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Cornbred's Maleficent
Diving The World's 80g Acro Wonderland!
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Mines growing on me also it’s a very nice coralCornbred's Maleficent
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I find it to be a sensitive coral, but if it’s happy, it’s the brightest red in the tank. You can see it across the room. Definitely a must have coral.
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So tonight I made a bulb change in my T5. I run 4 Blue Plus, 2 Coral Plus, a Purple Plus and an Actinic. I switched out my purple plus for a second actinic. I've always had a bit of an issue with some of my blue corals looking slightly purple. The rest of the colors in my tank seem spot on. After watching the new BRS video, they basically poo poo'd the Purple plus and wrote it off as just adding some red to the tank but not really benefiting anything.
So I'm not curious what kind of change this will make to my tank. I know actinic is a lower PAR bulb, but it should bring out more fluorescence in the corals. Will it make my blue corals more blue? We shall see... I'm mostly curious how the overall look will be when all the bulbs are on tomorrow. I really like the color blend I've been using so hopefully this doesn't change much.
So I'm not curious what kind of change this will make to my tank. I know actinic is a lower PAR bulb, but it should bring out more fluorescence in the corals. Will it make my blue corals more blue? We shall see... I'm mostly curious how the overall look will be when all the bulbs are on tomorrow. I really like the color blend I've been using so hopefully this doesn't change much.
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JF Jolt
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Well...I hated it. It’s amazing what change one bulb makes. The colors were flat and lacked depth. Particularly the reds looked terrible and boring, lacked pop. But it went beyond the reds and was really all colors, even blue. I assumed the extra actinic would add pop, but it did the exact opposite. So I’m back to my original bulb combo and it’s there to stay.
In better news, I received a couple new corals today from Pirates Reef. I might switch out a couple existing ones and make some Acro changes. When you’re home EVERY day looking at your tank, it’s hard to not want to make changes!
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Ha, I gave it about an hour. I picked up another, larger RRA Ultimate Orange Passion, a WWC Ding Dang Milli and a CC Hayfever.
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Battlecorals Shades of Fall
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Sexy Corals Orange Passion
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Things that make you go hmmm...
How does an idiot take an amazing acro colony like this:
And turn it into something like this:
As usual it begins with good intentions. My RRU Pink Floyd was at the point of touching my front glass and I was crunching off tips everytime I ran my mag scraper by. At the same time my tank needed a major trimming and people are always asking me for larger cuts. So I decided to go through my tank and chop off some mini-colony sized chunks of a bunch of my colonies.
Everything was going swimmingly until I got to my 'ol PF. It had what appeared to be a very solid base. But on my first chop, the whole thing came crashing down and shattered into pieces. Why do I share this colossal mistake you ask? So you won't make the same one of course! I try to be an optimist, so here goes:
1. I was able to reattach it. I used a similar technique I used on my green slimer. I carved out a notch in the rock work and wedged it in with super glue. Hopefully if it encrusts correctly, it will be even more secure than it was originally. It is now a couple inches lower than my ATL Raspberry Limeade though.
2. This resulted in some crazy huge RRU Pink Floyd frags/colonies. So if you're local to the Bay Area (I don't ship), let me know if you're interested.
How does an idiot take an amazing acro colony like this:
And turn it into something like this:
As usual it begins with good intentions. My RRU Pink Floyd was at the point of touching my front glass and I was crunching off tips everytime I ran my mag scraper by. At the same time my tank needed a major trimming and people are always asking me for larger cuts. So I decided to go through my tank and chop off some mini-colony sized chunks of a bunch of my colonies.
Everything was going swimmingly until I got to my 'ol PF. It had what appeared to be a very solid base. But on my first chop, the whole thing came crashing down and shattered into pieces. Why do I share this colossal mistake you ask? So you won't make the same one of course! I try to be an optimist, so here goes:
1. I was able to reattach it. I used a similar technique I used on my green slimer. I carved out a notch in the rock work and wedged it in with super glue. Hopefully if it encrusts correctly, it will be even more secure than it was originally. It is now a couple inches lower than my ATL Raspberry Limeade though.
2. This resulted in some crazy huge RRU Pink Floyd frags/colonies. So if you're local to the Bay Area (I don't ship), let me know if you're interested.
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Oregon Tort
Spencer
Community Member
Top right yellow coral?It's hard to take a picture of this one due to size and location.
Reef Raft USA "The Vinh"
Any tips for sourcing and growing acro's in my upcoming RS-170?
Going to run a T5/LED hybrid with Varios-2 return, two RS-M circulators on back wall, dosing Trident CORE7 (other methods) and Acropower. GHL doser.
Not my first SPS tank but would love to hear new perspectives.
I'm undecided on running a skimmer (since not planning fish at the moment and expect my corals to want nutrients). Considering running a Vibe Zeolite reactor to keep them fed (have run Zeovit in the past).
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Hey Spencer, that’s Walt Disney peaking out behind The Vinh.
Regarding sourcing acros, there are a few folks on R2R that I have bought from. If considering coral shops, I like Battlecorals. Adam goes through extensive dipping and quarantine. He also takes legit white photos of his corals and the one's I've received have looked equal to or better than expected.
I agree T5/Hybrid lighting is the way to go. Hybrid didn't really exist yet when I was setting mine up, unless I built a custom fixture and since what I'm doing now works, I'm not changing it.
I have a love/hate relationship with the VarioS pumps. I started my tank using them for both return and skimmer. I've since replaced my return twice and currently running a non-DC Vertex V6. After the second Reef Octopus return died after only a couple years I decided to try something with hopefully more longevity. It's as quiet or quieter than the DC pump and doesn't seem to be using any more electricity. I still run DC pump in my skimmer because it's a RO skimmer and that's what it's designed for.
I would always run a skimmer in any reef tank I set up. I run my tank a bit old school: big rocks, big skimmer, lots of fish, no dosing chemicals. Some people do well with CORE7, Zeovit and other methods. I don't have much experience with them other than I know they're not cheap. Plus you have to be constantly testing and dosing multiple things. I dose two things, Cal & Alk, nothing else. I feed my fish and their poop feeds the corals. I do think that some things can help a newer tank (less than 2 years old) such as Acropower or ReefRoids. But use them sparingly and once your tank is seasoned, wean them off.
Spencer
Community Member
I appreciate the thoughtful response. That Walt Disney is great. I'm a big fan of Adam as well and am excited to try Coral Euphoria. Maybe DM me if you have a hobbyist on here that you recommend.
I'm going to have a more 'bonsai-type' scape with branch rock so I'm definitely planning on supplementing with surface area in the sump. The CORE7 is only $50 for a set of 1L containers (I think it will be reasonable $ for a 32g tank)
If I see my organics creeping up and decide on a skimmer, I would probably get something simple like the Coral Box D300+ off of Reefbreeders. Maybe I end up with fish but I just want to make sure the tank can be self-sustaining for e.g. two weeks at a time if I travel. Haven't used an auto-feeder.
Did they stop selling the Vertex pumps?
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Yes, I believe Vertex might have gone out of business. Which is too bad because their products were super high quality.
The Rise and Fall of Vertex Aquaristik | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog
There was a time in the early 2010s when Vertex Aquaristik had an outsize influence on the reef aquarium hobby – their skimmers, reactors and a growing catalog of other reef aquarium goods were the…
reefbuilders.com
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ASD Rainbow Milli
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Sexy Corals Orange Passion
MelReefer
Active Member
What’s the 8th coral?Here's some coral pics:
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