JMorris271
New member
Bravo! Wonderful build. I'm going to be late for church because I was up so late :reading: your thread.
Mark's 150 (72x18x27)
- Thread starter markalot
- Start date
markalot
...
Thanks.
Thanks for following!
Ha, glad I kept you up? Thanks! Hopefully this tank won't keep me up many more nights. Just some automation and dosers to hook up and hopefully I can let it run for a while and just do water changes.
markalot
...
Doser is now setup. Starting with 70ml of each 2 part for now. Alk is currently 7.3KH which I raised to 7.8KH. I was using 6 caps a day of each part, and still losing KH so 70 seems like a good place to start. My goal is to stay right around 7.5KH.
I swear I had this level but in the end it's just a bit crooked. :hmm3:
I swear I had this level but in the end it's just a bit crooked. :hmm3:
biggles
Premium Member
Hey Mark, the new display is looking very cool mate :thumbsup:
You have the same critters on your sump walls as i do including the reddy pink sponge blobs - good stuff.
Nosy Q's
Why is one of the dosing containers cloudy, all my alk, cal & Mg settle clear.
Skimmer looks to be doing a good job, how many days skimmate is that in the cup in the pic mate.
Is that the emergency overflow pipe with that big upward loop in the hose - you obviously took plumbing advice off Bello or Troub looking at that blooody disgrace.......... :lol2:
Loved the video Mark, a purple tang is called for i think to keep those two yellow's under control
You have the same critters on your sump walls as i do including the reddy pink sponge blobs - good stuff.
Nosy Q's
Why is one of the dosing containers cloudy, all my alk, cal & Mg settle clear.
Skimmer looks to be doing a good job, how many days skimmate is that in the cup in the pic mate.
Is that the emergency overflow pipe with that big upward loop in the hose - you obviously took plumbing advice off Bello or Troub looking at that blooody disgrace.......... :lol2:
Loved the video Mark, a purple tang is called for i think to keep those two yellow's under control
markalot
...
Hey Mark, the new display is looking very cool mate :thumbsup:
You have the same critters on your sump walls as i do including the reddy pink sponge blobs - good stuff.
Nosy Q's
Why is one of the dosing containers cloudy, all my alk, cal & Mg settle clear.
Skimmer looks to be doing a good job, how many days skimmate is that in the cup in the pic mate.
Is that the emergency overflow pipe with that big upward loop in the hose - you obviously took plumbing advice off Bello or Troub looking at that blooody disgrace.......... :lol2:
Loved the video Mark, a purple tang is called for i think to keep those two yellow's under control
Thanks for visiting Biggles, and thanks for the questions, you know I'm new at this sump/automation/giant skimmer business so every observation helps!
The skimmer is on day 2 since I dumped my first smelly mess.
No emergency overflow for me, that is the hose from the left side overflow, and it leaked yesterday, slowly, where it goes into the sump. It's the only thing I don't like about the trigger sump. Nothing half a tube of aquarium silicone won't handle. :clown: I'm going to have to re-do the overflow plumbing from the union down to the sump ... some day. Happily my shower pan liner caught all the water (about 2 cups worth).
That pink sponge is on a media basket I used to have in my 40 gallons HOB filter. I figured transferring the entire basket and the life attached to it was a good idea, and it seemed to work well.
I'm using C-Balance 2 part from TwoLittleFishies. I get the gallon concentrates and add RO/DI water to complete the mix. Both containers are now clear but the Calcium part has some sediment at the bottom. Is this normal?
I measured Alk and Calcium this morning, outside my normal time, just to make sure everything was close. Alk was 7.8 so this is good, but Calcium is at least 510. Color started to change at 500, the max for the salifert test kit. I used Reef Crystals so the high calcium might be expected, but this combined with the cloudy container caused me to half the calcium dose from the doser until they are more balanced.
Purple tang eh? Hmmm.
biggles
Premium Member
Hey mate, sounds like the skimmer is producing well - don't ever get caught up worrying about the color of your skimmate, as long as it stinks when freshly produced you're hitting the mark.
That hose manifold should have been recessed below the sump top to simply avoid such a problem - good idea using a liner to catch any spills, i use the living room floor and walls for my system liner and so far not a drop has escaped the room due in part to the added moisture absorbing layer of carpet i placed throughout the catchment area. :thumbsup:
A basket of reef goodness hey, great idea bringing that to the new system Mark, hopefully they get busy covering some of your sump walls too.
