SuncrestReef

No, the lighting hasn’t changed. The two original photos were taken with different cameras and different white balance settings. Regardless of the camera issue, the color change of the coral in question is unmistakable. For example, just look at all the new growth encrusting the rock around the original round section of the frag and notice that it's all pink like in the original photo, but the main part of the frag has changed to purple. That's the color change I'm asking about. I’ll see if I can reproduce the white balance settings from the first photo to get a more apples-to-apples comparison, then you’ll see a more exact change in color.

And sometimes, like a real man, you forget to turn them off for weeks...🤣

The other day I posted my favorite pork carnitas recipe in the Cinco de Mayo party thread, and several people expressed interest in trying it. Aside from reefing, another one of my hobbies is cooking (not really sure I should call it a "hobby", but I really enjoy trying new recipes or trying to reproduce a meal I had at a restaurant), so I thought I'd start a thread for people to share some of their favorite recipes. I'll start: Cuban Mojo Pork Roast - similar to what you can get at Pambiche, and leftovers make for amazing Cubano sandwiches as noted in the recipe. Linguine with White Clam Sauce - really simple, but so delicious. Pork Carnitas - as mentioned above, perfect for Cinco de Mayo or any time you want amazing tacos. Mushroom, Leek & Goat Cheese Frittata - a brunch favorite. Roast Beef Tenderloin with Port Sauce - I make this every Christmas, and occasionally for special occasions. I have many more, and lately I'm working on some Peruvian and Spanish tapas dishes. A lot of trial & error, but worth the effort. What are some of your favorites?

Ha Ha! Thanks everyone for the responses. Just to clarify, my wife doesn't hate the tank or get upset about how much I spend on it. My whole point was that it's funny I set the whole thing up specifically for her because of her background in fish behavior, but it turned out she really wasn't as interested in it as I thought she would be. It turned out I became obsessed, which is not something I was not expecting. I'm happy with my reef, and she's happy that I'm happy with it. Though, I suspect she thinks I'm a bit crazy, along with all the rest of you reefers that I'm always chatting with online. 🤣

I have a waterproof endoscope that can be used to inspect the inside of pipes. I'm in Beaverton if you want to borrow it to see what's inside your return line. See: https://www.amazon.com/DEPSTECH-Semi-rigid-Inspection-Waterproof-Adjustable/dp/B00STB0EW6

Have you taken the return nozzle(s) off to inspect for any snails or other debris?

Is your return pump capable of running at various speeds? If so, have you tried it at 100%?

You’ll love it! My whole house smells so good right now as the slow cooker is doing its magic.

FYI: this is the recipe I use, and it always turns out perfectly! https://cafedelites.com/pork-carnitas-mexican-slow-cooked-pulled-pork/

Now all I want is tacos. I'm going to slow cook some carnitas tomorrow to satisfy my craving! 🌮😋

Here are some new top-down macro photos for the gallery:

Sounds great! I’m looking forward to the amazing food I’ve heard about from previous events but never attended. 😋

Yes, she does like the fish and has even named many of them. Our tailspot blenny is her favorite. The corals just don't seem to interest her.

Thanks! I need to get a better photo of it. It's actually a greenish base with blue polyps, but the lighting and white balance on this photo didn't work out. I really need to spend some time learning how to do some post-processing of my photos.

I have no idea how the hops or malt might impact the corals, but given that some people dose vodka, the alcohol may actually benefit your system.

How many gallons is the sump? If it's only a 29g tank, then I'm assuming the sump is pretty small. I'm assuming the 10g of RO water can be mixed into saltwater to replace the whole sump volume and your corals shouldn't notice much difference.

Five years ago I promised my wife an aquarium as a Christmas gift because she has a Ph.D in fish behavior and currently works as a biologist (not related to fish). After a lot of research I learned that there's a lot to maintaining a proper reef aquarium, so I put it off for several years. But last year when I retired I finally had the time to devote to doing it right, so I ordered the aquarium and started on my reefing adventure. Now it's my obsession and she hardly pays attention to it. Today after adding some new corals, I asked her if she could guess which ones were new. She looked over the tank, and pointed to the duncan (which has been in the tank for over 10 months), then pointed to the purple stylophora (which we've had for at least 6 months). I finally pointed out the new ones and she shrugged. I then asked "OK, which corals are your LEAST favorite". She pointed to the scoly in the front and said "It just looks fake. Those colors don't really look natural." This is what she was pointing to: I'm just curious how many of you are in the situation where your significant other just isn't interested in your tank, or even seems to dislike the corals that you really like? I just find it ironically funny that I'm so into something that I set up with her in mind, yet she doesn't care about it in the least. 🤷‍♂️

Here are my latest coral additions from @CuttleFishandCoral: Bizarro Cyphastrea Blueberry Cheesecake Montipora (Jeff, I missed the name on this mushroom...can you ID it?)

Wow, it's looking great! The funny thing is that I sit there staring at my tank exactly like your students. 😂 Beautiful fish and corals. Nice work!

Terrence publicly confirmed the Trident will be able to control the DOS in this recent video. (skip to 38:24 to see it) You're correct that it won't integrate with non-DOS pumps, but since I'm already using a DOS for 2-part, I'm pretty excited.

There are several systems currently available: KH Guardian Alkatronic Reefbot a few other less popular products The Trident will be the first to directly integrate with the Apex controller, whenever it finally becomes available for purchase.

I don't really mind manual testing and do so every day. However, the thing I'm looking forward to with Trident is having it run multiple tests per day to really see how stable (or unstable) the parameters are over time. There's no way I would ever manually test more than once per day, but if it's automated I'll love having that level of insight. I hope someone can come up with a similar automation for NO3 and PO4 testing.

Now I'm realizing how empty my tank looks. 🤣

I'm sure the local TV ratings will be high for the televised public hearings of @pdxmonkeyboy's testimony in front of the Portland City Council for his role in this tragedy.

I'm working on setting that up: