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Yet another CadLights Mini 4G


Livewreck

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Looks great. I love those blue mushrooms. I ordered a "blue" mushroom when I first started by 4g tank but it turned out to be more of a brownish/reddish/purple color. I put it in the back of the tank where there's no light and now it has some blue highlights, but nothing like yours look like.

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teeny reef, snowflake - thanks for the compliments.

 

The tank is now starting to stabilize. Not sure those pretty blue and red mushrooms are going to make it. They have melted quite a bit but are still alive. I should have waited until the tank stabilized before adding live stock. For the most part, I got away with it by doing 20% water changes twice a day - every day - in order to keep nitrates below 25. (Easy to do with a small tank.)

 

My nitrates are now between 2.5 and 5 with only one 20% water change a day. I'll reduce the frequency of water changes to once or twice a week, but I'll do so slowly. Except for the blue and red mushrooms, things are looking so good (coral growth) that I don't want to push my luck further.

 

A week ago I added the following:

3 sexy shrimp - all doing well... very social critters and fun to watch

a blue and green sympodium frag - all polyps open

a photosynthetic Gorgonian frag - polyps all open and looking happy

 

Three days ago I bought a tri-color Ric (yellow, pale green and purple - quite stunning). I also bought a beautiful iridescent yellow Yuma. Both are having a difficult time adjusting to the new environment.

 

I have a small corral (made from a water bottle). I put rubble on the bottom of the corral and put the Yuma and the new Ric in there so that they will attach to the rubble. The Yuma would have none of it. It kept climbing out of the corral each evening. I do not want to glue it's foot to rock, so I placed it near the bottom of the tank in an area that I cordoned off with rock frags to try and keep it where I want it until it attaches itself. Not sure yet which one of us is going to win this battle. :D

 

The new tri-colored Ric doesn't like the corral either and spends much of its time rolled up in a ball.

 

Last week I fragged the small green Ric as it had multiple mouths. Both halves have healed in just a week. They are now inside the corral and appear to like it there. They may have attached to a piece of rubble by now - but I'll give them another week in the corral before I check.

 

The orange Ric was glued it to a piece of rubble but broke loose last week. it's now in the corral and has already attached itself to a piece of rubble.

 

Pictures to follow....

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FTS

DSC_2565.jpg

 

Hanging corral basket.

DSC_2570.jpg

 

Couldn't get a good picture of the Yuma, but this will give you some idea. There are no colorless regions in the Yuma. (When I get my Nano Box Mini Tide, I'll be able to get better pictures.)DSC_2573.jpg

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Beautiful - love that yuma! Rics and Yumas always go where they want to go. In my tank I had to resort to gluing some of my rics directly to the rock. It wasn't pretty and neither the rics nor I were happy when it was done. But I was able to pick a spot where they were happy and they've stayed there ever since. It probably took a good two weeks for them to recover from the incident.

 

Yumas are on my bucket list for my 10g Fusion that's just getting started now...

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Killer tank dude hope mine looks half as nice when I get it going.

 

Thanks.

 

Just a quick note on progress to date: I received my Nano Box Mini Tide. It really makes the pico reef come alive. (I'll post pics in a few days.) I can't over-stress the importance of good lighting - both for the health of the animals and the enjoyment of the viewers. The only thing better than the Nano Box Mini Tide with Storm Controller is the help and support given by Dave Fason.

 

The Discosoma mushroom corals that seemed to be melting a couple of weeks ago have sprung back to life and are looking good once more.

 

Water parameters are quite good for a 5 week old system. NO3 = 5, PO4 < .03, dKH = 8, Ca = 440, pH = 8. I've reduced WC to 20% every 4 days and will soon cut back to once a week. It appears that I've gotten away with adding corals so soon and I'm sure it was the frequent water changes that allowed me to cheat and get away with it.

 

I just started using a mixture of Purigen and Phosguard, placing them in a simple box I constructed out of plexiglass. The box sits in the first filter chamber beneath the inflow of the surface skimmer.

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My corals have been growing like crazy and their color has improved significantly since I got my Nanobox. Looking forward to the pictures!

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My corals have been growing like crazy and their color has improved significantly since I got my Nanobox. Looking forward to the pictures!

 

TR, did you get the Nano Box with the Storm Controller? If so, what settings are you using in terms of the following: Blue Channel, White Channel, and total daily photo period? Did you start low and slowly increase light intensity?

