Wild Frags, before and after pics

[shlap]

Hi guys, a month back I took a chance and bought some wild frags from the LFS. I thought I'd share the progress so far. These were under T5s until 12/26 and Hydra 52s since then.

I bought this one because I saw a hint of blue and the tips were a bit pink. Out of all of them, this one has colored up the least, but I think it might have the most potential. I'm really hoping it gets more blue and pink. So far it's pretty dormant and has hardly encrusted at all but good polyp extension and has darkened a bit. It gets 400 PAR right now but I'm wondering if it wants even more light?

On 12/14/13

Today

 

[shlap]

12/14/2013

Today

Under actinics

 

[shlap]

12/14/13

Today

 

[Southreef]

Those are some great before and after shots! Nice work!

 

[reef80]

Wow...just in one month...what's your feeding regime and nitrate and phosphate at?

 

[biggles]

Those are great before and after shots mate, it's clear your ticking all the right boxes with your reef system for SPS. :thumbsup:

 

[mrrobert]

Wow beautiful!!

 

[shlap]

Thanks guys. Here's everything I can think of for tank specs.

Tank:
150 gal w/55 gal sump
Sump has 3 chambers: Drain/Skimmer | Live Rock/Return | Refugium DSB/Liverock/Chaeto
Probably 75 lbs live rock.
2x2' area in the tank is a DSB just because I let the flow carry the sand to one side over 3 years.

Feeding:
I feed everyone New Life Spectrum pellets, Nori, Mysis once or twice /day. I also throw a very small chunk of Rods in once or twice/week.
Target feed all SPS w/Rotifeast every night at 9pm.

Every 1-2 weeks I'll dump in probably a quart of "Reef Stew" from the LFS which contains live rotifers, tiger pods, baby brine, etc..

Equipment:
Curve 7 Skimmer, BRS 2-chamber GFO/Carbon, and I run it always. 2 Hydra 52s. Getting a 3rd in March.

Dosing:
BRS 2 part w/BRS dosers.
Aquavitro Fuel - 5ml/day
TLF AcroPower - 5ml/day
ZeoBak - 2 drops/day
ZeoStart - 5ml 2x/day
Vodka - 2.5ml 2x/day

Levels:
1.026 SG
Phosphates: 0 in the morning, then around .07 after dosing Fuel. GFO cleans it all up by morning again.
Nitrates: 5
Cal: 450
Mag: 1350
Alk: 9.8
PH: 7.7-7.8 I can't figure out how to raise it w/o raising the Alk and SPS don't seem to mind.

Livestock:
1 blue hippo tang
1 yellow tang
1 clown
2 chromis
1 moorish idol
1 flame angel
1 ugly goby (he keeps my sand clean though)
1 sunburst anthia

Water Changes
Rarely! I'm really lazy about it. Maybe 15%-18% change once a month. Sometimes I go two months.

 

[Mark SF]

ZeoBak - 2 drops/day
ZeoStart - 5ml 2x/day
Vodka - 2.5ml 2x/day

Wow. This is a lot of carbon! I dose .68mL total for my 75G net ZeoVit system daily. You really dose 5mL of ZeoStart daily and and ZeoBak that often? I dose ZeoBak twice weekly for 3 drops.

With my dosing regiment I maintain undetectable (hanna) phosphate and nitrate (elos and red sea pro). Although I am running the stones.

Does the water ever get cloudy? When I was overdosing ZeoStart I would get bacteria blooms in the water column.

-Mark

 

[shlap]

Wow. This is a lot of carbon!

Whoops! Had the decimal in the wrong place. Hah! It's actually .5 and .25 twice/day. Thanks for noticing, Mark.

 

[Mark SF]

Whoops! Had the decimal in the wrong place. Hah! It's actually .5 and .25 twice/day. Thanks for noticing, Mark.

That is what I was hoping! :eek1:

Really nice corals, always fun with wild colonies if you can avoid the pests. I like that you are making the different products work with your own system!

-Mark

 

[glaukos]

Niiiiice!Good job shlap!

 

[small_polyp]

The third one turned out sweet! you never know with SPS

 

[shlap]

Thanks guys. What do you guys think about that first one as far as potential? Im hoping the ugly duckling turns into a swan

 

[Allmost]

very well done, love the colors.

try subing fuel with Xtra for a week. but every other day only. ud be surprised. [but again why change something thats working so good ]

any FTS ?

 

[shlap]

very well done, love the colors.

try subing fuel with Xtra for a week. but every other day only. ud be surprised. [but again why change something thats working so good ]

any FTS ?

Wow, Xtra is expensive! I think I'll stick with the Fuel for now

My FTS is incredibly unimpressive. I just started buying tiny frags in Sept so not much to see yet. With that disclaimer, here ya go!

Bonus eye candy (since my FTS sucks :lmao

Bali Tricolor

Red Planet

Pink Lemonade -- my absolute fav under actinics. It glows yellow and is way more impressive than this day shot.

Vivid Blue Green Tenuis. This looks photoshopped and oversaturated but it's literally that bright. No PSing!
The Royal Blue LEDs in the Hydra really bought out the turquoise florescence. It's the one at the top left in the FTS.

Vivid Ultra Blue Tenuis. Ignore the bubble algae. You never saw it. It didn't happen.

 

[reeflover62]

Those are big changes and very fast :eek1: Great job

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Good job, and very nice!

 

[Guygettnby]

That's going to be a nice looking tank when it all grows! Your getting some nice colors out of them.

 

[sahin]

Beautiful colouration on those corals, such an awesome change in a short time.

Got a few questions if you dont mind.

1. Are you able to post a quick photo of whole display so that I can see the lights, ie how high above the tank and how much spaced apart?

2. What is the general setting on the AI's?

3. What is the dimensions on the 150G display?

4. Has this tank been running for around 3 years?

Many thanks, and keep the photos coming! :thumbsup: