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CoralDanimal
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My Vivid Pink Passion from @Coral Euphoria starting to take off 
Taken at dusk right in between daylight and actinics:
Taken at dusk right in between daylight and actinics:
CoralDanimal's Red Sea Reefer 425 XL Mixed Reef
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CoralDanimal
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Hi @reefslugs - I'm not doing anything too crazy. Lights are 9" off the water. I'm following the BRS recommendation in terms of placement:
All channels at 100% with overall intensity at 67%. Gives me ~400-450 PAR at the top of the tank and ~200 at the bottom.
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CoralDanimal
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It's been a roller coaster few months for me. I'll take some time to journal out what happened (lost some SPS colonies) and what I think was the smoking gun (daily alk swings), but here's a quick pic I snapped from my iPhone this morning to show the current state of the tank:
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CoralDanimal
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Tank is cruising once again
Once I got the alk really dialed in (less than .3 dKH swing per day), everything started to improve. It's hard to not have some alk swings when dosing two part so for me the key was getting to a daily consumption point where I could continuously drip All For Reef. This is why I love the EcoTech Versa - most dosing pumps have a limit of little they can dose per minute but the threshold for the Versa is super low. A constant drip of that + constant flow of kalkwasser ensured no dosing-induced alk swings -> tank is back into a great place.
Once I got the alk really dialed in (less than .3 dKH swing per day), everything started to improve. It's hard to not have some alk swings when dosing two part so for me the key was getting to a daily consumption point where I could continuously drip All For Reef. This is why I love the EcoTech Versa - most dosing pumps have a limit of little they can dose per minute but the threshold for the Versa is super low. A constant drip of that + constant flow of kalkwasser ensured no dosing-induced alk swings -> tank is back into a great place.
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CoralDanimal
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I decided to mix up the right side of the tank a bit:
A few reasons:
A few reasons:
- The MP40 on the right was always blasting a coral no matter where I moved it so this arrangement enabled flow all along the front panel without hitting any corals directly, which means I can really crank it up.
- The slimer was so big it was hiding the corals behind it including some of my favorites (ex: Vivid Confetti).
- I just wanted to mix things up. Giving the tank a new look and feel makes the tank feel new again and raises my interest in it.
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Absolutely beautiful reef!! Glad I found your thread today!
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CoralDanimal
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Thank you for the kind words!
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CoralDanimal
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Something I've been wrestling with this year is growth vs. coloration. I'm experiencing amazing growth, but my coloration isn't what it used to be. Here's a side by side showing my Vivid Pink Passion (left) and TSA Bill Murray 5-months apart:
(January 2022)
(June 2022)
The growth is excellent, but I've lost some color pop. Here's what the Vivid Pink Passion used to look like last August:
Vs. what it looks like as of last night:
I know that frags and smaller colonies are more colorful than large colonies, but it's more than that. When I look at pictures of other large colonies from last year vs. this year, there's definitely less pop. A recent ICP test showed I'm lacking on certain trace elements (potassium, iodine, etc.) so I'm up'ing my water change game as well as dosing Red Sea's trace elements to see what effect that has on coloration. The only exception to all of this has been my homewrecker, which continues to blow me away in daylight and actinic:
(Daylight)
(Actinic)
(January 2022)
(June 2022)
The growth is excellent, but I've lost some color pop. Here's what the Vivid Pink Passion used to look like last August:
Vs. what it looks like as of last night:
I know that frags and smaller colonies are more colorful than large colonies, but it's more than that. When I look at pictures of other large colonies from last year vs. this year, there's definitely less pop. A recent ICP test showed I'm lacking on certain trace elements (potassium, iodine, etc.) so I'm up'ing my water change game as well as dosing Red Sea's trace elements to see what effect that has on coloration. The only exception to all of this has been my homewrecker, which continues to blow me away in daylight and actinic:
(Daylight)
(Actinic)
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CoralDanimal
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That's Biota's cultured Ultra Green Toadstool leather. I'm trying to move away from soft corals in my tank to focus more on SPS, but that's the one coral I don't think I'll ever be able to part with. The clownfish love (I can't take their home!) and it's a showpiece. The florescence and movement in the flow grabs everyone's attention. When I have people over, they don't care about the expensive SPS, they just like my toadstool, gonipora, torch, and hammers
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FreshCoastReef
Active Member
Yeah, I've got to echo @Sycamoron , your tank looks awesome! Thanks for sharing about the Green Toadstool Leather hosting the Clowns.
I just added my first pair of clowns and would love to find a yellow leather for them to host.
I just added my first pair of clowns and would love to find a yellow leather for them to host.
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CoralDanimal
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Thank you!! So kind.
I used to have a dinner plate sized Yellow Fiji leather, which was awesome, but took up too much real estate between that & the toadstool so when it came time to sell one of them, I kept the one the clowns were hosting in
LiveAquaria occasionally has Yellow Fijis in case you're looking to buy one.
FreshCoastReef
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Awesome, thanks @CoralDanimal!
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CoralDanimal
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Thanks for the kind words! I'm overdue for an update so I'll try to share more soon.
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CoralDanimal
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I've decided to re-build the left side of the display. As much I love the giant toadstool (especially since the clowns host in it), I can't keep up with its growth and since I can't upgrade, it either has to be constantly trimmed (too much maintenance) or re-homed so I chose the latter of the two. In addition to removing the giant toadstool, I also removed a large Red Robin staghorn colony and an even bigger blue sapphire millepora colony as well. Part of this was to upgrade some of those corals to similar, more interesting corals - the toadstool will be replaced by my dragon soul torch colony, the red robin stag will be replaced by my tyree red dragon colony, and the blue sapphire colony will be replaced a new Gigs Mothra mille frag - but part of this is also to get me fired up about a new tank project.
I've circled in red what I've removed:
Here is the old mille colony once I removed it:
Here is the red robin stag colony once removed:
Here's the tank with the left side removed (and the temporary tank to start curing the new left rock structure):
I've circled in red what I've removed:
Here is the old mille colony once I removed it:
Here is the red robin stag colony once removed:
Here's the tank with the left side removed (and the temporary tank to start curing the new left rock structure):
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