Bryan's Cadlights Artisan II 70G Mixed Reef
- Thread starter ThePorkchopExpress
- Start date
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
looking sweetman i wish i had space for that bali shortcake ..
the bali shortcake isn't going anywhere, by the time you're ready and you upgrade to that new 200g plus frag tank it should be nicely colored up
this is Darren Novi's colony pic (he bought he entire colony)...those in the hobby know he's a stand up guy and he swears by these colors (under heavy blues of course but nonetheless)
View attachment 15361
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
Trying to get better at taking coral photos. I think I did alright today, I actually remembered to turn pumps off, lol. All pics under daylight.
TdF from the top. It's back in growout. I cut too many frags recently.
Eden's Fireworks from the top. Also fragged out
JF Fox Flame
TdF frag
EF frag
ORA Red Planet frags
TdF from the top. It's back in growout. I cut too many frags recently.
Eden's Fireworks from the top. Also fragged out
JF Fox Flame
TdF frag
EF frag
ORA Red Planet frags
Last edited:
Spartanman22
Well-known member
Looking very nice!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
i have a lot of orange, pink, and red colored sps and i honestly think i achieved a lot of this coloration through K dosing...however, it's a fine line you gotta walk between dosing the right amount and dosing too much...you dose too much and things start to deteriorate rather quickly...Salifert took their test kit off the market for some reason and i was left using Red Sea's titration kit which took forever to do plus trying to read the color shift is next to impossible because the liquid looks different in different lighting and angles
Sawdonkey
Premium member
Really nice tank and great sticks. I love the light rail.
I've been eyeing the UC Bali Shortcake for a long time. I didn't know anyone had it locally. If I ever find a few inches of space in my tank, I'm paying you a visit!
I've played around with K a bit too. I did a Triton test a while back and K came back around 350. I've read that K deficiency can lead to poor polyp extension on montis and poor red coloration. I wanted to get back up to 400, but I've read that all of the K tests are garbage and I've heard horror stories about K overdosing (Menard killed of a good portion of his tank a while ago with this). So, I've been dosing Red Sea Colors without testing, but I've been going really slow with it. I just don't want my K dropping any lower, but I definetly don't want to overshoot 400. I just ran out of my Red Sea Colors C, and I'm not sure If I'll buy more.
I've been eyeing the UC Bali Shortcake for a long time. I didn't know anyone had it locally. If I ever find a few inches of space in my tank, I'm paying you a visit!
I've played around with K a bit too. I did a Triton test a while back and K came back around 350. I've read that K deficiency can lead to poor polyp extension on montis and poor red coloration. I wanted to get back up to 400, but I've read that all of the K tests are garbage and I've heard horror stories about K overdosing (Menard killed of a good portion of his tank a while ago with this). So, I've been dosing Red Sea Colors without testing, but I've been going really slow with it. I just don't want my K dropping any lower, but I definetly don't want to overshoot 400. I just ran out of my Red Sea Colors C, and I'm not sure If I'll buy more.
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
Thanks, bud. I've had the Bali for almost a year and it's a very fast grower albeit, slow to color up. Mine's still only about halfway there, as you can see from the pics. One of the reasons I replaced the Hydra 52 with a Hydra 52 HD was because I had already maxed out the Hydra 52! B/RB/UV/V were all at 100% with white and red at 50% and green at 30%. I did not want to raise up white/red/green because it's just not aesthetically appealing to me and the Hydra 52 HD allows me to go past 100% for the colors I do want.
As for K dosing...I tell ya...I scratched my head long and hard as to why some of my corals were dying. I thought it was nutrient deficiency combined with the high lighting and ALK at 9, or maybe it was AEFWs, or perhaps stray voltage. K was unfortunately the last thing I tested after I had already lost a lot of SPS. My signs started with a montipora setosa slowly bleaching then STN. It moved to an entire encrusted PC Rainbow colony gone overnight. It spread to my monti caps losing skin and poor coloration/browning out. Lost some acro colonies and some frags including my new TCK Pikachu that I only had for a month. Tips of my other acros began to show signs of alk burn/burnt tips but by that time I had already corrected my alk to 7-8 and raised my nutrient levels. Alk consumption went downhill really fast - my doser went from dosing every hour to just 4 times and half the usual dosage each time.
