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Took some quick snapshots today morning before I ran some errands. 

 

Memphis enjoying himself in the metallic GSP:

 

IMG_20201201_115353_594.thumb.jpg.de2200d55f62d676fca1651695a6d727.jpg

 

Puffy brains:

 

20201201_115519.thumb.jpg.20aadd66d50f628670b3ea21b3c88a8e.jpg

 

IMG_20201201_115353_589.thumb.jpg.e70f44975aad61688ec0945ade6cdd72.jpg

 

Weeping willow:

 

20201201_115439.thumb.jpg.7fb77536b020a46f5d873c9835ee4fb0.jpg

 

Fuzzy red finger leather:

 

IMG_20201201_115353_575.thumb.jpg.259bdc6104f36462d056ddc69a12c51f.jpg

 

Bullseye rhodactis shroom pair: 😊

 

IMG_20201201_115353_577.thumb.jpg.fb9f3d713df793a397573697683233a4.jpg

 

Sunflower zoas, blasto merlettis & a slightly retracted John Deere leptastrea (it had full PE, but when I shifted the lid and re-adjusted the position of the light, it retracted - it's very light-sensitive)

 

IMG_20201201_115353_576.thumb.jpg.be031896d476cbbdb1e95f7a570a1765.jpg

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My pavona-lepto pair is growing rather well in this reef: 😊

 

IMG_20201201_115649_593.thumb.jpg.c98153c10e4ace45c0c3c99e5e316bd9.jpg

 

The pavona has actually started to encrust to the back wall:

 

IMG_20201201_115649_594.thumb.jpg.73b9cbd664c09c7060b5ef6824b4182d.jpg

 

And the lepto's edges are flaring out as well: 

 

IMG_20201201_115649_595.thumb.jpg.8ff91151c02ccbc9a33bc654a1410044.jpg

 

I'm waiting for the pavona to develop more folds. Once it does, I'll frag one of the folds and once the frag is stable, I'll give it to my primary LFS to help them increase their SPS collection (they don't have red pavonas, if I'm not mistaken). 👍 

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Dusky the blenny has been nipping at my SPS repeatedly for the past 2 days, to the point that it stresses out the corals so much that there is no PE on the setosa & white semi-circular patches on the montis. 😓

 

I'm debating if I should remove him, but I honestly don't know how - considering he hides in the rock if he feels threatened. Maybe remove the rock from the tank & dangle it upside down over a bucket? 🤔

 

Thinking of a safe way that will not harm the fish or break any corals in the process - I'll have to undo part of my scape. 

 

I'll observe him for another day or two. If he doesn't leave my montis alone, then I'll find a careful way to relocate him back to my nanocube downstairs. 😕

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Update #1:

 

It took ~2 hours, but I managed to catch Dusky and instead of relocating him back to the cube, I decided to insert him into my 60G reef, which has plenty of algae on the rocks for him to graze on:

 

20201201_174455.thumb.jpg.231e7be0e660870c48929c592540e807.jpg

 

IMG_20201201_174551_605.thumb.jpg.964a92088efcfa949648d1fba140a05e.jpg

 

He actually looks happier in that tank. I think it was worth all the hassle, because the fish seems more content & active. 

 

Also, I had to undo half of my scape to get him out, and as usual, I knocked off 10 or so frags off the rocks and had to re-glue them. 😕

 

Both the dying/unhealthy chili pepper and unknown purple monti frags fell off Coralline Ledge as well. I tried to attach them together and place them back on the main ledge, but I'm not sure if they can recover because they appear to be in terrible shape: 😓

 

IMG_20201201_174822_041.thumb.jpg.788ec9f48ae5bd181c64b957e653fba6.jpg

 

I also moved my Yuma rock up, and angled my tenius towards the light:

 

IMG_20201201_174822_020.thumb.jpg.e9edbd74f41d1340c0bd0fa0bbdafed8.jpg

 

IMG_20201201_174822_021.thumb.jpg.ce8a273609935536af40d64009a7c333.jpg

 

