Please rate my growth progression

[Bpb]

What's most impressive to me isn't the growth, but the color improvement over time. The growth is good, but appropriate I'd say for a well maintained tank. Your colors are spectacular. Did I miss the bulb combo you're running? Makes me want to consider switching from a 4 to a 6 bulb fixture on my 55 gal

 

[brianfarkas]

as stated above excellent color and growth!

 

[BIGSKY]

To be honest the growth rate is not spectacular but it is good,but what ever your doing to keep your color that is spectacular and I would rather have great color then fast growth.

 

[sahin]

Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

What is your T5 tube combo? And what are you feeding the fishes and corals?

- I ask because the corals were sort of pale at the start but have coloured up nicely along the way.

 

[bteagle93]

^^ yes would love to know ATI combo as well! Keep up the good work!

 

[tmb22]

You want a scale?

8/10

Would be 9 or 10 but I need 2 and 5 year increments to rate higher

Haha, thanks! I wish I could see those 2 and 5 year increments myself! :lolspin: I feel like patience is the toughest part of this hobby.

Looks awesome! I know its hard to stay patient, but seeing these progression photos certainly helps.

Thanks a lot! Indeed, it helps a lot.

Parameters? Alk? Cal? Mag? Phosphate? Nitrate? Awesome growth! Well done!

Thank you!

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.8 to 78.2 in the winter. 78 up to 81 in the summer.
pH: 8.0 - 8.4
Calcium: 450 ppm
Alkalinity: 10-10.5
Magnesium: 1300 - 1500
Phosphate: 0.04 via Hannah checker
Nitrate: I honestly don't ever test for nitrate

I don't know... that doesn't look that good to me... said nobody ever!

In all seriousness, I'd say you are getting pretty good growth. Great job!

LOL, thanks!

I'm jealous I'm waiting for my tank to take off like that!

Thanks! There's lots more growing to do from here for sure!

as far as quantity it has to be a 10 as well as everything else. If you can keep any acro happy and have continued growth I would say it is a success.

Thanks toothman!

WOWZA!!!!!

What kind of steroids you feedin' those?????

LOL, I wish our hobby had steroids for corals!

I would say what ever you are doing keep on doing it! Nice job!

Thanks!

He posted a thread under the guise of maybe not having good growth when in reality it was a show off thread! You're doing something very right.....or I'm doing it very wrong LOL. Great looking corals 10/10

Haha, I genuinely thought my growth was medium to slow. Definitely not a show off thread! Apparently my growth isn't as bad as I had thought. I'm still not quite satisfied though. Although I feel better about it. And thank you!

Great growth. You want a rating? I'll give you a 10/10.

The craziest part is the first pic of your Birdsnest looks bleached...keep up the good work.

Let's put all of these pics together, and give us an FTS.

Thanks! Yeah, that birdsnest really took off. The weird thing was that I got that coral from a very successful tank, then it bleached in mine, and then colored up really nicely again after a couple weeks. Glad it hung in there.

FTS? Okay, but please bear in mind that these pictures have been taken using an iPhone 4S and a shaky hand! I wish I had a better camera to work with, but I just can't justify a nice camera until things really start to take off in the tank. Also, pardon the cyano! I'm battling it right now.

FTS

Middle of the tank

Right side of the tank

Note: More pictures in next post. Most of the pictures were taken during the sunrise/sunset bank of lights on. I feel with the iPhone camera, the sunrise/sunset lights better represent the colors that actually exist to the human eye while the full day lights are on.

The sunset/sunrise bulbs are just ATI Blue Plus and Korallen Zucht Fiji Purple

Good growth and colors:thumbsup:
Keep it up!:ape:

Thanks!!

Ure doing an excellant job IMO great growth and coloration. Some acros are just very slow growers inherantly, while others grow daily.
keep up the great work

Thank you. I've definitely noticed that as well. My Shades of Fall acro grows like a weed, while my German Blue Polyp hardly grows at all I feel.

Great growth and colours!!

Thanks!

