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1 hour ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Just be careful with ramping up the lights. I put that new RedSea LED 90 over my 50g and started it at 50% on acclimation mode and it still almost killed everything. Now I've gotten it to 20K, 55% over the course of time. Its still slow going.

Pretty hard to burn corals with no lights. 1mm of snow not even a complete layer. Didnt see much point upgrading the 5.5g at the minute as I want that controller

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Some more Macro Algae arrived today, still waiting on 1 parcel to set up my lights (this one has both Spectral Controllers in it!!!!)

 

Cryptonemia Crenulata

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Codium

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Acanthophora Spicifera

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Gracilaria Hayi

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Also discovered this morning that my Fungia Plate can move, found it  sat atop my Cabbage Leather frag in the sand. Scooted it back to it's spot this morning at 9am. I've now had to move it back off the leather again lol

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50 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Also discovered this morning that my Fungia Plate can move, found it  sat atop my Cabbage Leather frag in the sand. Scooted it back to it's spot this morning at 9am. I've now had to move it back off the leather again lol

Oh yeah, they can scoot themselves around by inflating and then deflating their tissues with water. Isn't that awesome!? 😁

 

The Kessil looks very nice. Definitely a better look for this tank, and I'm sure the corals will love it too. And I am all about those macroalgae! Some really gorgeous frags you've got there. I hope they take and begin to grow.

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5 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Oh yeah, they can scoot themselves around by inflating and then deflating their tissues with water. Isn't that awesome!? 😁

 

The Kessil looks very nice. Definitely a better look for this tank, and I'm sure the corals will love it too. And I am all about those macroalgae! Some really gorgeous frags you've got there. I hope they take and begin to grow.

I saw that they COULD move, didn't think this one would to target a damn leather.

 

Oh yeah Kessil looks 100% better, doesn't look quite so janky now. Still got cables to tidy and the ATO to sort out (piece of sh#t) 

I plan on taking some small cuttings home for the 5.5G, i'll leave it a few days as some of my other algae looks like it will be ready to make a small frag. This one I am really excited about. Red Bamboo Algae (Solieria Spp) cant really get a good angle and I have to sort out my phone again as I changed the lights omgomgomg Also the Wrasses now equate me and phone with feeding time 

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Can just make out where the algae is going to section off near the tips

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I saw that they COULD move, didn't think this one would to target a damn leather.

Not sure that it's targeting the leather as much as it might just like the flow in that area better. If it keeps floating in that direction, you're probably better letting it have that spot. 

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1 minute ago, kimberbee said:

Not sure that it's targeting the leather as much as it might just like the flow in that area better. If it keeps floating in that direction, you're probably better letting it have that spot. 

I did think it was my Wrasses originally (sand dwellers) but they both sleep on the other side of the tank (behind the Torch) it is funny to see two little heads pop out the sand in the morning

Leather is coming out shortly anyways, Want to rescape the tank 😄 and need to get rid of the softies, my 5.5G is too cluttered as well now IMO

I have a better idea how I want to spend my money on this tank 

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DSFIRSTSLTWATER
46 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Oh yeah, they can scoot themselves around by inflating and then deflating their tissues with water. Isn't that awesome!? 😁

 

The Kessil looks very nice. Definitely a better look for this tank, and I'm sure the corals will love it too. And I am all about those macroalgae! Some really gorgeous frags you've got there. I hope they take and begin to grow.

I had no idea they move :whoa:.. that's pretty cool and totally unexpected lol

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You could clip off the damaged areas, leaving a smaller, but healthy frag.  You might even try keeping the pieces that you cut off.  I feel there is a risk either way (leaving be, or fragging again). :unsure:

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14 minutes ago, seabass said:

You could clip off the damaged areas, leaving a smaller, but healthy frag.  You might even try keeping the pieces that you cut off.  I feel there is a risk either way (leaving be, or fragging again). :unsure:

Well seems my CUC is highly tuned, it was swamped with Hermit Crabs. I can only assume they were eating the damage to the frag. Serves me right for not fixing the frag to the rock.

The Skeleton doesn't look 100% bare though, unlike what happened to the Birds nest. I can still see a fine fuzzy growth, even on area's where it was dumped onto the sand, I dont think I can quit zoom in that far. Need to pick up another set of Coral Lens sets for work.

 

Hmmm now I am seeing a "death line" near where this is attached the the plug? That is what is it is correct?

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Also had to move my Leather Frag, the Fungia was sat ontop of it again this morning

 

In other news still looking for some more rock work and think I may have found some cycled rock nearby, now I plan on drilling a lot of holes so that i can mount and remove the frag plus easier, am I best off with "live" rock or dry rock for this? The plan was to get the rock and leave in a bucket for a few days (with pump and heater) before drilling and leaving and cleaning for another couple of days

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I personally prefer live rock, but it's possible to use dry rock.

 

You move a lot faster than I do. :lol:   I'd probably cycle/cure/observe new rock for several weeks, not days.

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4 minutes ago, seabass said:

I personally prefer live rock, but it's possible to use dry rock.

 

You move a lot faster than I do. :lol:   I'd probably cycle/cure/observe new rock for several weeks, not days.

Here is the thing, this forum is like a direct line to my idea's 😄 mostly unfiltered. Most of my ideas will not come to fruition 

Before I joined this forum my ideas where written down and scribbled down in a variety of notebooks 

 

Weeks? Even if it has been cycled? Hmmmmm that may work out nicely with the Christmas office shut down. (I made sure my reef is on the circuit that stays on during shut downs - my reef is on the Security and CCTV power circuit :D) 

 

My thoughts were more of getting rid of die off, drilling into the rock, clearing detritus and dust from rock (from drilling) and trying to avoid  a mini cycle 

Basically I want to drill a frag rack into my rocks, like this https://jbsmarines.co.uk/live-rock-coral-frag-holder-4-holes-1 but obviously without that price tag!