Long story short, once I got the Red Sea test kit and tested K to be over 450 which was the very upper limit of the kit, I immediately did a large water change followed by another one 2 days later. The corals responded very quickly even after the first water change. When the K was right, colors were just breathtaking especially in the reds and pinks but it's just too difficult to test for K and the risk of overdosing again is far too great so I'm just not going to dose it anymore. Maybe when that MindStream device comes out or something comparable that makes testing it a lot easier I'll look into it again.
The other option are those Zeovit time release tabs. They have one for K. I used it before without any ill effects.
Last edited:
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
nice meeting you too bud! i actually just got back to the city not too long ago and the fish are still in the bags while i try to snipe some good stuff from JF's sale...i scored a good one!
the Lemon Burst is coming to Chicago, folks! scored a bunch of other frags as well....but now i'm beat...time to tend to new fish and watch the UFC
View attachment 15380
As for the montis, check out my for sale thread in the market place...i have a bunch of setosas left
Last edited:
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
i don't know which variant i actually have and neither does UC...mine is turning pink but it definitely didn't come pink...it came super green and didn't start exhibiting any pink/yellow tips/blue until it got used to my LEDs...now it starting to look pinker and pinker every day...speaking with Scott Fellman over at UC he honestly has no idea if the "pink bali shortcake" is a completely different variant or simply regular bali shortcake frags reacting differently to conditions in lighting, flow, or water quality
Paulip
New member
Nice setup PCE. Very neat and meticulous. It definitely confirms that you are an excellent source of frags.
Do you have any Ricordia / Ultra Yuma's? Check out the excellent videography by reef wholesale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITld0Jb5apw
Do you have any Ricordia / Ultra Yuma's? Check out the excellent videography by reef wholesale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITld0Jb5apw
Last edited:
Sawdonkey
Premium member
Whoa! I was admiring that piece in R2R. Really nice. Did you get any others? I've alway liked the JF Tsunami and if I had room for more sticks, I might have jumped in on this live sale. The Tsunami isn't even a $$$ piece, but really like it.
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
I don't have any room in the DT either. I didn't get the frag tank to sell stuff, I mostly got it because I can't help going to these live sales and snagging a bunch of frags I don't even need nor have room for. My wife loves buying shoes and clothes, I like buying coral.
I did get a small number of other things only because I was getting bored sitting there hitting F5 every 2 seconds waiting for the Lemon Burst to pop up. When I saw the Lemon Burst I immediately thought of Starburst candies and it just looked so delicious I had to have it. He didn't seem to have many frags of it and I had to wait 2 and 1/2 hours for one to pop up. I only lost one snipe and it was that new JF Solar Flare frag but to be honest it's too expensive and it kind of looks like just like an ASD Rainbow Mille. The other stuff I got were just cheap or just to add to my collection like the UC Strawberry Shortcake and the SC Orange Passion. I have the RR Asia OP and I've been wanting the SC variant for a while.
View attachment 15383
ThePorkchopExpress
New member
Hi, thanks! In all honesty I don't sell many frags at all. The frag tank is actually half filled with a lot of corals I don't have room for in the display tank. The stuff I'm selling now is because I used to have this obsession with collecting montis and zoas so I bought a bunch and they've simply overgrown their frag plugs so I've had to frag them.
I don't really have a lot of shrooms. I think I might have 1 orange and green ricordea. I don't really run a dirty tank, my tank is borderline ULNS so shrooms don't do well in my tank.
adam87
New member
Thank you for the info.
