dcmartinpc
Member
I have the large frag rack from Blackrock Reef and love it. They are the best quality frag racks I have seen available. Strong magnets and excellent build quality. I'll never buy another brand.
Don
Don
ZM's 200g build
- Thread starter zoomonster
- Start date
zoomonster
New member
Had my first jumper... the lawnmower blenny did not last long. I'm going to make some screen tops or go back to glass, as it cools off, before I add another or any other wrasses. Pretty much had the six line and cleaner since start and no issues so far.
I finally got some Anthias today. Been looking around a while and had not decided what I want. I got a pretty good deal on three medium-large red fairy/tricolor Anthias locally. All still females but at least one has a more pronounced lyre tail and should grow a dorsal fin and be a male.
I finally got some Anthias today. Been looking around a while and had not decided what I want. I got a pretty good deal on three medium-large red fairy/tricolor Anthias locally. All still females but at least one has a more pronounced lyre tail and should grow a dorsal fin and be a male.
zoomonster
New member
Frag racks
Frag racks
The blackrockreef frag rack finally showed up today. I have to say it is hands down the best of what I own or have seen. The magnets are good, the rack does not sag and it holds an assortment of frag plugs pretty well. I guess nothing is perfect for the abominable ORA golf tee plugs but with the six sided holes they wobble less than other racks. My only real criticism is as their largest model it is the smallest of the three (larges) I have and the fact they are pretty slow in getting around to shipping. It's obviously a manufactured unit and not something slapped together in someone's garage. I have the clear model which is supposed to be made of polypropylene.
This should do me a while until I get around to building a frag tank. Best intentions aside just too many other things taking up my time right now.
I ended up using that Captain Salty's rack, to get by, when I shuffled some magnets around. It at least stays on the glass now but the shelf sags down terribly. The Pureflow is better but it sags in the middle. Personally I would avoid any rack (I have seen) made of plexiglass which includes any of the commercial models like Eshopps. The egg crate models are just a pain to clean, break easily and are just plain unsightly.
Frag racks
The blackrockreef frag rack finally showed up today. I have to say it is hands down the best of what I own or have seen. The magnets are good, the rack does not sag and it holds an assortment of frag plugs pretty well. I guess nothing is perfect for the abominable ORA golf tee plugs but with the six sided holes they wobble less than other racks. My only real criticism is as their largest model it is the smallest of the three (larges) I have and the fact they are pretty slow in getting around to shipping. It's obviously a manufactured unit and not something slapped together in someone's garage. I have the clear model which is supposed to be made of polypropylene.
This should do me a while until I get around to building a frag tank. Best intentions aside just too many other things taking up my time right now.
I ended up using that Captain Salty's rack, to get by, when I shuffled some magnets around. It at least stays on the glass now but the shelf sags down terribly. The Pureflow is better but it sags in the middle. Personally I would avoid any rack (I have seen) made of plexiglass which includes any of the commercial models like Eshopps. The egg crate models are just a pain to clean, break easily and are just plain unsightly.
zoomonster
New member
Not much going on and no new additions. My first case of RTN did occur with a newer Cali Tort from Unique Corals. Gone in pretty much a day and pretty much before I realized it about a week ago. I did have one of my original pieces from DD of Tricolor STN a good while back. I was pretty much under the impression that there was no stopping it short of fragging or super gluing tissue. As sort of an experiment I did let it go other than cleaning and dipping (iodine and coralrx). To date it has almost completely recovered. In fact showing better polyp extension and color than my "healthy" tricolor I got to replace it.
I've kept zoa's for many years and I have always been pretty meticulous in visual inspection and dipping and generally stopped zoa munchers in their tracks. I was looking the other day and there was a good sized sundial starting to much on one of my larger colonies. He must have been quite tiny and avoided detection when he came in and stayed that way hiding in the forest until he was a little smaller than a dime. Needless to say he is history and I will be watching for any fellow travelers.