All my additives leave precipitate, the Mg and calcium have brown sludge on the bottom and i never bother to mix alk properly so there's always excess bicarb on the bottom.
I keep alk around 7.5 and calcium at 410 or so. I would stop calcium dosing totally mate as it will take a while to drop even with zero dosing. Just work on matching your alk as best you can and test the calcium in 4-5 days time to see how much it's dropping. Don't do any water changes while you're trying to drop the calcium btw.
Once you get the calcium down to 400-420 or so try adding half the daily dose of calcium you would normally add to match your alk dose for a couple of days and then test and see which way the level has shifted. You need to mix up a bucket of salt and test it for calcium so you know what it really is. If the salt isn't the culprit then it might be a simple error with your dosing calculations and or the way you're making them up.
That should give you lots to think about mate lol. I'm not visiting btw, i'm here to stay...........
That hose manifold should have been recessed below the sump top to simply avoid such a problem - good idea using a liner to catch any spills, i use the living room floor and walls for my system liner and so far not a drop has escaped the room due in part to the added moisture absorbing layer of carpet i placed throughout the catchment area. :thumbsup:
A basket of reef goodness hey, great idea bringing that to the new system Mark, hopefully they get busy covering some of your sump walls too.
All my additives leave precipitate, the Mg and calcium have brown sludge on the bottom and i never bother to mix alk properly so there's always excess bicarb on the bottom.
I keep alk around 7.5 and calcium at 410 or so. I would stop calcium dosing totally mate as it will take a while to drop even with zero dosing. Just work on matching your alk as best you can and test the calcium in 4-5 days time to see how much it's dropping. Don't do any water changes while you're trying to drop the calcium btw.
Once you get the calcium down to 400-420 or so try adding half the daily dose of calcium you would normally add to match your alk dose for a couple of days and then test and see which way the level has shifted. You need to mix up a bucket of salt and test it for calcium so you know what it really is. If the salt isn't the culprit then it might be a simple error with your dosing calculations and or the way you're making them up.
That should give you lots to think about mate lol. I'm not visiting btw, i'm here to stay...........
markalot
...
A basket of reef goodness hey, great idea bringing that to the new system Mark, hopefully they get busy covering some of your sump walls too.
All my additives leave precipitate, the Mg and calcium have brown sludge on the bottom and i never bother to mix alk properly so there's always excess bicarb on the bottom.
I keep alk around 7.5 and calcium at 410 or so. I would stop calcium dosing totally mate as it will take a while to drop even with zero dosing. Just work on matching your alk as best you can and test the calcium in 4-5 days time to see how much it's dropping. Don't do any water changes while you're trying to drop the calcium btw.
Once you get the calcium down to 400-420 or so try adding half the daily dose of calcium you would normally add to match your alk dose for a couple of days and then test and see which way the level has shifted. You need to mix up a bucket of salt and test it for calcium so you know what it really is. If the salt isn't the culprit then it might be a simple error with your dosing calculations and or the way you're making them up.
That should give you lots to think about mate lol. I'm not visiting btw, i'm here to stay...........
Thanks!
Great info. I will kill the calcium dosing this evening and let it fall, after making sure I didn't flub the testing. My first batch of RC tested right around 500 calcium, and 11.5 KH. Since then I simply dosed equal parts A&B when alk needed to rise, so I think a high calcium reading should probably be expected. Back a year ago I used Red Sea blue bucket salt and I really liked it, but I can't handle lugging the huge bucket around and it doesn't come in boxes with the smaller bags, at least not around here. Now I'm thinking about just switching to regular IO since I don't need all the magical crap in RC. /shrug
troubadour11
Member
The new set up is looking awesome!!!
I bet it was tons of work to get it all set up so quickly and running so smoothly already! Impressive, Sir! :thumbsup:
I love the way it's looking all coming together now. The sump set up looks pretty solid for your first time tackling one too. I can only hope I can get my closet cleaned up nice and neat like your cables :facepalm:
Interesting stuff on balancing out your Alk/Ca levels and the salt mixes. I've been slowly struggling to get my system to settle down. Even though any changes in my Alk have been somewhat small in the grand scheme of things. It seems like the more I try to balance the levels, the worse the corals react. LOL. Weird but kind of true so far for me. I'm hoping that I've just been experiencing the long drawn out aftermath of my 1st screw up. Things seem to be managing much better now (Troub knocks on his wood work desk for good luck having just said this).
