Coral reefer
Past President
What store are you going to out there?
xCry0x's Red Sea Max 250 Reboot
- Thread starter xCry0x
- Start date
xCry0x
Supporting Member
There are two stores, All About Fish and Diablo Corals.
All About Fish is the one I typically go to because it is only about 5 minutes from my house. Never bought coral there though; the selection in the range I buy at is always fairly limited ($15-$45 usually) . Although I will say, they seem to have recently gotten some more stuff.
I've bought some corals from Diablo Corals in the past. Smaller store but had a better selection. Its been ~2 years since I've been there though.
Coral reefer
Past President
I think there’s a new Cali kid store. Haven’t been yet
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Yea looks like they haven't opened yet.
Its unfortunate, Aquarium Concepts in Dublin was by far the best. But they have been closed for a while now. And even they didn't really have a great frag selection -- they were insanely over priced for what they offered. At the same time, I'm sure people in the area were happy paying $40 for GSP and pulsing xenya frags
Its unfortunate, Aquarium Concepts in Dublin was by far the best. But they have been closed for a while now. And even they didn't really have a great frag selection -- they were insanely over priced for what they offered. At the same time, I'm sure people in the area were happy paying $40 for GSP and pulsing xenya frags
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Minor update.
Got a clean up crew delivery from reefcleaners on Friday.
Added:
20 ceriths
6 trochus (3 med/3 tiny)
2 peppermint shrimp
5 nerite
15 nassarius
3 mexican turbos
30 dwarf ceriths
Already had a few turbos, a handful of nerites, ceriths, nassarius.
I also got an emerald crab but unfortunately it didn't survive the trip! Oh well -- they are easy enough to find locally.
I had also added 2 tiger conches the other week. The conches are definitely a funny snail to watch.
Moved all the frags except the duncan into the rock work. Everything was looking good -- the birdnest even started to show some new growth already.
Have a tiny bit of red turf algae showing up again -- that stuff is my enemy and killed my tank before. Thats largely why I went hard on adding more turbos -- I think I have about 6 mexican turbos at this point.
Also pulled the biopellets off the tank. Will be watching nutrient levels and likely swap the reactor over to a chaeto reactor in the future.
Removing the biopellets put a decent dent in the cyano over the following few days - which is what I expected. Was nitrate starving tank and causing a n/p imbalance.
Tested everything this morning and cruising at:
Alk: 7
CA: 490 (Trying to get this down)
MG: 1420
P04: ~0.1 ppm
Nitrate: ~1
Feeding a lot heavier now also -- which isn't saying much. Was basically auto pilot with an auto feeder dropping flake 2x a day. Added in 1/2 a cube of frozen daiy - ish.
Got a clean up crew delivery from reefcleaners on Friday.
Added:
20 ceriths
6 trochus (3 med/3 tiny)
2 peppermint shrimp
5 nerite
15 nassarius
3 mexican turbos
30 dwarf ceriths
Already had a few turbos, a handful of nerites, ceriths, nassarius.
I also got an emerald crab but unfortunately it didn't survive the trip! Oh well -- they are easy enough to find locally.
I had also added 2 tiger conches the other week. The conches are definitely a funny snail to watch.
Moved all the frags except the duncan into the rock work. Everything was looking good -- the birdnest even started to show some new growth already.
Have a tiny bit of red turf algae showing up again -- that stuff is my enemy and killed my tank before. Thats largely why I went hard on adding more turbos -- I think I have about 6 mexican turbos at this point.
Also pulled the biopellets off the tank. Will be watching nutrient levels and likely swap the reactor over to a chaeto reactor in the future.
Removing the biopellets put a decent dent in the cyano over the following few days - which is what I expected. Was nitrate starving tank and causing a n/p imbalance.
Tested everything this morning and cruising at:
Alk: 7
CA: 490 (Trying to get this down)
MG: 1420
P04: ~0.1 ppm
Nitrate: ~1
Feeding a lot heavier now also -- which isn't saying much. Was basically auto pilot with an auto feeder dropping flake 2x a day. Added in 1/2 a cube of frozen daiy - ish.
