# My 29g Reef Tank



## phil_pl

When I started this tank I knew nothing about saltwater
I like to say that i know something now since my coral isn't melting anymore and i am able to keep any LPS and softies i want
but hers some pictures of the tank let me know what you think


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## phil_pl

Mixing Salt


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## phil_pl

Now this is about the time i started melting coral
As you can see i had no protein skimmer at this point








Before








After


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## phil_pl

Finally have a protein skimmer









More Corals


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## phil_pl

Green Striped Mushroom








Purple Tinker Bell Chalice








Brown Digita (Got stung at the LFS while getting another frag out so this guy was free)








Have no idea what this is, it just started growing on the live rock


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## phil_pl

Hammer Head








Galaxia


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## petlover516

nice tank. i notice u have 2 royal grammas. just as warning, if they are 2 males, they will fight.


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## APoirier594

very nice


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## phil_pl

petlover516 said:


> nice tank. i notice u have 2 royal grammas. just as warning, if they are 2 males, they will fight.


i actually have three, to my best guess says i have two males and one female because two of them fight

does anybody want one?


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## phil_pl

APoirier594 said:


> very nice


thank you


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## petlover516

3? your tank is barely big enough for 1! i would love to have 1, but my tank (a 28gallon) is too small.


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## phil_pl

petlover516 said:


> 3? your tank is barely big enough for 1! i would love to have 1, but my tank (a 28gallon) is too small.


Yea i know that now
but i didnt know that when i started this tank up, i had only done freshwater before this
but yea if you decide you want one just let me know or if you know someone who does


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## Billythefish

Hay nice tank. 
I think you would be well advised to get a sump to put all that equipment in. It would give you much more room and a larger volume of water not to mention a place to acclimatize new additions.
Can i ask how your getting on with your aqua-clear power heads ?. mine seem to produce a lot of heat and micro bubbles even when there fully submerged.


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## phil_pl

Billythefish said:


> Hay nice tank.
> I think you would be well advised to get a sump to put all that equipment in. It would give you much more room and a larger volume of water not to mention a place to acclimatize new additions.
> Can i ask how your getting on with your aqua-clear power heads ?. mine seem to produce a lot of heat and micro bubbles even when there fully submerged.


I have been wanting a sump on that tank since the day i got it but I dont have a place for a sump on this setup but i am getting a 65 gal with a sump

The powerheads are doing good i really like them mine does put off a shot of micro bubbles every once in a while, they do see to be putting off quite a pit of heat, i unplugged my heater for 2 days and when the light was off it stayed around 74 degrees and the house was 68


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## phil_pl

New bubble tip








R.I.P. Bubble Tip
He got sucked through the powerhead the first night in the tank

New Zoa's


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## petlover516

i like the zoas. nice color. sad story about the nem.


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## phil_pl

petlover516 said:


> i like the zoas. nice color. sad story about the nem.


thankyou




just an update i did 5 gal water changes everyday for a week and lost nothing due to the anemone, what a relief

also if anyone wants one of the royal gramma's i would love to make a trade for some coral, but if you dont have any to trade pm me i'll give them to you really cheap


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## MediaHound

Just want to say your tank looks really nice.


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## phil_pl

MediaHound said:


> Just want to say your tank looks really nice.


thank you very much i am about to go clean up the mess the royal grammas made then i hope to have a picture up later today


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## JIM

*A very nice lookin set-up. Makes me want to start a salt tank again....But im so far into Natives now its not funny. However a nano-cube wouldnt be too much trouble . Isnt it amazing that in this hobby, just the site of a nice tank makes one start to drool and head for the LFS for equipment and fish, no matter what you already have :fish-in-bowl:

Update; After lookin at your tank pics again i wanted to add that i really like the way youve placed your premium rock so it gets good circulation all around, i think thats very important. Also as i think ive heard Jarred mention before (Patience) youre not loading your tank down right off. Adding things slowly small fish etc. does wonders for letting your system adjust slowly to the bio-load, and the skimmer will be a definite asset. Great work !! and thanks for sharing your journey with us 
*


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## Joey

looking good bro keep the good job


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## petlover516

i would gladly take one, but im pretty sure that some1 will else will have 1 by next year, when i plan to set-up a 40b


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## phil_pl

petlover516 said:


> i would gladly take one, but im pretty sure that some1 will else will have 1 by next year, when i plan to set-up a 40b


i take it your refereeing to the royal gramma's 
if so i traded two of them the other day and the third one went missing i thought he had jumped out but i have looked all around the tank and have still not found him, maybe the dog got to it before me


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## phil_pl

Joey said:


> looking good bro keep the good job


thanks man, im trying my best


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## phil_pl

This is the reason i wanted to get rid of the royal gramma's, they hated him and chased him to the point he jumped out
The picture isnt really any good but its the only one i have of him


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## Joey

nice my GF wants a fire fish there BEAUTIFULL LLL


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## Joey

if you get a 10g tank and a single pipe overflow box you can make a small sump and put all the stuff in the sump skimmer heater you jsut need couple panels of fiberglass,glue and silicone make the walls put a sock for the down pipe and you can put the skimmer in the first chamber iwth you sock in the second chamber rocks and cheato and the thrid chamber the retun pump and all you will have in you rtank would be coral and fish no equipment very nice and its not expencive tho my .02


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## phil_pl

Joey said:


> if you get a 10g tank and a single pipe overflow box you can make a small sump and put all the stuff in the sump skimmer heater you jsut need couple panels of fiberglass,glue and silicone make the walls put a sock for the down pipe and you can put the skimmer in the first chamber iwth you sock in the second chamber rocks and cheato and the thrid chamber the retun pump and all you will have in you rtank would be coral and fish no equipment very nice and its not expencive tho my .02


i have plenty of tanks sitting around to make the sump i would have already done it for this tank i just dont have anywhere to put the sump 
i am getting a 65 gal in a few days i think i comes with a sump but if it doesnt have one im going to make one but i plan to take this tank and make it a frag tank and connect it to the same system and i am going to use a 55 gal barrel as a refugium im not sure what i will use as a sump yet?


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## Joey

phil_pl said:


> i have plenty of tanks sitting around to make the sump i would have already done it for this tank i just dont have anywhere to put the sump
> i am getting a 65 gal in a few days i think i comes with a sump but if it doesnt have one im going to make one but i plan to take this tank and make it a frag tank and connect it to the same system and i am going to use a 55 gal barrel as a refugium im not sure what i will use as a sump yet?


 
nice you got keep me informed of that tho


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## phil_pl

Joey said:


> nice you got keep me informed of that tho


will do


i just wanted to make a note
i have been having problems with cyno since the tank started up and i have now found the true source of the outbreaks, the tank sits in my dinning room cadie corner to the living room which faces east and has a wall of window, so every clear morning, like today, all my polyps are open when i got up and i can see the cyno on the sand already

i cant wait for the new tank so i dont have to worry about this
it will be in the dark basement on a supply of RO/DI water


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## phil_pl

Yet another PH horror story, this is just sad. I got a six line wrasse yesterday at my lfs. Within 3 hours of putting her in the tank he was in the intake nozzle of the PH. 
But on the good side of things i got some great new frags. I hope to have pictures up tonight.


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## Imaexpat2

Yes most anemones dont fair well in a Nano. First they often take over the tank and make it a species only tank whether you like it or not. A BTA can easily grow and expand to 12 plus inches when fully open and will annilate anything they touch in the process. In small tanks its usually a matter of time before they find a power head and become "Anemone Puree". Its a bummer for sure and in a small tank avoiding the dreaded tank crash is akin to dodging a bullet. Glad you managed to do so. If you just must have an Anemone in a tank this small by some tube shaped foam blocks of the type used in filters and stick a fillet knife through the center section and slid that over all intake tubes. The Anemone will come in contact with it and may even plant its base on it but it wont be sucked into the intake tube. Just a suggestion...


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## phil_pl

Yet another Cyano outbreak this time its green slime instead of red, i know that its is photosynthetic but what other conditions are favorable to the cyano? i have found the source of the growth but i dont know how to go about destroying it at the source. Any ideas would be great.


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## Imaexpat2

Tell me what the source is and maybe I can pull a rabbit outta my hat and offer you some ideas to run with.


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## phil_pl

Imaexpat2 said:


> Tell me what the source is and maybe I can pull a rabbit outta my hat and offer you some ideas to run with.


well i know the location of the source but i dont know what keeps bringing it back


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## Imaexpat2

Oaky, cool. Lets start with the location and work our way from there and see what we can come up with.

While your at it...post results from a water test and tell me about the tank set up and the equipment you have on it so I have a better idea of exactly what were are dealing with. Sometimes its the little things we take for granted that sneak up on us and are the biggest killer.


