Ok, I finally got some nice coral. :)

[Ram_Puppy]

ok, so after all this time in the hobby, I finally took the plunge from book smarts to application and bought some nice SPS.

I have Stylophora, Acropora, and Echinophylla, also some blastomusa, palythoa, and i am babysitting some awesome zoanthids for cpreefguy.

So, here are my questions:

Store Lighting - 400 watt 20K

My Lighting - 250 watt 10K HQI (double ended) Ushio

so, my first rookie mistake, was assuming that my 250K MH was not as bright as the 400 wat 20K, I think that the fact I am running a smaller tank, and I haven't mounted my lights 6" off the aquarium yet, are big factors (It's about 3 inches off the glass right now) and yes, I am using a glass top because I don't have time to deal w/ evaporation if I don't.

so, the casualty, was a little bleaching of a 'ultra pink' stylophora. it only bleached on the top, so I am assuming this means it didn't like the lighting, so I moved it further down the tank and reduced my photo-period to 4 hours a day for now. (the tank does get natural sunlight as well.)

the second problem, was that one of my snails (probably a super tongan as they are bulls in a china shop when food is in the water) pushed one of cpreefguys' zoo frags onto the blasto, the main blasto colony has receeded for 2 days now, but appears to be coming back. i have observed chemical warfare. yay for me. Sean, no worries, your zoo's are doing great.

ok, so for now, I have the stylophora moved lower in the tank, and the photo period reduced to 4 hours a day, next week I will increase it to 6.

once I am up to a full blown photo period (8 to 10 hours) I will start moving the stylo up into a position I'd like to keep it in.

Also, I won't be increasing the photo period until i get my new chiller plumbed in. (forgot two elbows at lowes darn it!!!) because I had a spike to 84 on sunday, I have been running steady at 78 w/ a shorter photo period so the halide is definately fueling the heaet (no suprise).

So, am I taking the right steps? pretty sure I am just wanna confirm.

[Ram_Puppy]

pics - they are tiny little nubbins right now, but I will see about getting you some pics tomorrow.

I can show you the parent colonies though:

(believe it or not they actually came in looking this nice!!!)

oh, and before I forget, as soon as this 10K ushio is 'spent' i am replacing it with a 14K bulb.






(the bleaching victim)

[Ram_Puppy]

I don't have any supplimental actinic lighting right now, and only the 10K halide, so they don't look as pretty in my tank, but I can tell from the vivid colors they allready have that there was no photoshopping. very nice.

[alton]

I keep my 250 MH's on my 155g and 175 MH's on my 58g 3" above glass tops with no problems, this way I light the tank inlieu of the room. To keep the tank and glass tops cool I have a 3"fan (58g) and 1-4" fan (155g) sitting on top of the glass tops to keep the aquarium's cool. My office is at 75 and the tank is 77.3 and at home the room is around 77 and the tank is 79

[Ram_Puppy]

well, coming up w' ways to cool w/ fans at this point is superfluos, I allready got a JBJ Artica Mini Chiller - rated at 40 gallons. 1/10th hp chiller and 33 decibles. (whisper).

I won't be able to plumb it in till friday though. :(

[caferacermike]

Holy heck Ram, I'll pay you cash money to take pics of my tank.

[caferacermike]

Now that I realize that those are the pics from the site and not the tank, I'm bummed. But from what I reread the shop keeps them under 400w 20K. That is serious blue. Why would you need supplemental lighting? That's as blue as it gets.

[Ram_Puppy]

ok, to clear up the confusion:

those are all frags from www.atlantisaquarium.net (and I linked THEIR pictuers.)

THEY are the ones w/ 400W 20K bulbs, not me, I am running a 250 watt 10K HQI. My T-5's are blue spectrum heavy, so i can't wait to get them hooked up. (2 ultra blues and 2 ACtinics) I just need a carpenter to do my canopy as I don't have time.

ok, so, atlantis aquarium states they are photographing under 20K's so I have no issue w/ blue coraline or blue egg crate (coraline encrusted if you look closely so same thing).

The Garf Purple Bonsai, which I have seen in person before, is identical in color to the frag that I recieved. (the other one I saw was in SamIAm's tank when he was selling off to move to hawaii).

The ultra pink stylo was a little washed out when I recieved it, but colored up to a very nice pink before I cooked the top of it and bleached it out, the bottom still looks nice, though obviously the colors are not as vivid as they are under 20Ks, it still looks great.

The ocean Blue stylo has incredibly good coloration, and looks amazing, very much on par w/ the photograph.

The blasto, looks almost identical, as do the palys.

So far, I have to say what i recieved is almost dead on in coloration w/ the pictures, except for the pink one, which I think because of it's light color, picks up a lot more blue/actinic from the 20K's, but as a somewhat intelligent shopper, I anticipated this.

So I am pretty happy w/ it.

I will try to take pictures this weekend.

[Noodle]

You were the one that bought that blasto!! I called them about it and they said it was sold! Now I know who to go after once that blasto perks back up 8)