Cali Kid Corals

Alex’s IM 150 EXT

MichaelB said:
What kinda acclimation box is that looks neat. Awesome fish by the way. Maybe one day I will consider one from Kenny as well. Never bothered getting one from other lfs even though I've seen them as I hear they are hard to get eating stuff beyond pods.
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Its the largest one he sells: https://octoaquatics.com/product/the-shu/

Its pretty big though and difficult to maneuver without hitting things, specifically if you have a Eurobrace.

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Not sure if anyone is interested, but I have been feeding a DIY coral feeding (smoothie) mix for the past couple of months, twice a week.

The blender I have been using for this was a bit slow and I could not resist the black friday deal for a significantly reduced Vitamix 5200.

The recipe is from Fauna Marin, originally in German and only communicated in a couple of German / English speaking youtube videos, not (yet) in writing.

They intend to incorporate several of their products but I tried to explain where alternative products can be used to replicate this without necessarily using their products (there is only one which I do not know what equivalent that would be, i.e., coral balance).

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Beautiful pair of spotted Mardarins. I have two in my tank as well, but I don't think they are too fond of each other since they are hardly ever together.

Side note: There's a difference between mated vs bonded fish. A bonded pair means they have formed a strong relationship and spend most of their time together. A mated pair is a bonded pair that has spawned and laid eggs. So unless your pair of Mandarins have already laid eggs, they are technically a bonded pair.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Not sure if anyone is interested, but I have been feeding a DIY coral feeding (smoothie) mix for the past couple of months, twice a week.

The blender I have been using for this was a bit slow and I could not resist the black friday deal for a significantly reduced Vitamix 5200.

The recipe is from Fauna Marin, originally in German and only communicated in a couple of German / English speaking youtube videos, not (yet) in writing.

They intend to incorporate several of their products but I tried to explain where alternative products can be used to replicate this without necessarily using their products (there is only one which I do not know what equivalent that would be, i.e., coral balance).

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Fairly similar to the old pappone recipe I brought back from Italian reefers in 2006: https://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=971190&page=30

The big thing was to use fresh ingredients if possible (just to minimize freeze thaws). I think the capelin roe I added to the recipe later on after blending so they stayed whole. However it used very little water, more so as ice to keep it from heating up in the Vitamix. I'd probably modify to use saltwater ice cubes based on what @BAYMAC said.
 
Darkxerox said:
Fairly similar to the old pappone recipe I brought back from Italian reefers in 2006: https://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=971190&page=30

The big thing was to use fresh ingredients if possible (just to minimize freeze thaws). I think the capelin roe I added to the recipe later on after blending so they stayed whole. However it used very little water, more so as ice to keep it from heating up in the Vitamix. I'd probably modify to use saltwater ice cubes based on what @BAYMAC said.
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Do you know why not using saltwater but freshwater? I can do it either way but just curious what the issue is with using saltwater? Also, the point on the fish eggs staying whole I have seen debated elsewhere, and some prefer it.
 
Likely it's to keep everything at the same osmotic pressure and not cause cell membranes to burst when freezing and preventing freezer burn.
 
Darkxerox said:
Likely it's to keep everything at the same osmotic pressure and not cause cell membranes to burst when freezing and preventing freezer burn.
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Nailed it! Thaw and pack your seafood in saltwater only.

Also, blenders add quite a bit of heat, don't thaw anything first to protect the nutritional value. This is done when manufacturers grind seafood products, they always do it frozen..

If I blended that in my blender at full speed for 3 minutes, it would be in the low hundred zone for temp, basically partially cooked.

Letting it sit for 30 minutes at that temp would scare the living crap out of any food safety officer.
 
BAYMAC said:
Nailed it! Thaw and pack your seafood in saltwater only.

Also, blenders add quite a bit of heat, don't thaw anything first to protect the nutritional value. This is done when manufacturers grind seafood products, they always do it frozen..

If I blended that in my blender at full speed for 3 minutes, it would be in the low hundred zone for temp, basically partially cooked.

