d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

Hreef · Apr 28, 2018

d2mini said:
Its both brains. I’ve moved them around with no change. A few months ago I isolated the brains in that acclimation box and after a week or two it opened up. 20 minutes back in the tank and it closed up again. But I have never seen anyone messing with either of them. And the clowns used to host that one in front so it was used to the slight irritation. I’ve had that one for 6 years.

I bet you have a critter that moves back and forth just to claim it’s hosts. I hope you find what is doing this.

d2mini · Apr 28, 2018

Hreef said:
I bet you have a critter that moves back and forth just to claim it’s hosts. I hope you find what is doing this.

Not ruling it out but I’d bet money it’s a fish. This same brain was in my previous tank in the last house. All of a sudden the same thing started happening. But worse! The tissue started dying back. By the end, it was probably close to 90% skeleton. I figured out finally that my yellow belly blue tang was messing with it. As soon as he was gone it started to recover and eventually made a full recovery.

I dunno... we’ll see!

Hreef · Apr 28, 2018

d2mini said:
Not ruling it out but I’d bet money it’s a fish. This same brain was in my previous tank in the last house. All of a sudden the same thing started happening. But worse! The tissue started dying back. By the end, it was probably close to 90% skeleton. I figured out finally that my yellow belly blue tang was messing with it. As soon as he was gone it started to recover and eventually made a full recovery.

I dunno... we’ll see!

You got a picker, you’ll catch the culprit.

Txdragonslayer · Apr 29, 2018

d2mini said:
Haven't posted an FTS in a while.
Have a dwarf angel in the acclimation box... trying to figure out what's bothering that open brain in the front. He's been closed up for like 5 months.

How are you liking the Diffusers?

SchnitzelReef · Apr 29, 2018

After having the radions up for awhile now, do you have any progression shots of SPS growth?

Pics and a time table would be nice to see. There’s no doubt radions color up SPS, I’m still a little skeptical on how they do with growth.

d2mini · Apr 29, 2018

Txdragonslayer said:
How are you liking the Diffusers?

I like them. IMO they make the lights look more finished and they do diffuse it better. No disco.

SchnitzelReef said:
After having the radions up for awhile now, do you have any progression shots of SPS growth?

Pics and a time table would be nice to see. There’s no doubt radions color up SPS, I’m still a little skeptical on how they do with growth.

Sorry, I don't have much. I seem to either take an FTS or extreme closeups most of the time. lol
Some sps grow fast, some very slow. And there's more to that than just lighting so hard to quantify unless you ran two identical tanks next to each other.
If I was betting money I'd bet that you wouldn't get as much growth as you'd get with MH/T5 but that's just a guess. Growth speed isn't really something that matters to me all that much since I'm not in the coral biz. I just want everything to be colorful and healthy.

Here's a couple examples though...

ORA Frogskin less than 4 months apart.

6 months growth on the Paletta Pink Tip

And 7.5 months on this one.

BigJohnny · Apr 29, 2018

SchnitzelReef said:
After having the radions up for awhile now, do you have any progression shots of SPS growth?

Pics and a time table would be nice to see. There’s no doubt radions color up SPS, I’m still a little skeptical on how they do with growth.

Ask wwc how they grow corals. Look at their 900 broodstock thread, you can see how fast they filled it out.

BigJohnny · Apr 29, 2018

@d2mini

Tank looks great. The blend of tbs with aquacultured frags is really cool to me.
How long is your photo period, peak/total? Are you using sps ab+? Any idea average par?

Thanks

d2mini · Apr 29, 2018

BigJohnny said:
@d2mini

Tank looks great. The blend of tbs with aquacultured frags is really cool to me.
How long is your photo period, peak/total? Are you using sps ab+? Any idea average par?

Thanks

Thanks

Yes, I'm using AB+ but I lower the red and green.

BigJohnny · Apr 29, 2018

d2mini said:
Thanks

Yes, I'm using AB+ but I lower the red and green.

So 8 hr peak/12 hrs total, am I reading that correctly? Any idea on par?

d2mini · Apr 29, 2018

BigJohnny said:
So 8 hr peak/12 hrs total, am I reading that correctly? Any idea on par?

This was before the diffusers but you get the idea.
Blue line along the bottom is by the front glass.

najer · May 3, 2018

Great growth pics, I'm with you just let it grow as long as it is happy and healthy.

revhtree · May 3, 2018

Dang dude nice job! Your PAR results are really helpful for me.

d2mini · May 3, 2018

revhtree said:
Dang dude nice job! Your PAR results are really helpful for me.

Awesome sauce. Thanks!

Victoria M · May 19, 2018

just lovely. I could look at the photos for hours. I still have 2 of your pictures on my phone that keep making it thru the picture purge. One is of the two red emerald crabs tusseling and the other is a room/FTS shot of your last set up. I have my DT in my eat in kitchen right in front of our dining table, also.

d2mini · May 19, 2018

Victoria M said:
just lovely. I could look at the photos for hours. I still have 2 of your pictures on my phone that keep making it thru the picture purge. One is of the two red emerald crabs tusseling and the other is a room/FTS shot of your last set up. I have my DT in my eat in kitchen right in front of our dining table, also.

LOL, those two crabs were funny.

Thanks!

Victoria M · May 19, 2018

d2mini said:
LOL, those two crabs were funny.
Thanks!

my normal friend don't get how crabs can be funny. Only reef friends get that.

d2mini · May 21, 2018

Well, I had to get rid of both my dwarf angel (was kinda being a bully to my clowns anyway) and my Foxface who I think was the real culprit, and now my brains are fluffy again!

Only took since THANKSGIVING to figure that out!

And I brought home a Swallowtail Angel instead.

Hreef · May 21, 2018

d2mini said:
Well, I had to get rid of both my dwarf angel (was kinda being a bully to my clowns anyway) and my Foxface who I think was the real culprit, and now my brains are fluffy again!
Only took since THANKSGIVING to figure that out!

And I brought home a Swallowtail Angel instead.