180 Gallon Tank Build (1 Viewer)

[AquaNerd]

i could try to frag it with my dremmel. i just hope it's not encrusted onto the rock. i'll check it tonight.

i'm not sure which monti you're talking about...but i assume you mean the orange monti cap. it looks superb in person and is a deep orange. in fact, it's probably my favorite coral.

 

[crvz]

I was talking about your before and after picture... what's the reddish coral in the before that's more pink in the after?

 

[deepsea43]

I beleive that would be pink digita

 

[mike13oy]

I beleive that would be pink digita

I think its a red digita that got bleach and turned into pink digita. if you look at the before and after pic, its the same coral or maybe im wrong.

 

[AquaNerd]

some clarification...

the orange (or red if you interpret the color to be that) digitata and the pink digitata are in fact the same coral. the coral is in no way bleached or unhealthy. i dosed zeospur2 which is an additive that forces corals to expel their brown zooxanthellae and causes the coral to replace it with more colorful zooxanthellae. it is stressful to the coral to some extent, but the desired effect is to bring out more natural colors from the coral.

 

[MarkieB]

Is that a permanent color change or more like dying of corals where without maintained intervention, the color will change back.

 

[AquaNerd]

no, not necessarily. as long as nutrients are low, it should maintain it's color.

 

[crvz]

some clarification...

the orange (or red if you interpret the color to be that) digitata and the pink digitata are in fact the same coral. the coral is in no way bleached or unhealthy. i dosed zeospur2 which is an additive that forces corals to expel their brown zooxanthellae and causes the coral to replace it with more colorful zooxanthellae. it is stressful to the coral to some extent, but the desired effect is to bring out more natural colors from the coral.

Is it ok that I liked the "unnatural" colors more?

 

[AquaNerd]

it's up to you. i mean, everyone has their own tastes. it's like when some people try to justify buying ugly cars or painting bedrooms ugly colors.

 

[hank]

some clarification...

the orange (or red if you interpret the color to be that) digitata and the pink digitata are in fact the same coral. the coral is in no way bleached or unhealthy. i dosed zeospur2 which is an additive that forces corals to expel their brown zooxanthellae and causes the coral to replace it with more colorful zooxanthellae. it is stressful to the coral to some extent, but the desired effect is to bring out more natural colors from the coral.

Is it ok that I liked the "unnatural" colors more?

It did look better before. How do you figure that is more natural? What color was it when you got it?

 

[AquaNerd]

well, natural referring to the tank's parameters being very close to those of nsw.

 

[AquaNerd]

update:
the transition to metal halides is almost complete! i picked up two lumen bright 3 se reflectors from bmc the other day, i am picking up three reeflux 12k 250watt se bulbs from lunardds either this evening or tomorrow morning, and my ballasts arrived today (either two or three...i ordered two one day and one the following day, so the other may or may not come tomorrow). i've got to place my order in the next couple days for my last reflector, so by the end of this week or beginning of next i should have my lights complete.

i may or may not be moving. i don't want to divulge too much info now because it may not happen. but if it does happen, i'll update. whether or not i move though, the tank is being broken down and redone. i am going to remove some fish and corals that are no longer appealing to me and redo the rockwork. when i set everything back up, i will focus more on the rarer sps. i plan to go all ora/le/fancy schmancy sps because they are all gorgeous. i might also try more lps this time around. i would love to get my hands on a nice scoly or acan colony. but, we'll see how it goes.

 

[skeeter76]

wow brandon, possibly moving, switching to t5 and now back to MH, you change your mind like most women I know, BTW, do you own a purse? j/k

 

[AquaNerd]

actually, i've always had t5 and never ventured into the metal halide world until today.

speaking of which, i installed two reflectors, two ballasts, and two reeflux 12k bulbs. i have the reflectors dimmed all the way down, and the color is super blue. i have my other ballast and reflector on the way...but i'm loving it so far. and heck, my temp dropped by almost 2 degrees and temp inside my canopy dropped almost 10 degrees! i know this will change somewhat after i add the third light, but i'm very pleased so far.

 

[i_am_poor]

So T5s were hotter than these MHs? What ballast are you using?

 

[AquaNerd]

i'm using coralvue 250 dimmable electronic ballasts. tomorrow will be the real test. i will let it run for several hours.

 

[i_am_poor]

I want dimmable ballast now for my next tank lol.

 

[AquaNerd]

i love them! they are really neat. i picked up those 12k bulbs from lunardds and i turned the ballast all the way down and wow...those were freakin blue. i mean they were like 30K if that's even possible.

 

[tas5tas]

I've been telling you that my bulbs were very blue!!! In the 20k-25k range. I'm happy to hear you finally made the switch. You will start to see better growth and color out of all your corals.

 

[AquaNerd]

update with pichers!!!

keep in mind that i have one more ballast and reflector combo coming in this week.

here's a pic of the two reflectors fired up with the ballasts turned all the way up (ie not dimmed down)

here's a pic of the left ballast dimmed completely down with the other one not dimmed at all

and here's a pic of both dimmed down

and those are with reeflux 12K bulbs!!!