My rendition of 300

[Sisterlimonpot]

tanks looks great...Love the purple corals....

Which one? There's a purple monti that I regret ever putting in, it just grows way too fast. And then there's the large starfire acro that I got from Epic Aquaculture that has really taken off. I like that one, every time Bill c9mes over he comments about how large it is.

 

[1ocean]

Monti first like the plating......acro our second as we just don't seem to have luck yet with acros....I think soon as the tank settles down from switching out the lace rock for the marco rocks...Aug will be a year...Still fighting PO4...anyway you tank looks nice...Sal&Judy

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I started off with a traditional cycle using uncooked shrimp but this time I used dry rock. It took a year to finally get past the ugly stage and probably 2 more to navigate stability.

That experience left me questioning that approach vs live rock with enough biodiversity and micro fauna to seed a new tank.

This was the 1st time I didn't use live rock to start a tank, partly because of the cost and the availability. I kept blaming AZ water. Things started to turn around when I places an order for live sand and mud from IPSF. After that, it wasn't a constant battle. I wonder if I did this on day one if I would've avoided that entire struggle.

Concerning rapid growth. It wasn't until I started paying attention to Ken (@KenO) about pH stability and then discussing it with Bill and see him start to lean that direction, is when I sat up and really take a hard look.

That fork in the road led me down a path of designing and tinkering. It allowed me to focus primarily on pH stability and stop worrying about alkalinity and calcium. And I mean pH 8.30 day and night with only the use of calcium hydroxide. I even took my alkatronic offline.

That's when Plating Monti's started to become a bad word. Fragments would break off, fall to the bottom and then a fish would pick it up and place it somewhere else, a few months later, another monti colony.

I decided to take advantage of the new shelves created by the monti's and started gluing acro frags right on top of the monti's live tissue with hopes that it would die off, nope, the corals just set boundaries and continue to grow.

When I go back through this thread, I'm reminded of how difficult it was at the start of this adventure. I'm glad that I was able to ignore it and focus longer on the design phase a bit longer.

It's definitely a journey with no destination except for the one you're currently at.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Which one? There's a purple monti that I regret ever putting in, it just grows way too fast. And then there's the large starfire acro that I got from Epic Aquaculture that has really taken off. I like that one, every time Bill c9mes over he comments about how large it is.

Yes it is very purplee

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I noticed this evening that after the pumps changed up to a standing wave, the Electric Miyagi Tort is now breaking the surface of the water.



I'm curious what's going to happen when I allow it to keep going...

 

[lubeck]

my slimmer grew horizontal once it hit the surface

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

my slimmer grew horizontal once it hit the surface

Did the horizontal branch looked deformed from the water surface? Or did it maintain its regular shape?

 

[nuxx]

Looking really good! Nice to have a coral grow out of the tank lol

 

[lubeck]

Did the horizontal branch looked deformed from the water surface? Or did it maintain its regular shape?

I hacked it back before the branches could grow out.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I hacked it back before the branches could grow out.

I see.
I'm going to allow it to do its thing and see what happens.

Over on humble fish I shared the video and @sdreef provided a few photos of what happens when you allow the corals to grow at the surface.

 

[sdreef]

I see.
I'm going to allow it to do its thing and see what happens.

Over on humble fish I shared the video and @sdreef provided a few photos of what happens when you allow the corals to grow at the surface.

Here's my short term experience. I have three colonies that breach the surface over the past 4-6 months: Oregon tort, Poletti yellow tip (acropora austera) and a teal stag. I have been feeding the corals for the past 6 weeks with a feed mode where I turn off the returns for 30 minutes but leave on the flow pumps. This drops the water surface further and the tips sit out of the water with the occasional wave flow during this time. I do this a few times a week and at times during full lighting with the halides without any issues.

I'm not great about trimming the corals, so will see how this goes over time

No noticeable change in the shape of the apical tips.

This branch is growing more horizontal now and the corallites on the top surface are developing yellow tips.

On the Oregon tort the shape of some of the apical corallites that breach has slightly changed and thickened a bit.

 

[McPuff]

Did the horizontal branch looked deformed from the water surface? Or did it maintain its regular shape?

My Bali green slimer hit the surface and basically flattened out and grew sideways (it's since been massively pruned... almost a "start over"). The purple slimer I have is getting close to the top now so I'm interested in seeing what it does.

 

[Troylee]

Your ph controller is insane.. just that short chat with you the other day I think I’m gonna go ahead and reach for the stars and see where my alkalinity ends up! Every time I’ve tried to keep my ph high I get up into the 12.5 range and it scares me off haha! Corals haven’t shown any ill effects at that high of a range so maybe I can push the envelope farther.. there’s gotta be a even playing field where the growth knocks back the alk at least I hope I might need bigger corals thou! It’s rough filling a 300 gallon tank from the ground up! I’m no baller like that! Lol

 

[areefer01]

When I go back through this thread, I'm reminded of how difficult it was at the start of this adventure. I'm glad that I was able to ignore it and focus longer on the design phase a bit longer.

It's definitely a journey with no destination except for the one you're currently at.

