Cali Kid Corals

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  1. wpeterson

    Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

    We run some cheap LED moonlight, 3x strips of three actinic TrueLumen LEDs mounted externally on each of our Kessil A350 lights. They've been a good value for how cheap they are, but I've had to replace some. This weekend I replaced the central set of moonlights, which were flickering on and...
  2. wpeterson

    Acanthastrea Lordhowensis => Micromussa Lordhowensis

    It sounds like the Acan Lords we all know and love have been recently re-classified as Micromussa and not Acanthastrea. February 5 2016, Jake Adams – Micromussa lordhowensis is the new designation for one of the reef aquarium hobby’s most popular species of large polyp stony corals. After a...
  3. wpeterson

    Reef Hobbyist 40B

    Sorry to hear about this. No fun losing a fish. At least you did the due diligence to cover the tank with a mesh lid, hard to believe this guy escaped through that.
  4. wpeterson

    Algae control

    Getting the benefits of large amounts of macro-algae can be tricky - you do need a lot of lighting and flow. I have a very bright full-spectrum CFL (30w) on my chaeto and a lot of flow. One of the biproducts of large amounts of macroalgae growth is increased dissolved organic matter in the...
  5. wpeterson

    Algae control

    We've had tuxedo urchins in all of our tanks and they are great clean up crew and interesting creatures. Our current blue tuxedo urchin picked up 3 heads of Zoas that a crab clipped off and has been wearing them on his head for months, where they're still growing. Between the urchin, snails...
  6. wpeterson

    Algae control

    UV is helpful at containing the spread and blooms of algae or bacteria, but the size of UV most people use doesn't concentrate the dose enough to be effective. I ran a 36w UV on our tank for almost a year before it leaked and shorted out, but even with a giant 36w bulb I had to keep the flow <...
  7. wpeterson

    Algae control

    Nutrient Export is the key to good algae control, especially paired with algae grazers to trim whatever population may exist. The best methods of nutrient export are always up for debate, but protein skimming, water changes, GFO, and macroalgae are all good tools that do slightly different...
  8. wpeterson

    Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

    I sent off my wonky MP40 to ecotech and it took a month for them to receive it and process it (UPS claimed a one week snow delay on delivery). They replaced the wetside this morning under warranty and it's on it's way back to me.
  9. wpeterson

    Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

    We have kept two small starfish in our tank for 6-7 months now but both have disappeared in the last week. I believe they have died :-/ I had hoped we had enough algae and biofilms to feed them, but it's difficult to know. I fear they did not get enough to eat and may have faded away, but...
  10. wpeterson

    Reef Hobbyist 40B

    I bought a used Canon EF 100mm f2.8 Macro, but the focusing motors didn't seem to work properly and it seemed wonky. @Vhuang168 has the same lense and his worked beautifully on my camera body at the workshop. I returned the used one. I'm also considering a new EFS 60mm macro lens.
  11. wpeterson

    Reef Hobbyist 40B

    These are really nice. What lens did you use for these? I picked up a used Canon 100M macro after being impressed by @Vhuang168 's, but this one seemed defective when it arrived. Saving up for a new one.
  12. wpeterson

    Help me design my tank!

    Here are a few things I would be concerned with: Tank Height: I would go with 18-20" tall max, otherwise aquascaping and maintenance are a huge pain. My 90g is 26" tall and it sucks to the sandbed. Peninsula Overflow: Why not make a big internal overflow on the wall-side of peninsula? Seems...
  13. wpeterson

    Dying hammer coral

    I lost one of the heads on my large torch colony when I upgraded my flow. I was able to make them happier by re-arranging my rock work to provide more shelter for them. Perhaps you can move some of these colonies to a lower flow location or build a barrier to deflect some of the flow...
  14. wpeterson

    Concern about live rock

    Muriatic acid is a great choice for cleaning the rocks. If you don't have that, a liberal hydrogen peroxide bath and some scrub brush work will go a long way at removing nuisance algae and organics (but won't free up bound nutrients as well).
  15. wpeterson

    Concern about live rock

    +1 for drying out/cleaning the rock. The potential benefits or live rock in terms of positive hitch hikers and bacterial life are largely outweighed by the risks in my experience (unless you know and trust the tank they came from). If you already have a cycled tank, it won't take too long to...
  16. wpeterson

    Dying hammer coral

    Usually my guess would be too much flow, as @Geneva said. Have you changed the flow rate or pattern recently? If not, my next guess would be lack of phosphate. The recent drop to ~ 0 phosphate may be stressing out your LPS. Those are the first two things that struck me, but I'm curious to...
  17. wpeterson

    Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

    Thanks! Those guys are some of my favorite corals in this tank. The smaller acan was nursed back from a bad place, but has recovered completely and is growing well. Other than being smaller than my original colony, you wouldn't know the difference. I hope it can find a home in @Corallus new...
  18. wpeterson

    Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

    I'm sorry to hear that. Keep it simple and stick to the fundamentals. If your water filter has been giving you trouble, it might not be terrible to use tapwater with a conditioner and switch to filtered water when you have your system up and running. Excess nutrients and additives are more of...
  19. wpeterson

    $$$ MONEY $$$

    You can have a great tank with any budget, but you just need to make sure your ambitions match your budget. We had a petco 29gal tank that we grew into a nice little mixed reef with a few fish and some hang on equipment on a cheap budget that brought us a lot of joy.
  20. wpeterson

    Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

    I do my best to keep him well fed and he seems pretty fat, but it won't stop him from nipping on SPS polyps at the middle of the tank around the edges. Sadly, the green candle-light acro appears to be his drive-through meal of choice from the CA Reef Co growout contest. This coral had 3x the...
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