50b Sumpless Mixed Reef Build!

[BigJohnny]

Originally Posted by Novice101

I was close but if you buy their reef package which the lowest one is 69.99 you get free shipping which is kinda cool

Yea free shipping regardless is always nice

[BigJohnny]

Okie dokie, siiiick frags! Again, cell phone cam sucks. These don't do them justice.

Superman Monti


Emerald Echinata


Jedi Mind Trick Monti (hasn't fully colored up yet but you can see the colors a lot better in person)


Strawberry Shortcake (unbelievable coloration, almost a teal/yellow with pink polyps)


Pink Prostrata (this is a monster frag, over 2 inches with a buncha branching)


Group Shot!


In other news, my frogspawn and torch split simultaneously today which was pretty crazy, must be something in the fall air .

[BigJohnny]

Here are some macro attempts on my cell phone. As usual, the colors are off (significantly in some cases) but my wife has a dslr that I will probably be using shortly.

Sunset Milli:




Pink Prostrata:




Emerald Echinata:

[BigJohnny]

Superman Monti:


Strawberry Shortcake:



Inferno Acan:


Rainbow 7-Up Acan:



Teal Echinata:

[BigJohnny]

Reverse Sunset Monti Morph (I call it Tequila Sunrise)

[Isaacs55]

Jeez you got me drooling over here lol I've only added a RBTA to my tank and haven't added anything cuz I'm waiting for it to find its sweet spot. Very nice corals though bud! I'm thinking of doing a 5 coral acro pack from vivid and just pay for shipping but I don't want to get random bad acros. Can't justify spending 225 lol

[BigJohnny]

Originally Posted by Isaacs55

Jeez you got me drooling over here lol I've only added a RBTA to my tank and haven't added anything cuz I'm waiting for it to find its sweet spot. Very nice corals though bud! I'm thinking of doing a 5 coral acro pack from vivid and just pay for shipping but I don't want to get random bad acros. Can't justify spending 225 lol

Thanks

Here's how you justify spending to 225-

Your going to spend way more than that in corals eventually anyway, so why not do some at once and save money on shipping. No brainer IMO. It's actually a better decision financially then buying less and paying for shipping, that's for sure.

[BigJohnny]

As far as getting a bad acro pack, I'm not sure they have any haha. But yea I prefer to pick my frags. Usually wysiwyg but this time several weren't and they are all fantastic. You just can't go wrong with vivid

[Isaacs55]

Originally Posted by BigJohnny

Thanks

Here's how you justify spending to 225-

Your going to spend way more than that in corals eventually anyway, so why not do some at once and save money on shipping. No brainer IMO. It's actually a better decision financially then buying less and paying for shipping, that's for sure.

No! I totally agree with you as this is my thinking as well lol but trying to justify it to my wife is another story lol if i ordered that much and she sees it, she'd be like "really you paid 225 for that"? And never talk to me again lol I'd have to order it and be like, yea I got it all cheap for like 70 bucks when it normally costs like 300!!! Lmao

[BigJohnny]

Originally Posted by Isaacs55

No! I totally agree with you as this is my thinking as well lol but trying to justify it to my wife is another story lol if i ordered that much and she sees it, she'd be like "really you paid 225 for that"? And never talk to me again lol I'd have to order it and be like, yea I got it all cheap for like 70 bucks when it normally costs like 300!!! Lmao

Haha then don't tell your wife brotha! Gotta say it, your killing me with the wife restriction talk.......as long as you limit her spending on make up and clothes then it's fine I guess. If it's a one way street though................we need to have a talk .

[winters_robert]

Those corals are looking amazing! I can not wait to start stocking my build! Thanks for the inspiration.

[BigJohnny]

Originally Posted by winters_robert

Those corals are looking amazing! I can not wait to start stocking my build! Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks man! Let me know when you start a build thread, see that your planning a 50 as well!

[BigJohnny]

Went to a new LFS in the area to borrow a PAR meter to map out my tank so I know what I'm working with before mounting frags, ended up scooping a frag of Jason Fox Tubbs Stellata Montipora for only $40 ($59 on jfoxes site) and a WWC starburst cap frag for $20! Couldn't resist.

This is actually purple/white ridges with green polyps.


No pic of the starburst cap yet because it has no PE so waiting until tomorrow.

My UWW Rainbow Sunburst Monti frag arrive Tuesday

[BigJohnny]

Well, fedex lost my UWW Rainbow Sunburst and it was dead as a door nail upon arrival. Amazing how a coral can go from rainbow flesh to white skeleton so quickly. Vendor can't frag the colony again for a while but promised me a frag before Christmas

[BigJohnny]

I picked up this Malibu Favia when I returned the PAR meter to that lfs. It's pretty sweet even though it's young and not fully colored yet. I also dont have any other favia so said why not


Here are some attempted cell phone macros. I'm getting better with the settings but still not stellar. Everything is either too blue or too white, and never as colorful as it should be. Will have my wife's dslr this weekend, looking forward to taking some legit pics.

[BigJohnny]

Bleached starburst cap haha, should look sweet soon

[BigJohnny]

So now that I'm jam packed full of sps I'm replacing the jebao rw8 on the left side with another mp40wqd which I ordered last night. That way both pumps can communicate and I can run some back and forth pulses, master/slave reef crest, as well as fully take advantage of dual modes like tidal swell and nutrient transport.

Currently I've been running my vortech on reef crest and my rw8 on constant to break up the vortech flow. I wanted to run the rw8 on else mode which is basically a simplified reef crest, however it can only run it at full power which is too strong in my tank, especially with the tight stream like (rather than cone) flow pattern.

