I suppose this is the best place for my reef thread, since I'm too big for the nano section 
and I hope to get some advice on my SPS growing strategy. There are some beautiful reefs in this forum so I almost feel like I don't belong, but I want to take people on this journey with me to hopefully raising up a beautiful reef.
I've been making some changes to my mixed reef in order to support more SPS. Here's a little background on me and my reef.
I've been keeping a reef on and off for 7 years, mostly pico and nano systems with mixed corals; This is my largest tank. I've been a student all those years, so my tanks have always been "on a budget". I enjoy being involved with my local reef club, and most of my coral and some of my fish were raised by other local reefers.
Started June 2010
Tank: 45gal Perfecto/Marineland RR Cube (24"x24"x18") w/ custom stand and canopy
Sump/fuge: 10 gal
return pump: 9.5 Mag w/ 3/4" SCWD
Skimmer: Aqua C Remora
Heater: Via Aqua titanium 100w
Lighting: just upgraded to a 250w DE MH w/ a 14k Pheonix bulb, and ARO ballast
Cooling: fans in canopy
Two-little fishies reactor w/ GFO
carbon in a sock in sump
Chemistry:
I dose 2 part BRS ca & alk, kent mg, and vodka
SG: 1.025
Ca: 470-490
Mg: 1420
Alk: 7-8 (trying to keep it stable at 8, still working on the doseing amount)
Nitrates: 0-0.5
Phos: Undetectable on my salifert kit but I want to get a Hanna meter b/c I'm sure I have some phosphate
Temp: 78.5 - 80.5
I do a 25% WC every 2wks, and blow the detrius out of the sand and rock every wk.
I feed every day with either flake, mysis, cyclopeeze, or rods. I dose 5ml of aminoacids every 2 days or so.
Livestock:
25lbs LR in display, 5lbs in sump, 20lbs LS in display
Chaeto in fuge
fish: BW ocellaris, Midas Blenny, Royal Gramma, locally bred Banggai cardinal fish (x2)
Inverts: snails - zigzag periwinkle, dwarf cerith, nassarius, nerites, florida cerith. Urchins - Pink Pincushion, Blue tuxedo. Shrimp - Peppermint Shrimp. Starfish - brown serpent star. Crabs - porcelain anemone crab, emerald crab, scarlet hermits, blue leg hermits. Anemone - RBTA
Corals: Softies: Blue mushrooms, red mushrooms, blue clove polyps, GSP, Toadstool leather, various zoas (red, green, african blue, eagle eyes), ricordia - green & orange
LPS: candycane garden (teal, lavender & lime green), Acan (red, orange, teal), Red Cynaria, Yellow Scroll coral, Teal Cup coral, Short tentecled Plate (green & orange), Warhead lobo,
SPS: Steve Elias blue staghorn, green slimer, tricolor, green milli, pink milli, green monti, blue monti, blue tenius, pink birds nest, orange monticap, purple encrusting monti, and some other random frags.
NPS: sun coral
Here's my most recent FTS from 01-17-11. Since then, I've added alot of new SPS frags, so I included a pic of the current SPS frag zone.
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I know my SPS frags are too close together, but I really just want to see which will do well in my tank, and I can thin them out and keep the ones I like later on.
So, as you can see my frags are a little sad. Some were brown when I got them, some lost their color, after they were added. Here's some of my thoughts as to why they are brown and my plans to improve things.
- Most of the frags have been in the tank for less than 1 month, so they just need more time to adjust?
- I was using a no name 20k bulb up until 3 days ago, so I just need to give them time to acclimate to my new Pheonix and hope they will do better under this bulb.
- I want to stablize my ph and temp, so I'm going to buy a Reef Keeper Lite soon so I can run my heater and fans with it to stablize my temp, and I'll get a ph probe so I can monitor my ph swings. Right now the fuge light is on 24/7 so I might play with the lighting schedule and alk dose timing to stablize my ph. I will also use the RKL to run an auto-top off so that I don't have to worry about topping off everyday.
- I've been trying to reduce my nitrates and phosphates, and vodka dosing has been working really well for me. With dosing and my water change schedule, I feel like I have my nitrates under control, but I still have some GHA growing on my rocks that keeps coming back, so I know I must still have phosphate in the tank. The bulb I was using was old, so hopefully having a new bulb will help with this as well.
- I'm useing GFO, but I wonder if I'm using enough? or if I need to use more initially? I ordered more GFO so that I can change it out more frequently, but I hope that once I get the levels down I can reduce how often I change GFO. I might look into getting a hanna phosphate meter in the future
-I ordered some filter socks, and I think I will start using them to remove detrius, changing them every 1-2days depending on what my schedule allows.
- I've heard that Toadstool leather toxin can irritate SPS. I run carbon in my sump, but maybe this is why my SPS aren't coloring up? I really don't want to remove my leather (and it will be a pain to try to break off the rock that it's on). What do you think? wait and see?
these are the changes I'm hoping to make in the next couple weeks, and I'm hopeing to see some improved color by next month. wish me luck! I would appreciate any advice you have
and I hope to get some advice on my SPS growing strategy. There are some beautiful reefs in this forum so I almost feel like I don't belong, but I want to take people on this journey with me to hopefully raising up a beautiful reef. I've been making some changes to my mixed reef in order to support more SPS. Here's a little background on me and my reef.
