Coral reefer
Past President
Wow!
Randy’s Innovative Marine 75 Ext
- Thread starter RandyC
- Start date
Zumareef
Supporting Member
Whoa! Super impressive and great colors.
Curious if your using defusers on your Radions and the AB schedule?
RandyC
Supporting Member
TSA Bill Murray
This thing has got to one of the most hardy, fastest growing acros I’ve ever had in any of my tanks. When I started up the IM75 back in September, I decided to just go with small frags. From October to now, this is what this beast has done. Even before this tank was set up, it survived a bunch of bad stuff I did to it; alk swings, dinos, an unknown aliment i think was bacterial, among of few of the bad things.
This thing has got to one of the most hardy, fastest growing acros I’ve ever had in any of my tanks. When I started up the IM75 back in September, I decided to just go with small frags. From October to now, this is what this beast has done. Even before this tank was set up, it survived a bunch of bad stuff I did to it; alk swings, dinos, an unknown aliment i think was bacterial, among of few of the bad things.
RandyC
Supporting Member
Another growth sequence for y’all. I got this MattV Rainbow Envy at the end of Jan and it was completely green. I’ve been surprised by the growth and the color shift over the last 4.5 months.
Feb 6, 2023
Moved to a higher PAR spot, Mar 1, 2023
Mar 20, 2023
Apr 13, 2023
May 30, 2023
Blew up a little while I was traveling abroad for 10 days. Jun 20, 2023
Feb 6, 2023
Moved to a higher PAR spot, Mar 1, 2023
Mar 20, 2023
Apr 13, 2023
May 30, 2023
Blew up a little while I was traveling abroad for 10 days. Jun 20, 2023
Prestondeeply
Guest
Also like watching the Coraline take over the background 
RandyC
Supporting Member
Here’s one I think every acro collector should get, BC Cricket Spine. It has an awesome deep fuchsia color with yellow polyps.
Dec 16, 2022 - I got this colony from another reefer, so didn’t start off from a small frag
Jun 22, 2023 - how it looks now under blues
On a different note, I’m a murderer of speciosa acros - to the point that I’m on hiatus from them. Anyone have any luck keeping them alive more than 6 months?
Dec 16, 2022 - I got this colony from another reefer, so didn’t start off from a small frag
Jun 22, 2023 - how it looks now under blues
On a different note, I’m a murderer of speciosa acros - to the point that I’m on hiatus from them. Anyone have any luck keeping them alive more than 6 months?
RandyC
Supporting Member
I got a fresh cut of this browned out piece of this BC Lasermelon on Jan 11, 2023. And I accidentally broke it into two pieces during a water change and maintenance session a month later. Ended up recovering nicely, just need to work on getting some more red out of the polyps. Perhaps it needs more light than the current spot.
A little late in posting this, but for those curious minds, here’s an ICP test I did right before I left for 10 days to Asia at the beginning of June.
Jan 11, 2023
Feb 3, 2023
Feb 17, 2023
March 7, 2023
Mar 22, 2023
Apr 8, 2023
May 30, 2023
Jun 20, 2023
Jul 1, 2023
A little late in posting this, but for those curious minds, here’s an ICP test I did right before I left for 10 days to Asia at the beginning of June.
Jan 11, 2023
Feb 3, 2023
Feb 17, 2023
March 7, 2023
Mar 22, 2023
Apr 8, 2023
May 30, 2023
Jun 20, 2023
Jul 1, 2023
Coral reefer
Past President
Mmmmmmm. Laser melon!
RandyC
Supporting Member
I was in the mood to tinker so I decided to play with a CO2 scrubber and see what effects I could produce on my tank. Not really chasing pH, but wanted to see what all the hoopla was about.
I bought a simple BRS CO2 scrubber and am using soda lime media from BRS as well. Decided to pull humid air from my external fuge instead of from the skimmer so I don’t have to deal with nasty gunk getting into the line from skimmate.