I've kept zoa's for many years and I have always been pretty meticulous in visual inspection and dipping and generally stopped zoa munchers in their tracks. I was looking the other day and there was a good sized sundial starting to much on one of my larger colonies. He must have been quite tiny and avoided detection when he came in and stayed that way hiding in the forest until he was a little smaller than a dime. Needless to say he is history and I will be watching for any fellow travelers.
zoomonster
New member
I finally got a Mandarin... My pod population has been up but I just have not seen any that I had to have. I ran across some larges (biggest Mandarins I ever recall seeing) and snagged one for $28 the other day. I'll post some pics later but absolutely beautiful fish. I had wanted a red but this green was too nice to pass on. I also picked up a pretty good sized piece of orange tree sponge for $16 (~6" 5 branch). Other than bits and pieces of sponge that's made its way into my tank from rock never really attempted to keep much. If I can keep this one going maybe I'll get some more.
I had mentioned just a while back how my large RBTA had split. The problem was it had located itself in a hole in a rock so when it split the two stayed there competing for space with no real way to get them out other than smashing the rock. One of the two split again last week and spit out a fairly small one that did leave the hole and found a good location. This time around pretty sure it was a stress related split. In any case now there's three and can't complain.
I had mentioned just a while back how my large RBTA had split. The problem was it had located itself in a hole in a rock so when it split the two stayed there competing for space with no real way to get them out other than smashing the rock. One of the two split again last week and spit out a fairly small one that did leave the hole and found a good location. This time around pretty sure it was a stress related split. In any case now there's three and can't complain.
zoomonster
New member
Wasn't a good couple weeks... first out of the blue my flame angel just disappeared. Not in the overflow, not on the floor and seemingly not in tank as my four shrimp and assorted Nassarious would have been on it. My only guess is it did manage to jump and dogs or cat got it but they are pretty finicky and I can't see that happening. Second and the thing I caught hell from the wife on was my yellow belly hippo managed to make the leap the other day. We had him since he was not much bigger than a quarter and he was the wife's baby. Months w/o an issue (well other than a lawn mower blenny) and fish start jumping. I have glass tops on but I've got it pretty sealed up now to prevent further mishaps. The one of three Anthias that gets picked on by the others managed to get into the overflow twice in the past month. That's not a small task getting a fish out of that overflow and I have it sealed up pretty tight now. I'll be alright now that its cooling down with glass tops but I'll need to do screen before it gets hot again if I want to continue avoiding a chiller.
Anyway I ordered and got in a new flame angel and yellow belly hippo today. The hippo was a medium and a little smaller than what my original had grown to. The flame was also supposed to be a medium buts a little on the small side. I got a few other misc items including a ORA peach digitata and an ORA green velvet. Everything came from LA and the ORA pieces shipped from FL so I suspect ORA is drop shipping for LA.
One thing about ORA... Typically when you get an ORA frag you can expect to get a healthy nicely encrusted frag. That no longer seems to be the case. Both of these are very slightly encrusted but the plugs look like they just came out of the box and are jet black w/o any coralline which implies to me they were very recently mounted. An ORA Acropora Nasuta I got elsewhere was much the same. Looked like it had just been glued up with zero encrusting. Literally just past warranty that piece STN'd bringing my frag losses up to two.
Anyway I ordered and got in a new flame angel and yellow belly hippo today. The hippo was a medium and a little smaller than what my original had grown to. The flame was also supposed to be a medium buts a little on the small side. I got a few other misc items including a ORA peach digitata and an ORA green velvet. Everything came from LA and the ORA pieces shipped from FL so I suspect ORA is drop shipping for LA.
One thing about ORA... Typically when you get an ORA frag you can expect to get a healthy nicely encrusted frag. That no longer seems to be the case. Both of these are very slightly encrusted but the plugs look like they just came out of the box and are jet black w/o any coralline which implies to me they were very recently mounted. An ORA Acropora Nasuta I got elsewhere was much the same. Looked like it had just been glued up with zero encrusting. Literally just past warranty that piece STN'd bringing my frag losses up to two.
zoomonster
New member
I guess the Maxspect Gyre XF-150 just started openly selling today. I ended up ordering one locally from Salty so I'll have it on Saturday. I was planning a major cleaning & maintenance this weekend so that's right on time. Hopefully it will perform and live up to expectations and I can say bye bye to the Jebao's.
zoomonster
New member
Maxspect Gyre XF-150
Maxspect Gyre XF-150
As planned it came in Saturday morning and was up and running shortly thereafter. The only real issue was its "safety" mechanism. At power on it had a red light and would not run or do anything. The manual is pretty poor and totally lacking the often referred to "troubleshooting" section. It turns out the cables must be connected in order or the safety kicks it off. In the end I just unplugged the PS and it was good. Just a few comments...
