65 DSA SPS Dominant Mixed Reef

[aggie13reef]

I use Hanna Checkers for my alkalinity and calcium and Salifert for magnesium. I found the Red Sea test kit color changes to be utterly frustrating. WHEN DOES ONE KNOW WHEN THE COLOR HAS CHANGED!!!!!! :lol:

I have been considering the Hanna checkers for quite a while. :lolspin:I HATE THE ALK COLOR CHANGE :headwally:

I'm a big fan of the salifert Alk kit, and I use the Red Sea bottles and holder to make it even easier. There's an extra step, 4 drops of a color solution, but the test is easy and accurate.

Things are looking great!

I have a salifert for phos and I really like it. Simple and easy to read. I like the price of them also.

Thanks man I have been meaning to get some before and after growth pics up... Maybe tomorrow

 

[aggie13reef]

Well I finally got around to uploading some photos! However I will get to those in a second. Sad to say we lost our lemon peel sometime yesterday while the wife and I were at work. Got home and it was on the sand bed. Not sure what happened really, I noticed it was losing some color on Sunday but ate fine Sunday night. Definitely sad as I hate losing fish.

Here are some shots from my phone:

All of these frags have been growing like crazy over the past few weeks!

Heres a new frag I picked up. Pretty mad at myself because I didn't look at the back side of the frag before buying it and it looks like some STN near the base. Hasn't really seemed to get worse over the past week so hoping it recovers.

The turaki has put on noticeable growth over the past few weeks.

And finally a FTS to end it off

 

[markalot]

Looking good Nick! Sorry about the Lemon Peel.

 

[daveonbass]

The tank is still looking great. Sorry to hear you lost a fish though.

 

[aggie13reef]

Looking good Nick! Sorry about the Lemon Peel.

The tank is still looking great. Sorry to hear you lost a fish though.

Thanks guys, the wife was pretty sad so I am sure we will be adding a new fish pretty soon (hopefully a wrasse!). I keep leaning toward the kole tang as the culprit. The first couple days the angel was in the tang would beat him up pretty good, but then I never saw it happen again. Could have happened while we were at work though. Anyways I will be heading to the LFS for the first time in a few weeks today as they are having a 4th of July sale. Hoping for some nice frags and maybe an RW-8!

 

[aggie13reef]

Update:

So yesterday I bought a couple new frags that I am pretty excited about. Pretty sure the one is A. valida (correct me if I'm wrong) and the other is a slimer. I have been wanting a green slimer frag since I set this tank up and none of the LFS ever seem to have it.

Fritz creeping up in the background...

On another note I am going to have to start dosing. I tested Ca yesterday 5 days after my water change and my level was at 385. I manually dosed some Ca and tested again today. 24 hrs later my Ca was at 395. So in theory it lost 2 ppm over 24 hrs (if the concentration is correct on the Ca label). No way to tell after just one day what the rate is so I will continue to monitor daily. Alk read 7.3 ish on the Red Sea test. Still need to buy another test kit but have been putting it off. So even if Alk was at 7 it did not drop enough over a week to need to dose.

My question for you guys that have more SPS experience: Is it odd that I need to dose Ca and not Alk. I understand the corals pull the Ca from the water much faster. I am still trying to understand the relationship between Alk and Ca. But so far colors still look great and my Red Planet piece has already started to encrust the putty! So no complaints. Going to keep monitoring levels and once I feel I need a dosing pump I will have to bite the bullet.
Thanks for reading!

 

[Scorpius]

My tank always eats alk like crazy, then calcium and then magnesium.

 

[aggie13reef]

Update:

This update has been long overdue. Work has been very busy lately. I have continued to ramp up the lights and am still very pleased with them. My colors are wonderful (in my mind) and growth is steady. A couple pieces have really started to take off. I am not sure about other peoples red planet but mine has been growing like a weed. It did not have a very long "settle-in" period. My monti cap is starting to encroach on my blue/green acro and I am not really sure if I should leave it or break it off.