Speaking of the tenius, it has finally regained some color at the tips - an odd bluish-purplish hue that I really like. 😊

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I moved the blastos down to the sandbed:

 

20201201_174948.thumb.jpg.90aaff77e7bf80ff7af82079c44bf200.jpg

 

To create an alcove of sorts for Sapphire, because this is where she sleeps:

 

IMG_20201201_174822_029.thumb.jpg.a761fd072a4ac2a4a8cae033c73ef765.jpg

 

I had to re-glue the microgoni, it was a bit damaged during the shuffle, and so was the lepto, but hopefully they'll recover in the upcoming weeks:

 

20201201_174908.thumb.jpg.d8b3ec9b7dd7667dd74ae80cabfbde10.jpg

 

I also shifted the weeping willow to the left, although I might have accidently glued it on a tiny monti fraglet: 😕

 

IMG_20201201_174822_025.thumb.jpg.92efba2b56efc66af72460ce9927ecf8.jpg

 

A lot of the corals are still pissed, but I think they'll open up after a day or two. 

 

Also, after removing Dusky, *all my SPS pieces showed varying degrees of PE, including my forest fire digi, which wasn't doing well at all for the past week. 

 

It is quite *possible Dusky has been consistently nipping at these pieces. Although, I haven't been watching the tank 24/7, so there is no way to tell. 🤷‍♀️

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So, I woke up this morning feeling like something was amiss with the nano. Then I remembered one coral piece went MIA during the shuffle yesterday - the pocci! 😨

 

So after brushing my teeth, I immediately got to work on trying to find it, and I had to undo a bit of the scape on the left (near the Zoa Garden) to retrieve the Pocci from the sandbed. I glued it on Coralline Ledge for now:

 

IMG_20201202_093850_347.thumb.jpg.db3a515a5a75eb0dba62780750104b6f.jpg

 

And it doesn't look too bad, although a small part of the bottom appears to have completely lost some flesh. 😓

 

Also, I rescaped the left side of the tank - mostly swapped the positions of the yuma rock & blasto colony to accomodate the duncan (the duncan was left near the mushroom lineup yesterday because I was too tired of constantly shuffling things around). I'm not very happy with how it looks:

 

IMG_20201202_094256_556.thumb.jpg.a22bc180f3161b7605c0532431a9a814.jpg

 

I feel like relocating the blasto colony somewhere else in the tank, then moving the Zoa Ledge more to the right to make another mini archway-alcove for Sapphire. 

 

I haven't decided *where to move the blastos though, so I'll have to look at my tank carefully to decide its placement. *And leave some space to accomodate my upcoming mini red carpet nem as well. 🤔

 

The monti-fusion is doing better today:

 

IMG_20201202_093850_366.thumb.jpg.50e60a64f8f3e4ddff8a45cfde154422.jpg

 

There are polyps on the purple monti end, but still hardly any color or polyps on the chili pepper end. Recovery will be very slow, I wager, *if this piece recovers at all. 😕

 

Good news is that the Montihat is recovering. There is less grayish-brown splotches on it now, and the green parts have become very vivid again:

 

IMG_20201202_093850_358.thumb.jpg.2f117b8776e90d2d25199120f93b8afe.jpg

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The other SPS pieces will need time to heal too. The B.O.P. seriatopora is a bit loose on the rocks - will probably need to re-glue it into a crevice:

 

IMG_20201202_093850_348.thumb.jpg.d0dadc6f0b29f60733f601d01177aa6a.jpg

 

Microgoni looks better with full PE today morning:

 

IMG_20201202_093850_367.thumb.jpg.975557900d205c2e6b2b7a64290401c4.jpg

 

The tenius has regained all sorts of greenish-bluish shades with purple tips - hoping to see more changes in the weeks to come: 😊

 

20201202_094012.thumb.jpg.7c0afb13c26e66b8c538e192f42cfc30.jpg

 

The forest fire digi surprised me the most today by displaying some PE: 😮

 

20201202_093942.thumb.jpg.b19a5b1fa7d42b6dd4e0f554d7bf19b2.jpg

 

