SoCal's 60g Cube (Dismantled)

[Rehype]

Sorry to hear about the accidental overdose i actually did the same thing a few months ago and lost one or two frags. Glad it wasnt any worse..

[MedRed]

Picked up a green mandarin at the LFS today. I got it to eat about 20 pieces of brine while acclimating, so I hope this is a good thing. I will have to baby it to keep eating them otherwise I might have a problem with all the pod eating fish I have. Thankfully, the leopards show little interest in pod munching anymore and hang out in the water column waiting for me to drop bloodworms, brine, and mysis, so there should be enough for the mandy for awhile.

 

Brine isn't a very nutritious food. Hopefully you can get it on mysis or pellets.

[Arkayology]

Sorry to hear about the accidental overdose i actually did the same thing a few months ago and lost one or two frags. Glad it wasnt any worse..

Thanks Rehype. It sucks, but I learned to double check my timer before I walk away. I have been thinking about getting an apex controller, but they are so expensive...

 

Brine isn't a very nutritious food. Hopefully you can get it on mysis or pellets.

Ya, but it is a start. I am hoping to get it eating mysis, brine, bloodowrms, chopped shrimp, and pellets eventually. I have been looking over some youtube videos and threads on how people do it. I got it because the fiancé likes the colors heh.

 

I will post a pic tomorrow when the lights are on.

[JR!]

i cant wait for that much coralline lol. wonderful tank man

[Joe Dirt]

Ya, the mille colony had some flatworms on it, not the AEFW type, but enough to irritate it and cause poor PE/fillaments that you saw in the pic. I did an iodine dip and the flatworms fell off. Now the colony is bleached/brown. It will take away for it to recover.

 

I did pick up a nice frag of strawberry shortcake and bonsai from Vivid over the weekend. Spent quite a bit on the two, but I am only looking for certain pieces now. The corals from Vivid that I have bought in the past always have great PE and steady growth, so that is why I pay a bit more than from locals (I am a big fan of local frag swaps)

Next time you head over to Vivid on a Sunday let me know. Did you get that shortcake from their SPS tank in the back? BTW, picked a few frags today at MAX. It was a good time.

[Arkayology]

Next time you head over to Vivid on a Sunday let me know. Did you get that shortcake from their SPS tank in the back? BTW, picked a few frags today at MAX. It was a good time.

I will let you know for sure! Ya, I asked him where his good stuff was and he took me to the tank in the back that you have to stand on the chair to see lol. They had quite a few healed shortcake frags for a good price. I wish I could have gone to MAX, but the budget just didn't allow for it this year. Got any pics from MAX?

[Joe Dirt]

I did. But not many. I'll post a couple on my thread in a few minutes.

[MedRed]

was there any oregon tort at MAX? I really need some!

[Joe Dirt]

I didn't see any, but its on my list too. I think Vivid has some though, or maybe its super blue tenuis?

[MedRed]

I didn't see any, but its on my list too. I think Vivid has some though, or maybe its super blue tenuis?

 

They have super blue tenuis. The only piece of oregon tort they have is in the display tank and it's tiny. It grows sooooooo slow. I'll let you know if I come across any.

[Joe Dirt]

[Joe Dirt]

I'm also looking for ORA Turquoise Stag.

[Arkayology]

I didn't see any, but its on my list too. I think Vivid has some though, or maybe its super blue tenuis?

I saw a couple super blue tenuis frags in their floor sps tank. Really nice frags.

 

I'm also looking for ORA Turquoise Stag.

That is a nice piece. Good luck finding it.

[mygolfisslow]

whats up socal i just picked up a radion and would like to talk to you about your settings and how you think i should acclimate to the new lamp.

[Arkayology]

whats up socal i just picked up a radion and would like to talk to you about your settings and how you think i should acclimate to the new lamp.

Hey! So, I went from a 250w metal halide to the radion. What I hung the fixture up 8inches above the water line and set the intensity to 40% and kept it at that for about a week. After that, I bumped it 5% every week until I hit 80%. I was noticing some bleaching, so I scaled it down to 65% and have kept it at that with great results. If you are going from PC bulbs or T5HOs, I would maybe put it a little lower at 30% or so just to make sure you don't shock everything. It may look like there is not much light at 30%, but you would be surprised.

[beau13]

Interesting light intensity. I did the same thing as you (mounted about 8 inches above the water and increased about 5% a week) and I am currently running at 100% from about 10:30 am to 3:00pm with no ill effects. One thing I have noticed though is that my pink frags that I get (birdsnest, strawberry shortcake, etc.) tend to turn just a basic brownish pink for several weeks before recoloring up with either the same intense colors or more. I get my frags mostly from Upscales, and another LFS up here in Oregon.

 

So far my shortcake hasn't colored back up, but it I've only had it about two weeks. I am hoping it does. I wonder if the intensity is doing it, and I'd get more color with lower lighting. The frags are coming from shallow frag tanks with 400w MH above them. I think I will take one of my shortcake frags and put it lower in the tank and see what happens.