1) While certainly better than some options like Vortech it is overpriced for what it is. $150 would be a stretch and its $300. Like I've complained about before MAP pricing is just another word for price fixing. But that fixed $300 price point will just encourage the likes of Jebao to come along and sell it for 50% or less.
2) Pretty noisy at 40% and up but not intolerable. One unit louder than two Jebao WP40's (FS14000 modified) at full power. Supposedly there is a break in period and it will get quieter. We'll see...
3) Controller is not very intuitive but I got the hang. My biggest criticism is there is not a one button feed. You have to press a button to cycle through each mode to get to feed for 10m. At least if terminating feed early it is a one button push and it returns to previous mode.
4) Typical of Maxspect products no provision for control via a controller like Apex.
5) The power supply runs cool but the controller itself gets pretty hot.
6) The fish were a little confused by the change but pretty quickly adapted and it obvious they love the flow pattern and are more open tank active. Also obvious good flow is getting to sand bed on return. Critters on the bottom like star polyps etc. blowing in the breeze but even at 100% not enough to stir up any sand.
7) The XF-150 is more than adequate for a 6ft long 200g tank and I run at about 60% and 30% at night. Even at 100% though its does not create a vortex at the opposite end. Not something I want anyway and maybe just placement. Right now mine is about 3" (top of unit) from waterline.
8) Very nice getting the two power heads out of the tank for less clutter. Personally I wish they would have stuck with a clear unit vs. black and if kept clean it would have a less imposing presence.
9) Very nice that they included spare left/right rotor assemblies along with bushing etc. With the spare rotor assemblies you can also change up flow patterns like running two left assemblies. I think warranty wise the only items subject to return are motor, PS and controller.
All in all a very good first rev product. Time will tell on quality and longevity.
Maxspect Gyre XF-150
As planned it came in Saturday morning and was up and running shortly thereafter. The only real issue was its "safety" mechanism. At power on it had a red light and would not run or do anything. The manual is pretty poor and totally lacking the often referred to "troubleshooting" section. It turns out the cables must be connected in order or the safety kicks it off. In the end I just unplugged the PS and it was good. Just a few comments...
1) While certainly better than some options like Vortech it is overpriced for what it is. $150 would be a stretch and its $300. Like I've complained about before MAP pricing is just another word for price fixing. But that fixed $300 price point will just encourage the likes of Jebao to come along and sell it for 50% or less.
2) Pretty noisy at 40% and up but not intolerable. One unit louder than two Jebao WP40's (FS14000 modified) at full power. Supposedly there is a break in period and it will get quieter. We'll see...
3) Controller is not very intuitive but I got the hang. My biggest criticism is there is not a one button feed. You have to press a button to cycle through each mode to get to feed for 10m. At least if terminating feed early it is a one button push and it returns to previous mode.
4) Typical of Maxspect products no provision for control via a controller like Apex.
5) The power supply runs cool but the controller itself gets pretty hot.
6) The fish were a little confused by the change but pretty quickly adapted and it obvious they love the flow pattern and are more open tank active. Also obvious good flow is getting to sand bed on return. Critters on the bottom like star polyps etc. blowing in the breeze but even at 100% not enough to stir up any sand.
7) The XF-150 is more than adequate for a 6ft long 200g tank and I run at about 60% and 30% at night. Even at 100% though its does not create a vortex at the opposite end. Not something I want anyway and maybe just placement. Right now mine is about 3" (top of unit) from waterline.
8) Very nice getting the two power heads out of the tank for less clutter. Personally I wish they would have stuck with a clear unit vs. black and if kept clean it would have a less imposing presence.
