FarmerTy

In that case, I'm betting on a unhappy new year! Please mark me down for January 1st.

Hello fellow reefkeepers, Got a fun game if anybody is interested. So, I'm hosting an end of the semester gathering for my wife's grad school friends tomorrow evening. Let's take guesses on what my final pH will be at the end of the night? Winner gets my utmost respect and the FarmerTy seal of approval. Sorry everyone, the webcam will be down. ***Edit, Victoly has graciously offered a frag of meteor shower cyphastrea to the winner! Here's what I've been at the last couple of weeks. If it helps, there are about 30 anticipated guests and two small dogs. The AC will more than likely be running to offset the heat generated by all the engaging conversations during the night... especially when I have field 1,000 questions about the tank. Good luck and thanks for playing along! Max pH - 8.1 Low pH - 7.8 Guesses: JeeperTy - 7.50 Reburn - 7.90 JimH - 7.49 Victoly - 7.54 Sascha - 7.55 Brian.srock - 7.80 Bigsby - 7.69 Gig'em - 7.62 ShawnKoto - 7.71 Cameron - 8.01 Jellyfish - 7.65 OceanTraveler - 7.48 Makena - 7.38 Ludakris - 7.70 Manny - 7.95 Bluemoon - 7.60 MrMayTagg - 7.63

Woohoo! Are we taking bets on your final DT pH? I'm going with a high of 8.05 and low of 7.85.

Well if you like big forums and you cannot lie... and the other posters can't deny...

ARC to Manny: You're my favorite Manny... that's why I post everything you say twice.

You've got to make some changes Manny. You have to put her first, always! Let HER be the one to reach out to you... when she's ready, or when her dad (MFrame) convinces her to talk to you again. Maybe then, the healing can start, and you can work on having a good relationship again.

Is there any other way to gauge coloration other than sps? The zoa addicts are about to jump all over me! [emoji12] So here's my thoughts. I've never seen a nicely colored SPS tank with higher phosphates. I'm talking mostly acros and not so much birdsnests or digitatas. They tend to look good in some tanks irregardless of nutrient levels. Hence why most use them as a tester SPS coral to see if you can keep them. I've seen my fair share of tanks too... though I in no way can encompass the shared community experiences of viewing other tanks. However, I've seen plenty of great looking SPS tanks at lower or higher alkalinity levels. To me, that removes the criteria that a greatly colored SPS tank is dependent on lower alk levels. Actually, the guy I learned the most from about SPS husbandry kept his alk at 11 dKh. His colors were amazing! Most though, keep their tanks around 8.5 dKh or lower because they are already running some type of carbon dosing and the general consensus is to keep your alk levels low while carbon dosing. So, there may be a correlation with lower alk levels with better colors in the general population but part of that may just be the coincidence that most of those lower alk tanks are also running some type of carbon dosing to control nutrient levels; therefore, better coloration associated with those tanks (zeo included). I was hoping to see some evidence you've might have gathered to lend to the theory of lower alk levels correlating to better colors in SPS. I'm not suggesting you do this but it would be interesting to have you raise your alk to a higher level and leave it there for some time. I'm curious to see if your raspberry limeade, which tends to darken with higher alk, will eventually color back up if given time to acclimate to the higher alk levels. That perhaps maybe, it darkening is just a response to a negative stimulus, such as the change in alk levels, and then it will color back up nicely again after stability has been reached. If you have any other observations regarding your coloration with your corals, I'd love to hear them. I find the topic fascinating and like to acquire as much information about it as I can!

my tapatalk app cannot find ARC period.Maybe it's a sign Manny. Maybe ARC doesn't want to be found. She's trying to be considerate and not make a scene. It's not you Manny, it's ARC... she just needs to work on some things to be a better forum. [emoji33] [emoji23]

Some of the times, I'll post and it'll just sit there and think forever. Then I cancel the post and refresh and it's there. Very odd.

Pictures or it didn't happen Brett! [emoji6] I'm kidding but I am curious of your observations. What corals have you noticed this most in? Do you have any pictures of your system with the higher alk versus the lower alk? It'll be neat to see the visual difference.

Wow, everything you need to keep your alk and Ca levels stable for $225? Crazy! For those not familiar with calcium reactors. The only maintenance this system needs is to swap the CO2 tank out 1x-2x a year (<$25/swap) and refill the media at the same time (one box of media is usually $20-$30 for an entire year)! That's potentially less than $55/year in supplies for perfect alk and Ca levels for your tank! Okay, I lied, you'll need to calibrate the pH probe... I do it every 6 months. The two packets of calibration solution will set you back a whole whopping $3 for both solutions. This is the exact system I used on my 125-gallon system for 3 years minus I controlled mine through my Apex versus a separate pH controller. Here are the results:

If I can find the article I read a couple of years back, I'll post the link for it. They ran some experiments and found that it was similarly effective in a reactor as it was in a media bag in high flow. The other added benefit is that there is less of a chance of carbon dust being generated with the turbulent environments in most media reactors versus a media bag.

Boo, maintenance cleaning! That just reminds me I'll have to do the same myself. Glad everything is running smoothly in the system right now. For GAC, I've ran it passively in a bag in a high flow environment for the past 4 years and find it still very effective. I typically run it 2 out of the 4 weeks per month.

Yeah, i hadn't had enough time to hype it yet. I'll get on it!

Ha, no joke there Manny. I like how the tank looks. I was saying to enter the video into my Charity Video contest. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/32929-ty-the-real-estate-guys-charity-video-contest/#entry257541

Dude, tank looks great! You should totally enter that video into the charity video contest!

Looks great Jake! That's got Subsea's patented macro influenced look all over it... including the saltwater Molly. How's that homemade skimmer still working out for you? Great ingenuity on your part!

I figured he's got so much to nip at that if he ever did start, it wouldn't do so much damage since he's going to be spreading the wealth amongst a lot of sps frags and colonies. It's the same mentality I have on tangs. Blitz them with too many options to attack that no fish gets singled out.

New addition to the tank.

My new flame angel. Thanks Jake and his crew!

I don't think I saw any Makena but I wasn't looking for them.

99 problems, but the fish ain't one. Way to go mushroom crazy there Bluemoon.

Good meeting you too Scott! I want to see update pics of your mystery wrasse when he's all settled in. Always wanted one.

The event is already in the right direction.

Bluemoon was nice enough to hold a spot for me until I get there. You da best Bluemoon!