Deep and dark - Elos 120XL deepwater biotope

[Saxman7]

Mark, I recently got one of those nice red sea fans like the one in your tank. Any specifics on that species?

[mark54321]

Originally Posted by Saxman7

Mark, I recently got one of those nice red sea fans like the one in your tank. Any specifics on that species?

Well, mine is not doing good , it stop opening about 6 weeks after I got it, and hasn't open since. Whats worst, I get this white, fuzzy , probably bacterial film all over its body, I try to blow it off, but it is not easy. Not sure what is the problem, as all my other gorgonians are doing great. It might need constant supply of food in water, maybe my flow is not right for it, I can't put a finger on it, as I said all other corals, gorgonians and filter feeders are fine.

[maxxII]

You need a young priest and an old priest....

[Saxman7]

Originally Posted by mark54321

Well, mine is not doing good , it stop opening about 6 weeks after I got it, and hasn't open since. Whats worst, I get this white, fuzzy , probably bacterial film all over its body, I try to blow it off, but it is not easy. Not sure what is the problem, as all my other gorgonians are doing great. It might need constant supply of food in water, maybe my flow is not right for it, I can't put a finger on it, as I said all other corals, gorgonians and filter feeders are fine.

Hmmm. Interesting. I got mine a couple weeks back and if anything I've seen it opening more and more of it's polyps each day. Mines gets the film to it aswell but I stopped bothering and let it do its thing. I think that might just be a thing they do. My tank is getting close to continuous as far as feedings go though, I'm at roughly 10 feedings a day at least that are automated (not including my own mannaul feedings) so that may be a big deal breaker on this one. My lights are only on when I'm in the room too, but I think you were doing something similar in your DT as well?

[choss]

Originally Posted by mark54321

Thank you, to be truthful I feed my corals most days two times, weekends they get food 4-5 times a day. I feed early before going to work ( 6-7 am) and late at night about 9-10pm. Suns and dendros get mixture of different frozen foods, and gorgonians cocktail of dry, frozen and phyto. For now I don't use dosing pump, with my aquarium volume I prefer to spot feed instead broadcast food via dosing pump. I feel I would have to dose a lot to maintain sufficient density of food particles in water, and just dosing a little makes to me little sense, as most food would just flow by my corals to my filtration system. For now this works for me very well, as I can control how much is going in. Also most of my corals are easier LPS NPS and bigger polyp gorgonians like red and yellow finger and menella sp.

Here is good example of food for gorgonians and filter feeders

[IMG]IMG_4537 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

Mark - how will you handle feeding when you are away on vacation? How many days do you think the tank can go without feeding?

[mark54321]

Originally Posted by Saxman7

Hmmm. Interesting. I got mine a couple weeks back and if anything I've seen it opening more and more of it's polyps each day. Mines gets the film to it aswell but I stopped bothering and let it do its thing. I think that might just be a thing they do. My tank is getting close to continuous as far as feedings go though, I'm at roughly 10 feedings a day at least that are automated (not including my own mannaul feedings) so that may be a big deal breaker on this one. My lights are only on when I'm in the room too, but I think you were doing something similar in your DT as well?

The feedings might be it , I need to automate my feedings too, just need to get around to do it. For now it is what it is. As far as lights go I only use 2 x 3W blue led bulbs, so basically no light, flow is pretty good.

[mark54321]

Originally Posted by choss

Mark - how will you handle feeding when you are away on vacation? How many days do you think the tank can go without feeding?

Well, I just got back from 3 day weekend and everything looks good. I think my LPS like suns and dendros will be fine for a week or so without food, I would worry about gorgonians. In the near future I need to set up some kind of automated feeding system, even if only for dry powder food.

[mark54321]

Finally my Fathead anthias are bold enough to pose for pictures, sorry for bad quality as I had to do it with flash . Unfortunately only pair is left from original trio, not sure what happened , probably the one got bullied and killed or was not able to eat and perished. Never found a body. Also 3 chalk basslets are left of original 5. Lost 2 in qt for no apparent reason

[IMG]pair of sunburst anthias by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

[solitude127]

Great looking tank. What do you keep the water temp at?

[Helfish]

That's a nice selection of foods. Was surprised you feed just twice a day, though it definitely helps with the nutrients. How is your refugium doing, growing well? Have you had any decision about the fish selection, still considering tinkeri? BTW what temperature do you have your tank?

[mark54321]

Temperature stays 68-70F, refugium is doing great, I had to remove a lot of algae from it, I also removed sand, as it was becoming nutrient sink, I had cyano growing all over it. Now it stays nice and clean, and algae grows very well. I am still on the fence about either Tinkeri or Bandit , I love my dendros and suns, and I am afraid they might go after them, it will not be easy to re home fish like that, so still thinking about it. Since the season past on Ventralis and most likely I have to wait few months for them to show up again, I am considering few other peaceful , deepwater anthias like Sunset or Randall's , I am not really in a hurry , just want to make sure when I add fish, they are the ones I really want .

[mark54321]

Got some new food delivered this morning

[IMG]fauna marin food by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

Few pictures I took at night

[IMG]NPS corals5 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]NPS corals9 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]NPS corals10 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]orange finger gorgonian by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]NPS corals7 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]black sun coral by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]spider sponge by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]tube anemone by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]balanophyllia by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

[mark54321]

[IMG]fts by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]FTS JULY 7 2016 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]fts2 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]side view by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]fts july 7 2016 1 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

[mark54321]

Quick phone video , watch in HD

[ataller]

I am very impressed. This is a wonderfully interesting tank.
You executed the NPS theme flawlessly.

