fishypets

Plus the Cali tort has more of a square or boxy coralite structure and the Oregon has more of a rounded shape.

That's actually the Oregon tort that just needs time to color up. IMO the branches are too stubby to be Cali plus there would be some tints/hints of green and I dont' see any. My money is on Oregon but time will tell. Do you have a picture of the mother colony?

FYI Red bugs will not wipe out your tank nor will they kill SPS. Now would I buy coral from someone with red bugs? No. I've treated with interceptor at least a dozen times with no ill affects other than happier acros! Depending on how big of a pod population you had you might experience a cyano-bacteria outbreak that can be fixed with two or three big water changes. Alex you must be confusing red bugs with flat worms. The only thing that kills red bugs is interceptor, even lugols, TMPCC and other iodine based dips do nothing for the little buggers. So what is the lesson we all learn from post like this? Trust no one when it comes to the health of your tank and make sure you dip/inspect every frag you add very carefully. Trust me on this one, I've lost tens of thousands in SPS from one stupid mistake. Clint

I plan on adding the dimmable power bar to my Profilux Plus in the near future. I'll let you know how it works. Clint

The only relation to red bugs and AEFW is people not dipping before adding new corals. Every hard coral should go through some sort of idodine-based dip to remove flatworms, crabs, etc. Interceptor alwyas works as an in-tank treatment but I've had mixed results when using it as a dip.

Cool deal dude! So what are the dimensions on your new A.G.E. tank?

My ph rarely dips below 8.1 And yes my pump doses all three and I plan on adding a 4th pump in the near future to dose ZEOspur2 (carbon) If you go this route spend the extra money and get the 3rd pump for your MG, you'll thank me later.

I think his question was to dose via dosing pump or run a reactor. I've used both and would go with a dosing unit. It's much easier to dial in and all you do is refill your jugs ever so often. And without the addition of C02 you'll be able to maintain a higher P.H. without a P.H. scrubber. The only down side is the balling salts I use from Fauna Marin get a little pricey. But overall I'm very pleased and my sps love it too.

Look out ARC, this cat can take some photos! Very nice. Clint

Since I'm a bacteria dosing fool and this salt looks to be in line with what I'm looking for, I'd like to get a decent amount for cheap. I think if we get enough interest, I can get it for about 60 bucks a bucket which would make 150 gallons. Let me know if you're down Clint

I'm in need of some new bulbs and wanted to check interest before I place my order. They have everything from skimmers to controllers. I get free shipping and a little bit of a discount no matter what so please take advantage of it, I'll pass the savings along. Interest shown will determine when the order is placed. Thanks Clint www.reefgeek.com

Well if you pay attention to Mike's other post he sometimes works 80+ hours straight, with no break. So it is doable.

I haven't seen anyone else yet comment about why Kalk is not necessary or redundant But it is redundant. One wouldn't run a calcium reactor plus add two part solutions now would one? Like I said before it's your tank do as you please but I don't see why you would want to do both. If you're worried about keeping your P.H. stable the two part solutions will do this for you, no problem. What really concerns me with your set up is the 55 gallon water storage top off tank. If one of the fail safes fail you dump a ton of fresh water in your tank (and on your floor) and lose everything. I would get a smaller 10 gallon can from the container store and use that instead. As far as my last tank goes I ran kalk to keep my P.H. from falling even lower. I think most people that run reactors plus kalk still have this problem to some degree.

So I'm confused on why you run kalk? I ran it through my top off water when I was using a CA reactor, this was to keep my P.H. somewhat stable. Even so I still had pretty big swings, from 8.3 to 7.6 at night. Now that I no longer use a reactor my P.H. only swings .2 from night to day. The thought of Kalk coming out of a 55 gallon barrel would scare me to death, especially coming out of a pump that's not a Tunze. Too much room for error there IMO. But hey if works for you so be it.

T5's and sps work very well together. John's corals look better in person and these are at great prices. A++ all the way, great seller!

Mike, If you are dosing two part why would you want to drip kalk too? By using two part your P.H. should never dip below 8 once you get it dialed in. I would only think that dosing kalk too might be a recipe for disaster.

I woke up this morning to this horrific site. Lost all the corals, fish and ¾ of my live rock had disappeared. The only thing that made it was an ugly little clown fish. Even my wood floors are destroyed! The good news is it was only a dream. Although it seemed so real it took me about 45 minutes this morning to realize nothing had happened. Don’t you just hate it when you have dreams like that?

Just so you know you can grow any coral with a good T5 ballast/reflector. Look at getting a decent fixture with all in one.

Lime in the sky, colors brought to you by ZEOvit.

Here is what I'm saying in short- If you use rock from an exising tank (even if it's yours) you should use the "cooking" method before adding it to your new tank. I personally prefer fresh live rock directly from the reef that has been cured.

When you “bake” rock in the sun you are drying it completely out. The problem with this is when the water evaporates out it leaves behind DOM (dead organic matter) which is made up of detritus, dead algae, dead sponges, dead aptasia, dead etc, etc. Then when you add this “baked” rock to your tank you are leaching all of this DOM back into your water column which in turn will leach out PO4, N03, and so on and so forth. An by leaching I don’t mean it will all come out in the first few months and your skimmer will remove it all over night. You will have very large “pools” of PO4 for some time which will affect the color of your corals, and help fuel G.H.A. blooms. And as far as finding a good place to get rock I know of a few but you have to be willing to pay for it. Just like everything else in this hobby you get what you pay for.

My .02 on the matter- When you buy “premium” fresh live rock from a good source the chances of getting some nasty hitch-hiker are slim to none. I’ve set up seven new tanks all with fresh live rock that was cured and never had one single issue with hitch-hikers. Now if you’re buying live rock that’s from a tank “break down” buyer beware. IMO all the nasty things like aptasia, flat worms, bristle worms, etc are spread among our tanks like an STD. I also would advise against bleaching rock in the sun. When you do this you trap a ton of PO4, NO3, and NO4 which will have a negative impact when you add it to your tank. I instead would recommend “cooking” the live rock for a few months. This will ensure your rock is as clean as possible with out killing all the beneficial bacteria and without trapping all the phosphates, etc.

So are you selling everything off? If so I'd like to get that photometer from you if it's for sale. Thanks! Clint

Looking good! Did you charge the previous owner a "cleaning fee"? That was something nasty on the glass panes.

I was the first one in Austin to own a Vortech when they first came out years back. After two months of vibrations, propeller issues, heat, noise, etc,etc I got a full refund and bought another Tunze. Never had one problem with Tunze except when I spilled water on one of the controllers.