Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Just thought I'd introduce myself to MBRK as well, since Bobby (saldarya) has.

My tank, currently 2 years old (lost my previous 3 year old reef with Katrina):




It's a 120G Oceanic, brick style tank
Deltec APF600
2 Tunze 6100s
3 Tunze 6045s
Eheim 1260 return pump
Teco Seachill 1/3 horsepower chiller
8x54W TEKlight fixture

Heh, long time no see . Glad to see you on our board. Tank looks great--and all under T5s. Hope to see you around often.

Edit: I meant to ask you what bulb combo you use.

I love the Acros on the wall

Amphiprion wrote:Heh, long time no see . Glad to see you on our board. Tank looks great--and all under T5s. Hope to see you around often.

Edit: I meant to ask you what bulb combo you use.

Bahahah... that's like the running joke over on LARC... so many people asked me that question that I got tired of answering it and put it in my signature, refusing to post it again when all they had to do was use the search function. Imagine getting 4-5 private messages a day, asking the same question, over and over, for the last year

Anyway, I use, from front to back, ATI BluePlus, UVL Super Actinic, KZ Fiji Purple, ATI BluePlus, ATI BluePlus, KZ Fiji Purple, UVL Super Actinic, ATI Plus.

Virtually everything you see there was grown from a small frag, except the pocillipora at the top left, and the yellow porites.

Do you have any one year old pics? I would love to see how much the coral grew in a year.

crazywesc wrote:Do you have any one year old pics? I would love to see how much the coral grew in a year.

I can look for some, but, here is a shot of the middle of the tank from May 2007.



Here's what the blue tort at the top started out as:



Ah, here's one from the approx 1 year mark -- April 07:

Hah, I understand. I know everyone on RC gets bombarded, too. I actually have a relatively high ratio of daylights. It makes things a bit trickier as far as preventing things from bleaching/fading out, but once you "master" it (using many tactics), the results are quite good (and I like the overall color). I may try a slightly bluer combo next time, maybe just increasing my Blue + ratio. How do you like the KZ Fiji Purples? That is one of the few bulbs I haven't tried.

Amphiprion wrote:Hah, I understand. I know everyone on RC gets bombarded, too. I actually have a relatively high ratio of daylights. It makes things a bit trickier as far as preventing things from bleaching/fading out, but once you "master" it (using many tactics), the results are quite good (and I like the overall color). I may try a slightly bluer combo next time, maybe just increasing my Blue + ratio. How do you like the KZ Fiji Purples? That is one of the few bulbs I haven't tried.

I am quite happy with them. They are what I've finally settled on after trying the UVL Actinic Whites, UVL 10Ks, ATI and Giesemann Aquablue Specials, GE 6500Ks. I never tried the UVL 75/25 or the ATI Procolor, but, I really don't have a reason to now.

I too, when I first started this tank, had a blue/white ratio of 1:1. I was NEVER happy with the color. Everything looked totally washed out. I eventually found that a 3:1 ratio of blue:white bulbs gave me great coloration and good growth. I'm really not one to rush growth though, as I hate having to frag stuff frequently. I use the same combination on my 400 gallon propagation system.

Yeah, it'll wash things in heartbeat. I really have to play and tweak each frag as well as parameters to minimize it. Growth is blazing, though.