Paleo's Reef

[Paleoreef103]

I like the sps and acans!

 

Where did you get them from? I'm really looking for some fuzzy milli's

I got rid of most of my milli's there sitting in my university tank now, but most I just pulled the trigger on at the LFS and bought some ORA milli's. I gotta hand it to ORA, they're expensive, but man, they have some nice stuff. I got most of my acans off of Ebay auctions. But my biggest and favorite colony I got from my LFS. It had been sitting under some crappy lights for a long time as a giant colony for waaaay too much. Finally after about six months they cut it up and I got about a 4 head frag of it for ~30 bucks. They've grown like crazy and feed better than any other coral I've ever had.

 

Anyway, Now for an update!

Nice orange rainbow acan (better picks of the pick gooey center further down), plus my favia, a purple digi, and two acros.

My red orange chalice. It's doing fantastic and growing at a decent clip.

Top down over part of my LPS garden

OK. So the top acan is one I've had for a while, but it's just so nice. The acans on the right of the picture are my rainbows and you can see the pink in the center. They're really doing well! The lower colony is a superman micro. Red centers with a blue base. Finally, the left one is my lavender acan. I wasn't so sure on it when I bought it, but I've really come to love it.

Top down of the front of the tank. If you look carefully you can make out my purple deaths, a couple of rics, radioactive dragon eyes, caribbean blues, duncan, and chalice.

Top down. I like the purple of the gramma and how bold it is.

 

Hope you like it! Any comments?

[Rehype]

Looking good so far... how old is your tank?

[Paleoreef103]

Looking good so far... how old is your tank?

Uh.... Kind of a year and kind of a year and a half. I had the tank set up with live rock in it around January 08, but I didn't add anything else to it until June of that year. Very few things have been with me for that long, though. Just the clownfish, a duncan, a favia, the hydnophora.

Thanks for looking.

[cbort]

Looks great! Tank seems to be filling up fast! I like the mix of corals! do you share frags back and forth witht the school tank?

[DCG1286]

Love the new pics ... keep 'em coming!!! Trade chalice frags when yours grows out

[Paleoreef103]

Love the new pics ... keep 'em coming!!! Trade chalice frags when yours grows out

Deal!

 

Looks great! Tank seems to be filling up fast! I like the mix of corals! do you share frags back and forth witht the school tank?

Not really.

 

Additionally, I mixed my own fish food! Into the food processer went a bunch of mysis, spirulina brine, clam meat, cyclopeeze, ocean nutrition reef plankton, ORA pellet food, and some vita-chem. Turned it into a paste, put it through a filter bag to drain off the excess crud, packaged it, and froze it! It's not frozen yet, but I can't wait to see my fish go after it!

[Nanobuds]

tank looks good!!

[Kylebeano]

nice stuff! I want to try mixing up the food sometime, to see how things like it as well.

[Paleoreef103]

OK. Marine depot is back on my very good list. So.. instead of just sending another bucket which haven't shipped well, they sent me three of the 63 gallon worth salt bags. I got more salt than I normally would have and it was overnighted. Keeping customers happy is obviously what they strive for. It was a bit of an ordeal, but I definitely came out ahead. I is happy.

 

Also, I got my orange crush acan last night with a beautiful purple tabling acro (extremely healthy. The polyp extension was wonderful!), a slice of red and blue acans to replace the ones on the first page of this thread that were savaged by a peppermint shrimp, a frag of ORA green polyp birdnest, and a piece of rainbow monti! Some are on really big tiles and I'm going to cut them down with a dremel later today, but I'm extremely happy. kgehrke hooked it up! The birdnest and the rainbow monti were freebies! Pics sometime today after the lights come on.

[Rehype]

Im glad to hear they did they went above and beyond. Ive had nothing but good experiences with them. Looking forward to pics..

[Paleoreef103]

Im glad to hear they did they went above and beyond. Ive had nothing but good experiences with them. Looking forward to pics..

Definitely above and beyond. So did kgehrke though! The pics show that I think.

I got three bags of this in my overnight order. I have four gallons getting ready for tomorrow. Very excited.

New frags. Very nice size on them! The birdnest and the rainbow monti were the freebies, but I was amazed at how big a slice of the tabling acro I got and both the acans were bigger than expected. I really did get hooked up.