I've been keeping a reef on and off for 7 years, mostly pico and nano systems with mixed corals; This is my largest tank. I've been a student all those years, so my tanks have always been "on a budget". I enjoy being involved with my local reef club, and most of my coral and some of my fish were raised by other local reefers.
Started June 2010
Tank: 45gal Perfecto/Marineland RR Cube (24"x24"x18") w/ custom stand and canopy
Sump/fuge: 10 gal
return pump: 9.5 Mag w/ 3/4" SCWD
Skimmer: Aqua C Remora
Heater: Via Aqua titanium 100w
Lighting: just upgraded to a 250w DE MH w/ a 14k Pheonix bulb, and ARO ballast
Cooling: fans in canopy
Two-little fishies reactor w/ GFO
carbon in a sock in sump
Chemistry:
I dose 2 part BRS ca & alk, kent mg, and vodka
SG: 1.025
Ca: 470-490
Mg: 1420
Alk: 7-8 (trying to keep it stable at 8, still working on the doseing amount)
Nitrates: 0-0.5
Phos: Undetectable on my salifert kit but I want to get a Hanna meter b/c I'm sure I have some phosphate
Temp: 78.5 - 80.5
I do a 25% WC every 2wks, and blow the detrius out of the sand and rock every wk.
I feed every day with either flake, mysis, cyclopeeze, or rods. I dose 5ml of aminoacids every 2 days or so.
Livestock:
25lbs LR in display, 5lbs in sump, 20lbs LS in display
Chaeto in fuge
fish: BW ocellaris, Midas Blenny, Royal Gramma, locally bred Banggai cardinal fish (x2)
Inverts: snails - zigzag periwinkle, dwarf cerith, nassarius, nerites, florida cerith. Urchins - Pink Pincushion, Blue tuxedo. Shrimp - Peppermint Shrimp. Starfish - brown serpent star. Crabs - porcelain anemone crab, emerald crab, scarlet hermits, blue leg hermits. Anemone - RBTA
Corals: Softies: Blue mushrooms, red mushrooms, blue clove polyps, GSP, Toadstool leather, various zoas (red, green, african blue, eagle eyes), ricordia - green & orange
LPS: candycane garden (teal, lavender & lime green), Acan (red, orange, teal), Red Cynaria, Yellow Scroll coral, Teal Cup coral, Short tentecled Plate (green & orange), Warhead lobo,
SPS: Steve Elias blue staghorn, green slimer, tricolor, green milli, pink milli, green monti, blue monti, blue tenius, pink birds nest, orange monticap, purple encrusting monti, and some other random frags.
NPS: sun coral
Here's my most recent FTS from 01-17-11. Since then, I've added alot of new SPS frags, so I included a pic of the current SPS frag zone.
I know my SPS frags are too close together, but I really just want to see which will do well in my tank, and I can thin them out and keep the ones I like later on.
So, as you can see my frags are a little sad. Some were brown when I got them, some lost their color, after they were added. Here's some of my thoughts as to why they are brown and my plans to improve things.
- Most of the frags have been in the tank for less than 1 month, so they just need more time to adjust?
- I was using a no name 20k bulb up until 3 days ago, so I just need to give them time to acclimate to my new Pheonix and hope they will do better under this bulb.
- I want to stablize my ph and temp, so I'm going to buy a Reef Keeper Lite soon so I can run my heater and fans with it to stablize my temp, and I'll get a ph probe so I can monitor my ph swings. Right now the fuge light is on 24/7 so I might play with the lighting schedule and alk dose timing to stablize my ph. I will also use the RKL to run an auto-top off so that I don't have to worry about topping off everyday.
- I've been trying to reduce my nitrates and phosphates, and vodka dosing has been working really well for me. With dosing and my water change schedule, I feel like I have my nitrates under control, but I still have some GHA growing on my rocks that keeps coming back, so I know I must still have phosphate in the tank. The bulb I was using was old, so hopefully having a new bulb will help with this as well.
- I'm useing GFO, but I wonder if I'm using enough? or if I need to use more initially? I ordered more GFO so that I can change it out more frequently, but I hope that once I get the levels down I can reduce how often I change GFO. I might look into getting a hanna phosphate meter in the future
-I ordered some filter socks, and I think I will start using them to remove detrius, changing them every 1-2days depending on what my schedule allows.
- I've heard that Toadstool leather toxin can irritate SPS. I run carbon in my sump, but maybe this is why my SPS aren't coloring up? I really don't want to remove my leather (and it will be a pain to try to break off the rock that it's on). What do you think? wait and see?
these are the changes I'm hoping to make in the next couple weeks, and I'm hopeing to see some improved color by next month. wish me luck! I would appreciate any advice you have
