My Coral Collection - photo intense!

[Russo757]

How ofter are your water changes?

Ehhh. Not as often as I should. Goal is every
Two weeks but in reality it’s every 3-4

 

[Birddog]

Wow, awesome collection with great color and health!

Can you compare / contrast TGC Bomb and WWC Pink Panther please. Are these pretty close to being the same?

 

[Russo757]

Wow, awesome collection with great color and health!

Can you compare / contrast TGC Bomb and WWC Pink Panther please. Are these pretty close to being the same?

Thanks man. And good call on that. I’ll do a side by side shot under radions 20k, full 8 bulb ati and all blues so you can see.

 

[Birddog]

Thanks man. And good call on that. I’ll do a side by side shot under radions 20k, full 8 bulb ati and all blues so you can see.

Thank you... exciting comparison!

 

[uvafred13]

Hey Ryan, thanks for linking me to this thread on your FB post yesterday.

I think we would all choose to mimic your everything given your coloration and health. I may have to make a trip down from Yorktown to check them out in person sometime.

What salt do you use and what is your WC regimen?

What other daily/weekly husbandry do you perform on the tank that might be contributing to your success?

Can you estimate the GPH of flow in the 60?

What specific bio/chemical media do you use? In a reactor? Do you run a fuge?

Thanks!
Fred

 

[JMetaxas]

So I currently dose

Red Sea foundations for Alk, Calc, mag
Acropower 2x a week

And that’s it

How much Acropower do you dose? I just bought some. I'm only dosing BRS 2 part and would like to include some other trace elements.

 

[Russo757]

How much Acropower do you dose? I just bought some. I'm only dosing BRS 2 part and would like to include some other trace elements.

I dose 2 tablespoons 2x a week on roughly 225 gallons and enjoy the results. I may drop down to 1 tablespoon per day so that there aren’t stretches of no dose but I’m going to wait a full month before I make that decision.

 

[Orko]

BEAUTIFUL collection of gorgeous frags!!!

 

[Russo757]

Let’s see if I can get this thing fixed and online

 

[Russo757]

What’s the name of these frags?

Front row left to right

Unreleased Mille-MattV Ultimate Tricolor-Malificient

Middle row left to right

Confetti - king Fiji - Bubblebath Unicorn

Back row left to right

Rmf Red Gecko - BC Backdraft - unreleased

 

[Russo757]

Here are the shots of WWC Pink Panther and CG Cherry Bomb. Both are very pink corals but unique in their own way.

WWC Pink Panther (Left) and CG Cherry Bomb (Right) under 8 bulb ATI and Reefbrites

Under Radions set at 20k

So the first thing i noticed is that the green in the body of the Pink panther is much more noticeable. Its a very vibrant green under T5s and still noticeable under the radions. There is a hint of green with the cherry bomb body but its not nearly as bright and the PE and busy growth makes it harder to see. Next difference is the polyp color. The Cherry Bomb has a metallic pink polyp that gives it a very nice pop where as the panther has a soft pink polyp. Both look amazing under blue, however the panther polyp darkens and the cherry bomb looks more like electric pink. The last major difference i saw was that the tips of the Panther branches have yellow interior circles like eyes at the end of each branch.

If you are a sucker for pink corals like me, both of these are must haves in your collection.

 

[VTBig053]

Awesome collection. I hope I can pull that kind of color out of the Cherry Bomb frag I just got.

 

[Mystikal]

Looks good! Definitely see the difference in both of them. I have both but they are little frags encrusting.Thank you for the comparison of both of these.

 

[Russo757]

such a dope coral

 

[Big E]

Here are the shots of WWC Pink Panther and CG Cherry Bomb. Both are very pink corals but unique in their own way.