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FTS - 6 weeks old

dec17_1copy.jpg

 

The Discoma mushrooms are on a separate rock so I can control colony size as they grow. The red ones are shown true to color, but the blue ones are actually bluer, and not as reddish, as they appear in the photo.

 

The GSPs are also attached to their own rock, which simply rests atop the reef, so I'll be able to lift out the rock and give the GSPs a haircut when needed.

 

Over the next several weeks I will be increasing the intensity of the light and will also push the blue/actinic lighting to enhance the fluorescence of the corals. But from the outset, the colors under the Nano Box Mini Tide are so much nicer than under the stock light that came with the tank.

 

My yellow/orange Yuma is in jail (lower right). I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever attach to a rock. In the meantime, I assigned one of the sexy shrimp to act as the jailer.

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Wow! That's beautiful :wub: That picture really shows the difference with the Nanobox!

TR, did you get the Nano Box with the Storm Controller? If so, what settings are you using in terms of the following: Blue Channel, White Channel, and total daily photo period? Did you start low and slowly increase light intensity?

I do have the Storm controller. I've been gradually ramping it up since I got it. Started on 100/70 (blue/white), but I've bumped up the blues a lot more than the whites. I just increased to 150/75 from 140/70 since last week. Basically I've bumped up the blues by 10 every week.

 

The approach I take is to watch the corals carefully. If they get bleached or if the zoas start to flatten out like fried eggs, turn it down immediately. If the corals start reaching up towards the light and growing stalks, bump it up a little. Right now my corals are reaching a bit but I'm increasing the light slowly so they don't get shocked. Seems to be working well so far.

 

I do blues on a 180 min sunrise/sunset, and whites on 60 min. Total photoperiod from sunrise to sunset is 12 hours.

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Thanks, tr. I love the way your 4G pico reef looks. I hope mine will progress as nicely.

 

I'll follow your lead and take my clues from my corals. Right now I'm running the lights at only 70 Blue, 30 White, with a ramp time of 90 min and a 10 hr photo period. It's clearly not enough for most of a the corals, as they are stretching. But I have two Yumas and neither are happy with the current light intensity. One of them was "walking" to shadier spot. Trouble is that my reef has very few options for lower light areas. I had to change the rock work slightly to accommodate the unhappy Yuma. I't now not visible in the latest FTS of the reef.

 

I will have to increase light intensity slowly or run the risk of a full blown Yuma Revolt. I can all ready hear them shouting, "no shade, no peace." In retrospect, I should not have purchased the Yumas. They are more temperamental that R. Florida. The R. Florida are happy anywhere. The R. Yumas are too picky for such a small aquarium and have no appreciation for the hand that feeds them. — But they sure are pretty.

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Thanks, tr. I love the way your 4G pico reef looks. I hope mine will progress as nicely. I'll follow your lead and take my clues from my corals. Right now I'm running the lights at only 70 Blue, 30 White, with a ramp time of 90 min and a 10 hr photo period. It's clearly not enough for most of a the corals, as they are stretching. But I have two Yumas and neither are happy with the current light intensity. One of them was "walking" to shadier spot. Trouble is that my reef has very few options for lower light areas. I had to change the rock work slightly to accommodate the unhappy Yuma. I't now not visible in the latest FTS of the reef. I will have to increase light intensity slowly or run the risk of a full blown Yuma Revolt. I can all ready hear them shouting, "no shade, no peace." In retrospect, I should not have purchased the Yumas. They are more temperamental that R. Florida. The R. Florida are happy anywhere. The R. Yumas are too picky for such a small aquarium and have no appreciation for the hand that feeds them. — But they sure are pretty.

Thanks!

 

I only have rics but I just ordered a Yuma (along with some new rics) for my 10g tank. I've actually had problems with some of my rics being unhappy in the past too. They were picky about where I put them and wouldn't stick to anything. I finally resorted to massive amounts of superglue to keep them in one place. Once they were forced to stay put and got a chance to acclimate to the light, they started doing great :) In fact, the ones that I put in the shade started reaching for the light. So you just never can tell what it will take to make them happy. The biggest thing is to make all lighting changes gradually :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

A lot of changes have taken place over the past couple of weeks. I'll report on the changes and post pictures in a day or so; but for now, I thought it important to let you know that sexy shrimp are definitely NOT reef safe. A lot of folks have had good luck with the little critters. They are lucky. Or, conversely, I was not. In any case, they do eat spa corals. See my post on Reef Central (with pictures); http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23393845#post23393845

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