9) Very nice that they included spare left/right rotor assemblies along with bushing etc. With the spare rotor assemblies you can also change up flow patterns like running two left assemblies. I think warranty wise the only items subject to return are motor, PS and controller.
All in all a very good first rev product. Time will tell on quality and longevity.
zoomonster
New member
This weekend I cleaned up the tank in general and changed out carbon and GFO. The big effort was a macro algae removal effort. I finally eradicated the bryopsis issue I had a while back and have mixed feelings on whether it worked mostly from manual cleaning or the high Mg method. I don't believe I will try the Mg method again. I did not lose anything but it negatively impacted all my soft corals. Anyway I had a bit of a feathery macro algae pop out on one live rock sometime ago. Not sure what it was and never was able to ID but it had a kelp/fern like appearance and was kind of attractive so I let it go. The color ranged from a pale brown to an almost translucent blue under actinic. Anyway that stuff rather quickly got out of control growing in dense mounds and was getting to be invasive spreading from the very large original rock first into a large zoa colony. None of 4 angels, two tangs or cleanup crew would eat the stuff. I had majorly thinned it a few weeks ago and this time it got eradicated. Of course that rock was a large foundation piece on one end of the tank and the macro was collecting detritus and I had some hair starting to mingle with it. Now that all that is gone hopefully the new pattern from the gyre will eliminate that dead spot. Probably not done yet and a few more minor cleanups to be done with it. I did pick up 5 Mexican turbos and turned them loose on that rock. I normally don't like Mexican turbos because they usually don't live very long and can be a wrecking crew. They are all still on that rock where I put them and seem to be doing a good job cleaning up the macro and hair remnants.
I also got a yellow coris wrasse and a diamond watchman goby a while back and they went in the tank. I'm not terribly fond of yellow tangs but the tank needed some yellow and that coris is a beautiful, peaceful and personable fish. Just hope I don't come to regret the watchman goby. He's already been busy and mined a cave under that big rock. Then again aside from liking how they look he was added for a purpose to sift sand. It was quite nice adding fish and having no in tank aggression for once.
I also got a yellow coris wrasse and a diamond watchman goby a while back and they went in the tank. I'm not terribly fond of yellow tangs but the tank needed some yellow and that coris is a beautiful, peaceful and personable fish. Just hope I don't come to regret the watchman goby. He's already been busy and mined a cave under that big rock. Then again aside from liking how they look he was added for a purpose to sift sand. It was quite nice adding fish and having no in tank aggression for once.
zoomonster
New member
Things are progressing on nicely but really have not been taking too many pics lately. Here's one of the new diamond watchman goby when he hit the tank. I'll have to take a better pic later but on right side is a frag someone gave me that was half round when I got it. Its now grown into a perfect taco shell shape.
zoomonster
New member
I had wanted to put up a picture of the problem algae but realized I had never really taken pics of it before I wiped it. In this pic you can see just the fringes of it and my green mandarin.
zoomonster
New member
Well it's been a crazy few months and have not been around much. The tanks cruising along and not much has changed. I have had a few issues but nothing catastrophic. I did have an unexplained incident where several blue sps and a couple of other frags RTN'd about the same time. That sucked but most everything else is growing and thriving.
Most of the issues I've had have been hardware failures. I'll talk about that later but top of the list the Maxspect Gyre XF-150 has been nothing but trouble.
I think I finally got the macro algae problem I mentioned before under control. I let it go a while to burn itself out, did a major cleaning and then added $200 more of cleaners including a couple urchins and and bunch of large Mexican Turbos. Still some remnants but tank is looking good. Also a plus is that I have not had anymore bryopsis since my past eradication effort.
No new fish lately but considering a powder blue tang or some more Anthias. The fish have done quite well with a couple exceptions. That watchman goby I pictured below didn't last long. He managed to escape the tank and make the leap of death. My tank has a booming pod population but I've had nothing but problems with the mandarin. At one point he was very weak and I caught him and transferred to my refugium which is loaded with pods. Even at that I don't think he is going to survive much longer and I won't get another.
Most of the issues I've had have been hardware failures. I'll talk about that later but top of the list the Maxspect Gyre XF-150 has been nothing but trouble.
