K).
I dose with Kents Calcium and C-Balance.

The problem I had with the T5's is that the spectrum must have been inadequate for coral growth. Bear in mind that they werent designed for reef aquarium use, but commercial lighting.
After many months, seeing that my corals werent growing and seeing all kinds of algae take over, I took the setup off and put my NO tube setup again. Coral growth has resumed, and algaes are starting to disappear.

Now I have seen that Arcadia make T5 tubes for reef use, with the colour temps being same as my NO tubes (2 of which are actually made by Arcadia). Now I ordered Arcadia T5 tubes, and once they arrive, I will setup the T5 lighting again. That will up the tanks light intensity and And I can manage to fit a NO tube in there also, boosting the wattage to 2x39T5 + 1x25NO.

I was looking to uprage the tank, but now that I may have a mortgage on my hands, and the fact that I will be busy with my new job, I have decided to stick with this tank and enhance it.

I am planning to install an intank ref. Takling up almost 1/3 of the tank. I'll see how that goes.

[tuan]

Which were the original T5s tubes that you used (and subsequently removed)?

[kosh42]

Very nice... Haven't seen that tank for a while... I see you're also sucumbing to the lure of SPS over LPS & softies... I know that feeling well :)

Tim

[Sahin]

Tuan; I used the Starcoat 6.5K tube and Narva 20K. Now I had them on my tank for almost 5 months.
My clam stopped growing as did most other corals. I realise that corals require time to adjust to the new lights.
But IMO more than 3 months is plenty of time. When I put the NO tubes back on, growth resumed fairly shortly.

Within a month, the acropora frag grew noticeably, the hygnophora did the same and generally the tank seems alot healthier. Also more importantly, the excessive algae growth (not coralline) has slowed down quite a bit now that proper marine NO tubes are back on.

I am going to install T5's with the same wavelength tubes as my current NO tubes, only they will be higher output and wattage.

[Sahin]

kosh42: I know I know... SPS corals are just so much more beautiful! And the colours are amazing!

[tuan]

Interesting comments about the T5 Starcoats - I thought they're 6.5K Kelvin and as some members on the board insists that 6.5K is the colour of natural day light?

I have 4x 54w Starcoats on my tank (for the 'dark' zone). This zone is mainly low light LPS anyway - but I do have a piece of Montipora Cap there - and it is growing fairly fast (about 4-5mm around the edges per week I think).

Now that Arcadia have finally produced the new tubes I might just replaced 2 of the T5s to get a nice mixed of Narva blues, 6.5KK and 10KK spread.

[Sahin]

Tuan, I too thought that 6.5K Kelvin would be great for clam growth at least.
And I read of good reports about the 20K Narva Blue tube. Maybe one of the tubes
were bad??? Too many possibilities. But at least I will have the Arcadia ones very soon.
I'll report back on how they fair. Should be better or equal to my NO setup since
both types of tubes are made by Arcadia and the T5's are meant to be higher ouput.

[rjs]

Sahin,

How shallow, is very shallow? Growing Acro's using NO tubes is contrary to everything I've read on the subject. I'm currently running a 16" deep water column tank with 4/6 NO tubes and Have considered trying to grow Acro's is this possible?

cheers,

Ray.

[craigandsimon]

sahin - great pics - great tank what camera u using?

[Sahin]

rjs: the clam, acro frag and the hydnophora sit approx 6 inches below the lights. The tank is shallow at only 13inches. Then minus about 3inches to the sand bed plus frags that happen to sit on rocks set high.
So in terms of light distance - its fairly shallow.

As regards to NO NO NO when it comes to SPS and NO tube lighting; generally I'd agree. But there occassions when the rule can be broken. I am using as of today Arcadia T5 tubes based on the specs of thier NO tubes in terms of wavelength/spectrum. I am using a mixture of tubes; 1x 9.5k marine white T5, 1x20K Actinic T5 and 1xActinic NO.

SPS si. Thanks, I am using a Fujifilm 6900z. I love it. :)

[craigandsimon]

thanks m8

looking for a new camera - expensive?

si

[Sahin]

sps si: Are you looking for a new camera? If so, then before you buy, let me know what you are going for.
I used to sell digital cameras for a living, so I know a little about them.

[craigandsimon]

cool - will let u know when i am ready :)

[fuzed]

seen those pics somewhere before ;) hi Sahin nice to see them on here... look great. :)

[tufty711]

great tank and pics sahin.
i to have pretty much the same size tank and am experimenting with sps now.

any chance of pics of the refugium if set up.

ant

[Suk]

Hi Sahin,
Ditto to all the above really, superb pics. I'd love to get a similar camera to yours, what are they retailing at if you don't mind me asking & where would I get the best price?
Cheers
:)

[Lisa Page]

Sahin,

Beautiful shots! I kinda like that make of camera too ;)

Your corals and tank look really great B)

Regards

Lisa

[Sahin]

Thanks Lisa. I really like the camera as well. I am getting better and better at mastering its full potential.

Suk: The camera is almost 2 years old on the market now. So prices shouldnt be too bad. Look at the ads in local newspaper etc, see if you can find a used one. Or else you might find one at the camera store.
The best store for cameras has got to be Jessops. But thier prices are quite higher than most others, however they do price match. I myself bought the camera for £325 with 128MB memory, Fuji carry case etc last year so it was a good deal.

[Suk]

Sahin - Thanks for the info, will be on the lookout. £325 sounds like my sort of price too, you got a bargain.
Cheers
:D