 

Going to rescape as well soon, will set the rocks up in a "U" shape, this should give me the sandbed that I want for Fungias, Slippers and Tongues as well as the rockwork and height to have separate euphyllia and other LPS gardens and MAYBE SPS if i can find some nice ones that I like, I also need more rocks and caves for the future planned wrasses so amy as well do this now 

3 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Given the choice locally I would pick live. I would want to check it out closely and I could not afford to have it shipped wet with water. So dry if having it shipped. 

Local collection, fellow reefer. I have joined a UK forum for the pure reason to hang out in the classifieds and get me some bargains. I see a lot of shutdown sales 😞

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43 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Weeks? Even if it has been cycled? Hmmmmm that may work out nicely with the Christmas office shut down.

Yeah, I like to see if any aiptasia pops up, get rid of any unwanted macro algae, allow dead organic matter to completely break down (cure/cycle), check for pests, and get past things like diatoms and cyano.  Is it necessary?  Not really.

 

Here's something that I've discovered; stick to your livestock plan.  You can make adjustments as you like, but don't make decisions based on sales.  If the sale fits into your plan, then great.  You can quickly get off track if you make impulse purchases that deviate from your plan.  Plus, sales often get us to make purchases before we (or our tanks) are ready for them.

 

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5 minutes ago, seabass said:

Yeah, I like to see if any aiptasia pops up, get rid of any unwanted macro algae, allow dead organic matter to completely break down (cure/cycle), check for pests, and get past things like diatoms and cyano.  Is it necessary?  Not really.

 

Here's something that I've discovered; stick to your livestock plan.  You can make adjustments as you like, but don't make decisions based on sales.  If the sale fits into your plan, then great.  You can quickly get off track if you make impulse purchases that deviate from your plan.  Plus, sales often get us to make purchases before we (or our tanks) are ready for them.

 

That makes a lot of sense. I suppose it could do that at home during the break.....

 

I'm sticking to the plan (ish) I have a list of Wrasses that I will buy if i see one, thankfully for my wallet at the moment they seem to be rare to find. Unless I want to take a fully grown specimen from another Reefer's tank, I am a little wary of that at the minute. I don't want to repeat the issue with the Clown and TSB fighting over a barnacle and I figure that I will basically need to have enough pods to feed a mandarin with 4-5 wrasse in the tank plus need more hiding places! Also the Yellow Coris seems to do laps around the tank and I want to break up those lines a little.

 

I'll hold my hands up and say that I got suckered into Livestock Sales during the Pico Contest. I have definitely learned my lesson from that and am buying nothing currently unless it is from a very strict list of corals. Dont want to be stuck with unwanted GSP, Xenia, Kenya Trees like I am now 😄

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On 10/31/2019 at 2:00 PM, billygoat said:

Well... not quite like mushrooms, perhaps. 😅 They're still stony corals and take quite a long time to get to the point where they start makin' babies, but I have seen pictures of mature reefs with sandbeds totally covered in Fungiid corals that all arose from a single original specimen.

 

Cool wrasse too. Do you know what species it is?

I'm actually thinking that this maybe Yellow and Purple Wrasse (Halichoeres Leucoxanthus) rather than Yellow Wrasse (Halichoeres Chrysus), "she" has four spots along the top fin that do not seem to be apparent on the examples of Yellow Wrasse (Chrysus) however she does not seem to have a white to purple belly as the rest of these seem too! 🤷‍♂️

 

Will be interesting to watch it develop regardless

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6 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Given the choice locally I would pick live. I would want to check it out closely and I could not afford to have it shipped wet with water. So dry if having it shipped. 

We had live rock shipped in from Manado and it did fine for 30 hours in the box. I've had eels live that long in the bottom of the box.

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Good morning all, 

 

Hope we are all having a good Friday? (no not that one its nearly Christmas not Easter)

 

I absolutely love the Kessil lights, I have only been running acclimation mode for the past two days and have definitely noticed a huge reduction in the amount of Diatoms and Cyano algae that I see in the mornings. I plan on picking up a few more Hermit Crabs to get rid of the algaes, I am aware that they do not eat the algae per say but they would be stirring the sand in the area and eating the detritus and other food sources for this algae. 

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So fairly sure that the amount of White that the Chinese Black Box puts out is the reason i struggled with the sandbed issues and amount of algae growth. I do still have a plan for the lighting over the Pico tank but may need something extra to keep that system running well. 

 

Also I picked up Purple Up: Coralline Algae Accelerator. So I was about to dose this morning to see if it would reduce the algaes in the tank by introducing Coralline algae when I noticed that this is basically dosing Calcium into the system! So decided that it was probably best not to add anything until I can test for my Calcium (need to chase Amazon again, still missing test kits (Alk, Mag, Cal) as well as the Spectral Controller for the A80 for the Clownfish Cube

 

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They make one that is actual coralline spores....helix maybe? Idk should be able to look it up easy. People talk about it a lot ....it has mixed success.

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2 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

They make one that is actual coralline spores....helix maybe? Idk should be able to look it up easy. People talk about it a lot ....it has mixed success.

That is what I thought I had, I was literally about to pour the liquid into the measuring cap when I spotted "Check Calcium Levels Regularly. Adjust dose to maintain calcium levels between 380-420ppm"

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