Jackson's 24gal Pod

[jackson6745]

Thanks Steve. The stand was purchased in a raw furniture store. I only had to add the door, draws, stain. The pull out shelve is exactly that. It retracts back into the stand. The owner of the wood shop called this a phone book stand.

I had some temp issues over the last few weeks. My tank was running @ 86 degrees for a while and it went unnoticed because I've been busy with doctors/hospital getting knee surgery. The tank has been running @ 78 degrees over the last few days and I already see an improvement in all the color and polyp extension of all the SPS.
I only lost 1 coral but it was my Oregon tort I will replace it soon. If anyone is interested I would trade a PM frag for an oregon tort frag.

 

[steveo32]

Nice Rich !! I'm sorry but I have to steal that idea since my stand isn't 100 % complete and that is a great feature to have.

That sucks about the temp swing and loss. But your health a recovery is a little more important right now.

BTW the your advatar scares the hell outta me..LOL

 

[jackson6745]

The tank is recovering from the temp spike. Colors are coming back although everything is still pretty pale. I have had almost no growth. This is the first time I had a temp problem since I've been in the hobby. High temps really mess up your SPS. Anyway, just to keep my log going here is what it looks like now.

 

[nanoreefer22]

OMFG I see sand

Looks GREAT Rich, specially those rics

 

[m'akoyPINOY]

still a nice tank!love that ricordea garden.

 

[jackson6745]

Oh yeah I forgot....I added a dusting of live sand. It's not hard keeping this tank clean so I figured the sand wouldn't hurt. I think it makes the tank look brighter.
Thanks Kris and m'akony. I have to get a nice yellow ric or two to add to my collection.
I have a nice aussie scoly coming next week that should add a bunch of color to the tank.

 

[jackson6745]

Colors are coming back nicely.
Changes I made include changing bulb back to phoenix 14k. The phoenix is dim in comparative to the iwasaki but I think most of the corals look better under the phoenix.
I've also started dosing Kalk+vinegar. It's only been a few days but so far I am noticing a lot of PE. In the past I was able to run a full grown SPS tank with only kalk + vinegar. The vinegar makes the kalk solution much more potent.
Anyway here is what the tank looks like today.

 

[jackson6745]

 

[jackson6745]

 

[nyfireman3097]

Rich the tank is coming back nice bro

 

[NYreefNoob]

looking really good rich, be just in time room wise for the upgrade

 

[nanoreefer22]

Looks great Rich!!!

The kalk+vinegar thing sounds interesting, care to go into a little more detail about that, please?

 

[Jaynie1028]

Rich your tank looks amazing. I love it. The ricordias are really sweet.

 

[SaltyFlip]

Jackson your avatar scares the living sheet out of me! But your corals and tank on the other hand is another story, I am at awe.

 

[jackson6745]

Thanks for the nice comments guys. NICK!!! where ya been buddy? Good to see you post.
I used to dose kalk and vinegar about 5 years ago in my 65gallon tank as my sole means of keeping up with calcification rates. Occasionally I would have to bump up my cal but for the most part the kalk and vinegar did the job. What I didn't know at the time was that the vinegar as a carbon source actually helped me keep lower nitrates and phosphates. I used a litermeter to dose and topoff my tank. All my top off was limewater. When my tank really grew in I would run a fan on my sump so I would evaporate more and dose more kalk as a result.I was adding 1 teaspoon of pickiling lime and 1ml vinegar per gal of topoff.
Here are some useful articles about kalk and vinegar.
http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/breefcase/kalkwasser.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20001102...twork.com/fish2/aqfm/1999/oct/bio/default.asp
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

 

[reefman]

nice tip on dosing kalk. is there any particular brand or type of vinegar u get?

 

[jackson6745]

no particular brand. Just go slow with the vinegar. It does make the kalk a lot more potent. Monitor your PH as a precaution.

Here is the tank on Sep 25th with new 250w 20k helios bulb. The upgrade to 250w has increase the growth rate of most corals in the tank.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Thanks Rich

 

[jackson6745]

Quick update
Here is shot from Nov 13th
Growth has been moderate. I had to move some corals around to allow for better flow + lighting needs

 

[reefman]

top notch color n healthly as expected.
good job