Cali Kid Corals

kinetic Reefer 170

I have a green bta if you want a look see in person, not fore sale though, but I can give you a split once it decides to do it

I’m lazy to apply another account on r2r

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Thank you guys for being the voice of reason. I haven't even had a mag, so I don't even know if I love them in real life. They do look great and having a natural host for ocellaris (which I DO love) would be great.

OK, that settles it (again, geeze I am indecisive). No mag. Sticking with BTAs and ocellaris (which will most likely host the gyre pump rather than anything else, and I'm OK with that).
 
I have a green bta if you want a look see in person, not fore sale though, but I can give you a split once it decides to do it

I’m lazy to apply another account on r2r

Thanks for following my posts all over! I really like R2R, though back in the day I was mostly on reefcentral. I think RC is a bit outdated (the website) and the people there are a little more curmudgeon-y about everything. Not sure if that's a good explanation.

Yeah, I'll definitely come check your nem out sometime soon! Pretty busy with work, but I'll make it over soon ;) Thank you again!
 
How do you like gyre in this tank? Any dead spots - its hard to get to the back corners imho. I have same tank but rocks are taller than yours and I think to hide it behind rocks


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How do you like gyre in this tank? Any dead spots - its hard to get to the back corners imho. I have same tank but rocks are taller than yours and I think to hide it behind rocks

So far I think the gyre is great. My back corners are fine because there's no rock in the way. I've had mysis there but when the gyre kicks up, everything flows. Even behind the rocks nothing gets stuck. The gyre is nice because it makes the water kind of move as one big mass, rather than streams. Kind of like swirling water in a bucket until it gets some momentum to swirl. I feel like there's fewer hot spots of flow, and a nicer distributed movement.

Pros list:
- [ ] Affordable (relatively, one gyre pump vs. two MP40s)
- [ ] Really quiet (I run it at about 50%)
- [ ] Pulse modes are good. I'm still fiddling with mine to see what I like best
- [ ] Construction of it is really solid. Easy to take apart too
- [ ] Fits on my external overflow, so it looks nice

Cons:
- [ ] I have to use a mesh guard (anemones) which does kind of get a ton of mysis and other food bits stuck in it. But I guess that would be true for anything.
- [ ] Mine is a XF130, so it's on the older side. It doesn't have the cool OGC mode that everyone raves about with the new ones
 
I tried a Gyre when they first came out. Sold it. Too noisy unless you dial it way back.

I got the second gen of the Maxspec XF130, where the mount is now connected to the pump with a high quality rubber piece. This, as expected, reduces the majority of the pump noise. At 50%, you can't hear it unless you get up to the tank. At a pulsing 75%, it sounds like someone's phone is getting a call in a different room. Pretty darn quiet now.

I've had MP40s in the past. The gyre pump I have is as quiet as those are, maybe quieter since I don't think I need to turn the gyre pump up as much.
 
I have 2 the newest generation XF250s and they are amazingly quiet, I think they worked out the kinks of the first generation.

Have you tried the alternating gyre mode? The one that makes the pump reverse periodically? Maybe it would help with dislodging and recirculating debris. I use it so that in case any of my little buddies get sucked into the grate they will have time to escape on the reverse cycle, and for more variable flow.


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I have 2 the newest generation XF250s and they are amazingly quiet, I think they worked out the kinks of the first generation.

Have you tried the alternating gyre mode? The one that makes the pump reverse periodically? Maybe it would help with dislodging and recirculating debris. I use it so that in case any of my little buddies get sucked into the grate they will have time to escape on the reverse cycle, and for more variable flow.

I tried alternating, but the flow in reverse seems pretty weak. I also have a mesh over the pumps (anemone) so the reverse flow is both impeded by the mesh a lot, and I am afraid it would suck a nem into the other side =X

I was thinking of getting a second XF130 and mounting it stacked to run as the alternate flow. It would probably create quite the turbulence.
 