I can't get good pictures of this corner of the tank. It's the "area will be amazing when it grows out corner." Tubbs purple polyp birdnest, ORA green polyp birdnest, Monti confusa, and Rainbow Monti. Sweet.

Woo!! Got them back! Very similar to the ones that got ripped up by the peppermint shrimp.

My new orange crush acan. I love the rainbow nature of this piece. Love it.

Last new piece... I think it speaks for itself pretty well.

My two digis. The purple one is growing like crazy. It lost some color before I switched the bulb, but is coming back nicely. The green one has had a series of unfortunate events happen to it, but is doing much better now.

This acan is slowly becoming a favorite. Fast grower and really amazing color too it.

Chalice is doing well, but is kind of angry with me. I took it off it's frag plug before it encrusted it and glued it down. Doing well though and is a good eater.

Some of my LPS. I like the gramma in this pick. I don't have exotic fish, but I still love them.

[DCG1286]

Awesome new pictures Paleoreef ... the tank is coming along really nicely.

The Royal Gramma in the last pic looks like he is defending his rock there ... "Don't you touch my collection!!!"

Keep up the good work!

[Paleoreef103]

Because everyone likes more pictures!

Called Poseidon's Eye Acans. I really don't think they're anything special, but I love acans anyway so until I get some much prettier acans, they're staying.

Better picture of my new acan lords.

My duncans have almost got bubble tips now. I'm not sure if it's from the 250 or if it's from the clownfish bugging them.

The orange crush without some forams covering the glass in front. Much cleaner shot.

A side shot of my tank. Pretty happy with it, but really just want them to fill in a bit more.

 

I hope you enjoy my tank. I think now I'm really only looking for a few pieces to top off the tank. In no particular order I'm looking at an AA Meteor Shower Cyphastrea, a branching Cyphastrea, some Nuclear greens, one of the really nice montis (pokerstar, true superman, sunset normal or reverse), and of course more high quality acans and acros.

[opy01]

Very nice! I like your clown. With all those SPS in there do you have to dose alot?

[Paleoreef103]

Very nice! I like your clown. With all those SPS in there do you have to dose alot?

Every day: ~7.5 mL of B-Ionic A and B, 0.4 mL of Svedka

Once a week: 10 mL of B-Ionic Magnesium, 0.5 mL of Essential Elements

 

I've switched over to Tunze salt officially. I'm going to do the water tests on the batch today if I have time. I have to introduce my parents to my fiancee's parents today (with my fiancee not being here. grr). We'll see how much time I've got.

[opy01]

Good to know. Thanks. I have been using Kents Nano-Reef and Kents liquid Calcium and still they stay a bit lower than I would like but I need a magnesium and iodine test kit now. The Kents and weekly water changes do ok but I still need to dose calcium but I dont know what my magnesium is. That test kit will be ordered next week.

[Paleoreef103]

So I did some water tests on my Tunze salt and honestly I wasn't impressed. SG 1.025 pH 8.2 Alk 8 Calc 380 MG 1100. Pretty low calc and Mg. I have a lot of it though, so I'll be using it for a while and just dosing more 2 part and Mg. We'll see how it does.

Anyway, the 250 is producing some serious color shifts in my tank. Some of my lower light stuff is not happy with the added power, but my porites is really taking on the Amethyst color it is supposed to, the purple haze sliver has gotten its purple back, and the purple digi is growing like wildfire. PAR~ 770-800 directly below the water. I also modded my tunze for more power and broader flow. Pretty happy with the results. It has rearranged the sand a bit with the added power and the flow is definitely wider. Pictures when I have time.

[Sahin]

Just read the thread star to end. Very nice setup. Enjoyed reading it. I also love the14K Phoenix bulb. I ordered one from the USA (I live in the UK), and pretty happy with it. I am settng up my 28G NC HQI, just have water and sand in it.

 

You tank setup is very good. Just pickup a slightly better camera though

 

As for the Salt; I went for D&D H2Ocean salt. Or else I would have went with Seachems Pro Reef Salt. These two salts are almost identical. I went with H2Ocean because it was available. There was a RC thread where the most important elements were tested for after making up the salt. The two I mention came out top.

 

I have used Reef Crystals exclusively in the past, but, after retrning to the hobby read of bad reports about it. I also noticed the price had increased significantly on Reef Crystals so decided to do some research.

