40 gallon breeder sps dominated reef

[Gotzegot28]

Hey guys! I am going to be ordering some of my first sps corals from Uniquecorals.com and i will document everything here. I'll include the pics of my cart if possible.

Hopefully you'll like this little blogish thing.



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[Gotzegot28]

Here is my current aquarium (well, its the most recent foto at least)

You may notice that i have no lps corals. I used to but while on vacation my mom made a mistake (she accidentally added salt to my saltwater jug. I. E. She doubled the salt load in the tank) that anyone could have made, so they all just died.

Dont worry i fixed it when i got home.

So yeah, ive got 20,000k leds and some cf/t5 actinics as a backup. My gph is 1300 plus whatever my skimmer and pump equal out to and here are my params

Corals
Gsp
Xenia (i wanna give it away but my mom loves it to death)
3 kenyas
10 inch of sponge

Params
Phos 0.01-0.03
Ammo 0
Nit 0
Sal 1.025
Ph 8.1-8.2
Alk 12dkh last i checked
Calc 470
Mag dont have a test yet. My salt mix is supposed to maintain it.
Temp 76 f

So here it is. I'll order today or tommorrow so stay tuned

Gaultier

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[nmotz]

Might want to consider increasing flow a bit as you add SPS. It's not impossible to run a 40B with 1300GPH, but I noticed improvement when I increased flow beyond 50x volume per hour. My 40B is now running at 100x volume turnover per hour and my SPS seem to like that (one mp40 turned up almost all the way on reef crest, plus two koralia nanos). LED/T5 combo is a good idea, I'm about to start doing that too.

Your Alk is a little higher than most people would recommend too. I've had problems in the past with alk being too low or too high. It's important to find a balance and then keep it there. The recommended range is 7-11 dkH and most hobbyists seem to shoot for somewhere between 8-9dkH.

Good luck, I'll be following along!

 

[Gotzegot28]

Thanks! I'll probobly double my gph when i can. My budget is pretty tight. The coraline algae in my tank is already using my Alk so it might be lower. I'll check tonight. The t5 s are just backups. I dont use them cuz they heat up my tank and are loud as heck. My tank is in my room, what can i say?

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[Gotzegot28]

Just checked Alk the reading is at 9 dkh. I added some calci um raiser cuz it was a 370 so itll drop a tiny bit.

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[Myka]

Params
Phos 0.01-0.03
Ammo 0
Nit 0
Sal 1.025
Ph 8.1-8.2
Alk 12dkh last i checked
Calc 470
Mag dont have a test yet. My salt mix is supposed to maintain it.
Temp 76 f

Just checked Alk the reading is at 9 dkh. I added some calci um raiser cuz it was a 370 so itll drop a tiny bit.

That's a lot of fluctuation! There's hardly anything in your tank so how could it go from 470/12 to 370/9? How much time was there between testing those numbers? Which test kits are you using? If you want to be successful with SPS you need to get your daily alk fluctuation less than 0.25 dKH. Also, if you`re using high quality test kits like the Hanna checker and/or Salifert for PO4 and NO3, you'll need to drop alk around the 7.5 dKH area with NO3 and PO4 that low or you will get burned tips. You might want to bump temp up to 78-80F too or growth will be really slow.

Good luck!

 

[Gotzegot28]

Dont worry. Its like 3 months between those tests. My tank doesnt fluctuate on a day to day basis. I just tested it again and everythings the same.

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[Gotzegot28]

I spot feed so they shouldn't get burnt tips.

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[ezcompany]

I would highly recommend testing for Magnesium, that keeps the CA and Alk in check.

 

[Gotzegot28]

Ok. Ill get the kit.

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[Gotzegot28]

Hey guys and gals,

So i promised an update, and here it is.

I just ordered my corals. I wont say the exact price but it comes down to less than 10 bucks a coral for:
A blue tip green stag
A green slimer
A birdsnest
A red monti cap
A green encrusting monti
A freebie he said hed throw in. Im not sure what it is.

Expect the update with fotos and a review of the shipping to be here at around 12 oclock CST


Have a good evening!


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[Gotzegot28]

I got the corals!

The shipping was perfect and after a 1 hour drip acclimatization all (and i mean ALL) the polyps are open and receptive. The freebie was a pink birdsnest and the packaging was perfect. The package was cool and the corals were double bagged or more.
So happy with the experience

The package in my room

And the package they came in

The freebie

Dripping

The aquarium now


Ill order from them again! Will keep you in touch. Feel free to ask questions [emoji1] [emoji1]

 

[Gotzegot28]

I epoxied the coral onto the rock. I think the blue tip green stag is an ORA voodoo stag because of its green tips and orange body. It is happy under my leds.

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[Gotzegot28]

Btw, i used JB Water Weld two part epoxy putty.

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[HuskerBioProf]

I just made an order from Uniquecorals.com, myself. I am not sure how you got it down to less than $10 per coral, I couldn't find anything near that. Either way, glad you had a good experience. I only got 3 SPS for my first corals to make sure everything is going to be okay. Planning on SPS tank but didn't want to add too much too quickly.

Hopefully mine look as good as yours.

 

[Gotzegot28]

Yeah, i got a deal by talking to the guy. Ill post an update on the tank tommorrow morning. Can you post a pic of yours? Anyways, all the corals are growing and the ORA voodoo stag has grown a couple of millimeters already.

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[HuskerBioProf]

I am still working on how to get decent pictures that don't look purple. I will say I was very impressed with the size and condition of the corals. The green birdsnest I ordered had the polyps out in the shipping container. All the frags I got were multi branched and looked as good as the pictures on the website.

I also put the acropora immediately near the top of my duel Hydra 26 HDs (on my 40 Breeder) with no signs of bleaching after 2 days. That is the benefit of aquaculture corals, I guess. They are used to bright light.

 

[Gotzegot28]

Make sure you dont blast your corals the same way everyday. Use a timer to vary the flow or something
I just set up my pumps so that the water will be turbulent

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[Gotzegot28]

On your purple problem, just use a photo editing software that lets you tone down the purple. Most smartphones can do this

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[HuskerBioProf]

I got my uniquecorals.com shipment the other day. Very impressed with the quality of the corals and the size of the frags. I will definitely order from them again. Quite reasonable shipping too. I got an ORA birds nest, verde acropora, and mint pavona from them. I have a couple pictures on the link in my profile. I found for photos shooting in RAW with my DSLR lets me get the colors looking better in post processing.