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Oracus

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Looking for suggestions and ideas on what to add to my tank. LPS or softies no too exp with SPS so prefer to stick with easier less demanding corals with the exception of montipora. Prefer mostly photosynthetic corals, I do feed corals once aweek. My thought are possibly montipora up on the shelf rock, maybe a devils hand leather. I am visiting a good coral shop in INDY this weekend so i have access to good stuff. Fairly recent photo of my tank only real change is the Duncans were moved to the far left side. 

20180111_194555.jpg

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burtbollinger

constructive criticism/suggestions...please do not read this with any tone...as sometimes people do:

 

tank is off to a nice start, but you need things that are not green at this point. (unless you're going for the all green look on purpose)  

 

You're currently overloaded on generic green corals...which is fine....you have some space, but from here on out, you need to make every purchase count. 

 

not sure what the budget is, but if I were you....I'd spend more on LESS and higher quality corals at this point...you have some spots to fill, choose quality and color.   Doing this SLOWLY if you have to is fine....vs. jamming in generic stuff quickly. 

 

Ideas: 

  1. oranges, reds and pinks.
  2. Personally, I'd get an Aussie gold torch in there somewhere prominent. 
  3. orange and or red acans sprinkled in...or grouped.  Be selective...no need to rush.
  4. a nice quality pink chalice...again, this is something to save up for....get a GOOD one from WWC or something.  Drop the 80 bucks plus shipping for a birthday treat.
  5. CLEAN, small frags of bam bam zoas....
  6. nice pink or red monti cap.  

 

whatever you do tho...no more green.  If that devil's hand leather is green...skip it.

 

Suggestion:

 

Go easy on the palys.  IME, If a frag of zoas has palys on it, the palys are gonna win that battle (your bam bam zoa frag for example).  This is certainly the case with trash sea foam palys...your green palys seem different, but still....palys to me are nasty.    In your case, on the left, you have a nasty grouping of palys mixed with zoas (is that the bam bam frag?) AND its taking up very PRIME real estate.  Its where the eye is immediately drawn...

That would be the one drastic change I'd make...dumping that frag (palys will overtake the bam bams anyway)...reclaiming the space and probably making that area where your new aussie gold should go....

 

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Pink pocillopora corals look nice, don't need tremendous light like most SPS corals and will look nice in time. There's tons of orange, yellow and red zoa frags, ricordeas and acans that will grow nicely. Blastomussa also does well in practically any light condition. 

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burtbollinger
31 minutes ago, OPtasia said:

Pink pocillopora corals look nice, don't need tremendous light like most SPS corals and will look nice in time. There's tons of orange, yellow and red zoa frags, ricordeas and acans that will grow nicely. Blastomussa also does well in practically any light condition. 

Agreed....also, I'm having tremendous luck with Purple stylophora....worth considering.

 

also....there's not still 3 clowns in the tank, are there?

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2 hours ago, burtbollinger said:

constructive criticism/suggestions...please do not read this with any tone...as sometimes people do:

 

tank is off to a nice start, but you need things that are not green at this point. (unless you're going for the all green look on purpose)  

 

You're currently overloaded on generic green corals...which is fine....you have some space, but from here on out, you need to make every purchase count. 

 

not sure what the budget is, but if I were you....I'd spend more on LESS and higher quality corals at this point...you have some spots to fill, choose quality and color.   Doing this SLOWLY if you have to is fine....vs. jamming in generic stuff quickly. 

 

Ideas: 

  1. oranges, reds and pinks.
  2. Personally, I'd get an Aussie gold torch in there somewhere prominent. 
  3. orange and or red acans sprinkled in...or grouped.  Be selective...no need to rush.
  4. a nice quality pink chalice...again, this is something to save up for....get a GOOD one from WWC or something.  Drop the 80 bucks plus shipping for a birthday treat.
  5. CLEAN, small frags of bam bam zoas....
  6. nice pink or red monti cap.  

 

whatever you do tho...no more green.  If that devil's hand leather is green...skip it.

 

Suggestion:

 

Go easy on the palys.  IME, If a frag of zoas has palys on it, the palys are gonna win that battle (your bam bam zoa frag for example).  This is certainly the case with trash sea foam palys...your green palys seem different, but still....palys to me are nasty.    In your case, on the left, you have a nasty grouping of palys mixed with zoas (is that the bam bam frag?) AND its taking up very PRIME real estate.  Its where the eye is immediately drawn...

