Smite's Stout CDA - 205g Acropora dominant system 50x38x25"

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dang, it's always something. Beautiful BC Skinny Love frag I acquired recently but what do I spy when I look REAL close? I think those are red planaria? Time to get a sixline type wrasse in there I guess.
BC Skinny Love close up.jpg

Polyp extension is looking really good. I'm extending my photoperiod for the t5s. I had the quantas kick on for 2 hours for a midday punch for the last few months. I turned that off and feel like the tank is responding positively to it. Too much light I believe.

BC Aquatic Man over JF Beach Bum montipora. This is gonna get cool!
BC AquaticMan-2.jpg

The light purple coloration on my Oregon Tort is pretty purple, almost matches the purple death paly below it.
Oregon Tort purple death.jpg

2 No namers from Tong's Tropical Fish are looking happier. The second one's a "Weirdo" . I have several pieces with those tiny feather dusters in them now, like in the smoothy looking piece.
Tong's Smoothie.jpg
Tongs Weirdo.jpg
 
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Gonna mock this up in the garage and test some par\spread on a sheet of plywood. It could possibly go up if it works well. If not I’ll be giving the reefbrite hybrid it’s shot in the future. Either way, MH is in the plans.
6C01B783-0752-47C8-BC3B-C581B4BA3170.jpeg
EB31A470-EACB-4851-B4F7-216AD15D0D15.jpeg
 
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A few that are on my radar now:
Smooth Skin/ Deep water type:
Purple Monster
Brad's Jaw Dropper
CC Hellboy

Millepora / Spathulata
BC Dream Sequence Milli
TGC Red Wing Milli
BC Golden Rod Spathulata
CE Abe's Spathulata
BC Rocket Sauce Milli
CC Bahama Mama Milli

Tenuis
Homewrecker


Realistically I probably won't be able to fit all those so I'll have to make some decisions. Part of me thinks about selling the Gigantea and doing a lower level in the center for an added level change but my clowns would be SO bummed. They love that thing. It'd does worry me being barebottom though.
 

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Just found this build thread, thank you for taking the time to keep up with it!
That wish list of acros might as well have came straight out of my reefing notebook, I like your style.

I just passed on a well priced local bahama mama frag in lue of one I had not heard of before: BC 3 oranges. I figured the bahama mama was easy enough to source in the near future.
-Don
 
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Just found this build thread, thank you for taking the time to keep up with it!
That wish list of acros might as well have came straight out of my reefing notebook, I like your style.

I just passed on a well priced local bahama mama frag in lue of one I had not heard of before: BC 3 oranges. I figured the bahama mama was easy enough to source in the near future.
-Don
Thanks for checking it out, Don. It's been slowly gaining speed so hopefully it'll get more interesting here soon.

We have a local Coral Farmers Market coming up on Saturday that I'm hoping to make it to and also hoping to find some nice millepora/smooth skins. Fingers crossed I'll find one on my list. I'll have to add that BC 3 oranges to the list, thing looks really nice. How is it in person, pretty close to the BC images?
 
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I swapped my PM for the MH rig today. It lasted for all of about 30 minutes. Those elites just didn't come close to having the spread/coverage I was looking for so they are going to get packed away in the reef closet. Might be nice if I ever set up a frag tank where the rockwork isn't so drastic. When I re-hung the power module I had a new appreciation for that beast and just how full the coverage is!

Seeing the 14k hamiltons for a second was wonderful and showed me my spectrum is off a bit visually. I may add in some C+ lamps to the mix, maybe in place of the 14k lamps and see if that gets me a little more pop.

Unfortunately I lost my CBB. I'm not sure what happened 100%. Not to make light of it but it appears he gigantea'd around and found out. I hope the gigantea is alright, I think what I spotted was the CBB on his way back out of the mouth. He was mostly deteriorated so I'm assuming it happened last night, or he was partially digested.

