OGR'S BC Battlestag, TSA Princess Peach, Vivid Confetti, and more (eventually)- Monthly Growth Documentation

[Oregon Grown Reef]

A couple of weeks ago I was driving through Seattle on my way back down from vacation in Anacortes and I stopped off at a few reef shops looking for a deal. Barrier Reef Aquariums had a buy 2 get 1 free deal, so I grabbed these three pieces. Other than a grow out contest that I was apart of for all of 4 months, I've never done progressive growth documentation of acros. So...we'll see if I can figure out how to grow these suckers and color them up and provide pics along the way.


P.S. Dont judge me for my lack of cord management. I have no excuse for it, but nonetheless...

System Specs

Tank:

Barebottom 40b aqueon drilled tank with a synergy shadow overflow box

Sump:

29 gallon aqueon DIY sump w/ live rock/filter roller section, sump section, and return pump

Mechanical Filtration:

Clarisea SK-5000 auto filter roller
Bubble Magus NAC3.5 skimmer

Chemical filtration:

GFO in BRS deluxe media reactor

Return Pump:

Generic Chinese pump w/ random flow generator nozzle

Lights:

3 AI Prime HD (not 16's)

Flow:

2 AI Nero 5 powerheads ran between

Element supplementation:

Saturated kalkwasser stored in 5 gallon hardware store bucket. Refilled every ~2 months.

Dosing Pump:

Kamoer X1 Pro

Auto Top-Off:

XP Aqua Duetto w/ 5 gallon hardware store bucket

The Numbers, Mason. What do they mean? (Inside joke. You may or may not know. Not exclusive to me):

Salinity 1.025-1.026 measured with Misco Seawater Refractometer

pH 8.01 measured with Hanna pHep+ checker

Nitrate 10-15 ppm measured with Hanna HR checker

Phosphate 0.03-0.06 ppm measured with Hanna Phosphorous LR checker (GFO changed at 0.06)

Alkalinity 7.8-8.2 measured with Hanna dKh checker (All tanks ebb and flow like this. Slow swings over several weeks are still stable and won't cause issues).

Calcium 380-420 ppm measured with Red Sea test

Magnesium 1400-1440ppm measured with Red Sea




Tank and Equipment Pics:

Flow and Lighting Schedules

First Month's Pics (1/15/2022)



BC Battlestag

(top down)

(side view)

Vivid's Confetti

(top down)

(side view)

TSA Princess Peach

(top down)

(side view)

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I'm excited for this and looking forward to sharing it with you all!

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Finally able to upload the photos from earlier this month. Overall, they are still coloring up and growing. The TSA Princess Peach by far has grown the fastest. It's encrusting quickly and the colors are much more vibrant. The Vivid Confetti is encrusting and getting better coloration as well. The BC Battlestag is growing slowly and losing color... I just got a par meter and the par is not where I'm wanting it at for the corals I'm trying to grow. I may need to add a 2nd row of leds. We'll see!

On another note, I purchased some acros from Battlecorals that came in looking great. After a couple of weeks, the polyps started retracting and then I lost 2 acros to RTN. A 3rd was on it's way out. I put it in my other reef tank that's been running for over 4 years and the tissue loss stopped. I'm hoping it still comes back. I've been doing regular water changes and running carbon, so I'm not sure what it could have been. All parameters have been pretty much rock solid. Maybe they just didn't like that tank. Only time will tell.



TSA Princess Peach

(top down view)

(side view)

Vivid's Confetti

(top down view)

(side view)

BC Battlestag

(top down view)

(side view)

 

[Nick Steele]

I love these threads!!!

Have you thought about maybe doing a side/side or top/bottom pic of when you got them vs what it looks like now would give a quick snapshot of the growth over the time fram

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I love these threads!!!

Have you thought about maybe doing a side/side or top/bottom pic of when you got them vs what it looks like now would give a quick snapshot of the growth over the time frame

That's a great idea! I think I'll do that every 3 months instead of every month so the comparison is greater though.