Corals have been doing well and I'm sure it would have been fine, but ideally I want my corals getting hit with flow from alternating angles with varying intensity, similar to what they would experience in a reef.

I know a guy who's growth almost doubled when he switched from independent random modes to alternating 10 second pulses. Pretty nuts.

I look forward to trying them all out and since they are both mp40wqds (not mp10s) I will be able to use them in bigger tanks in years to come, so well worth the initial investment IMO.

[Isaacs55]

Nice! The pictures do look way better! Another thing you can try to filter some blue out is put a yellow lense over your camera phone. Like yellow sun glasses or I think regular polarized sun glasses work too. Maybe give that a try.

Now let's see an updated front tank shot lol

[BigJohnny]

Originally Posted by Isaacs55

Nice! The pictures do look way better! Another thing you can try to filter some blue out is put a yellow lense over your camera phone. Like yellow sun glasses or I think regular polarized sun glasses work too. Maybe give that a try.

Now let's see an updated front tank shot lol

Thanks it's so hard to take legit pics with my phone. I will definitely give that lense thing a shot, good idea.

I've been staying away from FTS because since it's zoomed out you can't see anything has changed except for my algae (diatoms, maybe non toxic dino, and some cyano) haha. I've been battling all that with a reduced 5 hr photo period and daily dosing of Phytoplankton and Microbacter7. Been less than a week and have already seen great results. It's really not that bad, but I still want to nip the dino (if that's in fact what it is) in the bud.

I also haven't mounted any frags yet because I want to wait until the algae recedes (atleast the dino). Then I can bring my photo period back to normal, and gradually move the sps up and mount the rest down low.

Here's a FTS as well as a PAR map I made with an apogee meter. The higher areas that have seemingly random lower PAR are directly under an actinic bulb which isn't picked up but has great PUR which is valuable in photosynthesis. Also the ones in the center are under the center brace as well as under the actinic. You can't actually see any difference in the tank under the brace since t5s diffuse throughout the water, but it does effect PAR slightly.

Currently, any sps mounted up top will grow in 250-350 PAR which is ideal. I may raise or lower the fixture if growth is not to my liking or any corals bleach.

[BigJohnny]

Here are my params currently which have stayed much more consistent since I started dosing kalk at night with a dosing pump.

Temp: 78
Salinity: 35ppt (1.026)
pH: 8.2
Alkalinity: 8.7 dkH
Calcium: 480 ppm
Magnesium: 1400 ppm
Nitrate: 4 ppm
Phosphate: .02 ppm

I am currently dosing the following:

- 50 drops Reef Nutrition Phytoplankton every morning

- 15 ml Microbacter7 every night

- 164 mins/172ml of 50% saturated kalkwasser every night over 10 hrs

I target feed my LPS once/week with PE Mysis and broadcast feed 1/3 tsp Coral Frenzy about twice a month.

I've been feeding my Skunk Cleaner shrimp Elos svm2 pellets or New Life Spectrum pellets. They also steal mysis from my corals haha.

I have to feed my cleaners because I still don't have any fish (I know, ridiculous), but will soon. I also lay down a little extra mysis to give the nassarius/hermits some meat.

The cleaners are very healthy/molting consistently and actually had about 500 baby's the other night which I haven't seen since......

[BigJohnny]

Current Live Stock:

Blue Ricordea
Purple Green Tip Torch
Purple Tipped Frogspawn
Duncan
Teal/Purple Chalice
Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris
Malibu Favia

Hulk Acan
Blood Diamond Acan
Inferno Acan
Ultra Acan
Rainbow 7-Up Acan
Blue Rainbow Acan

Ethereal Dream Montipora Undata
Tequila Sunrise Montipora
Superman Montipora
Jedi Mind Trick Montipora Undata
Starburst Montipora Cap
Tubbs Stellata Montipora

Blue Green Tenuis Acropora
Green Millepora Acropora
Blue Tenuis Acropora
Teal Echinata Acropora
Emerald Echinata Acropora
Strawberry Shortcake Acropora
Pink Prostrata Acropora

Inverts
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp Pair
3 Banded Trochus Snails
5 Nassarius Snails
6 Cerith Snails
2 Blue Hermits
5 Red Hermits

[BigJohnny]

QT Tank Livestock:

Orange/Purple Ricordea
Green/Yellow Ricordea
Kryptonite Candy Cane
Green Star Polyps
Unknown Orange Zoas
Purple/Pink/Yellow Aussie Zoas
Pinwheel Zoas

Inverts
2 Red Hermits
4 Cerith Snails
2 Micro Snails (unknown)

Some of these corals I've had from the beginning and just don't want in my tank anymore, others are just chilling or prefer the weaker light/dirtier water.

The orange zoas actually killed two of my montis (mystic sunset and violet orange), so they are in permanent exile.

[BigJohnny]

Ah crap! Cherry Corals had a Halloween live sale on ********* and I went a little overboard. The deals were just tooooo good and I kept beating everyone to checkout.

Aussie Orange Hammer - $30
Chili Pepper Monti- $20
Tyree Pink Lemonade Acro- $20
Hella Yella Tenius Acro- $40
Fuzzy Rainbow Acro- $50
Black Hornet Acro- $13! (These retail for $100-$250 depending on size)

Delivery is Tuesday

[cprice]

BigJohnny, you said you were an east coast guy? Where about?

[BigJohnny]

Originally Posted by cprice

BigJohnny, you said you were an east coast guy? Where about?

Yep, I live in Richmond currently. I occasionally do business in D.C. and have a place there as well. My tank is in Richmond though.