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## phil_pl

Imaexpat2 said:


> Oaky, cool. Lets start with the location and work our way from there and see what we can come up with.
> 
> While your at it...post results from a water test and tell me about the tank set up and the equipment you have on it so I have a better idea of exactly what were are dealing with. Sometimes its the little things we take for granted that sneak up on us and are the biggest killer.


well the cyano keeps coming from a place near the front glas in the center of the tank
i test these tonight i will test the rest in the morning
Nitrate - 20 mg/l
Ammonia -0


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## Imaexpat2

Good. Thats some good info there already as I see a couple items of interest already. I will "hold short of the active" so to speak until I get the rest of the other water test results and see if they confirm what I am already starting to think. BTW, what is the filtration on this tank? What kinda media are you running in the filter if any? What kinda power heads are you using? How old is the tank? What substrate are you using? How many pounds of Live Rock and what type of Live Rock are you using. If you have already mentioned any of these and I have simply over looked it refresh my memory and I will go back and look again...I have looked at at least 500 threads tonight between 4 different SW forum boards tonight. Sometimes the threads kinda start to run together by this point in the day for me.


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## phil_pl

Imaexpat2 said:


> Good. Thats some good info there already as I see a couple items of interest already. I will "hold short of the active" so to speak until I get the rest of the other water test results and see if they confirm what I am already starting to think. BTW, what is the filtration on this tank? What kinda media are you running in the filter if any? What kinda power heads are you using? How old is the tank? What substrate are you using? How many pounds of Live Rock and what type of Live Rock are you using. If you have already mentioned any of these and I have simply over looked it refresh my memory and I will go back and look again...I have looked at at least 500 threads tonight between 4 different SW forum boards tonight. Sometimes the threads kinda start to run together by this point in the day for me.


i am running AC 50 and 30 HOB filters a sea clone 100 skimmer and 2 AC 30 PH and a AC 50 PH the tank has been up for about 3 months i have around 20lbs of LR right now, mostly from the gulf of mexico, and i have a 2in sand bed that well be leaving soon, it is bleached sand and i didnt plan on going reef when i put it in the tank


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## phil_pl

New frags finally i have pictures two of the the zoas are still unknown at this point so if you can id that would be cool
AOG




























Also have some other things i need help figuring out what they are in the first place
these hitchhikers came on the LR and just popped up once the tank settled in
Im wondering about the round striped "thing" in the middle








and









I finally got a good picture of my chalice that i am happy with let me know what you think


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## Imaexpat2

Im pressed for time in a major kinda way as I work nights and should be in bed playing Sleeping Beauty, so bare with me if this is brief as I am already starting to do "Touch and Go's"

20 lns of Gulf Rock is not nearly enough for a tank your size. This type of rock is extremely dense. If this is the kinda rock you are going to use for the rock in your tank exclusively, you need to shoot for at least 55-60 lbs if you can comfortably get that much in there. Despite it being about as dense as depleted uranium, I have to admit I really like a lot of the life that often comes on this kind of rock. Tonga Branch is just about as dense. If you use Fiji depending on the quality of it density wise you will need another 20 pounds or there abouts to top off your tank. If you use something thats very porous and light such as Pukani or Marshall Islands rock then about 15 more should do the trick. This lighter rock cost more but it takes much less of it in your tank to do its job.

So are you going to remove the sand and go Bare Bottom? Or are you going to replace it with something you find more appealing. I use a lot of Pavestone Pulverized Limestone these days since its a whopping 6 Bones a 50 lbs bag at Lowes or Home Depot. It falls right in between Oolitic grade sand and Carribs SeaFlor grade of sand in color and texture. Until I stumbbled into that stuff I used a lot of Tahitian Moon and Oolitic sand.

Nice Zoo's. I especially like the 2nd and 3rd pics. These are one of my favorite corals. They are pretty easy, dont demand a lot other than good lighting and moderate flow and come in a mind boggling array of colors, so there is sure to be a color that tickles your fancy.

Dont know what exactly you go going in those two photos that you asked about. I would need a much better pic with a Macro lense to have much of a chance at getting you a reasonably correct ID. IDing corals with just a pic is often just about impossible to do when it comes to most Hard corals, especially SPS corals. Looking at the pic there are a lot of things one could suggest. Sorry I cant tell you more. It does look as though you have a Liver Sponge or two on that one piece of rock in the picture.

Love the Chalice. Thats a very nice looking frag you scammed on. Some examples of Chalice can come in some pretty mind blowing color Morphs. I havent kept one of these yet but now that the prices for them are more reasonable and the demand has come down a bit I think there might be a future in one beinging in one of my tanks.

Ill get back with you on the rest of the stuff later tonight hopefully.


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## phil_pl

Question, i noticed these small gnat looking bugs on my sand, i cant get a picture they are way too small they are under an 1/8 of an inch, should i be worried about them, i know there are many "bugs" that are desired in the reef but i am not familiar with them so i wanted to try and be sure


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## marlenez

Hi Phil,

They are probably copepods, a really good thing, they will help keep the tank clean, reproduce and become food for your fish and corals. Check my gallery, I have pictures of various pods there and see if that helps to identify them.