What's most impressive to me isn't the growth, but the color improvement over time. The growth is good, but appropriate I'd say for a well maintained tank. Your colors are spectacular. Did I miss the bulb combo you're running? Makes me want to consider switching from a 4 to a 6 bulb fixture on my 55 gal

Thanks a lot!

Here's my bulb combo from front to rear:

ATI Aqua Blue Special
ATI Blue Plus
ATI True Actinic 03
ATI Aqua Blue Special
Korallen Zucht Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus

as stated above excellent color and growth!

Thank you!

To be honest the growth rate is not spectacular but it is good,but what ever your doing to keep your color that is spectacular and I would rather have great color then fast growth.

This is more along the lines of what I think. Growth might be average, but always striving for more. Thank you!

Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

What is your T5 tube combo? And what are you feeding the fishes and corals?

- I ask because the corals were sort of pale at the start but have coloured up nicely along the way.

Thanks sahin!

Bulb is above, but here it is again!

ATI Aqua Blue Special
ATI Blue Plus
ATI True Actinic 03
ATI Aqua Blue Special
Korallen Zucht Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus

As for the fish and coral food, I used to feed Formula 2 pellets and mysis shrimp, but I have since been feeding only PE Mysis shrimp washed with cold tap water, twice a day. The corals don't get anything except for fish poop I think this is the simplest way to keep the coral and fish happy. No extra coral food or complicated fish food recipes.

^^ yes would love to know ATI combo as well! Keep up the good work!

Up there ^ And thank you!!

 

[tmb22]

Middle of the tank with full day-lights on

Right side of tank with full day-lights on

View from left side of tank

Same view, but with Slimer included

 

[sahin]

:inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove:

AWESOME! Seriously dude! You've done really well with this tank. Colours are great, I like the aquascape and I like it that you have a select number of corals and not looking like frag city.

Another great tank to follow...I have a list LOL. :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing!

 

[aqua80]

:inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove:

AWESOME! Seriously dude! You've done really well with this tank. Colours are great,

+1 great Job !

I like the aquascape and I like it that you have a select number of corals and not looking like frag city.
!

yes
don't know how you can resist the temptations of new frags !!
I can't...

 

[tmb22]

:inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove:

AWESOME! Seriously dude! You've done really well with this tank. Colours are great, I like the aquascape and I like it that you have a select number of corals and not looking like frag city.

Another great tank to follow...I have a list LOL. :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks a lot Sahin!! It really means a lot to me! Yeah, it's hard not to just buy up a bunch of frags, but I like the look of a few corals grown into full colonies better. Just hard to resist the temptation at the LFS sometimes haha.

+1 great Job !



yes
don't know how you can resist the temptations of new frags !!
I can't...

Thanks! It hasn't been easy to resist the temptation! It helps when the local supply at the LFS is infested with red bugs though haha

 

[animalkingdom]

one thing along i notice along with the growth and improvements in color is the polyp extension increase over time. Anything you are doing differently then 9 months ago?? whatever it is its definitely working.

 

[tmb22]

one thing along i notice along with the growth and improvements in color is the polyp extension increase over time. Anything you are doing differently then 9 months ago?? whatever it is its definitely working.

Thanks! As far as the polyp extension goes, there are a number of things that I think have contributed positively. First off, I had red bugs for a while that I finally eradicated with Interceptor about 5 months ago. But beyond that, I have developed a more dedicated maintenance routine that I think is starting to pay off. I try to do a 20% water change every week, along with cleaning almost every surface inside the display tank every week. I've always had a bit of trouble with using GAC and GFO, so I stopped using those about 9 months ago as well. However, I plan to start using them again in the near future. I think the GFO will help keep my cyano in check. I'm moving to a new city in the next month, and I will start GFO/carbon and maybe bio pellets after I get the tank situated in its new home. I'm hoping to upgrade to a 75 gallon. I hope the polyp extension stays, or gets better in the coming months.

 

[glaukos]

Great growth and beautiful tank tmb!
Welldone!

 

[tmb22]

Great growth and beautiful tank tmb!
Welldone!

Thanks Glaukos!