I tested my alk tonight and it was at 6.0. Colors all look great and growth hasn't noticeably slowed so I will slowly raise it back up to 7. Ca was at 400. I still do not have a dosing pump and with things being tight right now I will most likely be manual dosing for a while.

I will try and get some pictures up tomorrow evening after work.

 

[markalot]

Good to hear everything is doing well!

 

[aggie13reef]

Good to hear everything is doing well!

Thank you sir! A little late but pictures are incoming shortly...

 

[aggie13reef]

Here are some pictures as promised. Mixed in top downs, and front on shots with the handy-dandy iphone. Thanks for viewing!

Unknown acro:

Another Unknown that I have had for about 4-5 months

turaki has grown quite a bit

Slimer has already started to grow (such a beautiful green in my mind)

Red planet has started to encrust and has showed growth. I love this piece, I can see very faint green but not much.

Thought this was a valida but not so sure?

sarmentosa

 

[aggie13reef]

Also the wife and I added a new fish to the tank today! A longnose hawk named Longfellow Deeds, or Deeds as I'll call him/her.

Clifford the flame hawk has bullied him a little so far but hoping that gets better over the rest of the weekend.

Here are a couple more tank shots of the left side, right side, and top.

And a picture of the Clowns and their home

 

[markalot]

Hi Nick,

looking very very nice! I love hawks, a face with so much personality.

 

[mhucasey]

Here are some pictures as promised. Mixed in top downs, and front on shots with the handy-dandy iphone. Thanks for viewing!

Unknown acro:

Another Unknown that I have had for about 4-5 months

OOOh I like this one a lot! Things are looking good!

 

[mhucasey]

Also the wife and I added a new fish to the tank today! A longnose hawk named Longfellow Deeds, or Deeds as I'll call him/her.

Clifford the flame hawk has bullied him a little so far but hoping that gets better over the rest of the weekend.

Here are a couple more tank shots of the left side, right side, and top.

And a picture of the Clowns and their home

Hee Hee! We name all our fish too

 

[aggie13reef]

OOOh I like this one a lot! Things are looking good!

Thank you sir, I want to know which species this one is. This is one of my first SPS so I am attached to it. Bought it as a barely green/brown frag from the LFS probably 5 months ago. I had no clue what it was or what color it would end up, all I knew was it came from a local reefers tank. It was about 1.5" long and barely encrusting the frag plug. It has since gotten very beautiful, hoping it continues to thrive in my tank.

And naming your fish is the only way to go!

 

[mhucasey]

Thank you sir, I want to know which species this one is. This is one of my first SPS so I am attached to it. Bought it as a barely green/brown frag from the LFS probably 5 months ago. I had no clue what it was or what color it would end up, all I knew was it came from a local reefers tank. It was about 1.5" long and barely encrusting the frag plug. It has since gotten very beautiful, hoping it continues to thrive in my tank.

And naming your fish is the only way to go!

I have something similar in mine, AquaSD was calling it Bali Extreme Tricolor...No idea on the species though, not my strongest suit. The fish naming is cool until the wife is irritated that you can't remember one of the 30 fishes' names

 

[aggie13reef]

I have something similar in mine, AquaSD was calling it Bali Extreme Tricolor...No idea on the species though, not my strongest suit. The fish naming is cool until the wife is irritated that you can't remember one of the 30 fishes' names

Species ID in acros is wicked hard. Luckily I only have 6 to worry about!

 

[aggie13reef]

So after weeks and weeks of watching my green slimer sit on the sand bed I finally got around to glueing it to its own rock and placing it up on the rock work. I am pretty happy with the outcome and I think it makes the overall look of the tank much better. I still have a favia and a duncan on the sand, having a hard time finding a good permanent spot for those. I am also excited as my wife has a 3 head splatter hammer in her 8 gal tank and it is getting a little close to one of her favorite acans so it will be coming over to the 65. Here is a pic with the slimer mounted:

 

[markalot]

Looks good nick, it should have a little room to grow back there.