NBurg's Red Sea Reefer 450 mixed reef

[Nburg's Reef]

Can you tell when I added a CO2 scrubber? I am curious to see if it will keep increasing. I also need to calibrate the probe since its been well over a year since doing so.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I'm still trying to figure out how to get clear, clean and color accurate photos with my DSLR camera. I feel I am starting to figure out how to shoot to where I can adjust colors to look close to reality, but they're a bit grainy. Even at ISO 100 and ISO 200. I may try to crank up the lights a little more and add more white when snapping pics. Here are some of pics of my new frags and an old favorite (ricordea)

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I decided to try out the WWC monthly Gold Membership and get my first box tomorrow. I will be sure to post an update
with what @WWC sent me. I will be gluing down the frags on my DT rack today to make room for those tomorrow.

I also checked the PAR on my tank when the lights were at their peak for the day and good a good spread throughout the tank both horizontally and vertically with my Powermodule Hybrid. The PAR was on the lower side of 200 in most areas and only a few spots approached 300. I think that's pretty good, but I may crank up the LEDs a hair higher to get some higher PAR areas for those acros that color up better under higher lights. I may try to get most of my upper deck to 350ish, and 200-250 on the glass.

 

[wackyreefer]

I decided to try out the WWC monthly Gold Membership and get my first box tomorrow. I will be sure to post an update
with what @WWC sent me. I will be gluing down the frags on my DT rack today to make room for those tomorrow.

I also checked the PAR on my tank when the lights were at their peak for the day and good a good spread throughout the tank both horizontally and vertically with my Powermodule Hybrid. The PAR was on the lower side of 200 in most areas and only a few spots approached 300. I think that's pretty good, but I may crank up the LEDs a hair higher to get some higher PAR areas for those acros that color up better under higher lights. I may try to get most of my upper deck to 350ish, and 200-250 on the glass.

Awesome! Keep us posted on the WWC box!

 

[wackyreefer]

Can you tell when I added a CO2 scrubber? I am curious to see if it will keep increasing. I also need to calibrate the probe since its been well over a year since doing so.

Would love to see a photo of your scrubber set up if you can, unless you can point me to a photo I missed earlier in this thread.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Would love to see a photo of your scrubber set up if you can, unless you can point me to a photo I missed earlier in this thread.

I can do so tomorrow. Super easy and quite effective. I used to barely hit 8.0 some days, and now I’m getting stable pH between 8.15 at night and 8.25-8.30 at peak times.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I was able to take some nice pics over the weekend. For today, I will show off my first month of The @WWC Gold membership. I dipped everything and moved 3 of the 5 to new plugs just to prevent any unwanted pests or algae. One of the Acros and the monti were well encrusted and I didn't want to disturb them so I inspected those and added them to the tank.

Box has arrived:

Contents: Hot Sauce, Reef Roids, 2 stickers, a key chain and 5 corals.

Illuminati - This thing is awesome, similar to the Utter Chaos, but different enough to stand out! I am not a big fan of Zoas, but they are nice fillers. This thing may have changed my mind. I got a nice 4 polyp frag.

Shawn's Purple Berry Acro - This thing is thick. Shaggy polyps and a nice blue/green/purple mottled coralites. Can't wait to see this grow, but based on how thick it is, I am going to assume its a slower grower. Picture is not the best color representative.

Blueberry Fields - This Acro looks like the GARF Bonsai acro, but the branches look thicker. That may just be from higher flow, but the purple color is INTENSE. Not represented in this weirdly focused pic. (I'm still learning how to use this camera!)

OG Grafted Monti - Not a big fan of monti caps as they eat up a lot of space, but this one is nice and I will let it grow in its own little corner.

WWC Pixie Dust Pink Zipper Zoas - These polyps are tiny compared to the others I have, but its got an interesting color scheme.

Overall, I am happy with this month's box. The frag sizes were very nicely sized.... no tiny frags here. The two acros are different than anything I have and the Illuminati is killer! Can't wait for next month's box.

