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Quick question, are you using a dosing pump for your AFR or are you dosing by hand? And at 12ml is that spread out over the day or just everyone in the pool?
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I was doing it by hand after the timer on my DIY doser crapped out. But I recently bought a Kamoer x1, and now I dose with that. Since I have broken down my scape pending the new one, ALK use has fallen a bit - only dosing 8ml per day now, but it's spread over 5 total additions of 1.6ml. Liking that little x1 so far... it was super easy t set up, it calculates the doses based on your total and the number of additions, and once it was calibrated, it is remarkably accurate.
You gotta find a way to keep those cyphastreas, they’re both really nice looking, especially the Goldmember. Are they growing well for you?So, I think I've found the last coral to go in (as a clown house). I think I've found a fairly nice 2 head branching hammer with bright orange tips. It's 4-5" wide when fully expanded, and I might add another head from the same fragstock so it will be large enough for the clown - assuming it'll take to it. Doesn't have the green base color like I would have liked, but the tips are super bright orange.
Things that will need new homes thus far:
Green slimer (just never really found that combo that clicked for this coral. Grows, but very slowly. Think it might be flow-related.
Both of my encrusting cyphastreas - I have a 'goldmember' and WWC 'firestorm'. Might put a small piece of the goldmember on one of the cross branches as it does look pretty ******. Purple base with gold polyps.
My dark red cap broke in half, so half of that needs a home.
A 3-4 polyp incidental frag of those greatbig green Paly grandis
And, I think a pretty big hunk of lemon-lime favites.
That will get me down to around 18 colonies or so.
The cornbred speckled Kraks I have to sell to recoup the cost of the frogspawn (and maybe get a return pump).
Good to hear you’ve found the right spot for those cyphastrea. Hopefully the clown will take to the octospawn but who knows with clowns. I never would have thought mine would live where they live but they apparently really like it. They don’t go anywhere near the anemone. That yellow is interesting, Don’t think I’ve seen one like that before.They grow well when they have low light and I literally do nothing to them. I give them more light, they shrivel up and die. Throw them in the corner because I think they're goners - 3 months later they are back and happy. Weird corals.
I did finally order a (hopefully) new home for my clown. Bought 3 big heads of this yellow octospawn.
Purchased from a new store in San Diego that had it for a good price. Seem to be a Euphyllia specialist - Kung Fu corals. Dunno when this will ship, but I asked it to be sent hold for pickup to my fedex place. I have quite a bit of green, some orange, and quite a bit of red and pink, but not so much yellow. So when I found this one, it was just a question about the inflated polyp size and a quick purchase.
I absolutely love this fish. I need to get one at some point, maybe after I figure out what to do with my clowns. Those speckled Kraks are really nice too, don’t think I’ve seen them before. You’ve got a lot of good stuff in that tank.This is a tough fish to get decent photos of. SOOOOO active. Great citizen of my little mixed reef though.
A bit out of focus, but this may just be the best photo I have yet managed.
This one is just kinda funny.
Shipping damage is always a bummer. Hopefully it recovers and the clown takes to it. Can’t wait to see your vision come alive. You’ve actually given me an idea for a way to rescape my tank. I’m waiting to see if my green slimer decides to color back up. If I can keep some basic SPS alive I’ll probably do it.Super busy day, but the new octospawn from Kung Fu Corals in San Diego arrived today via UPS. It was 60 here today, so it was a good day to receive corals - but it showed up and the box was in decent shape for a package smashers delivery. The coral looked like it was in pretty good shape initially, so unbagged it and put it in a container for acclimation and dip. That's when I saw the damage to one of the three heads. Exposed skeleton and tissue sloughing away from the polyp on the outside. So I acclimated, and then did a five minute dip in coral rx, and then found a nice spot in the tank for the coral. The other two polyps look great and it was beginning to expand in just a few minutes. Lights are just about out now, but the two polyps look good, but that smokey-slimey stuff that euphyllias do when they are on the way out is occasionally visible near the wounded area. It's a fairly small area, and my hope is that it will be okay, but just documenting.
K-Fu Corals sent an email reply within minutes of my letting them know that they would cover any damage or deaths from shipping. Seem like a pretty stand-up group so far. Anyhow, will try to get a pic in the morning before I head out. Color is pretty fantastic so far - the typical purple-brown inside but vibrant yellow-green tentacles. It will be a great addition and the clown has already been eyeballing it.
In other news, PO4 is down to 0.3, so I have been adding the remaining dyed pieces into the tank and continue to monitor closely, but looks good so far. Have mounted up a couple more of my colonies, and the finished re-scape will probably be Saturday. I will take everything completely out, scrape the back and bottom, siphon and filter all of the debris on the bottom, then figure out which pieces go where. I am going to try to make one big grouping and a smaller one on the opposite side with the new frogspawn on a very short nub to keep it close to the bottom so the clown will be more likely to see it as a possibility. I will try to make decisions on coral placement based on height, texture, and as much as possible, color. I want to keep primary and secondary complimentary color combinations as much as possible for color, design, and negative space considerations.
I've always tried to consider color when making placements, but it's not easy when adding new things. But, when you have everything on its own tile, the possibilities to help ensure good composition and color compliment may be easier (at least that is the hope). One of the photos I have always had in my morgue is the one below. It uses cross complimentaries and split cross complimentaries to achieve a very zen-like composition that just feels right.
Anyhow, we'll see what I can pull off.
I'd think it would be worth the drive. Their online prices are pretty darn good (for the normal stuff, high like everyone else for the double-delux pieces), and see above how they treated me.Would be interested in how the Kung Fu octo works out. They just opened recently and I haven’t been there as it is on the other end of the county to where we live.
Well, I got some Anacropora with your name on it along with some other stuff.Shipping damage is always a bummer. Hopefully it recovers and the clown takes to it. Can’t wait to see your vision come alive. You’ve actually given me an idea for a way to rescape my tank. I’m waiting to see if my green slimer decides to color back up. If I can keep some basic SPS alive I’ll probably do it.
I’m lucky that San Diego is my hometown for sure! Good to hear about Kung Fu. Come & visit.I'd think it would be worth the drive. Their online prices are pretty darn good (for the normal stuff, high like everyone else for the double-delux pieces), and see above how they treated me.
Encinitas, huh? I love Solana Beach. I led a couple fieldtrips there when I was at UCR, and that's the first place I take my students when I do a SoCal geology trip from up here in ND. The cliff walls there have lots of trace fossil burrows (mostly from shrimp and crabs), and the tide pools right there are some of my favorite even though they aren't the biggest or most popular. I miss SoCal a LOT.
One of my last fieldtrips there, we stopped at Torrey Pines first because a lot of our ND students have never been to the Pacific and the view from the cliffs is amazing. We stepped out of the van and the first thing we saw was a couple of whales spouting offshore. Amazing.
Awesome, pm me when you are ready and we can work out the details.Well, I got some Anacropora with your name on it along with some other stuff.