June Meeting!!!

[Juano908]

Wow, great meeting. I came home to family members in my back yard, so I'm a little late responding. Great food....love the sausage and peppers....and great conversation. Mark (and wife), thank you very much for your hospitality.....great job. I've just had the opportunity to clean up the frags I won. Here's the three i was lucky enought to win in the raffles (please let me know it the labeling is wrong with the following.) (fresh out of the bag):

Labeled: #2, Cyphastrea


Labeled # 12, Acro SPS



And finally, Labelled #13, Cyphastrea.



Again,thank you Mark for your hospitality and the great job you did on the shirts...One of the best meetings ever! Thanks.

Very nice Paul!!!

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[njtiger24 aquariums]

Paul they look good. Thanks to @redfishbluefish and @Bad Fish my two new corals (pink birdnest, and red monti cap) are in my tank and my lights in acclimating mode. Hopefully I can get a picture later

 

[Raffle King]

From the pics the frags didnt have much color but that is pics

 

[RiverSwami]

A very belated thanks for the fine hospitality and good grub. What a friendly and helpful group!

Here's a pic (hopefully?) of my new prize Monti "making friends" right after being introduced to my tank. It has since been relocated to a more favorable location upon a rock. In reality, and under the proper light, it has a slight yellow-green tinge to it.

Call it beginners luck, but I'm so glad I saved that plastic cup with the name on it! Any tips are greatly appreciated.

I really enjoyed meeting everyone! [emoji4] Thanks so much for all the kind advice. [emoji225] [emoji226] [emoji226] [emoji226]


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[Raffle King]

That monti dont look good from the pics

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

When you added the Monti cap did you lower you lights? Seems to me it's starting to bleach.

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[Mark_C]

Hard to tell as its so hard to take decent pics under water without proper filters (HEY! Those of you with experience and modern phones - thread nudge...)
Anyways. A good rule of thumb when adding new corals is to acclimate them, much as you do with fish, but instead of introducing your tank water slowly over an hour or two you're introducing your lighting over a week or two.

1
First, as you add to your tank you'll want to start, sooner than later, 'dipping' you corals. 'Dipping' 'cleans' the corals before they go into your tank, wiping out any organisms (slimes, algae, bacteria, hitchikers) that may infect your tank and spread. Its always a safe thing to do. There's a ton of dips on the market. I use ReVive at the moment, but they all are pretty much effective. Not a big deal with your first few corals, but better to start doing this sooner than later just in case.

2.
Your temp should be between 78 and 81 and STABLE. A good heater with a second as backup is essential, a computer is a definite bonus to help maintain parameters (i use a simple $90 reefkeeper light, but you can go crazy if you have the dosh)

3
Different corals have different lighting and waterflow requirements. As a beginner I used this guide and it helped tremendously:
best beginner corals – Successful Reef Keeping

You need to realize that high flow MEANS high flow. When I was using my own judgement on what I thought high flow was, and nothing grew, then I watched a few vids and increased the flow tremendously (I thought it would hurt the corals), they grew. In nature they're getting battered about with tremendous force, despite the looks, SPS is not delicate.
High light MEANS high light to the point that if you look into your lights it should hurt and you should pull away with spots in your eyes. You're high light corals (SPS) should be as close to that as possible while remaining under the water. A good way to research this is to find the depth of your tank, and look up your lighting PAR of your lights at various depths. You can then experiment and plot out the proper placement of corals based on PAR values.

Also realize that coral growth requires, for the most part, expensive lighting. I ran budget lighting (less than $150 per light) for a long time and never saw growth. When I researched and upped lights to about $700 to cover a 90g tank (I use LEDs), the game changed. Big color, big growth.

Now, to the above discussion. When you first add a coral you acclimate it. Start it on the sandbed and drop your lights to 50%. Increase your lighting by 5-10% per day. When at 100% start moving the coral up the rock every few days until you achieve the position you want. Don't glue it down yet, secure it with reef putty and see if it does well. If its OK after a week or two, secure it.

4
If your looking for growth of corals, you need to 'dose'.
For the most part the soft corals (e.g. zoas) live off light and fish poop. Other corals do as well but a number of them require boosts to grow, namely a specific pH environment, a salinity between .025-.026, and calcium input. The easiest way to do this is to monitor and adjust your salinity during your weekly 10% water change, and to get a 2 part doser - this may have been the greatest thing I've ever done. After determining your requirements, you set the doser to dispense chems at specific times to keep alk and ca at a growth level.

This is just all general stuff leading you into a bit of research on the topics, are are also just my opinions on things you should eventually look into.
Npne is immediately necessary, but all will become familiar as you move into the hobby.

No offense intended if you know any of this, which I'm guessing you do,

M


Oh, and heres a handy guide to acronyms in the hobby:
reefkeeping acronyms – Successful Reef Keeping

 

[RiverSwami]

That monti dont look good from the pics

The pics were taken within 48hrs of getting it home. So, really no change in appearance. It's just the flash washed it out and the white balance is way off due to the blue lighting. I looked it up online and it would appear that this particular species is a pale tan color that eventually yields green and yellow highlights.

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[RiverSwami]

When you added the Monti cap did you lower you lights? Seems to me it's starting to bleach.

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I followed the sage advice given to place it in a dark location at the bottom of the tank away from the light. After about a week, I moved it up a tad, then again a fee days later. Here's a current photo . Something's definitely fishy...[emoji33]

"Look away from the light! Look away from the light!"


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