 

[WWC]

Hi @Nburg, a big thank you from all of us. Please let us know if you have any questions. We are looking forward to more pics and videos!

 

[wackyreefer]

I was able to take some nice pics over the weekend. For today, I will show off my first month of The @WWC Gold membership. I dipped everything and moved 3 of the 5 to new plugs just to prevent any unwanted pests or algae. One of the Acros and the monti were well encrusted and I didn't want to disturb them so I inspected those and added them to the tank.

Box has arrived:

Contents: Hot Sauce, Reef Roids, 2 stickers, a key chain and 5 corals.

Illuminati - This thing is awesome, similar to the Utter Chaos, but different enough to stand out! I am not a big fan of Zoas, but they are nice fillers. This thing may have changed my mind. I got a nice 4 polyp frag.

Shawn's Purple Berry Acro - This thing is thick. Shaggy polyps and a nice blue/green/purple mottled coralites. Can't wait to see this grow, but based on how thick it is, I am going to assume its a slower grower. Picture is not the best color representative.

Blueberry Fields - This Acro looks like the GARF Bonsai acro, but the branches look thicker. That may just be from higher flow, but the purple color is INTENSE. Not represented in this weirdly focused pic. (I'm still learning how to use this camera!)

OG Grafted Monti - Not a big fan of monti caps as they eat up a lot of space, but this one is nice and I will let it grow in its own little corner.

Pink Zipper Zoas - These polyps are tiny compared to the others I have, but its got an interesting color scheme.

Overall, I am happy with this month's box. The frag sizes were very nicely sized.... no tiny frags here. The two acros are different than anything I have and the Illuminati is killer! Can't wait for next month's box.

Wow the Zoa's are off the hook. That Illuminati ;Drool

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Hey @WWC - This was in my monthly box listed as a Pink Zipper, but when I looked it up, it doens't look anything like your other pink zipper zoas. Looks more like the WWC Pixie Dust
Mine

Pixie dust from your site: https://worldwidecorals.com/products/wwc-pixie-dust-zoanthids-13111

Pink Zipper from your site: https://worldwidecorals.com/products/wwc-super-taser-zoanthids-25216

Not that I care, I just want to make sure I call them the right thing

 

[WWC]

You’re right. Those are definitely Pixie Dust Zoas. They wrote the wrong name down on the card. Sorry about that!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

You’re right. Those are definitely Pixie Dust Zoas. They wrote the wrong name down on the card. Sorry about that!

All good! Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

A couple photos that turned out nice.

Thought this looked cool. Zoomed out with the camera tube.

Utter Chaos and CB Rainbow Infusions getting comfy. The UCs got white spots in the center from the LED in the old tank, so they're starting to get more orange again under better lighting. The Rainbow Infusions have never looked better!

Some of my newer Ricordea

Some of my older Ricordea

One of my Rock flower anemones that has survived the moves and is starting to look good again. I thought it would be a goner (may not be out of the woods yet).

Notice not a lot of Acro pics as they are all nubs and not really colored up much yet.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Getting out to a fish store in Virginia or Maryland is tough from DC, so I made my own fish food on Sunday. I figure its probably better anyways. I have plenty of mysis, so I will still feed that, but I went to Whole Foods and got some whole pink shrimp, whole squid fresh clams and fresh mussels. I chopped those up, added reef roids and reef chili, a little selcon and some nori sheets.

I smashed it in 1 gallon bags like Rods food, but today I found some small silicone ice cube trays that I will use next time.

Fish loved it.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Used a yellow/orange filter to get a better iPhone shot. It came out on the yellow side but easily color corrected to make it look natural. Not bad got a phone camera.

