Blog Comments

Those entertaining white ones are from the same family of Pink Branching Hammer. I found frags completely shaded in the holding troughs, and they had bleached but were perfectly healthy. The diversity of their current state makes them more appealing to me even though it won't last long under the nice lighting.

Especially like the white ones.

What are those corals in that garden of all the colorful ones.

I really like the color too.

Looking great! Low profile is good IMO, as long as there are enough hidey holes.

Good enough for me

Yeah, I'm digging it as well. It's probably the prettiest area in the tank currently.

Yes, I was sharing water but these were not present in my other system. The copepods are everywhere, and are bone white. The little Jelliies are dotting the refugium zone. I'd not seen these in years. I've had the same rock all this time, and there is no doubt that some pods are present in my system, but for them to be up at the top of the tank and all over the viewing panels says something big to me.

Frankly, I was a little concerned since we exposed my rockwork to air twice in 7 days. And there was a rock or two that really smelled bad, which is always a sign of cycling. Yet, the timing coincides strongly with the addition of 80lbs of live sand.

That's the problem in this hobby, we often change multiple things at once during a set up or upgrade (or to fix a problem) and can't necessarily pin the results on any given thing. If you want to rule out the other possibilities, set up a small tank, add some dry sand, some flow, a heater, and pour in the livesand and see what appears. I've used up all my stuff setting up the tank so I'm not going to do it. I just did, on a 400g-level.

But Marc, weren't you also "sharing" a little water between the two systems for a couple days?

Nice info. Marc. I was always suspicious of the live bagged sand.

Righteous! Looks amazing, here's to all that hard work paying off. I really like the euphyllia garden.

I should have done that ... stupid me trying to save $$. I think i'm going to buy a bag and put it in my fuge.

That is a great tip! Where were you two months ago? I had even considered buying a rotozip to cut out those stupid boxes since it would be far easier than my sheetrock handsaw. Using lipstick - brilliant. I've been in construction for years and never saw that done, and was amazed at the rock guys and how nicely their work came out. Then again, I didn't hang out with them and was always there prior to and after they were done. You never want to be in their way, and usually they were in mine.

Congradulations Marc

That's an interesting idea, Robb. I don't have a spot to put it at the moment, but I'll ponder on that one. I was planning to simply cook it in the back room like I've done in the past.

WOW that looks great. I agree the low profile is the way to go.

You going to plumb in the 'rock barrel' to the system? Could make for a benthic zone.

Originally Posted by Robb in Austin

Looks like you need more rock. Spock looks happy. Cant wait to see it back to it's former glory.

It's gonna be a while. Starting over means hurry up and wait. I have quite a bit of rock I'm not using which will go back into a barrel for the time being. I prefer the lower profile this time. I think it's going to look great as it grows in.

i know this is terribly late, but if you do any further sheetrocking melev you may want to buy a tube of lipstick to run around the edge of all your break out boxes and electricals, then you simply put your sheet of sheetrock in position then press in the boxes general area to take the impression. once removed the back of the sheetrock has a perfect lipstick outline to follow and cut along. no mess to clean up and no hunting for boxes to cut or error spots to fill after.

Love the minimal rock work, it will give the corals plenty of room to "grow out" Way better than a "Wall of rock" imo.