BTA Looks great!I got some beautiful photos of my new black widow bta from @TopShelfAquatics today and wanted to share. The dumb anemone parked itself on the backside of this rock for a few days, so I turned the rock around to encourage it to get some light. I’ll try feeding it in a few days.
orphek lights look good!I installed my Orphek blue bar ( https://amzn.to/4b0Ucz6 )to reduce shadowing and add some pop to my very full spectrum settings on the AP9x. I used these mounting arms and am quite happy with them ( https://amzn.to/4aWmR8r ). I was able to mount them with tilt as desired.
The reefmat comes with flex tubing with screw-in fittings on the ends that is compatible with the threads already included in the reefer plumbing. Later on, I cut the flex ribbed tubing of the reefmat to make it a tighter fit. Give my thread a look through and you’ll see how I did it!
So I came up with a fun “collab” between my display and frag system. The frag system refugium has feather caulerpa that came in on @LiverockRocks TBS live rock, and is growing like crazy. I’m able to harvest it regularly and feed it on a two little fishies sea veggie clip in my display! Tango from @Biota_Marine and Angie the coral beauty love it, and the clowns and cleaner shrimp eat it too! I cannot emphasize enough how much of a pleasure it is to discover and foster synergies between my own systems, and between multiple sustainable vendors in our hobby!
Hey… I’m still waiting for the build thread you slacker
Maybe a nutrient issue. In the past I’ve fed mine like 2-3 week and kept the green variety in 150ish par and reds around 200ish and had medium flow (enough to see them waving around most of the time). They tended to get darker, developed colorful tips and expanded about 2/3 of their possible size. I think most of us overdo the PAR for the common verities. At these PAR values I’ve never seen them reaching up to get more.My BTA has gotten quite a bit more plump and open lately, but also a bit more pale in color. Can’t tell if this is good or bad? At any rate, it seems to have gotten my clowns even more obsessed with it.
I’m sure PAR isn’t an issue, I have it under kessils with an Orphek bar for extra coverage - on feeding, I did start feeding more recently which cause it to be more open more often. I did also used to have a nutrient issue (zero N and P) which I have rectified by feeding more aggressively and taking the cup off my skimmer. Hopefully the coloration improves with time!
I find with my bubble tips the bigger they got the less color they got. But in a sense of same color patterns from before just more spread out. So not a rainbow, more of a splatter. Still happy and healthy nonetheless, yours looks the same! Also if you have any fatties in your tank feeding can be a pain with having to sit there for 10-20 mins while you swallow. I have 2 purple tangs and 1 cleaner that will gorge on anything that a coral or anemone is eating if I don't protect it. The tangs even attached my tongs to try to get the food...
Oh yes, I know what you mean believe me - I have to guard the nem with the feeding stick to swat away the cleaner shrimps