I think it'll make a full comeback - the tips appear to be growing too! 😊

 

And the little red finger leather was extra fuzzy today:

 

20201202_094046.thumb.jpg.7ced217b4daff9875903629846444d21.jpg

 

Overall, the tank is recovering. 😊👍

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I'm thinking of fragging a bit of these two zoas, and donating them to my primary LFS:

 

IMG_20201202_112216_272.thumb.jpg.a7167012cbee2a44696935094c019f6b.jpg

 

IMG_20201202_112216_273.thumb.jpg.f8eb6fca22390c01ca733e3a36f2f0e5.jpg

 

Might need to peel off the GSP on the orange zoa frag though, because it seems to be trying to grow over the polyps. 🤔

 

I also readjusted my scape, and am much happier with the way it currently looks:

 

IMG_20201202_112333_685.thumb.jpg.16f142e9e9faf876a6872d1d591871a0.jpg

 

I shifted the blastos to the right, the duncan a little more to the middle and moved the Zoa Ledge to the right to create a better shadowy alcove/cave for Sapphire:

 

IMG_20201202_112333_686.thumb.jpg.b67e54e1486b864e0bb8e189ae82b707.jpg

 

IMG_20201202_112333_687.thumb.jpg.5b9a08a9111c045195720a8503ecc538.jpg

 

Once the mini carpet nem arrives, I'll try to shuffle the loose GSP pieces on the sandbed to the far right of the tank, and move the yuma rock to accomodate the nem's rock. 

 

Besides the nem, I don't plan in adding any overly large frags or mini colonies to tank. I'll be mostly focusing my efforts on trying to restore the current stock of SPS to full health, and collecting more montis & zoas to add to my collection. 

 

Will most likely give more sticks a miss in this tank - unless it is something very eye-catching like my forest fire digi or setosa. Otherwise, I'll just stick to my original plan. 

 

Might put in an order for a zanzibar shrimp next month as well. 🤔

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Both my snails are out to munch on some film algae:

 

IMG_20201202_161919_682.thumb.jpg.d3d0e1432a456385dcfa044f3b234589.jpg

 

IMG_20201202_161919_681.thumb.jpg.65ae04a0ae5b1e019f4aa81b710e0f9c.jpg

 

I noticed Stripey works harder & faster though. I'm thinking of picking up more striped turban snails at the LFS tomorrow for my large reef, but I might swap out the regular turban one in this reef for a second stripey one. 👍

 

Memphis filter feeding:

 

IMG_20201202_161950_566.thumb.jpg.fa3e367af4c6f3b0f2c3e9cf69ea62da.jpg

 

The nepthea is growing quickly:

 

IMG_20201202_162017_408.thumb.jpg.35bba2586d19da03457da7370bf6ef7b.jpg

 

The dry rock of Zoa Ledge has a nice healthy algae film on it:

 

IMG_20201202_162050_741.thumb.jpg.20c1ed8e61dc96cbf9ad81c4551fa358.jpg

 

I'm hoping it will be completely encrusted in coralline in months to come. 😊👍

 

I think once the tank is a bit older, I *might pick up a duster worm for the large crevice in the central LR. I'll definitely pick up a red & green monticap & encrusting green monti (if they all still at there) at my primary LFS in ~2 weeks. 👍

 

Will keep an eye out for the rare, elusive true purple monticap frag though. I've only seen that once, but I'd love to have a frag of my own in my own reef. 

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New tiny shroom! 😊 :

 

IMG_20201203_102240_909.thumb.jpg.2484210ff0c5c0f3aa227bd15f10ae5f.jpg

 

Bullseye rhodactis:

 

20201203_102321.thumb.jpg.63a9ab7efa083418a35303e10167284b.jpg

 

Finger leather has put out more 'fingers' :

 

IMG_20201203_102240_907.thumb.jpg.709b3ff61b8f4828b89e1d91ba91e191.jpg

 

Just decided to adjust the position of the rainbow brain for fun: 😅

 

IMG_20201203_102240_904.thumb.jpg.3e68d18c85efaa839068e05ae4b785a0.jpg

 

Found this way away from the rest of my zoas - must have been Sapphire's handiwork: 🙄

 

IMG_20201203_102240_902.thumb.jpg.7c3bf90f00204c436b7b26f90fab3912.jpg

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man, I dont log into nano-reef for a few days and you posted more than I did on my reef when I had it for a year! I love the updates! Its interesting seeing how fascinated with the different zoa morphs you are. Is that the market over there? I know here at my LFS you ask if they have any zoas and they point to a small cluster of frags which aren't named and have a random assortment of morhps. People here seem to like the sticks and acans more.

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10 minutes ago, PieMan2k said:

man, I dont log into nano-reef for a few days and you posted more than I did on my reef when I had it for a year! I love the updates! Its interesting seeing how fascinated with the different zoa morphs you are. Is that the market over there? I know here at my LFS you ask if they have any zoas and they point to a small cluster of frags which aren't named and have a random assortment of morhps. People here seem to like the sticks and acans more.

Well, not all the zoa morphs that they have here have names either. But there are so many varieties. I saw two more varieties today that interested me at the LFS, but they haven't fragged them yet. People like sticks and acans here too. Especially sticks. 

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Update #1:

 

A closer look at the rainbow brain coral: 

 

20201204_105348.thumb.jpg.1f7a2bfc8bfe9912f1d5b0cde43c2ad4.jpg

 

20201204_105415.thumb.jpg.7283a351d4a16a7f8d0f33c2d205aa31.jpg

 

Red pavona: 

 

IMG_20201204_105122_890.thumb.jpg.e371be080166ac8ce6f4fee60bb32e92.jpg

 

Orange setosa (now with polyps!) 😊 :

 

IMG_20201204_105122_895.thumb.jpg.c0500923a6bfeeddb4c884e4b8edafbb.jpg

 

Lepto:

 

IMG_20201204_105122_891.thumb.jpg.ae4d4c9485eb6e50353435efdce4cf85.jpg

 

Radioactive birdsnest seems to be growing rather quickly:

 

IMG_20201204_105122_892.thumb.jpg.a6c4a14bc4138e7a613cfb87cae0cfca.jpg

 

Forest fire digi is making quite the comeback. The bottom part & the tips have began to grow, the color of the polyps have slowly began to return, although they're now dark orange and not red yet:

 

IMG_20201204_105122_905.thumb.jpg.1fea5dcbee1c1b94b02631f5ff8e3330.jpg

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Update #2: 

 

Trumpet heads with feeder tentacles:

 

IMG_20201204_105122_901.thumb.jpg.14a92d49f73167a3322ea1a02b8d9e49.jpg

 

Red fungia is recovering - mild PE spotted in some places, although I did catch Sapphire nipping it a few times: 😕

 

IMG_20201204_105230_587.thumb.jpg.88d9dab4e412fa2254a2489458ee666d.jpg

 

Duncan:

 

IMG_20201204_105122_893.thumb.jpg.9b07801d17511cd9e3de06099e3f087a.jpg

 

The macroalgae corner:

 

IMG_20201204_105636_512.thumb.jpg.12e9bdb08567275143c3444139be10ce.jpg

 

Memphis filter feeding:

 

IMG_20201204_105551_759.thumb.jpg.4bfb7cdf3431cb73bbbd81e629d68063.jpg

 

Banded trochus/turban snail hard at work: 

 

IMG_20201204_105518_991.thumb.jpg.9cd75ae83a2d6c66b8b13d414179aa88.jpg

 

Filter floss needs to be cleaned. I noticed the purple hornets aren't doing too well (early signs of the pox) and one of the zoa colonies appear shrunken too. Will give both a quick Furan-2 dip after I do a quick read up on the process on my previous pico thread. I vaguely remember the steps, but I need to be sure because Furan-2 is quite powerful & not reefsafe (dips need to be done separately, outside the tank using SW). 🤔

 

My Incredible Hulk zoas haven't opened up either. No signs of the pox, just three stubborn polyps that refuse to open. 😓

 

The rest of the zoas & palys are fine. Growth is fast in some & slow in others, but they're all open. 👍

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I commenced the Zoa Pox treatment today for affected zoa frags and colonies. I'll share what I did here, in this journal, and break this update into 2 posts because it'll be a bit long. 