I think I finally got the macro algae problem I mentioned before under control. I let it go a while to burn itself out, did a major cleaning and then added $200 more of cleaners including a couple urchins and and bunch of large Mexican Turbos. Still some remnants but tank is looking good. Also a plus is that I have not had anymore bryopsis since my past eradication effort.
No new fish lately but considering a powder blue tang or some more Anthias. The fish have done quite well with a couple exceptions. That watchman goby I pictured below didn't last long. He managed to escape the tank and make the leap of death. My tank has a booming pod population but I've had nothing but problems with the mandarin. At one point he was very weak and I caught him and transferred to my refugium which is loaded with pods. Even at that I don't think he is going to survive much longer and I won't get another.
zoomonster
New member
Every so often I get a rare dose of ambition and burn through stuff that needs to be done. Been so busy with work and other that I was kind of behind.
I reworked my topoff system and have increased capacity now and the Tunze Osmolator is in full use now.
I still have a ways to go but I transplanted about 12 frags to more permanent homes and got rid of 1/3 of my racks. I mostly did the larger pieces that had gotten out of hand and were encrusting the rack. I've not been to fond of the ORA plugs but actually they are easier to deal with than the cement plugs. Granted I lost a little bit of wrap around encrusting but squeezing the upper edge of the plugs with a pair of channel locks popped them right off leaving just a spike from inside the plug. Small hole drilled in new rock, a little super glue and done. To me it turns out the cement plugs are a PIA. Short of clipping the frag from the plug no way to cleanly get off. For those I used end cutters to remove the plug stem and glued the flat disk to the host rock. All in all pretty smooth going and only created a few new inadvertent frags and those were all monti's.
I'm not a big fan of permanent aquascapes and like to keep things modular and not glue things to my foundation rock so I can rearrange at will. I used some small rock I had around and stormborn reef was kind enough to give a bag of scrap rock. A bunch were the round manmade rocks you get on the maricultured stuff these days. Those rocks actually worked out very nice and wish I had more.
I've still got about 14 to go on another rack but that's for another day. My second rack has my new frags and 8 zoa frags including a new piece of KO Nightmares (~6 polyps) I picked up yesterday. I also got a cheap frag of a piece I lost which is an orange rimmed, deep purple center PE.
Most of those zoas are the Agaves I bought a while back. The only piece I lost was the apple cider (cheapest of the bunch). The rest are not quite ready for transplant yet but all have 2-3 times as many polyps now. That's always a relief when you are starting with just a couple over priced polyps.
I reworked my topoff system and have increased capacity now and the Tunze Osmolator is in full use now.
I still have a ways to go but I transplanted about 12 frags to more permanent homes and got rid of 1/3 of my racks. I mostly did the larger pieces that had gotten out of hand and were encrusting the rack. I've not been to fond of the ORA plugs but actually they are easier to deal with than the cement plugs. Granted I lost a little bit of wrap around encrusting but squeezing the upper edge of the plugs with a pair of channel locks popped them right off leaving just a spike from inside the plug. Small hole drilled in new rock, a little super glue and done. To me it turns out the cement plugs are a PIA. Short of clipping the frag from the plug no way to cleanly get off. For those I used end cutters to remove the plug stem and glued the flat disk to the host rock. All in all pretty smooth going and only created a few new inadvertent frags and those were all monti's.
I'm not a big fan of permanent aquascapes and like to keep things modular and not glue things to my foundation rock so I can rearrange at will. I used some small rock I had around and stormborn reef was kind enough to give a bag of scrap rock. A bunch were the round manmade rocks you get on the maricultured stuff these days. Those rocks actually worked out very nice and wish I had more.
I've still got about 14 to go on another rack but that's for another day. My second rack has my new frags and 8 zoa frags including a new piece of KO Nightmares (~6 polyps) I picked up yesterday. I also got a cheap frag of a piece I lost which is an orange rimmed, deep purple center PE.
