2Sunny's 240 Coral Garden Cube
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OP
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2Sunny
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Took 3 years to grow into that shape. The initial growth was painfully slow, but recently the growth rate seems to be increasing exponentially, and thanks!
On another note look who showed up today . . . must be one heck of a survivor!
and here's how he looked a month ago . . .
OP
OP
2Sunny
Active Member
Well guess what . . . they're a family. It's not 1 baby cardinal, but 3 and all have made it to one month old! I'm thinking I may net them out and put together a grow tank for them. Seems a shame to let them go. Crazy! This plus the 2 adults that grew up in my sump and are still living makes 5 so far! Must be tricky little guys to survive in such tight quarters.
That is really great news Sunny!! Have you ever raised Bangis before? Those little guys look super healthy Congrats and thanks for the update!
Electrobes
Valuable Member
Three years for that structural growth, man you have some patience! Nice reef spotlight by the way, glad to see your tank being shown!
awesome!!Well guess what . . . they're a family. It's not 1 baby cardinal, but 3 and all have made it to one month old! I'm thinking I may net them out and put together a grow tank for them. Seems a shame to let them go. Crazy! This plus the 2 adults that grew up in my sump and are still living makes 5 so far! Must be tricky little guys to survive in such tight quarters.
ctxmonitor
My Reef Creation
Awesome tank man!!! the Anemone is a great addition.. Btw the video in the first page, was the flow turn off or down?? Doesn't seem like there is any flow as there is no swinging back and forth..
OP
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2Sunny
Active Member
I don't know if 2 mea culpa's are allowed, but if so I hope the good folks at R2R will forgive my absence. I promise this time to be a longterm contributor!
Anyways, here's a couple updated shots of the reef lately. I haven't had the time to do a "super" shot with perfectly clean glass and new sand, but I think these are o.k. Since last I posted so much has changed.
1) I went to an ULNS (ultra low nutrient system) by first starting with Red Sea NOPOX, and now with a DIY nitrate reactor.
2) I no longer use carbon, but I am using a 2 Little Fishies phosphate reactor filled with 250 ml of PO4x4.
3) Instead of 2 x Tunze 6205s operating one at a time I now run 2 x 6105s + 2 x 6055s with 1 6105 and 1 6055 running at a time.
3) I downgraded my lights to 4 x 250 watt Radiums instead of 4 x 400 watt Radiums.
4) I hacked out several colonies and basically started over with frags: Purple Nana, Purple Monster, Birds Nest, Tri-color cushy acro, and Blue Mille all got taken out whole.
5) I have been dosing amino acids for about 3 months because of research I read demonstrating that zooxanthellea growth increases with the addition of amino acids.
Also been working on some "project corals". The most interesting one is the Gemmifera. I bought it back in 2007 and it turned mostly brown for several years, but now that I switched to an ULNS it is recovering the fantastic lime yellow color with magenta tips. I'm also trying to grow out some Purple Bonsai, and Ponape Bird's Nest, and hot pink Stylo but the growth rate is horribly slow. Also I had a large colony of Tenuis that was largely brown on the body, but the frag that I put back in has better lighting and flow and the body is now pure white with neon blue tips. It doesn't photograph well under the Radiums but in person it is truly stunning!
That's all I can think of at the moment.
Joe
Anyways, here's a couple updated shots of the reef lately. I haven't had the time to do a "super" shot with perfectly clean glass and new sand, but I think these are o.k. Since last I posted so much has changed.
1) I went to an ULNS (ultra low nutrient system) by first starting with Red Sea NOPOX, and now with a DIY nitrate reactor.
2) I no longer use carbon, but I am using a 2 Little Fishies phosphate reactor filled with 250 ml of PO4x4.
3) Instead of 2 x Tunze 6205s operating one at a time I now run 2 x 6105s + 2 x 6055s with 1 6105 and 1 6055 running at a time.
3) I downgraded my lights to 4 x 250 watt Radiums instead of 4 x 400 watt Radiums.
4) I hacked out several colonies and basically started over with frags: Purple Nana, Purple Monster, Birds Nest, Tri-color cushy acro, and Blue Mille all got taken out whole.
5) I have been dosing amino acids for about 3 months because of research I read demonstrating that zooxanthellea growth increases with the addition of amino acids.
Also been working on some "project corals". The most interesting one is the Gemmifera. I bought it back in 2007 and it turned mostly brown for several years, but now that I switched to an ULNS it is recovering the fantastic lime yellow color with magenta tips. I'm also trying to grow out some Purple Bonsai, and Ponape Bird's Nest, and hot pink Stylo but the growth rate is horribly slow. Also I had a large colony of Tenuis that was largely brown on the body, but the frag that I put back in has better lighting and flow and the body is now pure white with neon blue tips. It doesn't photograph well under the Radiums but in person it is truly stunning!
That's all I can think of at the moment.
Joe
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OP
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2Sunny
Active Member
Thanks Brett. I'm jump over and check out your build thread. I'm really close to pulling the trigger on 2 new fixtures from Sfiligoi that would have MH and 8 T5 lamps per fixture. I've been growing frags under T5s in my basement and the colors are incredible so I'm definitely sold on T5.
OP
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2Sunny
Active Member
Glad to have yah back Joe. Awesome that the tank is going strong.
Thank-you!
Just felt like posting a short video as well since the colors just seem to be so incredible lately and my good 'ole iPhone can do an O.K. job in a pinch
[video=youtube;EooP2vMBv2U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooP2vMBv2U[/video]
Beautiful tank!
OP
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2Sunny
Active Member
Thanks!!
Started the morning by dosing 1L B-Ionic because I knew it had been a while since my last dose and figured the tank would need it. Now this afternoon I just finished testing all the parameters:
Ca 450 ppt
Mg 1450 ppm
Alk 8.0 dKH
pH 8.3
I above NSW
NO3 0.25 ppm
PO4 0.00 ppm
That says to me that the PO4x4 stuff works incredibly well. I still can't believe that a mere 250 ml treats a 700 gallon system with no trouble.
Also did some aquascape rearranging today. I was on ORA's webste reading up on my Ponape comments and noticed they recommended lower light for more green tinging of color and darker purple so I broke up the piece I had been growing and put frags at a couple different levels in the tank. That also made the high light, high flow spot that it had been inhabiting available for a new frag. It's a piece of $500 Efflo that is not looking to $500ish right now but I have high hopes!
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