Derry

I'm interested! Dimensions?

i will trade you a brand new bottle of koral coral for a frag of the plum crazy

No thanks - don't use it.

Dibs on the xmas favia!

7/12 - I took the large birdsnest and remaining Plum Crazy frag to RCA today. I still have one leather and the Oregon Blue Tort frag available.

7/5 - Updated with lower prices.

6/29 - Updated with new pics of the oregon tort and plum crazy.

It's official - the sand bed in my tank has been completely overrun. In an effort to find a place for more frags, the existing ones have to go.

I've got two birdsnest colonies, both a strong pink and fragged from the same colony. The smaller one (pictured) is about 3" x 2" with lots of new growth. The larger one is the original colony and more like 5" x 5", but it's getting overshadowed by another acro and needs a new home. Small, sold Large $25. I also have two small 1.5" frags with multiple branches for $10.

I have two yellow leather mini-colonies, both with caps 2-3" across, and both with fully-formed stalks several inches long. $15 each One pending DerrickH, one available

Two frags of plum crazy, both mounted and almost two weeks old. Both are 1.5 - 2" with multiple branches. The pic includes the parent and an actual frag. $25 each one available

One frag of Oregon blue tort, mounted and almost two weeks old. The frag is about 3/4" long. The pic includes the parent and the actual frag. $30

Dragon's Breath zoa rock. I'm guessing there are 50-75 polyps of dragon's breath, plus probably a dozen Green Bay Packers, on this rock. sold

Green Bay Packer zoa colony, probably around 100 polyps. sold

I'm always open to trades, so don't be afraid to make me an offer!

Try layers of bird netting - it's inexpensive and available at the big box home stores. Each layer blocks about 5% of the light. Try putting 4-6 layers between the lights and the top of the tank, then remove one layer a week until the last layer is removed.

NOTE: Window screening blocks a whopping 40% of the available light and is too opaque to help much IMHO.

I think etannert's got it nailed - they look light shocked to me. When you added the first two bulbs, you boosted the light in the tank by 33%. The next two bulbs added an additional 25% on top of the first jump. That's quite the shift in PAR over just five days! At this point, I think your only option is to take a wait-and-see approach. I've had corals recover from far worse. I'm willing to bet they turn around for you, although it's likely to take a few months.

Pics?

Very, VERY cool, Mark! Hey, now I know someone famous!

I'm running two 250-watt MHs with T5 actinic supplimentation.

You remember this piece? I bought the rock from you.

I've seen enough miraculous recoveries of coral I was certain were toast that I never remove a "dead" coral until it gets overgrown with algae. The following pictures illustrate my point. I bought some live rock back around Christmas from a fellow reefer. He pointed to a bare patch and mentioned that it was actually the base of a montipora that had bleached out. I chipped the mystery monti from the surrounding rock and set it on the sand bed of my reef tank to see if it would recover. The first pic is about six weeks after I bought the rock, and it's just starting to blush with some color. The second pic is about a month later, and it's definitely colored back up. Another month later, and you can see the new growth around the edges. The last pic is from about two weeks ago, and now I have a nice, healthy little mini-colony of monti that started off as a bleached-out smudge on a piece of live rock.

Moral of the story - there's a reason this stuff has been around for a bazillion years. Give it half a chance, and you'll often be pleasantly surprised!

I still want the favia if it's available.

I think there's a time window after which you can't edit a post unless your a premium member.

I'd like the favia, plz.

I've got three leather frags for you to choose from. All are several months old with fully developed stalks.

I've got some GSP you can have.

Just a quick update. The paint in question is, in fact, Krylon Fusion, not just the "regular" Krylon. My bad on that one. However, after letting it cure for about 5 days, everything seems to be going well. No flaking (but it's early yet), no tank issues, and the black clip is a lot less conspicuous than it was when it was white.

+2 on the Eheim.

I thought the whole point of krylon was that it formed a "molecular bond" with the plastic. Is that not really the case?

I sprayed a veggie clip black using Krylon so it wouldn't stand out so much when it's in the tank. Anybody have any practical experience with the curing time needed before I can safely put the clip back in the tank? Probably being paranoid, but still...

I would stay away from pliers, the oil used to lubricate them can't be cleaned off before you put it in the tank and will come off in the tank at least a little.

Yep, made the assumption that the rock could be removed from the tank, but should have specified. Good catch, J.

Matt, I have the exact fixture you referenced in your original post, and I've been pretty happy with it. At some point, one of my T5s quit working, but I only use them for actinic supplementation, so I didn't bother doing anything about it. The original ballasts lasted about 18 mos for me before going the way of the dodo, and I agree that they probably under-drive, given their 250W rating. When I replaced the original ballasts with Vertex ballasts, I had a few corals brown up for a few weeks with the new ballasts driving the same bulbs, which lends credence to the under-driving theory. The post from teg is spot on in that there's no way you're gonna replace the MH bulbs without taking the fixture down, but I don't find the process as onerous as he apparently does. If you remove the fixture's end panel opposite the power cord connections, the center panels all slide down the middle of the fixture far enough to move the glass shields out of the way and give you access to the MH bulbs. It takes a little finagling, but it's not bad IMHO.

Hope that helps,

Derry

RotaryGeek makes a good point. However, if the perfect circles bother you, it looks like the plugs have been mounted using Aqua-Mend or a similar putty. If that's the case, they should pull off with a good pair of channel-lock pliers.

PS - one of the larger pieces.

I'd love a piece of the hawkins!