 

[wackyreefer]

Tank looking great!!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

My August @WWC Gold Club shipment came today and they’ve topped themselves from last time. Colors and sizes are amazing. I was actually thinking of buying a frag of the AOIs if I didn’t get one in my boxes but they must have read my mind. I’m not a huge fan of Zoas but those are amazing.

iPhone pic, but I’ll try and get some DLSR pics in the future.

left to right:
WWC Dragonslayer acro
WWC Hurricane Acro
WWC Blueberry
WWC Dragon Fruit Monti
WWC AOI Zoas

 

[Nburg's Reef]

These pics turned out pretty good of my new frags:
WWC AOI Zoas - so eager to see this one spread

WWC Dragon Fruit Monti

WWC Dragon Slayer Acro (signs of purple around the top edges. Can't wait for this one to grow up)

WWC Hurricane Acro (pretty basic purple at the moment, but based on pics, this should be another stunning acro)

WWC Blueberry Acro (not to be confused with the Blueberry Fields or Purple Berry I got last month, lol)
This one has some weird knobby growths so I am getting is may have had some tissue damage from high flow at some point... but the green color is so deep and intense.

So there's my month's worth of new frags. @WWC , thanks again for another good coral club month!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Thought I would share an update on equipment:
I decided the red sea reefer top was not cutting it looks wise, so I got a clearview lid. I was going back and forth with OctoAquatics and Clearview lids (i remember them getting flack for back orders) but decided on Clearview because they are local to DC so its nice to support the local economy and their new The Pisces EXO line looks really slick. It took about 2-3 months, but it was worth the wait.

Here is my sump. As you can see, I have yet to practice cord and tube management, lol. I don't run a fuge so I turned the extra space into a frag tank. Right now I have a single AI Prime HD lighting it, but I have a second that I have been too lazy to install. I am going to install a permanent double mount from the top of the stand as I was able to find 2 bolts with the same thread as the mounting arms. That should clear up some clutter once I get around to it.

I also have what many would consider to be a small skimmer for an SPS tank: JNS ConeS CO-1 (same as an AquaMaxx of the same model name). It does a good job and not looking to upgrade as I am struggling to keep my NO3 beyond 0 ppm. (always have). I am also not interest in having a flashy sump, function over fancy, so your eyes are not deceiving you, I am using SOLO cups as filter sock cups .

You can also see my DIY CO2 scrubber on the far left. I decided to recycle one of @AlgaeBarn 's pod jars to make it. air line adapter glued on the bottom and 2 on top, a little velcro to hold it up. Does a good job but I have had it suck up some foam from the skimmer and which needed to clean it out.

Lastly, my storage side of the Reefer 450. Again, some cord management but still needs improvement. Once I get my condo squared away I can focus on the little stuff.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Thought I would share an update on equipment:
I decided the red sea reefer top was not cutting it looks wise, so I got a clearview lid. I was going back and forth with OctoAquatics and Clearview lids (i remember them getting flack for back orders) but decided on Clearview because they are local to DC so its nice to support the local economy and their new The Pisces EXO line looks really slick. It took about 2-3 months, but it was worth the wait.

Here is my sump. As you can see, I have yet to practice cord and tube management, lol. I don't run a fuge so I turned the extra space into a frag tank. Right now I have a single AI Prime HD lighting it, but I have a second that I have been too lazy to install. I am going to install a permanent double mount from the top of the stand as I was able to find 2 bolts with the same thread as the mounting arms. That should clear up some clutter once I get around to it.

I also have what many would consider to be a small skimmer for an SPS tank: JNS ConeS CO-1 (same as an AquaMaxx of the same model name). It does a good job and not looking to upgrade as I am struggling to keep my NO3 beyond 0 ppm. (always have). I am also not interest in having a flashy sump, function over fancy, so your eyes are not deceiving you, I am using SOLO cups as filter sock cups .

You can also see my DIY CO2 scrubber on the far left. I decided to recycle one of @AlgaeBarn 's pod jars to make it. air line adapter glued on the bottom and 2 on top, a little velcro to hold it up. Does a good job but I have had it suck up some foam from the skimmer and which needed to clean it out.

Lastly, my storage side of the Reefer 450. Again, some cord management but still needs improvement. Once I get my condo squared away I can focus on the little stuff.

The jars always come in handy at my house! Pretty sure i have a few in the floorboard of my car xD ~Shaun K