Lexinverts

Sorry to hear that Tom. I have AEFW in my display, but I am living with them for now. Fortunately, I was able to eradicate them from my frag system. Is that a huge Oregon Tort colony in the FTS? That's pretty sweet!

Awesome shots, Tom!

I'd get 2 coronas or check out Daniel's Reefi lights

Petco sells pre-mixed water. Here's one close to you: Petco Animal Supplies, 6655 NE Glisan St, Portland, OR 97213

Nitrates at 15 and phosphates at .06 should be ok for SPS. Phospate at .06 is perfect. Nitrate is slightly high. I like to keep mine around 10-ish, but I would not expect to have corals die at 15. I think that there is something else going on with your system. Perhaps try sending in your water for a Triton test.

For some systems there is no correct dose, and I think that was the case for me. I spent 9 months trying to the find the right dose until I almost killed all of my corals. I even got a medical grade peristaltic pump that could dose a few ml at a time, and tested nitrate and phosphate in the morning and in the evening. If you have some nitrate and phosphate, but hardly any algae, and your corals look good, there is no problem to solve. Vodka dosing is likely to upset the balance that you have in your tank and lead to lots of headaches.

Unless you are desperately fighting algae, I would advise against it. There are a few people with systems that do well with it, and Kevin's is a good example. For him, vodka dosing saves a lot of time. Maybe this has something to do with the size of his system. I would say that 8 out of 10 posts that I see about carbon dosing is about tank crashes, STN, and tons of Nitrate and Phosphate testing. I tried it for 9 months and got to the point where I was testing nitrate and phosphate twice per day. It ended up being way more work than water changes, and led to me crashing my tank before I gave up on it. If you really hate water changes, it's worth a try, but if it starts to be a lot of work with testing and you start to see some STN on your corals, that's a good sign that water changes are best for your system. I ended up using algae scrubbers and weekly water changes to control my nutrients and my tank has never looked better.

Interesting. Goniopora "sweeper tentacles" are just some of the normal polyps that stretch out for battle. As far as I can tell, any of the polyps can transform into a sweeper if the coral wants to be a jerk. Cutting sweepers might be more likely to work on a chalice or a favia, where the sweepers are only part of the polyps.

It's a ReefGen Goniopora stutchburyi. They are very pretty, but just as mean. https://www.reefgen.us/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=120 Daniel Lu is going to try it out in his tank. He has a bit more real estate than me.

Yes, if it lowers your phosphate too quickly or takes it too low, it can cause your corals to react like you describe. Check your phosphate levels with a good kit, like Salifert. If phosphate is undetectable, I would make a change. I personally don't like GFO because it takes my phosphate too low. Instead, I have a Tomini Tang, a Foxface, and money cowries to eat hair algae. I control phosphate and nitrate with an algae scrubber.

I had to remove this extremely aggressive Goniopora that was putting out sweeper tentacles and stinging all of the neighboring corals. It was a real looker, so I put up with it until it recently killed my Jason Fox "burning banana" stylo. That was the last straw!

The KP ones were already mounted. The ones I started from frags are mounted in epoxy.

It's epoxy. Strip the flesh off the base, and then push it into a wad of epoxy.

Here's a recent one of the seahorse tank.

Just got back from more than a week away and discovered that my blue rufus stag had grown into several corals. Pulled it out, and then discovered I had a nice orange digi colony behind it that was almost completely blocked. I need a bigger tank!

Thanks for the welcome. I am happy to help out.

I buy captive raised whenever possible, and support sustainable harvesting of wild fish. If ever I have a choice, I will choose captive raised over wild caught. The future of our hobby will depend on the development of captive breeding programs for marine fish, since the reef environment is severely threatened by climate change and ocean acidification. I have the same stance when purchasing corals.

Thanks, Karen! KKnight takes it. Please send $170 via Paypal to jessicab.lund@gmail.com I'll send you a PM about when I can bring you your frags. The meeting at Holly's will work if you can attend. Thanks again for helping out a family in need.

Bump! Last day!

Bump for a good cause!

Nice pics!

That mounting job looks great! I'm sure you'll love the way the OR lights make your corals pop. Can you see the fans spinning with it recessed in the T5 fixture like that? You'll want to check the fans regularly, since the fans are the weak point of these lights. When they eventually go out (It took about 1.5 yrs for me), the LED diodes will be prone to overheating and burning out. But, if you check them regularly, you can get the fans fixed before you have an overheating/diode issue.

Pm sent

I'm in Wisconsin, so New Year's came early. Have a good one, everyone!

Bump!