So the first thing i noticed is that the green in the body of the Pink panther is much more noticeable. Its a very vibrant green under T5s and still noticeable under the radions. There is a hint of green with the cherry bomb body but its not nearly as bright and the PE and busy growth makes it harder to see. Next difference is the polyp color. The Cherry Bomb has a metallic pink polyp that gives it a very nice pop where as the panther has a soft pink polyp. Both look amazing under blue, however the panther polyp darkens and the cherry bomb looks more like electric pink. The last major difference i saw was that the tips of the Panther branches have yellow interior circles like eyes at the end of each branch.

If you are a sucker for pink corals like me, both of these are must haves in your collection.

I have both as well but are frags now........what I see under my T5's about 14k exactly match your comments above.

Do these both have blue growth tips? I haven't been able to see new growth there yet.

 

[Russo757]

Curious on the lighting. I know you have t5 and if I remember right reefbeite blues for pop. But that’s over a shallow frag tank. Curious on the ability of t5 to penetrate 24 inches of water and still produce 300-400 par?

I ask cause I’ve ran black boxes for 2 years on my tank and they grow coral fine but I can only get about 220 par out of them and nothing (red/pink... fix flame, red planet, tiera delfuego) will color up well. so I wonder if they are just under lit. I am about to buy new lights. I was going to go radions with accent t5 but I toy the idea of t5 with led accents. Just not sure

in my experience the T5s have a much more consistent par at deeper depths than leds. When i didn't have racks in my tank, and just had a few things on the bare bottom, it was still 300 par to the center of the tank. The depth didn't change much. I get 250 on the outsides because its further away from the bulbs plus its lower in the tank, and still only loses about 75 or so par.

 

[Russo757]

I have both as well but are frags now........what I see under my T5's about 14k exactly match your comments above.

Do these both have blue growth tips? I haven't been able to see new growth there yet.

I don't get very defined blue tips like I did under my radions, but they are there.

 

[Russo757]

So today is my first full day having the calcium reactor on and trying to dial it. I have to say it’s been pretty simple so far.

I used this tutorial and it’s been a huge help :


Equipment used:
Geo 634 Calcium Reactor
Geo Second Chamber
Master Flex peristaltic pump
Aquarium Plants Regulator
GHL KH Director
Neptune Apex

The first thing I did was get my alk to 8.0 which is where I’d like my alk to live. My tank typically looks the best between 7.8 and 8.2 so I figured 8.0 was a goodstarting point.

Next I set my carbon Doser to 2, CO2 tank pressure to 15, and opened up the effluent to a fast dribble. I have the ph probe and Co2 controller ran through my APex so the next step is to set the Co2 controls. You need to assign it to be controlled by the ph of the reactor probe and I set my high range to 7.3 and low to 7.2. Make sure on is assigned to the high value.

Now just wait and watch. I have my KH director to test every four hours. Today I manually tested almost every two hours. Each test will show a screen like this

So if my alk started to drop, I went into my Apex and changed the PH values of the Co2 port down one full .1

So I would drop from my initial starting point of 7.3 on to 7.2 off to 7.2 on and 7.1 off.

Now I just would rinse and repeat. I’m down to a range of 7.0 on and 6.9 off and it’s holding ok. I did have to quick dose my Red Sea chem to offset some of the loss today, but all in all the process is going well. I’m looking forward to seeing all locked in place all day

 

[wangspeed]

I’d try lowering the Ph and reducing the flow through the Masterflex. I bet you only need 20-30 ml/min. I’m at 20 ml/min at 6.6-6.66 CaRx Ph, but I’m sure your consumption is higher than mine.

A higher drip rate means faster CO2 consumption and lower Ph in tank. You don’t have to do that since you have a peristaltic pump.

 

[Russo757]

I’d try lowering the Ph and reducing the flow through the Masterflex. I bet you only need 20-30 ml/min. I’m at 20 ml/min at 6.6-6.66 CaRx Ph, but I’m sure your consumption is higher than mine.

A higher drip rate means faster CO2 consumption and lower Ph in tank. You don’t have to do that since you have a peristaltic pump.

Good call

I’m a bit nervous to drop it all the way to 6.6. I think I’ll back the drip down slowly with the pH.