My tank is starting to look better, I think

[charlie]

That is just downright cool, both of the shots, Gene!!!!!! Thanx for your trouble.

[zhenya]

Gene, what is that BN in the bottom left of the top down shot? It sure is PRETTY!!!!!

That monti is pretty darn cool, and that blue coral is stellar! I agree that it looks like a Milli to me too!

Thanks Mike!
The S.hystrix I got as a frag from someone, about three month ago. It was just a small stick but grows very quickly.

I have another, partial shot of it from the top.



And this one from the front showing how weird of a shape it is growing into. :eek3:


You know, the coral I like the most right now is that blue formosa that is next to that blue mille. It turned purplish for a while but is coming back to blue slowly. It's promissing to be a real beauty one day.

[zhenya]

Recieved couple of new pieces today, thought you may like this new aditions.

A.hyacinthus frag from reefermadness.


I also got this really pretty pastel blue tipped acropora frag, not sure what species it is but I like it.


and I absolutely love this yellow polyped Acropora frag that I got as a bonus.
I honestly do not know what this one is supposed to be, hopefully one of you experts can tell me. ;)



I would also like to add updated image of my tank as of yesterday.

[zhenya]

Well, it;s been almost a month since I upgraded this thread. So, here are some images I took today using a top down box.



This colony is starting to color up a little.


And some random shots of various acropora corals.

[zhenya]

And few more... First, a series of simingly the same coral but with different subject in focus.

In this shot the focus is on the Favia sp. coral.


And in this one the subject in focus is A.gomezi that I recently aquired.Just one branch really...


This coral was sold to me as A.yongei, so I directed the power head on it so it retracts polyps and hopefully Kevin will stop by and give me his opinion on the ID. It doesn't look like any A.yongei I've seen before, though...

[charlie]

Did you ever get an ID on that one coral Gene, the one I thought was a loripes?

[zhenya]

And more still...

I noticed some serious damage done to my small A.tenuis colony and to my surprize it was a small hairy crab happily eating polyps off the branches.., needless to say the perp was promptly evicted.


My Seriatopora is changing color on me. My guess is that the reason may be that bad MH bulbs I had for a couple of month. Hopefully it will regain it's bright pink color again.





And this is one of my old corals that I got a frag back from my friend.

[zhenya]

Did you ever get an ID on that one coral Gene, the one I thought was a loripes?

Charlie, I broke off a small branch and bleached it. Will take some shots of it and send it to Eric. He promised to look at it when he has some time and maybe try to ID it to species level. But yeah, he said it may be one of the A.loripes variants, or the granulosa. But you know how it is, pictures are very decieving so I'll wait untill we can make a more positive ID before I say for sure what it is.
;)

[charlie]

What type of bulbs did you get?

[zhenya]

What type of bulbs did you get?

Charlie, all the details of what happened is in this thread.
Spectrum shift of the MH bulb

Basically, right now I have two Coralvue 10K bulbs that I got in 2004 but never used them. Good thing I didn;t throw them out.

I'm getting two Megachrome 12.5K for now but will be switching to 400watters sometimes later this spring.

[charlie]

Boy, make sure you get a plan when you switch to the 400w bulbs. Are you going to change "K" along with the switch to the 400w, or will you stay with the 12.5K.

[zhenya]

Most likely I will stay with the 10K bulbs but not sure at thsi point. I will be building a new canopy to acomodate those Lumenarc reflectors that I bought last year and I want to switch to T5's for actinics.

[Reefland]

Any specific reason for the upgrade to 400w Gene?

[zhenya]

Any specific reason for the upgrade to 400w Gene?

Scott,

It seems that the colors of some of the corals that I like to keep are fading if compared to the tank they came from. Even fragments. I run pretty clean tank with ozone, phosphate absorbing media in the reactor and now very powerful skimmer. So it may be that I need a bit more umph in the light? At least I want to give it a try.
I'm not sure what else I overlooked.., water looks so crystal clear in the tank.

[Reefland]

Do you run a chiller on that tank?

[wozza]

WOW!!! gene you have got some REAL NICE corals in your tank.
love the pics as well

[zhenya]

WOW!!! gene you have got some REAL NICE corals in your tank.
love the pics as well

Thanks James!

Do you run a chiller on that tank?

Scott, I do have a chiller on this tank and recently upgraded it to a 1/2 hp unit( I bought it last year thinking I may be getting a bigger tank...well, you know where that went ). So, I think I may be OK with the temperatures. I plan on having lights at least 14" from the surface and try to vent the canopy outside via some fans and flexable ducts. We'll see how that goes...God knows I work very slow, those Lumenarcs been sitting next to the tank since last summer...

[Reefland]

Since last summer? Well maybe you'll have the 44w going by next summer then.

[zhenya]

Since last summer? Well maybe you'll have the 44w going by next summer then.

Hopefully... It all depends if we going to be down the shore for the summer or stay put..,my experience tells me that it will be the former.

If I can get someone to help me out in building this canopy then I can make it before summer gets here.

[Poseidon]

Fantastic as always Gene. If you do the 400W bulbs, I would go to a higher Kelvin bulb. I know you get less PAR, but it seems the additional wattage would make up for it. Plus if you do that, then you may not need the actinic at all, which would save you a little bit on the power bill.