 

Good luck with you tank.

[Paleoreef103]

I got a piece of Sunset Monti today!

Very excited about this piece. I got it from a semi-local LFS (which I need to go back to more often) for a wonderful price especially for a LFS. Piece is about an inch around.

 

Should be getting the MP10 within the week.

[ChicagoReefOne]

Looking good tibbits! What was the price on the sunset monti? For being in Chicago and it being one of the largest cities in the country, the LFS are pretty disappointing.

[ChicagoReefOne]

oh and we should talk about vodka dosing on the phone sometime. Your purple acro and acros in general look pretty sawwwweeeeeetttt!

 

When's the big wedding day?

[opy01]

I got a piece of Sunset Monti today!

Very excited about this piece. I got it from a semi-local LFS (which I need to go back to more often) for a wonderful price especially for a LFS. Piece is about an inch around.

 

Should be getting the MP10 within the week.

 

Not sure what it is about those montis but I love them . You got nice one.

[Paleoreef103]

Not sure what it is about those montis but I love them . You got nice one.

So do you! That monti in your signature is just gorgeous. So far the sunset is doing fantastic and I'm hoping it grows quickly. If you don't have a sunset, I'd love to set up a trade in a bit.

 

I got my MP10 today! It's on Reef crest at about 80% Max power. Basically just low enough to prevent a sandstorm. Tank looks a bit cleaner with the powerheads out of the way. I just wish I could get my refugium intake better situated.

 

Bram. Me thinks you need to find a reef club or find a frag swap in Chicago. That's the way to get the good stuff. That or trading/ buying stuff off of fellow Nano-reef members. I feel that LFS in big cities are either really good, but quite expensive or really bad and still expensive. Vodka dosing isn't that hard and while I'm still doing it, I've been toning it down. I'll keep doing it, but only at about .2 mL a day I think. Oh and next June, I'm tying the knot.

[opy01]

So do you! That monti in your signature is just gorgeous. So far the sunset is doing fantastic and I'm hoping it grows quickly. If you don't have a sunset, I'd love to set up a trade in a bit.

 

I got my MP10 today! It's on Reef crest at about 80% Max power. Basically just low enough to prevent a sandstorm. Tank looks a bit cleaner with the powerheads out of the way. I just wish I could get my refugium intake better situated.

 

Bram. Me thinks you need to find a reef club or find a frag swap in Chicago. That's the way to get the good stuff. That or trading/ buying stuff off of fellow Nano-reef members. I feel that LFS in big cities are either really good, but quite expensive or really bad and still expensive. Vodka dosing isn't that hard and while I'm still doing it, I've been toning it down. I'll keep doing it, but only at about .2 mL a day I think. Oh and next June, I'm tying the knot.

 

A trade would be awesome! Once mine is big enough and I figure out how to frag an encrusting monti I would be more than happy to swap for a sunset. Mine was a rainbow monti but for some reason it morphed into a superman monti. I dont know if it's because my LEDs or what but my wife loves it so much more now. I would be really curious to see what happens to the sunset under LEDs.

 

Congrats on tying the knot! A bit of advice though, she is always right... or at least let her think that . This coming from a man thats been married for 12 years .

[ChicagoReefOne]

Bram. Me thinks you need to find a reef club or find a frag swap in Chicago. That's the way to get the good stuff. That or trading/ buying stuff off of fellow Nano-reef members. I feel that LFS in big cities are either really good, but quite expensive or really bad and still expensive. Vodka dosing isn't that hard and while I'm still doing it, I've been toning it down. I'll keep doing it, but only at about .2 mL a day I think. Oh and next June, I'm tying the knot.

 

Congrats about the big day in June! I'm still very excited for you two!

 

I'm on the Chicago Marine Aquarium Society boards all the time, and I mean that, I'm kind of a lurker . I should go to a frag swap sometime though, you are right on that, I haven't been. Someone was just selling a frag of sunset for $50 and that's a little steep for me. I just checked on the NR board and someone has one for $25, that's not bad I guess! I'm pretty lucky though, I've been the recipient of lots of generosity as a new reefer. I've got a ORA hyacinth, ORA birds of paradise and a German blue polyp acro that are all doing well and the acro is finally starting to encrust and grow! That one should be a stunner when it grows out more with time. Plus about 20 other corals that are a little less flashy. Enough about me though.