Most of those zoas are the Agaves I bought a while back. The only piece I lost was the apple cider (cheapest of the bunch). The rest are not quite ready for transplant yet but all have 2-3 times as many polyps now. That's always a relief when you are starting with just a couple over priced polyps.
zoomonster
New member
Oh yeah... I have also added a large male bimaculatus Anthias. Saw him in local shop and could not pass it up. Pretty fond of all the fish I have but this guy is stunning. My three other Anthias are mysis gobbling pigs and doing very well. Originally when I bought them they were listed as Red Fairy Anthias (Pseudanthias kashiwae). After paying a little better attention they are really Red Belted Anthias (Pseudanthias rubrizonatus). None the less very beautiful Anthias.
I will likely get a couple females to go with the bimaculatus in the next few weeks. The only other Anthias I really want are Ventralis and not a lot around. Local shop found some at a supplier and they have the more colorful Australian variety with the usual Australian price tag. The male was $250 and the females were $180 I think. Not biting on that just yet.
I will likely get a couple females to go with the bimaculatus in the next few weeks. The only other Anthias I really want are Ventralis and not a lot around. Local shop found some at a supplier and they have the more colorful Australian variety with the usual Australian price tag. The male was $250 and the females were $180 I think. Not biting on that just yet.
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zoomonster
New member
New Lights
New Lights
Well... I did something I thought I wouldn't do and pulled the trigger to move to LED from MH/T5.
I love the perceived benefit of MH/T5 but its the downside that convinced me to give LED a try.
1) My electric bills have been outrageous. Still paying for last summer where peak was about $600 and balanced out paying $400 on budget plan to this day.
2) Coming close to bulb replacement time. I've also had numerous problems with the Hamilton Cebu sun most of which were resolved by Hamilton. The last straw was one of the moonlights having a couple LEDS go out and eventually the plastic lens cover melted off the center light. Just a bad design having the cheap LED fixtures mounted directly to the mogul sockets.
3) HEAT turned out to be more of an issue than I expected. While its a benefit in the few weeks of cold weather here it the rest of the warm to hot year. Aside from raising water temp close to shutdown temps, during summer peak, it really hindered the ability of my AC to cool to house in the summer resulting in large E bills. Part of the problem could have been solved with a chiller but really did not want to go that route and/or use more E. Carrying it a step further I could have ducted the light exhaust out of the house but that was not really a desirable or aesthetic solution. Having the Cebu sun is the equivalent of having a 1100w space heater running year round. Can't imagine if I went with 400w bulbs (almost did).
4) Florida is just a tough cookie with heat and humidity most of the year and relatively high E rates. This house has a high efficiency 5 ton AC when it really should be at least a 6 ton. An equivalent quality, slightly higher efficiency, unit in 6-7 ton would be about 8k installed.
So after much consideration I'm going to try three Kessil Tuna Blue A360WE's mounted on goosenecks and controlled via my Apex. They should be here Friday and installed this weekend. The only negative I can see for the Kessil's is when mounted on the goosenecks the cord management is non-existent. Wireless would have been nice but for the quality of light costing only a bit more than my current MH/T5 setup its worth it.
Is there a tradeoff? Yeah maybe but Kessil is about as good as LED gets these days. I've read all the info/opinions and think its a best choice for my situation. Taking it with a grain of salt since they sell Kessil I was shocked to see some hard core MH Acro growers like Unique corals making the switch to Kessils. We'll see how it goes and how my corals behave and grow. Worst case I bite the bullet and go back to MH.
New Lights
Well... I did something I thought I wouldn't do and pulled the trigger to move to LED from MH/T5.
I love the perceived benefit of MH/T5 but its the downside that convinced me to give LED a try.
1) My electric bills have been outrageous. Still paying for last summer where peak was about $600 and balanced out paying $400 on budget plan to this day.
2) Coming close to bulb replacement time. I've also had numerous problems with the Hamilton Cebu sun most of which were resolved by Hamilton. The last straw was one of the moonlights having a couple LEDS go out and eventually the plastic lens cover melted off the center light. Just a bad design having the cheap LED fixtures mounted directly to the mogul sockets.
