SeaDweller's Progress Shots

[SeaDweller]

Thanks for the indepth reply very useful, I think what grabs my attention mostly is the extra care with your RO water and the use of an auto feeder.
Do attribute some of your success to these two things and is it something you have altered as a result of direct observation and improvement? I'm wondering if its 2 areas that I could look at to improve my tank?
Big thanks again keep the shots and info coming.

I think so. I think my crash from a few years ago was a combo of depleted carbon filtration and depleted nutrients in the tank. Ive only lost a few acros this time (sensitive species, didn't ship well), and I think this reincarnation lends its success to clean clean clean water, available nutrients, and being very diligent about maintaining ultimate Alk stability. I don't know if what I'm doing is right or ideal, but it's been working just fine for me. Now I have to focus on coloring up some pieces better and then I'm golden. I've had to lower my white intensity to help a bit more with coloration.

Here are some random shots from tonight. Post Chemiclean treatment, all is clear again. NO3 did jump from 1.0 to 10.0 ppm after the treatment, assuming from the cyano die off, and not skimming, maybe the cyano not using the NO3 too. Also added two additional Tunze 6105s and moved the gyre to the back wall. Flow is insane right now. There's a vortex in there!

This OG ASD rainbow mille grew a nub in almost a year. Whoopie.

RR PF getting big. Can't beat that yellow, classic. The WWC SOTR mille is getting big too. AV99 Orange crush looking ok, and that TGC orange creamsicle is super taking off.

Unnamed austera, Lime in the sky, PC rainbow

BC BBU getting some deep purples and pinks finally. Unnamed pink mille that's super nice and crazy fast growing. Tyree Pinky the bear. And a crazy fast orange tipped albro.

SC TdF amongst the thicket of a Coral Euphoria blue acro. RR Skittles to the upper left and RMF Flavor parade to the bottom right (dormant)

Unnamed orange mille

Therman wasn't lying about this RR Raven. It's crazy magenta, bright.

Anthony's Star is Born mille. Super nice and fast growing.

Another ASD rainbow mille, non dormant, serpentman solid above it, CB Maleficent battling it out with a BC Bleeding tree, and CC D Jr just cruising along.

CG Cherrybomb has gained it's pinks again, it's like a vibrant neon pink IRL, kinda gets washed away in this pic, and the lighting is off too. BC Conveyorbelt of Fleshdunce. Super nice yellow and red polyp mille (so far those are the only colors, should be rainbow soon hopefully), and this legit HW finally showing pinks! JF FF doing its thang too

 

[justy]

I think so. I think my crash from a few years ago was a combo of depleted carbon filtration and depleted nutrients in the tank. Ive only lost a few acros this time (sensitive species, didn't ship well), and I think this reincarnation lends its success to clean clean clean water, available nutrients, and being very diligent about maintaining ultimate Alk stability. I don't know if what I'm doing is right or ideal, but it's been working just fine for me. Now I have to focus on coloring up some pieces better and then I'm golden. I've had to lower my white intensity to help a bit more with coloration.

Here are some random shots from tonight. Post Chemiclean treatment, all is clear again. NO3 did jump from 1.0 to 10.0 ppm after the treatment, assuming from the cyano die off, and not skimming, maybe the cyano not using the NO3 too. Also added two additional Tunze 6105s and moved the gyre to the back wall. Flow is insane right now. There's a vortex in there!

This OG ASD rainbow mille grew a nub in almost a year. Whoopie.

RR PF getting big. Can't beat that yellow, classic. The WWC SOTR mille is getting big too. AV99 Orange crush looking ok, and that TGC orange creamsicle is super taking off.

Unnamed austera, Lime in the sky, PC rainbow

BC BBU getting some deep purples and pinks finally. Unnamed pink mille that's super nice and crazy fast growing. Tyree Pinky the bear. And a crazy fast orange tipped albro.

SC TdF amongst the thicket of a Coral Euphoria blue acro. RR Skittles to the upper left and RMF Flavor parade to the bottom right (dormant)

Unnamed orange mille

Therman wasn't lying about this RR Raven. It's crazy magenta, bright.

Anthony's Star is Born mille. Super nice and fast growing.

Another ASD rainbow mille, non dormant, serpentman solid above it, CB Maleficent battling it out with a BC Bleeding tree, and CC D Jr just cruising along.