Nitrates holding at 10ppm (salifert)
Phosphates holding at 0.02ppm (hanna at 8 ppb)

Nitrates were up to 25ppm earlier, and phosphates at 16 ppb, but I started dosing NoPox along with my usual water change. Yesterday my water got a bit cloudy, which I'm guessing is a bit of a bloom from the NoPox. I'm probably dosing a bit too much at once (4.5 ml a day), so I'm going down to 2 ml a day to see if it helps the cloudiness. It's not too bad, just a little bit cloudy.

Running my skimmer as wet as I can, and have tons of surface agitation (+ overflow surface skimming) so I think I should be OK. Animals look good.

Good news, I'm getting another BTA and my harem of ocellaris are coming this week! The ocellaris I ordered from Sustainable Aquatics / The Coral Reefer TN.
  1. Mocha DaVinci
  2. Mocha DaVinci
  3. Fancy White Extreme
  4. Fancy White Gladiator
  5. Vivid Fancy
  6. Chocolate Mocha
They're all the small size, so should be somewhere between 1" and 1.5". I was hoping to have a naked ocellaris in the mix, but they don't have any, so I doubled up on the mocha davinci. Usually harems are from the same clutch. Let's see how these guys do!
 
I tried alternating, but the flow in reverse seems pretty weak. I also have a mesh over the pumps (anemone) so the reverse flow is both impeded by the mesh a lot, and I am afraid it would suck a nem into the other side =X

I was thinking of getting a second XF130 and mounting it stacked to run as the alternate flow. It would probably create quite the turbulence.

The reverse is definitely too weak to consider it as real flow in the opposite direction despite MaxSpect’s claims. With 1 pump I would just have it in reverse for a small amount of time relative to the forward flow, enough time to dislodge food or tentacles. You may find you don’t need the cover with this approach (I don’t use them).
 
The reverse is definitely too weak to consider it as real flow in the opposite direction despite MaxSpect’s claims. With 1 pump I would just have it in reverse for a small amount of time relative to the forward flow, enough time to dislodge food or tentacles. You may find you don’t need the cover with this approach (I don’t use them).

That's true! I think it would help dislodge some gunk that gets stuck in my mesh. I'll try it out. Good tip!
 
Today's the day:

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Packing list:

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Free food! Awesome SA! I already prepped PE Mysis, ON Reef Flakes, but this is going to be great to add to the diversity.

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Damn, this is the scary part. I am always nervous. What you want: cutest damn ocellaris the world ever did see. What you don't want: DOA =( =( But the shipping box was awesome and no problems with delivery so should be good...

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First one out! WHEW! He's alive and f***ing beautiful.

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Next came the mocha caramel. He's not a misbar, just weird distortion from the double bags:

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I have a pair of mocha gladiators as well. The idea is that the female will be largest, though not by much, and there will be a quickly set hierarchy for minimal bickering. We'll see. Alpha male might be a tough one to assert:

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Fancy White aka Gladiator. Are you not entertained?

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They all made it! Floating for temp. Sustainable Aquatics specifically says not to drip acclimate these guys. I am skeptical but they have quite the reputation and these guys are so healthy. So a quick float and I'll transfer (with fish net) to the display soon after.

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All done floating, and added the Fancy White Extreme and the Vivid Fancy first. The Vivid Fancy is a bit larger than I was hoping for. I hope he doesn't become a problem. Fancy White Extreme is the smallest. These guys came together instantly. So funny that they just wanna group together. Cutest damn things ever.

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OK, I couldn't keep taking photos between each intro, so here are the rest of the photos. it's really hard to take a group photo of these clowns. It's a circus!

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I tried to label them, a few times. I'm actually not entirely sure which one is the fancy extreme white and the fancy white (aka gladiator). They're both amazing. I think the Extreme is a bit smaller. They do look slightly different, but not sure what is more extreme than the other.

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That's it for now! More photos once they settle down and I have more time (and patience) to get a good group photo and get good shots of each from the sides.
 
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