Other than that loss, the tank is looking really good. I had to up my reactor to meet the demand of the tank. I'm still working my way towards an 8 hour t5 period, so hopefully it still continues to increase and I see more growth. I moved a few pieces around I feel were being over lit and cut some of the old dead colonies off the rockwork so I can stop dwelling on them. I was happy to find a tiny survivor of this nice pink acropora in the center of the dead colony. Hopefully I can nurse it back to what it was before:
Pink Stink.jpg
DSC_0152-4.jpg
The Other Other pink meat.jpg
 

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Wow, the acro in the middle photo is stunning!
Thanks for checking it out, Don. It's been slowly gaining speed so hopefully it'll get more interesting here soon.

We have a local Coral Farmers Market coming up on Saturday that I'm hoping to make it to and also hoping to find some nice millepora/smooth skins. Fingers crossed I'll find one on my list. I'll have to add that BC 3 oranges to the list, thing looks really nice. How is it in person, pretty close to the BC images?
The frag I picked up is just a nub. It has shaggy blood red polyps which are nice, but the flesh hasn’t colored up yet. I’m seeing green where it’s encrusting and a slight yellow/orange under blues. It definitely needs more time.
 
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Wow, the acro in the middle photo is stunning!

The frag I picked up is just a nub. It has shaggy blood red polyps with are nice, but the flesh hasn’t colored up yet. I’m seeing green where it’s encrusting and a slight yellow/orange under blues. It definitely needs more time.
Nice! That shag is what I'm feeling my tank is missing right now.

Those are all the same piece. That one just fluoresced like crazy under the XHO blues. That picture was taken right when it was taking off so those blue tips were whiter new growth under whites, just reflecting blue under the XHO. It was also shot through an orange filter which makes things more saturated unless you're looking at it with shades on. It was crazy hot pink though, I could see it from across the room just glowing.
 
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I was able to pick up this cool granulosa from AOA (Age of Aquariums) near me. They don't have a huge selection of acropora but what they do have is very nice. Lots of ORA and old school pieces. I'll get some daylight shots, nice lime green with purple/blue coralites. All blue has a nice gold hue to it.
AOA Granulosa.jpg


I'm bummed I scratched the heck out of my filter I cut for my avast porthole. I'll need to figure something else out going forward. Maybe I'll try out a brown filter next.
 
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I finally got around to adding a powerfilter as described in the RMS method. It's a bit of an eyesore in the display but not as bad as I thought it would be since my bracing is doubled up with black silicon. I've placed it above my tunze powerheads, helps hide it a bit and I figure the tunze will pull the debris to the filter. I dosed my usual snow mixture tonight and fired it up. It's quiet and adds a bit more flow to the tank. It's been about 30 minutes and the tank is only looking slightly foggy, that's about 5x as fast as it would usually start to clear up so I'm hoping to see some nice crystal clear water over the next week.
Thats been one of the harder things for me with this 36" span and black background... Never quite looked clear to me even with UV. Maybe this will get me there? If not then it's just the t5 lighting I'm still not accustomed to. I feel like B+ type lamps throw a tint to the water.


I'm seeing consistent improvement in the tank. Both coloration and growth. All the new frags are spot on but I feel like even some of the ones that made it through the whole ordeal are starting to recover and show more color and PE. The major hold out is JF Fox Flame. Polyps out just coloration sucks. I'm not sure if it's a PAR issue, being pretty high up, or if it's just still struggling. Not a single yellow tip, just a dull maroonish red. As far as the rest go I'm seeing polyp extension even on the smoothies so that's great.

I cleaned my fuge and my chaeto doubled in size over the last few weeks. There was lots of green cyano down there so I sucked that out and I added my last 40lb of oolite to the fuge DSB, so I'm at 6" now. I'm starting to see some spaghetti worms migrate from the display to the sand. Looking forward to watching the DSB develop life.

Nutrients are present no3 15-20 / po4 .08-.12. I'm working OG phyto back into the mix now as well. That should really bump start my fuge life and the corals are loving it.
 
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A few pieces off the left side of my tank that gets direct sunlight in the AM. I really wish more of the tank got some of this during the day.

Speciosa
Speciousa Sun.jpg

Unknown acropora
Unknown Garret.jpg

Vivid's Insanity nub
Vivid's Insanity-2.jpg

WD
WD Sun.jpg

Setosa
Setosa Sun.jpg

Grafted Cap
GraftedCapSun.jpg

CC Voodoo Magic
CC Voodoo Magic Sun.jpg

Caroliniana
Caroliniana Sun.jpg

Blastos
Blastos Sun.jpg

My favorite acan in the tank
Acan Sun.jpg

Favia, I believe it's the Full Tilt I'll have to look back on that
Favia Sun.jpg

JF Pyscho Rim Favia
JF PsychoRim Sun.jpg
 
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The best it's looked since 2018-19 bahahaha The heartwrenching, stubborn as all get out....Vivid's 4 loko. Turds have more color but it's starting to show more coloration under blue.
Vivid's 4 Loko.jpg

A new pickup no namer piece. At first I thought it was just a wild Pink Cadillac but as I was looking it had very blue polyps under the LFS whiter spectrum. Under blues the base absolutely glows. Polyps haven't really shown for me yet. If I keep it happy it should be a good day and night piece.
TDawgBlueEyedLucy.jpg

TDawgBlueEyedLucy-2.jpg

I saw this little encrusted nub on the rock work left from a previous colony. They cut it off for me and it looks pretty cool. Looks like millepora to me
TDawgCsAll.jpg

Very flourescent orange and green under blues. Daylight looked good but it's lightened up over the last few days.
TDawgCsAll Night.jpg


Can't help myself with the no namers. Some times they just turn out amazing. Of all the pieces I lost those were the hardest due to not being able to find them again. Hopefully these do well and grow. They should give me some real insight on the health of my tank now.

And just because I can't get enough of this one
TDawg wildin' out.jpg
 

JCOLE

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The best it's looked since 2018-19 bahahaha The heartwrenching, stubborn as all get out....Vivid's 4 loko. Turds have more color but it's starting to show more coloration under blue.
Vivid's 4 Loko.jpg's 4 Loko.jpg

A new pickup no namer piece. At first I thought it was just a wild Pink Cadillac but as I was looking it had very blue polyps under the LFS whiter spectrum. Under blues the base absolutely glows. Polyps haven't really shown for me yet. If I keep it happy it should be a good day and night piece.
TDawgBlueEyedLucy.jpg

TDawgBlueEyedLucy-2.jpg

I saw this little encrusted nub on the rock work left from a previous colony. They cut it off for me and it looks pretty cool. Looks like millepora to me
TDawgCsAll.jpg

Very flourescent orange and green under blues. Daylight looked good but it's lightened up over the last few days.
TDawgCsAll Night.jpg


Can't help myself with the no namers. Some times they just turn out amazing. Of all the pieces I lost those were the hardest due to not being able to find them again. Hopefully these do well and grow. They should give me some real insight on the health of my tank now.

And just because I can't get enough of this one
TDawg wildin' out.jpg

Looking good! No names are my favorites! What is the last one?
 
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Looking good! No names are my favorites! What is the last one?
Just another no namer I got as a small frag from my LFS. They've got this little frag tank I love to gamble on. Nothings really colored, maybe just hints so I pick pieces more off their structure and what I think the growth pattern will be like. I'm pretty sure I picked this up while hunting for smoothies a while back.

Some of my favorite pieces came from that tank; I'm with you I love the no namers. Instead of chasing the colors you see in a named piece you just let them do their thing and sometimes get shocked with how nice they turn out
 

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Just another no namer I got as a small frag from my LFS. They've got this little frag tank I love to gamble on. Nothings really colored, maybe just hints so I pick pieces more off their structure and what I think the growth pattern will be like. I'm pretty sure I picked this up while hunting for smoothies a while back.

Some of my favorite pieces came from that tank; I'm with you I love the no namers. Instead of chasing the colors you see in a named piece you just let them do their thing and sometimes get shocked with how nice they turn out

It looks awesome! Love the true gold look
 

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I’ve seen some really knockout scopas before, great choice. It looks like that’s the only zebrasoma in that tank?
edit: never mind, there’s a massive Sailfin right in front, Lol
 

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