Mr. Microscope's Cube 2.1

[Chris!]

It would be cool to see upskirt pictures as it grows.

 

Shes such a naughty little frag

[slowngreen]

You still shooting with the P&S canon?

[Mr. Microscope]

This picture is awesome. Will you let it grow on the glass? It would be cool to see upskirt pictures as it grows.

 

lol!

Nah, I pulled it off and turned it so that it will round out. I'm done trying to grow corals on the glass or back wall. All they do is encrust which is somewhat unsightly IMO.

I love the perspective. Looks pretty.

Thank you 1st! I thought it looked pretty cool too.

 

Shes such a naughty little frag

lol

You still shooting with the P&S canon?

Yup.

[Mr. Microscope]

I got a really cool shot the other night of one of my acan colonies after a broadcast feeding.

It's hard to tell in the pic, but the dark ring on the outside of the mouths are actually slightly purple.

 

Normally, it looks like this:

[Mr. Microscope]

Hee hee..

[kguske2]

awesome

[Hexadron]

But is it a Blueberry Gorgonian?! LOL - Love it.

[FlowerMama]

ha, that's alot to read, still haven't finished.

[HVani]

Hee hee..

 

 

[Mr. Microscope]

awesome

Thanks kguske. I spent WAY too much time on this. haha!

But is it a Blueberry Gorgonian?! LOL - Love it.

GTFO, Noob!!

ha, that's alot to read, still haven't finished.

Yeah, it's a pretty elaborate joke. You wouldn't believe how many times I read over every pathway to make sure it all worked out. lol!

Haha! Thanks HVani!

[Mr. Microscope]

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peek!

[larcat]

Hi just browsing your thread:

 

First, still the nicest tank I've seen pics of in Chicago. Those two 120gal Elos's on the local forums are impressive, but your's looks so mature. The scaping is unique, as is the livestock/placement choices. Just an amazingly lovely tank. If you ever wanna do show and tell we'd love to make the trek up from Pilsen

 

On the Alk/Cal/Mag balance stuff from a few pages ago -- FWIW, a pretty prominent professional aquaculture/frag seller told me once that he usually only runs into STN/RTN issues at a system level when he starts trying to tweak Mag. He's religious about daily alk testing to make sure that is in line, but forces himself not to mess with Mag now, after it burning him. Dunno if that is helpful for perspective, but take it FWIW.

 

Again, amazing tank

 

Did you do the pixel art in your sig?

 

Viva Chicago Reefing!

[Mr. Microscope]

Hi just browsing your thread:

 

First, still the nicest tank I've seen pics of in Chicago. Those two 120gal Elos's on the local forums are impressive, but your's looks so mature. The scaping is unique, as is the livestock/placement choices. Just an amazingly lovely tank. If you ever wanna do show and tell we'd love to make the trek up from Pilsen

Thanks larcat! It's really been coming along since my reboot back at the end of August. I really like your rimless 40 with the two islands (as seen in CLR)! You've got some impressive acros in there.

 

I'd love to have you guys over some time! It'd be nice to show off my tank to some else who speaks latin. Perhaps we could trade something. Let me know if you see anything you want. I've got extra satosa, palmers blue, rainbow BTA's, and could probably be convinced to let go of one of my rainbow acan colonies.

On the Alk/Cal/Mag balance stuff from a few pages ago -- FWIW, a pretty prominent professional aquaculture/frag seller told me once that he usually only runs into STN/RTN issues at a system level when he starts trying to tweak Mag. He's religious about daily alk testing to make sure that is in line, but forces himself not to mess with Mag now, after it burning him. Dunno if that is helpful for perspective, but take it FWIW.

 

Again, amazing tank

Thank you for your input on the water chemistry issues. I still feel like I'm getting a pretty dramatic swing in alk from day to day. I try to bring it up to 9, but it keeps dropping to like 7.7 after 24 hours, even with dosing 45mL of each Alk (and Ca) (22.5mL AM and PM). I've just been trying to maintain Mg around 1400. I hope that helps a little.

 

Did you do the pixel art in your sig?

 

Viva Chicago Reefing!

Nope. That's from the original Monkey Island game (1990).

[Mr. Microscope]

Here's a couple more shots from the peek-a-boo shoot. She likes to sit here in the nems and watch me eat dinner. lol!

 

 

[Mr. Microscope]

Pics for today. I love looking at my SPS at night and the morning as much as I do when they're lit up!