3) HEAT turned out to be more of an issue than I expected. While its a benefit in the few weeks of cold weather here it the rest of the warm to hot year. Aside from raising water temp close to shutdown temps, during summer peak, it really hindered the ability of my AC to cool to house in the summer resulting in large E bills. Part of the problem could have been solved with a chiller but really did not want to go that route and/or use more E. Carrying it a step further I could have ducted the light exhaust out of the house but that was not really a desirable or aesthetic solution. Having the Cebu sun is the equivalent of having a 1100w space heater running year round. Can't imagine if I went with 400w bulbs (almost did).
4) Florida is just a tough cookie with heat and humidity most of the year and relatively high E rates. This house has a high efficiency 5 ton AC when it really should be at least a 6 ton. An equivalent quality, slightly higher efficiency, unit in 6-7 ton would be about 8k installed.
So after much consideration I'm going to try three Kessil Tuna Blue A360WE's mounted on goosenecks and controlled via my Apex. They should be here Friday and installed this weekend. The only negative I can see for the Kessil's is when mounted on the goosenecks the cord management is non-existent. Wireless would have been nice but for the quality of light costing only a bit more than my current MH/T5 setup its worth it.
Is there a tradeoff? Yeah maybe but Kessil is about as good as LED gets these days. I've read all the info/opinions and think its a best choice for my situation. Taking it with a grain of salt since they sell Kessil I was shocked to see some hard core MH Acro growers like Unique corals making the switch to Kessils. We'll see how it goes and how my corals behave and grow. Worst case I bite the bullet and go back to MH.
zoomonster
New member
Speaking of Unique Corals I got a few pieces from them the other day. One replacement and three new varieties.
Aussie blue vermiculata (replacement for lost piece)
Raspberry Millipora
ORA Ice Tort
Acropora gomezi
Pics later... they came in on a cold day with heat packs and not back to peak color yet. Plus I have a complaint into UC for this order regarding the quality of what I received. They have been great but this order was something of a disappointment. Guess Scott's too busy peddling Triton and letting the coral business slide at the hands of his employees.
Aussie blue vermiculata (replacement for lost piece)
Raspberry Millipora
ORA Ice Tort
Acropora gomezi
Pics later... they came in on a cold day with heat packs and not back to peak color yet. Plus I have a complaint into UC for this order regarding the quality of what I received. They have been great but this order was something of a disappointment. Guess Scott's too busy peddling Triton and letting the coral business slide at the hands of his employees.
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zoomonster
New member
I got an email back from Scott at Unique this morning and he promptly and generously took care of the problem I mentioned in the last post. I have heaped praise of UC in the past and that continues and I will continue doing business with them for most of my SPS frag wants. So many unscrupulous vendors I have run across and UC is a pleasure to deal with and they have quality goods. I used the credit he gave me to buy another of a piece they sent me, a pearlberry and ice fire echinata and a blue dragon. The ice and blue dragon where casualties when I lost a few frags to a sudden and unexplained STN a while back that mostly affected blues. My pink and red dragons had no issues.
BTW someone mentioned reefapalooza the other day. I had forgotten about that and I believe its happening in April for year two of the Orlando show. Psyched because last year I was not ready for livestock. I did go but the show was pretty lacking in anything but frags. Hopefully this year will be even better and actually have parking not all occupied by vendors.
BTW someone mentioned reefapalooza the other day. I had forgotten about that and I believe its happening in April for year two of the Orlando show. Psyched because last year I was not ready for livestock. I did go but the show was pretty lacking in anything but frags. Hopefully this year will be even better and actually have parking not all occupied by vendors.
zoomonster
New member
Trying to get back to taking some pics... this is my male bimaculatus Anthias.
zoomonster
New member
The stuff that came in today. Pretty nice frags even if the pearlberry is pretty small for the price. At least its pretty well encrusted. I seem to have better luck getting stuff that did well in shipping in the heat of summer than winter. From CA to FL with a heatpack and were pretty cold when they got here. They should be fine but not had so much color loss in shipping before. Most noticeable is the ice fire echinata which should be ice white with blue tips. The blue is there but most of the white has browned. They probably stay in racks better but not fond of the square plugs with the big square posts in the corner I'm seeing more of these days.
left to right ice fire echinata, aussie blue vermiculta, blue dragon, and pearlberry