[mygolfisslow]

Hey! So, I went from a 250w metal halide to the radion. What I hung the fixture up 8inches above the water line and set the intensity to 40% and kept it at that for about a week. After that, I bumped it 5% every week until I hit 80%. I was noticing some bleaching, so I scaled it down to 65% and have kept it at that with great results. If you are going from PC bulbs or T5HOs, I would maybe put it a little lower at 30% or so just to make sure you don't shock everything. It may look like there is not much light at 30%, but you would be surprised.

Im switching from a DIY 28 3w Cree setup with 60degree optics that was 18in from the water line at 70%. I have the radion 16 in from the water at about 45%.

Do you think I should start higher? Lower the light some? You run natural mode correct? Do you like that better than a custom graph.

[Rehype]

Thanks Rehype. It sucks, but I learned to double check my timer before I walk away. I have been thinking about getting an apex controller, but they are so expensive...

 

I hear ya but they are truly worth the investment...

[Arkayology]

Interesting light intensity. I did the same thing as you (mounted about 8 inches above the water and increased about 5% a week) and I am currently running at 100% from about 10:30 am to 3:00pm with no ill effects. One thing I have noticed though is that my pink frags that I get (birdsnest, strawberry shortcake, etc.) tend to turn just a basic brownish pink for several weeks before recoloring up with either the same intense colors or more. I get my frags mostly from Upscales, and another LFS up here in Oregon.

 

So far my shortcake hasn't colored back up, but it I've only had it about two weeks. I am hoping it does. I wonder if the intensity is doing it, and I'd get more color with lower lighting. The frags are coming from shallow frag tanks with 400w MH above them. I think I will take one of my shortcake frags and put it lower in the tank and see what happens.

Ya, I my SPS really got a little light-colored when the intensity was up in the 80s. I used to have bright green polyps on my ORA purple nana, but now they are white. The bodies of some of the centrally located SPS are also a bit light in hue, such as the pink lemonade, which seems to love all the light even though it doesn't have a really deep color. I think you just have to find the right spots for the corals. I have a baby blue stag that has grown about an inch a month since I got it.

 

I would try putting the shortcake frag lower to see how it does. Best not risk bleaching it.

[Quantum]

How do you like the Radion?

[Arkayology]

Im switching from a DIY 28 3w Cree setup with 60degree optics that was 18in from the water line at 70%. I have the radion 16 in from the water at about 45%.

Do you think I should start higher? Lower the light some? You run natural mode correct? Do you like that better than a custom graph.

I didn't like the natural mode as much because I couldn't get it to change to a nice 18k or 20k blue hue. I switched mine to an artificial program that starts with the run rise that is pre-set to start at 7am, then ramps up to 14k at 50% intensity by 10am, 18k at 60% from 12pm-5pm, 20k from 5pm-7pm at 50% intensity, and then it starts to go into night mode around 8pm with the all-blues on with all lights off around 9:30. I may up the lighting intensity to 75% and make most of the day run at 20k, but not sure yet. It is difficult for me to toy with the Radion as I have a mac and have to borrow a crappy laptop from a friend to program it...

[Quantum]

Do you find your tank having problems with keeping a constant Ca level? With all that sps you must dose something?

 

Oh wait forgot to mention YOUR TANK IS AWESOME.

[mygolfisslow]

I didn't like the natural mode as much because I couldn't get it to change to a nice 18k or 20k blue hue. I switched mine to an artificial program that starts with the run rise that is pre-set to start at 7am, then ramps up to 14k at 50% intensity by 10am, 18k at 60% from 12pm-5pm, 20k from 5pm-7pm at 50% intensity, and then it starts to go into night mode around 8pm with the all-blues on with all lights off around 9:30. I may up the lighting intensity to 75% and make most of the day run at 20k, but not sure yet. It is difficult for me to toy with the Radion as I have a mac and have to borrow a crappy laptop from a friend to program it...

Thanks for the input about your cycle. That's a pretty long day but I suppose natural reefs also have long days. You should get a copy of parallels you can download a copy of windows xp pro. That's what I do as I also run a Mac.

[Arkayology]

I hear ya but they are truly worth the investment...

Maybe when I get out of grad school heh. I do really want one.

 

How do you like the Radion?

It is pretty awesome.

 

Do you find your tank having problems with keeping a constant Ca level? With all that sps you must dose something?

 

Oh wait forgot to mention YOUR TANK IS AWESOME.

I have to dose about 16ml of two part every day to keep up. I add a min every so often to add another 1ml per min a day after things start to grow more and the levels dip down. I have pretty consistent levels at 9.0 alk and 410 Ca. I ran my alk lower around 8.0 when I used my biopellets but I have since taken that offline. It worked too well

 

Thanks for the input about your cycle. That's a pretty long day but I suppose natural reefs also have long days. You should get a copy of parallels you can download a copy of windows xp pro. That's what I do as I also run a Mac.

Ya, but most of the light is pretty low intensity. I have been thinking about shortening it by an hour. Not sure yet. As for parallels, I am ok just waiting. While I do have a need for windows programs, such as SYSTAT and ArcGIS, I have heard that running parallels can be taxing on your comp. I think I will just wait as my macbook is a late 2008 version and I have been too lazy to upgrade the 2gig ram to 8 heh.

[mygolfisslow]

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