 

Pics taken with a flash.

 

 

[kimberbee]

Dem polyps!

[larcat]

Hey, thanks much! I'm tickled that you've seen ours!

 

I'll shoot you a PM so we can set up some show and tell

 

As per chemistry -- Out of curiosity, why are you trying to get it off of 7.7? That is pretty close to NSW I think? I'm no expert, mostly just curious. Ours seems happy at 8.4, with Calc floating around 400. Dosers off of an Apex helped *lots* though.

 

Regards,

 

-Larcat

 

 

Thanks larcat! It's really been coming along since my reboot back at the end of August. I really like your rimless 40 with the two islands (as seen in CLR)! You've got some impressive acros in there.

I'd love to have you guys over some time! It'd be nice to show off my tank to some else who speaks latin. Perhaps we could trade something. Let me know if you see anything you want. I've got extra satosa, palmers blue, rainbow BTA's, and could probably be convinced to let go of one of my rainbow acan colonies.Thank you for your input on the water chemistry issues. I still feel like I'm getting a pretty dramatic swing in alk from day to day. I try to bring it up to 9, but it keeps dropping to like 7.7 after 24 hours, even with dosing 45mL of each Alk (and Ca) (22.5mL AM and PM). I've just been trying to maintain Mg around 1400. I hope that helps a little.Nope. That's from the original Monkey Island game (1990).

[Mr. Microscope]

Hey, thanks much! I'm tickled that you've seen ours!

 

I'll shoot you a PM so we can set up some show and tell

 

As per chemistry -- Out of curiosity, why are you trying to get it off of 7.7? That is pretty close to NSW I think? I'm no expert, mostly just curious. Ours seems happy at 8.4, with Calc floating around 400. Dosers off of an Apex helped *lots* though.

 

Regards,

 

-Larcat

 

 

I'm new to dosing. To be honest, I'm following the advice of BRS. They recommend maintaining an Alk of 9. I know most people keep it around 7.7-8.4 especially with low nutrient levels, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Also, when I restarted, I did so with dry rock and it looks like crap right now. I found a lot of info stating that coralline seems to grow better around the 9 mark. I'd like my rock to purple up a little. It does seem to want to settle out at natural levels though. Perhaps, I'll bow to nature if I keep getting such swings.

[Mr. Microscope]

I met some great local reef enthusiasts this weekend. larcat and AK stopped by to check out my reef and we had some good discussions about how we care for our reef, dosing strategies, and general latin. They also brought by some goodies!

 

First, one of my favorite acros, which I didn't realize is actually some kind of stag (really doesn't look like one), ORA Joe the Coral! I have it mounted near the top. Color and PE are awesome. lar and AK are big believers in feeding a lot and it shows in the health of this coral. Usually, I only see this coral in with a pale green and blue coralites, but this piece has a nearly yellow base and the coralites are almost royal blue. I hope I can maintain that intensity. I got the camera out to snap a few pics after mounting.

 

Thanks guys! It was great meeting you!

 

They gave me a couple more freebies, but I couldn't quite get shots I was happy with. Will reveal more later.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Nice looking coral- I also believe in feeding - I feed every night - evening as the whites are almost set to go off- down to about 10%. Gotta figure in the wild corals get a large amount of food everyday?

[markalot]

Hey Mr M. How is your UC Super Blue doing?

[Mr. Microscope]

Nice looking coral- I also believe in feeding - I feed every night - evening as the whites are almost set to go off- down to about 10%. Gotta figure in the wild corals get a large amount of food everyday

Your SPS show it too!

Hey Mr M. How is your UC Super Blue doing?

Hello Mark! Thank you for asking. It seems to have settled in well. It is encrusting and starting to color up better. There's definitely some blue going on. My Ice Fire Echinata from UC is also starting to settle in. It has encrusted a little. No notable growth, but the tips are bluing up. I expect it to start taking off soon.

[Mr. Microscope]

You could say the colors of my BTA's have almost fully returned. I'm still waiting on tentacle length to return entirely, but they're all chuffing along quite well.

[cju84]

You could say the colors of my BTA's have almost fully returned. I'm still waiting on tentacle length to return entirely, but they're all chuffing along quite well.

 

That doesn't even look real... insane colors!

[Mr. Microscope]

 

That doesn't even look real... insane colors!

Thanks! Believe it or not, I actually had to pull back the contrast on this image.