[reefwiser]

Mark can you give me any tips on how to get sun corals to open up and feed. I have tried the soda bottle trick. Feeding in the morning before I leave for work with the lights off.
never any luck. Right now I have a black sun coral and having the hardest time with it.

[mark54321]

Originally Posted by ataller

I am very impressed. This is a wonderfully interesting tank.
You executed the NPS theme flawlessly.

Thank you

[mark54321]

Originally Posted by reefwiser

Mark can you give me any tips on how to get sun corals to open up and feed. I have tried the soda bottle trick. Feeding in the morning before I leave for work with the lights off.
never any luck. Right now I have a black sun coral and having the hardest time with it.

Hi, I am sorry that you are having trouble with your sun coral. Most of the time it just takes time and patience to get them to open and feed, but sometimes, especially when coral is on the bring of starvation, it might not have any more energy to extend their tentacles and feed. I hope with yours it is not too late. When I get new sun corals , they usually don't open right away, most of them were not feed for some time, so it is very important to get them to feed as soon as possible. What I do is feed them in small container out of main tank. You take water from your DT and put your sun coral in a container with it and flood it with food, I mean a lot of different, frozen food. I use combination of mysis, brine, cyclops, etc., make sure food particles land on coral itself, even if tentacles are not out yet. Leave it in it for some time, I usually check in about 20 min. , stir the water with food a little to get movement and leave it again. I do this for 1 hour, after that I put coral back in DT. If you can, do this twice a day, it might take few days but soon it should be opening and feed. Once it opens on regular basics you can try to feed it in main tank. Make sure to feed every day for some time to get your sun coral back to health, after few weeks feedings every other day with meaty food should be fine. I feed mine every day, weekends twice a day. They grow new heads really quick this way. I hope this will help you get your sun coral back to health quickly.

Here few pictures of how it is done

Got this starved sun, did not look too bad but did not want to open in DT, so in a container it goes.
[IMG]IMG_4638 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

Food getting ready, mixture of frozen, different type and size
[IMG]IMG_4639 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

A lot of food in container and over sun coral
[IMG]IMG_4645 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

Close up , it starting to eat ( this picture is taken about 3 days after starting this method, it did not open at all before)
[IMG]IMG_4740 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

same coral few weeks later in DT
[IMG]sun coral2 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

[reefwiser]

Thanks Mark.

[Saxman7]

Reefwiser,
I've literally been lazy enough to have the majority of my tubastrea colonies die off from severe neglect and actually re-grow them entirely within a few months. I was a little lazy between tank transfers (what was planed to take a week took several months) and i'm doing it all over again xD
They are very good at coming back given with this technique.

[Saxman7]

Mark, This tank is looking AMAZING, the video is great and definitely an eye opener. It looks like there is a great roll we can all pitch in to fulfil because there is simply not enough Nps tanks on youtube yet-I will soon be joining you

I'm Sorry to hear about your troubles the fish have given you. as you know i've had a rough time with fish latley too so i've been holding off to wait for the right ones. just a thought I had was maybe consider some more "out and about" (or I believe "dither" species they call them) to make your sunbursts and chalks a little more out going? I've always noticed sunbursts to be much more active when I had multiple different small species roaming all around the tank.

I think Randall's are winning my heart over all anthias. They're more mellow/deepwater versions of Barrlett's: Hardy,eat everything, and super colorful... I think they might add a good dimension as they will occupy alot more of the open areas around the stucture, but still swim up and down the sides of the rocks like basslets which is always fun.

But you just gotta get that supermale happening if you really want to make these things shine

https://************.com/files/2015/01/P.-randalli.png

[E.intheC]

Awesome tank

[solitude127]

Originally Posted by mark54321

Temperature stays 68-70F, refugium is doing great, I had to remove a lot of algae from it, I also removed sand, as it was becoming nutrient sink, I had cyano growing all over it. Now it stays nice and clean, and algae grows very well. I am still on the fence about either Tinkeri or Bandit , I love my dendros and suns, and I am afraid they might go after them, it will not be easy to re home fish like that, so still thinking about it. Since the season past on Ventralis and most likely I have to wait few months for them to show up again, I am considering few other peaceful , deepwater anthias like Sunset or Randall's , I am not really in a hurry , just want to make sure when I add fish, they are the ones I really want .

Pacific Island aquatics has Ventralis in. I follow them on facebook and remembered this tank. He has a video of them eating and everything.

[Butch01]

That's an absolutely stunning tank! Very inspiring to this noob!

[mark54321]

Now few more pictures, tank is still going strong. I made few changes to the system, mainly removed my refugium, it was not able to keep up with nutrients and mostly grew cyano and hair algae. My NO3 were registering 40 ppm, which is not bad considering how much I feed. Now I dose vodka and nitrates dropped to 20 ppm already and everything looks better. Also re did my siporax , it is now stacked nicely in eggcrate box, 10 liters. Still only few fish in , I have 3 chalk basslets, only one Fathead anthias left of trio and beautiful Sunset anthias male. Starting to seed my sponges for QT , as I am ready to add more fish soon.

[IMG]FTS2 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]FTS3 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]FTS1 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

siporax box

[IMG]IMG_5557 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG_5574 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]