The Garden -- Rakies shallow SPS cube

[drawman]

Geo is up and running. It needs some slight tweaking to get it dialed in but after a crash course on how they work and a friend helping set it up it's alive.

The needle valve needs to be adjusted or replaced, and I need a small 1/4" gate valve to adjust the effluent.

Nice!! Did you go with the CR510? I've considered getting one myself in the future so I'll be following.

 

[Rakie]

Nice!! Did you go with the CR510? I've considered getting one myself in the future so I'll be following.

Nope, that's the CR612 -- just a bit bigger. It's been tweaked and is now running smoothly, albeit I still need an extension cord or two so I can place it where it where I want it. It's just kinda loitering in the middle of my room right now.

 

[Rakie]

So this is why I hate blue photos. These pics were taken with my phone under blue only lighting. Saturation has not been touched, only added warmth to remove some of the blue, and increased brightness and shadow, making the image less dark.

I know how these corals look under regular lighting, and they're quite nice... But this makes my tank look like a rave. And is chiefly what people who can't achieve color do.

ANYWAYS... Here's some "I can't color corals without cheating" pics for you all.

Group Shot of my Frag Tank / Acan-mushroom-zoa farm

Bleeding Apple Bowerbanki

CK Patchwork Acan

Group Shot 2

 

[WallyB]

Spectacular EYE CANDY!!

 

[WallyB]

Geo is up and running. It needs some slight tweaking to get it dialed in but after a crash course on how they work and a friend helping set it up it's alive.

The needle valve needs to be adjusted or replaced, and I need a small 1/4" gate valve to adjust the effluent.

Looks good. I know nothing about how they work, but impressive Looking Reef Tank technology (With the Aluminum Tank, Reg, etc) .

 

[bubbaque]

You have beautiful corals without having to cheat! I feel the same way about the blue light pics and an orange filter. Every now and then I go on a rant about it. I took a pic like that the other day of my red planet and it made it look like a whole new coral. I thought how sad someone would be to buy it expecting it to look like that.

 

[Rakie]

Thanks Wally! It's pretty simple -- ocean acidification in the bottle. Lowering pH making water more acidic melts coral skeleton (Cal Reactor Media) giving corals literally everything they need. Basically this is what ATI Essentials, Triton, and ESV have been trying to replicate with dosing.

You have beautiful corals without having to cheat! I feel the same way about the blue light pics and an orange filter. Every now and then I go on a rant about it. I took a pic like that the other day of my red planet and it made it look like a whole new coral. I thought how sad someone would be to buy it expecting it to look like that.

I know!! I mean don't get me wrong, with me or a friends tank I know what I'm looking at. Nothing wrong with pics under blues in and of themselves.. But they've kind of become a scammy sales tactic. Irks me to no end lol

 

[Janci]

So this is why I hate blue photos. These pics were taken with my phone under blue only lighting. Saturation has not been touched, only added warmth to remove some of the blue, and increased brightness and shadow, making the image less dark.

I know how these corals look under regular lighting, and they're quite nice... But this makes my tank look like a rave. And is chiefly what people who can't achieve color do.

ANYWAYS... Here's some "I can't color corals without cheating" pics for you all.

Group Shot of my Frag Tank / Acan-mushroom-zoa farm

Bleeding Apple Bowerbanki

CK Patchwork Acan

Group Shot 2

Great shots.
Great colours, even under blues and when cheating.
To show them off, ok and accepted.
To sell them... not accepted and a rip off... although I would buy that cute little patchwork acan LOL

 

[najer]

Great looking "fake" pictures!
I am with you lot, I expect there are lot of disappointed customers when they get their corals in the tank.

 

[Water Dog]

Geo is up and running. It needs some slight tweaking to get it dialed in but after a crash course on how they work and a friend helping set it up it's alive.

The needle valve needs to be adjusted or replaced, and I need a small 1/4" gate valve to adjust the effluent.

Your metering valve may be okay... at first glance, it looks like your solenoid valve is oriented upside down. If that’s a Burkert 6011a or even an 0200a, it should be flipped around. Just a thought...

 

[RichtheReefer21]

So this is why I hate blue photos. These pics were taken with my phone under blue only lighting. Saturation has not been touched, only added warmth to remove some of the blue, and increased brightness and shadow, making the image less dark.