That would be the one drastic change I'd make...dumping that frag (palys will overtake the bam bams anyway)...reclaiming the space and probably making that area where your new aussie gold should go....

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm thick-skinned so not going to bother me!

I like orange and always looking for orange colored coral, the green zoas I got a great deal at a LFS that went out of business. Nothing is in it permanent position with exception of the anemone (unless he decides to move). Thanks for the heads up on the palys, I didn't know they would be that overpowering. My last tank I had a paly island. I can easily separate the Palys from the zoas here. I have looked @ WWC before so thanks again for the suggestion, south side Indy is Modern Aquatix who has top shelf stuff for Indiana.

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I should probably mention lighting. I just got my Vipar Spectra 165w(black box).

 

My last tank had a underpowered light when I tried a purple stylopora which I think is similar needs to pocillopora. I might try one again! I did just recently acquired a purple and green :( blasto. 

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Yes there are 3 clowns in the tank. I have my old tank still running if needed as I observe daily for aggression and bullying. As soon as I seen any I will move him over and possibly re-home him.

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burtbollinger
1 hour ago, Oracus said:

I should probably mention lighting. I just got my Vipar Spectra 165w(black box).

 

My last tank had a underpowered light when I tried a purple stylopora which I think is similar needs to pocillopora. I might try one again! I did just recently acquired a purple and green :( blasto. 

Lol everything has some green it seems....just try to avoid totally green stuff.

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Acans! So many colours available.

 

Ricordea another really pretty coral with an assortment of colour.

 

Toadstool leather- pink 

 

Red monti or superman monti (blue with red polyps)

 

 

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All coral need space between eachother.

 

They all have the ability to encroach on eachother be it stinging sweepers, releasing toxins, or over growing another.

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On 2/1/2018 at 3:53 PM, burtbollinger said:

Agreed....also, I'm having tremendous luck with Purple stylophora....worth considering.

 

also....there's not still 3 clowns in the tank, are there?

+1 on the purple stylo. Great color and very hardy/forgiving/affordable branching SPS.

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+1 again on the purple stylo.  It cheap, pretty, and very hardy.  It was one of the first additions to my now 7mo. old tank and it has grown quite a bit. 

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burtbollinger

 

I took your suggestion of cleaning up the bam bams ,moving palys around. While cleaning up one zoa colony what i thought were palys were some sort of anemone. I removed two of the three on that one. 

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burtbollinger
3 minutes ago, Oracus said:

I was not able to go to the one shop i planned on going to but instead went to the largest one in Indy and picked up a nice red/purple Acan. 

nice job staying disciplined and not buying a ton of stuff.  its amazing what just a few small and colorful corals mixed in as accents can do to your existing layout.

Its almost a mindset shift to where a win is going to the LFS and NOT buying a coral.

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Did anyone mention purple stylo?  :)  Yea, it's an SPS, the only one I haven't killed.  Pink stylo is awesome, I've killed a number of those.   Orchid Stylo is neat as well, mine have lived through my mistakes but they are very slow growing ... which might be good since purple is really fast.

 

Green is hard to avoid, everything ends up being green it seems.   

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  • 1 month later...

If you're still looking for that orange color, i'm currently in love with Tangerine Leptoseris and Orange Monti setosa. The setosa loves medium PAR light levels and the Lepto thrives in very low light (like blastomussa). 

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This past weekends INDMAS frag swap has my tank full right now lol. I picked up the Aussie Gold Torch, 24k Lepto, Bi-color hammer, Neon Pink Blasto, Cinnamon paly grandis, and two duncans. Now after light acclimating is placing everything where myself and the corals are happy, then wait for the tank to fill in. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/1/2018 at 3:53 PM, burtbollinger said:

Agreed....also, I'm having tremendous luck with Purple stylophora....worth considering.

 

also....there's not still 3 clowns in the tank, are there?

FYI update

I separated my three clownfish, the two bigger ones were starting to chase and bully the small guy. After two days i caught the small guy and he now lives in my 8gal frag/QT tank

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