Nice thing about an external fuge is that it was easy to drain, pull and and modify. Took about 15 minutes to drain it, add a 1/2” bulkhead and have it running again.
I added a 24V 3/8” solenoid connected to a barbed Y-connector in case pH ever got too high. It opens up the regular air side so that air will pull in from the path of least resistance (i.e., the path without the CO2 scrubber connected), but a 3/8” solenoid restricted air too much and some air was still being pulled through the reactor because of it. Plus, it ran too hot when powered opened, so I went with a stainless steel US Solid 24V 1/2” motorized ball valve that I wired to the 24V output of the EB832. The ball valve is awesome. I’ll have to find other ways to use one. It opens up if pH ever gets above 8.5 and uses a minimal amount of power when open and doesn’t even get warm. It auto-closes when power is cut off.
So did it help? Yes, but maybe not as much as I was expecting. It keeps pH more consistent and doesn’t get affected if windows are closed and the AC is on or if I have 15 people over, but I didn’t see a huge bump like I expected. Before I was ranging between 7.8-8.2, now it’s around 7.95-8.3 and it’s the same everyday regardless of co2 levels. I suspect the skimmer I’m using is not drawing enough air to get my pH higher, but that’s a change to test another day.
I bought a simple BRS CO2 scrubber and am using soda lime media from BRS as well. Decided to pull humid air from my external fuge instead of from the skimmer so I don’t have to deal with nasty gunk getting into the line from skimmate.
Nice thing about an external fuge is that it was easy to drain, pull and and modify. Took about 15 minutes to drain it, add a 1/2” bulkhead and have it running again.
I added a 24V 3/8” solenoid connected to a barbed Y-connector in case pH ever got too high. It opens up the regular air side so that air will pull in from the path of least resistance (i.e., the path without the CO2 scrubber connected), but a 3/8” solenoid restricted air too much and some air was still being pulled through the reactor because of it. Plus, it ran too hot when powered opened, so I went with a stainless steel US Solid 24V 1/2” motorized ball valve that I wired to the 24V output of the EB832. The ball valve is awesome. I’ll have to find other ways to use one. It opens up if pH ever gets above 8.5 and uses a minimal amount of power when open and doesn’t even get warm. It auto-closes when power is cut off.
So did it help? Yes, but maybe not as much as I was expecting. It keeps pH more consistent and doesn’t get affected if windows are closed and the AC is on or if I have 15 people over, but I didn’t see a huge bump like I expected. Before I was ranging between 7.8-8.2, now it’s around 7.95-8.3 and it’s the same everyday regardless of co2 levels. I suspect the skimmer I’m using is not drawing enough air to get my pH higher, but that’s a change to test another day.
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RandyC
Supporting Member
Should have known better and bought them off Amazon for $64.83! Quality can’t be _that_ much better!
Zumareef
Supporting Member
very curios about the dark red algae surround your coral in the picture, do you know what it is? Something very similar has started to grow on some of my rock as well, competing with the pink/purple corallines. Does not appear to be cynao as its hard and encrusting, does not seem to be a problem yet but is giving me pause for concern; perhaps another species of coralline?
RandyC
Supporting Member
Red coralline. I think there are something like 1600 species of coralline. They come in many different colors and there are branching types as well.
If it doesn’t blow off with a turkey baster and is hard, most likely a type of coralline algae.
I actually like the red over the purple.
Zumareef
Supporting Member
Thanks for the feedback and confirming that, I also tried to to blow it off and scrape it off and that’s when I realized it probably was just another type of coralline.Red coralline. I think there are something like 1600 species of coralline. They come in many different colors and there are branching types as well.
If it doesn’t blow off with a turkey baster and is hard, most likely a type of coralline algae.
I actually like the red over the purple.
RandyC
Supporting Member
21 days in with the co2 scrubber. I’ve gone through about 1/3 of the media. Not too shabby.