Marlene


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## phil_pl

Marlene,
They dont look like any of the pods you have pics of. They are a like brown/gray color. with a distinctive head and tail section


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## phil_pl

Here are some shots of the tank now got a few new corals yesterday, i will be putting up more pictures tomorrow when i get some more things
New Palys, are those star polyps on the right side of the rock








marlin just had to get in the picture even though he is blurry
more will be up with in the hour


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## phil_pl

Here are the other pictures i promised 








































Nemo and Marlin








Marlin








New Palys and star polyps


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## Imaexpat2

Looking really nice!


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## phil_pl

Imaexpat2 said:


> Looking really nice!


thank you
i am getting some more LR a bicolor blennie and a cleaner shrimp and more snails in the morning so its goign to look a lot different tomorrow once i re scape it


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## petlover516

how much did the tank cost in full?


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## phil_pl

New Aqua scape


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## petlover516

just gets better and better


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## phil_pl

petlover516 said:


> just gets better and better


thats the plan
the ocean is the limit


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## reefcrazy

Looking good. Keep up with the pics.. I would think of putting more liverock in. But it is a nice set up good luck with it all....


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## phil_pl

reefcrazy said:


> Looking good. Keep up with the pics.. I would think of putting more liverock in. But it is a nice set up good luck with it all....


i just added another 10 pounds the other day i plan on adding more next week


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## phil_pl

Update:
Everything is doing great, my new bicolor blennie is doing great. I turned off my big PH until i can make sure it doesnt kill any more fish, my blennie is really taking a liking to it, most of the time i find him sitting in the PH with nothing but his head sticking out. I am going to have to get some pictures of this it is too good to miss sharing.


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## phil_pl

Latest update:
Zoa pox are threatening my new palys but the treatment seems to be going well furan 2 is a life saver, but i hate looking at my now green water


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## Joey

wowowowowowow its coming very nice keep the good job


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## phil_pl

Joey said:


> wowowowowowow its coming very nice keep the good job


thank you very much

i just got a six line wrasse today he is doing amazing, may be getting a new tank this week cant wait for that monster, the guy doesnt know what he has but from what i have herd of it, it is a 125g


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## phil_pl

HELP!!! the slime is back and is driving me crazy!!!!! i cant get rid of it, i've tried the slime treatments and sucking out all that i could find, but it still comes back!

on another note tank will be here by next saturday it is a 90gal. i cant wait


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## Imaexpat2

Remove the excess nutrients in the water and the slime will go away. There is no magic bullet. You can use things like Chemi-Clean, but these are simply oxidized and are little more than a bandaid on a cut throat. They do nothing to correct the problem of high nutirents in the tanks water.


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## phil_pl

Imaexpat2 said:


> Remove the excess nutrients in the water and the slime will go away. There is no magic bullet. You can use things like Chemi-Clean, but these are simply oxidized and are little more than a bandaid on a cut throat. They do nothing to correct the problem of high nutirents in the tanks water.


i have run no lights except to feed my fish for the last three days
its doing an amazing job the tank still gets some ambient light but nowhere near enough to support the cyno


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## Mermaid

I didn't know you kept a saltwater tank as well! Dach wants to try too! Your tank looks nice. I know nothing about saltwater so it looks great to me!!


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## Imaexpat2

okay


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## phil_pl

Mermaid said:


> I didn't know you kept a saltwater tank as well! Dach wants to try too! Your tank looks nice. I know nothing about saltwater so it looks great to me!!


saltwater is all i have at the moment, but i am going to set my 10g up with a betta very soon they are too pretty not to have


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## Mermaid

They are very nice to look at


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## phil_pl

Mermaid said:


> They are very nice to look at


thankyou its still a work in progress but then again what tank isnt :glasses:

:good-news:
the cyano is finally gone!!!! and from what i can tell its forever this time


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## Imaexpat2

Keep us posted...


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## phil_pl

well here is the updates for my 29
this tank is now my frag tank untill i get the 90 finished off, i'm going to a frag swap this week so im gonna stock it some more


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## phil_pl

the frag swap score



more to come


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## orion

those are beautiful man gorgeous


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## phil_pl

Green Palys


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## phil_pl

Lord of The Rings


Anyone have a name for this guy


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## phil_pl

Tank looks a little different now.


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## phil_pl

New update this tank now only has sand and water in it, over the last two days i have been moving everything into my 90g in the bedroom


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## MediaHound

ya! congrats


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