Sierra Bravo

I say let's go console ourselves over a nice bottle of bourbon! 😀

Yes, they are all SPS.

Nice photos. Welcome to the forum!

I used the maintenance services of a local LFS over Thanksgiving week last year. Three visits = $280. If you put that number in perspective of your investment, maybe not the worst. At least they can test, change water, recognize issues, etc. I had the owner doing the maintenance, so I was comfortable having them in my home, especially with my security cameras operating. Some of the employees I've seen working for LFS. . .maybe not so much. "Honey - I think I'm missing my red panties" is not something I want to hear and discover the explanation on the camera playback. (my apologies to any LFS employees on the board 😁 ) I wouldn't mind arranging something with someone like our Timfish here on ARC if he worked in San Antonio. Anyone know anybody they would recommend?

I'd rather bring them up to the forum members than horse trade with my LFS. Pricing reduced! I have a number of larger frags that I can bring with me when I come to Austin for the meeting, should anyone have an interest. The frag rack is 4" x 4" for scale. Fraghouse Corals Doe-C-Doe $25 $15 PC Rainbow $25 $20 Sold - Anant DAM Millie $35 $30 Sold - Anant Tricolor valida $35 $25 Myagi tort $35 Sold - Dominican True Garf Bonsai $20 $15 Sold - Colin Red planet (encrustment) $5 Sold - Sascha d. Frogskin acro $15 $10 Rainbow millie $40 $35 Sold - Anant Large unknown acro, 2" disk, reddish brown with long white polyps $30 $20 Medium unknown acro, 1.25" disk, reddish brown with long white polyps $15 $10 Purple capricornus monti $10 $5 Porites? Monti? No clue but over 3" across and un-killable 😁 $5 Sold - Cristyef

Well, parameters are not that bad at all after the water change: Alk 7.6 Calc 415 Mag 1280 Nitrate .5 Phosphates .012 pH 7.92 Salinity 1.025 Temp 79F 99 percent of people recently polled suggest alk spikes suck rear-end:

Thanks, Juice. I appreciate the offer. The purple orchid is one that flipped when my frag rack fell off. It has about half that is still looking OK. I'm going to clip it tomorrow and see what I end up with.

Excuse the whiny post. I've taken one major hit after another in the last six weeks and it's left my head spinning. I'm not discouraged, but to say I'm unhappy right now is a major understatement. It started early August with my A/C going out and the tank temp getting to 83 degrees for half a day. Shortly thereafter I discovered ich was in my display tank. A few weeks ago I committed a very stupid error mistakingly adding alk to my tank instead of calcium and creating a very large alk spike, which has so far claimed eight corals. To top it off, for the last two weeks I've had to be away on business and just returned only hours ago. I have a loving wife and two great kids but they just are not suited to manage the tank when I'm away, despite my efforts at training and leaving a very detailed checklist. My daughter stepped away while filling my 7 gallon ATO reservoir and flooded the house with 20 gallons of RODI. My frag rack was knocked off its magnets and no one noticed right away, knocking over a tort colony along the way. In trying to recover the frags that fell behind the rocks my SC Orange Passion is MIA. Three Cariberryi anthias I had in QT passed because the ammonia badge wasn't monitored. Prior to this six weeks the tank was looking the best it ever had. Since then, in total I have lost or am losing due to the alk spike and being away: ASD Rainbow millie Vivid Rainbow Delight Sniper's Blue Bubble Yum ORA Pearlberry YG Yellow Hyacinth table FT Glacier millie SC Orange passion A beautiful Boom Corals wild acro Gig 'em Purple Orchid tort Three Cariberryi anthias My patience. My mind I have not yet inventoried my DT fish. I did a large water change and am going to bed. I'll come up with a plan tomorrow.

Sorry to hear you've been hospitalized. At least there was someone there to help watch the tanks. I hope the tanks are no worse for the salinity issue. Lower it slowly.

I can't believe you have enough room in the frag tank for all the chopped colonies and the cyphastrea. Must be stuffed. I posted this on R2R yesterday. . .Here's a suggestion for a party contest: "Skimmate Challenge" for a frag of JF BeachBum:

Congrats on getting your site live! Delivery is an interesting idea - have not seen anyone offer it here in San Antonio but I can see the potential especially when it comes to bringing water out to customers. I hope it's profitable and sustainable for you.

Got one - thanks anyway!

I lost my Pearlberry as a result of a bone-headed alk spike of my own creation. I'd like to see if anyone local has a larger Pearlberry frag they are willing to part with before I buy online. Let me know and I'll get in touch with you via PM. Thanks! Scott

Thought I'd pass this along. . .Aquarium Designs in San Antonio had a nice 3.5" colony of what looks like some type of bonsai species. I believe it was $60.

Last Saturday I made a bone-headed mistake. I use dosers for calc and alk, but sometimes manually dose to get levels right. I was adding 200ml of Randy's two-part calc when my pH monitor went into alarm and I immediately knew what happened: I accidentally grabbed my alk solution instead of calc. pH went from 7.9 to 8.4 in seconds. Alk went from 8.7 to 11. Almost a week later and I've had four corals affected so far, one fully bleached and died immediately and three damaged with RTN, those showing up over the last few days. The latest was this morning. I've been told it may be weeks before I know how much was really affected. 1

That's just weird.

I test bi-weekly on Wednesday and Saturday. Saturday I do the full regiment; Wednesday I only test alkalinity, phosphates, and nitrates; sometimes calcium. I dose manually on those two days depending on the results and try to maintain 3-5 ppm. Last three tests it's been staying around 1.5 - 2 ppm on its own and I've left it there without dosing. 4 ppm No3 and .02 PO4 would be considered good numbers by a lot of people.

I'm like Ty's satellite location in San Antonio. . . 😁

Not yet. . .after tonight though! Looking forward to having your SC Orange Passion frag!

🤣🤣🤣 I got to looking at what came from where - I've definitely got an ARC tank! In fact I have a hybrid Ty/Gig 'em tank! 😋

There is - just started not too long ago. I received mine well before they began. In those grow-out contests everyone buys and starts with a frag at more or less the same time.

Sniper's Blue from Battlecorals 8 mos progression: January 5 February 11 July 5 Yesterday, Sept. 11

Looks great!

I feel obligated to elaborate a bit on this, lest I leave anyone with the wrong idea: In no way am I trying to make out EMF as a questionable business to deal with or slight Antonio. He has stood behind his product and his reputation and re-reading this I think I'm coming across a bit negative. I didn't want to leave that impression publicly on the board as his offer to replace those bimacs really was above and beyond what I had expected.

I've got a great coupon to share. Hope you can make use of it! 😃