Hobbyist often forget, or ignore, that reefs are built upon reefs and take ages to look the way they do. That being said we have marketing that put an emphasis on beating, or limiting, the various phases our displays go through which leads to ignorance later on managing the ebb and flow of our displays.

You are doing great, thanks for sharing, and of course stay amazing.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Your ph controller is insane.. just that short chat with you the other day I think I’m gonna go ahead and reach for the stars and see where my alkalinity ends up! Every time I’ve tried to keep my ph high I get up into the 12.5 range and it scares me off haha! Corals haven’t shown any ill effects at that high of a range so maybe I can push the envelope farther.. there’s gotta be a even playing field where the growth knocks back the alk at least I hope I might need bigger corals thou! It’s rough filling a 300 gallon tank from the ground up! I’m no baller like that! Lol

I'm sure you're aware that there is a cautionary note that this is for somewhat established reef tanks.

If you do end up doing it, I'd be curious what you experienced, and how high your alkalinity got before it started to drop.

After our conversation the other day about how my alkalinity got as high as mid 13s and leveled off at mid 11s, I did decide to break out the hanna alk tester and I'm now at 10.4. I should start testing on a more regular basis, to see if it's a downward trend. But it is good news that after so long it's finally dropping.

Hobbyist often forget, or ignore, that reefs are built upon reefs and take ages to look the way they do. That being said we have marketing that put an emphasis on beating, or limiting, the various phases our displays go through which leads to ignorance later on managing the ebb and flow of our displays.

You are doing great, thanks for sharing, and of course stay amazing.

I agree, marketing tends to target our fears with promises of short cuts. I think everyone falls victim to that at some level.

One thing that might be a necessary evil is how marketing takes advantage of our reefs inherent slow progress by distracting us with other aspects of the hobby. Whether it be routines, gear, processes, automation, chemicals, etc., we sort of need that distraction to keep us engaged.

It makes you wonder if there wasn't all this distraction from the main goal, how many people would leave the hobby out of sheer boredom?

 

[Troylee]

I'm sure you're aware that there is a cautionary note that this is for somewhat established reef tanks.

If you do end up doing it, I'd be curious what you experienced, and how high your alkalinity got before it started to drop.

After our conversation the other day about how my alkalinity got as high as mid 13s and leveled off at mid 11s, I did decide to break out the hanna alk tester and I'm now at 10.4. I should start testing on a more regular basis, to see if it's a downward trend. But it is good news that after so long it's finally dropping.


I agree, marketing tends to target our fears with promises of short cuts. I think everyone falls victim to that at some level.

One thing that might be a necessary evil is how marketing takes advantage of our reefs inherent slow progress by distracting us with other aspects of the hobby. Whether it be routines, gear, processes, automation, chemicals, etc., we sort of need that distraction to keep us engaged.

It makes you wonder if there wasn't all this distraction from the main goal, how many people would leave the hobby out of sheer boredom?

Oh I’m aware… my tank is a year old next week it’s far from a matured old reef but I’ve been doing things to speed up the process and saw nothing but positive results… I just don’t know if my corals can handle the load since I’d say half are 1-2” frags and the other half are 4-5” colonies but nothing massive to take on such a upkeep. The tank is too a point where just topping off with kalk couldn’t cut it so I started using all reef to keep up which is about 80ml a day… if I cut the all for reef I can def up the kalk and put it on a steady dose just not sure how high! In just the last month my ph has finally went from 7.8-8 and rose to 8.05-8.25 durning the day which tells me the corals are in growing mode.. I haven’t changed anything besides the gut loaded bacteria I feed my sps 1-2 times a week and boy has that ever made a big change in growth! I took Sunny x recipe and added some stuff such as zeozym and reef roids to the diy coral snow and let that marinate in the zeobak and mb7, aminos and most of my sticks have feeders out all day begging for more and the growth took off! CRT has came up with one himself that has all sorts of stuff that he lets rest for 8 hours till it’s a live culture and feeds his tank.. it takes a couple months for the corals to respond to the day time feedings but once they do it’s pretty amazing how they can process it and so fast! I’m dumping all sorts of aminos and a couple tsp of reef roids in my tank today and by tomorrow my n03 is back to 8ish and my p04 is .070… the only thing I’m missing on my tank is that higher ph and I’m not about to spends hundreds of dollars on a scrubber media lol.. my skimmer line is ran outside and it didn’t make much of a difference besides the temp of my tank.. ph might have went up like .03

 

[Miami Reef]

I noticed this evening that after the pumps changed up to a standing wave, the Electric Miyagi Tort is now breaking the surface of the water.



I'm curious what's going to happen when I allow it to keep going...

The fluorescence is out of this world! It’s usually so hard to capture it in video. The acros look so healthy and happy! What’s the green with purple tips on the left called?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

The fluorescence is out of this world! It’s usually so hard to capture it in video. The acros look so healthy and happy! What’s the green with purple tips on the left called?

That is ARC Master Yoda

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Was going through some old photos and found a few pictures of my corals when they were Itty bitty.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I had 15 people in my house today.

PH didn't budge.