Mhucasey's SPS obsession

I am thinking of giving t5s a try. I think your experiments pushed me over the edge. I like how you can customize the look to what you like. Your tank is looking great keep it up.

Thanks very much! When it comes to providing the best light for corals, I think T5s are the best, I think you will be happy with your choice:)
 
You can't go wrong with T5, the fixture and tube options available these days are outstanding!
 
Cool, you are trying the Salifert AA, I will be interested in what you observe when dosing it. For some reason it doesn't get the love that some others do, but I havce had nothing but good luck with it. It has been one of the few products I have stuck with for many years.

That is interesting about dosing AA during the day. I have only dosed it at night. I originally started doing it when I was also feeding my tank live rotifers every night. Polyp extension was best at night, so for getting the acros to try and eat the rotifers I was dosing at night, then I started using AA in conjunction with the rotifers, and after I stopped feeding rotifers I just kept going with the AA at night just out of habit.
 
Cool, you are trying the Salifert AA, I will be interested in what you observe when dosing it. For some reason it doesn't get the love that some others do, but I havce had nothing but good luck with it. It has been one of the few products I have stuck with for many years.

That is interesting about dosing AA during the day. I have only dosed it at night. I originally started doing it when I was also feeding my tank live rotifers every night. Polyp extension was best at night, so for getting the acros to try and eat the rotifers I was dosing at night, then I started using AA in conjunction with the rotifers, and after I stopped feeding rotifers I just kept going with the AA at night just out of habit.

So far so good, I have noticed a slight decline in Cyano but otherwise there isn't any visual differences from Acropower. How much do you dose/total water volume?

The dosing AAs during the day thing started with the Pappone tanks- they would dose AAs a couple of hours before lights out to stimulate the corals polyp response and charge up their metabolism before dosing the Pappone after lights out.

Then when Acropower came out the discussion was that the specific AAs for growth were taken up and used only while active photosynthesis and skeleton building is occurring. Anything after dark was suposedly wasted. I will dose round the clock, at these prices it's worth covering my bases.
 
I normally dose exactly as per the directions. Right now I am dosing just a little under because I don't have as many corals in the tank as a used to, 60ml once a week on 375 total system gallons.
 
Wow, so much info posted on the last 4-5 pages. :beer: Just done reading those pages. Since I have 8 tube capacity, your results making me think about switching to 5B,2P+ & 1C+... :fun5:
 
I really do wish I had an extra 2 T5 bulbs on my DT, I have only 4 and I find it almost impossible to get the right combo for a good T5 experience. Currently using 2 B+ 2 C+ and it is ok. Tried a bunch of combos and I just came to the conclusion that the 4 bulbs combo is the worst to have if you go with T5. I am envious of you guys with 6 or more bulbs.
 
Wow, so much info posted on the last 4-5 pages. :beer: Just done reading those pages. Since I have 8 tube capacity, your results making me think about switching to 5B,2P+ & 1C+... :fun5:

Try 6 blue and 2 purple - Put the purple in positions 2 and 7. OI think the coral plus would make it too red as an addition, but give that a shot. The 8 bulb is set up that way on the flubber tank and its awesome. I had to go a bit more toward the red on the two 6-bulbs, they are 2 purple and four blue each. Both look great but if I had to choose the 8-bulb looks a bit better.
 
I normally dose exactly as per the directions. Right now I am dosing just a little under because I don't have as many corals in the tank as a used to, 60ml once a week on 375 total system gallons.

I feel like big boluses of additives in the tank lose some of their effectiveness, like feeding a dog one enormous meal once a week. I may cut the dose down but I think Ill keep the additions spaced out.
 
I really do wish I had an extra 2 T5 bulbs on my DT, I have only 4 and I find it almost impossible to get the right combo for a good T5 experience. Currently using 2 B+ 2 C+ and it is ok. Tried a bunch of combos and I just came to the conclusion that the 4 bulbs combo is the worst to have if you go with T5. I am envious of you guys with 6 or more bulbs.

I understand, I feel the same way about the 6 bulb fixtures compared to the 8-bulb. By comparison the 8 bulb look can be reproduced by using 1.5X each bulb in the two 6 bulb fixtures. Unfortunately it doesn't work when there is an odd number, the oddball throws off the look of one of the two fixtures...Im just too picky I think:spin3:
 
I feel like big boluses of additives in the tank lose some of their effectiveness, like feeding a dog one enormous meal once a week. I may cut the dose down but I think Ill keep the additions spaced out.

I agree, I just have not been able to commit to dosing everyday, which is the right way to do it. At some point I will suck it up and buy a nice doser with many channels and dose all the things I am supposed to only a daily basis rather than weekly.
 
I'll be at Reef-a-palooza tomorrow, probably about noon. Hopefully I can see some socal reefers from the forum there! I'll keep an eye on the thread, if you are there tomorrow let me know:)
 
Had a great time at Reef-a-palooza today with my wife. We agreed before hand to not get any flubber or clams, Acropora only. I was hoping to get a few mariculture colonies but very few were for sale, and the few we saw were too much money. I did get lots of frags though, including three absolutely amazing pieces from Steve Garrett. Red dragon was everywhere, so I picked up two big frags of it because at 25 bucks for a 3 inch frag, you just can't go wrong!

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As far as names, from Steve Garrett i got a Pearlberry, Pink Lemonade as well as a Purple with green tips(Carduus I believe). From the other places I got a Hawkins Echinata, Red dragon, frogskin, and a pink Mille.

My Preciouses:

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Pink Lemonade:

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Pearlberry:

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Purple with Green coralites:

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Unknown but awesome acro from Lighthouse aquatics:

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One of the two Red Dragons:

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That purple with green coralites is amaze balls. Nice score.

Yep yep, the purple is even richer than the picture shows. Steve Garrett has the best acros, his prices are very reasonable, Pest free, and a helluva nice guy to boot.
 
Nice haul. Even though pearlberry is not a high end designer coral, it's still spectacular when grown out in a colony. It's one of my favorites.
 
Nice haul. Even though pearlberry is not a high end designer coral, it's still spectacular when grown out in a colony. It's one of my favorites.

My interest is only how they look:) I was super excited to get a pearlberry, its one of the corals I've wanted for quite a while.

Frankly a lot of the "Reef Raft" corals look too similar to each other. Its cool so see some special coloration in a macro shot but its cooler if you can see amazing color from the side, a couple of feet away.
 
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