SeaDweller's Progress Shots
- Thread starter SeaDweller
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Yea I am excited to see how things grow out with these two radium bulbs and four or2 bars. I finally got the kinks figured out with the lights I think. This week I started running all four bars for 12 hours. I am suprised not more people have taken to led and halide.
Dadadadamn!!!!Oh hi! Today, I'm 1 year old. No, no, not those tall colonies behind me. I'm down here. I'm the sad little true OG ASD Rainbow mille. I've survived test runs in high nutrient waters and almost died twice. I'm like a zombie. All I've done is color up to this super nice ideal color but managed to P off my owner by only putting out TWO micro nubs in ONE YEAR.
This OT is also a year old but obviously not a wuss of a grower like the above. In fact this is one piece I was able to save from RTN where I saved three nubs that grew into this. This was in an area of no flow and low light. Goes to show you don't need alot of flow or light to grow certain corals.
I should get a full spec pic of this Vivid's Rainbow. This is an underrated acro. Although this is a blue pic, the Tyree PL is such a bright yellow Coral. It stands out in full spec and shines in blue light. So pretty.
Another underrated classic is Paletta's Pink Tip. Every tank needs a PPT
Not sure why some people feel "meh" towards a beautifully colored WD? In the correct spectrum it's super pretty and in blues it's beautiful. A modern classic in my book, and not a trick light Tenuis. To each his own...
Two classics: WWC Yellow tips and the eye catching SSC.
We will see where these take me in 3-4 mos: Vivid's Confetti and a @Coral Euphoria exclusive piece.
I watch the interaction between that bright red CB Maleficent, CC Disney Jr, and BC Bleeding tree albro very closely. My CCDJ must be happy again because I like the way it's colored up right now. Lately I've turned down my fixtures to 70/17
So I thought this piece was going to be a dud. It was gray and brown for a good 5+ months. Then STN'ed. I fragged the upper half to save whatever. With some (alot) of patience, this is CRT's Starkiller. Doesn't look like what it was supposed to be in pics, but I can't argue with the (so far) bright pink body and golden polyps. I see hints of purple in the corallite tips too.
In the above picture you can see my very unhappy RMF Lucky charms, directly left of the SCOP. I hit it with too much par. It clorox'ed on me. Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing.
My JF HW "syndrome" may be over. I'm finally getting pinks! Which showed up after I dropped PAR to about 400-450 btw... CG Cherry Bomb has shown better colors as well. Ok screw it, this whole rock is doing better since dropping par, even that JF Fox flame. The BC Fleshdunce is new.
BC Aquatic Man. Need I say more? Fighting with that soli next to it. Growing in harmony at the moment. I tend to let things touch alot.
There's a thick Hippo amongst the thicket of acros...
RR Raven. Super bright magenta mille. Can't capture how nice this is. Something dislodged it from its rock. Luckily I found it. Now resides on a tile on the sandbed. Big R WD next to it.
Dead center is a recovering CC Kombucha Tenuis. To the right is an RMF Red Devil that's recovering too. Don't know why they looked weird , don't ask.
Anthony’s Star is Born looking hairy **
Can never get a good shot of Tyree Pinky the Bear, but it's so nice under blues.
Just a shot I enjoy looking at.
Sexy Corals Tierra del Fuego. Such a nice piece. To the left is RR Skittles. To the far right is a dormant RMF Flavor Parade.
That's all for today, kids. Ever since dropping par, I've noticed alk consumption slowed so I've had to adjust my carx. NO3 is running a bit higher and I'm enjoying it.
CoralWealth
2500 Club Member
how is everything going?
OP
OP
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
Great! Thanks for asking. I'm waiting for next month so I can post a 1 year shot and some colony shots. Time flies, for real.
Things appeared to have slowed down since I've decreased the PAR and white LEDs though. I don't have that explosion in growth that I was experiencing when I was running higher values.
CoralWealth
2500 Club Member
Glad to hear!
What are you running your nutrients at currently and what is your PH range?
OP
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SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
currently I'm at 5-10 ppm NO3 (hard to tell on salifert) and no higher than 0.10 ppm PO4 (salifert). Lately with the doors closed and only a window cracked open, I wouldn't be surprised if my pH peaked at 7.8-7.9. I haven't checked it tbh, but I never maxed over 8.0-8.10.
OP
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SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
They're 17%, at one point I had them at 50+%. Some of the best growth/colors occurred bottom third of the tank at 100% blues and 50% whites, while stuff up top suffered (some). I had the best growth during these settings a few months back.
I'm interested to hear about how you like it long term and whether growth was really impacted by the decrease in whites.
I ask because I was acclimating my whites (2 x Hydra 26HD) to 40% (and was at about 38% or so in the acclimation) when I decided I wanted a little more blue (due to aesthetics) but also because I think I burned a red dragon frag to death. I've since dropped the whites to 25% (at peak) and I'm digging the look. Your fixture's obviously a different animal, but I'm still curious.
OP
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SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
They may be different but I think the diodes are the same; I can't say for certain the slowing in growth is really from me decreasing the whites, but in doing so I had to readjust my CaRx as the alk wasn't being taken up as it was before I adjusted my PAR. I would go thru ReBorn media pretty quickly and a 20# cylinder of O2 was depleted in under 6 mos. Mind you I run a sulfur reactor too, so that takes some alk, but I did notice a drop in alk consumption for sure.
OP
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SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
That's probably exactly what it is, by decreasing the par and changing the spectrum, they probably stopped growing as much. They're still consuming, just not at that rate they were. My alk doesn't stray from 7.6 much, and after I changed my lighting, it drifted up to 8.0 dkh.
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SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
the past couple days have been nerve wracking for me. I just added a gem tang (circled red) and the Achilles (black circle) and Powder Blue (yellow circle) have finally let up. This pic is a screen capture from my video monitor that I check every hour or so to make sure the gem is alive and not getting beat up. I picked him up Wednesday from a good buddy of mine, and the tang gang’s initiation jump-in sequence was pretty brutal the first night.
yesterday it went into hiding and today the last two stopped jumping him. I think they’ve accepted him into their gang, literally. This makes tang number 10, but usually this is common for my tank: the tangs bully the new one for about a day, but his price tag is what made me the most nervous. Normally I wouldn’t sweat it, but now I have a gem tang added to the collection and poop factory.
He poops diamonds btw.
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vaughnkingreefs
Community Member
Love this thread!
OP
OP
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
The first night, I found a pic of a PBT on my phone and flashed that at them when they chased the gem. They ALL swam away! It was hilarious. I haven’t tried the mirror trick because the bullying doesn’t last longer than a day in my tank. This time was the exception, I feel, because he went into hiding for a full day, so they lost sight of him and when he re-emerged, they finished what they started and luckily they don’t care anymore (their usual habit).
flyfisherman
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my best fish trick was printing and cutting out multiple yellow tangs and taping them to the front window one time when trying to add a purple tang. The yellow freaked out, but at the end of the day the tank broke out in ich and he was the only survivor.
I've tried the trick again on the yellow tang and he doesnt fall for it anymore. I can only add fish much bigger or smaller than him and have only been able to get a few fish in.
Solid ideas in this thread for mitigating tang aggression. A tactic I've used when I had a larger tank (and that hasn't been mentioned) is sitting in the fish tank while watching television or reading a book. It's sufficient if you just have your feet/legs dangling in the tank (like you would in a hot tub while sitting outside of it). It usually helps curb aggression because the fish are fixated on you, rather than one another.
OP
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SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
True, I can see that; but I've read accounts when people have tried that then the next day they find their fish swimming upside down? Something about polluted water with that method. I don't know?
