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Here's an FTS adjusted to 100% whites zero blues And a freebie pink lemonade acro. I know I said I'm avoiding tiny frags. But free is always the right price. Ty, I'm not overly surprised they're working well for you. I think you have a level of tank health and available food for everything that give you a much wider margin of error than me at this point. I know LEDs can work. They work for many. I haven't figured them out yet though it feels like. Things have just faded in color over time I'm seeing. I have considered selling the bml strip. That's one factor I can link to everything struggling. I don't think it's the reason alone, but I wasn't using it when everything was happy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Water test this morning. Been a while. Noticed a few burned tips out of nowhere. Perhaps an alk spike? Nope. Who knows what caused it. 1.026 salinity 78.4 degrees F 7.91 pH (low point of the day) 7.3 dKH alkalinity 475 ppm Calcium 1320 ppm Magnesium *4-5 ppm Nitrate *0.036 ppm Phosphate * these are the highest these numbers have ever been in the life of this tank. Some reasoning behind that I would say is my heavily increased feedings. Previously I had been feeding 4 spoons of Reef Chili once or twice a week, amino acids once or twice a week. And fish food a couple times a day. I have increased that to 2 spoons of reef chili daily, amino acids daily, and added an extra fish feeding every day. I can't say as to if the mud has increased nitrate amounts or not. I suppose it did have some organic matter in it. My urchins have also decimated most of the algae in the display tank. All that remains of the red turf is tucked into nooks and crannies of the rock they cannot reach. Between the two of them they're able to keep going over the rock well enough to prevent regrow, and new rocks I've added have no algae at all 2 months later after adding. I imagine the lack of algae uptake combined with increased food input has given me the spike in inorganic nutrients. My skimmer pump is also sputtering, I suspect from gunk buildup. I have collected zero skimmate in a couple weeks. Make no mistake. The increased nutrients are a good thing. They've helped improve overall growth and color of everything. Next topic. Lighting. I'm several months into LEDs. I cannot for the life of me find a setting I'm pleased with. Once I find one, all the corals promptly will change color, to the point I don't like it anymore. Now many sps are browned and some are irritated from the color experimenting. I'm leaving them where they are now at 50/50/50 for buildmyled/OR blue/OR white and color. If that makes sense. Having given all lighting styles an honest try, my verdict is that T5HO is best. I would love to sell my lights and pick up an ati sunpower. No more allure of technology or chasing some theoretical gold standard. I know first hand what works best. For me anyway. No immediate plan or timeline on when this switch will happen, maybe I'll get a 6 bulb unit for this tank...maybe I'll wait and buy an 8 bulb for an eventual upgrade on tank size. We will see. I know I need to make my way back to t5ho if I hope to get serious about acro growth. And I am fairly sure on specifically why they work so well also. Otherwise. Same old stuff with my tank. Couple new corals. They're doing alright. I'm trying to get away from small frags now though. It's gotten to the point that they just take too long to take off, or just don't transition well. I think really what I'm thinking most of all is something is just not jiving with this tank. Granted some stuff has grown better than I ever imagined it would in my last tank, but other things I took for granted before just still won't come around for the most part. What it all boils down to is I really want to start over. Totally fresh. New everything including livestock. Id love a 150 cube, but as those are incredibly hard to come by used, I will eventually look into may a 120 standard 4' tank. I don't want to go much bigger due to operating costs mainly and the sharp increase in lighting cost to jump up to 6'. That may have to wait till we move out of this small house. DEFINITELY have to wait till my wife is done with school and we can beef up the income a bit. Overall I really dislike my rock scape, and lack of front to back depth in my tank. Only way to fix that is all new stuff. I'll post pics later today Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh it's been a while. Tank is still running but I'm good on bulbs for a while to be honest Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry to detail your thread Kim lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ty, I agree 100% with you. Just adding some info for thought. The poster took the sample on a dive at the very end. From the reef itself. And tested fairly quickly using salifert tests, fresh, and a refractometer. He actually had been unable to sustain his tank using NSW even though it was so close by, due to insane fluctuations and crashed his tank often until he switched to artificial salt blends. Imagine that Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll interject that I also respect that we all keep elevated calcium in our tanks as compared to natural seawater parameters. Just pointing out a fun fact. Was reading a thread on RC by a guy living on the Marshall Islands, 2 minute drive to the spot where he enters the water, and he tested the parameters and alk was something in the mid 6.0 range., high 300's for ca, just over 1000 for mg, 84 degrees warm, and 1.028 salinity Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