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xCry0x
Supporting Member
More corals
Picked up 2 caps, forest fire & bubblegum digis, slineball acro, purple stylo, and a small pink boobies chalice piece - all from Mike in Livermore.
Should give me some good stuff to get started with how now. Hoping they all take to my tank and grow!
The birdsnest I got the other week has noticable growth so things are going well on that end.
Unfortunately the fire fish died already.
Somehow got itself sucked into the power head, found it glued to the intake sides.
I freed the fish, it seemed to recover, then was dead and half eaten the next morning.
RIP unnamed firefish.
Will probably get another next time I get to a store. Still planning on a few more fish.
Picked up 2 caps, forest fire & bubblegum digis, slineball acro, purple stylo, and a small pink boobies chalice piece - all from Mike in Livermore.
Should give me some good stuff to get started with how now. Hoping they all take to my tank and grow!
The birdsnest I got the other week has noticable growth so things are going well on that end.
Unfortunately the fire fish died already.
Somehow got itself sucked into the power head, found it glued to the intake sides.
I freed the fish, it seemed to recover, then was dead and half eaten the next morning.
RIP unnamed firefish.
Will probably get another next time I get to a store. Still planning on a few more fish.
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xCry0x
Supporting Member
Some new additions. Not sure what happened, if it was old age or what. But woke up to my midas blenny dead earlier this week.
Fairly odd.
Either way, since I have a sand bed again, I figured I should grab a solid sand dwelling wrasse. I decided on a yellow coris wrasse and my LFS happened to have one.
Specifically wanted one that looked nice but also had the utility purpose of being a pest eater. I've never had a coris before but from my research they are supposed to be solid at that.
I also took a trip down to aquatic collection and picked up a tailspot blenny and a pair of gold stripe gobies.
That should put me pretty much set with fish. I think it's a solid mix of relatively small nano fish with some active swimmers and some more passive rock sitters.
The wrasse definitely adds nice color and movement to the tank, something I never got from the mod midas blenny since it wasn't ever a super active fish.
Wrasse hit the tank running, lots of pods to gobble up.
Fairly odd.
Either way, since I have a sand bed again, I figured I should grab a solid sand dwelling wrasse. I decided on a yellow coris wrasse and my LFS happened to have one.
Specifically wanted one that looked nice but also had the utility purpose of being a pest eater. I've never had a coris before but from my research they are supposed to be solid at that.
I also took a trip down to aquatic collection and picked up a tailspot blenny and a pair of gold stripe gobies.
That should put me pretty much set with fish. I think it's a solid mix of relatively small nano fish with some active swimmers and some more passive rock sitters.
The wrasse definitely adds nice color and movement to the tank, something I never got from the mod midas blenny since it wasn't ever a super active fish.
Wrasse hit the tank running, lots of pods to gobble up.
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Had a bit of what I beleive were dinos show up last week.
Iv been actively disturbing the sand bed throughout the week and think that may have caused it.
I quit stirring the sand, started dosing mb7, and quit trying to blow it off the rocks.
Seems to have fully cleared up in about 4 days.
Aside from that, nothing super interesting!
Duncan coral is already popping out new heads. Sps are visibly growing.
Everything is happy.
For now.
Iv been actively disturbing the sand bed throughout the week and think that may have caused it.
I quit stirring the sand, started dosing mb7, and quit trying to blow it off the rocks.
Seems to have fully cleared up in about 4 days.
Aside from that, nothing super interesting!
Duncan coral is already popping out new heads. Sps are visibly growing.
Everything is happy.
For now.
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Small update - nothing bad has happened so nothing much to talk about. Everything is currently happy and growing.
Went to take a few pictures for the update but with the lighting in my office right now there was a lot of reflections off the glass!
There is one of the Duncan I got. It's going crazy right now and has about 6 new heads growing.
My monti cap is growing like crazy and the various sticks are all growing.
Will need to make a trip to get more frags at some point. Lots of empty space right now.
Other big positive is that coraline algae has been growing in strongly. I think adding the sand bed back really helped stabilize everything nicely.
