Diving The World's 80g Acro Wonderland!

JCOLE · Aug 31, 2020

Are you still getting around the same PAR as last year when tested? If so, it appears your max is around 500?

Just curious because I believe I am throwing way to much PAR in my tank and it was stunting their growth. 1500+ at some spots near the top of the rocks. I ended up turning my lights down so now it is around 800 at the tops and 300 at the sand.

DivingTheWorld · Sep 1, 2020

JCOLE said:
Are you still getting around the same PAR as last year when tested? If so, it appears your max is around 500?

Just curious because I believe I am throwing way to much PAR in my tank and it was stunting their growth. 1500+ at some spots near the top of the rocks. I ended up turning my lights down so now it is around 800 at the tops and 300 at the sand.

Yeah, I think so. I'll re-check a few today if I have time to confirm. 1500 seems like a crazy amount of PAR! Are you sure you're metering correctly?

DivingTheWorld · Sep 1, 2020

JCOLE · Sep 1, 2020

DivingTheWorld said:
Yeah, I think so. I'll re-check a few today if I have time to confirm. 1500 seems like a crazy amount of PAR! Are you sure you're metering correctly?

I sent these videos to Seneye and waiting to hear back. I lowered my light intensity significantly to get around 800 at the tops and 300 near the sand. If the numbers are correct then photoinhibition is probably why some of my pieces are still dormant after 6 months.

DivingTheWorld · Sep 1, 2020

@JCOLE I did a full PAR map today but I need to write it up before I can post it. But in general I max out around 550 PAR. The tips of my tallest colonies which are almost to the top of the water hit higher, Bali Green Slimer 680 PAR, DTW Day Gecko 540 PAR. My main frag rack in the back gets around 560 PAR. The top of my right rock structure is hitting around 460-540 PAR.

JCOLE · Sep 1, 2020

DivingTheWorld said:
@JCOLE I did a full PAR map today but I need to write it up before I can post it. But in general I max out around 550 PAR. The tips of my tallest colonies which are almost to the top of the water hit higher, Bali Green Slimer 680 PAR, DTW Day Gecko 540 PAR. My main frag rack in the back gets around 560 PAR. The top of my right rock structure is hitting around 460-540 PAR.

Thank you for the info. So what your saying is I am still blasting too much PAR! LOL. 600 sounds to be about the max at the tops. What are you getting towards the bottoms?

DivingTheWorld · Sep 1, 2020

JCOLE said:
Thank you for the info. So what your saying is I am still blasting too much PAR! LOL. 600 sounds to be about the max at the tops. What are you getting towards the bottoms?

In general I would say around 250 PAR, but it varies from 150-350 PAR depending on how much direct light, or how much shade.

DivingTheWorld · Sep 2, 2020

Due for a trim as it's starting to shade my other colonies...

Bali Green Slimer

Maxx · Sep 2, 2020

Did you recently get a fish eye lens?
What do you take pictures with usually? Cell phone or DSLR?

DivingTheWorld · Sep 2, 2020

Maxx said:
Did you recently get a fish eye lens?
What do you take pictures with usually? Cell phone or DSLR?

No, that's just using an Avast Porthole zoomed all the way back for as wide as I can get it. Most of my pics are with my Nikon DSLR using an Avast Porthole. My whole tank shots are with my iPhone.

Maxx · Sep 3, 2020

Ahhh...ok. Makes sense. Your pics are pretty good for a phone.
Using Ipotato or one of the Galaxy phones?

DivingTheWorld · Sep 3, 2020

Maxx said:
Ahhh...ok. Makes sense. Your pics are pretty good for a phone.
Using Ipotato or one of the Galaxy phones?

An old iPhone 6, not even an S if I remember correctly but I'm too lazy to pull the cover apart to see! ;Woot

I use it to take whole tank shots because I haven't figured out how to get a good dslr shot of the whole tank. I'm still learning and probably always will be. I also use it to take close up shots of frags I sell. But any other shots inside the tank of colonies or otherwise are with my dslr and the Avast porthole.

DivingTheWorld · Sep 3, 2020

My colonies are starting to stick out of the water during water changes... It's been happening for a few months now and doesn't seem to bother them at all.

DivingTheWorld · Sep 4, 2020

Walt Disney

DivingTheWorld · Sep 5, 2020

Sorry for the lame picture, I'll do better next time! But here my last little frag added. I got him yesterday at 5pm (was supposed to be before 10am, FedEx!)...I was sweating a bit... But he was packed well from TSA and seems to be doing good this morning. I put him through my regular introduction: temp acclimation, dual dips with brushing, dual rinses, re-plugging and magnified inspection. He made it through everything without a hiccup. Now I just need to figure out the best place to put him in the tank.

RRU Angry Birds

bubbaque · Sep 5, 2020

DivingTheWorld said:
Sorry for the lame picture, I'll do better next time! But here my last little frag added. I got him yesterday at 5pm (was supposed to be before 10am, FedEx!)...I was sweating a bit... But he was packed well from TSA and seems to be doing good this morning. I put him through my regular introduction: temp acclimation, dual dips with brushing, dual rinses, re-plugging and magnified inspection. He made it through everything without a hiccup. Now I just need to figure out the best place to put him in the tank.

RRU Angry Birds

It’s a beautiful coral. I seen the colony it came from today and it’s impressive.

DivingTheWorld · Sep 6, 2020

Well, it took some figuring as to where to put the new Angry Birds. I don't have any empty spots on my rocks and wanted as much PAR as possible. PAR gets tricky when you have varying heights all over your tank. So I decided to trim back one corner of my BC Aquatic-Man as well as my Setosa Monti and remove my BC Blue Matrix which has never grown into anything. This spot gets around 360 PAR. I'd prefer a bit more but it is what it is. So in memoriam, here's my BC Blue Matrix.