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Steve's Mixed Reef IM Fusion 30L + New Ball Python Adventure


specore

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12 minutes ago, specore said:

For now I'm just going to keep doing what I do.  I'm quite sure nutrient levels will eventually creep up on their own with all the feeding I do for the anthias.  I am shooting to keep alk closer to 9.5, but it sometimes dips a little.  

Certainly. It took months to raise my nutrients levels.  And I think I have reached a balance between nutrients enriched water content and fear of f***g it up. 

That’s where my Alk is, or at least that’s what my goal is. But it fluctuates between 8-9.5 if I don’t keep a close eye on it. Corals don’t seem to care that much about these swings as it happens over longer period of time. And adj it back slowely over few weeks doesn’t affect corals at all. It’s a work in progress to get it spot on but hopefully someone will come up with affordable way to test and adj Alk in the near future. 

Apex? Maybe I could fit that into my budget but not at the moment. 

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3 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Certainly. It took months to raise my nutrients levels.  And I think I have reached a balance between nutrients enriched water content and fear of f***g it up. 

That’s where my Alk is, or at least that’s what my goal is. But it fluctuates between 8-9.5 if I don’t keep a close eye on it. Corals don’t seem to care that much about these swings as it happens over longer period of time. And adj it back slowely over few weeks doesn’t affect corals at all. It’s a work in progress to get it spot on but hopefully someone will come up with affordable way to test and adj Alk in the near future. 

Apex? Maybe I could fit that into my budget but not at the moment. 

I do love my Apex 🙂.  My 2 part gets dosed for 18 seconds every other hours throughout the day and when I need to adjust it I just jump in and either add or subtract a second from the run time.  Takes about 30 seconds

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11 minutes ago, specore said:

I do love my Apex 🙂.  My 2 part gets dosed for 18 seconds every other hours throughout the day and when I need to adjust it I just jump in and either add or subtract a second from the run time.  Takes about 30 seconds

I want to wait a bit to see if they will offer some sort of a promo when Trident comes out. With two tanks now, it makes a little more sense to invest in monitoring and basic automation. I also plan dedicated species tank in the near future. So yeah, a little help would go a long way. 

I would love to automate WC task and Alk/Ca/Mg monitoring/adjustment. Everything else I can live without. 

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55 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

I want to wait a bit to see if they will offer some sort of a promo when Trident comes out. With two tanks now, it makes a little more sense to invest in monitoring and basic automation. I also plan dedicated species tank in the near future. So yeah, a little help would go a long way. 

I would love to automate WC task and Alk/Ca/Mg monitoring/adjustment. Everything else I can live without. 

Unfortunately as great as the apex unit itself is most of the accessories Neptune has put out the last couple of years seem like overpriced garbage.  The automatic feeder has a poor reputation, the DOS has mixed reviews with a lot of people reporting plastic parts that fail often, the Flo pumps have been a complete flop, and the lift pumps are complete shit.  So not really holding my breath on the trident being worth a $600 investment.  Just my two cents.  

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1 hour ago, specore said:

Unfortunately as great as the apex unit itself is most of the accessories Neptune has put out the last couple of years seem like overpriced garbage.  The automatic feeder has a poor reputation, the DOS has mixed reviews with a lot of people reporting plastic parts that fail often, the Flo pumps have been a complete flop, and the lift pumps are complete shit.  So not really holding my breath on the trident being worth a $600 investment.  Just my two cents.  

Had no idea Neptun’s reputation plummeted this low. 😳

Perhaps I should get Red Sea new doser that’s coming out pretty soon and wait for Alk tester/doser that is actually reliable and accurate. 

Trident seemed interesting mainly bc it wastes relatively little of tank water in comparison to competition. Well, I’m in no rush so we will see where industry takes us. 

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12 hours ago, A Little Blue said:

Had no idea Neptun’s reputation plummeted this low. 😳

Perhaps I should get Red Sea new doser that’s coming out pretty soon and wait for Alk tester/doser that is actually reliable and accurate. 

Trident seemed interesting mainly bc it wastes relatively little of tank water in comparison to competition. Well, I’m in no rush so we will see where industry takes us. 

I use the drews fosters from brs and have been happy.  The apex works well on them though, not sure if I would be a fan of using a regular digital timer

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On 9/14/2018 at 1:49 PM, specore said:

Posted this in the identification forum yesterday but didn't get any attention.  Any idea what these are?  I'm pretty sure they are either majano or ball anemones, but not sure.  

