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The majority of the more expensive corals, as raffle king said - color and the name game. The price of wild corals is really not that expensive if you consider what you are getting. You can go on Live Aquaria divers den and buy a colony of 4x4”+ Aussie strawberry short cake, get a 14 days...
Why? What’s wrong with storing water with a heater and a power head in a food storage grade/bpa free container for a couple of weeks? If you need a culture alive, can’t you just keep some live rock in the tank as well?
Over the next month, do a couple of water changes on the 40. Store the water in a brute. Maybe 20-30 gallons. Make sure you have water flow and a heater in the stored water. Once you have enough, break the 40 down and use the water from the 40, add the water that’s been in storage, and fill up...
Looks great. Did you ever consider upgrading your radions? What lens are you using? I was able to light up the same tank with just one unit. I was using the TIR lens.
Finally someone decided to do this but what's the plan with heat extraction? I had a buddy who tried something similar with radions and t5's. The radions shut off from the heat produced by the t5 units.
I trimmed your posting to comment on what you mentioned. I agree with you 100%, the ATI hybrid is a BEAST of a light. However, the new radion gen 4's are quite amazing. Their hemispherical lens gives more light coverage than all other LED light fixtures. I've seen them in action - 3 on a 72"...