Went to take a few pictures for the update but with the lighting in my office right now there was a lot of reflections off the glass!
There is one of the Duncan I got. It's going crazy right now and has about 6 new heads growing.
My monti cap is growing like crazy and the various sticks are all growing.
Will need to make a trip to get more frags at some point. Lots of empty space right now.
Other big positive is that coraline algae has been growing in strongly. I think adding the sand bed back really helped stabilize everything nicely.
xCry0x
Supporting Member
This custom light fixture apparently just hates me. While doing a bit of a deep clean, I realized the blue channels on 2 of my 4 LED pucks were dead again.
Enough is enough, I've been wanting an aquaticlife t5 hybrid fixture for a while. So I picked one up from a member, bought 2 AI prime HDs, and am going to work on removing the entire hood and hanging the fixture either tonight or this weekend. Just got the primes in today as well as a kit to shorten the width of the fixture to 16".
Enough is enough, I've been wanting an aquaticlife t5 hybrid fixture for a while. So I picked one up from a member, bought 2 AI prime HDs, and am going to work on removing the entire hood and hanging the fixture either tonight or this weekend. Just got the primes in today as well as a kit to shorten the width of the fixture to 16".
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Need to clean things up but had a gap in schedule today and got it hung up.
Will need to figure out a solution for cleaning up the looks of the back up the tank in particular -- tank is built for a hood to be on it so its pretty rough without it.
Also jumped back on the list to get PAR meter again so I can dial in the AIs.
BRS has a good video on this exact lighting setup I can basically copy to get a general idea of things.
Will need to figure out a solution for cleaning up the looks of the back up the tank in particular -- tank is built for a hood to be on it so its pretty rough without it.
Also jumped back on the list to get PAR meter again so I can dial in the AIs.
BRS has a good video on this exact lighting setup I can basically copy to get a general idea of things.
xCry0x
Supporting Member
The BRS video when they compare the fixture with Primes, Kessils, and Radeons was pretty spot on:
My old setup - 2 t5s + 4 Nanobox arrays:
Then current lighting -- 4x t5 + 2 Prime 16 HDs:
That is running the AB+ settings -- 120% Violet/UV, 80% rb/blue, 5% green/red -- then I have 50% cool white because I personally don't like the super blue look.
Its kind of funny, I thought my prior PAR was higher until I went back and checked my prior photo/chart. Nice to see its an improvement.
@DaddyHook
My old setup - 2 t5s + 4 Nanobox arrays:
Then current lighting -- 4x t5 + 2 Prime 16 HDs:
That is running the AB+ settings -- 120% Violet/UV, 80% rb/blue, 5% green/red -- then I have 50% cool white because I personally don't like the super blue look.
Its kind of funny, I thought my prior PAR was higher until I went back and checked my prior photo/chart. Nice to see its an improvement.
@DaddyHook
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Got one of the lense kits for my phone.
Here is a green monti cap -- it has some faint red/pink swirled into it which makes it a bit more unique than a generic single cap. Growing well!
Colony of Sunny D Zoas I've had for years. They were in rough shape back when I rebooted things and have been growing like weeds now. Planning to start fragging them in the next few months probably.
And what was sold as a blueberry blasto merletti - bought it from a legendary corals live sale years ago. Similar to the Zoas, was in rough shape but has recovered well and is starting to fill in the dead skeleton with new growth.
Here is a green monti cap -- it has some faint red/pink swirled into it which makes it a bit more unique than a generic single cap. Growing well!
Colony of Sunny D Zoas I've had for years. They were in rough shape back when I rebooted things and have been growing like weeds now. Planning to start fragging them in the next few months probably.
And what was sold as a blueberry blasto merletti - bought it from a legendary corals live sale years ago. Similar to the Zoas, was in rough shape but has recovered well and is starting to fill in the dead skeleton with new growth.
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Christmas time
Hit up the live sale on Friday + ebay auctions that ended over the weekend.
Targeted a bunch of budget frags and came out with a pretty good haul -- lots of stuff in the $10-15 range.
