Orion

You can buy those foam pads to put around the wet side to prevent this from happening while you are gone. Just have whoever is taking care of the tank change them out every 3-4 days as they will get clogged up.

There is an old saying in business - Never bad mouth the competition. It makes you look bad, and unprofessional. It also makes you look weak, and worried about the competition. Remember the old adage - "If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say it at all" Focus on what your business does well, and not what others fail to do well. We are a smart group here, and can do our own research when it comes to the competition.

Yeah I can't believe the growth of the corals that are still in there from 6 months ago. You can't tell when you see the tank everyday, but taking these photos really helps out a lot.

6 month picture time January 2014 FTS June 2014 FTS A lot has changed in the first 6 months, including the lighting (LED to T5s). My plan is to have the next 6 months be a lot more stable. No big equipment changes, or changing the lights around. I will continue to add coral as I go along, and continue to QT any fish before adding them to the display. Some more random shots playing around with bulbs for photos - Reefcleaners order on the way to replenish the snail population, and I also have two emerald crabs with the order as well. Isaac- I appreciate your offer for your crabs (Yeah, that doesn't sound good), but I don't think the timing will work out.

If you go on your internet browser on your local network (on your home wifi) are you able to access the apex if you type in the IP Address in your browser?

Which IP address are you using? Are you using your WAN (Wide Area Network) IP Address, or your LAN (Local Area Network - aka your home network IP such as 192.168.1.x)? For privacy and security reasons don't post your actual home IP Address here. Do you have the correct port? Apex defaults to port 80, but for instance I have mine set at port 1001.

Great job so far!

The meeting in July? Unfortunately I won't be able to make it this one.

I think I need some crabs..... Said no one ever outside of reefing. Isaac - where did you get your crabs? I have one in the tank now but it's lazy and won't eat BA.

Bought a Hi Fin Red Banded Goby at a LFS the other day, and put it in QT. Has yet to eat, but I think it's just getting comfortable. Will wait until it starts eating well before I put it through a therapeutic cupramine treatment. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+31+181&pcatid=181 This fish should pair up with a candy stripe pistol that's somewhere in the tank. Nothing else really to report. Corals growing at a good rate now, and I have officially started dosing Magnesium once a week. Will take some new pictures in a few days. Oh and I have bubble algae spreading around. I thought I got rid of that with the new rock/tank but it keeps following me. Not sure if I should grab some emerald crabs or just leave it be.

Very glad you are ok BH.

T5 bulbs also need to be cooled properly in order to get the most life and PAR from them. Here is an excellent thread on RC that demonstrates why cooling T5s is so important. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2220663

The spicy kind. Hot tap water with a lot of vinegar. Run the skimmer for about an hour, and rinse it all with fresh water when done.

According to Avast a hot vinegar bath every 6 months for the Cs1 is recommended.

Shut it! This piece was light acclimated properly as it was started on the bottom. I think montis get very upset when they get cut, and lose a lot of color. More upset than most SPS, and evidently take a long time to color back up.

Agreed. I'll take you up on that

Hi Folks, Just wondering if the membership had any ideas here. I bought a decent sized frag of mystic montipora from another member back in January. It grows wherever I put it, but refuses to color up for me. It has always had this faded dull look to it. I have tried moving it to low light, high light, etc. Just doesn't seem to wait to color up at all. FWIW the other montis in my tank look great.

Not sure if it helps, but I bought a DB 57 Rimless and drilled it myself. Put a Glass-holes overflow on it with a loc-line return. Couldn't be happier.

If your Magnesium is already at 1250 then water changes will probably not take care of it. Bring it back up to 1300-1400 or so. With your sized tank you might use 1/2 Gallon of BRS Mag mix just to bring it up 100ppm

See? Don't change your lights around. Corals are growing like crazy and the tank looks better than ever.

Sure can with an Apex System, a PM1 Module, and dedicated Energy Bars for each tank. The PM1 module allows for an additional temperature probe and pH probe. Keep in mind the probes are sold separately.

Experimenting with bulbs and taking photos. I put a Aquablue Special on which is a very white bulb and a Coral Plus which has a mix of Blue, red, and green. This Pink Orchid Acro was almost completely bleached out a couple of weeks ago. It has started to turn pink again after moving it to a lower spot. This guy has built himself quite a mansion under the rock on the left side of the tank. There is a huge mound of sand under the rocks. He keeps taking sand from other areas in the tank, and building up the den. I wonder how extensive his den is now. Magnesium back up to 1400 Alk 8.4 Calcium 450 PO4 0.00 NO3 undetectable Feeding 1-2 times a day. Mix of frozen and new life spectrum pellets. I now have no window screen over the top of the tank as the corals have acclimated well to the T5s. Light fixture is still very high up at 10" above the water line. I may start to move it a little lower in a month or so.

Photons are photons. Rob is 100% correct, I just like this look better!

Randy recommends not to dose more than 100ppm per day. I'm going to split it up over two days and be more conservative. You know you want to come over to the dark side. You could sell those G3s, buy an ATI Sunpower, and supplement your T5s with Reefbrites/LEDs. Here is a picture of a display tank at World Wide Corals. T5s with Reefbrites as supplements.

Just tested the Magnesium level today. 1240ppm. Looks like I need to start dosing that too! Plan on raising it back to 1350ppm or so over the next two days. Will test again in a week to see where the levels are at.