CG Cherrybomb has gained it's pinks again, it's like a vibrant neon pink IRL, kinda gets washed away in this pic, and the lighting is off too. BC Conveyorbelt of Fleshdunce. Super nice yellow and red polyp mille (so far those are the only colors, should be rainbow soon hopefully), and this legit HW finally showing pinks! JF FF doing its thang too

Wow! what intensity are your white diode at the moment?
I wish we could get these acro varieties in the UK.
How long have you been growing the abrotanoides?
Hope you dont mind all the questions.
I found that once I stopped messing with my led's and kept stable kh things started to take off.
Thanks again.

 

[SeaDweller]

Wow! what intensity are your white diode at the moment?
I wish we could get these acro varieties in the UK.
How long have you been growing the abrotanoides?
Hope you dont mind all the questions.
I found that once I stopped messing with my led's and kept stable kh things started to take off.
Thanks again.

I had them at 50% for a few months up until recently; they were running at 50% for about 8 hours a day, and although growth looked great, the color was lacking, some pieces couldn't weather the PAR and some got a little bleached. I've always maintained my blue ratio high, and now they're 100% (from 90-95%) and I've dropped whites down to 25% for 4 hours, 30% for two hours and 35% for 2 hours; set to ramp like a bell curve. 8 hours white, but the peak is only for 2 hours and the tank looks so much better in terms of color, as a whole.

The abro has been in this tank since feb-march IIRC. at this point, I just need to stop tweaking my spectrum and let the colors do the talking.

 

[justy]

I had them at 50% for a few months up until recently; they were running at 50% for about 8 hours a day, and although growth looked great, the color was lacking, some pieces couldn't weather the PAR and some got a little bleached. I've always maintained my blue ratio high, and now they're 100% (from 90-95%) and I've dropped whites down to 25% for 4 hours, 30% for two hours and 35% for 2 hours; set to ramp like a bell curve. 8 hours white, but the peak is only for 2 hours and the tank looks so much better in terms of color, as a whole.

The abro has been in this tank since feb-march IIRC. at this point, I just need to stop tweaking my spectrum and let the colors do the talking.

Thanks keep the good work up!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I think so. I think my crash from a few years ago was a combo of depleted carbon filtration and depleted nutrients in the tank. Ive only lost a few acros this time (sensitive species, didn't ship well), and I think this reincarnation lends its success to clean clean clean water, available nutrients, and being very diligent about maintaining ultimate Alk stability. I don't know if what I'm doing is right or ideal, but it's been working just fine for me. Now I have to focus on coloring up some pieces better and then I'm golden. I've had to lower my white intensity to help a bit more with coloration.

Here are some random shots from tonight. Post Chemiclean treatment, all is clear again. NO3 did jump from 1.0 to 10.0 ppm after the treatment, assuming from the cyano die off, and not skimming, maybe the cyano not using the NO3 too. Also added two additional Tunze 6105s and moved the gyre to the back wall. Flow is insane right now. There's a vortex in there!

This OG ASD rainbow mille grew a nub in almost a year. Whoopie.

RR PF getting big. Can't beat that yellow, classic. The WWC SOTR mille is getting big too. AV99 Orange crush looking ok, and that TGC orange creamsicle is super taking off.

Unnamed austera, Lime in the sky, PC rainbow

BC BBU getting some deep purples and pinks finally. Unnamed pink mille that's super nice and crazy fast growing. Tyree Pinky the bear. And a crazy fast orange tipped albro.

SC TdF amongst the thicket of a Coral Euphoria blue acro. RR Skittles to the upper left and RMF Flavor parade to the bottom right (dormant)

Unnamed orange mille

Therman wasn't lying about this RR Raven. It's crazy magenta, bright.

Anthony's Star is Born mille. Super nice and fast growing.

Another ASD rainbow mille, non dormant, serpentman solid above it, CB Maleficent battling it out with a BC Bleeding tree, and CC D Jr just cruising along.

CG Cherrybomb has gained it's pinks again, it's like a vibrant neon pink IRL, kinda gets washed away in this pic, and the lighting is off too. BC Conveyorbelt of Fleshdunce. Super nice yellow and red polyp mille (so far those are the only colors, should be rainbow soon hopefully), and this legit HW finally showing pinks! JF FF doing its thang too

Fantastic job! Looks amazing!