SPS:
- Green apple Hirsuta Montipora
- WWC Bikini Navini Acro
- Banana Table Acro
- WWC Muy Verde Birdnest
- JF Enchanted Forest Birdsnest
- Tyree Rainbow Stylo
LPS:
- JF Dayglo Favites
- WWC Graffiti Favites
- WWC Twilight Merletti Blastomussa
Softies/Zoas:
- WWC Flame Tipped Clove
- WWC Monster Mash Zoa
- WWC Laser Lemon Zoa
- WWC Space Queen Zoa
- Lemon Lime Ricordia
Its been years since I did a live sale, so was pretty fun going after things -- I missed out on a couple frags mid-way through because I had to switch to mobile since I couldn't ignore my family for 5+ hours straight.
Also first time ever buying any coral on Ebay since I was never going to pay $40-50 in shipping for one cheapo frag. However, since I could combine it with the live sale shipping, it made sense to see what else I could grab.
At least in this round, the ebay sniping was way better in the first hour of the auctions closing rather than later. And it was interesting how much the picture matters -- I lost a strawberry acro that sold for $15 and the same coral, but a better looking frag, sold for $80 an hour later. Wasn't looking to break the bank on acros though - was just trying to see what auctions I could snag for under $15.
Was shooting to get more easy to keep SPS. Then I'm a sucker for Zoas and Favites so I ended up with a few of those despite not exactly "wanting" them haha. The JF Dayglo is going to look pretty sweet though.
Hit up the live sale on Friday + ebay auctions that ended over the weekend.
Targeted a bunch of budget frags and came out with a pretty good haul -- lots of stuff in the $10-15 range.
SPS:
- Green apple Hirsuta Montipora
- WWC Bikini Navini Acro
- Banana Table Acro
- WWC Muy Verde Birdnest
- JF Enchanted Forest Birdsnest
- Tyree Rainbow Stylo
LPS:
- JF Dayglo Favites
- WWC Graffiti Favites
- WWC Twilight Merletti Blastomussa
Softies/Zoas:
- WWC Flame Tipped Clove
- WWC Monster Mash Zoa
- WWC Laser Lemon Zoa
- WWC Space Queen Zoa
- Lemon Lime Ricordia
Its been years since I did a live sale, so was pretty fun going after things -- I missed out on a couple frags mid-way through because I had to switch to mobile since I couldn't ignore my family for 5+ hours straight.
Also first time ever buying any coral on Ebay since I was never going to pay $40-50 in shipping for one cheapo frag. However, since I could combine it with the live sale shipping, it made sense to see what else I could grab.
At least in this round, the ebay sniping was way better in the first hour of the auctions closing rather than later. And it was interesting how much the picture matters -- I lost a strawberry acro that sold for $15 and the same coral, but a better looking frag, sold for $80 an hour later. Wasn't looking to break the bank on acros though - was just trying to see what auctions I could snag for under $15.
Was shooting to get more easy to keep SPS. Then I'm a sucker for Zoas and Favites so I ended up with a few of those despite not exactly "wanting" them haha. The JF Dayglo is going to look pretty sweet though.
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xCry0x
Supporting Member
I'll also add this here.
I got a jebao MLW-30 the other day and then ordered a second.
Just got that one so now I'm running two of these for flow - really like them so far.
Really nice broad pattern and the new wifi controller gives some more control over things. And they are dead silent with a lower profile then the more traditional power heads.
I got a jebao MLW-30 the other day and then ordered a second.
Just got that one so now I'm running two of these for flow - really like them so far.
Really nice broad pattern and the new wifi controller gives some more control over things. And they are dead silent with a lower profile then the more traditional power heads.
xCry0x
Supporting Member
Could you elaborate?
I'd say it's normal, but normal is based on my other jebao power heads. It's the same thing.
The power cord does have a suction cup on it which is nice for holding it in place to route the cord along the top of the tank. And it prevents it from tugging on, and moving, the power head.
Posted more about the thing here: https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/jebao-mlw-series-wavemakers.30029/
I'm just hoping it has longevity. The jebao gyre pumps were bad for that the other jebao equipment I have has been great.. doser, return pumps, power heads.