Gig 'em @ NDstructible

Here's the portions we got at Snack Mahana. The curry shrimp was to die for IMO. And it was fun to throw the shrimp heads into the water and see the crazy feeding frenzy from the fish.

Nice! My wife and I honeymooned in Moorea, Bora Bora, and Tahiti last year. The diving was pretty good in Moorea with lots of amazing maxima clams in the shallows. If you're going back to Papeete, I thought the snorkeling right off the Intercontinental Resort was the best out of all 3 islands and was even better than some of our dive sites. Also, if you're on Moorea then you absolutely have to go to Snack Mahana. Probably the most memorable food experience we had the entire two weeks we were there with huge portions, great quality, and prices that won't break the bank.

Those lookdowns are a nice touch! This setup is going to look great when it's complete.

I caught my blue hippo tang today and rehomed him wth a good friend of mine, finally opening up room for these beauties... My lone bicolor Anthias female (the male went MIA on Friday) was trying her hardest to show them who's boss, which is hilarious considering how small she is in comparison to them. She seems to have either taken to the school now, or is just hanging around to make sure they know she's there [emoji1]

After I added carbon back on the system the mesenterial filaments went away and the corals all look much much better. I'm guessing there was either some kind of chemical warfare going on between corals that was scrubbed out by the carbon or some chemicals in the water that was irritating them that was removed with the carbon. Either way, I'm just happy the corals look better again.

Nice! Thanks for sharing

Despite the pretty colors the SPS have right now, I've still been struggling with some unknown issues. After the corals were struggling from what I think was bad RO/DI water, the alk spiked from lack of consumption and half my LEDs died on me. When I got the LEDs back on it messed with my other lights and I ended up running the lights brighter than normal WITH higher alkalinity than normal. I have a few burned tips to say the least right now. I also have seen some corals constantly PO'd and have their mesenterial filaments out. I've been looking every night with a flashlight and magnifying glass for any bites marks, critters on the corals, or any kind of movement from a foreign object and still haven't seen anything. I put my carbon canister back online last night to hopefully scrub out any chemicals or contaminants that may be bothering the corals and I'll be doing a 20 gallon water change when I get home from work. Hopefully that will resolve the issue and the corals will go back to being healthy and growing quickly.

It's due to all the water changes I constantly perform

Photo update! A. sarmentosa Red planet is still growing nicely Ice fire and Mille

Yeah, powder coating facilities have many color options available. We typically put leveling feet on actual stands haha

Ugh yes. I can't stand taking photos of LEDs lighting with an iPhone. But yes, the clam is doing quite nicely with all the royal poo it gets to filter out of the water.

I went big and bought a blue squamosa clam and I currently have it in the QT. I put it one a piece of calcified sand so I could easily move it into the DT when it was cleared to go. I went home this afternoon to feed the fish and it had jumped from the sand up onto the rock work! Can't say I've ever seen a clam move so much...

I say built to the specs of a 10 gallon tank, but could probably hold the weight of a 1,000 gallon tall

That's up to Jake. I designed enough room underneath it to hold a tiny sump and it's built to the specs of a common 10 gallon tank. I hope he puts a nice nano tank on there!

Mini stand/business card holder proudly on display at River City Aquatics. We can provide all kinds of welding and metal fabrication outside of aquarium stands from stainless steel vent hoods to metal art!

Kind of sounds like this is just the beginning cycle of your tank. It's pretty common to have some algae pop up when you first start a tank. Do you have any pictures for reference so we can help identify?

I only see a flat line whenever I have my windows open at night. Maybe your refugium is just THAT good at consuming CO2 at night?

Thanks Jimbo! It has taken me years to get to this point haha. My first salt water tank was probably over 14 years ago and I started keeping SPS "successfully" 8 years ago. Still haven't perfected the hobby and I'll lose corals from time to time. There's so much to learn and so much to go wrong in the hobby. Patience and diligence is key! You'll get here eventually after many hours of research and trial and error.

Welcome to the forum! Great place full of lots of knowledgeable and experienced reefers. We're glad to have y'all join.

Quick update on the tank. Corals are rebounding from the down slide. I changed a few factors so it's impossible to tell the culprit, but I'm convinced it was the DI resin. Full tank shot this morning: Frag bridge is coming along nicely, won't be called drag bridge for long at this rate of growth Stag island Anemone island

Ooooh, yeah that reminds me it's about time to change out my membrane. They last about a year before recommended changing them out right?

Have you ever checked your tap water TDS before filtering it? What water supply are you on out there?

That's pretty crazy. What are the RO filters you're using? Sediment, 5 micron and 1 micron?

Yeah, my brute can always has some kind of funky smell after a while, maybe I need a circulation pump in there. I definitely rinsed it out last night and wiped it down. Could feel the slimy biofilm on the sides. Nothing I imagine could be harmful, it's such a low nutrient system that this bacteria is a first colonizer that doesn't really attack anything. I believe I read somewhere that once resin becomes depleted, it can start releasing stuff. I know that can happen with carbon, but I'll have to do some reading to verify. My RODI tub smells like cat must to me. Always has. I give it a nice vinegar wipe down every now and then.Definitely worth it for the dual DI stage! And I run a dual Carbon stage too. I've had the same DI resin for like 3 years without it depleting. What's your TDS going into the DI?! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk YES! That's exactly what the brute can smells like after the lid has been closed on it for a while, cats.3 years without depleting?! Geez! Where are you getting your DI from? I'm not real positive about the TDS going into the DI. The cheap in line TDS meter says anywhere between 9 and 19 any given day. I don't know how much I can trust that thing. Back before my good in line TDS meter broke, it was usually around 8-12. I'm fairly certain now that it was the RO/DI water. The coral polyps are starting to come back out on my PO'd corals and I noticed that the anemones in the fish room trough were getting pissed off when I was topping off with the left over water from the old RO/DI reservoir. My corals will probably take a while to get back to full health, but I think I can draw a fair conclusion that the bad DI was the main culprit. I changed all kinds of other things, some of which needed to be changed, so some good came out of it. It's the color change resin from BRS. I always have less than 10 tds going into the dual Di stage. Works great. Do you flush your membranes? Highly recommended! Also bypassing the Di for a minute or 2 when you first start to make water. (I give it to my dogs!) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeah I usually bypass the DI for about 10-15 minutes and water the plants with it. My DI resin is a bulk bag I bought from air water ice. It's not vacuum sealed like BRS, so I wonder if that shortens its life.