 

[SeaDweller]

so a few things have changed, In my system hopefully all for the better.
It’s no secret LEDs grow and color acropora, but it’s true the best growth and color comes from a combo of all lighting methods combined, and I’d go so far to say MH and LED is probably the best I’ve seen. There’s truth to how good something looks under MH and just GLOWS under LED. Take for example the first two pieces. Yes they’re under blues but these super pop. I physically lost my confetti frag so a visit to @Coral Euphoria fixed that, but also I was able to pick up a Coral Euphoria exclusive piece, that middle piece you see there (to the right is a third RR Wolverine from @therman; same thing. Physically lost the first one and the second didn’t fare well in transit).
The middle piece just screams in person. I should have taken a pic of the mother colony and I hope @Coral Euphoria chimes in with a nice shot of it if he has time. This rivals the current piece that’s out there, but I won’t name which one.
so... I’ve been thinking of adding MH in between my RB units and maybe have them run 4 hours... but I dunno.

anyway, using a par meter again, I decided to drop my levels because my par, although matched to MH par, is not the same in terms of producing the same in terms of color for my uppermost pieces. Some acros were getting 550-600 par and loved it, but some hated it. Namely a few expensive tenuis. I was running 100% blues and 50% others at 14” from my water.
I underestimated how strong @Reef Breeders photons are, although I was using the correct par meter before.
I’m now running my blues at 70% and others at 18% and I’m still getting 400-450 at the spots I need and 200-250+ at the sandbed at most spots! Since doing so for the past two plus weeks there has been improvement in color in certain pieces and much improved PE. It’ll stay these levels probably for good, but I won’t ever go above 80/20 again. With 4 units, and although I was getting par numbers comparable to MH, the par doesn’t produce the same results. There is truth to that, I was pushing the threshold of some pieces and luckily they didn’t croak, but tolerated my experiment.
If you’re running 4+ units like I am, do yourself a favor and get the proper meter to make sure you’re not using more light than you need.

 

[SeaDweller]

Oh hi! Today, I'm 1 year old. No, no, not those tall colonies behind me. I'm down here. I'm the sad little true OG ASD Rainbow mille. I've survived test runs in high nutrient waters and almost died twice. I'm like a zombie. All I've done is color up to this super nice ideal color but managed to P off my owner by only putting out TWO micro nubs in ONE YEAR.

This OT is also a year old but obviously not a wuss of a grower like the above. In fact this is one piece I was able to save from RTN where I saved three nubs that grew into this. This was in an area of no flow and low light. Goes to show you don't need alot of flow or light to grow certain corals.

I should get a full spec pic of this Vivid's Rainbow. This is an underrated acro. Although this is a blue pic, the Tyree PL is such a bright yellow Coral. It stands out in full spec and shines in blue light. So pretty.

Another underrated classic is Paletta's Pink Tip. Every tank needs a PPT

Not sure why some people feel "meh" towards a beautifully colored WD? In the correct spectrum it's super pretty and in blues it's beautiful. A modern classic in my book, and not a trick light Tenuis. To each his own...

Two classics: WWC Yellow tips and the eye catching SSC.

We will see where these take me in 3-4 mos: Vivid's Confetti and a @Coral Euphoria exclusive piece.

I watch the interaction between that bright red CB Maleficent, CC Disney Jr, and BC Bleeding tree albro very closely. My CCDJ must be happy again because I like the way it's colored up right now. Lately I've turned down my fixtures to 70/17

So I thought this piece was going to be a dud. It was gray and brown for a good 5+ months. Then STN'ed. I fragged the upper half to save whatever. With some (alot) of patience, this is CRT's Starkiller. Doesn't look like what it was supposed to be in pics, but I can't argue with the (so far) bright pink body and golden polyps. I see hints of purple in the corallite tips too.

In the above picture you can see my very unhappy RMF Lucky charms, directly left of the SCOP. I hit it with too much par. It clorox'ed on me. Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing.

My JF HW "syndrome" may be over. I'm finally getting pinks! Which showed up after I dropped PAR to about 400-450 btw... CG Cherry Bomb has shown better colors as well. Ok screw it, this whole rock is doing better since dropping par, even that JF Fox flame. The BC Fleshdunce is new.

BC Aquatic Man. Need I say more? Fighting with that soli next to it. Growing in harmony at the moment. I tend to let things touch alot.

There's a thick Hippo amongst the thicket of acros...

RR Raven. Super bright magenta mille. Can't capture how nice this is. Something dislodged it from its rock. Luckily I found it. Now resides on a tile on the sandbed. Big R WD next to it.

Dead center is a recovering CC Kombucha Tenuis. To the right is an RMF Red Devil that's recovering too. Don't know why they looked weird , don't ask.

Anthony’s Star is Born looking hairy AF

Can never get a good shot of Tyree Pinky the Bear, but it's so nice under blues.

Just a shot I enjoy looking at.

Sexy Corals Tierra del Fuego. Such a nice piece. To the left is RR Skittles. To the far right is a dormant RMF Flavor Parade.

That's all for today, kids. Ever since dropping par, I've noticed alk consumption slowed so I've had to adjust my carx. NO3 is running a bit higher and I'm enjoying it.

 

[Coral Euphoria]

Very nice!! I can confirm that these pieces look this nice in person!

 

[SeaDweller]

Very nice!! I can confirm that these pieces look this nice in person!

Thanks for the kind words Abe! Your tanks are motivating and inspiring, for real!

 

[C. Eymann]

Sweet looking tank as always bud!

 

[tripdad]

Very impressive!

 

[SeaDweller]

FTS Friday:

 

[biecacka]

So you are running your whites at 18%?
what par reader did you use to measure the numbers?my orpheks should be back home soon from getting repaired and I was thinking of one of their pre programmed programs similar to the one BRS ran but it calls for 70% whites I believe.
and their 20k similar to the radium is around 60% white channel

corey

 

[SeaDweller]

So you are running your whites at 18%?
what pat reader did you use to measure the numbers?my orpheks should be back home soon from getting repaired and I was thinking of one of their pre programmed programs similar to the one BRS ran but it calls for 70% whites I believe.
and their 20k similar to the radium is around 60% white channel

corey

I double checked the other day and my B/V are 70% and my W/G/R is 17% and using the Apogee 510, I am now getting 400-450 at the top of my rocks, with full flow going on, about 200 at the sandbed, and 120+ in the corners. At one point I ran my whites at 50% because I thought they were up high enough (14”) and I was trying to match par to @Coral Euphoria ’s MH&LED set up, and that was a bad idea. He’s getting 600 PAR in his prop tank and his acros are some of the best I’ve seen under that combo. I thought I could mimic the par, but ended up bleaching a few, namely tenuis.

lesson: you can’t compare PAR laterally between the three lighting sources as it’s not apples to apples (PAR). I had to really take down my levels to watch these beautiful colors redevelop. I’d be cautious with your Orpheks cuz these CREE LEDs are powerful in mine.

Of note, while my whites were running high, I saw an explosion of growth, in acros, but also in algae and cyano. Ever since running a modded AB+ (4:1 ratio, just longer ramp times and a core 8 hours full spectrum) I don’t see that anymore and it’s so much prettier to my eyes, but man things really grew!

 

[biecacka]

I will get a par meter. I am curious and want to make sure I’m getting enough par. I think when I first put the orpheks up I did burn some coral with 70% whites going.
I’ll try something in that 4:1 ratio likely as well. The thing is with leds I feel like each tank is so different. Makes it even harder

corey

 

[SeaDweller]

I will get a par meter. I am curious and want to make sure I’m getting enough par. I think when I first put the orpheks up I did burn some coral with 70% whites going.
I’ll try something in that 4:1 ratio likely as well. The thing is with leds I feel like each tank is so different. Makes it even harder

corey

It is, I'm happy with the reefbreeders, but I feel there's something lacking in the bluer spectra with these lights. IF I had to do it over or "upgrade", I'd consider 8x XR15 pros, 4 Orpheks or 4 ReeFi. With yours, I'm sure there's plenty of light so depending on how many you're running, you may be giving them too much. I know where my units overlap, the PAR is ridiculous, obviously.

 

[biecacka]

Yeah I have 2 units over my 48/48/24 cube. the rock work allows me to get away with 2 fixtures. Yes they are par monsters for sure. I’m excited for the journey.....but I’m not getting rid of my halides haha Not yet


corey

 

[SeaDweller]

Yeah I have 2 units over my 48/48/24 cube. the rock work allows me to get away with 2 fixtures. Yes they are par monsters for sure. I’m excited for the journey.....but I’m not getting rid of my halides haha Not yet


corey

Yo, you have the perfect set up. Run those MH for 4-6 hours then supplement with the Orpheks for rise and down, using low levels white, before and after the MH, and maybe 1-2 hours of 20-30% whites when the MH are running. At least that’s what I’d do.
I bet your acros will look far better than most peoples on here, including mine.

 

[biecacka]

I don’t have the space to run they hybrid. I’m going all led. And I’m not scared. Haha. There are plenty of good led tanks. The halides are just in case I need em

corey

 

[SeaDweller]

I don’t have the space to run they hybrid. I’m going all led. And I’m not scared. Haha. There are plenty of good led tanks. The halides are just in case I need em

corey

There are PLENTY of good LED tanks for sure, oh man... I was finding a way to try to incorporate some MH along with these LEDs, but there's no room. If you could... you'd have the best results, I'd feel.

Keep us updated with your progress!