I know how these corals look under regular lighting, and they're quite nice... But this makes my tank look like a rave. And is chiefly what people who can't achieve color do.

ANYWAYS... Here's some "I can't color corals without cheating" pics for you all.

Group Shot of my Frag Tank / Acan-mushroom-zoa farm

Bleeding Apple Bowerbanki

CK Patchwork Acan

Group Shot 2

Beaut!

 

[GoVols]

Great looking "fake" pictures!

Lol!!

 

[Rakie]

Another blue picture of a small tenuis.

 

[Rakie]

Small overall update!


So I started placing some SPS. Just a few for now. No picture yet because I just can't get a good FTS and I'm not done. I'm going to place most of them on 1/4" long acrylic rod pieces. Just barely hovering over the rockwork. The goal is to keep the corals from overgrowing one another quickly. All my corals are already on 2" discs, giving them a decent platform to grow out on.

If I'm going to keep 40-50+ corals in such a small tank, then I have to play these silly games. Quite frankly, if I had a 120 it would be full. If I had a 180, it would be full. They aren't grown yet for a tank of that size.. but growth is only speeding up, corals are only getting more colorful.


Alk Usage. Currently I'm using exactly 1.9 dkh per day of Alkalinity. This is only increasing as time goes on, and my tank seems to appreciate the Calcium reactor very much.


Calcium Reactor. Wasn't set properly. Because of the size of my reactor I've had to raise the pH set points. I've changed from a Low/High of 6.6-6.8, to a low/high of 6.8-7.0, as well as lowering bubble count to about 15 per minute -- This is very light, and may just barely cause the media to melt. BUT, it was overdosing and my alk had slowly risen to 14.1! So i'm going to err on the side of caution. I don't like big changes. Thankfully calcium reactors are a very nice and smooth alk increase. No spike here, or everything would be dead.


Dosing of Coral Essentials. Aminos and Gro have resumed. Dinos are 100% dead (again)


Feeding Corals. Aminos, Benepets (figured I'd try some) and PolypLabs. I've had the best results with polyplabs, but I noticed something strange tonight... My corals that WONT eat Reef Roids, love Benepets.. My uncommon bounces, Scolly, and Acans all love it. Zoas don't care about it and it just falls on them. I found that interesting. As I'm mostly feeding my Acans, maybe I'll be mixing up some benepets and reefroids for Acans. And to of course feed my bounce shrooms.

With Acans, I've talked to a lot of people... They seem to feed them pellets, and tons of meaty foods to encourage growth. Either I make them a thick paste of Reef Roids / Benepets, or I add in some mysis.


Nutrients. no3 at 10 (struggling to keep it up), po4 at 0.10 which is just fine by me. I would prefer my no3 at around 20.


Overall. Everything is doing well. Business as usual. Corals are doing well. A few had gotten a little unhappy with the alk swing but nothing severe.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Small overall update!


So I started placing some SPS. Just a few for now. No picture yet because I just can't get a good FTS and I'm not done. I'm going to place most of them on 1/4" long acrylic rod pieces. Just barely hovering over the rockwork. The goal is to keep the corals from overgrowing one another quickly. All my corals are already on 2" discs, giving them a decent platform to grow out on.

If I'm going to keep 40-50+ corals in such a small tank, then I have to play these silly games. Quite frankly, if I had a 120 it would be full. If I had a 180, it would be full. They aren't grown yet for a tank of that size.. but growth is only speeding up, corals are only getting more colorful.


Alk Usage. Currently I'm using exactly 1.9 dkh per day of Alkalinity. This is only increasing as time goes on, and my tank seems to appreciate the Calcium reactor very much.


Calcium Reactor. Wasn't set properly. Because of the size of my reactor I've had to raise the pH set points. I've changed from a Low/High of 6.6-6.8, to a low/high of 6.8-7.0, as well as lowering bubble count to about 15 per minute -- This is very light, and may just barely cause the media to melt. BUT, it was overdosing and my alk had slowly risen to 14.1! So i'm going to err on the side of caution. I don't like big changes. Thankfully calcium reactors are a very nice and smooth alk increase. No spike here, or everything would be dead.


