SuncrestReef

What better way to spend a rainy day than getting ultra-close views of your corals?

Meeting photos update: After cleaning up from the BBQ and putting away the lawn games, I couldn't find one of the yellow plastic rings from the lawn dart set. I assumed it must have ended up behind a shrub or maybe at the bottom of the pond, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Today while I was out in the yard, I looked up to watch some hawks flying overhead and I noticed something in my tree. Sure enough, it was the yellow ring from the lawn darts about 25 feet above the ground! With the help of a tall ladder and the pole from my volleyball net, I was able to get it down. 🤣

The stags are doing well. Under the new ReeFi lights, they are showing some new growth and also seem to be changing colors a bit. They are starting to look exactly like the large stag I have growing in the center of my rock arch, so I'm wondering if they were from the same original colony. I believe I got that stag from Jeff last November when he had the mystery boxes and grab bags.

I'm in! PM sent.

Sorry, I meant to post this about @pdxmonkeyboy.

I thought you're without a tank? Setting up something new already?

The closet saltwater shop near Beaverton is World of Wet Pets on Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy. 8542 SW Apple Way, Portland, OR 97225 http://worldofwetpets.com The next closest would be Cuttlefish a few miles further to the east, and Paradise Corals to the west in Hillsboro. You can see all of these on our Member Map.

We had a great turnout for the meeting at my house in August. The weather was perfect for a BBQ, and it was great to see so many friendly faces. @lewisriverfisherman was kind enough to snap some photos while I was busy grilling and giving tours of my aquarium setup. I had been stressing for weeks hoping that nothing went wrong with my tank before the meeting, but luckily everything looked healthy and happy on the big day. I even caught that look saying "Why doesn't our tank look this cool???" 🤣 The tank definitely sparked a lot of discussion on different ways to achieve success. Meanwhile, @Optimusprime3605 just stared for hours on end thinking, "How the h*ll did he fit all this stuff in the sump???" @Flashy Fins was waiting until nobody was looking so she could feed some Doritos to my clownfish. With everyone distracted by the aquarium, I was busy at the grill trying to do my best to make up for missing @badxgillen due to his foot injury. Thankfully I didn't catch the deck on fire or overcook the meat. It was quite a feast with all the delicious side dishes people brought over. I'm not sure what @pdxmonkeyboy was trying to convince @albertareef of, but Sean clearly wasn't buying it. Once I finished up at the grill, I gave some tours of my garage mixing station to a fixated audience. Here our guest speaker @danlu_gt was probably talking @Bicyclebill into swapping out his lighting for the new ReeFi Duo Extremes. The ReeFi light to the right had such a nice focused illumination into the tank without the side glare seen on the Radion to the left. Daniel gave a great detailed overview of his lights down to the component level. The ReeFi user interface is really straight forward and simple to use. The ReeFi light design was not the only work of art on display. There was also plenty of great ink art for your viewing pleasure. After the ReeFi demo, it was time for the raffle. @albertareef and I spent 10 minutes trying to levitate this raffle bag with our minds, but it just didn't happen. We had several cool raffle prizes up for grabs. @Gil&Fin was waiting in the wings to see if anyone left early so she could claim their prize to make up for the light she almost won last year. 🤣 Thanks to everyone for coming out, and all the tasty side dishes and drinks. I had a great time and really enjoyed showing off my tank. I'm so glad to be a part of this excellent reefing community! I'd like to make this BBQ meeting into an annual event. Hope to see you all again next summer!

For the record, the diffusers will fit any Radion XR30 light fixtures, not just the Pro or G4. The whole XR30 line has the same form factor.

Sold.

Wow, nice haul! How many pounds did you end up with?

That's how it happens. Have faith....

You should stock up.

@Richard972 Any update on that white spot?

Darn...where were you a few months ago when I bought a 2nd Apex & EB832 to keep as standby spares? I couldn't find anything used so I bought retail. 🙄 GLWS.

That was exactly my experience as well. Nudibranchs are pretty amazing. And yes, a flashlight at night will reveal all sorts of things you didn't know were there! I check my tank almost every evening just for fun.

All items pending pickup tomorrow.

For those of you who have seen my tank, the right side of the back wall was completely covered in coralline because scraping that side was inconvenient due to the angled wall. But lately I've notice several areas growing colonies of bubble algae, and an attempt to pluck them off ended up cracking a large section of the coralline. It turned out the coralline was really thick, but not actually attached to the back wall, so it came off in large chunks: I didn't remove all of it, and I'm sure it will grow back quickly.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/deepsee-magnified-magnetic-viewer-4-flipper.html

Thanks for the update, and new detailed reports! I'm relieved to see I have no pathogens, and my cyano levels are low. I will sleep better tonight!

Sort of. The magnifying glass will cause some distortion in the photo because it's not tuned to work with the camera lens. It would be better than nothing, but no substitute for a quality telephoto or macro camera lens.

Glad to hear! Yes, it's a great magnifying glass for seeing both good and bad things in your tank. I use mine daily.

You can see my test results from a sample of seawater from Manzanita here:

For Sale: Two Radion XR30w Pro Gen 4 LED light fixtures with diffusers, and a Neptune WXM module: $1330. These Radions have been in use on my tank for 15 months and are in like new condition. I used them with the add-on diffusers which really helped to smooth out the light pattern and reduce the disco effect. The WXM module allows wireless control of the Radion lighting schedule from an Apex, including ramp up/ramp down and lunar lighting schedules. WXM can control up to 11 Radion and/or wireless Vortech pumps. I’d like to sell this all as a complete package. If nobody buys after a week or so, then I’ll consider parting it out. With diffuser installed: Without diffuser installed: Includes original boxes, hanging mount screws, power supplies, USB cable, and user manual.

My wife & I spent a nice weekend in Manzanita. As promised in a recent thread, I brought home a sample of seawater to test the parameters. This sample was taken in about 1 foot deep shore break, and not near any streams or sewage runoff. Here's what I found: Salinity: 1.024 Alkalinity: 6.8 dKH Calcium: 300 ppm Nitrate: 0 ppm Phosphate: 0.01 ppm I also shot some video of this cool little barnacle colony in a small tide pool. It's so fun to see them in action: Lastly, if you're ever in Manzanita and like cocktails and/or scotch & bourbon, check out MacGregor's Whiskey Bar on Laneda St. It's a tiny place, but fun and has a good collection to choose from!