But I feel nervous running my Alk where it seems to have stabilized currently @ 7.1 or so. It seems on the low end and asking for trouble quickly if things start drawing heavily all of the sudden. I've been sitting at that for a couple weeks now. Which is good since it was stable :thumbsup: I'd be more interested in targeting a similar range as you. Between 7.5 and 8.2 maybe. But I'm worried about trying to adjust my numbers right now. I'll probably just let it sit and see how things develop as this batch of ATO/Kalk drips in.
Still looking good though and waiting to see how everything settles into the new set up. :bounce3:
I bet it was tons of work to get it all set up so quickly and running so smoothly already! Impressive, Sir! :thumbsup:
I love the way it's looking all coming together now. The sump set up looks pretty solid for your first time tackling one too. I can only hope I can get my closet cleaned up nice and neat like your cables :facepalm:
Interesting stuff on balancing out your Alk/Ca levels and the salt mixes. I've been slowly struggling to get my system to settle down. Even though any changes in my Alk have been somewhat small in the grand scheme of things. It seems like the more I try to balance the levels, the worse the corals react. LOL. Weird but kind of true so far for me. I'm hoping that I've just been experiencing the long drawn out aftermath of my 1st screw up. Things seem to be managing much better now (Troub knocks on his wood work desk for good luck having just said this).
But I feel nervous running my Alk where it seems to have stabilized currently @ 7.1 or so. It seems on the low end and asking for trouble quickly if things start drawing heavily all of the sudden. I've been sitting at that for a couple weeks now. Which is good since it was stable :thumbsup: I'd be more interested in targeting a similar range as you. Between 7.5 and 8.2 maybe. But I'm worried about trying to adjust my numbers right now. I'll probably just let it sit and see how things develop as this batch of ATO/Kalk drips in.
Still looking good though and waiting to see how everything settles into the new set up. :bounce3:
markalot
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Thanks Troub!
This happened to me when I first setup my 40. My solution was to make sure my Mag was above 1300 and then stop testing Calcium. :spin3:
If I needed two caps of Alk in the morning I would simply dose two caps of Calcium in the evening and call it a day. Every week I would glop in some Magnesium and all was well. I test every evening, around 5PM, just before dosing Calcium and/or Mag.
On a doser if Alk is running a little low I plan to bump it up a ml or so daily and see what happens over a few days. I suspect when you're in the zone any slow changes might lead to more growth which will lead to more usage and confuse the heck out of us. :spin2:
I insist on a minimum Alk of 7.5, which gives me a day leeway to react before falling below 6. In my experience anyway.
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JMorris271
New member
Update required.
markalot
...
Ha, thanks.
Alk was right at 8.0 KH and Calcium was, guessing, 510. I had a decent color change when I ran out of reagent so somewhere between 500 and 510. Letting it continue to drop.
If Alk continues to slowly rise I'll cut back to 65ml and see what happens.
Other than gluing some loose frags noting exciting happened. I was too lazy to hook up the auto topoff or get my Apex setup.
Oh, but I do have a new hitchhiker coral of some sort on a 2 year old Rainbow Montipora frag. I assumed it was Pocillopora and it may be, but the polyps don't look exactly the same.
A green/yellow Poci for reference.
The monti has never encrusted over this bump and those hair like things have been growing on this for two years, but these larger polyps are new. Older polyps behind these have a bright green base.
A few other macro shots, since I had the camera out. :bounce2:
The barnacle on this one still lives!
These Blastos have always lived in the 46 so I was never able to get good macro shots. So glad to be over a curved front tank!
Bello
New member
Stunning pics Mark :thumbsup:... Is it my imagination, or have you gotten waaayyy better with pics over the last year?
The 150 looks great, and already full :lol:, at least it'll save you a bit of money in the long run.
I can't positively ID that hitchhiker above, but I hope it's not aiptasia or similar :worried:
The 150 looks great, and already full :lol:, at least it'll save you a bit of money in the long run
.I can't positively ID that hitchhiker above, but I hope it's not aiptasia or similar :worried:
markalot
...