Dosing of Coral Essentials. Aminos and Gro have resumed. Dinos are 100% dead (again)


Feeding Corals. Aminos, Benepets (figured I'd try some) and PolypLabs. I've had the best results with polyplabs, but I noticed something strange tonight... My corals that WONT eat Reef Roids, love Benepets.. My uncommon bounces, Scolly, and Acans all love it. Zoas don't care about it and it just falls on them. I found that interesting. As I'm mostly feeding my Acans, maybe I'll be mixing up some benepets and reefroids for Acans. And to of course feed my bounce shrooms.

With Acans, I've talked to a lot of people... They seem to feed them pellets, and tons of meaty foods to encourage growth. Either I make them a thick paste of Reef Roids / Benepets, or I add in some mysis.


Nutrients. no3 at 10 (struggling to keep it up), po4 at 0.10 which is just fine by me. I would prefer my no3 at around 20.


Overall. Everything is doing well. Business as usual. Corals are doing well. A few had gotten a little unhappy with the alk swing but nothing severe.

Sounds great. Lots of info in there. FWIW, my Acans seem to enjoy frozen mysis and 0.5 mm pellets. They also get frozen squid sometimes.

 

[Katrina71]

My acans are the same with feeding.

 

[bubbaque]

Small overall update!


So I started placing some SPS. Just a few for now. No picture yet because I just can't get a good FTS and I'm not done. I'm going to place most of them on 1/4" long acrylic rod pieces. Just barely hovering over the rockwork. The goal is to keep the corals from overgrowing one another quickly. All my corals are already on 2" discs, giving them a decent platform to grow out on.

If I'm going to keep 40-50+ corals in such a small tank, then I have to play these silly games. Quite frankly, if I had a 120 it would be full. If I had a 180, it would be full. They aren't grown yet for a tank of that size.. but growth is only speeding up, corals are only getting more colorful.


Alk Usage. Currently I'm using exactly 1.9 dkh per day of Alkalinity. This is only increasing as time goes on, and my tank seems to appreciate the Calcium reactor very much.


Calcium Reactor. Wasn't set properly. Because of the size of my reactor I've had to raise the pH set points. I've changed from a Low/High of 6.6-6.8, to a low/high of 6.8-7.0, as well as lowering bubble count to about 15 per minute -- This is very light, and may just barely cause the media to melt. BUT, it was overdosing and my alk had slowly risen to 14.1! So i'm going to err on the side of caution. I don't like big changes. Thankfully calcium reactors are a very nice and smooth alk increase. No spike here, or everything would be dead.


Dosing of Coral Essentials. Aminos and Gro have resumed. Dinos are 100% dead (again)


Feeding Corals. Aminos, Benepets (figured I'd try some) and PolypLabs. I've had the best results with polyplabs, but I noticed something strange tonight... My corals that WONT eat Reef Roids, love Benepets.. My uncommon bounces, Scolly, and Acans all love it. Zoas don't care about it and it just falls on them. I found that interesting. As I'm mostly feeding my Acans, maybe I'll be mixing up some benepets and reefroids for Acans. And to of course feed my bounce shrooms.

With Acans, I've talked to a lot of people... They seem to feed them pellets, and tons of meaty foods to encourage growth. Either I make them a thick paste of Reef Roids / Benepets, or I add in some mysis.


Nutrients. no3 at 10 (struggling to keep it up), po4 at 0.10 which is just fine by me. I would prefer my no3 at around 20.


Overall. Everything is doing well. Business as usual. Corals are doing well. A few had gotten a little unhappy with the alk swing but nothing severe.

Thats a nice detailed update!

Did you do anything different to kill the dino this time?

 

[Rakie]

Thats a nice detailed update!

Did you do anything different to kill the dino this time?

Nope, Metronidazole. I also dosed some nutrients as my no3/po4 keep dropping, which I've done when I had dinos before. I don't typically chase numbers but whenever my nutrients have bottomed out I've had issues -- Namely dinos!

 

[FMF0331]

thanks for sharing

 

[Rakie]

So Rakie finally did a thing -- It's not perfect, but I like how it's situated for now and that's all that matters!

Pictures came out really small... Thanks PhotoBucket

Everything was also still settling, so water isn't crystal clear or anything either.

Re-uploaded larger pics