SPS - four months of growth

[ronnie]

and a FTS from a few days ago:

 

[ronnie]

And yes - my photography skills are poor!

And I did scrape the coralline - finally!

 

[ricwilli]

NICE. What are you feeding your tank? ROIDS.......LOL!

 

[ronnie]

Just anabolic steroids

I don't feed anything to coral. I run a calcium reactor and do 1.5g water changes daily.

Lighting was 2x250w EVC 10k bulbs with 4 110w vho. I have changed to a 8 bulb tek fixture with 4 overdriven bulbs.

Hoping to get the same growth with t5s.

 

[Chong]

nice growth and cool aquacaping

 

[antdizzle]

nice grwth. 1.5 a day huh, how expensive is that ?

 

[icedgxe]

Very nice! Great growth and color. Is that a huge cuke in the last pic?

 

[revsgirl]

Looks great!!!

 

[iap]

Geeez. Wish I had growth like that!

 

[reefer916]

Nice growth. I like the daily water changes. It only comes out to .35 per day to change 2 gallons using Reef Crystals. It's well worth it. Good job on your tank.

 

[butts182]

That growth was with the MH? That's a lot of growth.

 

[ronnie]

That was MH growth. I will be photologging over the next four months to compare T5 growth.

I was running my halides at 6hrs a day, actinic VHOs for 11.

 

[Houston]

Very nice growth. What's your temperature and salinity? Can't wait to see the growth after 4 months with T5. I don't expect same rate of growth though.

 

[ronnie]

Temps range from 82-83.5. Salinity is 1.0265.

Any data to support slower growth with t5?

Tks for comments.

 

[Speg]

Dude..I like your growth <---that sounds weird.

Seriously though, I'm jealous! Good work man.

 

[ronnie]

Thanks - I've put a lot of hours into my tank. I'm glad to finally realize that I am getting growth. Sometimes it is hard to tell when you see it everyday. I was really surprised at the size of some of the corals myself.

Spongodes growth:

From end of march or early april:

Recent:

yellow tang is 3-4" - for size comparison

 

[mnswreefer]

Man, did you add steroid in your tank??? Your corals grow like crazy...

 

[ronnie]

Thanks - I'm really really hoping the T5s give me comparable growth. So far I'm happy, but its hard to tell when I stare at the tank every day.

 

[sethtallely24]

I actually used to own the tek you are using now. i got better growth from it than i do now with 250w radiums. i actually only ran 4 of the bulbs on it for only 3 hrs a day and the other 4 for 10.

 

[carlosR]

I was impressed with your corals in 4 months time. 1.5 gallon/day? I catch a lot of grief from my friends for doing that much every two days. Glad I'm not the only one who is a believer is small frequent water changes. Cool thread.