Stunning pics Mark :thumbsup:... Is it my imagination, or have you gotten waaayyy better with pics over the last year?
The 150 looks great, and already full :lol:, at least it'll save you a bit of money in the long run
I can't positively ID that hitchhiker above, but I hope it's not aiptasia or similar :worried:
Hi Bello, thanks. I do have aptasia coming back, it was inevitable. I had eradicated them in the 40 but the 46 had them and now I have a small one growing on a transferred rock. Berghia nudibranchs worked great, but I need more aptasia. :wildone::
A new macro lens helps with my picture "skills". :lol2:
So my alk has held fairly steady, testing between 7.7 and 8.3 over 3 days, while calcium has fallen to 470. I am dosing 10 ml of calcium a day just to slow any change so the drop has been nice and slow.
The skimmer is stinking up the basement and both the wife and I want it fixed, so I'm looking for options. Carbon bag hanging above the beast will be the first attempt.
The Apex is hooked up and operational. Temp and Lab grade PH probe installed, but I have not calibrated the PH probe. I'm not sure I want to know the actual PH, only the daily change in PH. :hmm2: I've also programmed one of the variable ports to work with a BuildMyLED strip light to help add some light in the back center across the brace. Only problem is I've been too lazy to actually hook up the light ... but it's programmed. :crazy1:
I received a few frags from another user on another forum, including a nice new teal/purple Acropora subulata. It's browned out a bit from shipping but I think this will be a fine looking piece.
pmrossetti
Active member
Hi Mark,
Beautiful tank, subscribed.
If I may ask, what's in the little fuge chamber of your sump?
And how are you liking the razors?
How did you like the Kent salt?
Is the skimmer reasonably quiet?
thanks!!!
Beautiful tank, subscribed.
If I may ask, what's in the little fuge chamber of your sump?
And how are you liking the razors?
How did you like the Kent salt?
Is the skimmer reasonably quiet?
thanks!!!
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markalot
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Hi, thanks for the follow!
I love the razors, especially the color rendition when both channels are at 100%. I prefer the spread of T5 but the looks of LED, if that makes sense, so I plan on supplementing the light with a few LED strip lights
As for the sump, there is no dedicated fuge section on this sump. Left chamber is heater, probes, dosing, and a power head to increase circulation. Middle chamber is the skimmer, which overflows through a sponge trap, which is filthy and I will most likely remove, and into the return section. The return section has a few rocks from my 46 gallon tank to help spread the bacteria and the return pump.
I don't plan on running a fuge, but we'll see.
troubadour11
Member
Looking GREAT!!! Nice macro shots too :thumbsup:
I really like the 1st shot of the balsto's. Maybe I'll have to try and bust out some tank shots this weekend for my thread. I'm sure I'll be watching the tank quite a bit and have my camera trained on it... Our QT hit 1.026 yesterday So I think there will be a new dirty little pooper getting released in the DT this weekend :celeb3:
The real Poci (for reference), is that one you have in your system? They look interesting. I don't know much about them. Looks kind of similar to a Stylophora a little bit? But maybe with a little thinner nubby branches? Anything special about them to note?
I also really like the look of that teal/purple Acropora subulata. Seems to look very similar to the purple with teal tipped piece I once had not to long ago :-/ Now it's a curio piece for the fuge... :furious: Just another fail for us... At least it was a fail in a very, VERY, short line. So I've slowed it back down quite a bit and hopefully, one day soon I'll see some positive stuff start happening on the coral side of the tank.
I may consider adding 1 new type of more tolerant SPS. If I come across a frag of something worthwhile. What pieces did you have the most success with when starting out your earlier systems?
My Monty-Digitata is barely hanging on still trying to recover. But the new Seri birdsnest I picked up as a "healthy guage" to how I'm doing seems to be unchanged since we added it on 6/21. So I'm open to expanding the collection by 1 piece maybe.
The full tank shots and macros are looking great. But now I'm going to request we get a little medium/close up action!? I'd love to see some choice "alternative" viewing angles you enjoy checking the tank out from. Maybe some shots focusing in on a "favorite" part of a structure. It's looking so nice, show off and lets see some of those nooks, crannies, caves, ledges, and reefy goodness.
