Mammoth Nano SPS Reef

Dugless · Mar 6, 2023

BC Adam Bomb

Yanir34 · Mar 12, 2023

Dugless said:
I really think that is personal preference to get the visual look you prefer. I've done different combos in the last few years. Currently I have B+, C+, B+, P+, P+, B+, C+, B+. In my next switch I'm going to bring actinic bulbs back into the mix. I'm waiting on a new ATI hybrid as one T5 bank stopped working about 18mo ago.

Also forgot to include the white LED channel in my previous post.
Blue 255
Royal 255
Violet 150
White 60

By the way , why your Violet is only at 150 ?

Dugless · Mar 12, 2023

Yanir34 said:
By the way , why your Violet is only at 150 ?

If I recall I would run into tip burn and bleaching if I bumped that up any higher.

Strangely, I do have anthias with pigment bleaching and peppered freckles on the top of their bodies. I’ve added new anthias/wrasses in the past and they pale in coloration over 6 months or so. It’s absolutely light related, because one of the anthias in the group would hide in the rocks almost exclusively and it retained the full pigmentation. Not sure what the exact culprit is, but I’ve always guessed the violet LED.

Yanir34 · Mar 12, 2023

Dugless said:
If I recall I would run into tip burn and bleaching if I bumped that up any higher.

Strangely, I do have anthias with pigment bleaching and peppered freckles on the top of their bodies. I’ve added new anthias/wrasses in the past and they pale in coloration over 6 months or so. It’s absolutely light related, because one of the anthias in the group would hide in the rocks almost exclusively and it retained the full pigmentation. Not sure what the exact culprit is, but I’ve always guessed the violet LED.

Thanks for your quick reply !
right now I'm in the 200 zone at VIOLET channel , and I do see some burned tips in my Acros

lubeck · Mar 13, 2023

Dugless said:
If I recall I would run into tip burn and bleaching if I bumped that up any higher.

Strangely, I do have anthias with pigment bleaching and peppered freckles on the top of their bodies. I’ve added new anthias/wrasses in the past and they pale in coloration over 6 months or so. It’s absolutely light related, because one of the anthias in the group would hide in the rocks almost exclusively and it retained the full pigmentation. Not sure what the exact culprit is, but I’ve always guessed the violet LED.

This is interesting. My flasher wrasse doesn’t look like how he did either It’s got freckles now. I run a g5 xr39 blue.

skimmerman · Mar 13, 2023

I always say size doesn’t matter. What makes you enjoy it is all that matters.I’ve been lucky enough to have a large tank and had many before.

Dugless · Mar 13, 2023

BC Bubblebath Unicorn

Naturalreef · Mar 13, 2023

Beautiful tank! Walt Disney in the middle? Love the colors you are pulling out of it. Every time I have a setback with my tank and am ready to throw in the towel, threads like yours pull me back in.

xiongsy · Mar 13, 2023

Dugless said:
Here is a quick peek under the cabinet. The backbone components are Royal Exclusiv and most everything is cleanly contained within the sump. I'm using a BK180 and filter socks. The return is a RD3 pump and it feeds a media reactor that runs GFO. The goal for the sump was silence and organization.

The tank is controlled by a GHL Profilux with dosing tethered to the GHL dosers. I try to keep things as efficiently simple as possible and don't like overcomplicating with more components than necessary.

What are you dosing or planning to dose?

Dugless · Mar 14, 2023

Naturalreef said:
Beautiful tank! Walt Disney in the middle? Love the colors you are pulling out of it. Every time I have a setback with my tank and am ready to throw in the towel, threads like yours pull me back in.

The larger colony is a SC Orange Passion. Probably the most popular coral in my tank under blue-light.

Dugless · Mar 14, 2023

xiongsy said:
What are you dosing or planning to dose?

I've dosed a few different things over the years, but all of it falls within the keep things simple mind set. The craziest things I have had on the doser would be Potassium and highly diluted acropower. Currently just dosing kalkwasser and 3-part.

Dugless · Mar 23, 2023

Vivid Confetti

Haggisman14 · Mar 23, 2023

Absolutely stunning pictures!

Dugless · Mar 29, 2023

Battlecorals Cemetery Party

1000_smiles · Mar 29, 2023

Beautiful.
What did you use to attach the frags to your rocks?

Dugless · Mar 30, 2023

1000_smiles said:
Beautiful.
What did you use to attach the frags to your rocks?

The best results I've ever had was to super glue the frag to a small rock outside of the tank. This happens when I remove the frag from the plug when dipping. I like to use rock chunks small enough that they get encrusted over and sealed to the main rock work within the first few months, nobody likes looking for a frag that gets bumped off by a fish. I've tried gluing with a glue tube in the tank before, but it gets messy and almost always yields poor results as the superglue reacts/skins over immediately underwater.

After gluing the frag to the small rock, I will use a layer of superglue/tunze epoxy/super glue on the bottom side of the rock and press it on to the main rockwork where I want it. The epoxy helps create a good seal as it forms well to the shape of both rocks, allowing the superglue to perform. Without the epoxy the superglue likes to press out and doesn't fill the void well and the bond is typically pretty weak.

1000_smiles · Mar 30, 2023

Thanks for the reply.
I was going back through your thread and it seemed as if the frags were encrusting directly onto the rocks, a nice seamless transition no plugs or globs of epoxy visible. Nice work.
Did you use the Real Reef Frag Rocks to match you rock work?

Dugless · Mar 30, 2023

1000_smiles said:
Thanks for the reply.
I was going back through your thread and it seemed as if the frags were encrusting directly onto the rocks, a nice seamless transition no plugs or globs of epoxy visible. Nice work.
Did you use the Real Reef Frag Rocks to match you rock work?

If given time, most any material will look like the rock around with coralline or if a coral grows over it. I will snip a chunk off some Marco dry rock and within a month or two it’s covered. If you decide to keep plugs you can surround it with superglue or epoxy to soften its edges. I almost never keep a plug. A coral needs to be super nice and in that case I encapsulate it within superglue.