Reef Pilot's Undersea Oasis - Page 11

Reef Pilot · #**101** 01-06-2014, 11:37 PM

My Tri-Color Nana Acro is growing into my Pink Lemonade. Will need to get the clippers out again. Hate to chop into such a nice coral, but have no choice.

It is similar to my Purple Valida, but has a green base with purple tips, and thinner branches. It is also a much slower grower. But like most of the rest of my SPS, it was just a small frag a year ago.

And here is an earlier pic from a couple months ago.

Reef Pilot · #**102** 01-31-2014, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

My Setosa and Red Planet were about to go to war, so I laid down an epoxy border (was more concerned about the Setosa). Just below is a Purple Cross (another aggressive coral) that will soon meet up with the Red Planet. So will see what happens there. The frag at the top left can be moved so am not worried about it.

The above pics were from Dec 24. The below ones are from today, Jan 30. Seems my epoxy border didn't completely do the job. Some Red Planet snuck through underneath somehow, and it is indeed killing the Setosa. Will have to get in there tomorrow, and see if I can separate them again. May have some more Setosa and Red Planet frags soon...

While it may not exactly look like it (with the bright green base), this is a sliver of Red Planet tissue that I salvaged last month, and is now growing into a frag. Incidentally, this is about the size of the original Red Planet frag that I got about a year ago, that turned into this beautiful and large colony. It started with just a bit of tissue and a few polyps. Sure is one very aggressive coral, though.

Reef Pilot · #**103** 05-19-2014, 08:54 PM

Today, after 3.5 years running, I decided to disconnect my Vertex UF20 bio pellet reactor. It certainly did its job at the beginning, bringing my nitrates from a high of 100 ppm down to zero. But have been running at zero for 2+ years now, and my bio pellet consumption has slowed to almost nothing.

The last time I had to add any bio pellets was about a year and half ago, and finally now they were pretty well spent, with only about 3 inches left on the bottom still tumbling nicely. I never cleaned or serviced my reactor in all that time either. Needless to say, it was well encrusted inside with calcium and other growth deposits. Had a hard time just getting it apart. Will let it sit in fresh water for a few days before trying to clean it. Hard to believe the water was still able to circulate and the pellets tumbling properly.

I will be testing my nitrates more frequently now, to see if there is any change. But I think my tanks (live rock and sand) were doing a good enough job of natural denitrification, and will watch to see if that continues.

Now what am I going to do with 2 large unopened 1000 ml bags of Vertex bio pellets that I bought on boxing day a couple years ago??...

Reef Pilot · #**104** 06-13-2014, 10:18 PM

After removing my bio pellet reactor, my nitrates have gone up to about 5 ppm now, where before they were always zero. Will continue as is for awhile, but if they creep up to about 10 or so, will have to reinstall the bio pellet reactor.

Reef Pilot · #**105** 06-13-2014, 10:51 PM

Had my camera out today, and took a few more shots of some of my corals. Tank is getting a little crowded, and can't keep up with the pruning anymore. So am just letting them fight it out amongst themselves.

I plan to do a major reset next fall and rearrange all the live rock and corals. But first have to make it through the summer, with minimal maintenance.

Pink Lemonade

Do you like green?

My Setosa not winning this war

Pink Jade

Glimpse of the jungle

Bonsai being invaded by my green mushrooms

Cali tort

Yellow Birdsnest

One of my several Orange Digi colonies. Grows like a weed in my tank.

One of my favs

Hawkins Echinata, has been buried a couple times in the sand, but still survives.

Another fav

Guess what this one is... haha. Might have to give it a new designer name.