lol I hate to be a putz but 370 ppm is about spot on to what the acro and lobo dominated reefs on the Marshall Islands have Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Loving that blasto. That'll make quite the show stopping piece when it grows out Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Never tried the "colony" approach before, only ever acquiring 1" frags at most typically. We shall see if colonies fare better than frags Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Truth be told I don't feel ready to try Acros again but this one was essentially free so I have nothing to lose. Oddly enough it is a colony grown from a little 1 cm frag I gave a friend a couple years ago Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hello, my name is Jonathan, and I'm an acroholic. I've been in recovery for 6 months I guess. But I've relapsed. First acro added to the tank since early this year when I bought some from SAM that all died in my tank crash. Fingers crossed. I hope I'm ready!! It's a biggun! I'd say about 4" in diameter or so with 20-30 individual branches, and fully encrusted over its plug Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks man! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some Zoa close ups from today I thought looked nice. La lakers I had to save. Needed to take a razor blade and scrape off some faster growing morphs that had crept onto the plug and started killing the lakers. They're open again for the first time in weeks RPE? Gobstoppers Anyone have an ID on these? No clue. They're probably my favorite ones I have and they were basically free Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you could put one in a 10-20 gallon tank if it was pretty stable and had a fairly high algae load. Once it cleans it though you'll want to feed it or it'll drop its spines and die eventually. I have very well documented my acro troubles. I don't want to give the impression this tank has been a failure, because lots of things are doing really well. One thing I haven't talked about is my clams too much. The maxima has been about the easiest critter I've put in the water. Doesn't roam or move. Doesn't hurt anything. Closes up at night when surrounding Lps sweepers come out, doesn't overgrow anything. Doesn't require feeding. Looks nice. One thing I've struggled with is the derasa clam though. I previously had it in the far right corner, badly shaded from flow and light by a monti cap and frag rack. The mantle became pinched and it looked to be a goner in short order. I have since relocated it to the other side in the direct open light with good flow and it has bounced back nearly 100% within a week. There is still a curled up section on the end but it's looking 80% recovered. Love it's colors. Picture under white channel at 100% with no blues. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There he is Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He's hiding in the shadows kind of in the middle behind the setosa and the damsel Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Florida pincushion urchin doing some serious work on the red turf algae. Not harming any corals. Politely working his way around them. It's not that I insist it all be gone. This just means I can actually mount frags to my rock again Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah as far as other pests like aiptasia or mantis shrimps, I am not too concerned about. Aiptasia is super easy to get rid of/manage and if I find a mantis or gorilla crabs, they can stay in the sump I don't mind. Honestly the Isopods are the only concern. I will take a small bit of sand for the micro fauna just to add to the fuge substrate. What it is, is a local new hobbyist is setting up a tank and ordered the Tampa bay package + extra rock so we are splitting shipping and I'm picking out 10'pounds of rock and will take a scoop of the sand. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Isopods are worrisome. For sure. I'm going with 10 pounds which should be perfect. Since its in the fuge I can watch it real close. Plus. While I know things can migrate from fuge to display, don't Isopods typically follow the scent of food. Like a shark almost. By that logic they ought to not travel toward the return pump. Maybe flawed logic but I'll be putting an isopod trap in the fuge tegardless Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Crystal clear today. That's the old old rock in the fuge. This rock has made its way along with me since my first tank 3 years ago. There was an alarming number of frag plugs in the fuge from old dead things I tossed in. I should fish those back out and use them. Awaiting Tampa bay rock shipment to fill the rest of the fuge. Need to keep some room for a chaeto wad, so I may relocate the old rock over to the skimmer and return chambers Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is rather spooky. Looks like a fog machine in there. Just did some major refugium adjustment today which made a horrible mess. Pulled all the rocks, netted out all the macro, scraped off all the slime/cyano. Kept a golf ball size piece of chaeto and tossed several double handfuls of tangled smelly slimy cyano/Caulerpa/chaeto/halimeda mess. Siphoned out most the water. Let it settle. Put in 12# bucket of Walt Smith Fiji mud, replaced the rocks and put the water back in. Have a massive pod culture coming my way Thursday, as well as some nice Tampa bay rock. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just a bit. As in you can't see anything Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Change is coming. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been really struggling to settle on operating percentages. Seen some really spectacular tanks on reef central lately using the same lights but at WAY lower percentages than I've been running. If I can get away with less power, cooler temps, and longer life I am game for that. I had worked my way up to 75% BML strip, 75% blue channel, 75% white/color. Aiming for 100% all channels, but if running that high of percentages isn't going to reap any benefits and only reduce led life, no point so I've backed down and holding at 50% BML, 60% blue, 50% white/color. I'll try to hold there. It looks ok I just like the look of the tank when it's brighter. This pic is NOT at that. This pic is 100% white 50% blue 50% BML Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well turbos don't seem too interested in my red turf lol. Oh well. Snails are always welcome anyway. I'm approaching the 2 month mark with the LEDs. Here's a FTS Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk