FarmerTy

Left rock, top mushroom. That was my first coral ever. I was rocking the compact fluorescents in my nanocube! Funny thing, looking back, I still have the middle rock and right rock in my sump and that green fungia plate spawned the entire progeny I have in my system and countless others who bought one from me. Those orange skirt zoas with the yellow dot center I still have in my system today... 10 years later. I'm also impressed I knew back then to keep the star polyps on the sand by itself. [emoji57]

You forget... lazyreeferTy. [emoji41]

Alright folks, another one of my random games to fill the day. What was the first coral you ever had? Bonus points for pics!

Yes please... to the computer camera adapter. I'm not above being a guinea pig for you for that purpose. [emoji4]

Yeah, they aren't cheap. Good thing is you can find some used as less have a need for them with LED lighting.

For 200g, I'd recommend at least 1/3 power chiller or bigger Bchap. My system is 250 total water volume and my 1/3 HP is sufficient but I'd think a 1/2 HP is even better.

Reburn dropped off a microscope. Anybody have any Johnny 5 flashbacks looking at it? Any ideas folks? I just may goof around with it and reacquaint myself to using a microscope. It's been a couple of years...

Special deal for former clients Gig'em. Buy one cup for $200 and I'll give you a free pat on the back! Sorry Vu, I didn't mean to discount your advice. That's good advice. For my tank I'm not as concerned since I overskim and aggressively export... plus the extra water volume does help. I look at it as a free DT's Oyster Eggs feeding. Thanks again!

Is your heater downstream from your temp probe or vice versa? What's the small LED light that comes on at night for? Refugium?

Ask and you shall receive! Reburn's online microscope store offers same day delivery so I will have a microscope in my hands soon. Now what to do with it? Suggestions folks?

What's your light cycle? Do you use a heater? How are you tracking temp, controller?

Did you say water change? Those two words are banned from my vocabulary! [emoji86] Gig'em, you never noticed me selling cups of my tank water around Valentines day at the Walgreens by your house? [emoji7]

Purely anecdotal observations... unless someone wants to buy me a microscope. [emoji41]

Today marks Day 1 of the UV experiment. I installed a new 57-watt UV bulb and rubber quartz sleeve wiper and we're good to go to start eradicating all kinds of good and bad things in the water.

Hello ARC, After a hard day of working on the tank, my Deresa clam decides to reward me by spawning in the tank. Enjoy the video! Believe it or not, my one female urchin happened to be cleaning the side of the clam's shell and she decides to start releasing eggs to join in as well. It's hard to see but she's moving all her tentacles towards the center and pushing them out at the same time to distribute the eggs. By the time I noticed she was doing it, I think she was mostly done so there weren't many eggs left coming out of her. Here's a better video I took a couple months ago of the female urchin spawning. She's the one on the left. If you pay special attention, you can see the male releasing as well. It just looks like he's smoking on occasion.

Busy reefing day! I replumbed my chiller which left an open port on my manifold to kick back up my GFO reactor again. I know I've been reading 0 phosphates but that's mainly due to algal growth and the cyano that reared its head when I drained the tank to catch the fish out during my marine velvet epidemic. I'll be glad to have the GFO reactor back online. My SPS have been looking a little on the drab side and it makes me happy to be back at the same regiment that produced such great results in my old tank. I also refilled the CARX media after already using about 4-5" of media in the span of a month to month and a half. This is in a 5" diameter reactor so that's quite the bit of media being consumed. I've actually lowered my alk level from 8.5 dKh down to 7dKh so I can stay away from burnt tips associated with higher alk levels and carbon dosing. Lastly: Today marks Day 1 of the UV experiment. I installed a new 57-watt UV bulb and rubber quartz sleeve wiper and we're good to go to start eradicating all kinds of good and bad things in the water. [emoji4] I'll probably start to clear some corals out of my tank, namely some accidental SPS frags and LPS colonies/frags that have been hanging around.

Actually, it was quite hard to read but my whining threshold wasn't reached yet... apparently its much higher than Robb's. I'd change the text color if possible to something that contrasts the background better and since you're posting in photobucket anyways, just click on the "image" link and copy that into your post and it'll just show it on ARC instead of sending us to photobucket. Like this: Nevermind, I forgot photobucket stopped just hosting the picture and now redirects you even if you place the image in the post.

Got a picture of how they look now?

Nice! I'll give this a try Tim the next time I experience STN. I've always just superglued it and I'd say it stopped the STN about 75% of the time when the offending cause of the STN has been removed/remedied. I have Lugol's at home so I'll give it a try just to see.

Do they look like they are about to melt? Or do they look pancaked against the plugs? How is the color on them? Normal or drab?

Nice collection you've procured there Jim!

Are you seeing your zoa polyps stretch at all? That's the easiest indicator of low light any of us reefers can have. I think you have the right idea of mimicking someone else's tank instead of reinventing the wheel. Following Sam's lighting settings and adjusting it to your own tank is sound logic to me. I still don't trust your nitrate numbers but I honestly don't think they are a problem. My guess is they are around 20-25 ppm as you were reading 5-10ppm when I had tested with my Red Sea test kit when we first started the Reboot and it was reading around 20-25 ppm.

Oh no! Any idea what caused it? Generally I hear of high salinity, high nitrates, or lighting changes causing the polyp bailout. I have never experienced it myself so I can't lend my own observations.

Ahh, the world of Apex and 2-part dosing. It's like the perfect marriage.

Could you share the water parameters and what your results were? Not to 2nd guess but it helps everyone paint a picture of what's going on with your tank.