 

Part #1:

 

1. I prepared 2 buckets of SW taken from my tank. In the first bucket on the left, I added 1x pkt. of Furan 2 and stirred it up with the SW using a chopstick. In the second bucket on the left, I simply added several drops of Vit. C & ~2ml of Iodine to the SW. 

 

IMG_20201204_181011_487.thumb.jpg.74b2721a0114fa7a7d62885dcf1143c5.jpg

 

2. I removed my orange leptastrea from the Zoa Ledge because I'm not sure how well it would fare in the dip. As for the zoas on the rocks, I shook the rocks while they were still in my tank to get as many of the polyps closed up as possible. Then I added the three zoa covered rocks in the Furan-2 dip for ~10 minutes:

 

IMG_20201204_181632_794.thumb.jpg.623c2e827f93b44ca7d4586a050f3818.jpg

 

3. I managed to take pics of how polyps affected by Zoa Pox look like. You can see white dots on the stems of the polyps (when they are closed up) and sometimes even see how shrunken the polyps are (in the later stages of the pox). Mine are still in the early stages, but the pox spots are evident on the purple hornet & fruit loop polyps:

 

IMG_20201204_181916_944.thumb.jpg.619a5a8caff910c43e88ad981d9b69bc.jpg

 

20201204_181945.thumb.jpg.c61194f37b531d4038e57f1e61890158.jpg

 

4. Once the 10 minutes were up, I quickly transferred the zoa rocks into the second bucket which serves as a concentrated iodine dip. The Furan-2 dip is actually quite harsh on the corals, and a bit of iodine helps:

 

IMG_20201204_182328_080.thumb.jpg.90ca1cbf6812481c6db68acabdeb0803.jpg

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Part #2:

 

1. I made sure to swish the zoa rocks thoroughly in the second bucket before adding them back into the tank - Furan-2 is *not reefsafe and should never be added directly into a reeftank:

 

IMG_20201204_183649_126.thumb.jpg.5fb428fab56f33bd48e34713a5d16216.jpg

 

2. Some of the zoas opened up immediately upon entry into the nano, but some still remain closed:

 

20201204_183717.thumb.jpg.05aa30b941127e1703590e79082923f6.jpg

 

20201204_183740.thumb.jpg.4426257aacbebf2205e47ba491509aa1.jpg

 

3. I run a lot of carbon in the nano, but I'll be changing it out frequently over the next week as the dips continue. After adding the Zoa Ledge back into the nano, something fell off from the bottom and it turned out to be my new turban snail: 😱

 

20201204_183913.thumb.jpg.4fefc2573095d3b6e2b83fad733e055d.jpg

 

IMG_20201204_183850_323.thumb.jpg.f95026edc17f67f01d0ce76f473001cf.jpg

 

Thankfully the snail was okay and made it through both dips. It's quite active in the nano and back to munching algae on the glass. 😁

 

I'll be repeating this dip for 2 more days, allow the zoas to rest for a week, dip again, then observe the corals to see if more dipping is necessary. BME, some corals make it, and some don't. 😭

 

I truly hope I can save all the zoa colonies & frags this time though. Last time I lost 2 to 3 beautiful mini colonies, but managed to save the heavily affected frags with this method. 

 

It really sucks to lose things this way, and I'm still not sure what causes it, but it pops up once in a while & can spread very quickly to other healthy pieces. I'll keep this journal updated, so that anyone who's interested can see the progress or decline of my frags affected by the pox. 👍

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52 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

The post from 9 hours ago shows some great looking corals. Too bad about the zoa pox. Good luck with the treatment.

