Chronicles of a 20 (Bulkhead cracked!!!!!)

Yeah, it's really tough at this juncture because my eye tends to look for similar colored corals when browsing and he color of mine are not the true color of the coral. The second one is changing colors and I anticipate the first one will too. I think it will have more of a green color, but that's just a guess based on the faint green I see coming through.

The first one has really great PE. At night it puts out its much, much longer stinging polyps.

The second one doesn't really extend it's polyps much, but I think it has been doing so a little more this week, which correlates with its rapid encrusting and color change. I couldn't get a picture, but the backside of it is encrusting much faster than the front side.

 

really pretty tank!

 

Thanks. I wish the color came through a little better. It's difficult to see some of the frags. I did a little maintenance today. I took a razor blade and mag float to the front and side panels as well as cleaned the power-heads and return of hair, turf and chaeto algae.

 

Alk went from 4.02 Meq/l to 3.8 meq/l in 5 days. Would like to see it drop further to around 3.2. I would like to keep it around there.

 

Raised my halide up about 2-3 more inches. It's now 10-12 inches above the water surface.

 

May 22:


June 15:


June 26:


May 11:


June 15 (notice the blue color starting to come in instead of the brown/red):


June 26 (The backside is encrusting much faster):


May 16:


June 26 (Encrusting pretty fast!:

 

very nice growth you have going there! They must be very happy in your tank!

 

Thanks! It's pretty much all encrusting right now, but once it establishes itself, it should start growing vertically, I hope. I also hope they begin to color up once they establish a base.

My birdsnest is growing very noticeably, as are my softies, but those are boring progression shots.

 

How long can it take for sps to color up?

I haven't noticed anything positive in that regard yet. I was dosing amino acids, but stopped after not seeing any improvement. Phosphate is extremely low (.003 ppm) and my other parameters seem spot on ( calc 430, alk 3.6, mag 1380, SG 1.026). temperature fluctuates 1-2 degrees a day. Light cycle is 9 hours. Everything is stable and has been for 6-7 weeks now.

Do sps typically begin to color up after establishing a base first? I'm seeing rapid encrusting right now.

I havent had any coraline growing in months. Wonder if that issue is related somehow.