^^^ If you feel up to it of course :beer:... I mean, you do have the whole weekend now to fulfill my order :smokin:
I really like the 1st shot of the balsto's. Maybe I'll have to try and bust out some tank shots this weekend for my thread. I'm sure I'll be watching the tank quite a bit and have my camera trained on it... Our QT hit 1.026 yesterday
So I think there will be a new dirty little pooper getting released in the DT this weekend :celeb3:The real Poci (for reference), is that one you have in your system? They look interesting. I don't know much about them. Looks kind of similar to a Stylophora a little bit? But maybe with a little thinner nubby branches? Anything special about them to note?
I also really like the look of that teal/purple Acropora subulata. Seems to look very similar to the purple with teal tipped piece I once had not to long ago :-/ Now it's a curio piece for the fuge... :furious: Just another fail for us... At least it was a fail in a very, VERY, short line. So I've slowed it back down quite a bit and hopefully, one day soon I'll see some positive stuff start happening on the coral side of the tank.
I may consider adding 1 new type of more tolerant SPS. If I come across a frag of something worthwhile. What pieces did you have the most success with when starting out your earlier systems?
My Monty-Digitata is barely hanging on still trying to recover. But the new Seri birdsnest I picked up as a "healthy guage" to how I'm doing seems to be unchanged since we added it on 6/21. So I'm open to expanding the collection by 1 piece maybe.
The full tank shots and macros are looking great. But now I'm going to request we get a little medium/close up action!? I'd love to see some choice "alternative" viewing angles you enjoy checking the tank out from. Maybe some shots focusing in on a "favorite" part of a structure. It's looking so nice, show off and lets see some of those nooks, crannies, caves, ledges, and reefy goodness.
^^^ If you feel up to it of course :beer:... I mean, you do have the whole weekend now to fulfill my order :smokin:
pmrossetti
Active member
Couple more quick questions?
How did you like the Kent reef salt?
Is the Octo skimmer reasonably quiet?
thanks!!!!
btw, I love the soft plumbing.
How did you decide to not color the back glass?
Never seen that before.
How did you like the Kent reef salt?
Is the Octo skimmer reasonably quiet?
thanks!!!!
btw, I love the soft plumbing.
How did you decide to not color the back glass?
Never seen that before.
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markalot
...
I liked Kent a lot, but I'm switching to RC ro see if I can get better coral colors. I have no evidence there is any problem with Kent, and no good reason to switch.
The Octo skimmer is very quiet, quieter than any of my hob skimmers.
We have a backing for the tank, either blue or black, but so far no desire to put it on. Not sure why.
Troub, I'll work on your littany of requests! :lolspin: Poci's are a lot like stylos except they can reproduce in the tank by dropping polyps. They are very hardy once they get over the initial move and grow very fast. Lots of color options and some of the skin colors are amazing, but the polyps tend to hide the skin so they look best when mad about something and the polyps are withdrawn.
In other news ...
My lab grade Apex PH probe, once I calibrated it, showed 7.4 PH this morning. Riiiiiight. Hooked it up to the uncalibrated PH2 port, 7.8 PH. Glad I paid the extra few bucks for the lab grade probe. I added an air stone to the sump to help drive off any extra co2, but I'm not sure I have any problem. I do run with glass lids, which can cause PH issues, but I also have a pump in the sump aimed at the surface and now some extra aeration.
I've been slowly adjusting KH an at the same time my usage is also rising, so this is fun. I increased Alk dosing to 100ml and managed to get up to 8.3 KH. I've raised my target to 8.5 KH and hope to get there sometime this week.
Auto topoff is now hooked up. Yay. Evaporation is very low with those lids, which means no dosing anything like kalc with topoff water. I am thinking of ways to increase evaporation. I might have to replace those plastic pieces that come with the lids with screens.
markalot
...
So I've been dealing with a slight brownout of the acros and a PH issue that may or may not have caused it. Of course the #1 rule with PH issues is to first check the testing, then DON'T add anything to the water to fix it!
So the conclusion to all of this is I now have my PH running just above 7.8 at night and around 8.1 during the day but with windows opened. Tonight will be the real test since windows will be closed. My KH has been steady at 8.1 for a couple of days. One more day and then I'll up dosing a bit to try an achieve 8.5. Calcium is steady to very slowly dropping at around 490.
The 7.4 PH reading I did not believe in the previous post was probably more like 7.5 but still very low. My PH swings were dramatic as well. My first course of action was to install air stones and a pump that kicked on when PH fell below 7.9. I also removed the plastic behind the glass lids, replaced with screens, added a WP25 in the center back to pulse the waters surface, and finally added a fan to the sump area to increase evaporation to about a gallon a day.
With all this done AND windows open to take advantage of the fantastic weather around here I was still falling to 7.7 PH over night. I ordered more calibration packets, a cheap handheld PH probe to check the sanity of the results, and a product from TLF called CDX which is a media you place dry in a reactor and move air through to scrub carbon.
PH graph prior to calibration and CDX
and after
So like I said, the real test will be once the house is closed up again, which will be later today since temps and humidity is returning to normal.
Latest quickly snapped FTS. Look at how much color the slimer has lost. This could be anything, including having a giant skimmer and not skimming enough. It is regaining color in spots so again, time will tell.
So the conclusion to all of this is I now have my PH running just above 7.8 at night and around 8.1 during the day but with windows opened. Tonight will be the real test since windows will be closed. My KH has been steady at 8.1 for a couple of days. One more day and then I'll up dosing a bit to try an achieve 8.5. Calcium is steady to very slowly dropping at around 490.
The 7.4 PH reading I did not believe in the previous post was probably more like 7.5 but still very low. My PH swings were dramatic as well. My first course of action was to install air stones and a pump that kicked on when PH fell below 7.9. I also removed the plastic behind the glass lids, replaced with screens, added a WP25 in the center back to pulse the waters surface, and finally added a fan to the sump area to increase evaporation to about a gallon a day.
With all this done AND windows open to take advantage of the fantastic weather around here I was still falling to 7.7 PH over night. I ordered more calibration packets, a cheap handheld PH probe to check the sanity of the results, and a product from TLF called CDX which is a media you place dry in a reactor and move air through to scrub carbon.
PH graph prior to calibration and CDX
and after
So like I said, the real test will be once the house is closed up again, which will be later today since temps and humidity is returning to normal.
Latest quickly snapped FTS. Look at how much color the slimer has lost. This could be anything, including having a giant skimmer and not skimming enough. It is regaining color in spots so again, time will tell.
markalot
...
So of all things, of all pests to enter the tank, MEN? On a six month old frag that was on a frag rack in the 46?
I turned off the pumps and removed it. Hopefully it was isolated. 5 on top and 5 more underneath, with what might have been some eggs.
Latest FTS
Tank is getting some mojo back, new growth tips on just about every stick, and the Alk usage shows. Started at 80ml, now at 150ml and falling behind. I dropped to 7.7KH, got it back up to 8.6KH and now it's back down to 8.3KH so I'm getting closer. I checked Mg ... I hate this test, and got close to 1300 so no issue there.
You can see all the algae, but it's falling apart and blowing around. Tangs and Blenny love it, but too much to eat! I'm running two medium sized bags of Phosguard in the sump and this has helped brown this algae and increase growth ... me thinks.
Broke out the macro lens for some more practice. :fish2:
Montipora capitata
Montipora spongodes
One of my Pocillopora's. Not very attractive from a distance, but has some nice green skin.
New acro
This will be a hell of a piece if it ever grows.
I turned off the pumps and removed it. Hopefully it was isolated. 5 on top and 5 more underneath, with what might have been some eggs.
Latest FTS
Tank is getting some mojo back, new growth tips on just about every stick, and the Alk usage shows. Started at 80ml, now at 150ml and falling behind. I dropped to 7.7KH, got it back up to 8.6KH and now it's back down to 8.3KH so I'm getting closer. I checked Mg ... I hate this test, and got close to 1300 so no issue there.
You can see all the algae, but it's falling apart and blowing around. Tangs and Blenny love it, but too much to eat! I'm running two medium sized bags of Phosguard in the sump and this has helped brown this algae and increase growth ... me thinks.
Broke out the macro lens for some more practice. :fish2:
Montipora capitata
Montipora spongodes
One of my Pocillopora's. Not very attractive from a distance, but has some nice green skin.
New acro
This will be a hell of a piece if it ever grows.