Thanks, Deb. Things can deteriorate quickly - I'm mostly glad I'm at home so that I can tend to the issue. Will take some time for these pieces to recover though. 😕

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Tubbs blue zoas from two different angles: 😊

 

IMG_20201205_103152_112.thumb.jpg.a209b515b08bd061751fa0b695e97a6b.jpg

 

IMG_20201205_103152_108.thumb.jpg.d7a0a73fec14763b877b58438cbd7cd4.jpg

 

Mint greens:

 

IMG_20201205_103152_100.thumb.jpg.01bf3e6a9ac3a6fc521e909c13adc198.jpg

 

Fairy dust zoas with many new little polyps:

 

IMG_20201205_103152_101.thumb.jpg.6aad826618a3617ed456070478d62367.jpg

 

Love this green implosion morph with a starburst pattern in the center: 🥰

 

20201205_103232.thumb.jpg.85c9b8e040420313758c8c0db4b9239b.jpg

 

Butt Munchers zoas developed a new polyp - even my Blondies is in the middle of forming a new head, although that polyp is too small and has no definition yet:

 

20201205_103313.thumb.jpg.65fad426d9df129385035f9cb9c08a64.jpg

 

The only zoas/palys that have not grown yet are my blue hornet, red hornets (bleached/injured from the PAR38 LED & recovering very slowly) & rainbow infusions. I worry about the rainbow one because it was very difficult to find, expensive, and now has a 'choked' stem. 😕

 

Truly hope it can make it somehow & reproduce like my Sunny Ds in the upcoming weeks/months. 

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Cloves: 😊

 

IMG_20201205_103434_456.thumb.jpg.6b786bac3a6355d0b23ae25e769278da.jpg

 

The main chili pepper monti has encrusted further, but still remains unusually pale. I think it will need more time to recover from the light's intensity damage: 😕

 

IMG_20201205_103544_210.thumb.jpg.92cf65d35480fe10f9a4a88d1a1606ab.jpg

 

I found a stomatella snail shell on my sandbed - I think my stomatella died, although I'm unsure why: 😕

 

IMG_20201205_103403_313.thumb.jpg.0234864e31e8d5c62bb4dd56de3a541e.jpg

 

Sapphire feeling shy today: 😅

 

IMG_20201205_103630_391.thumb.jpg.c67e2faa696652bae90b67b3e8486d76.jpg

 

Will try to do a WC shortly. 👍

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I WCed the tank today morning. Glass was relatively clean thanks to the snails, but there is a small patch of cyano on the blasto colony's rock, which is a bit odd. 😕

 

Rainbow brain: 

 

IMG_20201205_160248_657.thumb.jpg.feb9de867d3ede2b56d1cf3f2b404eae.jpg

 

Yuma:

 

IMG_20201205_160425_350.thumb.jpg.faec8c1f8e961408d26c3362d8fe5a32.jpg

 

Harvey: 🥰

 

IMG_20201205_160321_859.thumb.jpg.6b827369ca9236edc51ccb42ca8925ba.jpg

 

IMG_20201205_160321_860.thumb.jpg.f058cd42f441acf569a098b507051a3c.jpg

 

Memphis in the Zoa Garden: 

 

IMG_20201205_160609_710.thumb.jpg.1e591a04379ef413fe7f454454eef94f.jpg

 

I spotted mild PE on the chili pepper monti frag - I think it's recovering! 😄 :

 

IMG_20201205_160511_135.thumb.jpg.4fed8c94a341b1d381f6153808f4ee32.jpg

 

Also, the new lights have arrived today, but I haven't opened the package yet. Will probably set it up tomorrow though - need to prepare for another Furan-2 dip. 👍

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Finally opened my package and checked out the various combinations by dimming/increasing channels at different intervals:

 

IMG_20201205_182454_834.thumb.jpg.861ac0383a5ffe2eed274978b62d048d.jpg

 

IMG_20201205_183921_301.thumb.jpg.844c4867d60735fd1b4590c987c01221.jpg

 

It's very bright and I'm satisfied so far. Hopefully the corals will love it and continue to grow. 😊👍

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  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

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