Letting it sit for 30 minutes at that temp would scare the living crap out of any food safety officer.
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I used to freeze the jug of the Vitamix in addition to the ice cubes, it helps a bit.
 
Literally all fresh food is added frozen to the blender, so I did not observe or see the solution becoming warm. Maybe this needs to be added to the recipe for clarity.

I am sure any 'food safety officer’ would enjoy seeing us adding frozen seafood into our tanks, of which a lot of it will rot in a crevice or somewhere.

Also, I am looking forward to reading alternative coral food recipes from those who seem to prefer to either make silly comments or try to be overly negative. Frankly, it gets old.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Literally all fresh food is added frozen to the blender, so I did not observe or see the solution becoming warm. Maybe this needs to be added to the recipe for clarity.

I am sure any 'food safety officer’ would enjoy seeing us adding frozen seafood into our tanks, of which a lot of it will rot in a crevice or somewhere.

Also, I am looking forward to reading alternative coral food recipes from those who seem to prefer to either make silly comments or try to be overly negative. Frankly, it gets old.
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I was employed by fish feed manufacturer as such for over a decade and rather enjoyed people feeding their aquariums :p . I was in a similar roll at a large aquaponics farm where I was also the Director of Aquaculture. I have been the compliance officer at two other companies. Its something I take serious.

I am pointing out valid issues. Sorry if you feel its overly negative.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Literally all fresh food is added frozen to the blender, so I did not observe or see the solution becoming warm. Maybe this needs to be added to the recipe for clarity.

I am sure any 'food safety officer’ would enjoy seeing us adding frozen seafood into our tanks, of which a lot of it will rot in a crevice or somewhere.

Also, I am looking forward to reading alternative coral food recipes from those who seem to prefer to either make silly comments or try to be overly negative. Frankly, it gets old.
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@BAYMAC
Alexander, Gresh is ABSOLUTELY the person you WANT to listen to!
He is not fffg with you, he’s giving you the straight dope!
 
Kensington Reefer said:
@BAYMAC
Alexander, Gresh is ABSOLUTELY the person you WANT to listen to!
He is not fffg with you, he’s giving you the straight dope!
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No question about competence, Erin, but messaging, which does not create actionable value for me. Experts in their field are great, and the best ones can deliver content in a professional, concise, and neutral way.

I think many of us should reflect on how we communicate here (this includes me), and use this as a New Year’s resolution for 2026 to maintain positivity in our small but precious club going forward. Maybe this way we might even be able to convince female reefers (if they exist in the Bay Area) to become members.
 
Overall, no major changes other than some incremental improvements. It feels like the tank has been in auto mode the past couple of months, still a few ongoing areas of concern.

Flatworms seem to have slightly improved since I added a dragonet two months ago (who unfortunately chased her mate to death in the first couple of days :(). Still ways to go.

Nutrients have slowly come down but I am still not happy with PO4. I have started using Aquaforest Zeolite to reduce NO3, combined with Tropic Marin Elimi NP, and GFO (Power Phos). I am adding 300g of Zeolite in the GFO reactor, as well as the Carbon reactor and replace this at different intervals every 4 weeks. I did not get the Barium spike as often indicated to be downside. NO3 is around 9 mg/L, PO4 around 0.15 mg/L.

I have adjusted feeding to 3 times daily, 40 sec (AVAST) pellet mix/reef jerky, frozen food once a day, seaweed + dandelions once a day.

Unfortunately, the yellow tang started deteriorating again, and I decided to rehome him permanently to Kenny (if I can catch him again). He stopped eating frozen food and most likely seaweed (unsure), and has become quite skinny. We noticed that he would eat the seaweed pellets from the autofeeder, and have added these to our manual frozen feeding routine, which slightly improved the situation. Still, this fish, which I got tiny from biota, is not happy in this tank, most likely due to some severe bulling of the boss in the tank, i.e., one of the two borb anthias, which grew quite large.

Lastly, I need to make room in the back for some corals from the nano tank, where stuff is growing rather too well. Not sure what I should do with the larger acro colony I posted PIF recently, as I do not want to throw it away.

Picture and video of the tank from Feb 13, 2026, before water change:

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