Several of the colony's in there have grown from frags, unfortunately it just looked unbalanced in many spots... So I added some that I've picked up along the way. I really like the look of fewer huge colony's.

Holy s*** Wayne. Looks great. Looks like I need to come but frags

Instatank! You rule!

Took this picture of my red scooter. Had to post it...

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...psba6ec673.jpg

Time for a thread photo explosion... All taken with an iPhone so excuse the quality (looks better on a 4" screen).

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...psb7d5f062.jpg

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WOW looking great!!!

Looks like you need some harlequin shrimp to take care of those asterina's.

Whats your thoughts on the Asterinas? I know its a big debate with most people, whether they remove them or not.

Thanks :)

I have a harlequin shrimp in there, but I could use a couple more. The type in my tank don't harm the corals or fish, so it's not a big deal. Just an eye sore to some. I'd like to find a balance where they stabilize, but continue to be a free food source... Right now they are winning.

Your coral growth looks amazing! Wish you could white-balance your latest round of shots so we had a better idea of coloration. It's still evident that the corals are looking pretty!

wow. Looking stellar Wayne!

This journal needs some love, great job Wayne!

Nice healthy sps, there's a colony of green acro with red tips do you know the name of the sps?( pic is above the chalice)

Thanks Brett! I just figured out how to adjust the WB on my D5100 last night. I can't wait to take some proper pictures.


Thanks! Now for a lesson in photography? :redface:

Strawberry Shortcake (no clue on the scientific name)... Love it though. As it turns out, it really likes lower light. I've seen amazing growth and color compared to having it up high.

wow tank is looking great !
just quickly scanned the whole thread .. great progress .

what can you tell me about your maintenance and dosing routine ?
what do you test for , extra additives etc .

looking good

Clean glass every 2 days.

Weekly - Bi-Weekly water change (Sometimes I forget). I matched temperature, ALK, CA, MAG and Salinity every water change. I stopped doing this for the last few water changes.

Zeovit - Reactor, bak, start and food. Pump every day-ish, start twice per day on an auto doser (0.4ml twice per day for 300Gal) and food/bak once per week. I haven't changed the zeolites in months.

Calcium reactor with ARM course media. PH set to 6.9 and just barely a stream for drip rate.

Carbon in a media reactor changed every 2 weeks (1.5 cups of media).

Skimmer dumped every week, cleaned every month.

looks like you're not using your DIY lights any longer? Are those Vegas?

Interesting on the Strawberry Shortcake..three of us in the Okanagan split a good sized chunk between us and all of us found that high light and high flow is the only way to make this not go pale and stop growing.

The DIY had some epic growth and color, but didn't push the light all the way to the edges of the tank. These are Hydras, after some tweaking I can vouch they are an epic light. Default program eliminates the royal blues, I added them in to ramp with the other blues and the colors improved! UV seems to have added some color to the corals. Some of them are starting to get their "halide" luminescence back.

I've had a couple fail on me though (one main board and one burnt white LED which causes all of the others to go out). I also found out they don't use any heat transfer material between the LED boards and heatsink (maybe a non-issue as they seem to cool fine).

Thanks for the response Wayne, I thought it was ssc but just wanted to confirm... Did you aquire the colony or frag and grew it out?

Would you say it's a fast grower.... I recently aquired a frag and have mine roasting on the frag rack but kinda unimpressed with colour as its pale ATM, it's fully encrusted now I may try to move mine lower to see if it improves.

Are yours under LED or other? I gave a frag to a friend with halides and it reacted better up high... Mine lost the green base up high and turned more white/pink.

I purchased it as a colony, but has significantly increased in size since I bought it (about 1/3). It came out of a halide tank and was pale white with pink tips.

For the past year I had an orange spotted rabbit fish that really enjoyed growth tips and zoas. The SSC was the only SPS he left alone, so it grew faster than my other corals lol.

Well since you have LEDs it would make sense that it likes lower, I forgot that when I first wrote my response, mine is under t5 and has good green but when I referred to pale it was the tips, they aren't exactly red.... More of a pastel pink hue. Maybe some more time suntanning may help it colour up.

Mine is under my DIY LED fixture. The other two people also have LED, one uses D120s and the other uses a Sunbrite.

There are so many different variables with our systems. It sounds like you found the solution to keeping yours happy and that's all that matters. I've had the same Red Planet in my tank for a long time now and it wont grow or color up like when I first got it. No clue what changed, but it did.

Well your tank is looking beautiful...looking forward to more pictures.

I'm starting to think I need a macro lense and tripod. Maybe one of those under water bags for top down?

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...psdbb5be32.jpg

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...pseb395e88.jpg

New additions: The blue one is pretty epic.
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps18d3bd5e.jpg

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...psd597dc0e.jpg

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holy cow your abro is still coloured like an abro. i bow down to you sir!

by blue one do you mean that thick looking piece behind it? what is that i want =)

I can't take credit, this thing is a recent addition and the color is already swaying. It was orange tipped with green base, now it's going more pink at the tips and taking over more of the green. I guess we will see in a few months what it'll do.

The blue one behind it is unreal. I've never seen a brighter blue than this. I hope it's a good grower. I borderline wanted to name it.

Going backwards...

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0581141d.jpg

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omg its beeeeeeeeu ti full....

looks awesome. how did you get those caps growing around the acros on the far right?

Thanks :)

Lack of fagging maintenance... The orange cap on the left will start to do the same thing. Those things seriously grow like weeds.

A FTS for good measure and a few top downs!

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0d58e704.jpg

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Wish my tank half as nice. Hope one day I can come over and learn it from you.

Good job and thank you for sharing.

I've always wanted to make this thing look "in wall"... I think it turned out pretty well :biggrin:

From this...

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...h/DSC_0537.jpg

To this...

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...psae67fd31.jpg

Awesome!

in wall
 

you really pulled off the in wall tank amazingly. looks great. nice huge dead sps colony on the window sill

Sick tank dude!!! when can I come pick up frags haha!

Looks great wayne

Really nice tank and good carpentry. LEDs working pretty good for you.:biggrin:

great stuff!