 

image.png.abb024ac97efb47c4bdb222ee7fba83c.png

 

image.png.dbcbb7128f69a855d3aa19675626216c.png

Is that the base of a euphyllia branch?  Don’t be surprised if it’s just a new branch sprouting out, especially the one at the fork of the branches. I’ve had hammer doing similar thing in the past, small heads just popped right out from the skeleton.  

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59 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

Is that the base of a euphyllia branch?  Don’t be surprised if it’s just a new branch sprouting out, especially the one at the fork of the branches. I’ve had hammer doing similar thing in the past, small heads just popped right out from the skeleton.  

Hmmm...I honestly didn't think they multiplied this way.  I'm used to seeing the heads split, but have never noticed anything like this before.  Guess I'll just keep an eye on them and see what happens.  

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2 minutes ago, specore said:

Think it may be time to learn how to with this damn tying

88F422BA-03B5-4280-ACF9-77AF254277AB.jpeg

I have one also but always just grab the iPhone instead......seems like a lot of work sometimes. 😂

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2 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

I have one also but always just grab the iPhone instead......seems like a lot of work sometimes. 😂

lol...right?  This one my wife bought ages ago because she was determined to learn to take awesome photos.  Used it for a while, then at some point it became a $2,000 paper weight.   

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4 minutes ago, specore said:

lol...right?  This one my wife bought ages ago because she was determined to learn to take awesome photos.  Used it for a while, then at some point it became a $2,000 paper weight.   

I followed @DaveFason's tutorial for the most part. I'm still indecisive about the orange gel filter part when my in-camera white balance is doing a decent job, (also could read that as I'm too cheap to experiment).  There certainly are some colors that would benefit from the gel filter.  A lot of my camera and light (photo mode on bluefish) settings, once I got it dialed-in, I haven't messed with.  The only thing I do on every photo is making sure the exposure level is correct so the photo brightness is not overblown or too dim.   

 

 

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1 minute ago, micoastreefing said:

I followed @DaveFason's tutorial for the most part. I'm still indecisive about the orange gel filter part when my in-camera white balance is doing a decent job, (also could read that as I'm too cheap to experiment).  There certainly are some colors that would benefit from the gel filter.  A lot of my camera and light (photo mode on bluefish) settings, once I got it dialed-in, I haven't messed with.  The only thing I do on every photo is making sure the exposure level is correct so the photo brightness is not overblown or too dim.   

 

 

I haven't ever been able to get the camera into the right mode/settings, etc.  Sounds real easy, then I start playing with the camera and reading the manual only to get frustrated and give up.  

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2 minutes ago, specore said:

Well, looks the battery is bad after sitting for a couple of years.  Have to wait for the new ones to arrive from Amazon 😞

That’s exactly what I’m talking about! 😂 Now charge up the iPhone and go to town. 😁

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Was looking back thought he photos in this thread and came across this.  Its amazing how you don't really notice the growth these things put on unless you look back.  Feeling pretty pleased with the progress my sps are starting to make.  

 

July 31

IMG_1685.thumb.JPG.b3e8561387d3b47dc8650deaec95b93e.JPG

 

Today

 

 

IMG_1969.JPG

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2 hours ago, specore said:

Was looking back thought he photos in this thread and came across this.  Its amazing how you don't really notice the growth these things put on unless you look back.  Feeling pretty pleased with the progress my sps are starting to make.  

 

July 31

IMG_1685.thumb.JPG.b3e8561387d3b47dc8650deaec95b93e.JPG

 

Today

IMG_1967.thumb.JPG.4a5428f8f2e8646224eac5314ac501c5.JPG

 

Funny how it chose to branch out from the side. Nice growth progress.  

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57 minutes ago, Austintylerl said:

Great tank and office. Where did you get that rug under the desk?

Thanks.  My ordered it, I believe either from Target.com or Wayfair.

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55 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Funny how it chose to branch out from the side. Nice growth progress.  

It is definitely a little odd.  I keep expecting the original frag to start growing vertically, but it isn't showing any sign of wanting to do so. 

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Had a whole anniversary weekend planned around a music festival. Day 2 gets cancelled due to weather, so instead we spend the day at the antique mall and find a cool sign for the tank. 

9CA3C50C-17E7-4D86-8D68-81B7A70393D7.jpeg

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